To-Do Tuesday #118

Last weeks list was mostly accomplished. Sharing with Linda and friends at Texas Quilt Gal.  Come join  the fun. The 27th of December will be Linda’s last day to host To-Do Tuesday. If you are interested, contact Linda. 

December 6 - December 12


1. Work on felt ornaments.✅


BEAR is finished, HEDGEHOG is in need of red berries on the cuff and toe and the back piece attached.

Excuse my equipment photo bomb! 

BUNNY, FOX, and SQUIRREL have their pieces glue-tacked and I will be working on the stitching down and details this week. When finished all will have a bit of gold cord added for hanging.

 

2. Finish stitching Merry Little Christmas✅

You’ve all seen this, but just in case you missed it⤴️






3. Re-learn to play Canasta! ✅.


Sunday afternoon, after we retuned from a fabulous brunch at Denny Bar Company Distillery in Etna, CA, the three of us got out the Canasta cards and gave it a go!

I didn’t take a photo while we were playing, because I was winning! :)

4. Try the new Thai restaurant in Yreka!❌


We didn’t get to the Thai restaurant, but we’re able to have brunch with friends here.

The food was very good and the venue is beautiful! I don’t usually take pictures of the Ladies Room, but this one was lovely! All decorated for Christmas!

In the corner 

Pretty hammered copper sink, hand towels in the basket!

 

This over the toilet. My friend says the frame is always there with seasonal decoration. 

Not very goal oriented, but fun! 

Oh, and…. 5. purchase some Christmas gifts! ✅
Well, one was ordered! I’ll do the gift cards today!



Next Week.
Dec 13-19


1. Work on Kawandi mug mat.
2. Continue working on felt Ornaments
3. Send remaining Christmas cards.
4. Finalize Amazon Gift Card orders etc.


Linking up with Texas Quilt Gal

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy and Hopeful! 

I LIKE Thursday #88

 

Good Morning!  Hope your day is a great one! I'm sharing my likes from this week with everyone at LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color. Join us in sharing your good news and checking out other participants. 

WORDS:

ENTERTAINMENT:

Mr. Busy has been watching movies! I’ve been sewing and reading. 

I’m reading this DNF (Did Not Finish) from 2017. I put it away! It was too depressing! I picked it up again when I finished Devoted, March 15th.

I'm enjoying it this time. It's #1 in a series. I haven't heard any reviews of the other two. Lost Roses and Sunflower Sisters. Have you?

Last night we watched a Netflix Documentary series called Animals.  One was Apes, narrated by Andy Serkis.  It was so interesting and the scenery so pretty. The second one was called Birds of Prey narrated by Anthony Mackie.  That one was really fantastic.

TASKS:

    TAXES  are done……a small refund most of which was then paid back to the tax preparer! 

The difference was enough to partially take us out to lunch at a new restaurant. 👍👍

So I guess we broke even. That is always our goal! 

DECLUTTERING:

Four bags of clothing, taken to our second hand store.  That feels good!

COOKING:

I did not cook anything new, unusual or even exceptionally good this week!  Some weeks are like that. You just do the usual.  So not much else to mark or make note of. Always there is gratitude for just the ordinary. 

SEWING:

I did have a couple of finishes this week. I'll have a post about them on Friday. Linked to Table Scraps Challenge, Finished or Not Finished Friday and probably RSC22

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

 

Finished or Not Finished Friday! #71

 

I'm fairly certain this will be my last Finish post for this year.  I may pop in for some NOT Finished posts. We will see. 

Last year when we were visiting our son, he commented that the apron I made him years ago, never did fit very well. I followed a pattern, but he was in Arizona and I was in Wyoming. Anyway, I promised to take it home and either redo it or just make another. Well, I forgot to take the offending item with me. I had made some fast measurements of an apron ( ready made) that fit him well. Very simple!  I forgot all about it, till he sent a photo of a pantry organizer he built. There at the edge of the photo were the aprons. Mom Guilt! So I decided, since we were going to visit for Thanksgiving......this would be the time. 

I’ve had the fabric for awhile! The ties are a coffee bean print that’s been in my stash for at least 6 years. There is a divided pocket across the front. Hard to see it, the print is so busy. 

And there were left over pieces from the Cat Couch Topper too!

So this "squirrel" hit my sewing room. A casserole hot pad, to fit a 9X13 pan.  

 

These are finished. I may get one small project done before we leave. Not sure what the future hold in that regard. 

I'm linking up to Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts. Click over there and see what other bloggers have finished up!  

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

September's One Monthly Goal 2020

 

Yay!  It's time to select a goal and link it up to Elm Street Quilts. There is a link at the bottom of this post. 

I struggled for a bit, trying to decide.  Then I got a reminder from the unofficial leader of our Loose Threads group. We are loosely organize, our choice! No rules, no officers, no problems! Anyway, it was a reminder that we had a Challenge due at our retreat scheduled for October. The retreat has been cancelled but the challenge is still on!  I am a procrastinator, by nature. I work better under pressure? 

So that is my OMG......get the challenge project done and ready to reveal whenever we are able to meet again. Maybe a Christmas party? 

Here is what Kathy gave each of us last year. 

A  lunch-bag-sized brown paper bag full of a bunch of stuff. 

Mine had 2 fat quarters of fabric, 1 mini charm pack, some pompoms with silver accents, a styrofoam bird, plaid ribbon, 2 white feathers, and a bottle of glitter glue and a brown pencil. Plus this list of weird holidays. 

Holiday list.

Our instructions were to make something after choosing a holiday! Use two items from the bag in our project. 

I chose 6/6  Drive Inn Movie Day!   because......

I happened to have in my stash,  this fabric. It was purchased in 2009 to make curtains for my daughter's bedroom. She moved, I saved it!  Then our granddaughter was in a house that had a theater room. She had some big pillows, I covered 4 of them. Still fabric left.  

I will be making a pocket pillow with the Drive In fabric. I'll use the mini charms to make a panel to be the front pocket.  I'll cut out and fuse some of the movie words to the pillow top and maybe embellish with some glitter paint, or a feather or pompoms. I won't be using the Styrofoam bird and probably not the red plaid ribbon. 

I'm linking up with Patty at

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal September Link-up

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

July OMG Bed jacket

Authors note: I wrote this post when I took the picture below! 

Today is 7-7-20. My great granddaughter’s  4th birthday! I’ve never missed her birthday. This is a first and I am a bit melancholy.  edit:  my granddaughter arranged a ZOOM birthday party. So we were able to talk to her, see her open her presents, sing Happy Birthday and watch her eat a unicorn rainbow cake!!

I did stay busy and finished my goal .   

It’s a tiny bit big. But it’s a bed jacket and I’d rather have it roomy than tight. It looks funny, I know.  It's short so it does not catch under my “tush” when I am in bed. The sleeves might be too long, but I’m going to live with it for awhile. I can always shorten them. My current jacket, that I wear at night,  has sleeves that pull up, and I constantly fiddle with them. So we’ll see. 

July started here. 

Then  progressed to pattern on fabric!

Following the directions I got the collar onto the jacket front/back. 

Then the front facings were interfaced and edges finished. 

Sleeves were next and I forgot to take pictures. Then the underarm side seams followed by the hem.

The pattern called for a ruffle on the bottom and on the sleeves! No , thank you! 

Last step is buttons and button holes. I have had this Bernina since November 2002. I've mended and quilted, made dolls clothes and little girl dresses, but I had never made a button hole. Had never used the automatic buttonhole foot. What better time to try?

So I auditioned buttons from my button containers.  

Purple-y pink, dark teal, limey-yellow or just plain old white?

I settled on the limey-yellow. Not too big, not too tiny and it looked just right to me. 

I studied the Bernina manual. I watched a couple of YouTube videos. I studied the manual again. Then I made a practice piece of flannel with interfacing inside, to duplicate the weight of the front facing. 

I had been using light grey thread for construction. I'm almost out of white and my LQS is closed for a week  the first part of July.  The practice button holes looked dirty using the grey thread. So after I was satisfied with the method of making the correct sized button hole. I re threaded my machine with the partial white spool. First button hole was a disaster!!!!  I had forgotten to thread the lower thread through the bobbin finger. A huge  SIGH and maybe a bad word...a workout with tiny scissors and my seam ripper, and the knot was removed. After that all the buttonholes went fine. And I patted myself on the back! (figuratively...I can't really reach my back to scratch an itch, let alone pat myself on the back! 

https://www.elmstreetquilts.com/2020/07/one-monthly-goal-july-finish-link-up.html

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

Finished or Not Finished Friday DIY Redo

                            

No quilting finish this week. I did get some blocks done for Covered in Love. 

                                    

I usually try to do 8. There are not “due” til the end of August, so unless I run out of red, white or blue, I should be able to get 8 completed and mailed! They may not all be like these! Lately, my sleep has been interrupted by thoughts of sawtooth stars!

 I also finished a second dark blue geese’s migration block and some hollow 9 patches. 

But the finish happened yesterday. There is a bit of preface to the project. My DH says I drive every spike in the railroad when I tell a story! (Meaning, in his mind, way too much information ℹ️) I plead “guilty “. So here goes. If it bugs you, just jump to the end. 😆!

Our house faces south, has a small back yard. In fact, it’s mostly deck on the back. Seven years ago we took down a big tree on the west side to add on to the single stall garage. That let a lot of sun in the late afternoon and early summer evenings on the deck. It was miserable to grill out there  or enjoy it at all. So 2 years ago, we, ( mostly Mr. Busy), put up a PVC frame and we bought canvas paint drop cloths, folded them to fit and hung them from large wooden rings with clips. Bad idea! Well, maybe good idea, bad execution! The wood rings did not hold up ! They weathered and split and dropped the curtains! Last year we just endured the sun, but didn’t  use the back deck much at all! So this week, Mr. Busy, constructed another smaller PVC rod, like a curtain rod. And we measured and I cut the same drop cloths to size. Wow, was I glad for good scissors! I have a pair of Gingher dressmakers shears and they cut through that duck cloth like butter. I used regular quilting cotton thread and a #100 upholstery needle in my Bernina! It was easy peasy ! I had been dragging my feet, sort of! 

Early morning, this morning.  So it is shady back there now. 

Mr. Busy's little Weber grill, that he dearly loves. 

Shady and breezy ( it is Wyoming, you know)!  but a good pic of the PVC contraption!

I’m not pleased with the utilitarian fluorescent yellow tie backs, but sometime you just acquiesce to get the job done. ( You can see them in the photo of the grill)  I’ll come up with something else more to my liking before next year. 

Last night Mr Busy grilled chicken out there and declared it “ so much better”!

So I'll link up with Alicia at Quilty Girl.  Finished or Not Finished Friday.  I have a bit of both this week. 

Stay Busy and Stay Happy and Healthy

June OMG goal 5 Yard Baseball Quilt

Here we are, it's June! Time to set another goal. This One Monthly Goal Challenge has been so fun and has really helped me stay on track. Thanks Patty for doing all the work that it takes to make this challenge happen.

I decided last week that my brother, the older of the two, deserves a quilt. My baby brother got one  a few years ago when he lost his life partner.  Last October my sister’s husband passed away. I wanted to make her a comfort quilt. Then she was diagnosed with lung cancer in January! So I got busy on that one. It was delivered to her on March 30th.

I received a 2 yard piece of the baseball fabric in a tote of fabric that nobody wanted!

 It spoke to me. My brother is a Little League Umpire, and last December he had a heart attack. He is doing well, phenomenally so.   He plans to go back to umpiring this summer,  I decided I needed to commemorate that milestone. The solid blue was also in that tote.  I searched locally for the other 3 fabrics to make a 5 yard quilt. It's my favorite pattern to use, when there is a special feature fabric.
I could not find what I wanted. So I searched the internet. I found baseball themed fabric! I hope they coordinate well!  The order will arrive on Saturday the 9th. In the mean time I will get all the 9 1/2" squares cut and bordered with the blue.
My JUNE OMG  is to get all the blocks (30) done and put together in a flimsy! That includes the borders. There are two! The quilt finishes at approx  64X76. I don't know who designed this pattern. The copy I have was found on the internet, years ago.

I think I can get that done! 
I'm linking up at Patty's Goal Setting Link up

Stay Busy and Stay Happy

February OMG Goal has been met!

My February OMG goal was to make 4 bowl cozies. I gifted some at Christmas and had a request for more. So I scrounged through my larger scraps! Tried to find something fitting for each recipient and made sure I had 100% cotton batting and thread. Assembly line sewing sometimes makes you think of a faster method. There are 8 angles to cut and sew in each bowl. Times 4, which turned into 5, that is 40 angles!  I after the first 8, I decided to make a template.

 Not pretty, it's part of a facial tissue box, but it worked great!

 Angles marked, stitched and trimmed!

More angles being stitched.

 First one done, 4 others on deck to do the final joining of the lining to the outside!

Here are all five. Four outsides and one inside. Both white ones have turquoise outsides.

I mailed them off for Valentine's Day. One to my daughter, one to my sister, 3 to my granddaughter
and her fiance! (Because the fabric was so cute and I had enough!)


I will link to Patty's
 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - February Finish Link-up


Now to decide what I will do for March???


Stay Busy and Stay Happy