A Little Bit of Everything

   

I've been working on a little bit of everything this past week. I finished the Sunny Lane flimsy.

All of the fabrics for this quilt are from a kit I bought on clearance years and years ago. I never liked the original pattern but I loved the fabrics. I really wanted to use up all of the fabrics and not have to hunt for something that kinda sorta matches so I went with Plan D for the borders. It uses up the last of yardage. If you click on the picture you will see that the borders on the sides are different from the top and bottom border. I also added cornerstones. I love how this turned out. 

I worked on a puzzle.

With (no) help from Bella.

I bought a new rug for the entryway.

I ordered a larger version to go in the dining room. I still haven't decided if I like it. I like it, but I'm just not sure I like it in my house with everything else.

I had some landscape work done around the house.

Added to the retaining wall.

Cleared weeds and small scrubs from the back 40.

Had all the shrubs trimmed.

Replaced the rotting railroad tie steps with block steps. 

There were three guys working all day in the rain. They were covered in mud by the time they finished up, but I think they did a great job.

I've worked on either my cross stitch or blackwork project for at least an hour everyday. I've also made lots of progress on my Exploding Heart quilt.

I am squaring up the blocks as I go. Hopefully I'll have those E blocks made and trimmed before I go to bed tonight.

We had snow yesterday morning - it was gone by noon - and we are supposed to have rain and snow for the next week. Perfect weather to get lots more done.

Progress and Visitors

   

I finished all of the Sunny Lane blocks. I have about half the rows sewn together so should finish this top soon. Now I'm on the hunt for border fabric.

Hmmm, I may have an issue later in the year as I have this quilt as one of my UFO Challenge items to be completed. I'll have to find another UFO to take it's place...hahahaha...don't think that will be a problem.

Sigh...progress on my cross stitch wasn't too bad except I stitched for over an hour then realized I'd added a stitch that threw everything off. Took about 10 minutes to rip it all out.

 

 Everything hi-lighted in the lighter blue is what I got done this past week. Like I said, I don't think I'll finish this project this month but I should be able to make lots of progress and get in the habit of stitching for an hour or two a day.

I got all of the Exploding Heart cut out and separated into the different types of blocks. These should go together fairly quickly since it is all the same block just different color paths. 

 I, more like Bella, had two visitors this week. I woke up at 2 a.m. this morning to growling. This is the second cat I've had in my backyard who sits outside the window and growls / hisses at Bella like she is the one who invaded their space. Look at that ridge on his back...look at my dorky cat rolling over onto her back. The cat didn't care about me at all, just growled at Bella. He eventually walked away still growling.

This young guy visited a few days ago. He couldn't have cared less about me (I may be getting a complex about that) but he was watching Bella like a hawk. ;o)

 

Making progress

  

I've made some progress on all of my projects this week - EXCEPT - the UFO I'm supposed to be working on this month. 

Sunny Lane is starting to look like a quilt. The blocks are huge - 16.5 inches. I've been making a few every night. I was a little worried about the muted colors with the dark burgundy but I think it will be okay. With no border this quilt will be 64 x 80 inches. Finding something for a border may be difficult since I've had this fabric over 10 years. I'll wait until it is a flimsy then decide.

I made progress on my blackwork project and got the first week's section completed (I'm still behind a week). This year's project is by a different designer. It will be all florals which is a little harder to do than just fillers. Using multiple colors is also adding to the challenge but I'm already in love with this.

This is week one of the Exploding Heart sew-along. I got my florals cut out but didn't have a piece of background fabric large enough. Poor me had to go shopping. I also picked up a couple of pieces from the clearance section.

Tomorrow I'm going to work on my UFO cross stitch project...writing a commitment here does help hold me accountable.

Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021

 So far 2021 is not off to a good start but I'm not going to judge the year by the first 4 days.

I did finish my Peppermint Purple blackwork stitch-along.

I really enjoyed working on this project this past year and decided to participate in Steady Thread's stitch-along this year. I'm going to do the English garden layout.

Which I may regret as I've frogged more of this layout than I've stitched - also using 18 count Aida which I may also regret, my poor old eyes are already yelling at me. Both designers have free stitch-alongs for 2020 and 2021 and lots of free patterns on their websites and Facebook pages.

I keep a spreadsheet with all my UFOs and WIPs. UFOs include anything started in prior years including finished unquilted tops. WIPs have to at least be partially cut out and started in the current year. In 2020 I started 20 new projects, finished 19 quilts (finished as in quilted and binding attached), and donated 9. Twelve of my UFOs were not touched at all, including 6 unquilted tops.

I am going to keep tracking my quilts on the spreadsheet. I've also joined American Patchwork's UFO Challenge. My list includes quilt and cross stitch UFOs and fun projects/kits I want to work on for me.

January's UFO is a cross stitch project I started last summer and have not touched in months.

It may not get done in January but I'm hoping I can make progress.

I fudged a bit on the fun projects list as I had already signed up for the Exploding Heart sew-along.

These are some of the fabrics I'm going to include (not the rose with the yellow background). I've had all of these fabrics for a very very very long time. The blocks for the Exploding Heart are small so I think all you'll see is blue, pink, yellow and green. Whatever is left over is going into the donated fabric bag.

 Check back here the beginning of February to see how I do.