Progress

Journaling is a way of pushing me to work so that I have something TO journal!

So, I finished the paper-pieced house and tree at least - may work more on it another time.  But I FINISHED the 2 blocks I started.  Cute - isn't it!

At our guild meeting, we were encouraged to make pillow cases to put toward the million pillowcase challenge. Our philanthropy chair made 75 kits for us to take home and make.  I just chose 3 because I've never made one.  These are the easy turn-inside-out ones.  Here is my first one - that I FINISHED, didn't leave half-done.

I'm looking at ideas for our 'Bloom' guild challenge - here is an idea I found online.  I'm thinking about making a large flower off-center and petals here and there - or scattered improvisational as the designer suggests.  It's and orange peel, using a stitch-and-flip method.








One of our guild members suggested a group BOM block and will email us the pattern.

Well, it's a start, and I'm hoping to continue working in February.

No finishes

Not much progress this month - lots of 'starting' and 'still working on', but no finished.  I sure hope to change that.  One reason is that I've still been doing a lot of reading - more Linda Barnes, Nora Roberts' bride series again, and restarting J. D. Robb's 'in Death' series.  A new book is 'Outlander' -  I loved it - looking forward to the second in that series.  I've also been doing PT and I think it may be helping some.

I have several projects in work.  The butterfly quilt my friendship group is doing is coming along - I wish we were working at a slower pace though.  My monday quilt group is doing a paper-pieced house hanging - it will be beautiful, but is really slow-going.  I've done paper-piecing once long ago, and have a hard time starting each unit.  I have almost finished 1 house and half a tree - haha.  There are 4 houses and a tree in each of 5 rows I think.

Flying Geese Guild is starting a UFO challenge - hosted by our friend Marjie!  I made my list of 6 items: the witch hanging, philanthropy baby quilt, Christmas cat, hunter star, the Mama quilt, and the sashiko moon and waves.  The first one is due in March.

Our Modern Quilt Guild met last night is always so inspiring! - the show and tell quilts and people going to Quiltcon in Austin.  I shared my new book - 100 Modern Quilt Blocks - several members had the book already.  Our current guild challenge is a Bloom quilt - due at March meeting.  I'm thinking about what I will do for it.  The national modern quilt guild is supporting a riley blake challenge - Cottage Garden fabric - due in July - we post pics in instagram.

On to quilt!

New Year

New year - yayyy!  I promise to quilt more - I swear!  I don't make new years' resolutions, but there are a few things that I do every year - clean out my purse, my wallet, the refrigerator (anything that's green and not a veggie), and the freezer (anything that's all frost).  I also ready an envelope to hold the income tax forms that will come soon.

I still read a lot - 15 books in the last 3 weeks.  I finished the Asimovs, caught up on Evanovitch and Grafton, and found a few new authors (Linda Barnes) that I like.  And I have a new toy - an iPhone 6+ that I LOVE!  And I have really fallen for SIRI - say good morning to her even - except that she's not speaking to me right now - I need to call the apple store.

My Bernina is being serviced - it's still under warrantee.  I took it in the day before Christmas and it will be gone a month!!  I can use my go-to machine but I don't really want to, and there are things I want to start!!  My friendship group, the battGirls, is making a butterfly quilt - a stack and slash(?).  We chose the fabrics and cut them, and I have a portion to do and hope my group won't be disappointed that I'm not starting for 3 weeks.  Here it is:

 At Christmas time, I got a photo of all my grandchildren with me - not often that they are all in place at one time.

At our MQG Christmas party, we had a block race.  Here are my race mates and me - we got 2nd place.

 We brought lots of dishes, talked a bunch, and took a group picture - that I haven't got a copy of yet.

I made a table runner for our Yankee Swap - a friendship braid.  I'm very proud of it!  I've forgotten the name of the fabric I used, but the binding is a Philip Jacobs that matched it perfectly.  The person who ended up with it was really happy with it! I'm told the fabric I used is by Anna Marie Horner.


Well, now that I've caught up, I will quilt more and blog less.