BASKETS ALL FINISHED!!

Woo Hoo!  I finished all the little applique baskets!  Here are 6 of the last batch - there are 2 of each of these.  I am soooooooo glad to be finished with the baskets.  Next comes the medallion center which consists of a bouquet of flowers - but they aren't too intricate, luckily.

I had to take about a 2 1/2 day break from quilting to make a halloween costume for Jonah.  In his kindergarten class they are singing the song, "The one horned, one eyed, flying purple people eater" and he decided that's what he wanted to be for Halloween.  Grandma to the rescue (am I a sucker, or what?).  The costume is in the mail and my DIL is going to add some fur patches to it.  Below are the feet complete with claws.  The hands also have claws.  Jonah wants to be scary.  I'm sure we'll get a picture of him in the costume - I hope it fits - and I will post it when we get it.

I'm going to a quilt show today - hopefully I'll get pictures for you.

BASKET PROGRESS AND ANOTHER TRIP

I received August's baskets (12) last week and still hadn't worked on July's, so my goal was to get the 24 basket blocks prepped in order to take on a short trip this week to visit my sister.  While getting the prepping done, I also got 8 of them sewn down, so I only have 16 to take on the trip.

This is my packet of prepped blocks.  I'll put them in the baggie.  I finally remembered that I had appliqué glue on hand, so I glued these on the block and don't have to fiddle with the pins - in case I need some, I put a few pins in the little altoids tin.  But not using the pins is really nice - especially if I am working on this in the airport or airplane.  

 In the mean time, I decided to start sewing these blocks together.  This project was started when I retired in 2009 and was my "travel" project even before we got the camper.  The blocks have been finished for a while and they are going together rather fast.

Yesterday AT&T upgraded us to fiber optic internet and the technician had to put the wire through the wall into my sewing closet.  I had no idea he would have to do that, so I wasn't prepared.  I took out a bunch of stuff and the benefit is that now I can see the floor in there!  I even vacuumed it and organized some things for better access.  I still need to rearrange my shelves which are on the left side and you can't really see them.  I plan to put my CW fabric on a higher shelf and put all my plastic bins on a lower shelf so it will be easier for me to see what I have in there.

While I was in there I found some backing fabric that I had forgotten about and I didn't find some fabric that I bought to make a long CW type dress.  I have searched in this closet and in my "overflow" closet to no avail.  Well, it will have to wait until I return.

This is my first time that I will be flying standby using the discount that we get from my DS's company that he flies with.  I hope I don't have to wait too long.  But, I will have my baskets and a couple books along to keep me occupied.

SOME PROGRESS MADE

I finished my April appliqué baskets on May 1 and expect to receive the May fabric this coming week - so, just in time!

More pictures of my "Seasons in a Row" very old UFO quilt.  I got the binding sewn on this morning and took some close up pictures.  Some of the embellishments are just placed on top to give you an idea of what it might look like.  I have some eyes for the snowmen as well as carrot noses on order.  The small black beads will be sewn on for the mouth.

January, February and March

April (bunny tales need to be sewn on) and May (buttons need to be sewn on also)

June, July, August & September - all finished

November & December - Santa's eyes need to be sewn on

Picture of the whole quilt top.  December's row doesn't show up very well,  but it will be staying that way.

This afternoon, I'm going to baste a donation quilt.  I didn't make it, but will quilt and bind it before our guild meeting on the 13th.  Last night I attended and joined the Dallas Quilter's Guild for the first time.  I decided to join so that I would be able to attend a workshop by Bonnie Hunter in September.

MY WEEK

It's been a week since I've posted anything, mainly because while I have been busy sewing, but there's not much to show for it.  I mailed the giveaway off to Sally, she received it and sent me a nice note.

I finished appliquéing the baskets for February.

One day this week I was reading a blog by the Cuddle Quilter and she was telling about the rainbow challenge.  I did check it out and I'm NOT joining it, however, I liked the idea and decided to try it out with some string blocks.

While I was sorting some of my string scraps into color groups, DH came in the room, picked up the camera and took a picture of the mess.  He said I should post it on my blog, so here it is.  You can see my scrap basket on the left side of the picture.  This basket lives under my sewing table so that when I have any scraps or strips I can easily drop them into it.  Lately though, in order for the scrap to stay in the basket I would have to stuff it down, otherwise it would just end up on the floor.  In other words, it was packed with scraps.  I did get some of it sorted into colors, but it is still 3/4s full.

Here are a few of the blocks I made into color groups.  I am going to use these for a donation quilt and will arrange the colors into a rainbow type plan, or something else that looks good.  I really need to make some of these every day in order to empty my basket.  If I don't, the scraps might take over the whole room!

One of my main goals was to get the applique and the civil war quilts basted.  I did baste the applique quilt, a table runner and a doll quilt.  I still have to baste the civil war quilt, but decided to start quilting the appliqué quilt first.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

GOALS FOR 2013

Before I bore you with my goals/UFOs, I'll show you what I worked on over the weekend.

I finished the six baskets that I prepped 3 different ways.  The ones I prepped in #1, which was using the magic sizing to stick the seam allowance onto the back, worked the best and was the easiest applique to accomplish.  I prepped 3 more like that to do this week.  All the baskets came out ok, but I wasn't satisfied with methods #2 & #3.

Here's a picture of all the baskets I've finished so far (on my design door).

I also decided to do the QAL that Lori posted on her blog.  It's a small one this year.  I can't believe all the problems I had while putting it together.  First, the needle broke and when I put in the new needle, I couldn't get my automatic needle threader to work.  Then I lost one of the large triangles for the flying geese on the middle star and had to cut another one (found 1st one under a cabinet).  While cutting some fabric for the second round, I cut off the corner of the sawtooth star and had to replace the corner square.  When I made the brown/pink flying geese, I cut the brown square the wrong size, made the 4 FG and thought - they sure look different than normal - had to do those over again.  Then I misplaced one of the cheddar pieces and had to hunt for it - it was folded in a piece of pink fabric!   don't know what my problem was, but I finally got the top finished!!  Yea!

I cut a bunch of 1" strips to use in my log cabin blocks from the scrap bag I got.  There's still a lot of fabric left from the bag.


So far I have 196 block finished.  I'm not sure how big I will make it, but I figured if I had 225 blocks, it would measure about 71" square.  I'm going to want it to fit on a bed.

I have quite a few UFO's which I will list and will put an asterisk next to the ones that are a priority.  I have 3 categories of projects:  hand work, which includes embroidery, appliqué, quilting and sewing bindings; quilts; and Miscellaneous projects, such as finishing an embroidery project into a pillow or wall hanging.

Handwork

1.  Over the River and Through the Woods wall hanging - 2 panels of embroidery are finished, one more to do, then it goes into the quilt category.

2. * Baskets for You BOM - applique 12 baskets per month for 10-12 (?) months and then a large floral design in the middle.  I don't want to get behind on the baskets, so will try to do them as soon as I get them from the quilt shop.

3.  Finish flower basket appliqué project that I won from Lori, then decide if I want to make more & how to use in quilt.  Almost finished with one.

4.  Enlarge my GMF lap quilt by about 4 rows all the way around.

Quilts

1.  *Civil War Quilt - the blocks are ready to put together.  It's ready to baste.
2.  **Quilt for DIL - machine appliqué  - Need to finish by March birthday.
3.  **2 secret quilts - Need to finish by September - I'm almost to the point of putting the blocks together.  *As of 5/7/13, the blocks are put together and I'm starting to put the borders together.    As of 9/9/13, one quilt is finished and the other is ready to baste and quilt.
4.  Red Hexie mini quilt - almost finished and ready to be layered - idea from JoAnn - Thread Head.
5.  A Tisket A Tasket applique basket quilt - 8 baskets are done, need to do 4 more and then make into a quilt.
6.  Veranda Views - all embroidery is finished - need to make into blocks and put together.
7.  Oak Leaves & Turkey Feathers wall hanging - started, but not much done - machine applique and piecing.
8.  Scrappity Do Dah - blocks finished - need to put together into queen size quilt.
9.  Grandmother's flower garden lap quilt - need to decide if I want to make it bigger and then finish.
*  I decided to make it bigger, so I'm working on more hexies by hand.
10.  Log Cabin Quilt - I've been working on this mainly on trips and have 196 blocks made finishing at 4 3/4".  No hurry on this one.
11.  Seasons in a Row - my oldest UFO that was a guild project.  I have about 8 rows finished  and there's one for each month.  *As of 5/7/13, the top is finished.
12.  Basket wall hanging - need to fix it a little, then it's ready to layer and quilt.
13.  Ohio Star boys donation quilt - have about 12 blocks made.
14.  4-patch donation quilt - have lots of blocks made - it's a leader/ender project.

Miscellaneous

1.  Finish embroidery on Denim shirt.
2.  Finish round wool pincushion.
3.  Finish bird pincushion.
4.  Put together Liberty Bell embroidery project - stitching is finished.  I decided I didn't like the fabric that the Liberty Bell was embroidered on, so I need to make a new one.
5.  Put together sampler cross-stitch project - stitching is finished.

If I can resist starting any more projects, I should be able to complete some of my UFOs.  I plan to dedicate myself to getting projects finished.  I also want to organize my sewing closet and scraps so I can use them more efficiently.  I'm not sure when I'll get to those tasks.

Wish me luck!

A NEW BOM FOR 2013 - AM I NUTS?

Before Christmas I went to my favorite LQS to spend my gift certificate when I saw a BOM program on the wall that I really liked.  It came in Red or Blue.  I had always wanted to join in on something at this shop which specializes in reproduction fabrics, but never have.  I thought, maybe I should do it this time - as I had resisted for years.  I had a hard time making the decision, but I decided to join in. Am I nuts?   I selected the blue one.  The pattern is below and comes with a template for the baskets.  Each month I will receive a package with fabric for 12 baskets to be hand appliquéd!  Yikes!  I received the first month at the shop and there was enough fabric for 12 blocks, six background fabrics and 6 blue fabrics for the baskets, so I will have 12 blocks with 2 from each fabric.

Pattern and template.

Six of my first month's 12.  The others are basically the same.

 They are not perfect, but I hope my applique skills will improve.  I used the back basting method this time and might try a different method on January's blocks.

I just received this book as a Christmas gift from my DS#3/DIL and am already enjoying it.  I love Marie Bostwick's Cobbled Court series.

I received this mug rug from Karen  when we met for lunch a week ago.  We had such a good visit!

We left Florida and are now in Alabama visiting our 3rd son and family.  Jonah (4) and Eli (2) are such precious little boys!

DS/DIL helping the boys climb on the old "truck"

Eli is such a smiley boy!

Jonah is a good climber!

Tomorrow we head back home and it will be good to get there. We had a wonderful visit with 2 of our sons' families! We will sure miss them!