January Goals

Baby, It's COLD outside!!!!

Some of you will remember my little Bertie's Year January wall quilt which I did several years ago.  I made all 12 of them and change them out each month.  Thank you Bonnie Sullivan for such wonderful designs :*)  Poor little Bertie will go to any lengths to make friends, even with a snowman in the depths of winter!  Unlike Bertie, I am staying inside!  My grandson asked if I made a snowman out of the snowfall we got this morning, and I told him I never even stuck the tip of my nose out the door.  He laughed at that :*)

In these frigid temps, I think it is in our DNA to be thoughtful about survival and eating well to stay healthy.  One of my goals for 2017 is to learn to cook more healthy meals.  (Well, basically, to learn how to cook period LOL!!!). We are both at the age where many foods bother us for one reason or another.  My Guy especially suffers reactions to MSG, and there are few packaged or processed food items that don't contain it.  We've found it in foods we would never have suspected!  Most gravies of course, and anything with flavorings, extracts, enzymes, etc.  Even crackers, bread and last week a bag of shredded Parmesan cheese!  For New Year's Day, I challenged myself to try one of the recipes I've been collecting - Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie....

It was absolutely DELICIOUS!!!

Now that's what I call "comfort food"!!!!  And it didn't take a village to put it together either.  I diced some celery and onions, as well as the turkey, and then all I had to do was gather the other ingredients and have them ready to add when needed.  One of my favorite things about this dish is that it cooks in my cast iron skillet!

I used the leftover turkey I had frozen from Thanksgiving.  Although it was really, really good, the dark parts of the turkey kept it from being a perfect meal.  Next time I will use fresh chicken breasts instead.  We loved it and will definitely be making it again!  You can get the recipe HERE if you are interested in trying it out yourself :*)

This first week brought my first finish of 2017!

This is a Kismet Trinket Box, a Sara Lawson (Sew Sweetness) design, and although it was not an easy sew, it wasn't too terribly difficult either.  Anyone with at least intermediate bag sewing skills should be able to make one.  There are six sizes/shapes in the pattern - this one is the Large Square box.

I made this as a birthday gift for my friend Susie who is a real-live artist, so I had to chose fabric worthy of her, right?  Jane Sassaman fabrics can always be counted on to give that extra "wow" factor!  These are two that I picked up when Jane came to our guild last September.  I have to say, there are few things that make me happier than working with beautiful fabrics like these!!!  You can be sure that I plan to follow this one up with one of my own!  Here is a quick peek at the back as well ....

Today I cut all the pieces for Block #6 of the I Believe Sampler UFO project and they are ready to be pieced as soon as I hit the "Send" button here!  First I had to repair my "oops" from yesterday on Block #5 - I'm sure you'll all be relieved to know that the bottom left unit is now correctly oriented :*)

Getting this top pieced together and ready for quilting will be my One Monthly Goal project for January.  You can see lots of other UFO's in various stages of construction HERE at the amazing Elm Street Quilts!

And Bonnie Hunter revealed her En Provence mystery quilt on January 1!!!!!!

©Bonnie Hunter - En Provence

I'm looking forward to getting back to this project!  I was caught up through Clue #5....

But then it had to sit for the past week.  I've begun cutting the pieces for #6, and hope to have them sewn by the end of the weekend.  If I'm really diligent I should have Clue #7 cut and started as well.

I've only made half the number of units called for in Bonnie's clues - mainly because I wanted to be sure I liked the quilt enough to work that hard on it - Bonnie never designs easy quilts!  Now that I know I like the design enough to finish making the quilt, I have to make a decision about the size I want it to be.  I really don't need more large quilts, so I'll stick with my original intention of just making a large throw.  I'm only going to have enough units to make 8 blocks, so my plan is to make one more block and lay them out 3x3 for a 70"-ish square throw.  I think that'll work!!!

Rocky is pretty much worn to a frazzle with all the extra workload lately.  He's demanding extra naps and treats. With good help so hard to find, I'm pretty much caving in to his demands.  I just hope he doesn't ask for a raise because he already gets top dollar!

My guild UFO number was #11, which is for me to quilt my Soul Searching top.

I finished the top in September 2014 at Runaway Quilters Retreat.  I suppose it's about time to get 'er done!!!

PS - for some reason my email account stopped allowing me to send out replies to your comments yesterday!  I apologize for not letting you know in person how much I love hearing from you, and I promise to have My Guy working on it first thing tomorrow!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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How I said Goodbye to 2016 .....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  

We had a lovely Christmas and, as is our habit, a nice, quiet New Year's.  Although we have no family near us, we are surrounded by good friends and fun things to do during the holidays.  I was especially happy to have a few days filled with nothing but puttering in my studio - it was heaven!!!  I managed to finish out the year by cranking out a few little Christmas projects and even a couple of finishes.

My favorite finish is Hello Mr. Moon - I made two of these!  One was a gift for my sister and the other I am keeping for us. =^..^=

This adorable little quilt is designed by Teri Henderson Tope, and you can find the free pattern at Bernina's We All Sew site.  I loved the freedom of the "messy" outlining she calls for around the cat and moon, and it was great fun learning how to do the swirly quilting design in the background.

I also made these Christmas Tree mug rugs for my Quiltfest group, using my buddy Kevin the Quilter's tutorial but eliminating the bottom row of the tree so they would be small enough to fit.  Thanks Kevin!!! 

The blue one is for Belinda who shares my love for all things BLUE!!!  (Yes, I have a blue one cut out for me too!)  And Joanne is my bird-loving friend, so hers has a beautiful seasonal bird fabric on the back.

This was a really fun project, challenging myself to use only my crumb scraps for the pieces.

I even pulled from my brown crumb jar for the tree trunks... who knew there could be so many colors of brown?????

One more of my Folk Art Album blocks is finished....

This is the 10th Folk Art Album block completed!  I have enjoyed this hand Applique project, especially finding ways to make it a little bit special...

Can you tell that I used metallic thread for the red buds?  I also added those french knot clusters in the center of the three-leaf section that looked a little boring to me before.  I have to admit, I'm ready to be done with this project.  Only 2 more - this one is next up for stitching.  Don't you just adore that hummingbird???

I shared my January Christmas UFO project, I Believe, with you in THIS previous post.  Since then I have finished two more blocks ....

I Believe Block #4

I Believe Block #5 - Yikes!!!!

Of course, as soon as I pulled this photo into Blogger, I saw the mistake!!!  That will have to get fixed first thing tomorrow morning :*)

In order to finish this top assembly in January (from start to finish!), I've committed to making a block per day on the days I am at home.  This week has been impossible - I've had activities every day!  Starting this weekend, this project and my En Provence blocks will be getting lots of love :*)  I'll share more about my thoughts on EP in my next post.

En Provence Clue #5 complete

Some friends are coming over to sew tomorrow, so I need to go get things set up.  As I type, it has begun to snow, so hopefully we won't get "snowed" out!  Actually, we're not expecting anything more than perhaps an inch at the most.  I'll be back this weekend to share my January goals with you.

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Waiting for Santa!

Santa will be here before we know it and in the wink of an eye it will be 2017!  

Happy to see these stockings hanging that I made last year for our son Josh and his family!

Christmas really snuck up on me this year.  Actually, winter snuck up on me to be more accurate.  Wasn't it just October?  Where in the world did Autumn go?  All I know is my husband put up our tree after we got back home from our Thanksgiving trip to see the kids and grands in NC, and when he asked where the tree skirt was I realized I STILL had not quilted the one I made!!!

It's been sitting on the To Be Quilted shelf for much longer than I am willing to admit to here on the blog for God and all of you to hear LOL!!!   Well, when I was telling a friend about it she said, "Just put it down anyway".... so I did!!!

It looks really nice even as a top, so I know we are going to love it when it is quilted.  If I ever manage to get it quilted that is :*)

Which brings me to the point of my post today.  I actually did an inventory to see how many Christmas projects I have in some stage of being constructed... and if I count the projects that could be considered "winter" rather than just Christmas, there are more than a dozen!  Some of them long-time UFO's that are just crying out to be finished!

 As you know if you are a regular reader of my blog, my Music City Quilt Guild hosts a UFO Challenge each year, which has been tremendously helpful in getting some of my UFO's off the shelf and decorating our lives as FO's.  The next two photos are Christmas projects that I finished this year because of that UFO challenge....

So I've decided to make my own secondary Christmas UFO challenge where I will also work on one Christmas UFO each month, hopefully to completion.

For January, I plan to get an entire top pieced from start to finish, so I decided to get a head start and began several days ago!  It starts with the blocks from this panel....

It is from a fabric line called I Believe in Santa designed by Nancy Halvorsen somewhere circa 2012-ish.  The local quilt shops in our area offered a Shop Hop where each store offered a kit with instructions and fabric strips to make one sampler block for $6, and most of them had the accompanying panel and fabrics available for purchase as well.  If you visited each store on the Hop, you would end up with 12 blocks, enough to make your own sampler quilt.  Each store displayed their sampler quilt finished a different way and you could purchase their finishing kit if you liked, or just buy enough fabric to do it your own way.  Or, you could just keep the cute little kits in a bag together forever and ever and never do anything with them - which is apparently what I decided to do LOL!!!

Miraculously, I still have the panel and all twelve of the kits, and a good deal of the additional fabrics as well, although a few have been used in other projects over the years - those stockings in the first picture for example!

In order to take this from nothing to completed in a month, I will have to be pretty aggressive in how I attack it!  I've decided that I need to do one sampler block every day that I don't have anything scheduled outside the house.  If I'm at home, I make a block - period - no exceptions!  These are now done ....

Block #1 -- Finished!!!

Block #2 -- Finished!!!

Block #3 -- Finished!!!

These are not terribly difficult blocks.  One of the reasons they've sat undone for so long is that they were kitted up to use Thangles for the half-square triangles - and I HATE Thangles!!!  Yes, I know "hate" is a strong word - my grandson calls it a dirty word - but it's the only word that fits!

I can still remember the day at Guild that my friend Lavana shared with me that I could use the Easy Angle ruler to cut those half-square triangles and bypass the Thangles altogether - WIN!!!  I've used this ruler ever since and have loved it.  

Our Scrap Swap Bee group at Guild has been using these Star Singles to ensure that all their swapped blocks by different quilters are all the right size, and they swear by them.  So I decided to pick up some at a good price during one of the Black Friday sales and I hope to try them out soon.  It's always fun to be reminded that this old dog can learn new tricks LOL!!!  I'll let you know how they work out for me.

It has been easier than I thought it would be to get these 3 blocks done, and another one is sitting on my sewing table now, cut and ready to stitch up.  Even though tomorrow is Christmas, I'm holding to my commitment and will stitch it up before the day is done.  It feels good to have a plan and feel comfortable that it can be worked without too much difficulty.  In the past, whenever I found myself not accomplishing much, it was usually because I didn't have a plan in place or goals set.  I have no doubt that there will be a month or two when I don't meet that goal.  I mean, life happens to us all, right?  But I will still end up with more finishes than I would have without a goal at all.  And of course I'm counting on all of you to be here, encouraging me along!  If anyone would like to join me in my Challenge, drop me a note to let me know and I might consider doing a linky party :*)

Rocky has been a great help, but I'm a little worried that he won't be as available to Snoopervise this year.  He heard that Rudolph is retiring next year, so he has been very busy training for his audition with Santa to become Chief Sleigh Guide starting next year...

there's just no limit to this cat's talents!!!

Merry Christmas, my friends!!!

I value each and every one of you and

look forward to making beautiful quilts together in 2017!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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Happily Productive!

It's so nice when I am able to get almost everything on my To-Do list accomplished in any given week, but especially this week given that we are so close to Christmas!  I finished up several hand-made Christmas gifts this week and wrapped them up, ready to ship off to my loved ones!

And I am happy to report that my Clue #4 tri-rec units are completed for Bonnie's En Provence Mystery Quilt (EPMQ)!

And I did them right the first time LOL!!!  Actually, I really enjoyed stitching up these units.  Because we had just finished making them for Clue #2, my mind was already in tri-recs mode and I was able to crank them out with no problems.  And what joy to work with these rich purples!!!!

I'm now caught up on all the EPMQ clues so far, as you can see from my completed Clue #3 dark/light purple 4-patches shown in the above picture.  Bear in mind again that I am only doing half the units Bonnie calls for because I am just planning to make a lap-size quilt - unless I end up loving it of course, in which case I have plenty of fabric to make a bigger quilt :*)

Since the 4-patches were so scrappy this time, I only cut one strip off of each of my purples, so it didn't make sense to use my Sizzix cutter for the strips.

However, I did use it to cross-cut the sections for the 4 patches -

How nice to be able to have all of them cut with one simple turn of the handle!  I love turning my 4-patches over so I can admire the cute little swirls on the back (smiles!)

I'll be linking up with my fellow mystery quilters over at Bonnie's Monday Linky Party - click HERE to come over and see all the En Provence loveliness!

And for those of you who are still hanging around, I bet you are hoping for a picture of Rocky - right?  Well, here is Mr. Snoopervisor hard at work making sure I get that perfect 1/4" seam on the strips for the 4-patches...

I think he really likes the vibration of the machine, because he only gets up there when I am actually sewing.  After all that hard work, he decided to take a well-deserved nap - I spied two adorable little sets of kitty toes and an impressively furry tail sticking out from under my foyer quilt rack...

 I think he likes to take naps under there because the heat vent under the quilts makes it toasty warm :*)  He's actually inside the quilt there - that cat sure does love him a quilt!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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It Was Sew Much Fun, But ....

This morning, I dove straight in and churned out my Clue #2 units for Bonnie's En Provence mystery - DONE!!!

However, this was not my first rodeo with Clue #2! .....

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When I went to bed last night, I was so happy because I had finished up half of the units I needed and was excited about finishing them up today.  So you can imagine my dismay when saw friend Kevin's  Instagram (@photokevin74) post first thing this morning showing his beautiful little finished units - which had the colors reversed (I thought!).  I even commented that he was really switching things up this year.  Then I got to thinking - would he really switch it up that much?  Was it possible.....  Headed off to check Bonnie's posted clue again, and sure enough!

I had reversed my fabrics!!!

UGH!!!!

Bonnie saw my "Oh Crap!!!" comment on Kevin's post and reassured me, saying maybe I could use them on the back or for a second border.  She's such a sweetheart - don't you just love her???

Today's units went a little more quickly since I had already answered all the questions - how many strips to cut, what method to use, etc.  I didn't get an order into Bonnie for her amazing new ruler early enough, so I decided to use my Marti Michell Set C tri recs templates since they cut dog ears and everything, leaving virtually no guesswork at all - the large triangle is shown here from yesterday, cutting my incorrect units ....

There are few things that make me happier than some time spent mindlessly chain piecing and either watching a show or listening to a good book!  Right now I am listening to the 3rd in the Gamache series by Louise Penny.  If you love mysteries you have to check her out by the way - but it is important that you listen from the beginning!

See my little Leader/Ender there?  (One of the things I love about using L/Es is that I can always find the beginning of my chain hehehe :*)  I had some leftover pieces from another project this past summer and just couldn't toss them!

That pink is one of my favorite fabrics - and these little leftovers were all I had left of it.  So I cut the largest pieces I could to make some tiny 4-patches.

Heaven knows what I'll do with them, but I have no doubt the perfect use will hit me out of the blue one day, and I'll be glad I saved them :*)

And what did my little Snoopervisor do while I toiled away today?  Well, most of the morning, he did this....

Poor little fellow has not felt well since we came home from our Thanksgiving travels - we think he's reacting to the flea meds we had to give him.  He had us pretty concerned there for a few days, but he's beginning to perk up and eat again without throwing up - a good thing, right?

Last night, he was on duty and not missing a thing sitting in his current favorite spot for Snoopervision .....

While I was stitching this morning, My Guy put up the Christmas tree and got down all the ornaments & decorations, so I will be doing my Mrs. Claus thing the rest of the afternoon.  Then tonight, he and I will waste 3 hours watching the Carolina Panthers do their thing (whatever that is - it's certainly not football) LOL!!!  And I'll be finishing up the stitching on this Folk Art Album block....

I still need to finish the white and then the yellow on the daisies ...

.... and then the special little touch will be stitching this adorable little bee!!!

I completed the stitching on this block last week....

That leaves me with two blocks left in this project, and I'll be ready to make the sawtooth sashing and assemble the center.  Woohoo!!!!!

I still have the last one to prep for applique, but this one is already fused down and ready for stitching next.  It may be my favorite of these blocks :*)

Linking up with Bonnie's En Provence linky Monday and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

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