I am ready for some changes...

I am married to a school teacher

and I use to substitute teach for years.

Many folks set New Years goals in

January, but in our household, new plans 

and goals start with the new school year.

(which is mid August)

I am ready for some changes.

I am excited to create and sew and knit

I need to make some health changes too.

So.....

I am enrolled in a weight loss-get healthy

program starting in August through a

local hospital. It is not surgery, but classes

to learn how to eat healthy and exercise.

I am setting some sewing-creating goals too.

To start off, using up bags and bags (and bags)

of scraps. I was saving them for a friend, but

she changed her mind and I already had them

cut in usable sizes, so

I started sewing blocks to be used in

charity-comfort quilts for our local

Family shelter and Police department.

It is almost an addiction, once you get started.

I began with the 1.5 inch strips and have

worked my way through the bags.

I have many, many more to sew.....

My local quilt group has a yearly bingo

party. Everyone donates quilt-sewing items

for the prizes. This year, I won a 

quilt frame.

I will be setting it up for some Fall and

Winter hand quilting...when the weather

cools down.

This weeks goals:

Sew on binding on Be My Neighbor quilt

Finish binding by hand sewing it

Sew more comfort blocks.

Today, for my Sunday Slow Stitching,

I am going to work on one of my

unfinished needlepoint projects.

What are you creating?

Welcome Summer!

The season of Summer is in full swing

here in Utah. Hot days...cooler nights...

gardening...Husband home fulltime

(he's a teacher)

I finished a quilt top for my local guild

comfort quilt donation. I had planned to

donate 4 quilts this year, so I am a bit

behind.

Sorry the photo is not of great quality. It is made

of scraps, scraps and more scraps. I have

another 30 blocks made, so a similar quilt

will be my next donation. Our quilts go to

Safe Harbor (women-children shelter) and

the local Police department.

Last week, my Husband and I

attended the Panguitch (Utah) Quilt Walk.

It is a weekend festival about quilts

and how they saved a town.

Google it...it's an amazing story.

All throughout the town of Panguitch,

they have quilts displayed....

probably about 30 quilts.

They also have a statue in a

little park to commemorate the

sacrifice of the 7 men who saved

the town with their quilts.

\

Today, for my Sunday Slow stitch, I am

hoping to finish the binding on a quilt

that will be a Christmas gift.

What are you stitching?

Back to real life!

I just returned home after attending

Women's Conference, put on by my

Church at Brigham Young University

(in Provo, Utah)

It was 2 days of wonderful classes,

visiting with family and friends and

doing Service for others.

The Conference always has

Take-Make-Return service projects

available during the two days of classes.

You take a kit, make it while there,

then return it by the 2nd day.

This year they had 3 hand sewing

and one crochet project. I choose

the crochet project, just because it

was the first table I came too.

I crocheted around the edges of a baby

bib. The kit was in a plastic bag with

instructions, the bib all prepped with

holes, the yarn and a crochet hook. It

took me about half and hour to finish..

My niece did two of the hand sewing

projects. The first was sewing the

side of a wheel chair bag (blanket stitch)

and adding a yoyo flower to a pocket of

the bag. The second was sewing on an

appliqued star (with a running stitch)

onto a child's courage cape,

The last  sewing project was called

Monster tags. The ladies sewed on crazy

eyes and mouths to the circular faces

of little monster heads.

Today, my slow stitch Sunday

project will be work on an

embroidery quilt block for a

year long quilt I am finishing from 2009.

What are you working on?

Another label

In my quest to make sure all my

quilts have labels, I have been

asking my family to let me

borrow quilts I have made to document

then with a photo and label.

This is a quilt I made when my

daughter had her first child.

The photo is not too clear....

There is some bright yellow

fabric in the design, but it

did not photograph well.

For my slow stitch Sunday,

I am adding a quilt label, as well

as, beginning the embroidery

on a monthly quilt block

project. It's an UFO. from 2009.

What are you working on?

Completeing all the steps to make a quilt

I have been creating quilts for more than

half my lifetime. I started out sewing

useful traditional block quilts for my

family to sleep beneath. Years later,

I create landscape and art quilts to make

the World a little bit more beautiful.

I have not always been very good at

adding labels to any of my quilts.

Today, I am going back and hand

sewing labels onto past quilts I have

given to family members.

First quilt up....

My daughters frog quilt. I made

this many moons ago when she was a

young girl...she is married with

children of her own now.

This daughter always brought home

stray animals to love. I didn't mind

the kittens she rescued and hide in

her bedroom ("Dear, do you hear a

meow sound coming from inside your

room? "No, Mom.........")

I did put my foot down to things like

snakes and frogs and other creepy

crawlies.....

So, she got a quilt full of fabric frogs!

What are you working on this

Slow Stitching Sunday?

Week one of 2017 project

I mentioned in last Sundays post

that I was beginning a new year

long quilt project...and I did....

I am making a 5 inch block each

day for a village...houses, trees, cars, etc.

Here is my first week photo.

The quilt is themed around the

four seasons of the year. Top to

bottom in the photo is Spring,

Summer, Fall and Winter.

I began with very simple paper

pieced blocks for the first week. I

will be adding some hand

embroidery to some of the blocks

during the year.

Today, for my Slow Sunday Stitching

I will be adding some leaves to

the tree blocks.

What are you working on today?

A new project-a new adventure!

I celebrated a birthday this past week,

As a gift to myself,

I decided to start a one year project....

a block a day for a year.

The blocks will be 5 inch (finished)

The theme will be a village of

houses and trees and constructed

around the four seasons.

I went to the library and printed

off a few paper piecing patterns for

a house and trees. I will also be

appliqueing houses (and cars and trees)

Old photo, but I completed

row 42 of my hand-stitching

Trip Around the World quilt.

It is almost queen  sized. I

need to decide if I am going to

go larger, or start hand quilting

it now.

What are you working on?

Long weekend for sewing

Presidents Day weekend is always

a long weekend of sewing for me.

The next break-vacation time will

be in the Spring, which means

working in the yard and garden.

Today, for my

Slow Sunday Stitching project,

I will be attaching the two

flowers and adding

embroidery green stems to

my Be My Neighbor quilt top.

I will also be removing the outside

white border....too much white! I think

a border with bright colors will

work much better.

Sorry for the poor photo...My studio

is under construction, so I could

not use my design wall.

If I have time, I may use the

left over fabric for a service

quilt for our local Police Department.

What are you working on?

February...another busy month

Goodness...January just flew by

in the blink of an eye!

February...already picking up speed.

I had a grandchild born this week.

I was babysitting her older sister

for a few days,

which meant no sewing or creating

happened at my house.

This week, I am headed to my daughters

home to babysit her kids while she is

out of town. I am going to pack

up some hand sewing and knitting

projects to keep me busy.

I  am still undecided if I want to

continue adding rows to my

Trip around the World quilt.

The plan is to finish row 42 and then

re-evaluate the quilt size.

Here is an article I saw on Facebook

that I thought I would share. Enjoy!

The slow death of vintage skills

What are you working on?