A Journey Begun

Everywhere I have looked lately there is a button for One Flower Wednesday.......... I was intrigued enough to check it out. Karen at Journey of a Quilter began this journey and asked others to join. It seemed like a great idea to get a quilt finished rather effortlessly so I of course joined in. I found my hexagons that I had printed on card stock and began cutting them out.

I selected the first fabrics from my scrap bags.


Then I traced the hexagon onto an index card and added 1/4 inch all around. That will be the pattern I trace onto the fabric.



Traced them, cut them out............


And got out the lovely bag that Nadine of Friendship Threads sent to me several years ago.


It did not take long to get the first Hexagon made so now the journey is begun. Yes another project. But then, why not?




Blogging around I discovered a cute Halloween ghost that Barb is sharing on Fun with Barb and Mary.

I also discovered that I had almost missed a Stitching for Christmas Quilt at Nadine's. As soon as I post this blog I will be adding the button to my sidebar for that fun filled stitchery.

Loris posted for Stash Manicure today and she shared a link to another Little Quilt that I would like to make.

Now I must get back to work............. I hope everyone has a great day...........

Remembering that one of the things I wanted to get done this weekend was to trim Wade Hamilton. He was getting really shaggy and needed a trim. I try (and the operative word here is try) to trim him once and then let Paula at the Hair Club for Dogs trim him next. He hasn't seen Paula since May and this is the second time I have trimmed him since then. She charges us extra because this 8 pound ball of fur does not like to have his little self touched........Anywhere.


He likes goldfish crackers so I decided that Lem could divert his attention with them while I trimmed. He is a wiggly little darling so sometimes the clippers got more hair in places than they should have. Now he won't touch another goldfish. Last night I had a few and as always he came up begging. I would give him one and he would go put it down. He kept coming back till I realized that he was not eating them, just putting them on the floor.

Well, I think he knows how he looks and is not too happy with me right now. Someone even asked Lem yesterday just what kind of dog he was..........Lem told them that he was a German Shepherd................

I do know where the weekend went and it wasn't to sewing. I even took pictures but never got them online. I will give it a try this afternoon so tomorrow won't be so boring.

I am blogging around right now and some things just must be shared. Madame Samm showed some ideas in her studio and then sent me to Rae Ann with a great idea on storage containers for fabric.

Kathy of Kathy's Quilts has a great scrap quilt on her design board. She even made kits for friends. How kind is that?

Barb of Fun with Barb and Mary has a nifty idea for a quick wee giftie and a link to a great Halloween idea.....

Most everyone else was out and about enjoying family, friends and fall.........

THE WEEKEND COMETH

And it is time once more to have a plan for those two days so that they don't get wasted.

I made bread on Thursday so all I need to make this weekend is muffins.

Wade Hamilton needs a day of beauty. It looks like Lem and I are going to have to do it ourselves this time. He does not like to be groomed so this could take some time.

Candace at Wraggedy Patches had a link for a great Pumpkin table topper. This is the link to the pattern.. I really wanted to give it a try because it was small and used so little fabric but I doubt that will happen.

I am still working on the Winter Clothes Swap and that will probably take the rest of the weekend. I sure do hope I get to work upstairs at least a little next week.

I finally reached the half way mark on the baby quilt. This is close to the actual color of the backing.




This picture was taken without the flash and it sure made a difference in the color. I am pleased to be on the downhill side of this project. Now that Drew is here he will be needing his quilt.

Here At Last

We are pleased to welcome to the family our latest addition.

Andrew Wade McCausley

7 lb 10 oz - 20 inches

Born Monday at 6:30 PM.

Looks like he has already selected his college..............

We are now officially Great Grandparents......

This weekend was not at all what I expected. The plan was to spend most of Saturday in the studio enjoying myself...............

But the realtor called Friday night to arrange a showing on Saturday at 11:45. That meant getting up and making sure the house was vacuumed and dusted and everything was put away. I even take down the ironing board in the studio when we show the house so that was put away.

We took off the garbage and did the grocery shopping while the house was being shown.

At the Transfer Station is a Hope Chest. A little building where you take things you no longer use but are still in good condition. I have been wanting something for fall decorating but funds are low so Saturday we stopped there.

I found this pumpkin. It was originally a Hallmark Candle. I think it is just the right touch for this table.

I also found this sheath of wheat. You are supposed to put a candle in the center of the wheat and if I can find one the right color I will do that. Otherwise I think it is still an interesting tchatche.............

We came home from grocery shopping and put away the groceries and then headed out again to get haircuts............... By that time I was ready for a wee toes up......... I so enjoy a good nap.

Then cooking dinner and the rest of the evening was spent quilting.

Sunday was spent doing the rest of the weekend requirement. We put the velvet drapes up in the living room. I unpacked a few more winter clothes, did laundry, baked bread and quilted.


I never did make it upstairs again till this morning when I downloaded these pictures.

Maybe tomorrow will be better. This afternoon we have to take one of the clocks to be repaired so I know I can't sew then...........

But I do have Soup in the Crockpot for dinner..............

After the studio was all cleaned and ready I decided to start something new. I found Bird Brain Designs and the rest is history.

They have some delightful FREE stitcheries for tea towels. I just adore tea towels.

Remember, I am using what I have as much as possible so I got out the white Kona Cotton that I had and cut out 4 tea towels. This is the design that I chose. The blackbird with a pumpkin. There are lots of other designs to choose from.


I found this fat quarter in my stash and it seemed perfect.





I got out my Scallops Sew Easy book and my scallop ruler and began.


Got the design traced...............



The scallop edge sewn on and now I have something else to put in the basket.


I am still quilting the baby quilt each night. I might get to the 1/2 way mark by next week.

At Last

It is almost time to go home........... I have cleared my desk and made my list of "Must Do's" for tomorrow.

Tonight I will add more hand quilting to my baby quilt. I might even get a picture made tomorrow morning. Time will tell.

Lem is cooking tonight so all I have to do when I get home is to sew. I need to finish one more swirl and then do more marking. I try to mark four swirls each time and the goal is to do four a night. That surely does not happen. Some nights I just cannot move but sit and stare ahead.

Perhaps in the morning I will have time to work upstairs for an hour before work. I am piecing block number three of five from my first month of Honoring Our Quilting Heritage.... Since I joined late I have month two and three already. I really want to move along with this one.

Order of a Kind

All better now.............I have some kind of order again..... All of those baskets next to the wall have tops to be made.............. And three quilts going on the design wall.

The one that I am working on right now is the first month of Our Quilting Heritage.


How lovely it is to have my cutting table back again with my scrap containers under it. That is Bonnie Hunter's system and it is wonderful. The smaller drawers on top are for the scraps from my CW Repro fabrics. When I need some strips to finish a project I can usually find them in this scrap section.


Wall three........ These drawers contain notions and kits for quilts. There are many quilt tops in the making hidden here too.


This is the Field Desk where my dear Duchess resides. She does all of my piecing for me.



And a view of the other room where I hope to learn to machine quilt......... The table is all ready and surrounded by tops. The tops in the basket on the right are layered and ready to be quilted. The stacks under the window are tops with backing that need batting and to be layered.

On the stool there is a table runner that is almost machine quilted, a top that has the center quilted but not the borders and one quilt that needs the binding attached.


Now next time you want to go online and order another project or when you visit your local quilt shop and see the Latest Thing that everyone else is doing.......... consider this. I know that I have more than I will finish in many years and that on occasion we all need something new to refresh our muse but in the future I will try to finish at least two projects before BUYING anything new. Just to be clear. If something comes along that I want to try and I have the materials on hand for that project I can go right ahead but as to purchases, they will be on a need to finish only basis unless two have been completed.....................

Let's see how long that last.................VBG

The problem with showing the house it that we put everything away.......... Sometimes thing get lost.........

Lem brought in the mail several weeks ago and there was a package for me. He put it upstairs in the studio. Then we got a call to show the house. I came home from work and we got the house ready. Removed the towels we use and put out the Show Towels. Put the Show Bedspread on the bed. Hid the pillow he uses on the couch removed all signs of owning a dog. Vacuumed and dusted. Put scented oil on the ceramic light bulb topper so the bedroom will smell like lilacs.....

This was before I cleaned up the studio. I went upstairs to hide the ironing board and to generally remove some of the most offending stacks. And accidentally covered the box that he had put upstairs for me.

You might remember that a few months ago I mentioned that we were expecting our first great grandchild. My dear friend Jean Mello that moved to Mequon several years ago had sent us a package. Jean is always doing for others and giving her time to others. When she lived on the Cape she was an officer in our Quilt Guild. She and several of her friends spent weeks before our Linus day making kits and organizing the location and getting everything ready. She always has a funny story to share and is never without a smile. Any room gets brighter when Jean walks in.

She had taken the time to buy not one but two little baby toys......





And she also took the time to crochet a lovely baby blanket. It is so soft and cuddly. Now I can mail it to the family in NC.............

Thank you Jean........... You are a dear friend............ Please forgive me for not saying thank you sooner.

Why do I always have such a messy studio........... It is so hard to work and stay focused in all of this confusion.

I will be re-arranging and organizing this weekend.............. It really is bad............



This is where the cutting table would be if it weren't in the other room being used for a basting table. I need to get it moved back in place and its little PVC pipes under its little legs again so that I can cut fabric. This card table just doesn't work.


And the three drawer cabinets are two deep because the ones on the front belong under the cutting table.



The sewing table is covered with items from the cutting table also.


A phone call this morning from the realtor tells us that we have two more opportunities for a buyer. One coming at 12:00 and one at 1:30.................... That meant getting up early and getting things put away and everything spiffed and polished.

Last night Lem helped me move the cutting table back into the studio. This morning I set up my Janome on the table in the other room upstairs. The little stack under the window is FOUR quilts with backing fabric that need to be layered, basted and quilted. The pile of fabric under the table is really a basket with fabric for string quilts.......... I want to use up some thread and this is the perfect way to do it. The basket on the right contains the green quilt I just basted and another quilt that has been waiting in the wings for several years. I really must get some of these tops finished. The stacks of tops, tops with backing fabric and basted ready to quilt tops will be growing soon.


Someone was asking about a layout for Dear Jane Christmas Swap blocks so I got out my Dear Jane Christmas swap quilt to show...........

Sunday morning I got all ready to baste the quilt. I have my Overdrive player on my computer and a book from the library downloaded.


But first Lem wanted breakfast. He fried the bacon and I made French Toast...... I sliced the bread thick and it was just the best. Then I headed back upstairs to finish basting.


This morning I met the girls for breakfast. It is still raining here. Just raining harder today.

Peg gave me these small bits of yarn for me to use in my Mitered Square Afghan. Go HERE to find the pattern that LuAnn of Loose Threads shared.


Yes, that is the basting table. The quilt is finally basted and ready to be quilted. I learned that if I stay within the distance of my forearm I am fine but if I try to reach it causes the back problems. Now we know......................

I have finally finished the projects for the past weekend and I have started the project list for the upcoming weekend. And this is a holiday weekend so I am looking forward to one extra day.

Beans and Franks were delicious. Lem helped cook. There were several good suggestions to add to the meal.

Tonight is another pork meal................... Kielbasa cooked with apple, steamed broccoli and carrots and pinto beans.......... Maybe I will even bake some cheese biscuits to put this meal over the top. Really cheap eats.............. And these days that is a must. Will there be a picture later....perhaps.

Yesterday it Rained

Not as much rain today. But no sunshine forecast till Friday.

Now me, I am a sunshine girl. Remember I am from the south where they do have more sunshine. One hour more each day to be exact................ And it shines more days than it does here. Winters are especially difficult......... I have problems staying perky when there is no sunshine.

After work yesterday I worked on the baby quilt. By tomorrow I will have reached the 1/4 mark.

Lem wanted to watch the ball game last night so I went upstairs to work on basting the quilt. Still never finished. It caused my back to flare up again so I went downstairs and listened to a book while I stitched more on the baby quilt. I have one little section left to stitch and I can move up a bit and start to mark another row.

This morning I did a bit more basting on the green quilt. I should be able to finish that today and get more marked on the baby quilt to stitch tonight. I am anxious to get my cutting table back. I have some organizational ideas for the studio and I need that table in place to move forward with that.

Errands after work but an easy supper tonight. Lowly beans and franks. Any suggestions to what I can do to bring that menu up a notch? How about some cheese grated over the BnF's and a nice slice of bread with melted butter slathered on?

I finally did get 25 things out of the garage........ Part went to the transfer station today. Part will go to a thrift store later this week. Part (a small part) were put where they will live now in the house. Perhaps next weekend I can pack a dish pack or two of the things in the garage that need to be packed for the move.

I never did get the quilt basted. Maybe I can get it finished this week. I need to get it done so I can get my cutting table put back in place. I need to get my studio cleared out a bit and organized. That can be almost as much fun as sewing..........

I have beef barley soup in the crock pot for dinner tonight. They had beef roast on sale a few weeks ago for 99 cents a pound. We have had roast beef twice and there is just enough left for soup. It has turned colder here so it will be a good meal to have on a cool evening.

More quilting done on the baby quilt. I will need to mark a bit more so that I can quilt tonight.

Bake Muffins





Bake Bread





And while I was in the kitchen I thought I would try a French Onion soup recipe that a friend shared this past week............ It came from The Pioneer Woman. The hardest part was slicing the onions.



Then to add a few more ingredients............. She has a play by play account on her blog.



She calls for French bread to be toasted and placed on top. Since my fresh bread came out of the oven at the same time as the onions did it could cool while the soup was finishing. Then a couple of thick slices topped with cheese..........



The perfect Saturday dinner when the weather is getting cold. I thought the price was right because we will get two meals out of it.



That just leaves the last two items on the list. I really do not think I will make it but I will give it a try. No I will not take a before and after picture of the garage. My mother would haunt me....

Baste First Green Star Quilt.

Remove 25 items from the garage that do not belong there.

Let's Review

This was the original list for the weekend.................

Bake Bread.

Bake Muffins.

Baste First Green Star Quilt.

Remove 25 items from the garage that do not belong there.

Instead of doing any of those things I have...........................

Wandered around the yard looking for something to cut and bring inside.........

Ahhhh...... Lily of the Valley makes these lovely red berries. I might as well get them before the birds do......


and the ubiquitous greenery.................... Two homey touches before the Looky Loos arrive.

(Wife liked the house .... Husband did not.......... Let me mention that they called to come early because he did not like any of the other four they looked at today.)


LuAnn over at Loose Threads mentioned this little mitered square made from sock yarn. She is so right...... They are just like potato chips.... I had to try them......... Then I had to call my dear friend Peg to see if she had any little balls of sock yarn she wanted to get rid of....... She will bring them with her to breakfast on Wednesday morning.



And the new BOM from Homestead Hearth came in................ I just could not resist. It began in July and I did not call till the first of September. They had one opening left so I knew that spot was mine. They sent July and August right away and September arrived yesterday. There are 5 of the 59 blocks in each month.


Yes, I did have to try the first one..........No, I do not know what I was thinking. I probably wasn't thinking...............


We also had to get to the grocery store and this morning I found two new recipes to try. And by then it was lunch time and then being the weekend I indulged in a wee toes up......... So here it is 3:00 and nothing is removed from the list......

Well, as Scarlet says, "I will think about that tomorrow."

The Best Laid Plans

of mice and men do often gang aglee.................

And that sure happened to me already. The people that looked at the house yesterday decided that it was too small.......... AND at the same time the realtor called to say we could come home she said that the people that looked at it Thursday want to look at it again today at 11:00......

SO......that means I can't start the baking first thing this morning as I had planned. I couldn't even get much done last night because we did not want to get anything out of place in the house.

That being said I have decided to eat dessert first and work on a NEW project. More pictures later.

The Weekend Cometh.

And just what is on the AGENDA this weekend?

Bake Bread.

Bake Muffins.

Baste First Green Star Quilt.

Remove 25 items from the garage that do not belong there.

And the Final Item.............Actually follow through on a project that has been percolating in the back of your mind for a long time now...........

Remove EVERYTHING from the STUDIO except for the current projects on the list. This is going to be really hard. I gather things to be done around me as though I am going to run out. I will NEVER run out.......... These future projects keep me over stimulated. Ideas produce more ideas and if you visit a blog or two you will get EVEN MORE IDEAS.

So in the interest of actually finishing something this year I am going to remove the excess.

After I get started on the latest First Friday Freebie from Kaaren at The Painted Quilt of course.