YARN, HOOKS & FMQ CHALLENGE

Happy Saturday! It's a good day to finish up some more small projects. First up: another small afghan to line Missy's bed. I love these. Way easier to wash a few small afghans and quilts than to clean her beds! This one has a center of afghan stitch in variagated cotton, and the borders in various washable wool blends using hdc, dc, and final round of dc shells. The big deal with this project is what I used to create it. An antique hook that was hand-made by my Mother's Father. It was made about 1910. I came across this hook early last week while cleaning out some more boxes of my Mother's things. It called to me, so I grabbed a ball of cotton and proceeded to begin crocheting. You know how these things go, right? I've just been missing Mom a lot lately and using her hook was comforting.

 

Missy seems to like her new bed.

Note the awful interior corners of this afghan. I inadvertanly picked up an extra stitch for the corner when I began the borders. I didn't discover this error until I was finishing off the shell edging. Nope! Wasn't going to take it out... so it remains a little wonky looking. Missy doesn't seem to notice or care so it will stay this way.

Another afghan covered bed atop Missy's 'tree house' perch where she loves to lay in the morning because the sun streams in right on her bed... so warm.

I drew my first scribble this morning in preparation for the new FMQ Challenge 2013. Libby Lehman and the TQS has graciously offered Libby's Thread Play tute on their website and it is FREE to view for all of February! Big thanks to SewCalGal who is organizing this once again. Click over to her site... she has all the info listed including links. I learned so much last year. This year I plan to put more effort into the tutes that are offered every month. If you haven't checked this out yet, go have a look. It's super! Oh... and it's fun!

Until next time. . . I have a doodle-cloth to batt up so I can practice some FMQ. I still have those placemats to finish, but I need to "warm up" first. What are YOU up to?

Quilty Hugs,

BOATING ON THE LAKE!

Friday evening was extra special because my youngest DD took me on a tour of the lake they live next to... the 2 1/2 hour tour was all by water; in their new BOAT! It was so wonderful. We saw many different kinds of birds, some ducks and a few other boaters. Laura piloted this boat like an ol' salt! Gosh she's good at it. Backed it straight out of the slip and did some fancy maneuvers. I felt so safe in her care.  While on the boat I was able to get a few good pictures, but the first two are the views from her backyard:


View from their backyard [looking left toward Lake]

Backyard view

Exiting the slip. Laura is good at this!



They have several pairs of swans that live on their Lake year 'round

Rippin back to docks b4 sun goes down - new running-lights aren't hooked up yet



Their boat on the right. We docked just as the sky lit up all orange & pink. Pretty!

Sky turned brilliant just after we docked and tied up! Nature provided a spectacular show!!! Again, this is a backyard view. Nice.

Until next time. . . let's go stitch something!
Quilty Hugs,


HOME. . . It's Great To Be Home!

Travel is nice, but it is wonderful to be home. Things have been a bit hectic here. The next day after returning from Hawaii -- which was wonderful! -- my DD, her Hubby, and my Great Grandson came to visit for a few days. It was a whirl-wind visit, but it was great just the same. We managed to visit, camp, BBQ, shop, hit a few restaurants; also, Auntie and Andy even took a small trip around the Harbor in a Paddle Boat!

I caught the girls "being girls" in a candid shot at the Harbor.

Here is evidence of our BBQ necessities! LOL

Roasting marshmellos for Sa-Mores -- what a great way to finish up a lovely evening!

Tuesday was Friendship Group Meeting and several members shared their current projects:

Suzanne shared a quilt made by kids. They 'rubbed' crayons over leaves. Wonderful!

Deb's batik Star Quilt... Deb does amazing and beautiful work!

Another of Deb's beauties: A mini DJ -- the blocks are half-size. . . that's only 2 inches, folks! Wow.

Some of Susan's "10 Minute Blocks" made from 5inch batik charm squares. Nice! [Click on 10 Minute Blocks and you will see a U-tube vid on how to make these cute and easy blocks.]

The Southern California Quilt Run is on this weekend and next weekend. Many shops are participating and they are spread out over 3 or 4 counties. This means a lot of driving! I will be volunteering at a LQS. It's been a lot of work, but Thursday and Friday were fun days. Had the opportunity to meet many wonderful quilters who drove long distances to visit with us in San Diego County.

My current goal is to get busy on the big pile of UFOs that are stretching to the sky! It is time to get going on some of these many projects and not begin any new ones until some of the WIPs are finished! Yes... I'll hold my breath. LOL

Thanks for stopping by. . . I hope where ever you are that you can visit with those you love, and of course find some time to stitch!

Hugs,

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY? . . . I'm Embroidering An SBS Block

What are YOU doing this gorgeous Sunday? I'm finishing up the embroidery on a SBS block for one of my granddaughters. It's not quite done, but here it is so far. . . please ignore the basting threads:

A couple of years ago I made Sid a quilt using several embroidered blocks, adding sashing, cornerstones, borders, etc., to bring it up to twin size.  This block is similar to the ones in her quilt and will be a 'picture' for her bedroom wall. I hope to create a small pieced border for this embroidery using some of the material left over from her quilt. My plan is to carry it with me on my upcoming trip to Hawaii and frame it to hang in her room. Easier than mailing it, ya?!

That's all for now. Thank you for stopping by. I hope where ever you are that you have the time and inclination to create something that makes you happy!

Hugs,

E-7 Bread Basket

This was a fun little block to make, but it did take me a while to complete it. When E-7 was first announced as this week's DJ BOW [due Sun, 2/8] I looked it up in my DearJane software. At first glance it looked pretty intimidating. I checked around on the Internet to see how others had done it and found nothing! I was going to have to figure this one out all by myself! Now here's the funny thing: I spent a couple of days thinking about this block and what I could do to make it "easy". HA! Then I had an epiphany. . .with all the time spent trying to find some short-cuts, I could have pieced the block 3-times over! Well, live and learn. hehehe. After finding some nice green fabric I began. Now here's the really funny part. . . as I began, it all just 'came together', so to speak. So what did I learn? Like the NIKE slogan says, "JUST DO IT!". The good that came out of this--well, besides another completed DJ block and that's always good, is just to begin. I mean, afterall, what's the worst that can happen? Perhaps just to begin again, that's all! So, from now on I will not let myself be intimidated by any block. I will just DO IT as best I can. I'm including a pic of both the front and the back as it's seldom easy to tell how a person has put their block together w/out viewing the back. Also, I found by combining and using several techniques that this block went together fairly easily. The techniques I used: rotary cutting/strip piecing, PPing, both needleturn & FP applique, machine and hand sewing/piecing. The picture turned out a little wonky so it looks like two points don't line up... i'm happy to say, yes they do as i laid a ruler across all the intersections. I am a happy camper about that and it turned out the correct size! Wahoo! I did take step-by-step pics of how I assembled this block and will post them here if requested.
Last week was very interesting: I went flying with my youngest son and DGD. I have some pictures and will post them soon, along with pictures from the Road2California Quilt Show in January2009, as well as some class photos from The Temecula Quilt Company. The TQC is a lovely place filled with beautiful repros and owned and operated by a wonderful and friendly lady. More on that in a day or two.
I think I'm finally getting a handle on u/loading pictures and so forth to this blog, so I hope to be more punctual in the future with postings! One can only hope.
That's it for this session. . .I am off to try & finish up D-8 before I go to bed tonight.
Toodles, and thanks for stopping by. . .
Cyn:-)