Last day of birthday month!

Today marks the end of the first month of January 2018 and the end of my birthday month. It really has flown by so fast. I have many projects that were worked on, some new things started  but sadly no finishes as yet!

partial top before my class

finished top of "star struck"

I am continuing to do the hand quilting on the baby quilt but only in the evening. Except for today, some girlfriends were here for our weekly knitting/quilting day and I hand quilted a bit.
Monday was a math day. I had to work out the math on a quilt top so the inner border would fit the quilt top  and the pieced outer border  I had already made. Of course I made the quilt bigger than the pattern so alterations were necessary! And with alterations comes brain numbing math!!! So yesterday the sewing of borders was in order and this is the result of that. One finished top. So maybe I lied a bit above...I did finish something!!
This quilt was a class I taught a few weekends ago. A versatile pattern that could be changed and remodeled in many ways to make it your own.

Looks especially good on top of all that snow!!
 This one I think will go in the "to be hand quilted" pile!!

Good sewing day!

baby quilt in the making

Is there anything better? I decided after piecing these blocks for a baby quilt this week (you can see a previous post here) and getting the top sewn up, I might as well keep going. And going I did, yesterday I pin basted it and decided I had an hour before supper...why not start machine quilting it. One hour and 30 minutes later the quilting was done. I try to plan out my starts and stops but didn't think about it before hand or there would have only been one of each. But I had a few more and that is okay! I also decided I wanted to do a bit of hand quilting on it so today I marked the large white areas and they will get filled with hearts.

So I will be joining Kathy and slow stitching on this tonight while relaxing with a movie. Check in with Kathy and the others and see what everyone is up to. I have seen some beautiful work that is being done and lots of hand quilting(way to go ladies). It makes me want to stop all my sewing projects and set up a quilt to hand quilt.

And then it happened......SQUIRREL!!

On Ringo Lake blocks

I was steadily working on On Ringo Lake. I have all the blocks together and than it happened!!!

practice block

I went off on a tangent and started a new small project. A fellow guild member showed a friend and I this quilt she was working on and having trouble with. I really liked the pattern and followed up with her and got the pattern (which was a free download). I did one practice block and decided to make a baby quilt. These blocks are so cute and trust me when I say much easier to put together than it looks.They were all machine pieced...just patchwork.

baby quilt blocks

new glasses

On another note this was the year for my physical and all those medical tests that go with that. I also had my eyes tested. New glasses are here and for the first time they are prescription ones. I have always only had magnifiers but needed to upgrade a bit. Guess that comes with age too! They are going to take some getting use to, I must say.

At the beginning of the week there was some strange and pretty weather(as long as you didn't have to drive). I went out and took some pics of the sparkly wonderland that was our backyard.
The weekend is upon us, have fun!!

Happy Sunday Morning

Another busy week has come to an end. After having eye exams last week, this week it was time to go see the medical doctor for a checkup. All is well and just a couple woman tests to complete this week. Ladies don't forget to get those boobies checked among other things that make us the special people we are!!!

more sewing to finish class top

Yesterday I taught a class on a scrap quilt. I showed pictures of some of the quilt before. Now I can complete my top and place it in the pile to be finished at a later date. I think this one might actually get hand quilted.This quilt went together in rows which was different and very slick.

plastic embroidery hoop

other hoops

If you are hand quilting, you need a hoop. Hoops are all the discussion over at Kathy's blog today. She wants to know your favs and what you work on, so here are mine!I love embroidery and these plastic hoops I find are the best for keeping the fabric taunt while I am stitching. When I first starting cross stitching many years ago, I used an embroidery hoop too. Once I realized it was stretching the aida cloth, I changed to stretcher bar type hoop and eventually just held the fabric in my hands with no hoop or bars.
Now when it come to quilting... I have a couple of portable hoops.White PVC for cross stitch or embroidery(must admit I have not used this one as yet),round plastic one for quilting and the wooden squarish one was an upgrade from the round one. It is a bit larger but the shape makes it easier to do blocks in a quilt. But I have to say my all time favorite hoop isn't a hoop at all but a frame! I enjoy quilting the way my grandmothers did, on a floor frame. This is an older picture circa 2004 and I am working on the frame which includes boards that my grandmother used(the ones with the string on them). The stands that hold the boards were made by my father and they adjust up and down. Of course you need a bit of space for this "hoop" and it isn't very portable but it is the way I like to quilt. It has been awhile since I have had a frame set up in my house...maybe it is time once again to take over a room with a frame!! So check into Kathy's blog and see what others are using for frame/hoops and what they are slow stitching on today. Glad to see Kathy is feeling better too this week!!

 Have a great week!!

Posting, cleaning and sewing

I was doing so well as getting posts done and up on the blog and then life returned to normal!! So after cleaning, errands and doctor appointment(driving my mom) I can get some sewing done.
Yesterday we had a class at guild. A quilt as you go reversible quilt. It was a small class but what the ladies came up with was amazing. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. I worked on Bonnie's mystery instead. I just need to get some of my own sewing completed and not start a new project.

mystery clues waiting to be sewn

So I have three large quilts on the go. My tumblers(I am sure you are tired of hearing about it by now),Bonnie's mystery On Ringo Lake see it in this post and a scrap quilt that I will be teaching next weekend check it out here and here. I am working on the pieced border of it right now and using the mystery as leaders and enders. So I get to work on both of them at the same time.

I will be joining Kathy's blog for her slow stitching Sunday, although she has been under the weather this week and hasn't been stitching or sewing. Let's check her blog and give her lots to read about. Maybe this will help her get better and get back into the sewing room.

retreat 2016

retreat 2015

Hey Kathy think ahead to Piranha Retreat 2018, what fun we'll have!!! Hope you are on the mend.
Guild meeting this week too where I am President...workshop which means not too much for me to do!! Have a great week everyone!!

Oops...it was going to well...

a whole pile of "oops"

Do you ever get that feeling when you're sewing that it is going too well...that feeling that something is not right with the world? Well I didn't get that feeling but I should have. I was sewing pieces for a quilt top together yesterday..sewing away at a lightening pace. WOW I thought to myself, I might get to putting the top together today too! STOP....
That is when I realized I had sewn 49 pieces wrong and that wasn't the worse part....I did it twice!!!

Wrong!

So lucky for me Bonnie Hunter had a quilt cam yesterday and while I listened to her I ripped out my mistake. Then after supper I sewed all the pieces on, in their proper place.
I should have known!!!

Corrected!!

Luckily today was a better day. With all the pieces made and pressed, I started to sew the rows together. This quilt isn't made of blocks but the pieces are sewn together in rows. Once the rows are together it looks like blocks...Magic!!

a good sewing afternoon

This quilt might get hand quilted as there are large blank spaces to do some lovely quilting in. This is as far as I can go till after I teach this class. I have to have parts to show the students. Tomorrow is another day!!

The day after....

current project but in blue/white

Although this year my birthday is lasting all month long(self-imposed)...yesterday was the actual day. And what a day it was!!! I was spoiled by my sweet husband. I received a new laptop which will keep me busy learning about but not so much that I don't see the inside of the sewing room ..I hope! He also took care of supper and the clean up(he hates doing dishes) so this was big. It was great not to have to worry about anything for a day! Now today is back to reality...well a little bit I guess. While the laundry is getting done...I am on here and later in my sewing room.

pieces cut and ready to sew today

This is what I have been working on. This is the pattern (pic above) but I made my quilt one row longer and wider. I will be teaching this pattern as a class in two weeks so today I finally have all the pieces cut out and am ready to start sewing them up. Of course leaving step outs to show the students in my class.

Once this class is done I can get back to the projects I was working on before Christmas. I was trying to get my tumbler-leader and ender quilt finished and also working on Bonnie Hunter's mystery. It stalled at clue #4 when the holidays hit!!http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/01/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6-7-8-9.html

On Ringo Lake will have to wait a bit

I have also been stitching away on my hexie quilt. I had it all laid out on the floor the other night and was trying to join things together. Somehow it is not as big as I thought it would be...hmmm! More stitching is required!!
That stitching will get done later today so I can join in with my friend Kathy for some New Year slow stitching. She promotes the needle and thread, no mechanical type of sewing for one day at least! Join in and see what others are working on today too!

January 1st...first day of my month long birthday!

I can blame this one on my daughter. She coined the event "birthday month". So I am going to celebrate all month long, starting today. Also celebrating along with Bonnie Hunter who has a birthday in January and believes in month long birthdays too!

16 patches of blue

Christmas has been put away for another year and I expect tomorrow I will find that one decoration I forgot to put away!
DH was out this afternoon so I spent the time sewing up this mound of 1.5 inch squares. They are for a quilt I am working on. They will be sewn into 16 patches...there are 1300+ squares so this is not going to happen in one afternoon or overnight. Where are those little elves when you need them!

On Ringo Lake waiting patently for me

Sitting on the sidelines is Bonnie Hunter's mystery On Ringo Lake. I got to clue 4 before Christmas and that is where it has stalled. It has been moved to the back burner for the time being. Also today as a little gift to me...I am following along on a one day mystery at Quiltbug.com My friend Kathy shared a link to it on her blog. She is doing the mystery too with some other friends. It is the perfect size for a charity quilt I want to make maybe later this week!
Day one of 2018 is almost finished and it has been a good one!Stay tuned for more!!