Lots Going On

Block Count: 34
2 Tops
2 Quilted
2 Trimmed and Bound
2 Finishes

It's been a tad busy over here.

 To Start with I started another project. I decided I wanted to try hand piecing a block/quilt. I have never done basic hand piecing, just English Paper Piecing. It went surprisingly fast. I asked my best friend to give me a color, and she said Chartreuse. So these are the fabrics I pulled.

 This is the second block for the Halloweenies BOM, I'm doing. I love how cute these little guys are. These are Adam (biggest), Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank, Gideon, Hannah, Isaac, and Jeremiah (top to bottom). I think I'm going to have fun naming each of the creatures in this quilt. They just seem to have such personalities.

 I have managed to keep up with the 100 Days 100 Blocks on Instagram. This is Block 7.

 For Mother's Day, my boys got me an essential oil cool mist dispenser. I love it. It changes colors and everything. They love playing in the "smoke" and I think it will help a little bit more during the summer when turning on my wax melter makes my room too hot to bear.

 100 Days Block 8

 My gift to myself on Mother's Day, was to allow myself to part with some of my scraps. My room had gotten to the point where I was feeling way overwhelmed. I decided that I could let myself get rid of some of the super tiny pieces that would take me 3 lifetimes to get through. Here is 2 of the 30 gallon trash bags that I was able to fill and get out of my room. I try to put in some time every day if I can, but it really is more like every other day. I also told myself that I am going to go down to 1 project at a time (with 1 Leader and Ender project as an exception). I need to work on putting what I'm working on away before getting the next project out because it just starts stacking on itself and the parts keep getting separated from each other.

 100 Days Block 9

 100 Days Block 10

 100 Days Block 11

 One of the quilts I really needed to get myself to focus on was this cute Mini for the Fandom in Stitches swap on Instagram. I knew right away what I wanted to do with it, but struggled to get myself to work on it, because you can't chain paper piecing. I added Disney Villains as a border, and then quilted with flames (and added texture to her hair). I also chose to give her a slight smirk instead of a frown because I liked that she did kind of smile at the end of the movie. (If you haven't watched Inside Out, I highly recommend it.) The Villains are (clockwise starting at the top) Lady Tremaine (Cinderella), Wicked Queen (Snow White), Yzma (Emperor's New Groove), Cruella DeVil (101 Dalmations), Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty), Queen of Hearts (Alice in Wonderland), Medusa (Rescuers), and Ursula (Little Mermaid). I'm really quite pleased with how it turned out. This had to ship in the last week, so it was a big part of why I haven't posted an update lately.

 This is a little extra I made to ship with my Sadness Mini. This is the Payson, Utah LDS Temple. It is my temple. We can see it from our front porch from Fall to Spring (tree across the street blocks it during the summer). Kyle can usually see it out of his bedroom window, and the boys often want to look for it.

 Here is the first of my hand pieced blocks. I figure this can be a reward when I finish things. Just 1 block at a time after I finish a binding while I still have my hand piecing supplies out.

 100 Days Block 12

 After finishing the hand pieced block, I got a few more Hexie flowers done to swap with my best friend. The yellow is the second one for February, and the greens are my March blocks.

 100 Days Block 13

 Nate started Tee Ball. He is #8 on the Yankees CoEd Kindergarten Team. He's the one in the center spinning around in a shirt that looks like a dress...This momma is going to have to work some hemming magic I think.

 100 Days Block 14

 100 Days Block 15

 100 Days Block 16

This is the other project that has been occupying a lot of my mental power. I designed this to go with the flowers I had the kids in Nate's class make at their Spring Party, and had each of them sign a square. I have (mostly) recreated the flowers they made by using their colors and placing the "inner petal" the way they had on their paper blocks (took pictures). I am giving this to their teacher when it is finished. I was trying to get it done in time for Kindergarten graduation (fail), or Nate's Post Assessment (also failed), but thankfully I am friends with her on Facebook, so I will have no trouble get a hold of her when it is completely finished. She is a quilter, too, so I knew she would appreciate this. It's a bit bigger than I would normally make for a wall hanging, but I just didn't think I could size it down much more than this and still have the right effect. This will be 30 by 36 when done.

One other thing that I didn't get a picture of sooner, though I thought I had. Was these 2 little hexie flowers (1/2 inch hexies). I put these together on the Saturday before Mother's Day at a Funeral. It was a young man whose family is in our ward to passed away in his sleep 6 months into his mission. He will be sorely missed. But I'm grateful for the chance I had to go, and to hear happy stories about him from his parents and siblings. I will always remember his smile. I don't know that I ever really saw him without one. I took the boys to the viewing because Nate had known him, just a little bit, because he was his preschool teacher's son, and he would play with the kids when he came home from school for lunch, while they waited for us parents to pick them up. Now when we pass the Stake Center, Nate will say, "That's where we said good-bye to Jeremy. One day we'll be resurrected because Jesus was resurrected. But we don't know when we'll be resurrected." It such a sweet little testimony from my 5 year old, that makes me so happy to know that he listens to what he is taught at church. It was said with such confidence, and such love. He truly teaches me sometimes.

Log Cabin Blocks

Yesterday's Block Count: 7

 100 Blocks Block 6

Yesterday, I used the last of my 100 blocks buffer, so I spent an hour working on a few more blocks for the buffer (I have to post 1 block every day to Instagram to be eligible for prizes.) I successfully managed to get 3 more done. I love how fast these go. I had tried making them a while ago and started with block 3 which has a lot of pieces and I was trying to go scrappy, so I had to worry about piece placement, so it had felt like a lot more work than I was willing to put in at the time. But now, I love that I seem to just be flying through them.

I also got my log cabin blocks done for this week's challenge for the Long Time Gone Sew Along. They were surprisingly fast.

I also was asked to hem a tablecloth for a display for a funeral this evening. I use the Hem Tap for the first roll and then had a good firm edge for the second roll. It went really fast and was kind of fun to do something different.

Today's goals include: Daily Cleaning, helping with Field Day in Nate's class, taking Nate to a viewing, working on a bat block (part of Halloweenies quilt), and working on my Fandom In Stitches swap quilt.

Halloweenies BOM

Yesterday Block Count: 1

 100 Blocks Block 5

Yesterday ended up being another grand parenting adventure. There was a call to Poison Control because my 3 year old managed to get into my Melatonin Gummies (with a child proof cap), and then his fever spiked to 104. He had been doing better in the morning, so it was all a bit of a shock. He seems to be doing much better today. He ended up pretty much sleeping from 10-3:30 yesterday due to either the melatonin, illness, or a wicked combo of both. It would have been a super peaceful day, if I hadn't had to check on him every 10-30 minutes. He also got really annoyed that I was checking on him so much.

He was doing my better by the time dinner rolled around, so I felt ok going to my BOM group to start the Halloweenies quilt by Makena Ryan. I only managed to get 1 of the 2 blocks done last night, but I also will be able to get more ready before the next class. I think each of the critters in my quilt are going to get names. These are Fred (with Candy Corn) and George. This is because their pieces were labeled as Fs and Gs. I am using my own fabrics once again, so mine will be a unique quilt. I love getting to be the same but different.

Sick Kyle

Yesterday's Block Count: 14

 Yesterday, I went ahead and took Kyle to school since it was his last day for the year. He did mostly ok but obviously had a harder time focusing until the end. At the end of it, his fever was starting to go back up, so he made me carry him to the car. Then we ran to Smith's to get some tylenol for him (sick kids makes tylenol and ibuprofen disappear really fast). And he insisted I carry him through the store. Then he fell asleep in the car before we made it home (little over a mile). He then had a good nap and came downstairs and allowed me to tuck him in on the couch and he fell asleep again. Then when I heard him fussing around 5, I went and checked his temperature again, and he ended up crawling onto my lap and I was stuck. He started by using my knee as a pillow, but I eventually got him to turn. I was without anything to do, but I managed to stretch and pull the coffee table closer which had his tablet on it, so I was able to pull up an ebook. Then Nate came down a little later (I gave him permission to play video games upstairs so Kyle could sleep) and brought me my phone, so I snapped this picture. Spencer kindly brought food home, so I didn't have to wake Kyle up to make dinner.

 Yesterday was also the weekly deadline for the Long Time Gone Sew Along, so I had to get my courthouse steps blocks done. I was successful. I am quite pleased with how they turned out. They are a little wonky, but that is probably because I was speeding through getting them made for the deadline.

I also got 5 TJL blocks done. Though I do have to admit that they were all done and on the chain on my sewing machine, so really all I did was dechain and press them. There are 4 greens and 1 red.

This is today's block for the 100 days quilt along. Block 4.

Emotional Kids

Yesterday's Block Count: 4

Yesterday was a rough day. The boys seemed to be on Emotional Overload. The 5 year old spent the day either whining at me or yelling/screaming at me. While the other one seemed to be the most emotional when his daddy was home. Thankfully, they both took naps or I really would have lost it.

Having everyone else in the house sick really wears on my patience. The kids were regularly fighting and cranky. The hubs still went to work, so I only had to deal with a sick hubs before and after work. His crankiness was mostly directed towards the boys as they were clingy and whiny with him. But thankfully I did manage to get the 4 blocks done; 2 Black and White 365 Blocks, 1 Red TJL, and 1 Teal TJL.

Now to try to get through another day with a sick and whiny Kyle, especially since I've had to tell him he can't go to school (weekly Speech class) or gymnastics today, which resulted in him trying to tell me he's better now, and everything he has eaten or done has made him feel better...

Wish me luck.

Back to Work

Yesterday's Block Count: 2

 This is my Block 2 for the Tula Pink's 100 Modern Blocks.

I also managed to get 1 more block done for the Black and White 365 as well as 1 Red TJL block.

Jump Start on 100 Blocks

Yesterday's Block Count: 16

 Today is the beginning of 100 Blocks in 100 Days, being hosted by GnomeAngel. This is using Tula Pink's 100 Modern Blocks. So I decided to pull out my fabrics yesterday and jump start my blocks in an attempt to be able to keep up. I decided to pull the number of fabrics needed for the first block, and then add as I needed more. These are the first 4 I picked. It will be fun to see how the blocks progress as the fabrics run out, and I pull more. I specifically tried pulling from my small yardages, which is anything from about 8 inches to 15 inches, to try and use up some of those little ones. The leftover strips get put into their respective usable size bin, and that way I'm also replenishing my strip bins for when I need some mindless scrap sewing.

 This is the first block. I will share here each day what the block looks like for that day. I'm not going to show the ones I got done early, just to stay more in line with the sew along.

As leaders and enders, I would throw in an entire strips worth of parts for my RSC17 blocks. So it would be a handful of HSTs or a few 1 inch strip sets for the 4-patches. That resulted in 1 Teal 16-patch, 5 Teal TJL Blocks and 5 Green TJL Blocks. It's fun to see those blocks progressing again. I've been a little more cautious about cutting for them because they are such tiny pieces, and I cut my finger trying to cut the strips for them. I still get a little anxious when I use my rotary cutter, but I'd rather keep sewing than give it up.

Simple Progress

Yesterday's Block Count: 5

 I finished a binding yesterday. I haven't managed to finish a quilt awhile, so it felt good to actually finish something.

 I also managed to finish 3 teal 16-patch blocks for my Teal Quilt. I also got one of the Green Tiny Jacob's Ladder Blocks for this month.

I also made this cute puppy dog block for a friend who recently lost her sweet furbaby.

My new goal (I seem to always be making new goals), will be to try to get a blog post up in the morning highlighting the blocks from the day before. That way I can keep sewing up until my computer shuts off rather than trying to remember to stop sewing to post.

Simple Blocks

Today's Block Count: 6
Yesterday's Block Count: 3
Day Before Yesterday's Block Count: 3

I got 3 more 4-patches done for the Multicolor RSC17 quilt each of the last 2 days. As well as, 6 more today.

Beginning of May

Welcome to May. This means new goals and a new RSC17 Color.

This month's color is Green. Hopefully, I can get myself to actually work on clearing out that green bin. It's over-filled.

I'm going to use this quilt as my inspiration but I'm going to alternate scrappy greens and neutrals. I also think I want to use the strip method and the Companion Angle Ruler. I am fully prepared to have seams in the middle of my stripes. So we'll see how this turns out. This means I can use 1.5 inch strips and 4 strips per strip set to get 10 inch Quarter Square Triangles. I think mine is going to be more like bordered blocks.........
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Nothing quite like writing something down to realize, that you are making things WAAAAAYYYY to complicated again. It would be considerably easier to make these bordered blocks. If I start with a dark and end with a light and use an alternate block that is the opposite then I would be using 14 inch blocks which means I could use 30 blocks and a border to make a twin quilt using 2.5 inch strips. That seems highly doable for this month.

There is also the addition of 80 green Tiny Jacob's Ladder Blocks as well as the 31 blocks for the May Black and White 365 Blocks and the 31 blocks for the May Rainbow 365.

For my One Monthly Goal, I'm going to try and get myself to finish that wedding quilt top again. I actually have it out on my desk now, so it may just happen.

Flying on my Elna

Today's Block Count: 47

My Elna is sooo much faster and quieter than I was remembering. It helped me to get so many blocks done, it was fun.

 Yesterday, I talked with my dad about my problem with my Featherweight being flashy and inconsistently powered when I'm at my Sew Days. He said that I just needed to replace the plug. So I was able to open the new plug and Spencer helped me with actually wrapping the wires around the terminals. So I fixed it all by myself 😜. Really, Spencer kind of hovered until I let him help. We joked the whole time about it, too, since he had just told his brother that I would have to ask him to help. Technically, I didn't, but I do appreciate that he helped me.

 I got 7 multicolored 4-patches made as Leaders and Enders while working on the Churn Dashes and the Wedding Quilt.

 I also got 28 Half Square Triangles for the Wedding Quilt done today as well. Because it was Elna they flew right through the machine. I didn't manage to get this Wedding Quilt done today for the One Monthly Goal, but I'm still happy that I finally got to make some progress on this quilt.

I got the last 12 Churn Dashes made today for the Long Time Gone quilt. I had a 4 that I went ahead and let be odd. The navy and grey was made with a wrong-colored leg because I somehow I lost the grey leg. The others, I used the leftover bits of strips from the other churn dash blocks.

I think I'm still low on my April Goals...But I'm calling this a good effort the last few days. I also managed to quilt one of the extra baby quilts the other day that I had sitting already basted.

Elna's Fixed

Yesterday's Block Count: 8
Today's Block Count: 8

 My baby is home. She, Elna, has been out of commission for just over 2 years. It turned out that it was a tension pulley that needed to be replaced. She is such a faster machine than my others.

She is back in the spot of most use, and my bigger Janome, Jane, has been placed on a card table in the family room, to become a designated quilt machine. It is behind a couch, so I could watch tv while quilting, and I will be able to put the big tub of batting scraps under the table as well as the quilts that are basted and awaiting quilting. It will be nice to clear up a considerable amount out of my room. It might even encourage me to work on some backings for some of the tops that are already done. It will also be nice to not have to clear off my entire desk to be able to sew. That means any papers or sets of piecings I'm working on can stay put and I will be the one to move.

 Today, I managed to finish 3 4-patches for April RSC17 and 5 Churn Dash blocks for the Long Time Gone Quilt.

Yesterday, I managed to get 2 parts done for my Fandom in Stitches block. I'm working on Sadness from Inside Out. I also got 2 RSC17 4-patches, and 4 Churn Dashes.

Tomorrow, I really need to work on the Wedding Quilt. It's the last day of the month, which means that the One Monthly Goal deadline is tomorrow.

April Sew Day

Today's Block Count: 25

Today was Epic Sew Day.

 I helped make a block for a friend for a wedding quilt for her daughter.

I also started on the quilt I'm making for the Fandom in Stitches quilt swap. I managed to get an eyeball made.

Before Sew Day, I focused on finishing the 2 blocks I was behind for the Long Time Gone Sew Along. I am quite pleased with how this quilt is turning out.

 This is what all of my blocks are looking like together. Lots of fun color variations from 1 fat quarter bundle.

I also managed to get another 22 4-patch blocks for the Multicolored RSC17 quilt this morning in between the seams of the Long Time Gone blocks.

Few more Hexies and some RSC

Today's Block Count: 6

I managed to get the second hexie flower for January and the first hexie flower for February done. I also got the first 4 4-patches for my April RSC17 quilt using multicolored scraps. Tomorrow, I'll be headed to my monthly sew day and will be taking my Fandom in Stitches swap to work on.

Got my machine running again

Block Count: 5

My machine seems to have hit a hiccup in the road. Nothing serious...just user apathy. I've been doing a bit more with my hexie quilt, but it was a bit of a shock last night to realize I had spent less than 10 minutes at my machine in a week. Some of this is due to the boys getting the stomach flu, Nate getting an ear infection, after we all had colds. My cold lasted for 12 days, and now I am on an antibiotic to try and clear up the subsequent sinus infection...and as of yesterday, I also got to add eye drops for the pink eye that was a result of the sinus infection. But I think we are all on the mend finally.

So I'm trying to jumpstart my desire to work on things again. I, of course, really need to focus on my Long Time Gone blocks. I think I've completely disqualified myself from the prizes...but I really want to be able to focus on it.

This is where I stand on the last 2 weeks of blocks for the Long Time Gone. But at least they are cut and in process. And it's still the beginning of the week, so maybe I can actually get this week's blocks done on time.

I got to go to my first estate sale with a friend from church. There was supposed to be a ton of fabric, but we went on the second day, so there wasn't a ton left when we got there. It was a giant house, and there was an entire room of yarn. Each of these sock skeins was only $2 a piece. Kyle picked out one of the purples, saying he wants purple socks.

 I've also been trying to get myself to work on catching up on the Hexie flowers I swap with  my best friend. We make 2 flowers a month...the Monsters are my December flowers, with the purple being the first one for January. The little blue ones, I think I've already counted 1 of them, but the other 2 were pieced during a Relief Society meeting last night. Now I have to prep more fabric for my travel hexies. I ran out...so I actually had to sit there without anything.

 This has not been helping my lack of machine time. This is my cutting table, and is sooo covered in stuff, I almost don't know how to start on it. I'm going to try for 10 minutes to see if I can make some progress.

 This is my hexie basket. It came in handy while the boys and I had some forced down time watching movies. The hardest part about my boys being sick...is that they don't want to rest and get better...they just want to keep running around causing disaster in their wake.

I did also cut some squares out of my multicolor scraps to use as Leaders and Enders, so my block count should hopefully be higher in the next couple of days...if I can keep myself working at my machine.