Back to QAL Work We Go

Time for a bit of a project update and what I've been up to.  I have a ton going on at work, leading a system conversion from a very archaic computer system to a much better Window based platform, so when I get home in the evenings and weekends, I'm ready to unwind and not think about work.

Above is a look at my cut pieces for the Magnolia Mystery Quilt going on now over at Meadow Mist Designs.  If you have not participated in one of Cheryl's mystery quilt alongs before, I HIGHLY encourage you to hop over there and check it out.

It's been a week or two since I have caught up on the QAL's I'm participating in, so this past week was spent mainly catching up on those.

Oh, deer, just look at that moose under the mistletoe!  The moose and deer blocks caught me up on Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilt's Have A Jolly Little Christmas Quilt.  I just realized as I'm typing this, the last block will be given to us this weekend.  Could we have a quilt finish before Christmas 2017???  I think we just might.

Next up, was the The Double Star Block in Cindy at Stitchin At Home's Medallion Quilt BOM.  I am really loving me some purple and green with this quilt.

Goodnight Moon is the next block in Pat Sloan's The Children's Library BOM.  Only two more to go and this extremely fun QAL will be coming to an end as well.  I had hoped to finish up the Aurifil BOM and show you as well, but we are not currently on speaking terms at the moment.  It is packed full of applique and at the moment, my head just isn't in that game.

Taking a break from the piecing scene, David and I borrowed my mom's garage for a basting quilt session.

We were able to baste four smaller quilts, all currently waiting for me to pick them up and quilt them.

Here is a picture of David and his Poodle Quilt.  While scrolling through Instagram, he ran across Sue at Seven Oak Street Quilt's Poodle block she made for hive queen Karen at Tu-Na Quilts.  Loving all things of the 50's; 57 Chevys, girls in poodle skirts, you get my drift.  He decided to super size the block, change the piecing up a bit and create his own throw back to the 50's with some recent fabric purchases.  I'm thinking that negative space is screaming for some fun flow quilting.  What do you think?

Even after all that was finished last weekend, I snuck in some cutting time, to cut out a quilt for my daughter's 17th birthday.  I'm pretty sure she doesn't read my blog, but just incase she does, I won't let the cat out of the bag quite yet on what it is, but it is another one of Lorna's wonderful creations.  Do I have a Sew Fresh Quilts pattern obsession?  Hmmm?

I think I have confessed before, I'm a cluttered mess.  I'm an OCD person's nightmare...ask David.  However, there comes a point about every 3-6 months I can't take it anymore; the stash starts stacking up (from growth or laziness), the sewing space becomes cluttered...I have to clean it up.

So in keeping it real here on the blog (because I keep telling myself I'm not the only one who is like this), I pulled out my fabric totes to "file" the fabrics in there correct bins.

It became clear pretty quick like, that the fabric wasn't going to fit in their respective bins.  AHHHHH.

But Caroline tried to convince me everything was okay, because she fit in this newly almost empty bin...sigh.

So after several go rounds in my head I opted to purchase three more fabric bins and do the fabric shuffle.  My whites, blues and reds are in the biggest of the totes (how patriotic of me) and everything else fell in line.  So the stash is back under control and arranged in the back room.  The cats, bless their hearts, love fabric shuffle time, because the living room is transformed into a kitten playground.

I am feeling more grounded now and believe I can create once again.  I've come to the realization that with two serious quilters in the house, something must be done.  Quilting has taken over the house.  If that sounds like a daydream, trust me it's not.  There is talk about converting our porch into a sunroom/quilting room.  I do love my porch, however, we don't use it.  Why?  Because I'm inside quilting!  This would allow us to have a dedicated room for quilting and let the dinning room be a dinning room (since I'm now cooking again, thank you Instant Pot), the spare bedroom be a bedroom and the breakfast nook be...well something other than home to my Sweet Sixteen.  But, we shall see.  A girl can always dream

Vacation Time--A Flimsy Finish

I have to say I'm a little bitter because I should have been crushing over this quilt last Monday, but things just didn't work out that way.  Vacation Time is a mystery BOM hosted by Pat Sloan that I started back in January.  Last year I participated in Pat's Globetrotting BOM and had such a great time, I had to play again.

You can read more about my Globetrotting Quilt here

When choosing fabrics for Vacation Time I decided on Bonnie and Camille's Miss Kate line.  I fell in love with the colors in this line when I made my 2014 Aurifil Mystery BOM last year and knew I wanted to play with them again.

From January through September, Pat gave us instructions for piecing the blocks.

February through June blocks

The finial blocks and layout instructions were released this month.  I was more than ready to see what the final top would look like.

As I started to piece the rows together, I wondered if I was getting a lime green over kill.  My personal color pallet leans more toward the soft pretty blues, but onward I sewed.  Until I got to the boarders, then I had a slight problem.  I ran out of the red fabric I needed for the two smaller boarders.  I was determined to finish this last weekend and tried to use a red fabric and a brighter turquoise fabric for one of the boarders but they just didn't work.  Aggravated I stopped sewing for some internet shopping.  

I was able to locate yardage of the fabric at The Quilt Department so after a click of the purchase button it was on it's way.  The package came very quickly and they even sent a small note pad.

  

Now I was back in business and boy was I glad I waited on the fabric instead of rushing for a finish.  I love how the top turned out.

Now the only thing left to do is decide on a quilting plan and let the thread start flying.

 I also wanted to show my little shelves I purchased this weekend.  I'm hoping to get my sewing space more organized.  I didn't take a before picture because it was just that bad.

 I have my The Quilter's Planner 2016 on order and want to get myself ready for an even more productive year.

Today I am linking up with Main Crush Monday over at Cooking Up Quilts.  Also don't forget to hop over to Amy's Creative Side to check out the Blogger's Quilt Festival going on right now.  You can see my entries, Jungle Gym in mini quilts and Falling Leaves in small quilts.  Also the Dog Gone Cute Blog Hop is still going on over at Sew Fresh Quilts.  Thursday is the last day of the blog hop and I find myself dog gone sad about it.  Don't for get to check out my two doggie quilts and find links to all the other talented dog gone quilters here.

Come join the party!  The more the merrier!  I'm linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts and WIP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced.

August Week Two Wrap Up

 I think I read somewhere that it is good to clean your machine after every 4 to 8 hours of use and I wish I could say that I remembered to do this all the time.  I don't.  But as I was working on projects this week I noticed a bit of lint building up at the top of my needle and thought maybe it's time to stop and clean this baby out.

My husband purchased tiny little attachments for our vacuum cleaner that I can use to suck the lint from the machine.  Well worth the investment.  But I also find pipe cleaners work well for getting in those hard to reach spots.  What are your favorite tricks for cleaning your machine?

Monday was our guilds monthly meeting.  Since I'm fairly new to the group, I had yet to make my official Quilters at Heart name tag.  One of the ladies was nice enough to bring a small pattern of the heart that everyone used to make their tags.  I chose to paper pieces mine from scraps left over from the Modern Building Blocks quilt I'm working on.  I went with bright colors and of course added some quilting bling to it.  All that's left to do is sewing a backing on.  Hello my name is...

I also decided to mark the second block for the whole cloth quilt along I've been participating in on Face Book being lead by Ren at Free Motion Quilting with Ren.

  

Oliver insisted I point out that when I marked the feathers around the heart, I used a printed template that Ren posted for us.  It made this task a bit easier, although I had been practicing and could have probably free handed it.

When I marked the chevrons, I ended up drawing them across the heart to make sure everything lined up as it should.  Hopefully I can remember which are quilting lines and which are not when I start that project.  Thank goodness for water soluble pens, is all I have to say.  So what made me decide to work on the second block?

This little delivery from the mail man.  As most of you know, I have a long love affair with Aurifil threads.  I swear we didn't have a fight and I am not quitting them.  I've been hearing great things about Wonder Fil and thought maybe it's time to check them out.  I ordered:

Deco Bob--80 wt cottonized polyester

Invisa Fil--100 wt cottonized polyester

Konfetti--50wt cotton

I'm pretty excited to give these bad boys a try.

This little piece of paper haunts me everyday at work.  It's an evil little reminder of all the

quilt tops stacked in my back room waiting for my attention.  It has been killing me that I haven't crossed one off my list this year.  So a few weeks ago, I broke down and sent one to a long arm quilter.  I got the much awaited phone call this week that it can be picked up!  So hopefully, in a few more days I can mark one off this list and share a finish with you.

And lastly, (I hope you are still with me) I signed up for yet another blog hop this week.  

It is the Dog Gone Cute quilt a long at Sew Fresh Quilts.  Lorna will kick off the quilt along September 1st and the blog hop will start in October.  If you would be interested in participating or would just like to get the pattern click on over to Sew Fresh Quilts.

Other than finishing my block for Kat at Kat and Cat Quilts (read more about Kat, her cause here and the block I finished here ), that pretty much sums up my quilting week.  Hope everyone has had a productive week in all of your adventures.

Elf Not on My Shelf Anymore: A cleaning victory

I can admit that I'm a sucker for simple entertainment.  I can amuse myself for quite a long time making up new words to songs, like I'm some sort of Weird Al Yankovic wanna be.  My dad was the same way.  So when the Elf on the Shelf craze hit I truly thought my family needed one.  I could clearly  visualize the amusement posing a small stuffed elf would bring!  I really hadn't taken into
consideration that my daughter was almost thirteen years old and possibly too old to start this tradition.  If I'm honest this was probably what I was thinking anyway...

Of course I would have never left him like this for Jen to find.  

The problem is he never made it out of the box.  For the past two years he has not sat on a shelf high and proud, but was left stuffed in his box unloved and unseen.  Santa would be very upset to know that he became just another "thing" laying around.  A victim of hoarding.

After last weeks cleaning spree I decided that it was time for him to live.  He needed a new home where he would be loved and allowed to have the adventures he deserves. My dear cousin has three wonderful little boys who are just the right age to enjoy this holiday tradition, so I knew what I had to do.  He had to go.

So today I set in motion Operation Santa's Watching.  I pulled some strings and acquired a letter from the big man himself and wrapped the package.  Hopefully in a few days 2 little boys (the third is too little) will open this package and their little eyes will widen with the hope that from miles away the jolly old man that is Saint Nick is watching them.  

 Sometimes there are rewards in tasks we don't want to do and for me this is one of them.

The Bookcase--Not a fairy tale

After I finished cleaning the area of my night stand I was feeling pretty good about starting on the area around my bookcase.

 The bookcase sits just outside of the closet and has become a catchall for things I don't quite feel like putting up.  The intention is there, "Oh, I'll put that up in a minuet," but the follow through somehow gets lost.

Seeing the placement of a sweater that is to small for me stuffed on a shelf makes me pause and say, "What is wrong with you? And why are we keeping that??"  So with my tail tucked between my legs I began pulling things from the shelves and putting them in the floor.  Everything had to come down because my intention was to move the shelf closer to the side wall.

Once I saw how much stuff (mostly books though) I had stored on the shelves I thought I might have to call in for back up.

The one thing I love almost as much as my quilting stuff, is my books.  There is nothing like holding a great book and turning the pages to find out what hides inside.  I hope that one day when I'm senile and don't know my name, my grandchildren will go through my books and think that I must have been pretty cool or off my rocker crazy.  Weeding my book collection was one of the hardest things I've had to do.  Seeing this mess on the floor and knowing I had to make decisions, caused the irrational part of me to think that moving and starting over might just be the easiest choice. 

In the meantime, my daughter was performing the same task in her room, but having a blast doing so.  Through out her elementary school days, I accumulated quite a book collection for her.  I had a bad Scholastic Book Club addiction.  However, she did not inherit my passion for books.  Reading was not something in those days that came easy for her and most set on the shelf never opened.  We boxed up all of the books she had out grown and donated them to one of her teachers.  She assured me that her students would love them.  This made my heart feel happy again.  In the end I would just like to see them loved and used.

After a nice glass of moscato, I returned to the mess I had made and I have to say I was pleased with my progress.

When it comes to organizing I'm a complete loss so I turned to my dear friend Pinterest.  This lead to the purchase of two fabric covered storage boxes to house my paperback books.  It's amazing how many more you can fit in that space just by doing that.  I also read several articles about adding visual interest to the shelves my arranging the books in different ways.  Most of the things that were in the floor went into the yard sale box or made their way back to their original spots.  The boards are the only oddball thing that remain in the space and they will have to wait till I pull the mattress off the bed to go home.  

By moving the bookcase further down the wall I made space for another future project from Pinterest.

I found this half table on Larcie Bird's blog and I love it!  It makes me think "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"  (If you haven't noticed, I love Alice in Wonderland)  In her blog they actually found a table at a yard sale and chopped that baby in half.  I'm not sure if I shall take that route or possibly just build one and use an upholstered storage cube for a bench.  I think it will be a great place for my laptop and to use as a small office space.  Not including the closet, I'm half way done with this room.  Back to cleaning!

I'm not nesting...I promise

It all started last week, or possibly many weeks before, but I finally reached a breaking point concerning all the clutter and messes around our home.  I had just finished piecing this wall hanging for a fund raiser and was waiting on thread to arrive when I decided enough was enough.

With working full time, being a parent to a teenager, and focusing all the time I can on quilting its been too easy to ignore piles and pretend dust isn't there.  The spring cleaning bug finally hit me much to my daughter's horror.  She was perfectly content to ignore chores right along with me.

I started last week, cleaning out our master bathroom, thinking it would be the easiest and quickest place to start.  In my head I could knock that puppy out in an evening, heck hour and a half at the most and be back at my machine...wrong.  I spent 2 evenings throwing away old stuff, organizing and gathering things for donations or a yard sale.  But the results felt amazing.  So amazing, I proudly announced to the family the whole house is getting a well over due make over.  My husband raised an eyebrow suspiciously and ask if I was nesting...ha ha.

This week my focus has been on the master bed room.  After assessing the condition of the room, I narrowed it down to four main problem areas: nightstand area, book self, area in front of the bed and side dresser.  Each of these places have become catchalls for all kinds of junk due to lack of storage space.  I spent a lot of time on Pinterest this week looking at different DIY ideas and before and after pictures, and I have to say it really was motivating.

I started with the easiest section first, the nightstand and under this side of the bed.  I debated on sharing the pictures I've taken because this is probably one of the things I'm most insecure about.  But personal growth doesn't come without being uncomfortable.

So where did all my stuff go?  After going through the drawers, I found that most of the stuff inside could actually be tossed or put in the yard sale box, freeing up quite a bit of room.  Moving the dresser closer to the bed makes it easier to turn the light on and off from the bed (no more crooked lamp shade for all the OCD peeps) and gave room for a basket to put magazines in for late night reading.  I even discovered a possum living back there! Well a stuffed one that was a present.  The little white box leaning against the wall is an unopened Elf on the Shelf that my family had outgrown when I bought it.  It will be wrapped and on its way tomorrow to my cousin's 3 young son's with a letter written by Santa to let them know he watches...wink wink.  He's such a voyeur.  I also donated three bags of bed sheets (some from my daughters room as well) stored in containers under my bed.  How did I end up with so many???

One of my Pinterest finds is this awesome platform bed with lots of storage.

With the help of my favorite wood worker, I'm hoping to make this dream a reality.  This would solve many bedroom storage issues for us.  With this area finished and my thread still on the way to me, I guess I will turn my attention to the book self.  Wish me luck!

Making a list and checking it....fifty million times

Three months gone this year and I find myself asking if I am truly being as productive as I could be.  If I'm giving an honest answer I would have to say "no."  I'm a hot mess in the house wife category.  I remind my husband all the time he didn't marry me for my organizational skills...it was my charming personality.  I'm not an episode of Hoarders Buried Alive (I'll admit I watch that show sometimes to feel better about my stacks of magazines and what not) but I don't think you will ever see me in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens either.  I keep up on dishes and laundry (I'm not disgusting), but if I can find a reason to distract myself (there is always a quilt that needs me) from dusting or sorting, I will find it.

My husband is a firm believer in making lists and has them for everything.  Although I will admit is he very organized and gets most of the stuff he sets out to do done.  So I'm thinking he may be on to something here.  So I did what any good procrastinator would do, I turned on the computer and went straight to Pinterest.  Any lover of Pinterest knows, that if you are "pinning" it, it's like actually doing it.  I searched for cleaning lists and organizing and came up with several sites with ideas that were helpful.  Declutter Your Home in 30 Days and The Household Organizational Diet both have great day-by-day break downs on how to tackle your messes in small doses and Renovating This Life has a printable check off list to keep yourself on track.  So with the help of these sites and recruiting some teenage slave labor, I'm hoping to get my house more under control by the end of the month, leaving me with more time for quilty things.  Here's to hoping for a Pinterest win and not a fail!