Thursday, November 20, 2014

Bonnie Hunter OMG!!!!

I had supper at Arnies last nite with Bonnie Hunter!  YES!!!!!!!!    BONNIE HUNTER!!    We have been waiting THREE years for our time with her and last nite was her nite!!!  
What an awesomely creative person!  She is sooooooooooooooooo friendly and soooooooooooooo unassuming....  this is the flipping Queen of the Scrap and she is just like the rest of us!!

She brought many of her quilts to show us and each one was more impressive than the previous one.  She gave us a talk on how to store our scraps and what sizes to cut the leftovers into for future use.   Anything less than a 1/2 fat quarter should be cut up while you have the cutter and ruler in your hand and stored....     colors   and neutrals..........    lights and darks.... no mediums.........  neutrals should not be darker than a brown paper bag.............  my head was exploding by the time I left..........

I do believe my scrap piles are going to be cut and pressed and stacked and stored.......... no more crates and boxes of colors......... nope..... gonna get it organized and get it used!!  so many beautiful quilts to be made without harming any yardage!!  wow!

ok.... i'm going to start plotting and planning now...........   guess what next years theme is gonna be....

lol


visit Bonnie at  www.quiltville.com    grab a cuppa and settle in..............


and just as an aside..............  I am now 99.9% done with christmas 2014!!!  yup   a bit of knitting and a bit of hand sewing... some snaps and some buttons.........!!  woooo hoooooo

Monday, September 29, 2014

Ok.... I surrender!

Seems to me that time is just getting away from me!  It's almost OCTOBER!!  88 days left til christmas... yikes!

I haven't been much into sewing or quilting these days... doing only what I have to....and nothing more.  My MO and JO haven't been meshing...........  i've been knitting............. easy peasy simple stuff... a shawl.... a sweater.........a ton of scarves and fingerless mitts............  got a couple things on the needles right now that need to get finished up....   a cream/brown shawl.... entrelac scarf... another scarf.... taking an online craftsy class to learn cables...so that scarf is still on the needles.... I have one slipper sock done.......... and 1/2 a baby hat.........  lol

I did get my whole cloth hand quilted bitty blocks done and off in the mail........... and i'm going to be doing winter snowglobes for october and november..............  the creative brain seems to be coming out of the fog...........so maybe.... just maybe....

I spent friday and saturday at day camp sewing and chatting and learning so i think that helped also.......  ya just never know!  lol

Maybe soon I'll have some fun stuff to tell you all about............and pictures too!  I plan to make snowballs for the little ones for christmas... .that way they can have indoor snowball fights when it's too cold and snowy to go out...   of course for that to happen I need to get my butt in gear!  lol

I have been sticking to the Scraps only promise for this year..........  so that's a good thing...........  i've also been culling the herd so to speak and getting rid of stuff that won't ever be used.... stuff I didn't even know I had and stuff I have no idea why I have..........  It's going to a couple of charities so that's a good thing too........

so I will be back................ soon I hope..........with pictures of stuff...........snowballs and table mats and placemats and scarves and socks and stuff!

whew!!!

Lishy

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

July?? Really?? Again?

Where does the time go?? I just don't understand.........one minute its may and then it's July.... hmmmmm   maybe there is a rip in the space-time continummm??

A few things have been completed....  the black and gold wall hanging is up on my office wall... the icecream quiltlet got done in time for the ice cream party......... my mittens now have thumbs and the sparkly scarf is finished..........

My sweater is ready to have the sides sewn up and the front band added and a shawl is almost at the halfway point...........  it seems I haven't been doing as much sewing/quilting as I had in the past and not sure why.......  I've been doing my guild committments... name tags and row by row....  not much going on in swapland.........but I have been doing my bitty blocks............the baby quilts are still in the same stage as they were in May..........I really need to get them done since babies will be coming soon!!!

I did knit two of the cutest little sweaters for babies!  One is very tiny and just so darn cute! The other is a bit bigger and yellow with little duck buttons and adorable.........  hmmmmmmmm wait a minute.... seems my knitting projects are outnumbering my quilting and sewing projects.......hmmmmmm  perhaps that's the thing??  Guess I need to assess the time spent on knitting vs the time sewing and maybe even them out a bit more.............  hmmmmmmmmmmm

I'm still sticking to the scrap project goal and what I have done has been done with scraps.... I'm wanting to make another GPS quilt....  I love mine and would like to make another one......... I know I can use up a ton of scraps in that!!   My sewing pit really needs a good going over......... it seems to have gone down hill pretty much during this past winter and maybe that's another reason i'm not sewing...........  hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Have a long holiday weekend coming up so maybe I can get in there and do something.... like find the top of my cutting table............ I think its time to donate some of the stash to Quilts for Kids or somewhere........ the Vet Home also takes craft stuff........ so it's time to load up the trunk with stuff I know I'm never ever gonna use!!    I'll let you know how that goes next time!

There are some pics out on flickr if you are so inclined..........i hope to have the sweater done by mid July and then decide on some blingy embellishments maybe............. and the shawl by the end of July..... I will be sooooooooooooooooooo ready for winter!  lol

Ok  ...  till next time.... whenever that may be!

Happy whatever makes you happy!

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Really?? Two months have flown by!

Yep.... well actually only 6 weeks    lol     Winter is finally over and things are returning slowly to normal.  Hubby is up and about... the wheel chair is gone... the boot is gone and all that remains is an occasional use of the cane.......   

He's back to doing some of the things he did before the ** event  ** in January and his office is now moved back downstairs to where it was.........

I'm finally able to get some time in the sewing pit.... and it has become a HUGE pit over the winter.... I have a few things that need finishing up...........  a pillow for a graduation present...........a pink baby quilt.........a scrappy baby quilt for an unknown gender........ and several months of Farmers Wife Sampler Blocks.........along with a wall hanging for my office at work.   Our guild is having an ice cream social in june and we are to make a small quilt   .... no smaller than 8" and no larger than 24" .... ice cream related... I have an idea in my head and half of it on paper........ I even have a pile of fabrics that would work nicely.........

Right now the pillow top is done..........the squares are waiting to be sewn together for the pink baby quilt...... the plan is in place for the unknown baby quilt.........  the FWS blocks have been put under the other stuff.... the strips have been sewn together for the wall hanging.... ready for triangles to be cut and sewn together.     On the needles is the gray blingy scarf.... about 8" left and that will be done.... two thumbs need to be put on the pink flap mitts......... and the sweater is about 1/2 way complete... I need to finish the back and right front.... then the right sleeve and the wide band that goes around the front and neck.............   I'm really not stressing over any of this..........  the pink quilt should be done by june 15th to go back east with us.... but if not.... I'll mail it............ the unknown should be done by July 15th... but if not...  I'll mail it!  the scarf and sweater and mitts should be done very soon but since I can't wear them anyway right now they will get done when they get done!  The graduation present should be done this weekend, but she's going on a SA trip to Japan and then she'll be back for grad school so I'll get it to her this summer sometime............   the FWS blocks... hmmmm well the January blocks are done......... 1/2 of the february blocks are done............ the rest of february will get done when they get done and when they are done March will be worked on............the ice cream quilt will be done if there is time........but if it's not done.... then it's not........

i think i'm liking this new attitude of mine............  we'll see what the end of May brings............

pics are going on flickr as things are finished... so you can always check there for progress... I take pics of the sweater at various times and you can see it growing.... it's made cuff to cuff..... and as I said... I'm on the down hill side now........... 

I have my christmas gift list done........and a few kits made up............ my list has gotton smaller over the last year or so and starting in July gives me lots of time to get that stuff finished up........

so all in all............  things are good..........    

see you in a few weeks... hopefully with lots of progress completed... and if not.... well then I'll just see ya in a few weeks

Lish

Sunday, March 30, 2014

March has somehow disappeared from my calendar

It's march!  Actually it's only march for one more day... Time is flying by way too quickly.  Hubby is progressing...slowly.  He's doing much better and becoming a bit more mobile.  April he gets the screws out and will work on using just the walker.  After that heals we will work on using just the boot and by the middle of May we should be walking pretty much normal again.  Yay

I've been getting about two hours or so a week in the sewing pit.   Not much time for sure but I try to make the most of it.  I'm pretty far behind on my farmers wife blocks but once I get my April guild row by row done I can concentrate on getting those all caught up.  I have bitty blocks due the end of May so I'm in pretty good shape right now.  I'll have the entire month of April to get caught up

I have two projects for work that need done also.   A wall hanging for a very large blank wall and a curtain for a cabinet to hide our cooking supplies....

On the needles right now is a sweater. That's coming along ok right now.  I try to do two rows each nite...and hope to be at the next step by April 20th. It's a cuff to cuff sweater.   I also have to finish my flap mitts.  I Hal
Be one flap and two thumbs to complete on those and That's
 the first of what I plan to have for next winter.  I need some boot cuffs and leg warmers if next winter is anything like this past winter was

I'll be posting some pics tonite on flickr so check it out if you get a chance

Til next time

Happy scrapping

Lish

Sunday, February 9, 2014

The best laid plans.................

Ok so I had a plan!  Beginning in January I would post weekly.....  I would show the scrap projects that are the focus of this year............. I would be productive............

and then..............

the Hubster fell on the ice at work...............  broken leg and shattered ankle...........

so my plans fell to the wayside while I play nurse...........    and you need to understand... I'm emergency services... not long term care.... so this has been an adventure for sure!!    He's finally to the point where he can do a few things on his own..........so that gives me a bit of time to sew and and catchup on computer stuff.......

I am, however, getting some knitting done......  I made a new pair of fingerless mitts for myself and finished a UFO pair of fingerless mitts that will be going off to my mom this week...........  there are pictures on flickr........  I finished a pair of socks........... and I have a dishcloth ufo to finish and a scarf to finish....  the scarf isn't quite a UFO yet... but I need to get working on it so it stays as a WIP... plus when that's done... I want to try to make some of those fingerless mitts with a flap that look like mittens....... 

After this horrid winter....  I'm planning on lots of scarves and mitts and a pair of leg warmers for next winter.......  we've had something like 40 inches of snow in January......and horribly cold below zero temps... so with hubster being laid up... the snow removal also falls to me..........  I'm getting pretty good at weilding the snow blower and making it do things it was probably never meant to do!  lol   The weather guy says one more snow storm..........and then warmer temps... .like the 50's..........which means lots of melting and flooding..........I already have a plan on how to shovel little pathways to take the melting snow out to the drain..........  we'll see how that goes.........

I'll be doing the Row by Row again this year for guild...  our group is doing a miniature version.... 4 1/2" blocks... so that's gonna be lots of fun.............Once I get my sewing time back again I'll also be doing the Quilts for Kids tops........... and I'm still doing the Peace Love Quilt charity blocks on flickr........  I need to put the top together with the blocks that were sent to me.... hmmmm better write that on the list!!

I'm also doing a Farmer Wife Sampler sew along on Craftsy.  Each month there are 10 blocks to do....and there are simpler ways to cut and sew the blocks so this should be fun.  I've wanted to do this for about 3 years now and just didn't have the time to fiddle with some of the blocks... this should help me stay on track..........  plus it will be a scrappy quilt... so i'll be using scraps for each block.  The plan is to try to use the same color families that the book uses....but just in scrappy form.........   I have most of my January blocks done.... 4 more I think to go.... then on to february...so hopefully by the end of february i'll be back on track with those also........    

The hubster should be back to being mobile and functional by the end of March............. 

Oh... the picture on the blog this time is the Tokoyo Subway Quilt I did in 2011 or 2012.... I don't remember but it got finished as a UFO in 2013............... that also was all done with scraps....even the whites were scraps and leftovers.........that's just there to help keep me on track.........

As usual   pics will be out on  www.flickr.com/sewwunderful   and hopefully at some point I'll be putting some on here too.........

So til the next time....  whenever that might be.............

Happy Scrapping

Lish