Setting my July goals

1- Non-negotiable, Get the borders on the camp quilt.

2- Non-negotiable, Stitch another block from the lil' Miss Shabby, this block is one I drew and created, so far am very happy with it....

3-Non-negotiable, finish iron caddy- FINISHED!
4-Non-negotiable, Cut sashings and cornerstones for the 10 minute block top - DONE!

5-Non-negotiable, Finish a Little Something Jacket
6-Non-negotiable, Quilt borders for the Convergence wall hanging

7-Non-negotiable, Kindle Bag, yep still on this list, one of these days I'll be surprising you and myself too probably!  This is my New for JULY! Hopefully by following Barb at Cat Patches with her New FO protocall and stating this project for this months' New FO that  will assist me in getting ROUND TUIT!  I can only hope!!! lol
8-Magic Eyes Storage Bag
9-Finish KumihimoBracelet - FINISHED! Plus made two more!!

All three of these quilty projects photographed are to be in my guild quilt show in October, so they must all proceed without any more delays.   

Jane

March es past... now onto April Fools, 2013

Since it's the last day in March I'm summing up the list of four (plus extras)  that I listed at the beginning of the month.  Not great but not that bad either.

1-Stitch Me Up Project - DONE
2- Kindle Bag - Didn't even start, will be relisting this for April perhaps this is  a New FO whenever I start it.
3-Quilt Convergence Wall hanging - Started, the pieced center is quilted now that I figured out what it was calling for.  Have all the borders yet to quilt, then pipe, bind and label.  this too will be relisted in April.
4- A Little Something Jacket- Started and so close to being finished,  Hemming is all that is left.  This too will be relisted for April.
5- The Baby Quilt didn't even contemplate!

The apron and the 2 Superman capes that were finished  were on my list for May. Ah hummm... Can I say I'm ahead of schedule there!

Boy, can I ever fool myself!  Only one completely done out of the 5!  How foolhardy is that thinking that it wasn't so bad?  Progress was made on all but one and I did list five so I am content none the less.  Now onto my hopes for this month.

My four focuses  for April for the Getting It Done challenge are:

DONE  1: Finish the A little Something Jacket made from the tropical foliage rayon.
2: Kindle Bag designed and made.
3: Convergence wallhanging totally quilted.  Have a stalled and very cold engine for this baby.
4: Embroider another lil' Miss Shabby Block (that project has stalled since February but one more so close to being done).
5: Piping and binding for the Convergence.
DONE  6: Shake Your Pom Poms project, my date to share is the 29th.
It actually was one of the top two projects that day.
DONE  7: Batiks Quilt blocks made out of the 10 minute block pattern.  20 made.
8: Make another "A Little Something Jacket", perhaps the orange with the cream and black print. Reminds me of Butterflies.
9:  The "Straight grandbaby quilt", have the flowers appliqued onto center of the quilt, it'll be an original design but still a simple.
DONE  10: Pillow case(s)  made for PGD#1 to match her Field of Flowers quilt.  Perhaps this will be a nice sewing project to do with her this week since she's out of school.  Made 3.

NO, this list is not an April's Fools Joke, it really is my intention.  There are so many other items I could  and perhaps should have written but I'll limit myself to these.  If those others creep onto my sewing table and demand my attention well then, I'll be forced to comply and will add them at the end of April. 

What projects are on your horizon?  To see what many other bloggers are pledging, follow the link to Judy Laquidera's blog.

Sometimes I feel like such a slacker with many of my friends and my Mom, who is absolutely amazing shall I say. They all seem to get quilts done lickity split.  For example:  Like my  BFF Trudy, last week I stopped by to visit and enjoy a cup of tea and she had just started a baby quilt for an expected in May, great grandbaby, her first!  then BANG!   Saturday  she showed up at our little quilt group stitching the binding on.  Talk about gorgeous and quick!  She had even sent it out to be quilted!!!   Boy, I am not worthy.    Mom makes a quilt every month and gives it to Community service at her church and she doesn't make wimpy sized quilts either.  Those quilts are at least 50" x 68" and done with her scraps and yardage she's  pushing through.  Besides the other quilts and projects she completes each month is astonishing.  I really am not worthy.   Yet here I am, all smug in my feeble creative attempts and loving these little projects of mine.   

But my most important project is the time spent with my grandchildren.  Any  projects not completed are a small price to pay for the priviledge in holding them, playing a game, creating something and just  guiding their development that I am content.   It's such an honor and priviledge that I cherish  doing in this life and hopefully doing so with grace (my other intention).

Jane 

I'd love to do that!

Joanne at Thread Head recently posted some of her feather quilting that she's been practicing. 

WOW! 

is all I can say. 

 

Her feathers and quilting designs are fantastic.  I want to be able to do that!

Here's the blog post where she discusses what she did.  Meanwhile I have this little baby I want to get quilted. 

 

I think I may draft a meditating Budha or similiar icon in this since feathering it seems way  beyond my reach just now. 

Even though this piece would be fantastic feathered.  Any ideas? 

It's a project I started a couple of years ago with a precious friend, Trudy.  She actually gave me  the Ricky Timm's fabric after she and another friend attended one of his classes in Colorado.   

I'll percolate some ideas a bit longer since today I'll be cutting that aqua for a piping and the white,

and yes,

I said WHITE for the binding. 

 

Enjoy your day,

Jane

Joining with Judy Laquidera's UFO challenge 2012

Judy Laquidera from Patchwork times blog has hosted this challenge for two years now, as far as I'm aware of. I did participate last year. Not as successful as many participants, but I still consider my involvement a success in being abole to totally complete 5 projects besides the other numbers were worked on and at least progressed on.
So it's with eager anticipation that I'm listing another 12 for this year. Now in the same paragraph, I'm also challenging myself to keep up with the UFO challenge that my mother's guild in Florida does. Naming 5 projects and with that challenge, you have 2 months to complete it. I'll list those at the end of this post without pictures since many are included in Judy's UFO challenge.


Number 1 - Husband's Bathrobe - Number drawn for February  2012.

Number 2 - Tow Mater Quilt - This one was  drawn for May 2012.

Number 3 - Scalloped Table Runner - This was July 2012 number that ws drawn.


Number 4 - Santa Redwork


*Number 5 - Inukshuk table quilt - Number drawn for January 2012
Finished this on January 31, 2012!  Glad I only used this technique for a small project.  For reverse applique, I  prefer the finished look doing it by hand rather than by machine as was taught in the class by Cathy Miller.   This quiltlet will remind me of our journey across Quebec and Ontario on our trip to the midwest.  Many Inukshuks were stacked along the highways and byways along the way.   Hummmm, reminds me I have an assortment of stone I brought back from Nova Scotia to make an Inukshuk to stand in the gardens or near the pond.  Perhaps I'll be getting to that soon.


* Number 6 - Cheryl's Chris' Quilt - Number drawn for ????? 
This was  finished and delivered this to Juanita on January 26, 2012.   Was able to make a bright green piping which I then added a solid  black binding.    It Looks really nice with that combo and it compliments the rest of the quilt beautifully.  When I delivered it, Juanita was in tears and thanking me for making this.  How  Bittersweet, glad I was able to, but missing her daugher , my friend Cheryl. 

Number 7 - Spring Patch-a-bilities this was drawn for August 2012 UFO challenge.


Number 8 - Disappearing Nine Patch with Moda's Kashmir IV line drawn for March 2012


Number 9 - Convergence
Sorry no photo......(I Need to find where I stored this one, esp if she pulls this number tomorrow!)

Number 10 - Grunge Quilt drawn for April 2012


Number 11 - 3 Baby Quilts to finish drawn for September 2012


Number 12 - Fall Country Flowers Patch-a-bilities - this was June's 2012 number drawn.



Two additional projects I'd like to get too are the Four Patch quilt and the Flora quilt.
Many of the above listed have been started and are languishing away waiting for me to get inspired or uh hum.... driven to finish them. Some are just kitted up and I want to get to, but yet won't allow myself to start until I get some more UFO's finished! A definite catch 22? and a vicious cycle? Or more likely my realistic "Janie Conundrums"!

*************************************************************************************

As for joining the challenge with Mom's guild that is starting on the 10th. You are to list 5 projects and number them. When the number is pulled (as Judy does) BUT herein lies the difference...........you have two months to get it completed. Here's how I divided them up for that:

1-     Tow- Mater Quilt

2-     Convergence Wallhanging
        Beach Tote finished 3 of these!  The last two while retreating in Fine, NY.

3-    - this was drawn for January through March 2012
        *Cheryl's Chris' Deer Quilt - Finished and delivered to Cheryl's Mom in Rouses Point, NY on 1/26/12
        *Inukshuk - Finished on 1/31/12 as a quiltlet to stand via an acrylic photo frame on a table top.
         Spring Patchabilities was drawn for August 2012.

4-     Disappearing 9 patch

5-     Santa Redwork 

As you can see most of these are also listed in the 2012 UFO list of 12 in Judy's challenge. I do hope the Number 5 is drawn first in Florida. All of these really don't have that much more to get done on. For the life of me I wonder why they end up in the UFO pile!

Happy New Year!

Jane

Back from the retreat

Oh, it was so good to get away. This past weekend, several friends and I attended a quilting retreat that was held in Wadhams, NY. HEAVEN! The first photo up is Dance of the Dragonflies that Barbara was working on, a very intriguing pattern.



I did bring many UFOs and PIGs and am very satisfied with what was accomplished. Thank goodness for my freind Trudy, she helped me tremendously! I actually brought a couple of my problem UFOs.
First was the "Convergence wallhanging" that I started a couple of years ago. While piecing the rest of the top together, I somehow had twisted a section in reverse. The fabric I used was a single piece of Ricky Timms fabric and you'd think that I'd be able to tell at a glance that it was off. I could see that something was wrong in that center area, but was befuddled as to "How it was wrong". I think the medicines I'm on for my back are making me way too relaxed. Thank goodness for Trudy. I mentioned it to her and she could see it was wrong too and then she pointed out where my goof was. Now I could proceed as the project directions were written. So I did. Then whammo, I reversed another section again in the last steps. Looking at it, I just knew something was off but there again, I was at a loss as to what and where. So I was laying out how to work the borders and auditioning how it will look again with Trudy's eye and opinion requested. We figured I'll be going over to her house to finish the borders with some more Ricky Timms fabric or hers since she also does a beautiful job with fabric dyeing. So I flipped it aside to proceed with the next project, my Orange Crush quilt I started also several years ago.
All of a sudden Trudy had figured out that I had again reversed a section during the convergence construction and mentioned if I undid that particular seam and turned that section around, it would work. AMAZING! She had been processing it AND had figured out how to correct it. Thank you, thank you, thank YOU! So I did some unsewing followed by some correct sewing. The borders will be coming shortly and I'll show you the finished wallhanging then.

Next - on to assemble my Orange Crush blocks. Here's how it look now.



After assembling the top I went in to the gameroom area to audition it for borders on the ping pong table when I found some more blocks in the plastic tote container that housed this UFO. Yeeks! I thought the top was done.
So I started re-figuring if I had enough fabric of this and that to continue sewing blocks to make a 9 X 9 block grid layout( ach block is 9"). I needed an even design so I could use the cornerstone blocks I wanted to have for the final border treatment. Along comes Trudy.
Are you catching a glimpse of the relief I have towards her expertise? She was in the back of the room when I held up the I thought finished center design and mentioned WOW! at a distance it was really bright, up close to it was nice but you really needed distance to really see it. So she questioned: That did I really need to add more blocks to finish it? Could I possibly add a wider border instead?
I stopped my self-imposed drama of having to make more blocks and thought about it all the while imagining how it could be. She was right. I could ease the eye by allowing a bit more light into this quilt using my off white solid border areas, but also still embracing the design elements to finish it. So I drew out some options. I will be adding several layers of borders with a burgendy and white checkerboard border near the 2nd border area. Wrote all this down to continue it after I get home. Oh and I stillplan on having cornerstones in the border too. What a relief! Another potential problem eliminated.

Then I proceeded to a kit, Tiki Tote I've had in for awhile.



It's a clearance kit from Nancy's Notions. I got as far as the point where I was going to cut the woven webb handles. Needing to get my fray check out of my suitcase of tools and projects when I saw the table runner I had brought to figure out how to do a scalloped border. Without the blink of an eye I quickly changed projects. The tablerunner was longer than usual so I can oplace it over the antique refridgerator in the dining room. With having the over-sized pool table and ping pong table in the rec room I was able to draft out my scallop design for it. The use of dishes was also used to finalize this design.
A friend from Montreal, Roz suggested that I draw on the reverse side of it to eliminate marking on the top. What a great suggestion! So using purple, brown, red and finally blue, I had my design. Blue being the correct line placements I was able to sew on that line in another color thread. This way I'll be able to know how to quilt it within that design area and then I'll cut it out on that same line. After getting back home I realized, now Janie, Why didn't you layer it and baste it there too? DUH! I should have. Oh well, some time just after I clean the kitchen floor I'll get to it.

This photo is what Bridgette was working on. She is Tommi's SIL. I like the potential of a quilt made with HST units so I snaped a photo of this Carpenter's wheel variation. She's making a king sized quilt that her husband selected this block for her to make.



The last photo is what Lois from Ottowa finished. She does amazing work and with the machine applique, which was truly invisible to the naked eye, she used a sewart international thread. Usually she gets it through Harriet Hardgrave's site. She gave me her email to connect with her about which settings she uses on her Bernina when she does the machine applique. I'll be contacting her shortly.



Nice, bright and colorful isn't it. She also had some truly gorgeous and very unique quilts that she shared during show and tell. I wasn't able to get a snap of those though. She belongs to a group of quilters that challenge each other with art quilts. Amazing! A couple of friends and I would also like to expand our talents in the area of art quilts. We discussed how we'd go about it and hopefully it will come to fruition.

Today, a fellow retreater and friend is coming over that I'll be showing her how to construct some note cards using strips of fabric. I haven't taught anything in quite awhile and hope to do it justice. Good thing she's a friend.

Jane

Home from Camping and Computer Back!

Yippee about finally getting our computer back. I love my desktop. With fixing the computer and the Internet service provider, we just had to replace our router, and mouse for the lap top, now to get it all fixed and working correctly is the next thing. In my feeble attempts, I get one working and then try to get the wireless signal for the lap top, 1 minute it's working the next it's not. Urgggg! I guess I'll have to get some help.

We pulled our camper back home. It's a 77 Prowler that I fondly call our "vintage camper". I used to call it our "shaggin wagon", but too many people had pre-conceived ideas with that name. So, I recently started calling it our vintage camper. It really is cute all set up with Adirondck themed necessities. Had to remake all the curtains a year or two ago so I used a border print with pine trees, bears and deer. The colors of course are cream, green, a little gold, brown and black. So I was able to find some black coffee/tea cups, a tray with deer and foliage decorating the corner of the kitchen counter (besides being useful to tote food and cooking items inside and out), tan and brown bedding for the master area, and a black wire basket on the dining table holding the appropriate fruits, besides linens and towels that coordinate and hand made soaps for the bath and the kitchen (would you believe they even have a bear or deer on them and they smell of chocolate, what's not to love!). Another wicker basket painted dark green holds books, magazines and the current needle work project.

I really enjoyed the camping. We went camping for 7 weeks this summer. I was able to finish the stitching and assembling of my first biscornu, read 7-8 books, walking, hiking, biking, a little kayaking and a lot of rest. It was great to get away from the house too. When we returned home for little pitstops at times, DH and I were both able to accomplish alot in the little bit of time we were home.

While camping by the Lake Champlain, we enjoyed the beach, lakeside walks, bike rides and watching many people with Kite surfing. The last was Wild! They would fly upwards 20-30 feet and do some aerials while having the surfboard attached to their feet and flip in the other direction. Of course being a quilter and in my little "No-Name Quilt group" we did the Ricky Tims convergence wallhanging with fabric a dear friend Trudy brought back from LaVeta Colorodo. So I thought, WOW! Quilting some of these Kite surfering silhouettes into that wallhanging would be fantastic, and be a converenge of energies of our Lake Champlain. So I snapped quite a few photos of them. It will be interesting to see if I can actually transform this idea onto my wallhanging. Time will tell.

The first photo shows all the additional kites that were on standby, either I assume the surfers were resting or waiting to surf and helping some of the newer participants to the lake. Several surfers went 1000s of yards into the lake too. There were already quite a few on the lake f course, besides the windsurfers and the little sunfish sailors loving the elements. Spendid to watch.






Well, too much to do and alot to post at another time.

Jane

Coming back to post another event we were lucky enough to able to witness. The 90 mile race. I'll let the photos do the talking.