Ringing in the New Year with Flying Geese

Yesterday Hubby went to the Peach Bowl with Daughter 1, so the dogs and I had the entire day to ourselves. I chose to combine sewing and football watching with a drink on the side. Haha! I have finally finished Clue 5 of On Ringo Lake - so happy! I plan to continue working on this (TIMES 2!) this week until I have finished the next two clues and then I'll put it aside.

I think this works to my advantage; I'm already seeing how some quilters are putting their blocks together with different sashing and/or borders. Since I'm making two of these, I may change up one of them. So I'm gathering lots of ideas at the moment.

Making a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt is like an extended cross country road trip. It takes miles and miles of sewing to get where you're going. Sometimes you get tired of looking at the road ahead. Sometimes you just want to snap your fingers and be there!

When I was in Houston just over a year ago I bought a large cone of Aurofil thread. I've been using it for piecing and also for some machine quilting. Yesterday was the day. The cone was emptied! That's a lot of sewing! The cones have 6452 yards of thread - 4.5 times as much as a standard spool of Aurofil. WOW!

We are still feeling the dregs of our Christmas head colds here - yes, Hubby got it, too. We will stay in the rest of the week - it's too cold to be outside anyway - and hope to be completely over this by next week.

Enjoy your day!

Happy New Year! Ready for 2018!

I do love the start of a new year! It's a wide open field of days and weeks to accomplish new things! 

I've been thinking a lot about my quilting and how I want to go about accomplishing my goals. So this year I'm switching things up a bit. I'm not going to have a daily schedule. It's worked well, but sometimes I'm forced leave a project in the middle of a critical stage and have to wait a week to come back to it. 

So this year I plan to focus on one or two projects at a time - can you believe that???? 

2018 goals

1. Continue to read; I’m not naming a goal number, but I want to always have a book going.

2. Quilts:

    Finish Christmas quilt (Christmas Animals)

    Finish Bring Me Flowers

    Work on Sue Spargo Birds (maybe finish it???)

    Finish On Ringo Lake quilts 

    Glitter - Jen Kingwell quilt - begin this one

    My Small World - another Jen Kingwell - I've made two blocks so far...
    Also: whatever other projects come along that intrigue me!

3. Swim!

At this point I'm guessing you think I'll put On Ringo Lake on my list to finish first. NOPE! I'm planning to finish all the parts and pieces and then put it aside (WHAT???) to take on a quilt retreat later in the Spring. These two quilts will be perfect to take on a retreat. 

I made a great start on my Christmas Animals quilt, so I would like to finish this top soon. You will notice that I have two handwork projects on the list: Sue Spargo Birds and Bring Me Flowers. I plan for these projects to be ongoing throughout the year. Glitter, hmmm....this is intended to be hand pieced, but I may decide to do a bit of each block by machine. We'll have to see once I read through the pattern. 

So there you have it. I'll begin the year by completing all the subunits of my two On Ringo Lake quilts. And then I'll work toward finishing the Christmas Animals quilt. And then.... well, we'll see. I do hope to pull out some hexies here and there. 

I'd love to design another hexie BOM, so maybe I'll be inspired to do this during the year, also.

Happy New Year, Y'all!!!!

End of the Year 2017- Personal Report

Well, I finally did SEW yesterday! I completed half the flying geese for Clue 5. Today I'll press them and finished up with Clue 5. Clue 6 is cut and ready to sew. Clue 7 is ready to sew. I'm so glad the cutting is over!!! I didn't have any Accuquilt dies that would work for this quilt - all cut by rotary cutter. Whew! If I'm going to keep making Bonnie Hunter mystery quilts, I think I might need to invest in a 2" strip die...

Now I think I'd like to reflect on the year and see how I did with my personal goals.

2017 Goals:

1. I plan to continue with my daily quilting schedule, finishing En Provence, curved hexie project, a Sue Spargo quilt, basket UFO, Gardenvale, I'm a Farmer's Daughter

 I did finish En Provence (Ain't No Sunshine), Gardenvale, and I'm a Farmer's Daughter. I completed a total of 12 quilting/sewing projects including 7 large quilts, 3 small quilts, and 2 dresses. I didn't do everything on the list, but I did add some other projects. I'm satisfied.

2. Keep swimming and hiking. 

I did well on this at the beginning of the year, but slacked off later. Should have done better.

3. Take better care of my skin. 

I passed this one with flying colors. Rodan and Fields products have done wonders for my skin!

4. Read more. I'm going to set a doable goal - read 12 books during the year. I should be able to do that!

I passed this one with flying colors, also. I read 29 books!!!! Yippee! Yes, I'm happy about this!


Overall, I think I did pretty well. I've really enjoyed keeping count of the quits/projects I've finished and the books I've read. Tomorrow I'll begin with a clean slate. I have one quilt (New Bedford) that is essentially done, but I haven't hand stitched the binding. I guess I'll get to count that as  2018 finish. 

So tomorrow I'll list my goals for 2018. I may do things a bit differently as far as quilting goes. 

Thanks to you all for joining me here this past year! Happy New Year!

Fabric Cutting

I had to raid my stash for the Clue 6 triangles. And they are definitely more ORANGE than coral to pink, but they are still sunset colors and I think that is the point. I got all the triangles cut for this quilt; today I'll cut the triangles for the Christmas quilt. I still haven't sewn Clue 5.

And I got up this morning to Clue 7???? What???? You're killing me, Bonnie Hunter! Haha!

Yesterday's Instant Pot adventure was making applesauce. I used this recipe. 

I only had five apples so it's a small batch, but very good. I've gotten several emails about my Instant Pot and IP recipes...this seems to be a popular topic at the moment, so I'll continue to share the recipes I try and like here on the blog.

NOTE: A no-reply commenter wanted to know where I got my doggy Christmas mug - it was a gift, but I believe it came from Pier 1.

Enjoy your day!

Alabama Pine Burr

I have a quilt finish to share with you today (click the image to see bigger). I actually finished this months ago - it was one of those secret projects. Our guild has a challenge every year. This year we each drew a fat quarter out of a bag - mine was the yellow. We had to add black and white fabric to our fat quarter to make a small quilt - no other color allowed.

The Pine Burr block is the Alabama state quilt block - does your state have an official quilt block??? I've been so inspired by Blue Mountain Daisy - she does amazing things with this block! You should go to the link and look around; I'm sure you'll be flabbergasted at her work!

So that was my starting point. Originally I planned to make 4 pine burr blocks, but the yellow fabric didn't go very far.  So I ended up with one pine burr block and some borders.  This was fun to make and I hope to do more with this pattern with other colors.

I'm feeling a bit better today - not totally well, but better. Maybe I'll feel like sewing today???? I saw Bonnie Hunter's latest clue and I'm worried that I don't have enough orange/corals left. I think I'll try to cut out the clue with what I have on hand and then move on to sewing Clue 5. If I need more coral, I'll pick it up in a few days...

Even though I haven't felt like sewing this week, I've been thinking about it. I like to have goals each new year (NOT resolutions), so I'm working on a plan for 2018. I haven't finished my plan yet, but it's getting there.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Instant Pot - First Meal

I met my only goal yesterday: to try out my new Instant Pot. I made Creamy Italian Chicken with Penne. Hubby helped me figure it out and a couple of calls to Daughter 2 (who has an Instant Pot) helped, too. This recipe was delicious! And it cooked in 7 minutes.

I liked that I put uncooked pasta in with raw chicken and everything cooked at one time in one pot. Easy cleanup! The pasta was cooked perfectly and the chicken was so tender. I think I'm going to like this thing.

I'm still sitting around doing nothing, waiting to feel better. The dogs are curled up together by the fire this morning. I'm hoping that my head will clear enough today so that I feel like sewing a bit later. 

Enjoy your day!

Taking it Easy... With Spiced Tea

I'm still struggling with this head cold of mine. I have resigned myself to the reality that clue 5 will not be complete when the next Bonnie Hunter clue comes out. And that's okay. I certainly didn't plan on getting sick. But the weather is cold and rainy this week - a great week to stay in and rest!

Last night Hubby and I made a batch of Spiced Tea Mix - it is perfect when you don't feel great.

Spiced Tea Mix

2 cups Tang
3/4 cup instant tea
Lemonade mix (enough powder to make 1 quart)
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice

Mix well and store in airtight container. Stir 1-3 teaspoons (to taste) in a cup of boiling water. 

Note: I use a big mug and 4 teaspoons of tea mix.

I got an Instant Pot for Christmas! My only goal today is to learn to use it. I'm making an Italian pasta dish tonight; at least that's the plan.

I also got a Mary Berry cookbook. I adore Mary Berry! I plan to make a recipe from the book in a few days.

But for now you'll find me in my recliner sipping on Spiced Tea from my new favorite mug. Yes, Cooper photobombed this photo! Hubby has recorded several movies for us to watch. Should be a relaxing day....