Busy Week!

This week has been busy, but also extremely productive! October has been my most productive month and I still have a full week left. After meeting all my goals for October last week, I re-evaluated and set some additional goals. I took my list from the Sewing Center of my UFO's and decided to tackle the ones that were true UFO's - already started and just needing to be finished up. I came up with 5 more projects I can complete. I'll see how much I get done since I also bought fabric to make 2 more quilts. I did cut both tops out and they are panels with borders, so they shouldn't take long. I hope to do some more quilting this weekend.
Friday night we had club sew at the shop. This quilt is an I Spy I did as a 9 patch/snowball blocks quilt along with the Prolific Online Quilters. The nearest we can come is that we did it around 4 years ago. All the blocks were made, laid out and pinned in the rows. I just had to sew it into a top. It even had the backing with it.

I also completed my last October goal - my last Swoon block. I am now ready to assemble it. I'm so excited to be able to lay these out and see how they look together. My block roll up is full with all 9 blocks in it.

Friday night was the only time we've all been able to get together for our scrap swap exchange. I didn't get many pictures, but here's one of the quilt Emilee made for Heather. I just love this and would like to make one myself.

Nicole H. made this box for Nicole B. It's so stinking cute and will look great in her new sewing room.

Gaila took my Mocha Meringue scraps and made this great wall hanging. She's in love with the Wonky Cross blocks, so she made a bunch of those. I love how the dark sets off the blocks.

On the back she used up my Wonder blocks in the center. The quilting is amazing as well. She does so awesome with her free motion quilting. She quilted around a bunch of the circles. I LOVE IT!

Sunday night after a marathon Fall cleaning session in my bedroom/closet, I set to work quilting Star Surround. It turned out so pretty.

I also put the 9 Patch/Snowball quilt on the frame and quilted it. Sunday night very late, Star Surround got the binding put on, so I was ready to do the hand work.

Tuesday night after looking at my UFO list, I decided I could finish up this little table topper of moms. It was supposed to have a pastel one on the back to make it reversible, but that is what was holding me up from finishing it - how to quilt it and how to bind it. So I looked in the bag with it, found the leftover scraps and made a second one.

This one is the exact opposite of the top one. I put them together with the batting and sewed around, burped it and when I get a chance I will do a bit of quilting with black and call it good. I am so happy I changed the project to make it work for me. I also made a second pastel one and will put it together with the other top. I just need to get the batting out to finish it up.

All week I have been working on the binding on the Star Surround and last night I finished it up. I don't have a clue where this one will go, but I love the pattern, it used up scraps, and it turned out so pretty.

Last night I only had 1 in class for quilting as the others were busy and couldn't make it. So I spent some time hand sewing the binding on the 9 patch quilt. I also cut out a quilt for my nephew's birthday and a Dr. Suess quilt for Mathew for Christmas. I think I have decided to do quilts for both kids, with Minkee on the back of both for their Christmas presents.
Saturday Mathew was dressed for the Notre Dame game. My godparents are huge fans as both of their daughters went to ND. The daughters were my best friends growing up and we still keep in contact. My friend Amy is moving back to SD and I am thrilled!!  He's all full of smiles.

He's also wearing his new Wranglers from Great Uncle Tom and Great Aunt Helen! He's our little cowboy and has his boots on from Grandpa Hugh and Grandma Ann. He's got such a tiny waist I'm going to have to get him a little belt.

He's just so stinking cute!

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday.

April Quilting Accomplishments

     April was a slow quilting month for me. I started the Masters of Management program at NAU and getting back into the routine of school work, especially graduate work, kicked my butt. It's definately been a positive change and I already feel like I've learned a lot. With the APA nazi as my instructor, I'm learning the ropes of citation again. Every two weeks I have a major paper or project due in my Leading the Organization I class. Today was a project day, so I finished it and then spent the evening sewing.

My April Goals:
2 Thangles Blocks - Finished 5 & 6

6 Snowball Blocks - Ended up making 17, using all the gray rock candy fabric that was left. This is the initial layout.

Finish Essence Tablerunner - Done! I gave it to my friend Karen as a graduation gift for finishing her masters. She is making a wall hanging to match it.

Pink Cowgirl Quilt - The top is complete and quilted and the binding is sewn on. I have about 1 1/2 sides left of hand sewing the binding before it's done. It's for my nieces June birthday, so it will be done in plenty of time.

Purple Snowball Quilt - Changed to purple and white Jewel box - got 3 blocks of 12 done. Lots of pieces done too, just not in blocks. I thought the blocks were 16" finished and they are 8" finished!


In addition I made a few other things:
"Owl"ivia the owl was made for a store sample.

Made blue Keep On Quilting project bags for quilty friends

Made red Keep On Quilting project bags for quilty friends and a big project bag for me
Tried out the new 2.5" triangle ruler by making 60* triangles for a table topper/runner.

Made a binder cover out of Winding Ways fabric for my school binder.

Made the Grids & Grommets bag for a class sample for my May class.

Started making the Charisma quilt sample. The first border and flange are on the quilt.


I also had some other fun:
Shop Hopping with mom on a Saturday - 286 miles to see 6 shops
An afternoon Shop Hopping with Mom - 7 shops in 150 miles
Watched Dad's play and Paul helped with the barn roof.
Attended virtually the quilt retreat my friends were at in Wisconsin. I can't wait till next year when I can attend!
Virtually quilted with the girls on Saturday & Sunday too!

May will be busy with school work too, but I hope to squeeze in a few sewing projects.
May Goals:
Finish Charisma top
2 Thangles blocks
Jewel box quilt
Lego wedding quilt

Virtual Quilting Retreat

This weekend most of my closest blogging friends are all at a quilt retreat in the WI Dells. I had planned to join them, as I did last year when I got to meet them all for the first time when we went to OH. With the challenges my family has faced this year, I decided it wasn't meant for me to go this year. I made the decision in early January and things have significantly improved, but I had already decided not to go. I miss my blogging friends so much!
Jen and Regina wouldn't leave me out though! I decided I would do a virtual quilt retreat with them. Friday night after work I got started. I made 4 red project bags and 3 mini black project bags. These will go to my dear quilting friends. I've had them cut out for months, but just got around to finishing them. The Keep On Quilting logo was from fabric I got at retreat last year.


Then I made a bigger project bag for my UFO's. It's already been filled with my latest UFO from Sat. I used the Winding Ways fabric for the applique. I also used the teflon foot to sew all these, including the applique and zipper and it worked great!

Then I moved on to my snowball/9 patch blocks. I needed to get my April ones done and ended up making 15 which is what I had cut out. I ran out of the gray rock candy, so I guess I won't be making any more blocks. I figured out I needed 2 more after I layed it out, so I quickly whipped those up with the few leftovers I had.


Then I layed it out on my design wall. It's 5x7 and I think will make a nice throw quilt for playing I Spy. It's so fun to look at all these fabrics and remember the projects I've made with them. I piled them all up in order so I can sew them together in May.

I really wanted to play with the new 60 degree ruler I got, so I used the scraps I had from the Al Fresco line and started cutting. I'm really not sure how I'm goint to lay them out. I was going to go with random and then I layed them in the hexi's. Not sure I like them this way either. The pattern I saw had them all random in a tablerunner. I'm thinking mine will be more short and fat like a table topper.



Throughout the evening, I was texting with Jen and Regina and keeping up with their projects and showing them what I was working on. It was so good to hear from them even if I couldn't be with them. I finished up a nice pile of each, so I have plenty to play with. I saved enough backing and binding, so now i just have to figure out how to set them.

It was after 1AM when I finally called it a night, but it was so fun to sew again for once! It feels like I haven't been doing much all month.

March Quilting Accomplishments

March was an extremely productive month for me. I feel like I accomplished a lot, even though it didn't feel like it sometimes. I made lots of progress on finishing up some lingering UFO's that have been hanging out for the past year. I figure if I finish a UFO a month, I'm farther ahead then when I started.

March Goals & Accomplishments!

2 Thangles BOM blocks - DONE! I have a total of 4 of the 12 done, so I'm feeling good about doing 2 per month unless the mood strikes and I may do more.

6 Snowball Blocks (Quilt Along) - DONE! About 3-5 months more and I should have a good sized quilt for my niece for Christmas. I'm loving making these blocks. My brother & sis-in-law informed me on Sat. that she is almost ready to be in a twin bed, so I'll have to start making her bigger quilts. She's started to put words together into sentences, so it's fun to listen to her. Luckily we get to see her quite a few weekends in April, including this weekend again.

Paul's Wolf Applique - Although I didn't finish this, I got it out, traced out the pattern and started cutting out the pieces. I told him I'd be lucky to finish it by our anniversary. It's got a ton of tiny pieces to be cut out, but it feels great to have actually pulled it out to work on it. Some work on it is better than none.
Quilt Club Sandwiches Tablerunner - DONE! I had 6 for this class and it was an interesting mix of ladies. About half got done with the top. We had one finger cut with the rotary cutter, but that was the worst mishap. My mom and quilty friend Darlene took this class, so they were the rowdy ladies of the bunch!

Quilt Siggy Tops - Small & Large  2 DONE! I finally finished the quilting and binding on both of my quilt retreat siggy quilts. I love how they turned out and I'm so glad to have them completely finished.

Sweet Escape Tablerunner DONE! This class is coming up April 6th at The Sewing Center. It's a quick little tablerunner using a charm pack and a bit of yardage. I finished it fairly early in the month, so it's been a sample for a while. There's still room to sign up if you're interested.

Other Quilting Accomplishments:
Quilted and bound Objects of Desire #2 Tablerunner and finished the binding on O of D tablerunner #1

Attended the Wall Quilt Guild Banquet with my mom. We each won fun prizes and enjoyed visiting with old quilting friends.
Made a Pink Snowball 9 Patch Quilt for my online quilting friend Colleen & her new daughter, Annaliese. I love surprising friends with quilts when they least expect it and I think I really surprised her. Quilters are always so appreciative of quilts.

Made 3 Block Butlers for my mom &  two quilting friends, now I need to pick up flannel and make one for myself. They turned out really cute and used up some sewing themed fabric that I had in my stash.

Quilted Mom's Western Boots Quilt
This one has been hanging out since October waiting to be quilted, so I'm glad to finally have it done.

Made & taught a Rick Rack Road Class to Jenn & a few of her friends. It was a fun night and I've seen a few of the finished runners. They all look great.

Made a Fabric Bowl for St. Patty's Day


Made Paul's 5 Yard Quilt for his birthday. Even though I worked on it for the past two weeks, he still didn't realize I was making him a quilt for his birthday yesterday. The binding was put on tonight, so I just have to do the hand work now.

Hosted Girls Night Out at TSC, where I worked on a new tablerunner from the Essence line. I got all 12 blocks made. I cut out a baby quilt for my niece, but now I have to make it into a twin sized quilt. Luckily it's a large log cabin, so I should be able to make it bigger fairly easily.

My stash is going down this year. I've bought 3 yards, received 28 yards, and used 65.5 yards, for a net used of 34.5 yards. I'm doing really well with finishing up my UFO's too. I've completed 8 UFO's and worked on 2 others. I quilted 105 hours in March, which makes for the largest number of hours per month so far.

Other happenings this month included:

Paul's Large Mouth Bass coming back from the taxidermist.

Butchering with the family.
Checking out my Great-Grandma's quilts that were saved from my Grandma's house.

Goals for April

Finish Essence Tablerunner

6 Snowball 9 Patch Blocks

2 Thangles Blocks

Pink Cowgirl Quilt

Purple Snowball Quilt

I'm hoping to start on a quilt for my cousin's wedding. I have the majority of the fabric already bought and the t-shirts, but I need to come up with a plan and get started on it since the wedding is coming up.

We'll be travelling a couple of the weekends in April, so I won't get a whole lot done on the weekends. Mom and I are going on a shop hop, so I'm hoping to get a few new finds to bring home.

Snowball Quilt Along

Today was a productive day! We stayed home all day, which gave me lots of time to do things I normally don't get to do. I started the day with making Eggs in the Hole for breakfast.  They were deamed great and we'll be having them again. I picked up Pioneer Woman's new cookbook this week and made a list of all the ingredients I needed to make several of the recipes. Paul and I went grocery shopping for the things last night, so I could cook all day today! After breakfast I started laundry, then set down and made my 9 patches and snowballs for the Quilt Along. I have 18 done so far and figure it will take me 3-5 months to finish it. I'll finish it by Christmas and give it as a gift. I'm making it to be an ISPY quilt.


I put them all on the design wall to see how it would look and then put them away until April.

I started working on some block butlers before lunch and I got about half done when Paul woke up from his nap. I headed up to the kitchen to start cooking. I made dough, cinnamon rolls, and Red Velvet cake, all within a 4 hour period. The kitchen looked like a tornado went through, but in the end I had lots of fun and we had some pretty spicy Calzones for supper. The Red Velvet cake was quite the undertaking, but although a bit dry, it is pretty good, though really sweet. The cinnamon roll batch made a lot of rolls! I think I have about 70 made. I did freeze some though. All the recipes were from the PW cookbook and very easy to follow.
After supper I started printing out the pictures for my quilt journal. I have 75+ quilt pictures to print since August when I did it last. I got about half done before quitting for the night. I finished up the block butlers and then loaded my siggy quilt on the frame. I'm hoping to get it quilted tomorrow.


I feel so good about all I accomplished and look forward to being able to sew tomorrow.