UFO’s and Other Stuff

The weather has been warmer, and it made my soccer watching much more pleasant. Our girls lost again, but they did play much better. 

We had a good turnout for the game. I also had lunch with Roger last week. 

He’s eating carrots. LOL. They were having book fair on the same day, and I offered to buy him some books, but he decided he didn’t have need any at this time. I think he was anxious to get to the playground. 

This is the picture from last year:

And here is Kathryn 12 years ago at the same school during the same week.

If it wasn’t for the grandkids and church, I wouldn’t have much of a social life.

I finally got all my UFO lists made. I made one for quilting, on for tops to finish, one for projects I want to try, and one for new quilts I want to make. Yeah, it’s a little too ambitious, but I will see what happens. 

There are only 9 items on the “New Quilts to Piece” list, but that’s okay. I’m not going to be able to finish all of this anyway. 

The January number was 2 and I did get my Day One quilt finished from the “Quilts to be Quilted” list.

On the other lists, I started the Twister Tote, and the Logging In Quilt is pieced, but I’m still working on the border. I’m going to try and finish it before I move on to the next thing. The Red Rock quilt is mostly pieced; it needs the outer border, which won’t take long. 

I had kind of given up on the “To-Do List Tuesdays”, but I might have to start doing it again to keep myself on track. I have so much I want to do, and I have a tendency to start more than I can finish. I’ve been that way all my life.

Yesterday, I decided I was tired of eating my own cooking, so I went to Tres Estados and got the ribeye and shrimp dinner.

Oh my, it was good, and it was a lot. A ribeye, four shrimp, rice, charro beans, guacamole, and tortillas for $15.99. That’s a lot of food for that price. It was more than I could eat, and I brought the leftovers home. I sewed a little when I got home, but I was too full to be super productive.

A Donation

I knocked off early to watch a soccer game. 

Oh my gosh, it was cold. I left early and tried to watch from the car, but I really couldn’t tell what was happening, so I went home. Kat was so sad when volleyball ended, she decided to try out for the soccer team. She’s never played soccer, but somehow or another she made the team. I think it’s probably because she’s so fast. She’s not a starter, but she does get playing time. There’s another home game on Thursday, and I hope it will be a little warmer. 

A blog reader sent me a quilt top to be quilted and donated to Mid-Coast family services. It was sent anonymously. 

It’s very pretty, and she included backing and binding. 

I hope I can get to it soon. I am so grateful for the donation. When someone else pieces the top, it makes it easier for me to get it done and donated. Thank you so much for your generosity!

Back to Reality

After two weeks of non-reality, I’m back in the groove. I took a bag class last week, Thursday and Friday, but I didn’t get very far. 

These are the front panels….I decided to change some of the dimensions and had to recut the sides and bottom, so that’s slowing me down. Anyway, I like the colors.

I finished the binding on this one:

It will be donated to Day One. It was a kit I ordered from Villa Rosa. I have another top ready to quilt for them. Betty pieced it, and I’m going to add a border to make it the required size, which is the same thing I did for this one. 

I got this picture from our cruise. 

I don’t know why she couldn’t just send it to me when it was taken, but she finally sent it. I had actually given up, but better late than never, I guess. 

Nothing New

I am still staying at home as much as possible to avoid the cold weather. I did get out yesterday to attend our January quilt guild meeting. The new meeting location is only a few blocks from my house so it wasn’t too bad. We had a workshop in the afternoon, and the workshop continues this morning, but I haven’t decided if I will go back or not. I had some homework to complete, and I wasn’t able to get to it. 🙁

Work continues on some of the things I have started and not finished yet. I got out the Houston IQF shop hop blocks and got all the roofs and foundations done.

I got them layed out and started cutting the sashing, only to discover I don’t have enough of the sashing fabric. I kind of had a gut feeling that was going to happen. Sashing fabric was included in two of the packages, but neither piece was over 1/2 yard, which didn’t look like enough to me. I went online and found some more and was able to order another 1/2 yard, so I can’t finish until I get the extra. Thank goodness I didn’t put this project off for a year or two, or I wouldn’t have been able to acquire the fabric I needed! 

I decided the Tula Pink quilt needs an inner border in a solid color to break up all the busy-ness. I love the way this purple works with the quilt colors, so purple it is. 

I’m tickled I already had the purple in my stash—it can also be used for the binding. 

I have been on the fence about the 2025 BOM from A Quilting Life. I printed out the pattern, but was undecided about committing. Betty sent me a picture of her 

completed block 

Of course, I know how I am, and my FOMO kicked in. When I was cleaning, I found a Sherri and Chelsea fat quarter bundle in one of my bins. 

It’s not the same one Sherri is using, but it has a good mix of darks and lights, so it should work well for this project. I also have a yard of a couple of the prints, so I can do a border and binding. It looks like this will happen, and I hope to get the first block done this weekend. 

Snow Day Sew Day

 Yes we did get snow. Not too much in town, although I think those that live out in the country may have gotten more. 

This was what it looked like at my house, but my mom lives outside of town and she apparently had more coverage. 

I can guarantee you I didn’t leave the house except to take this picture. What did I do? I did what every Texan does when it gets cold—I made chili! I had a bowl of chili for lunch and a frito pie for supper.

I got a lot done in the house in the morning. I cleaned and did some reorganizing. When I got tired of that, I unpacked my travel machine and finished the second quilt I had started on the cruise. 

It’s the Redrock pattern from Villa Rosa, and I used a Tula Pink layer cake. When I bought the layer cake, I also bought some yardage. 

I will still need to figure out the border. The fabric is directional, which is a little more of a pain.

My daughter gave me a heated throw blanket for Christmas m and of course it didn’t take long for the dogs to figure out it was warm.

Needless to say, they have claimed it.

Baby, It’s Cold

I’m back home now, and we’re having colder than normal weather here. So, it’s quite an unpleasant shock to go from a Caribbean cruise to 32 degrees. I’m sitting here in a sweatshirt and jeans wishing it would warm up. No worries, though. The cold weather never lasts long in South Texas. 

We had a great cruise, and we’re planning to do it again next year. We had a conference room to sew in.

I’m the one who always spreads out into all the available space. 

I finished one quilt top

and, I got all the blocks sewn for another one. Donna got her rag quilt finished, but she was going to wait until she got home to snip the edges. 

Donna and I shared a table with Colette and Becky. 

We celebrated Colette’s birthday on the first night.

I got up early every morning and walked two miles on deck, and then went to the gym and either rode the bike for 20 minutes or lifted weights.

It’s pretty well deserted at 6 am. 

We had towel animals in our room on two days. A monkey and a bunny. 

The dogs were glad to see me when I picked them up from the kennel, and we’re all taking it easy right now. We are under severe weather alerts, so we’ll be at home until it warms up. I’m hoping to work on the second quilt I started on the cruise and get it finished if possible.

Cruising

I will be MIA from blogland for a few days.

I leave today for another quilting cruise. I’m beyond excited. Between being sick most of December and the stress of the holidays, I’m ready to get away for a little while. This is a short one—only five days, which equates to maybe three and a half days to sew. I have my projects and my sewing machine all packed and ready to go. I didn’t get a picture of the first one, but the second one is a Tula Pink layer cake

and I am planning to use this pattern.

I’m not sure I will even get to this one. The first project may take the entire time. But, I want to have an extra project so I don’t run out of things to work on.

The weather here is disgusting. Cold and rainy. I made a big pot of beef vegetable soup out of the leftover rump roast. 

It was good, but I couldn’t eat it all and froze the leftovers. If it’s still cold when I get home, I’ll thaw it out and enjoy a nice hot meal! 

Monday Musings

 

Hmmm, that’s a good question. I think I was still tired yesterday, as I didn’t accomplish a lot. I cut some more of the strip sets for the Fuse Box quilt before church, and I sewed a few more together in the evening, but it wasn’t a lot of progress. 

Maybe slow and steady will win the race. LOL. I doubt it. I do have all the “light” wedges sewn together, and I’m now working on the “mediums”. I used an old Michael Miller jellyroll I had in my box of precuts. There wasn’t a lot of variety to it, but I wanted to use it up, and it fit the requirements of having 12 lights, 12 darks, and 12 mediums. I bought it because I thought it had dogs on it, but it is actually foxes. 

I did get my bags out of the car and took some pictures. I bought this kit which I can hardly wait to start. 

They had a sample sewn and quilted in their store, and it was really cool. It uses the large twister ruler which I have. 

I also found a really neat pattern

and an older jellyroll which I need to complete a quilt top I made last year. The vinyl is to make some project bags (when I get around to it!).

The thing I was most excited about—I found four colors of “Uncorked”. 

I used up what I had some time ago, and hadn’t seen any more locally. I didn’t want to break the bank, so I only got a yard of each. I have no clue what I will do with it, but I sure like it. 

I went to the mall yesterday after church. Actually, I went there to eat with my church friends, but after we ate I did some shopping. I was hoping to find some jeans. Something besides the Levi’s I usually wear. I wanted something more stylish, and maybe more dressy. I saw some cute wide-leg ones and tried them on, but I didn’t like the way I looked in them. In fact, I didn’t like the way I looked in anything I tried on. It was a total waste of time. I guess I will just keep wearing what I have. I was hoping to find something new to wear on my cruise, but that’s not going to work out for me.

Quilt Class

Janice and I drove to Richmond yesterday for a class at the quilt shop there. The class was the Fuse Box quilt 

which uses the Star 60 tool from Deb Tucker. 

The quilt shop was a little bit of a drive for us…..a little over 100 miles. They had a nice classroom. 

My workstation was where the red Janome is sitting. That’s my class machine. It’s a 3/4 size machine, and only weighs about 11 pounds. Anyway, I didn’t finish. LOL. Does anyone ever finish the class quilts? I got all my strip sets sewn, got about half of the wedges cut, and I sewed a few together, just to make sure I knew what to do. I’m hopeful that I can work on it soon. It’s not a big quilt, but it’s a little involved, so I’ll have to see how much time it takes me. 

Of course, I did a little shopping before I left the store and bought a few things. I know I said I wasn’t going to buy any fabric in January, but I pretty much blew that promise. Everything is still in the car. I was too tired after the drive back to unload everything, although I did bring my machine in. I can probably take some pictures tomorrow. 

New Computer

Well, my laptop finally quit working. I knew it was going to happen—it locked up a year ago, and I took it to an IT guy for repair. He got it working and updated the browser, but he also told me that was probably the last time the browser could be updated. He was right! I bought a new one on Black Friday, and I’ve been trying to transition everything. The problem is that the new one won’t communicate with the old one. It’s okay…..I’ll get there eventually. I’m writing this blog post on my iPad. It’s easier than dealing with the new laptop. 

The new laptop is eating up a lot of my time, but I have gotten a few quilts done. This one will be for Day One, and will go to a graduating senior who is leaving foster care.

I’m going to try and get some binding on it today.

I have one on the quilting frame that I need to finish.

That needs to happen today also. I like this pattern so much, I found the pattern online and ordered it. It takes 13 one third yard cuts. 

It has been nothing but meetings all week, and I really haven’t had the patience for any of it. I just want to sew. I have a class tomorrow in Richmond. Here’s a picture of what we’ll be making:

Mine won’t look like that….my jellyroll is a little different. I’ll try to remember to take pictures, but no guarantees.