Thursday, December 28, 2017

All People Quilt UFO Challenge Progress!

I was really happy with my progress on my WIPS in 2017 thanks to the All People Quilt UFO Challenge!  I lost steam near the end of the year since I am too busy teaching full time but overall I made progress!  All People Quilt UFO challenge.






1. Betty and Amy's Choice RSC

2. RSC Sampler from 2015

4. Fall Leaf Tablerunner
Apparently I never took or at least posted a picture of this one!  I did gift it to my mom for her birthday though.
5. Pineapple Blossoms


6. 35th Ave. Patriotic BOM

8. Tula Pink's Stacks


9. Playing with Jacks

17. A Little Bit Hexie Mini Quilt

22. En Provence

23. Eye Spy


Strip Twist

Kevin's Christmas Trees

Two Easter Bunny Tablerunners

Pat Sloan Children's Library BOM


Drunkard's Path

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Bonnie's Pumpkin Runner

Random runner Barb passed on to me


So very happy to have knocked these off the list (around twenty of these!) and to have only started a few so the list is getting shorter! 

Quilt of Valor and On Ringo Lake Update










I finally had a minute to go and see if Alycia Quilts had posted a picture of my QOV donation after someone quilted it and sure enough I found it--way back in October she posted it.  My life is so crazy busy that I do not get to read all my favorite blogs as much as I used to!  I know Barb and Kathy's were in the same box but I did not find them yet...
Update on On Ringo Lake--I finished clue three sewing at Becky's on Tuesday (she is all caught up and I am behind this year, go figure!).  Then that night Kathy and I hung out in the quilting studio.  She sewed on our clue three while "I cut out her/our clue four and then both of our clue fives.  Tomorrow another clue should be coming out, ack!  We are planning to sew a bit tonight and I am hoping to get to sew some tomorrow after I go to the dentist.  Then we are packing up the sewing stuff to take to Pine for a long weekend with my family.  Maybe we can get caught up, but I won't hold my breath. I am enjoying it all anyways! 

Sunday, December 3, 2017

On Ringo Lake Clue Two!

 Today I went over to Becky's to sew because Suzy was in town from New Mexico.  Have not seen either of them in forever even though Becky lives 10 minutes from me.  We are both crazy busy with work right now but we are sewing On Ringo Lake anyway!  We finished clue two together doing different methods and that was fun!
 Suzy was working on the cutest little Dia de Los Muertos earrings.  She is an artist and does lots of artsy stuff. 
 Here is my On Green Bay/On Ringo Lake clue one with clue two all done.  A whole gaggle of flying geese.  I also am helping Kathy keep up this year on Sam and Ashley's wedding quilt and we have all the geese sewn and a bit more than a third cut to size.  Goal is to finish the cutting to size each night and have them done before the next clue comes out.  My hand is sore from all that trimming!
Linking up with Quiltville a day early this week.  Bonnie was just in town but my schedule was nutso so we did not get to meet up for breakfast.  I waved at her and hope she really enjoyed her time with her family.  Cannot wait til our paths cross again and things are less hectic!

Sunday, November 26, 2017

5th Annual Quitville Mystery Kick Off in Chandler, Arizona!


We had 18 people at our 5th Annual Quiltville Mystery Kickoff party in Chandler, Arizona this year.  If you want to attend next year and will be in the area, let me know.  We invite people until the seats are filled!  One day we are hoping to have Quiltville Co-Moderator Irene (and her mom) and maybe one day Bonnie Hunter herself (she has to eventually be visiting family on Thanksgiving weekend right?).  Well, we can dream!
Some of our regulars were out of town or working but were with us in spirit!  One of my new Quiltville Cruise friends, Cynthia, came in all the way from Vegas!  Well she has family here and had the holiday with them but I am sure our party was the draw, wink!  I think another gal drove in from Buckeye! 
 Kelli could not stay but stopped in to bring us GOBS of scraps to pick though!  She is the current president for AZ Blankets for Kids and she invited us all to join in their next sewing session.  I have not gone in awhile and need to get back there!  Thanks Kelli for the scraps and all you do for the kids in Arizona!

 
Barb with En Provence
 A few gals had already gifted En Provence so their quilts are not in our picture, and Barb had to leave before picture time but we got one of her alone.  My favorite part of this get together is seeing all  of Bonnie Hunter's magnificent designs in different colors up close.  Each one is its own masterpiece!  I somehow you missed out on getting this pattern for free last year here is where you can get it instantly

Phyllis Marguerite, Laura, Andee (me), Jennifer, Celeste, Andi, Heather and Charlotte!

 Some of us doing duck lips some of us not so much!

 Here is my En Provence.  Love how it came out!  You cannot go wrong with a Bonnie quilt!
Close up of my quilting done by Ros

This year we got a shot of the backings and the labels.  Everyone oohed and awed over the fabrics chosen.  Each attendee is gifted a label made simply with your picture in MS Word.  I just add in designed by Bonnie Hunter, made by blank and info about the party and year.  SEW much fun.



Close up of my autographed label!
 
 Here is the whole crew minus Kathy who was taking the picture,  and Barb and Kelli who left before we got this far.  Left to right starting at the top:  Laura, Marguerite, Andee (me), Jennifer, Celeste, Andi, Heather, and Ros.  Second row:  Marlene, Limbania, Tina, Jill, Cynthia, Charlotte, Fran and Phyllis.
 This is the first year Kathy did not complete her quilt top in time for our next Kickoff party.  She did get her very first block together and is looking forward to finishing this up soon!  Here's hoping she keeps up (with my help) this year!



So to make that happen, Kathy and I are tag teaming on her quilt which will be gifted to my baby brother Sam and his fiance Ashley.  We are doing it in her colors and keeping her posted of our progress.  Makes it extra fun!  I am also doing a Packer colored quilt.  

We managed to complete both clue ones before bed!  
Thank you Bonnie for this gift, I have made every mystery (some more than once) and look forward to it every year.  I even have a tab on my blog devoted to the mystery quilts and another one with a Quiltville Parade of quilts!  Linking up with Quiltville for clue one's Monday Link Up soon!  Looking forward to clue two of On Ringo Lake!

Belated Blogging

I have less time to sew than ever and am struggling to find the time to get it in and to blog about it!  My phone does not automatically save my pictures to dropbox anymore (it is full) and so I have to email my pictures for my blog to myself and half the time I try to send too many so they don't go through..  Then top that off with the way I need to be logged in to blog (as opposed to blogging for my guild or bring able to see my other email that I email my pictures to) and viola, I just don't even get to the blogging.  UGH!  I am still working on my weight loss journey.  I reached onederland a month or so ago, yay!  I have been struggling for the past few weeks though and took a bit of a break where I just did not stress on it, but today I am back on the wagon and working my way back to onderland!  Thanksgiving is my favorite meal of the year--oh well, I have nothing but time to keep on keeping on!  
So a few weeks ago I completed these two tablerunners which I will gift to Mom and I was thinking my sister, but I think I decided to gift the second one to my son's fiance.  Thanks again to Barb for giving me her leftover bunnies!


 I finally quilted up (not too well I might add the little Christmas Tree mug rugs that were on Kevin the Quilter's blog last year (or was it the year before already?)
 Kathy and I both finished out 35th Ave. BOM for this month. Yep I see the boo boo.  Noticed it this morning.  May leave it--such is my attitude.  See how my Type A is improving, ha!
 I also finished the hand quilting and binding on Bonnie's  A Little Bit Hexie"  super cute, love it.  I am keeping this one for my little quilts collection.
 I also whipped up two little baby tops for future gift giving. 

Monday, October 16, 2017

Straits of Mackinac Rainbow BOM

 I also managed to get caught up on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge BOM from SuperScrappy while on break.  Always makes me smile to not be behind!  Only two more months to go on this and then I am going to need a new block to do each month.  Remind me to pick something less labor intensive since I am so busy with work!
I will say I love how these blocks are coming together and the movement that is created when you put them together makes all the time worth it! 

Sunday, October 15, 2017

Fall Break Comes to an End

 Fall break is over much to quickly!  We had a great but quick vacation to San Francisco with my mom--if I am get a minute I will pick some pictures and post them here.  I miss blogging and reading my blogs but I just trained back at my old video relay job and since we cannot have our phones with us while we work (but we have access to the internet) I will again be reading and commenting on blogs!  I miss them and rarely seem to fit them in with my crazy schedule but it works perfectly to read them while on hold at that job!  I am a good multitasker even though they say people are not!
So on to the sewing.  I sewed a ton with Kathy last night and most of today!  YAY.  She is just done with clue 5 of En Provence (always working til the last second that girl!) and I got a ton of stuff caught up and done! 

 I have had these hexagon trivets mostly ready to go for a long time...you may remember I made a bunch with Christmas fabric then decided I needed to make some regular ones...finally got all 17 done today while watching specials about Prince. 
My online PACKER quilter friend Nancy sent me some leftover spool blocks she had after completing her spool quilt.  I wanted to link to it on her blog but I could not find a picture of it even though I have seen one! Anyways I have two blocks left so if any of you also want to donate your blocks because you had random leftovers or lost steam I will home them in a heartbeat!  I love how all the different fabrics look in these fun leader/ender blocks of Bonnie's.  I did not do this years even though I had big plans to do placemats...it just never happened.  

 My UFO Challenge for this month is my two sets of Bitty Blocks. I did not make a row of each and so I have two different size blocks and so there they sit.  I studied them again today and decided to just put them away for now.  Not happening!
 I FINALLY got out this little kit Barb and I bought about a year ago at a quilt show.  It is not done yet...I accidentally put the wrong size red outer border on (still another border to go) and so I ripped it out while soaking in the tub tonight (multitasker, told you.  Epsom salts, help with the migraines).  So if I get a few minutes to sew this week I will be resewing smaller borders and the cream border.  LOVE this tiny little quilt!
Tomorrow I go back to work (teaching) and the kids come back on Wednesday.  The time went so fast!  I did get alot of planning for the quarter, some lesson planning, test writing, etc. done on break so feeling like I might not be AS overwhelmed as we go.   However, I am now freelancing two nights a week til December and most likely at my new VRS job one night a week too.  Add Pilates to that and I am one busy camper.  Super excited to have insurance though...already used it to pick up meds and get new glasses! 

Happy National Quilting Day!

I participated in the National Quilting Day sewalong on the Modern Quilt Studio page.  We sewed Friends all Around.  Here is my first block....