Monday, January 6, 2020

ummmm what happened to 2019

ok so my last post appears to be april of 2018....   its now January of 2020   wth???  

I know I don't keep up on here like I should... but really??  A whole year and three quarters?? yikes!   I really gotta write this down so I remember to get out here on occasion..........

Well over the past howeverlong   I've been sewing... and been knitting.... and trying this and trying that...   I koolaid dyed some yarn and knit it into a pair of fingerless mitts....  that was fun... I did another skein and started a pair of bootie socks...  I have one sock almost done... (sigh)   

My major ufo list did get completed in 2018...  i've been pretty good a completeing a whole project...  I do have a couple of things... less than 10 that need to be quilted and or bound......... so that's not bad at all...........

I have a couple of knitting ufo's...   2 or 3 scarves on needles at various stages of completion and a pair of mitts barely started.......... 

I"ve been doing mini challenges on facebook....  each month a project from a book or a theme...  I like miniature stuff..........

little by little I'm emptying bags and boxes andtrying to organize a bit....  definitely NOT my strong point.......... but its getting there..........  I can see a spot on one of my tables and there's a bit of carpet showing at the other end of the room   lol

yeah... that's gonna be a definite work in progress...........

I need to figure out how to change the cover page on this thing.............


Tuesday, April 17, 2018

It Sprinter In Indiana

Actually its April... but you wouldn't guess it from outside!  Last friday is was 78... today its 32 and yesterday we had snow and sleet!   I really think someone needs to get some meds to Mother Nature!   lol

So on the UFO front....    for January 10 UFO's were completed..........  For february  there were only 5 but I was busy!  lol   I was at quilt camp and hubby and I were spending our weekends on the road here and there.... looking for Sugar Camps that were operational....  there weren't many this year... the torrential rains pretty much flooded out all of the Maple festivals that were usually go to...  but i made up for it and finished up 12 UFO's for march..........    I have most of the smaller projects done.... they were quick to finish up and I really don't know why I stopped with only 20 minutes work left on them.... (SMH)   the next list is the small project list....  I have several wall hangings that have to be backed..batted and quilted and bound... I think there are maybe 6 or so of those...  I know of at least two large table covers.... and I'm sure of 3 quilts ... one is ready for quilting.. one needs borders and then backed and batted and the other one just needs to be backed batted and quilted and bound.......   I'm thinking if I go thru the pile and get everything that I can ready to quilt... that will be a great timesaver...and once I have a machine and space set up for the quilting I can just keep on going til its done....
I know there is much more in the pile.... and I unfolded one project only to find two more hidden inside... geeeeze!!!

I'm also starting a binding pile again.... so I have projects to do while watching tv or traveling on the road.........

I need to go thru my knitting UFO's and get those listed too...   there aren't many of those.... at least I don't think so....  maybe 5ish??     I'd like to get all of them finished up by years end also.... but we'll see...........  knitting always takes longer than I think it does   lol

I made a quilts of  valor top that will go to the charity person at guild this month as well as a top for the TSC homeless kids project........    I still need to make 2 small quilts for charity as well as about 12 more place mats ( I have four done) for the Meals on Wheels project....     Our guild is also doing Port Pillows....  they go on the seatbelt to protect the port of cancer patients.........  I have 10 of those done and ready to turn in this month also.........     once this stuff is done my charity committments for this year should be complete.... until something else comes up....... 

I think next blog i'll try adding some pics of my completed projects here....   oh... I did take a short trip down the "modern" quilt path....   I made a small wall quilt....  it was called  RoadWork I think and was a crosswalk.... yep.... that's right... a crosswalk... apparently this is an intersection that the designer has to go thru on her commute that always is congested....    i'll be sure to get that pic posted..... its... well.....  "modern"    ...   not sure that's a path I want to spend a lot of time on....  but we'll see

Ok... time to get some work done...........      later

Lish







Sunday, January 7, 2018

January 2018,,, The beginning of a new year

So far this year has been pretty good...   of course it's only January 7th.... but one week down and 51 weeks to go!  lol

I've been working on Bonnie Hunters mystery quilt...   have I ever mentioned that I hate mystery quilts???  Well this one confirms that....  I just don't like piles of pieces that I have no clue what they will become....  its BH so it involves scraps...which is ok... but in involves LOTS of little pieces... and LOTS of parts..  This mystery has now been revealed and is called Ringo Lake....  not at my house... I'm doing Ringo Pond....   I don't have time to make 200 flying geese of one color set and then another set of 200 FG of a second color set....   so I just cut it all in half....   it will still be a nice throw size quilt... and that's the size I prefer....   I am in the middle of finishing up Clue 8... putting the blocks together... I have to add one more row to my 25 blocks...   then Clue nine which is more cutting and piecing..........   I think there are only 9 clues....     Clue 4 was a bit tricky....  I had a "run-in" with my rotary cutter....I'm down to small bandages now.. but it still can't go without protection...twice yesterday I pinned a block to my bandage  lol


On the knitting side of things I've restarted my 2016 Project Peace Cowl...   it had one row on it...(guess I wasn't very peaceful in december of 2016)   now it has 4 rows...  the rows are over 300 stitches and take me about 30 minutes to do the pattern stitch...  they are a 4 row set and there are 20 sets total...  my goal is to do one set minimum per week...........

I also tried dyeing a sock blank with koolaid...   its pretty neat...  the first one I did was by sprinkling the koolaid on to the wet sock blank....  that got a little weird but now that its dry it looks kinda neat...  the other one I dissovled the koolaid in a bit of water... maybe two ounces....and painted it onto the sock blank...  that got kinda bold...and I think I might like it....  we'll see when I start to knit them up.  Sock blanks are 9x33 knit pieces.... and you can knit right from the blank without having to roll it into a ball first........   we'll see how that works...........i'll get some pics posted here at some point of what it looks like before I start knitting on it..........

So that's where it is right now...   i'm working on UFO lists...   I finished up 26 total quilting last year...  empty binding bucket...so I don't have too many left to go for this year..........  I finished up two knit ufo's... and have about 4 or 5 started that need finishing or undoing...........

Keep it safe..............

Lish

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Time flies when you're having fun

Its been a busy few months....  I have a total of 22 UFO's completed.  The binding bucket is empty.... my list for Christmas is ready and my knitting is still where it was in march... lol.

  I've been working on a Crocheted Owl Blankie for a friends great grandchild back home in PA....  I have all of the pieces crochetd now ( about 18million pieces I think) and now its ready to be put together.  I'll be sure to post pics of this when it's complete... it was fun... a bit challenging...and something i've not done before... 

 Inbetween I've been working on some fun swaps with my Flickr friends, roadtripping with the hubster and working.  Work is getting busy again as school starts in a month from today....  It amazes me how some kids know so much and are so worldly and others don't even know how to write a check.........   

I took my first trip to the National Quilt Museum in Kentucky a few weeks ago....  I came out of there feeling quite inadequate as a quilter... geeeze....  I can't even imagine how they come up with some of these ideas!  wow!   I'm not an art quilter...so there's that... and I felt right at home in the mini quilt section.   Some of the art stuff was political to say the least... and one that I remember the most was a simple pedestal... with a large glass laying on its side with assorted greens and browns fabric coming out of it... simply titled    Flint Michigan..........  geeze.............

I also went to Hancocks of Paducah....huge place.... massive inventory....very friendly people.... and made a trip to the Quilt in a day Store....no  eleanor wasn't there   lol....  My very first quilt was a QIAD Block Sampler.... I still have it...   its a bit worn now... as this was done over 30 years ago I would guess...  I have most of her books and have made dozens of her projects.

We also made a stop in Effingham Illinois... I visited a shop called the Wooden Spool which was really a fun place!  Lots of fresh variety and friendly staff..........  I also went to an Amish shop in Arthur IL...   things were fine until I asked about Halloween fabric....  geeze....  don't ever ask an amish person about Halloween....  well now I know!!!

Off to Ohio in a bit to check plots with the hubster and probably visit a shop or two on the way  (BSG)

I hope to have pictures of the blankie and some other projects the next time we meet!

Happy Sewing   and if you are keeping track....   you only have about 24 weeks til Christmas!!

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Been a Busy Few Weeks

Over the last 6 or 7 weeks I've completed 5 ufo's... made 25 little goodie bags for the ladies in my Bitty Swap at guild...went to Quilt Camp for the first time...completed a small Fancy Forest Quilt, 2 small Atkinson table toppers and a group project Trash Bag for the car!   I also did two mini mania challenges and started a third as well as worked on a Tryptich for a mini swap...........   whew!!

Here are a few of the pics............


The top photo is the Elizabeth Hartman Fancy Forest Small Quilt... It was so much fun to do!   The middle photo is the car trash bag and the bottom photo is the Atkinson Small Happy Holidays's table mats

There are photos on Flicker of the January and February mini mania challenges and hopefully by next week i'll have photos of the Tryptich.

January UFO's were a 30's Row by Row Quilt from about 4 years ago and a pair of placemats called Carved in Stone made with Stonehenge fabrics....
February UFO's are a very old and very ugly hunters star large mat... a bath mat and another set of placemats ( still have 2 more sets of placemats to finish)
over christmas I finished up the bindings on 41 assorted projects ranging from small challenges to a large 30's quilt....
I'm hoping to keep up the UFO work and finally get them ALL done!!  
I also completed two projects for our April Guild meeting featuring SnugglesQuilts.  I did her small applique sheep and a scrappy table runner.  We hope to have many of her projects made by our members to hang around to surprise  her when she comes........  those pics are also out on flickr.

www.flickr.com/sewwunderful

will take you to a treasure trove of fun pics!!

Guess that's it for this episode of  Time to Get Back on Track!!!

Monday, January 9, 2017

Archeological Dig

One of the things I did over winter break was go on a "dig" through the sewing pit.... oh goodness.... so many wondrous things were found.... and quite a few not so wondrous things...........   I have some things separated to give away and some to go to GoodWill and some that I just haven't a clue yet what to do with!   It was fun though.... a trip down memory lane   lol

My binding bucket is empty!!  totally and completely empty!  I finished up all the bindings by new years eve... a total of 41 ( yes!  fourty one) projects are now bound and complete.... they ranged from a couple of mug mats to lots of place mats, table mats and table runners... some wall hangings and a quilt!

During the dig I found 3 of 4 25" blocks...........plus the charm pack to make the fourth... of course finding the pattern involved an even deeper dig... but I found it and did the fouth block and joined them together....   so I now have a 50 x 50 square to go on the ufo pile....  good thing there are a couple of UFO challenges going on..........  the block was made using up one entire charm pack.... truly... all that's left are a few slivers from trimming..  it's called Big Star Little Star and as soon as I take some pics I'll get it posted.....  it was a fun block to make............

I have several UFO's now that need quilting and binding...........  I have two lists... one for the on line challenge and one for our guild challenge........   with any luck I'll have all of them complete by the end of the year....  this group has a couple of mat size quilts, couple of throw quilts... one full quilt and two turning 12 quilts...   it's actually supposed to be turning 20... but I make them with just 12 fats instead of twenty for a throw size quilt.........  hmmmmm  guess I need to lay in a supply of quilt batting!!  lol     I think i'll put the quilts on one list and the smaller stuff on the other list so I'm not trying to do two full quilts in the same month.........   that might work!!!

Nuff for now.........  i'll get more pics posted on flickr.com for those who like to see the pics of what's been accomplished

Lish

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Moving into 2017

Well I've reduced that mountain of binding down to a molehill!   I finished up 25 assorted place mats and table mats....  I have 14 assorted table toppers, mugmats and small wall hangings pinned and ready leaving one 30's quilt left in the binding bucket!  Wow!  I'm hoping to finish up the last 14 today...

I've been going thru baskets, bags and buckets and trying to clean up the pit a bit... I have two tables cleared off ( OMG flat surfaces to work on!)  and it seems the more I dig into the more things I find!

I found a pretty blue bag..........  inside that pretty blue bag I found a thimbleberries wallhanging from 2008...a 30's quilt ( yes... I like 30's)  and an assortment of other small wallhangings that now need to be quilted.........  not sure what I want to do with that thimbleberries thing... it's a huge wall hanging   60x60 and its a giant house with flowers........  that was the only year I was in the TB club...  somewhere I have some fabric that I can probably piece into a backing for it if I decide to keep it........ I'll thnk about it more when I get back to it

Also made two ties.........and a small little change purse type wallet.... really cute and used up a tiny bit of scraps..........

On the knitting front I've been trying to work on my Cascade 220 paint scarf... it's just about half way... that's about the only knitting i've been doing...

and.....................    I got a new sewing/embroidery machine... her name is Emily Grace and she's a Janome MC9900.  She has a bit of a learning curve as my embroidery machine for the last 15 years has been a brother ULT.......... but she's wonderful and she's fun and I'm sure we will get along just fine!!

That's it for now.......  I'm going to venture back into the archeological dig that's going on in my sewing pit...... have a mini mania challenge to work on...   more bout that another time

Have a safe and wonderful 2017

Lish