Nearing Christmas

Nearing Christmas.  The weather has gotten chilly.  They predict rain for the rest of the week.  We'll see.  Christmas eve with friends and Christmas Day with family. What could be better - of course attending Mass to sing praise and Joy in the Birth of Emmanuel - God with us.

Quilting has slowed down as I worked to accomplish the season's decorating and baking. I did work a bit each day.  Here's is what I have so far:

This is a block from a quilt by Mark Lipinski in the McCalls Quick Quilts,  September 2005.  The colored print is actually a teal, but that's what I get taking a photo at night.  Ah, me.

I hope you are done with your preparations for Christmas, so you can sit down and start to gather yourself to enjoy the season.  Merry Christmas!

Little by Little

a bit of quilting gets done:

Walking footwork finished. On to FMQ for this baby quilt top:

Commission quilt bound and ready to mail - can't show front til received.

See fun and fabulous linky parties at my tab so named. Blessings on this new day.

Some of This; Some of That

What with adding borders to three baby quilt tops and adding a row to another baby quilt top, I've used 1.31 yds from y stash - yeah! Net YTD out: 45.81 yards.

I've sat down a couple of times this week and hand stitched on my Anna's Garden block - just have a wee bit more to do. Got in three days of stitching. Then it's time to prep another to hand stitch during TV time.

Below I"m share some photos from my trip to Fort Collins.  It was too short. Next time I plan to add a day or two.What beautiful country! I fell in love with that high valley (9,000 - 10,000 ft).

a few hills, mostly gorgeous flat valley with the Rockies all around. c. goinmobyle.com

In Fort Collins we visited the beautiful CSU Annual Flower Trials Garden It's right in the middle of downtown and CSU.

Here's a panorama view I took.  And a couple of favorites!

How's this for a petunia?

I'm linking to Sunday Stash, Design Wall Monday, Slow Sunday Stitching and 15 Minutes to Stitch in 2019.

What are you going to work on this last week of August?

And Now There are Three

Three finished baby quilt tops that is.  I'm the border lady this month for St. Anne's since I have the biggest stash. Here are the results:

added the outer border to make it 36" square

Added the two outer borders to this scrap bag design challenge to make it 34" by 36"
They did a great job with what they had in the bag.

Just added the blue border It's 34" by 36" also. It could have used a bit more contrast in the center, but that's what was in the bag.

I'm linking to Let's Make Baby Quilts, Finished or Not Friday, Wendy's Peacock Party and Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?

What have you been working on?

Some of This; Some of That 8/11/2019

Finished quilting that top - already delivered.

I almost kept this scrap bag quilt. But it's going to St. Anne's (SA).

Two St. Anne's members gave me tops to add borders to:
This first one is a design which two SA members came up with when I handed them a bag of scraps.

I took a photo of their design so that I could adhere to it as much as possible. What with lengths, dimensions, and loss of fabric to seams, this is what I was able to come up with.

Measures 34" by 36" Needed to add a border to make it large enough.  I have enough of the red to possibly bind it.  What do you think?

The second one just needed a slight border to bring to size.  It's 34" by 36".

I think the center pieces needed a bit more contrast, but that's what was in the scrap bag.

I'm linking to some linky parties.  You can find them under the header tab by the same name.  Blessings,

Some of This; Some of That 5/26

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I've had little time for a lot of stuff, but the end is in sight. Plus this ongoing cool weather and cloudy skies makes me glum. Does the weather do a number on you?

First a stash report.  DDIL took 1.9 yds from my stash to make a quilt for her friend. I used .25 to make favors for the ladies at retreat - bookmarks. Then I made a sample log cabin with the new trim tool I bought - actually bought two - a regular 4" log cabin ruler and a curvy log cabin one. Works great as you just estimate the width of the strip and have no exact cutting to do except for the center square. Great for scraps.  Here's my first 4" from scraps as a test and new YTD total is 44.15 yards.

In the slow stitching I'm finishing that Anna's Garden block - only have the purple flower now to finish hand stitching. Then there are more hexies to work on. Glad I got two more applique started on the road to prepping at the quilt retreat.  I'll show those later.

On my design wall I have the start of another baby quilt - two rows so far. Here's the cute fabric Katy made a quilt out of and introduced me to this collection.  It's by Riley Blake and called "Jeep".

This week I missed a couple of days of sewing - after three days of intensive sewing my quilting mojo is exhausted.  So now the stats look like this:

15 minute days/week = 5/7 days

15 minute days/May = 24/25 days

15 minute days/2019 = 132/145

Success rate = 97.78%

Did you get to hand sew today?

I'm linking to Slow Sunday Stitching , Sunday Stash,  15 Minutes to Stitch in 2019, Oh Scrap! and Design Wall Monday.

Have a blessed week.

Some of This; Some of That 4/28/19

I've finished my medallion bunny quilt top. I've named it Bunny in the Garden.

Measures 36.5 by 38.5" . It will go to St. Anne's as a baby quilt for low-income mothers. I'm quilting it now.

Stash Report: I used  1.86 yds for this quilt.  Also used .20 yd for the other medallion. Added second quilt round.

Now measures 14.5 by 16.5"  - all from a scrap bag. That's it for fabric.  The new YTD total for destashing is  40.78 yds. 

Again didn't have time to post my likes on Thursday, but here are a few shots of my past week:

Another morning bouquet from DH's shade house

An empty carport - car at dealers for A/C work. Boohoo.

Primrose at their prime early one morning

I'm so happy that the car repair turned out to be only 1/10th of what we expected. Woohoo!

In the 15 minutes to Stitch, 2019 - I had one day without stitching this week.  New stats read:

15 minute days/week = 6/7 days
15 minute days/April = 23/27 days
15 minute days/2019 = 109/117 days
Success rate = 93.16%

I'm linking to Oh, Scrap, Sunday Stash, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2019, and Design Wall Monday as well as Monday Making. How did you do - quilty wise - last week?  Peace be with you.

A late I Like Thursdays and a Friday Finish

Wednesday was getting readY for some library lesson presentations and story times at the library.  Thursday was presenting the lessons and a surprise story time. By the time I got home I was exhausted.

Enough excuses. I did finish a baby quilt:

All it needs now is binding.  I love the center dogie fabric!

All of this flannel fabric wAS leftover from previous St. Anne's quilts. I used the cotton fabric on the back. My flannel medallion was too cute not be front and center.

Throughout last week, I spent more time at home except for my assignment. It was just too cold for me. However I did take a walk with DH and saw our neighbor up the hill had installed a fascinating windmill.

The merest of a breeze would make it turn.

I like what he did for the base.

To the left of our hill is Cucamonga Peak again covered with snow from the last two storms.

The right side of the hill has a view of the easterly mountains. They are spectacular, but I haven't had a chance to take a photo. 

We have sightings of new flowers in our yard.

The geraniums have begun blooming.

We found our first Bird of Paradise

Our Christmas poinsettia is still as beautiful as when we got it in early December.

I'm linking to Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop, Let's Make Baby Quilts, and Free Motion Mavericks. You'll find them in my Linky Parties tab under the header.  Blessings!

Some of This; Some of That

I've been making string blocks, starting a new EPP, finished up an applique block, made a charity block for Covered in Love, and began quilting my UFO and a charity quilt - phew. So only have .53 yds to add to the stash report.  But I bagged yardage and scraps from my Sweet Land of Liberty that I no longer want. Found homespuns are so loosely woven, I don't care to work with them again.  I weighed them and the bag weighs 4.63 lbs or 74.08 ounces.  A one pound of fabric (average) weighs 3.5 ounces, so I'm giving away 21.17 yards.  Woohoo!  My new YTD destashing now stands at 27.15 yards.  And there's a space in my stash cleared away of all that fabric. Maybe I'll take some fabric out of a drawer.

Now for how I did in January with my 2019 UFO challenge. I'm happy to report I got my Jan-Feb UFO for the year sandwiched, and I am quilting it. I'm about 3/4ths done. Next is a whole lot of stippling and it will take a while.  I hope to have it done by my deadline of the end of February.  I've allotted myself 2 months for each project this year.

The second goal for January was to make my BOM block for my applique quilt.  That is done.
I am finally over the half way point making the applique blocks for this quilt - 10 to go.

Let's see, what else?

Made a mug rug as a gift,

Crocheted a baby washcloth

Finished adding the latest donut to my Bliss quilt,

and salvaged fussy cut fabric into a baby quilt top for St. Anne's.

And as to stitching time:

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days

15 minutes stitching days/Jan = 30/31 days

15 minutes stitching days/Feb = 2/2 days

15 minutes stitching days/2019 = 32/33 days

Success Rate = 96.96%

That's it for last month.  How did you do?  Leave me a comment and I'll come by and see your progress.  I'm linking to Sunday Stash, 15 minutes to Stitch 2019, and Oh, Scrap. 

Blessings.

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!

Some of This; Some of That this Design Wall Monday

Let's start with the destashing:  What with fabric for my last unit on the donut I'm working on for Bliss, a border for the Stars & Stripes sampler, and another baby top, I used 1.3 yards of fabric.  I'm giving 2 yards to St. Anne's, 3 yards to the Guild Friday giving me total of 6.3 yards.  My  new YTD total is  77.04 yds destashed out of the 88 yards needed to meet my goal.  I've passed my 3/4 finish mark!

Here are the last two tops I've made. Second one on my design wall.

Both were made with scrappy blocks using the Bonnie Hunter telephone book paper foundation method. They went together quick and easily. Both are 36" square. Ready to be sandwiched.

I made the first 8 scrap blocks in the first quilt, then taught the ladies of St. Anne's to do them, too.

They made 4 of the second set, and I finished them up.  12 blocks so far for December. Looking at the photos see the second one needs a good 

Lastly, the greetings continue for our 50th.  Look what some friends gave us.  They know I love red.

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday, Let's make Baby Quilts, Oh, Scrap!, Moving it Forward, and Monday Making.  What are you up to?

Some of This; Some of That

First the destashing.  Made a baby quilt top using a you-tube tutorial for a half log cabin block.  She used a layer cake to make hers.  I used 20" squares of two fabrics that made the whole top.  Here it is:

Lighting is bad, but you get the idea.

The two Christmas prints.

This came out to 36" square - just the right size for a St. Anne's baby quilt.  Used 1.1 yds total of two fabrics to make this top. Worked on my SLOL quilt and am adding borders. Used only 0.09 for that. Sanwiched my SLOL, too, and used 1.43 yds.  I am now quilting it.  So my new YTD total is  70.41 yds destashed out of the 84 yards needed to meet my goal. 

My Friday finish that I didn't get to post was a preemie quilt.
Quilted:

Bound

and delivered to the NICU

This was a completely scrappy quilt. I used a disappearing nine patch pattern.

What are you up to?  I'd love to come by your blog and see your project - please leave me a comment..  I'm linking to Sunday Stash and Esther's WOW. Lots of goodies there. Blessings,

Some of This; Some of That

Destashing - 2 yds for an envelope quilt,  1 yd for a backing, .25 yd for a crumb block and its backing (I can't show yet as it's part of a swap), 2.33 yds of flannel for a rag quilt, 3 yds for fat quarter games, .06 yd for my twinkle star block, .12 yd for some book marks, and 1 yd for the St. Anne's quilt top for a 9.76 yds used:

This was another scrap bag quilts - all scraps except border. That's a floral I was given years ago, and it seemed just right to me to use as a border. Measures 36" square. I used the last of a cute cat print I got long time ago. Here's a close up:

My new YTD total is  56.27 yds destashed out of the 68 yards I need at this time to meet my year-end goal. I'm packing for my trip to Missouri.  What does a quilter put into one suitcase to work on for three days at a retreat?  I'm use to taking everything but the kitchen sink when I go to local ones - lol. 

I"m linking to Finish it Up Friday, Sunday Stash, Let's Make Baby Quilts, and Oh Scrap!
I'll try to figure out how to post via my cellphone.  Have a great week.