Quilting Thoughts

Current projects:
-- the maple leaf/log cabin quilt that I'm currently working on as well as
-- the Craftsy' BOM. 
-- Mel's top is waiting to be machine quilted
-- quilting frame is waiting to be finished and put together
-- quilting room is waiting to be moved from 2nd floor to 1st floor (putting guest room on 2nd flr)

Then there are a number of quilting projects I'd like to do:
-- vest (for me)
-- a couple wall hangings (Christmas Wreath and Christmas Tree)
-- string quilt blocks -- a couple a month so in a year or so I'd have enough for a quilt
-- wall hanging for a children's day care center in NH
-- lap quilt for my nephew Matt
-- lap quilt for my nephew Mark

In between all of this I need to work a full-time job; clean my house (hubby's threatened to enroll me in a Molly Maid's course -- dusting is just not my thing); plan, prepare and plant a veggie garden; tend to my knock-out roses, and bushes; help hubby with some yard work; exercise, eat right, grocery shop, laundry, dishes, etc. and enjoy life.

Now that I've written down what I have to do.  I need to make a plan to get them done.

Oh yes, I also have to get my tush to the local church and join as I've been talking about doing this since we moved to Ohio in 2007!  There's a Nazarene church down the street from my house that looks inviting.  I also want to join the local quilt guild especially now that it's about 10 minutes from where I work (meets 1st Monday of the month).

Craftsy April B.O.M.

Working full-time and trying to keep up with all that I want to do isn't easy.  However, housework gets set aside for quilting.  I mean, a girl has to do what a girl has to do.

This month we were thrown a challenge. We could do anything we wanted with the hexagons instead of the sunrays. So the first one I did was, of course, the challenge.

A grandmother's flower garden which is appropriate because I am a grandmother who needs a flower garden. The next one is the hex stripe which was fairly easy to do. 

And then I decided to do the sunrays as well.  I have some red-orange fabrics left from a quilt I did long ago and thought they'd look nice as my sunrays. As you can see, I need to finish tacking down the rays.  It was late when I was working on this and I think I needed to re-do the bobbin thread.

Here you have all three of them together. 

Happy Easter!

Today was a relatively quiet day for us.  The kids are unable to come over for Easter and I have yet to find a home church so... I did a little quilting, tried a new tuna steak recipe for dinner as well as attempted to make pumpkin flans for dessert for hubby and me. 

I've been busy with work which accounts for the lack of updates.  I've also enjoyed this month's Craftsy block-of-the-month which is English Paper Piecing.  I'm a little surprised at that as I've been avoiding paper piecing but it was a nice change.  I wouldn't want to do a whole quilt in paper piecing but a block or two or a wall hanging would be do-able for me.

The BOM included a sunbeam or you could do a challenge block using the hexagons.  So I haven't done the hex stripe (working on it though honest), but I jumped to the challenge and did a Grandmother's Flower Garden which I call "Out of Place".



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 Called "Out of Place" because sometimes, like the odd pink petal, I feel out of place even though I may fit in to my surroundings.  This took pretty much all week as it's hand-pieced.  I did machine stitch it to the background fabric around the outer green edge and both edges of the pink round.  I am looking forward to doing the other two blocks for this month when I can squeeze it in.

It's been a busy month with the new job and hubby has been traveling off and on for work.  Last week I also managed to catch a cold he brought home with him and was battling that.  *fun**fun*

This coming week, I will be taking a couple of exercise classes being offered through work after hours.  Pilates and Zumba!  I had originally signed up for three (Body Blast -- cardio) but figured since I've been fairly inactive all winter long, I'd better take it easy.

I need to get ready for the work week by tending to the ironing (at least some of it).  Hope everyone has a blessed week.

Thanks for stopping by!