Getting it Done for January

I accepted the Getting it Done Challenge by Judy and the Nothing but UFO's challenge by Carrie.  Here's what I got done in January:

1. Piece the 4 blocks I have left to do for our Guild's Memories of Riverside BOM. Then I'll be ready for when Susan gives us the flimsie directions in February.  Done!
2. Make the Easy Street units into a flimsie. 3/4ths done
3. Quilt the UFO I finally finished (started in 1997) in the last few days while I've had to sit and keep my leg elevated. no progress
4. Sandwich my Watching All the Birds Go. no progress

Judy got a lot done!  Congrats, Judy - and love Addie's quilt - it's so cute.  So did Carrie! What role models we have!

Judy asked how we felt about having goals.  They kept me centered through this whole month that hardly gave me any time to quilt.  And I can see in order to make time for life, I need to set less goals so that I can feel better at the end of the month of what got done or not.  So for February, I'm only listing three goals and see how that goes.


1. Finish the Easy Street units and set them up for a QAYG project.

2. Quilt the UFO I finally finished (started in 1997) in the last few days while I've had to sit and keep my leg elevated.

3. Finish the applique on Anna's Garden Block 5 I started last year.

I'm linking to Judy's post at Patchwork Times for Getting it Done and Carrie's Nothing But UFOs.  Come on over and see how others did.


Applique Thursday Early

This week is so full of things I have to do that I'm calling the block below my applique for Thursday.  And it does have applique - the palm trees are appliqued.  The trunks are sewn down and the palm fronds are raw edge applique.  I found the fronds in a novelty print for Hawaii.  With the tips for using Prisma pencils from Esther Aliu, I was able to color the fronds and take out the lighting effect that they had for a night scene.  I like them a lot better than the pinwheels that were called for.  This is the last of the blocks I had to make for the Guild BOM - this one was for June.  Now I can start gathering the fabric for turning it into a flimsie.
I may add a little more green to the fronds.  This block depicts Victoria Ave with its palm trees, planting of citrus and roses that border the street.  It also has stands of Eucalyptus here and there in place of the palms.  It is  a wonderful place to take a walk.  I still have to add some more oranges to the blocks, but then it will be totally done.

I'd love to see your eye candy. My linky is below.  I'm also linking to Esther's WOW to see all the eye candy there.
Oh and finally a winner of the Applique Petal Party! The random generator says it's Lisa of Quilts, Cakes and Other Fun. I'll be sending her an email tomorrow. Thanks for playing and your patience, quilters!

Design Wall Monday 1/28/13

Where has the month gone?!   I found a back in my stash for the first VA quilt of the year.  I think the Vet who gets this quilt will like it.  Backing on left - quilt on right.  This is on my design wall.  I'll be sending it to my partner, Carol, who will quilt it.
I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away.  What's on your design wall?

3RD 2013 Stash Report

First, a status report:  My new computer is a little bit better.  Turns out there is nothing wrong with the hardware (the All-In-One from Dell) - just the software is the problem (Win 8 - I knew I should have waited for the first service pack to come out!).  I have internet on the AIO, but not the other software.  The nice guy from India is calling me back Monday to download what I bought and need as we had to format the HD.  Ahh me - never had to do that before. So we'll see.

Now to the fun stuff!  I didn't do a Stash Report last week as there was nothing to report.  LOL - not much this week either.  I did buy and receive 5 yards from Hancock's of Paducah - but it's not going into my stash - it's a quilt for my darling, Lily for when she turns 3 in April. I'll have to start on it soon.  I also bought  1 & 7/8 yards for a workshop I'm attending at our Guild.  I'm not counting those as they are not going into my stash - they already have a purpose and I'll be prewashing and cutting it soon.  I use to not prewash, but after reading Becky Goldsmith's post on her blog - I think I will do so from now on.

I did make 2 blocks and starting on my last one for the guild BOM. So far I have used about a fat quarter of scraps for the two.  The latest one is of our Fairmount Park and Lake Evans.  The tank (a Water Buffalo) was built in Riverside and tested at the park.  There is one tank near the VA Post at the lake - a WWII memorial.  Yes, we do have boats and there is a sailing club. The rose garden is beautiful.  People do still play bocce games there also.  A fun park for all - there's even a band shell and play area for the kids.

Here are my numbers:

This week: +0.0 yds.; -0.25 yds.
Donated:   +0.0 yds; YTD: 1.0 yds
Stash YTD: +2.5 yds., -2.00 yds.
Net used in 2013:  +.50. A bit less than last week  again.   How are you doing?  I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times to see how others are doing.  Probably a lot better than I - LOL.

Applique Thursday After All

Well, I had to print a label, so since I fired up the old computer thought I'd post the photo of my finished block as it does have applique - the planes, the headstones and the flag.  Here is the Oct block of our guild's BOM:

I learned couple of things in making this block.  The planes look a little wonky and that's because I didn't hold the iron still as I was fusing them on.  Also what looks green to me doesn't always translate to green on the screen.  The grass looks a lot more green in real life.  But that's okay as the grass at the National Cemetery is hard to keep a brilliant green and it does match the green of the fields.

Applique Thursday Not

My new computer is on life support.  I'm writing this with my old one.  Thank goodness I left it connected.  But I'm so frustrated I'm just not going to do much for the next few days as this one acts up also and I don't want to take the chance on it dying too!

See you in a few days - once my boot disk arrives - I hope and pray.

Design Wall Monday

Working on another BOM block.  Here's one half done.  Can you guess what it portrays?
 
Our city is famous for this one.  It is a national site.  I'm linking to Judy's design wall and Lyn's BOMs Away.  What's on your design wall?

Applique Thursday

Well, not much quilting done as I'm sitting here in front of my new computer trying to make sense of Windows 8 = it's so frustrating!  A steep learning curve, and it isn't even a touch screen.  I'm going to try to upload a photo:
Well here it is - I can crop it but I don't know yet how to brighten it so that it looks more like the one in front of me - hope you get the picture.  The windows and door are appliqued.  Still needs some embellishment and the name of the library stitched on.  I'll keep working on it.

So what are you up to?  Still need to pick a winner.  I'm doing this post as a rush and haven't gotten to it.  I'll have to have a few goodie to add to the book to make up for my slowness at this.  Life is still too busy - spent the morning at lab and doctor's appointments.
Would love to see your eye candy!

Design Wall Monday 1/13/13

On my design wall is one of the Guild BOM blocks. That's as far as I've gotten - 4 more rows to go for it to be done for tuesday guild night.  Gotta go sew!  I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away.  Go see all that eye candy!




2nd 2013 Stash Report

Too busy to do any quilting, but I did take a few moments to pull some fabric for a Guild BOM block, so there is 0.2 yards. Also donated a yard to St. Anne's of novelty fabric I found while looking for those BOM block scraps. Here are my numbers:

This week: +0.0 yds.-0.20 yds.
Donated: 1.0 yds; YTD:  1.0 yds
Stash YTD: +2.5 yds., -1.75 yds.
Net used in 2013: +0.75 yds.  A bit less than last week.

I'm linking to Judy's Patchwork Times.  Bet others over there have done a lot better than I.

Applique Thursday on Saturday

What with out-of-state company, airport run to pick up my mom who has a bad cold, sick daughter-in-law, babysitting, doctor's appointment, St. Anne's, rain, cold weather - it got down to 32 yesterday morning, sewing room at 61 - it MIGHT as well be 32 as far as I'm concerned - I can't function at that temp, Guild business, online sales for the Friends, and my still bum leg, I got one leaf done on my Anna's Garden block 5:
I am not a happy camper when I can't even do 10 minutes a day of my quilty destressing!  And next week doesn't look much better - but I am going to be positive because all the donated stuff to guild will be out of my sewing room and I may able to walk in there! Yeah.  Sorry, no giveaway this time, and probably none next week either - depends on how much time I get to sew.  Would love some eye candy to at least look at.  Keep on Quilting!


1st Design Wall Monday

On my design wall are the blocks I've made so far of my Easy Street flimsie.  This is one of my goals for
this month in the Getting it Done Challenge by Judy.  I'm really liking it.  In digging through my stash I couldn't find very much apple green (that's what I'm calling it) and tourqouise(?).  Didn't have any gray print - so had to buy that. The background came from large scraps from the quilt I made my daughter in 2006.

I'm linking over to Judy's Patchwork Times and Lyn's BOMs Away, and Bonnie's Easy Street linkup.  Check out the eye candy there.
And speaking of eye candy my latest applique pattern giveaway still going on.  Check my post from last thursday.  Ends Wednesday midnight.

1st Stash Report 2013

As I said in my last stash report - this will be the year to do some enhancing besides the destashing.  So here is my first buy:  I need solids and love dots, so I've added 2.5 yards of fabric.  I got these from Becky Goldsmith's store.  Just love her choices.

I also used .25 yards to work on that ufo I finished and gave mom .3 to make two doll quilts for our granddaughter, Lily.  She got two dolls for Christmas - she's only 2 yrs, 7 months, but is quite the little mother already.


Here are my numbers using Valerie's at Evening in the Garden blog's way of listing them plus my donation line:
This week: +2.5 yds., -.55 yds.
Donated: +0 yds; -0 yds
YTD: +2.5 yds., -.55 yds.
Donated: +0 yds; -0 yds

Net used in 2013: +1.95 yds.  So I'm a little in the red already, but in the long run - I don't think it's too bad.
Linking to Judy's Patchwork Times - see how others are doing.



Saturday This n That

Giveaway going on for an applique pattern. See previous post. Ends Wednesday.

Our younger son came to visit in November for his dad's birthday. Here are two of  my favorite pics from that visit: Five Nudges:


Leo smiling:

Now I just have to get one of the girls!

What's your Friday favorite.  Please share a link below.


New Giveaway @ Applique Thursday 1/3/13

Here's my completed applique block from 1997.  I added a kitty on the right, but he doesn't stand out very well in real life.  Should I outline him in black?  So I did do a little applique to finish this off.  I added six flower groups, cat and leaf.  It needs to be quilted now.  I feel bad I didn't work on my other two applique blocks - but nothing was prepped on them and I couldn't stand for very long. And why didn't I add some applique to my goals at Getting it Done?  Fortunately, there is a little bit of applique on those BOM blocks. 

Back to reducing my quilt book shelf.  In celebrating the New Year and because this is the first Applique Thursday of the year, I'm giving away a great applique patten package. 
To win this copy, all you need to do is comment or link to have a chance for it to be yours. Or do both and have two chances. And for extra chances, tell your friends about this giveaway. If they comment or link and mention you in their comment, you'll automatically get another entry in this giveaway. Submissions end Wednesday night. Use the blue link below. And remember, it doesn't have to be applique (that you share that is) -  all sorts of eye candy is eligible.

SAHRR Round 5 and 6

  Ready to show rounds 5 and 6. Actually, the prompt for 5 was make 4 of something. So I chose four patch, and actually since that made my q...