Do you like to play games???

I found a new online game to play. It is from the shockwave site, and is called patchworkz! It is addicting. I saw some messages on the yahoo stashbusters group, one person asking for help, she was stuck on level 60. Another was stuck on 60 and then got through that and was working in the 70's levels. As the name describes, it is patchwork based, in that you drag the patches into the square to make a design. Don't worry, part of it is there to start you on each level. My DH saw the design from one of the beginning levels, and said "That is pretty". So, with the warning that the game is addicting, here is the site

http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/patchworkz.jsp

You will probably have to register, but I've never had problems with the site, and when you leave and come back the next day, it knows where you left off, so you don't have to start over.

I think I'm currently on level 37. Give it a try, and let me know what level you are at. It is FUN!

The "new quilt" and a peek at the BOM Blocks

I had hoped to work on the new quilt yesterday or today, and really didn't get much done. The top is still on the design wall, waiting to be layered. But I did get the cotton batting washed and dried. Well soaked and dried really. I wanted to pre-shrink the batting, as I have washed all the fabrics for the quilt. This is the first time I've ever prewashed/shrunk cotton batting, and it worked very well. The batting is very soft.

Also, this coming Saturday is the last Saturday of the month. That means my BOM is due, and I haven't even cut the pieces yet. I guess it is not really important, as I can't go to the meeting, I have camp training in Phoenix that morning. (bummer!!) But I don't want to get behind, so I will get the block done this week. But I thought I'd share a pic of the 6 blocks that are already done.

I really like the fabrics in this line, and I think the blocks are very interesting. This month's block is also one with a lot of pieces. I can't wait until I can see it with the rest of these.

Well, I think I will go piece the back for the "new quilt", and maybe I can layer it tomorrow?? LOL

Vicki

A little bit more done...

This morning dh and I went to Flagstaff and did some shopping and errands. Then Hubby had some activities this afternoon, so I got to work on my stuff. I finished the second design wall panel, and they work great! And I got the new top pieced together, and hope to layer it tomorrow. I've got to piece the back first tho.

I ran out of time tonight, so no progress on my flag quilt, but that I can take places to work on while I wait. So I better get my Sunday School lesson read for tomorrow, and get to bed.

Take care all, and have a good day tomorrow.

A little bit of progress here, a little bit there

OK, feeling pretty good tonight. This morning I was kinda bummed, and don't know why. But I have progress to report to you tonight, and I'm pretty pleased.

FIRST - I finally worked on my design wall. Hubby and I got the materials a month or two ago, but I just couldn't get to putting them together. We bought 2 - 4 x 8 sheets of insulation board, and today I cut a foot off the ends, to make them 4 x 7. Then I wrapped batting around them, and taped the batting to the back. One is completely taped, and up against the wall, with blocks on it, the second is taped on three sides. I got interrupted when we went to dinner, but I will finish it tomorrow.

SECOND - My new quilt - I have had over half the blocks together, but the blocks are on point, and I needed to cut the setting triangles. Well, I'm happy to report that they are now cut, and I've sewn the first three on to the corner block. The sizes I cut are going to work well, so I'm happy. (And this quilt is the reason I finally had to get the design wall done. The little area I was using was just too small to see the layout. And I really need the second piece of wall - then I will be able to see the entire quilt up on the wall, with out flapping over on the edges!!)

THIRD - Remember the flag quilt I showed you a while back, trying to figure out how to quilt the blue field?? Well I made a decision, and here it is:

If you click on the picture to make it larger, you can see the quilting in the blue field. There are two large "fireworks" stitched in the blue field. The top one has gold beads added at the ends of the firework lines. I still need to add the beads to the bottom one. I used Sulky Holoshimmer thread#145-6007. (It is a mylar type thread, and I used a regular needle, and did NOT have problems with thread breakage) And in the top left, you will see a small firework burst. I have about 5 more of these to add also. Then finish putting on the sleeve to hang it, and a label and it will be done. Woo Hoo. I may get this done this month!! Yippee!!

Yours in Quilting - Sew something fun for yourself!!

Vicki

The Cutest Quilted Note Cards...

Quite Quilted is having a give-away for a sample of her qulted notecards. they are really cute, and I hope I win. But I really must share these with all of you! So here is the link to the give-away

The give-away closes Friday (tomorrow) at noon EST, but even if the give-away is over, you really should go look at her cards!!

It's time to garden!!

My DH finished sifting the dirt for my garden yesterday while I was running around in town. Isn't that so sweet of him!! I'm so pleased. Here is a picture of what the dirt looks like before it is sifted for the rocks. This is a picture of the crocus bulbs I planted last fall, again without sifting the dirt. (I just can't call it soil!!) You can barely see the crocus plants (I think they are stunted!) and all the rocks. So since DH finished the sifting, today I can start getting ready to plant.




I mixed in the compost, potting soil, coffee grounds and cut up fabric into the dirt. (Yep, this is what I do with my cotton fabric scraps that are too small to use. and I save all the used coffee grounds too). So the dirt is ready, and you can see the scraps of fabric in the picture on the right. I've mixed the dirt well, and leveled it out. then put down my drip hose that I use to water the flowers. Looks wonderful, doesn't it?? So smooth, no big rocks!!




Now we need to go to the little local nursery! As we head to town, we get to go through this wonderful tunnel under the train tracks. The tunnel is over 100 years old, and trains still use the tracks over it several times a day. It's a short drive from the tunnel to town, and then a few blocks and we are at the nursery. The nursery is in the yard around one of the older homes in town.

Wow, don't they have a lot of plants for a little nursery!! Hmm , it's pretty early in the spring yet, and the nights still get below freezing, so I probably should just get pansies. They should be pretty hardy. And look at the racks of pansies they have! I'm going to pick out some good ones! Oh, there are some iris's. I'm grabbing one pot of those too. The owner says they are pretty fragile, and it may get too cold for them at night, but I'm going to give one pot a try.

Back home we go, and I want to get these all in the ground. I've got a lot of empty space yet, but I have some flowers to look at now. I put the iris in the most sheltered spot in the little garden, and divided up the pansies into two groups. In the picture on the right you can also see the dianthus that made it through the winter, as well as two poppy plants, and a miniature rose bush that may or may not make it. I'll get more flowers in a couple weeks, when the danger of freezing is past. Oh, yes. The step stones are a couple pieces I "stole" from the pallets of rock that are waiting to become our front walk. Oh well, that is for another day.


OK, I'm pooped. Time to rest, and then on to sewing!! Yeaaa!! What a great day!!

My life has just been BORING.

I've not been able to do much in the way of sewing. We have been so busy at work - working until at least 8 or 9 pm, and some nights, like tonight, we worked until just after 10:30 pm. When we get done, I just don't have the energy to go sew. I've been thinking about how to quilt the blue field in the flag quilt, and have an idea to use some metallic film type of thread that Sulky makes. But I sure don't want to experiment with something new, that is sure to be fussy when I'm this tired. Last night I couldn't even sew the strips together for the new quilt. Now that is bad!! So I have nothing to show you, no pictures of progress.

I did have a little fun, tho. I went to Flagstaff today (needed to do the banking, and run errands). But the fun part was that I drove through little mini snow showers. About 8 times in my driving there and back, I had flakes falling from the sky. Now the car said it was 43 degrees outside, and during the "biggest" show shower, the temperature dropped to 37. Needless to say, the snow did not stay on the ground very long. But it was fun to see the flakes, for just a little while.

Sew some fun stuff, and let me know what you are getting done. I need the inspiration!

Started the new Quilt

I realized that part of the fabrics for the new quilt were washed, and part were not. So I washed what needed, and started cutting strips. I have one strip set together, and will need to cut two more strips from each fabric, as they are not as long as I need. I will need 20 blocks when I'm done, and will only have 15 (I'm going to get 3 blocks per strip set, with about 8 inches left over to do something else with). I'm liking the look so far, and hope to get the rest of the strips sewn tomorrow, and cut into blocks. Then I will post a picture for you to see.

Thanks for stopping by, you make my day!!

I gave up!

After 2 splinters, and a hot spot trying to be a blister, I gave in, and gave up, but just for the day. This afternoon we went to the hardware store and bought materials to make a sifter for the front garden. For sifting the dirt. For sifting out the rocks! And boy, do we have rocks. Last year after we moved in, I wanted flowers so badly that we just dug up the dirt, and pulled the biggest rocks out, planted the flowers. They did OK, but I knew I should have removed the rocks. I had a few plants that have survived the winter, so I dug them up, and set then aside, to plant when I was done. Then I started throwing shovels full of dirt at the screen. You can see in this picture the kind of dirt I'm working with. And if you look through the screen you can see the pile of sifted dirt. Thank goodness my DH took pity on me. He was working on the front walk, but stopped that and came to help me. We took out at least 4 wheelbarrows full of rocks, and still have about 1/4 of the bed to do. And we are both sore! I guess because we have not done much during the winter. But before I could quit, I had to get the plants I dug out back into the ground, or the wind would dry then out and they'd be dead anyway. So I made a little place to put then at the end of the garden that is already sifted. I think they look pretty nice. Most of them are Dianthus, and had red and white flowers last year. The two in the back right are Poppies that survived the winter. I thought they were dead, but no, these two started growing. The other plant in the back is a miniature rose. I bought it last year in Safeway, but it didn't do well inside, so I stuck it in the garden. This spring, the stems are still green, so I don't know if it will come back or not. If it doesn't, I'll pull it up and replace it. You can also see all the dirt we sifted. No wonder we are tired. The rocks?? Oh, they went in the back yard, where the water draining from the yard was starting to cause erosion. So, no sewing today, but a good start on the garden. When it is finished, I'm going to go get some pansies. They should make it, even it we get a little more snow this year.

I hope you are having a great spring. Maybe tomorrow we can sew. Thanks for stopping by, and I really enjoy it when you leave me a note!

The Recital was Wonderful!

I guess I need to expand on the recital. Heather is a Senior Horn Performance Major, with a horn being a French Horn for those not in the know. We heard a Beethoven Sonata (three movements), Bernhard Krol's "Laudatio for Horn Solo", and Paul Dukas "Villanelle" which was my favorite of the three pieces before intermission. Then after Intermission, Heather played the 3 movements of Mozart's Concerto No 2 in Eb Major for Horn, K. 417 from memory which I also liked very much. And then she had 3 other horn students join her for "Sonata for Four Horns" by Hindemith. OK, I know for you non-musical people this will not mean a lot, but trust me - It was a great performance, and we enjoyed it very much. We heard Heather play the horn as everyone recognizes the sound of a french horn, but then she also made it produce other tones that were amazing. After her standing ovation, we had a reception in the lobby of the hall. Heather's mom (who is a great cook) catered the event and we all had a lovely time.

Friday Steve and I stopped in Phoenix as he had some business meetings, and I got to visit with people from my old office, and then we headed home. On the way home, I got about half the hanging sleeve on my flag quilt, before it got too dark to see what I was doing. All in all, it was a very good trip!

Now to go start a new quilt. Hope I have time this week to get the fabric cut, and the blocks made!

Please leave me a note when you stop by, if just to say hi. I'd love to meet the people reading my blog, and would love to read yours also.

Yours in quilting!

I found another UFO!

While I was looking for the cording that I use to make my piping for bindings, I found another UFO project that I had forgotten about. It is a Bargello Flag wall hanging. It needs a little more quilting, and a hanging sleeve, and maybe a few more beads. Here is a picture of it. I've all ready quilted following the lines of the red and white stripes, down the middle of each. But I need to quilt in the blue field. I was thinking about fireworks in the blue field, maybe with some gold cording/thread?? Maybe with a bead at the end of some or each of the lines? Hmm, I'll have to think about it some more. Any suggestions? I guess I never finished this, because I was just not sure what I wanted to do, so any ideas will be happily considered. The more ideas, the better the product has always been my philosophy! Oh, I should show you more detail of the trim. I used the flash in this picture, so the color is washed out, But I think you can get the idea.

Then I promised you a look at the fabrics for my next quilt. Both the tan print, the black and the blue strip fabrics have gold glitz on them. The blue stripe also has black stripes. The lighter blue I'm thinking of using for setting triangles on the edges. The tan is just a mottle, and the rust is a viney print. I'm thinking that I like them together, but I'll keep them out and view them for another day or two before making up my mind. Maybe I'll audition some other fabrics.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to Tucson. My DH and I will be going to hear the senior recital of my youngest son's girlfriend. I heard her sophomore recital, and it was wonderful, so I know tomorrow will be great also.

See you soon! Sew something wonderful!

Planning a new quilt...

I've spent the last couple of hours trying to pick fabric for a new quilt. I think I finally have it narrowed down to blue, rust, light tan, and black. The fabrics seem to go with my focus fabric pretty well, but I have not had that moment of YES! those are great together. Guess I'll sleep on it tonight. Pictures?? Well, If I don't remember to unplug my camera from my computer after loading pictures, the battery is dead the next time I want to use it. What a bummer. I'll post pictures of my fabric choices tomorrow.

I'm the Queen - at least, I was the Queen.

I think I've posted before that I've joined a group called Stashbusters. There are several sub-groups, and I joined the one that is trying to finish UFO's. I have at least 15 UFO's, so getting some of them finished would be wonderful. The group also keeps a list, and the person at the top of the list is Queen of the UFO's for a week, or until she finishes a UFO. I became Queen this afternoon (Hmmm, I guess it was yesterday afternoon.) I'd been working on the placemat set for my Mom, and finished it about 11pm. So not a very long reign as Queen. Which is good. If the Queen does not finish a UFO during her reign, she has be pay a FQ penalty. I was really trying to finish before I became Queen, so I'm a little disappointed that I did not manage to do that.

Wow, look at my completed list on the right. 5 items completed during March! (Only one was a UFO, though). Sometimes it feels like I never get anything done, so having this list is a good thing. It feels good to know that Yes! I do accomplish something! I'd love to show you a picture of the placemat set for my Mom that I just finished, but I think I will give it to her for Mother's day. And I don't want to ruin her surprise. She knows I'm making them, and helped pick out the fabric. But she should be the first to see them, I think. Hmm, maybe I should give them to her early??

Well, this is not a very exciting post, probably because I'm tired. I was up till 3pm last night trying to get the placemats done, and it is already 12:30 tonight.

Take care - make sure you get enough rest - and have some fun!