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!

Faithful Circle Quilters Annual Show

This coming weekend is my guild's biannual quilt show - This year's theme is Birds of a Feather.  Here is our raffle quilt:

I had absolutely nothing to do with so take no credit!

I'm out of town this weekend so the only quilt I entered is part of a guild challenge for Project Linus - Dots for Tots since I won't be here to pick it up after the show:

For a bazillion years, my sister comes East in the Fall for our mother's birthday and in the Spring for Mothers Day.  We take her to Ocean City MD for a weekend - she loves her little beers and her crabs and even at 91, still walks the Boardwalk and walks along the beach.

Jo Morton Club

A friend has opened a new quilt shop (http://www.springwaterdesigns.com/) and has started Jo Morton Clubs...one of which is on Friday mornings...and since I don't work on Fridays I thought 'what the heck!'  I've never done it before and my usual quilts are kind of bright and scrappy, but I've always liked the look of old fashioned miniatures.

The first month, I simply could NOT deal with 3/4" and 1 1/4" pieces tho - so when I did the math, I ended up cutting wrong so my miniature became a very nice table runner which I gave to my mother:

In April, I was really proud of myself - cut right - pieced right - and couldn't wait for Show & Tell....only I had a conflict and couldn't go.  Damn.