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. 

Plants and Plans

It’s finally cold here, and we are expecting freezing weather tomorrow. I brought the plants in. The ones in pots. The Lily of the Nile and the fountain grass are in the ground, so they got covered. I don’t cover the ferns or the lantana as they will come back after freezing. My Christmas cacti have been quite happy with the warmer than usual winter we’ve had. 

Aren’t they beautiful? I have white, red, and pink. I bought the pink one last year, but I’ve had the other two a while. I need to find a bigger pot for the white one soon. 

I have been working on my UFO lists, and I think I have almost everything figured out. I actually ma list for things I haven’t started but would like to. I think this will be a productive year for me if I can stay focused. 

This is the logo for the 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have also been thinking about this one. I have a box of 2.5” squares by the sewing machine that I use for leaders and enders, and I’ve made quite a few of these 16-patch blocks.

I think I will make some kind of star blocks using the RSC colors each month. January’s color is pink. I don’t think I will do the Stashbuster challenge—I don’t care for the block they chose. Of course, I need to finish last year’s, so there is no shortage of things to do.

A Few Finishes

I am motivated right now to get some things finished. I went through some of my totes and pulled out UFO’s plus some things I bought fabric for and never started. The only problem with all that is that I wrecked the house. I really need to clean now. I made some table runners yesterday.

The one in the middle is made from toweling so I only had to hem it. The other two are the 10-minute table runner pattern, so also fast. I really like the fabric in this one:

This is a Christmas one that is also made from towelling.

It’s one of the items I had planned to finish before the holiday, but getting sick pretty much eliminated that from happening.

I found 30-ish of these blocks I started last year.

They don’t all have the outer border, and I only found a small piece of it. I went by the quilt shop as soon as they opened just hoping I could find some more. I can’t remember when I bought it, and I was thinking they didn’t have much left on the bolt when I bought it. 

Lucky me—there were almost three yards left. I bought it all! LOL.

I am going to try to make a few extra blocks plus finish all the ones I started. I want to get 35 finished and then put them all together. 

I did some quilting this week and got three customer quilts done.

It would have been nice to get the Santa finished before Christmas, but that’s one more thing that didn’t happen.

The two embroidered quilts were made by two friends. They bought the same kit, and then did their own thing with it. Both of them had nice stitching. 

I hope I can get this house cleaned up this afternoon, or at least make a pretty good effort on it. Hopefully, there will also be some stitching time.