Too Many Choices

Day 11 of sew every day in July.

So far this morning I finished up my tiny stars for my Lincoln schnibbles!  They are even all trimmed up and ready, so when my stash enhancement shows up I will be ready to finish the quilt top! 

I then decided to work on my jewel box quilt.  I have 8 blocks finished. 

I have quilter's block on this one.  The blocks are 16 inches so I decided that I wanted to make the quilt 6 squares by 6 squares.  My quilter's block?

I have too many choices!  I belong to a group that we swap strips, and charm squares.  I have a green, lavender, light lavender, purple, blue, pink, and a couple which I kind of based upon a color wheel completed.  I finally sat down and decided I needed red, yellow, orange, lime green, turquoise, gold, gray, maybe browns, and sorted my strips out a bit.  See that bin sitting there?  It is full of strips too. That helped me focus a wee bit better so I think I am ready to work tomorrow maybe I will get a couple more squares done. 

A Wee Bit of Sewing

I took a little bit of time to sew today so I am now on day 10.  Amazing what I can get accomplished in a short time whether I sew for 15 minutes, 30 minutes of 1 hour. 

I have finally got a kind of rhythm.  Listen to my kindle, and sew.  I finished 2 more star blocks for my little quilt, and marked  some of the small squares for hst.  I have 4 more ready to go when I have some time.  So I am about 1/3 of the way done.  Then I will be waiting for my stash enhancement so that I can finish the quilt since I had an oops.  :D

Tonight we are watching the minions for a few hours while their parental units attend a viewing for daddy's grandmother who passed away from Alzheimers.  The minions will feast on cheese pizza, bacon bread, and when the parental units return we will have a small birthday celebration for the oldest minion.  It is her birthday today, and even though a sad occasion we will have a small low key celebration of her day.

OK I got to grab a quick nap before the wild ruckus begins.

Happy Wednesday!

Pattern Oops!

Do you have favorite bloggers that you follow?  Are there some quilters out there that while what they do is not necessarily your style you still love to see what they do? 

I see amazing people who applique, piece, design, and quilt.  Is there anyone out there who would have a grand slam and be able to do all 4 spectacularly?   The internet has awarded us the privilege of seeing some fantastic work.  While my wee blog is probably only read by a handful.  I just want to remind you to encourage others in what we love to do.  Even if they are better than us.

I started working on the Schnibbles quilt Lincoln.  I got all the parts cut out, and something was just not right.  I discovered that I had misread part of the pattern, which meant that I had to find another charm pack somewhere.  I don't know about you but I purchase fabric from several different online stores, so I get e-mail advertisements.  I am lucky that I do because I found a charm pack!  Yeah!

This is what I did get done though. 

I am lovin the way that it is turning out.  I even have the quilting planned for it.

Day 9 of sew every day in July.

Day 8 and The Profiler's Daughter

Day 8.  What did I do today on my day off?

After running the minion mamma's car to the shop, I returned home.  I thought I would work in the yard, when the storms came in.  I started sewing since I could not go outside.  While I was sewing I listened to a book on my kindle.  The voice is kind of computery, yet it is still understandable, and it is very affordable for me.    I finished The Profiler's Daughter by PM Steffen.  What a great book.  I highly recommend it if you like suspense.  While listening I....

I finished 2 farmer's wife blocks.

A Maple Leaf.

And A practical Orchard.

What does this mean?

I completed a goal.

3.  Get some more farmer's wife quilt blocks completed.  8 blocks this month

I completed Silo Barn 3 for Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet's Quilty Barn Along.  I am all caught up...until Wednesday! 

 I also wanted to do the  Schnibbles pattern called Lincoln.  I haven't really started anything new for a while, and this is a small quilt.  I started working on it this evening and have all the background cut out.  I wanted a patriotic quilt and thought this would be a great one to do using Moda's Old Glory Gatherings.  I am very excited at how cute it is going to turn out!

I have to go find another book to read/listen to!

July Week One

Today is day 7 of Pat Sloan's sew every day in July.  Did I manage to sew.  Yes a little bit.  I worked on my farmer's wife.

This is Windblown Square

I have been using mixed techniques doing the farmer's wife blocks.  Some I have paper pieced, and others I use the template to measure and cut using the EZ Angle, and others I do use the template to cut out. 

That makes 24 farmer's wife squares out of 111 and I am 3/4 of the way with my monthly goal for sewing 8 farmer's wife blocks.  I feel like I am actually making some progress. 

Day 6

I don't know about you but shopping for clothes has never been one of my favorite past times.  Today DH and I ran to the nearest town to pick up a business outfit for me for an appointment Tuesday, and a dress for a wedding today.  We weren't gone long thank goodness. 

I got home had time to do a mini pedicure, then sew a wee bit.  I actually got this block all cut out and sewn together in less than an hour.  Trying to figure out what has changed that I can get something done so quickly.  I think that quilting (cutting and sewing blocks) is a skill that you get quicker and quicker with practice. 

Block 5 for the month of the farmer's wife.  Cat and Mice.

While it isn't perfect it turned out pretty well. 

Time for me to figure out what to do with my hair.  It is 81 degrees and 89% humidity.  Think the hair is going to stay in a pony tail.  Oh and it is now pouring down rain.  I think there is a lot to be said for getting married in Jeans, sweatshirts, and boots in front of the waterfall in January.  :D

We Have a Winner

Just a quick post.  Thank you everyone for the kind comments during the Put a Stamp on it blog hop.

By purely scientific methods.  Strips of paper with numbers which correlated to a spreadsheet with everyone who left a comment one of the minions chose number 10 which belonged to Elizabeth Coughlin.

Elizabeth Coughlin   July 3, 2013 at 3:55 AM

Clever idea to make a 3D stamp/pincushion! The John Deere stamp is very nice too.

I have sent an e-mail to Elizabeth and she should receive the gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop via e-mail. 

Hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of July.  The youngest daughter and the minions came to have dinner, and let off fireworks. It was a good time for all.  Today the minions are hanging out while their mamma goes to the doctor.  Something to be said for a lazy day with the kids.  We can't play outside because overnight we had enough rain to flood the field, garden, and the spot where we were going to put the pool with about 1 foot of water again.  Our property is becoming a mosquito breeding ground.  We need a few dry days for the neighbor to have an opportunity to come and spray so we can resume our outdoors activities without being a smorgasbord for the mosquitos, gnats, and biting flies.

Oh and Pat Sloan is having a sew every day in July.  So far I am 5 for 5.

July 1-  Barn for Quilty Barn Along you can see it in this post.
July 2-  2 Farmer's wife blocks which you can review here.
July 3-  1 Farmer's wife block Night and Day which you can see here.
July 4-  After making potato salad, finger jello for Finn, and chocolate chip cookies for the boys I had 15 minutes before they arrived.  Yes I managed to get my next block for the farmer's wife cut out.  That counts!
July 5-  Finished my tall pine tree block from the Farmer's wife.  Not much sewing today.  My early mornings,and late nights working finally caught up with me and I slept a lot today, but still a wee bit of sewing.

Oh yeah and this also means I am 1/2 way for one of my goals for the month of July which was 8 blocks this month.  That feels superific!