I have moved the previous posts to the end of the entry. I hope that you make it that far.
Goals: I am no longer even attempting to comment on those that were not touched. They'll just stay on the list until they are achieved, even though life jumps in front of them now and then.
Easy Street (ES) - quilted, bound -
Old Tobacco Road (OTR) - Clues 4, 5 -
Allietare (A) - Clue 6 sewn, back, label, binding, quilted, bound -Old Tobacco Road (OTR) - Clues 4, 5 -
Double Delight (DD) - quilted and bound -
Row Robin #2 - back, label, binding made, quilted and bound - label, binding, backing made
Round Robin (3) - mailed -
Round Robin (4) - finished and mailed -
Bargello - back, binding, label made, quilted and bound - label, backing, binding made
Roll Roll Cotton Boll - Clues 5-8 5 finished
Periwinkle quilt for Ophelia - Top, backing, binding, label made
New baby quilt - Top, backing, label, binding made
UFO -- all popups - All four made
Beach bags - Seven made
1st - Since it is the birthday season, Mister and I are starting the month out with a trip. If you are at all interested in what we find around Texas, please check out this LINK. One of the things I spot while at the River Bend Nature Center is this HUGE owl. It's a chalkboard and Mister thinks I should get it for the November retreat. Well, okay then. I also spot this dang cute IRON salt/pepper/sugar set. 2nd - It's day two of both the month and my trip. It is a fantastic day and you can follow us in this LINK. By the way, that link will take you to several others which you really should check out. Nocona is amazing and worth learning about. I would really like to get a road trip together with my gal pals to do a revisit.
Oh, oh, oh. An extra birthday present for me today. This 401 returned with us back to Dallas for some lovin'. Pretty sweet.3rd - Mister is working from home today and finds time now and then to give my machines a spa treatment while I finish prepping for retreat.
4th - Happy birthday to me! Yes, I actually enjoy getting older. I know that sounds odd but embracing what is inevitable is way better than hating or dreading it. Let's see what this year brings.
Kelly and her mom, Ellen, are in town since Ellen arrived from Alaska to attend retreat with us. There is no sense in them returning to Midland to then drive to Granbury tomorrow so we get together for breakfast (where I am gifted with birthday joy), some shopping, and lunch. Once home, I finish prepping and packing for retreat, call it done and enjoy a lovely dinner out with my sweetie. It's been a really nice day.
5th - TEN DAYS! Yep, I'm off to ten days of retreat. I know you are stinking jealous and you should be. I would be if I were you. This is such a treat. Hmmm --- I want to think that "retreat" means to gift oneself over and over again. The Brazos River is calling and Mister is dropping me off. We arrive at 7:30 and after unloading the car, I kiss him good-bye for his 10 days of quiet and solitude. That part is not all bad for him either. I'm now alone and in heaven. Stop --- smell --- take a walk. It's truly wonderful. To read all about our wonderful Birthday/Mother's Day retreat, please check out this POST. There are lots of great pictures and stories to behold.
My big sewing accomplishment for the day? I get the top,label, and binding put together for a new baby grandchild that will make her appearance at the end of July. I am going to back it with white minky.
Also, Sherry shares with us a wonderful seat belt shoulder strap cover that I am thrilled with. To see how it is made, please click on this LINK.Additionally, our retreat group has taken on a service project that Debi is spearheading. We are making "Beads of Courage" bags for children cancer patients. Woot Woot -- I get five done today and love them. Some of my fabric was found on the trip this week.
6th - Today's retreat project is beach bags being taught by Ellen. I have all my supplies ready to go and will be making 7 of these sweeties. I brought everything for 8 but Jen will do one for me in addition to helping me out with the others.
TA-DA -- it takes me until just before midnight but I have them all finished. If you wish to make these bags the video for them can be seen HERE.
7th - Today I am teaching how to do fat quarter pop-up bags from the Fat Quarter Gypsy so the first thing I do today is make one. HAHAHAHA. No joke. It's easier to teach if you have a clue what you are doing. I do have somewhat of a tutorial posted HERE.Throughout the day, I manage to finish ALL of my own pop-ups. Technically, these are a UFO for me as I bought this stuff months ago and only had one finished. You may remember the red one.
The last night of retreat is always hard, but we have had a great time and have a TON of bags finished. Additionally, I so treasure these times with Jen. Mother/Daughter moments are rare and I would not want to lose a single opportunity to have them. 8th - Everyone has packed up and left except Val and I. This means I can make a HUGE mess with all of this flat space. I want to get caught up on Roll Roll Cotton Boll so HUNDREDS of HST's are in the works. Ironing takes me forever. To read about this clue, please click on this POST.
9th - We have hit the "between" days at Brazos. It is a pure joy to be here and just sew all day without a single responsibility other than occasionally feeding oneself. Before Allison left, she covered my table in bottles of water and I am going to drink them ALL, I promise. Val and I are busy little bees and you can follow along with us in this LINK. Today, back/bindings/labels for my Bargello AND my Row Robin are now complete. Ophelia's Periwinkle top is on the design wall getting it's first look.
10th - Today's mission is to make Ophelia's dress/hat out of the fabric that Allison gifted me last February. I have the fabric all made and cut out. It's time to sew.Gotta admit I love how it turns out and, yes, having all this space to work in is equally incredible.
Even though my serger gave me a bit of a fit and the pattern was a little crazy, it came together well and I can't wait to see her in it. This will be going with her quilt for her birthday in June.
Speaking of her quilt. I don't like the layout so before going to bed I spend a couple ideas trying to come up with a better one. I think I'll go with the new one.11th - Okay, it's the Periwinkle top's turn. I'm sticking with it and moving right along. Once the center is complete, I add the borders and make the backing, binding, and label. This one is ready to quilt. Yay Deb. I'm rocking this list of mine.
What's next. Oh --- something light-hearted. It's mermaid time and I get as far as closing up the stuffing spots before heading to bed.
The rest of my day is spent working on the sewing mats that I prepped back home. I have enough supplies for 4 of them and get one finished and the other 3 to the binding stage.
13th - I am teaching the beach bags again today so while doing so, I finish the binding on all the sewing mats. After that, Ana is teaching snap bags and I have my creativity button turned on high. I am so excited about this lovely ruler bag that I made using techniques I learned by making the beach bag AND the snap bags.
14th - I have decided that the creativity from last night is still flowing a bit so I set out to do the needle books that everyone else did back in February. I was so busy doing Mister's gift quilt that I just couldn't fit in another project for anything then. Today is different. Do I have things on my list still that are not done? Yep. Should I be doing them? Absolutely. Have I remained focused for the past 9 days? No doubt. I am now going to veer from the schedule and see what I can come up with. I adore how it turns out and you can see all of the pages by clicking this LINK.We round up all the service project bags for a wonderful picture. Oh yay and thank you to everyone the past two retreats. You did use up ALL of the labels that we had on hand.
15th - It's time to say good-bye to Brazos House again and amidst tears it happens. Thank you so much to all the wonderful ladies that I was privileged to spend time with this month. You are absolutely the angels that make my life complete.
16th - It's a recovery day for sure and that means working on pictures and blog entries is as far as I can get from bed. Naps off and on come into play as well. My biggest moment is a quick walk outside to check out what is happening in the yard.17th - Again -- working on pictures of retreat all day. There are only about 500 of them to weed through. Lots of duplicates and deletions going on.
18th - I have got to be a bit productive today. For some reason cleaning out my closets and drawers seems appealing. It takes me most of the afternoon but I am now ready to move on. I have a hall FULL of clothing that needs a new home but at least the chore is complete. What does this have to do with quilting? Not a damn thing. Sorry.
19th - I need some cording for Ophelia's drawstring bag since I learned the correct way to do it at retreat. That means I have to get dressed and leave the house. Can it be done? Yep -- I am off to JoAnn's, where I find reminders of upcoming retreats everywhere I look,
20th - It's time to get back on track and the best way I can think of to do that is to have Allison over for a girl's day and to sew, sew, sew.Oh it feels good to sew again and I am once again making progress on Roll Roll Cotton Boll clue 6. To see what it all entails, please check out this POST. What a wonderful day we have and I am so thankful for her friendship. As she is preparing to leave, Mister heads off to Plano to pick up a sewing table he bought for me. Woohoo, another flat space. Our evening is spent at the auction where some incredible machines are up for grabs. Peek in our evening HERE.
21st - Mister and I are off to the zoo for a morning walk followed by grocery shopping at Central Market. Yes, nothing like that to get me in the mood to cook. However, the really BIG news today is that Chasing the Sun, my new mystery, is being introduced. Ooooh, ooooh, ooooh let the fabric hunting begin. By clicking on THIS LINK you can find out all about it.We stop in at our favorite art shop down in Bishop Arts while we are out and about. I LOVE this painting and can see something quilty coming from it in the future. AND, owls are once again staring at me. We end the day over at Elisabeth's birthday party celebration. What a fun day.
22nd - For some reason functioning today is just not really on the agenda. The most I do is prepare dinner for me and my sweetie. Told you that shopping at Central Market would get me in the mood to cook.
23rd - Okay, okay, Enough slacking girl. Get back to the machine. Roll Roll Cotton Boll blocks are not going to finish themselves. I get a few finished and they look awesome. (Truth be told, I finished up clue 6 today as well.) 7 blocks are in the DONE column. These sweet things certainly take time to put together. Soooo many pieces.24th - It is National Tiara Day. Are you wearing yours? I am. I spend most of the day working on the RRCB blocks and guess what? THEY ARE FINISHED. What a wonderful pile of loveliness.
Bonnie is having a quilt-cam tonight so I am setting up a little cutting station near the computer. It's time to get the string blocks from RRCB ready to put into a top. I am READY to set as soon as they are cut and sized. What a perfect way to work on them.25th - I cannot believe it but RRCB is laid out. Oh my gosh. I do so love it. It is set on point so will take me a bit to get it together and I'm not sure I can pull it off this month with another project taking precedence and camp sessions about to begin, but I can honestly say that I am truly happy with how it is turning out.
26th - I am mere days from summer camp sessions beginning with grandchildren. I fly in two days and know that that will be the end of sew days for awhile. Therefore, I make a quick call to Allison and we are going to work on a secret project today. Oh how I wish I could show you pictures, but a secret is a secret. I CAN show you the flowers my sweetie brought to me though. AND the fabric gift from Allison. What a great day.27th - I have to clean up the house today so I do it in bits and pieces saving the living room for the very last. I try and put in some more time on the machine whenever I can throughout the day. My main goal is to get some work done on a Round Robin I am working on. It seems like every time I sit down to work on it, I let it intimidate me and find something else to focus on. Squirrel!
The house is clean and ready for little people to invade tomorrow. I am flying to Denver to pick up Elena and Malea and am so excited for them to be here. However, since Mister and I won't have a night alone again for awhile. It's wine and cheese night.
28th - I am in the air today and even the sky is keeping me focused on the upcoming mystery. I am once again chasing the sun while out and about. 
29th - With little girls around, sewing time is at a premium but nap time does give me a bit more space. Grandpa and Elena are having quality time while Malea sleeps so I make a quick dash to the studio in the hopes of loading Periwinkle River onto the frame. Woohoo -- it is ready to go when I get another chance.
30th - It's a day spent with precious little girls. Enough said.
31st - Elena and Malea have determined that they would like to sew something to wear and I need to pick up some drawstring cord so we are off to JoAnn's to look at patterns. When we walk in the door, there is just the cutest apron and we talk about that until they decide they want to make aprons. Okay -- off to the pattern books to see if we can find an easy one. Success. Now for fabric and bias tape.We have those selected and guess what --- after it's all cut and we are walking towards the checkout, they spot fabric that MUST be made into dresses. It's simple enough so back to the cutting table we go. Now we are set. Tomorrow is a SEW Day.
I think that's it for this month. What a busy, crazy life I lead sometimes. But you know what? I wouldn't change it even a little bit and woe to those who think I should.
Thanks for checking up on me this month. Check back in now and then and please check out the link to OUR QUILT BLOGS at the top of the page for many of the quilt groups are starting to restrict the posting of blogs into the groups. If you want to still have a long monthly read and time for your tea, join the group. Thanks for sticking around this long -- I appreciate all of you who read each month.
Links to Previous 2016 Monthly Update Posts:
January Quilt Update
February Quilt Update
March Quilt Update
April Quilt Update
January Quilt Update
February Quilt Update
March Quilt Update
April Quilt Update
Whoosh!! What a month you had. So happy to be included with our Sew Days together. Hugs, Allison
ReplyDeleteSew much fun. You really cram every month full of activity.
ReplyDelete