Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all. I have a saying above my front door that sums up what I want to do with my life. I wish it for all of you...

Bags Finished

 Here are the bags I've finished so far. I decided to keep one for myself...it was in the car with Joe when I took this pictures. I found some webbing to use for hands for the rest of the pillowcases I have. It is normally used for strapping down furniture when moving and was only $.26 per foot. The stuff I bought at a local fabric store was about $.60 per foot. The webbing I just bought is a bit too wide, about 2-inches instead of the 1 1/2-inches I used on these bags, but I figure I'll just sew the handles in half where they will be carried. At a sale at Hancock Fabrics about a month or so ago I bought some home decorator fabric to make more bags, and I have some twill fabric I purchased in the summer of last year for some OTHER bags so I guess I'll keep busy until I find out what kind of quilt Daniel wants.

Design Wall

Nothing on the wall, but I am doing something. I finished 8 bags from pillowcases (except for the handles) yesterday. I still have about 11 more pillowcases waiting to be converted. I purchased all of them sometime last  year (at least 6 months ago, probably longer) at ARC and they were $.99 each. I just went yesterday and the cost is now 2 for $5. I'm just not willing to pay that, so I may have to look for another source.

I also got to JoAnn yesterday and picked up Christmas fabric at 70% off. I am determined that I will not use paper to wrap gifts, but fabric bags instead. According to the receipt I saved $115...that makes me laugh. Instead of pointing out the cost, they show how much I saved. How funny.

Check out Judy's blog to see what other folks are doing.

Amazing!

Even though I am usually in bed and asleep by 9:00, I decided it was worth the time up to see the eclipse. It was a warm breezy night (about 35) so no clouds to block the view. I only have a digital camera, but got one or two suitable pictures. Watching the moon slowly be covered by the shadow was very cool. I thought a bit about the ancients, and how they would feel watching this happen. Mysterious goings on, and on one of the shortest days of the year!

Design Wall

The design wall is empty, not that everything is done, but I've shifted gears.I'm trying not to use Christmas wrapping this year, and instead make bags that (hopefully) won't go into the trash.












I'm also including cloth shopping bags when I give a gift this year. I was going to wrap with them, but it's easier to put them in the bag, rather than make them the bag. I have lots of pillow cases I'm using for the bags. I was cutting them narrower and  using the extra for the handles, but decided a slightly larger bag would work great, and give a bit more room in the bag. So I'm just using the whole pillowcase.

I have a few more things to make and I hope they'll be done by Christmas. I have time off till New Year's Day so if I can stay focused I'll get them done.

Oops, I almost forgot, to see what other folks are doing, check out Judy's blog.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Judy's UFO Challenge

 A project just jumped to the top of the list. I have a friend whose son was in Afghanistan. He just came home injured (a double amputee above the knee) and I am going to make him a quilt. He has a long road ahead. I'll be working on the quilt as soon as I get information about what colors or theme he would like. 

I've decided to give it a try. I don't know if I'll finish them all, but it will be fun to see how many I do finish.
Here they are: (they are also linked on the right side of the blog with the amount finished so far). I've also added a page with ALL the UFO's I've found at the moment. You can see it at the top of the blog.

1- Disappearing 9-patch swap--DONE

2- One Block Wonder

3-Solar Flare (don't like this one, we'll see if I just happen to "skip" it by mistake). Since what this needs is basically quilting, and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it, I'm adding a Professional Bag to this month. I've got all the supplies I need, I just have to get motivated.

4- North Winds group quilt--DONE

5-Jewel Box--started this probably in about 2000--I really like it so want to finish it BAD!

6- Round Robin-brights

7- Feathered Tiles

8- Checkerboard Convergence

9- Rainbow Spiral (replacing Butterfly Blooms--it should be done before Christmas)--DONE

10-Totally Tubular-still in pieces. This one needs a lot of work.--DONE

11- Underwater - needs borders to finish the top, and then quilting like everything else.

12- Zippy Strippy

Sad to say I have more than this, but there is no way I  am going to finish more than one a month unless something drastic happens. If I finish all of these, it will be very good!

Other folks are working on UFOs in 2011, too. If you want to see what they are working on, check Judy's blog.

Fair and Square is done-and Design Wall Monday

 I ended up just doing straight line quilting. The backing/batting is fleece, so it doesn't need to have the quilting too close together.

 The label idea came from one of the blogs I read. Print out whatever you want on the label in a font you like. Find a fabric that is thin enough to see through, then use a fabric pen and trace the printed information. Fold over and sew the ends in, then sew it into the binding. It's easy, I think it looks nice and I like the way it fits on the quilt.  Not too intrusive.  The binding was some homespun I had, no idea where I got it though. This gets sent today----Yay!

To see what others are doing, check out Judy's blog. 

Design Wall Monday

 I've made one more size of Dresden plates. The smallest are about 5 1/2 inches across and the largest about 10 inches. I'm putting them aside for a bit because Christmas is coming, and time isn't slowing down.

I'm quilting the present for my nephew, finally. I have that bright orange fleece for the back, so decided to use orange in the bobbin and a variegated orange to yellow for the top thread. I'm not doing anything fancy, just holding the quilt together. I hope to be done in a couple of weeks.

I baked (with Joe's help) about 28 dozen cookies and 10 pounds of various candy--chocolate fudge with nuts, dark chocolate fudge, peanut butter fudge and saltine almond toffee, this weekend. We are helping with a church Christmas cookie sale to raise funds for a mission trip in 2012. I still have more to make. It's a lot of standing and mixing and baking, but we did replace my old Kitchenaid. The speed control stopped working so I took it to be repaired. It's more than 20 years old and it would cost $80 to get it fixed. We decided on a new one. Got it from Costco for a pretty good price.

I'll post more progress pictures on the quilt as I go. Check out what other people have on their design walls on Judy's blog.