Almost Done With the Cow Flimsy

I went to the Crazy 9 Patch for a sew in today and got a UFO top done.  Several years ago I bought a One Block Wonder Book and a couple of yards of fabric and cut out 15 stacks of 60 degree triangles and stopped there.  Today I assembled the blocks and made it into a table topper (the rest of the fabric will be great for a border on a fall quilt).  I just need to quilt and bind it.  Yay.  Will show pics when that is done.

Yesterday I got quite a few letters done on "Your Love'.  I had to substitute a heart for the word "love" so I would have enough room.  I am choosing this quilt for my May finish for A lovely year of Finishes (click the aqua button in the right column)

Hopefully will finish letters and plane tomorrow-at least that is the goal.

Progress

I finished the quilt and corn-finally starting to look like what I am envisioning in my head.  The lamb quilt was a giant step for me-I learned a lot.

I also added the bull's tongue giving the lamb's head a little lick:)

"Your Love is Moosic to My Ears"

I am finally back to my cow quilt.  I finished Purple Maze and will post pics when I get the binding on it.  I have agonized over the quilt that the lamb (who is supposed to be me) is wearing.  I wanted it to look like a quilt and drape like a quilt.  I checked out Ruth McDowell"s piecing workshop book at our guild and there was my answer.  It took a day to transfer my design to freezer paper, add a quarter inch to each piece and sew 2/3's of it together.  Can't wait to finish it (lamb quilt) this afternoon.  I still need to paint lamb's face, add a plane, banner, corn, and back end of a Harley.  I am teaching a "What's Your Story" class in August at The Crazy 9 Patch in Ramona based on Mary Lou Weidman's "Out of the Box With Easy Blocks" and need to finish this quilt and one that I have just done the borders for: "Why Make Cookies when You Can Make a Sugar Cube Castle".  I am excited to be able to teach another class at The Crazy 9 Patch in addition to a return of the Exploring Color workshop in May.

Those red and black hanging things are notes and will be connected before done.  Got last 2 borders attached, removed 1 missplaced note, added Harley patch, and made great progress on lamb quilt

Last 1/3 laid out on original pattern.  I was able to turn my plexiglass machine surround and an OTT light to make a light box to easily transfer pattern to shiny side of freezer paper

Going to UFO today to look for fabric to recover my couch.  Gotta run!

Focus for the Week

We have had a 4th of July party for years at our house because we live a block from the high school where they have a beautiful 1/2 hour display and we have a movie theater view from our front lawn.  When we sell our house, that will be listed as an amenity!  We always provide the main dish and drinks and the attendees bring the side dishes.  An annual croquet tournament ends the evening before the fireworks and everyone goes home by 9:30.  This will be our last one (because we will be moving at the beginning of May) and I am so hoping the heat breaks a bit by then.  We have a small house and I count on our front porch and lawn to accommodate our overflow of guests which can reach 20. We have a great time heat or no heat-it always works out.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be filled with cleaning house and prepping for party but I will have some time for sewing.  Last night I went on the internet and found the last addresses I needed for my Home Sweet Home quilt-so when I get my Babylock back from the dealer I can embroider and then put on the swags and that baby will be done! I have been trying to find the address of the house my parents lived in when I was born-it FINALLY occured to me to look on my birth certificate and there it was.  Both Greg and I lived on Nile Street-1 block from each other when we were born. However, HSH won't be this week because I don't have my embroidery machine.  The young lady that I am doing the tree for has not responded to my e-mail yet so I am going to finish Your Love is Moosic background.  I got the border squares finished and attached to each other yesterday-ready to add to the quilt when the center is finished.

Last night I finished the drafting so now I can cut the applique pieces the right size:

Your Love cartoon

The handwork once I get the appliques done (I am appliqueing by machine) will take a while-I have plans for this wall hanging.  Thank-you Mary Lou Weidman- This one is really fun!  Have a blessed Sunday!

Ranting Helped

Whew!  Just getting all my anxiety down on the blog this morning helped me to focus and get busy.  I realized that the Aiming for Accuracy quilt has due dates once a week-I am going to save Thursdays for working on it until done.  I can do that. My first assignment only took 1 1/2 hours and I love to cut so it was fun.

My due date for Home Sweet Home is mid Sept.  I have time to get that done.  I worked on the Your Love is Moosic quilt today-what a blast.  This quilt will have a lot of things added to it but I got a big chunk of the body done today-still need a ewe, corn stalks,  musical notes and 1/2 a border to have the basics-that is all that needs to be done before I go to my class in July.  I am going to get that done this week and blanket stitch it down on my machine-then I can start playing with all the fun things and get it done before Sept 1.  The time just flew today because I wasn't following a pattern too closely and so was able to stay in that right brain:).  I don't think I have any left brain left-that is what Greg is for.

Since I am fashioning this bull to represent my Harley driving husband-I think I got the legs right on!  The hooves will be sewn down on the border so the bull escapes the box of the quilt a little. The black is the start of his Harley Jacket. The legs, body and ears are all Kaffe Fassett fabrics

The vertical borders are the Hoochy Mama blocks, the horizontal are the plain squares-they will have writing and an appliqued vine on them.

 Originally I thought it was going to be 24x36 but it will be closer to 56x58 so, I had to dismantle the side borders and add some blocks.

Lots Done-farther behind!

I have friends that can limit themselves to one quilt at a time.  How do they do that?  I was so excited to get Galaxies finished and my plan was to then hurry and complete Home Sweet Home (which is on my design wall):

I need to finish 24 swags-I have 8
completed for HSH

 And then Michele Foster from Quilting Gallery has a Quilt Along for a beautiful quilt that she designed:

 

 And I had to join it.  She has great tutorials and I thought I could use all the leftover fabric from Home Sweet Home-

Materials chosen for Aiming for Accuracy Quilt and background fabric cut and marked (in baggie)

so, I really was economizing and being a good steward over my materials.  Well, maybe over my materials but not over my time because, you see-I am taking the Mary Lou Weidman 2 day class in a couple of weeks and I wanted to get the top constructed to the Cow/sheep wall hanging I am making to go into her Cow quilt show (for my husband's and my 44th anniversary).  I have been making Hoochy Mama blocks for the border waiting for the book  to arrive that has the cow pattern in it (Out of the Box with Easy Blocks).  I have found that cutting and hanging borders and binding behind my door on my shoe rack/supply holder saves me time and keeps me from losing them-One and a third borders done and all corner blocks complete.

Hoochy Mama block making area

Fabric for cow quilt center-One wild cow quilt!

So, it would seem that I have inadvertently started 2 more quilts without finishing what I needed to finish-this isn't even counting the 2 pieces I need to do for actual money or the bedroom pieces for my sweet granddaughters.  YIKES!!!!!!!!!  I need to join UFO Anonymous.  I think, today, I will clean my workspace, make another priority list and pledge to sew 3 hours a day for the rest of my life!

21/2 rows complete-1/2 way done with Center Section

I was concerned that it was going to be difficult to put the blocks together but so far-not too bad. I like it so much better than the disjointed pieces on the design wall for the last 2 months-I am certainly NOT Wanda Hansen:)

I have changed my mind about the borders.  I am going to add checks along 2 sides but they will be rainbow and background black checks using materials in the circles.  The other 2 sides will be a very simple geometric pattern-think the squares and lines will calm the circles-I am totally out of any comfort zone I ever inhabited.  I am drafting a pattern for the first time-I have always followed the pattern to the T-but it is time to flap a wing or two.

I need to finish up the Beauty and Check because my mind wants to start this whimsical story quilt.  My husband is the "cow" with the Harley jacket and I am the sheep with the quilt-married 44 years in Sept-so want to make this for our anniversary.