April Wrap Up

I know I haven't posted for a few days there is a reason I will share later on.  Here is how my April stacked up.

1.  Farmer's Wife ---Keep working on getting the rows put together.

I didn't do a whole lot with this one this month.

2.  Grand Illusion get the blocks assembled.

I tinkered and finished a handful of these this month.  Ten finished I think there are 25 total.

3.  Slow stitching-

a.  Cross stitch I really need to focus on finishing up this tractor.

Didn't really even touch this one.

b.  Words of Wisdom Redwork--I am almost finished with O.  Maybe a stretch goal should be to get to R?

I finished O, P, and am halfway done with the Q!  Not feeling well, doing embroidery is about the only thing I can really get accomplished. 

4.  Have I mentioned I have quilting to do?

I have tried, and have had some weird tension and thread breakage problems.  So not a whole lot accomplished there.  
 
5.  Bag Lady blocks.  Quilt guild is next week and I haven't made my block for the swap partner yet.  Can you tell I am a bit timid about the flannel?   I need to get it done, because next week I get a new one.

Finished the one for March

And got a move on and finished the one for April

Not a bad month overall, but not a whole lot of sewing was going on either.

I started cutting out my Swoon quilt which has been on my wish list for a long time.  Two blocks done so far.

I also prepped the part for my Aurifil 2014 BOM.  I actually finished all the stitching today.

I did clean up my sewing table, clean my sewing room, and I did manage to recover my ironing board though so it isn't quite so shameful!

 We also did some yard clean up, and some planting.  Once spring hits sewing is always a wee bit hit or miss. 

These are my tomato seedlings.  I think that is a pretty good start.

I only listened to 3 books this month.  I can't listen if I am really tired or don't feel good because I cannot concentrate. 

Do you get less done once the weather starts to warm up?

Weeks Speeding By

It is early Sunday morning, and I look around and wonder what the heck happened to this past week?  I haven't read many blogs, my e-mail is edging toward the 500's mark, my laundry is not folded, and I have a pile of dishes in my sink.

 

Nice weather is here!  My flowers are blooming, and my perennials are starting to fill in the beds!

The rhubarb is taking off!  These are the results of DH tilling disaster last year after I had planted the rhubarb tubers.  They were cut into pieces and I have several rhubarb plants now! 

OK it is not easy to see but my little orchard has grown by 1 1/2 times it's size.  I planted 2 cherry trees, 2 pear trees, and 2 peach trees! 

Sorry for the blurry picture but trying to get a picture of the girls can be a challenge at times.  They are thrilled for the nice weather.  They love the sun! 

I planted tomato seeds.  These are a specialized tomato seed like a Roma, since last year the tomatoes marked at the nursery were marked Roma which I had purchased 20, were more like those grape tomatoes, and tiny pear tomatoes.  Not conducive to making soup, and sauce.   The bigger containers are seeds from a tiger lily like flower that I collected last year.  I think I am a little late for starting my seedlings, they should have been started a couple of weeks ago. 

This is the extent of my sewing last week.  One block, a swoon block!

DH has been looking for a truck.  He has been looking on Craigslist.  Now this is Michigan, and they use salt on the roads and most vehicles end up being eaten by the rust, so looking for an older vehicle which does not look like a dinosaur has been nibbling at the soft underbody of the truck is like finding a needle in a haystack.  We drove to Holly yesterday which is about 80 miles North of where we live to look at a truck.  My deal we go look at a truck, I would like to go to a quilt shop nearby.  

The truck was a bust, but The Quilter's Garden in Fenton was wonderful.  I didn't even think about taking pictures, but what a shop!  Their online presence is small , but their shop, if you ever have an opportunity to visit is well worth the trip!   There were quilts, baskets, wool, lots of batiks, fat quarters, kits, great shop samples everywhere you looked and the staff were very friendly.  Of course I had to help the local economy!

I will definitely make a trip back in the near future!

This is just a small part of my week.  One of the fun parts of my week though was that I won!  At quilt guild the week before several of the ladies were selling raffle tickets for the Frenchtown Senior Center's quilt raffle.  I purchased 2 tickets to help support their fund raising efforts.  

Isn't it cute?  It is a generous lap size quilt. 

In the mail yesterday was a sweet package! 

Chicken fabric, a sweet pincushion with a bee, and some lovely long pins, and school bus yellow Kona!  Thank you so much Kris from Kris Loves Fabric!  Bloggy friends are the best!

I have laundry to wash, and fold, dishes to wash, and it looks like I may end up doing more yard work if the sunshine holds.  Do you ever have weeks when you wonder where did the time go? 

But I Had Plans....

First day back to work after a 10 day spring break.  I had plans for the day. 

I was going to start my tomato seeds, shop for sunflowers, and corn, embroider a little, sew a little, and make a new seating chart. 

What I was asked to do was rewrite my route sheet with all the turns, addresses, house descriptions.  The one I had done originally they had misplaced.  I worked on it, looked up and realized it was after 1 pm and I needed to eat.  My plans had went right out the window and down the road with the rough and blustery weather that had made an appearance. 

When I got home my stash enhancement had arrived!

My solids which I was considering for my new project I have been working on.

Half yard cuts of various blues.  There are a couple which are leaning more toward a teal which I will probably not use but the rest will work really well.

Half yard cuts of various yellows, and yellow golds, as well as a small gift with purchase with a fat 1/8th of yellow too!

I also purchased myself a new Olfa Splash rotary cutter.  I love the splash it is comfortable to  use for long periods of time. 

After dinner I did go and hide in my sewing room and did a little bit of sewing.

I finished this much, no the block is not sewn together yet, just units. 

Maybe tomorrow I will get more done. 

Gorgeous Weekends

The weather this weekend in these parts was gorgeous.  Weather like this makes my heart sing. 

Friday did not start out that way, high winds, torrential rain, and was really not fun considering I had a charter which ran into early Saturday morning--do you know how bad a school bus can fog up with a load of people and torrential rain?  But when I awoke it was gorgeous outside. 

DH decided that we needed to clean up the flower beds.  Last year when it was time we were both working a lot of overtime so it was not done really well.  This is only a small part of the leaves which were raked out of the flower beds.  Two trailer loads full of leaves, and yard debris!

It was great though, it is hard to see but my Anise Hyssop plant is coming back!  There were some other things starting to poke their leaves above the ground too. 

Unfortunately our day was short because I slept in so late since I didn't get home until 3:30 am Saturday morning.  I am much too old to be out that late!  

I did manage to get my bag lady block cut and finished and ready to return.  Better than waiting until the last minute like last month!

I like the colors, but am not too sure about the fabrics, they kind of felt stretchy almost like they may have had some polyester in them. 

Sunday--Today we picked up some yard debris from last year, sticks, some of the foundation wall which had skimmed off years ago, created a new planting bed, and planted an azalea, then headed off to town to take the MIL out for her birthday dinner.  We had Lebanese which is yummy, and the frozen custard stand is open so the first swirl cone of the season!

I had some time to sew and worked on the Grand Illusion I made 2 blocks so I have 5 done so far.

Then I decided to cut out another block for my newest quilt.  I have 2 complete blocks cut out and at least seven more to cut but I am not too sure of some of my fabric choices, still wavering.  I did start sewing on one of the blocks I cut out though. 

All the block units sewn and squared up.  Just waiting to be put together. 

OK I know forget about my little sewing escapades and yard clean up, I know you are visiting for the give away.  Since I did not have my cute little scientific helper I had to figure out a different way. 

I had 15 people leave comments which I put on a spreadsheet.

Input the range in the random number generator.

And hit go.  The generator chose number 12 which is Kris from Kris Loves Fabric.  I have sent her an e-mail to see which prize is her choice. 

Thank you everyone for sticking with me, reading my posts, encouraging me, and offering up prayers during times when life gets tough and tears are plenty.  I appreciate each and every one of you. 

The Lament of the Yellow Brick Road

Six months ago I wrote a blurb in a post about an ancient yellow brick road quilt that I was working on.  You can read it again here.

Nancy at Pug Mom quilts sent me some directions about the Yellow Brick Road that she and her posse use--I think they are the queens of the Yellow Brick Road quilt.  Those girls make Yellow Brick Road quilts in their sleep and they are all so gorgeous! 

Since my ironing board, and sewing room are all cleaned, I could lay out the blocks and do a rough count.  I am way off for having enough blocks!

Even with the sections I have cut to make more blocks I am going to be way short.

This is what I have left after shopping my stash.  I may have a yellow polka dot too, but I am seriously in need of more fabrics.

So I decided to do a stash enhancement.  Now my question.

Do you think I should take the blocks apart and resew them so that I have more variety?

Friday Already?

I can't believe that it is Friday, it has been a busy spring break!  I got a call to run a charter Friday night and thought what the heck, a little extra money never hurts.

Wednesday I was supposed to run to the Post Office, which I did, and to the township hall to pay the water bill.  I cut one block for my new quilt that I showed the sneak preview of the fabrics I chose here. 

I also cut out all of the background pieces which is different for me. 

I then decided that I needed to really recover my ironing board.  It was a shambles, the cover all scorched, torn, dirty and I had just enough of the fabric that I had used to cover it before if I pieced it to make it work again.  So I cleaned off the ironing board and took it into the living room so that I could recover it.  Much to my chagrin I could not find the staple gun.  So my sewing, and everything else kind of came to an abrupt halt because no ironing board, stuff stacked all over the cutting table, and sewing machine table not to mention the chair. 

DH came home and retrieved the staple gun, it had been on the stairwell heading to the basement but he had taken it to the barn and not returned it to its home. 

See my old ugly ironing board?  It is heavy, but it is sturdy.  The ironing board being out of the room,  I had no choice but to clean up the floor underneath it. Once it was all recovered I decided I needed to fold up my fabrics from my stash shopping spree.

Do you ever acquire fabric for a quilt, but when you start to choose the fabrics you end up pulling out lots of them and setting them aside because it is just not the look that you want?

I cleaned up all of my patterns which were spread all over my cutting board, and managed to wrangle all of the scraps on my cutting board into a large plastic shoe box.

I did manage to figure out how to enlarge my pattern for the 2014 Aurifil BOM which I want to finish up.

I was thinking it needed to be enlarged 400% but it was only 200% so I have the embroidery portion at least ready to go.

I worked a bit on my 'P' for the Words of Wisdom.

Thursday I actually had the opportunity to take a course offered by one of the presenters for quilt guild.  Teri Henderson Tope or Material Girl Designs and author of Applique in Reverse taught a class on reverse applique. 

It was a fun course, and would be extremely relaxing to work on while watching TV.  Teri was a fun teacher and also did  great job with a presentation about what it takes to get into the "quilt" business, and she has some gorgeous quilts which she shared during the guild meeting. 

I volunteered to make a block for our guild raffle quilt. 

While I didn't get a lot accomplished the last few days, it is nice having my sewing room cleaned up and will be nice to have a nice space to work in again. 

400th Post! and a Give Away!

I am on vacation this week.  (Insert the happy dance here!)  I get to sleep in, not that I really have since my internal alarm clock continues to go off at 4 am.  The difference is that I can look at the clock, my brain tells me vacation, and I can turn over and go back to sleep. 

Many people have been lamenting the fact that blogger turns on the captch and you have to either try to decipher their letters and numbers, or for some just check the box which says "I am not a robot".  Did anyone notice on April 1st what happened when you checked that box?  I thought it was just too cute and found an example.  It will surely bring a smile to your face.

April 1st Captcha

I was going to write a post on Sunday night, but I spent most of that night cleaning up after the family dinner.  I was going to write a post on Monday night, but most of my day was putting things back into the 'Colette' sewing order, and DH and I needed to have a discussion and break down some incidents regarding Sunday dinner. 

I didn't have much to show for accomplishments for Monday.

I finished my bag lady block for quilt guild. 

I finished the letter 'O' for my words of Wisdom redwork quilt. 

Tuesday I actually slept in and started  to get some things accomplished once I crawled out of bed.

I finished up the kite shaped centerpiece that I was making for my daughter and her SO, since he prides himself on being Irish.  This was originally going to be given to them for St. Patrick's Day, but then the flu hit. 

I found this Batik on sale and fell in love and ordered a couple of yards.  It kind of reminded me of Easter and spring, and so I thought it would be a great back.

I started working on my letter 'P' for my Redwork Wisdom.

Unpicked my quilting where my machine was skipping, but can't seem to get the machine to catch the bobbin thread, so the frame needs some adjusting and I will need DH to help me with that one. 

I finally decided on a new project to break up the monotony and started selecting fabrics, 

and did a little bit of cutting.

DH makes fun of me because when I have days off I hardly ever leave the house.  Monday and Tuesday were not much different.  I do know I have a run to the Post Office to do, and a run to an office store because I have a pattern that I need to have blown up 400% unless I figure out how to do it on my printer, which I haven't been able to do so far. 

Now for the fun and games.  I am going to give the lucky winner a choice.  I just received the Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet Blog- Farm Girl Vintage quilt book, there are lots of patterns that look like tons of fun. I am keeping mine but the winner will have a choice.

1.  Farm Girl Vintage Quilt Book

--or--

2.  $30  Gift Certificate to The Fat Quarter Shop. 

Just leave a comment by 12:01 am EST Sunday, April 12, 2015 and I will randomly choose a winner.  Tell me which prize you would choose and why. 

Good luck everyone.