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?