May 2022 OMG Goal

 I did not meet my April OMG goal so I will move that over to the May OMG. And what will that be? The Biblical Blocks Sampler I am completing for my son's wedding later this month.

And the wedding is where? Here at the Farm, where else. In our front yard. And the side yard and the back yard. It is going to be glorious! All I have to do is provide the outside flowers, and we planted them back in November and the apple blossoms will be out and the lilacs and the horse chestnuts will be blooming. It will be spectacular! And I am sure the bees will be buzzing in full concert as well. 

I got my dress last month. It took me a whole 10 minutes. Where do you find fancy dresses for overweight, crippled-up senior women these days? Well, I'm glad you asked. I went to a tiny dress shop in my town and walked out of there with a $400 purple dress for 70% off and a killer turquoise/purple/gold scarf. In just 10 minutes! Then I found some amazing Vionic fancy sandals in my size 11 wide in Shipshewana Indiana when I was at the quilt retreat last week. And I was not even looking for shoes! I bought myself 3 different pairs and a pair of running shoes for my Sweetie who is on a diet and does all the cooking here now. Life is good. I found a fancy turquoise shirt for him at a truck stop and I wasn't even looking for that either. 

I will be back at the end of the month with more pictures. 

Blessings,

Chris 

Goals for April 2022

 I often set lofty goals for myself. Not just in the quilt room. In every place in my life. Do I accomplish them? Sometimes. After all, this senior citizen completed a doctorate last year. But in order to do that, I had to lay aside some of the more fun things like quilting. 

My goals for this April include:

1. Complete the Biblical Blocks Ufo. I completed one back in November. I actually spend a whole 4 days finishing it. This time, I have a few more blocks to make and the center medallion is not complete. Ten years ago, I loaned the pattern book to a friend who has moved several times. I have a picture of the completed top and a lot of the hard work is already done. For example, in the class I took when I made my first one 20 years ago, she had us cut ALL the borders and setting triangles first, then we used the rest of the fabric for the blocks. I have most of the borders hand applique done and I have most of the rest of the block foundation patterns drafted up and printed off ready to start the sewing marathon. 
2. Blog my book ABCs of How to Stay Married for 50 Years. I had intended to join up with the A-Z Challenge but just realized that registrations closed last week. Oops. I guess I will just have to blog each of the 26 chapters here. It should be fun. No. It will be fun to read some of the perspectives we old folk have on a long life together. Stay tuned. Not sure just when they will begin or if they will be every day. But, HARK! I have started a brand new blog just for this. 
3. Family coming for Easter dinner at the Farm. There may be up to 25 of us. It will be simple. I like simple. The grand thing will be the outdoor garden wedding here at the Farm later in May. My responsibility is the flowers outside. I planted hundreds of bulbs back in October. But first, we have a gazillion pine cones to rake off the lawn as soon as the rains this week warm up the ground. 
4. Learn to chew again. I finally bit the bullet and got partial dentures. Actually, I bit a piece of hard bacon and a front tooth broke off. Completely. But a year before that, I foolishly tried to open a marker with my teeth. The dentist put in a new tooth, but it only lasted a year, just as we went into a 4-month lockdown. So I finally found a denturist and a new dentist who is next door to him, and last week I got the things. I have been pureeing soups and eating mush as chewing is not happening just yet. No hot drinks or hot food. No eating junk since that has to be chewed. I am down 6 lbs. Wonder why? 
5. Shipshewana Quilt Retreat. It has been 3 years since we last went. I am only taking one project box and it is packed already. It has 4 projects in it. I have taken along Bright Jane and some Morrell blocks to every one of the 5 retreats I went to in the past. Why stop now? I plan to take along the Macaron Mystery to complete also. I had all the cutting done a couple of months ago but did not get the pieces sewn together. And the whole thing packs quite compactly. There are 3 of us going. Want to make sure we have enough room. I will pack Lucy to go with us. I am thinking about taking all the small squares I cut and getting them hand-basted. That should fill in a lot of the time cracks and keep me from doing too much shopping, as well as packing very compactly. 
6. Virtual Writing Retreat. What about doing a retreat at the retreat? The Virtual Writing Retreat I often join is at the end of the month. I plan to take along my laptop and join in online. It should be easy to find a quiet spot and plug in my earbuds. I am writing the curriculum for the Mentoring at the Farm small group I will be leading this summer. It was suggested that I get it done ahead of time and publish a pdf file and print off copies instead of handing out sheets each week. I like the idea. I have it outlined already. It will be exactly 80 pages long since the summer group will run for 80 days. One page a day for homework. I like that. 

So my April OMG goal will be completing the Biblical Blocks top and booking the longarm for early May. The rest is just stuff I will be doing. I suppose I could add spring cleaning but that will be a goal for May. 

Blessings,

Chris

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OMG March 2022 Completion

 My OMG goal for March was to hand-stitch together several 

Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Crosses crosses. 

 I have 4 complete so far. Only 52 more to go. Maybe. 

I went with the third option for the block above because I already had the turquoise cross in the center of the next one.

I have many hexies basted ready for the next bunch of center blocks.

I will be putting the whole thing aside for now, 

because

I have a wedding quilt to complete. 

I pulled out one of my ufos and put it up on the big design wall. 

It is yet another of Rosemary Makhan's Biblical Blocks.

It will be my goal for next month. 

The wedding is here at the Farm in May. 

I have exactly 54 days. No pressure. 

I also will be going to the Shipshewana Retreat at the end of April. 

I have my project box already packed. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Decisions Decisions

 There are at least 4 possible ways to put these pieces together.

 And this after I settled on these 4 colours. 

The options are endless.

I keep second-guessing my choices.

It isn't any wonder that I procrastinate.

I would rather be my usual impulsive self. 

You will have to come back to see which way I hand stitch these together. This is what I am doing on this snowy blowy March Break Slow Sunday Stitching day.   

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March 2022 OMG Goal

February was an interesting month. I had set what I thought was a reasonable goal to layer and baste and begin machine quilting on 4-5 small quilts. And it was. I just did not get any of it done. The girls came home from school on the Friday morning of a long weekend and took over my space. So, I put my stuff away and have not pulled it out since. Instead, I worked on Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses. Aka Lucy. They went back to school 4 days later and we have had a week of house guests. So I puttered some more on Lucy.

Have I mentioned lately that I love fussy cutting? 

Well, I do. I really do. This so satisfies my left-brain creativity with matching quadrants. My Sweetie says this looks to be my most creative project so far. I better not let him down. 

I got one cross hand-stitched together. The rest is just on the design wall. I was so proud of my colour choices until I stood back a few feet and realized that the colour value made those medium fabrics a bit mussy. Oh well. I have another 55 chances to get it right. Assuming, that is, that I will make 56 blocks like the original. 

I cut lots of background Kona Snow into 2 1/2 inch strips on the GO cutter.

 Then sub-cut more elongated hexies and continued to baste. I am using stash fabrics from my many reproduction collections.

So now I have both big tables covered in my Lucy stuff. My March OMG goal will be to confirm some of the options and stitch together a few more crosses. I will be whip stitching a few more hexies together for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

February also saw us say goodbye to My Sweetie's Mother who quietly passed away a week short of her 93rd birthday. She will be fondly remembered for the legacy she left her large family and many friends in the Guernsey community around the world. 

Blessings,

Chris 

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Fussy Cutting

 

Oh My Goodness!! I am in love with fussy cutting! I pulled a few bins of reproduction scraps out and am fussy cutting elongated hexies for my Lucy project. I think I will keep cutting bits and bobs for a while before committing to final placement for these Patchwork Of the Crosses by Lucy Boston. This is a project I got coerced into starting back in December by my zoom friend Chooky. I work on it during online meetings and quilt friend gatherings. 

This is my Slow Sunday Stitching project for today. 

Blessings,

Chris 

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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

called Apricot and Ash Cloud Floral from Fat Quarter Shop. This will be a place for me to learn to machine quilt around faux applique so I can eventually quilt around my real hand-stitched applique quilts. It should arrive soon. I hope. 

But first up will be my oldest UFO from 1979. This Dolls of the World was a kit I bought and painted the pictures onto the fabric. It was awol in one of the cupboards in one of the rooms somewhere in this big ole farmhouse and came to light when we did some serious declutter a few years ago. I have some red rose fabric for the backing. I think there is enough to use for a border also. 

My OMG goal for February will be to layer these small quilts and start machine quilting them. No promises of a finish. But I have to start starting somewhere. And, both big folding tables are empty in the middle of the quilt room begging to be used to stretch out and layer quilts before this room gets turned into a greenhouse again in anticipation of a summer vegetable garden. 

Blessings,

Chris

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