Category Archives: Guild Block Challenge

What I have been up to

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Terri | Comments Off

It feels like very little.

I have not had a physical activity day since Labor Day. 🙁

The 3rd I woke up and my knees and back were hurting so I didn’t go to Zumba.

The 5th I didn’t go hiking because I had a walking foot quilting class that morning and I would have had to be out there in the dark. After seeing that huge sidewinder track, I’m not dumb enough to be out there in the dark.

Here’s my little bit of progress from class

However, the 5th did find me sweating. A lot. I went to an outdoor Blake Shelton/The Band Perry/Neal McCoy concert that night and man oh man! I swear I sweated out a pound and a half. I actually had water running down my back. It was worth it though:

Saturday it started raining.

Mister and I went out to eat late Saturday afternoon and just as we were leaving to head back home the huge rain drops started. Before we could get out of the parking lot the wind started rolling in and you could see it coming. It was rocking my Challenger around and was rather frightening. It was also snapping tree limbs off. We had a huge micro-burst hit us and have probably lost my beautiful Mesa Palo Verde tree in the backyard.
2014-09-06 17.33.17

Sunday was cleanup time and lots of sewing and football.

When we headed to bed Sunday night it has just started sprinkling again. Thunder woke me up about 2:30 Monday morning and the day just got better. Hurricane Norbert had headed our way, and with all the rain we had Saturday our state was saturated. I sat and watched our pool fill and the rest of the yard flood and head toward our house. Fortunately, it never made it all the way but the roads around my area were closed, so no leaving the house. No Zumba. Thankfully, it wasn’t a school day for Mister.

Tuesday, I was supposed to have a hair cut but got a message from my salon that they were going to have to reschedule due to water issues so I headed to the grocery store.

Wednesday, yesterday, I completely forgot about Zumba. I had lost track of what day of the week it was, which I sometimes do.

So, now it’s Thursday and I’m sitting here in front of the computer and I really need to be sitting in front of my sewing machine instead 😉

I have been sewing on my Scrappy BOM Challenge, Wild & Goosey blocks, and Civil War tablerunner

One last thought.

It’s very hard for me to believe it’s been 13 years since that horrific day. I honestly don’t think about it much anymore, except for days like this. I know that sounds terrible, but I lived in fear every single day for 10 years while my Mister spent his last 10 years in the Marine Corps. It’s one of those things I try very hard to forget about being a Marine Corps Wife, but it is still there in the back of my mind and I fight to not let it surface or I become a wreck, and because of that I purposefully stay away from the TV and social media because unlike a lot of other people, I do not want to remember, over and over and over.

Comments Off on What I have been up to

Posted in Civil War Club, Concert, Guild Block Challenge, Wild & Goosey

It’s a good weekend

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Terri | 4 comments

Friday we hiked. It. Was. Rough! My knees weren’t happy after doing Zumba on Monday and Wednesday, plus it was 87% humidity after raining the previous 2 days. Next week I’ll be heading out on my own while Mister runs the route.

After our showers we headed over toward ASU for Mister to pick up a study pack for one class and then to the art store for his supplies for this term. I found a white charcoal pencil for marking dark fabrics and some perma-ink pens for labels. I love finding quilt supplies at non-quilt stores.

Then we went to find the Farmers Market. Boy, was THAT a disappointment. It was a store. Granted they had items in there that were local (meats, dairy, eggs, vegetables, etc.) but still it wasn’t the actual vendors themselves. I felt cheated since the website made me feel that’s what I would find. I didn’t buy anything.

During our Friday lunch out, where I ate too much, I decided I was just too tired to go to the movies. I was actually afraid I might fall asleep so we came home instead.

I spent some time upstairs. I printed and cut out several Wild & Goosey patterns and the remaining patterns needed for my guild BOM Challenge. Then I managed to piece together another Wild & Goosey block.

Later that evening I finished my version of Lizzie Kate’s Cross-Stitcher in Residence. I haven’t decided how I’m going to finish it out, yet.

I have a round robin piece that a friend asked me to add to then I’m probably going to start Sam Sarah’s Mystery Sampler. I’m in love with the fabrics and fiber colors.

Saturday we headed out to see Guardians of the Galaxy and do a couple more errands. Came home to a good mail day. Two reams of newsprint for paper piecing (I now have 3 paper piecing projects going), Dear Jane Quilt book, and my one and only Market purchase, The Scarlett House’s Hannah’s Brownstone.

Dinner last night was a treat. Mister cooked omelets. Yummy, and no cooking for me.

This morning I decided to do my July Red Scrappy BOM Challenge block. If you look too close you can see the red smeared a bit on the white. Bummer, but I’ll live. There’s a faint red streak on the bottom of my iron plate that needs to be cleaned when it cools off.

The bulletin board over my laptop is looking very pretty.

The icing on the cake of my good weekend is dinner at some friends tonight to celebrate a birthday.

4 Comments

Posted in Bonnie Hunter, Dear Jane Quilt, Finishes, Guild Block Challenge, Movies, Stitching, The Scarlett House, Wild & Goosey

Back to my regularly scheduled life

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Terri | 1 comment

Mister started back to school today. Yippee! This means I’ll know what day of the week it is again, and my life will be so much smoother since I’ll have a schedule of my own.

In addition to printing off 8 more patterns for my Wild & Goosey, and the remaining 8 patterns for my Guild Scrappy BOM Challenge, I made a mini-quilt this morning

That lovely little 16 1/2″ quilt is going to quilting class with me early next month. I’m going to learn to do quilting designs with my walking foot. Once it’s quilted I’ll be binding it in white and hanging it on the wall.

I picked out the fabric for my July Red Scrappy BOM

And I found another scrappy project to put scraps aside for. 6″ pineapple block

I’m really looking forward to seeing what all I can get accomplished being back on schedule 😀

1 Comment

Posted in Guild Block Challenge, Pineapple Quilt, Quilting, Wild & Goosey

Wow, the weekend flew by

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Terri | Comments Off

I can’t believe it’s Monday evening, already, either. I guess time does fly when you’re having fun.

Friday we headed back out hiking. It was so much easier this time. We got there 1 1/2 hours earlier than the last time and because it was a Friday there were fewer people so we spotted more wildlife. I saw the largest jackrabbit I’ve seen since living here, a chipmunk and this guy.

Can you see him? Right in the middle of the picture is a very well camouflaged Sonoran Horned Lizard. He was a bit camera-shy because there were some mountain bikers zooming nearby.

This weekend was my “Virtual Quilting Retreat.” For new followers, we treat one weekend a month the same as if we were driving/flying to a retreat. You can stay in your pj’s if you want. I tend to not. I cook easy meals, or try to use my crock pot, and tell Mister that I’m unavailable that weekend. It doesn’t always work out that I can sew Friday – Sunday uninterrupted, but I do tend to get a lot done when I plan it out. Right now there are 8 members and we “meet” on Facebook at the beginning of the weekend to share what we plan to work on, then Sunday evening/Monday we share what we actually got done. Pictures are highly encouraged. I want to figure out how to do link-up on my blog, so I can do that for people who don’t want to join because of Facebook.

My goals for this weekend were 2 Temecula Quilt Co. 4″ BOM blocks finished; August’s Blue and July’s Red Guild Scrappy Block of the Month Challenge; and get Son’s quilt binding finished.

Friday night was sew-in at my LQS and I’ve been taking the Temecula Quilt Co. BOMs with me since they’re all together in one container and easy to tote back and forth. I was there from 6 – 11 p.m. with a stop for dinner. I managed to complete one TQC block, get started on another one, and completely cut out the 4th (I’d previously completed the first one).

I also bought several 1/8yd cuts of neutrals to use in my Wild & Goosey blocks

Saturday I took a sewing break to work on a cross-stitch piece and to iron and trim out some of my scraps. These are 1.5, 2, 2.5, and 3.5 strips, bricks, and squares. The blue to the side are the strips I’m setting aside for Jamestown Landing.

Sunday I worked on my Guild Challenge and finished up the blue block

and then I finished Son’s quilt.

By that time, my shoulders were very tired, and it was time for HBO’s True Blood to come on so I shut it down.

I had planned on getting started on my July Red Guild Challenge block today but my vertigo problem has cleared up so I went to Zumba this morning, then it was time for lunch, then I passed out for a nap, then I went with Mister to Lowe’s for bolts for his new pull-up bar (and a new gadget for my Featherweight), then made an egg run, then home to feed the puppies, then started our dinner, did the dishes, and here I sit at 7:30 p.m. too pooped to sew! I may pick out the fabric tonight though.

I do have a couple of new recipes to share that are delicious. Tomorrow 😀

Comments Off on Wow, the weekend flew by

Posted in Falling Charms Quilt, Guild Block Challenge, Jamestown Landing, Wild & Goosey

It’s Wild & Goosey around here

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Terri | 1 comment

I had a lot of sewing time yesterday. I got started on my guild block not too long after I finished my name tag. I’m happy with my color choices and will get back to working on it later today. I actually got 2 of these units finished

I probably would have finished the whole block except Wild & Goosey was calling my name! I got all the paper piecing finished on it yesterday and put the sashing in this morning. I am in love, and it was fun remembering what projects some of the scraps were from. I did learn one thing, and that is I don’t have very many light fabrics in my stash. I have a decent stack of non-Civil War FQs and yardage that I will be cutting into when I start the next one. I haven’t decided how often I’m going to make one, but I need 80 total to make the quilt as shown in Quiltmaker.

1 down. 79 to go!

It left a wild mess on my cutting table, and I’ll be ironing and cutting into usable pieces everything there before putting it away.

I’m trying to implement Bonnie Hunter’s Scrap User’s System. You can just make out one of my scrap bins in the above photo, and I’m digging through it a bit at a time. I have a similar, more stuffed one for my civil war fabrics but that’s what I use for Farmer’s Wife so I won’t be going through it until I finish those blocks.