OMG and Monday Meanderings 7 - 31 - 2016

I'm hooting and a hollering here.  Last night I finished my OMG for July.  To review:  my goal was to finish the piece I started two weeks ago in a class.  I really appreciate the One Monthly Goal because I am totally motivated by having a goal and a deadline.  I kept plugging away at the project and last night I put the final stitch in it.  Well, it may be the final stitch.  I may decide to add some beads or some more quilting but for now it is done.  This is so out of my comfort zone but I enjoyed all of it. 

So that concludes July in the nick of time!  On to my goal for August.  January 2014 saw me starting a personal block of the month adventure.  I chose the book Christmas Favorites from Art to Heart for my pattern.  It is a Christmas quilt with 10 blocks -- some appliquéd and some pieced.  I was hum ho for the first four months and then other things started getting in the way.  I finished 3 blocks.  Fast forward through Christmas 2014 and 2015 to now.  I still want another Christmas quilt and I have a great place to hang it, if it ever gets done.  So, to help me along my next OMG will be to finish any two blocks.  (Hey maybe I'll rush through those and start on some of the other ones too.)  

Here's a reminder of the book and a picture of a block all ready to iron and stitch down.  So how hard could it be to finish two blocks?  Um, er... and I've traced all of the appliquéd designs on fusible web so really, it can't be all that hard, can it?  Evidently harder than I think it should be as I have a hard time making up my mind about what fabric to use.  Time will tell if I can get cracking on this project again.  

I am also in the beginning of a new project that is going to take a lot of work over the next couple of months.  Worst yet?  It is a secret project.  Sorry -- I'll share when it is done.  

Since I am using this post as an early Monday Meandering I need to share my goals with you. Here's last week. 

July 25, 2016

Quilt and bind the lily piece √

Continue piecing R, W & Blue quilt √

Have a good time shopping and lunching with Kay, Dorothy and Janet

Stay COOL!√

Nice -- everything has a check mark next to it. And this coming week? 

August 1, 2016

Begin to piece secret project “B”

Unpack a couple of more boxes and put things away or stash them in the “staging” shelves

Continue to sew R, W, and B project into rows

 Work on a block from Christmas Favorites

On the unpacking front, can I just share with you I am totally frustrated?  I can not find any of my good sewing scissors nor my rotary cutters.  Pat set up some shelving so I can "stage" my crap, I mean stuff. My new shelving should be here in 3 weeks or so.  I'll be very happy to be able to put it away and hopefully find everything.  

So that's it from me today.  I'm linking up with Red Letter Quilts, Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  Some of these won't be live until tomorrow but I'll come back and add the links.  It's time to get cracking on some of these goals, in particular the secret project.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Progress on the Quilt Front

Here's what I've accomplished on my red, white and blue quilt.  I've been dragging it to various away-from-the-house sewing time for several months.  Most of the blocks are finished.  Many of the white blocks have been cut.  I still need to cut the quarter square triangles on the very outside edges of the quilt. This one will be given to the TAPS program that helps families of servicemen who have died.    

I realized I have the whole quilt leaning a bit to the left.  Sigh.  It won't be in the end.  This is sewn in diagonal rows.  Some of these rows are sewn. I've laid out more of the blocks ready to be sewn on to the strips.  Unfortunately, I have 2 more rows to add the bottom.  Darn, I should have started this up higher.  Looking at this picture is a great way to notice mistakes. I've got one marked with a sticky note but I see I have a white block on the bottom left where I should have the red, white and blue block.  Will move that when I get downstairs again.  

Here's my lay out from EQ7. I used the Go! Diamonds Jubilee quilt pattern from AccuQuilt. I wanted a bigger quilt so I played around with it on EQ and came up with this pattern. I've still got a long way to go.  Unfortunately, it doesn't fit on the piece of flannel I was using to sew on it away from home. The rest of this sewing will be going on in my studio.  

Pat set up some shelves in the unfinished basement so I can go through my boxes and "stage" my stuff.  I still haven't found my 3 pairs of good scissors nor my 3 additional rotary cutters.  What I did find was a partially made little quilt called On Line Friends.  I fell in love with it when I saw it and started right in on it 2 years ago.  Evidently, it got pushed to the side for some reason.  I haven't been doing hand work at night so I thought I'd bring it upstairs and work on it.  It doesn't look like much here.  But check out the pattern below. 

Maybe this one can get done soon. 

That's it for now.  I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop?, Fabric Frenzy Friday and Finished or Not Friday. 

Happy quilting all! 

Monday Meandering 7 - 25 - 2016

I am plugging away on my Lily piece.  See this post to see the beginning.  Today I am batting it up -- that means laying the backing flat on the cutting table, taping it down, adding batting, then the top followed by pinning the whole thing together.  I don't do that often since I bought the long arm but this is just too small.  We'll see how well I do with the hand guided stitching!

The best part of the stitching is I am going to be using some luscious threads Sharon sent me when she lived in England.  The two on the left are what she sent. I'll be using the middle one, I think.  The one on the right I picked up to use on Ruthie but haven't used it much.  I'm rethinking that color -- I might use a lighter color to define the leaves a little bit.  For the first time they actually look like lily pads to me.  Generally they don't look like the right shape.  Hum.  Must be the angle.  

I did get a little bit done on my very small goals list this week.  I've spent too much time playing games on the computer, reading novels and blogs.  (And, no, I haven't been playing Pokemon Go.) I love Words with Friends, solitaire and have just started doing crossword puzzles again.  I've really enjoyed getting back to reading blogs too.  The down side of that is I have a gazillion new quilting ideas I would like to try.  Sigh. 

July 18, 2016

Put borders on my lily piece from class√

Get top of cutting table set up with rulers, trash baskets, scissors and cutters. (Where are all of my cutters???) √ I still haven’t found my other rotary cutters nor my good scissors.  Sigh

Continue piecing R, W & Blue quilt I didn't even take this out... 

And for this week: 

July 25, 2016

Quilt and bind the lily piece

Continue piecing R, W & Blue quilt.

Have a good time shopping and lunching with Kay, Dorothy and Janet

Stay COOL! (It's suppose to hit 100˚ today. It's 99˚ now. Who knows what the "feels like" temp is.)

That's it for me today.  I'll be linking up with Monday Making and Main Crush Monday.  Take some time to visit these sites.  It's a great way to see what folks are working on and get new ideas.  And while you're at it drop a note to some so they know people read their blogs!  

Stay Cool and Happy Quilting! 

Uh-Oh Stash Enhancement

After I saw how many boxes it took to pack up my craft (mostly quilting) supplies I thought I wouldn't succumb to any additional fabrics unless absolutely necessary, at least for a while.  But what's a deprived quilter suppose to do when all the fabrics are boxed and there are no shelves yet to unpack them onto?   SHOP!  Ok, there was a big sale involved and some emails reminding me of the big sale.  Connecting Threads had been lowering some prices on fabrics.  So, I decided to see if anything struck my fancy.  

UH OH!  There were some good sales on their basic collections.  I use a lot of fabric that looks like solid.  I carefully went over everything and finally decided on 2 fat quarters.  One had 16 fat quarters.  It worked out to $2.82 a yard.  The other had 20 and was $2.78 a yard. I took out 3 different grey and then didn't put them back for the pictures. 

I also picked up a charm pack for $1.06.  Well, I picked up 6 of the same charm packs because I want to make a "Plus" quilt. I figured 5 packs would make one plus so I purchased an extra one just in case.  If I don't add anything to these that is a quilt top for $6.36.  I can't remember how many pieces were in each pack but I figure it is a good start on the "Plus" quilt.  The colors will be great for fall. 

So, why am I adding to my stash when I haven't been able to finish much of anything recently?  I was in the mood, what can I say? I've been able to do a little sewing recently. 

It's time to go do some sewing rather than writing about it!  I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday and on Friday I'll try to remember to link up with Can I have a Whoop, Whoop? 

Happy Quilting All!