Sunday, December 21, 2014

UFOs To Finish In 2015

If you are like me you likely have UFO's. I did make lots of progress in 2014. I was on a mission to finish up some UFO blocks. I did finish some tops but did not finish them. They will be on the bucket list to finish in 2015 in no particular order.

Top Left: blue and green quilt that I decided I had to drop everything and make. I really love the colors so need to get this quilted so I can display it nextSpring.

Top Middle: a hand pieced compass that was done several years back. It was designed by Becky and some of us handpiecers on About.com quilting forum made one. I have pulled it out and it is the center of my nesting robin. I do plan to get going on this challenge in earnest after the first of the year.

Top Right: Bears in the cabin was a pile of blocks from some block swaps. I found the pile of blocks last Spring and sewed them into the top and added a double border. It just needs quilting.

Middle Left: Dear Jane swap by Lou on about.com again I pulled out the blocks last Spring and made these into a finsihed top. It just needs quilting. I also made some mug rugs out of some of the blocks and still have enough for another top.........not sure when I will do something with them.

Middle Center: Strings in the Cabin another swap on about.com by Lou. I love this one and I need to figure out a border and quilt this one, hopefully by July and display it.

Middle Right: Swap by Pat of Stars in Fossil Fern and Kona Black on about.com. I started putting the blocks together at The Arizona Retreat About.com last Feburary and finished it last summer. Now I just need to quilt it. This will look fantastic on my bed.

Bottom Left: my Christmas table runner. I did not decorate this year anyway so not a big deal that I did not finish it. I found the 4 blocks last Summer and set them in a row and added a border, just needs quilting. Next Christmas for sure!!!

Bottom Center: a group of block exchanged at the Arizona Retreat years ago. I just set them together...........I think I will pick them apart and add sashing and then put them in a lap quilt top for the trailer.

Bottom Right: This one is finished and only needs a hanging sleeve. I will do the reveal after the first of the year.

This is the beginning of my bucket list for 2015. My goal will be one or more finishes each month. I do have a nice stack of tops that were finished several years ago still just waiting for quilting...........I am hoping that 2015 will be the year of "quilting" for me as I can just do quilting and not run out of tops any time soon.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Winter Solstice


Tomorrow is Winter Solstice and the shortest day of the year. As 2014 is slowly drawing to a close I like to think back and list all the things I have done in the past year. I like to make it a written exercise. Then I pull out the list of things I wanted to do from last year and compare. I have never had the lists match. There are things that never got done, or only got started. I am always happy to see things that were not on the list that are really good accomplishments.

I will soon be sitting down and coming up with list of things I have done. There are so many things that were not on the list for 2014 that I can put on there. I did have a productive quilting and sewing year and am hoping that 2015 is going to be even better. I have so many plans of things I want to do that I want to share on my blog.

So what have you done in 2014 and what are you planning for 2015?

Thursday, December 11, 2014

If I Learned Something It Is Not A Waste Of Time

I look at lots of blogs because I just love to see all the eyecandy. One thing that catches my eye over and over is the great photo colleges that I see. How the heck do they do that? Well I was on a mission today so I spent way too much time researching and trying to get it to work. Here are a few of the colleges I made:

Though the process was slow and painful at times I think in the end I have discovered how to make really cool images to post on future blog posts. The top college is my year in travel and the bottom one, what else but quilts I have made this year. If you have ever wondered how to do these just try to google key words, like in my case "how to make a photo college iphoto" Then it is trial and error by following the directions.

Hopefully you will figure out how it works on your set up and will have another way to make your blog posts beautiful.

Friday, December 5, 2014

I Have Clearned My Defensible Space

Nicole's quilt has stalled. I finished the top a couple of months ago and then had to spend time clearing my forest for the insurance company for fire danger. This is the very reason I am making this quilt in that Nicole lost her home, workshop and possessions in a fire. Fire danger is very real here as well. Now that I am finished with my clearing I can can get back to my quilting. I really want to thank all of you who sent blocks to make this quilt possible. I am really happy how all the blocks tie together with the chocolate color sashing and the blue cornerstone blocks. I used cream for the setting triangles and corner blocks. All of the fabrics I used in this quilt came from my stash. There is still quite a bit of work to do before this is done but hopefully I can get it done in time for her to have it for her bed in the near future.............it drapes nicely over my queen sized bed.

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Chain Saw Mama and Rewards

Where the heck have I disappeared to? Well I have been mega busy and there was a wonderful reward at the end. The insurance company told us we needed a defensible space for our house in case of forest fire. Well we do live in the high desert environment of the Southwest and frankly our house could go up in flames if there were a big fire. So for the last two months I have been busy clearing that defensible space. One hundred feet out from the house in all directions and the crowns of the trees needed to be 100 feet apart. Let me tell you that is a lot of trees. Mr Enchanting bought me a small chain saw that I could handle and I cut down and apart all the smaller stuff. He tackled the big stuff. I have been at this for what seems like forever! No quilting, very little housework, not much of anything. Yes there was a deadline and we made it. So Mr Enchanting's cousin invited us to cruise with them. We have never done a cruise as we are of the hiking and backpacking and camping kind of folks. Let me tell you though I will definitely cruise again.

We took the Carnival Dream out of New Orleans for seven nights and it was AWESOME! They had to cancel the visit to Belize due to rough seas............yes we were rocking and rolling! We did go to Isla Roatan off the coast of Honduras. It was a rough day but after one false start we ended up on the other side of the island and did some awesome snorkeling right off the photo below. I saw more beautiful fish than you can imagine.


The other port of call was Cozumel. Everything was perfect that day, beautiful weather, great snorkeling, great food and sightseeing. Just look at the amazing water in the photo below and yes it really is that color and clear as a bell. Watching a shark swim underneath you 30 feet below was a new one for me but I managed to remain calm.
There were about 5 or 6 mega huge cruise ships in Cozumel that day and lots of people sightseeing.



Our motto on this cruise: "It's five o'clock somewhere"................cheers!

Every night we would come back to our cabin and our bed would be turned down and there was always a new folded towel animal. Those were so cool. I went to a towel folding class on the ship with a ton of kids and a few other large kids like myself. One morning the crew filled up every longer by the pool will animals of every description.


Sunset from the hottub on the Serenity deck (21 and older only)...............Yep I will go cruising again for sure.

Now that my forest has been tamed back  I will just be burning firewood in the fireplace I can get back to what matters.................quilting!