November 2021 OMG Completion

 An old friend called up early in October to invite us to his wedding. The next day my Sweet Farmer announced he was going to sell all the cows. My 90 Day Writing Goal was to have a first draft of my newest book by Dec 1. The pressure was on. I decided to choose one of the ufos from the endless project boxes that was nearest completion and make it my November OMG. This is Biblical Blocks by Rosemary Makhan that I started in 2005. The book writing was put on hold and Nov 11 the cattle were sold.

I had taken a class years ago the first time I made this pattern but I loaned the book and all the instructions to a friend who has moved 2-3 times since. Good thing that the first thing we did was cut out and label all the borders and setting triangles. 

But I still had to figure out how to put them together.This was a bit of a challenge. But I had a picture of the finished quilt so had a reference point. I only had to redo one. 

My machine was a bit sluggish so I thought I should check inside. Good plan. I cannot believe how much lint had collected in here. 

As a rule, I sew with bare feet. I want to be able to feel what is going on and have better control. But, what are the chances of dropping the scissors inches from my foot? 

I took me 2 days to make up the 6 remaining blocks. I had fussy cut many of the others, but chose to do foundation piecing for these. Another 2 days to assemble all the blocks and borders.

I had been helping my Sweetie with preparations for the cow sale so he rewarded me with his time and removed the foundation papers. He has decided that quilting will not be his new retirement hobby.

 I mitered both the Rose of Sharon applique borders and the fancy dancy Jinny Beyer border print. This technique is not for the faint of heart. Matching up all those stripes and designs. I sent the thing out to be longarm quilted. She had it back in 2 days.

The last thing to do was trim and sew on the binding. I chose to use a mottled blue fabric from the collection because I had enough and it matched perfectly. This is where the pain in my right hand really started screaming for relief. It took me the whole day to do a 2 hour job. So in all, it took 7 days to finish this quilt. 

 

Our friend told me that when he was living with us, he often noticed me working on quilts and asked what it would take to get one of them. Get married I told him apparently. Well, he remembered and now he has his own quilt.

You'd of thought we knew the bedroom colours before choosing this quilt. But I chose one from the archives of ufos nearest to completion. 

Blessings,

Chris

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We are Selling the Cows

 Who would have thought my Sweetie would suddenly, one day, announce that he was going to sell all the cows. This is no small matter. He has milked cows since he could walk and the Guernsey cows have been in the family for 92 years. But selling we are. 

Hence, my not completing my October OMG. Nor did I do any work on my book since that day. And the wedding quilt that was my OMG is still on the design wall in many pieces. The phone has not stopped ringing and I am on facebook constantly monitoring the sensational buzz we have created in the cow world. And emails have to be dealt with.

The whole selling the cows went from a simple selling 10 cows to one farmer, then he bought 20 more and we got a call and visit from a cattle auctioneer in Quebec and suddenly we are having an online video sale of 6 select cows and 45 heifers and calves and the rest being bought also. They have been clipping and grooming calves for days and the photographer is out there now taking portrait picture of all the girls. 

I took the Elly and Devan for a sleepover at our daughters this weekend and after the boys went to bed (they always go earlier than the girls), I pulled out the Rose of Sharon applique borders and had the girls pulling out the freezer paper from with the machine applique flowers. We will do the leaves today and tomorrow. I anticipate having the top to flimsy stage by Friday (I am such a dreamer), but the wedding is 12 days away and the long arm is booked. 

The online auction is only 10 days away. And I am playing games. Does not make any sense to me either. I have a clear schedule for this whole week and should get back to work. 

I think my OMG goal for November has to be completing the Biblical Blocks Quilt. And then I really should take time away from the computer because my eyes are starting to bother me as in everything is a bit foggy. I cannot make an appointment with my eye doctor as they have quietly been on strike for the past 2 months. I am on the priority list for appointments when they get back to serving us seniors who have OHIP. And the pain in my right hand has escalated in the past few months to the point that I have to do something different. Cutting back on sugar is the first thing and stopping playing games which requires a lot of mousing. Buying a new mouse and keyboard will certainly help since I often have to click and swipe 2-3 times for every function as well as certain keys refusing to cooperate. 

I will be back at the end of the month to let you know how I did. 

Blessings,

Chris

Change of OMG Plan

 So we got a phone call from an old friend inviting us to his wedding next month reminding us that I promised him a quilt. That means my OMG for October now is to have this quilt to a flimsy ready to get machine quilted. I can still do the Stitch for 15 Minutes a day thing but with this Biblical Blocks Quilt.

There are still 6 blocks to make. One is already cut out and ready to machine applique. All the borders are machine appliqued, just waiting to be sewn onto the quilt before adding the final flowers in the corners and between the swags to center them nicely. Fortunately, the teacher for this class had us cut ALL the borders and connecting triangles, including labeling them, first before making the blocks with the rest. Everything has been sitting in a project box for at least 15 years awaiting completion.

Wish me luck.

Blessings,

Chris

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October 2021 OMG Goal

 My OMG goal for October will be to Quilt for 15 minutes almost every day. I have to leave a bit of leeway. This way I can work on several projects at a time without the pressure to actually complete any specific one. I only missed 2 days from Jan-Apr, then I fell off the wagon for May-Aug. Time to get back in the game. Included will be actual hand stitching, machine sewing and quilting, block prepping, pressing, putting blocks on the wall, printing patterns, 

Some of the things I want to work on.

50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella. I have 6 foundation blocks prepped and 9 applique blocks half done. There seems to be no rush since we postponed the anniversary celebration until next year. But that might come sooner than I think if I keep procrastinating. 

Poppy's Garden. I woke up from a nap dreaming of a creative way to make a lot of circles. This included stretching out a metal tape measure while applying tape to it until it was long enough, then tracing circles using a wine cork onto the tape and cutting them out. I do not drink wine and I just ordered an Accuquilt circle die. I have some of the most interesting dreams. I changed the background colour to a crisp white and the colors now look good. I also found the rest of the purple/green/paisley fabric I bought some years ago. It will be the focus fabric. I get to add orange and turquoise. 

Macaron Mystery. I haven't actually started working on this yet. I was waiting for a few more clues before dive-bombing in. I want to do some of the cutting prep work.

Summer QAL. Jonathan told me he liked the colours in this when the blocks were on the design wall. I have yet to assemble them and add borders. 

Machine Quilting something. Anything. I finally set up the new Jazz that I bought 6 months ago.

I am considering quilting goals for 2022 already. Seriously. It has something to do with delaying and sabotaging my writing goals. It was while I was doing this that I had the impulsive idea to donate a dozen ufos. Also, I have already given brain activity to projects to take along to the Shipshewana Retreat in April. We registered back in April in faith that we could cross the border into the USA next April. We have our rooms booked.  

The cleaning lady has finally been able to come back and we are doing decluttering. 

Blessings,

Chris

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End of September

I want to say this month flew by, but it didn't really. I was in not one but two covid isolations. It visited our family last month. Our son got it first and was mildly sick. He did not think it was covid so did not get tested immediately. But the damage was done and we all got tested over the next week and again a week later. In the end, I had a positive test but was not sick nor was my Sweetie nor was Jonathan. So, all in all, I had 20 days in a row with the younger grandchildren here at the farm then 11 days without any children.  Do you think I got any work done? 

Some. I made 4 Ella blocks in the foundation piecing method. I love the accuracy off this, but do not like removing the papers. I sat in a zoom meeting with Chooky and friends the other night and removed papers from 7 blocks. Also, this past week the online writing group I belong to, Christian Book Academy, had a week long writing conference. Messages were posted on our facebook group and I have been so blessed to learn from other Christian writers who are way ahead of me in writing, publishing, launching and marketing their books. 

I have been writing. I have new accountability partners and that is very helpful. So far, I have a rough draft for 20 chapters for The ABCs of  How to Stay Married for 50 Years. My ultimate goal is to have a final draft by December. I keep reminding myself that I completed 5 courses for my doctorate back in the spring in just 3 months. I put aside quilting, went to bed early, got up early and even took time for a nap most days. I read blogs and facebook but did not comment or interact. All this to say, I accomplished a great big goal because I made a decision to focus and get the job done. And I had a deadline and accountability partners. 

Being in 2 isolations, I had to reschedule appoints twice. So the first thing I did was have a pedicure. My feet are happy. Next was to go to the chiropractor and get a massage. 

I continue to work at decluttering my old sewing spaces. I made the impulsive decision to donate a dozen old ufos that do not bring me joy. Perhaps that is why they have languished in the quilting cupboard. I posted pictures in our Quilting at the Farm facebook group and several have been spoken for. The rest will be donated to either a local guild for charity quilts or to a local missions donation center where my niece works. 

My 13  year old granddaughter, Ava, is now in high school. She has to do 40 hours of volunteer work and got a position at a hair salon close to her mom's so she can walk. And it is beside the local Tim Horton's coffee shop. She is a bit OCD, so will do very well in doing cleanup stuff.  

Five year old David got to ride a school bus for the very first time ever. He liked it so much, he forgot to get off at his stop. Mom had to flag the bus down to locate him in the very back seat. To his defense, he had just moved into the new house the day before and did not know the routine. The driver was new too and did not know the routine either.

My OMG goals for Sept were to try out some of the new Aurifil thread I won. There are no less than 36 different colours and not one of them matches any of my Ella block fabrics. I did not achieve my goal for Sept.

I also finally set up the new Jazz 2 machine I bought 6 months ago for machine quilting. It took me about an hour to figure out how to thread it, remove the thread and take out a bobbin, wind the bobbin and thread the machine again, then pull up the bobbin thread. All this to discover it was set in basting mode and had to figure out how to change the stitch length. I have not yet actually sewn anything on it, but am ready.

Blessings,

Chris

Sept 2021 OMG Goal

My goodness! How can it be September already? I guess time flies when you are having fun. And fun we have had this summer. It was a time filled with family and rain and people and Covid. Our son tested positive last week and so did 7-year-old Jonathan. His parents were moving so he and David came to the farm for a few days. David was negative so he is isolated at the trailer with Mom. 

Dad is in the new house alone and Jonathan is asymptomatic (not sick) and is isolating here at the farm. He finally has 10 whole days where his little brother is not picking a fight and trying to beat him up all the time. He says he misses that. He has been busy helping Grampa around the farm. The rains finally stopped and we have had a whole week of sunshine so now we can bale dry hay.

Aug 7 was our 50th anniversary. We had a simple family BBQ. It was great. The weather was amazing until we cut the brownie cake that the grandchildren had made, and dished out the ice cream, then the skies opened and we got dumped with about 2 inches of rain. This would have been okay, except that all we adults were outside in the dining tent. The children all had the good sense to run into the house. 

Chooky has hosted several zoom parties this summer. Last night I joined some of the girls from Australia, the USA, New Zealand, and Germany for a few hours to stitch and catch up with what is going on in our parts of the world. 

This is what I worked on. I did so little quilting this summer. This is as far as I got on the Summer QAL from Quilting Gail. I had lots of the smaller units sewn up in July and put them all together last night. I still have to sew all 35 blocks together and add a few borders. It is a bit smaller than I want. I think a half-inch dark brown framing the center, then each of the 3 colours around that. 

Today is my 8th Anniversary of blogging. What a ride it has been! I have met quilters and farmers who quilt all over the world. I even went to Australia in 2015 and met some in person. I definitely want to go back. 

It is time to choose an OMG quilting goal for Sept. It has to be simple this time because  . . . 

drum roll please . . . 

 

I have 36 thousand yards of the most amazing colours of thread that I won for the May Aurifil Thread prize from OMG. I think there might have been an oops because there should have been a 3-pack. So, thank you Patty from Elm Street Quilts. 

My OMG for Sept will be to crack open a few of these threads and give them a try. I will use some for hand applique for slow-sunday-stitching on the 50th Anniversary aka Ella blocks 

and others for machine quilting on the Disappearing 9-Patch that I will be using as a sample for a new quilting class starting here at Quilting @ the Farm in 2 weeks. 

That should keep me out of trouble for this month. 

Blessings,

Chris 

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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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