Lots of things to do but……

Sewing binding on a quilt for a show and my fingers are like a pincushion, lol.  I have so many things to finish but this show quilt must be finished first and then I can maybe finish some of the quilts waiting to be quilted.

Happy Valentines

 

View Full Album

Alda

Birdie

I finished the first block in Birdie block of the month. I used Garden song fabric as I have lots and love it. I matched the thread to the fabric and I think it came out nice. I am really looking forward to seeing the rest of the blocks and sewing them. I used my Go cutter to cut the strips and blocks and love how easy it is. I am glad I have it it is easier for the arms to rip 1 strip and let the Go cut it into 3 strips for me.
I also took a picture of my cup-a-Joe swap cups. We get 1 a week and I just love them and am looking forward to have 50 at the end of the year, how cool is that. I have not decided how I am going to put them in a quilt but I have 11 months to figure  that out, lol.

Weekend

I spent the weekend going through my embroidery disks. When I bought my Designer sewing machine I got a whole lot of embroidery designs with it. I had never done machine embroidery before that time and didn't know how. So I read all I could find on the net and copied lots of information on what to do, stabilizer and hooping.  Since then, it is about 6 years, I have not done any of the many embroideries I have and maybe I was a little afraid of trying it out. Anyway I have been seeing people making beautiful labels for their quilts on the embroidery machine so I decided it was about time I tried it out. So know I have the customizing program in my computer, that took a couple of hours just to get that up and running, it is old and has a dongle that had to be coached in working, and I even tried sewing a few designs and it wasn't that hard at all. From now on I am making my labels embroidered and maybe I will even do some more blocks.

I also worked on my butterfly quilt. It just needs a border and I can't decide on the fabric. I am going to put some buttons on the prairie points. It took a long time to decide what to do in between the butterflies but I think it came out great.

 

RRCB

 

Hurray for me, I finished my RRCB mystery quilt top. I already bought the backing fabric because I don´t want to piece the back as the quilt is really heavy. I bought a fatback on this website, http://www.christianlanequilters.com/widebackings.html  they have a lot of cool wide backing fabrics for a good prize.

I have been working on doing all the swaps I am participating in so they are ready to send out.

On the family side my oldest came home this weekend with lots of dirty clothes of course, lol. They are ready for him for Monday when he has to drive up to Gainesville again. It has been a little strange to be 3 at home now and I think it will be even stranger when my DH goes on his next work trip and we will be 2 at home.

Dutch Treat top

I just took a little step back from the RRCB mystery quilt. It was getting to much to handle, literally to big to hold. I need to iron the top to put on the border. Instead I have been working on my Dutch Treat top and as I didn't have any pattern just the picture it took probably a little longer to sew. I need to put a border on the top then I am ready to finish the RRCB.

I think it came out ok and I would have made it bigger but ran out of the background fabric and couldn't find it anywhere.

Progress

RRCB part 7-2

I made it. Finished clue 7-2 Thursday night just in time for the last clue and spent all day yesterday and this morning finishing the top so I could begin clue 8. This is a beautiful quilt but boy it has been a lot of sewing. I really look forward to seeing it when I have finished the border.

RRCB part 7

New year

UHUUUU it´s a new year.

We got the older son SOH safely to Gainesville UF this weekend. Oh I am going to miss having him around. AKH, my youngest will have to step in his older brothers shoes and help his mom holding up quilts and picking up needles and pins from the floor, lol. SOH´s quilt isn´t finished yet, just have to quilt it and bind and then he can have that to remind him of mom.

On another note I finished step 1 of clue 7 of the mystery quilt on Saturday. I am sad to have to cut down the strip blocks for step 2, they came out so beautiful, but that is next on the list to do. 

Part 7-1 of the RRCB mystery

The list of things to do is getting longer no matter how hard I work on everything on it. Why I wonder, maybe it´s because I am always putting new things on it, lol. I also sent 3 swap letters yesterday in the Scratchingpost  group, 1 weekly Joe and 2 birthday cupcakes. I am really excited to see my Joe´s when they begin to arrive. This group is a swap group from Sindy of Fat Cat Patterns. I also signed up for APP´s  next swap, I think I am addictive to swaps, they are so fun and it´s so cool to get a surprise in the mail, love it. 

Another top

Flower power?

I am still on a roll, waiting for the next RRCB mystery clue. Another top finished and the strange thing is I think they are getting bigger, lol. This was a pattern I bought last year but didn´t like it when I started on it so I changed it. I really like it now when its finished but doing the corners took a little math witch I am not good at so I had to cut some fabric off them, but these scraps will come to good use in the next scrap quilt.

Update

Update on my Whirligig. While waiting for clues in the mystery and in between sewing them I manage to finish my Whirligig quilt. It´s huge and I am really happy how it turned out. It´s from the book Spice of life quilts by Carrie Nelson, love that book.

Whirligig

Sew Christmas

RRCB clue 6-1

The clue 6 in the RRCB was done in a flash, it wasn´t 600 pieces but nearly. Now all I can do is wait for the next clue that hopefully will show how this quilt goes together at last.

RRCB clue 6-2

I am having so much fun doing this mystery and the strange thing is that I am sewing more on other things waiting for the next clue. Well that´s a good thing I have lots of UFO´s to finish and other things to start, lol.

Merry Christmas to all. 

Hope the next year will bring lots of sewing and fabulous fabrics.

Lunar Eclipse pictures even though they don´t do it justice. It was cool.

Halfway there

Nearly behind us

Red moon

Crazy, that's me

Mug Rug for swap

OMG I must be crazy to get my self into that RRCB Mystery. We got clue 5 this morning and I nearly fainted. 600 half square triangles, size 2". Oh yes, that is what I have been up to today and still about 200 to go. It's a good thing I'm in my sewing mode these days. I was going to bake in between the sewing but decided to do some laundry instead, so now that is done. I have everything ready for the baking tomorrow when I finish the HST's. Yumm some cookies and some candy making and sewing, all of my favorite things. Oh and I took a picture of my Mug Rug swap things. I got this lovely mug rug from my swap partner and a cool mug to go with it all in the beautiful box. The one on the top of the post is the Mug Rug I sent her.

Mug Rug from my swap partner

Ready

SOH top

 I am so ready for the next clue in the RRCB Mystery tomorrow. I have been using  the time to sew on SOH quilt and it just needs another border and then it is finished. I have been cutting down strips and storing them by size. I have really been using from my 'little' stash lately (yes it´s small compare to many I have seen) and looking forward to buying some new fabric in the spring when I have used up all the old fabric. ;-)

Productive weekend

SOH

 This was a productive weekend, even though my knees are giving me troubles. I finished part 4 of the RRCB mystery, it was an easy one. Did some work on my older sons "graduation" quilt, yes I know he graduated last summer, but I was going to give it to him when he went to the university anyway so I will give it to him in January. And bought and packed all but 2 Christmas gifts. All the ones that I have to sent to another country are ready to ship. So I am really proud of myself and think I deserve a Pina Colada this evening.

Still "stripping"

Still RRCB

 Now I have been sewing on these strip blocks for 2 days and I have just finished 26. This is going to take a long time. Hopefully I will have finished before the next clue on Friday. This strip piecing is strangely addictive. I have been trying to do other things like putting some Christmas decorations up, and buy some gifts but  all I can think of is the strips and then I am just drawn into the sewing room, lol. I did manage to buy 3 gifts but I am nearly ashamed to say it that they where for my daughter, ok that's nothing to be ashamed about right, but the other 2 where for my furry babies. Can you believe that the first gifts I buy are for my cats, not my hubby, but the cats. Does that say something about me? Is it good or bad or just a little strange?

String blocks

Part 3 of the RRCB

 OMG I just finished my first 4 blocks of part 3 of the RRCB mystery and its so much fun. I have never sewn strips or strings as the call this before. We where supposed to sew on paper that´s 8.5'' square. I didn´t have anything in that size and copy paper is a $%&/" to rip of the back so I was off to the dollar store. I found some writing block in the dollar store but it was just 8''x 11 so I thought I would try anyway. And it worked i just have to sew the strips a little longer on 1 end and it comes of so nicely i dond´t have to use any tools to take the paper off. I am really happy with the blocks and looking forward to the next 56, lol. So off to the sewing table.

Good weekend

Part 1 of RRCB

Well I have been productive this weekend if I say so myself, lol. I finished part 1 and 2 of the RRCB mystery quilt. I packaged my Mug Rug swap package and it´s ready for the post office tomorrow. I even put up some Christmas decorations patting myself on the back. Now I just have to finish all the hundreds of other things I have to do before Christmas. Oh if only there where 36 hours in a day

Part 2 of RRCB

Mystery Quilt

I finally finished finding scraps for Bonnie Hunters Mystery Quilt. I love a good mystery and if it´s a quilt too than that is just perfect. This will be a good stash-buster quilt. Only thing is, that my hardest part of making a quilt is finding the fabrics for it. There are so many beautiful colors and patterns that it takes me forever to choose. It should be easier now that I just have my stash to choose from, but not so. Even though I don´t have that a big stash it´s still hard to decide on what colors to use. I didn´t even think I had that much pink but I seem to have found some in a box so they got to play with my ever so big stash of greens. Yes I love green and that is the only color I definitely have enough to choose from. So that leaves the neutrals. Ok what is a neutral anyway, a white with a color in it or cream tone on tone? Whatever i just trow every light fabric I can find in the pile and strip it up. Done. Now to cut all this pile of fabrics.

Fabrics for RRCB Mystery