PQ 10.2 Red, White and Blue

Hello friends!

This weeks challenge for Project Quilting 10.2 is Red, White and Blue.  Those were the only colors you could use.  I was actually just going to pass on making this but at the last minute I had what I thought was a good idea.  I decided to make a small modern quilt.  I had my navy fabric out from doing my word of the year and so I cut right into it.  This little gem is 12x12.

I am calling this 'Plaid'.  I did straight line quilting in the center in white and decided to do the same the other way in blue.  It needed something in the blue areas so red thread was the choice.  I think it pops!

I am linking up to Project Quilting here.

Voting opens this Sunday.  I would appreciate your vote.

Thanks!

Blessings!

Amy

Word for the year and PQ 10.1

Hello Friends

If you have been following for a bit, you know that I like to quilt a word for the year.  In 2017 the word was:

 

The word for 2018 was:

 

And this year the word is:

 

With having to run for my parents in recent years, I have not been able to take a personal vacation.  I will not complain or whine about this.  I was needed and was where I had to be.  If I had to do it all over, I would.  With dad's passing and mom in a good place and taking care of herself, it's time for a little adventure.  My company gives us paid sabbaticals for every 5 years of service.  I have been here for almost 13 years. My previous sabbaticals were stay-cations.  Either we stayed close to home or my dad was sick and I stayed in the hospital with him.  I have a 2 week sabbatical to take.  My family has always been fascinated with England and anything British.  My son will graduate from college on May 19th.  My sister and I are taking him to England to celebrate.  We will leave on the 20th and return on the 29th or 30th.  I have a friend who is a travel agent and is planning the adventure for us. We will be spending most of our time in London.  It's a big trip.  Not just to go to England, but to go on a vacation.  I have not been on a vacation for more than a couple days in 13 years.  We are super excited for this.

 

So I chose my London fabric to make my word.  I also used my go to book for lettering.  I have been using this book for all of my lettering needs.  These are paper pieced and super easy.  You can find Quilt Talk by Sam Hunter here.  I enlarged the letters a little bit but probably should have left them the original size or made them a little smaller.  This is a large word.  This quilt measures 45 1/2 x 9 1/2.

 

Hope Springs Eternal is the PQ 10.1.  I decided this quilt fits the description.  I have hope for a great vacation.  I am #53 on the challenge if you would like to vote here.

 

That makes 2 things done from my FAL list. :)  Now to continue to work on finishing quilts and work more on my Vintage Christmas blocks.

 

How do you stay organized?  Calendar, bullet journal?  How do you find the time daily to sit down and use them?

 

Blessings

Amy

2019 Finish-a-long

Hello Friends

I have decided to challenge myself and participate in the 2019 Finish-a-long..  My friend Izzy is one of the hosts.  I have a lot that I would like to accomplish this year sewing wise so this will help motivate me.  Here is my list for Q1:

• Finish a quilt a month-I have lots of tops made, just need to quilt and bind-specifically, Norway quilt, 3 flannel quilts from my father's shirts, and either the Birch Bark quilt or the Hex on You quilt.
• Make and finish a quilted 'word' of the year-picked my word and am almost done.
• Vintage Christmas quilt-make a block a week or 12 blocks this quarter
• Organize my craft/sewing space-this needs to get done now

I think that is a doable list for this first quarter.  I have already finished one of the flannel quilts.
I will write about that later.

Hope you decide to join along!

Blessings
Amy

2019 Goals and Challenges

Hello Friends!

Oh how I have missed you all.  Thank you for sticking with me.  My last post was sad and a long time ago.  I was lost for a few months in there.  I was always running for Dad and then it just stopped.  He was gone and I didn't know what to do with myself.  My Mom still had dialysis on Saturdays and they were long, lonely days.  My sister has been a big help and we were alternating weekends.  Mom now does dialysis MWF so my sister and I still alternate Saturdays but it's just to take her shopping and not a whole long day.
I am a member of the Madison Modern Quilt Guild.  In November I decided to go to the meeting.  They have been hard for me lately.  Partly due to living farther from the shop and just not feeling myself.  Well, this meeting was different for me.  I didn't stay for the whole meeting because I have a hard time driving in the dark.  More scared of deer than anything else.  I saw a few of my friends there and they let me cry and talk and just were there for me.  I felt instantly rejuvenated.  I was telling my friend about it and she asked me what changed?  Me.  I changed.  I felt a purpose again.  I felt a need to get my feelings out and be more creative.  Quilting is my outlet.  I have missed it.  My friends showed me that.  I think they missed me too.
So now I am back to creating! 
I should have warned you in the beginning this was a long post.  I had planned to show you everything I have done since the last time I was here, but I think I will stretch it out.  This post will be about goals and challenges.
I am taking on challenges because I like that term better than resolutions.  Everything we do is a process.  The following challenges are going to be worked on this year:

• eat better and walk more
• Vintage Christmas Quilt with my friend Marilyn
• Project Quilting season 10-starts January 6
• Read Like a Pirate 2019 book club-find on Facebook
• completely finish a quilt a month
• reconnect and make more time for friends
• bullet journal

I received an air fryer and an instapot for Christmas.  I am determined to plan and eat better.

I have the Quilter's Planner and my friend Marilyn and I are making the Vintage Christmas Quilt.  There are 42 blocks in the quilt.  We are making a block a week.   I plan to start all of these on a Sunday.  May will be a difficult month though.  Every Sunday is booked and most of the month too. My birthday, Mother's Day, my son graduates from college and I will be in England for the last Sunday.  But I will push through and either make ahead or catch up when I get back.  The planner has been a great tool to help me organize the blocks.  You can get your copy here.

 

Project Quilting season 10 starts Jan 6.  You can find the info for that here.

Won't you play along?

 

Read like a pirate has been created by my friend Trisha.  You can find it on Facebook and join.  I was going to set a goal of 12 books this year but I think that is too lofty.  I only have a little bit of time daily to read so I kept my goal low at 6.  Maybe I will read more than that, we shall see.

 

I am challenging myself to finish a quilt a month.  Now before you panic and wonder how I will accomplish this, just know that I have many quilt tops made.  They just need quilting and binding.  I am hoping to learn the long arm from my friend this year.  I think this is completely doable.

This is a blurry picture but you get the idea.  When my Dad passed I was cleaning out the closet and found all of his flannel shirts.  I was bagging them for donation when a voice told me that was free fabric!  I decided to make a flannel quilt from his shirts.  I ended up with enough fabric to make 3 quilts.  My sister, brother and Aunt will all receive a quilt.  All 3 are pieced and 1 is basted.  I will just quilt them on my domestic machine.  I am just doing straight line quilting on them.  So I feel pretty confident that I will be able to do the 12 quilts this year.

I bought a bullet journal last year and barely touched it.  This year, I have already filled many pages.  It's a good outlet when the sewing things are put away.

I don't really know if these things will get accomplished, but I am going to try my hardest to get things done.  I have lots of quilts to make so I would like to finish some before I start more.  Too bad there are only 7 days in the week and I have to go to work 5 of those days.  Got to pay for the fabric somehow.

How do you start the new year?  Do you make resolutions?  Do you follow through and complete them?  How do you stay on task and organized.  I would love to hear how you all do that.

So I think this is long enough.  I have lots more to share with you.  I have been quilting and making other things.  Stay tuned.

Blessings
Amy

 

 

 

A big loss

Hello Friends

Hope this finds you well.  I am still working on getting things out of the house for a garage sale.  We are going to work on it more this weekend when everyone is home to celebrate my brother-in- law's birthday.  We had to take a week off of packing and moving to celebrate the life of my father.

He passed away peacefully in his sleep on Tuesday, August 14.  It was in the morning which was fitting as he was a morning person.  We had been down to see him on Sunday because Hospice said he had another fever and it may be end of life.  We were all there.  On Monday he seemed to have a good day and was more responsive.  But he didn't wake up on Tuesday. 

It's been a lot of running with funeral plans and getting through all of that.  He would have been very happy with what we did for him.  Of course, he was not there, he was in all His glory.  Dad knew where he was going so we find comfort in that.

Now we are trying to find a new routine.  The house is keeping me busy.  The basement had 8 inches of water in it Tuesday morning.  Big rains and floods around me.  Luckily it was just the sump pump and the neighbor just had to hit the pipe for it to work again.  I ran fans all day and dried it all out.  Basement is fine now.

No pictures on this post.  Will have more updates on the house as I finish more rooms.  Hoping to sew a little more too.  I did get a top done but I will save that for another time.

Blessings
Amy

House update

Hello Friends

I have been working hard on the house.  Garage sale is set for Sept 6-8.  Boxing up items to sell and unpacking my stuff has been all consuming.  I have taken some time to sew which has helped my stress.  I am going to show you some before and after pictures of the rooms I have done.  I am just painting and adding my own touches for now.  The house needs flooring and windows, but they will come in time.  I am pretty proud of the work I have done.  I have only owned the home for a month.

First up, I rented the carpet cleaner and cleaned the living room carpet. That same day, I painted the room also.  It was a bright green, now it's a cream color called Tea & Honey.

 

  After

 

  They had blinds on the windows and I changed it to curtains.  I have to replace the windows so I didn't want to put too much into it.

 

Next up was the downstairs bathroom.  This room has been yellow for most of my life.  It was a bright yellow then a light yellow.  Now it's gray.

 

Yellow walls

 

Now gray

 

I am very happy with both rooms and it has motivated me to keep going!

The upstairs bathroom has carpeting so my next job is removing that.

This is the peel and stick vinyl flooring I bought for that room:

  

It's called Ash blended.  The walls will be a gray/blue color after I paint. 

 

I am plugging along and doing this a box at a time.  I am hoping to have enough rooms completed that I can actually have a house warming party.  Windows and siding will come in time. 

 

Hope you are all well.

 

Blessings

Amy

 

 

 

Checking In

Hello Friends

Just a quick update for you all.  Thanks for staying with me and reading.  I actually closed on the house on June 21st.  A lot had to be done to get there and I will fill you in later about that.  No sewing going on as I have been packing and unpacking.  My parents had 46 years worth of things in the house.  I am going through everything to get ready for a garage sale, while trying to unpack and move into the home.  It has also been 100 degrees here lately and that has hampered some of the moving process.  But for now, I own my own home and I am celebrating small victories!

 

I just need to thank my sister, Lisa.  She has been a tremendous help.  Not only with packing and moving but emotionally too.  I am so blessed!

 

Hope you are all doing well.  More to come.

 

Blessings

Amy