Chookshed Challenge February 2024

Deana picked #2 for the February Challenge. I made a list of 10 quilting projects to work on this year for the Chookshed Challenge. Last month I started in on some Crazy Patch Embroidery. That will continue throughout the year. This month's RSC colour is red so I thought I would again tweak my list and work on the 150 Canadian Women since all those blocks are red.

I have about 28 complete with a lot of pieces quick cut with my GO Baby cutter. I will pull out the project bin from the back of the bottom shelf of endless ufo and fabric boxes in the corner of my bedroom. No. I will not post a picture of that.  

I have been slowly, very slowly, stitching Lucy blocks together. My poor arthritic hands are not liking that so I thought maybe doing some machine work would be a good idea. 

This will be my OMG goal for Feb also. 

Blessings,

Chris

 

Crazy Patch Embroidery

 Recently I saw some crazy patch embroidery some one was doing and thought it might be nice to revisit that craft. I learned how to embroider when I was about 14 in 4-H. My first quilt was embroidered squares. 

I found this book on my shelf that I bought about 4 years ago. Turns out that the author was a newbie and created her own base seams for her Stunning Stitches. The book has 480 embroidered seam designs. Now I see on Amazon that she has another 350 in a new book. 

I do not intend to pretend that I will make all those, but I plan to make at least 24 seams. Goodness knows, I have enough floss, silk ribbon, beads and other bits and pieces that can be used. 

I learned a bit about silk ribbon embroidery a lot of years ago. I was so excited, I bought ALL the tiny kits (15) that were on a ridiculous close out sale years ago back in the '90s. I had forgotten about them until I was rummaging through boxes looking for some elusive thing that I am always misplacing.

In 2010 I signed up for a Baltimore class. I collected a lot of supplies. Our instructor used to own a quilt shop in Alabama and when her husband took a job in Toronto, she had no time for a sale so just loaded everything up and brought it with her. She gave away a lot of door prizes at her classes. 

I  had just started teaching the Dear Jane class at the Farm and thought I might move on to teaching dimensional applique. So, I bought lots of fancy ribbon with wires in them. Will I even remember how to do any of that? 

Did I mention that I was working on a master's degree at the time? I was. I did finish that. 

And I bought books. I was going to do this one day. 

Kits were started and neatly (hardly) shoved into bags and later project boxes.

All of this survived the great purge of 2021. 

I took a silk ribbon class around 1996. At least that is the date on the receipt in the bag.

I have taught a lot of girls to start stitching. I led girls clubs and 4-H 20-30 years ago. The stitches were worked onto a scrap of cloth and we created a little picture. 

I am teaching the little girls to do various kinds of stitching.

I took a workshop in crazy patch back in 2010, but had too much going on to focus on the creativity that it required.  

We were told to trace the pattern onto the back of a piece of muslin or other scrap cloth. Then we did a sew and flip method of foundation piecing. The new book has us securing the block into a stretcher frame. So I did. Yesterday.

My OMG goal was to sort through, organize and make a plan. Since I have this block already started, my plan for now is to add a few more rows of stitching. And while I do this, I will ponder what I could do next. Stay tuned. Because, if I start a new block, I will have to rummage through boxes and boxes of fabrics choosing the right ones. And the yard of muslin I bought in Shipshewana has gone awol. 

Blessings,

Chris

To-Do Tuesday

I had planned a simple, quiet week after the Christmas crowd. But that did not happen. We ended up with all the grandkids here as well as an exchange student. Roblox was the main activity with all devices going. No snow so the four wheelers and golf cart saw some action. We even had a chocolate fountain one night. 

This was my list.

1. Clear away the clutter in the quilt room. Nope did not even try but I did succeed in making a bigger mess. 
2. Write up several blog posts to get the year started. Yes
3. Work on the Chookshed 2024 Challenge. This month's project is Crazy Patch Embroidery. this is now my OMG project
4. VisionBoard Experience Workshop on Wed to get clarity on my plans and purpose for 2024. All the grandkids were here for the week and I had to miss it. Since I registered ahead, they will send me the link to do it on my own. this will have to wait until we get back from the wedding in Hyde Park NY next week. 
5. Track my daily stitching time for 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024. 4 times. It is after all, only 15 minutes but my hands are not happy. 
6. Track my daily exercise of at least 15 minutes. Totally forgot to track even though I did move a bit. I have a recumbent bike but it got moved. I have a tread mill but it has been buried under stuff. I now consider shopping a physical activity. I can really boogey when leaning on a shopping cart. 

This week's goals will be different We leave on Wed and return next Mon. Linking with To-Do Tuesday.

1. Stitch something.
2. Move.
3. Enjoy time with my Sweetie.
4. Drink more water.
5. Figure out how to move photos and grab the button. Something has changed and I have not been able to figure it out.

blessings,

Chris

January 2024 OMG Goal

I have thought long and hard about what my January One Monthly Goal should be. I have not always remembered to post one and not always followed through to complete it. I decided to join the Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge and I can combine the 2 goals together. Not an original idea but it works for me. 

My Challenge project is to work on Embroidery. I had this crazy idea to do some crazy patch embroidery. I have a book, I have several project bins filled with floss and silk ribbon and seed beads and other interesting things.

My OMG goal will be to sort through, organize and make a plan.  I actually have several books. This will be a year long project or longer, depending on the plan I come up with. 

We have had all the grand children and an exchange student here for the past week and off to a family wedding in New York later this week. It has been gloriously noisy and busy. This truly has been a Christmas to remember. 

linking with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. 

blessings,

Chris

To-Do Tuesday January 2024

My To-Do Tuesday list for this week looks like this:

1. Clear away the clutter in the quilt room. 
2. Write up several blog posts to get the year started. 
3. Work on the Chookshed 2024 Challenge. This month's project is Crazy Patch Embroidery. 
   
   
   
4. VisionBoard Experience Workshop on Wed to get clarity on my plans and purpose for 2024. 
5. Track my daily stitching time for 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024. 
6. Track my daily exercise of at least 15 minutes 

This should motivate me to start moving forward in this brand new year. 

Until all the grand children showed up at the same time for a few days. 

Blessings,

Chris

Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge

 Here is my list of 10 specific stitching goals for 2024. I may tweak this list depending on what number is given for January.

1. Macaron Mystery - finish including machine quilting and binding
2. 150 Canadian Women - progress.
3. EPP - begin new project - got everything for Windermere in a project box ready to start. 
4. Lucy - progress 
5. New Zealand Kiwi Birds - make 24 blocks using the Tilda charms I bought in Australia.
6. Embroidery - begin a Crazy Patch - make at least 24 rows of stitches this year
7. Serendipity - progress
8. Summer QAL 2021 - finish including machine quilting and binding
9. Morrell - progress
10. Ella - progress  

Blessings

Chris

Where Has the Time Gone?

It is the middle of December and then the year will come to a close. Am I ready to end this epic year so soon? It really has been epic. In the quilt room, I have done very little except to ponder and read and write and eat yummy goodies. I had set out to revisit 23 unfinished projects. And how did I do? I don't think I finished anything in the quilting area but I did work on many projects. I was desperately looking for something not once but several times and ended up going through every single project box not once but at least twice. Some more than that.

I found some of the things I was looking for. Like a handful of $50 bills that I put in a safe place back in June then moved them to a safer place.  I found them in a project box labeled  Prepped Blocks in November. I had been through that box several times, but then picked out each piece of fabric and paper and there they were - a whole handful exactly the same colour as the fabric that was sitting on top. I put them into the bank. The bills not the fabric.

I went to Germany in March for a ladies' retreat. I took granddaughter Ava and my daughter Melanie. 

Then my Sweetie and I went to Australia for 3 weeks for a quilt retreat and cattle show. Not blogged about that yet. I wonder why? 

In May I had 2 cataract surgeries. The left eye did not heal well and it was nearly 4 months before I had a laser treatment to correct that. And now I have glasses to wear. It certainly makes driving easier. 

In June I organized and led a weekend retreat for the women's mentoring group that I lead. How I love ministering to these women. It really makes my heart sing.

In July we finally celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary after cancelling it twice. We had a garden party with a tent for the rain that did come. We had family visiting for several weeks. That was really nice. But when everyone was gone and all the food was eaten and we found ourselves home alone for several weeks, just my Sweetie and I crashed. I found myself so exhausted and unable to focus of anything, so, I started reading.

In August my computer crashed and we got a new hard drive. In recovering all the desktop short cuts, our guy managed to hide the current photos and documents and put up short cuts to photos and documents from 2000-2009 from the external hard drive. Any new pictures I save end up in random places. Sigh. I got a new cell phone last year and started taking pictures with it, but cannot figure out how to move them to my blog. I know. I know. I was born BC - before computers. Also, in August we quietly launched a new blog now called How We Stayed Married for 50 Years. My Sweetie and I. I have been sort of posting weekly, but got stuck a few times trying to get the posts written up and edited together. Now that has been a challenge. We are at L for listening. 

Then in October I flew to St Louis for a personal retreat for 4 days. Still processing that. 

In November I was in Shipshewana for a quilt retreat. Gail joined us and we met up with Hanne from Norway. Gail, Hanne and I are part of the Chookshed Stitchers, an online quilt group hosted by Chooky in Australia. She could not host her quilt retreats during covid so started a monthly group inviting bloggers from around the world to join in. Back in April, we met everyone in person at her Scrub Stitching Retreat in Barradine, NSW. It was wonderful. 

I have the new 2024 monthly desk calendar and am itching to open it and start planning all sort of things. I am already considering my 2024 Goals List. Will it have 24 goals? Maybe. There are many dates already filled in the monthly at-a-glance-calendar. I do need to keep track of appointments. And then, didn't I show up for chiro a day early on Monday then cancelled the dentist on Tuesday because it was snowing and I do not have to go out driving in the snow if I do not want to. So I rebooked for January. And speaking of January, that has lots of days filled already including a family wedding, a retreat, as well as that dentist appointment.

I discovered a few new blogs to read through the To-Do-Tuesday and OMG linky parties. I have so many ideas racing through my head, but there had been a lot going on here these days like excavators and carpenters and roofers and plumbers and electricians and combines and applesauce. Just to name a few. I have not been blogging much for the past few months and wonder why? Can one get blog burnout? No. Not possible. I have not been writing either. Or sewing. Or doing housework, since I have someone come in to do that weekly. So, I have been reading the blogs but not writing and linking. Sigh. And I read about 20 books. Yup. Most of the Elm Creek Quilters series and lots of others. I started making a list. It is somewhere.

I took my laptop in to get a new battery and fix a broken key. It has not returned yet. I was putting the blind above my computer desk up and let go too soon so it is at the top letting the sun shine brightly here onto my computer so I cannot see to work on it. Can we have too much sunshine in December? No. Never. And then yesterday it rained. A lot. I cannot reach the blind to pull it down. But, the sun will come out tomorrow. Gonna be a bright, bright, sunshiny day. 

Christmas is coming. We are having dinner with only 20 this year. Last year we had 18 for an impromptu sleepover in a blizzard. This year the weather is more like spring. Since I have learned how to delegate, and have a cleaning lady come in weekly, I do not fret about getting ready. No lights or decorations yet, but we still have a few days. And besides, my family of origin always set up the tree on Christmas Eve and some family take everything down on boxing Day. I have learned to relax. 

So about the 23 ufos for 2023. I touched every single one of them. I had fun doing that. So, mission accomplished. I worked on quite a few. But my focus has been on so many other things. I do plan to return here in the New Year with plans and goals and regular blog posting. And, since we had the epic 50+2 anniversary party, I am already making plans for the 60th. I only have 2789 days. Better get busy. 

Blessings,

Chris