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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Another To-Do Tuesday

 I cannot believe another Tuesday is here. Some days seem to go by so slow and when I look back, the week is gone and did I get anything done? Well, I did complete 9 of the 12 items on my to-do list last week. 

I got all the sashing strips sewn together with most of the cornerstones. I had to look for the rest but found them in a box of threads? They are the ones going down from the left to the right. 

I cut out the rest of the fabrics for the Macaron Mystery, sewed up half-square triangles, and started on the flying geese. Interruptions came when the girls returned after being away for 5 weeks. Over the Christmas holidays, they went vacationing to snowy Quebec with their father and when they had to do remote learning, they all went back to Quebec and did their school work and played in the snow. We finally had some lasting snow last week and the temperatures dipped to -20C. That is a bit chilly for this farm girl but I did get into the hot tub a couple of times at -14C. 

I made significant progress on Lucy during several zoom meetings. I have not yet sewn any blocks together, but there is a lot of prep work to do before that. Cutting the fabrics after choosing them. Basting the fabrics onto the paper pieces. Waiting while more paper pieces are shipped. I had cut a lot of white background from 2 1/2 inch squares I cut with the GO cutter. Trimming them to the one-inch elongated hexies was easy then. I want to avoid using glue so I can reuse the papers. I decided to use wonder clips to hold the corners in place before hand basting. This is working for me for now.

My list for this week:

1. Square up the Summer QAL blocks and sew them together.
2. Finish the 5 Ella blocks for OMG. What is the point of joining the group if I do not actually follow through on the challenge?  
3. Make one, just one Bright Jane block in January's RSC colour red. I have 10 red blocks to make to complete that colour. I wonder what the Feb colour will be? I have all the green and aqua blocks done, so I can do more red instead if one of those colours is chosen. If it is purple, it may be a while since I still have 19 more of those. Bright Jane is on my PHD 2022 challenge list. 
4. Virtual Writing Retreat on the weekend. This is when I set aside 2 whole days to join my online writing group and actually write instead of talking about writing and writing about writing and thinking about writing. I wonder what I will write? In the 2 years I have been part of Christian Book Academy, I mostly wrote blog posts and did coursework for my doctorate. Well, I completed the doctorate last year and graduated. So now I cannot use that as an excuse to finish writing my books. I have 3 on the go. 

This should be enough to keep me going this week. 

Blessings,

Chris

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To-Do Tuesday

 Last week was quite successful in accomplishing many of my weekly goals. Even in the midst of changes. We ended up staying over a second night and brought the boys back to the farm very early so they could log into online school. Some serious cleaning and more declutter got done. Well, much of the clutter, already boxed up, got relocated out of sight leaving my old quilt room a happy place for the retreat I was hosting and teaching. We are limited to 5 people. Three showed up and we did some inductive Bible Study skills training. It was good. I certainly needed the refresher. I have taught this many times in many places but the first time in my quilt room. 

This week's To-Do list:

1. Sew up the rest of the sashing strips I cut today for the Ella quilt.
   
2. Attach the cornerstones making sure I get the one-way design on the strips going the right way alternately. 
3. Get them all up on the design wall in the right direction. 
4. Continue making the 5 Ella blocks for OMG. 
   
   
5. Cut the rest of the fabric for the Macaron Mystery. Clue #8 comes out on Feb 4 and I am still back on Clue # 2 or 3. 
6. Press, trim, square up and sew together the blocks for the Summer QAL.
   
   
   
   .
7. File T4 Summaries for the last time ever because we sold the cows and no longer have employees and we are doing taxes next week. 
8. Breast screening Tuesday
9. Massage Wednesday
10. Booster shot Thursday
11. Zoom quilting Friday and again Saturday.  
12. Spend a bit of time with Lucy. 
    
    
    
     

And why can I suddenly plan to be so productive this week? Because I decluttered the Old Quilt Room aka the parlour and home office and have 2 very large empty tables together where I presently have no less than 4 projects on the go. My brain can function better in less clutter. 

Blessings,

Chris

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