Ducks, Chickens, Cats, and Snails

 I decided it was time for spring quilts and got Waddles out and hung up over the piano.  We'll see what the piano students think of it!

Sarah was home this weekend (first time since Christmas and probably just to restock her freezer, but we take what we can get).  The Harry Potter Butterbeer Peeps were given a 👍from both her and David.  

She and I went shopping for David's birthday present Saturday morning.  Here are some of the things we considered..........

We eventually settled on the tool he wanted from Napa Auto Parts.  I'd tell you what it is, but I really don't know, or even what it would be used for, but he was excited to get it.

I made this cat bed from leftover flannel quilt backing and batting.  It's one of those jellyroll rug things, but I tried for a cat bed.  It was somewhat successful.  Harry and Mabel have been giving it a workout.

Sometimes they both fit .............

and sometimes they don't.

I made 2 more snail house blocks for the Snailin' Around Town quilt.  I didn't care for either of the color of the month selections that were posted, so I went out on a limb with orange.  

And here are all of the snail blocks and some of the flower blocks I have completed for this quilt.  All of the flowers are done and there are six more snails to go.

Here are the colors I have selected for the remaining snail blocks.

I don't know how much sewing I will get done this week as we are leaving on a trip to the NCAA indoor track and field championships followed by Graceland and Marshall Dry Goods.  I'm working on my list for Marshall Dry Goods.  That's where we will be on David's actual birthday, so I figure I should get him a lot of stuff.  Sort of like all those times he got me tractors for my December birthday (when he really needed to just make the purchase before the end of the year.)  

If I don't get another blog post done this week, just know that track pictures and fabric pictures are coming your way!

Christi

UFO Update

 It was a gray dreary day yesterday.  Probably best just to go back to bed, don't you think?

That idea seemed to work for Harry and Mabel.  I did a little more binding and finished up this pineapple block that I made into a placemat for the guild charity project.  It was nice to work on something so bright on such a dreary day.

Then I finished the binding on this Tea Time table topper.  

So we can check 2 more things off the UFO list.

Here's the UFO update:

1.  Proposal  (FINISHED!)

2.  Waverly  (FINISHED!)

3.  Lookout  (FINISHED AND GIFTED!)

4.  St. Pats Pillow  (FINISHED!)

5.  St. Pats Runner  (FINISHED!)

6.  St. Pats Wall Hanging  (FINISHED!)

7.  Jimmy John  (FINISHED AND GIFTED!)

8.  Snailing Around Town

9.  Chalet

10.  Foxes in Flannels

11.  Show and Tell

12.  Love in Bloom Panel  (FINISHED AND GIFTED!)

13.  O Christmas Tree

14.  Heaven and Nature Sing

15.  Scrap Jar Stars  (FINISHED!)

16.  Hash Tag

17.  Jelly Twist

18.  Halloween Panel

19.  Thanksgiving Panel

20.  Redlin Panel

21.  Legendary

22.  My Kinda Town

23.  Turkey Lurkey  (FINISHED!)

24.  Turkey Blocks  (FINISHED!)

25.  Cat Nip

26.  Pineapple  (FINISHED!)

27.  Tea Time Topper  (FINISHED!)

28.  Vintage 30's Blocks

29.  Great Grandma's Fans

So that's 13 of 29 finished so far this year!  And, I haven't actually started anything new yet.  I did purchase fabric for a quilt, but haven't started anything on it yet.

We'll see what today brings.  

Christi

Holy Scrap!

 Well, first let me update you on the track meet............ Carter went on to win the heptathlon hurdles and pole vault and had enough points by that time to just jog the 1000m, finishing last, but still winning the overall heptathlon.  This helped the Panther Men's team place first in the conference again this year.  So, he had a good weekend.

Yesterday I did laundry - not on the plan, but due to the spilt milk cleanup, there were lots of sticky wet towels that needed to be washed, so I just did all the laundry.  I had some help.

And you know what they say about waking a sleeping baby............especially one sleeping this hard.  Eventually the automatic feeder dropped the next food drop and I was able to finish the laundry.

And last night I finished the binding on Scrap Jar Stars!  This was a block lotto I won back in November.  I had to make a few more blocks and the sashing strips and cornerstones.  Then decided that since my 2" squares box was overflowing, I should do the pieced borders.  My box is close to empty now!  And no, I didn't count how many 2" squares are in this quilt, but it's a lot.

I decided to continue the scrappy theme and used leftover bindings from other quilts to make this scrappy binding and then I created the backing from fabrics in my stash that I really didn't like, or just couldn't seem to figure out how to use.

And I was concerned about being a little narrow, so I raided the 3.5" squares (also overflowing) and worked those in as well.  I'm really glad this one is done and I like that I used up some fabrics that had been languishing in the stash for awhile.  

I probably need to update my UFO list with my finishes.  Stay tuned for that one.

Christi

Lion and Lamb

 Did March come in like a lion or a lamb for you?  I'm going to say it was somewhat of a lion as we had a little sleet and then rain in the afternoon.  Harry and Mabel didn't want to see what the weather was doing outside at all.

I did the payroll and bookkeeping for both the church and community center yesterday afternoon.  All during the day (even church) I was keeping track of the Missouri Valley Conference indoor track and field championships.  This will be Carter's last year to do this.  In order to get the most team points possible, he is competing in the heptathlon (7 events - 60m run, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60m hurdles, pole vault, and 1000m), and the open long jump, pole vault, and high jump.  

After day 1 - he is leading the heptathlon because he was first in the 60m, long jump (only took 1 jump), shot put (only 2 throws), and the high jump.  Today will finish the remaining 3 events in the heptathlon.  He was actually doing the heptathlon high jump and the open pole vault at the same time.  He placed second in the pole vault with a new record for him at 17 feet and 3/4".  He didn't enter this event ranked that high, so this was quite an accomplishment.

Here he is on the second tier of the medal stand!

He also won the open long jump (repeat champ!) with only one jump.

And he won the open high jump (repeat champ again!) later in the afternoon.  

So today he just has the rest of the heptathlon events - hurdles, pole vault, and the 1000m run.  I'm thinking he'll be bored with only 3 things to do today.

Also yesterday, I did a shopping trip at Walmart.  Since it started pouring rain, I did a few laps around the store hoping to wait it out and well, you know what happened..........

Harry Potter Butterbeer PEEPS!!!

Sarah will be home this weekend, so she and David can try them out.  I'm not that much of a PEEP person.  

Today there is a little house cleaning on the agenda, and finalizing my notes and thank you notes from the ham and bean supper.  And I've already cleaned up a huge mess when an almost full can of evaporated milk spilled from the top shelf of the frig.  So, the cleaning and mopping from that has been done and now the laundry is going.  The cats did their best trying to lap it all up, but it was everywhere.

We'll hope the day goes better from here.

Christi

All About the Animals

Earlier this month, I went to the neighbor's to visit the bunnies!  They had so many new ones. 

Different colors of Dutch rabbits............

And so many Californian babies............

And some newer babies hiding in the straw...........

A few more Dutch..........

I spent one of those really nice days outside grooming Willow.  Her ears were trimmed and her Grinch paws were trimmed, and she was brushed and massaged (her favorite).

Esme was brushed as well, but definitely needs it again.  It's a full time job just keeping her brushed.  I just used my sewing scissors on her when she was hanging out on the cutting table and cut some mats out.  You really can't tell any hair is missing.

I know it has been quite some time since Cici has made an appearance in the blog, but she has become camera shy in her old age, so it's difficult to capture her image.

Mabel and Harry were made to stay outside the whole day of a couple of the really nice days we had, so I don't have another wonderful picture of them sleeping on the window seat to share.  Maybe next time.

Christi

Things from the Sewing Room

 It says Sewing Room in the title of this blog, but honestly, every morning starts with this...........

Mabel and Harry run inside, eat some breakfast, and then crash in the window seat for most of the day.

Some earlier finishes from this month...........

Turkey Lurky!  This little wall hanging is from a kit I had.  Honestly, the pattern was a little challenging and I don't have any plans to ever make it again.  This will probably go to Sarah's house.  She loves solid fabrics and Thanksgiving is one of her favorite holidays - she loves the food!

And this turkey runner was finished.  I found the turkey blocks in a box of fabric "treasures" I purchased at an auction.  It will probably be donated to the guild bazaar in October.

Here are my blocks for the block lotto this month.  Such bright happy colors!  I have yet to figure out how a person might set these together.  We'll just have to wait to see what the lucky winner does with them.

And here are my blocks for the guild opportunity quilt.  It's going to have a patriotic vibe this year.  There are 4 blocks there, Mabel is just making sure none of them get away.

Well, this is a short blog post.  Let's check to see if there has been any movement at the window seat.......

They truly do have a hard life!

Christi

Love!

Happy Valentine's Day (very late).............

This was my gift from my hubby!  A little something he made in his shop!

I just returned from a quilt retreat in the brand new (we were the first people to sit in the sewing chairs, sleep in the beds, shower in the awesome showers, etc) retreat barn in Brunswick.  And I have the t-shirt to prove it!

It was great to have all that time just to sew and visit and see what others were doing.  The food was fabulous as well and it was really nice not to have to plan anything to eat.  It just appeared and was delicious.

I did get quite a lot accomplished, the first of which was sewing Sarah's Christmas Quilt together.  This pattern is from the Wendy Sheppard Christmas book.  It was done with scrappy tree blocks, but Sarah isn't much of a scrappy girl, so I did hers like this.

Since sending her the photo (she loved it) and getting the measurements for her bed, I have added another sashing row along each side and have plans for a small green (same print as the green sashing trees) border.  I will hopefully be able to pick that up at Marshall Dry Goods when we go in March...........and something for the backing too.

Then I put the Show and Tell quilt together.  I also made the binding for it (same blue as the background) and will try to find a backing for it on the March trip as well.

I worked on the fox blocks and now have half of them (12) complete.  I'd like to get backing for this quilt at MDG as well, so probably need to be working on getting the foxes finished and set together.  Show and Tell and Foxes in Flannels are Elizabeth Hartman patterns.

I made all 16 of the flower blocks (lots of little pieces) that go in the Snailin' Around Town quilt from the Wendy Sheppard Scrap Quilting book.

I pieced this little table topper called Tea Time as a leader/ender in between projects.  I actually quilted it this morning and have it ready for the hand binding.

This was the project I threw in at the last minute (in case I ran out of things to work on!).  I didn't run out of things, but it just popped up in my stuff, so I did it.  It has now had a border and sides added to it to make it a placemat for our charity placemat project and is even quilted and ready for hand binding.

And I worked on my O Christmas Tree quilt which is also from Wendy Sheppard's Christmas book.  I need 72 of the king's crown blocks, but I got all of these done at the retreat.  This is another quilt I'd like to shop for a backing for.

And here are the cute little four patches I did as leader/enders.  The little squares start at 1.5".  My box of these was overflowing, so I've decided to start making some four patches and nine patches from them.  No definite plans for them yet.

This is my friend, Gina's quilt that she got put together while we were there.  All of those little triangles are prairie points and are 3 dimensional.  

Since I had emptied some project boxes, I decided it was only fair to purchase fabric to fill one of them back up!  This is the Show Me Waves pattern that Sarah and I found at the Quilted Cow in St. Peters.  

And here are the 2 project boxes that didn't get opened (one never got out of the car).

And here is the free stuff!  Part of this is a prize that I won from another quilter's blog and part was in the goodie bag from the retreat.

And I bought this 5 yard quilt book to use with the fabrics on the left (I already had the fabric) and a friend gifted me this bird pattern that I had been eyeing for awhile.

And this is the jelly roll that was in my goodie bag.  The quilt shop takes their end of bolts (after they can no longer get a fat quarter from it) and cuts them into 2.5" strips and makes their own jelly rolls.

And the cats were very happy to have me back and enjoyed snooping through all the stuff.

This was my "proof of life" photo from David while I was gone.  Mabel and Harry have a hard life, don't they?

I  LOVED my time at the retreat, but it's good to be home.  I plan to go back for another retreat later this year.

Christi