My Plans for October

Hopefully, that will be this October - not 2013, 2014 LOL!!! But first, a pretty picture!

 Fall colors ~ not a lot of trees have turned in our area, but I spotted this one on my walk yesterday.

 My attic before, during & after my hissy fit today!! While some folks would love a full size, walk up attic - it's been a curse to me. Let's load it full of craft stuff....year after year after year.....!!!! Let's look for one craft item which we know is up there....somewhere....and the melt down happens!

 Another lovely picture from my walk on Monday. Taken at our local golf course just before the sun disappeared and when I realized I'd be running home ~ can't miss Coronation Street at 7:30pm ;-)

 Ya...back to the attic! Big sort going on with all the bits and bobs of yarn. Sadly, the white boxes are from my office working days - I left in 1990 and the boxes are still going strong. Likely full of the same CRAP from that time period also....shakes head!

 And because I need another lovely picture in this pathetic posting ~ the front window at our local garden's office/potting shed!

If you never hear from me again, you know where I am......the @*&%* attic!!!

Can't see the forest......

You can't see the forest for the trees......!!!

Well, actually I can - not directly, but I know it's there!

With my slice & dice fever still happening - GOD - does this fabric breed or what....I'm still waving my rotary cutter around like a wand. Just wish I had the magical powers to get everything done with a simple 'ta-daaaaa'.......umph!

My containers are all labelled and stacked and I've added two more larger containers to hold the pieces for these two quilts. I must remind myself not to look at anymore old quilt books. Best to donate them back to the thrift store for another victim to buy them ;-)

The 1st is from Lady's Circle Patchwork Quilts, dated March 1986. Delectable Mountains Variation and I've resized it (hopefully) for a larger block. The original HT squares were just to small for my patience. I love the pattern, the colours are iffy here - but I thinking more reddish, less orange. But, seriously.....it's all coming from stash, so the colours will be...hmmm,whatever they are! LOL

 2nd Quilt added from American Patchwork & Quilting dated June 1996. This one will be a good stash reducer quilt.

I think when Bonnie Hunter starts her next mystery quilt in November, I'll continue on with finishing up all my UFO ones. Actually have a couple of Bonnie's mysteries to finish.....not sure how that happens ( who am I kidding) I love being involved with these mysteries and the camaraderie of all the quilters combined. I just need to stick to the quilts that I've started and am drawn towards.

ROFL ~ this is me....scratching my head and figuring out the size I want to work with!! Ha ha ha!!! Grade 12 math was many eons ago for me, but I think I've got it hammered out!!!!

Now....back to cutting!!!

Pineapple Blossom ~ Done....?

 



Well...sort of!! I've been dragging this quilt inside & outside, upstairs & downstairs over the past year or so.....ahem!!!!

The hand quilting is taking a looooong time & I didn't want to mess it up any further than I have already!

So....last week as I dragged it back inside after sitting outside hand stitching in the lovely, warm sun ~ I managed to catch the bottom corner ( without knowing) and it pulled the batting out, about 6 to 8 inches of it! Grrrrr....!!! That was it - the binding was made and applied - PRONTO!!

I'll continue to hand quilt it during the colder months and the fear of shredding anymore of the batting and outside border has been taken care of - good grief!!!

 

I picked up this stamped embroidery piece at the Mennonite Thrift Store for $1. I noticed it was a little wonky, no problem - I just want to start practising my hand stitching and this hit the nail on the head price wise. On closer inspection, someone had written in INK, the different colour codes onto the actual fabric...hmmm. Again, it's a sample piece for me - so I shouldn't worry.

Well, sort of......!!!!

Kitting Up the UFO's

 

 

I have a knack for starting quilt projects ~ then starting another one ~ then another, and then realizing I've used the same fabric in several of them AND holy crap, I'm going to run out of that fabric and be stuck with several unfinished quilts due to my knack (aka: stupid DOH moment)

 

See this picture.....Yup!!!

I've got several quilts on the go, all using men's shirts! Plus, I'm now cutting the shirts all up into itty bitty pieces (cuz I'm rather sick of them at the moment) and putting those pieces into the scrap saving system.

 

STOP!!!!!!

 

 

OK....breath deep! Out come the UFO's, put on floor with pattern - take picture and then load on computer, put on computer screen and proceed to find, cut & bag up all the required missing pieces!!I'm going to try and do this everyday.....everyday, EVERYDAY!!!

I just read Bonnie Hunter's blog post of being on quiltcam tonight ~ I'll be there, working on this Bear Paw Quilt!! Good Luck to me - Yah!!! LOL

 

Sewing at the beach

Headed to Lake Huron for some quiet sandy beach time. Took my hand piecing, didn't do as much as I'd like as it was windy & hard to hold the little pieces.

I did play around with some beach rocks and made some tiny little animal prints ;-)

 

 LOL ~ just a shot looking thru my lovely granny sunglasses! Finally caved into getting a pair of sunglasses that fit over my prescription glass & have those bling sides to them also ~ gotta save those eyes, only one pair per lifetime!!!

 Just another shot of my little hand piecing project that went camping with me back in August. I was at the campground laundry mat, perfect time for some stitching! So, it's getting around this year! Lake Superior camping and then Lake Huron for some beach sitting. Totally forgot to take it with me on the 3rd of this month, as it was the airshow in Toronto and that's on Lake Ontario. Just need a trip to Lake Erie now...LOL!!!

Time zooms by........fast!!

Holy Cow ~ It's September already!!!

 Camping - boy, did I miss our family tent. You know - the one that is 8 feet tall in the middle and sleeps 8 people LOL LOL!!!! And it poured rain on my second night which was fine - sort of, I had thrown a larger tarp over the tent & fly, but the weight of it sort of collapsed the sides and I got wet!!!!

 I did a little of this on the beach of Lake Superior. Wish I had more time to do more of it. I had collected some small pieces of drift wood to put on the grave sites of my two dogs that are buried in the area. And then forgot to take my backpack with me when my girlfriend drove us around St Joseph Island. DOH!!!

 ROFLMAO ~ this is the entrance to my old house. I lived on 2 acres in cow country and was surrounded by pines. Umph ~ I use to keep the ditches totally cut. It's a single guy that owns the house now, so I guess he has different priorities LOL!!! It was a great little vacation for me!

 Wow ~ Bonnie Hunter is onto 'spools' now for her leader/ender project and I'm still cutting fabric for last years bow ties!! But look, this is exactly the look I'm going for with my bow ties! It's McCalls Quilting mag from spring of 2001. The bow ties are the exact same size, and I nearly croaked when I read just how many is needed.....YIKES!!! 810 blocks for a 82" x 91" quilt with NO larger outside borders. I think I'm nearing 50 ;-0

 Off to the thrift store and I pass these moo cows and just had to snap their picture! My total take at the store was around $6 bucks. Just had to buy this lovely vintage flat sheet ~ don't think it's been washed yet ~ woozer!!! I grew up with these sheets and they came in all sorts of colours. I actually used a lighter blue one for my son's 1st quilt. Will dig around for that picture. The large cone of 100% cotton thread was $4 and tons left to use. And of course, patterns at 50 cents each - both complete. Not sure if I'll use them ~ just another collection to dust.

And blogger won't load my other pictures, so maybe......later I'll complete my blog post. Lets not hold our breath!!! ;-P~~