Hooked on Quilting

Well, I didn't do very well this year with finishing anything!!! I've promised myself to master my time better and to finish a project or two in 2016.  I've bought this gorgeous planner to help me, but, as usual, I am afraid to write in it, afraid to mess it up!! LOL   If you know of a trick or two to help you finish a task or project, please share.  There are a bunch of Web sites that help motivate us to finish projects, so I will try to see if one really pulls me in and I can actually stay with it. Tried some over the years and none really force me to "get it done." I haven't written all of 2015's projects that I've started, but as I clean up my studio, I'll add them. Guess I should go ahead and make a tab for 2016 - is that negative thinking? Will I start a new project without finishing it? Yes, that's just silly to think I won't. LOL  Which sites help you motivate yourself? More than one? Please share.  I don't...

Ouch, my face is so flushed. I haven't posted in ages.  Discussion over. No excuses offered. Now, I have been asked to create a blue/white quilt. Here's some images from EQ7.  Which is better?  King size so there's a 12" drop. Any better ideas out there?  My first stab at designing so I need advice. TIA If I leave the white borders, what quilting design should I use to soften the endless (almost) white border? Seems like it needs more or should I just do an overall quilting pattern (E2E)?   If anyone has more ideas, I need to hear them, pretty please? 

These are the flying geese for the next step. I'm ahead for a change!!  These are going into the Meadow Mist Mystery quilt.  It's not too late to join in.  See the button on the side and click through to read all about it. 

I've been reading a bunch of blogs and they sometimes share their goals for the month and then update their progress at the end of the month. I'm going to TRY to stay focused and accomplish something. For real... 1. I MUST finish ripping out this Crayon quilt that's on my HQ16 so I can get another one loaded and move on from this nightmare.  Just a little to go. I can only do this for 15 minutes before my back begins to feel it, so it's #1 on the list because it's an easy thing to do when I have a few minutes, but one I'm always neglecting. I will then finish the two (or three, maybe) rows of quilting. The binding is not going to happen in August, but I can try. 2. This was a Craftsy kit and my first Kaffe fabrics and I am just not very thrilled with it, so I have had to force myself to put this together. Not sure if I'll ever quilt it...but it needs to come off my design wall.  Oh, did I mention that I actually bought Cheryl Ann's Design Wall...

This is "Hello Dahlia" by Nancy Mahoney. It was a kit that I purchased at my LQS. It's a bunch of rectangles sewn together and I loved the print so much and wanted it for my studio because I have decided to add red accents to the room after I bought my expensive red chair. LOL  I also worked on the Flower Garden quilt from Craftsy made with Kaffe prints. It's just not me, but I'm determined to finish it. Sewing the rows together now, but I need a bunch of breaks because my heart is just not in it. I'll get you a pic soon...or not. :( I'm still ripping out my Crayon Quilt as the third row somehow stitched wonky and up into the second row...quilter error - mine!!!  Sad face - again!!! I hope to soon get this thing off my HQ16 (the one I'm trying to sell to buy the Infinity with all the bells and whistles!) so I can quilt something new.  When I get the urge to hand sew, I've been faithfully hand appliqueing my Baltimore Autumn and I...

I happened to read about this great little binding kit that would carry my needles, binding and clips, ready to hand sew down the binding. Vanessa of  Lella Boutique  posted her tutorial and even a video of how she put in her zipper. I followed her wonderful directions and voila!! Look what I made today!!  I'm so excited. It's the first time I've tried to machine sew a binding on and it was sort of, okay, for this little adventure. I probably won't try it again on a quilt until I've done a ton more practice.     I love the front dahlia looking flower and just used the rest of the line to coordinate the pockets and such.  Thank you so much, Vanessa!!!  I also bought 1,000 shirt clips to hook my yardage that I've wrapped around comic book boards. They come tomorrow so I'll be busy re-arranging fabric!!! 

There are my fabrics for this year's mystery quilt hosted by Meadow Mist Designs  so I've added it to my sidebar. It's still not too late to join in.  I'm so hoping I'll have the time to stay with this quilt along. I've had these fabrics for awhile and I really would like to start using up my small stash.  I have done a bunch of sewing, but I have not been a very good blogger. Hope to change this. One of the Yahoo quilt groups has suggested JOT, "Just One Thing" and I'm going to try this as my next try at staying focused!  Once my husband retired, I was hoping to just quilt all day, but the more time you have the less that seems to get done. :( My latest project is Block 2 of Baltimore Autumn by Pearl P. Pereira . I'm seriously considering buying the Baltimore Spring quilt kit. I was working on her Baltimore Liberty, but once July 4th came and went, I thought I'd get going on her autumn quilt.  I'm also working Hell...

This is a cute little ring pin cushion I made from the Downton Abbey line of fabrics.  Here's a pic of the third row of quilting of the crayon quilt that I've been ripping out for weeks. :( This is block 2 of the Chick Jubilee quilt designed by Bunny Hill. See my three little chicks at the bottom? Cute, aren't they? They still need some embellishment, but still.  I'm looking for an app that will help me stay focused long enough to finish at least one step of any one project. Any suggestions?  I just want to do so many things and I keep flitting from one to the other to the other and at the end of the day....

This is what I stitched today!  I was afraid to start April's mini because I wouldn't get it done in time to use!! So, this went very, very well and now, maybe, I'll be a month ahead of time!  I cut all of pieces with my Scan and Cut machine. I did use Heat and Bond Lite as the fusible. I stitched it mostly in a blanket stitch except for the M and the y as they were tiny and I used a straight stitch. This is a pattern from Count On It by Nancy Halvorsen. It's from awhile ago, but there's one for each month. I bought some fusible batting (for the first time) and will iron it onto the backing and sew it like a pillow covering, then turn it inside out and make the seam lay flat and call that my binding or frame. It's really very cute and I have a metal frame that I'll hang it from...in May, of course!  I've just started using my Scan and Cut, made by Brother, and I think I'll do more applique since this went so quickly. I have so many hand-app...

I must apologize for my lack of blogging, however, I have a great excuse! I've been visiting my daughter and her family and helping out with her kids. She has four under six years old and they keep her soooooo busy.  We had a great time making this little playhouse for her kids' preschool. There's some wrinkles in it, but I "let them go" for the sake of finishing it. Thoughts for improvement?  My hope is that it's still standing!!!! I will update you on all the quilts I've started, ones I want to start, ones I'm close to finishing, etc., when I get myself organized.  Unfortunately, I'm hooked on the game, SimCity BuildIt, and quilting has taken a back seat to this game, if you can believe it. If anyone else is playing and wants to trade/bargain for goods, email me and we can be friends and swap extras.  As soon as the honeymoon with this game is over and I get bored with it, I'll be back...and finish something quilty!!  ...

Welcome to the  Grow Your Blog Party  that is being hosted by Vicki of  2 Bags Full !  Come to the party and stop at over 400 blogs and find new friends, new interests and share your blog with everyone!  Vicki has suggested we chat about ourselves and share our blogs.  I'm into quilting and want to share with friends what I create.  I have tons of UFOs and I try to proclaim that I'm going to get all these quilts done so I actually use my blog as a journal of my accomplishments, failures, and as my to-do list!!!  I get so sidetracked with life and grandchildren that quilting seems to fall to the bottom  of the to-do list.  Anyway, if I don't post, it's because I didn't quilt and since it's a quilting journal, I steer away from too much personal life stuff!!! I try not to point out my mistakes, but that's mostly what I write about!!! So, check out my some of my quilts and studio pics which need to update them already...things have ...

Here's what I've been up to lately: This is my crayon quilt. I just bought some yellow for the backing so I'm almost ready to quilt this. It's for my granddaughter and I'm hoping to get it quilted by next week. I can take it and add the binding during my visit. Something for Valentine's Day. I bought the kit from  Sew Lux , in fact, I bought two!!! Working on the second one as a Leader/Ender project.  I'm a huge fan of Downton Abbey, so I bought some fabric and used one of Andover Fabrics' patterns. Just not in love with it, but...can you see the mistake?  I'm taking it apart as we speak.  Not sure I shared, but I finally finished all those alphabet bean bags and did a couple bags for them. Here's one: Another...so happy that I'm finished and the kids are loving them. Seemed like a great idea and thought I could just throw them together, but, after a couple, I wanted to move onto a new project, so...

So, I found the TV series, Downton Abbey over the past summer and I'm so in love with it, I wanted to make a quilt using the DA fabric line.  I didn't have anything in mind, so I went to the Andover Web site and just picked the quilt of the colors I liked. So, here's a pic of the blocks, just need some sashing and borders. Very easy and just enough of the same block not to get bored putting them together.  I like it, sort of...my apologies for mess in the lower right hand corner - another unfinished project going on that's just hanging out there at the bottom of my design wall. I've promised myself to work harder to get all these hand appliqued/BOMs finished this year or, at least, work on them.  So, thinking spring is coming...Block #1 of Chick Jubilee is half finished.  This is my Quiltville Grand Illusion Mystery Quilt block that's almost finished.  I'm loving it, but it may be moved to a leaders/enders project, only I'd do a ...

Happy New Year! This is a pic of the Grand Illusion block of Quiltville's mystery quilt that I've been working on.  I've finished a bunch of projects and promise to blog more often in 2015 (can't fault me if I falter!!!).  More soon!