My quilting adventures (and lessons)

Ok, so I got in a hurry to finish my Irish quilt (Patricl Lose pattern).  I was so happy and enjoying the adventure of my newly found ability to do free motion quilting (fmq) that I was busy as a beaver and very focused on getting done.  I was switching out thread so I could match the fabrics, and going strong...............only to realize right near the end (last thing I was fmq-ing) that I had changed all the bobbins to match the top thread - WRONG.  I should have had the bobbin be only green all the way thru.  DUH!  Where was my brain???  The back looks really bad.  Not only because of the different color threads...............but.............I had used the spray adhesive on the backing and the top, and I thought I'd smoothed everything out.  NOT.  There is a long piece where its folded over - just a bit but it looks terrible.  If it weren't a wall hanging and it was a quilt, I'd be really messed up cuz I'd HAVE to remove all those stitches!  Yikes.  So from now on I have to be VERY careful. 

But its almost done - just gotta put a hanging sleeve and a label on it. Then it'll be done.  I need to hand stitch the hanging sleeve on and its ready to go but I'm just too pooped tonight.  So that'll be tomorrow's project.  I hope to get that done, and also get the strips cut to make the place mats for my MIL.  I think the fabric is so cheerful!  :-)  I can hardly wait to work on it.  Finally found a pattern that I like too.  Its perfect for what I want to do and the fabric I got, I think.  I hope.  I hope I have enough to make them 4, but if not, I'll make 2 and make matching pot holders or a hot pad for the table.

Tuesday is the strips class.  :->  I get to use my Moda fabric strips and the backing and the Insul - Brite for the first time.  Yehaw!  I have to work on getting everything together that I need for Tues (another project for tomorrow).

After the strips class, and the place mats are done, I have to work on my blocks for the guild, and my BOM for the forum.  I think I'll pop over there now since I haven't been there in awhile!

TDI volunteering

Today I took Evan to the library for the "Reading to the dogs" day.  Second Saturday of each month at Culpeper County Library.  It was sweet.  There was one little girl there with her younger sister.  They gravitated toward the dog next to me, Beauty.  She's more settled than Evan is.  Evan was really more hyper than I'd have liked.  Anway, the little girl wasn't reading.  Betty Ann asked her why, and she said something but I couldn't hear her.  After a few minutes, I told her, go get a book because Evan hasn't ever done this before, and he needs someone to read to him.  Well, don'tcha know, she did. :-)  I told her even if she didn't want to read, if she would just show him the pictures.  When she got the book and sat down, I had evan on the floor and was holding him in a sit position.  He was looking all over the place and watching everything but she opened the book and I started reading the first page --- then she read the rest of the book!  I told her thank you and told her she did a really great job.  She was sweet.  Then another little girl came along and fell in love with Evan.  I picked him up and she read to us. Funny enough, she read a book about art.  Nice!  She was very good, and read the book well.  She spent the rest of the time (about a half hour??) petting Evan.  I think it might have gotten to him a little bit because she was vigorously scratching his head, which he likes, but then he acted like he had enough.  I told her to scratch his back instead.  He liked that. :-) 

Tony came and got him from me and brought him home.  I went to the 145 Art Studio to make sure Jinnie's and my names were on the list for Tuesday.  Mine was, but had her add Jinnie's for Tues too.  Also found out where we can park on Tues. 

Then I went on to the meeting at Ledos.  I wasn't that late, that was good.  One of the co-directors mentioned that if anyone wanted to be the new director, that she wouldn't mind.  It happened that we were parked next to each other in the parking lot, and we were the last ones out of the restaurant along with Margo.  When we went to the trucks I asked her about it.  I told her that maybe I wasn't ready to take on the entire thing right now, and she said that in Dec things would change for her at work (more work) so she'd probably need to give it up then.  I told her, if she had anything that she wanted me to do meantime so that I could get an idea of what it consisted of, I'd do it for her.  She said ok and would keep me in mind.  I don't want to jump in cuz I'm not even sure that Evan is liking the volunteering right now.....so I'm going to have to continue to go to the Baptist home and the retirement home at least a couple of times a month to get him used to it again - when we originially started he was so excited to do it.  Now, it doesn't seem he's as excited. Or, is it me?

Another note about this is that Jane Waylan saw us and said that she has had another request from someone in Warrenton (?) that is interested in getting into the hospital to train, so she will set it up for both of us to go the same time.  Maybe that will entice her to do it sooner rather than later......which is the feeling I got when I went into the office that day.

I also sent a resignation letter to Liz Hanson because I'm not going to volunteer at the hospital anymore.  If I'm going to do volunteering, I'm going to do it with my dog.  Thats where my interest really lies.  I am not that excited about the hospital anyway.

So this coming week, I have to find a copy of the paperwork that got sent to TDI and if I didn't keep a copy (which I don't think I did - bummer) then maybe they will send me a copy.  I'm hoping.  Or I'll have the vet clinic fill out another one.

I may also try to work with Gabbi on training.  I know there's no way we'd be ready for a test in April which is when the next one is.

One more thing I found interesting was that Margot, Betty Ann, and Jane were talking about starting their own place - a Doggie Day Care, training, and something else place.  That would be interesting to be in on.  I guess maybe if I want to get more engrossed in this whole thing, that maybe I'll have to really start getting more involved with the local stuff and get going on all this doggie stuff. 

Off to make a list of what I need to do for next week.  And a separate post about my quilting adventures.

Quilting

So, I found a new fabric store yesterday, up in Manassas.  Its the Old Town Needleworks shop.  Its stock full of fabric, and yarn, and other needleworking stuff.  The fabrics were awesome and wonderful.  I got some fabric to make springtime placemats - hopefully the pattern I'm going to use will be pretty.  I don't know yet....thinking I might have to change my mind about what I was going to do.  I have to decide.
Anyway, here is the fabric - some of the colors aren't great so I have to retake a couple but I'll take pics when the placemats are finished. 

 

This is the main fabric.  The other colors I chose were tone on tone orange, a tone on tone green, and a lilac, which all match the colors in this pattern perfectly.  Very bright and cheerful. :-)

I will surely be going back to THAT shop!  And the people were really sweet too.  I don't get that so much in the shops around here.  It's a good thing that shop is pretty far away -  I could see me going in every day to gawk at all the pretty fabrics!

Today I need to finish my Irish wall hanging.  I have the top done but have to satin stitch around the applique, add a few things, put the backing and batting on, and the binding.  I also want to figure out what pattern to do for the placemats (thinking at this point they may just be strips).

The sun is shining and its windy out but its supposed to warm up a little later.

Jenns bd is tomorrow.  I know she doesn't feel good and that sucks for her.

My foot is killing me - good reason to go sew.  Hehe

Off to take a shower and get fixed up even if we aren't going anywhere. 

Tony took the blankets off the horses and they all look good. I think Blaze may have lost a tad bit of weight and that's a good thing.  Blue is handsome and beautiful and Bridget, well, is Bridget.  Silly girl.

More quilting

So yesterday I posted pics of some of the blocks I'd done.  Well, my block for the guild was wrong.  I took it apart (just the four sections) and after printing off the picture of what it was supposed to look like, I got it!  Whew.  So here it is.

 

Paper piecing is not my favorite thing to do.  I do have to admit however, that I like the perfect points.  I just feel like its a bit of a waste of fabric....but that's cuz I've had to search hi and lo for fabric I like.....and have spent a lot of money on fabric.

I also got my bingo block done but hadn't taken pics.  So here it is.

 

I tried to start my Patrick Lose St. Pats day wall hanging, but I don't have the background fabric I need!  Oye.  Blue.  A nice, bright blue that looks like the sky after a rain that will have a rainbow in it.  Finding solid cotton is almost impossible!  Strange.  I think I'll go shopping tomorrow.  I stayed in the house all day today.  And I'm bored to tears.  Its terrible.  I should get a job! 

Oh, this isn't a quilting picture, but I could NOT resist.  Leo is sunning himself on the window sill perch.  He hasn't sat up there for quite awhile.  He looks SO comfy.  LOL

 

Man, don't you wish YOU were napping in the sun like that?  I do!  :-)

New quilting stuff

Here are pics of the blocks I've worked on this week. 
This block is the January Block of the Month (BOM) for the quilting forum I belong to (www.quiltingboard.com)

This is the February BOM for the same forum.

 

I think the two blocks blend well.  I'm trying to stay in the same color scheme so that at the end of the year, I can put them together and get a quilt out of this hard work!  

 

This is my new piece of flannel that I use for my design board.  I found the flannel, 1 yard of white, at Wal Mart in the excess bin.  A good find for less than $3.00.

 

This is the block that is the one I originally made for January - I like the colors, they just didn't match the February block very well.  So it'll be put away for another project.  

 

And this is the color theory block I made that is for the quilting guild that I belong to.  We will have to make this block every month but with different colors.  This one is not perfect...........but that's ok.  I can either do it over or cover it up somehow.  Not sure if we're to do anything with them in the end or what.

 

This is my new sewing machine.  Its a Janome 8077.  It is very basic but it sews really nicely and has some thing on it my Brother doesn't have.  Luckily, the feet from my Brother fit my Janome, so I have more variety now. :-)

 

Ok.  So that's about it this time. I'm exhausted.  I have to work on a couple of other things this week that I want to get done also.  Most of the time this is fun, but some of the directions make me crazy - I need visuals. LOL.  

Sewwwwwwwwwwww.....

Been awhile since I wrote.
I have decided I miss horses.  I am glad I still have them around.  Wonder what that means for my future.....

I have been sewing but not as much as I'd like.  I made the Jan BOM (block of the month) for the www.quiltingboard.com forum.  I hated the first one - it was  a full out struggle and when I got it done I wasn't crazy about the colors - not that its a bad combo or anything - its just that it didn't go with the Feb BOM that I made first.  So, I decided to try again.  I cut all the pcs yesterday, and I was too tired to try to put it together yesterday. 

Today we went out and when we got home I had phone calls to make and dinner to get into the slow cooker, etc.  When I got finished, I went upstairs and I did the new block - got it all put together and it really looks nice.  :-)  I'm much happier with it - maybe I'll use the other block for something else one day - I'll put it away and one day, I'll come across it, and something will strick me. LOL  At any rate, I'm trying to stay in the same color scheme for the BOMs cuz at the end, I want to have a quilt out of it! 

Today was a nice day- it was windy and quite cold still, but by afternoon it was nicer.  Tony and I spent the day together and we went to Fredericksburg.  We had to hit the bank, Best Buy, and Pet Smart.  We also went to Verizon and I finally talked Tony into getting a new phone.  He got the "rugged" one - it's supposedly tested by the Army.  LOL.  Anyway, it seems to work better for him - its tough, easy to hold, easy to dial, etc.  I hope he's happy with it.  I didn't find a phone I liked.  They have such a small selection anymore of regular phones - they are moving toward the data phones (internet capable) and I bet by next year, thats all you're going to be able to get........I'll wait - if I can't find something else between now and then, my phone is doing fine for now.  I can text on it too now - we paid for texting!  :-)

I think Jenn is still mad at me.  It is what it is but I miss her.  She hasn't talked to me in a week.  I guess its the price I have to pay for not agreeing with something.  But, I can't back down in what I believe in, just as she won't back down in what she believes in.  Its ok.  She's an adult.  I can't change her. 

I got a really nice pkg in the mail today from a friend.  A beautiful heart !  (and a quilt pattern :-)  )  What a good friend I have.  She's very special to me!  Thank you my friend (cuz I know you read this).

*They* are mentioning a storm coming next week.  I pray its not snow.......and really that it misses us all together.  PLEASE!

I'm also thinking that Julie is going to be getting her place ready for Blaze.  I wonder when she will be ready to get him.  There still isn't anyplace for anyone to turn a trailer around here - the ground is too soft to go thru the back yard.  So I am not sure how we'll work this out. Wish there was someplace to meet half way......

Of course, my heart is heavy for that to happen, but at the same time, my head is telling me its the best thing to do.  Besides, I know where he's going...............so I'm not going to worry about it.  It is the right thing....or it wouldn't be happening.

Right now my back is screaming - the muscles get all messed up when I sew.  So I'm going to go sit down with Gabbi Wabbi on my lap and hopefully Tony will find something decent to watch on t.v.

I'm trying not to get something for a snack - I was bad today - Panera for lunch and I had brocolli and cheese soup, half a chicken salad sandwich, and a half cookie!  We got bagles (french toast) for breakfast tomorrow.  Yum.   So, I'm trying not to snack on anything........might have to get me some chocolate milk tho just to satisfy the chocolate need.........i'm terrible. 

Ok, off to relax...............
Oh wait!  I have some pretty pics I wanna put up.

 

 

 

Another project done!

I'm really having fun with these projects!  :-)  I enjoy making them, I think I'm getting better with each one, and I am getting braver!   Yehaw!

Here's a pic of the one that I made.  LOVE!

And the back: