Design Wall Monday Dec 26

I just have a couple of  things on my wall. I'm Participating in the Bonnie Hunter Orca Bay mystery. I have a few of the step 6 Ohio stars done, and I took them to my wall, and started playing around with the elements we have so far, and I like what I see.  I don't know if this is what Bonnie has planned, but the elements arranged this way fit together, and I like the way it looks. This is a short post, since I have to work this afternoon, and I want to get a little bit of sewing time in before I have to go. I'm linking up with Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday and Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Monday

Sunday Stash Report

The last stash report of the year. Wow. I must say that keeping track like this has been quite fun, and quite educational. I've been wavering back and forth about whether to continue it next year, and I think I will.  I'll have some big added numbers for the first or second report of the new year though, since I took advantage of the end of the year sale at Thousands of Bolts But it isn't likely to show up at my door for a couple of weeks.
I'm sitting here having a bit of a pity party for myself. One of the big downsides to the health care profession is having to work the holidays. And this year, both Scott and I are working over Christmas. He's working 7-3 and I'm working 3-11. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely grateful for our jobs, but It's Christmas day, and I'm sitting here alone with my computer, feeling lonely and very sorry for myself. (sigh) The good news is that we have celebrating with our family still to look forward to over the New Years weekend. Maybe I'll do a Little more on Orca Bay. Anyways, enough of feeling sorry for myself, especially since there are a lot of people in worse situations than this. On to the numbers:

Used this week:                                              2.7 yards
Used this year:                                             154 yards
Purchased this week:                                   0 yards, since it isn't actually at my house yet
Purchased this year:                                    162.5 yards.
Balance:                                                        8.5 more yards in than out.

Close, so close to breaking even. Funny how that wasn't even the idea behind why I started to keep track, but it became something that I was interested in aiming for, over time. I was just curious to see how much I bought, and how much I used over the course of a year. The size of the numbers on both sides surprised me. I had no idea that I bought that much, or used that much in the course of a year.
I'm linking to the weekly stash report at Patchwork Times, and then I'm going to go put a few more pieces together for Orca Bay.

Merry Christmas, everyone

I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas. I hope you have a blessed and happy time with family and friends, and that, most of all, you celebrate the birth of our Saviour and KIng.

One day when heaven was filled with his praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin—
Dwelt amongst men, my example is he!

Living, he loved me; dying, he saved me;
Buried, he carried my sins far away;
Rising, he justified freely, for ever:
One day he's coming—O, glorious day!

UFO challenge 2012

Well, I've gone through my lists of UFO's, and thought seriously of what I want to do in the coming year. I think last years list had too many complex, labour intensive quilts on it, and it wasn't anywhere near realistic. So for next year I'm going to change it up a bit. I'm putting in 6 that need to have the actual piecing work finished, and 6 that need to be quilted and bound. But the 6 that I've chosen that need to be quilted aren't simple pantograph, or meandering type quilts. They are samplers, most of them, and need custom work of some sort, which is where the challenge comes in. I've been putting off doing them for that very reason. I'm going to put this list on my side bar as well, so I can have a visual list that I can cross off when they are done.

1. Roll Roll Cotton Boll. This one has all the units ready to go together, But it needs more of the string pieced neutrals made. I think I'm halfway done with them. I was thinking of cutting some light colour plaids and substituting those for half of the string units, but I haven't auditioned it out yet.                                        

2.  Cactus Rose I love this quilt, but it finishes at such an odd size, 67 x 67 which is too big for any of my walls, and too small for a bed. And it wouldn't be very easy to add an extra border because, if memory serves me correctly, the edges are scalloped. or there are curved sections.  I am seriously considering not doing the rest of the borders the pattern calls for, but simply adding a plain border, and let the center of the piece be the star of the show. If I do that, I think it will fit on the wall at the top of the stairs.

 3. Grandmothers Diamond Ring I started putting this one together, and didn't like the quality of the muslin I was using, and never got any further with it. So, I'll have to rip out what is done and start over. I might have to order in some cream or muslin type coloured fabric for it, since I don't think white will work. Of course, I suppose I could get adventurous, and try tea or coffee dying some of the 20 some odd yards of white I have hanging around here. 

 4. Log Cabin Sampler It is a very dark and dreary day today, so the colours in this picture aren't quite accurate, but it's close enough. This one only needs borders, and I have enough of the reds and blues I used in it to do it.

5. Endless Chain. I would really like to get back at this one, if only to get the drawer of odd size bits and pieces and strings to be able to close.

6. Disappearing 9 Patch this pile of blocks needs to be arranged, and then sewn together. There are enough here for a twin sized quilt.

7. Spring swap, which was hosted by Shannon at Pieceful Kwilter a couple of years ago. There is a block in here from Australia, I think. This one needs quilting and binding, but it was waiting for my skills to grow. I think I'm finally ready.

8. Double Duty, needs quilting and binding. It's been waiting because I really don't know how I want to quilt this. I love feathers, but this quilt has a more masculine feel and I don't think feathers would fit it. I would gladly take suggestions on this one, if anyone has an idea......

9. Pieceful Kwilter BOM from 2010 needs quilting and binding. This is another one that was waiting for my skills to grow, and is going to be a huge challenge to do.

10. The Rose Log Cabin that I put together this past year, needs quilting and binding. I'm not sure yet what to do with it, but the might be a feather or 2 involved somewhere.

11. Another Sampler that was sponsored by the Midnight Oil website/blog, that seems to be no longer functioning. Again, it has been sitting waiting for ideas and skills. There will probably be a lot of continuous curves involved with this one.

12. The Round Robin in the Window that was done more years ago than I can count, through the online yahoo group Canadian Quilt Swappers. They used to be really active with lots of swaps and stuff, but it seems to have dropped off in the last couple of years. And again, this one was waiting for me to grow up. I haven't a clue what to do with it. Any ideas.............??

Wow, that is quite the lengthy list, and quite the long post, too. If you stuck with me through the whole thing, I want to thank you, very much. It will be fun to see, come this time next year, (wasn't there a movie by that name with Alan Alda in it? Sorry, I got side tracked), how much of this list is finished. I'm linking up to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times 2012 UFO Challenge list. There are lots of other lists over there to read, Maybe even some as long as mine LOL!!

UFO challenge results.

So, this is my UFO list from last year


1. Hexagon Baby Quilt ............... finished
2. Double Wedding Ring ............ some work done on it, but not a whole lot.
3. Grandmother's Diamond Ring, from Judy Martin's Creative.... (I can't remember the rest of the title,       off the top of my head, and the book has temporarily gone missing in the disaster zone of my sewing room) I've been working on this as a leader and ender project, and it is ready to start going together................   didn't get touched
4. Freeze Frame ............ top finished, still needs to be quilted and bound.
5. Endless Chain ............... not much done on this one.
6. Card Trick Swap ............. finished
7.Roll Roll Cotton Boll ................ lots of work done on it, but needs lots more.
8. Cactus Rose ........... I haven't touched it. Mostly, I think it is because once it is finished, it is a really weird size, too small for a bed, but too big for any walls we have here. I am seriously thinking of putting some kind of plain border on it and calling it done.
9. Disappearing nine patch .................... half of the blocks have been made into a top, which still needs to be quilted and bound. The other half still need to be sewn together yet.
10. Crazy Curves ............. finished
11. Kitchen Sink .............. hasn't been touched
12. Cosmati Stars, this is only going to end up table topper size. I actually haven't had this one out of its box in quite a few years, so it could probably come in as the oldest of my UFO's.................................... hasn't been touched.



So, out of 12 projects on the list 3 got completely finished,  and 1 1/2 got to the finished flimsy stage. Five of them didn't get touched at all. Yikes!!! The year started out well with the UFO's, but then just kind of fizzled into nothing. I think it had something to do with a little baby boy named Avery, and his HUGE distraction factor. LOL However, I may not have gotten a lot of the UFO's done, but I did get a lot of other stuff done, for a total of 12 quilts completely done, which does add up to one a month, just not the ones I had on my list. *giggle* Now, if I add in the tops that got to flimsy stage  this past year, there are 5 of those. And this is all starting to make me feel better, since I've only added 3 to the UFO list this past year and 2 of those are more accurately works in progress, rather than the longer term UFO.  So, overall, I came out even.

Design Wall Monday Dec 19

I'm late posting this today, but I wanted to get some work done on Orca Bay part 5. I have a selection of the various steps, except for the red string squares, which, at the moment, at least, I am planning on cutting from yardage of some sort. When Bonnie gave the instructions for step 2, which involved 3.5 inch squares made from blue strings, she mentioned that "the direction of the strings adds so much play and motion!"  Well,  I found in my stash some large scale leaf fabric has lots of shades of blue, and lots of motion in it, so I'm planning on using that. I have found in the quilts that I've done lately, that I seem to make, for the most part, feminine, girly quilts, with some exceptions, of course. I am trying in this quilt to stay as gender neutral as I can. I was thinking, originally, that some of the border prints that are out there these days, would work in the place of the paper pieced stripes, but most of them are florally. I'm hoping to be able to find some sort of red stripe, to use in the place of the step 4 red strings. I'm linking this up to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times design wall Monday linky, and also to Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Monday linky., where there are lots of other people participating in this mystery. And now, I'm going back upstairs to play with some more triangles. I have lots more to do.

Stash report Dec. 18

I've used up a little more stash in cutting for the half square triangles for Orca Bay part 3, but I haven't had a whole lot of sewing time lately, although there are 105 out of 350 of the half square triangles done. I stopped procrastinating yesterday, and got that customer quilt loaded, and finished, and she just picked it up. That left me with some time to start on sewing some Christmas stuff for Avery, to help fill up that enormous stocking. I'm stuck on that, though, until I can get out to a store, and there is no way I'm going anywhere near a store today. On sort of the same subject, there was a family Christmas with Laurie's side of the family last weekend, and they got the cutest picture of Avery, wearing reindeer horns.
 I think today I'm going to take some  time today to work on more half square triangles, and maybe even move on to Orca Bay step 5.  I'm running low on blacks, though, so I'm going to have to move on to deep browns and blues, which will add more to it, so that's OK. Now, for the numbers:

Used this week:                                             1.4 yards
Used this year:                                          151.3 yards
Purchased this week:                                       0 yards
Purchased this year:                                   162.5 yards  
Balance:                                                        11.2 more yards in than out.

Hey, I didn't realize until just now that I'm over 150 yards used. That is sooooooooo cool. A little bit more of Orca Bay, and another quilt back, and I could actually be in positive numbers. Too bad I'm running out of time. But, then again, if I get the back made, and even loaded onto the machine, it counts as out, even if the quilting doesn't actually get done. And, oh yeah, I could make the binding too, couldn't I? I would love to get Make Your Point loaded and quilted. And really, I don't have to get any gifts wrapped until after Christmas, since we are celebrating our Lords birth with family over New Years weekend, since both Scott and I are working over Christmas. In fact, I still have to get wrapping paper, but I figure that may as well wait until the 27th, when I can get it for half price, or even less. So, it is possible that I could at least get it started. I just want to do an all over feather again, which I could work on little bits at a time............... I think I'm starting to talk myself into it. And then, there is the added bonus that, if I get into negative numbers with the fabric, I can purchase more without any guilt. I think I am going to do more thinking about that list of quilts I'd like to make, and see if I need anything for them. Hmmmmmmmmm..............  the wheels are turning, this could be dangerous, but a whole lot of fun. I'll keep you posted.  Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I'm linking up to Judy's' Patchwork Times   stash report linky.

I'm procratinating.........

I have a customer quilt here, waiting for me to do it. She wants it before Christmas, and I really should get it onto the machine, and done today, so she can pick it up tomorrow. Instead, I'm blog hopping and pinteresting. I found a wonderful site called Design Seeds which has all kinds of different colour palettes, based on different photographs. Some of them would make fabulous colours for quilts. So, I've been going through those, dreaming of future quilts rather than doing what I should be doing.

These are just 2 examples of all the wonderful colour combinations. Judy Laquidara of Patchwork times and Vicki Welsh of Field trips in Fiber are hosting a colour palette challenge starting in January, I am assuming that it will be a similar idea to the pictures and colour isolations from the pictures like these. I think it would be a really fun thing to do. Maybe not every month, but when one grabs my attention. And, If I understand what I read on Vicki's blog, she'll have hand dyed fabric available in the palette colours. I just might have to start checking out patterns on EQ7 that use 5 to 6 colours. Oh, wait a minute, I'm supposed to be doing a customer quilt.
On another note, the shift I did last night was infinitely better than the last 2. We were full staffed, and thus able to give the care and attention the patients deserved. Such a relief. And now, I'm off to do that quilt.

Lots and lots of fudge

Well, It's been a few days since my rant. Part of me can't believe I did that. I am not an outwardly show your emotions type person. Most of the time, unless someone knows me really well, it is difficult to even tell if I am angry. Well, it all came to a head the next night, which was, if possible even worse than the one I ranted about, and I came home sat down, and had a major, lots of tears involved, meltdown, which is something that has never happened before. I shocked my poor husband, who was totally floored at the meltdown. But, that's over, and I had a couple of relaxing days off, and I'm back into work this afternoon. I am really hoping it is a better shift.

But, on a happier note, I managed to get 105 of the step 3 Orca Bay triangles sewn. And there are now 4 different kinds of fudge in the fridge, to give as Christmas gifts. These are just 2 of them, Oreo cookie fudge and S'mores fudge. I found these recipes, and quite a few more on moms crazy cooking. If you have a thing for chocolate, and most of us do, go on over and take a look.
I'm not going to be able to link up to the Crazy Mom Quilts finish it Friday this week, since I didn't have a finish. Too much working, and too much stuff to do for Christmas. But there are still lots of fun things to look at, if you are interested. I'm hoping to get back into getting lots of stuff finished come the new year. I've been making myself lists of UFO's and WIP's and also Bucket lists. I'm planning, at some point, of putting these lists on the side bars of the blog, so they remain front and center and visual, so that I can cross them off as they are done. There is something so satisfying about crossing things off lists as they are finished.
But, now I have to get ready for work, so I can cross this shift off my list as "done". I sure hope it is better than the last 2. I'm praying for calm and patience and strength, both physical and emotional.

Warning...... this is a rant!!!

I am so angry I could spit, just like a cat. It all started at work last night. When I got there at 3, I was told our staffing had been cut back from 7 to 6 because our census was down 1 patient, who is in the hospital. There are now 27 instead of 28 total care residents there, 25 of whom require total feeding at supper time. And they are not easy feeds, either. They have swallowing problems, need to be reminded of what they are doing, because they have forgotten what eating and swallowing even is. The first supper trays come at 4:30, and the second set come at 4:45. We finished feeing at 6:15 pm. That means that someone's supper sat for an hour and a half to and hour and three quarters before they finally got fed. Would you want that for your father or mother, or grandmother or grandfather? I sure wouldn't. I talked to our head person and was told a bunch of nonsense about statistics, and national averages for staff to patient care hours, and how there is no money for bringing back the 7th staff member. But, when the one patient returns there will be???? How on earth does this even begin to make sense??? Would she/he want this for her/his parent or grandparent? This head person isn't even a nurse, but is managing a nursing unit, and has absolutely no clue what goes on from day to day, and shift to shift. The head person then made the suggestion that the trays could be delivered earlier. How would that make a difference in the fact that there are 25 people to feed, and that it would take just as long? The moral at our workplace is the lowest I have ever seen it, and it is partly because of stuff like this. There is no reasoning with them. Money and statistics are the bottom line, even though the organization, which I cannot name, talks all kinds of nonsense about it promoting "patient focused care". They aren't the ones who have to deal with the family members who, quite rightly, complain when their father or mother are sitting in a soaking wet chair, or are waiting for a cold, congealed meal. WE are, and WE are absolutely powerless to change it. Like I said, I am so mad, I could spit. There has recently been stories on the news talking about the salaries of the CEO's of the various hospitals......... up to $700,000 per year, before travel allowances and all kinds of other benefits and perks. But there is no money to pay for a staff for even 4 hours so the someone doesn't have to eat a cold meal.  GRRRROOOOOOWWWWWWLLL!!!!

Sunday Stash Report

I finished up Make Your Point this past week, and made a giant stocking for Avery. Both of those project used up some yardage. I was really hoping to get to the 4th step of the Orca Bay mystery, and get some 2 inch strips cut and subtracted, but that didn't happen. But, I'm on my 3rd day of a 5 day stretch at work. My first day off after this stretch is going to be declared a do for myself day. And then, since I have a quick turn around, since she wants it for Christmas, customer quilt coming today, I'll have to do that. And then there are a few things I have to finished up for Christmas. Maybe, just maybe, I'll actually be in the black by the end of the year. That would be rather cool, since that was nowhere even close to being in the plan. Also, sometime between now and the end of the year, I want to set up some lists in the side bars of quilts that I want to do and also WIPs and UFOs and quilts waiting to be quilted. I did participate, for a while, in Judy Laquidara's UFO challenge, and got a few of them done. But I dropped off around the same time that our gorgeous grandson Avery was born. Speaking of Avery, wouldn't this be a good opportunity to sneak in another picture of him? And isn't that a great looking Santa? We didn't do the Santa thing with our children, but concentrated on the birthday of Christ, instead. But still, that is a great looking Santa. I like the real beard, or at least it sure looks real. Anyway...... on to the numbers.

Used this week:                           5 yards
Used this year:                           149.9 yards
Purchased this week:                     0
Purchased this year:                 162.5 yards
Balance:                                         12.6 more yards in than out

As usual, I'm linking up to Patchwork Times and the weekly stash report linky.

Two more finishes

I haven't written a blog post all week, since it has been really frantic around here, trying to get a bunch of stuff done. I had 2 customer quilts to do, and they are done, except for tying in the ends of thread on one of them, which will be today's job before going in to work. I was trying to get all these things done, since my work schedule over the next 4 weeks frankly stinks. Today is the first of 5  3-11 shifts in a row. I know for all the people who work full time, this is nothing, but I'm supposed to be part time. But over Christmas, the part time people end up working full time hours so that the full time people can get their time off over Christmas. There is something slightly wrong with that picture, but oh well.
Anyway, back to fun stuff. I finished the Make Your Point top. It is now a flimsy, and has joined the pile of flimsies waiting to be quilted.
I am 13 quarter square triangles away from having the 1st step of Orca Bay Mystery done. Considering she released step 4 today, I'm not doing that great. But, the good news is that step 4 is string piecing reds and since I decided right at the beginning of this mystery that I was going to substitute plain squares in the colours of the strings, that gives me a week to catch up and get the 350 half square triangles of step 3 at least started. I'm debating with myself whether I should go ahead and cut the plain squares, or wait a while and see how the mystery develops. I would like to at least semi keep up with this, so that it doesn't turn into another UFO. Or, if I don't keep up, just keep going until it is done.
And finally, I managed to get a Christmas stocking made up for Avery. It is huge. This year Grampy and I will have the fun of filling it, but after that, it will live at their home, and his parents will have to fill it. *wicked giggle*. Well, maybe we'll help a little then, too. There are a few other things I want to make up for Christmas, some of which can be done at work on breaks. But those are mostly secrets, so I can't talk about them, yet.
There hasn't been a whole lot of decorating here this year, since both Scott and I are working Christmas, and opposite shifts, at that. We'll be going up to Noel and Laurie's to celebrate Christ's birth with family for 3 days, starting on the 30th. Becca and Matt will be coming up then too.
I'm linking this post up to AmandaJean's  Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday. What a great motivational tool that is.
And now, I'm off to tie in thread ends, and then maybe finish those quarter square triangles, and maybe even get a start on the half square triangles before I have to go in to work this afternoon. See ya........

Design Wall Monday Dec 5

I still have Make Your Point on my wall, same  as the past few weeks. But it is slowly making progress. Since the last picture of this quilt, the triangle borders have been actually sewn on, and there is another narrow border sewn on. 

The original pattern called for these narrow borders to be pieced from random lengths of scraps, the same as the inner narrow borders.  But I wanted something with a bit more oomph and definition to it, to set off both the triangle border and the checker board that are next to it. So I went for the black with the multicolour dots.  It certainly achieved that, and looking at it in these pictures, it almost looks too much. But it is staying. The pattern also calls for an additional 2 1/2 inch border on the other side of the checker board. But to my eye right now, it looks like it is finished with the 4 patch border, and maybe the black multicoloured dots as also the binding. With the 4 patch border added on, it is 72" x 86", which is a nice generous single bed size. Any opinions? Finishing up the last of the 4 patches is my job for today, I hope. And maybe even sewing them into the borders and getting them onto the quilt. But that could be pushing it, just a bit. I'm linking up, as usual, to the design wall linky at Patchwork Times

Stash Report Dec. 4

I was hoping for some sewing yesterday, in order to finish up step 1 of the Orca Bay mystery, and start cutting for step 3, but life got in the way, but in a good way. Our daughter, Becca and her husband Matt have an apartment less than a 5 minute drive from us, and the regularly come over to our place to do their laundry, rather than pay the horrible prices to use the machines in the apartment laundry room. Usually they put in a load, go do a few errands, and come back to do more. But yesterday they stayed and visited. They are about a year away from being able to do anything about buying their own home, but Becca and I still had some fun sitting and looking at real estate on the computer in what will be their price range. We've discovered we have different criteria in what constitutes a good house. Mine is that it is a five minute walk away from us. Somehow, I don't understand why, she doesn't seem to see that as being the top of the list. LOL!!! So, the only stash that got used this past week was for the backing and binding for the Crunbs quilt And there won't be a whole lot done today either, since I have to work this afternoon and evening. Anyway, here's the numbers:

Used this week:                                      3 yards
Used this year:                                    144.9 yards
Purchased this week:                            0 yards
Purchased this year:                            162.5 yards
Balance:                                         17.6 more yards in than used.

That balance number is getting better. It might not get to zero, and that isn't my goal, anyway, but it is fun to see it shrink, just the same. I'm linking up to the Sunday Stash Report over at Patchwork Times And now, time for lunch and maybe a teeny bit of sewing and then work. See ya......

Crumbs quilt is finished

 Wow, am I ever on a roll. I have another finish. Of course, it isn't a very big quilt, measuring about 60 x 62, and it is quilted with a very simple overall meander. I figured that, since there is so much going on in the quilt itself, complex quilting wouldn't show. Even with the close up, the quilting is difficult to see. For the backing, I found some leftover pieces that were crying to be used up, and to be put into a quilt so they could be loved. I really like the splash of orange tulips down the middle. I hope Shelby likes it, when she gets it for Christmas. I wonder how I'll know if she does, considering she's our chocolate labrador retriever grand-doggy.     And now, I'm off to work. See ya....

Friday edit: Once again, I'm going to link up to AmandaJean's Crazy Mom's Quilts for her Finish it up Friday. And I just found a new linky party that looks like it has a lot of fun stuff to look at, called the Rock 'n Share Party hosted buy a blog called The Shady Porch. Looks Like I'll be spending some time on her front porch.