Category Archives: Stitching

Rethinking my focus after January

For some reason I am unable to upload photos to today’s blog post.

When I posted on December 30, I listed what I wanted to focus on for 2018. Now that we are one month in to 2018, I have noticed that my focus needs to change a bit in order to meet my goals, and work on some of my WIPs from years past.

For stitching, I stated I wanted to work on 12 projects that included 7 current WIPs and 5 new starts (2 large and 3 small).

I started Oscar’s Corsage on January 1 and stitched exclusively on it for 4 days. I ran out of fiber! A trip to Vegas was coming (where I purchased the design and fiber January 2017) so I put it aside to see what I could find during 2018’s trip. Success! While the fiber has a different dye lot number, I doubt I will be able to tell where the new fiber is stitched, once I get back to the project.

Since I knew I was starting a new design on January 12, I switched over to a WIP, Death by Cross Stitch, and stitched on it for 6 days. I am still loving the fiber/fabric combination. I had intended to stitch it strictly from my tablet, but for some reason started out on paper. I am now trying to decide if I want to switch over to my tablet for the chart.

I drove to Vegas on January 11 and was too tired after dinner that evening to stitch. This would be the ONLY day during January that I did not stitch!

Friday, January 12, I went to Stitcher’s Paradise and purchased the fiber I needed for Oscar’s Corsage (and grabbed another – of the same dye lot – for Forest Flower), the overdyeds and DMC I did not have in my stash for Let Freedom Ring, Glendon Place’s Tiramisu (that I cannot find, but have the fiber kit for), Kathy Barrick’s Repeat the Sounding Joy, and a NPI to replace the one I swiped from another project to finish Book of Spells. That evening I started Let Freedom Ring and 20 days later I had to make myself put it away to start my planned February 1 start! I love this design so much!

Yesterday I started Chatelaine’s Desert Mandala after spending 2+ hours futzing around with my table because I could not get the highlight function to work on my ezPDF Reader Pro app. I have had this design in my stash for 3+ years and almost struck it from my 2018 list because I was so aggravated with the app. LOL

This puts me at 10 current WIPs, 1 planned small new start (Adam & Eve), and 1 empty slot on my list of 12. I am thinking of starting Adam & Eve on March 1.

My sewing machine time has had the most mental focus.  I am happy to say that I have sat at it several times and actually sewn!  I started a new tablerunner that I am working on at sew-togethers (right now we are meeting every Tuesday), I sewed the binding on to the 4-Patch Charm quilt (still needs to be turned and stitched down on the other side); and completed a community service quilt flimsy for my guild chapter.

As to my other goals – Even though I am not starting it yet, I have decided to switch Swoon for Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery On Ringo Lake. The color scheme I was looking at for Swoon will be perfect for ORL.

I have also decided to replace Celtic Solstice with En Provence. This will fit better with my long-term plans of making quilts for all of my mother’s grandchildren. If I remember correctly I have all the pieces done to make the blocks and sashing, I just need to piece them, and I’ll need to piece the neutral border.  Celtic Sostice will be for another grandchild, but I am trying to give them in the order the kids were born 😉 and it is more suitable to a boy.

I decided to not participate in the Scrap Attack. I also am not worrying about making any monthly quilt-related posts. If they happen, they happen.  I am working in my room every day for about 20 minutes before I sew.  I want to sew every day but there are other fun things that are getting in the way, like going to the movies with Mister.  If I do not sew in the morning, I do not sew that day and being “desert dwellers” we tend to do things outside the house in the mornings.

I also visited Quiltique while in Vegas and brought home a few more black/white, white/black FQs, and some brights to go into a future quilt that I have been gathering fabric for a couple of years; 3 quarter-yard pieces of fabric to make qsnap grime guards; a deeply discounted charm pack of Laundry Basket Southern Exposure and a cupcake recipe FPP pack (which I have already started into a tablerunner); and, a cute pattern to make FPP zip bags with scissors, spools, and buttons on them.

Except for the aforementioned zip bag pattern, everything I bought in Vegas was on a list, and it all stayed within my budget. I’m super pleased by that. I went to JoAnn’s the other day and walked out with 2  DMC skeins needed for Let Freedom Ring. I told the cashier that was the cheapest trip I had ever made. I am having no problems so far keeping to my needle-related spending goals, and am confident February will be a success.

Tomorrow I will may be doing my first flosstube. I am joining up with my BFF, who does them frequently.

2017 Year of WIPs Challenge results

I think I did rather well in my challenge. Below are the finishes I had, and the last photo is my slow-growing family room Sampler Wall.


Still working on organizing my life

Another Christmas is history.  It was extremely low key for us yesterday.  Harley had a rough Christmas Eve so I got very little sleep.  I crawled out of bed at 8 and by the time I had enough coffee in me to be awake it was almost 10.  Mister was in a little better shape since he crawled out of bed at 5, started a pot of coffee, then he and Harley crashed in the living room until I got out of bed.  Some time in there we took turns sitting with her while the other showered, exchanged our gifts, finished that pot of coffee, and then I started cooking.  My brain was muddled enough that I didn’t do a good job of time management and it was 4 before we ate.  It was good though, and this morning’s leftover cornbread dressing was perfect.  This is the first time I have ever cooked an organic bird, and it was so tasty, and moist!

Last post I talked about what I am doing for my stitching.  I finished “cleaning out” those buckets and now I just need to put things away.

Here is my mess, and the last bucket before I cleared it out. The last one was mostly kitted items and WIPs.

I have pulled out a few new starts for 2018, but I still have not quite decided how I am going to “handle” next year’s stitching. Oscar’s Corsage will be my Jan 1 new start. I need to go through my stash for fabric for Let Freedom Ring since it will be coming to Vegas with me.

I have started my final post for the 2017 Year of WIPs Challenge and will have somewhat of a plan by the time I post it.

Today I am dealing with my quilting.  Ugh! I have only done a paper sort for now to include the dates (if I know/can find them).  I know there are some things missing off my list, and they will be added as I touch them.

I have more than 30 with so many of them going back to 2013.  That freaks me out, and I need to spend 2018 getting a handle on them. There are large, medium, and small pieces, and those all have various degrees of difficulty.  Several of them just need a small amount of work to get them to completion and as I touch them, I am going to prioritize them. The list at the top (there are 2 pages) gives me the opportunity to mark what stage I am at and I plan on doing a few everyday for however long it takes me to get them all sorted.

I have updated my list in the upper left column to reflect what I need to start with, and will adjust as I go along.  Until I get everything sorted, I am going to leave the RÅSKOG cart alone, except to make a list of what all is in there.  They have just been tossed in and I really need to know what there is.  Frightening prospect though.

My main hurdle is there are so many quilters out there doing some fun things that I want to  join!

Now to come up with a time management plan so I can do all the things!

Looking forward to tomorrow since I will be sending time with my BFF.

It’s that most wonderful time of the year…

where I make a post saying I am going to be a better blogger.  Haha!

I decided this morning to just sit down and do a brain dump here, so if anyone is reading be prepared for a jumble of thoughts.

The sewing blahs I posted about in my last post (March!!) never went away.  I do not think I even touched Mister’s quilt after that post.  The sewing blahs also took over my stitching and I had a 4+ month hiatus from that too.  I picked it back up in November and have had a couple of finishes.  I had a bit of a freak-out moment a couple of days ago when I realized that December is here, 2017 was a bust on so many levels, and I need to get some things done!

I have been going through my stitching and pulling things out that were just tossed willynilly in a bucket (or two) over the past year or so.  I was actually looking for a chart and a couple of kitted items that I want to work on in 2018 so I could start making my plans.  I did start a tab at the top and have added things as I sorted.

I have 2 oval galvanized beverage-type buckets in my room.  One for quilty things and one for stitchy things.  I should add something somewhere to keep reminding me that I need to put things away instead of tossing them on my cutting table or in a bucket.

While I will not officially be participating in the 2018 Year of WIPs Challenge, I am going to continue the way I set up for 2017.  I am super happy with the progress I made while I was actively stitching, so I am going with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude for 2018.  I had 5 finishes in 2017 from that list (which I need to update). The big stitchy news is that I finished And They Sinned and it is framed and hanging on my bedroom wall.

Right now my guest room bed is almost covered with various stacks. I recently told a friend I would not have anywhere to put her when she asked if she could stay a couple of nights (we are traveling out of state together next month).  I know that if I pack it away it will just languish again for whoever knows how long and I am tired of shuffling so much of it around.  I am taking a serious look at my stitching stash, so I will be posting things on here and eBay in 2018.

There is still my quilting to sort out. In the back of my mind I have been thinking of just starting at the top of my RÅSKOG cart and randomly picking one thing to complete, then a WIP, then another item on the 2nd shelf, then a WIP, and so on in a bit of a quilting rotation of sort.  I have so many little kitted things I have picked up at shows, shop clubs, etc., that I want done, I just need to make a plan and get it done.  Some are mini quilts, some are little zipper bags, and other smalls.  Right now the only quilt items I have listed in the 2018 tab are large items and WIPs.  I probably will not add any of the small items to the current list.

I also have several stitching things that need attention at a sewing machine, so there’s a little crossover there.

My February OMG!

This has been a great month for me. I have settled back into the routine that affords me piece of mind. My housework isn’t suffering, the laundry’s always caught up, I’m cooking more often, I’m getting a lot of time in my sewing room (although it still needs a major sort out), I’m reading more, and Mister and I are back to spending evenings together (when he doesn’t have last minute homework) visiting, or watching our favorite shows (while I stitch). We finally have an appointment for the pad and carpet to be repaired downstairs, and replaced upstairs. My stitching friends will get a laugh when they hear that the bedroom carpet will be Platinum colored.

As to the sort out in my sewing room, I finally dug through the huge box of scraps given to me by one of my friends.  So many beautiful pieces of fabric, and so many 1/2-yard pieces as well.  I still have the bag to go through, but the bits have been pulled for the scrap basket I use for Wild and Goosey, and the rest has been folded neatly until I get some cutting time for charity quilts.

Speaking of charity quilts.  Today is the last Saturday of the month, and this is the day that I have dedicated to working on charity quilts.  One Saturday a month, for at least 3 hours.  For the first quilt, I’ll be making 10″ paper pieced string blocks starting with a neutral in the middle.  It took me longer than expected to go through the above mentioned box, so I’m not getting to sew 3 hours today, and will carry that over to tomorrow.

Here’s where I stand this month:

February goals

Baby Quilt – 1) finish step one; 2) cut background for step two
Lozenges – Make a minimum of 20 lozenges with February RSC17 colors (10 black/10 neutral corners)
Farmers Wife – Make a minimum of 4 blocks

Baby Quilt – This item was for my One Monthly Goal link-up.  I am beyond thrilled to say, that not only did I finish Step 2, I finished the quilt top! The longarmer has been contacted, and the backing should be pieced by tomorrow evening.

Lozenges – This item was for my Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.  February’s color was Teal.  I made a total of 29.

Farmers Wife – not only did I catch up, but I’m ahead of the game.  It has helped me satisfy my love of paper piecing. As I have gone through the scraps hunting for the perfect piece of fabric, I have been sorting them into colors (and ironing some of the worse off pieces) as part of my sewing room sort out.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So much accomplished!

For stitching, I have made progress on Death by Cross Stitch, and finished a 2nd round on An Expression of Gratitude.  I spent more time than anticipated on Death because it was just too easy to keep going while getting stuff around the house sorted after the water break, dealing with the contractors, and the repair to the walls.  But, I’m back to my rotation, and will probably move on to Houses of Hawk Run Hollow by tomorrow evening.

I am linking up to Elm Street Quilts and soscrappy.

 

 

What do you do with your leftover fibers?

During the process of sorting out my sewing room, I finally got all (I think) of my non-DMC fibers collected.  I keep them on rings by dyer, and those rings are looped on a larger Rule Your Rulers ring that I bought a long time ago.  I have a Command Hook on the front of my stitching fabric/fiber cabinet that I keep it on.

I was making a photo of my cross-stitch fabric for someone and tossed the ring of fibers on my sewing chair.  There are cottons and silks, and the colors are so pretty.

While most in that photo are new skeins, many are leftovers from designs already stitched, or they are gifts from various dyers, designers, stitchers, etc.  I have been thinking of just tossing them for a long time, especially since you can rarely buy a new skein that has a matching dye lot.

I follow so many stitching Facebook groups and one day I saw someone say they were stitching using some of their left over kit fibers so could not tell the person asking what colors were being used.  Eureka!!!!

I posted on my Facebook page that I was looking for a sampler to use my leftover fibers.  I had pretty much decided to stitch Jan Houtman’s Patchworkand wanted to see if anyone else suggested it, or something I had no thought of.  Yep, they did.  I will be recharting Haemmaeker to reflect the “leftovers” used for the design and the “DE” and “JH” also, but not sure to what.  There’s already a spot for a date on the left side just barely above “Haemmaeker.”

So, I have started a new stitching Facebook group.  If you are interested in doing the same thing, you are more than welcome to join us at Ort Sampler Stitchers.

One down, eleven to go!

Wow, January 31, already!  Just when I think I have a handle on things, the month is gone.  It’s been a pretty good month, tho not perfect.

This is a long, month long, post.  😀

My January 4 post had me setting my goals and getting ready for my Bonnie Hunter Midnight Flight class.  The goals will be at the end.

My theory on taking a class is that if I can come away with learning one new thing then it is money well spent.  I got more than my money’s worth on that day.

I have not taken very many classes, but this is the second one I have had with her. She is consistent in the way she teaches and she has the patience of a saint.

I was having trouble with my leg that day, so my focus was off a bit, but I did manage to finish a quadrant of the block. Seeing the trouble several people had keeping their geese flying the same direction in a block, I have decided to piece just quadrants, then work on the blocks. While I have made sew and flip units before, I focused on perfecting them this class.

Since I live over an hour away from where the class was held, and the evening lecture/trunk show was being held (4 hours later), I contacted my friend Andee a couple of days ahead and threw myself on her mercy to allow me to hang out with her between the two. I ended up getting to go out to dinner, and to an antique mall, with her and Bonnie. The antique mall was another wonderful learning experience. I love reading Bonnie’s posts about what she finds antiquing in her travels and getting to see that first hand was an experience I am not likely to forget for a very long time. She posted about it here, and I died laughing when I first read the post. She also posted about our class, here, with many more photos, and a quick photo video.

I did come away with 2 little things from the mall. A vintage travel iron (for my new collection) and a small quilt that is embroidered with “Wounded Knee.” I have been trying to research the quilt. When I first picked it up, it was with the idea that it would make a perfect “Harley” quilt. The price was right too. Bonnie thought that it was a “Made in China” quilt, and we talked about why (learning here!) and I decided it was worth the price. We looked at a few other things, then Bonnie wanted to look at the quilt again, and that’s when Andee discovered the embroidery. I’m happy I found it, but Harley didn’t get it. I discovered a small hole in it after I bought it, and knew if Harley had it she’s pick it to death. It’s now on the back of a chair in my living room.  It holds great value for me, not because of when, or by whom, it was made, but the memory of when I purchased it.

We knew the evening before there was a glitch with Bonnie setting up her inventory for sale at the lecture so we improvised and set up in the parking lot of an elementary school next door. It was a lot of fun, where it could have been a moment for complaining.

I volunteered to be a quilt holder during the lecture. I do have some photos of her “live” quilts from her books, and they are all so lovely. I threatened to swipe the Wild & Goosey, from Addicted to Scraps, and Pineapple Crazy, from String Fling. I love foundation paper piecing!

But the quilt above, is one of the favorites that she shared. There is no pattern, and it is the first time I have ever seen it. It demonstrates what you can create if you use her Scrap Users System. I am such a visual person, and seeing this made me so happy.

It was a long, exhausting, fun and memory-filled day.

One week later, I went on my annual girlfriend reunion trip to Vegas.  Drove up by myself, since everyone else was flying for one reason or another.  It was so dreary!  I remember thinking that if I didn’t see snow on the mountains before the weekend was over, I would be so surprised.  We are such party animals.  We rent a 5-bedroom house (same one the past 3 years – and reserved for 2018). We eat at the same restaurant Thursday night (maybe next year somewhere new? as I am not happy with them right now), then swing by a grocery store.  Friday we do our shopping (needlework store, quilt store, this year added in Vera Bradley outlet for some of the ladies) and go out for lunch and dinner.  Saturday we never left the house.  The grocery store run takes care of all of our breakfasts, snacks, and lunch for Saturday.  Some order in for dinner Saturday (I had leftovers from grocery).  There is a lot of stitching, crying, laughing, staying up too late, getting up too early, and I sort of wipe my slate clean and use that weekend as my new year start.

(Sure enough, when we came out of the needlework shop on Friday I looked over and the mountain tops were dusted, and it looked like more was on the way.)

I had a shopping list, and a budget.  I wanted fabric for the Nora Corbett Couriers (that I’ve started collecting).  They didn’t have what I wanted in the count I was looking for, but at least I know what to order.  Shop models on PTP Storm.

I did come away with these 2 Ink Circles designs that I decided to stitch in these variegated silks, instead of the called-for fibers.

I always have a plan for the quilt store.  It is a wonderful shop and I could go crazy in there.  Last year I purchased neutrals with white backgrounds.  Most of them have already been used in Midnight Flight, En Provence, and Wild & Goosey.  This year I wanted black on white and white on black for a future quilt.  The large piece of thimble fabric will also go into a project envelope.

I also fell in love with this portion of the shop’s BOM.  The woman at the cash register said her mother was teaching the class and gave me permission to photograph this portion.  She said the pattern was found as a freebie on Craftsy but I have been unable to find it.  I love that scissor.  It’s paper pieced, and I would love to have a smaller version hanging in my sewing room.

My Canadian friend Kathy drove back to AZ with me on Sunday for her flight back to Canada on Monday (out of Phoenix).  On the drive back she found out her aunt had passed away and her sister has lost her job.  I was informed by Mister that a Pex line in the master bedroom has sprung a leak and the water had been turned off.  Groan.

Super happy we have a pool, since we were hauling water in to flush our toilets. Little House on the Prairie I am not.  🙂  Monday, we called the plumbers and they cut a hole in the bedroom wall, and replaced the line.  Then we called the insurance, and they immediately sent someone out to  cut bigger holes and set up the blowers and dehumidifiers to dry us out.  The following 3-4 days had all types of people in and out accessing, and poor HarleyQuinn has not been happy over the stranger danger.

Since one of us has had to be here for people dropping off construction supplies, checking the blowers, carpet dude, etc., and with Mister in school 2 days a week, I moved all of my appointments to a few weeks out, and only left the house when Mister has been home. The advantages to my rarely leaving the house for the past 2 weeks is I have gotten a ton of sewing and stitching done!

In the stitching department I finished another round of Mirabilia’s Garden Verses, and have been making fairly good progress on Death by Cross Stitch (which is what I worked on in Vegas, if I stitched).

As of January 14, 2017

I got started on my Great-niece’s baby quilt and only need to make 8 more of these huge 4-patches (made from 5″ squares) and then on to the next step. I’m using a left over layer-cake, some charm squares, and pulled some fat quarters.

I also made it to the Rusty Barn Show in Phoenix and added some nice, needful things.

Olfa frosted rulers to replace my Omnigrid. I cannot see anymore when using the Omnigrid because of the yellow. The 24″ will be cut down to 18″ since Olfa does not make that size.

A couple of bags of scraps. Will go into my Wild & Goosey or String blocks. The zippers are for zippy pouches.

More white on black and black on white for future quilt. The colored fabrics will be zippy pouches.

One of the vendors had some Accuquilt dies for 40% off and the tumblers were on my wishlist. The iron caddy model was so tiny, and it will be for the travel iron I bought at a Christmas sale.

I also accomplished my One Monthly Goal of making purple Lozenges for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2017. I made more than 40. So I am linking up to both of them with this post.


And, I worked on Wild & Goosey units. I get distracted by them and consider them my quilter’s crack. LOL I also printed off enough papers to make 270 blocks. I might have gotten a little carried away, but I want to make up some in different colorways for a table runner or two.  I do need to pack them all away, however, and get back to the baby quilt.

If anyone is reading, I apologize for the length, and I thank you for sticking it out.  I am thinking this blogging only once a month may not work out, if each month is going to be this full. I really had no idea it was going to be this long when I started, but it seemed the perfect thing to work on while the contractor is here working on the house.

The above photos that are of me were either made on my phone by someone else, or borrowed with permission from Andee.

Sojourner Truth

IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO READ THE WHOLE THING, PLEASE SKIP TO THE LAST PARAGRAPH TO SEE WHERE THIS ENDS UP.

I sit here listening to the live broadcast of the Women’s March on Washington.  I am reminded of the first time I realized I needed to quit thinking like a woman all of the time.  Now that is not to say that I do not still think like a woman (because we do think differently about certain things), but I try to think like a “reasonable person” should.  Bet this is not what you were expecting when you saw I had made a new post.  I promise this is not a rant about any particular political party or a venue to male-bash.  Just a thought I needed to get down for me.  So either move along or read on.  😀

Many years ago, I fell in love with a stranger because of her name.  Sojourner Truth. The name struck me, so off to books and the internet I went. I have a tendency to read everything I can about a subject, which can sometimes be difficult for people who are waiting on me to make a decision about something 😉 Anyway, I actually even studied her a bit when I was taking a class while working toward my Paralegal Degree.

If you do not know who she is, and do not want to take the time to look it up, here is a quick synopsis (some info I pulled from Wiki because I could not remember any date except when she was freed and when she made the speech).

She was born a slave in New York. When she was freed in 1827, she became an anti-slavery speaker. In 1851 she gave a speech at the Women’s Convention being held in Ohio.  Several versions of her speech have been published, the most popular by Matilda Gage.  I have read several versions, but below is the speech, published in the Anti-Slavery Bugle by Marius Robinson, who transcribed the recordings he made at the Convention:

I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman’s rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if a woman have a pint, and a man a quart – why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, – for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold. The poor men seems to be all in confusion, and don’t know what to do. Why children, if you have woman’s rights, give it to her and you will feel better. You will have your own rights, and they won’t be so much trouble. I can’t read, but I can hear. I have heard the bible and have learned that Eve caused man to sin. Well, if woman upset the world, do give her a chance to set it right side up again. The Lady has spoken about Jesus, how he never spurned woman from him, and she was right. When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to him with faith and love and besought him to raise their brother. And Jesus wept and Lazarus came forth. And how came Jesus into the world? Through God who created him and the woman who bore him. Man, where was your part? But the women are coming up blessed be God and a few of the men are coming up with them. But man is in a tight place, the poor slave is on him, woman is coming on him, he is surely between a hawk and a buzzard.

More than a decade later Matilda Gage published her version (link to Wikipedia if you want to read the whole version) and in this version are the words “Ain’t I a Woman.”  I actually find Gage’s version a bit offensive, mostly because she described it as given in a southern dialect, and Miss Truth was a northerner.

Where am I going with this?  When I first started looking into Sojourner Truth, I found a cross-stitch pattern about her.  Now, I cannot find it anymore.  I like to think that I bought it and lost it, but I cannot even find anything online anymore, so am hoping someone reading this knows what sampler I am talking about and can point me in that direction.

Let’s do this 2017!

I am so happy today is the end of 2016, and I am very much looking forward to 2017. I have penciled in some ideas, set some not-too-lofty goals, and am crossing my fingers that I, my family, and friends have a healthy, happy year.

I have selected a word that I think best represents my goals for 2017. If you follow me on Instagram (link in the right column) you will have already seen this, but here is a tidbit of how I came to select that word:

…I have always felt as long as I make positive progress, no matter how small, I will succeed. And it goes hand in hand with my “think happy thoughts” and “stop saying, start doing” from past years…

I will progress forward in 2017.


To help with that I have made some minor tweaks to my blog. Still more changes need to be made that will happen with time, but most of it is just adjusting some info in the tabs up top.

Most of my goals for the year spin around my quilting and stitching. A few, in no particular order, are:

Attend my Girlfriend Reunion in Vegas – This is my new year beginning.

Maintain my daily routine to the best of my ability. If there is interest, I’m more than happy to post more details. I will say that my daily routine keeps me very time- and guilt-free to sew and stitch a lot.

Stay the course on my Year of WIPs Challenge – I am so, so happy with how much progress I have already made since starting this on October 1.

Set up my Scrappy Planner (by Lori Holt) – While I do use my phone/computer to keep appointments and send me reminders, I will always be a paper and pencil gal, and I love having a written plan for housework, quilting, stitching, menus, travel, etc. This particular planner is designed by a scrappy quilter and I’m looking forward to seeing if this will be the fit for my lifestyle, I am hoping it to be.

Finish all the way to binding En Provence, Midnight Flight, Swoon, Kristen’s Quilt, and Kristen’s Baby Quilt.

Attend my quilt chapter Spring Quilt Camp – I did not attend a single camp in 2016.

Attend more quilt chapter meetings.  In June I was selected to be the co-recording secretary, from July to end in October-ish.  The other person decided to drop out to spend more time with a soon to be born grandchild, so I agreed to stay in the full capacity. I may consider asking to stay an additional year.  In any event, I am making a concerted effort to attend more meetings (they are about an hour drive away from me).

Attend my annual June cross-stitch get together – this year in Nashville.

Post one quilt-related goal a month on my blog – This is a new-to-me event. The link with more information is in my left sidebar.

Flosstube – this is a biggie for me. It will be a learning curve and a put myself out there curve. While “flosstube” is a specific cross-stitch “term,” I intend to include my quilting.

Continue to try one new recipe a month – I succeed at this easier that I thought I would when I started it way back when. The key to my success is always keeping breakfast-for-dinner available for those recipes that fail so bad it immediately goes into the garbage disposal, or in the outside garbage can. I am never afraid of trying something new since I know I have a standby in case it is not “eatable.” 😀

Whew! Reading back over that sounds like a whole lot, but it is really not. The hard part for me will be staying the course and not letting my ADD/Squirrel!!! tendencies get in my way.

Last, but not least, I have a huge decision to make about a volunteer position that takes up a lot of my time, and sometimes mental energy, January-May every year.

I have volunteered for Phoenix Comicon in one capacity or another for 4 years. I have also volunteered for the smaller Phoenix Fan Fest, at a different time of the year, 2 different years during that 4 years. While January-March is mostly my spending an hour twice a day, once a month, driving back and forth to downtown Phoenix (and the gas!), plus spending 4 hours in several meetings (we’re up to 6 hours, now), April-May is all of that plus up to about 20 additional hours a week on the computer dealing with staffing issues, and last year emailing back and forth with artists/vendors regarding staff discounts/donations. Then there is the time and the money I have spent during the convention itself to make sure I am doing the job the way my Manager, Directors, and the Convention owner want it done for the convention to be successful.  I can safely say it was not rare for me to put in 60 hours from 8 a.m. Thursday to Sunday 9 p.m., and this past year my new position had me there starting 9 a.m. Wednesday, however I did leave around noon on Sunday.

Major changes are being made in the business (because that is what it is) that many people, myself included, are not happy about, so they are going to have to convince me that those major changes, which do affect me, are worth the amount of time I devote (and the money I am already spending). Right now I am feeling like I have been kicked in the teeth, and am questioning why I ever bothered to get involved. There is a meeting this coming Saturday with the owner and I will make my decision after that.

Since I have always been one to make a contingency plan, I have pretty much decided what I will be doing with that time if I they cannot convince me. More on that later.

So, now I am off to sew together the parts I cut out for En Provence Part 6.  I know I have been remiss in posting progress photos here, however you can find them on my Instagram.

Enjoy the rest of your 2016, and if it is already 2017 where you are, Happy New Year, and I hope it brings you every wonderful thing you want.

Hello to the middle of December

They say time flies when you’re having fun, and right now, except for one tiny glitch, I can say that’s true.

I have been very productive with needle and thread, both at the sewing machine and in hand.

Yesterday was one of my twice-monthly sew-togethers with my local group and I worked mainly on my Bonnie Hunter Step 3 4-patches.

Here’s my progress photos to date.
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Part 1: 221/221
Part 2: 100/100
Part 3: 10/168

Today should see the finish of my purple 4-patches.

When I’m caught up on my Parts, I am cutting/preparing for the Midnight Flight class I’m taking next month. There is a class info sheet that tells us how much to bring to class (instead of enough for a whole quilt) so I’ve been pulling fabrics and cutting. I am taking more than I need so I can hopefully swap some with other attendees. I have my constant red cut, and changed the orange to a yellow. I’m also not including any purple and using blues only. I think I may be buying a couple of 1/4 cuts before then as I’d like a little more royal to go with my navy.
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As to my stitching, I know I said in my last post that I was going to do a separate post about my Year of WIPs Challenge status, but I think instead of spending more time on this computer writing a post, I’ll just do a photo update in my dedicated tab up top. I am still loving the 10 hour rotation with the focus being on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I am now spending less time stitching than before, but I knew that was going to happen so chose the number of WIPs accordingly. So far I think I made great choices. The bit success right now is that I finished And They Sinned. Woohoo!

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She’s a big girl! That countertop is 5 feet long 😀 If you click on the picture, it’ll turn right side up, but it was hard to get it to focus because of the size.

The glitch I first mentioned is my HarleyQuinn had to have surgery this past Monday to remove a large hematoma from a back leg. She has 3 layers of stitches (because her skin is so thin) and the layer I can see I counted 7. While she was under the doctor went ahead and removed 7 other places and all but one of those just required 1 stitch (the other one required 2). So now we’re nursing her. Pain pills, anti inflamatory/pain pill, liquid antibiotics every 12 hours. No overactiveness, which means carrying her up and down the stairs. In other words spoiling her more than usual, which is a lot already.

This picture is of her staring at me the night before because she’s starving (she’s always starving, just ask her).
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and here she is all snuggled up between dad’s legs after we brought her home. She was drunker than Cooter Brown, and we worry she’ll flop herself off the sofa.
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Today she’s back to her sassy self, and is more work to keep her from dancing and prancing. She’ll have to have 24/7 babysitting until the stitches are removed. We do have a care-collar for her, but if we keep her with us she shouldn’t have to wear it. Fortunately Mister is out of school, and neither of us have any plans to be anywhere together that can’t be cancelled or rescheduled for a later date.

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