Can You Help?

Piccolo Studio has templates and directions for making pouches for the wildlife who are the victims of the horrible fires in Australia.  She is working with Animal Rescue Craft Guild to help.  The last report I heard was that 30% of the koalas in the area on fire in Southern Australia have died.  So many of the survivors are suffering from burns.  A quilting group in The Netherlands has gotten together to make mitts for the burned paws of the koalas.

Are you able to help this little one?

Or these little ones?

Lots of FREE BOMS!!

Marian at Seams to be Sew has an amazing list of BOM's, QAL's, SAL's and other fun events.  Her only requirement is that that all need to be totally free!!  You can find her current list here and she will update her list as more BOM's, QAL's and SAL's come to her attention.

If you would like a plethora free patterns to play with, go and check out what Marian has put together!!

Mystery QAL - Finish!

This was a fun learning experience for me!!  I am much better with my longarm then I am with cutting and sewing a quilt together!  Thank you, Kim, of Persimmon Dreams for this really fun, fast QAL!!  You can find the final clue here and she has links on that page to every clue for this great wall hanging, if you decide you want more control than a mystery will give you.  This is my second mystery QAL because I am a control freak (I guess that's why I liked teaching before I retired!!).

The sun lets that beautiful teal really shine!!  I'm already planning how I will quilt the teal...swirls, pebbles and a feather or two.  I may be bold and throw some orange and purple thread into the quilting on the teal!!!  The ombre orange pops with the teal so wonderfully!!  The brown for the wood shelf was a challenge as I don't have much stash here and the only brown I had is some cool ruler fabric!!  Perfect for a sewing room!!

Thanks again, Kim, for a fun and fast wall hanging!!  I love it!!

Mystery QAL - Clue 6

Well, this clue took some time!!  All five blocks got some borders and I still don't know what it is going to be!!  Kim of Persimmon Dreams has kept this a great secret!!  Clue 6 can be found here.

The solids I used as my "background" are reading as black or navy blue in the artificial light but it is a dark teal.  When this is finished, I'll take a picture in the sunshine and the colors will be much truer!!  I'm also loving the orange in these blocks...all from the same piece of fabric, because ombre!!

I also won the bobbin race!!

Yay!!!  I usually run out with 6" left to sew or quilt!!  I'll take it!

Motivation

Impromptu picture of my dad and I on his 98th birthday last June.  A childhood friend of mine stopped by to wish him happy birthday.

Living with and caring for my dad for almost 4 years has been a blessing and a trial.  I love that I can spend the last years of his life with him and that, while his body may be failing, his mind is pretty much there.  I definitely miss my home...it holds my husband, my horse and my longarm!!  For most of the time I have been with my dad, I have been umpiring adult slow-pitch softball.  It's fun, gets me out of the house and I get some social interaction.  For all but the last year, I was umpiring 6 nights a week.  All that changed this year as my dad's health made him less independent.  I umpired 2 nights a week this year and I had a companion to come in and care for my dad while I was gone.  He is now using a walker and couldn't microwave his dinner and get it to the table any more.  I don't think I will be umpiring any more, so to avoid the deep pit of depression, I need outside motivation to get me sewing.  I always feel better when I play with fabric and create something.

Sherri, who blogs at A Quilting Life, is having two challenges per month.  One challenge will be sewing/creating with our scraps/stash and the other will be organization of our scraps.  I'm going to jump on board and see if I can work on both.  I don't have much of my stash here, but there has been stash enhancement since I got here!!

If you would like to join in, you can find her post here.  Jelly rolls...you will be made into something!!

Mystery QAL - Block 5

Have you joined the fun of creating a Mystery quilt along with Kim of Persimmon Dream?  Today was Clue 5 - you can find it here.  This is a new-to-me block and yes, I messed up the stripes again but I was able to use my seam ripper and correct the problem.  I also introduced a new color because I didn't have enough of 3 of the colors to make it work.  So I'll be putting the same color into at least one of the next two blocks, but probably both, because I love this fabric!!  It is orange (a color I really don't like) but it is ombre and tone-on-tone!!!

And with all my other blocks

I was inspired by other quilting blogs I follow to put out a suet block for the birds over the winter.  There are many birds that stay here, even though it temperatures are usually below freezing every night.  It took them a few days, but numerous birds are visiting every day!  I love watching them and so does my dad.

I hope the video comes through...this is the first time I've tried this!

Happy New Year!  May this year bring you the blessing of enough!

Mystery QAL - Block 4

The clue for block 4 is available today from Kim at Persimmon Dreams.  I'm sticking with the four fabrics I started with.  I still don't have the hang of getting the stripes going in the right direction, so today, my stripes pinwheel and that works for me!

I can't wait to see how this goes together!!

I really enjoy Brian Crane's comic strip Pickles!  I had one of his daughter's in my class the first year I taught...sweet girl.

I think many quilter's spouses and children can relate to this!!