Green has been the RSC for Feb.
Saturday, February 28, 2026
OMIGOSH Progress
Friday, November 1, 2024
What's Next?
She took me to an amazing quilt shop that just had a gzillion new bolts of reproduction. I only had a carryon bag. And we went to Angela Walters shop. That is worthy of a post of its own.
When she asked if I wanted to go to Hamilton, to visit the Missouri Star Quilts well, I just had to say yes. After all, I live in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. We traipesed our way through 14 of the 15 shops. I chose to skip the wool shop.
It was an amazing 86 F. Not bad, considering we were having daily morning frost back home that week.
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
To-Do Tuesday Oct 2024
I have posted my WIPS-B-GONE list for the next 2 months. I have been sewing in the SonRoom off and on for the past few months. As long as I do not try to do too much, I can make slow progress. Hand work is not possible these days and those wonderful Wonderclips are just too hard on my hands.
My quilting To-Do Tuesday list for this week is:
- Churn Dash - sew up the prepped blocks. Not sure how many there. This is my Chookshed Challenge project.
- Put them all up on the big design wall and take pictures.
- Press the Wedding Quilt and make a start on those mitered corners.I had the whole thing out last week to see what to do. There are 3 borders sewn on that will be mitered all at the same time. The last 2 quilts I made with this pattern were mitered on border at a time. and what am I thinking? I have yet another Jinny Beyer border print quilt sitting on the sidelines waiting for me to start it. I will not be alone in that journey since I have 2 quilting friends making the same quilt from kits we bought on Craftsy back in 2015. No hurry.
- Blog more often. Life has settled down here on the farm into a nice rythym with the grandkids back in school. My Sweetie is the "Uber Eats" driver in the family. He makes breakfast for the girls and drives them to school 3-4 days a week and now also picks them up 2 nights a week since Elly is in rugby. That is a lot of driving. I did it all 2 weeks ago and am glad I do not have to do it all the time. Their dad started a new job a year ago and needs the help. Their school is 30 minutes from here.
WIPS-B-GONE 2024
Leanne at Devoted Quilter has again issued the challenge to complete some projects over the next 61 days. I have chosen to work on the following.
1. Churn Dash. This was a Chookshed SAL 2 years ago. I am using some old Robin Pandolph fabrics and several creamy solid backgrounds. There will be 63 blocks. This is also my Oct Chookshed Challenge project.3. Macaron Mystery QAL. I have an oops to figure out before completing the side triangles. Then there will be a 1 inch black border, 3 inch creamy border and possibly 5 inch dark focus fabric border. I think I have enough of the creamy fabric for the backing. If not, I have wide back options.
4. Wedding Quilt. I had the thing out last week to see what I have to do to get the 3 outside borders mitered. My hands are not happy working with wonder clips or pins. This is one of the inner borders that I had to redo.
Remember the Cherries Quilt? I completed all the hand applique on this 100 inch square quilt from Sentimental Stitches back in 2020. I worked on it for 6 years. I found someone to hand quilt it for me. So excited! I will take it next week for her to get started.
I have a couple of new projects I want to start. Let's see how long I can last waiting until I get some noticable progress on the above.
Blessings,
Chris
linking with quiltfabrication/midweek-makers
Thursday, December 29, 2022
Revisiting 23 UFOs
Some thoughts on revisiting 23 unfinished projects.
- There should be at least 23.
- These do not have be unfinished quilts. I'm sure I have something else unfinished to work on.
- I think 2 weeks on each project should be just enough time to have some fun without creating unnecessary stress to complete.
- Completion is not the goal.
- Having fun is.
- And if I liked the project enough to have invested that kind of money and time in the first place, then I should enjoy myself playing with it again.
- No pressure to finish anything.
- Playing is the goal.
- Linking up with some of the encouragement parties in blogland is a great idea if that will keep me motivated.
- Okay, I like to make lists and could spend the first month just writing and re-writing my goals and to-do lists, but I already did that.
- That is not the goal.
- Having fun working on the projects is the goal.
- Two weeks per project times 23 projects does not equal 52 weeks.
- I guess that's like working on 2 projects each month.
- Working on more than one at a time is okay.
- As long as I am having fun.
- Starting new projects is not forbidden.
- This is for revisiting ufos.
- Unless I start a new project early in the year and it becomes a ufo by year's end, then it counts.
- Writing up an elaborate list of ufos is a great idea.
- Checking it twice is nice and so is colour coding.
- But completion is not the goal.
- Having fun is.
Monday, December 26, 2022
23 UFOs for 2023
Call me crazy if you like. Or join me in the New Year as I set my quilting goals. Meredith had a challenge back in 2017 to revisit 17 ufos for 3 weeks each. The goal was to move projects forward. If a completion took place, well that was a bonus. That year I completed about 5. Probably the most I ever completed in a year. I did, however, pull out 17 old projects and took photos, and wrote up 17 blog posts. It was great fun, and I even added a few stitches to some of them. But that year I did quite a bit of traveling (I was in Poland and Rwanda and Indiana) then the little boys showed up 4 days a week for a year with diaper bags in tow while there mama went back to school, so little got accomplished in the quilting area.
I do not like the stress of a deadline to finish something. Never have. Probably never will. Well, I do like to finish the food on my plate. Except the pumpkin soup when I was 9. I did not finish it. Although I sat in front of it all day. I don't care for pumpkin anything, especially pumpkin spice. Give me chocolate and caramel any day.
I have been participating in WIPS-B-GONE this fall, and I set my goal really low. To complete 2 smaller quilts that had minimal work left to do. And then there was the Wedding Quilt. The pressure I put on myself, with a bit of help from my Sweetie, kept me from enjoying working on it. Okay. Family commitments, health issues, and house guests kept me busy. This one is still a work in progress with progress.
I have had several other crazy quilt-related ideas, like going to Australia for Scrub Stitching In April. Wait! I am going to Scrub Stitching in Australia in April! And my Sweetie is going too! It should be great fun. We have made a few short road trips together, but it's been about 14 years since we both got on a plane together and flew off somewhere for the fun of it. And since he is retired and has no cows to milk, we can stay away as long as we want. It's not that he is afraid of flying. We had to plan that trip a year in advance to breed cows to not calve while we were gone. That was my ingenious idea, and it worked.
I will be back with more thoughts on this Crazy Goal to revisit 23 Quilts in 2023. And, no. I am not setting up a linky party. That is too much like work, and I want to quilt. Making comments would be n ice if anyone wants to participate.
Blessings,
Chris
linking to: texasquiltgal.to-do-tuesday
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
November 2022 OMG Goal
I did not meet my October goal. Fact is, I hardly even tried. And why?
Besides a long weekend filled with family and people and food, I ended up with covid and lost a week of being productive. Well, that is not entirely true. The week we were sick, my Sweetie and I made not one, not two, but three big pots of soup and two crock pots of stew. Just because we could, and we had a lot of vegetables that needed processing. Like, someone dropped off a half bushel of brussel sprouts so they now live in the deep freezer. So, we now have lots and lots of meals in the freezer in case we get sick and do not want to cook.
Also, I got a message from my daughter that 6-year-old David was missing me and was snuggling up in a sweater I gave his mom to sleep in because it reminded him of the good memories he had with Gramma. Not sure what was going on in his head, other than I had covid, and so did his dad and mom at the same time. He said the sweater smelled like the farm. How wonderful! So, I went over for a few days to snuggle the boys.
Alas, I recovered from the covid. It was a mild case, and I was out of it for about 4-5 days, then the nasal congestion. I had to cancel the surgery that I have been waiting 5 months for. It will be sometime next month. Something about anesthetic and congestion not going together. I did get lots of handwork done on Lucy because the prep work and thinking part was done. Just got to sit and stitch my heart away.I rearranged the quilt room so I could have more table space to work more efficiently. I now have both the 8-foot folding tables set up in the middle of the room. I have my books spread out on one table facing north and the quilting on the other table facing south.
Since it is Tuesday, I have a To-Do-Tuesday list this week:
- Write something profound.
- Do not gloat or boast.
- Complete one Lucy corner square.
- Plant bulbs.
- Ignore the Wedding Quilt.
Saturday, October 8, 2022
A Quilt Finish
I want to shout it from the rooftops that I have completed a quilt!!!
This is the first WIPS-B-GONE finish.
Disappearing 9-Patch in 30s Repro fabrics
The backing is a novelty print from Joanns purchased
many years ago.
And I finally get to show off a quilt roll.
The baby shower is on the patio in half an hour. Guess I need to get it wrapped.
Blessings,
Chris
Friday, October 7, 2022
OMG October 2022
So I did not meet my September OMG goal. No surprise. I did not meet it in June or May or April either. So now it will be my October goal to finish the wedding quilt. I did make progress. Just not enough. In the meantime, we are hosting a baby shower (my Sweetie's idea to welcome new neighbours) this Sat evening on the patio. It is finished. Mostly. A few more shrubs will go into the ground in the spring. But for now, it is done and paid.
The baby quilt is one of my ufos the Disappearing 9-Patch that I had intended to finish and give to one of my 4 youngest grandchildren, but they are all in school now and too big. This new little one should enjoy it.
This is one of 4 ufos I am planning to finish up for WIPS-B-GONE with Leanne at Devoted Quilter. I still have to do the binding but have a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon to get that done now that the quilting is complete. Everyone else is posting progress on Instagram but I do not do Instagram so will post here when I have something to show.
We have new neighbors on 3 sides of our farm. So my Sweetie thought it would be nice to get everyone to meet everyone and then he thought surprising the mom-to-be would be nice too. He has so much more time to think and play now that he is retired. My goodness, it was exactly a year ago that he announced that he intended to sell all the cows. And, we have such a nice patio to hang out on. Too bad it is October and a bit chilly. But that is what sweaters and jackets are for.
Blessings,
Chris
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
To-Do Tuesday in Mid June
Last week's list looked like this:
- I packed a box of Lucy stuff so anticipate making some progress on this handwork. I tried to sew baste and join a few 1-inch squares but that is awkward for my arthritic hands so I may end up using glue on those. Sew basting the hexies works just fine.
- Download the pictures I took and post them. Downloaded but not posted.
- Do a post about the wedding. Soon.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
February 2022 OMG Goal
It looks like January was all about To-Do Tuesdays. I did accomplish many things on my various lists. Remember, I love to write lists. Now to learn to love to check off items from the list when I complete them. February takes me in a completely new direction. I have a manuscript to complete. I have used every excuse imaginable to avoid getting it done. But I realize that actually doing the writing is easier than dealing with all the avoidance.
My quilting goals often are monumental. Go big or go home. But Baby steps seem to get many further along the road to successful completion. Not me. I do feast or famine. All or nothing. Can an old dog really learn new tricks? Well, this old dog has had to learn lots of new tricks lately. After all, my husband retired a couple of months ago and I am adapting to having him here all the time. He is still trying to figure out what his life will look like now that he no longer milks cows and he cannot be out on his tractor doing fieldwork in mid-winter.
For OMG monthly goals, I often write down one or many several specific goals and promptly work on anything else but what my goal is. This month may not be any different, but I do like to set goals. This has to be specific, right? Nearly a year ago I bought a new Babylock Jazz II sewing machine with a 12-inch throat space for the specific purpose of doing machine quilting. I have not actually done ANY sewing on it. Yet. My OMG goal for this month will be to get started on using this machine and getting some quilting started. Baby steps. I have several smaller quilts nearly ready for this. Two of them are printed panels I bought for this very thing.
I plan to quilt along with Angela Walters on her Help How do I Quilt It? Free Motion Quilt-a-Long. I bought the panel when it was released a long time ago. I have a whole box of exciting threads I won here on the OMG draw in May from Aurifil Threads. They sent me no less than 12 three packs of the Endangered Species collection.
I also found an amazing printed panel
Saturday, March 21, 2020
A Few More Blocks
There are still 4 green and 5 pink, so 18 more blocks to go. For some reason, there was no red in the bundles. Either that or I found something else to do with the red fat quarter. I think I have 80 completed blocks.
This will either be a really big quilt or possibly 2 smaller ones. I am considering letting the little girls do the layout. If I make 2, then they can each design their own.
Linking up with Angela at so scrappy..
Blessings,
Chris
linking up with: oh-scrap.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
February 2020 OMG Completion
For my one-monthly-goal I made a "whole bunch" of blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge including 4 orange Bright Jane blocks bringing the total up to 12. Still need 8 more.
I made another 10 blocks for the Corn and Beans UFO. I turned these blocks on point and they look like baskets. This gives me ideas.
Also, I decided to dust off an old quilt book and play along.
My day will be Friday, March 6. I found the perfect book to revisit. You will have to wait to see what book that is and how I was inspired.
Blessings,
off-wall-friday. wendysquiltsandmore. frombolttobeauty.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
February 2020 OMG Goals
I got my Bright Jane orange blocks and patterns organized last week when the colour was revealed early. I like that. I have several tiny blocks made so far. I am trying to rationalize myself into choosing a goal. Some months I have made it super simple to get it done. Other times I have made it super challenging. Sometimes it is very specific - complete 8 blocks. Other times is is vague - move this one forward. I like specific but vague works too.
My quilting for the past year has been focused on working on my Beyond the Cherry Trees blocks and borders as well as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with the Corn and Beans ufo. I am still writing my book. Very slowly but working on it. And, I am trying to complete my doctorate. I submitted one course last month and have another almost done. Some of my non-quilting goals will be to complete and submit three courses.
My February OMG will be to make "a whole bunch" of orange blocks either for Bright Jane and/or the Corn and Beans. Now is that vaguely specific enough? Or is it specifically vague? Either way, it will be orange blocks. And there are 5 Saturdays. I have been sewing and not writing on Saturdays.
Blessings,
Chris
quiltingismorefunthanhousework. needleandthreadnetwork. design-wall-monday- midweek-makers.
wednesday-wait-loss. myquiltinfatuation. fortheloveofgeese. off-wall-friday.
frombolttobeauty. wendysquiltsandmore. finished-or-not-friday.
Thursday, January 23, 2020
20 Machine Quilting Goals for 2020
I thought I would like to focus on my machine quilting skills. I took a 2-day workshop with Sue Patten in October and invested in a couple of her favourite rulers. She designs rulers and her son has set up a business making and selling them.
So, in no particular order, here are some goals to practice my machine quilting skills on my domestic Brother machine in the coming year. Some of these are either in the flimsy stage or already sandwiched ready to quilt. Others are obvious prep work.
- Adhere grips onto rulers
- Wind bobbins
- Clean Brother machine
- Clean Bernina machine
- Practice ruler work on class sample from workshop in Oct
- Angela Walters Freemotion QAL
- Disappearing Nine-Patch
- Disappearing Four-Patch
- Country Bride 2 appliqued blocks
- Country Bride 2 plain blocks
- Country Bride 2 borders
- Butterflies
- 1857 Sampler outline blocks and corner leaves
- 1857 Sampler quilt blocks
- Dear Jane sashing
- Dear Jane blocks
- Dear Jane borders
- Quilt Ellyse's I-Spy quilt
- Quilt Devan's I-Spy quilt.
- Teach Ava to machine quilt her quilt.
Blessings,
Chris
Saturday, December 14, 2019
RSC Browns
When the girls came home from school on Monday, I had Devan arrange all the blocks on the wall. There are a lot of dark colours in there. There are still reds and greens and oranges to do. I started with the pinks and yellows back in Aug and there are a few more of those colours in the box.
It is not mindless sewing as there are a lot of triangles, but there is a rhythm once I got into it.
Sixty two down and thirty-eight more to go. Maybe.
Blessings,
Chris
linking with so scrappy
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
September 2019 OMG Completion
Monday, September 9, 2019
Options
And the 6 year old added her option.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Sept 2019 OMG Goal
The RSC colour for September is purple!!
This is what I have found already cut and sewn together of the 8 purple fabrics so this should be an easy goal for OMG this month.
And this is how 2 of the blocks will go together. I like that most of the prep work is already done. I can just enjoy sewing them all together. After this, I will have to cut squares and sew half-square triangles together but that is not too difficult.
Blessings,
Chris
linking with
one-monthly-goal-september.
scraphappy
quilting is more fun than housework.
monday-making.
moving-it-forward.
needleandthreadnetwork.
off-wall-friday.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
New Project for RSC
I am back from my blogging break over the summer.
I was racking my brain trying to figure out if I had a ufo that would lend itself to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I came up with this one. I wrote about it last year. You can read that here.
I started with the yellow because most of these blocks were already partly sewn together. It is a good thing because I would have had much difficulty trying to figure out how the pieces went together.
And, since pink was July's colour, I sewed these up next. They were also partly sewn together.
I am making 2 squares of each colour. The colours really are much brighter than they look in the pictures here.
The August colour was light blue. I just sewed together all the blue shades except midnight blue and black. They were way too dark to show up against that black theme fabric.
So far, I am happy with all these. I certainly hope September's colour will be purple because I have all the purple half square triangles already sewn together. This will be a busy month for us here at the Farm and we will be making a trip to the Big E in Springfield Massachusetts at the end of the month.
Twenty-eight down and only 72 more to go.
Blessings,
Chris
linking to: peacock party
finished-or-not-finished-friday.
moving-it-forward.
