October Goal List

October Goal List:

1 - Bethlehem - Block 10

2 - Little Quilties - DONE

3 - Quilt Doodle BOM - Blocks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (on-going)

4 - One Christmas/Birthday gift (new)

Doll cradle for my great-niece.

  

5 - One item for myself (new)

6 - Rag rug (new) - DONE

7 -  UFO

8 - Snowmen block (new) - Block _?_

9 - Tilda quilt (new)

Odds and ends:

Quilter's Garden Swap

  mine to keep

Block to swap

Jenny's Holiday Hostess Table Runner

Wendy's Christmas Stitch-A-Long

 

 

5 of 6 done

Don't forget to check out these links:

http://desertskyquilts.wordpress.com/press-on

http://sewitsfinished.blogspot.com/

http://quiltdoodledesigns.blogspot.com/p/bom-2014.html

http://www.littlemissshabby.com/quilty-stitches/

http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/

http://www.elefantz.com/

http://dodmystery.blogspot.com/

Retreat . . .

¹re·treat

 noun \ri-ˈtrēt\

: movement by soldiers away from an enemy because the enemy is winning or has won a battle

: movement away from a place or situation especially because it is dangerous, unpleasant, etc.

: the act of changing your opinion or position on something because it is unpopular

Hmmmm... none of those really fit my plans for a "retreat".   The last one at least comes close - changing my opinion or position.

What's changing is that I'm spending too much time playing on the computer and not enough time getting things done - not meeting my goals. So I'm going to do something about that!!

It's the end of October - time to review the goal list:

1 - Bethlehem - Block 10 - haven't even started 

2 - Little Quilties - DONE

3 - Quilt Doodle BOM - Blocks 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (on-going) - I  have fabric prepped for several blocks, but haven't sewn anything together yet.

4 - One Christmas/Birthday gift (new)

Doll cradle for my great-niece.

5 - One item for myself (new) - nothing new here

6 - Rag rug (new) - DONE

7 -  UFO - not even worried about these right now. This will be my main focus for 2015 especially since I have so many quilts in various stages of complettion.

8 - Snowmen block (new) - Block _?_ - This is a series that BFF and I are sharing the patterns, but haven't gotten any new ones and haven't started the one I do have. Yup, back burner :)

9 - Tilda quilt (new) - This one I'm excited about. It will be sandwiched and basted in November, ready to quilt :) The top is finished and bordered !!

Odds and ends:

Quilter's Garden Swap

 

my block to keep

my block to swap

Jenny's Holiday Hostess Table Runner

Haven't decided if I'm keeping this or giving it as a gift. I'm very happy with it.

These little beauties are from Wendy. I have 5 of the 6 blocks finished.

 

I've got more than enough to catch up on during my mini-personal retreat. The first week of November will be very busy - and hopefully, productive.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a very creative day.

Retreats

 

  

I'm sure that caption brings up images of hotels, eating out, spending time with friends doing your favorite crafts. I've done several scrapbooking retreats with my sister, as a day away and weekends. We both enjoyed them very much.

But I have a friend, who decided she needed a retreat from the computer. So she is taking this week to play catch up with her projects and only spending time on the computer to answer emails that can't wait and post to her blog.

My question is, can I spend that much time away from the computer? It's not that I can't. I know that I can, but am I really willing? Most of my computer time is spent playing silly games on Facebook. Honestly, get into cycles where I spend waste a lot of time playing games. Then there are those times, and I feel myself getting close, when I get bored with the games and either look for new ones or just don't  play them. So if I'm going to take time away, now is probably a good time. Also, November is coming. That means Christmas gift sewing, most of which is still only in the planning stages. Every year I promise myself that I'm not going to go into the holidays all stressed out by what still needs done - yet again this year, I don't have nearly done what needs to be done.

So, I think I'm going to take a page out of my friend's book and take some time off from the computer beginning Saturday, November 1. Let's see how much I can accomplish.

Who's going to join me ?

* * * * * 

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Busy, busy Monday . . . Tuesday . . . Wednesday . . .

 Good Morning :)

Monday started off a bit frosty . . .

But that didn't stop progress being made in the garden.

And by Wednesday, the last of the broccoli had been harvested and the plants pulled.

There's still plenty to do, but about 2/3 of the garden has been turned. The unfortunate part is that we expected rain and got it on Tuesday and colder temperatures, so the ground will be wet again and slower going because of cooler days. The peppers are still hanging on, but this is probably the end of the season.

I spent Monday morning catching up my chores from the weekend. Laundry is in good shape, stew in the crockpot, carpets swept, floors washed, furniture dusted.

Tuesday I go to Bible study and just fill the rest of the day with left over laundry and attempting to work on my crafts.

I spent part of the day working on my Quilter's Garden block,

Wednesday I went and purchased the washers I needed for this block and managed to finish them.

 

This one is mine to keep . . .

 

This is the one I'll be swapping.

* * * * *

Even with the cooler temperatures, Wednesday morning was a beautiful day for running my few errands.

 

* * * * *

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Saw this on Facebook - all I can say is

YES !!! PLEASE !!! 

:)

Gorgeous Saturday . . . Productive Sunday . . .

I'm not having coffee with a friend, but I have had my coffee and on to prepping the carrots for the freezer :)

I went from two full buckets of dirty carrots, the ground is still really wet from all the rain we've had in the last week, to . . .

14 - 1 quart bags of chunked, sliced and shredded. We are estimating about 20 - 25 pounds of carrots :)

Not a bad harvest :)

In between all that goodness, I did dishes and laundry to keep up and try to make my week a little easier. We've all been fighting colds and flu symptoms this week, so it feels like I'm behind. Pops also went home, so there's a bit of an adjustment getting used to having my time all to me again without having to consider if anyone else wants to do something or needs something. 

* * * * *

So we spent that afternoon doing odds and ends: 

Sanded and primed the dining room wall . . .

patched several holes in Newton's room . . .

removed a sleeper sofa that has seen better days years ago . . .

mowed the lawn, hopefully for the last time this season - I know, probably not :)

This coming week I have plans to prime some more walls, decide on paint colors and clean carpets. Can you tell it's time to catch up neglected projects in the house?

I received another package in the mail today.

More 9-patches and a really cute stripe to play with.  Thank you KTJ :)

* * * * *

Sunday rose with aches and stiffness and not feeling 100%. I managed to get through church, but not Sunday School. I'm so grateful for the wonderful team I have to work with. By early afternoon I was feeling better, enough to do something. I really dislike just laying around. My hands and mind need to be busy. 

Each trip outside with the dogs gave me a small window of opportunity to play in the dirt. I have onions to dig up and dirt to turn over for the winter. I also harvested my rosemary.

I going to strip the branches and put it in the freezer, for the moment, the house smells really good with the fresh cut sprigs.

When I wasn't outside, I was working on my Quilter's Garden block.

 

One to keep, one to swap.

I know the deadline is quickly approaching and I didn't want to leave it until this late in the month, but you know how time gets away from you. I still have the applique to finish by hand, but it's a done deal. 

* * * * *

Thank you for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Friday Round-Up

(Rose Hill Design Studio)

It's Friday again!  This week went really fast for me. . .

Monday was spent catching up from the weekend and at the library printing patterns.

Block 20 - Lord's Prayer

Jenny  of Elefantz

Tuesday morning I spend in Bible study, the afternoon was spent with a final visit with Pops and taking him to the airport. When Newton came home from school, he helped me put things right. 

I did spend the evening working on my Christmas Stitch-A-Long.

Wednesday, I spent the day just basically sitting around trying to feel better. Both of my guys were sick over the weekend and begining of the week. It was my turn, try as I might not to get sick.

 

Managed to get two more finished for a total of four.

Thursday morning I made an appointment at JoAnn's  to use their classroom to sandwich my Tilda quilt.

Unfortunately, I forgot to prep the backing and forgot the batting at home, so I didn't get much accomplished. I also had plans to meet mom and her sister (visiting from Canada) for lunch. We had a very nice visit. 

I did manage to work on some of my 9-patches.

 

The new ones I received this week were my inspiration :)

Friday dawned with a little more enthusiasm than I've had all week. I got on my 30/30 bandwagon and started my day with my Bible study and then the laundry and some de-cluttering. I haven't spent as much time on that project as it needs, but felt pretty good with today's progress. 

It was warm enough to spend some time out in the garden.

Some of my carrots got to be a pretty good size :)

This is half of my harvest. I had two containers full :)

Nina LOVES fresh vegetables. She polished of the peas on their vines and ate more than her share of tomatoes straight from the garden. She thought she should help me clean them - for a fee, of course :) I have a sinkful to prep for the freezer on Saturday.

Laundry is almost done and I managed to finish Block #5.

Friday evening is going to be somewhat quiet. I'm fighting with a headache and chills, so whatever bug Newton shared at the beginning of the week isn't done with me yet. So I may just finish my emails and put on some Netflix and snuggle with my Snuggy :)

I hope you all have had a productive week, let me know :)

* * * * *

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative weekend.