Maniac Monday 1~ 2014

So I have finally made it back into my sewing room. It has taken a while. My health has been a little better. I am fighting a new cold now. I had more blood work done on Friday and I will know soon what the next step will be. If my liver functions are better, then I will not have to have a liver biopsy and I might be able to start up some RA medication. Oh yeah I forgot. I am off all my RA meds and it is killing me!! I hurt so bad. This too shall pass. So if my liver functions are still bad then no RA meds and we will do the biopsy to see what is going on.

I have been working on a few things. On Wednesday I posted that I was working on one of my UFO's. It is part of my 2014 Plans~15 for '14. I had decided I was not putting myself under any pressure to make them finished projects, but at least to get them to the next stage. We'll I have a completed top now of my Birdie Stitches by Little Miss Shabby.

I also made a cute little thread catcher.

Then while I was in the sewing room and had done a good job at moving a UFO to the next step I took out a UFO that was not on my list. I had saved all the fabric from my 2012 Designer Mystery BOM. I had been cutting it up to make a different quilt then the one the fabric was ment for. I found this very cute quilt called On The Road To Spring by I Have To Say. So I finished cutting all the pieces and spent the afternoon mindlessly chain stitching. I am not sure when I will get back to it but at least this moved a little too!

I hope everybody is doing ok with the crazy weather the country is having. Last weekend we had 5 inches of snow on the ground. No it has all melted off and has rained so much there is talk of flooding. CRAZY!!

TTFN

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

NTT-Scrappy PQA Quilt

Kelly over at My Quilt Infatuation has a cool link up party every Thursday. You can link up anything that you make with needle and thread. It does not need to be a finished project. You can be at any step from planning to bound and washed.

Today I am linking up my quilt that my friends at PQA have helped me make. You can hop over to our blog to check out my rows here. I started with a scrappy row made of squares. I asked for any scrappy row. They did wonderful work for me.

Here are my rows laid out on my bed.

I had a row of scrappy wonky stars on a white background that just did not seem to fit. After looking at the strip I decided to separate them and add them to the corners. I used some of the other strips and white to make borders big enough to make the corner blocks fit. It turned out so cool. The quilt needed the white to break up all of the scrappiness!

Thank you ladies for your help! It is wonderful!

TTFN

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

WIP Wednesday-Birdie Stitches

I am joining in today with everybody over at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday. Please stop by and take a peak at some great blogs!

Way back in 2011, ha ha that was SO long ago, I joined up with a quilt along done by Little Miss Shabby called Birdie Stitches. I loved making each and every block. Yesterday I decided it was time to break it out and get the top done. I have added a small sashing around each block. I used the fabric that I used in the centers. Next I am adding a small sashing of a matching darker fabric. When that is done it will be so cute.

This picture is the June block.

This is the December block with the first sashing.

This is the view from my seat in the sewing/DD#1 bedroom. She is working on FMQ a quilt that PQA members work on for her two years ago. Then right in front is my sweet baby, Chomper! He is sitting on my blocks.

I hope to get the top done tomorrow. It should come together very fast now. I need to add a few more center sashing strips, sew it together, and add binding. Then I can call it a finish project, ok we'll a finished top.

TTFN

Posted with Blogsy on my iPad

WIP Wednesday~Storage Baskets

What a busy week already. I have been sick since before Thanksgiving and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I hope I am not jinxing myself. The doctors are still having a hard time figuring out what is going on and without getting into a ton of medical stuff lets just say I will be sick for a while and things are going to get worse on the RA side before it gets better. 

I finally found my sewing room. DD#2 came home from collage at the end of her fall semester and will be home until mid April when she goes back for her spring semester. It has been interesting with her home at the same time that the holidays started. Then with me being sick she just this week got moved back into my sewing room. We received some great sets of drawers from a small business that we moved into our room on Friday. They are huge. They are 60" long, 30" deep, and 24" tall. We have two set with 4 drawers and one set with two very deep drawers. PERFECT storage. These drawers will take the place of three large three drawer plastic bins, five small three drawer plastic bins, and a large 6 drawer dresser. All of these things taking up our sewing/bedroom. Below are pictures of two of the set of drawers.

 With the new drawers I decided that I wanted new baskets to hold my scraps in now that I do not have the plastic bins. I found a very cool tutorial on Sew4Home for 

Stylish Baby Nursery: Collapsible Storage Baskets. I used the pattern and the hints at the end to make the baskets fit the new drawers. Below is a pile of the card board pieces that I cut and the baskets before I added the card board and the binding to the top. 

I decided that I wanted the main part to be white and then the binding to match the color inside. 

I LOVE THEM!! Below you can see the five I finished today. I will be making 11 more. I want to fill up two drawers with my scraps. All the way through the rainbow plus a few extra baskets for fun fabric. 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope that you have a fun time hanging out here for a bit. 

TTFN

2014 Plans~15 in '14

I have seen a bunch of UFO parties. I have thought a lot about joining one. I have decided that I am just going to do this on my own. I don't want to feel obligated to sew anything. I have made a list of 15 UFO's that I want to at least get to the next stage or all the way finished. 

2010 Designer  Mystery BOM

I have cut some border fabric. I have some of the blocks sewn together. I had plans of making 4 table runners but never finished them. I will have to see what shape I left it in. I would like to make this back into  a quilt and have it ready to use by Christmas at the end of the year.

2011 Designer Mystery BOM

This is still in blocks. I would like to get this made into a quilt.

A Year of Paper Piecing

I started on this way back in 2008. I have 8 of the 12 wall hangings done. I would like to finish the other four. 

Apple Core 

I picked these pieces out of a Traveling Stash Box. I can't wait to make this quilt!

Birdie Stitches

I have all the blocks done. I just need to decide on a lay out and get it done.

Black and White Garden

This is a BOM I did at my LQS. I have all the blocks done.

Count On It

I have 7 of these done. 

Double Delight

I have all of the pieces cut. I have some of it sewn together. 

Hello Moon

I have 6 blocks done.

Hello Sun

I have all 12 blocks done. I have some yellow corner blocks made. 

Quilts for Kids Their Kit

I have the top done. I just need to finish it.

Quilts for Kids My Kit

Same thing as above.

Round and Round Quilt Along

I have all the two patches done. I have quilt a bit done. 

Tetris Quilt Along

I have the top done.

Trip Around the World

The top is done.

TTFN

Goodbye 2013

I love seeing all of the things people make during the year. I really like seeing the mosaics. It is an easy way to see everything all at once. I have made one for me. I felt like I had not made much but when going through the process of making the mosaic I realized I had made many things. Thank you to everybody that keep coming back to read what I am up to. I liked getting things off my UFO list last year and I am planning on doing that again this year. Of all of the projects that I made 10 of them were UFO's. Yippee!!! I have so many projects that I want to do that until I clean of some of my shelves I just don't feel right doing them.  I am making a list of the projects that I am going to finish in 2014. I have also updated the Maniac Monday List page and the Finished Projects page at the top of my blog. I will keep doing Maniac Monday. It is a good way to keep my projects straight in my head without having to try and remember them. I have moved things around to make it easier for me. I will be changing it a little bit more to make space for my 2014 list. In my Finished Projects page I have added all of the projects in the mosaic that were not already there. I will be updating the other pages as I go. Again thank you for stopping by. Have fun looking at what I love to do.

Trying Out My New Toys

Merry Cristmas!!!

I know I am late. I have been sick and then very busy. I got sick with C. diff just after I last posted. Boy was I sick. At the same time my liver started to act up. Because of my illness I take all kinds of medicine. Well one of them has been causing my liver functions to rise. With this last illness the levels got too high. I had to go in for an ultrasound and tons of blood work. I did have a doctors appointment with an Internal Medicine doctor yesterday. He has decided to do more blood work just to check for some off the wall liver illnesses. But he believes it is one medication that is causing all the trouble. In the week I was off it my liver functions got better. The lab drew 5 things of blood last night and we will know more in a couple of weeks. But he did say from the blood work and ultrasound already done I DO NOT have a "fatty liver". Which made me very happy. So more waiting. Until then lots of bland foods and yogurt.

I did receive some VERY cool Christmas gifts this year. Santa did very good. First off my husband and I bought a 55" LED TV and a Playstation 3 for the family. So cool. We have been having lots of fun win those two items. It is our first LED TV. Next I received an iPad Mini. I love it. I am having so much fun. I am trying to figure out how to blog from it. I am using Blogsy for this first post. So far so good but I will let you know after it is posted. Next I received a new sewing machine. It is The SINGER® PATCHWORK. It is so cool!!! I have never had so many features. 100 stitches. A foot up/down feature. A needle threader feature. So many things.

I borrowed this picture from the Singer website. If you click on it hopefully the link will take you to the right spot.

So I will be getting a few things ready for the New Year and hopefully I will be back and set after the holidays. I hope that everybody and had a wonderful time so far.

TTFN

Posted with Blogsy

WIP Wednesday

 

 I am linking up with Freshly Pieced.

Good morning everybody. I have been gone but I have been sewing. A little. We have been doggie sitting for a while and though the new dog is a sweet old fella my Chompie is being a pain! The doggy guest will be going home tomorrow then I can get back to sewing all the time again. 

I have been able to work on a few things for the shop. Here are a few Christmas items. Both made from my left overs from the 2010 Designer Mystery BOM. There was SO much fabric left. 

This is a nice size table runner. I only have the top finished. I will be able to quilt and bind it tomorrow.

 Here is a cute mug rug made out of some scraps. I was able to get the binding sewn on last night. I love this line of fabric. It is 12 Days of Christmas from Kate Spain. It is so bright!!

TTFN

Mug Rug Revival #3

I have competed my swap item for the Mug Rug Revival #3. I sure hope that my partner likes it. I sent it off in the mail today. 

I made the sandwich of backing, batting, and black top. I then used small zig-zag stitching and I stitched down many different scraps to the sandwich. It's like a quilt as you go. I love each of these fabrics. They all have meaning for me.

A different angle. 

Here is the back. I love the look of it. With all of the stitching you can see how the pieces sit on the top.

This mug rug is the one that my partner sent to me. I love it. The rainbow, the salvages, the extra fabric. It is all so cool!!

TTFN

Maniac Monday

I know I missed last Monday. I have been very busy. See this post!

I did finish my nephews Creeper quilt. I love how it turned out. Everybody at the party loved it. I even got another commission quilt order. HA HA! In the picture you can see the quilt with my nephew sitting in front of it in his Creeper shirt and his mom over to the left in PJ's and curlers. Because he just turned 10 he was not overjoyed by getting a blanket for his birthday but I know he loves it and will love it more as he uses it. His mom was overjoyed!! 

Here it is on my bed getting sandwiched. I only use spray baste anymore. My RA will not let me get on the floor and pin baste. 

In this picture my 6 foot 3 inch husband is holding it up for me for a last minute picture before we drove off to the party. It is 64 x 80 inches. I did straight line quilt in the ditch quilting. I think it turned out great. It is washed and ready for a 10 year old Creeper loving kid.

TTFN