Just so you know...

...I didn't forget my first love of quilting.  I finished appliqueing some Yo-Yos down on three blocks.  Making my totals =
Complete 25 blocks and 9 with centers sewed down.



25 blocks done



I still don't know how big I will make this quilt.  Time will tell.  

I am kind of stalled on my cousins's quilt.  I only have one border of scallops to machine applique but I keep drawing a blank on how I am going to quilt it.  Maybe the inspiration fairy will come this weekend. I am looking forward to my 3 day weekend to do some more stitching.

Happy Stitching and a safe Labor Day weekend.

I have been busy

But it hasn't been quilting. I have been busy making scrapbook pages for the life stories of my parents. I finished six new pages this week and have two more in the works. These pages are mostly to document my parents life or what I know of their life and you can see them on my genealogy blog.

All right I couldn't resist putting two of them here because after all a blog post with pictures is more interested. The first picture is of my first page of my life story I couldn't resist using this fun little page called here's what happened. This was for 1948 the year I was born.                 The next picture is of my maternal grandmother Minnie Elizabeth this picture was taken in 1905 when she graduated from nursing school in Manhattan and I think she's beautiful. 

If you would like to see more pictures of pages you can see them here.

Man Cave Update

Yes it has been a long time since I have post on Mr. B.'s progress.  He has been working slowing and I didn't want to bore you with each little piece of wood he added.  Today he hit a milestone so I decided to post a picture. 

Today he finished enclosing the eaves on the west side of the "Man Cave". 

At the end he added some primer paint on the edges of the wood to protect it from the rain.  I am hoping he will start picking up the pace on this but it won't be until the weather starts to cool off a little. 

More Sewing

During the last week I was able to do some sewing. Work has been very busy and I've worked some extra-long days so I didn't have a lot of energy to do a lot of sewing.

Appliqued Scallops

I have started to appliqué the scallops down on the Fresh Picked Flowers quilt. This is the most machine appliqué I have done with my new machine. Of course with any new machine there is a little adjustment time and a little troubleshooting time. On Sunday evening I broken needle and of course the tip fell down into the machine. I took the needle plate off to try and find the tip. I never found it. So I put everything back together again and tried to sew and then my fabric wouldn't move. I repositioned everything and tried again and still no luck my fabric wouldn't move. So I took off the plate again and much to my surprise I found a nest of thread. I was able to remove all the thread and was able to sew without any more difficulty. What a relief!


Even though I have push button stop and go on my new machine I find I am more comfortable doing machine appliqué and using the foot controller. I like to be able to slow down and speed up as needed.

A Quilter needs to know her machine!

If you double click on the pictures you will see an enlarged picture.

 Sometimes when I'm sewing I have an interruption from my very favorite kitty cat companion Rosie. For some reason she likes to get between me and the machine. Here's a picture of her look at me and wanting attention. Of course she got the attention then I pushed her off my lap so I could sew.  This isn't the best picture Rosie because she is right in my face and I could not move the camera back far enough to take a good picture. She is pretty and a sweet cat.

Rosie

Yo-Yo Tally:

Here are all the Yo-Yos I have (22) finished, as of tonight, 3 with tacked on yo-yos and (10) with just centers.  No pictures this week, I will wait until the are all appliqued down.


 

What a Great Weekend!

Maybe great is a bit of a stretch but I sure enjoyed it.  It was nice to have a Saturday with out any obligations or errands to run!  So what did I do, I reorganized my sewing room just a little to make turning on my light over my chair where I do hand sewing easier to turn on.  I removed some extra wires I didn't need any more, an old extension cord and a phone cord.  I clean off some flat surfaces.  I tend to be a piler, so it is nice to see clear space again.  Then I sewed. 

I finally added the last two borders to my Fresh Picked Flowers.

Borders on Fresh Picked Flowers

I really like it now that all the borders are on.  My next step is to machine applique down those scallops.  I still haven't come up with how I am going to quilt it, but I'll leave that for another day. 

Then I pulled out my Farmer's Wife Sampler book and fabric and between Saturday and Sunday I made four blocks.  I haven't worked on this in a while and it really felt good!  I realized as I went to bed that makes my total 77 blocks, so I hit the 75 blocks completed Achiever's List!

I did also tack down Yo-Yos on two blocks!  Not pictured here.

Happy Stitching!

I am not doing a lot...

But I'm doing something!

Work has been really busy and I come home really tired so I don't feel like doing any sewing even hand sewing. Plus Mr. B. And I have been doing a a Harry Potter movie marathon. When I watch TV with my honey I sit in the TV room. The recliner in the TV room is not as comfortable to sew in as my small rocking chair in my sewing room. So that also contributed to the lack sewing completed.

I appliquéd all the center yo-yos on the blocks I've completed this point, previously they were only tacked down. Here is a picture of them all in a pile, I didn't feel like putting the backup on the design wall.  I wanted this picture right by this little paragraph but I couldn't get it to go here no matter how much I tried so there it is up above out of place.

The block on the bottom left is the one I appliqued all the yo-yos on.  I also made a bunch of more yo-yos.  I found some different fabrics to use. 

Tally:

Here are all the Yo-Yos I have (20) finished, as of tonight, and (14) with just centers.