Spring Row - House #2

Let me start out by saying that quilt piecing is not, I repeat, NOT my strong suit.

Having said that, this quilt has A LOT of piecing. That's the point, isn't it?

I cut out all the pieces Thursday morning before I left to go to Mom's. After dinner, when all my daily chores were completed and I didn't have to get interrupted, I set about putting this block together.

By bedtime, I had a new house.

 I know it's not perfect, but I'm ok with that :)

Needle-turn applique is frustrating to me as well, but the only way to get better at something is to keep working on it and that's what I've chosen to do with this project.

I still have a second window and the peak of the roof to applique in place. 

Then I want to do some embellishing.

I'm also thinking about trying the quilt-as-you-go method on these two quilts. I need to do some research and make a decision. I like the idea that I could have a quilt completely finished except for borders and binding by the time I get to the last row. That's pretty appealing :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Looming Deadlines

Who works well under pressure?

I'd like to think that I do, but when I must I find that I tend to make mistakes.

I decided that I liked both of the patterns that were offered as a row-along from Deanna. 

The rules are that you have to make one block in the row, post it and you will be eligible for the next pattern. I have the patriotic row done.

I spent the day working on the spring row. It's a row of houses and miniature quilts.

There were some tricky spots.

But I managed to get the requirement completed.

I also managed to finish seven nine-patches to use for future swaps.

All in all, it's been a productive day.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creatitivity.

A Lovely Trip-Around-The-World

 

It has been a semi-productive month on the crafting front. Most of it has been devoted to preparing for Vacation Bible School, which began July 20.

In anticipation of that, I made a huge effort to finish my Trip-Around-the-World quilt at the beginning of the month.

I did not have the label done until Tuesday evening.

I can officially state that my goal for July has been met, accomplished, posted and linking back to

A Lovely Year of Finishes. 

Head on over and see how many other goals were set and met.

I'm very excited. This is the third quilt to be completely finished this year !!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

It's another heat wave

Temperatures today were very near 90F. I know there are places that have it much warmer, but this is NE Ohio !!! We don't usually see those temperatures. Today it was just hot, humidity is coming later because we're expecting rain on Wednesday. This is that dry heat that let's you know it's just HOT.

I met BF this morning. It's been a few weeks. Things are gearing up for school. She has two in college and the youngest will be a senior in high school. That sweet little girl is working part time, going to a vocational school studying culinary arts and has rejoined marching band this year. Busy, busy. She will be back in school around August 18.

I was gifted with some things from BF's mom's sewing room. Remember, we lost her in January. Slowly and painfully, things are being sorted and shared. I was very pleased to be one of the recipients.

 

 

On the way home, I stopped at a little out of the way quilt shop. 

 

I found some black and whites for a new project BF and I are going to work on together. I also purchased another kit for the Row by Row Experience.

This is going to be a fun wall hanging. It has a humorous bent. But that's all I'm saying for now. There are other deadlines that have to be met before that one is begun.

I spent Monday evening choosing fabrics for the Spring Row quilt. It's a row of houses and I only have to make one to meet the deadline. So I have a couple more days to play. Guess you know what I'll be doing Tuesday evening :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

I'm baaaaccckkk :)

I have had an incredibly busy week, as I'm sure so has everyone else. I spent my week at Vacation Bible School each morning. Afternoons were spent catching up chores and trying to stay up so as not to have too much to catch up on beginning Monday.

Vacation Bible School is a lot of work, both before getting ready and during adding to the things that always seem to be forgotten and missed. I only had five volunteers daily to help me with almost 200 children aging from first through third grade, but they were a fantastic group to work with and we did so well together they have asked that I please stay on and they will continue in the department with me. What a huge compliment that was for me :)

The weekend was spent getting some odds and ends done.

We removed some dog crates and metal closet from the basement that we no longer need.

Honey Do repaired the shed door before he went to working on some new things for me :)

We had a stray cat taking up residence. Didn't need my dogs taking out after her and getting hurt in the process.

I did some packaging and relabeling for product for work for Honey Do. Honey Do made me some new utensils.

Aren't they gorgeous ? ! ? ! ? ! ?

As for the coming week . . . 

I have the DOD row alongs to get done before the end of the month's deadline.

I'm behind on my 9-patches for the swap, but they will go out this week.

Sunday evening and Monday morning were spent working on the first row.

Sorry about the wrinkles. My unmade bed (the sheets are in the wash) was the only place big enough to show the whole row.

Here's the close up. I absolutely love it.

Here's your link :)

While I was out Monday, and with the euphoria of completing this row, I went in search of more patriotic prints. My stash wasn't as robust as I thought it was when I signed up for this adventure.

I managed to put this collection together at JoAnn's - I know, I was surprised too, pleasantly :)

There's a white on white behind the blue stars, but you can't see it.

I also managed to get some of my 9-patches started and leaders and enders.

Some are Christmas prints that need to go to this month's swap. They will go out this week. I'm only a week behind. The rest are for the upcoming swaps. Trying to work a little ahead :)

I've also begun working on the label for the Trip-Around-the-World quilt.

I'd completely forgotten about it when I finished the quilt. I need to update the finish, but I would like the label done first.

Tuesday I'm meeting BF and Mom on Thursday. In between, my normal routines:
laundry, vacuuming, dusting, etc.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

3.

I'm not Superwoman

How hard was that for you to realize the first time? 

It was very difficult and was only compounded by the fact that I still had a really hard time asking for help with anything and everything.

I have learned over the years, that like anything else you have to practice, you get better at it the more you do it.

It's a little easier these days to not only ask for help, but to take it when it's offered.

I'm getting lots of help with Vacation Bible School crafts. God has blessed me with some of the best people I've ever worked with. Our numbers are few, but we are strong workers. And that will make this week of crafting with first, second and third graders very successful.

So much so,

I had time Tuesday evening to begin cutting out a new quilt for the DOD Mystery Quilt Along. I have a little over a week to cut out and put back together two rows. 

The first one has hearts and flags, the second one houses and mini quilts. I'm looking forwrard to working on this project. It seems like such a long time since I've worked on anything. Is anyone else in the norther hemisphere ready for fall? I think I am - for purely selfish reasons :)

My vegetable garden is a failure for all intents and purposes this year. Of the eight heads of cabbage I planted, the four red ones are doing fairly well. Not so much the green.

The carrots are still in the ground, but not doing great - Looks like a small harvest. They are the only seeds that came up. Leeks, broccoli and beans . . . nothing even broke ground. And they were fresh, this year's seeds.

Peas and tomatoes have been eaten by the deer. Although, Honey Do managed to find four or five pods. Rocky likes peas. So does Nina, but he didn't share.

I'm off to VBS.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

FNSI . . . the results

Wendy was our hostess. Head over for a list of everyone participating to see what they all got up to.

As for me, time always gets away from me. But here is what I got up to . . .

Assembled small keychains for first grade.

A boquet of things from nature. I didn't have it on hand, but the wires in the can will be covered with sand.

Isn't this little keychain figure adorable? I absolutely fell in love with him. 

Unfortunately, after watching the children work on Monday's project, the committee decided this project was just too time consuming for the time we have allotted. So we ended up just stringing wire to the ring and will allow the children to be creative on their own without too much instruction. It will be fun and freeing, 

But I still love this little guy - he's hanging from my Sunday School bag :)

We may just do it in Sunday School for something different for the kids :)

Thursday, I came home from my wool clas to find a partially finished baby afghan on the floor . . . a couple of small chews from Nina. In order to finish it I would need to go and get more yarn. I really haven't had the inclination to do that, so Miss Nina gave me the perfect excuse to take it apart. I made tiny blankets for the new pup, since he's always cold :)

On one of our forays outside, I notice the approaching storm. It ended up only storming and spitting. We didn't get any rain. But it sure made a beautiful photograph.

I hope you had an opportunity to check out the other crafters to see what they accomplished.

I'm off to continue stringing wire for Tuesday's project.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Un-motivated

This is how most mornings go for me, after Honey Do leaves for work.

I've done my devotions and it's on to checking emails. I have been really remiss in doing them all summer. I'm working on getting caught up again. So if you sent me comments, there will be replies. I'm apologizing with all my heart for being so neglectful. I've been so pre-occupied with a number of things lately and have been trying to keep you up to date on my blog. So you really do know what's been keeping me busy.

I have a HUGE time waster - Facebook !!!

I'm trying to get more disciplined with myself on how much time I spend just scrolling. 

It used to be Pinterest, but I can scroll through that one pretty quickly these days and even have blocks of days that I don't even look !!

So on to Thursday.

It's still pretty chilly here for July. Temperatures are forecast in the low 70s for the day. It really does feel like autumn. I'm pining for September :) That doesn't usually happen until the beginning of August, but these cooler temperatures . . .

I've made progress on my Vintage Kitchen.

The stitching usually coming very late at night after all the day's VBS preparations have been completed.

We spent out morning at the Wool BOM class and then home just to veg and get dinner together. I was happy to get my stitching done today.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

FNSI

Wendy is our lovely hostess.

Make sure you head over and sign up.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Down time

All the busy-ness of this week has caught up with me. Wednesday wasn't quite as productive as the first two days of the week.

I spent Tuesday evening cutting wire for VBS. It's not the most exciting job and it's very time consuming. I ended up with 220 sets of eight strands of wire. 

I've managed a stitch or two on my Vintage Kitchen block.

I still have to maintain household chores during all this prep.

I got a little help.

So for my "down time" it was still pretty productive. There isn't a huge variety of things, but big things got done.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

Another busy, productive day

Tuesday morning dawned beautifully.

There's a heaviness of rain and humidity in the air. The forecast is 80% chance for Tuesday.

Rocky and I took a walk in the garden first thing. 

 

I've been watching these buds for about a week and this morning I was blessed with the presence of these blooms.

Mom always had gladiolas in her garden and often cut them to bring in the house, shortening the stems as the blooms faded and keeping the vase filled as long as possible.

The bulbs were dug up each autumn and replanted each spring.

Mine have been in the ground for four or five years now. I've been blessed with the grouping multiplying each year, new blooms each summer and surviving our winteres.

I finished cutting out these butterfiles. I took them to church and will spend my day cutting more wire for another project and paper to wrap around cans for Monday's project. I'll have to make samples along the way.

While we waited for Newton's ride to camp, I folded a loaded of towels left over from Monday. Rocky decided to help. I also had a load of sheets, but those waited until nap time.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.

And we're off . . .

My week is getting off to a very productive start. After getting Honey Do off to work Monday, I started the washing machine and collected my next round of projects.

I cut out my 9-patches for a swap.

There are everyday and Christmas patterns ready to sew.

I moved on to draw off the next blocks for Jenny's Vintage Kitchen and Wendy's Friends.

Finally an opportunity to use the new light box Honey Do refashioned for me from a piece of the old box. This one is smaller, sturdier and a more manageable size.

Al that was done before 8 a.m. and Newton leaving for camp. The morning was spent at church with ladies preparing our crafts for Vacation Bible School next week. Most of the supplies have been purchased and we make up "kits" for each child. Requirements have been reduced to half, not because attendance is down but because the older children will be participating in a "science lab" and doing something scientific during their craft time. 

It's change, but it's fun and we anticipate they will enjoy it and it will be successful.

Letting things go and allowing other to help me is difficult, but I'm learning to do so. It's good to allow others an opportunity to serve. You never know the seeds that are being sewn or someone else's gifts permitted to shine because you let go and got out of the way.

I spent the afternoon cutting and packaging wire for the first day's craft. Dinner was simple and allowed me to finish the packaging. The week before is very stressful trying to make sure we have all the supplies and are ready for use. There's a lot happening all at once, so my "A" personality for control and organization is stressed out completely and making sure things run smoothly at home also becomes another stresser. By God's grace - it all comes together in the end.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity.