Amazing How I Can't Keep My Quilt Room Clean!

Today was another great start. I walked with our neighbors. Got in a lot of walking.

Got back home, started doing laundry. I got quite a bit done actually. The morning was more for cleaning then it was for anything else. I got a lot of cleaning done. It is interesting how much of a mess I can make. lol

After lunch I headed downstairs, and saw this wonderful mess. So I had to clean it up before I could work on the Black and White quilt. Or any other quilt! As I was putting things away, the doorbell rang. I answered it to the postal worker who asked me to sign for my package.  WOOHOO! My butterfly fabric that I ordered from eBay was here!!

I paid enough for it but it was worth getting!

I then started taking the red fabric out of the quilt! I realized I only needed two pieces out of the fabric. I ended up with 1 1/2 yards extra! lol - I have plenty of fabric for another day.

I'm happy to say, the red is gone. It looks a lot better! I will now have to figure out the center. I'm not sure how I'm going to do the applique in there, but it will be fun to figure something out there.

This is the container I bought yesterday for my embroidery. I have a tray in the box that holds smaller things. I have the pattern and books under the tray. I also found my kit that I bought last year in Portland.

I finished this off this morning as well. This is block #10 of the Bountiful Baskets. I will be posting my finished baskets on it's own page. I had fun doing the embroidery! I'm not sure what I will do tonight. I have plenty of things to work on. I may work on another basket or I may do some quilting. Still haven't decided.

After working on the butterfly quilt, I worked on the Black and White quilt for Katt.

I was trimming the blocks then putting them together.

I'm happy to say, I have three rows done. I need to do the other three rows, and will do that tomorrow. I will then put them all together by rows. I like how it's coming out. Just hope Katt likes it as well. It's coming along faster than I thought. Since I had to fix the butterfly quilt, I didn't get as much done on this as I would have liked. That's okay, I have plenty of time this week.

The sun was out and it was gorgeous! Really nice day! I spent most of it downstairs. Love the glass windows in my quilt room!

Happy Quilting!!

Getting Closer to Finishing Top!!

Today started out with me sleeping in! I don't think I have slept so long in a long time. Guess I tired myself out!

I set up my slow cooker for creamy broccoli soup. I looked at a couple different recipes and then just did it on my own. I added mushrooms to my soup and it turned out great. I had that for a late lunch.

I was able to get downstairs around 11:30 am today. I check to see where I was and what I needed to do to finish this top up. As I told Katt, I thought it would be a two day job, not a week long project!

I checked it all out and realized how important it is to trim it up.

Squaring it up is the way to go! Otherwise one takes out way too much to try and get it to fit. I was trimming it to work. I found a couple pieces really needed that trimming.

I miss cut - not my favorite mistake!! But I decided to heck with it, and added a strip to even it up. Don't care what people say about it, as it's a way to use what I have.

Once it was all together, I put Jeannie Austin's pattern in the middle to see if it would fit or if I needed to do something else. It fits in the middle. I'm going to see what I can find of her patterns and add flowers around it on the sides, top and bottom. I may decide to let it go with out flowers and plan on doing a lot of pretty quilting in there. Options are open.

I have the borders to do, and will do that tomorrow. I will bind it with the read. Now I just need to use up scraps after and make a pillow case for the top.

Good news is I know who sent me the box! I was told to open the box and see who it's from. Katt sent me my gift! I'm excited to see what she sent. It was funny, she called after checking my blog to see if I got the gift. lol Love that girl!

Last night I worked on the eagle block.

I have two more leaves to applique down. I have more grapes to put down as well. I need to put a circle on the end of the pole, and then I'll finish up the grapes. Once that is done, I will do the embroidery and it will be ready for Donna. She's got a ton of stuff for tops. Can't wait to see what she comes up with! This block is a little bigger than the other one. I love the fabrics on this one! I need to see if I can find more of the "chest" fabric. I love the effect it has on the eagles.

Other than walking down to Ruth's place to set her up on her fitbit band, I was home and got a lot fo work done! I'm looking forward to working on Katt's quilt tomorrow. It would be nice if I could get it done by the time Patrick got home. The only thing holding me back is the orange border, which will be in in July. I'm still Happy Quilting!

I Need to Hide!

Today started out with cribbage. After cribbage I walked down to see my walking partner. Ruth looks great. We chatted for over an hour and a half. By the time I got home (11:00), the morning was gone. I had lunch and sat with Charlie for a little bit before heading downstairs to work on the quilt top.

I was moving along pretty good. The top was getting together and then I realized I put one side on wrong! Rip, rip, rip. I was able to get the first part of the quilt top put together.

Wanted to see how it would look on the bed.

This is one side of the bed.

The other side view. I'm really liking how it's coming out. This was on the phone camera, which I hate using anymore.

I was on a roll!! Then 3:30 pm hits and I have to get moving on getting a salad done for supper. I told Art I would be there at 4 pm to fix supper. He bought the steaks and I cooked them. It turned out pretty good. We played 3 more games of cribbage. Then he asked me if I could come over the next two days. At first it was "maybe" then I remembered Patrick telling me to tell everyone "NO," and shut off my phone. I won't do that, but I did finally say no. I told him I couldn't because I haven't finished this quilt and I was expecting to be done by now. Told him I'd see him on Monday. As much as I like to play cribbage, I am not his daughter. He keeps telling me I am, but I'm not. I just wish his family would come around more often. He's lost his wife only 4 months ago, and they don't seem to come around much. I hate being the one that has to check on him. Casino is Tuesday with him after his eye appointment (which I'm taking him to). Patrick's getting tired of me going to the casino with him, so I'm going to have to tell him every other month, and I know he's not going to be happy about that since he can't drive the freeway. 

Okay, enough of that. I found a wonderful box with my name  it in the mail! It's a Birthday gift, I'm sure. I want to open it, but since I'm not having a "true" Birthday since everyone is busy or gone. I'm going to wait till my Birthday and then celebrate by myself. lol  Mom and dad gave me some flowers for Mother's Day and my Birthday. 

They are awesome!

Tonight, after exercises, I'm hoping to be in the mood to go back downstairs and work on the rest of the quilt top. I would really like to get back to the black and white quilt. 

Even though I'm trying to hide from some people, I am not hiding from my kids. I haven't heard from them, but I'm not hiding from them either.

I walked down the street and back. Charlie was there waiting one me!

I'm linking another quilt blog to check out! I've been enjoying her quilts. They aren't applique, but they are cute scraps. Quilt Fun. Enjoy!

I need to work on a few more projects, and if all goes well, I'll have two done by this weekend or by the time Patrick gets home. At least I'm hoping!! Even though my neighbors seem to want to keep me busy because Patrick is gone, I'm still Happy Quilting!!

Still Haven't Learned!

Today I got up early. The good news is that I had a good nights sleep. I played cribbage and won 2 games. Made the mistake of saying I needed to go to the store. He wanted me to read a meat package that was at Walmart. So, I drove over to Walmart with him to pick up what I needed. In the meantime, he suggested that I come over for supper while Patrick is gone. Not wanting to go there! I did say I would have supper with him tomorrow. We picked up a steak, since he's been hungry for a home cooked meal. Can't blame him, since Flo was the cook in that family. He does a lot of microwave and frozen foods. So, I will have supper with him tomorrow. Just not wanting to do any more as I'm betting my parents will want me over again too.

After lunch, I decided to come downstairs and get some more work done on the butterfly quilt top. I would love to get this done today. I'm no going to push it.

I've been working on the blocks and watching Diagnosis Murder. I forgot how much I like the show. I would have been watching my DVR shows but the TV down here doesn't have it set up. lol

The funny part is that I think of things to say on here, but when I start typing I can't remember what I was thinking. The brain takes off in another direction! lol

As I pick each block, I found two blocks alike. So, I need to have one on one side and one on another.

I decided to go ahead and cut the borders from the fabric so that I would have them when I was done. That was a mistake, as I came up short. First thing I did was get in the car and drive 45 mins to Yelm, WA and went to GeeGee's Quilting Shop. I could not believe I came up short. It wasn't by much and if I would have rethough the border piece, I could have made it. Maybe. The pits of it all is that they were out of the fabric. Then on the way home I remembered I bought the last of the bolt. So, I picked up the red that was the same fabric design. I could not find anything I would be happy with. I'm not happy that it is a bright red, but I can live with it. Now I am going to take out the two pieces I put in and replace them with red. I think it will look better with the red on the top and bottom and not on he sides.

I just wanted to see what it would look like. I do like it. Just wish I had more of the green. 

While I was writing the blog for the Thursday group, my mother called and we talked about this. I believe I may have a way to fix my problem. I will do it and see how I like it. 

Who knows I may use a similar layout for the Japanese dolls. I really do want to get them done as well. Still need to work on Katt's black and white quilt first. I will do that as soon as this one is done. 

I'm thrilled to be Happy Quilting!! 

Not Quiet What I Planned

Today started out early. I didn't get much sleep, but lately that is no new message.

Patrick and I were on the road at 6:45 am. We took a ride down to Portland Airport. It went pretty good. We got there in good time. I dropped him off at the door and took off for home. I couldn't believe how tired I was. I had to get to the first rest stop and get out to move around. I called the folks, since they wanted me for super and asked when I was to come. They were just getting up. We agreed that I would be there around 2:30 pm. I made it back home by 10 am. I pulled out the computer and played Pogo till I felt like getting up and doing anything.

By 11 am I was downstairs and starting on the butterfly blocks.

I decided to start with the butterflies.

I kept looking at the blocks. I wanted to see how the color would look together. So far I'm liking what I saw.

These where the first three I had done. 

By the time I was done, I had 4 blocks done. I have 1 more block I'm working on. So, now I'm about 1/3 of the way done with the blocks. I only had one miter that was a pain, but I worked it out. So far they are looking great. This will be a fun quilt to hand quilt!

Mom called at 2 pm to say they were going shopping and would call when they were done. That ended up being around 3:00 pm. Since dad walks slow, I can almost see that. I headed over there around 3:30 pm. I messed up mom's phone (she was NOT happy with me) and I had to fix it. I'm SO GLAD I do not have an iphone!!! After we got it straightened out, we went to Apple-bee's for supper. When my parents don't eat lunch they make up for it at supper! Food was good. I enjoyed the meal with my parents. Then mom remembered she forgot plant containers at Walmart and we headed back over there. I picked up some pots, and mom couldn't make up her mind which ones she wanted. We then went back to their house. Mom and I were looking at scrap quilts. She showed me the 9 patch quilt blocks she was making. She is a lot like Donna - they both know how to put scrap quilts together.

I'm going to work on the butterflies tomorrow and hopefully by Friday I can get back to the black and white quilt. It would be awesome if I could get them both done by the time Patrick gets back.

Tonight I'm watching NCIS marathon and will figure out what I'm going to work on tonight! Happy Quilting!!

Started A Day Early!

Woke up several times last night and each time I thought about putting the butterfly quilt together! Just what I needed, another project to work on! Actually, it's a project that is under my UFO's. After winning two games of cribbage I came back and spent an hour with Charlie. She needed attention since she didn't get it while Patrick was gone.

Around 10 am I went downstairs and was so surprised to find I had to turn the fireplace on! It was chilly down there. Closed up the door that went into the other rooms.

First things first. I needed to put all my retreat stuff away to get to what I wanted to do. I put my sewing machine out and hooked it up.

I decided I better put my CD in to listen to the book I never did find out what happened at the end. Last year I listened to it on the way to Pullman to see Katt. On the way back, Patrick and I rode back together and I never did get to hear the end of it. So, I started it over and listened to the first CD.

As I cleaned my mess, I found the fabric that I bought at retreat. I still can't believe these 4 fat quarters cost me over $12. I remember when fat quarters were cheaper to buy then the fabric by yards. Now they seem to be a little more. One doesn't get a good deal with fat quarters these days. Think I will buy a half yard and cut them in half. That way I can give half to someone or even use as gifts. No more purchasing fat quarter!

I pulled out the butterfly blocks and cut them all down to 12 1/2". I wanted to go a little bigger but couldn't because one of the blocks was 12 3/4". I was hoping for 13".

They all were cut down.

One of the blocks didn't have the antennas. I put it aside so I could do the embroidery on the butterfly. 

I had my pattern out. I cut the blue fabrics to do the window frame on the butterflies. 

This was what I came up with. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to do them all this way or change the colors. I think I will stay with these colors. I had to resew one corner because it wasn't laying right. I was surprised at how well I did. Mitered corners are usually not my best work. I love the look of mitered corners, but they seem to come "hard" for me. I liked the way these worked out. 

After I did that, I embroidered the antennas on. The pencil mark that the person who made this block is still there. I hope it washes out after all this time. These blocks are a good 15 years old. I'm excited about putting this all together. I'm just not sure it will be as big as I would like, but at this point it really doesn't matter. I have the applique piece that I want to put in the middle of the quilt. I will put the top together and applique the center on after. 

I worked on my Brazilian embroidery. I have a lot of it done. I need to put some more french knots on it as well as the green at the bottom of the flowers on the top.Then I should be pretty close to being done till our next meeting. We can do the one flower in the middle. I may practice before I try to do it. Sometimes I just do it without worrying about practice. 

Tomorrow I take Patrick to the Portland airport. Mom and dad just called and wanted me to show up tomorrow. Not sure why, but I'll go have supper with them tomorrow night. Not sure if we will go out or not. I told them I'd think about it. I'm almost thinking it's better if we go out. 

Tonight is bowling. I'm excited about getting back to bowling after a week of no bowling. Then again, I'm looking forward to taking time off from bowling. 

Okay, I'm still working on my UFO's. I'm going to try and finish up the eagle for Donna. Poor gal has a lot of QOV quilts to put together. She got a great response for her blocks. I hope she will be Happy Quilting!