August 22 To-Do Tuesday

 The list from 2 weeks ago  shows much accomplishment.

1. Put away my books and clear off the tables. DONE
2. Figure out how to correct the printer off-line error so we can print stuff. DONE but got a new hard drive so am dealing with unexpected changes.
3. Put away the clutter from the big ironing board. DONE then I promptly filled it up.
4. Take some before and after photos. DONE
5. Write up some blog posts. DONE 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Sew up one yellow Bright Jane block. NOPE. NEW PLAN
7. Fix the mitered corners on the center medallion of the Wedding Quilt.  PROGRESS
8. Prewash the new fabric for Windermere. DONE
9. Put up the Corn and Beans blocks on the big design wall and decide on a setting. There are so many options. Getting this to a flimsy will be my OMG goal for August. DONE
10. Cut out a couple of Lucy blocks. JUST ONE AND DONE
11. Launch the new How to Stay Married for 50 Years blog. DONE
12. Find the new mouse traps I bought last week and set them. DONE 

That list took me 2 weeks to accomplish.  

One of the fun things about family visiting is we can learn new things. So I went shopping on line and bought a few new toys. And the many heavy rains we have been having this summer have turned the geranium flowers brown. So deadheading is my puttering task. 

These are the most amazing gadgets ever created for us senior gardeners. Well, for any gardeners. I did not have to kneel on all those rocks in years past. 

This week's list looks something like this:

1. Write something every day 
2. Blog posts. I got way behind this summer with people and events here so just jumped back in. I also quietly launched the new blog How to Stay Married for 50 Years. I will be posting weekly. Now to figure out how to create a button for it. 
3. Get my flowerbeds looking beautiful again after many rainstorms.
4. No playing games.
5. Work on sewing up Corn and Beans.
6. Progress on Wedding Quilt.
7. Play with some 23 ufos. I pulled  out the 3030 box to see what is happening there so I can prep for the new Sweet 16 BOW. I will be using 30s reproduction fabrics. 
8. Drink more water. A lot more.

That should keep me out of mischief this week. I have little girls here this week and they all want to earn $$$. I have a plan for that. 

Blessings,

Chris

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No New Quilt Starts (Maybe)

 I am seriously considering no new quilt starts for 2022. I managed to go 2 whole years between starts back in 2018-2020. I was determined to complete the Cherries Quilt. In that time I also completed the 1857 Album and the Dear Daugther Sampler. 

Well, that is not entirely true. I started Dear Daughter in March of 2018. Then nothing new until Ella Maria Deacon in April 2020. So I actually went only a whole year without starting something. 

But what if Gay at Sentimental Stitches comes out with the reproduction of a certain applique quilt she showed us at one of the Shipshewana Retreats? I will have to decide. She has revealed 2 new quilt-a-longs so far in 2022.

potluck-block-of-the-week

This one has many blocks that I have already made in other samplers. But it is in 30s fabrics and I have so many. But then, I still have The 3030 Sampler on the go.  

little-blocks-365

She is offering a repeat of The Little Blocks 365. I did not start that one. I am already making some of those patterns in 4.5 inches to complete the Bright Jane quilt that has been languishing in a project box for years. I started that one in Sept 2014. That will be on my ufo completion list for the coming year. 

 uptown-applique-block-of-the-month

This one is truly unique. 

I don't have to decide today now do I?  

AND, bless her heart, Gay is considering extending the retreat for 2 more days !!!!! So, a whole WEEK of retreat quilting. I'd better get planning.

Blessings,

Chris

August 2021 OMG Goal

 You've heard the expression "Go big or Go home"? I made a preliminary list of 10 things to consider for my Aug OMG goal. I had not yet decided which of the options to choose. I then figured I would probably try to do all of them. Not necessarily for the OMG goal, but just to do all of them. There is something about writing them all down to give a reality check. Planning 10 goals for the month is daunting. But if those same goals are broken down into 2-3 goals per week like for the To-Do Tuesday, then it might be doable. Hmm . . . food for thought. 

1. 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella - This came to a screeching halt when we made the decision back in  April to postpone our 50th-anniversary celebration until next year.  Actually, it came to a halt when I set aside everything to finish the doctorate. But I completed that 2 months ago! The anniversary is on Aug 7 and we will have a small family get-together. My Slow Sunday Stitching project could be to continue hand appliqueing on one of the Ella blocks. But which one? There are 12 more to go. 

2. Macaron Mystery QAL - Clue #2 will be posted on Thurs. 

3. Summer 2021 QAL - We are on Clue # 8 and I have been working on that this week. 

4. Poppy's Polka Dot Garden - In order to continue on this new start from last month, I want to either choose a new background or chose a new colour palette or both and start again. 

5. Bright Jane - Depending on the RSC color for August, I could resume making the remaining blocks. I had moved away from doing the original blocks a long time ago and have been making other simple two-coloured blocks to add to the ones already made. As it turns out, the colour is aqua and I have all that colour done. 

6. 3030 Quilt - This was a BOM from last year and I got about halfway before starting the Ella BOM. The plan is to take inventory of what is made and what still needs to be made including the incredible center medallion applique and make a plan to continue. 

7. Ben Biggs - The bin has been retrieved from the back hall where it was tucked away with 22 other bins of projects and fabrics 3 years ago when our son and his girls moved in. These were not accessible so got forgotten. The plan is to resume the prep work on the remaining blocks for machine applique and put them up on the design wall.

8. Jazz II - I bought a new sewing machine back in March and have yet to set it up and start playing with it. I ordered $400 of additional presser feet that did not come with it. No wonder the machine was so inexpensive even on sale. It has 12 inches of throat space and I plan to do machine quilting on it. Eventually. The intent is to set it up and practice machine quilting on something. 

9. Little girls cross-stitch - The girls are learning to cross-stitch. They both picked it up quickly and are stitching words onto bookmarks. 

10. BTCT - clean it up and layer ready for big stitch hand quilting. I have been doing some research (aka reading blogs endlessly) and found this series of posts by Wendy from The Peacock Party on hand quilting. 

I have been settling into my new quilt room. Okay. I have been taking up more and more quilting stuff. The room is looking quite cluttered now. Just the way I tend to make all my rooms. I want to get rid of a lot of my fabric but first want to revisit a few projects and make sure I have everything needed to complete them. In order to do this, I have to pull them out, one by one, and make sure. I do not have bins of neatly organized scraps. What I do have, is many well-organized project boxes containing everything needed to make and complete each quilt. The problem is, I am not completing them. And I did start 3 new ones in July. 

My Aug OMG will be to complete # 3 the Summer QAL Mystery to a flimsy. The Linky Party is Aug 24. I should be able to have a flimsy for then.

Until then blessings, 

Chris

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3030 Quilt Returns

 

What does Gay have up her sleeve at Sentimental Stitches?

She is offering the very popular 3030 Quilt again this year. I started mine a year ago and got a lot of blocks made. I think I will follow along and get the rest made so I can finish the thing.  I don't know who this top belongs to. I pulled it off the internet. This is what it will look like eventually.  It really is beautiful.

Blessings,

Chris

Saturday Stitching

 Most Sat mornings I hang out with a couple of friends on our Quilting at the Farm Facebook group room. We do get some stitching done.

Today I started early because I had to wash up last night's dishes. Somehow that got forgot. I had cooked supper, so someone else should have done them. But I had cooked a crockpot of beans to use up the ham bone from last week and I made a mess when I dropped the new large container of bread crumbs I used to bread the lamb chops all over the counter including the kettle. Took a shower and got set up to sit here and stitch. I did clear off the table and later we set up another large table for the gift wrapping station. The tree goes up tomorrow when the girls return from Moms. 

I ended up prepping a 3030 block for hand applique then, prepped one of the Dec Ella blocks for applique. 

I must remember to not overdo the hand stitching. It appears that typing is not hurting my hand so much, as long as I remember to not use the right index finger all the time. But it is improving.   

Blessings,

Chris

Rainy Saturday @ Farm

Saturday it was raining outside. At least we don't have to shovel rain. The kids were playing inside and actually being rather quiet this time. Who would have thought 5 children could play together all day without too much noise. Maybe I am going deaf. Wait! The new teenager is usually hidden away in her room. She was giving manicures in the morning. I passed this time. She was finished all her school work and bored, so she made me a smoothie. Then at midnight, she started baking a cake in a mug. It was delish!

We used the GO cutter and 2 1/2 inch strip die to cut out a gazillion strips out of construction paper for the kids to make paper chains. They haven't started yet because they were, you know, playing quietly. One wants to use tape. I said no. And I just bought 4 large new rolls. I suggested glue since I have a whole case of it. One suggested staples. Maybe. I just bought a new one so we have about 20,000 staples. Another wrote names on with glitter glue but had to wait for it to dry. And then, she wanted to sew but I encouraged the pirates game. 

I meet with a few friends on Facebook to sew on Saturday mornings. So we met and we sewed. 

I did a bit of hand stitching on an Ella block. Now it's time to do a few skinny stems. But how should I proceed? I could hunt up the bias makers or just do the back basting thing. 

The last skinny stems I did were on this 3030 Block. I cut thin strips on the bias and pinned them in place. Then, I stitched up one side and down the other. Fortunately, most of the stems will be covered up with the rest of the flowers. 

I finally finished hand appliqueing the yellow flower buds. I think the rest of the flowers will be pink. and there will be 4 green leaves. 

This can be my handwork for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

2020 Quilt Starts and Finishes

Frederique at Patchwork and Quilts is hosting a weekly linky party and has asked for finished and started quilts for 2020. Well, let me tell you. I finished nothing.  Well, I did finish my breakfast. 

 

No that is not entirely true. 

I did finish the Beyond the Cherry Trees Quilt top. 

It is not yet prepared for quilting. The plan is still to hand quilt it. Maybe next year. You can find the pattern here at  sentimentalstitches.

I only started 2 projects this year.  Gay at Sentimental Stitches offered a mystery block of the week back in June called 3030 Quilt. Thirty blocks in 30 weeks. We are at week 27. This is all I have made so far. There is an incredible appliqued center medallion that I will get to someday. And the final layout is still a mystery.

The other quilt I started was released monthly also by Sentimental Stitches starting back in Sept 2019. This is the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt 

Ella was originally made in 1841-42.

I have 8 blocks done and 7 more applique blocks prepped. 

I collected most of the blocks each month, paying half price for them. I started it in April. The plan is to make 50 of the 85 blocks. It is my 50th Anniversary Quilt project. 

I have plans to start the QAL 2021 The Curves! on Jan 1, 2021. I will post more about that in January since we are not allowed to actually begin making it until then. 

Blessings,

Chris

You can check out some of the other blogs here link-party-patchwork-quilts. 

Playing

 

I have enough blocks made now to play around with settings.  The 3030 Quilt has a large appliqued center medallion. I have not yet started making it. There is also an alternate pieced block available, but I really like the one Gay has designed for us. And can someone please tell me where the little flower block I made back in July has gone hiding? It was on the big design wall a month ago but disappeared when I moved them all to the small design wall. 

And, bless her heart, Gay has just announced the 2021 BOW. She will be making hers in a new red and white collection. I am so far behind. 

Blessings,

Chris

October 2020 OMG Completion

My OMG goal for October was to make progress on the 3030 Quilt blocks. I have these 32 to add to the 9 already made. 

The inner border pattern was given last week. It will be 2 rows of appliqued triangles. I am not decided yet what colour to make them. I made all those chains in a green print. I do not think I have enough of the same fabric to use. But then there will also be something creative for the border. I will wait right now. 

Blessings,

Chris

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A Day of Transition

Today is a day of transition. We are cutting the grass one more time. With the bigger zero turn lawn mower, and driving in the same direction all the time, the leaves are all being blown away from the house. When have we ever raked leaves in the fall? Like never! But the squirrels planted a few more black walnut trees, a horse chestnut, and a maple tree that are all dropping their leaves. And there are a few apple trees. And a mulberry. But mostly there are colorado spruce trees surrounding the old farmhouse. Did I mention lilacs? At least five different varieties. Oh, and an English walnut. There really are a lot of broadleaf trees here. I never gave it much thought before. 

As I was saying, a day of transition. With some help (maybe a lot) from our kids, we dismantled my California king bed and moved it down the stairs, through the kitchen then up the other stairs to the brown room above the back kitchen. This was no small feat. The mattress had to be buckled in half to make the turn up and through the stairs where the bottom two steps come halfway past the door opening and there is a closet floor above that. They did things differently back in the 1880s when this addition was put onto the house when it was 40 years old.  

One of the double beds from the Blue room above the kitchen was dismantled and moved down those stairs, through the kitchen then up the other stairs into my room. I now have a lot more empty floor space to fill up with stuff and even room under the old iron four-poster bed. 

It is the end of October here in Southern Ontario Canada and the golden and crimson leaves are falling off the trees. Winter will be here sooner than we can imagine and I need to book an appointment to get my snow tires put on my car. The geraniums are still outside, but all in a tight huddle awaiting being cleaned up and brought into the house for the next seven months. I saw massive geraniums blooming in their natural habitat on a farm in Australia back in 2015. And let's not forget taking all the air conditioner units out of the bedroom windows. 

There are several bags of spring tulip and daffodil bulbs in the back seat of my car that will be planted in the holes vacated by the geraniums. Each spring, I put the potted geraniums in places in the flower beds that have no bulbs. That way I know where to plant the new bulbs in the fall. I thought it was rather ingenious. My Sweetie thinks I am nuts. No matter. There will be lots of colour to look forward to come spring.   

Our daughter and her family have been living in the trailer in the yard for that past few weeks. Her husband is a very tall six foot three and does not exactly fit in the bed in the trailer nor very comfortably in the double beds in the guest rooms above the kitchen. Hence, we moved the big bed for them to use until they are able to relocate to a home of their own. But we had to move out some of the antique furnishings from there to make room. I like it. I plan to live up there someday. There is a bathroom a mere three steps from the bed rather than all the way downstairs. 

Let's not forget collecting the rest of the things growing in the garden. The carrots were pulled. tomatoes and green peppers and swiss chard came in. And they found a few really big beans so are drying the seeds for next summer. They are also drying tomato seeds. 

So, all in all, I did very little stitching this week. All I got done was a bit of applique onto this little 3030 block while babysitting Wed night. I do that. Babysit the little boys so mom and dad can have a date night. They are usually home by 9.  And we got the pattern for the inner border. Now to figure out which colour to make it. 

Linking with slow-sunday-stitching.

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Blessings,

Chris

ps: I just discovered where to find the spam folder in my gmail account. I  have some comments to respond to.

OMG Quilting Goal October 2020

I was looking for a fresh blade for my cutter the other day. This is what I found. I guess I must have really wanted to do fussy cutting for tiny hexies or something to have purchased no less than 4 of those tiny cutters. And lots of extra blades. But the one I was looking for was the next size up. I found only one replacement blade for that one. 

Then, 

I found yet another tiny cutter in another box.

I did not get my Sept OMG goal. I could have but just did not. It was to complete the applique on 5 Ella Blocks. I will continue to put in a few hand stitches here and there.

My October OMG  will be to play catch up with the 3030 Quilt blocks.  We are on week 18 of 30. I really like working with these colours. It is so different from the colours I have been using the past few years. So fresh. So pretty. 

No promises how many I will get made. Just making more. 

Linking with Patty at one-monthly-goal-

blessings, 

Chris

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Slow Sunday Stitching

 

My hand stitching has been very slow. The hands are not cooperating so good these days. This is the Ella block I will be working on today. That orangey fabric seemed a tad bright and out of place on the wall with the others, but I am adding a bit more in those corner leaves. I will add more of this throughout the rest of the blocks somewhere. 

I found the rest of that piece of coral fabric between 2 Thiries fabrics for the 3030 Quilt. Not sure how it ended up there, except that I was prepping both at the same time and usually put things away quickly and carelessly. 

I found the missing petal yesterday when I swept the floor under my desk. 

Now to audition something dramatic or subtle for the center. I cannot just turn it under and reverse applique. I tried. 

I am linking with Kathy at slow-sunday-stitching.

Blessings,

Chris

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150 Canadian Women Rerun and Goal Setting

Quilt-A-Long

Next step quilt designs will be doing another quilt-a-long with the 150 Canadian Women project. You must have your own patterns to take part. I got all the patterns when they were free a few years ago when we celebrated Canada's150th Birthday. Since I had collected most of the patterns before I started it, I saw many of the blocks and decided to do a blitz cut out of many of the pieces with my GO cutter. However, I forgot that many of the blocks called for several colours. I had spent so much time making the tiny Dear Jane blocks in only one colour on a background, I forgot that some quilters use more than one colour in the same block. So that can be a goal for me to pull out the bin of fabrics and cut a bunch more pieces. I like the leader/enders, but have to realize that I need to be using the same colour thread for both projects. I am using a cream colour for this but white for the 3030 Quilt. Hmm. Too many decisions to be making this late at night.

It is 10 pm on a school night and most of the grandchildren are already in bed but not the eldest who is now in grade eight and wants 11 hours of sleep tonight as well as improving her math skills. The little boys moved into the trailer last night with their mom and cats. Dad will be arriving tomorrow after the movers move all their household stuff into storage until they figure out the next step. 

In the meantime, it is time to decide on my 90 Day One Big Thing Goal for my writing group. And since I started a new mentoring group this week, I have decided to have the same goal for both groups. I am mentoring a group of Christian women and goal setting is our focus this week. I set goals all the time, but do I attain them? I have accountability and since I am the leader here, I probably should set a good example and meet my goals. In order to accomplish my goals for this fall, I really need to let go of some things to free up how I use my time. That was the object lesson using a jar to fill up with the things I am doing. So, I plan to give up computer games. Remember I spent at least 100 of those hours playing them last month? 

So 100 hours per month for 3 months frees up 300 hours. And I was thinking that if I write for 1 hour a day (I was really thinking one page a day) then I should easily have a first draft by the middle of December. That is my logic. But the reality is, I do things in fits and starts, feast or famine, all or nothing. I have done way too much nothing for way too long. Now is as good a time as any to change. I have just been waiting for the school year to begin and life going back to some normal routines. 

Now I am the one needing to improve my math. One hundred hours a month is more like 3 hours per day. That's like getting an almost full-time job.

Maybe I am the one who should go to bed. 

Blessings,

Chris

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September OMG Goal

I am starting a new mentoring group later this month and we will start off talking about goal setting. What do I know about setting goals? I set goals all the time. Do I follow through on them to completion? Sometimes. Not always. I could learn a few things. 

I usually set quilting goals for Patty's OMG. But quilting is not the only thing I do. Sometimes, but not often, I do housework or pay bills or clean out the car. Most bills are set to be paid automatically on our credit card or on-line banking and my Sweetie writes the checks for the rest. I just make sure there are lots of checks and envelopes and stamps.  One of my goals this past week was to buy more stamps. I bought envelopes last month. Probably should order more checks soon. I bought new pens this week. I ordered some notebooks on Amazon and then they offered me my favourite all-time pens at half price so I bought 4 packs of them. I tried to get more but that was the limit. I tried on another order but they were on to me. Okay. Where was I? Goals. Right. I usually set quilting goals every month. Sometimes they are reasonable and other times they are a fantasy. 

I have been limiting my quilting to the 3030 Quilt and Ella.  The Ella blocks for this month are a few more doozy applique ones.  Not sure that I will make all of them since I plan to only make 50 altogether and not all 85 like the original. 

My September OMG will be to complete a few Ella blocks. Not promising any more than that. Non-quilting goals will be to complete one more of my courses.

blessings,

Chris 

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August OMG Completion

 I love doing the monthly OMG. It is one thing I try to accomplish each month. I do not always succeed, but that is usually because I stop trying to meet it. Let's face it, we all have 744 hours in this month of August to do what we do. I often spend at least 100 of those hours playing games and at least 90 hours napping. And there is eating. I do a lot of that. And sleeping. I usually get at least 200 hours a month. Then there is talking. The number of times someone walks into my quilt room/office and engages me in conversation. Hours each day.  One time I had stopped playing games for several months and turned off the computer for part of the day. I got a lot of stitching done that month. A lot. I have been working on a couple of courses this past month. I am trying to get the course work complete before the end of the year. However, family has been taking up much of my time. We are having a Christmas dinner here this weekend. Some of the family will be here for the fresh turkey on Sat. Others will come for leftovers on Sunday. 

I am taking part in a Virtual Wrirtring retreat this weekend also. Well, today. There is a turkey to cook up tomorrow after I remember to thaw it and chop up the celery and bread. I will have help for that part. I think we will be eating outside. There are thunderstorms in the forecast for the morning. But if not, I will have to find room for 17 people in here. 

My goal for August was to complete 3 blocks and possibly more. I did complete one and stitched on a few others. So without further ado, here are my completed blocks for August:

Blessings,

Chris

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To-Do Tuesday

 Last week's list:

1. Be productive for 7 whole days in a row with no children. I ended up resting and watched  The Crown on Netflix because the remote was not lost or being used or being fought over. 
2. Two more lessons on Healing Power. nope
3. Find a new internet provider. yup will be installed tomorrow
4. Continue clearing inbox. a work in progress
5. Hand applique because I love doing it again. yes
6. Write one page for SMOWJ. nope
7. Write another page. nada
8. Make jam. the day is not over yet
9. Make corn relish. done
10. Stop reading blogs for at least 3 days. the problem with not reading blogs every day is I missed the Friday Night with Friends last week. 

This week's list:

1. Complete this 3030 block for my OMG goal for August. 
2. Turkey dinner on Sat. I will have help.
3. Complete one Ella Block. Any block. 
4. Write up a blog post for OMG. 
5. Get my teeth cleaned.
6. Two more lessons for the small group I lead at church. It is the first in-person group since lockdown in March. We are live streaming from one room of in-person people to another room where the on-line people are zooming in. It is interesting. We have an amazing techie just graduated from college with all the qualifications to set up a mini tv studio. 
7. Participate in a virtual writing retreat Fri. I can only join in for one day since Sat we are having a family Christmas dinner and farewell party for my sister who is going home next week. 
8. Write up a blog post about her finished quilt. 

That's enough for this week. I don't think I will do this every week, but it has been interesting. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: to-do-tuesday  needleandthreadnetwork.  wednesday-wait-loss-  midweek-makers-  needle-and-thread-thursday-

To-Do Tuesday

I posted a few times on To-Do Tuesday but often forgot or was too busy to take the time. Other times, I only posted a couple of times a month. And yet, I write up to-do lists all the time. Do I follow them? Sometimes. It is more of a brain dump with all the things I think I should be doing rather than what I actually intend to do. So here we go:

1. Listen to the rest of the 8 lectures for my current course and do the test.
2. Hand applique while listening.
3. Change the throat plate on the Bernina so we can do some zig-zag stitching. 
4. Bring the step stool in from the trampoline so I can put Serendipity on the design wall.
5. Take the step stool back out to the trampoline. 
6. Clear out my inbox. 
7. Pre-wash more background fabric for the 3030 Quilt center.
8. Draw the design onto the BACK of the 27-inch center medallion for back basting.
9. Begin to prep a few of the applique shapes. 
10. Make jam. 
11. Make relish.
12. Finish this Ella block. 

That should be enough to remember for one week. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: to-do Tuesday  needleandthreadnetwork.

Quilt Retreat at Home

So what's been happening here at the farm? This is the week I would have gone to Shipshewana for a quilt retreat, but, alas, we are not allowed to leave the country, so, I decided to do my own retreat. I cleared off 2 tables and moved the desktop computer to the other side of the room so I could participate in some online quilt-a-longs. This way, I have so much more table space for working and playing at the same time. I met with some of my friends on Facebook to stitch and chat over the past 3 days.

I joined Chookyblue for an international stitching party. Our host calculated all the timezones and sent us a link to join the party. She opened the zoom meeting at 6 AM Saturday her time in Australia and my time was 4 PM Friday. I joined the party for about 3 hours (after a quick nap) Friday night then after a delightful sleep, rejoined at 6 in the morning for a couple of hours. This was a lot of fun chatting with quilters in other countries.

And what did I work on? This is last week's block from Sentimental Stitches 3030 Quilt. I had to think about the 1/8th inch stems. I ended up cutting a bias strip 3/8th wide and appliqueing it in place. A bit wobbly, but have you ever seem a perfectly straight flower stem? Neither have I. There will be a large applique center medallion but I will not get the pattern until next week. I am really enjoying the novelty of these Thirties prints. 

Last week the little boy grandchildren came over and we slept in the trailer in the front yard. I had to have something to work on out there. I took out a lamp and sweater and sat under the a/c fan for 4  nights. I promised them I would not leave them out there alone. I think the temperatures were hovering around 30C outside. I have those 8 arrowheads to stitch down and them I can back-baste on the final 8. I think I will make them aqua. This block has taken umpteen hours to this point. Looking forward to seeing it completed. 

This is another Ella applique block. I prepped several back in April when I allowed myself to start a new quilt. The first in 2 years. Those dark petals are a purple and I am using a 10-inch layer cake from Betsey Chutian's Susanna Scraps collection. There is lots of variety but not lots of fabric. I am certainly enjoying hand stitching with yet another Moda fabric. I am back basting every other melon. 

I switched the function on the mouse so I now right-click with my middle finger instead of left-clicking with the forefinger. It has been a bit to get used to doing it backward but my right forefinger is so sore and I found this option. 

I started working on a new course for my doctorate. It has lectures online and I was hand appliqueing a 3030 block and turned on a lecture.  I had printed off 11 pages of a test that is required for every course. But 30 minutes into the lecture, I still had not found the answer to any questions so popped in lesson 2 and the same thing, until I heard a word that was written up on about page 9 of the test and realized that for this course the test questions are not listed in order so now I have to spread out the pages and hunt for the answers. I can do this now that I know. 

I did not meet my One Monthly Goal for July. My OMG Goal for August will be to complete the above 3 applique blocks and maybe one or two more 3030 Blocks. Not too challenging a quilting goal as I plan to get some serious writing done this month, specifically this week as I have 6 whole days in a row with no children to interrupt me, or hug me, or ask for booboo kisses or ice cream or popcorn. It may be quiet, but I might even miss the darlings. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: Quilting Patchwork Applique  quilting is more fun than housework   sunday slow stitching

Wendyès Quilts  needleandthreadnetwork.  wednesday-wait-loss-183  midweek-makers-  

myquiltinfatuation.  wendysquiltsandmore.

3030 Quilt

Gay over at sentimentalstitches is offering yet another amazing weekly quilt-a-long. This one you sign up for and pay $30 for the 30 blocks for 30 weeks. I am all caught up for now. But I understand there is a center medallion to applique coming soon. Maybe even this Friday. I hope it comes next Friday because that would be a very nice birthday present. And, I would not have to get it completed before the end of the month since my OMG this month is to keep up to date with this project. I am loving these colourful blocks. Some are done by foundation piecing. I have yet to remove the papers. Others are pieced the old-fashioned way by machine. And, of course, the hand applique.

3030 Quilt

I reverted back to the legacy blogger to see if comments will show up in my inbox. None of them did last post. And yet, with the new blogger, I did get notification of comments last month. We shall see.

Blessings,
Chris
linking with:  midweek-makers-236.  needleandthreadnetwork. quiltingismorefunthanhousework 
design-wall-monday  myquiltinfatuation.  wednesday-wait-loss-180  fortheloveofgeese.
wendysquiltsandmore.  off-wall-friday.

A Bit of Hand Applique

This is the first applique block for the 3030 Quilt.  

I am continuing to discover things about the new Blogger.

For instance, I enlarged the photo by left-clicking on the photo and hitting the + sign.

Last month I got comments in my Gmail inbox but not this week. 

I wonder what happened?

Linking with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Now it is finished

blessings.

Chris