Easy Street - Part 5

Completed!
It has been a struggle this week to find sewing time. After being away for 5 days, having Christmas Eve celebrations at my house and recovering from a nasty cold, there never seemed to be any time for sewing.

However, today was different. DH went to the office and the house was all mine!

I succeeded in finishing TWO sets of the Part 5 little "houses". Somehow I can' t quite figure out how they are supposed to be turkeys - so I am calling them houses.

I also baked a cake for DH whose birthday is tomorrow. Not a bad day's work.

I am really liking the colors for Easy Street, even though the picture below seems to have muddied the purples.

Can't wait for Step 6!

Easy Street Part 4

The directions came out this morning for Part 4 of Bonnie Hunter's newest Mystery. I have been busy cutting the pieces for the next 64 flying geese and the 145 squares measuring 3.5 inches. The newest flying geese use the turquoise fabrics as the wings and the purple fabrics for the geese triangles. The squares are from the greens and this is the first time we are using these fabrics for the quilt.

I am working as working as quickly as I can on this step. We will be busy this week and I will probably not finish Part 4 before Part 5 is released.

You can check everyone's progress by going to Bonnie's site through the link below.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-4.html

Here are the pictures thus far!



Have a great weekend!

Easy Street - Part 3

Easy Street is proving to be easy! I know Bonnie said it would be an easy mystery, but some how I could not quite grasp that it actually would be.

So here are pictures of the Step 3 units. 64 blocks of the unit I have seen called "Mary's Triangles". I also need to cut the four triangles of the green to complete this step. Deciding which green to use is the challenge.

Bonnie Hunter's video of working with the Easy Angle ruler and her pictures of assembling the units in Step 3 contributed to the ease of assembling these units in this step. There is quite a bit of bias on the triangles we are working with in this step and the units are small so it can be tricky. I found that the video for cutting and the directions for piecing helped immensely.

Thank you Bonnie for your excellent directions!

Here is the link to the link up page for Easy Street - Part 3.

 quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-3.html

It is fascinating to see all of the interpretations of fabric choices everyone is using for their quilts. I hope you enjoy viewing everyone's progress as I have.

Easy Street has been so easy.  I couldn't resist making a second. The progress on this version is slower but I am pleased with the background print which will be a constant as is the grey.  I have all pieces cut for version two which promises to be as nice as version one!

December 3 on the Deck (Posted on the 4th)

We are having a December heat wave today, as is half of the country. I have just finished putting away the flower pots that were somehow missed in earlier clean ups. The sun feels wonderful and reminds me that eventually spring will return.

Hope you are enjoying your day whatever your temperatures happen to be.

PS. Here is the correct "Broken Dishes" from March in the Barrister's Block Blog Sow-A-Long.

PPS. Forgot to post this yesterday - got side tracked.  I am glad I enjoyed yesterday since it has been cooler and cloudy today!

Easy Street - Part 2

Update on Easy Street

 

I finished sewing all of the flying geese yesterday and pressed most this morning.

I also cut the 64 rectangles measuring 2 inches by 3.5 inches.

 

 

Now to remove the stray threads and the little dog ears.

 

128 flying geese (plus a few extras) and a 192 four patches (plus a few extra)

and 64 rectangles

 

Up to date with Easy Street!

 

Here is the link to Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street Part 2 linky.

 

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html

 

Nice to see everyone's progress!

Two More Blocks

I have been working on these two blocks for the past two days. Somehow they refused to cooperate.

Smokehouse on the left is quite modified from the pattern (see Barrister's block blog Sow-A-Long for the directions in the October post). Sorry, but I kept flipping the pieces around or sewing the rows together on the wrong side. You name it, and I did it! But now it is finished.

Civil War Sewing Circle on the right was not difficult to piece. I merely kept changing my mind about which fabric to use. Now it too is finished.

On to other projects...

Waiting for Step 2

I am participating in Bonnie Hunter's new mystery , "Easy Street". I have all of Step 1 complete, 192 (plus) four patches. So while I have been waiting for Step 2 (which comes out Friday morning) I have been catching up on the Barrister's Block Sow-A-Long (and a few other projects too). Since I started working on this only two months ago and the group started in February of this year, I am considerably behind.  But I am trying to catch up. 

Here are the blocks I finished this week.

This group is from the March Sow-A-Long blocks.

Broken dishes - Wannabe! 
I mixed up the block as I was putting it together. 
That will teach me not to look at the directions. 
Guess I will just have to make another one.



 

Shoo Fly

 

 

Churn Dash

 

I also managed to complete a few pinwheels and a 5.5 inch block with half square triangles.  These blocks will go into the "someday" bin - someday the blocks will be used in a quilt.  All of these were made from the corners of various flying geese units and were previously pieced as leaders and enders.

 

 

 

 

It has been fun accomplishing all of this while waiting for Step 2. 

Is it Friday yet???

Easy Street - Part 1

Part 1 of Easy Street is progressing nicely! By the end of today, all 192 ( and maybe a few more!) of the 4 patches will be completed.

 Some are complete now.

A few need to be finished. 

After a few errands this morning, the afternoon will be free for piecing and pressing.  

Can' t wait for Step 2 on Friday.

Here's a link to Bonnie Hunter's post where you can see everyone's progress.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/11/easy-street-monday-link-up-1.html

Working on "Easy Street"

Yes it is easy to piece 4 patches.  It is not easy to decide which grey, which whites or whatever else manages to show up and demands to be used to make those 4 patches.
So far I have 50 matched pairs of a one yard piece of grey that was just "lying" around waiting to be used matched with black and whites from my stash and my friend Mary's stash.  (She is making "Easy Street" also.)  There are enough strips to make the other 192 four patches that are needed in this step.

But that is the problem!  The directions call for 2 yards and, as DH says, I am probably going to need it somewhere else in another, later step.  So I will need additional grey yardage if that happens.

So into the stash we went.

We also managed to clear out two trash bags full of stuff from my craft room that will never be used again.  Things like dried up tubes of glitter paint, old clothes (nothing suitable for quilt making), and some old patterns for clothing that looked like someone snacked on them at one time.  I only hope the snacking took place in the last century in one of my former homes!

But eventually DH found this 3 yard piece of grey which matched the 4 yard piece of white with shimmering flowers printed on it that I had found last week.  And guess what, the second "Easy Street" quilt was born.

 

Now if I can only keep it to two "Easy Street" quilts!

You never know know easy the next steps will be!

New blogger app???

Blogger just did an update to the app on the iPad. This is a test to see how it works. I am now able to use it in landscape mode. A nice feature.
Labels seem to be easier to apply to a post.
Now to check out adding pictures. That was always a bit annoying before. The four tops I completed at the retreat are attached. That went well.
Let's see what the preview looks like.
So far, so good. Maybe this update will be ok.

Progress

I have been slowly but steadily working on some projects. I feel as if I have made progress. Even though some projects are from awhile ago, by working at them little by little they are getting finished. It helps that I still like them!

Here are some of what I am working on and I know you have seen parts of some of these projects. Just know that by working on them a little bit each day, the projects are slowly creeping into the finished pile and leaving the UFO stash permanently.

Yeah!!!

 

You've seen these blocks a lot lately.  There are only 9 more to finish.

 

Exploding Pineapple -(above) a block and quilt from awhile ago found in the UFO Stash.

Finally (below), another Quilt of the Month in the beginning stages.

 

 

 

Progress is really what it is all about.

 

Today's Accomplishments

After spending the morning attending to paperwork, I rewarded myself with a few hours of sewing this afternoon.

Here is what I accomplished!

One block from the Barrister's Block Blog Sow-A-Long.  This is a 6.5 inch block with 28 half square triangles that measure 1.0 finished.

 

 

Two repaired flying geese (there were tucks near the points and thus the blocks were not lying flat)

 

 

 

Three foundation pieced string blocks. 

 

 

 

 

Four 3 inch windmill blocks.

 

 

 

3 blocks to add to the finished blocks to make this UFO Quilt of the Month. 

(Now you know where the flying geese from above were heading!)

 

 

 

And a whole lot of sashing pieces - 47 sashings to be exact and guess what, I need one more!

 

 

 

 

A fun afternoon, even though I may seem a little unfocused in my project choices. 

 One thing I can say for sure, I never get bored!

Snow

My mother had a friend who said that the date of the first snowfall indicated how many snowstorms a season would have. If you use her logic ( and her name was Nora), with today being the seventh of November and today bringing the first snow of the season, then Nora believed we should see seven snowstorms this winter.

Now I never really tracked Nora's logic and resulting predictions to see if it was true. I merely always remember her words each year on the day of the first snowfall.

Nothing is really sticking to the ground yet. But it is starting to accumulate a bit on the benches and the canoe on the deck. (The pictures were taken through the windows and the screens.)


I am sitting in the living room watching old reruns of Bonanza on TV and sewing the bindings on two quilts in between knitting and a bit of reading and staring out the window watching the snow.

It is peaceful and reminds me to treasure the days. I have a few more hours before life intrudes again. Plenty of time to watch the snow and enjoy the quiet.

Now that I have written on the first day of snow I will have a record of the date.

Let 's see if Nora's wisdom holds true.

Busy Weekend

Today I am off to the "Quilter's Gathering " in Manchester , New Hampshire with a bus load of quilters from my guild. You can check them out on their website at www.aquiltersgathering.com.

Tomorrow is my church's annual bazaar. I doubt if I will get much or any machine sewing done this weekend!

I am taking along my knitting on the bus trip. I need to finish the black "Ripple" scarf before we go away in December. I also am planning on taking a hand stitching project with me. I had thought about taking a binding to stitch but did not think that would go over too well with my seat mate on the bus.

I think the weekend will be fun in spite of no machine sewing. What's on tap for your weekend?

Enduring Sandy

Sandy is almost gone from here. Just a shower now and then and the winds have definitely decreased.

I sewed 16 blocks together tonight during quilt cam. It is surprising how fast the piecing goes when you have something interesting to watch or listen to.

This will get posted tomorrow after I take a picture of the blocks. They are coming out very nice. I am pleased.

Here are the blocks. Enjoy your day, post Sandy.

Waiting for Sandy

Finishing up the outside stuff in preparation for Sandy's arrival as well as pressing the newly washed fabrics.  I had planned on cutting and cutting, finishing two bindings and working on a needlepoint project when the power goes out.  We have plenty of flashlights and batteries.

But guess what I got delivered from a friend of a friend today? 

A 1939 Singer Handcrank! 

I am going to name her Sandy if I get to keep it.  Right now she is on loan for the week. (last year during Irene we lost power for 5 days so I expect at least 2 days without power this year).  Who cares about what spoils in the fridge - I can finally sew in a power outage!

 

Isn't she beautiful!

 

Closed up and ready to go..

 

I almost can't wait for the power to go out - how ridiculous is that!

Now to decide on the project....

The Latest Sunset

Or maybe an hour before. But with the remnants of hurricane Sandy coming (or whatever she will be called by then), I thought I would take some pictures of the view from the deck. Who knows when the next opportunity for sunny pictures will occur!

Hope you enjoy the view!

 

 

 

Half of the Dining Room Table

Ok, I know it is not at all do-able all at once and may show a serious lack of time management. But these are the projects waiting for me when I sit at the dining room table. The table is easily cleaned when company comes and little bits of each project get done each day and each week so that the dining room projects eventually are finished.  I like the variety of project choices, even though currently everything does seem a bit out of control when you look at the picture.

I think this post is acting like my to do list. Tackle this first and then move on.   Once it is in writing and posted you are committed.

May your dining room table always be clear!

Oops! Almost forgot the picture!

From the top left, fabrics to be cut into scraps for mom, the scrap boxes, and pillowcases. Top middle, a mystery quilt in browns and tans and top left, my guild's block if the month for this guild year.

In the middle row on the left, are some rotary cutters next to the on-going windmill scrap project which has cheddar for the background and uses 2.5 inch strips that I cut from the left over fabric from my finished projects. Next to that is a box of block of the month steps ready to be cut. On the right in the middle row is the border print that needs to be cut so the wall hanging can be assembled.

Oh, see that bit of red and tan fabrics? Well, that is block 6 of the Martin Michel templates quilt sitting ready to be cut and sewn next.

Finally on the bottom row are three knitting projects, a black shawl, a pastel afghan and the directions for a shoulder shawl with entwined "fingers".

Just enough to keep me busy! LOL!!!

Words to live by...

Thanks to Arthur Ashe for this quote and thanks to my facebook friends for sharing.  This resonated with me today.

Hope your day is happy!

Tuesday Tasks

Today was another at home day with no appointments or have to's. This gave me another chance to wade through another pile of quilt related stuff.

This is what surfaced.

 

On the lower left, a shirt box full of bright solid pieces, on top of it another quilt of the month partially done (maybe 40% done).  In the middle at the top is a wallhanging with all pieces cut except the border.  Below that, in the middle, are the blocks for a small baby quilt and below that, peeking out at the bottom, are blocks for a lap quilt - I think the pattern is "Yellow Brick Road".  On the right at the top is a collection of 2" and 1.5" strips for a strip quilt and another quilt of the month in the lower right.

 

Let's see 4 projects in progress and two ready to be cut and one box of fabric for a future project.

More in the picture below!

 

 

 

 

On the left, the rest of the stack, slash and mix them up pieces, in the middle, a Georgia Bonesteel pattern with some blocks made without the pattern book to help so I had to draft it myself.  Finally, on the right, 12 stars made after a class with Bethany Reynolds ready to be assembled into a quilt top.

 

Three more in progress projects. 

 

Hmmm...

I don't think I will tackle any other section soon.  I seem to have enough to do for the time being!

 

Super Saturday...

...weather and taming the stash.

The temperature is in the low 70's and it is October 20.  I think the average high temperature for today is usually in the 60's somewhere.  So I have the doors open again and the house feels wonderful.  DH and half of the neghborhood is outside picking up leaves in the noisiest way possible.  No one uses a plain old rake anymore it seems.  Notice the magnolia tree is now leaf free.

This afternoon will be spent doing the usually Saturday afternoon chores but with quilt cam on the horizon for 2 PM Eastern, there will be some sewing and quilt related activities thrown in. 

I just cleaned off the dining room table to see which pile of cutting will get done first.  Then I will go upstairs to tackle the sewing stacked next to the machine.  The last thing will be to do a bit of pressing of sewn pieces and then back to cutting what has just been sewn.

 

Left over fabric from other projects to cut.

Two smallish wall hangings to organize for piecing later.

 

My leader and ender project (windmills) on the right.  All of the cheddar background is cut.  The windmill pieces will be cut as I cut up the leftover pieces from other projects.  On the left is one of those stack the 9 fabrics, cut into a wonky 9 patch, rearrange the pieces and sew the 9 blocks together, projects.  I already have two stacks of 9 blocks made, but could never manage to finish the rest. 

This UFO's time has come!

 

Under the brown piece on the left are 4 or 5 blocks to cut in order to finish two different block of the month quilts I started years ago. 

The brown fabric indicates how long ago....

Another UFO that needs to be done.

 

This week has been busy with my church, volunteering to help with Bazaar preparations.  Now that is over I can get back to taming the stashes - of fabric and UFO Projects.

I am looking forward to taming the table on this Super Saturday of weather!