the Current Sad State of my UFOs and the Stash Report

Why do I do this to myself?  You probably can't answer that.  You are probably just as bad.  Are we scatterbrained?  ADHD?  Forgetful?

This half-hexagon has been in the works for a couple of years.  I am now committed to finishing by June 11th or it will cost me $10 at the Caledonia Guild. The original plan was for it to be a King Size quilt, but the last time I laid it out... I dunno.  It might be substantially smaller.  I double and triple checked my math and it should measure out the way I planned, but based on what is left to sew it just doesn't seam seem right.  The original plan was for a summer quilt for the bed.  Time will tell.  I know this will be nice when it's all together, but it is so. darned. boring.

This is the Three Dudes quilt I'm working on at the Scrappy Club.  It should have been started late February, but I hurt my back and couldn't make myself go to the club.  Couldn't pick up my sewing machine, actually.  Which makes it pretty hard to go to a sewing event.  So, it got started March 24th.  To be continued April 28th.

The Batik Cats were collected a looong time ago.  This is on my UFO challenge with Margaret and Nancy.  I have until the end of April to get this top together.  The sashing is all cut so this should sew up pretty quickly.

And, now for the DWR that I started at retreat.  Ha ha ha ha ha hahahahah....  This will be going on for a long, long time.

I am attending MQX in April.  The gal I'm going with is in classes every single day.  All day.  Wednesday through Saturday. By the time 5 o'clock rolls around she will be so brain dead she won't be able to carry on a conversation.  She will  just point to the item on the menu that she wants for supper and then fall asleep in her appetizers.  I am going to deal with the isolation by bringing my sewing machine, AND my projects.  When I'm not in the bar picking up stray men (ha ha, not likely at a quilt show where the men are mostly a little, um, not Kevin Costner-ish.  Besides, DH would never approve.)  I will work on this stuff.

MARCH STASH REPORT
Sadly, only finished items get reported here.
Used this month:  0 m
Used YTD:         23.75m
Added this month: 0 m
Added YTD:         2.25m
Net YTD:          -21.5m

Flying Geese Pinwheels and Scrappy Sewing

I enjoyed every minute working on this quilt.  This winter there has been sooo much white.  Freezing, face-pelting snow.  For MONTHS now.  This, on the other hand, is white and bright. 

These kinds of colours make me stare longingly at my sandals in the front hall closet.  Seriously.  I'm not kidding.  I open the closet to get my sweater, coat, scarf, ear muffs, hat, mitts and boots so I can go down the driveway and get the mail.  As I'm standing there I look at the sandals, reach out to stroke one gently, get a little lost in my head and go to my happy place.  Aaah...

But I digress. 
I quilted this with the cutest (!) cupcake pantograph.

Here's a music quilt that was treated to the perfect music pantograph.

Believe it or not, there have been THREE social events in my life this week, and none of them were cancelled due to weather.  It made me feel that shaving my legs last week (for the first time in about 6 weeks.  It was starting to itch.) was totally worth it!!

Monday was the Scrappy Club at the Caledonia guild.  I like to wear my very special sewing watch to guild events.  Purchased in Hong Kong last year.  The original watch band lasted about, oh, three hours.  Then the paint started peeling off the, um, leather (?).  I found this twill tape at a quilt show, printed with measuring tape pattern, so I made my own band.  So far it has lasted WAY longer than the original.

Here's what I was working on.

On Tuesday I met Jean and Jane at IKEA where we enjoyed a cheap an economical supper.  I'd post the selfies I took, but they'd kill me.  Yeah.  Not flattering.  :-)

I needed to replenish the glassware in the kitchen.  It's been a long, hard, winter (sorry, I already said that, didn't I?) and I was able to get another gross of matching wine glasses.  Now I can stop drinking from empty jam jars and put them out with the recycles.

On Wednesday the guild had an extra UFO day, so I was working on the challenge quilt we have going with the Caledonia, NY guild.  The top is finished but I can't post photos - it's a surprise.  Then I headed over to the County office and paid my property taxes.  Using my credit card.  Who knew?  I collect points so this works out perfectly in my favour.  More points = more shoes.

How much will it cost?

There is a new page for PRICING if you want to know what to expect.  See above.

Sampler Love and Bad Thread Day

I'm just going to BORE you and tell you again about how much I love sampler quilts.

With every block being different, the neurons are FORCED into firing.

It's important to use similar elements in the blocks to create continuity & rhythm.

My Janet Lee's Favorite ruler gets a very good workout on all the stitch-in-the-ditch and straight line quilting.

Ooh - love the border!!

WARNING.  POTTY-MOUTH ALERT.

Who was the fucking rocket scientist who decided we have to step outside our box and try something new?  Jesuschristgoddammit.  Look at this shit.  Every damned row of the panto the thread shredded AT LEAST once.  Often more.  Fucking polyester.  This is being BANNED and sent to the drawer of bobbin-thread-only.  Once again, I am swearing off of poly and promising to stick with my tried-and-true cotton threads.  But just like ya go back to the 'bad' boyfriend because he's changed his ways (don'tcha know?) I will probably try this again in a few years.

A lot of fluff...

This was my progress by the time the retreat got packed up on Sunday.  Those last two rings that I added Sunday morning took me about three hours, which was the available time between the end of breakfast and the beginning of lunch.  This is one complete row.  Yaay!!  Now I can pack it in a box and not look at it for _______ (insert lengthy amount of time.  Years, perhaps.)

This is my darling Sadie's belly, covered in muck on Tuesday.  It was warm - over 10 c., and everything was melting and filthy.  The whole pack (me, DH, and dog), went for a lovely walk and enjoyed the spring-like temps.

Here is a shot out the front window on Wednesday.  Blizzard.  Everything cancelled, including my guild meeting.  Based on the news reports I think we got about 25 cm of snow.  The winds were howling until the wee hours of the morning.

This is the goofy email we got from the neighbour in the afternoon:
Hi
 How are things there? 
 Checking in to let you know I'm still alive....lol   I'm looking at the sky, thumping my chest, yelling at the gods...."IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?????    C'MON....BRING IT ON!!!
I'm off today and tomorrow.   No need to plow until tomorrow.
 I sent him a reply and requested that he please, STOP THUMPING.  (and, by the way, I meant goofy in a good way.  He makes me laugh.)

So, since my social event for the day AND evening was cancelled, AGAIN, I stayed home and worked on this beauty.  I love samplers.

I also made two loaves of pumpkin bread, with DH's help.  Yum, yum, yum.  Supper was a pot of home made soup, with fresh, warm bread slathered in melting butter, with a few fresh vegetables on the side.

Double Wedding Ring Progress

By 8 pm last night I'd had enough of lovin' up my sewing machine. I moved on to lovin' up a bottle of wine and a bag of potato chips. I was the advance guard, it seems, because soon I was surrounded by many wine glasses and many more bags of, um, bad munchies.
I am tackling things FRESH today.

First Two Projects

The two black polka dot blocks are finished and ready for guild at the end of the month.
The 35 batik cats have their first round attached. I will add sashing later then stitch 'em together.
Todays project is the start of a Double Wedding Ring quilt.  I'm glad I have the whole queen size quilt cut out.  Now that part of the first row is stitched it is quite apparent I would be a big QUITTER otherwise. So far, I think this quilt might actually wear out a seam ripper. :-o

Heading off on Retreat

The front hall is full of my quilting stuff - yaay!!  I'm heading off on the annual Quilting Retreat with the Binbrook Guild.  The messy kitchen is being left in the capable hands of DH and Sadie.  Sadie lucks out - with no opposable thumbs she doesn't have to do much but clean the floor.  (if you have a dog you will totally understand that)
This year I have four projects loaded up:

• the very boring (!) blue & cream half-hexagon quilt I am committed to finishing before June 11th.  If I don't get that done it will cost me a $10 penalty at the Caledonia guild, so you can bet your arse it will be complete.
• two Block of the Month blocks for the Binbrook guild monthly program
• the Batik Cats which is the March/April UFO project with Margaret and Nancy
• a Double Wedding Ring quilt that is all cut out but not started yet

Wish me luck...

T-shirt Quilt, Stash Report, UFO Challenge, Birthday (mine!!)

DH was trying to throw out tshirts that somehow shrank over the years.  Shrank?  Really?  I pulled them back out of the trash and quilted them up.  There are too many thoughts and stories connected with these!

I even quilted a tractor in the bottom corner for him.

This used up more of my stash - yaay.  In my head it let me justify buying a wee bit more.  Boo! bad Helen, bad.  Sometimes I wonder what I'll do if I use up all my stash?  Then I laugh and laugh at the nonsense of that idea, and get back to reality.

FEBRUARY STASH REPORT

Used this month:  11.9m
Used YTD:         23.75m
Added this month: 2.25m
Added YTD:         2.25m
Net YTD:          -21.5m

I took the Red Hats to Burlington to see the John Willard quilt exhibit, then we headed down the road to the Oakville Sewing Center.  This was a shop recommended to me by a customer and was definitely worth the drive.  I looove word fabric so picked up a bit of that, and the button print has a planned use on my current 'scrappy' quilt.  So it's all good.

I celebrated another birthday last week, and Mother Nature was true to form.  Another blinding snow storm, but at least this one was short lived.

I got lots of FB birthday wishes and lots of cards in the mail, and even a couple of Happy Birthday songs via telephone.

I know that if the snow ever melts and I manage to GO anywhere, there are friends out there who love me.  And as you can see, some of them know me pretty well.  :-)

The sticker was on the back of my card from Margaret, and she's the driving force behind this year's UFO challenge.  For the March/April time slot she pulled #5, which you may recall I was super-motivated about and already completed.  I have replaced #5 with these Batik Cats that I collected several years ago.

REVISED 2014 CHALLENGE LIST

	ITEM	CHALLENGE DETAILS	DATES	STATUS
1	60's Dresden Plates	TFUQ.  This is the January project, regardless of number drawn.	jan/feb	complete jan 18
2	Blooming 9-Patch	Needs outer border, then quilting.
3	Bowtie Quilt	TFUQ.
4	Double Wedding Ring	Pieces are cut.  Stitching to be started.
5	Brown Bats blocks from BOM Replaced with Batik Cats	Top to be made, quilted & bound.	Mar/Apr	BATS complete jan 23
6	Piece 'O Cake Quilt	Hand applique.  One block must be done for challenge.