Able to Sew!!! Yeah!!!

Well, it's been a pretty bad week, I had not one but two severe allergy attacks, which completely knocked me sideways.  You ready to give me sympathy???  I'm allergic to chocolate.  Yes, you read it right, I'm allergic to chocolate.  It use to only give me a headache, but now it closes my throat, makes it hard to breath, and even gives me a headache, and makes me dizzy.  Not a pretty thing to see.  

I left work on Tuesday because it was that bad, the Home Ec. Department at school cooked with chocolate powder and it went everywhere, the powder, even up the stairs to the second level which is where I'm at.  I walked through the powder, not realizing there was chocolate in the air, and my voice started to change, my throat started to swell, eyes watering and itchy, the whole thing, and it was too late to take my allergy pills (which use to work and help).  First aid came to help, the doors to the Home Ec. rooms were closed, and the vents for the area were turned on to clear the air.  

I took one day off because quite frankly, anyone who has gone through a sever attack knows, you feel really funny and off for about five days, but I was willing to go in on Thursday to see what the heck was going on in my classroom, and low and behold, I got a second attack, throat closing, eyes watering, etc.  So a couple of allergy pills took some of it away, but sick again.

I did go in on Friday, and it wasn't so bad, but here it is Sunday, and still feeling strange.  My husband told me to take it easy and do some sewing, and that's exactly what I did all Saturday afternoon.  And here are the results:

 The Splendid Sampler - 6 of them.

# 80, 78, 77, 74 and 73 (not shown in that order0.

My Favorite one.

The least favorite one - hate my color choices.  Need to redo.

So far there has been 83 blocks.  I think I have about 30 done.  Need to step it up  :)

Here are some quilts for premie babies.  My guild does a number of them every year.  My contribution for this year.  I promised to give me more, and I've only done two this year.  Here will be two more.

Love the pirate theme.  The pattern is by Camille Roskelley.  It's 36" x 36"

It's from the book "Simply Retro".  This pattern was so simple and so quick.  So if you need a Christmas gift, this is the one.

Finally, another block for my Midnight Garden BOM.  I'm more than 1/2 way through it.

Loving the wool colors.  What do you think?

And this is something I did about two weeks ago for a friend who requested one of my boxes.  I love making them but they do take a lot of time.  This one is lined with plastic so it's tougher than most.

Not the best job with the edging, but it was so thick, it was really hard.  Next time I do it by hand.

That's it my relaxing day of sewing.  Next time, quilting those two baby quilts and making a quilt for my hairdresser for Christmas.  Take care

A bag too? Why not???

OK, at Elm Street Quilts they are also doing a bag link up.  Why not?  It would be for Christmas and I have tons of 1/2 finished blocks to complete.  Soooooo, after my thread art class, if I finish it, I'll have some flowers that can be put on a bag like Correen Zerr made.  I have nothing for the start except for these:

And I'll put them on a bag as applique.  How it ends up will be a surprise to us both dear readers  :) 

Thread Art Class and Update of my Challenge.

Been all day to a quilting lesson from a wonderful woman, Correen Zerr.  She presented how to do Thread Art, and my goodness there was a lot of learning.

Check out her web site at http://www.coreenzerr.com/ .  I learned so much, tread art, making three dimensional objects, using stabilizer (yes believe it or not I never used it before), printing on material, and so much more.  Correen would teach you something, then off you go for an hour or two for sewing and trying the technique, then something else new, then an hour or two to work on it. She has wonderful timing, and is a fantastic teacher.  She knows how to encourage without ordering her pupils what to do.  She gives freedom as an individual to do what you want but she encourages you to challenge yourself and that's what I did, I tried things I never did before thanks to Correen.

See my work below, I amazed myself as well.

On fabric and stabilizer.  Love the colours.

On dissolving background so it will become a 3D addition.

top on is Correen's, bottom one is mine.
Great for Christmas gifts on bags.  Love doing the thread art,
it's relaxing.

Thanks Correen for teaching me so much.

I  thought I would also update my "All the People's Quilt 2016 UFO Challenge".  I'm very happy how most of this is happening.  Wasn't very happy a couple of months ago.  But November's month is #9 and I'm already done that one!!!  So I'm very happy with what's going on here.

Project	Status Before	Status Afterward
1)  Pixilated Sunflower I created	All cut out and sewn, needs to be quilted.	April- Still quilting but now I've started the petals and this one is really going to be quilted beyond control!
2)  Birds on a wire from Quilt Mania	Have a birds cut out, and some of the small quilts.  Need to continue to put them on and quilt entire thing.	January - FINISH at the start of March - and it's fantastic.  See 2016 quilts tab above for a picture.
3)  Midnight Garden	All material there but haven’t cut anything	March - Well, I now have 6 blocks completed, and 6 to go.  I am almost finished 1 more (the pansies) and have the rose all cut out
4)  Garden that’s applique and wool – block of the month	All material is there but nothings been sewn or quilted.	July - Next year is another year  :) .
5)  Blue stars	Two stars made, need to come up with idea to bind	February - Have the design.  Need to complete but not on any of my lists.
6)  Houses – block of the month	All material is there,	August - Next year is another year for this one too!
7)  Block Lotto quilt - scraps	Missing 10 blocks – last two months, needs to be put together and quilted	OCTOBER - Working on this one right now.  I'm quilting it, so it should be done by the end of this month.
8)  Green strip quilt	Quilts entirely made except for a side edge to make it a queen size quilt.  Need to put on sashing then quilt it all	May was to be #7 but this one was done instead.  At least one more off the list.   FINISH
9)  Lily quilt - all flowers	All completed.  Even sold.  Need to quilt it.	NOVEMBER - FINISH - Look at this link.  It turned out really well.
10)  two more quilts from the book PreCut Primers – authors Me and My Sister Designs.	These use small little precuts to create.	JUNE - Have Grade 1 and grade 3, not grade 2 so it's completed.  FINISH
11) Modern quilt - quilt as you go...	New technique learned.	FINISH - see what the green and red quilt looks like.
12)  Chic Pattern	using a precut of 10 inch squares.  Easy - looks great.	SEPTEMBER.  Have everything ready to start.  On my list for the last quarter of quilts to complete.  Am DEFINITELY getting this one done soon.  Love the pattern.

One monthly Goal has moved!!

Patty at Elm Street Quilts is doing it now!!!  It's still the same, and she'll be doing it for the rest of 2016 and next year as well.  Yeah!!!!!  Another year of it, because it does help me!!!  Buy thanks to Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for doing it all this time!  It's a big job and you did a fantastic job at it as well.

OK, was too busy last month to submit anything but I'm doing it now.  So much to choose from, so I'll make it easy on me.  Been working on this one, starting to piece it together, it's my block Lotto quilt that is 2 (yes two) years old.  Need to get my UFO's down, because I keep on starting new ones, and I have one I want to start for Christmas for my cousin.  Here's what it looks like now, not sewn together, just placed, but we'll see if that's how it ends up.  Really modern right?  Made it with as many wild colour material that I could find in my stash, then brought it all together with that cool colour green.  Good luck to me!  Have fun everyone.