Thursday, October 30, 2014

Finished For Friday

Posting Thursday evening, I have a full day tomorrow. Two cute quilts from Angela over at Modern Diary blogspot, for nephews Ben and Colton. They are almost identical, different backings though. What a great auntie-Mom, cousin, daughter, etc, I think every member of her family has at least one of her now 234 quilts!
Wouldn't you like her to adopt you?!
This is Ben's………….
yellow backing.
Colton's………
 blue backing, both  quilts have Packer colors of course!
 Angela suggested using a simple football design with helmets and footballs...…….
 difficult to see on the quilt but here is a helmet,
 and here a football.
An open design makes a more cuddly quilt and of course I used the lovely Dream Angel batting by Quilter's Dream that is genetically engineered to be flame retardant without toxic chemicals.
The order came in today from Thousand's Of Bolts, some of the fabrics chosen for JW and Yessenia's wedding quilt. They have chosen grey, yellow and white for the quilt and grey tone on tone design for the backing.
 The grey on the far left is the wide-backing and there will be a lot of a white on white added into the quilt top. I can't wait to get started on it but possibly it will need to wait until after Christmas I have enough planned to take me through the holiday season especially with the addition of Grand Illusion, Bonnie's newest mystery!
I had also ordered yellow and turquoise for the mystery beginning in a month. I think I now have what is needed according to Bonnie's directions.
Now back to the longarm!
Here's Mr.Linky, please join in and add your progress and finishes for the week.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Finished For……………...

What was supposed to be Finished For Friday turned out to be finished for Saturday about midnight!
All of those labels made and attached to thirty seven quilts, whew, I am so happy that is done and I have made a commitment to keep up in future. We shall see…...
First stack hanging over the longarm awaiting "bagging"…………
a large tote overflowing………….
a second tote overflowing……..
and three bags full!
The big now challenge will be transporting and displaying them all at set up on Thursday November 6th in a 5x10 foot area, I am planning to ask a friend or perhaps a grandson to help with that. I only have a very small area with two tables so some quilts may have to be stacked under the table, I will see when I get to the venue and can decide on a final plan. I will be posting pics from the bazaar.
I believe that I have earned a day off tomorrow from this chore so I hope to get back to my longarm, I have filled two large suitcases with the quilts I cleared off the machine and it is calling my name!


Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Grand Illusion


 Bonnie Hunter's next mystery quilt beginning Thanksgiving weekend.
Grand Illusion
Today I went to Lowes to pick up a copy of each of  the Valspar color cards that Bonnie is using for color guides for Grand Illusion.
Here are the fabrics I have pulled from stash.
 I do need more turquoise and one and 5/8 yds. yellow [that is to be constant thoughout the quilt] because there isn't enough of any one yellow in my stash but there does appear to be adequate variety and yardage of the other colors.
Angela is again organizing a get together to celebrate the mystery on 30th. November. I think we expect twenty plus participants so it should be a lot of fun like last year.
My major chore this week is to make and apply labels to about thirty quilts I am preparing for sale the second weekend in November. Our Lady Of Joy church in Carefree AZ, has an annual bazaar and I am hoping to make space in my home by selling some of my stash of quilts.
Most are shown on my blog under the "Quilts For Sale" heading.
So far thirteen have labels leaving still a lot to be done- perhaps that is a lesson to be learned about applying labels as I complete the quilts!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Finished For Friday

Finally, a quilty post if only bindings! But for some that is the hardest part so I should not diminish the procedure after all how can you use a quilt without a binding?!
Both the retreat quilts are done done and so added to the "For Sale" stash!
What next? I need to find DSM work, I have been struggling for a week with a very swollen painful knee, wearing the brace but getting no better. I saw my orthopod today and he thinks it's a flare up of the borderline RA, he aspirated a large amount of fluid and injected cortisone so I'm hoping for relief in a few days. Meantime I will go to the gym and work everything but the legs!
Maybe we just need to eat out……………
Here's Mr.Linky, what have you been working on this week? Progress to show?


Monday, October 13, 2014

Champagne Brunch Engagement Celebration

The bride - to - be's surprise from her Mom.
A beautiful cake, delicious too!  Obviously her Mom is an expert cake decorator!
Are they deciding if the cake is too pretty to eat? 

But they did and we enjoyed every bite!
Sneaking in a smooch between visiting with guests.
We were blessed with perfect weather in the low 80's in our shady back yard.
I did say it's a shady yard!
 Parents of the bride-to be.
Nana, Aunt and Uncle.
 These three couples hang out together all the time, the other two couples are the reason JW and Yessenia know each other!
 The only pic I am in I think, with wife and parents of JW's BFF.
Everyone enjoyed the day, they played some Euchre and the last guests left around 7 pm after I fed them the last Mexican Chicken casserole and other left overs! Helped me to make some space in the refrigerator!
Now back to a normal life and hopefully some quilting although this week we have The Boy but not tomorrow it's Daddy's day off.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Friday Finishes

A crazy busy week, and here it is after 10 pm and I am posting a Friday finish! It is the bathroom, finally, and now I cannot remember what it looked like before!
 The shower -shown in a previous post- has been done for a week or two. I probably should have taken these pics. in daylight to avoid all the reflections so I might try to find time in the morning.
I am  very happy with it, good use of a small space. There is not much chance I will post again until after the weekend, we are having a brunch Sunday to celebrate DS#4 engagement and there is much to still do including most of the food prep for nearly 40 people. And here is the linky for you to show your weekly progress.
Have a great weekend!

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Friday Finishes Addendum!

Another project we tackled this week a new pantry door!
 DH did the engineering I painted and added the lettering.
It looks pinkish but is white, however the walls there are Garnet so perhaps that makes the trim appear to have a pink tinge.
I love it, adds panache to my kitchen!
Below is the second bench cushion just completed, a good day's work so I am off to bed.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Friday Finishes

Well, better later than never, I have been slammed all week and in addition this is our week with The Boy, so more grandchild time means less other "stuff"!
The Mr. Linky I promised has been created but as yet I have not been able to insert it into this post. The learning curve continues, perhaps by next Friday.
Meantime, if you have progress on or completion of a project you have posted, please leave me a comment and I will come by your blog to check it out.
This week my finishes are mostly non quilting [NQ] as I worked all week on the yard, trimming overgrowth and dealing with the frizzled remains of summer's assault! I wanted it to look especially nice for the engagement celebration next weekend so I put in the extra effort.
 The sun was very bright this morning as you can tell in this pic.
 There are four large trees in our very shady yard, and they seem to grow exponentially in the heat. On the left here is the Ficus, about 30ft. tall, it has taken some serious damage in the rare years we have several days of severe freezes and has needed cutting back to the trunk but it always comes back. It really helps to shade the yard from the harsh western sun. Oh let me not forget it holds the swing!
 This is a multi- trunk Brazilian Pepper, a large umbrella-like tree and very hardy, we have a single trunk version out front. Around the tree is a little memorial garden for our son Matt.
This flower bed was a disaster, but 35 mums have changed it from a mess to something quite acceptable. I am hoping that the new plantings will begin to fill in the next week, they definitely add welcome color. The tree roots here are only 6" below the surface and even with the addition of a bag of soil conditioner I think it could use another 6" so I am brain-storming with DH some way to erect a 6" ledge around the circle to contain more soil. This will be a winter project! On the left toward the back is my rosemary plant, one of my favorite herbs for cooking, it goes great with lamb and roasted potatoes and has a lovely clean herbal fragrance.
There's still some tidying up to do around the perimeter of the yard but I have done my dash for this week, it may not sound like a lot of work but indeed it was!
My only sewing finish- one of two seat pads for the park benches in the yard- I had this cute fabric in stash well aged and made great use of it. Construction on the second one was interrupted when I needed to fetch The Boy from school and between him and getting dinner I have not returned to it-but tomorrow is another day!
And here is the link finally that clever Heather coached me through!