January UFO Update/Design Wall

I willl not be able to finish the January challenge on time, but I will finish it.  I have all the blocks done, and am working on the last filler strip (under the angel).  After seeing it up on the wall, I need to adjust the curve in the stem.  So I'll be ripping it out to start again.  It needs to be more curvy to match the ones already done.  It is good to see this one almost done.  When I was reading the instructions for the angel block it said to sew on the appliqued filler and the plain filler (what!).  I don't have anymore fabric.  I never gave a measurement for the plain filler or said to cut two of the background when I cut the filler strip.  I cut and made all of the background blocks a long time ago and pack them with the patterns so that back ground was ready to go when I would go to work on the blocks.  This has been packed away for at least 5 years.  I drew out the star color of the blocks to watch how they would be placed and just pulled scraps for the applique when I would work on that block.  I spent part of the weekend spraying the blocks with vinegar and water to help set the colors as some of the reds were bleeding.  This is my first applique quilt I have ever done.  I have done small sections of applique,  but not a whole quilt before.  And this is all needleturn.  I have enjoyed sitting in the living room working on it as the TV is on, especially when it is too cold to get in my studio to work.
     We are expecting another cold snap to come in on Tuesday.  The weekend was sooo nice, 75 on Saturday and Sunday was almost the same.  Tuesday/Wednesday it is to get into the 10-20's possibly with a wintery mix. Speaking of Saturday:  my quilt group got together and worked on our donation quilt for this year.  I had a nice time with everyone and enjoyed the sewing that we got done.  It is a churn dash in 1930's and will have applique in the corner borders.  I'll post a pic when it is done.  Here we are working:

You only see two rows of the quilt, the rest is out being sewn.  We had quite the conversation planning the borders. It has been a small challenge, but as usual will be great when it is completed.  I like that we do something different each year.  It is always a challenge to work with blocks that other people sew because you get such a varience of sizes.  It does help us all to grow as quilters when we see a problem and brainstorm together to find the solution.  This year we are going to make a smaller quilt to donate to the AgriLife Center where we hold our meetings.  If they hang on the wall in the meeting room, it will help to buffer the sound and make the noise level better.  I hope we donate some more to them to show off our guilds work and add to the decor of the building. 
     I also worked on the buttons a bit, but will have that as a later post.  It will be a busy week.  Today is the last day to pay property taxes without a penalty, so I expect I will be standing at the counter most of the day and my feet will be killing me tonight.  Happy sewing.

Design Wall/Table Monday

I have worked when I could on my UFO project, I Believe.  I have to finish the I Believe block (near the center) and one filler that goes below the angel block.  I will push to get it done this week and hopefully will at least get the I Believe block finished.
Of course, I have another project going.  What else is a quilter suppose to do? (Finish what is started.)   I am putting together a program on buttons for my guild next month and have been wanting to do a quilt to show off some of my buttons.  I found one that I like and started it.  It is Star Flowers from Kim Schaefer.  It was on my sewing table.

I also have another project on the design wall under the I Belive, it is Santa Stick.  It is on hold for a little while.  Sew many projects.

BUTTON, BUTTON

I spent several hours on Saturday searching thru my buttons and sorting them.  I found some really neat ones, I will post pics of them later.  I am going to do a program at my guild next month on buttons, so I am working on getting that all organized.  I am making a new quilt to show off some of my buttons and I am thinking of framing a few.  Here is the quilt I started:

It is from the book Flowering Quilts by Kim Schaefer.  There are several quilts in the book that I like.  I also managed to get some work done on my UFO project.  Will do update on Design Wall Monday.  I spent many hours updating my ipod.  I haven't done that in many, many months...and now I have a new computer, so I had to reload my CD's again.  Maybe I missed something, but I could not find where you could upload from your ipod to the computer to put what was on the ipod in the library.  It is done now.

Time To Sew

Saturday is finally here.  I have the heaters on in the room to warm it up so I can stand to be in there to sew.  I often wonder if the extreme temperature changes affect my machiines.  I am going to get some of the Believe block prepared today so I can keep working on my  UFO.  I can sit in the family room and applique when I don't go in my room to sew. 

The past two weekends have been spent with my son who lives in Montana.  He traveled to OK City for training for a new job and came down to Texas to visit family.  It had been 5-6 years since I last saw him.  So I had to spend some of the time CLEANING house.  I put that off as much as possible.  But, it is done now.  Hopefully, all will pick up behind themselves and the house will just need the dusting and vacumming that I also don't like to do.

(sorry for the blurry picture) The deer population is increasing greatly in my "backyard".  I see them everynight just before dusk.  There were two groups last night with at least eight deer.  They were coming close to the house so we let the dog out to chase them off.  She ran up to them about 35 feet away barking and they did not leave.  Then Superman thru down some of the poppers that make a gunshot sound to scare them off.  Nope.  They stayed.  We went inside.  We were trying to scare them to go to the back field and not go to the highway.  One was hit the other night.  I'm trying to save them, at least for a year, until hunting season again.

Civil War Blocks 1 & 2

Here are my first two blocks.  I am caught up and hope to stay caught up.  I had been collecting civil war prints for a quilt (plan on doing the Farmer's Wife).

Looks like I might have to do two civil war quilts this year.  Go on over to Laurie's blog as she is having a give away for a new book "The Pony Club".  May you have lots of luck!

SNOW DAY!

It snowed yesterday and just a wee bit this morning.  We got at least 4" of snow.

 The office is closed!  The snow is still soft as it is just now getting above freezing at noon. We never got the rain on top of the snow so that did not freeze overnight. I have spent the morning working on my UFO.  I finished the angel block.

Two fillers, and one block to go. I might get it done this month.  I hope so.  I have been working on this since probably at least 2002.  I thought it was only about 5 years old, but the date on the pattern is 1998 and I probably started a few years after it was out.  It is a hand-me-down pattern from my SIL.  This afternoon I will work on the Civil War blocks from Barbara Brackman.  Have a good afternoon and stay WARM!

How Lucky Can You Be?

There are so many things going on to be grateful for right now. 1.) WOW child finally got a job. It seems like he has been unemployed forever. It isn't the most glamorous job, but a job and he is happy. 2.) Superman has been taking classes to get into college. Needed a few developmental classes. He took his placement test and passed with excellent scores! When he took the test the last time for the English portion, the report said that "obviously he didn't know what he was doing and could not communicate well". He has been spending two semester working on gettinge the Math classes behind him and he "studied" You Tube for English help for the test. This time he received "excellent use" and scores for his essay. He is officially a College Student now! 3.) On the way to his new job WOW child hit a deer yesterday. Luckily, he was not hurt and the damage to the car is fixable. Of course since it was an older car, there was only liability on it, so we will have to front the repairs. He will need a new hood and headlight assembly, and some hammering to bang out some dents. I could not be more pleased that he is SAFE. Living in a rural area we see many deer that have been hit and hear it often from our own house (we live near the highway). Hard to believe that we have not hit one before.

Now, if I could only get the lottery numbers right! We try to buy one ticket a week (when we fill up with gas).

On the Search

I had a great time at my friends house and I made the stuffed porkchops from Judy's recipe. My husband loved it. I thought it was a little bit salty, but very tasty. I got busy on my UFO challenge and have been working on one of the blocks. Maybe I will get them all finished this month (fingers crossed). I need to rush to get ready for work. I have been blog hopping and finding wonderful new sites. I will update later of some new finds. I am also on the lookout for one or two new BOM's for this year. Time to go to work. Hope you have a wonderful day.

GLORIOUS SUNDAY

I love Sunday's. They are meant to relax and enjoy. We go to church every Sunday. Rarely miss one. Yes, I don't always want to go, but once I am there, I am blessed by someone, a song, the sermon, or something. Then I am so glad I went. Today, started as one of those days. I havc tommorrow off, so I just wanted to stay home and sew all day, and it is cold outside. I don't do cold too well. But after there, I was so glad I went. I enjoyed the sermon, Salt of the Earth and it gave me a renewed perspective of what I should be as a Christian. Now at home, I am listening to one of my many CD's (contempary Christian) and just happy as can be. I found the layout for the I Believe quilt and rearranged the blocks on the designwall. I have two blocks to applique, two fillers to applique, and two blocks that need some embroidery on them. After looking at them, a few more might get some embroidery to give them a more finished look.

Tommorrow I am going to a friends house to sew. I plan on getting there around 9:30 and spending most of the day. Wonder what all I will get accomplished???

January Challenge for UFO

Wouldn't you know that #6 was drawn. I think that is the oldest thing on my list. I will have to swap #5 and #6. Can't put it together until I am finished with the applique. So I will start working on it. I dug it out of the UFO box and put it on the design wall. I can't remember where the finishing part is for the layout. I will look for that this weekend. A few blocks have embroidery to be done and two need applique done. I think there is only one more filler piece. This pattern is from Village Classics and is the I Believe BOM.

That means I have several things to do this weekend. I need to do a craft for a program later this month and I started working on my Santa Stick that I did not put on the UFO list. Lots of fun! I can't believe that I have so many UFO's. I did put together a clutch today, I can see a few things that I need to watch on making another one. It went together fairly quickly. Makes a cute small clutch to carry just the basic necessities. I will leave out the divider piece on future bags. I think it just gets in the way. You can find it here.

I have done some great things so far this morning. I started a batch in the new yogurt maker that I got for Christmas. I used wild blueberry jam for the flavoring and the culture was organic plain yogurt. Tonight (after 9 hours in the "incubator") I will put the lids on and enjoy the yogurt with the homemade granola I make. YUM! Hope it all sets up and taste great. I can see I will be experimenting with the flavors and subtle changes.