New Year's Eve

After a couple of days to myself where I attempted to catch up on laundry and other fun things like having to have the water heater replaced, the next round of company arrives today.

I wanted to take a minute out of the busy-ness to thank all of you for your support and friendship.  It means a lot to me...

The Plan

During the creative hiatus this past fall, I didn't stop thinking about quilting... au contraire.  I thought a lot about it.... especially the part about how I promised myself that I would finish every project begun and would not let UFOs pile up.   Ha!  So, I took stock of works-in-progress and made a list, which will be my resolution for the coming year.

1.  Almost finished blue-and-yellow quilt.  One of the first I did and before I started blogging.  It's partially quilted but I stopped because I realized that I had goofed big time with the outer border, which is wavy, altho not as bad as this example I found online...

 

I was discouraged at the time because I didn't want to rip the border off and start again and I didn't know how to fix it.  So... on the shelf it went.  I learned from my mistake and don't have wavy borders anymore and I've even found an idea for quilting the border "as is"... so, wavy border quilt is first on the list of UFOs as the oldest one lying around.


2.  The quilt top from a 2013 QAL is hanging from a clothes hanger on the door to my sewing room along with the backing material.  It didn't get turned into a quilt because I couldn't find a backing fabric I was happy with.  This quilt top nagged at me all fall and started me thinking about the amassed UFOs.  So, the second item on the UFO list is the Aiming for Accuracy quilt top.

3.  The quilt top from Barbara Brackman's Civil War QAL is still a just a top. Why?  Because I had no idea how I wanted to quilt it... and still don't.  What I'd like to do is to send it out to be quilted in a Baptist Fan but my Scot ancestors are protesting at the cost.  I need to decide something and get this quilt top turned into a quilt.  Finished is better than perfect.....

4.  Pastel flower-star quilt....ran into a wall when it came to arranging the blocks.  My OCD tendencies kicked in and I balked at having two the the same fabrics in adjacent blocks.  I need to get over that and get 'er done.

 

5.  The final UFO on the list is the 1800s repro fabric hourglass project.  No problem with it; I just got side tracked.  It needs to get done!  No more quilter's ADHD... 

I do have one project planned that needs to be started/finished by May when my SIL graduates so I will not be restricted just to UFOs.  Hopefully, having a published UFO list will keep me from procrastinating in 2015.  So... my resolution for the coming year is to finish these five quilt projects.  Wish me luck!

Christmas Break

The first round of company has departed and I have a day or two before the next crew arrives.  It was a lovely Christmas with a house full of family, good food, and fun games.  My favorite moment was when my daughter's father-in-law spotted the chocolate-covered marshmallow Santas and commented he hadn't had one since he was a kid.  I told him to help himself... and even sent another home with him.  It really is the little things at holidays that make it special.

For example, a dear friend sending one beautiful blue-and-white teacup with some tea and a charming quilty card.  Definitely a surprise and I love it!  Thanks, Doniene!

Another surprise in the mail was this gorgeous tea towel with a blue-and-white china print.  Love it and I will definitely enjoy using it.  The giver made this, using a wave-stitch to hem all four sides... perfect choice since she lives on the coast!   Thanks, Cindie!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of small things that made you smile!

Christmas Eve

It's been raining all day... lots of rain.  Cooking has been going on and I've just one more dish to prep tonight.  A strand of lights has gone out on the tree and I need to fix that so when the grandchildren get here tomorrow... all will be perfect...   or as perfect as it's going to get anyway.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season....

Blogging Hiatus

I did get a project finished during my hiatus from blogging.  Yea, me!  I had made it a goal to finish the Monster Quilt this year before the weather got cold so I buckled down and got to work.

I'll probably never quilt a quilt this large again and will plan to do so in sections that are then joined together.  Too bad I didn't figure that trick out before this top was completed.

Because of the size and amount of fabric that needed management while quilting, I did ditch-work, which is incredibly BOR-ing to me.  I wanted to do something different on the outer border and opted for a big loop design.  It's the first time I've done a loop like this and the loops are not perfect... but I kept telling myself that finished is better than perfect... and this quilt will never be in a quilt show.  And, if it's keeping me warm on a cold winter night, who cares?

To keep up the loop pattern I did a triple loop in the four corners... again, not perfect but who cares?  The backing is a vintage Jinny Beyer blender, gifted to me by a friend who started quilting in the '80s and no longer does so.  I'll remember Carlene every time I see this lovely fabric.

It's Aliveeeeeeeeee!

Without going in to a 40 page description of the past two months and boring you silly, let's just say there was a Bermuda Triangle-type fall here.  If it could go wrong, it did.  For example, my camera bit the dust.  This means that I have to decide what I want to replace it with, find time to purchase one, and get it up and running.  Not as easy as I would have liked.  Not at all.   Anyhoo...   I'm alive and appreciate my BlogLand friends checking on me.

I've not had much time to sew/quilt as I would have liked but I did tackle one crafty project (link).... one I found on Pinterest.  Again, getting all the stuff together did not go as smoothly as I would have liked... who would have thought that finding wooden (or other) letters would be so difficult?  Here is the first "draft" of my efforts....  I won't talk about the paint on my slacks or tablecloth... although it did come out in the wash.

Although the project poster swore this was a quick and easy project...  it wasn't, at least for me.  Blending paint round the letters was difficult, especially since I hadn't gotten a small enough brush to do it properly.  (Read:  Back to the craft store.)

I liked the subtle letters blended into the paint with the shadows...  I let the painting "sit" for a couple of days while I studied it, deciding I wanted the "sea" to be higher and lighter at the "horizon."  

It's overcast and rainy today so photo-taking is difficult but you can get the general idea.   I like how it turned out, especially since it is my first ever attempt at painting.   This will be a Christmas gift for someone special.