Oops I did it again!

I started another project.

Very small.

Valentine theme (timely and appropriate).

Took longer than I thought.

yes that's an Itty bitty twister uses 2.5 in squares to start finish 1 inch.

Crazy.

Cute.

(12 x 12)

now to get it quilted and displayed for this Valentine's Day.

*********

Now before I started on the baby hearts, I insisted that I finish piecing the Scrappy Happy blocks.

I really don't like this quilt.  Just keeping it honest.

Perhaps I should re-name it "Barfy Happy"...

"Happy Chaos"...

"OMG take the leftover strips AWAY from her"...

perhaps this will teach me to not deviate from the list.

Perhaps.

*******

 And a few finish pictures:

Small Treasures.  It's hanging in the entryway.

(23 x 36)


and TA-DA!

(12 x 18)

Oh I smile every time I look at this!  Twenty years in the making. Yessiree it is hanging up and will stay up for a while.  It's not the greatest  1st rug every made but it's mine and I LOVE it.  His beard was hooked with roving which I was nervous about but it was really easy to do and looks great.

I have two ideas in the back of my little mind for my next hooking project but I really want to get a lap frame for future rugs.  

*******

And finally my dog picture of the week.

(please do notice the dog beds complete w/their own personal quilts)

"Who's house/couch is it anyway?"  OR  "Rise of the Planet of the Dogs?"


Oh these puppies crack me up.


Fun times, fun times. Life is Good.

DWMonday

This is on my wall. 

A new project...

How does this stuff happen?

 I do not know.  

I was looking through my 4 inch binder labeled "Quilts I'd LIKE to make".  (if I life to be 402-3)

And I saw a pattern I found here.   

Two days later this is my wall.  Well that blue block top left has been redone all scrappy, it was the first block I pieced thinking I would do a controlled color scheme, but realized I didn't have enough strips in any one fabric to do so. Hence I went scrappy-happy, which might not be a bad name...

This week I want to quilt and finish these two flimsy's:

And the binding  on H Whiskers.  

I finished quilting it yesterday. 

LOVE it!

I took these pictures late last night- will get better ones after binding is done.

And last but not least, I am STILL pulling loops on my Santa rug....finish by January....so close.

His beard gets hooked with 'roving'. That should be interesting.  

Check out what others are working on at Judy's.

Small Treasures

                                                         is a flimsy.

(23.5 x 36.5)

    I'm very happy with this little quilt!  

I am very happy to be done with 108 flying geese!

I will bind it with the same light print that I used for the skinny (1/2 inch finish) sashing. 

I spent a little time last night looking through my two L/E books by Bonnie Hunter and have started to sew my 2 inch squares together-a light and a dark-for my new leader ender.  I'm not sure which quilt I will make but after digging around in the 2 inch drawer I had a moment of "enough is enough" too many in the drawer. So we'll have to see where this one goes.

I started making Winter Scraps as a L/E but it went so fast the center is already together...no pictures yet.

Last night I pulled a LOT of loops on Skinny Santa~yes I'm still trying to finish him in January.  

I think I might just make it.

Strings & Stars and other stuff

The front

(70 x 70)

The back

 I did "dwirling" on it. I did about half of it on New Year's day and then finished it today.  I used it as a break from all the culling, sorting, filing and shredding that somehow started this morning with me looking for one simple document and sort of snowballed into a massive file clean out which is a good thing but not what I had planned on.   

******

I'm working on hooking the grey background on Skinny Santa. I set the timer for 20 minutes this morning.  

I still have hopes of finishing this in January but twenty minutes a day is not going to cut it.

******

 We went up into the attic on Monday.

The stink bugs were every where. But they're hibernating or whatever it is they do so at least they weren't stinky! 

 I was concerned about all the children's books that I packed away and all my cross stitch pieces. 

Whatever possessed me to store them up there!?-who knows.

Oh wait!

 I live in a tiny house with no storage and I probably just lost my mind and did it 

and then something happened (life)

and I forgot I even did it.... 

..yep I think that was it, 

outa sight outa mind.

So I'm happy to report that although, we shouldn't have waited until a FREEZING, SNOWY day to do this (better than in the heat of summer, I know)

 the books were fine. 

not even the tip of the book hoarders iceberg-he he

2 books from MY childhood...oh the memories

My cross stitch pieces were fine too, I had wrapped them carefully-some are coming out of their frames-I framed them all myself so that's to be expected. The masking tape I used to hold them to the mats lost their stickiness-no biggie.

not even 1/2 of them

 Those four little dolls in embroidery hoops-the lace around them has yellowed. 

I completely forgot I had even made them.

dated 1990

I was ruthless in my culling of all the other boxs of treasures crap we brought down.  Amazing how ten years will change treasure to trash!  I carted all the good stuff I no longer need to hold onto down to the local St Vincent de Paul store.  Yeah.

*******


I've been very strong in not starting any new projects this year and we're already FOUR days into 2012.
Whew!
I know I'm a pillar of self control.


It's going to end soon...
I can feel it...

sigh.  

DWMonday

Quilting and sewing took a break for Christmas but I did make good progress on my Skinny Santa hooked rug.

11 x 17

I'm really determined hoping to get this done in January and I'm browsing E Bay for an affordable hooking frame.  

My design wall still has this pieced backing on it.

I did find another leftover pieced 'chunk' in the closet to sew on. I'm hoping to get this together and actually get my Strings & Stars top quilted before 2012.

I've also started to think about goals for 2012 but unlike many who've posted, I'm still in the thinking about it mode.  

Check out other design walls here

Design Wall Monday

This is my Santa rug.  I've actually got more done than this picture shows but not much.

This is a picture from a post in November 2009.

I've had this kit since oh I think the 90's...I just found the pattern here.

I'm really going to try to get this done.  I know I've said that before!  So I'll just say I'm going to try to get everything but the background finished this season.  I've been lurking around on some amazing rug hooking blogs and watching tutorials on You tube. 

 I've been using that 14 inch quilting hoop and I just don't like it.  I feel like I'm wobbly and off balance.  

So I need to decide on some kind of frame here in the near future.  I'm hoping to do more of this in 2012, after completing this poor, patient Santa.

Our oldest son, PM is home from seminary and will be staying with us for the week.  The sewing area has been taken over by him and his stuff.  

I gladly surrender it.

I'll try to post an update picture of Santa this week.

fun times, fun times. Life is Good!

Quilts for Kids

I ordered 2 quilt kits in October, then I got sick, then I went on the quilt shop bus tour. All good excuses but basically I forgot about the little UPS box sitting beside my sewing machine.  So I started working on them yesterday. Here is the first one, the fabric is already cut into strips for you, easy peasy.
They ask that if you make one with their fabrics to make a 2nd one with your own fabrics.

So on the Bus tour I was on I won a bundle of fabrics.  I used them and some of my own leftovers to make this 2nd quilt. 

Then I opened the 2nd quilt kit. It has the same fabrics as the first except the 1.5" inner border on this one is red instead of blue. 

This is the quilt I made for this one.  I had enough of the green/orange leftover for 6 blocks so I used them too.

Now I still have a little leftover and I have this green print with ladybugs from a custom baby quilt I did last summer.

  So I cut that into 15 squares for the focus fabric. This is as far as I got.  I do think I will have to go and buy some fabric for the outer border. But that's OK.  These are too much fun to make.  I was really getting them done too. And then my phone rang.   When I came upstairs (while talking on the phone), look what is happening outside!

Yeah! Snow, finally. 

And here is just an update on my UFO from forever. 

My Father Christmas hooked rug that I should be working on instead of or at least in conjunction with the donation quilts.  It is here on the floor inside my sewing room.  I think I put it there Thanksgiving day before company arrived.  

(It had been sitting on a chair in the living room.)  

Oh and the beer case in the background....I use the heavy cardboard for the bottoms in my purses.  They're pretty sturdy, very light and free.

  And yes, Father Christmas was just tossed there upside down. 

I have no shame.

I'm busy

  I've been busy...planning my menu, grocery shopping, shopping at Kohl's (do you love Kohl's?-I do)  I got an electric knife   Then I got a food processor, that was a luxury buy I will admit.  I have a small version, but it takes a long time to chop up large quantities.  I've been mulling around getting one for so long...I'm doing a little happy dance about it! 

And my most important purchase-a new heavy duty turkey roasting pan of my own!  Can you believe married as long as I have been and I'm still using the old one my mom gave me years ago, when she bought herself a new one because our family got so big her's wouldn't hold a 22 pound + turkey.  

 So now I have one with a very sturdy roasting rack, with handles  I'm so excited to use all my new stuff. It feels like Christmas came early for me.  

I've been sewing too, but not a lot of progress.  I finally got the binding hand sewed to the back of the Black, White and Red Circles quilt I posted about last time.  I was reading a blog (Ponderings)  about Faux paper towels and fabric napkins.  So I bought some fabric at Joanne's that I thought would go nicely with my dishes and made some.

The yellow ones are hemmed, the fall leaves ones I cut on the bias, no hem.  I didn't know if you cut something on the true bias it wouldn't fray.  I was skeptical, but dang it's really true!  .

Today I want to make a turkey block using an Eleanor Burns pattern that I can't remember the name of right now.  It's actually a maple leaf block that you add applique head, waddle and legs to to turn it into a turkey.  You have to use her special rulers, so this will be new for me and will take a little un-interupted time, which I think I may be able to squeeze in today
. 

This morning I went into my sewing room, on the way back upstairs from starting a load of laundry, and I spied my Santa Hooked Rug project...

This is a project UFO that I honestly don't know when I started it or bought it.  This is what my notebook says....

-I got this kit years and years ago, probably in the early 90's! I was afraid I was going to screw it up, so I just put it away.  A few years ago, (3-4?) I got it out and did a small area of it, but after Christmas was over, I lost interest...

11/04--I got it out again and did a good bit more on it. I would like to finish this in 05...

I didn't finish in 05 so I'll try again for 06. :)...

It's 7/2006-I haven't looked at it yet... 

It's 10/06-I moved the project bag it's in but haven't added one stitch.

(no further entries)

Yes this is my most procrastinated project ever.  I brought the bag upstairs with me.  Maybe this is the year.  LOL.  I used to have a 14" quilting hoop that I used for it....I can't find it anywhere.
I'm not going to hope for a finish this year, let's just say 'significant progress' which at this point would be anything, haha.  It's really cute and after all these years I still really like it. So it's definately something I want to finish.  I also remember that this kit was terribly expensive and that was part of the reason I just put it away,  I would have bee Here's a picture from the pattern, finished....  

And here are my efforts so far. Pathetic, I know.