Little bits at a time....

Been pretty busy gutting a bathroom (with another to come, too) which I will share with you all once I have pictures of the before and after.....and believe me "after" can't come soon enough; but for my sanity, whenever I get a chance to work on something quilty-wise or knitting-wise, I grab that little bit at a time to get something accomplished to maintain my sanity.


Of course, it doesn't help when I get stuck on some projects and keep moving on to the next one until I am stuck on it. I am just going to have to make a run to the yarn shop and get me over the hump of my problems. So, anyways, I have both socks done up to the heel and have ripped out heels twice because they just aren't looking right. I have the back of my sweater done past the armpits, but I don't like how it is looking at the increase point for the armpits, so I have stopped there until I find out what I am doing wrong. I am showing the yarn that I bought for the hat in the picture. There is a crochet floor wash rag; and because the I-cord wrapped tubing broke free during the felting of my purse, I have made two new I-cords and am going to cut off the old ones and re-felt the handles and then this purse will be ready for a lining.







As for quilting, all I have accomplished is sewing together the binding strips and getting it pressed and ready for the black and white quilt.




Can't wait for life to return to normal....or at least as normal as it gets....but it will be awhile with two bathrooms to gut and re-do, so bear with me.

Busy day today.....

Got up early to put together a couple batches of cookie dough as my boys were coming over to bake cookies with their Mimi. We were supposed to do this during the Christmas holidays, but a family emergency kind of steered us in another direction, so today was the day.

Baking cookies with a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 1/4 year old is a bit much to handle alone, so their mom (my oldest dear daughter) and my youngest dear daughter came along to help out. I rolled and the boys cut out and decorated. I am sure I will be finding colored sugar in the oddest places for a few days to come.

I did manage to get the borders sewn on my Crows in the Corner...two yesterday; and today....one before the boys showed up and one this evening. Now comes the applique in two corners of the border.



Also, cut out binding for the black and white baby quilt that I put together at my last retreat. This is a picture showing the cute backing, a portion of the quilt and what I think is going to be a great bindings (stripes).

Crows in the Corner center block complete

Ok....made some headway and got the center block finished for this quilt. Just need to trim it down to size and then add my pieced blocks that have been waiting patiently for me to get busy on the applique for this quilt. Once they are on, I can cut the borders and then I have similar leaves, stems and crows to applique to two corners.



I am feeling like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this quilt.



I dug out the pieced blocks that I made a few months ago and laid them out around my center block. The little white pieces of paper are placement notes.



If you recall, I made a small top with the leftover half square triangles from this quilt( see February 2 post). Using the Quilt in a Day half square triangle ruler, you get 8 half square triangles (hst) at once. These blocks only required 6, thus the extra 2 from each of these blocks. This quilt top is predominantly pink and brown with a little splash of green in it. I think it is looking pretty good and I am really getting excited about it now.


Now to sew them together and then I can cut the borders. I'm moving on!!!!

Never seem to finish anything.....

but I keep starting new things. I promise I do have all the pieced blocks for this quilt ....Crows in the Corner ....done (several months ago at that!), but I just prepped the center block Friday night and have been trying my hand at reverse applique and I am liking it so far. So, I thought I would show you my progress. It needs a few more leaves and then there are two crows, one in each lower corner that will be appliqued on. I can then put the pieced blocks around the center block and the outside borders have two corners that have crows and leaves appliqued on them which need to be cut/appliqued and added on. Hopefully, I can keep up the momentum. Just wanted to show that I am not a total slug (although I have been feeling that way lately).

February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Quilty Chicks down on the farm.....

Well, not really a farm in the sense that most of you would think, but the three of us spent the weekend up at one of my mini group gal's second home that they haven't moved into yet that is out in the country and we had a sewing frenzy weekend. She had the living room all set up for us with large tables, fluorescent lighting, extension cords. We each had a bed, hot showers, good food and drink. What more could a gal ask for? Here's a little sampling of the things that we accomplished this weekend.

First this gives you an idea of how we were set up. Sharon's working on the design wall and Nancy is busy sewing away.

The following are Nancy's creations. The first being her log cabin quilt. As I write, she almost has this top together now.


Then she has this baby quilt that will be put in her pile of "ready made baby shower quilts".

Then we have Nancy's Turning Twenty that still needs a scrappy border.

Then we have Sharon's patchwork quilt that she finished up this weekend and one of my favorites is her applique quilt that needs to be sewn together. It will require a scalloped border, but this quilt was gorgeous.

I finally got the chance to put together some left over half square triangles and made a small table topper unless I decide to put a border on it to make it a little larger.

With this baby quilt, I used the charm pack that I won as one of the prizes for the AQS contest. Sorry, I can't remember the line. I took off the tag with the fabric line thinking I wouldn't forget the name.....but as usual, I did. But it is a cute baby fabric. (Remembered....it's Sweetpea)

Then there is this 48" square quilt that is going to be for a baby shower all made from my stash of black and whites and batiks for a splash of color.


I did get the backings made for the black and white quilt AND the backing is made for the Strawberries and Lemonade Merry-Go-Ground quilt, too.

I even found time to work on my knitting and here is the progress I made on my sock (notice, only one yet) and the aqua sweater.

All-in-all, it was a great weekend....productive and stress free because there was no having to cook, no having to clean, no having to answer the phone, no having to do anything but what we wanted. Thanks gals!!!