January Goal

I have been diligently quilting my Texas Teardrops quilt, but I'm not going to make my goal this month.  I stayed with my dad an extra week so I could go with him to a couple of doctors appointments, but I don't think that would have made a difference in the end.  *sigh*  Oh well!

It didn't help the time line that I decided to use a beautiful solid fabric for the backing on this quilt and then chose to add some of the extra applique pieces to the back so I will essentially have a two-sided quilt.  I am having fun with "ghost" quilting in the setting triangles and the inner border, but that means I have to draw on the applique pieces in order to quilt the design.  My biggest problem is deciding what I will quilt between the appliqued teardrops!!!  The size of that area varies greatly and makes it more difficult for me to decide what I want to do, so taking more time to make sure I figure out the perfect quilting design is all right with me!

Here are a few pictures of what I have so far:

 I love mixing the curves of the ribbon candy and the angular triangles (with pearls) in the center.  How I managed to get two with "empty" pieces in the applique together is beyond me, but you know how that happens!!

Isn't the backing color fabulous and you can see the applique on the back just peeking over the take-up bar!  So much fun to use a solid fabric for backing, but every time I mess up the tension, it is very visible - there is a row that is hidden that I need to go back to and pick out because I let the bobbin get too low and the bobbin tension got really tight (that makes for easy removal, but then I need to re-quilt!).

Here is a shot looking down the frame at the quilt - you can see the chalk markings on the inner border where I am going to do "ghost" quilting and just to the left of that you can see where I did "ghost" quilting on the solid gray in the outer border.  My beloved pink Innova is in the background with the handles holding the tools I use all the time - flower pins, self-threading needles, long tweezers and scissors on the left handle and chalk pencils and purple air-erasable pen on the right handle.  Nice to have what I need close at hand and not laying on the quilt top.

I can't wait to finish this quilt and put it on my bed, but it will probably take me all year to get it finished since I'll be spending 3 weeks a month with my dad and one week a month with my husband!  But, that's just fine with me!!  I hope you realized your January goals!!

So Much for Goals!

Just when my plan was to quilt a chunk of the 50+ quilt tops I have waiting to be quilted, life throws a twist into those plans.  My dad, who will be 95 in June, needs a bit of help, so I will be temporarily deserting my dear understanding husband and moving back to Nevada to care for my dad and spend the rest of his days with the most wonderful father I could have ever been blessed with.  My longarm won't fit in my truck and I can't afford to buy another one *grin*, so I'll be bringing all my finished quilt tops with me and making the backing and binding for them.  I will also just be forced to make more quilt tops *sigh* what a trial.

Well, I got incredibly lucky and won an ebook of Quilting from Every Angle by Nancy Purvis who blogs at owen's olivia.  Sixteen awesome geometric designs and now I'll have an excuse to work my way through the book from front to back!!!

Now my biggest problem will be to fit all the fabric, my sewing machine, threads, rulers, cutting boards...my studio!!...into the back of my truck with a modest amount of clothing and sundry items for my stay in Nevada.

The ebook has 168 pages, so printing the whole thing out is just not going to happen, so it has been downloaded to my computer.  Since I've lost hard drives on numerous computers, I'm a bit skittish about having my sole copy on my computer, so I attached it to an email and sent it to myself!!  I hope that will save this fabulous book if my computer croaks!!!

One Monthly Goal - January 2016

Heidi, who blogs over at Red Letter Quilts is launching OMG - One Monthly Goal to help out those of us who depended on ALYOF to get our projects finished!!  She kindly invited me to participate and I am so ready for that!!!

Last spring I finished all the applique on my Texas Teardrops

I added another border after this picture was taken and I haven't taken a new one yet, but I am declaring it to be my OMG for January - I want to get this baby quilted...lots of custom quilting!!! 

I am linking up with Heidi and going for it!!!

ALYOF - Round Up of 2015

Wow, I have been posting like crazy...it won't last, I assure you!

I am linking up with Melissa at Sew BitterSweet and Shanna Fiber of All Sorts for the link-up finale for ALYOF.

In April (my first month joining in), I finished my Row by Row quilt!! (bottom left)
In May I finished piecing my Texas Teardrop quilt. (bottom right)
In June I finished and delivered my daughter's wedding autograph quilt before she moved to Hawaii. (right center)
In July I made the blocks for my step-son's wedding autograph quilt. (top center)
In August I totally took apart my "Garage Sale Treasure" Irish Chain quilt top. (bottom center)
In September I got "Garage Sale Treasure" Irish Chain quilted, bound and labeled. (bottom center)
In October I finished my strip challenge quilt (I love this one)!! (left center)
In November I finished Fairy Garden for my granddaughter. (top left)
In December I made and gave 25 pot holders. (top right)

For NINE months I met my goal - YIPPEE!!!

Happy New Year and a Free BOM

I just got an email from Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles and she is hosting a FREE BOM!!  Free is always good, right? 

Since y'all know I can't figure out how to add a button to my blog, this is just a copy and paste of the button, but click on the Quilt Doodle Doodles hot link here or up top to go to Cindy's blog and get yourself the first free block!!!  Yep, I can put in a hot link...who knew?????

We can start the year off right with a new UFO!!!  No, it will be a WIP because we are going to finish what we start this year, right???  And this adorable Christmas quilt will use up a lot of those scraps we have created in past years - double win!!!