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,

Happy Boxing Day!

Today will be a day of restful sewing.  We have had a busy couple of weeks and now that Christmas is over we can get back on track.  Christmas Eve and Christmas Day went as expected so needless to say I am glad it is over.  There are enough leftovers for a meal tonight and I will start simmering the bones for a pot of soup for tomorrow's meal.   The kids gave me a pasta machine so I can make noodles.  Yeah!

Santa brought me a Kindle for Christmas so I have been having fun playing with it.  I must finish my library book before I get too involved with the books that Mike downloaded for me and the free book Bonnie from Quiltville pointed out.  I think that it is one of the best gifts that I have ever received.  No more smelly, dirty library books.

I hope to spend the day reading and sewing and possibly napping.  There is no way I am going out Boxing Day shopping.  There is absolutely nothing that we need and I hate crowds as it is.  So I may start to get caught up with my Orca Bay mystery.  I may even get a few pieces set up for the applique quilt I want to work on this winter.  Did I say yeah Christmas if over yet?  I may even remember to take some pictures and post them.

That's all for now.
Lynne

Getting back to the blog.

What a busy summer and fall I have had.  I redid (if that is a word) the retaining block border around my back flower garden.  That was a lot of heavy lifting.  We also redid the patio and sidewalk.  We did not order soil to build up the flower beds or fix the border around the patio and sidewalk because it was scorching hot all summer and grass seed would just roast not germinate in those temps.  I will order dirt in the spring when I am in the mood to garden again.

Fred and I finally tore the basement apart and re studded all of the walls because the moisture build up between the moisture barrier and insulation soaked the existing studs and we did not want mold in the walls.  We first lined the walls with thick styrofoam insulation then put Roxul between the studs and secured it with vapour barrier.  We then put up drywall, instead of the ugly panelling that we had down there, and we did the mudding, sanding and priming.  The basement is so warm now that I sweat when I am down there.

I have to finish painting but after smelling the paint that I put on the shelves Fred built me for days and days, I cannot even think of smelling paint for a while.  Besides, I have started quilting again so I have all my stuff organized and against the walls.  I do not have the energy to move things around again right now.  We still have to paint, put down some kind of flooring, put up trim and baseboards, and finish the stair area.  We might do some of it over the Christmas break.

I have moved all of my sewing stuff to the basement now and I am enjoy spreading out down there.  It was a pain to share my sewing room with my bedroom.  I have room to breathe in my bedroom now.

I have started so many new projects that I don't know which one to work on.  My problem is that I start something and then need different or more fabric and have to find the time to go look for it (and we all know how easy it is to find fabric here, not.).  Anyway, I have finally started to work on the "Winter's Song" applique quilt.  I am not happy with some of my fabric choices and I need larger pieces of fabric for some of the blocks.  This quilt cannot be done with fat quarters.  Yardage is required as it is a large quilt.  I need to go on a major fabric shopping trip in the states.  The shops here have limited choices.

I have also started the Orca Bay mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  I have cut most of Step 1's fabric but I need more neutrals.  I do not want to use a lot of white on whites this time.  I need to go to Marshalls fabrics and have a look.  I have started Step 2 of the mystery as it consists of making 72 x 3.5 inch string blocks with blue fabric and I have lots of that.  I have been digging all of the blue fabric I can find from my scraps, strings, cut up squares and strings to use in these blocks.  I have been sewing and sewing and have only completed 24 of the 72 blocks.  Back to the basement for me.

In the meantime, while I was pulling blues for Orca Bay, I have been putting aside blues to use in another of Bonnie's patterns called Blue Ridge Mountains.  That one will take a lot of collecting.  I really should order some packages of fabrics online and scour thrift stores. 

All of the above fun has seriously cut into my longarm quilting business, so I better smarten up and get my priorities straight.  But I am having so much fun doing my own stuff.  Oh well, the business does pay for my quilting addiction after all.

I will post pictures of my progress with Orca Bay next time.