UFO Blocks

Three things to be happy about:
(1) walnuts
(2) company logos
(3) the smell of bacon cooking

I've been working on the Christmas swap blocks I got from my Bee, that had been sitting almost a year.  I'm glad to say - I've made a lot of progress!

I've sashed the nine blocks I'll use in the wall hanging. although I met a challenge head on when one of the blocks stretched because I had handled the slashed border too much.  Got out of that one!

I laid out all the blocks before I started, so I felt okay joining them as I went along. But after I got them all assembled I noticed some things I could have done differently.  Oh well, it passes the galloping-horse-at-50-feet rule, so I'll let it stand as is!

Now I just need to put on the bottom sashing, and decide on an outer border.  It won't be very large because the hanging is large enough already!  Maybe next time we'll swap smaller blocks, eh?

So that'll be two UFO's done already, I'm averaging one a month!  Gotta make a UFO list...

Sew forth and sew on til later

A change of direction

Three things to be happy about:
(1) patterned throw rugs
(2) Ott lights
(3) sweet tater tots

I've never tried the sweet potato tots but they sound good; I like the sweet potato fries, so I know I'd like the tots too!

Still working on the Christmas swap blocks from my Bee.

I don't have a large enough square ruler to cut the diagonals, so I just use my 8-1/2" wide ruler.

Whatever works...

But this didn't - yuck!

It looked great when I did that one block with the angel, but I don't like the way that red and white looks when the blocks are sewn together.

The sashing declared a turf war - not gonna work!

Oh how I hate unsewing!

So I went to my stash to find some low-impact fabric to surround the tilted blocks as a straight-on sashing.

I picked out a muted shade of green that would have looked good, but I didn't have enough of that piece, and green can be a bit tricky anyway.

Different shades of grey will work, using the same fabric on two sides of each block.

I'm using 4 different fabrics that are muted enough to let the blocks take center stage.  I feel good about this choice.

Sew forth and sew on

Just in time

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pink bubble gum
(2) a new notepad
(3) being spot on!

I was just in time, taking my sewing machine to Hancock Fabrics for repair!

Somehow I missed it on the news, but they filed bankruptcy and will be closing 70 stores... the store I went to yesterday morning is one of em.

They start the liquidation on Thursday.

Will your local Hancock's be closing??

Yesterday was the last day Jeff will be at the store; he was able to replace the foot pedal on my Touch n Sew while I waited.

The good news is he's trying to get a contract with a small-appliance store that's within a mile of the Hancock location.  The other good news is he'll come to your home for a small fee.

I bought my Singer somewhere around 1970, Jeff is the only repairman who has worked on it for the last 40 years - that's a loooooong time!

In other news, now that I finished the x and plus UFO, I can move on!

At our guild we're doing our version of the All People Quilt UFO challenge.  On my list, the number Carol pulled corresponded to these Christmas blocks from my Bee that I haven't done anything with since the swap in April 2015.

Because all the blocks aren't exactly the same size, I thought using a twisted block setting would be a good choice.  So... I pulled out this book that I've had for a long time, Twist n Turn by Sharyn Squire Craig.

I started with one of my own blocks to see if I like the look - looks pretty good!

Onward and upward with these blocks... I have to show some positive progress at our next meeting, on February 20.

Heck, I might have the flimsy done by then!


That's it for now, have a great Tuesday, go out and buy some fabric, sew forth and sew on...

Another UFO

Three things to be happy about:
(1) scary movies
(2) finding hidden treasure
(3) buying fabric online...

... which I haven't done in more than 2 years!

I was going through a bag of scraps (and discards) looking for large hunks to cut down when I found a zippered bag with these cute little blocks!

I vaguely remember participating in a half-square triangle block swap when I used to hang out on the quilting forum at About.com.

Oh my that place has changed in the last 15 or so years!  It started out being called something like "the mining company," covering any and all topics before it evolved into what it is today.  Well, it still does that, but now it's more organized, and Janet Wickell does a fantastic job as their quilt expert!

Anyway, I don't remember how many of these HST's I collected, they're probably scattered here and there among my stuff, but at some point I pieced a few blocks and even joined three sets of pairs together...

There were eleven blocks in the bag, made from 2-1/2" squares with muslin as the background part.

I like the look of these set flush together; this will make a great leader/ender project!  I have lots of 2-1/2" color strips, so as I'm cutting fabric I'll cut some muslin strips to use for HST's.

My Easy Angle ruler will make cutting triangle pairs easy enough.

That's it for now, have a great Monday -  sew forth and sew on til later!

Done is good

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Good Friday
(2) having faith
(3) Cadbury's

I saw a blurb a while ago that said Cadbury's will no longer distribute their chocolates in the U.S.  That's too bad, I love their chocolate!  Oh chocolate bunny ears, where shall I get you now???  Speaking of chocolate, have you ever shopped at Chocosphere?  I bought from them a few years ago - twice in fact - their chocolates are wonderful!

So much for that.

I never reported progress on my Wee Bee Christmas exchange - the blocks are all done!

I stuck with the angels, they're so easy to make.  They're all on white or cream background except for the two blue ones, just for a bit of variety.

They were super simple to stitch down, just two pieces that I raw edge appliqued.  No muss, no fuss!

That's it for now - have a great Friday; sew forth and sew on til later!

The perfect block, inspection

Three things to be happy about:
(1) peanut butter n jelly sandwiches
(2) getting it done
(3) a pretty view

So, I've settled on "the" perfect block to make for my bee's Christmas block swap!

This angel is simple to draw, it's only one piece, and besides - it's pretty!

I'll vary the color of the angel and the background so they won't all look the same, but I think the other swappers will like this block.

No matter what I did, that Ho Ho Ho block just wasn't going to do it for me so I dropped it!  Even at 275 points, there was just too much background space lurking there, in my opinion.

Yesterday I had the once-every-two-year pleasure of taking my car through its safety inspection.

This was actually the first inspection for my car, purchased in December 2010; evidently they give new cars a 4-year pass.

It was a painless process and the lines moved quickly!

Cars, trucks, taxis, police cars, school buses, transit buses, limousines  - they all get inspected at this Southwest Washington, DC inspection station!

I went to hand the agent my driver's license and registration but they didn't need it.  And here's a puzzler - some people were required to open their trunk and gas cap but I didn't have to ... hmmmm...

The only results they were interested in for my car were the on-board diagnostics and catalyst test.  I guess all the other stuff (safety result, brake test, idle, gas cap test) is covered under the OBD result, who knows.  In any case, by the time I found the ladies' room they had finished; I hopped back in, the agent applied my new sticker, and off I went.  I'm good to go until January 15, 2017!

So that's what I was up to yesterday, among other things.  I hope you have a great Friday, we're at the mid-point of the month!  Sew forth and sew on til later...

Lazy is as lazy does...

Three things to be happy about:
(1) glitter pens
(2) a new Keepsake Quilting catalog
(3) Geek Squad online support

Hello everybody!  Last time you saw me I was about to eat a big ole bowl of oatmeal ... well, I ate it and it was delish!  Gonna have another one soon as I finish this post!  Meanwhile I've been a lazy blogger and a lazy quilter  :o)

I had an issue with my PC recently when I couldn't open the virus scan program and then I realized I didn't even know when the last scan happened!  Yikes, how long was I swinging without a net, so to speak.  Thank goodness I got the Geek Squad support contract when I bought the new PC; they took care of it for me in short order and did a complete scan.  He assured me I didn't have any trojans or malware on my PC, so I feel better - whew!

Here's one of the blocks I made for the Christmas block swap with my bee.  I intended to use just one tree per block but it looked so lonely sitting there in all the white space, I put two on... now instead of having 6 items to stitch down per block - I have 12!

I wish the blocks were size 10, but it's not my swap - oh well...

This HO HO HO block is suffering from the same thing - too much white space!

One option is to make the letters half again as large; I don't want to get into putting doo-dads on the block just to fill in the space...

... or I could put each word onto it's own little rectangle and stitch that down, as shown in the sample from my last post.

Keep it simple, Linda!

That's it for now, it snowed a bit sometime before I woke up; they're offering Federal government employees unscheduled leave/telework options - that's my gauge of how awful they expect the snow to get.  Oh well, sew forth and sew on til later!

Another top done

Three things to be happy about:
(1) fresh, ripe cantaloupe
(2) putting on the ritz
(3) a hug from a friend

At last -  the blocks from the 2011 scrapbag retreat are together!

It only took 3 years  ;o)

I used 3-1/2" sashing around the medallion in the middle and 2-1/2" everywhere else.

The sashing color doesn't photograph true to life, it looks a bit grey in the shot but it isn't.

It matches nicely with the main colors in the blocks.



I could add another border to the quilt, but frankly my goal was to get the blocks off the shelf and sewn together into a quilt.  This top is done!

Sew forth and sew on til later!

Swap block progress

Three things to be happy about:
(1) birds on a road sign
(2) a ticking clock
(3) sculpture gardens

I made it out of the design slump I was in while trying to lay out my retreat swap blocks.  I had it in my mind to use the green batik-y fabric for sashing and the darker fabric for cornerstones.

However, I won't need cornerstones for the design I decided to go with.

Remember this layout?

It just wasn't coming together for me, but thanks to Gene's advice I thought "a-hah - medallion!"

This is the middle part, it looks great just as a small quilt!

I'll sew the quilt together in three rows...

Here's part of the middle row sewn together.

The two blocks will be added at the right side, then I'll add the top and bottom rows and sash the outside edges.

Progress is good!


Well today is quilt guild day, has it been a month already??!

It's also our annual guild tea, so it should be different and fun.  We'll have tea cakes, those cute little cookies, cucumber sandwiches ... the whole nine yards!

That's it for now, go out and have fun today, sew forth and sew on til later!

This and that

Three things to be happy about:
(1) cobblestone streets
(2) fleece-lined anything
(3) haiku

Long story short, a haiku is a 3-line poem or couplet or little ditty that has 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line, and 5 in the last line.  Here's mine for today:

Holy smoke on toast!
Today is Valentine's day
Did you get a heart?

Can you make one?  Aw c'mon, it's easy!

I don't have anything earthshaking to say, just wanted to keep in the habit so I don't drop off again!

Do you want a good fat-free non-greasy snack that tastes okay and isn't bad for you?  One day in Costco they had samples of this apple snack that I thought was tasty, so I bought a bag of em next time I dropped in..

They're apple chips by Bare Fruit, kinda pricey but I thought they were tasty.

The actual chips look like ... dried apple chips.

They're good to have when you want something to crunch on but don't want a lot of fat and sodium; 1/2 cup is about equivalent to an apple.


Remember this block I made for my bee's 10-year anniversary swap?

Thanks to great feedback, I made a few changes that I think make the block look a bit more realistic.  I wanted to keep it simple and not put a lot of work into it:

All I did was make the "movie screen" larger and move the family closer to it - makes a bit of a difference, eh?  It's a cute block but I won't be doing another one like it.  I have more that I'll share with you in another post.

I went out earlier and dug my car out, so I can go to guild meeting tomorrow.  As I'm typing this I have a chicken and rice casserole in the oven that smells mighty fine, I think it's just about done!  Enjoy the rest of your day, I'm setting the table for lunch!

Sew forth and sew on

I'd rather be cruising!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) your favorite old quilt
(2) an ample supply
(3) Andy Griffith show reruns

The arctic blast they promised really came through Monday night, like the Orient express!  Water main break at Reagan airport, cracked rail on the Metro system, electrical failure in at least one school, and the list goes on!  Yesterday morning I had frost on my storm windows, first time that's happened as far as I can remember.  I noticed it was only on the wall where I have a space heater though... maybe that triggered it?

Anyway we reached a high of 12 degrees, supposedly the highest temperature in this area.

I'd rather be cruising!!!  The Caribbean would feel mighty fine right now.

I keep telling myself "November and December went by like a flash, surely to goodness January and February will do the same thing," especially since February is a short month!


Yesterday I laid out another "10" block for the anniversary swap ... this one isn't fused down because I need to look at it for a bit longer.

This is my take on a recently released movie which I haven't seen (and don't intend to).

I'm thinking of making the movie "screen" a little taller ... maybe the border could be a wee bit narrower?  No, maybe not...

The family could be moved down a little more if the screen is taller.

The words don't need to be any larger... this block needs something else but I don't know what!  Any suggestions???

That's it for now, gotta dig through some more fabric!  Stay warm, sew forth and sew on til later  :o)

Running around, another 10

Three things to be happy about:
(1) monkey bread
(2) King's Hawaiian bread
(3) Great Harvest Cinnamon Blast bread!!

I had two medical appointments yesterday morning, I was so relieved we didn't have chancy road conditions or weather!

By the time I swung by AC Moore to get a new non-holiday wreath for my front door (they're having a 30% sale but the savings weren't anything to write home about), popped into Giant supermarket for a few items, ran into Costco to make a return and into Target just for the heck of it  - most of the day was shot in the big toe.

I did manage to do another 10th anniversary block though!  One idea I had was for a church, and I thought of all the little pieces I'd need to fuse on for the window, the door, the steeple, yadda yadda yadda.  Then I thought "hey wait a minute, I can minimalize this and it'll work!"  More detail I didn't need to get bogged down into!

Now, I think anyone looking at this would HAVE to think "church," right?...

It's a 10!

It's fused but not sewn down yet, I'm saving all that til after my creative juices stop running for this project.  I'll probably do 3 different designs... we'll see!

That's all for now, have a great Tuesday, stay warm, stay home if you can, sew forth and sew on...