Off the Wagon

In spite dealing with a nasty respiratory virus, I did get some quilting done this past month.

1) Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Sampler box from May 2018 included a Jolly bar of "Pepper and Flax" and a quilt pattern called Beehive.  I had to add fabric for the background and outer border (a quick purchase from a local quilt shop).  This was a simple pattern, very easy to sew. Voila! Beehive is a flimsy!

2) My daughter's friend is expecting a baby boy in early 2019. She will get the Baby Fox quilt finished earlier this year, plus a double flannel blanket in a cute fox print I whipped up last week.

3) And...my quilt diet has fallen off the wagon. Instead of finishing up more UFOs, I fell in love with Connecting Thread's new line "Arcadian Mist" and decided to make another quilt for my mother. I liked Eleanor Burns' Patty Cake pattern except for the partial blocks along the edge. When I saw Cindy's "Irish Chainish" quilt here, the light bulb went on and I placed my order. After removing the light fabrics from two layer cakes, I needed a few more prints to make this a queen-sized quilt. I added some from CT's "Oh My Darling" line from a couple years ago. Perfect!  This is a very easy pattern with NO triangles. It is coming together very quickly.

If I can finish a few small projects on my UFO list in the next couple of weeks, my overall count for 2018 will be:

Began with 25 UFOs less 2 demoted to the sample blocks bin.
Finished 11 quilts, leaving 12 UFOs of which 3 are flimsies ready to quilt.
***My goal was to finish half of my UFOs, so I'm counting this as a win. Yay!***

During 2018, I began 9 new quilts (oops, make that 10 now) of which 3 were completed.
That leaves 7 added to work-in-process list, of which 5 are flimsies ready to quilt. Open projects include the new Irish Chainish and the green Irish Star Chain flimsy.  Hmmm, do you see a theme here? 

Ending UFO/WIP count is 19, including 8 flimsies ready to quilt. 

Wow, those flimsies are accumulating! Normally I send most of my pieced quilts out to be longarmed, but I'm getting to the point where I want some level of custom quilting and am not happy about paying for it. That means I need better equipment so I can do my own quilting. So I played with a Juki mid-arm at my local quilt shop. I tried doing a small feather and it came out really good for my first try. I definitely like the stitch regulator. But I need your advice before buying a mid-arm. 

PLEASE comment if you have experience using a mid-arm and can recommend certain features or manufacturers.

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On a higher note, my airplane is getting its annual maintenance tune-up. She needs new spark plugs, a replacement tire and other parts, plus some other work so it will not be a low-cost checkup this time. <sigh>  Poor baby, she didn't get much exercise this past year. Airplanes need regular exercise, just like us humans.  I expect to fly much more frequently in 2019 and already several trips in mind. I'm also dusting off the elliptical and free weights <deeper sigh>.

Sunshine and Showers

Summertime in the south means lots of hot, humid days and scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. We have had that in spades!  Thank goodness for a swimming pool to cool down in, after doing outdoor chores.

Indoor chores, besides laundry and decluttering, means finishing up various quilting projects.  First, I finished assembling the gray 54-40 quilt from a recent Sew Sampler box.  I chose a darker gray from Connecting Threads which shows off the light aqua and yellows. This quilt came out smaller than I expected but will be okay for a throw. Aha - I forgot to add a gray border strip. Will take care of that quickly.

Next, I sewed the July red blocks for my RSC18 Squared Away.  

Now I am trying to figure out what my next sewing project will be. Should I make blocks for ongoing UFO projects (Lady in the Lake, Garden Party, Pine Trees, Green Irish Star Chain) or should I start on my quilt guild challenge? My goal for this year is to clear out at least half of my UFOs, so there's my answer.  I need to continue to work on UFOs. After all, I did plan to finish three before starting a new project.

On a more serious note....do you do volunteer work?  Do you have a cause you are passionate about? In the past I was a volunteer for Girl Scouts and animal adoption, and I am currently doing volunteer work related to aviation. But I have been searching for opportunities to make more of a difference in the world. I contribute financially to certain groups, but I want to provide more personal support. I enjoyed mentoring young girls involved in Girl Scouts. Maybe I could be a mentor to teens to help them take a longer view in life, to set goals and resist bad influences / distractors. A teenager is basically a sponge. Sponges will absorb both clean water and dirty water. The trick is to surround the sponge with clean water, to find good influences. If you are having trouble getting along with your parents, absorb the good things they can teach you and find or study another person with admirable qualities and learn from them. Pressures will squeeze out clean water and you can start the cycle again by finding more clean water. That's my analogy. Obviously I am passionate about being a good influence for girls as they face peer pressure and are impatient for the independence they really aren't quite ready for.  I have a 21-year-old daughter who has made choices with which I don't agree, but I love her anyway. She is an adult now and I am supporting her efforts to steer her life in a better direction. Maybe I can help a young teen choose a good path, too.

Summer is Here

Tomorrow may be the official start of summer but the summertime heat is here with a vengeance!

So how do you keep cool?  The swimming pool feels like warm bathwater and you hope there is a slight breeze to cool the droplets on your skin.  Or you towel off and go inside to air conditioned coolness. In my case, I work during the day in 68-degree-Fahrenheit air.

Anyway, the weather isn't the only hotness around here. My sewing machine and fingers are hot from finishing up a variety of projects.

First, my longarmer finished custom quilting Mesa Valley and it turned out fantastic!  I am nearly finished hand stitching on a wider-than-normal teal binding. This one will hopefully grab a shiny ribbon in the next quilt show.

Second, I free-motion-quilted a tablerunner and finished hand-stitching on its binding.

I even added some stitch-in-the-ditch lines on a table runner from a couple years ago (*now* it is finished).  This is a Connecting Threads kit.

Third, ummm....I started two new projects. Yeah, I know. I have plenty of UFOs that I need to concentrate on completing. But both of these called so strongly to me. While searching for images of a different quilt block, I came across an image from a completely different quilt. It was a quilt someone had made from blocks received in a block exchange. I had participated in that exchange, hoping so hard that I would be the winner. Alas, I didn't win, but the idea of making my own set of blocks had been percolating in my mind. Seeing that example was the inspiration to finally make my own. I now have eight blocks for the planned 20-block setting, all from my own stash.  It's so nice to shop your own stash!

 

The other new project is from a recent Sew Sampler box. My daughter's boyfriend really liked the quilt pattern. I figured it might be one more incentive for him to stick around for a while if I made this quilt (lol-if my daughter is reading this post, maybe you could curb your morning grouchiness so he will stick around longer than your previous boyfriends).  I finished cutting the fabric last night. It is an easy pattern so should go together pretty quickly.

Last week my hubby and I spent time visiting my parents and helping with home renovations. It was great to see them again, along with my brother and niece. We took a drive around the town and the nearby lakes to check out all the changes that have occurred in our home town over the past few years. It sure was nice to get back home again, though.

Where have you gone on vacation this summer? Or where would you recommend we check out on our next vacation?