Tuesday To-Do #16: Toys!

Hello on this very wet and cold rainy morning

and welcome to another edition of

Tuesday-To-Do hosted by Texas Quilt Gal.  

Last week's goals

1) Finish guild charity quilt #2

Quilt top made by guild.

Done!

By the way, this looks like it's just one big log cabin

block made with jelly roll strips.  Filing that idea away.

Would be a great quick project.

More pantograph quilting.

2) Quilt guild charity quilt #3

Quilt top made by guild; sorry, not a great pic.

Done!

On this one, I tried out some of my new toys and FMQ.

No practice, just jumped right in--because it

always looks so easy in the videos, right?

Well, not quite.

More on that under #3

3) Practice with rulers and FMQ

Done!

Like I said, it's just not as easy as it looks--yet.

I finally put a quilting glove on which helped a tiny bit.

I'm just assuming I'll get used to it but I have plans to

watch some tutorials...whenever I find the time.

I also discovered that with the ruler base on the longarm,

ruler quilting on the outer side borders is next to

impossible unless you leave yet another 5" on top of the

usual extra fabric down the sides.   Or you take the clamps

off, but that didn't work either.  I gave up with the ruler

and free-handed the sides.  I surprised myself there.

Though I was pretty frustrated and just flew through it,

the result wasn't all that bad.  I think if I slow down and

put more care into it, I could get those down pretty well.

Other than when trying out my first longarm, I haven't

really done FMQ for almost 5 years.   I really enjoyed it on

my regular sewing machine but once I moved to a long arm,

I couldn't get enough of what pantographs had to offer.  

Attending a couple classes and buying new toys and books

(and Lucey!) has renewed my interest in FMQ.   I decided to

play around with a few of Julia Quiltoff's designs in these

rows.  Note to self:  use visible thread when FMQ!  I feel like

I could've done a pretty decent job if I could only have seen

where I'd been!  LOL.  Ah well.  I'm happy enough with it.

**Side-note: Julia highly recommended to us these

disappearing ink marking pens after she shared her horror

story about Pilot Frixion pens.  Because I've heard other

stories, I only use the Frixions for marking cutting lines 

and anything else that won't show.  Btw, I don't get

anything for sharing; I'm just passing along good info.

At $10/12 pens, I've already ordered a pack, knowing that

when I do start marking for FMQ, I can be confident

my marks will not come back to haunt me.

4) Finish all HST's for Waves; continue piecing blocks

Not quite done.

Gracious, this is going slow!  I'm doing such a small amount

here and there but I am making progress on it all the time.

This bin is packed full of them and because I'm almost done,

I'm thinking this must be around 1,000?  (I need 1280.)

5) 3 QOV blocks (for guild)

Done! (Only two pictured)

6) Pick up cadet at the airport!

Done!  As evidenced by the presence of the

MMMP in the sewing room.

Military Mom Mending Pile

(I can play the acronym game as well as the army!)

He is home and enjoying some R&R, home-cooking

and especially seeing his Jeep that he purchased here

while he was up at school.   Hubs and I handled getting

 it home from the dealer so it was the cadet's first time

 behind the wheel--he is so happy with it!

Other things going on:

Fabric Tracking

I dropped off of posting weekly on this.

Probably something to do with guilt!  LOL

Regardless of how much I buy, I'm supposed to be

using more...but everything is just all off.  I've been so

busy learning new things instead of sewing quilts but

apparently I'm not that busy because I still find time

to peruse fabric sales.  I'll just come out with it:

Yards purchased this year:  150

Yards used this year:  115

Now, no need for words of comfort and consolation.

I can still get on top of this situation, especially

in the fall.  I just need to put my head down and go.

(And stop looking at sales!)

I have so much to work with!  So much to be inspired by!

This is my latest order:

Buttermilk Homestead by Stacy West/Riley Blake

Just look at that beauty!!

I canNOT wait to do something with that FQ set!

I also picked up a couple yards of this (above) one...

because it matches this orange that I already have.

This "vintage Halloween" look is a fave with me.

Truly, I could shop my own stash for a long time

and be really happy with it!  And so, I will try.

In the garden

A sample of the "before"

I spent a lot of time weeding the asparagus patch (it's big)

and it now has a thick layer of straw that will hopefully

keep out most of those weeds.  I didn't get an after pic

and since it has been pouring rain for about 14 hours,

I'll wait till next week for that one!

I've already picked a gallon of strawberries (in one day)

and they're calling to me now to pick more.

I'm slowly giving the remaining lettuces and spinach to the

chickens.  We've had so much salad already and it's about

this time of year that it starts to get a little buggy, or bitter,

or both and I'm done with cleaning it anyway.

I've pruned the peppers and the tomatoes (2nd time);

we have tomatoes setting on already!

I've also been pruning the fruit trees in the orchard--this

is definitely going to be a great year for fruit!

After the last 2 years of freezes, we're excited!

On the golf course

After a couple weeks of trying out two specific clubs, I think

I've settled on the irons I'll be getting.  Like everything these

days, they will take weeks (months?) to arrive.  UGH.

I'll also need a new bag to go with those new toys clubs

so I've been doing a little searching there.  

I got my first birdie last week which was a great feeling.

My tee shot put me right here on this par 3.

No pressure, just putted it right in.

I've only been playing since last fall but from what

I have been told by several including the pro I'm working

with, I'm already doing better than 99% of new golfers.

I really don't know about all that;

I'm just excited to get better as fast as I can.

Golf v. Quilting--and v. the Computer!

It is, as I've said, my exercise and because we have a 

membership, I try to go as often as I can.  But working

that in with quilting (along with everything else in life!)

has been a real struggle.  I recently tracked an entire week's

activities between the hours of 8 and 5 and, not surprisingly,

I have a lot of work to do to gain more control of my time.

Golf takes a chunk but with the longer days, I can get on

very early in the day and be home by about 10:30.

I feel it boosts my energy for the rest of the day, too.

The biggest culprit?  Again, no surprise--the computer.

But I do feel like getting it all down on paper was a very

productive first step.  Now to make some changes.

Enough chatter.  Moving on to next week's goals:

1) Load up one of my own quilts--finally--and quilt it.

It's time I attack that pile of finished tops that I started

building back in January.  First up is my American flag

quilt--timely with the holiday weekend coming up.

Incidentally, it's the only top I didn't make a backing for

already so that will be a nice step toward evening out

those fabric tracking numbers.

2) Finish HST's for Waves of Blue

3) Complete Cadet's mending

4) Load up another quilt

5) Play with fabric

6) More golf

In summary, I've been making use of all of my new toys!

Except maybe the fabric--if you can call that "toys".

But a goal of "play with fabric"?  I'm pretty sure

I can make that happen too.  Especially with all this

rain.  Great for the garden and trees but I'm cold.

And it's muddying up the golf courses!

(Kidding--I'll never complain about rain!)

Happy quilting!