...and the Mystery begins!

There's probably no other event on the internet that is as highly anticipated among quilters as Bonnie Hunter's yearly mystery. And I have to admit that this year I've been a part of that group. Friday was the day of the uncovering of the first clue and quilters all over the world are choosing, cutting and sewing fabrics for the Grand Illusion Mystery.

The colors Bonnie had selected were yellow, green, pink and teal/aqua with black and neutral added in. I don't normally collect much in the way of teal fabrics and most of the ones that I do have didn't really match her colors. Not that that's necessary, but it helps when you're more color-challenged, as I sometimes seem to be. Initially I thought I might substitute purple/lavender for the teal/aqua but when I saw the first clue, I quickly changed my mind--purple just wouldn't have contrasted nearly as well with the pink. So I pulled out what I did have and went to work, cutting and sewing. I've got all the pieces for the "broken dishes" blocks cut out and I've gotten 13 of them sewn, with 87 more to do!

A couple of years ago I bought an Accuquilt Go! cutter and I love it for specific purposes. I figured cutting out 280 triangles would be a great use for it, but I didn't have the right die. Thanks to Amazon, one is on its way and should be here tomorrow. In the meanwhile, I stacked my strips 4 high, right sides together and used the Easy Angle ruler to cut just over 200 triangles. I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy I was able to get them cut! However, I still need 80 more triangles and I figure the die will be good for that. And who knows how many more triangles I might need before this quilt is finished?

I read Bonnie's advice about only sewing the number of pieces at a time that will fit on the length of your ironing board. That serves several purposes: for one, you're getting up and moving more often so it's good for your health. If you're working on a leader/ender project, you get more of those pieces sewn. And finally, your sewn parts don't get all twisted and tangled together. I tried doing it that way and found that it worked really well. It's just a bit tricky to figure how many you need to sew before stopping to press.

Laura wanted to press my mystery pieces for me, but she's a bit heavy and rough with the iron, so instead I gave her my leader/ender pieces to press. That worked for her and for me!

On another note, we had a very busy, happy Thanksgiving here with my mom and dad and all six of our children, 4 spouses and 8 of our grandchildren here. It was lots of fun, but Laura and I were both exhausted the day after Thanksgiving! In fact, she didn't even ask to sew that day, which is HIGHLY unusual. Instead she sat in the studio and played games on her Kindle. I was happy about that because it allowed me to sew uninterrupted for a few hours!

Julie Cefalu revealed two more rows for her Nordic Quilt-along and I got those done on Friday. I LOVE how it's turning out, although I've realized that I'm really short in red and white fabrics! Oh no--that must mean I need to do more shopping!

My 30's Stash

I'm a member of the Yahoo Stashbusters Group and someone on there suggested working specifically on busting their 30's fabrics. Several others chimed in that they wanted to be part of that sub-group and I thought that would be a good project for me to take on too. The "leaders" of the group thought it would be a good idea for each of us to take a picture and make an inventory of our 30's fabrics before we begin. I had a drawer of 30's fabrics and several larger pieces in with my regular stash. I didn't really think it was that much fabric until I began measuring. OH MY GOODNESS!! By the time I was done, I discovered that I have about 45 yards of just 30's fabrics! I was totally shocked!! And about half of that is in fat quarters! Needless to say, I'm going to have to get really busy to see those numbers go down! So now I'm in the process of looking for specific projects that will use up fabric quickly. And I have a feeling that Laura is going to be busy helping me--she'll be thrilled!

And now it appears that even more than ever, I need to "GET MORE DONE!"

Missing in Posts...but not in ACTION!

It's been a LONG time since I've written a blog post and lately I've been thinking that I should get back into doing that on a somewhat more regular basis. So we'll see what happens with that idea!

Anyway...I've been busy sewing, and so has Laura. In fact, I think her quilting has become an addiction (as my daughter told me--"Where do you think she got THAT from?!") My great challenge has been to keep her busy enough with sewing that I can work on some of my own projects, in between cutting and pinning for her!

Laura with her latest project

I have to tell a rather funny story about Laura--although it wasn't so funny at the time. One day we were sewing and I needed to leave to go to my piano lesson. I left Laura sewing at her machine in the studio while I was gone. What was I thinking?! When I came home almost 2 hours later, she was STILL down there. So I snuck downstairs and peeked in at her to see what she was doing. 

All the screws you see (even the tiny one), the springs,and the feed dogs had been removed by Laura

Well, it appeared that she must have gotten her sewing machine jammed and I wasn't there to fix it, so she decided to fix it herself! For some reason she had gotten out the machine manual (maybe she thought it had some machine un-jamming photos? She can't really read afterall!) But in addition, she had found the tools I use for really bad jams (screwdrivers, tweezers, etc.) and had pretty much disassembled her machine. I might have been able to put it all back together, except that in her attempts at repair, she had dislodged a couple of springs and I didn't know where they went. So we took the machine to the shop to have it repaired and about $90 later, Laura was ready to sew again. However...before I let her touch her machine, I took lots of photos of its interior and even made a video showing where the springs were and how they were connected...JUST in case!

I do have to admit that Laura's sewing has greatly improved over the months as she's gotten more and more experience. In October we went to a quilt shop and she saw a Halloween panel that she had to have. Initially, I thought I had another project to work on, but then it occurred to me that Laura could make her own project. And that she did!

I had her make a bunch of 4-patches and add those as a border, along with just a regular border. Again, I thought I would have to quilt it, but again, realized that with help Laura could quilt it herself. I drew lines in a grid over the whole wall hanging and had Laura do a multi-step zigzag with her walking foot--that's what she's doing in the photo above. The zigzags are really irregular, but they kind of add to the spooky house feeling!

Finally--the binding. I had Laura sew the binding, and then stop just before the corners. I sewed the corners and then she kept going until the next one. I also had her hand sew the binding to the back. The only problem with that is that Laura doesn't know how to knot thread and I haven't been able to figure out a way to teach her. So I knotted a bunch of pieces of thread for her and then kept the scissors away from her as she sewed (so she wouldn't just cut off her thread when she got to the end) and then I would tie off each piece of thread for her. She was so proud of herself and her creation! And so was I!

In between Laura's projects, I've been able to do a few of my own. I finished up birthday pillows for all 12 grandchildren and made one for Laura too. My daughters-in-law are still coming over on Tuesdays to sew. We've continued working on the Shabby Fabrics monthly wall hangings and I've completed all of them except December's and it will be finished this week.

I've been working on the Craftsy class, "Playing with Curves" and I've gotten 2 of the projects completed.

I've made several bags/purses/totes and finished up projects I had started last year, particularly some fall projects. But I also started some new projects I fell in love with, like this beautiful table runner. I haven't done much in the way of actual quilts this year, although I have a couple in the works that I'll blog about at another time. And I'm all excited about Bonnie Hunter's mystery that starts next week on November 28th--the "Grand Illusion" Mystery. I've only done one of her mysteries, "Easy Street" and I'm looking forward to making another one.

Right now, of course,  Laura and I are both working on Christmas projects and one of them is the Nordic Mini Quilt-along that Julie Cefalu is offering on her blog. I fell in love with these blocks when I saw them and had to jump in. This is going to be a TINY quilt--these blocks are less than 5 inches each!

Laura has been assembling the quilt in the very top picture of this post. Here is where she laid out the cut sections for me to pin together. Her quilt will be sort of a tree skirt for our extended family Christmas tree. And her leftover pieces will be things such as table toppers, hot pads, coasters, etc. I'm going to have her make as much of her projects herself as she can.

Last, but not least, Laura's birthday is in a couple of weeks (December 4th) and she is so excited! Her birthday is her very favorite holiday and she looks forward to it for most of the year. I've been working on various projects for her, one of which is this darling birthday cake pincushion. I've had the pattern for some years and have always wanted to make it for her, so this year I finally did.

Well, this blog post has gone on long enough, but I guess I had a little catching up to do! I'll try to repent and do better in the future. In the meanwhile, I hope to get more done...everyday!

Goals and Projects

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I keep a dry-erase board on the wall in my quilt studio where I make lists of projects I'm working on or wanting to make, usually on a monthly basis.

At the beginning of the year, I make a list of all my projects that need quilting, all that are WIPs, and specifically those that I want to complete during that year and haven't really started. I also try to break the larger projects down into some kind of a monthly format. Some of them are already done for me (Block of the Month projects) and some I have to set up myself, like making the pillows for my grandkids this year, doing a sewing (non-quilting) project each month, and doing a Christmas project each month.

Then each month, I'll decide which projects I'll tackle that month (the ones that are already in some kind of a monthly format are already decided--I just have to plug in that month's block or particular project.) I keep a list in a notebook (one of the ones I made covers for last month), but I also write it on the dry-erase board so I can easily see what I've done and what there is left to do.

I also mentioned before that I spend the first part of each month cutting out all my projects for the month. That REALLY makes everything go so much more quickly! As I cut out a project, I write a big "C" next to it on the dry-erase board. Then once the project is finished, I can cross it off my list. I LOVE being able to cross off finished projects!

One of the projects I decided to do this year is Shabby Fabrics Little Blessings Block of the Month--I love these little wall hangings! I've made the January and February ones and now I'm waiting for the March kit so I can get it finished before March begins.

My daughter and daughters-in-law fell in love with those wall hangings too and wanted to make them, so now they're coming over here every Tuesday and we're working on them together.

As you can see, we have lots of little helpers...

...and even littler helpers!

With her sister and sisters-in-law here sewing, Laura wanted to get back to sewing too. I found a stack of blocks she had made earlier in the year and pinned them together for her to sew. I guess she must be catching on to how to assemble a quilt because after she put all the blocks together, she asked me about adding borders. I suppose that will be next week's project!

Our small quilt group's project this month was these adorable little spool blocks--with hearts in the middle! I thought they were so cute that I made two of them!

And then I made one into a pincushion and one into a coaster. For the pincushion, I used the walnut shell filling that everyone likes so much. I do like how easy it is to work with, but after using the pincushion for a while, I realized that I missed the "heft" of my other, sand-filled pincushions. So I think from now on, when/if I make any pincushions, I'll fill them with sand instead of walnut shells.

This winter has been particularly cold and I have four doors leading to/from my quilt studio. Two of them are very cold and drafty--the one leading outside and the one to the unfinished closet. I'd been piling a large piece of fleece in front of each of them to keep the cold air out, but that wasn't a good long-term solution. So this week I made my own draft stoppers. This one, for the closet door, has a piece of foam pipe insulation encased in fleece on either side of the door. That way, it not only insulates, but it actually stays ON the door when it's opened and closed.

This one, in front of the exterior door, is also made of fleece, but it's filled with rice instead. This door really isn't used very often, but when it is, we'll have to move the draft stopper back into position once it's closed again.

Last month I showed the brown chevron quilt top that I've been working on for my son and his wife. I finished assembling the top, which is essentially king-size, and realized I had no king-size batting. I really didn't want to piece the batting, so I just ordered a king-size batt and I'm waiting for it to be delivered. Meanwhile, I squared up the backing and got it loaded on my longarm frame. I'll be glad when this quilt is finished because then all my children will have at least ONE quilt I have made (most of them have several) and I can take a break from making large quilts for a while!

I'm participating in the Bag of the Month Club at Sara Lawson's blog. This is the January bag, which I didn't think I would really like that much until I made it. It's a great size for short trips since it holds a LOT and the handles really do a great job of supporting extra weight. I LOVE the bag for February and I'm excited to get it made (of course, it's already cut out!) One of my daughters suggested I make it out of a different fabric, but I'm using this same purple fabric! This is one of my favorite fabrics and I'll be really sad when I've used it all. And I told her that since the February bag is small and this one is large, they actually would work together really well as a matching set. So that's what I'm doing!

Next week is Valentines Day and Laura and I will be busy making Valentines tomorrow for family and friends. Meanwhile, she made this picture of me which I believe is meant to be MY Valentine!

Happy Valentines and good luck at Getting More Done...Everyday!

How to Get More Quilting Done...Everyday

Hi! It's been quite a while since I've posted here, and with good reason. I've been making some changes in my life and in order to accomplish all that I want to do and Get More Done, I've been trying to spend less time on the internet and more time working on my goals.

The picture above is me on the inside of a guard rail. I had come up with the idea of having a word to focus on for this year (well, actually, the word sort of found me!) and that word is LIMITS. When I began pondering what LIMITS mean to me, I realized that they are really a type of guard rail--a fence or a protection. This year, I'm trying to set (and RESPECT) limits on my time, my spending, my eating and my spaces. So with that in mind, I'm LIMITing how much time I'm online, but also how much time I spend sewing/quilting, since there are many other things I want to accomplish.

But...I'm still quilting a-plenty! I've scheduled about 3 hours, each day, Monday through Friday that I can sew. And I'm amazed at how MUCH I can get done with that amount of time! 

I've also been pondering my "niche" in the online quilting blogging world. There are already so many people out there posting tutorials, that I figured anything I might add would just be redundant. So I've decided that my purpose in creating blog posts will be more along the lines of how to Get More quilting Done, in the time available. Does kind of go along with my title, doesn't it?!

So to jumpstart my posting for this year, I thought I would reveal what "I" do to try and accomplish as much as possible. The first thing I did was to make some lists. I wrote down all the projects that I had either started or wanted to start and FINISH this year.

I've done something quite radical and most people reading this will probably not want to make such a radical change, but what I did was to stop reading almost all of the quilting blogs that I had been reading. There are still a small handful that I read and even then, I usually just skim the posts, only stopping to read more closely if I see something really interesting. 

The reason I've done this is because we all tend to be in "information overload." There is SO MUCH information on the internet that we can become paralyzed by all that's out there and then we never get much of anything done ourselves. When you combine the internet with books, magazines, quilt guilds, shops, etc., it truly becomes absolutely overwhelming. So I've decided to turn off the "faucet" of ideas to just a small trickle. I have more ideas now than I will ever accomplish in several lifetimes, so I don't believe I will suffer from a lack.

Now, with that being said, there IS some value in participating with a group project, like a quilt-along because of some of the camaraderie involved. But only if you're doing something that you really choose and want to do. I participate in the Yahoo Small Quilt group run by Kathy Tracy. It's a fun group with lots of wonderful people. The group makes a small quilt each month and each month, I make the decision of whether or not that's one I want to do. It's MY choice and it's MY time, so I'm careful how I spend it. This month's small quilt was a bear's paw. I made it, but instead of hanging it, I made it into a pillow for my bed. It was just the right size and I needed a pillow, so it was a win-win.

Sorry about the soap box! Back to making time for quilting--I made my list of what I wanted to accomplish and I broke some of the projects down into sort of personal monthly "quilt-alongs." This is part of a block of the month project I had saved and started some years ago. It's called "Pushin' Up Spring"  and came from Apple Blossom Quilts by Connie Sue Haidle. She has some wonderful projects for anyone interested in applique. I've decided to do one of these blocks each month and finally get this quilt made!

This past Christmas I REALLY wanted to make a tree skirt and I just didn't have the time. There are blogs out there that do a Christmas post once a month, so I've sort of taken that idea and decided I would make one Christmas project of my own each month. I also decided I would do one project that's more of a sewing project and less of a quilting one (like curtains or clothing. This month I started with these journal covers. 

This is how they look on the inside. I love how they turned out! I use one for my quilt projects and one for my herbal/bodycare recipes.

One of the most important things that I think I did to increase my productivity was after I made my list of all the projects I wanted to accomplish this month. I gathered together my patterns, fabrics and supplies and began cutting. I spent a WHOLE week, simply cutting out everything I possibly could for this month's projects. This is actually a reduced pile of projects because I've already made several of them. But I've found that the decision-making and cutting out are the most critical steps to Getting More Done. When I'm done with one project, I can just pick up the next one and start sewing! And the project almost seems to make itself!

I have 12 grandchildren and I was wondering what to do for them for their birthdays this year. Last year I made triple zip pouches for most of them. Then I found an idea for pajama pillows and I plan to make one of these each month. This was the first one and it's obviously not quite perfect--the name isn't centered and I inserted an invisible zipper in the bottom that will need to be done differently on the next pillow. 

There's a pocket in the back (you can't see it very well--that's another flaw) where the child will stash his pajamas during the day. I thought it was a great idea and works for all age levels.

My big project for this month is an almost king-size quilt for my son and his wife. She found instructions online for a crib-size chevron quilt and I had to adjust and alter it to have it be the right size for their bed. I've gotten this far on it and now they need to choose fabric for the border and backing. It's getting close to the finish line!

This post is a lot wordier than usual, and maybe I've said more than I should. But I've expressed how I feel, and more importantly, what I've done that's enabled me to accomplish many of my goals. Everyone has to make their own choices, based on what they want to do with their lives. As for me, I plan to Get More Done, everyday!

Gifts in the Mail, Pianos and Dolls

My birthday was this past weekend and I usually don't get gifts from anyone, so I was really surprised when a package came for me in the mail. Even more surprising was the fact that the return address showed that it was from a very dear friend of mine who I haven't seen in some years! When I saw what was in it, I quickly sealed the package back up until Laura came home. She was visiting at her sister's and she's the "official package opener" around here. Normally, however, the packages don't contain anything for her--but THIS one was different!

Kim had discovered my blog and my love of quilting. Her sister-in-law, Geralyn Powers has written and published a quilt book (Patchwork Plus) and Kim sent me a copy. I LOVE the book--it has a combination of both patchwork and applique and the projects in the book are just wonderful! I'm looking forward to making some of them. But look at what else Kim included--lots of little goodies for Laura!

Actually, I think the chocolate was meant for me and Charles, but you notice that that was the first thing Laura grabbed! We DID share with her!

And how did Kim know?! Laura has a real thing for watches, so that was her second choice among all the goodies! That and the bracelet even match her shirt! We've had lots of fun playing with and exploring all the fun little things--it was the best birthday surprise EVER!!

On a different note, but still birthday related: Last year I decided that I wanted to get serious and learn how to really play the piano well, so even though I knew the basics, I began taking lessons. I've been carrying my various music books back and forth to my teacher's house each week in a canvas tote, but quilter and bagmaker that I am, I knew I had to have/make something with a little more class.

Then  months ago I discovered this paper-pieced piano by Soma Acharya of Whims and Fancies and just fell in love with it. I decided that I would make my own version of the pattern and incorporate it into a tote bag for piano. As time marched on, I knew I needed a deadline to get me moving on this project. So I decided that I would make myself a piano tote bag for my birthday...

I looked the pattern over carefully and realized that I could easily divide it into 4 major sections. In September, I put together one section each week. That actually ended up being a good plan because I think I would have gotten totally burned out on paper piecing if I'd tried doing it more quickly. I also didn't want to get tired and sloppy by doing too much at a time and that part of my plan worked very well--by the end of September I had a completed paper-pieced piano!

The next challenge was to incorporate my block into a bag. I had been collecting various music and piano themed fabrics for a while and I carefully cut some of them up and sewed them as borders to my block. And then the whole thing sat on my design wall for a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I was scheming and planning how I might make this into a bag and not make a complete flop of it.

Last week, I decided it was time to get busy and started putting things together. I thought the front was pretty good as it was, but I needed to do something for the back of the bag. I decided to continue the top and bottom borders around the bag to the back and then just use plain black fabric between them, since the emphasis was meant to be on the piano on the front. However, I found I had a treble clef stencil, so I quilted a few of those onto the back, along with a few lines.

On the front, I just quilted a 1/4-inch outline around the piano and left it like that. I added two thickly-padded handles and boxed the bottom.

I left the top of the bag open, but I did add a zippered pocket in the lining to hold my wallet and a few essentials. The lining is another music print I had found. The whole bag is quite sturdy and holds my books perfectly--I LOVE how it turned out! Happy Birthday to Me!!

This weekend Laura and I went to a quilt shop with my mom and discovered some fabric panels printed with clothing patterns for American Girl-sized dolls. Laura has one of those dolls and even though she doesn't actually play with it, she does like to change her clothes occasionally. Needless to say, we left the store with a couple of panels. I was afraid Laura might think she could sew them herself, so I bought a back-up set in case they ended up getting ruined. Fortunately, she let me sew them while she "supervised!"

The little slippers were the most challenging part to make, mostly because they were so small. I goofed on the second one, which Laura wasn't too happy about, but I wasn't about to take it apart and re-sew it!

We have one other set of doll clothes to make, which I've actually hidden from Laura for now. I bought fabric that matches it and I plan to make the doll and Laura matching pajamas for Christmas. She'll be just thrilled!

It's rather late, so there won't be any more done today, but we'll definitely Get More Done...tomorrow!

Missing In Action

To anyone who actually takes the time to read my blog, I owe a sincere apology. During the summer when life was busier than normal and I was unable to write any blog post, I sort of got out of the habit of doing it. I thought about it many times, especially as I would complete a project and family and friends asked for pictures. I even added a reminder to myself to "write a blog post" on my weekly to-do list, but then just kept putting it off. So now the stars have finally aligned themselves in proper order and I'm back!

Although I haven't been reporting it, I've really been very busy and sewing almost daily. One of the things that I've done is taken the idea of the "quilt along" and used it to my advantage. On my dry-erase board, I keep a list of "Works-In-Progress" (WIPs) and assign each one a day, Monday through Friday, that I will work on them. Some of the projects are already broken down for me, but some of them I've broken down into sections to make them easier to accomplish. For example, I've been working on Judy Laquidera's "Road to Llano" quilt. She wrote it as a quilt-along a few months ago and posted steps three times a week. I'm doing one step each week (on Mondays) and I'm about halfway through. But this particular process has really helped give some definition to my time and deciding what I should be working on.

With that thought in mind, one of the projects that I have been working on this year is the "And Sew On" Block of the Month over at Quiet Play. I kept up with it all year until June. Then, for some reason, I just stopped...and stayed stopped (kind of like my blogging!) So in September I decided that I would add the "And Sew On" blocks to my weekly WIP list and it worked like a charm! I made one block each week and on Friday I completed the last one!  I had a lot of fun making it and choosing all the different fabrics to fussy cut. I like things to be realistic, and I was able to find just the right fabric depicting a scene I would love to see out my sewing window.

This is the final block--"Sewing Sanctuary"

The first week of September, I finished the block for June, "A Stitch in Time." That was where I had originally stalled, so I was relieved to get it done and then move forward.

June's Block--"A Stitch in Time"

Once I got June's block done, I was on a roll and continued to get one of the blocks made each week. Of course, they got more complicated and more time-consuming as I progressed, but I was determined to complete them. The second week saw me finishing the July block:

"Cut it Out"--July's Block

The third week's block was a bit more challenging, than the others had been and took longer to do, but I got it finished in one day.

August Block--"I Like Big Stash"

Now that all the "And Sew On" blocks are finished, the next challenge will be to come up with a way to put them all together. I'm thinking of maybe a dark green sashing but I'll have to audition a few fabrics and see how it looks. I'll be SURE to post a picture of it here when it's all done!

Not to leave Laura out, she made a pillow this summer using some of the hot air balloon fabric from our friend in New Mexico. The pillow stays in her room and sometimes even on her bed! She also finished her quilt she had been working on:

I had thought that this quilt would be great to donate to a charitable cause, but Laura had other plans:

When it was finished, she immediately took it upstairs to her room and put it on her bed! So I guess we'll have to do something else for charity!

I'm glad to be back and hope that everyone can forgive me for my absence. I'm going to try and be a better blogger from now on! And today...there's still time to Get More Done!