UFO Finish! Autumn Quilt 2015

Random...

I managed to finish a UFO - unfortunately NOT one on my UFO 2016 "to do" list with Springwater Designs.

Piecing the blocks, which began at a retreat weekend last summer:

Here are the blocks:

On the design wall:

The finished quilt!

and on the railing in the living room....

Traveling Hand Work

This Blizzard of 2016 has little undercurrents in addition to the very obvious problem of a bazillion tons of snow to deal with....

I had to have my mother here as a precaution in case of power outages. She is 93. It has been an interesting few days and while I am eternally grateful that she is still with me, I kind of miss the mom I grew up with...if you know what I mean. She's a great mom.

AND (because seriously, there is always an "and" ...) at the beginning of the storm, my mother-in-law, who is 96 (!), was taken to the hospital and is in the ICU now. I figure I'll be there tomorrow and she's not exactly alert, so I've made myself a little baggie of hexagons and fabric to sit and stitch while I'm with her.

She quilted a little bit when she was younger - hand quilting! - so she'll appreciate the effort....as I appreciate her....

:-)

Blizzard 2016

Well...this has been fun (NOT!)...

Here's a picture of my patio as the snow started:

...and here is what it looked like Saturday night:

We (notice that - "we" - as if.....) needed to get some of the weight off the deck and clear the mound that was up against the deck door:

I've got my mother here (93!) too - she lives alone in the house I grew up in and we were worried about her losing power. Thankfully she can entertain herself!

We managed to eat pretty well - I made a point to be prepared for the long haul!

BUT NO QUILTING WAS DONE...AT ALL!!! Which really really really sucks....

SNOW STORM 2016!!!

I'll post about the snow tomorrow. I had these pictures already set up...

Here is my guest bed quilt - Barnsley - completed in 2015. This is Bonnie Hunter's Jamestown Landing pattern, started in a class at Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA. While hers was blues and neutrals, my "blues" are blues, greens and purples.

Here's the beginning - step one - make a gazillion half square triangles...O.M.G.

All loaded up on the HQ16:

It is so great in the new house that there is plenty of room to set up the HQ16 full length so easy peasy to load this bad boy!

And VOILA! My delightfully charming guest room:

Studio Ironing Board - IKEA Hack

Ron made me an absolutely GREAT ironing board for my studio. It starts with an IKEA kitchen cart. He painted it a fun color and built the top - long enough for a width of fabric piece!

Base assembly:

Top assembly:

And VOILA!

It is absolutely perfect!

It's uncanny how well my family (and Santa) knows me...

New Studio Space

We moved in 2015 - to a 55+ community nearby. Surprisingly, I had no problem at all leaving the old house, in spite of memories and stuff. I'll admit that packing up 35 years of stuff was a bit of a challenge! The first room I "decluttered" was the studio - which was in the largest of the kids' bedrooms. Nice space - two big windows - but honestly very cramped. And I kind of fall into the category of "small" stash quilter - really - I've seen my friends' quilting space and yes, I'm like a freaking minimalist compared to some of them...BUT when I had to pack up my fabric, and my tools, and my patterns, I was astounded at the amount of cr*p I had accumulated - and a dementia-worthy number of duplicate patterns and books! OMG!

Some pics of the old space:

And here are some pics in the new space - I haven't painted and nothing hanging on the walls yet, but much roomier (although there are only small windows because now I'm in the basement....oh well):

Our IKEA cart full of the furniture:

Neat clock Santa brought me for the studio:

Rolling cart, again from Santa...who obviously knows me very very well - please note the beer filling the shelf:

...and finally (for now) a really great light switch from my very good friend, Santa!

January UFO Finish & Grandie Doll Quilt

I FINISHED! Actually did the January UFO Challenge! Although I will admit, as I said before, it was the easiest UFO on the list:

I almost feel guilty because it was so quick to do - like I should quilt & bind it too....and maybe I will...not promising...

And I made a little doll quilt for Charlotte's birthday - I had made one for Madeleine for Christmas and apparently normal sisters want the same thing...go figure!

2016 UFO Challenge

I'm participating in the Spring Water Designs (http://springwaterdesigns.blogspot.com/) 2016 UFO Challenge. I picked 12 UFOs to complete this year and each month she picks a random number and the object is to finally finish it. January's number is 5...my list is below:

1. Everyday Best Quilt: put on borders to finish top
2. Christmas Baskets: put on borders to finish top
3. Thanksgiving: put on borders to finish top
4. Crazy Quilt: put on borders to finish top
5. Winter Birds: assemble blocks and add borders to finish top
6. Kwik Krazy: quilt
7. Christmas Trees (Eleanor Burns): quilt
8. House & Star: quilt
9. Pineapple: quilt
10. Teal/Orange (Holly Bunch): quilt
11. Cats: quilt
12. Scrappy/Purple/Dots: quilt


And as luck would have it - #5 Winter Birds is the easiest finish on the list! Blocks are all made, border fabric already cut and ready to sew. The whole thing is just assembly. #s 1-4 sound easy - just add the borders - BUT I haven't selected fabric yet, nor the size, or anything. I like the simplicity of just sewing on without having to think about it.

New Year's Resolution!

Okay - so I took a little break from blogging (last post was April 2014....). I kept telling myself I'd start "tomorrow." So now it's a New Year's Resolution and here I am. I had thought about doing a synopsis of the last YEAR AND A HALF (really?) but then thought the simplest thing was to just start up as if I've been here all along. I'll occasionally do a(n) historical post of the time the blog was in the Black Hole. I made some quilty Christmas presents this year - nothing big but I had fun with it. DH refinished a doll cradle for our youngest granddaughter and I made the mattress and a little doll quilt:

a lap quilt for Katie:

The first of many tablerunners, this one for Kathy:

...another for Chris:

And for the finale, my Christmas card this year:

Here's to 2016 - I hope it's a great year for everyone!