Some of This; Some of That

First in the destashing:  My daughter is looking for neutrals - out went 2 yards.  I gave 6 fat quarters of some mod fabric to her also. I used a 0.25 of background on that baby quilt for St. Anne's. Then lastly, I found a yard for the back of my UFO for bimonthly challenge (fyi:  "The prefix bi- usually means ‘every two’, so bimonthly means ‘every two months’.Semi- means ‘half’ or ‘halfway’, so semimonthly means ‘every two weeks’. However, bimonthly can also mean ‘twice a month’ – but it is rarely used that way. It is best to remember that bi- is “every two” and semi- is “halfway.”). I'm quilting it now. 
Then there is the .18 yard of scraps I used to take part in a technical challenge at one of my facebook groups.  This is on my Design wall now as well as my applique piece. I use Esther Aliu's method.  I think I"ll make a 16" pillow out of those scrappy blocks.

Then, for hand stitching, realized that to continue my hexie project I forgot to plan for the next row, so I'll have to change 6 hexies from this
to this
Ah, me. Better that I caught it now than after I'd make all the hexies for the next round.  That pulled a .25 yard piece from my stash.  In total, I destashed 4.18 yards this week giving me a 5.45 YTD destash. 

Finally, for my 15 Minute to Stitch report:
15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/Jan = 25/26 days
15 minutes stitching days/2019 = 25/26 days
Success Rate = 96.15%


Blessings!


I Like Thursdays and Friday Finish

I Like Thursdays has come around again.  And while there are lots of things I liked, not many photos were taken.  Here are the ones I did take.

That baby quilt?  I like that I got it done. A mistake showed up. Maybe I'll fix it and maybe I won't. Requires three seams to be done over. And yes, it is that soft and muted in real life. This was a Marti Michell all over print from maybe 20 years ago. Does anyone know?  It was given to St. Anne's. I was excited to get it until I opened it. The previous owner had fussy cut a square next to the train so it was graced with holes all over. Decided to take on the challenge and try to salvage some of the fabric. Here's what I came up with. Measures 36 1/2" by 38 1/2".

Next up is a UFO that isn't on my list, but I've been working as a Hexie a Night to make some progress. I like that I finally got the next round finished and attached to the center. I've even figured out what to do for the next round.  I'm trying to figure out how to make this EPP into a round project.
And in my quest for being more mindful for my Gentle Domesticity study, I like that I saw my jade plant that was blooming away unnoticed in my garden.  Sometimes, one has to stop, take a deep breath, be still and look around. Look how the purple wandering jew surrounds it.

I'm linking to Lee Anna's I Like Thursdays, Needle and Thread Thursdays, Confession of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Friday, and a few other link parties. See my list at the More tab under the header.

Blessings and good wishes for all.

First Some of This; Some of That Report for 2019

Here it is the 20th of January and I'm finally getting around to posting this.  First up the destashing.

I spent a lot of the first part of the month finishing the quilting on my Sweet Land of Liberty, so not much fabric has been used.  I cut up a panel that came in to St. Anne's so that doesn't count.  I made a few string blocks for Lori's at Humble Quilts Stringalong.  That only took 0.02 yds. Then I made fabric out of strings for another idea.
Not necessarily going to be a hexie project.


I"m thinking about this.
Let's say a fat quarter for that one.  Then DD came stash diving for a back to a quilt she's finishing. A yard walked out the door with her.  And that's it.  YTD total destashed so far is 1.27 yds.  I was able to use up/donate 77 yards last year - 77% of my goal.  This year I'm not setting a goal - just hope to do better than last year.  How are you doing?

Today I'm prepping an applique block of a long ago started UFO that I hope to finish this year.  You can see my list of 2019 UFOs here.  Have you made yourself a list?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see yours.

Also here's the first row of a baby quilt that I have on my Design Wall. The fabric was an all over print that had those large animal squares. The previous owner did some fussy cutting - spent about an hour trying to salvage some squares. I hope to add another row today, but haven't figured out what it will be.

Lastly, my week 3 of 2019: Stitching and De-Stashing as seen at Life in Pieces:

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days

 15 minutes stitching days/Jan = 18/19 days
   15 minutes stitching days/2019 = 18/19 days
Success rate = 94.73%



I'm linking to Sunday Stash, Design Wall Monday, Oh Scrap, and Moving it Forward.  Check out all the goodies there.

Blessings to you and your loved ones.

I Like Thursdays and Finish For Friday

Let's give a Whoop, Whoop! It's been raining all day.  Praise the Lord!  A steady rain except when a cell comes over - then it's a downpour for a couple of minutes.  We're so grateful.  I pray for our SoCal neighbors to the West which are in the Woolsey Fire area.  They are on notice to evacuate if the authorities call about potential mud slides.

I've been working on a crochet project.  Some stitching to do as I watch Dr. Blake - my evening quiet time with DH.  The quilt under it is one I made back in the early 2000s - maybe 2002.  It was a New Year's Eve Mystery by the yahoo group, The Quilting Post.  It was suppose to be a bed size quilt.  I decided to make a mini.  I ran across it the other day as I was putting away Christmas things and told myself I should put it out.  A bit big for the table, but I like it. 
Here it is finished.  Took only three episodes.  This is a baby washcloth I'll include with the baby quilt I started today. I like how the colors match.
Not sure what it will look like as I'm designing as I go.  This will be for St. Anne's so all I need to add are three more rows to make it 36" square.
 I also finished a little mug rug made from scraps as a gift for a dear friend.  Her birthday is next week.
And I really like this quilt I found at Shark's Dinner - it may be my next EPP.  She's making a BOM out of it and has designed nine other blocks to go with the first three.

I'm linking to Lee Anna's I Like Thursdays, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Finished or Not Fridays, and a few others. See my linky party buttons at more tab under the header . Blessings!

Another for 2019

In addition to my ufo challenge I'm planning to follow along with Jenny Elefantz in her Gentle Art of Domesticity year. Jenny says of the author,  Jane Brocket: "It’s her ability to organically bring domestic arts into her home and family life that makes this my number one go-to book for inspiration when the monotony of my own domestic life has caused me to grumble and not be as appreciative as I could be, and as I only need spend 10 minutes reading a complete double page topic, it’s something I don’t have to put off till a free afternoon or an hour alone. I quite often drink my afternoon coffee, smile at her thoughts on ‘quinces’, let my shoulders drop softly as I ponder them, and am gently refreshed whilst transported to a sweeter, quieter place in my heart."

Jenny has a very inspiring blog where she shares her thoughts on a gentler life.  She is offering a POM - a project of the month as she is an accomplished designer of items to enhance one's place. And as I move into my seventh decade, this really appeals to me. I hope to simplify and enrich my household in this coming year.
My meditation corner

My 2019 UFO Challenge

I'm continuing to work on my UFOs.  Do they ever end?  LOL.  Here goes.  And since I only got five done last year, I'm only going to set 6 goals this year.  Working on one for two months each - maybe I can do better.  Fingers crossed.

1.  Sandwich and quilt this top from Karen at Faeries and Fibres QAL
Done

 2. Make the patchwork blocks for Anna's Garden. 

In fact, make the remaining applique blocks a Block of the Month challenge - our 50th came and went and this anniversary quilt didn't.  Sighh. That's why I've signed up for DJ's 2019 Create Your Own BOM.
View the post here


3. Complete my Easy Street top

4. Quilt my Riverside quilt.

5. Add leaves  and flowers to the nine baskets blocks

6. Make the remaining basket in the center block of LE.

Of course I'll be making charity Baby quilts.  That and the above should keep me busy.

Last Finish of 2018

My last finish of 2018 (took the last stitch on binding at 10:58 PM, December 31st) is my QAL, Sweet Land of Liberty hosted by Lori of Humble Quilts.  This challenge began the first week of January. This is the second challenge this year that I actually finished in the same calendar year (both hosted by Lori). Yeah!

I learned a lot doing this quilt. It was way out of my comfort box. The pattern wasn't available any more - it's one by Cherie Payne. She had a Facebook page where many files of her works were offered for free. We were to visit those files and find things similar to what was in the quilt and make our patterns from there.  Also, Lori would post sizes and photos of her blocks and some dimensions to guide us.  The finished quilt is bigger than mine and has lots more blocks. See image on right.  I had to make it to fit the space I have to hang it - about 40" by 54" .

As you can see, I made some changes.  I made a different Lady Liberty block. Also changed the basket to hold flowers instead of another Lady Liberty.  My right row is more simple. And the layout of the stars, houses, and such is different for the bottom of the border.  My angel was not of the right proportion, so I added stars to fill in the block.  The vase on top had cherries at the end of the vines - I used stars.  I added an embroidered God Bless America to the sashing of one block. Then I decided to quilt each block somewhat differently on my Juki domestic.

I wanted to only use fabric from my stash, but alas, I had very few plaids, so I had to buy a few to fill in. My daughter gave me some which helped to round out the colors.  The top border was a quilting challenge as I couldn't find a thread to match that stripe fabric.  Finally, I settled on using invisible thread from Superior Threads and that worked.  I set my pressure bar to zero, my stitch length to zero, and used Bottom Line thread in the bobbin and a 60/8 needle.  Bottom thread for the most part was Bottom Line or So Fine - all Superior Threads.  Here is the back.
and a better image of the print:
That red you see in around the quilt in the photos on the design wall is part of a UFO I finished a week ago.  It will be the next one to be quilted.
Started this Stars and Stripes Sampler by Fons & Porter in 2012 when Judy Laquidara was making it. Again I made a smaller version.  It is good it took me so long to finish because back then I didn't know how to paper piece and my piecing skills weren't that great either. Now was the time.

I'm linking to Design Wall Monday and a few other parties. See my tab above for more of them.
Happy New Year!

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...