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.