To-Do-List Tuesday 5-9-23

Happy Tuesday friends. How did it get here so soon? I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped…..the cardiologist put me on a new blood pressure medication, and I am really low energy right now. Hopefully this side effect will wear off, but for now, I’m super tired. Here’s what I got done.

1) More key fobs! I have 17 done and I need 32 total. Hmmm, I think I got 9 or 10 done. I have more ready to stitch, so the end is in sight.

2) APQ quilt along. I really don’t want to let this one drop since I have so many of the blocks made. I’m making slow and steady progress on this one. I try to cut a few blocks each morning before I leave the house, then I can get some stitching done in the evening if I’m not too tired.

3) Clean off my dining room table. I don’t know why I am putting this on my sewing list other than I have let mail and miscellaneous junk pile up, and it needs to be dealt with before it makes me crazy. Nope. I started, but it’s not nearly where it needs to be.

4) Temperature quilt. I only have January done, so any more will be welcome progress. I had actually forgotten about it until I unearthed some of the solid fabrics in the sewing room. I worked on it, but no pictures yet.

5) Work on cutting out cruise quilt. No

6) Get Planters quilt put together Also no.

What’s on the agenda for this week? I need to continue working on the same things as last week. So many of these are nearing completion.

1) Key fobs. I need to keep moving on this one.

2) Cut out cruise quilt. 

3) APQ blocks.

4) Temperature quilt.

5) Clean off the dining room table.

6) Planters quilt.

I’m probably being optimistic, but I’ll see how it goes with the medication stuff. Any progress is good. I’m linking this post to Quilt Schmilt.

Cross Stitch

I have done a lot of quilt alongs; in fact, I am doing one now. When another blogger announced a cross stitch along, I thought it might be fun. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know what might be involved, but I ordered the chart, and the recommended fabric and floss. 

I assumed it worked like a quilt along with weekly prompts and maybe an instagram tag where stitchers could post pictures of their progress. It apparently doesn’t work that way, and there hasn’t been much impetus for me to work on the project. 

I found it a couple of days ago in my project bag—you can tell I had wadded it up and stuck it in the bag.

What a mess! I needed to decide whether to scrap it or start working on it. One issue I have is the alphabet…..it is missing about five letters, which kind of bugs me. The other issue is the fabric. It is a dingy color which to me looks dirty. I like something a little brighter. But, I’d already spent the money so why not just finish it?

I put it beside my chair so I can work on it a little while I watch tv. I need to take my stepdad to a doctors appointment in Lake Jackson next week, so that is another opportunity to get some stitches in. I’m hoping it won’t take too long to finish. 

Weekend Update

I spent some time Saturday prepping things for when I have a few free sewing minutes. I cut some more fusible and batting for key fobs.

I should be on the home stretch on key fobs. Once I start the sewing, it will go pretty quickly--it's the prep work that's time consuming.

The remainder of my swap blocks got centers fused on.

They can be machine appliqued when I have a few minutes at the machine. I'm not crazy about all the thread changes, but that's part of it.

I had a visitor at my shop  Saturday:

My stepdaughter was out of town, and her neighbors called to let her know her dog was out. I went and picked her up and brought her to the shop with me. I didn't want to leave her at my house unsupervised, so we hung out together. She's half pit and half Catahoula, so a little bigger than I am used to, but a really sweet dog.

Donna picked her quilt up on Friday. Another heart one. I think that's the third heart quilt I have quilted for her.

She loves the variegated thread.

Oh, there is an exhibit at the Nave Museum I wanted to see and I went over there after Donna picked up the quilt.

This is the piece I saw in the advertisement, and it is just my style:

I love it! Imagine how surprised I was to find out this was one of two that I liked. Most of the paintings (two rooms of them) were painted with the guy's feet!

There is no charge for viewing the exhibits, but I usually put $10 in the box. I only put $5 in this time. I thought it was enough for a bunch of feet paintings.

Here's the other one I liked:

Today is church and hopefully work on my APQ quilt along blocks. I need to repot some plants, but it depends if I'm in the mood.

APQ Quilt Along

I have been working on a few different things, but I am happy to say I got all five of the H blocks done 

and all three of the I’s.

I know the light blue squares look a little “off”, but that fat quarter has been in my stash for a long time, and I was trying to use it up. There is still a little left that can hopefully get used up on another block.

I have J ready to go, and I also cut out two bonus blocks. Im definitely past the half way point by now, so it should be downhill from here.

In the evenings I go outside with the dogs—if it isn’t raining. Two evenings ago I accidentally threw Reba’s ball over the fence. Poor Reba! She was running everywhere trying to find her hall. I got her a new one yesterday, and she is a little obsessed with keeping it with her.

When she finally came in and laid down, she had the ball in her bed with her.

What a dog! It was so cute, it was the worth the trip to get the new ball.

Oh! Did everyone but me know this? Sam’s Club has the leftover rotisserie chickens divided in quarters and packaged as either four breast halves or four leg quarters. They are cold in the meat case.

The best part? It was $3.98 for four large breast halves. I’m not a dark meat fan, so this was perfect. The worst part? That’s more chicken than one person can eat in a reasonable time. I’ve eaten it for three nights, and tonight I finally pulled the rest off the bones and put it in the freezer. We have a church luncheon Tuesday, and we need to bring finger foods. I’m thinking chicken salad. LOL. I can go back to Sam’s and get the mini croissants, and I’ll be all set.

May UFO's

The May number for the American Patchwork and Quilting UFO challenge was drawn over the weekend.

I'm confused--or maybe I was confused last month. Number 8 on my quilting list is the Flutterby quilt, and I did that one last month.

Here is the quilt; binding and all:

April should have been number 4 which was the Hanging Gardens quilt. No worries, I'll do that one for May. I was a little undecided on a backing, but I have a few weeks to think it over and come up with something.

My number 8 for piecing is a String Star.

I started a string star quilt about 20 years ago, and occasionally when I am looking for something, I run across random pieces to it. I remember I drafted the 8-point star myself on notebook paper and stitched the strips to it. Here is the problem.....this is all I can find at the moment:

I really, really, really want to finish this one. I know there are more pieces, but I don't know where. I think I will see if I have any of the templates left, and if so, I may try to piece a few more blocks. If I find the missing ones that's fine, and if I don't, it's fine too. 

In the meantime, I never did finish my April piecing goal (Curvy Log Cabin), so I may just continue with that for May.

To-Do-List Tuesday 5-2-23

I’m still taking it easy as far as activities….no gym or lawn mowing this week until I get the okay from the cardiologist. I did walk a little over a mile yesterday evening, but it took me about 25 minutes, so it was more of a stroll. 

I worked on key fobs for a while;

I had stalled out before when I needed to cut more interfacing and batting, so I got some pieces cut and did the stitching on six of them. Then my daughter called and asked if I wanted to meet her at the nail shop, and off I went! 

It’s been a minute since I posted a Tuesday to-to list (or even thought about it), but it’s time to refocus. Here’s what I need to work on this week:

1) More key fobs! I have 17 done and I need 32 total.

2) APQ quilt along. I really don’t want to let this one drop since I have so many of the blocks made.

3) Clean off my dining room table. I don’t know why I am putting this on my sewing list other than I have let mail and miscellaneous junk pile up, and it needs to be dealt with before it makes me crazy.

4) Temperature quilt. I only have January done, so any more will be welcome progress. I had actually forgotten about it until I unearthed some of the solid fabrics in the sewing room. 

5) Work on cutting out cruise quilt.

6) Get Planters quilt put together.

It may not all get done as I have some other appointments this week plus lunch with my mom on Wednesday, but I’m leaving it here as a reminder. Any progress is good. I am linking to Quilt Schmilt. Happy stitching!

Moving Along

I had some sewing time yesterday and worked on the APQ quilt along blocks. I needed to make another F block and got that done.

I didn’t have any more of the light yellow I used on the other four—it’s been hanging around my stash for a while so I was glad to see it get used up. 

I need four of the G blocks, and I got three done.

Sewing all those little squares together is time consuming! I didn’t strip piece these so I could get a scrappier look. I don’t know when I will get the fourth one done, or if I will. I noticed there are a couple of “bonus blocks” on the Moda blog that could be substituted for any I am short on.

I will need to make five H blocks, and I’ve done two.

The yellow is a nice change. I just need to keep plugging away until I get all the blocks done.