Monday Already?

 It feels like the weekend just zoomed by! I didn’t get half the things done that I needed to do, and now that it’s Monday, I will have to hit the ground running. I did get a little yard work done, but not nearly enough. I think I will have to hire a lawn service, as I just don’t have the time to deal with it on top of the housework, my volunteer projects, and my quilting business. 

I had hoped to get my Trip Around the Countryside quilt mostly done; I got about one half done. I laid it on the floor to take a picture, and it was photo-bombed!

Here is a dog-free picture.

I’m a little undecided about it….I had envisioned one thing, and it’s turning out not like I pictured. I’m committed to finishing it though. I have a couple of patterns for 2-1/2” strips I want to start soon.

I also have a couple of layer cake patterns I want to do as well. I will need to finish a couple of things before I start in on something else. 

The dogs drug in a bunch of dirt, and I had to clean my floors yesterday, but I still need to dust and clean bathrooms. That needs to happen today. I am going to try and get a pedicure this morning. Exercise class is cancelled today, so I have an extra hour. Whatever happens, it won’t be as busy as last week.

Progress!

I started on the shop hop quilt and got the first quadrant done.

I should be able to make some more progress today after church. Unless I decide to do yard work. We will see.

I got a customer quilt finished and trimmed yesterday.

Isn’t it cute? I hope Susan is pleased with it. 

I forgot to post these pictures I took during my shop hop trip.

These were taken outside Yorktown. Yes, we Texans love our bluebonnets. 

Shop Hopping

 

The shop hop was pretty low key for me this year. We went to Yorktown and Shiner on Thursday, and then Victoria and Ganado were on Friday. I opted not to go to Floresville as it is too far out of the way, and I have done enough driving this week. In the past, the shops have each had a different “featured” quilt, and you could purchase their kits. This year, there is only one pattern: Trip Around the Countryside by Moda. Each shop had bundles of three half-yard cuts, and you needed to buy one from each shop (five total) to make the quilt. Since I didn’t go to Floresville, I bought two bundles in Yorktown. Here are the ones I got Thursday: 

And the ones from Friday:

I ended up eliminating two of them because they didn’t work well with the others.

The hardest part was picking the bundles; each shop had several different combinations. They had all sent the other shops three half yards to piece their samples. Here are a few of the shop samples:

They were all so different. I think everyone who makes one will have a unique quilt depending on which bundles they chose and how they laid them out. I am hoping we will see some pictures of the finished customer quilts.

Friday…..Finally

 

It’s been a totally crazy week. I have barely had time to catch my breath. It started with a birthday party for my favorite nine-years old.

My mom is on the left. We took her out for a meal on Monday. It was her birthday—81, I think. 

On Tuesday, my church group hosted the Cade Middle School Kindness Club for some comforter tacking. They had contacted us and asked if they could help to earn service hours. It was so much fun, and they enjoyed it too. They have already asked if they can come back in May and help again. I think there were around 50 of them.

We showed them how to tie comforters with crochet thread.

And how to stuff the pillows and whip stitch them closed.

We also had snacks for them.

Those were a big hit. We had gotten together on Monday afternoon and set everything up, including making the lemonade, and putting individual portions of snacks into the small baggies. I know we all hear negative things about today’s kids, but they were so polite and cooperative. They thanked us and told us how much they enjoyed it. The sixth graders had a little trouble staying on task, but the seventh and eighth graders worked hard and finished up quite a few of the comforters. I thought I had a picture of the finished stacks, but I guess I lost it. 

Wednesday, I went to the eye doctor in Lake Jackson. That was an all-day trip. The highlight was this:

Oh how I miss Luby’s. I make it a point to go when I have to make a trip to Lake Jackson, but my trips are getting more and more infrequent.

Yesterday and today were/are the local quilt stores shop hop. I will do a post on that tomorrow (I hope).

Retreat Gifts

 It’s time to pre-pay my quilt retreat/cruise that’s coming up in June, and I got to thinking about little gifts for the other retreaters. Do people still do that? I have t been on an actual retreat for about ten years. Seriously! I am out of practice!

I was thinking of several things, and then I had a brainstorm. I posted a free pattern in August 2021. Wrist key fobs! 

Fast and easy, and not too pricey; in other words, perfect. Perfect for a cruise too as you can get a hole punched in your sea pass card and keep it on the key chain. I made a prototype.o

I eyeballed the stitching and I’m not completely satisfied with it. I made a second one and changed the stitching……I like it better, but I forgot to take a picture.

After making these, I had a second brainstorm and order cotton webbing in black and gray.

I ordered a Kaffe ribbon pack some time ago and have been saving it for the right project.

It’s narrow enough to sew onto the webbing…..I’m going to try that next. 

If you’ve been on a retreat lately, leave a comment and let me know if everyone brought gifts, and what they were.

March UFO Goals

Sometimes I am a goofball. I saw the American Patchwork and Quilting UFO number for March and thought I saw a "1".

Nope. It is actually two ones. I had already pulled my number one projects and located pictures of them so I could do a blog post, and then on the Facebook page for APQS, I noticed everyone was talking about their number 11's. I hadn't actually done anything with mine yet, so it is pretty easy to switch gears and pull the correct ones. 

My number 11 for quilting in this string quilt:

This one has been around for a long time.....I need to figure out a backing fabric so I can get it done, although it won't happen this week, and probably not next week either. Before I quilt it, I would like to get the binding put onto last month's so I can cross it off my list.

My number 11 for piecing was "charity quilt". 

I have a stack of one-yard fabrics coordinated into groups of three (for the 3-yard quilt patterns), so I can just pick one and get the cutting done.

My last month piecing project was "Wistful, and I still haven't finished it. I'm not sure what will happen with that one. I think I need to be in the mood to work on it, and I clearly am not. I will just skip it until I feel motivated to get it finished.

A New Month

February is a short month, but this one seemed abnormally long. Maybe just because I am juggling so much more on my own since my husband's death. I'm pretty sure I'll get adjusted, but there will be things that come up through the year that I haven't dealt with on my own. Everything takes longer when you are trying to figure it out for the first time, and then I feel like there is never enough time in the day to do everything.

I did get this one quilted:

I used a Baptist fan pattern with cream colored thread to complement the traditional look of the quilt. And, now this:

I wasn't able to finish the binding yesterday; I had to leave the shop a little early. We are having Wednesday night church service during Lent, with a meal at 5:30, and I wanted to get home and take a quick bath and put on some clean clothes before I went.

Before I left the shop, I got this one loaded and got the quilt pattern set up in the computer. 

Only a couple of rows got quilted, but it's a start, and I can finish it today.