Slowing down

Okay, I'm slowing down, but not because I'm slow, but because I've been busy.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did, my nephew and his wife came to visit for Thanksgiving and we had a great meal. My son went to his girlfriends families gathering. We decided not to do that, as Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. So, I had more fun decorating and prepping for Thanksgiving.

Guess I can't show you photos since I seem to have used up the amount I'm allowed.  Hoping it will fix itself!

I've been working on the Baltimore Liberty quilt. I worked on the blocks, got one half of the leaves done on one, and basted more on. I'm hoping to finish the block soon. I did work on the second block as well, and I've got the leaves, some of the crackers, and stems done so far. This block should be quick and easy. I just need a really nice brown fabric to use for the bell.

Last night - after a week and a half - I finally pulled the quilt out and started quilting on the Hawaiian quilt again. I' hoping to get a lot done today.

I also got 2 more grocery bags done. At least I'm getting a few Christmas gifts done as well. Just can't post them on here because that would give it away. lol

So, with no photos to show till they fix the problem, I'll be Happy Quilting.......

A Quiilter's Mind - beware!

Okay, here's what a quilter thinks about when they are working on a "mindless project." What is a "mindless project," you ask. Well, here we go.

I've come up with more bright ideas for projects. Like I really need another project. Oh, well, here we go...

On Thursday at our quilt group meeting, we talked about the back basting and how it works. We also talked about ideas that would work of us with the back basting - and ways to make it easier to do.

So, it's Sunday, and what am I doing?? Another project - will explain about that in the end of this blog.  I'm marking my fabric for back basting. WOO HOO - or so I thought. After three days of getting EVERYTHING I needed or thought I needed to get going on this, I finally had the chance to mark my blocks - yes, 2. Why? How knows, it's me remember. Anyway, I' have one block done, - front and back - and was thinking (yes I do think at times), why not put what I'm thinking in my blog. So, here are some of the tings I've been running through my mind - remember - mindless job -

1) Is my mother treating my patterns like NEW and hopefully going to return them NEW or are they going to look USED. - Hate the Used look. Collected too many books to care fro people that don't take care of things.

2) Oops, missed that spot. That's okay, can't be perfect all the time, hope no one notices. Oh, heck the only one that will will be the quilter that made this same one. Oh - wo cares, it's just for the family and if they don't like it tough. Blah blah blah

3) Patrick seems to be getting a lot done outside, maybe I should help - nah. I really want to get this done, and I really don't want to go out in the cold because I'm cold already. I could ask him if he needs help, he usually says no, but today may be the day he says yes....

4) Okay, second block, why don't they mark the middle? Cross stitch patterns do....

5)  Oh how cool is that? We have a humingbird still. Guess I better feed it through the winter. I'm so thrilled to see hummingbirds stay around. I'll have to how Patrick he was wrong about the hummingbirds leaving around winter time.

6) Don't forget to update the journal on what I did the past tow days with this quilt.

7) Dang - laundry is done.

8) Too bad I don't have a lot of money. I would run for office. Not sure which, but then it wouldn't matter, I'm not rich enough to run. I'd show them how to balance a check book, without having to raise taxes. Now our taxes are going up because of the  A**hole going in as governor Thank you King County. Wish there was a way the state could vote and throw out all of King County ballets. Talk about "no fair."

9) Hope this pen works out. .First time using a FriXion pen. It's supposed to be the best thing out there. As long as it's not the like the other pen we have had out there for years, that leaves marks. Could never use those.

10) Wonder if Kathleen started working on that quilt idea I thought about.

11) Funny how people copy others and make their own designs. I can't believe anyone can take a pattern, change it just enough and then turn around and claim it as their design. Go figure. And yet people believe it and buy it. Patterns that are over a hundred years old are now being marked" copywrites apply" and I'll even bet some of those patterns where done from some of my ancestors. Because they didn't sign and date their quilts, the patterns get coped and made for patterns.

11) Why in the world would I pay $100 or more for a pattern? I'm not that crazy. If you want me to advertise your patterns, then you need to make it easy to purchase. This is not a "who's richer" field of quilters. Quilters ha always been kind, considerate, and passionate about their quilts and others. Quilters make patterns readily available for all and try to make them cheap enough for every quilter to be able to buy them. Now we have quilters who think they are better than the rest, and ask for high priced patterns. Yes, they do beautiful work, yes, they should get paid for their work, but NO hey should not get $25 a pattern or $130 for all the patterns to a quilt. I'm sorry, your work isn't that great.

Okay, rambling on is over, blocks are marked. Now I need to get the colors together.

Now, what got me to this point this morning?? -You ask.

Then here we go. Thursday, as I said earlier, was the quilt group - Haven't Missed a Stitch - at Quilter's Junction. I worked on block #33 of the Affairs of the Heart quilt I'm working on. And yes, I'm still working on them. I didn't get much done but two petals. Guess I was too interested in everyone else's projects and chatting that I didn't get much done. Plus I forgot my scissors. Hate having to ask others for scissors.

Friday was Myron's Girl's quilt group. This group does what this group does. Can't say any more. So, I sat and worked on the block from Affairs of the Heart. At least I had two blocks to work with if I ran into trouble. Thankfully I didn't. But this is where I "got off." As I was driving home on Thursday and driving to mom's on Friday, I decided since I can't work on my Baltimore Christmas quilt BOM, I would take mom's Baltimore Liberty BOM and work on it. She started one block and had a hard time. This I can't see, as she does better work then most of us. Anyway, she sad she had trouble. So, I asked for her patterns and brought them home. She was surprised I wanted them after she showed me the problem she was having. Decided I would work on them anyway, and try to get it done. She's not getting them back till I do. lol So, three guesses where I went on the way home! Nope! Yep, I went to Quilter's Junction to buy the 4 1/2 yards of fabric I needed for the quilt. (more money gone this month)

Brought the fabric home, thought about doing the blocks....tried to mark the block with pencil - not wouldn't work....have to get the pens.....no, not yet......Patrick bowling on Sunday, need to get a block ready to work on while he bowls......no such luck, ended up getting the pens after he bowled in a tournament on Sunday. Now, everything thing is set, oops, guess not, went to a moving (two this weekend). Got home and it was dark outside. Try using the ass door and mark a block when it's black outside. Ugh....waited till this morning and finally afater three days, got the blocks marked.

Now if that hasn't bored you yet, then I don't know what to tell you. I am going to try and work on the blocks today. You know how this goes.....what color do I want, awww I like that one, dang, guess not, that wont work, how about this, aww that's better....etc.

I did work on the afghan last night, since I picked up the quilt and put it in the other room. I need to drag it back out so I'll work on it, but since its not in the living room, it's going to be fun to see how long it takes for me to drag it out again....

Okay, in the mean time, will try and post an update when I have time this week. Headed to Rose's on Wednesday to cut out more bag patterns. Gave one bag away to a gal that game me er serger.

In the meantime, I hope to be Happy Quilting......

Woo Hooo

Thought that might get your attention! lol

This past week has been pretty good. I did get a few things done which means I'm on top of it. OR at least I hope I am.

On Wednesday last week, I help mom decorate some brownies for her church "Truck or Treat." They turned out pretty good. It's been awhile since I decorated cakes. Miss that. I used to do that for my kids as they were growing up.

We tried to make them look like pumpkins.

Here's mom decorating some. She really had fun. We both laughed at how long it's been that either one of us has done decorating. She took a class when I was in High School. We had a lot of really cool cakes back then. She even made a couple "sexy" cakes. I took classes when my kids were younger.

The finished product.

AND of course, we had to make graham crackers with frosting fillings and decorate. lol

Thursday and Friday, well, they are a blur. Not real sure what I did those days. I know I've been a little worried about my son, since he was layed off on Monday. I'm bias and think they made a mistake letting him go, but then I wasn't there. I know my son, and I know he puts his heart in his job. I also know he speaks his mind and can be a little "sharp" with the tongue, but what person in that generation isn't? I also know when women my age get around "kids" his age, we don't want to hear their ideas or their easy way of doing things.

Saturday, we went to the casino and let the casino have some money. Not worried, they gave us $35 to play with, so not complaining too much. I did get to quilt every night - at least 2 hours a night. I have also been working on the letter I need to post on Letters from the Past. I have a lot of those to do. My husband can never figure out what I'm up to.

He told me the other day that I tend to get things done, but it takes time. I either quilt till I get tired of it, then I work on family history till I get tired of it, move to cross stitch or whatever. At least I get things done, but it takes time. I can't seem to stay with one thing and get it done.

Trouble is - that's true. I can't seem to stay with one thing at a time. Wish I could, but for some reason I find myself wanting to do too many things, and the only way to do them is a little here and a little there. One of these days, I will try and get one thing done at a time. I haven't even thought about getting moving on the blocks from the Affairs of the Heart quilt. Mom is giving hers to my sister-in-law.

Speaking of mom - she was telling me all about the Baltimore Christmas quilt she's doing - with my patterns. I ordered the BOM for that quilt. Got everything, and didn't even get the chance to do the first block before my mother took my patterns. She ordered the Baltimore Liberty BOM, and ONLY did one block before she took my patterns. Now, I don't have my patterns or my fabric to even get started on that quilt. She'll have them both done before I even get started. I'm a little ticked she had to take my patterns and do my quilt first, but OH, WELL, life goes on.

Since the last time I posted what I've been up to, the above photos are where I last started.

Since then I got this area done. I'm happy to say, it's coming along great. I've been pretty lucky at the way things have been going.

That was where I was by Saturday. Then on Sunday, we went downstairs, turned the fireplace on, and sat to watch the football games.

As you can tell, that part of "we" is Patrick and Charlie, as well as myself. Charlie loves to sleep at the end of my quilt frame when I'm quilting or working on sewing stuff. I serged some rags for Patrick and then sat down to quilt on the butterfly quilt.

This was what I had before I started quilting on it. As you can tell, I have threads, thimbles, and scissors close by. I ended up spending a good 15 mins or more trying to figure out what happened to my electric pencil sharpener as I use that for my marking pencils. I have been looking for it at least 6 months. I asked Patrick what the heck happened to it, looked in every nook and cranny in the house. Then decided to text my daughter to see if she had any clue where I could have put it. She texted back and said she had it, and that her dad told her she could take it with her. Patrick denied that, but oh well. So, now I'm pencil sharpener short, and had to go get my other marking pencils that are mechanical. Ugh. Once I figured that out, I could sit down and quilt.

I had some trouble with the batting buckling - partly my fault because I didn't tighten the frame up. So, I tried to see what I could do to get it easier to quilt, since a good part of the quilt had already been quilted. I was able to get to it, but had to remove Charlie to get what I needed to do. She wasn't thrilled but she didn't mind being put on the couch with her quilt. Once I did that, I was able to tighten up the quilt. This is the half way point for this quilt as well.

As you can see, it's not easy to figure out a quilt design for this quilt. The quilt top was put together by my quilt group that I was president of back in 2002 and 2003. (Something like that). Anyway, it was paper pieced, and there are a lot of thick seams. On top of that, some of the blocks where pieced with dark thread when the background was white or off-white. So, when I'm quilting this, I found a lot of dark stitches on the lighter fabrics. It's been hard trying to figure out what to quilt on it, but I have been doing butterfly "patterns" on the white part. The patterns are the path a butterfly takes when flying. So, it's a lot of swirls and stuff. It's been interested and fun to quilt.

So, after coming upstairs last night and 8 pm arriving to watch "Columbo" on TV, I was able to get the Hawaiian quilt at the half way point. That's good news for me! I'm thrilled at how this is coming along. It's a lot prettier then I expected. I can't wait to see the end result!

Which puts me at this point. Going to a corner area to start quilting in the purple area again. I'm happy with how it's coming along.

Hope that fills you in on what I've been up to. I'm going to be quilting again on Thursday and Friday. Can't wait for the weeks to go back to Thursday one week and Friday the next. I will be going to JoAnn Fabrics on Wednesday with my friend. That means I better enjoy tomorrow by myself before I get back to being busy again....

In the meantime, I hope to keep quilting and get a little further with both quilts. In the mean time I hope you are Happy Quilting as well!

Best wishes!