Baby Sitting the Grand'dog'ter

They were just peacefully sleeping, Nala on my lap and Charlie tucked up next to my legs while I was reading a book on my kindle.    DH had to take a picture and of course the super sensitive alert beings were ready for the attack.  Four more sleeps and DS will be home to take back his puppy.  What a lot of work it is when a dog is not fully trained.  She has had numerous "accidents" of both kinds.  Charlie, the old curmudgeon, is on his last nerve.  We cannot leave his food down for him because she will gobble it and he will eat on his own terms.  So it has been rough on the poor old man with her random attacks on him.  She wants to do nothing but play. 

I think the kids will be driving from Orlando to Largo today to see his grandparents old home.  I hope they take a drive down the coast for some real beachy scenery.  Why go to Florida if you don't see some water.

I have not done any sewing since Thursday but hope to get down to my workshop sometime today.  I am not going to take any customer quilts to next week (if I have any customers left).  It is too hard to do anything with two dogs wrestling at my feet.  I think I may finish sewing the border sections for the Hopscotch Butterscotch quilt so that it will be ready for the sashing and borders.  I will make a trip to Northwest and Fabricland next week when I drive DH to the airport.  I have a lot of fabric shopping to do in order to finish most of my UFO's.  I need border and sashing fabrics for almost everything and I need need need to find more blacks and neutrals for my Orca Bay.  I love the look of it and want to finish it.  I may even buy more red.  Good thing I have some quilting money burning a hole in my pocket. 

Well off to sweep up black and golden hairs from my floors.  I am going to have to do a major clean and disinfect on the weekend. 

Happy Quilting

My List of UFOs

  The following is my list of UFOs that I am vowing to complete this year.  2012.  I do have one that is a priority and must be done and quilted by April, so that will be my number one entry.  The rest are on a wish list.

1.)  Bali pop 1600 quilt for Jeff and Jackie's social silent auction prize. - final border, binding and backing fabrics to be purchased and sewn on.  Simple allover fern quilting to be done.

2.)  Orca Bay - I need to purchase more neutrals and blacks to complete the triangle for the flying geese sections and for the border.  Backing will be determined, most likely a pieced backing with left over fabrics.

3.)  Winter's Song - collect more snow fabrics.  Most blocks cannot be started until I have enough snow selections.  This will be a long process as top is large and there is a lot of applique to do.

4.)  Hopscotch Butterscotch - this is a leader/ender project from one of Bonnie Hunter's books.  I have all of the pieces ready and have been slowly working on putting the blocks together.  This will be done soon and ready to quilt.

5.)  Fern wallhanging - applique two more blocks and determine sashing and borders.  Quilt.

6.)  Trash quilt - A good chunk has been completed.  I am still piecing chunks together and making six inch wide border sections as well.  This will be an ongoing project and definitely not a priority.


I also have a wish list of quilts that I would like to do and have been collecting fabric for them.  They are as follows:

1.)  Blue Ridge Mountain - collecting a variety of blues and beige tones.

2.)  Crayon Box - I won a pack of sample squares and I am using those as the center blocks.  I have been collecting bright coordinating fabrics to go with them. 



I also have a list of completed tops that need to be quilted.  Hopefully this year.  They are as follows:

1.)  RRCB

2.)  Two Scrappy Trips tops - however I may need to take them apart and make them bigger for DH's new bed.

3.)  Autumn Leaves quilt. - It is king size and if the kids still like it I will quilt it for them.  If not I will remake it smaller for one of our beds.

4.)  Christmas Pineapple

5.)  Christmas mystery quilt by Bonnie Hunter

6.)  Cardinal wallhanging

7.)  Winter scene with cardinal wallhanging.  I may do it on my domestic machine.

I am sure there are more projects lurking around but this is enough to put on a wish list of things to get done right now.  The rest will most likely never get started or completed, but never say never.

Off to have breakfast.


 

A couple of photos of my Orca Bay Progress

   I have put my Orca Bay away until I can go shopping to buy more black and neutral fabric.  I really need more variety as I discovered when I was trying to make up a sample with two Ohio Star blocks.  It was difficult to try to piece and not use the same fabrics twice.  Here is a picture of my pile of hsts when I was piecing them and also a picture of the two blocks sewn together. 

   I also have a picture of the 1600 quilt top that I put together yesterday afternoon and evening.  It goes fast, which is nice.  I am making it as a silent auction prize for my DS's friend Jeff and his fiance Jackie's social.  DS is best man, so I thought it would be a great prize to donate.  I have auditioned a piece of dark blue batik (you can't see it in the photo), and the dark green that is showing for the inner border.  I prefer the dark blue.  I will go shopping for the outer border (I am thinking a medium green with all of the other colours in it) sometime in the next few weeks.  I think a flannel backing would be good for this as well because it is not a bed size and it will be good for a cuddle quilt.  I hate quilting batik backings anyway because the tension goes screwy since the weave is too tight.  I want everything ready so that I can have it on hand to quilt between customer orders.

My DIL dropped Nala off with us for a couple hours to dog sit while she went to brunch with her Baba and parents.  Charlie did a lot of puppy tuning.  She was constantly jumping on him so he had to discipline.  When she got back we went to the off-leash and the dogs had a great time.  She was very good, very social with the other dogs and came back when called.  The dogs are pooped now.

That is all for now.  I must go downstairs and get some more pieces of applique ready for my Winter's Song quilt top.  I do need to go fabric shopping for that as well.  I would love a trip to Fargo right now.

HSTs pieced and waiting to be pressed and dog-ears removed.

Orca Bay sample and the bottom half of the '1600' quilt to that I pieced together yesterday.

 

 

 

Update on Orca Bay Progress

     Instead of working on customer quilts today I ended up taking the Christmas tree down and packing up all of the decorations.  I always look like I have been in a cat fight after wrestling with that tree.  I am going to take it to MCC this week, if I can, because it is too big for this house and the kids do not want it.  I love that tree, it looks gorgeous with all of the lights and ornaments and I will miss it (except for its size).  I am also donating the tree skirt that I made for it many many moons ago.  The cats used to enjoy laying on that tree skirt under the tree.  At least they never climbed it, the tree that is.

     So after taking down the tree, I went downstairs with the intention of pinning a quilt onto the frame and guess what, I sat down at my desk and started working on Orca Bay again.  I did finish piecing 30 of the red string blocks.  I do think that I will only make a small version of the quilt.  It should be large enough to have on the couch as a cuddle quilt.  If I don't like the size I can always make it bigger.  I did sew all of the qsts and hsts so I could make it bigger if I wanted to.  I just need more blacks and neutrals and I can always look for them at a later date.  I may work on some of the triangle pieces tomorrow and piece a few of the Ohio stars to see how they all work together.  I cannot believe that I am this far behind on completing the parts of the mystery.  I guess because I ran out of fabrics and I was quilting up until Christmas week.  Oh well, I will plan my time better for next year's mystery.  I do enjoy working on them.

     I am also going to post a list of my in progress UFOs on this blog, when I figure out how to do it, to keep track of what I am doing and accomplishing.  I will explore other blogs to see how it is done.  I wish there was a continuing education course on blog creation.  I can't be the only one around that can't figure out how to set up a blog the way they want them.

     I have so many projects on the go and so many quilts that need to be quilted and I need and want to finish them.  Right now I am working on the mystery quilt, the Winter's Song applique quilt, and I have cut strips for a charity quilt that I want to get started on.  I am going to finish the mystery first.  I also have a Bali Pop that will be made up for a silent auction at Mike's friend Jeff's wedding social.  I am going to make the 1600 top with a sashing and border.  It will be quilted with a simple all over freehand design.  That needs to be done before April.  No problem.

That is all for now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! IT'S 2012!

I have slowly been working on the Orca Bay Mystery and am no where near being able to put any blocks together.

My progress on the various parts are as follows:

Part 1:  hour glass pieces - done
Part 2:  blue strings - done
Part 3:  black and neutral HSTs - finally done
Part 4:  red strings - 30 partially done
Part 5:  wings for hst's - half way cut - I have run out of blacks
Part 6:  Ohio stars - not done - all red centres and black squares cut but have run out of neutrals
Part 7:  not even close to starting
Part 8:  a distant dream.  I may just make a smaller version.  I will see how it goes.

I wish I had had more time to work on my parts and keep up with the pace of the mystery.  I also do not have the variety of fabrics on hand to keep it as scrappy as I want.  I will make up all the blocks that I can with the fabric I have and see if I want to make it bigger.  I will then go on a fabric hunting mission.  I have not found the variety or even fabric that I like and would want left over in my stash so it has been hard to collect.  I have not been to Northwest fabrics or the Fabricland in St. James yet.  That may be a road trip later in the month.  It has been fun working on regardless.  I love how the blue and red strings look.  They will make my quilt sizzle.

I am not going to post my completed parts on Bonnie's blog because I have no clue how to do it and I have not taken any pictures worth posting anyway.  One day I will figure the ins and outs of this blogging business.


LONGARM BUSINESS PROGRESS

I have three tablerunners to finish quilting for a customer and I will work on the next one today.  Hopefully I will be able to finish it in one day.  The smallest one took forever to quilt because I kept having to change colours of thread and I was having trouble freehanding the circles for the holly berries.  What is with that?

I will be seeing my next customer on Wednesday when I go to Darlene's for coffee so I will pick up her quilts then.  I also have a quilt that will be coming in next week so I better get cracking.  I am not going to call any of the other quilters on my waiting list until all of the above quilts are quilted.  The pressure on me is too much these days.  I mentioned to Darlene that I am going to wind down my business again for awhile and just take the occasionally customer quilt, when I can.  I am finding that it is not fun anymore and more of a chore to quilt for others than it should be.

That is all for today.  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get those tablerunners done and out of my hair.

'til the next time,