A May Finish!!

Well May is finally here and it is a cold, dreary day but >>> the up side of today is that I am starting out the month with a Finish!!!
YAY!!

I finally got the binding done on my 2, (or is it 3?) year old table runner. I am definitely loving the colors on it too.

This was my challenge project for February in the 52 quilts UFO challenge. I am soo glad to mark it off my list but now I have March and April to get busy on.

I hope you May is off to a marvelous start.

Thanks for stopping by.

Spring Weekend Retreat at Quilters Cupboard - 2016

The weekend is over but what a weekend it was.

Friday was my little grandson Judah's birthday, so Grandma took his presents to him all wrapped up in the pillow case I made for him. Such a sweet little lad he his.


The retreat started at 4 pm to midnight on Friday, 9 am until midnight on Saturday and 9 am until 3 pm on Sunday.
I took my BOM (Block of the Month) project that I am doing through QC to work on.
Block one was done and I had half of block 2 going. If you recall from a previous post, they are a bit labor intensive so I didn't think I would really get much more done than those blocks (I had 4 1/2 to get caught up to March) and I was right.
Now I have 6 blocks done and am soo inspired to keep going.

They blocks are about 12" x 12" when finished and I get 4 block patterns a month with enough fabric to put them together. I have 2 left from February and all 4 for March to complete and be caught up to April.

On the UFO front, I still haven't gotten J&M's quilt loaded onto the longarm but it is ready and I may do that today or tomorrow.

While at the retreat, I was so inspired by all the cute and beautiful quilts, but there was one there that really caught my eye. I wrote it down because this is going to be the next quilt I want to make. It is called Hunters Star. Above are a couple of pictures off the internet of the pattern. The quilt I saw at the retreat was in 1930's reproduction fabrics - light pastels - and it looked so full of Spring I fell in love with it.

Sewing wasn't all I got accomplished this weekend.  Saturday I spent a lovely afternoon with my oldest daughter Kelley. We went for lunch and then a walk afterwards to one of her favorite coffee shops. The weather was perfect and the company was wonderful. Thank you Kelley Rae.

All in all I had a great weekend.

I highly recommend retreats, whether it is for a hobby or just to get away. They can be so refreshing and re-inspiring. If you live in Iowa check out the Quilters Cupboard website for information on up and coming retreats.
I hope your weekend was wonderful and inspiring.

Thanks for stopping by.

March UFO Challenge

Here it is. The challenge for March - #2, That is Joe and Meagan's quilt.

I pieced this quilt back in 2009 or 2010, I am not sure. I would have to go back into the blog archives to see if I have something posted about it. It is mostly quilted. I had it on the long arm several years ago and a customer quilt came along so I pulled this one off, folded it up and put it on the shelf.

Now I have it ready to go back on to 'git er done!'

My table runner is all quilted and ready for binding so now the challenge will be to finish them both up this month.

I think I can, I think I can.

Have a great day.

Green table runner - time is getting away

The Challenge is on and this month it is #9. My #9 is the green table runner and today is the last day of the month! Oh My!


Here is me racing!

                                                       Time is running out!!

Ahhhh...... there she is all quilted. Now to get the binding on. 

I am not sure I will make the finish up but at least I got this far. Thank you UFO Challenge 2016.

The pups aren't stressing.

So I am not stressing. 

I hope your year is off to a good start and you are able to keep up with your challenges. Tomorrow I find out what is up for next month. Can't wait.

See ya soon.

Thanks for stopping by.

Anticipation

Are there times in your life when in that space of time, right before you are going to do something you have so looked forward to doing, you just sit back and revel in the anticipation of what is to come?

I do, quite a lot actually. My favorite is Friday morning at 8 am when I am just getting off work and have the whole weekend ahead of me. I may have plans so I am looking forward to time spent on planned activities or I may have a completely empty weekend ready to be filled. I enjoy the peace and calm right then, because I know all too soon it will be my memory and I want to be in the moment and enjoy to the fullest, whatever comes.

This was one of those weekends. There was so much planned and so much to do.
Weekend sewing retreat at my step-daughters was the big plan. It was so very enjoyable. Lots of yummy snacking and snuggling my little grandson Bennett. I didn't get as much sewing done as I had planned. I had taken my blocks to work on from Quilter's Cupboard BOM sew a long and wasn't expecting how labor intensive these blocks are. Super cute!! But A LOT of piecing.

Here is a picture of the block I finished at Amy's. I LOVE it!

And another one, Block 2, that needs to be put together. I just finished up all the hst. 1.5 and 2.5" squares.

That was kind of disappointing to only get one block finished but I am determined and this only made me realize I need to budget my time even better if I want to get this project really up and running. And I do!!

Then there was the issue of homework. I am taking 3 college courses, trying to finish up my Associate of Liberal Arts degree. 2 of the classes are computer application classes with a bit of hw. Okay so there is A LOT of homework, but I can do this. And I did. Assignment deadline for each week is Sunday at midnight - I made it!!! For this week (last week now).
I just get to the top of the mountain and then slide back down, realizing that today (midnight Sunday night) is a new week with new homework. Oh boy.

And then there was the 2nd most anticipated part of the weekend and that was "What was Aunt Marti going to post on February 1 for the UFO challenge this month?" She must have known some of us would be up waiting to see if she posted at midnight Sunday night and she didn't disappoint.

#9 - my number 9 is the green table runner.
Here is a picture. Well I was going to take a picture and for some reason my camera won't turn on so I put the battery on the charger to see if that will help. I will post a picture later this month. All it needs is to finish up the quilting and have the binding put on. It has been in my projects stash for well over a year now so it will be wonderful to get it finished and off my UFO list.

I hope your weekend was everything you anticipated and more. If you did any sewing this weekend, post some pictures. I would love to see what you are working on.
Thank you for stopping by.

Third shift time management

Working third shift puts a person in a different time frame than the normal "day-timers", let me explain. Even on my days off, by mid afternoon when everyone else is getting ready to really get the day started I am ready for bed.

At around 2 in the afternoon my body starts slowing down after having been up since 9pm the previous night (during my normal workweek). It would be like a normal persons 9 or 10 pm. After 8 hours of sleep, from 2pm until 9 or 10pm, I am starting to think about getting up and during the week when I am working that pretty much is my sleep schedule. On my days off I "sleep in" until maybe midnight or 2am and then I am ready to start my day.
Some of you right now are probably feeling a little sorry for me, but don't be and I will tell you why. (You will probably be jealous - :) )
Last Friday, I got off work (8am), came home, took care of the dogs and did my usual morning stuff - homework, housework and so on. Picked Hubs up from work at 10am (he works 3rd shift also), came home and worked more on my homework for school (an online computer class - Excel).
 I laid down around 1 pm and was asleep by 2pm Friday afternoon. I got up a couple of times to take care of the pups and use the facilities myself, then back to bed. Well I slept until 2am - 12 hours! It seems, for me anyway, that 10 or 12 hours on my "weekend" puts my back on track for my sleep schedule during the week because I may not always get 8 hours during the week. It is usually between 6 and 8 hours.
Okay, so now I am up Saturday morning at 2 am and I was a whirling dervish, I completed 3 of my homework projects, finished piecing the flannel baby quilt, finished up my last pillowcase (which was giving me fits) and did some housework, laundry, dishes and such.
By 8 am, Saturday morning, I was at a point that I could stop homework, sewing, cleaning, whatever.  I got cleaned up and left the house by 9:30, ran some errands and went to see my mother (who lives about 2 hours away). We went out for lunch and had a very nice visit and then I headed home around 4pm. I stopped off at one of my favorite shops not far from her house and bought some fabric (naturally) and then headed home.
I got home about 6ish and pretty much went right to bed. Up and down a couple of times and finally up for good around 4am. I have probably lost you by now.

It is now about 5:50 am and I am putting the finishing touches to my blog, drinking my coffee and feeling pretty good about all I got accomplished this weekend.
The thing is, these early, early morning risings are great because there are no distractions, no phone calls (political or otherwise) so it is very easy for me to stay focused and get things done.
The biggest down fall is that I am sleeping when most of my family and friends are up and I spend most of my Saturdays going here and there to keep in touch with all of them.

Here is some of what I did this weekend.

Pictures please:

 
 The flannel quilt is all pieced and ready to be quilted.

These are 4 of my birthday pillowcases for the grands this year. 

                                 2 January birthdays and 2 March birthdays. I thought they turned out super cute. I can't wait to give them out.

      This is the fabric I purchased on my way home from Mom's. I picked up another charm pack and would have gotten 3 if there had been three but sadly only this lone one. It is called the Primitive Rustic Collection from Diamond Textiles. The fabric is like a brushed homespun and is very soft. The two larger pieces are for a project that has been percolating in my mind for awhile.

I think I am starting to accumulate enough charm packs that I can seriously say I am a collector. I love the pattern The Weekender quilt (see below), it is easy and makes a wonderful throw, but a girl can only have so many weekenders. I have a pattern book called Nickel Quilts and I am thinking of something out of that book to use some these charms packs on.


Weekender quilt.

 I am going to put the binding on this baby quilt so I can add this project to my finished list. 

And

  that is pretty much it for this weekend.

I think this is my 4th blog post for the year - YAY!! and I am finishing up some of these little projects so I can get ready for the Quilt UFO challenge in February with 52Quilts.

One more thing I forgot to add, I finally got my niece's quilt and two matching pillowcases off in the mail last week. YAY!! She should be receiving them this next Wednesday.

Have a great week.
Thanks for stopping by.




Leave a comment and let me know what you think. I love getting feedback.

More to add to the list of things to do

Today my college classes started. College classes?? you say. Yes college classes. I am taking one class at the college and two online classes. I am very close to finishing up my Associate of Liberal Arts degree and the plan is to graduate this next December. YAY!!

My class at the college is Art History and my two online classes are Microsoft systems and applications ll & lll.  The S&A classes aren't necessary for my degree. I want to be Microsoft certified in Word, Access and Excel and that is what those classes are for.

Fortunately the art class is on MWF so that leaves me Tuesdays and Thursdays to do everything else.

So many challenges so little time.

I hope you all are having a great week and staying warm. It is bitter cold here in Iowa right now but it sounds like a little warm up on Thursday. 30's maybe. :)

Talk to ya soon.
Thanks for stopping by.

My Plan

Hi Everyone,
I was so excited about the UFO challenge that I got right to it and organized my projects. They are all ready and numbered to be picked at the beginning of each month. This is going to be so great for me because a month is about long enough for me to work on something and then I am ready to start a new something else.
Wouldn't it be great if I actually finished all 10 of my projects!? Most of them are close to completion, maybe needing a border or to be quilted and have the binding put on. There are a few (over half I guess) that still need to be pieced together yet so they may not get all the way completed but at least they will be looked at.

Here is my list of 10 projects:

And another picture of them piled up and numbered.

It is so nice to have a plan and I can't wait for February 1st to get here but first I have to finish up my January projects.
What I have on board for this month are my two March birthday pillowcases, finish up a baby quilt (just needs the binding) and work on the flannel crib quilt I have up on my design board.

Pictures please:

Pillowcase fabric is to the right and the pattern for the flannel quilt is on the left. I forgot to add the block of the month quilt that I also will be working on throughout the year as well. That pattern is at the top of the picture.
Pretty ambitious for me but I think I am ready for this challenge.

Flannel quilt. I love the colors.

Baby quilt - binding next to it needing to be cut and pieced together.

I really am off to a good start this year, and you may ask, how so??

Well, last weekend I finally finished up my nieces wedding quilt plus made a set of matching pillowcases to go with. It is boxed up and ready to go in the mail, I just have to get a card put into the box. I also completed my January birthday pillowcases and they are ready for the birthday girls later this month.

Pictures please:

I can see I need to work on my picture taking skills.
So there you have it, my quilting/sewing goals for 2016. My plan to implement those goals, and you my readers to keep me accountable.
Yes, 2016 is shaping up to be a wonderful year.

Let's get to it.

Happy New Year 2016

Everyone has their New Years blog posts in and as usual, I am running behind.

First off I wanted to show some of what I did get completed in 2015. The list is short so that is good.

Completed Projects for 2015

1. Pillow case for Areigna - Jan. 2015 (I didn't take a picture of it)

2. Pillow case for Judah - Feb. 2015 (I didn't take a picture of it)

3. Baby quilt for Scarlett. Feb. 2015  (I didn't take a picture of it)

4. Weekender Springtime quilt for Virginia - April 2015 - (Virginia is my mother-in-love).

                                                                  

                                                                     

                                           
                               5.  Makayla's birthday pillow case. (Granddaughter)

                                               6. Grant's birthday pillow case. (Grandson)

7. The Blue Quilt - 2015 (The binding isn't on it in this picture) This quilt went to my oldest daughter, just because.   :)

6. Pillow cases for Leo, Max and Bennett.  (Grandson's) (I didn't take pictures of these either, apparently).

7. Quilted Pocket Pillow - ME

My goal for 2015 was to complete 3 of my UFO's (unfinished objects)/WIP's (Works in progress).
The only one that was a WIP was the blue quilt so sadly I didn't even come close to completing my goal for last year.

BUT.....

Now it is 2016 and I am setting some MONSTER goals this year!!!

Here goes - 
1. To get at least ONE blog post a month on this blog (more would be nice but I don't want to set myself up for failure).
2. To work on or finish 10, yes, I said 10 UFO'S this year. They are unfinished objects because I am not actually working on them, they are started and sitting on a shelf waiting to be finished. I will be following this bloggers challenge and I encourage you (if you have 10 ufo's, I had more but chose these 10) to join in the fun and see how much you can finish this year. Here is the challenge: 

2016 UFO Challenge

We're changing things up a bit for 2016. Yes, there will still be numbers drawn and posted each month. But there will also be two "free" months. January is the month to work on your favorite UFO (mine is Ryokan!). And in honor of the sports fans among us, December will be a "bye" month -- you can choose to finish a UFO or just sit back and relax.

For the rest of the year, the UFO Challenge works like this:

1.  Pull out 10 of your UFOs.  (Notice I didn't say all your UFOs.  I know you have at least 10!)   These can be half-done projects, barely begun projects, or even quilt "kits." 

2.  I put each project in its own 2-gallon size plastic bag.  Saves time I would have spent looking for the pattern or the special template required!

3.  Number each bag 1 - 10.

4.  Come to 52 Quilts the morning of the first day of each month and I will have posted the number for that month's project.

 Remember, at 52 Quilts, you decide what is "finished." Is the piecing finished? Are the blocks sewn together? Or do you consider "finished" to be "quilted, bound, and ready to give away?" When you've finished your quilt, take a photo and email it to me at AuntMarti at 52Quilts dot com.

This is from Aunt Marti's Blog 52quilts. Here is the link to the PLAN that goes into more detail:

 http://www.52quilts.com/2016/01/2016-plan.html

I really think this is a challenge I can do. How about you?

On my next post I will show you how I have organized my projects and what I am doing for the month of January. Stay tuned.


Thanks for stopping by, we will make 2016 the best year yet!!




Ps. #3 goal is to take more pictures - smiley face - Have a great day.