February 2021 OMG Completion

 All 64 Drunkard's Path units for OMG. 

Now, what do I do with them?

You will have to wait until next time to see. 

Blessings,

Chris

Ella Maria Deacon Quilt Blocks

 

This has been an amazing week of hand stitching, movie watching, and snow. We do snow here in Feb in our part of Canada. It is, after all, winter. The calendar may suggest that Spring begins on March 20th, but we had snow on May 9th last year. Yup. Mother's Day weekend. I had the snow tires taken off my car that morning.

I stitched every day for at least 15 minutes and some days 3-4 hours. So, it is not surprising that I completed 5 blocks this week. Most of these I had prepped last summer and fall. It is easy enough to do the prep work. I like doing the prep work. Most had been done on zoom meetings with amazing quilters from around the world as well as some of my family and friends here. I tried doing some machine work one Sat morning but messed up both blocks I was working on so limit myself to doing handwork that requires not much thinking. I cannot talk and stitch at the same time.

This block caused me no end of grief.  

There are several curly-cues in the corners of the original, but I skipped them this time.

 

And I tried, I really tried to put a fussy cut center into the middle, but just could not. 

I did not l like the way it looked. Then considered adding a white circle on top but decided to do it in reverse applique. 

The reason being, I had cut the end of that one petal too short and did not have enough to turn it under. 

Okay. I did that with 2 petals. 

So, I did some unstitching, adjusted them, and appliqued them down again. 

After that, I turned under the ends and did some reverse applique. I usually enjoy reverse applique, but that was a lot of seams to turn under and my circle is not round. At this point, I am calling it done. If I still am not happy about it, after I complete the rest of the blocks, I will revisit it. 

I still have to get the T4 summaries all made up for our 14 farm employees. I have never done this before and I spent a good 2 hours on Fri trying to find the forms to fill out only to discover it already in my downloads. Then I spent the next 2 hours trying to make sense of the monthly Payroll Summaries and printed them all off. That was a lot of paper. I will do all the input by hand first, then into the computer. But, for the life of me, I have no idea, yet, how or where to submit them, other than printing off copies and stapling them to each of the employees' payslips. 

This will be my Slow Sunday Stitching block for today.  

Blessings

Chris

Linking with:

slow-sunday-stitching

kate-life-in-pieces.

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

design-wall-monday- boms-away

monday-making  tishnwonderland.  needleandthreadnetwork. midweek-makers wednesday-wait-loss

myquiltinfatuation  off-wall-friday.  wendysquiltsandmore. alyciaquilts.blogspot.

Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop 2021

It is that time of year for the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop. My day will be March 5, the last day. I thought I would have a few extra days for the quilt I am making. I still have nearly 2 weeks. I can do this. Yup. I can. Just like I can go sky-diving this week. But wait, it is mid-Feb and there is snow on the ground. I think I will work on the quilt instead. Here is a list of all the participants. 

Monday 3/1

Words and Stitches   

 Samelia’s Mum

High Road Quilter

Tuesday 3/2

  Karin’s Crazy World

Lemon Tree Snippets  

 Anjaquilts

Wednesday 3/3

Quilting Gail   

Beaquilter

   Cynthia’s Creating Ark

  A Quilting Readers Garden

Thursday 3/4

Kathy’s Kwilts and More       

Quilting Patchwork Applique

 The Darling Dogwood

 Creatin' in the Sticks

Friday 3/5

Beaquilter

Quilting at the farm  

 Kathleen McMusing

Blessings, 

Chris 

Linkin with htishnwonderland.

15 Minutes to Stitch

I used to go to a $10 Quilt Class at my local quilt shop. The class I went to met in the mornings a half hour before the store opened. It became a very popular class with 35-40 women packed in a small classroom smaller than my quilt room here at the farm. I found it a bit claustrophobic so entered the room just as the shop owner greeted the participants. I often pulled out the stool from under the cutting table and sat in the doorway. I once sat on the ledge at the back of the room but my back hurt for days after. The game became getting there first to get a front-row seat, but even then, we sat elbow to elbow and that was a bit too close for me. You could say social distancing had not yet been invented. At the end of the half-hour class, there was roll call and we had to show our completed block from the previous month in order to receive the next free block pattern and fabric. 

Going in the mornings was a bit of an accomplishment for me in those days. I started my day at 5 am by milking my cows. A quick breakfast and shower before driving into town for a waterfit class. After another quick shower, I drove the 4 minutes to the quilt shop. We were free to shop and everything was 10% off for participants. Everyone wanted the 10% off. I would not sit through the whole instructions on how to put the block together because I liked to play the game of figuring it out for myself. Then I went for groceries or other errands and eventually got home for a late lunch. So in the end, I did not start working on my newest block until, not don't be too surprised, the night before the next class a month later. So the pressure was on to complete the thing and I usually chose the more challenging block because that is more fun.

Eventually, the class was so popular that in addition to the 3 weekly classes, they opened up an evening class. Five pm on a Friday. I signed up one year and a friend joined me. We came back to the farm and cut out our blocks and talked. It was great. It was easy to sew the thing up with lots of time to spare each month.  

And why do I say all this? Because here it is nearly midnight and I have not yet done my 15 Minutes to Stitch today. It is not a big deal. It is only 15 minutes. I have learned through experience not because I listen to reason, that if I want to have some stitching to pick up throughout the day, I need to have some stitching prepared and waiting for me. I do love to prep several applique blocks at a time. Last month I prepped 6 Ella blocks. I already had another 6 or 8 partly done. Some of the blocks are on the design wall in the quilt room. I put together a small project box with thread, scissors, and a block or two. Last week I  set up my new floor lamp by my chair in the living room and started watching movies. We are watching The Dig for our Sewing at the Farm class this week. 

However, I now have a new workspace upstairs with my new laptop all set up to write. I took up a new kettle I bought last fall in anticipation of having this space and be able to make my tea and not have to go up and down the stairs because that is not fun when you have arthritis and the knees resist all the fun exercise and those stairs are bigger than the ones I have traipsed up and down for the past 49 1/2 years and there is a bathroom up there and all that sort of logic. Then what did I do? I took up another small project box to that room and it is sitting up there and not down here. Seriously. I do overthink things sometimes. And over prepare things. Somehow today I have no stitching to do by hand here or by my armchair. And we watched about 4 episodes of The Great Canadian Baking Show. It was decadent to say the least. 

Monday the newest Ella blocks will be released. There are only 4 more months of blocks in the program. I will probably print off the patterns, pick some fabrics and begin the prep work to have yet more blocks to stitch by hand for at least 15 minutes each day. In my Swiss Cheese brain, if I miss a day, it will be so easy to miss another and then forget that I was doing it at all until the next month when the new blocks are released. 

So even though I have worked on at least 4 different blocks this week, I only completed this one so far. It will sit on-point in the final layout.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch

patchwork-quilts quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  design-wall-monday- -friday-night-sew-in- needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers-  wednesday-wait-loss  myquiltinfatuation  off-wall-friday. 

wendysquiltsandmore.  can-i-get-whoop-whoop- tishnwonderland.

New Laptop

This past Thurs I got a new laptop. Yup. Brand new. I messaged my son at noon and he brought one home for me that night. I said it had to have a touch screen because I am spoiled. Now I have the fun of setting up a new computer and figuring out how to find things. First off, it has facial recognition. This simply means that when I open the lid and press the on button, it starts up. No password needed. And I have it upstairs in my new workspace. I met with my Sat group there this morning and had a great time visiting with sisters and friends from 4 different countries. 

Last week we (I) impulsively suggested we watch a movie to talk about and mentioned The Dressmaker. Highly recommend it. It is quirky, sad, funny, and unexpected. Next week we agreed on The Dig. That is based on a true story practically in my sister's backyard in Suffolk England. Then I suggested Agatha Christie the Truth of Murder for the following week. 

And why am I suddenly watching movies? Because I can. I found these on Netflix but not every country has the same choices Then I discovered movies on youtube. This on my new laptop upstairs in my new workspace. My Sweet Husband suggested I wait until after the summer before moving my 100 boxes of quilting stuff up there. 

Also, I bought a floor lamp. One with a weighted base so it will not tip over on the thick carpet in our living room. Most of the couches are too uncomfortable for my body but I can sit in the leather easy chair. Now I can stitch as I sit there and so I am. This is revolutionary for me. I usually sit here at my desk or table by the computer. After all, I am trying to complete Ella blocks and do the 15 Minutes to Stitch thing every week. 

Today we went next door to wish Great Grandma a happy 92nd Birthday. The girls made a batch of brownies and took her one-piece with 2 candles in it. It was bitterly cold and since I cannot walk that far, I got a ride. The girls made cards and our daughter and the boys showed up with cards and snow gear to go sledding on the hill behind the drive shed.

I completed 2 blocks this week. I have 9 in-process blocks to choose from so bring on the Super Bowl!

 Blessings,

Chris

linking with: off-wall-friday.

wendysquiltsandmore  confessionsofafabricaddict. alyciaquilts. 

 link-party-patchwork-quilts-   tishnwonderland. ortheloveofgeese.  quiltingismorefunthanhousework.  sugarlane-designs 

slow-sunday-stitching  kate-life-in-pieces.  whatahootquilts.

lovelaughquilt. katiemaequilts.boms-away-  design-wall-monday-  needleandthreadnetwork. midweek-makers   myquiltinfatuation.

 wednesday-wait-loss-