good-bye-hello

Hope your holidays were excellent.  Ours were mighty fine (wait-didn't that used to be a brand of pudding?).  In any event, I'm trying to put things in order so I can face the New Year with calm and intention.  Notice I didn't say "calm intention".  That would so not happen.  With that in mind, I spent the other day checking out all my "small" projects, that is, projects with small blocks, not necessarily small finished sizes. 
So far, I've gotten blocks ready to sew for:

the star quilt from Blackbird Designs' Country Inn, the pattern called

"Shooting Stars".   I have 40+ of these done, and now about 10 more ready ro go.  I only need a total of 169, so I've got a good start (she says smugly).

Then I got :

baskets counted and organized snd ready to go.  It's from another Blackbird Design book that I can't find right now to tell you the title.  This one takes over 300 blocks and I've got 30-something done (she says not so smugly, since she started this a good 9 months to a year before the stars).

Then, I got a bunch of pieces cut out for:

these cute little spool blocks that are going on all over blogland.  I'm doing these with  Inklingo's POTC lite collection.  (That's Lucy Boston's Patchwork of the Crosses which you can read all about on the Inklingo site).  I'll tell you more about these little lovelies over the next few days. 

And then:

 I got this block pieced.  Cindy Blackberg gives piecing direction with the rubber stamps, but did  I pay attention to them?  Oh, no.  The next one, I'll try her way.

And because I can't be stopped, I'm getting a set of pieces done later today for yet another project that I'll post a picture of tomorrow. 

now you see why "calm" and "intention" don't really go together in this case.  Two totally different states of mind in my case.  

I did get the hand quilting on the Valentine repro I'm doing for the shop finished   I'm waiting for the binding fabric to get sent down ffrom the shop because of course I didn't take it home with me the last time I was there.  You'll get a full picture as soon as it gets finished. 

Well, celebrate with joy and thankfulness, and may the New Year be kind to us all.

linda

pre-holiday haze

I have nothing wrapped yet.  Nothing.  I do have the shopping done.  I have not mixed up the cookie dough. I do have a plan for the next 4 days.  There's power in a plan.  Most of my plan involves quilting (both doing and dreaming) and eating.  I like this plan a lot. 
Inklingo just came out with the new Feathered Star patterns and design book.  The design book is free for a short time, so get yourself downloading now.  I'm hoping for GC's for Inklingo as part of my Christmas. : -) 

And because I have nothing else to do,  and since I found a cute Cindy Blackberg stamp set at work for a little sunflower quilt, I got most of it cut out and started

.  I said I just got started.  They make 8" blocks and in utter sweetness will look something like this:

I think I'm leaving off the dark border, though. 

I was wondering for the umpteenth time the other day, why I feel this need to start so many projects.  I mean actively start them, not just buy them.  At this point all I can come up with is I need to feel a sense of ownership-if I start it, it can be finished.  And it says something about my faith in the future, that I'll have time to finish it or at least decide it's fate. And that's my thought for the day.   later.  linda

a day at home-almost

Got the rest of the fabrics for my new spring project cut at work yesterday and proceeded to leave them and all the ones I already had washed and marked right there on the table.  This was after I realized Tuesday nite that I couldn't find the magazine that had the picture of the old quilt in it that I was going to draft up for our yearly red and green quilt for the shop.  As my friend in North Dakota would say,  Uff-da.  The good news is I did find the magazine last nite after an additional half hour of looking. 

Wondered if I had time this morning to run up to the shop (a mere hour away) to get the stuff before DH and I went to a matinee showing of the new Harry Potter movie,  but then I looked out the window and saw that the "flurries" we were supposed to get is turning into 1-2 inches.  I don't mind driving in the snow if nobody else is out there.  So, got to find a new project for this morning.  The birds are happy, though: 

Can you say,big fat cardinal?

I did remember to bring home a small wall hanging that I had done in English paper piecing last year.  It'll go up on the dining room wall as soon as I can find the little no nail hangers. 

Time to go actually work on a project between refereeing the puppies:

later.

linda

she's baaaccckkkkk-again

The fog of allergies, colds and sick dogs has lifted.  I managed to get stuff done, but can't remember what, exactly.  Had my computer totally hacked, so lost lots of stuff.  So, what have I got to say for myself today?  In short: ain't life grand?  I feel very philosophical, but will spare you.  But check out our winter wonderland:

I know, ya gotta be in the mood. 

I've been working on a Valentine quilt.  It's a reproduction of one done in the 1800's.  It's over half quilted.  Should be in the shop after the holidays.  I posted some pictures of waste canvas cross stitch on : http://www.goodwivesco.com/.  Go to the web site and click on the blog.

And, yes, it's supposed to be vertical, and I rotated it and it still came up this way.  But after the hack, I'm just grateful things come up.  :-). 

Then....I've been working on some top stitch applique, and there's a good video of it here : http://www.pieceocake.com/ on

Piece o' Cake's web site under "videos". (enough repetition on my part to get that out?)

(close-up)  Are those stitches cute or what.  I have to start on a Spring project today that uses regular needle turn applique, and I'm fighting it!

Well, I should actually go sew, so something gets done. 
later
linda