June OMG

This UFO  does not want to loose it's UFO status.  However I feel it's going to have to give it up soon. I started this quilt in January of 2011 - I think.  Fortunately for me, my One Monthly Goal was to finish the top and "start" quilting it.  So yes I completed my One Monthly Goal.  At one point I thought I was going to complete the whole quilt but I'm having a quilters block.  The free motion design I want to do for the borders is not coming out right. And instead of rushing through halfheartedly just to get it done and not be happy with it, I am practicing and then will finish. I Still need to quilt the bottom row except the wreath heart block, and then do the  borders. This is more than I thought I would get done when I set the goal so I am happy about that. Here is my finished Quilt Top!

Here is some of the quilting I've gotten done.  I am using a cream/tan variegated thread on the front in most blocks, so some of the quilting doesn't stand out a lot. I didn't want to take away from the applique, so I echoed them or echoed and then meandered around them.

I echoed around the crow and then meandered. I did a little bit of stitching in the trees and trunks.

In the next one I meandered but added the curl of smoke out of the chimney's. 

I want to do a holy and berry vine on the borders, however as I stated I need to practice more to make it look right.  Funny some people struggle with feathers - I can do that just fine - but give me a holly leaf... :). 
This UFO is real close to being called finished and I am happy.  I am also happy that I completed my goal and am able to link up to One Monthly Goal 
over at Elm Street Quilts.  So head over there and check out some other completed goals. 
Thanks for stopping by.  
Blessings - Lynn 

Retreat Recap

The 2nd Annual Colorado River Quilt retreat was a success.  This year I was part of the retreat committee,  even though I didn't have to do much. 

Here's the room before everyone arrived...

We tried a new set up this time.  We had 3 of these horseshoes.  Each one held 30 people and I have to say it worked really well and gave us a lot more room.  Here are some of the quilters setting up.  

Here they are in full swing -

My seat was by the turquoise lamp at the end of the blue arrow. 
Here are a few of the projects my friends and I completed. Here is Desiree.  

Below is Annette, the owner of the Cottage that we sew at on Friday's and have our SNR guild meetings at. And we also get together once a month on Saturdays to sew.  This is her quilt "Corn n Beans"  she has been working at getting this done for quite a while and was very happy to have the top done.

 On the left is my friend Gloria.  This is one of the 4 patch Posie patterns that a bunch of us have been doing lately including one I did at the retreat too. Middle is Susie H.  She is a delight and so so sweet. This was her quilt top she finished. Annette is helping her hold. 

My Friend Cheryl 

She did this one (and 3 more but didn't get pictures of them).  

She finished a large baby quilt that she started when her and I went to Williams. 

The finished blocks are the ones on the left it was using all kinds of barn yard animals. 

In the center of the picture below facing me is my friend Rosemary. My station was just behind her in this picture. 

She did the one below, she also did some strawberry place mats and a table runner. 

And last but not least - what did I do and accomplish.  A Churn Dash animal quilt 

 Here is a close up of one of them. 

And a 4 patch Posie out of peacock fabric. 

 And a close of of a couple of the blocks. 

That was about it - we had a great time lots of laughs, visiting, eating and of course sewing.  

Until next time - Blessings, 

Lynn 

Stars and Strips

There's a few of the kids that I haven't made quilts for. So I want to make a quilt for my Daughter in Law.  She is very supportive of the military, police and fire department so my husband suggested a patriotic quilt of some kind.  I started looking for some patterns. This one would be good because I've been making these blocks for my rainbow scrap quilt.

This one is similar. 

 I have this panel but not sure.....

I finally settled on this one.  

 I pulled out some civil war / Americana fabric however, my hubby thought maybe it would look better in brighter fabrics.  And since I feel like I'm bulging at the seams with fabric I really don't want to go buy some right now, but couldn't really find the right blue.  Low and behold my friends came to the rescue.  We went to our friend Barbara's house in Kingman, because Vickie wanted to use her cutter to cut some animal appliques out.  Cheryl mentioned that I was looking for a bright blue so Barbara opens her closet and tells me to pick something that will work. 

Then she starts pulling out star dies for her cutter and white fabric and fusible and next thing you know I'm all set up to make the quilt. Instead of piecing the star blocks I'll applique them.

I already have a couple of different reds that will work and a white on white. 

I have some pretty special friends.  There are a few other quilts in the works right now, but will work at getting this done for her December birthday.
As a side note the next day my big machine started acting up really bad. I have been having trouble with it skipping stitches.

Well it got super bad - I can't even sew a straight stitch anymore so..... another trip to Kingman.  It's not too far about 45 mins to an hour one way - but had I known the machine was going to get that bad, I could have taken it the day before. I haven't been sewing, I was cutting out and fusing the rest of my scottie dogs.

It wasn't until I started sewing the strips that I realized how bad it was.
Oh well.  Lucky for me I have a couple of other machines I can use. I have a travel machine that I use for retreats, so got that out and cleaned it, omg was that bad.  I don't think I've ever let my machine get that bad before cleaning. 

So since I've pulled my machine out of the travel case, one of my doggies decides this space makes a nice new little dog house for her.

I let her be for the day but have since closed the side up. Sorry Punky that's not your dog house. 
Well I've got lots to do, sew I better get at it. 
Have a blessed day,  Lynn

The Kids

I'm going to back up a little and fill in a few posts of what all has been going on. Our oldest Daughter and Son in law were here at the end of May and left the first of June.  We were on the go.  We went to Kingman and took the old Route 66 to the old mining town of Oatman.  We got to see some Burro's 

And a Big horned Sheep.  Picture is bad but he was a long way away.  

We spent one day looking at houses.  And we went to Bingo with them a couple of times at the casino's.  We won a couple of times at the Lodge on the River Casino.  We took them to the River to look around and got some pictures together.

 We took them on the USS Riverside.  It's a little boat tour that goes from the Riverside Casino up to Davis Dam and then back in front of rest of the casino's and back to the Riverside and tells the story of how Laughlin NV came to be.

 We took them to the Golden Nugget, all the times they have been here, they haven't gone in this one.

 They stayed at the Tropicana.

But the visit had to end and we took them back to Vegas to fly home.  

We had a wonderful time with them and we miss them lots.  

Our other Daughter, Granddaughter and Grandson will be here the 1st of August.  I'm sure that will be fun too. Now we just need to get our Son, DIL and grandson to visit soon too.  And then there is our Granddaughter, Grand SIL and 3 Great Grands in Texas we need to see to.  Love and miss them all. 

Blessings - Lynn 

OMG for Real

My title pretty much says it all.  Oh My Goodness, I am having the hardest time figuring out what I want to do this month. I have a ton of UFO's, I have a ton of WIP's, a bunch of I should and I could and a whole lot of I'm not sure. :) So where does all of that leave me?  I'm hoping by the time I am done writing this post I will know which of my many choices will be the One Monthly Goal to link up over at Elm Street Quilts.  Wish me luck.  

Okay I have it!

I have it - but I wrote most of the post before I decided, then backed up and revised my post.  I am going to continue on with my Christmas Quilt that I have been working on the last couple of months and just get it done.  :)

It really just needs a couple of space fillers or blocks next to the pear and a couple of borders - Then it's ready for the quilting.  It is supposed to be my finish Christmas quilts and projects year after all.  

So.... My OMG is to finish the top, sandwich, baste and start quilting.  So now that I finally decided what was going to be my One goal - do you want to see what else I deliberated on before coming to this conclusion?  These will probably be things I work on this month they just wont be the One Goal.

First off, my wool crazy quilts are what I work on on Fridays.  I have the top finished on this one. I think I'm going to use a process called Facing to back and bind it so only the top shows.   

 Then I started on this wool crazy needle book.

Either or both of those could have been my OMG.

Then I have my Bears Quilt that I started the top stitching on.  I could finish the top stitching and put the 2nd border, and 3rd (which is pieced) border on. 

I also somewhat follow the All People Quilts UFO Challenge, this month is #11 which is a quilt I started many years ago, decided not to completely finish but will put together the blocks I have for a charity quilt.  

Next would be this Little House block I started back in 2009 (ish) when I was first starting to embroider.  I wanted to use it to practice.  Well I want to finish it and make it into a pillow.  

There were a couple more things I was pondering, but now that I've made up my mind...Finally.. I'm just going to leave them in the background of my mind.  

I also have a retreat this month. I like to work on machine sewing at the retreats, but I have so many hand sewing projects, both UFO and PINS. (Projects I've Never Started)  I was having trouble deciding what to take to it also. But I got some inspiration and have 3 things cut out ready to go. I'll write a separate post about that later. So for now I'll link this up to OMG and get my self organized for the projects I've decided on.  

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn