WIP Wednesday 6.24.20

Summer is finally here.  Here's what happened this week:

I finished the longarm quilting on my Wings of Spring quilt.  I even trimmed it and cut the binding.  I put a freehand allover stipple on it.  It was fun to do some mindless sewing.

I won these blocks in the Block Lotto on 3/31/19.

I finished the quilting on this customer quilt and returned it to her.  

The only work on my Unity QA (Bonnie Hunter design) that I did this week was to carry needed dies from the house where I sew to the house where all the scraps and the BIG TABLE are.  I'll be cranking pieces through the dies soon.  Here's where the Unity quilt in neutrals stands:

I also decided to ADD one project to my list.  I don't have any Halloween quilts.  This will be a first.  It's a quilt along that looks to be divided into easy steps.

With the new Blogger, I have cleaned up my blog a little and I have taken a few projects off of my list.  Some of them have been completed and I forgot to take them off the list. Some I lost interest and put it in the scrap bag.  Some were never started except for a pattern or a fabric pull.

When I started using my longarm I would make a click with this vintage clicker that sits on the window sill in the quilt room every time I wound a bobbin.  I have wound 1000 bobbins.  This also helps me to remember to oil my machine after using 10 bobbins.

My garden continues to grow.  I have a new crop duster helper!!!  He did great.  My husband has fixed my rototiller.  I'm back in business to defeat those weeds.  These are the best eggplant plants I have had for years!  I put flowerpots around them that have the bottoms cut off.  It deters the bunnies from eating the  young plants.  The plants are big enough to take the collars off this week.

Our son has a fun new hobby.  It's called magnet fishing.  Instead of fishing for fish, we fish for things that are metal that can be picked up by magnets that we buy on eBay.  A magnet with the rope costs about $30.  We spend $ on gas to get to nearby water sources and boat docks.  There is no license to purchase (at this time).  You do not need to be QUIET to magnet fish!  We have been having a lot of fun.  We pack a picnic lunch and spend hours together.   There are tons of YouTube videos of people magnet fishing.  That's where he got the idea.   It's awesome!  Here he is on the end of a boat ramp with the magnet.  It looks like he got tangled up in a few plants on this cast.

Last summer we seriously worked on Owen learning to tie his shoes successfully.  (It was my husband that made the big breakthrough when they practiced on one of his pair of tennis shoes in the garage.  THANK YOU!!!)  He has been doing a great job with that. 

Now that he is really interested in something like this he can even untangle his 30 foot or so rope.  I just act like I'm busy and he unties the knots by himself!  We also worked on how to reel in the rope by making big loops and doing the same steps over and over.  Some take these skills for granted.  I took advantage of this time and interest to work on occupational therapy skills (OT).  We have also got past touching things that are icky.  Sensory skills are important too!

We purchased magnets before the whole Covid thing started.  Then for his birthday this June he got two more magnets so that everybody could have one (Mom, Dad, Owen, and Aunt Jo).  We went magnet fishing for the first time on his birthday.  Here are the big treasures from that trip.  The thing in the middle props up a boat motor.  It looks like a bunch junk, but it's fun.

Owen and I went on a different day to a place where we used to fish for fish.  Every time he pulls in his magnet and there is ANYTHING on it he is excited.  It looked like we were fishing in a hardware store this day.  The bobber did not have metal on it, but we found it on the shore.

On Saturday, Dad had to go to a school for work.  Owen and I took a road trip about an hour away.  I kept snagging on something but couldn't get it.  Owen told me that we had to use both our magnets and work as a team.  He threw his magnet down near mine (as he has seen on YouTube videos).  We snagged just the orange fishing line between the two magnets and rope.  I started to pull on the fishing line.  We were sooooo excited when I pulled up the end and found just a weight about the size of the end of my thumb.  THEN I pulled up the other end of the line and found this whole fishing rod and reel!  It even had the two catfish jingle bell things on the end of it still in tact.  It seemed that most people didn't know what we were doing with the metal things on the ropes.  Some people cheered for him when we pulled out the rod and reel.  It was so much fun!  

You can see the two magnets still attached to each other laying on the dock in this picture.

When we left this fishing spot at Chippewa Lake we got to see a bald eagle parent, two offspring, and the nest.  This was the first time I saw bald eagles in the wild.  It was very cool.

We are taking a couple of days off of magnet fishing this week.  Hopefully I'll get some sewing and gardening done.  Our feet and legs are sore from standing on the constantly swaying docks.  Guess we need to work on our core muscles as well!  I didn't think of that.

I am linking up at Susan's blog, QuiltFabrication, for Midweek Makers.

I currently have 60 on-going projects on my list.  They are separated into stages.

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

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

34.  Waffle Blocks (August 2019 -- RSC19)

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.  Bonnie Hunter Garden Party (started 3.18.17)

14.  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.  Bubble Gum Pink & Navy Quilt

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

5.  Sour Searching -- Julianne sent it to me on 8/29/19

Ready to Longarm

1.  Cream Squares customer (CM) quilt -- She gave me a blanket for the batting