Twenty for 2020

Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl came up with a linky party for twenty goals for 2020. This is my totally unrealistic left-brain list in no particular order.

1. Stitch for 20 minutes a day 5x a week
2. Morrell 20 more blocks
3. Lose 20 lbs
4. 20 machine quilting goals
5. Write 20 more chapters for Sister
6. Begin hand quilting BTCT
7. Write for 20 minutes a day 3x a week
8. Work on 20 different quilts.  
9. Read 20 books 
10. Turn computer off for 20 minutes a day
11. Spend 20 minutes quiet time with God
12. Complete 20 units on the doctorate
13. Waterfit 20 minutes 2x a week
14. Stretching 20 minutes a day
15. Bike 20 minutes 2x a week
16. Treadmill 20 minutes 2x a week
17. Bright Jane 20 more blocks
18. Publish SMOWJ
19. Publish Sister
20. Write dissertation 

I will probably have to get a bit more organized than I am right now.
Blessings,
Chris
wednesday-wait-loss. cleverchameleon. design-wall-monday.

Cherries Progress

Last week we had a snowed-in-down-day for us here at the farm and I spent part of the day rummaging through my Morrell fabric boxes organizing the next few blocks to be made. I have not worked on it since the Shipshewana retreat in April. Actually, it seems that I only work on it at the retreat. I wanted to have some blocks prepped and ready to pick up when I felt like stitching something other than cherries. But then, I realized I will never complete the BTCT quilt if I keep finding something other than cherries to stitch on. 

Many bloggers are all aflutter about the 2020 Weather Quilts. I like the idea. I also like the 365(6) Day Circles. I even thought about combining the two. You know make a circle each day for the high temperature on a square for the low temperature. Then I realized that I am pretty much circled out right now. So then I considered making melons kind of like on the corners of the 1857 quilt for the 2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. But I am still working on the Corn and Beans UFO and I had considered bringing Bright Jane out to play again. And, if I am going to make 20  more Morrell blocks, where will I have time to make 4 bocks a month for Ella Maria Deacon? I also thought it might be fun to take part in one of the many mystery QAL that keep showing up. Then thoughts of hand quilting Beyond the Cherry Trees dance through my head, kind of like a freight train.

I have not started any new quilts in 2019. I held to the commitment. Barely by a thread some days, but I have not started anything new. Instead, I worked on a few old ones. And I wrote. Lots of pages. Still have many hundreds to go. My prayer team suggested I put aside my manuscript until the new year and I have. Interesting how that seriously de-stressed my head and that is probably why I am reading new blogs and finding all kinds of new quilty temptations out there. Sigh.

We will have 17 here for Christmas dinner on Sat. It is supposed to be pot luck and I was told I would not have to do anything. As if I could do nothing. The cleaning lady is coming in an extra day to help move a few things and set up 14 feet of tables in the living room so we can all sit in the same room. My husband's suggestion. I have stacking chairs in the one guest room no one is living in that will need to be brought down and washed up. They have not been used since the last time we hosted my family here 5 years ago. There were 23. I made 2 turkeys that year. This year I am cooking roast beef and ham. I love leftovers. One of my brothers is doing the smashed potatoes. Another brother and his wife are bringing no less than 4 desserts. I like desserts and she makes great pies. A sister is bringing a vegetable something or other. There will be tobogganing if we get more snow and it turns cold. Also, there will be Lego wars in the quilt room. 

The problem with going to bed at 9 pm is that you are wide awake at 4:45 am. So, I put on a load of laundry so I have something clean to wear to church and washed up yesterday's dishes since I went to bed so early without doing them. The little girls are already up and Gay will not be posting the new Ella Maria Deacon QAL blocks for hours yet. I had pie and a cup of green tea for a pre-breakfast snack. Real breakfast will be in a couple of hours. In the meantime, I have ribs in the crockpot for dinner and there is no line up for the shower. Yet.
Blessings, 
Chris
kathy's slow-sunday-stitching. oh-scrap.  wednesday-wait-loss. design-wall-monday. canadian needleandthreadnetwork.  frombolttobeauty.

RSC Browns

I made 18 units with browns and beiges and creams. I only got the white, cream and beige mixed up twice. I turned on an extra lamp and was more careful after that.  I have really enjoyed working on these blocks. The blocks finish at 8 inches.

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

December 2019 OMG Goal

My December one-monthly-goal will be to complete one more border with the appliqued cherries and the embroidered stems. I realized that the 4 borders are the equivalence of 10 blocks. Maybe that is why it has been taking me longer than I had anticipated.

Who knows, maybe I could get all 3 done. 
Blessings, 
Chris


linking with: slow-sunday-stitching. one-monthly-goal.  quiltingismorefunthanhousework.  design-wall-monday.  whatahootquilts.  wednesday-wait-loss.  myquiltinfatuation.  off-wall-friday.  peacock-party.  confessionsofafabricaddict.  frombolttobeauty.

November 2019 OMG Completion

I did meet my November one-monthly goal of embroidering the stems onto one BTCT border. It took about 2 hours while visiting my daughter one day as I sat at the dining room table in the warmth of the sun as it lit up my workspace and reflected off the newly fallen snow on the deck outside. 

I had forgotten how much I enjoy hand embroidery. Now to do this 3 more times. 
Blessings,
Chris
linking to: one-monthly-goal-november-finish. oh-scrap,
slow-sunday-stitching.  design-wall  monday.  needleandthreadnetwork. wednesday-wait-loss. peacock-party.

Strawberry Season is Finally Done

In the spring our son invested a lot of time and resources in planting 500 strawberry plants. There are at least 5 varieties. One of them is called Day Neutral, not to be confused with everbearing. We had a hot wet summer and keeping the plants from getting washed away from the sandy slope behind our old farmhouse was the goal. Pulling weeds and grass was a challenge also.

These berries were picked last week, Nov 5 just before our first snowfall of the season.

Blessings,
Chris

November 2019 OMG Goal

November's one-monthly-goal. will be to complete the embroidery on one of the borders for BTCT. It will be a nice change from stitching circles.

Bottom border. I left extra fabric and bias stem to join to the sides. I will add a few more leaves after the corners are all connected. 

I took one border to England with me a few weeks ago and happily stitched away in my sister's conservatory - a lovely sunroom. I enjoyed watching the weather change from fog to rain to sun to rain to sun then more rain. I have dreamed of having one on the back of my old farmhouse for years and years. Maybe one day. But in the meantime, it is November and the leaves are falling off the trees and the rest of the airconditioning units must come out of the windows. This year we had 5 going. No wonder our hydro bill was up from last year.

The oil got changed in my car and the snow tires will go on soon. I actually bought new socks and wore them the other day. Last week I had the little boys here for 4 whole days. They had a 4 day weekend from school so to the farm they wanted to come. Grampa had 2 large dump trucks of dirt deposited in the yard so the boys each had their own mountain to climb and excavate. One was a volcano I was told. And they asked to put blocks on the design wall. How could I say no?

Dear Jane 2 and Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. I did get the brown and beigey squares cut out with the GO cutter.

November is also NaNoWriMo month. National Novel Writing Month. I anticipate completing my first draft this month. I have so far resisted starting on the Ella Maria Deacon Quilt, even though I read about it, write about it, dream about it, talk about it and drool over the picture of it. I have a project box filled with Jane Austin reproduction fabrics and 10 yards of a yummy tone on tone creamy fabric I found in the cupboard. I brought home some fabric from England that will be perfect for a bit of Broderie Perse applique. I really like doing that. But I will control myself and wait until January. It might be 12:01 am, but it will be next year.

The cleaning lady is here doing her magic on the dirt that accumulated since her last visit. On her last visit, we had a new toilet installed. How nice to be able to flush with only one flick of the wrist.

I will be back at the end of the month to share how much embroidery gets done.
Blessings,
Chris

linking with: needleandthreadnetwork. one-monthly-goal-november. peacock-party. off the wall Friday.  confessionsofafabricaddict. tgiff.  needle-and-thread-thursday.  frombolttobeauty.
slow-sunday-stitching.  quiltingismorefunthanhousework.  design-wall-monday. monday-making.  wednesday-wait-loss.