Early March Activities

As I prepared for time at the beach, family and friends in the Midwest shoveled out again!

First thing this month I wanted to finish the Two Timer 'A' layout quilt that I’d started earlier. I’m very pleased with how it turned out. My 'lifetime' stitche are really adding up nicely this year.

I had a great time at Camp St. Christopher. The Cobblestone Quilt Guild had a Beach Retreat there. March 7-10, four fun filled days with quilting friends. Before I left, I cleaned and oiled my machine so it would be ready when I returned. And I made this green and white pineapple block that was requested by the Coordinators of the retreat. They'll be making some quilts with them for our two community projects this year.

I took my serger and 10 ziplock bags filled with strips of fabric. Some were 2&1/2” and the others were 1&1/2” widths. My plan was to produce as many quilt tops as I could. I decided early on that I’d leave the pressing, trimming, and borders for when I returned home. I made sufficient 'new fabric' for creating 9-10 quilts. Most of them will be about 50”x60”. And there was a filled up bag of trimmings from the serger for a fellow quilter that will use it for stuffing the pincushions she is making.

The

Then on March 13 we went to Botany Bay, one of the hammock islands in South Carolina. EVERYTHING is protected. No shell collecting! And signs to warn you against running over any of the snakes! Some people might be put off by this, but it truly is a method of preserving something for the future. 

February Activities

Before and after composite picture.

I can’t believe how 'huge' the impact of this has been on the feel of our living room. I’m glad we finally got to it, along with a bathroom remodel and a batch of electrical upgrades. I just had to show that picture first.

You may remember that back in January I took on the role of BOM Coordinator for my local quilt guild. Most folks really enjoy getting to see what the intended project will look like when finished. With that in mind, I put the pedal to the metal and got this done before the February 13th meeting.

I bought the book Stripology Mixology back in December. I’ve finished my Two Timer B quilt using portions of 3 charm packs and a boatload of solid squares.  My Stella was made with large squares of Christmas fabrics (I may have already shown you Stella).

Last fall my DIL talked to me about a special quilt for one of the grandkids. Turning 16 and she knew I’d started working on making sure each child has a 'significant to them' quilt. With all of her ideas and a lot of searching the internet, not to mention more time than usual, lol, it is finished and waiting to be delivered.

I finally finished the quilt that had components from two separate mystery quilt projects. These are various stages along the way of The Camp On Ringo Lake.

The stitch counter on the longarm machine recorded over 1,000,000 stitches since January 1st. No doubt that was due to quilting up 16 quilts for my guild's Charity Projects. I missed getting a picture of one of the quilts, but I have it listed in my Fusion record.

Here in South Carolina the weather is turning into the Spring Edition!

Children learn to dress for the weather.

While family dug out from beneath the snow.

January - Missed Items

Heather sent this awe inspiring picture to me from a recent snowfall. I love the fact that I have family that can see the beauty within the storm, or sometimes just after it.

Some paint samples to decide on where and what colors I will redo that fireplace and mantle with. George has already gotten the mantle (a very darkly stained wood) covered with two coats of Kilz. That was an amazing change in the dynamics of the room already. I’m leaning towards a ‘shades of creamy’ for the bricks and that very light aqua for the mantle. Time will tell on that decision. The light fixture, I kept it off for the picture because I could get my phone to adjust (lol) is the new one over my dining room table. The last image is ‘the truck of goodness’ that delivered much of the necessities for the remodeling that’s underway.

And the demolish of the house continued with removing everything from within the walls of the second floor bathroom along with the hallway carpet. That carpet had riffles in it when we moved here over 5 years ago, we’re finally ready to have it gone and a nice smooth, easy to clean, surface in this hallway. 

During this month I finished the longarm quilting of 5 quilts for Royal Family Kids Camp, processed a trunk load of fabrics from one charity group to several others, prayed a lot for everyone in the Polar Vortex areas, and had my first try at shooting a handgun. I’ve not been interested in the past, but accepted an offer by the hubby to go to the indoor range and ‘see what you can do’. He was pleasantly surprised with what I did, for me,,,, I was ecstatic! ! !  I’m thinking of framing it??? LOL

January-Very Productive

The top two images are of a couple of the quilts being made for the Doors To Freedom house in our area. Barb T. brought these 2 beautiful tops to me. And the bottom to images are quilts that are specially made for family members. The one on the left is called Stella, a pattern by Gudrun of GEDesigns.com.  It will be for our table at Christmas time, unless I am moved to give it to someone else before then. And the one on the left is a bookcase looking quilt for someone very special. The empty shelf will have some special additions that are significant to the person. I can’t say more than that at the moment, that person just might be reading this. 

Three of the twelve blocks for the Block of the Month program were completed. Each month has something interesting to process through. I’m leading this program for my local quilt guild this year. I’m doing a color sequence and I’ve encouraged others to choose their own direction with this. A few of them have posted their pictures on our facebook page and some are doing theirs in batiks. I like that idea and I may make another one to use up more of my ‘left overs’ for another charity quilt.

These are some thread sets and stencils for Crazy Quilting. I purchased them from Sharon Boggan. She lives in Australia and I wondered how long it might take them to make it through customs. I was pleasantly surprised when I found them in my mail box in less than 2 weeks. And those twists of various threads, textures, colors, etc sure do make my heart sing.

These were some of my highlights this month. I received a beautiful dip pen, ink and ink well in my  Boho Berry Box from Kara Benz. Daily Guidposts had 2 items that will be within reaching distance whenever I have moments to sit and enjoy the Lord’s Words. And a snapshot of my lifetime stitches on my longarm quilting machine. I record each project’s stitch count. I was happy to find out that my machine keeps a tally of the lifetime stitches.