Endings and Beginnings!

Got some flowers for my fifteen year anniversary with Kathy.  Put them in a depression glass pitcher and have been enjoying them all week.

Finished City Sampler---almost six years to the day from when I did the first block (according to my Facebook memories!) and am super happy with how it came out.

I followed one of the book layouts even though my colors did not always match those in the book exactly.  Came out alright!

The past two years have had us doing lots more board games and recently I have discovered solo gaming and have been enjoying that.  There is a group for everything on Facebook!  Cleaned and reorganized my shelf this week.

The next Morewood Mystery clue came out and within a few hours I sewed my hst's and packed it up to wait for the clue next month.

Yesterday I quilted and bound my Garden Party tableunner.  Hung it up in my sewing room.  Super happy with this one!

Meanwhile BJ asked me to do a mystery with her so I picked out these fabrics and we got them cut last night.  We are sewing today!

 

Sewing, Gaming and Quarantining Continue

 I needed some cheery sewing so I finally made a Garden Party Table Runner.  I decided to make it to match my quilt (from the Quiltville Cruise) with the green running throughout.  These blocks are really fun to make and come together quickly.

 It is now all layered with batting and backing and ready for me to quilt. Here are Sunshine and Bug who cannot resist getting into the photos.

Someone on Quiltville showed a layout of the Easy Breezy leaders and enders with friendship stars.   I had just been digging in my leftover bin and realized I had a TON of HST's in blue and neutral leftover from BOM's of days past.  So I made 20 blocks and love how it looks.  I also cut some more of the Easy Breezy blocks which are super fun to make!

 I ordered a set of eye spy fabrics on etsy to mix in with what I already have...I have piles of not enough blocks left for several more but need more to round each set out.  I used to belong to a group that did trades for eye spys and wish I could find another one.  So easy to cut out one set from one fabric and mail them centrally where an ANGEL puts them all into sets and mails them back out to everyone.  Anyone have a group like this?  So one of these is already tied (yesterday afternoon while watching Lord of the Rings I) since I was too tired to really get out of bed.  That one will go back to Arizona for the guy who bought our houses' soon to be born son.  He helped load our truck and was such a nice guy that we wanted to do something for him.  The other one I think I will quilt as that is the one I plan to keep here for the grandbabies.

 Hannah and Jeremy came over and played Mysterium and two games of Bang dice with us.  We made fettuccini alfredo and tried to stay cool.  We had two HOT days and now back to windows open and light rain here and there.  I also joined an online solo gaming group and played my first solo game of Kingdomino this week.  I won.  Did not know this was a thing but now am going to try out more of my games that have that option!

 Jelly Snowflake Clue 4 blocks are made.

 Here is Dr. Kathy's (or Scrappy Kathy as she shall now be known as) clue two and three blocks.  Barb, Scrappy Kathy and I sewed for a bit on Saturday and Sunday on FB video.  Really nice to have some company to sew with.

Here is Barb's clue 4.  Thursday the last clue comes out and we can put Jelly Snowflake flimsies together!

Catching up on En Provence!

 My cousin Tara and my Godson Koi (the shark lover) got me these cool metal quilt blocks for Christmas.  She has two more waiting for me in Wisconsin!  I love them!

 We took an unplanned trip to New Mexico to rescue Coleman and his girlfriend (Randy's daughter) Heather and her six kids when their van blew a tire (and another one after we got there) and he went into Diabetic Ketoacidosis.  Was not a fun trip, I missed work and footed the entire unexpected bill.  Sigh.  The things we do for our kids.  I am now dubbed Instagrammy and these kids are a delight.  Things have been crazy around here!  Randy lives down the street so they are staying there at the moment but we see them plenty.

 I added a ladybug onto Garden Party where there was a little hole (seam must not have been a quarter inch!).  Bonnie will be here Thursday so I can show it to her!  I have another tiny spot to cover and a bee to add, but Stash Kitty decided to bat the bee around someplace where I cannot find it!

 Do you see hospital gown fabric?  Figured I might as well commemorate the three days we spent in Santa Rosa at the hospital with Coleman.

 I was behind on the clue since I was out of town...caught up on five.

 Cut six.

 And last night finished sewing six, though I did not take off the triangles/dog ears that hang off.  I also cut my yellow squares since the final reveal is out!  I still have the last set of hour glasses to make in the other colorway but here is sort of what the block looks like.  I even missed the linky since I had no progress to report and was out of town.  First one ever I think!

Hoping to get more time to work on it this week, but Thursday Bonnie will be here and I am in the Midnight Flight class.  I am all prepped for that since I did it ahead of time.  I have six boxes of books and rulers in my trunk for Bonnie too!

I have been working like a mad woman since we were out of town and video relay interpreting is so brain/mind numbing after a certain point.  I come home and crash.  We did trade in my Veloster since it made me carsick, was awful on the bumps and too small.  We got this 2017 Toyota Camry.  I am in love with it.  So much more room and a great ride.  Off to take a hot bath since I have another ten hour workday tomorrow.  Oy!

Meet Up at Ros' and the Quiltville Quilts We Found There!

Saturday Kathy and I finally got to see Ros in person!  It has been forever.  She was out of town during our Mystery Kickoff Party (the first one she has missed) and she lives about an hour from us so we just do not see her as often as we would like.  This year we may see her more often since we are signed up at the same store for a BOM on her end of town again.
Ann was our host and Sheila was the birthday girl.  Susan, Jen, Celeste, and McKenna also came.  It was really nice to get to talk to some of them more as when I do see some of these folks there are always so many people that I don't really get to talk to anyone enough.

We made the boards from Bee in My Bonnet (Lori Holt's blog) that have been on my to be made list for a long time.  Really simple to make once you get going.  I made two there and two more at home this morning.  You can see Stash Kitty approved of them.

 

Tried out the design boards while making my last 35th Ave. BOM Patriotic block.  Kathy made hers yesterday (but still has about four or five to go from the past few months).  We plan to get them together and send them off to Alycia for QOV.

So happy to move on to the next BOM!

Kathy picked up her Allietare quilt from Ros.  It turned out great...her piecing has improved so much in the few years she has been sewing!  

 I picked up my Garden Party (started on the Quiltville Caribbean Cruise in October 2015) too.  I LOVE this one.  Maybe because it will forever remind me of my bucket list cruise with Bonnie (and Becky) where I made many more quilty friends!  I miss those gals and am so glad for facebook so I can feel a part of their lives while we are apart.

 I need to update from Quiltville Parade of Quilts page now that this is one step more toward done.  I have not decided on the binding color for it yet.  I am tempted to do yellow sunshine but am afraid it is too light for a binding.  What do you think?

We just decided on a nice red for Kathy's Allietare border and are trying to decided between these two for my Garden Party.  Tell me what you think please!

Johnny 5 sews Christmas Gifts for 2016! (And Garden Party is a Flimsy!)

Last Thursday I went to Barb's for a sew day  I put the borders for Garden Party on finally! So happy to have this one done. I need to get a backing together so I can get it quilted before Bonnie's visit in January!  I love how it came out and it reminds me of the cruise and all the good memories there and new friends made there too!

 When I got to Barb's I told her that I woke up that morning thinking I needed a Bernina.  She has three and when I sew at her place I use one of her machines.  So while we were sewing I pulled up Craig's list and found one!  Barb and I took a sewing break and drove an hour or so to Peoria and picked her up from a pawn shop.  She is in great shape and came with a case, CD, book, embroidery foot and all the parts to run her.  She was missing her quilting foot and walking foot, or any others and only had one bobbin, but we will remedy all that soon.  Barb cleaned her out and showed me how and gave me the basics of what does what on her.  I am in love!  We decided to name her Johnny 5 after the Short Circuit smart robot thought that made me think of Wall-E and then Bern-E but Johnny 5 she is. 

 

 I grabbed the nearest thing to me when I got home so I could try her out.  It was my crumber (tumbler leader/ender from awhile back) that was in rows but never made it to a top.  It went together in a jiffy and the machine was fabulous!   This quilt is long and thin.  I was trying not to duplicate any reds so this is what  I had or begged, borrowed or stole.  I may use this as part of a backing on something--maybe Garden Party--not sure yet.

Yesterday we picked up the next BOM for 35th Ave. and then came home and sewed.  I made 28 Kleenex cases for Christmas presents.  I can make more...everyone loves these and they are super easy to make and use up random small bits of fabric 

 Kathy has been working very hard to complete her  Allietare!  She now has the top together and trimmed and is ready for her borders!  It really looks great and even she commented on how much her sewing has improved with each Quiltville mystery quilt!

 I was gifted a bunch of fabric awhile back from Tiffany and I think this little bag was in there--not sure where it is from but I did not make it or buy the fabric.  Anyways I added drawstrings and now it is a gift bag!

 I also made EIGHT aprons for kids for Christmas gifts.  The pattern is made by a gal who was in the modern quit guild when I was in it.  She gifted some of her patterns and I have always meant to make it. I have to say I love how they came out!

The pattern is easy, directions are so clear!  I will be making more.  The fabric came from Mexico and is heavier than cotton but lighter than canvas.  The bias tape went on with the zig zag on Johnny 5 (new Bernina) super well.  Finished them all up today after picking up more bias tape.  Pattern says you can make it, but I went quick and lazy since time is of the essence!

These are the child size aprons below...so cute!  Colton gets the red pocket one, Lilly gets the bottom one since she is the only girl getting one so far and it has rick rack on it. Koi (my Godson) gets the one with the shark on the pocket and Ollie will get black polka dots as will Leon in Norway.  Last year the boys got tool belts, this year aprons.  LOL good for boys to cook too.  Ollie's dad (and Ben's stepdad) is a chef so these boys like cooking!

  Two of the aprons are for older kids--my nephew Ben gets the flames and sort of nephew Christian (brother's gf's son) gets the dinosaurs.

I also started on pillowcases for my best friend Monica and her husband Bob.  I saw cool deer fabric and could not resist it for them.  He is a avid hunter and just was written about in a magazine back home since his whole family deer hunts by tradition.
I also spent some time tidying up the quilting studio and organizing things too. 
I updated my machines, WIPS and Quiltville Parade Page Posts too if you want to check them out!