Simple Pleasures and Slow Sunday Stitching

(This photo has been altered to correct the color. I messed around with the settings on this photo so I could focus just on the center bloom, and while that part worked, for some reason it faded out the color on the bloom and foliage, so I hit the enhance color button to correct the color.)

Isn't it funny how one little thing can make or break your day? Luckily, it was make my day today. This odd spring weather we have had has made my Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) bloom before my neighbor's wisteria for the first time in fifteen years. That's right. For fifteen years, I have smelled nothing but wisteria while my laurel was blooming, but finally, finally, finally, I got to smell nothing but the sweet smell of grape bubble gum wafting across my yard. It didn't hurt anything that the laurel is covered in blooms this year too. I guess that's from all the rain.

And to top it off, two Red Admiral butterflies (Sophora secundiflora) were visiting the blooms along with several honey bees and bumblebees.

My Texas Mountain Lauel:

The neighbor's wisteria:

Na na na na boo boo! hehehe

With all the rain we've had recently (over four inches this week), I should be out pulling weeds and mowing the yard, and I did do some of that yesterday, though it's too wet to drive the lawn mower. But today was really windy, so I stayed inside and did some slow stitching. Actually, I did some of it yesterday while we were driving, but today, I put the flowers together.

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

March OMG Goal

Just one goal this month because I think it's going to be a tough deadline to complete. I want to finish the Summer Crossroads quilt. The picture below is one I posted in early January and I am farther along with it now, but everything is also packed away right now. That's just one of the reasons it is going to be a tough goal. The other one is that we are well into spring and soon I will be spending hours every day in the garden instead of the sewing room.



My goal is to just get the pieced top finished. At this time, I am planning on doing some applique on the borders, but that could change after the top is pieced also.

Speaking of the garden, we both spent all day doing yard maintenance and didn't begin to make a dent in the work that needs to be done. Hopefully, we can get some tilling and planting done tomorrow, and then it's supposed to start raining. Talk about deadlines!

Linked to:
Red Letter Quilts OMG, It's March!

Around the World from the Couch

Began 2015, Finished 2016

Leaders and Enders Project

Cathy at A Quilting Chick has a monthly linky party for leaders and enders, which is going to be added incentive for me to use up those boxes of scrap fabrics I have everywhere. I have found that it is easier for me to make simple, mindless blocks for leaders and enders. When I try to make pieced blocks or follow a quilt pattern, I spend more time on the leaders and enders than I do on the quilt I'm trying to make, and then start making mistakes on both of them. So nothing outstanding here, just simple string blocks. Brown is February's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge but I've been sewing bags lately and that doesn't work well with leaders and enders because of the thread and foot used. Hopefully, I'll get back to my Crossroads quilt soon so I can finish more brown blocks. I need six of them for the end project I'm thinking about.

The block in the top right is paper pieced. I wanted to find a simple leader and ender that would work when doing paper piecing and using a regular foot and think this is work for that. I just need to remember to save some of each color to finish them. My goal with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is to use up those boxes of scraps.

Linking to:
Leader/Ender Linky Party at A Quilting Chick.

Living for the Moment and Design Wall Monday

The other day, I had to run to town for something or other. As I was driving the same dull road I drive every time I go to town, I noticed a car next to mine. It wasn't the car I noticed as much as the passenger in the car, a black dog with hair so long it covered his eyes. The window was down and the dog's paws were on the door and his face into the wind, long hair flying, and an expression of pure joy on his face. It was probably the same road that the dog had been on many times before also, but for him, the thrill of the ride hadn't diminished over time.

It made me smile to watch the dog enjoying his ride, and reminded me that it doesn't take much effort to enjoy the simple things. I get so busy getting my work done that I forget to stop and enjoy what I have right now. Who knew you could learn something from a dog?

Ok, enough deep thinking for one day. On with the design wall, or floor in this case.



I'm still plugging away at the Summer Crossroads quilt, but since it doesn't look much different than it did last time, I'm not going to show it. I've made a few string blocks, mostly in brown since that is the color of the month chosen by soscrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Last month was blue, and it put me on such a roll that I not only made my blue blocks, but I cut up all the remaining blue in my box for either future string blocks, EPP, or half square triangles. I'm happy to say that I no longer have a blue scrap box taking up room on a shelf!

I hope I can say the same thing about the brown scraps next month, but my momentum definitely slowed over a hill this month, so we'll see. When I put these brown blocks down to photograph, I noticed that I cut one wrong, so I really only have two finished.

I also wanted to show progress on my English Paper Pieced stars. I had one block completed before Saturday, but this is what I completed during the three hour Storm Spotter class Saturday afternoon. Doesn't seem like much when they are laid out does it? During the morning class, I worked on hexagons.

In my excitement over eliminating a scrap box, I almost forgot my stash report. Or maybe I almost forgot because there's not much there. Except for one strip of white muslin, I haven't used any fabric from my stash this week. Everything else has been from fabric already cut.

That's it for me. I hope you check out the links below and see what wonderful creations other quilters have come up with this week.

Blessings,
Marti

Linking to:
Monday Making 16 at Love Laugh Quilt
Design Board Monday at Bits and Bobs
Main Crush Monday 18 at Cooking Up Quilts
Moving it Forward 8 at Em's Scrapbag
Oh Scrap! 20 at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

February Quilting and Blog Goals

I've decided I like these monthly goals; I like starting fresh very month. For February, I've decided to name not one, but two projects.

First is the Around the World quilt. I really need to find a better name for it though, because it is going to be my snuggle-on-the-couch quilt




The second is this fabric panel I've been staring at for a couple of weeks now.


The reason for two projects is because the Around the World is so close to being finished that it really isn't much of a challenge. And since I have no idea what I want to do with the panel, it's definitely a challenge.

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the direction my blog has taken. I spent some time last month looking for posts about antique quilts and in the process read quite a few of my posts. Of course, when I started blogging it was just for myself as a kind of get-back-in-shape accountability record, and evolved into any and everything. I guess the subject matter changed as I myself changed, but I'm not crazy about those changes. How to get back to that earlier style, I have no idea.

Lately, my blog has been all about quilting, and I guess that figures because that's all I've been doing lately. Or at least it was until last week when a freaky thing happened to me. For some time, I had been noticing a blurry spot drifting across one eye and then a blurred line and a crescent-shaped flashing light off to the side. Turns out, I had a tear on a retina. A fairly simple laser procedure and the main blurred line and flashes were gone, but I was left with a floating blur over half my eye and a quarter sized black spot.

Reading the computer screen has been difficult lately, so I just haven't spent as much time online as I used to, and didn't really enjoy the time I was online. It was a lot worse right after the laser treatment, but is beginning to get back to the level of difficulty it was before. This may be as good as it gets from now on, but I plan on asking at my next appointment.

Needless to say, I've been pretty down, worrying about my vision a lot this past week, wondering if there will be more tears, or if this repair will hold. I've also been thinking that I need to change my priorities, and deciding that I need to clear the clutter and get my paperwork in order. So that brings me back to blogging. In the last month, it's been hard to write much because it is so hard to see the screen. This is probably more than I've written in a long time.

I hate to be one of those bloggers who just posts a picture with a line or two under it, but that may be what I have to do for awhile. I'm not sure what direction I'll go, but I am going to try to blog about things other than just quilting.

p.s. If you are between 50 and 60, do yourself a favor and get your retinas checked. Apparently, retina tears aren't uncommon as we age, the retina thins and the vitreous becomes more liquid. It's called the vitreous humor, by the way. Funny. Not.


Linking to:
One Monthly Goal at Red Letter Quilts

Design Wall Monday and Stash Report

I'm making progress on the Summer Crossroads. My goal has been to complete at least one block per day during the week, and finish a row by the end of the weekend. So far I have four rows completed and four rows of blocks ready to finish. Then just four more rows to complete the main section of the quilt. Right now I feel that I will actually finish this one this quarter as planned. I probably shouldn't say that out loud though and risk jinxing it.

I thought I'd join soscrappy's Twinkle Star Column Along. It seemed like a good way to use up my scraps: make pretty blocks while using up one color at a time instead of using a bit of one color here and one color there. But I found that I just don't have enough big scraps to do that star. I might be able to find enough large pieces to do one Twinkle Star block each month, but most of my scraps are narrow, so I'm going to make single color string blocks. Boring, I know, but maybe I can do something interesting with them at the end. Here's my blue Twinkle Star block for January. (I shouldn't have tried to take a photo at night as the flash bleached it out. I did a auto correct which seems to have only brightened the corner colors.)

Also on my design board is this piece of panel cloth. I've probably had it twenty years and of course have none of the fabrics I bought with it at that time. So I've had it on the board, studying it from time to time in hopes that inspiration will strike. So far, it hasn't.

As far as my stash goes, I'm working on it, but still showing more in than out for the year. Drat that after-Christmas sale!

Linking to:
Scraphappy Saturday 53 at soscrappy
Monday Making 3 at Love Laugh Quilt
Main Crush Monday 1 at Cooking up Quilts
Moving it Forward Monday 6 at Em's Scrapbag

Design Wall Monday and Stash Report

I've made some progress on the Summer Crossroads quilt. After finishing the donation quilt, I turned my attention to this quilt, and my goal was to complete at least one block every day and join a couple of them. Yesterday, I finished the top row (10 blocks). A quilting friend suggested putting the blocks together in small sections instead of long rows. She said it was easier and less likely to show any unevenness. What do you think?

The stash report has showed very little change since the only thing I'm doing now is making blocks out of fabric that has already been cut, but I have had to cut fabric for a few more blocks and some sashing strips.

Linking to:
Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilts
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag

Scrappy Stars

Begand and Finished 2016

Q1 2016 Finish-Along Goals

I hate to keep repeating myself, but I want 2016 to be the year of the finished quilts. I still have plans to start one or two, but my priority is on finishing the ones I've already started.

There is a group of quilters who have a quarterly sign-up list to motivate and give accountability for those of us trying to set goals to finish those UFOs. So today I need to put in writing the things I want to complete before March 31, 2016. Once it's in writing, there are no take-backs, so I don't want to bite off more than I can handle.

1. From another post, my goal for January was to finish the Donation Quilt. I'm almost finished, so I have no doubt I will finish that long before the end of January.

2. Another almost finished UFO is my Around the World from the Couch.

3. Another close but not complete is this Double Irish Chain. My goal for this quarter is to get the top complete. I can't pin or quilt it for quite awhile.

4. And here's the one I'm going out on a limb to complete, but again, just the top. The Summer Crossroads Quilt. The quilting will have to wait until the frame can be set up.

Linked to:
Clover and Violet Q1 Finish-A-Long Goals

Design Wall Monday

I'm making progress on the quilt as you go Donation Quilt, but I don't like the borders at all.

The first end rippled badly so I starched the next two and they were better. But what I really dislike are the green stripes down the sides. I'm trying to decide whether to tear it off or just let it go.

Linking to:
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilt
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag

My January One Monthly Goal on Design Wall Monday

On the design board today is the quilt as you go started by my quilt group. A few months ago, I put the blocks together and then handed it off to another member to put on the borders. I called her to see if I could get a picture of the finished quilt and she said she hadn't gotten to it, so it's back with me to add the borders and finish.

My January goal is to completely finish this quilt, since it is a QAYG and doesn't require moving everything in my sewing area to get it quilted.


We have plenty of blue fabric left, and just a little green. We thought the blue would make a great border on the top, but that means we would have to use a different fabric outside the blocks instead of the blue as we originally planned. The light green isn't bad, but I'm not sure there is enough.

I haven't been able to find instructions on a website or video on how to attach the borders, so this could be interesting.

I'm no longer going to be making a separate post tracking my stash, but will stick it onto a post at the beginning of each month. I still find it helpful to see what I've used, but it wasn't helping me to link it to another blog. I inventoried my stash of quilting cottons this weekend and adjusted my report to match. My goal this year is to only use fabric from my stash and not buy any fabric.

Linking to
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts
One Monthly Goal at Red Letter Quilts

UFOs and a New Plan

I'm looking forward to this year because I have a new plan to deal with UFOs in 2016.

 Since I have to fold up my sewing table and cutting table in order to get out tables to pin quilts, or to use my quilt frame, I am going to finish piecing all the tops before I begin quilting.  That means I probably won't have many finishes before next fall.

So here are UFOs from 2014 and before:

1. Baby Bow



2.  Gairdin Walk



3.  Around the World from the Couch



4. Depression Blocks



5. Christmas Among Friends



6. Denim Cathedral Windows



7. Ameliorate Sampler



8.  Jacob's Ladder



These are UFOs started in 2015:

9.  Summer Crossroad



10.  Double Irish Chain



11.  Starry QAYG



12.  Sweet Sixteen



These are UFOs that will be hand-stitched and not likely to be finished in 2016:

13.  Colorful Butterflies



14. Star Travel.



15.  Antique Tiles. I made these for a swap that never happened.  So now I have to do something with them.

16.  There will be at least one quilt started in 2016.  I need to make a quilt for the trailer.  I have a modern pattern in mind and already have the fabrics.

Linked to Design Board Monday at Bits 'n Bobs.