Another Baby Quilt gift....

 Just a quick one after that last long one.  Another baby quilt for a gift this time.  It's a little smaller, but much harder because of the pieces. Quilted with waves.

And another painting tio go with the last gift, with Ernie and Burt.  Acrylic.

Both going next week in the mail and off.

Needed to catch up....

 I don't know why I'm on a schedule,  I'm semi retired, but I've been busy with cleaning the house and just got back last week from Winnipeg Manitoba visiting my aunt.  Then there was thus appointment with dentist, then a foot specialist,  the doctor, etc.... etc. .  Then there was subbing 2 days a week for the past 2 weeks.  Everything was adding up.

So I feel as if I'm behind.  I have 3 baby quilts to get done by September for 2 nephews and a friend's daughter.  I'm enjoying it.  

See the previous blog entry to see where the free pattern is for this one.  It's an excellent pattern but I have to tell you, you need to do one at a time and then put them together because there's a lot of pieces to each person, about 4 HST's as well.  But the instructions are very clear, and easy to follow.  The Pattern is from SewFresh, my favorite Canadian pattern maker.  And she gives this pattern and the next one out for free.

I love her patterns so I made the quilt before a second time.  The actual free pattern has 4 different Disney characters on it, but I just did the one and did an edge that has the words tiger all over it.  As I said it's my second one, and very easy to complete in a day.  

Plus I've been painting again, I really miss it when I'm not doing it.  So here's the results. It's a 8" x 10"

And today I did another one from Craft Week that Ali was a guess at.  To join was free but you had to be part of the class or you also had 24 hours to see the replay without paying, then it's gone.  Got this done with the replay.  If someone gives you lemons, make lemonaide.

How's that for a week and a half???   Need to make one more baby quilt by September.  That's it for now.  My material supplies is going down, but I still have so much more......

Have a great weekend.

February is at a close and March is marching in....

 This weeks has been a very busy busy painting week.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I still did some quilting.  I have two blocks left on my cat on the farm hand sewn quilt...

See that top corner?  That's the two left.  It's a queen and it's scary how big it is, and all that hand sewing.

I finished the one below for donation.  A Scrap sew along from Meadow Mist.  Her pattern called Looking Glass.  Extremely forgiving and extremely easy to do.  I used all my 5" blocks but you can also use your 2 1/2 strips to make it.  Came together in less than 4 weeks.  So easy to make and so colorful.  Thank you Cheryl.  This link takes you to the blog post of the re release of this quilt.  

I am donating it to the Women's Shelter place that my quilt guild sponsors.  Thus the poem below:

GENERAL INFORMATION

🗓 Kickoff Date: Thursday, January 22nd
⏳ Duration: 7 weeks, wrapping up on March 12th.
🎉 Final Parade: Come here for the party.  People had a choice of 4 different patterns to try.  You did have to buy your pattern but it was on sale really cheap so that was great.
🚫 No Prizes—Just Fun: This is all about using what we have & enjoying the process.  And I did enjoy it.  Now I have a pattern for making a real quick quilt for a baby.
📝 Scrap Busting Posts: There were tips posted on fabric organization, scrap-busting ideas, and sewing techniques throughout the sew along.
🔹 The Challenge: Try to create your entire quilt—top, binding, and backing—using only fabric from your stash! No new fabric purchases needed.  And I didn't buy any except for the backing that I bought for a different quilt, found it wasn't right, so now I used it for this one.

The quilt parade is at this link at the end.  Come take a peak.

Then there was the painting which I went crazy on.  Take a look.  They're in order of when I painted them.

and my favorite.  I absolutely love the colors....  Getting better don't you think?

That was a  busy 2 weeks  lol.  How's your quilting and art coming along?

Where has the month gone?

 For a retired teacher I worked too much this last month.  I did a week at a school, went off to Anaheim California (Christmas gift from my husband) and then right back to work for a week, during the end of the term in January at a high school (same school before I left).  I'm working way too much and my husband finally told me he wants me home more (that was after a heated discussion).  And I have to admit I'm enjoying staying home tremendously. 

I'm having trouble calming down but that's been going on for months now, with this on again and off again working, not working, etc.  I don't know if I'm coming or going.  But I'm believing that I'm at the end of this part of my life.  I promised my husband that I would spend two weeks with him, and he said I can take requests only.  I pointed out to him that this was all I was doing for the past two years, but now he understands that we can't have it both ways.  So it's stop with all the extra money from subbing, or continue on.  He wants me with him, so that's the way it's going to go.  I'll try to cut down to one a week or at least 2 a month for supporting my my craft habits:  quilting, acrylic painting, water coloring, and the courses that I'm taking.

This leaves me time for more of the hobbies and retirement now.  This is the trip to Anaheim:

Shark that someone hauled up while fishing at a pier.  We got a great look at him.  My goodness it was surprising.  It's called an angle shark and it wasn't far from the beach.  We also swam at Huntington Beach and there were 54 people stung that day because the sting rays are coming closer to the shore.

we saw two hockey games - one in LA in a suite we were invited to and the other in the Duck Pond in Anaheim.

Went to 6 beaches in 5 days, and at one we saw a castle on the beach.  That's my hubby in the picture.  It goes up to the top so the people on top of the cliff can come down to this private beach.  We had to come down about 60 stairs on the side of the cliff to get here.

That's the cliffs at the wild beaches.  We sat for about an hour at this one.

This is another beach and a picture of the stairs to get down at this one.  It was easy and pretty, and really built up for people to walk in a huge park.  Loved it.

This was the walk at the bottom of the stairs, it was about 2 miles long but on a cement walkway.

Another wild beach and the dunes around it which are falling into the ocean.  That's why the fence.

Huntington Beach.  Love the reflection of the water.

Of course we went to Disneyland with our friend Kara.

And this time we explored Disney hotel.

We also went to a town where houses fell down the cliffs (no one was hurt) and it had a lighthouse.

 We got a tour of it, and went all the way to the top of it.

Now I talk about my paintings  I continue to paint with Allie Kay online lessons at FreshPaint.  Her lessons are easy to follow and she had a class on 25 minutes of painting a day.  Did 4 our of the 5 paintings on very small 5 x 8" blocks.  

These are a few extra when I had time, just practicing.

The one below is one that I did as a solor.

This was just this week, one of Allie's lessons.

I am doing some watercolors as well but I have to do more practicing.

That was this month's work.  But I'm not done.  I also did two quilts:

One for a friend who just learned that she is pregnant.  Below is the back of the quilt....  

And below is the quilt itself.  I loved it.  It's free from SewFresh.  Tiger from Disneyland.

Here's another one that I made this week as well. It's a lap quilt but I'm thinking of making it larger.  Adding piano keys all around it.  What do you think?

And that was what January is like, busy busy busy, with 10  days of subbing.  I got to take a break.  Going to finish my quilt for my cousin in Win nipeg and I'm leaving for Winnipeg in a couple of weeks that's the next one needed on the list.

How did your month go?

October's wish list......

 OK, another month, another time of making a list of what I want to accomplish, but this month, it's a little harder.  My mother's estate is finalizing, and I'm going through the trauma and the memories of that.  My aunt (her sister) is in the hospital for the 2nd time for not responding properly when talked to because of a concussion three months ago (she couldn't even talk to her daughters when her daughter got there).  I'm still working part time and I'm getting tired of it, and all this with life as usual.  That's crazy!!!!

So what do I do?  continue on like everyone else.  

So here's my list of things to do:

Continue with my paper piece Christmas quilt. Looking at finishing the entire quilt.

• teddy bear quilt
• female elf
• snowman
• steam engine
• the sashing for the quilt
• finish the quilt

See some of the other ones I've completed here....

The cactus quilt.

• need to make 3 more blocks.  I'm behind but I find it so hard to make this one....

And now the final thing:

The quilt pattern that's a skeleton, from Sew Fresh. I've had it for a while and I've looked and couldn't find the pattern on her website nor on her Etsy account.  Here's a major hint of what it's suppose to look like, everything has been cut except for the white, and that's where I'm at.  It's queen size and it shouldn't take too long to do the rows.  It's for Christmas for a girl who is nuts about Halloween.  Yeah I know, I know, it doesn't make sense but that's my family.

I also signed up for something new and I'm very excited about.  It called Fresh Paint from Ali Kay's Studio.  She's a gorgeous painter with bright, very loose painting that I just adore and wanted to learn how she does it.  I took a $10 week of painting with her (5 days actually) where I learn her style and because I was enjoying it sooooooo much (it's acrylic) I signed up by the month to all her classes.  Here's an example of her style.  I love it!!!!

A true stunner, and I'm learning her style.  I'm painting a corn flower and a group of pumpkins in this style.  See another of her works below:

The corn flower is completed.  I love it, but my style is still tight, I still need to loosen up, so tomorrow's class and the next two days is the pumpkins, for me to learn.  Can't wait.....  Here's my corn flower.

I can still get more loose, so we'll see what happens.  My goal for this month is to do the pumpkins, a tulip one and then who knows.    At least two more.  

So I think that's enough for now, for this month, because I'm also traveling again for a week to see a sick aunt.  I'm hooking up to Stories from the Sewing Room for some major motivation.  Have a great month people, have fun.

Try try again for April

OK, I didn't get any of my March goals completed, but I did get through a Round Robin that I got side tracked with.  But isn't the idea of this to finish UFOs, and all that material that was just hanging around in my closet (goodness knows what they were doing in there) taking up space, isn't that important to finish or rather use up part of this?  OK, maybe you think different from me but that's my story for getting side tracked and I'm sticking to it.  At least the round robin was completed and I can now put the quilting on the list.

So here's my list of things to do this month, and I'm hoping for at least three of them done.

1.  Quilt my round robin.  See here about the writeup and a link to see all of the ones done.  It's a large twin.  I'm going to put a sheet on the back and have it as a very light quilt for the summer.  No batting in it.

  

2.  Making more of the flowers above to add another 18" to the quilt to make it a queen.  I'm going to make the rows, quilt them, and then add them after the fact.

3.  The bird pattern is from SewFresh, an Ontario quilter and pattern designer.  I'm looking at the larger one for my aunt for her larger living room table, where the cat will live on it  lol.  She uses the sew and flip method which I really like.  I love all her patterns.

Look at that material, the colors are so vibrant. The background will be gray, like the picture.  The rest is all scraps, and I love using all of my scraps.

4.  Another one I want to complete is the pods you see here.  I got the pattern off of Etsy.  I've made 4 of them already, and sent them out as gifts and christmas gifts.  It's quick and easy.  

5.  My final one for this month.  I already made the pillow snake quilt.  My husband and I love Arizona, and I surprised him with this pillow when we came back from Scottsdale Arizona.  

The pattern is by Pen and Paper on Etsy.  I want to now do the cacti quilt and then in the corner the snake.  It will hang from my living room wall.  Hubby is bothering me for it.  

Here's my material, all left overs but not the backing, which looks like sand.  It's the same material I used for the pillow.  It's half cut out, so I need to finish that and then sew it, and the designer uses stitch and flip as well, my favorite way to make a quilt.  It will be one less container on my sewing room floor, always a good thing, lol!!

Joining up with One Monthly Goal at Stories at the Sewing Room, with others.  Hoping this will motivate me to finish a few quilts this month.  Wish me luck.  :)