To-Do Tuesday

 My Sweetie and I celebrated 51 years of marriage with family last week. The girls are at camp. Everyone else has returned to their normal lives while we are here with just the 2 little boys.

This week's list is simple:

1. Babysit little boys while mom and dad are on their 25th-anniversary Alaskan cruise.
2. Pack my bags for a quick trip to England to support my sister who recently lost her husband of more than 50 years.
   
   
   
3. I have my hand stitching prepped and ready to pack. But wait! I gave 3 carry-on bags to my daughter for her cruise so am now borrowing another sister's bag. It is amazing with its versatility and lighter weight. You only need a carry-on for a trip in summer anyway. 

I have so many pieces for Lucy that I finally organized things in two of those large see-through veggie trays. Well, I only had two, I have lots of other parts in 3-4 other see-through project boxes and cookie trays. If I do not see it - it does not exist. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with texasquiltgal.to-do-tuesday 

August OMG Goal

I met my July goal by having fun working on a variety of projects. We have been celebrating family this week. My children were all born in July, and so was I. We have family dinners. Usually pizza and cake but this year we went to a restaurant. Not once. But twice. Really radical, I know. There were about 14 of us at the most amazing Chinese buffet with countless options for everyone. The little boys were given chopsticks to alleviate boredom. How could a 6-year-old be bored when he could eat his chocolate-coated strawberries and then his ice cream with chopsticks? 

Although I have had 25,567 days to prepare for my 70th birthday, it still took me by surprise. Well, maybe more like a shock. I think I may start eating my ice cream with chopsticks. I was given a couple of sets. 

We had postponed celebrating our 50th-anniversary last year and decided to not do anything spectacular this year. Maybe next year we can have a 50+2 thing. We did have a wonderful family-filled day, beginning with mini-golf, pancake brunch, games, and barbeque, then more games and hanging out until dark. All this outside on the most amazing summer day ever. Grandchildren running around outside playing, eating, four-wheeling, golf carting, eating, and general chaotic movement, while the adults of 3 older generations sat back and enjoyed it all. 

The contractors have arrived to transform the backyard of this 1840's farmhouse.   

The view from the west.

From the north.

From the south.

So back to my August OMG quilting goal. I will continue the enjoying of the process for the month. There are several projects I am working on. Yesterday I reported for jury selection duty. Last time I was the second fourth juror for the third trial. I was excused. This time I was excused because of a conflict of interest. 

Until next time,

blessings,

Chris

Churn Dash SAL

 I succumbed to Chooky's SAL along with 41 other quilters around the world. What fun. We are making 8 blocks a month for 4 months. A good pace if you are organized. 

A few false starts had me paying attention better. I am using several old collections by Robyn Pandolph from many years ago.

These are my 8 July Churn Dash blocks.

Add them to the 6 I made in June.

 I am using a variety of solid creamy fabrics. This is a bit of a challenge to keep them all straight. I do not want to mix up the backgrounds. I have all the coloured fabrics cut already waiting and as I cut the backgrounds, I put them into nice, neat, organized file folders. Because I can. I have several other projects on the go and want to keep things in order. It is more fun that way, in my head, and definitely more productive. My OMG goal for July was to have fun working on several quilts, and I have done that. 

I have an invitation (summons) for jury duty on Tues. Who knows what I will be up to next week. 

I even got most of my To-To Tuesday goals accomplished in the past 2 weeks. We have a big family event on this weekend so my quilting goals will be minimal this week. 

1. Sew something.
2. Cut a few hexies for Lucy since I finally found the elusive fabric I have been searching for this month.
3. Baste the hexies already clipped and clip some more. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with myquiltinfatuation. wendysquiltsandmore. 

ninamariesayre.off-wall-friday.

This One or That One?

Now to decide. Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching. quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

Blessings,

Chris

Ben Biggs Revisited

 I pulled out the Ben Biggs project box to take a look at what I have and what I have accomplished so far.

I have not worked on this in several years. It was a free BOM from Sentimental Stitches in 2014/15. 

I am joining  Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Design Wall Monday to complete it.

I decided to get it super organized and number each of the blocks already completed. 

Some of the blocks have the fusible ironed on and edges turned under using Elmer's glue. How I hate stitching through glue by hand, and that is one reason I decided to do this one by machine. 

Many blocks are ready to be glue basted. I love using zip-lock bags to organize blocks. I have spent more time organizing than sewing. 

The corner buds are all cut, fused and ready. The corner leaves are waiting to be fused onto the green fabric. I am using different reds but the same green. 

Some blocks have just the fusible cut out waiting for the fabric.

I have quite a few packets like this in various project boxes. 

Most of the patterns were taped together, ready for placement. I discovered that #24 and #25 are missing. I think I will find a couple of different patterns from other quilts. Something without a lot of small leaves. 

Lots of reproduction fabric in reds and greens. I initially bought these for the CCCQ, but when doing applique, you use less than when piecing, so I discovered. 

The first thing I had done was to make sure I had enough of the same bolt of background fabric. I prewashed it and cut out twenty-five 18-inch squares and four 10X100-inch borders. 

When the border swag patterns were released, I prepped all of them. They are ready for glue basting. I will not attach them to the borders until all the blocks are done and sewn together. I want to make sure they all line up. Not that the originals were. The fun, quirky thing about this quilt is that three borders each had 11 swags, and one had only 10. Now, why did I notice that? I counted them, of course. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: alyciaquilts.finished-or-not.

wendysquiltsandmor

quiltfabrication.midweek-makers

ninamariesayre.off-wall-friday

To-Do Tuesday Mid July

Mid-year-check-in with my 2022 quilting goals is an epic fail. I have not completed anything on the list. I started one new project the Churn Dash SAL with Chooky and friends. Then I was carefully ransacking through many of the project boxes looking for a specific fabric for fussy cutting and got thinking about working on a bunch of different ufos, but really was wanting to cut out more hexies for Lucy since I finally took time to prewash a huge pile of fabrics.

And did I complete the Lucy block I was working on last Sunday? NO. But I did get some stitching done the other day, so some progress.  

I got distracted with our son getting married here at the farm in the spring and making a wedding quilt which was on the big ufo list but not on the 2022 goals list. Can I change the list? And what are the chances of me actually completing all 12 projects on the list before the end of this year? Or, better still, completing any of them at the rate I am going?

I have a long to-do list on my desk upstairs that has more than quilting goals for the week. But, alas, we are going on a road trip next week so that will have to be stretched out for another week. This is the road trip we postponed last week because the local expressway is taking a "shortcut" through our heifer field beside the house. At least that is the term our newly married son used to explain all the smelly asphalt in our yard and a newly paved lane down through the field. They are repaving the expressway and we are getting "free" ground-up asphalt delivered for a mere $100 per load ( about 5 loads each of 4-5 nights) plus $1000 per week rental of the roller packer thingy to level it. My Sweetie wanted to be here when all this was going on. And why are we doing this since we sold the cows? Who knows. My Sweetie has to have something to do. We did bale up a field of second-cut hay this weekend. The expressway is 2 km south of us. 

So my official To-DoTuesday list for the next 2 weeks includes:

1. Progress on Biblical Blocks aka the Wedding Quilt.
2. Cut out more backgrounds of Churn Dash. I am using an assortment of cream Bella Solids. The colours are all cut and ready to make a gazillion HSTs. 
3. Complete Lucy #7 block. This is as far as I got so far.
   
   
   
4. Prep and place the corner buds for Ben Biggs. 
5. Prep some handwork to take on the road trip. Stitching together the paper-lined hexies does not go well in the car. I may pull out a couple of Ella applique blocks that have been sitting in a box for more than a year waiting their turn for completion. 

My hands are not working as efficiently as they used to so any progress is slow. My OMG goal for the month is to have fun working on a few different quilt projects and that I am so far. 

Blessings,

Chris

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Let's see if I can get this Lucy block finished today. 

Linking with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching.

Blessings,

Chris