Sunday, June 14, 2015

Flag Day

Today was Flag Day.  A day to recognize our Flag. A symbol of our country. Long may she wave. She stands for our freedom, our country, our countrymen and countrywomen who serve to protect our country. Did your flag fly high and proud today? Did you even think about what that flag means? Or did you just put her up because you thought you should?
My flag stands for freedom and for my country. She waves proudly. She's a gracious old lady and deserves our respect. When I see her go by, I put my hand over my heart in salute to her. She never touches the ground. She comes down at sunset because I have no light to shine on her at night. She never gets rained on because she'd not an all weather flag. She's treated respectfully and with grace and honor. When she gets ragged, I treat her with care and make sure she flies no more. My flag, my country. And I'm proud to say I'm an American.

Are you?

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Hot June

Yep, the month of June is starting off way too hot for me. I don't like it above 90 and already we've hit the 100+ several times. I try picturing myself in a nice cool place, but still it doesn't work. My air conditioner is working, but not as efficiently as I would like. I'm lucky if it keeps the house 15-20 degrees cooler than outside. Thank heavens I have a small window air conditioner in the bedroom that I use when I sleep at night.

Since my last post, I've done a lot of things. I went on a quilt shop hop in April with a friend. I stayed within my budget. Boy was I happy about that. We saw some gorgeous fabrics and some fantastic quilts. I picked up a few books and patterns, but very little fabric. Everything came home in the same tote bag as the binder that collected the free patterns from each shop.

In May, I went to visit my Mom for Mother's Day. We had a fantastic time. We went out for dinner and we talked about all kinds of different subjects. Going to have to do it again - we had so much fun. I also took a workshop through my local quilt guild. I think I have a picture of that quilt. Not the best of pictures, but it will give you an idea.
It is currently sandwiched and awaiting quilting. I hope to get started on that soon. However, I have a couple of other projects that need to be done first. I have a couple of place mats to make up for my quilt guild and the president's block. I have made 8 of the place mats for our community service committee and plan to make at least 4 more. They are simple and I can whip one up in an afternoon. I even haven a couple of those pictures which I'll include in this posting.
These are fun little place mats to make and while the colors are not ones I would choose, they do make for fun little projects. I would love to make a matched set but I have to figure out that would work. Maybe I'll just have to try it some day. Would have to pull my fabric scraps and see what I get. So here are are couple more for you to look at.

 This one has a bit more pizazz, I think, than the previous one. I'd like to make a few more like it, but the kits come from our community service and they don't always have any two alike.

This one seems to be red. It stands out like the colorful one, yet the blue one above has good points too. I have some scraps here at home that may very well end up in this pattern.

I'm off to find a cool spot under the air conditioner. Will write more later.


Sunday, March 29, 2015

March is blowing away

Yep, the month of March appears to be blowing away at my house. The north wind is challenging the allergies and the trees are waving in the breezy air.

Yesterday a friend & I went on a small 3 shop shop hop. Yes, that sentence is correct. We decided to do what 3 of our local area quilt shops call the Bunny Shop Hop. Clever, Easter is next month. The object was to visit each of 3 shops, pick up bunny parts and then in the 3rd shop, put the bunny together. Silly us, we thought we got to keep them. Nope, the bunnies stayed at the 3rd shop we visited. However, I did remember to take pictures of our bunnies. So for your enjoyment, here they are. I was hoping they would go
side by side - but I guess I goofed when I put the in, guess I'll have to re-figure what
I'm doing. Okay. Let's see what I can do. Never mind, I guess this is as good as I'm going to get.

They stayed at the quilt shop and we of course came home with patterns and fabric purchased. I bought one pattern and two panels. My friend's bunny is the right hand one. She bought several patterns, a book, and several pieces of fabric. Both bunnies have a bright pink tail. We left them sitting in a basket with 3 other bunnies. As we left, it looked liked they would by joined by a couple more bunnies. Once our bunnies were completed we put our name and phone number on the ticket that had come in one of the parts bags and placed it in the container with the others. We're hoping to win the prize which is a basket full of quilting goodies. Don't know when the drawing is, but I'm sure we'll know the winner by the end of the week.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Project completed

I have completed something this weekend that I started last weekend. It's a quilted bag.
I found the kit in my catch all room when looking for two of my "missing" projects. I can say that while I found one, the other is still on the missing list. Don't have a clue where it is. I suspect some day I'll come across it and go "so that's where it was!".

This bag is from a kit that I purchased many, many years ago from Better Homes & Gardens Club that I belonged to. I had not remembered I purchased this kit - that's how long ago it was. But I thought, what the heck, I'm going to make it up. One can never have too many bags to use. This one is 14"x12"x4" and is now ready for use.
I have to say, if I make it again, I will not be following their instructions. The way that the bag went together was a nightmare to quilt later. However, I really like the pattern and will most likely make it again - My Way.

The month of February is almost over and the month of March is creeping up on us. While I like the month of February, I don't seem to get much done. Is that because it's shorter than the other months? Or is it because I just don't pull myself together? Oh, well. I will try to do better in March. I have many things on my UFO list that I want to finish and I'd best be getting to them. A couple of them won't take long, and a couple of them will be works in progress for a while longer.

This month I did find backing for a quilt top I did a year ago. Now I need to cut batting for it and piece the back so that I can hopefully get it sandwiched at our next small quilt group meeting. Once I get them sandwiched, it's just a matter of a couple of weekends to get them quilted.

Sunday, January 25, 2015

UFO Progress

I'm making progress this month on my UFO list - for those who don't know, UFO is UnFinished Objects. I have managed to get a total of 3 tops finished - one of those is sandwiched and ready to quilt - and the other 2 are awaiting backing fabric. Although one of them does have it already, I just haven't pieced it. I have 2 more tops that are awaiting border auditions. Yes, you read that right. I have to "test" fabrics for the border. What might make sense color wise, doesn't always match. Just because I thought it might, doesn't mean it will. I took two tops to my small quilt group on Thursday and got some opinions. One of which I threw right out because it doesn't work for me on that quilt. The one that worked is now a completed top and waiting for me to decide on backing fabric.
I put together another UFO set of blocks this afternoon and while I have enough fabric left to do border(s) on it, they just don't do anything for the quilt or for me. I'm going to try something different with it and see if it works. It may also be going out on auditions.
I've set up a luncheon date with a friend for this coming Saturday. She used to work with me, but she retired in November and I'm anxious to see her again. We are going to have a nice lunch and then go visit the quilt store and see if we can find a border for a quilt or two.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Checking in

Hello!  I thought I'd check in and let you know what I'm working on. Last weekend I had a very lovely 4 day weekend and I got some stuff done. I finished 2 quilt tops and the smaller of the two now has backing fabric and batting with it and will be sandwiched at some point this month. The other quilt top is one that I started in 2010 when a friend & I took a class at Cloth Carousel in Winters. I have the backing fabric for it, but I need to piece it before I worry about cutting the batting. I got started on another top doing the sashing on it. That one got the rest of the sashing done today. Now I'm going to audition border fabric before it is a true quilt top.

The weather last weekend was way too cold for me to work in the yard. Today, however, was in the 50-55 degree bracket and it felt good to be outside working for a bit of the afternoon. The majority of the leaves in the front yard are now in the yard waste bin waiting to be picked up on Monday. Bad news is that now the front yard looks like it needs mowing and weeding. Oh, well, maybe another day since it's now dark outside.

Had a rough week at work this past one and I'm hoping that this coming one will be better. Hope so - don't know that I want to tackle two bad weeks one right after the other. I'm keeping my mental fingers crossed since I can't work with them physically crossed.

Off to work on some more of my UFO projects and maybe see if I can find some border fabric for the one I just finished the sashing. Or maybe I'll work on another UFO. I have enough that I can pick and choose right now. Or maybe I'll find a good book and read for a while. Later!

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy New Year

Okay! We've survived the New Year coming in - I was in bed asleep when it clicked over to 2015. My eyelids just couldn't stay up any longer. Besides, it's hard to party with just myself.

I've challenged myself this year on my UFO listing. I'm going to attempt to finish more than I start and make those that are not yet tops, into tops. Of course, this means I need to get busy. I am already into the second day of the  new year and haven't done a darn thing off that list.

I'm going to attempt to be better at entering paragraphs on my blog. Lands only knows last year I wasn't so good at that. Maybe we'll be looking at the weather, the work issues, my Eastern Star travels, my vacations (once they are over). Hard to say. This weekend I actually have a 4 day weekend, Jan. 1-4, to work on things. So, first comes the blog entry which you are reading. Then will come my lunch as I'm hungry. Then with luck, I can find a UFO that interests me enough to work on.

Off to lunch. I may or may not be back today. The sun is shining and I have things to do.