Roll, Roll Cotton Boll completely finished

Finished the binding and the washing and drying of this quilt.

On the living room floor.

On the kitchen wall.

Corner border.

Quilting on pieced block.

Quilting on strip block, outline and star.

Back.

On the bed!  

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Yeah!

Now I can start getting ready for three weeks away.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Exercise class gets my hips loosened

Very easy to work with Catherine, my long-arm quilter

Refrigerator is getting cleared out 

RRCB back from quilter

So now I am trimming it and making the binding ready for application.

Catherine quilted a nice "swirly" thing in the pieced blocks.

And she put 5-pointed uneven stars in the strip-pieced blocks.

I am always astounded at how much better a quilt top looks once it is quilted!

I hope to get this one on the bed for a "sleep under" before we leave for Florida.
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Another task I finished so I can put them in the mail are the DOTTED blocks [to go with the STRIPED blocks].  I tried some gently curved piecing.  These are for Victoria at Bumble Beans.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Early birthday present of a Kindle
Seeing the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll quilt again
Early birthday supper with friends

RRCB backing

I had enough extra pieces for the borders to make a strip the width of my backing for the quilt.

I didn't have a third width of the homespun plaid to do the whole backing in that fabric, so I added some more of the navy print I had used on the front.

Oh, and there were this many MORE left-over pieces!
So those will go in the "Orphan" box for some future purpose.

Now to get my gear together for SpoolSpinner's Bee tonight.  We need to bring some already made blocks for a teaching project, and of course, hand work, and Show and Tell items.

Maybe I'll get a few more rows knit on the January sox.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Crock pot simmering dinner
More "lake effect" snow cleaning outdoors
More orchid blooms

Roll, Roll Cotton Boll top finished

I delayed adding the borders because I was afraid of the bias edges on those strip triangles.  But when I finally got down to it, they were only a little difficult.

Bonnie ended her directions with the diagonal strips on the edge of the border, but I have added a narrow navy outer border to match the inner navy border.  It will be trimmed to the same size after the quilting is done.

So now I just need to get the backing together tomorrow morning and then I can give to my long-arm quilter at our bee meeting in the evening.

Glad to have this off my hands!  It is certainly big enough for our queen bed with a good tuck under the foot of the mattress.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Breakfast with friends sharing tales of getting older
Met Dan and Miko grocery shopping and heard about new grandson
Finished the quilt top!

Still RRCB

Pressing seams and putting the rows of blocks together:

This photo is just missing the corners.  Not all LONG seams sewed yet, but will be done tonight!

Next: more and more borders parts to connect:

Sara

Gratitudes:

Stayed home all day working and reading
Classical music to keep me company
Whipped up a couple heart blocks & got them in the mail

More trees arrived

More Block Lotto trees came today.  They are 6 inches wide and various heights.  These are from Cathy in Australia, Beth in California and Mary Jane in Georgia.  That about covers the map!

Still slogging away at the blocks for Roll, Roll Cotton Boll.

Box of "parts" and three finished blocks. I think I have 18 of the 30 I need.  I could make a smaller quilt, but all the parts are made.  Then what would I do with them?  So I slog onwards. Seems to take about 20 minutes to construct one block out of the parts.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Good stretching at exercise class
Leftover spaghetti for lunch
15 minutes of clean-up in sewing room made a visible difference

Block Lotto winner!

My name was drawn as a winner in the December Block Lotto.  Everyone made a pair or more of these fun trees in black and jewel tones.  This past week I received these seven sets, and I'm to receive a total of 23 PAIRS.  WOWSER!  That's 46 in all!  These were from Andi, Deana, Ginny, Laura, and Wendy Lee.  Thanks so much ladies!   I'm trying to imagine how to set these together.

The sun this morning was another inspiration:

The temperature was down to 6 degrees F, so the frost was heavy, and then we have been having "lake effect" snow for the past  several days, making everything fresh and pure white.

Indoors I've had another delight:

Peter gave me this orchid plant last Mother's Day, and now it is blooming again.  That's not a whole year of waiting, but this second blooming is a great gift in the midst of January in Michigan.  We have it on the kitchen eating counter so we enjoy it many times a day.

Still slogging away at the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll piecing of blocks and trying to make them come out the right size.  About 20 blocks to go.

Sara

Gratitudes:

The Block Lotto!
The Sun!
The orchid blooming!

Sox Progress

I'm well past the toe shaping, and on to the even stitches of the foot section.  A careful study of the stripe pattern shows that the two balls of yarn were wound from opposite ends of the stripe pattern.  Not a thing you can tell when you are buying the yarn, but, what the hey, just another instance of "planned" irregularity.  As we are about 1/5 through January, I analyzed and concluded that I am on target, about 1/5 done with this pair of sox.

I finished three 10" blocks for Victoria in our SCRAP Bee, made to her design.  I will mail these off tomorrow and complete my January responsibility with that fun group.

Mostly I am still working on the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll blocks.  I have finished the "alternate" block of neutral strips, and now they all needed to be trimmed.

This is not a fun part of the quilting process and is very exacting.  Plus I have only gotten 6 of the "real" blocks together instead of the 30 that are needed.  I am malingering because the six I made did not measure up to the size required.  After trying to build one with a smaller seam allowance, I discovered this caused a worse problem , non-flatness.

Only thing I can think to do now is to CHOOSE the smaller size as my "normal" size.  That means re-trimming all the alternate blocks AGAIN!  Dang, think I'll go do a little more knitting.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Right eye seemed fine after a night's sleep
Got to exercise class like a good Dooby
Pesto on noodles as part of dinner, summer flavor!

Goals for 2011

1. Keep knitting socks.  Get comfortable starting at the toes, cause then I can use up all the yarn if I want to.

Here is my second attempt at starting at the toe.  I ditched the first attempt, which was doing two at once, and that was too much to learn at one time for me!  This is how much I got done while watching the Rose Bowl game and eating a Snack Dinner.

2.  Keep working on the UFOs.  Here are the twelve I plan to finish this year:

    

           1] Double Four Patch

      

          2]  Pale, Pale Stars

        

          3] Purple Baskets

          4] Bright Row Robin

          5] Batik Samples

          

6] Pineapples

7] Amish Sampler

  8] Purple Chain

9] Fall Leaves

10] Lenten Hanging

                      11] Marston Squares

                     12] Cabin in the Woods







Judy Liquidara has pulled out the number 6 for this month, so I should work on the Pineapples.   I have a few more UFOs, which are very close to completion, so I am not listing them.

3.  Keep on making new Quilts That I Like.  I have done a lot because they were "necessary".  Now I want to do more pleasing myself, and challenging myself.

Those are my Goals for this year.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Last year's finishes of UFOs still amazes me!
Started the year by spending a lot of time in the sewing room having fun
Some progress on the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll mystery blocks
"Snacky" dinner of shrimp and veggies

Year End, last UFOs for 2010

Sixteen-Patch and Pinwheels is now finished:

A glimpse of the quilting by Catherine, which doesn't show up on the front at all.  I told her to do a meander, and this was the result!

This is UFO #29 that I finished this year.


And LASTLY, "Difference of Opinion", which is also now quilted and bound:

Do you see the large exclamation point coming down that vertical sashing?  I might just enhance that a little at some time.

Catherine's quilting on these borders followed the geological strata in the batik fabric.

 Bit of the back showing the various pinks and oranges I used up there.

And this is my last UFO finish for 2010, number 30.  Wow, I impressed myself!  My goal was to finish or get rid of two a month.  I wasn't that consistent each month, but I have surpassed the goal of 24.  And, in fact I got rid of some that I didn't count.

I am going to be starting 2011 with 16 UFOs, and only two of those were started in 2010.  I did keep the part of my goal that was to finish all but three 2010 starts.  How on earth did I manage to stick to this idea when I have so often failed?  I guess it helped to put it on my blog, share it with Finn, and even declare it to my quilting bee.

Right now, I'm NOT ready to commit to such a plan for next year!  Finishing more UFOs is going to be in my plan, but not such a push.
Maybe by tomorrow I'll have a plan for 2011.

And on another front, I did finally re-finish the green and purple socks.  The intended recipient chose another pair [I like to offer a choice], so these are now mine, until someone else claims them.

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Now that these projects are finished, I am back on the next step of Bonnie Hunter's mystery, "Roll, Roll Cotton Boll".

The directions for joining most of the parts arrived this morning, and I have constructed a few of the first blocks.

Because I chose to substitute blue for pink, and navy for red, I think this quilt will turn out to be acceptable to a male.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Soup from Kate made a warm lunch
Going to spent New Year's at home
Champagne in the fridge
Wishing Good Health to you all!

RRCB Step 6 completed

Where the 600 HSTs went - into 120 strips of five HSTs!  And then the "threesies" each got a triangular head and tail in brown.  Bonnie Hunter promises that THIS Friday we are going to start really putting all these pieces together.

Yeah!

Another holiday accomplishment:

Second purple sock was finished, so I now have a pair, which I am wearing today.

Off to see "The King's Speech" with Charlie and Jo.

Sara

Gratitudes:

Supplies laid in for New Year's Eve and Day
Sun shining!
Two quilts back from LA quilter can now be finished