Beginning March

(Yahoo images)

I leapt right over the end of February and into March.

I hope your month is starting out well.

Mine has a productive beginning.

I have the first goal of March already crossed off. I finished two pairs of pajama bottoms that have been cut out for a couple of weeks. These will go to boys in different families, cousins, but they are the same size. I had just enough fabric to get them both. I now have three of 13 pairs done. The only thing I didn't do was pull the elastic through the waist. I'll do that closer to Christmas. I did hem them, but they are long anyway, so I'm not worried about that.

I've begun quilting on the adorable "House" quilt again.

I had originally planned it for a finish in A Lovely Year of Finishes, but the task was too big to finish in one month and because I didn't meet the goal, quite honestly, I lost interest in it. It has remained on the quilt rack with very little attention until this month. I'm planning on devoting a minimum of 30 minutes per day toward the goal of hand quilting it. This is one of the UFOs I want to finish this year.

It will share the place with Bethlehem on the goal list. When it is finished, Bethlehem will go on the rack to be hand quilted.

So onward. To the finish.

Thanks for stopping by.

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February Goal List

This was my February goal list.

1. At least one Christmas/birthday gift per month.

Smallest pj bottoms are done and 10 of 13 tshirts have been purchased.

There are 2 more pairs cut out to be sewn.

2.  UFOs/WIP 

 

Patriotic Mystery row quilt.

Top is finished, label is finished.

Need to get batting and backing, then ready to be quilted.

3.  Wool BOM 

Blocks have been trimmed and placement has been decided - of course I changed up the layout :)

Trying to decide if I want to stitch a border. Getting "yes" from my followers :)

4.  UFOs/WIP 

 

Quilter's Garden

My little wall hanging has grown into a quilt top. Label is finished. 

Need batting, have the backing.

5.  LACE CABINS - BOM

Background fabrics assembled, design drawn and colored. Just needs to be stitched.

Fabrics have been chosen for the other four blocks.

6. UFOs/WIP

 

Spring Row-Along

Progress made on stitching the picket fence and making the outer-most border.

7.  VINTAGE FARM GIRL BOM 

I think this is block number five in this series.

Adorable :) 

I think this is my favorite so far.

8. UFOs/WIP

Another block has been finished.

Scrap Vortex Blocks - Quilt As You Go 

9. (new)

Mini Counted Crosstitch

Not a lot of progress, but every stitch counts and I'm just not pushing myself very hard on this one.

10. UFOs/WIP

12 Days of Christmas 

Bethlehem

Top is assemble, sandwiched and ready to quilt. It goes on the rack after the Little Houses are done (and I worked on that on Saturday). I've designed the label, but want to stitch at least part of it.

So I managed to do a little more than just touch all of my goals for February.

Thanks for your moral support and feedback - it all helps to keep me motivated and productive.

Working on another goal

I have finally decided to pull the Wool BOM project back and try to get it finished.

I moved things around from the original pattern because one of the blocks for the corners isn't stitched at an angle. I can still use it, I just have to put it in a different corner and that forced other blocks to move.

I'm leaning toward the second layout (bottom photo). My background fabric is a satin brocade that BF gifted me from her mom's stash. Mom was supposed to do this project with BF, but passed away suddenly and I volunteered to assume her space.

My next decision is to try and figure out if I want to do a stitched border. There are four designs to choose from, but with my background fabric I'm just not seeing it.

These are my choices and they will be embroidered and wool appliqued.

They are beautiful and BF chose to do #1 on hers and it's turning out gorgeous, but she's doing hers on a cream background to match her blocks. 

So I'm going to leave my laid out and see how it feels for a bit and find something else to occupy my mind for a bit :)

Feel free to weigh in, your opinions will be appreciated :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Unplanned days

I did have plans today - go to Mom's. But Mother Nature had other ideas, so after conferring with Honey Do it was decided that I would just stay home.

This was about 3 p.m. and then it stopped early evening and the sky was clear and filled with stars.

I spent a relaxing morning working on my Bible Study, laundry, household chores. 

 

I designed the quilt labels for Bethlehem and Quilter's Garden.

Then I proceeded to make.

Quilter's Garden top is finished and just needs sandwiched and quilted.

Bethlehem is sandwiched and just needs quilted.

I spent the afternoon working on my Patriotic quilt.

The top is officially done !!!!

 

Finished size:  72 x 96 inches. I decided to finish it different from the instructions just because of how big it got.

And so is the label :)

I am absolutely thrilled with the productivity I've had this month. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Dance !!!!!

(from Yahoo)

Met BF for breakfast and our "?" get-together. We don't get to meet up as often as we like, so we don't have a set time frame, however we do try at least every other week. We have breakfast and some fellowship time, then head over to JoAnn's and use their classroom to get some "together" work done.

Anyway, we accomplished a lot !!!!

This is a really bad picture, but we got Bethlehem sandwiched !!!

Then we moved on to work on a flannel quilt she's making from scraps. We sandwiched that one about a month ago and I suggested we spend as much time as we could tying it. She was absolutely thrilled. So we are going to try and get togehter at least every other week to get that one finished and see what else we can accomplish. 

The mailman visited while I was out. I got gorgeous squishy mail . . . 

Hometown Girl designed by Pat Sloan

I don't often get to purchase fabric this way - all bundled and prettily packaged. But in June (I think that's the date) there is a new quilt along with Jacquelynne Steves using this fabric. I love Jacquelynne's designs and this fabric is being used and I fell in love with it too. So new quilt on the horizon :)

Another wonderful surprise . . .

A new pattern from Allie Harmon.

You have to hurry, this one is FREE but only until March 20. Can't wait to work on this one. It is the perfect little finish in-between those larger, quilt size projects. I think it's just adorable. Thank you, Allie :)

Allie and I are neighbors so to speak. She posted that they are expecting 6-10 inches of snow. We have rain today. So much so, that I was looking of Noah's ark to lease.

my backyard !!!!

Our snow is coming on Thursday - sounds like it might be a good day to stay home and work on a quilt :)

Thanks for stopping by.

It's getting finished . . .

 I started working on Quilter's Garden about a week ago. . . laying it out, trying to figure out where to put the blocks I had to work with. You see, it was supposed to be a row of each design. I joined the swap in 2014 (I can't remember what month but think it was about August and ran until April, 2015). I chose from the beginning to do one block for myself and one to swap, which was the requirement. I didn't want to do an entire row because, well it was my first time, but I was also stitching Bethlehem and really wanted to keep that one current.

Deanna is a wonderful designer and hostess for these swaps. Quite honestly, I admire all of you that do this because it's a lot of work to keep all of us straight and headed in the right direction !!!!

I promised myself that I would finish more UFOs than I began new projects. Honestly, I've been a little hesitant to work on the quilts because the finishing just isn't my strong suit. Having said that, I love that I have three quilts completely finished and will be finishing more this year. But for now, another top is finished.

This isn't the best picture, but it's the best I can do for now.

Quilter's Garden

On the new project front, of which I'm already behind, come these cuties :)

They are call Calendar Girls.

Aren't they sweet?

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Mr. Ornery - loves this spring-like weather :)

Good start to my week

(Yahoo images)

The worst thing I can do to myself is let my housework and chores get behind. So after leaders' meeting and fellowship this morning and a couple of errands on the way home, I dove in and got some much needed basics done. Vacuuming, dishes (no, I don't let those get behind), a load of towels (I don't usually let this go either). I dusted the door and window frames, and ceiling fan in our bedroom, too.

We've had some very spring-like weather the last week or so, so I'm starting to get the itch . . . the one that says start spring cleaning now before the yard work has to begin.

The list is already begun :)

KT's 9s are packaged and ready for the post office. They are late, but she'll have them by the end of the week.

Dinner was prepared, but didn't turn out as well as I hoped. Bless Honey Do because he eats it anyway. He likes fish, I don't particularly. So unfortunately, it doesn't turn out as often as I'd like. When I get it right, it's great. But more often not :(

I have a load of towels to fold in between seams.

Working on Quilter's Garden this evening.

I also picked up Farm Girl Vintage BOM.

It's my leaders/enders.

All in all, a pretty productive day.

Thanks for stopping by.

What did I do on Sunday?

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Motivation was in short supply today. That doesn't mean I didn't do anything, I just didn't push myself very hard. 

Taz and Nina woke me a couple of times before I finally decided to get up at 7 a.m.

Then I went to church, dropped off a prescription, picked up lunch.

I did dishes before I turned on the computer and tried to find some motivation.

I finally did. I cut and sewed the strips for binding Bethlehem. One more step in the process done. BF sews her binding on before she sandwiches and quilts. I've never done it this way, so I thought I would try.

After dinner and more dishes, I worked on my lesson for the children's program on Tuesday.

This took about and hour. It's now 10 p.m. and I'll be getting the rest of what I need for the leaders' meeting together and calling it a night. 

Hope everyone else found my motivation.

Thanks for stopping by.

Slow going . . .

Excellant advice :)

Sometimes there are things that you just have to do that are tedious and frankly, not much fun.

I spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon, cutting and sewing all these short strips together. Eventually they will be a border for the Spring row quilt.

To that end,

I spent part of Saturday evening stitching french knots on the fence for the spring row. This has been an extremely slow process but every stitch is that much closer to being finished. Unfortunately, this is still only the first half of the fence. I still have the other side to finish, so it's not going to be completely finished any time soon.

Thanks for stopping by.