Whew..........I have been busy!

First off before I forget, if your interested in another QAL, Angela over at Cut to Pieces is having one called A zig A zag. Haven't decided if I will participate or not in that one. Got a lot going on as usual, I bet that is a surprise huh? LOL!

Remember those bright beauties I had cut out, and sewn them into that itty bitty twister thing. Well I cut and sewed 3 more sets of those together this week. (well only had to cut one more set, and all the white squares) Need to sew the borders on them, and then start twister cutting them out, and sew them back together again. Then I will sash the 4 itty bitty ones, to have a lap size quilt. When this is done and over with, I won't be doing another twister for a looooooooooooong time!

One hanging on the board, one draped over the chair, and the 3rd one on the table. The finished twister hanging over the top of the board.



Let's see I have less than 10 string blocks left for RRCB, I was trying to finish them today, and Jethro and Ely Mae, would not get off and stay off my string pile, so I gave up on those and cleared the entire table instead.

See how tall that pile is getting, that is 50.......I have one or two others done sitting waiting to get to 10 to be added to this pile.......I will be soooo happy when these are done. Never again!

Now that I cleared the table.......I finished quilting, and got the binding on my Christmas table runner, washed it and dried it too!!!! Woo Hoo!! That is one off of my PhD list as well!!!

Then I dug out my snowman one since I was on a winter holiday in my head, got it all ironed, threads snip, pinned together to start quilting that one, and I only had one little spool of really really dark blue Navy thread. Dang that isn't going to be enough, so I had to put that one aside for now, will have to get some thread this week to get that one done too. It is also on my PhD list.


Then as I was blogging or reading blogs the other day I had seen a picture of a quilt I liked, sooooo I went stripping, 2 inch strips that is. Went a little nuts, haven't a clue if I have enough, or way too many cut. But I cut out 100 white strips (wof) and 200 turquoise/teal ones from fat quarters. I have 4 massive chain rows to do, then I can start cutting and piecing to see what I have in my head. Here is half of them 2 sets of turquoise and one set of white,

 Got row one of the massive chain rows done today as well. I am loving Super Sewing Sundays!!!! Here is that bunch 2 sets of white and one set of turquoise.

 Well it is late, and I do have to get up and go to work this week, YUK, and Boy does my back hurt! Kinda sucks I cancelled my Chiro appts for this week......till next time.

Christmas is officially over.............

Yes I know it is almost St Patrick's day, but in our house it isn't officially over till something happens.  I finally got around to taking down the Christmas tree this weekend. So that means Christmas is officially over. It is in the box in the middle of the living room. But the alcove is cleared out now. That is all that matters.

My husband is doing great, got his last 4 out of 22 staples taken out today. He has at least 4 more weeks at home before being able to return to work. (Lucky him) I went back to work today after be off for the past 2 1/2 weeks........it sucked! I sooooooooooooooo want to be retired!!!! Someday. Anyways.............

I have been busy, just not as busy as usual in the sewing department.




Here is my new ironing board............HUGE! It is 23X75! Your probably wondering "Where in the world did she come up with that oddball size?" Well my office desk is made up of kitchen cabinets with drawers in them, with a plywood top. It use to be a corner desk, and just recently I made it all on one wall. So I needed a new top, didn't want to cut the old one in case I want to make it a corner again someday. So when I went and bought a new sheet of plywood, I had him ( the guy at the store) first cut the piece to length for my desk top, that gave me a 48X9 extra piece, then had him cut it to width, so I could have the biggest left over for an ironing board.:D It fits into my room good right now, but it is only sitting on top of the actual ironing board, and I want more stability, so I will probably be putting it onto a book case or something, still thinking how and where.....

Ely Mae strutting herself down the iron runway!

Remember the god awful green on the snowman quilt???
Well I got rid of that.....

I was trying to find something snowman-y to go with it........but the blue was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off so I tried to find something that would kinda seem like winter time.

 But that blue was waaay off too!

Back to the stash, there has to be something in these huge piles of blues somewhere.......Ah Ha!

 I had found this really dark navy print with Khaki colored hearts on it too. Since the snowmen seem a little folk artsy to me, I think that is what I am putting on the back, and it is 3 inches bigger than the quilt top all the way around........I was like NO WAY!!!

So here it is on the design wall with the new borders............much better than that god awful ugly green. I made this quilt about 10-15 years ago when I was teaching myself to quilt. Looking at it now, what was I thinking...........glad I taught myself a lot since then.

So I was on the No Fab Feb, and the Fabric Diet this month, remember??? Well I knew I was going to fall off for one day, just didn't know it was going to be this bad. I needed that green 1/4 yard in the top right corner, see it. I needed that for Block-A-Palooza quilt along. So I grabbed the pink too while I was there, well I started looking for some fabric for some backs of quilt, couldn't quite find what I needed, and the local quilt shop was having a fat quarter blow out sale, so I bought 60 of them!!!! OOOOPSSSS!Jethro said he likes them all, they feel great!

 Ok while unrolling them I found a few surprises too. grabbed two of these because of the turquoise little itty bitty dots, but when I unrolled them seen there are other colors on them, COOL!

  

Then when I unrolled this beauty. I love these blue and white flowers, hubby grabbed these for me, I got 6 of them.

 There were teacups and teapots on them WOO HOO. I love teacups and teapots, and these match my kitchen too. I need some hotpads, guess what I will be making next! YES, I scored on this one and didn't even plan it out. I even told my husband the day before, we will have to find some fabric so I can make some hotpads, didn't even think about that when I grabbed all these. Until I unrolled them. :D

 Ok this little mess is for the Raven stars quilt along, still have some light to cut to go with that tall stack of blue on the left. But it will get there, a few at a time. My daughter is a Florida Gator fan, but doesn't really care for the cobalt blue they use, she likes the turquoise and orange, so I am making this one for her for her 21st birthday in June. I will have to put something Gator wise on the back of it for her though. In time.



Ok now that it has taken me 2 hours to write this post, because the pics would not behave today. I am done and going to bed, no sewing for me tonight. Will make up for it tomorrow. I have 5 yes 5 BAP blocks to catch up on, and a layer cake block, 2 Dorinda mystery blocks, cut more for Raven Stars, Think about the Gayle Bong quilt, and make the back for the red and white quilt too. So something will get done tomorrow. Oh yeah, still stringy along with the RRCB, and those HST's are awaiting me too. No links to click on today, sorry. But the coordinating buttons are on the right.

My UFO challenge for 2011 with Patchwork Times

I am going to be very busy this year cleaning out my sewing room but this is what I want done, needs to be done. This post is what I am going to challenge myself to do while following Patchwork Times UFO challenge 2011. 
1. This is a black white & red BOM that I started 7 or 8 years ago, 11 blocks are done, need to finish the 12th one, then sash it quilt and bind.

2.  This one the top is done, I just need to have it quilted and then bind it, I made it at a retreat Jan 2010 for my travel trailer bed, out of scraps I had on hand. I had to buy the fabric for the borders only.

3. This red white and blue one, I actually have 3 of these. They were BOM when me and both my daughters were doing that when they were young. This one needs borders then quilt and binding.
One of the others the sashing is done, just needs to be pieced together, and the 3rd one, only 11 blocks are made, so if I get at least one done, I will be happy.

 4. This is Roll Roll Cotton Boll looks like a big mess doesn't it? It is going together pretty quickly, well at least the parts I am caught up on are. I still have LOTS of string blocks to sew, and 600 HST's!

 5. This is my snowman lap quilt, I have to take off that god awful ugly green find new borders then I will get this one finished pretty simply. I think the reason this one never got finished is I hated that green border so I threw it in the corner. So I am going to take it off, otherwise I still won't like it.

 6. This is turtle bay. I remember this fabric, but don't remember making this quilt, but it is ready to be quilted and binding, which is all cut and folded together in a neat little pile I found in the corner when I was cleaning out my room.

 7. This is my twisted lone star quilt, you can see 8 of the 32 pieced diamonds that cover the 36" wide table. This one isn't finished because I haven't decided on what color to put in that space next to the star....yellow, light turquoise, tan or gray?? Any suggestions? Did just buy the backing fabric though yesterday with a 20% off coupon at my local quilt shop, so I will get this one at least pieced together this year, it will be way too big for me to quilt it, so that will depend on if I have the cash to get that done or not.

 8. This is Bright stars in the night. This one came to an abrupt halt when I went to buy more fabric and they had every color but the orange........8 years later they still have most of the colors but not the orange. So I will have to lay this out to see how big it is, the blocks are really big, maybe 18" ones. I do have some of the fabric left, but I might be able to finish it differently than first thought, since I haven't a clue how it was first suppose to go together anyways.

 9. This is Giraffe Park.... I loved making this top. Cutting out all those applique pieces and ironing them on, but that is as far as I went with it. So I am going to get those pieces sewed down before they all start falling off, then I will finish it. I am saving this one for our first grandchild, who isn't even a sparkle in any of our kids eyes yet!

 10. This is a Christmas table runner that I just found today, made it some 6 years or so ago. It is pinned together waiting to be quilted.

11.a & b These 2 quilts are scrappy quilts I am making for another challenge as well, they are pinned and waiting for machine quilting. They may look identical, but they are not. I am now realizing looking at these photos, I forgot to turn the light on on the otherside of the room, so they look dark and washed out. No 2 pinwheels are the same either, forgot how many different fabrics I used.

 12. This is MOONGLOW. I started this in Jan 2010 at a retreat, got 12 of the 25 blocks done. Now I just need to do the other 13. I am hoping to get this top at least all pieced together before the end of 2011. As these 13 blocks are very time consuming, I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

13. Yes I know there isn't 13 months.....but this is Christmas pickle, it has been in these boxes for years, It isn't too Christmasey it is done in pink, red, purple and blue, no two blocks are alike, it has like 50 different fabrics in it or soemthing like that. Cant remember. All the curved seams is what made me put this one away, was taking tooooo long I suppose.