Friday Night With Friends

I tried. I really tried to get to some stitching today. But, alas, I made jam, drove into town to do some banking, picked up the mail a kilometer down the road, washed dishes at least 7 times, had a zoom meeting, paid some bills, paid off the bank credit line totally, for now. Did I say make jam? Only 3 batches today totaling 24 jars. I ate 3 lovely meals that someone else cooked, 2 of them outside. I could get used to this. 

The thing with stitching Friday Night With Friends is that their Friday night in Australia begins at night but mine begins here in Canada very early Friday morning. But it is night now and I can sit back and relax with some hand stitching. The newest 3030 Quilt block was released and I have not yet pulled fabrics for that. I could do that now. Maybe.

It is the beginning of July and the year is half over and I was looking at my goals for 2020 to see if I was on track or totally derailed. Among other things, I wanted to complete the 2 Antique Wedding Sampler blocks that I started a couple of years ago. And I flipped through the book Primarily Quilts written by Di Ford-Hall, that has the pattern, drooling over most of the patterns. I think I might have enough fabric in my endless cupboard to make all of them at least twice in several colorways. Also, I cleared off, at least I tried, one of the tables here in my quilt room and put away patterns and fabrics and little girls keep passing through here and asking to play UNO. 

Precious little things. They are having a surprise birthday party for their Dad my son tomorrow at noon because they go to their mom's after lunch. and he knows all about the surprise party but not the real surprise. The girls have been learning to play the ukelele to serenade him. And he is paying for the pizza and all the workers in the strawberry patch will be joining us. But first, they are setting up a white bedsheet on the trampoline outside to use as a screen for an outdoor movie since it is dark now and I have not picked up a needle yet, and my computer was turned off most of the day. If I turn off the lights in here, I could watch through the window. But I could not stitch in the dark.  Not very well anyway. 

So I have had most of an hour here to myself without a needle in hand. But there is always tomorrow. 

Blessings,

Chris

July 2020 One Monthly Goal

We have been picking strawberries. Lots of strawberries. Okay, many more than lots. Our son planted 500 plants last year and for the past 2 weeks, we have been picking anywhere from 100 - 200 quarts of luscious, juicy red berries every single day. Okay, so I am not actually doing the picking. We have 3 girls out there along with our son and, of course, the little girls.

We have one small freezer completely filled with berries and I am trying to buy a new freezer. This is not an easy thing to do. Buying a new freezer during a pandemic. They are back-ordered until Oct. The really big ones that is. I will keep trying. I wanted an upright freezer since I have limited space in the house. We already have a 25 cu foot chest freezer in the back kitchen, but it is full. 

The girls completed their school year and each of them advanced to the next grade. That means no more home learning for now. At least not academics. They are learning to bake. and we can now change gears here and get them back to sewing on their I-Spy blocks. The lego is in time-out and so is the giant dollhouse and all its accessories. They need to be outside more. Not the dolls. The girls. There is now a trampoline and pool in the back yard. We will be making jam soon. Lots of jam. I have 250 jars and sugar ready to begin. 

I sort of did my June OMG but I cannot with a clear conscience say I completed it. It was to organize and bring order to the many small containers of quilting stuff. I did go through some of them. Then a couple of times I was looking for things for my newest project and sort of ransacked everything in the process. So it seems an almost impossible task. 

I started a new quilt. The 3030 Quilt. So far, I have 2 blocks complete and 2 in process. These are fun, colourful blocks. I paper pieced both of these. I have one applique block on the go. The new blocks are emailed to us every Friday. You can find the information here sentimentalstitches-3030-quilt.

So, I have had several ideas for a July goal parade through my head when I am working on other things. I cannot remember any of them right now. The RSC colour for July is dark blue. I have 5 blue blocks left to make for Bright Jane. I did not make any pink ones for June. Actually, I did not do a lot of any kind of sewing. What I did do was complete one more course for my doctorate. It only took me 5 1/2 years. I hope to get the next ones done a bit quicker. And poor Gaston the giant ladybug needs some major surgery. Devan brought it and the thread and a needle to my desk last night while I was making jam and she offered to help do the stitching. I guess that better get done. 

I think I will try to keep current with the 3030 Quilt blocks. I will aim to have the first 8 complete ready to show off for my July OMG

Blessings,

Chris

Linking with: My quilt infatuation.  Peacock Party  Midweek Makers

I Cannot Believe How Much Fabric I Have

Today I pre-washed what I thought was the rest of the 1930's prints for the 3030 Quilt. I was wrong. I found 2 more bins. 

I debated just cutting off a piece of each of the solids to use sporadically in the quilt but, decided to just prewash them all. Some of then are 1-1/2 yd cuts others are smaller. 

It makes me think of cream sickles and lemonade.

I have all sorts of ideas going through my head about using some of these fabrics. Dresden. Charm. Something I could cut out quickly with one of my many GO dies. 

But, alas, I still have not completed that book report and it is due tonight. 

In the meantime, I continue to discover the new blogger experience. For instance, I cannot find where to make the pictures bigger. Do I need to make the pictures bigger? Probably not. But it is nice to know how. Also, finding the new post option. That is the red circle with the + in it at the bottom of the page. 

Now to get back to writing. I will pre-wash the rest another day. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: needle and thread network

Friday Night With Friends on Friday Morning

I could get used to hanging out with quilters around the world. Last week I joined Chooky on her zoom quilting retreat. This week I plan to join Cheryll and her Friday night with Friends. I have several applique blocks in various stages that I could work on.

I have been working (but not too hard) on yet another book report for my doctorate in Christian counseling. This one is in Ethics. I should have it done soon. Well, as soon as I stop playing solitaire and visiting quilters around the world on zoom. I host a stitching group on Facebook here at the Farm on Monday nights. Some of the girls have been making face masks. Lots of face masks. One girl said she and a friend (as in just one) made over 2000 between them. That is two thousand face masks to give away. 

Oh, I had a pedicure and haircut today. She is not back to work yet but came over today and did my feet and hair then told me to go look beautiful somewhere else so she could do my sister. We did it in the kitchen with the big ceiling lights above. 

So I came here and listened to a podcast then sat down to watch an episode of Bones with my Sweetie while I removed all the staples and price tags from the rest of the 30's prints that I plan to use for the 3030 from Sentimental Stitches. I have several hundred of them. Many are fat eighths and fat sixteenths. A few are fat quarters and half yard cuts. All the fat eighths were stapled together with the price tag.

I suppose that is better than trying to remove the tape after sitting in a bin for 12-13 years. Definitely better. I will add those to these that I pre-washed last week. I have decided to not use those 10 inch precuts because I have a whole bunch of solid yardage to use instead. I will use the pre-cuts for something else. 

I decided to try the new blogger. So far no problem, but I have inserted a picture and a link to another blog and eventually found where to preview my post. Also, I figured out how to write beside the photo. It was not obvious initially, but I stumbled across it. I clicked on the picture and a prompt popped up. Learning curve. Baby steps. All was going good until I hit publish then nothing happened. I will try again. I really should be writing. but it is almost time to make supper.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: needle and thread network.  wednesday-wait-loss-175. Midweek Makers

Late Night Stitching

Chooky organized a virtual quilt retreat for this weekend. What a lot of fun! I could only join in for a few hours late last night because of all the family here this weekend. It started at 7 am Australia time which is 5 pm my time.

I stitched on one of the Ella applique blocks.

Now to add the rest of the design so I can finish it.

I have 6 whole days in a row without little children so I plan to do some serious writing.

Linking with Kathy at slow-sunday-stitching .

blessings,
Chris

Global Virtual Quilting Retreat

I am so excited to be taking part in the Chookshed birthday party in Australia this weekend. Things are re-opening up here in Ontario Canada. I had a chiropractic adjustment yesterday and a massage booked for next week. Little Jonathan is turning 6 on Sunday. It is exactly 100 years since his Great-Grandfather was born here in this old farmhouse. He has been gone quite a few years, but Great-Grandma is 91 and still going strong. She still lives in her own home next door, and bought a new car last year as she is still driving.

All 5 grandchildren are here for a few days. The girls have switched to a week about with the joint custody and the little boys arrived yesterday. It will be pizza and cake tomorrow. But I will not be able to eat any of it because I am on the whole30 program this month. Three of us in this house are doing it together. This is day 4. I had an NSV (non-scale victory) yesterday. It was the first day in forever that I did not crash mid-day and desperately need a nap. And this with all the children here! And, we made 2 very large crock pots of clean beef stew. I will make a lot of compliant chili on Sat. This means we will have lots of whole30 compliant food instead of grabbing a sandwich or bun or something with sugar, dairy, legumes, or grains.

Now to decide what quilting project I will be working on this weekend. Gay at Sentimental Stitches is releasing a new Block of the Week tomorrow and I plan to play along. It is called 3030 because there will be 30 blocks in 30 weeks. I have a whole bin of 1930's reproduction feedback prints and solids just waiting for a chance to come out and play. I dug out 3 bolts of white fabric to choose from. I think I will go with the white muslin but will pre-wash it first. Guess I should get busy.

Blessings,
Chris
linking with:  myquiltinfatuation.  fortheloveofgeese.  tgiff.

June 2020 OMG Goal

I have been giving a lot of thought to what my goal for June should be. I did complete 31 unfinished blocks for May. Well, a few were new Dj2 blocks, but most of the others were half done and now they are completely done. In my 2020 goal of working on 20 different quilts, I managed to work on no less than 5. And, I am planning to start a new BOW  this week.  More about that later. In the meantime, I was desperately trying to find some suitable red thread to complete this Ella block. I know I had a whole spool of red thread leftover from BTCT. I know I have some.

But for the life of me, I could not find any. I looked through many see-through storage containers. I ate a lot of cookies years ago to accumulate all these wonderful boxes. I usually start a new project box with each new quilt start. Especially for the hand applique ones. Thread. Needles. Scissors. Glasses. And I labeled them so it was easy to know which box had the machine needles, the hand stitching needles, the machine applique threads, the machine quilting threads, the coloured threads and perfect circles. You know - really organized. Sort of. I had several hand applique projects on the go and could put them into my stitching bag as I traveled or babysat.

I still could not find the right thread. And completing that block was on my May OMG list of 31 blocks to complete. I have been halfheartedly telling myself I need to stop and go through every container and put things back in their rightful place and start over again. Especially since I plan to start the new BOM this month. You see, I completed the BTCT top in April and did not return all the little things to their rightful place. So, the other day, I wasted precious quilting time looking.

But I had to do something since I could not be on my computer since I am still overseeing little girls doing their online school work. It is Week 9. I finally figured out how to scan a document. Silly me. I have been going about it backwards. I was putting a page in the copier/scanner and pressing scan and wondering why my computer would not acknowledge me sending it a document. So -  I asked my computer the question "how do I scan" and it opened up the right program. Then, I clicked the button that said "new scan" and followed the bouncing ball until I had 43 documents scanned and submitted for Devan's grade one teacher. Then the next day I did it all over again for Ellyse. I feel so accomplished. And fit!. I had to stand up and walk over to the copier/scanner for each and every sheet every single time. That was a lot of exercise.

I did eventually find the thread and I did complete the block.

So. My June one-monthly-goal  will be to go through all those storage boxes and organize them to death. And label the new project box.

Blessings,
Chris
linking with:
needleandthreadnetwork.  wednesday-wait-loss,
midweek-makers.  myquiltinfatuation.
wendysquiltsandmore.