winding the year down

It's Dec. 31 and I wanted to look at what I accomplished this year, look at what's on the wall now, and post some pictures of the family.  First the family photos.

The Ogg family and the Weaver family

The kids in their Christmas PJ's from Meme

We had a wonderful Christmas at my daughter's home in Texas. 

I sit and watch the kids play and play and think about what fun they all have .

The adults too, they all have their hand held pads, or phones, me included, playing all kinds of games and surfing the net and watching the kids, referring some and enjoying each others company.

On to what's on the wall, what I left before going to Texas.  I had finished putting all the rows together   I started putting the border together.  I need to pull fabrics and cut more stripes to do this, plus construct the outside border.  This will be carried over until next year as a UFO.

I looked at the list of 12 projects I wanted to finished this year and seven did not get finished. However, I worked on all but one.  So next year it might be easier to get them finished.  I plan to review the list and make a different posting of plans for next year.  Will post about that later.

In our bee Happy Scrappers, a challenge was made to count all the UFOs in our sewing rooms.  I do need to do that, but I want to also divide the list into blocks sets and kits, as well as quillts I started myself.  More later on that too.

On the Wall

Oh yes, this feels great, I got finished with another set of blocks from our red and white exchange with Apple Crisper's.  I think this is the last swap of this block.  I will only have enough blocks for a twin and if they don't want to do more swaps I'll be making some more.  Next we'll be working on the next block which is a lot easier.


And ... in addition I got the block for Slightly Bias completed for Jan. 

Now... I have two quilts almost completed, so that's my goal now.  I do have one obligation block to do for the Beaumont Guild.  This will be an machine application. Not my strong suit, but there you are, needs to be done.  Hopefully soon I'll be showing finished tops from my UFO list for this year.  The quilting will have to wait for next year, but that's OK.  I will still be able to call this a finish.

Finally back in my sewing room

Yea, kinda hard to get back into the sewing room after the week of working hard to finish deadlines. I had my Fab 4 list to focus on and get started on obligations left to do. First I cut and made a log cabin block for the SB bee exchange. This is for Dec. and it is late , but not by much. I pulled the fabrics to do Jan. which I'll owe next month. I chose blue and white with snowflakes.
Then I worked on the Apple Crisper's red and white exchange. I missed our gathering last month and need to finish these blocks. I cut more material and started another set for Jan. meeting.
While working on all this I found I had only two braids left on the Scrappy Braid quilt so I completed one and will finish the other up soon I hope.

Wow is all I can say!

Well, I've been talking about what I was working on for my groups, now you get to see what

they have been doing for me. Eliska got my name in Slightly Bias bee. I had given her the pink and brown fat quarters and you see what she did. The picture does not do the beautiful quilting justice that she did on this quilt. Just gorgeous.

Happy Scrappers Row quilt project started with my row of Churn Dash blocks, and five people worked on it. I really liked what they did with the fabrics I put in there. I like the addition of the green, it's the perfect accent color.

All the work all year is worth it when you see all the creative quilts everyone has worked on. The two parties where we revealed the quilts for each other were wonderful. This is why I love my groups. Plus you grow so much in the process.

My year long projects complete

This is the front and back of the Slightly Bias project I made for Sharie. The front is made of churn dash blocks and I decided to piece the back in a churn dash since Sharie is know for her pieced backs. It's a small quilt, however, she seemed to like it very much. It had to be completed, quilted bound. I quilted it myself and although I can do that, I don't have a lot of practice with that. It turned out good though, only a few boo boos.

For Happy Scrappers today, this row by row was due. Helen got this one and I put the top row and the bottom row on it. It was hard to show, hence the two pictures. Everyone one loved this quilt and Helen seemed very pleased with what was done. It sure feels good to end these projects. The row by row certainly helped me grow in my sewing and designing. I'm not skilled in design, but try to think what will add to the quilt top and do that. It can be tough sometimes.

Retreat report

I had such a good time at the retreat at Lakeview, in Palestine, TX. We went on Sunday and left on Friday. A long retreat so I was able to get this Scrappy Stars top completed. The block are 36" and the sashing 4.5" making this a good size quilt. It turned out better than I thought it would and finally got a finish. My goal was to have a finish. I also finished the top and back of the Slightly bias quilt, just need to quilt it. I will have pictures after I give it to the lady whose name I have. The retreat itself was wonderful, I was able to do so much with my knee, showing a lot of progress. We did make a day trip to Common Threads in Waxahachie, Tx. I bought a back for this quilt and started a Christmas block of the month. Really had a wonderful time with my friends.

Retreat, retreat

Going on a retreat, yea. So glad to be going. I have my projects all loaded and ready to go. Hopefully, I will finish or almost finish a top. So want to make some kind of progress. Will report back with pictures of what I get done.

More Sewing

Oh yes, got in my room again. I am working on the blocks to swap in my Apple Crisper's group and after making one block realize I need more strip sets to make it more scrappy. So, yesterday I did get busy and sewed some more. Although I love my Accuquilt cutter, I decided to use the June Taylor cutting ruler to cut the 2.5" segments from the strip sets. After making the strip sets I got called away, so I didn't get any more blocks made up, but will get my batch of 6 ready for Friday night.

If you look closely, you can see the same fabrics too close together in this block. I really want more variety.

In the sewing room

Yes, I got into the sewing room yesterday and had quite a good day. My intentions were to sew on the current projects, but I ended up cutting. The main thing that got done was that I got out my Accuquilt cutter and cut red and white 2" and 2.5" strips. I have two projects I'm going to do. I'm going to use a pattern from Fons and Porter magazine called Kitty Corner for the 2" red and white. The 2.5" red and white strips will be for the newest project of a Double Irish Chain we'll be doing in our Apple Crisper's group. Also I'm in the process of working on the Pioneer braid quit, I got to a point where I needed to cut more 2" by 5" pieces. I went through my drawer of 2 " strips and found a good bit of my 18 hundred fabric strips to add to the quilt. If need be I'll cut some more from fat quarters.

Back to sewing again

The sewing I have done has been to keep up with the blocks for Slightly Bias Bee. The recent log cabin is for Oct. and has witch hats, black cats and boo in the fabric. Then, I won the blocks for Sept. Being a retired 2Nd grade teacher, these couldn't have been better for me. I made a tentative plan to design a quit from these blocks. I thought about adding a center panel and putting these blocks around it. I did draw this off in a notebook so I could remember later when I sit down with it. For the time being it joins the UFO pile.

Knitting during recovery

Recovery from my knee has been steady and sure. Knitting was one activity I could do while getting better. I had been wanting to knit a cowl , and since I had the yarn and needles and got started. The yarn was wonderful to work with and I really like the end results. I will be using this early mornings in the winter going to Spar.

On the wall the day before surgery

The day before my total knee replacement and I spent the day trying to finish up some things in my sewing room. I don't know how long before I get back to sewing.
My latest braid I finished, making a total of 7 out of 12.

Next is a project that I thought I'd try with the 8" snowball blocks which were part of an exchange. Eight inches is a strange size since it will finish 7.5 inches. To make the other blocks fit, I put an 2.25 inch border around each block. I saw this quilt in a magazine and of course, it was all a certain fabric line. This will be scrappy and the pinwheels will be a mix of colors. The pinwheels I'm making from half square triangles from my stash. Hopefully I'll like the end result. I know it will need a pieced border for the quilt.

The last block is one I should have done for early July, but was out of town.

Ashleigh's and I quilting

We took time out from quilting to celebrate Ashleigh's 9th birthday.

Ashleigh got into her quilt this year. She did the cutting on the accuquilt, all 3.5 in. strips and I did the sub cutting. We set her up with an Janome Gold which seemed to be just the right size for her. She began sewing the muslin sq. and print bricks together. I had set up the seam allowance with mole skin and she got started. She did good, got a lot more consistent with her seams.

More about June

This is "Yea" last installment of blocks we are swapping in Apple Crisper's. The block are pretty, but I'm tired of them We didn't swap but every other month and it seemed to drag on forever. The process started with my 2" Accuquilt die, then cut to the pattern, then put together by that tiny little picture you see. It's appears bigger in real life. You could get off base pretty easily with this on. Will eventually get those blocks put together.

This finished set did turn out pretty.

In Slightly Bias group we are making one block a month. This month was for June and the theme was beaches. I tried to do water colors. Batiks worked very well for this. July is 4th of July colors, but haven't gotten that done yet.

These are the Carrie Hall hand applique that I've done so far. I just finihed one more and decided to piece the blocks I need to put the rest of the blocks together.

The first block you see I just finished this past week. I will be working out a plan to stop with these blocks.

This month the row by row is due in Happy Scrappers and I decided to add the rows of log cabin blocks. I do like this quilt!

I guess that all my to do this month. I really have a hankering to do a red and white quilt, but first my granddaughter will be down to make a quilt. So hopefully will get more posting will get done as we work on that.

Where did June go?

I know I've been to a new retreat place in Joshua, TX, called Batiks Galore. It was a great retreat center and I really enjoyed it. I didn't take any pictures, too busy having a good time. We spent most of one day going to Arlington, TX to several quilt shops I hadn't been to before. I particularly liked the Log Cabin Quilt Shop. It had a room designated as "Jo's Room" filled with Jo Morton fabrics and books. Loved that. Another shop was in Burleson, TX which I liked too. I guess the best shop of all was Batiks Galore itself. I have never seen so many beautiful batiks in one place. It was overwhelming, but fun.

Later at home I worked really hard to finish up the two quilts tops of Ann's. I do hope she'll be happy with them. She got the names done and I think they look great. I used my fabrics so it was a great stash buster. But, no more quilts ordered by others. I want to do my daughter and her friend Scrapping tee shirt quilts whenever they're able to give up their tee shirts, but none other than that.

The month of quilting

I haven't been doing much this month in the sewing room. Just a few things and I didn't take pictures of all. This is a star for the 100 quilts for soldiers project. Lots of folks in the area contributed.

Mostly I've been working on the two quilts for Ann's granddaughters. So far they are alike and will only be different with the names put on them. Lots of sewing on these.

Slightly Bias bee block of the month for May was for a block for mothers. Momma always loved roses, so this one is for her.

More blocks for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler and I am ready to be done. Plan to stop now and put this on my list to be finished.

We made this quilt for Kerry as a token of thanks for the retreat to LeGrange, Tx.

The biggest project I've had this month is working on the row by row for Happy Scrappers. I stared at it forever, looking at a lot of books and magazines. I considered applique and paper piecing, trying my hands at both. Finally settled on the Rosebud block. I considered other options for background, but couldn't find one that worked.

The Rosebud block is 6 inches finished which is big compared with the beginning row. I decided it would work with the second row.

Then came choosing the colors. Batiks worked best since the fabric usually has variations in it.

Finally finished today.

Th end results worked out okay. I like the colors, not so sure about the size and space from the last row. However, I have no other ideas. so much for this month.