Today I will.....

Today I will make a list of all the things I want to get accomplished today. It's cold and wet outside, the kind of cold and wet that is almost cold enough to snow, but doesn't, so it is just damp and dreary instead. But, we are warm and snug in here. Sometime before I got up this morning, Scott was up and built a lovely fire. So, I'm sitting here on the couch, with my laptop on my lap, all warm and toasty, not particularly wanting to get up and do anything. It's days like today I wish I could move all my sewing stuff down here to the living room. But, I think that would cause major revolution in the house, from my wonderfully patient, and understanding, husband. There is already a quilt on the floor, waiting to have it's ends tied in, another quilt on the rocking chair that I just finished tieing the ends in. The table beside the couch is covered with applique and knitting stuff, and books, and papers, and thread, and needles, and.......... I could give in, and enjoy the fire and work on some applique, but there is other stuff I want/need to get done. So, I will exercise some self discipline, (have I mentioned before that is not one of my strong points?) and make a list and work towards getting it done, so, here goes.

1. Make the binding, and sew it onto the 3 completed quilt tops.
2. Make the 4th square for Teaquilt's sew along
3. Take pictures, and write a post about the 4 finished blocks.
4. Decide whether I'm going to hand or machine finish the bindings.
5. Do some more work on some Christmas presents.

That should pretty much take care of the day. If there is time left, I will do some more on the Pineapple Nine Patch quilt, and see if I can get it to the finished stage.

Design Wall Monday Oct. 22

I don't have anything new up on my wall today. I'm still concentrating on getting things finished. But, I thought I would share one of last week's finished, which I am so happy with. My Pieceful Kwilter Bom is finished, and waiting for quilting. I made the mistake of going through all my unquilted tops, and discovered that there are at least 10 of them. When the Pineapple one is finished, hopefully this week, that will make 11. Yikes! Join me with a cup of something warm, and come on over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see more design walls.

The day after the Friday sew in

 This is a quilt that I've been working on for the past year, as a  BOM  sponsored by Shannon at Pieceful Kwilter It is a lovely quilt design and I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and it is finally added to my finished list, and added to the growing piles of my own quilt tops that are waiting to be quilted. I seem to be doing more piecing that quilting these days.

Thank you, Shannon, for all your hard work in designing this, and in writing and posting all the instructions. I'm really happy with the way this quilt turned out, although I do wish the stars in the gold fabric had stood out a bit more. But, I wanted to use the aqua fabric there as a tie together, because I used that fabric somewhere in each of the sampler blocks.

Then I was able to get some work done on my Nine Patch Pineapple, which meant that there was a lot of sewing going on here yesterday. I was able to start at around 2 in the afternoon, and kept on going, with a few breaks, until about 11:30, when my eyes got to the point where they would no longer focus. I noticed, though, after most of it was together, that one of the pinwheel sections is turned the wrong way. Drat! However, the good news is that I have one of those units left over, for some reason, so I might be able to applique it on top of the offending piece, with no one the wiser. (giggle) I started the day with 23 out of 30 blocks for this quilt done. I finished up the last 7 blocks, got them all arranged on the wall, and then got them all sewn together. There was still time after that to get the first pieced border sections cut, and they are in the process of being sewn. I am doing this quilt along with 2 other people in a sew along with Teaquilts . There is a picture there of Tea's finished quilt. She did hers in reds, and it is stunning. The quilt pattern is from a book called "Geometric Gems", and there are several other quilts in the book that I'm itching to do. But now, as usual, I am working the weekend, so won't have much time to scroll through the Friday sew in posts I'm going to go grab some lunch, and then go work on some of the border units before going in to work at 3, even though I would much rather stay at home and play with my fabrics. (sigh)

Friday night sew in

The is a Friday night sew in coming up this Friday. I'm not usually able to participate in these, since I work most Fridays. But, I have this Friday off, so, I'm going to do it. I'm, going to commit to having this coming Friday for sewing, and, hopefully, the whole day, and not just the evening. Maybe I can get the Pineapple top done that day. There are a lot of people participating in this, and it will be fun to see the posts on Friday, talking about what they are working on, and then on Saturday, to see the results of all that sewing. Go here to see more info, and the list of all those who are joining in.

Design Wall Monday Nov 15

Before I say anything about quilts, I have to get the important stuff out of the way. I've been keeping a secret, mostly, for the last 6 weeks. And it has been a terribly difficult secret to keep. But, I've been given permission, now, to share it, and shout it from the rooftops. Here it comes: WE ARE GOING TO BE GRANDPARENTS!!!! YIPPEE, YAHOO, WOOHOO!!!!!! There, it's out, and I no longer feel like I'm going to burst. The lovely couple doing this are our wonderful son, Noel, and our even more wonderful, since she has to do all the work growing the baby, daughter-in-law, Laurie.  I'm walking around with a permanent grin on my face, doing happy dances. Cute fabrics, and baby clothes, and toys, and all the fun stuff, while someone else, namely Laurie, does all the hard work of growing and having the baby. Between her Mom and myself, I suspect we are going to drive Laurie just a little tiny bit crazy. Laurie's Mom, Jan, is a knitter, so, when we were all together over Thanksgiving, back in October, which is when they told us, Jan and I made a pact. She would knit to her heart's content for this coming baby, and I would sew to my heart's content. Like I said, we are probably going to drive Laurie crazy, but, it is so much fun. Anyway, to quilting stuff. I have, on my design wall, the almost complete layout of the Block of the Month I've been doing, designed by Shannon of Pieceful Kwilter I am so pleased with the way this quilt is turning out. She is going to be sponsoring another one, and I think I will definitely be doing it. I know it isn't on my goals list for this month, but I'm doing well enough with it to be able to add something else in.  And now, join me over ay Judy's Patchwork Times to browse through other inspirational design walls.

Another finish

I have my Mac computer back, and all seems to be well with it. While I was unable to post pictures or anything, I managed to get my Connect the Dots quilt, designed by Judy Laquidara finished. I exercised considerable self discipline, while is not at all one of my strengths, and worked on it, without starting anything else, until it was finished. The last border went on last evening. I must confess that stating goals publicly here is helping with the self discipline thing, and I really like the feeling of accomplishment from actually finishing stuff. So far, off my goal list, is Evelyn's cross stitch quilt, which I didn't manage to get a picture of. This quilt was on that list, so it can be crossed off, and I have 2 of my own small quilts off the machine, and quilted, and waiting to be trimmed and bound. Not bad, considering it isn't the middle of the month yet. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I have 15 of the Pineapple quilt along blocks sewn together as well. But now, I must sign off and get ready for work.

My Mac has to go to the Mac hospital

I am totally not impressed. My MacBook has quit on me. It won't turn on. I am currently usingmy old dinosaur laptop, so I am, at least, not totally cut off. But, Idon't know howmuch picture uploading,and stuff like that, that I'll be able to do, until it can be fixed. I hope it can be fixed. I'll have to take it in tomorrow, before I go to work, and, hopefully,have a diagnosis sometime next week. And,ofcourse,itis past the warranty date. (sigh)