Sewing, Reading, and Cooking...oh My!

Finished part two of the Jelly Snowflake Mystery quilt.  Clues come out each Thursday.  Barb, Dr. Kathy and I are keeping up.  I know a few of my other quilty friends are doing this one too.  Hard to resist with the ease of this one!

Barb sent me the last block (kangaroo)and I added it into the baby quilt.  Cannot wait to find a local long armer (do you know any in Milwaukee) and get several of these quilted.

We had to know what Sunshine Cupcake Brady (out latest dog addition since we lost Zoey and Daisy within days of each other last summer) really is.  They told us chihuahua mix.  She has taken to me and has become my dog.  Helps me get through all my shots and all that.  Bug is suddenly more with me (she used to hang in bed half the day now hangs near me and Sunshine--think she was sad when her friends died too).  Anyways, this dog turns out to be up to 37% poodle.  We were thinking Corgi.  Crazy!  

 I have been working on my Easy Breezy QOV leaders and enders too and have this many done so far.  They are fun to make.  I need to kit more up though since they are only 6 inches!  I will be needed a lot more to make a decent size QOV.

Kathy has been sewing a bit too.  She has three of her Frolic blocks done (she did not do Unity) and they are looking good.

 Kathy wanted me to make stroganoff (I have not made it in FOREVER) so I used a packet mix and added in real mushrooms.  I cannot eat canned soup unless organic (and we could not find organic with out online shopping...have not ventured in to whole foods or Trader Joe's here so see what they have).  It turned out pretty tasty!

I have finally been able to enjoy reading again.  For the longest time since Covid started I have just not liked anything unless it was true reading.  I am trying to read what is on my shelf for physical books since there are more books than shelf space since we moved.  However, I saw the description for this book and HAD to have it.  It got five stars from me, learned some new words and really loved the story.  Reselling it so hopefully I can justify breaking my own book buying rule!  

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! 

Weekend Sewing

 At my last Nimble Thimbles meeting I picked up a charity quilt kit with cute robots...I did not like anything else in the kit to go with the robots so I used my own fabrics to make the robots complete.

Then the leftovers had people..some talking on the phone, so I pulled my phone fabric and some others that would match and made another charity quilt.  I will return the not so cute squares for them to add to another kit.  While I was at it, I was then motivated to cut two more for my future baby quilts. One out of robots and one out of cowboy fabric.

 Meanwhile, I sent a suitcase back to Wisconsin with six quilt gifts in it.Brayden appears to have liked his Packer quilt and promptly ran around like it was a cape!

Barb gave me some bunnies on thimble shapes that she had leftover from a huge project she was doing.  I decided to make two tableunners for Easter to give as Christmas gifts to my mom and sister this year.  

 Kathy was sewing too and is finally working on the sashing (she is now up to borders) on her QOV from 35th Ave. last year.  We were watching Orange is the New Black and so after I cut our 35th Ave BOM for June for this year,

I decided to cut out and start sewing another Packer quilt from Amy's pattern.  I can never have too many Packer quilts.

A Whole Lot of Sewing and Quilting

 Gotta love a holiday weekend for getting in some sewing time!  I made up a spare Simple Gifts quilt top.  And quilted and bound the previous two.  These are for my co-worker Kelly's soon to be born twin grand-daughters.  Ellie and Luna.

 Here is a pic of those two and the one for Kathy's nephew Wyatt.  Will be mailing that off to Massachusetts soon.

The one below is for my co-worker Amy's little boy, Zack. I will see her this coming Saturday so done in the nick of time.

 I finally made and attached a binding on the butterfly tablerunner from several years ago.  I took an applique class...hated it and it just sat forever. Barb quilted it for me It will be gifted to someone, just not sure who yet.  Funny I do not even think it is cute anymore.  HAHA!

 I have NEVER fallen behind on a BOM until this year.  Life has just been so crazy and we have been out of town alot.  That with trying to exercise everyday (not at the moment as my knee is jacked) there just is not time.  So here are all the months...and would you believe yesterday was pick up day and we forgot.  Oy.  So September's isn't done because I don't have it.

 All of the blocks so far.  This will be a Quilt of Valor. 

Sewing, Sweet Sewing!

 I finally got back to Orange Crush (Number 3) and got the borders on it!  I made the backing and already delivered it to Ros for quilting!

 I love the visual punch of this one!

 I also caught up on my Betty's Choice blocks!  Amy has been working on her alternate block and I am really looking forward to seeing these quilts come together for us both!

 I worked six hours today on Memorial Day.  Came home and devoted the rest of the day to sewing my Quilt of Valor Ooh Rah! from last year.  I cannot believe we are almost half way through this year and I hadn't completed this one til today!  It has been a wild year so far.

 I plan to get a better picture of it outside before I mail it, the backing and the binding off to Alycia in Colorado for Quilts of Valor.  Then I need to pick another pattern and get going on another one!

 

 So nice to tick a few of these long in the works tops off my list!  Still plenty more to go!

Ooh-Rah! Catching up on a QOV!

You may recall I promised to work on a QOV BOM this year and I made January's block...then I put it away and did not get back to it.  It has been nagging at me to dig it out and just get to it, so for Memorial Day (and because I am so inspired by Kevin the Quilter and Alycia with all they do for QOV) I got back to it!

 I did not make the stars for this block because I wanted to catch up and they look a bit crazy to me, so here is my modified block!

 I will be sprinkling in more white as I go so hopefully this will all come together in the end!

Edit* Got up this Memorial Day and sewed up the fifth block, so now I am caught up on this BOM.  Enjoy your Memorial Day!

 Kathy also did her bit for charity today.  She made this kiddo quilt for AZ Blankets for Kids.

Quelf and QOV Blocks!

 My cousin Tricia is in town and though she is from my Dad's side of the family, she discovered she has tons in common with my half brother and has become friends with him.  My mom is also her God-Mom though there were many years they didn't see each other, now they do!  So my Neff cousin hangs with my Hirn family (and me and my sister).  You may recall me telling you about my Uncle Jim who passed away this past year, this is his middle child.  So many good memories of growing up camping and such with them!  Anyways, Tricia came with her daughter Bella (who is almost four) and last night we all played a few games of Quelf.  It was great fun and I will never forget my brother saying Peek-a-boo every time he talked for an hour!  Talk about an inside joke game...it is a loud obnoxious game, but we had a blast!

 Today I got some cleaning and organizing done since Monica will be here next Saturday (has it been a year already?) but also got in some sewing.  I did Kevin the Quilter's QOV Block drive and got it all ready to send out.  Five blocks took me less than an hour!  Click on over if you want to help out.  Sometimes it is hard to do an entire quilt, but a few simple blocks from lots of folks will turn into lots of quilts!

 I also went ahead and cut and sewed my 35th Ave. BOM--Traditions.  Nice easy block and here are the three I have so far.  Kathy is doing hers too, and we plan to gift them to my Grandma Char's sisters when they are done.

I also found out my cousin Brian (Tricia's baby brother) and his wife are expecting another baby girl!  They are due soon and I am behind on the news.  So I packed up my Dimestore Schnibbles quilt for her.

Not Feeling Blue, but Still Sewing Blue!

Kathy has made a few more blocks for her Celtic Solstice.  She isn't too sure she loves it, but I know she will.

I sewed Angela's "Anvil" block last night in blue for the Rainbow BOM.

I also decided to go ahead and do the Ooh Rah! BOM from Quilter's Newsletter magazine.  I dug in my leftover parts bin and found a pinwheel and got started.  I figured out somewhere along the way that my pinwheel was actually not the size called for in the pattern.  so I did some creative sewing and made the block work, though it is actually not as large as the pattern calls for so I will have to redo it or add white to all the outside edges.  Either wa this block will get used somewhere.  Sometimes my plan of saving time winds up costing me time! 
Working today til 4, then a nice long weekend before my college terp job starts back up.  I am still waiting on the schedule with fingers crossed!  Hope you are sneaking in some sewing today!
I added a Pinterest Board with all these blocks too!

Valentine's Day :)

 Happy Valentine's Day!  Today I finished work early and Kathy and I went out for sushi.  Then we came home and did a little sewing and had a relaxing afternoon!  I sewed up this Betty's Choice block just for the heck of it.  It is Bonnie's most recent scrap block in Quiltmaker.  I am thinking I should make one of each block as the magazines arrive and just collect the blocks til I figure out something to do with them.  Then if I find one I LOVE I can keep on making it (like Jack in the Box).  Kathy always has great success with using black instead of lights so I tried it too...not sure it works for this block, but hey it is one block!

 I also did another QOV for Alycia.  Hoping some of the gals from PHXMQG will do a few too and we will mail them out Tuesday.

 I also sewed my purple pinwheels for the Rainbow BOM :)  I still have spools to go.

 We rehung the BOM's now that we have our purple blocks done too.  We haven't done red yet, since we are only two months in...I seriously can't wait to see this rainbow quilt shape up, it is going to be one of my all time favorites, I know already!

 For Valentine's Day I got Kathy a Red Sox shirt and lunch, and she got me this fabric (I was dying to get lots of greens for the emerald challenge coming up and the Denyse Schmidt's were on clearance as was the pattern..lol!  I picked it out and told her thanks!).  She also hunted me down an african violet.  These were my great gpa Rushman's favorite since his wife (Violet Valentine--so named for her birthday on Valentine's Day) was named Violet.  Just realized I love that name, maybe one of my grandaughter's will be named Violet, lol!  I can still remember all the flowers he grew--he also whittled.  I have an amazing peach pit in a basket shape that he whittled.  Hang on, let me take a picture of that too!

Here is the little basket.  It is one of my cherished possessions.  I think of my Grandma Char's (her dad whittled it) grandkids I am the only one that got one.  Pretty cool!  

I remember this set of great grandparents as two people who really loved each other.  They died a week apart when I was in my teens...they couldn't bear to be apart.  My beloved Grandma Char followed just a few years later.  I hope they are celebrating Gma Vi's birthday up there in heaven tonight!  Happy Valentine's Day All!