The Blue HST Crib Quilt

 When I dropped off my friend's quilt that I finished longarming for her on Friday, of course she had another small one for me to quilt for her.

This is the first time I have seen her use HSTs to make pinwheels!  I know this is at least the 12th quilt (if not more) that she has had me longarm for her.  I love seeing her skills progress!  Even as her arthritis and sight gives her problems she still gets better and better at her sewing skills!

The fabric she gave me for the back is only a little bigger than the quilt top.  I will have to add my usual pieces so that I can load it nicely on the longarm.

Slow Sunday UNStitching...

 I'll be doing some Slow Sunday Stitching today, but it will be more like UNSTITCHING...  I finally loaded my Garden Party quilt (design by Bonnie Hunter).  It is going VERY crooked. 

I have a feeling that I may keep the border on the top where it is attached and take off the 2.5" border.  That seems to be where the problem is coming from.  I put that border on because it's easier for me to longarm when I have a nice, smooth piece to work with to baste down on the edge.  My original plan was to cut it off mostly of the finished quilt anyways so that I didn't lose all of my points.  I just can't stand to have it all crooked like this.  I'll never be able to square up the quilt nicely.  It did lay flat when I had it on the floor until I added the border.

I'm pretty sure I will only have to take out one row of longarm stitches.  That won't be too bad.  You can see in the photo above that the sides (border) do not lay flat at all.  Look how it is rolled on the left side!  I should have known better than to try to work in all that play.  I didn't want to stretch it out of shape by pulling it tight because of the border.  Also, you can tell by the rows of red that it is starting to go crooked.

In other news our elves were up to no good.  But our elf, Blue, is turning the bad around for good and teaching the others not to swallow gum.

Our COVID numbers are increasing about 500 cases per day in our COUNTY!  Our county went to the "purple" (most severe on watch) status today.  I took our son out and left him do his Christmas shopping at the Dollar Tree.  The important thing about this year was that I left him go into the store ALL BY HIMSELF as I waited in the truck.  He was soooo proud of himself and so excited that he got to go into a store by himself and make all of his selections.  He knew how much money he had, he knew how many things he could buy, and even considered adding the tax.

When we are in a busy place like this I feel okay to park far enough away as long as I am where he doesn't have to walk out into a parking lot and cross in front of cars.  He gets so excited and I don't want him to forget where he is.  He is getting very good at safety, but you never can be too sure.

His next suggestion was to celebrate being on the Merit Roll at school.  I'm super proud of this because he does almost all of his remote learning by himself.  He can tell how much he has to do for the week.  He plans his time so that he can get his work done in four days vs. five school days.  He learned that I will let him have fun on Fridays if he gets his work done timely.  He wanted to go to Chipotle.  He wanted to go in and order and pay by himself.  I knew he could do it.  This time I could park right next to the window and watch.

This is another big milestone of being independent.  He is a very high-functioning individual that just happens to have Down syndrome.  He rocks his extra chromosome! We are sooooo proud of him!  He has been going into our local grocery store in our very small town by himself to get one or two items for at least three years.  Now he is starting to go out into the "big world" and doing things indepently.

He is 13 years old and in the 7th grade.  He overheard me talking on the phone to his principal a couple weeks ago about goals I wanted to set in his next IEP (individual education plan) meeting that is coming up in February.  I finally expressed to the principal the plan I have had in my head for the past few years.  I would like Owen to be able to go to our vocational school and possibly take TWO vocational programs (because in his case he can be in school until he is age 23). 

Today Owen told me he wanted to take WELDING!!!  I am soooo excited about this.  I am a certified welder!  My husband is a much better welder than I will ever be, but he is not certified.  We never pushed this idea to Owen.  I'm so happy he is thinking about it on his own.  Wow -- Mind blowing!

Owen is much better at taking photos from the truck than I am.  He took this picture of the city Christmas tree in downtown Canton, Ohio.  Canton, Ohio is slightly famous for being the home of the Football Hall of Fame.  In the years past this tree would be a huge tree.  The company my husband used to work for used to go get a large donated tree from the yard someone that was fancy and prestigious.  My husband used to work for the crane and rigging company that would take it down and set it up using a crane.  The cool thing is that one of the guys he worked with resembled Santa.  That guy would always be part of putting up the tree and wear his regular work clothes and a Santa hat.  That guy passed away several years ago.  I knew who he was before I met my husband.  May he RIP.  I always think about him when I see this tree and the funny stories my husband would tell about it.

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching.  Did you see the picture of her mystery quilt she put in her header lately?  It's a show stopper!  Swing by for some creative inspiration.

Garden Party -- December OMG

 This month I am going to cross my fingers and hope I get my Garden Party quilt finished.  I'd love to gift it to a very special friend for Christmas.

I pieced the back during the week of Thanksgiving when my husband was sick.  Now that he is much, much better (thank you for your prayers).  We still think he just had the flu for nine days.  It was a long nine days.  But I did get a lot of sewing done during that time.  

It doesn't look like I'm working on it, but I am.  It takes about an hour to load a quilt and set up the template so that it's nice and straight.  I loaded the back.

I have a little extra batting on this leftover roll for the quilt.  I am not going to trim the batting to size and will trim it after it is quilted so that I have a larger piece as scrap.  I normally don't roll the quilt up on the batting roll.  I just did this to move it out of the way so that I could use the rest of the table.

I am setting this project as my December OMG -- one main goal.  I started this project in 2017.  Many of the scraps were given to me by the lady to whom I am gifting it.

My RSC20 friends are probably tired of me posting pics of this quilt.  LOL.  Not really -- I think it's beautiful.  BUT I'm sure they will be cheering me on to quilt faster in the cold to get it done so that they can see a finished quilt.

I'm linking up at Angela's blog, SoScrappy for the RSC20.

I'm linking up at Elm Street quilts for the December OMG goal setting party.

Crib Quilt Completed on the Longarm

 I finished quilting this crib quilt for a friend.  I used the design Tumbling Teddy Bears.

I think it turned out pretty cute and gave the quilt a lovely texture.  Here's the back:

WIP Wednesday 12.2.20

 December is here.  I'm starting to be more productive quilt wise.  Here's what happened this week:

I finished my #Spidersewalong quilt.  I found this sew-along on Instagram.  Click the link here.  The pattern is designed by Lindsey at Pen + Paper Design.  I took this picture on Monday, 11/30/20.  Our son is wearing a light sweatshirt.

I definitely have another satisfied customer!

I'm really glad I got the quilt done before December!  It snowed the next day, 12/1/20.  I had to get my annual blood work and tests done.  We left the house in 4-wheel drive and in Carhartt coats.  This is the view going down our driveway to the road.  It's quite peaceful and magical.  It was a wet, clingy snow.

Our elves (Elf on the shelf) have been getting into a little mischief.  Poor snowman...

Baby Oliver hides in the catnip that I brought in from the garden.  I'm trying to grow it inside for the cats this winter.  So far, so good.

I worked on my Linen & Threads SAL while our son pre-bowled his three games for the week.  I am keeping him away from the league crowd and bowling at times when the lanes aren't as busy.

I made backs for Garden Party, got a crib quilt for a friend ready for the longarm, and found a big flannel back for Soul Searching.  My to-be-quilted bin is filling up!  This also helped me tidy up my sewing area so that I can be more productive with my piecing.

I currently have 59 on-going projects on my list.  They are separated into stages.  This seems like a lot of projects, but I used to have 93 items on my list.  I love the fact that it has gone down so much.

Pieces Need to be Cut & Sewn

 1.  Cheddar Jack cat pattern from 

 2.  Digging up Bones (Owen's dinosaur quilt)

 3.  Rock Island Campfire Quilt

 4.  Picadilly Circle

 5.  ...And Sew On BOM at Quiet Play (one block to go)

 6.  Go Four It!  Scrappy 4-patches started as leader/ender, June 2017

 7.  Patriotic Folk Animals (from Americana Quilts Book) 8/8/19

 8.  Leah Day Building Blocks QA

 9.  Jelly Roll Rug

10.  Classic Meets Modern BOM

11.  Veggie Patch from Katie Mae Quilts

12.  Mod Mod QA (from Block Lotto, circles w/lines)

13.  Owl's Well That Ends Well (RSC19 project started 1/26/19)

14.  Kevin the Quilter's Sapphire Stars Mystery (started Summer 2017) I can't find it!!!

15.  Temperature QA (changing this project to a table topper)

16.  Kite Girl (RSC14)

17.  Amish Country BOM (from Lynn, Johnna's mom)

18.  Cabins at the Lake (from Fons  Porter Magazine) only one house block complete.)

19.  2.5" Scraps from Dani -- making "cracker" blocks

20.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019 -- RSC19)

21.  Little Houses (3.5" blocks)

22.  Pumpkins & the Beanstalk (a 2nd quilt)

23.  Dresser Scarf (My Grandma's WIP from the 1970's found 1/1/20

24.  Linen & Threads Mystery SAL, Started 1/1/20 for my sew-to-go-bag

25.  Slabs with White Rectangle (RSC14 started -- needs blocks each month)

26.  Bonnie Hunter Box Kite class from March 2017

27.  Unity Quilt Along with Bonnie Hunter (started 4/1/2020)

28.  Orange, pink, grey kite blocks 2015

29.  Maroon Sampler Quilt

30.  Gypsy Wife QA started in August 2017

31.  Kathleen Tracy's 2019 Mystery Quilt Facebook QA started in March, 2019

32.  2016 Plus Blocks (from left over pieces of Soul Searching Blocks

33.  RSC16 Folk Art Birds

Blocks Still Need to be Made

 1.  Bluepatch Mystery Quilt

 2.  Scrap Crystals (RSC15)

 3.  We Can Do It Skill Builder Sampler

 4.  Drunkard's Path Variation quilt

 5.  Finding Nemo Scrappy Trip quilt 

Blocks Are Made But Need to be Sewn Together (and/or Some Sashing)

 1.  Block Swap Adventure Orange/Yellow Sampler (2011-2012)

 2.  Cruise blocks won from Libby

 3.  Orange/Blue Fish Blocks That I Won

 4.  Split Stars (blocks won from the Block Lotto, October, 2012)

 5.  African Violet baby quilt (Block Lotto inspired)

 6.  Tall Fly (blocks won from Block Lotto; October 2012)

 7.  Fortune Teller (RSC14)

 8.  Sonja's Windows string quilt

 9.  Block Swap Adventure (2013) Churn Dash Blcoks

10.  Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks 5/17/17 QA

11.  Flower Baskets (blue and white with some applique) Block Lotto win 10/1/18

12. Pre-printed cross stitch pillow sham (May 2018)

13.  Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN Dot Dot Dash Bag, Won April, 2018

Quilt Back Needs to be Made (Tops are Done)

1.  Card Trick (pink and blue)

2.  Hunter Green Star Quilt

3.  Good Fortune -- A Bonnie Hunter Mystery started Thanksgiving weekend, 2018

4.  Sand Castles -- Bonnie Hunter string quilt started January, 2019 -- an RSC project

Ready to Longarm

1.  Bubble Gum Pink & Navy Quilt

2.  CM Crib Quilt -- I picked it up 11.23.20 -- on the frame

3.  Soul Searching -- Julianne sent it to me on 8/29/19

4.  Bonnie Hunter Garden Party (started 3.18.17)

I'm linking up with Midweek Makers.  Enjoy all the eye candy at Quilt Fabrication.

Crib Quilt on the Frame

 I loaded a friend's crib quilt onto the longarm frame this week.  I figured it wouldn't take long to quilt once I got it started.  It is a little over 1/3 of the way done already.

It's a little chilly in this room.  I'm going to work on it an hour here and an hour there and see if I can get it finished without turning on the furnace and heating the whole house for it.

I quilted it using a template board from Urban Elementz called Tumbling Teddy Bears.

#Spidersewalong Is Complete! OMG Goal Met for November

 I did it!  I finally met my November OMG (one main goal) to finish my #Spidersewalong.

I put a big spiderweb around the spider and then quilted a pattern called Modern Squares in all of the negative space.  I put a larger than usual binding around it.  I like it.  The binding is the same fabric as the backing.  The recipient is happy!

I'm linking up at Elm Street Quilts for the November finished linky party here.  Check out all the gorgeous projects -- especially Patty's CARTWHEEL quilt for Quilt Con -- It's a show stopper!  It caused me to click a few links to see more.

I found this sew-along on Instagram.  Click the link here.

The pattern is designed by Lindsey at Pen + Paper Design.

I'm also linking up at Love Laugh Quilt for Monday Making.  Check out the cute hats that Beth is making for the snowmen that the kids made years ago.  They are ADORABLE!