Brrrrr, it's cold!

When I went to bed last night, it was -13 degrees F. When I got up this morning, it was all of -8 degrees. We finally have reached -4.

Thankfully, temps will be rising over the next couple of days. We might even see close to 50 degrees by Sunday. Here's hoping!

I already have had a chance to sew for about an hour this morning. I'm still working on the mystery quilt from Quiltville. I am working on steps 4 and 5 at the same time. Should have them done this weekend. I will be already for the next step next week. Yeah!!! Bonnie says we will start putting it together. No more little units. I am looking forward to seeing the end result.

I have never done a mystery before. I tend to like to know what I am doing ahead of time. But, I must say, I am enjoying this process. Maybe it is the small steps, rather than a whole piece, that makes it go so quickly and almost effortlessly.

I know one particular reason I was drawn to this was because it is scrappy. Most of what I do is scrappy. I don't feel overly confident about my fabric choices when I only need three or four different fabrics.

I go about quilting pretty much the same way I make soup. I throw a little bit of everything into the pot. As long as I have a good base broth, the soup, though never the same twice, always ends up tasty and satisfying.

My style of quilting is the same. I toss in whatever I grab. As long as I have a neutral for a calming effect, the end results is usually very pleasing. I use a lot of white-on-white and off-white for my neutrals. Even those are usually scrappy because I am always combing through the remnant bins.

As well as working on the mystery quilt, I have been making progress on my string stars. I have two stars completely done. The blocks measure about 20". I have most of the small 5.5" blocks that make up the stars, done. As usual for me, I am working on two star quilts at the same time. I have not decided just how many stars will go into each quilt. Not sure what I want to do for sashings or borders. Haven't decided how big I want to make each quilt. These quilts will be going to a homeless shelter next winter. Generally, I make my homeless quilts at least 60" by 84", give or take a bit.

I am also working on a quilt called "Arlington Squares". It is from the "Nickel Quilts" book. I have had the darks cut for a long time, just needed to get my neutrals cut. While cutting for the mystery, I have been cutting for this quilt and several others. I have quite a bit of the small units done at this point. Started work on the last stack of units this morning. Should start putting the blocks together sometime this weekend.

The other day, I started a BOM from Claudia's Quilt Shoppe. This is an on-line shop offering this BOM free. The BOM started in Oct., so I was only 4 months behind. As of this morning, I have two months done. I will be checking what I need for the next block and getting the fabric together today. This will also be a homeless quilt. The quilt pattern, itself, is not my style. I tend to be rather traditional, but it will use a lot of scraps and be very interesting. It also stretches me out of my norm.

Well, while I have been sitting here typing this, it has warmed up to a whopping -1 degree F. If we are lucky, we might actually get above 0 degree today.

Have a wonderful day.

Mystery step 3 completed

Well, I finally finished the third step of Quiltville's mystery.

I have step 4 about half way done and step 5 is all cut and waiting for its turn at the sewing machine.

Yesterday, I started a free BOM from an on-line site, Claudia's Quilt Shoppe. should be all caught up to the current month by next week.

I think I am going to create a list of on-going pojects for Jan/Feb. As tops get completed, I will move them to the UFO - needs quilting list. I want to try and keep myself motivated and moving forward with my many ufos and current projects.

It is a beautiful, bright sunny day here, today. However, it is still -2 degrees. Brrrrrr!!!!!! When my daughter went out to wait for the bus, she immediately went into coughing spasms. Bad time of year for her asthma. As for me, I stay indoors. I look out my windows at the beautiful winter wonderland and stay nice and cozy in my house. In a few days the temps will come up and then out and about I will be.

Darlene

2007 Quilting Stats

Here is a picture of my empty thread spools.

I decided to tally up some stats from 2007 regarding my quilting.

1. I used at least 282 yards of fabric

2. I emptied 57 thread spools, most of which were standard size and full

3. I made and sent 240 string blocks to Heartstrings

4. I made and donated 13 kid's quilts to a Family Crisis Center (quilted by a friend)

5. I finished and gifted 6 projects, from tablerunner size to king sized

6. I made 139 flannel baby bibs

7. I made 33 quilts for homeless shelters (most quilted by a friend)

8. I made and sold 2 baby quilts

9. I made 10 purses

I hope to use at least the same amount of fabric in 2008.

Step 2 of Mystery completed.

I finally finished step 2 of the quiltville mystery, all 200 nine patches. Remember, I am making two quilts at the same time.

Here is a picture of some of them already pressed.

And here are the rest of them. I'll get them pressed in stages.

I started step 3. I haven't looked at step 4 yet. I am waiting until I finish the third step.

With the new year fast approaching, I am getting back into the groove of sewing. I have all my UFOs organized and hope to get a number of them done this year.

This is my goal for quilting this year....

1. wedding quilt, needs quilting

2. birthday quilt, needs quilting

3. baby girl quilt, needs quilting

4. baby boy quilt

5. Christmas quilt, needs quilting

Those are my personal gift goals this coming year. In addition to those, I would like to make at least a dozen kid's quilts and a dozen full sized quilts for a homeless shelter.

Wish me luck!!

Here is wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

Darlene

I thought you might like to see some pictures of my family. This is me with my son, Stephen. (I'm the short one) LOL
This is my beautiful girl, Lydia. She is my Sweet Peach. She has two, 8 week old puppies in her lap. They had just left their mother the day before. While sleeping in Lydia's lap, it was the only time they weren't whining.
This is my husband, Rick and my 17 month old grandson, Stephen Jr. Don't they both have a great pout?

These are some of my rail fence blocks done for the mystery from Quiltville. I went a little overboard and ended up making 200 instead of 100. Guess I will make two quilts instead of one. Now I know how I end up with so many UFOs. I get zooming along with my machine, and before I know it, I have twice what I need. Hence, a new UFO is born.

I am well on my way through step 2 of the mystery. I have been sewing strips and sub-cutting the different units since Thursday. Just counted and have amost all I need for the next block segment. At this rate, I may have them done by next weekend.

While I am working on this mystery, I am using as a leader/ender project some string blocks that I am turning into stars blocks. The string stars will be another quilt for the homeless shelter. No surprise, again, I have two string star quilts in progress at the same time.

I am going to try and figure out how to put lists on the side of this blog, eventually. I would like to list the UFOs that I would like to get done in 2008. I cannot list all my UFOs. There would not be enough space. LOL

Darlene

I'm not THAT old!!!

Okay, I fixed my age in the profile. Somehow, I had myself listed as 1,944 years old!!! That would make me older than dirt!!! LOL

Darlene