Temporary Stop Order

Yesterday I put a temporary stop order on the 1,000 piece Downton Abbey puzzle.  This is how far I got..

So I transferred it to my puzzle box…..

Got all the pieces in the two trays….

And secured with the Styrofoam inserts…

And closed up the puzzle box to bring out again when I am in the mood for the challenge.

Then I pulled out an easier 500 piece puzzle, did the border last night, and tonight finished it up.

This is a Sunsout puzzle and has larger pieces with unusual shapes.  Nobody seems to outdo Springbok for fully interlocking puzzle pieces.

Block #7

Today I worked on block #7 of the 2013 Designer Mystery Block of the Month from The Fat Quarter Shop – a house block.  It was easy and fun to do.  The directions printed for each block are excellent – easy to follow and include ironing instructions!

(Too bad the photographer isn’t as excellent.)

My wonderful niece Becky surprised me with a quartet of batik fabrics in yummy colors.  I will stroke them and enjoy looking at them while I contemplate which quilt pattern is worthy of my cutting into these lovely fabrics.

 

 

Merry Christmas

Old St. Nick and I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas.

How I do it…..

Putting a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle can be a daunting task.  In order to enjoy the process I have found this method of attacking the job.  First I sort all the pieces, setting aside the edge pieces to put together first, and laying out all the other pieces in puzzle trays.  When I run out of room on the puzzle trays, I use cookie sheets.

Then I concentrate on obvious colorful sections…….the Dowager’s dress….

the red upholstered bench…….

the columns by the window……

and now I’m working on the library….

And just to remind you of the picture….

Slowly, section by section, it comes together with persistence – and a good light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Tis the season……

‘Tis the season at my house to do jigsaw puzzles.  I am capable of spending endless hours at the table putting jigsaw puzzles together and therefore try to limit this activity to Christmas and New Year’s weeks.  Confession…….I started a little early – like December 17th with this 1,000 piece puzzle my niece gave me.  It was completed early this morning before I left for church.

Next up is this more difficult 1,000 piece puzzle – difficult because of all the dark areas.  But once I study the pieces carefully, the color variations become more obvious and make the solving fun.

And if I get this one done before New Year’s Eve, I will then do this easy 500 piece puzzle purchased at Dollar Tree.

Deck the halls with puzzle pieces, fa la la la la la la.

 

 

 

Another day with Kathy

Kathy came over today to quilt another of her quilts – Peppermint & Sassafras.

Originally she wanted to use my Baptist fan groovy boards, but after trying that out, she decided a pantograph would be easier.

She chose a Super Brite pink thread, a polyester 30 weight thread – and it kept breaking.  We looked up suggested needles and discovered it needed a different needle, which fortunately I had.  Once the right needle was in place, things went pretty well.  Here is the completed quilt.

Isn’t it wonderful?  The neon pink thread gives it the sass in Sassafras!

Not only did we learn that the right needle makes a difference, but Kathy discovered that one of the racket locks was installed backwards.  Once I found the bag of Allen wrenches that came with the machine, she easily fixed it for me.

It was a good day in the Quilt Cave with Kathy.  She finished the quilting on her quilt and I made a lot more blocks for my Basket Case quilt.

 

 

 

 

Monday at home

Today I made more blocks for the quilt Basket Case by Cluck Cluck Sew.

While working on these blocks, I kept glancing at the latest 100 Blocks magazine.

There was a block in the magazine that I wanted to do, so I pulled out my scrap bins and made Lorie Holt’s house block.

It is cute, but not as cute as Lorie’s block because my block does not have enough contrast – a mistake I make frequently.  However, if I add some buttons, it might brighten it up a bit.

Two tulips, a black cat, and a little airplane in the sky.  Pretty pathetic, right?  How about some applique or embroidery?  The block is made and will get put away for now.

My Christmas cactus has been blooming nicely.  ‘Tis the season.

You can see the snow outside the window and it is snowing again right now.  Again, ’tis the season.

 

 

 

 

A gift to me

This week I have spent a lot of time baking cookies for a church fund-raiser.

Baking is not my strong suit and not something I particularly enjoy doing, so when I finished and everything was packed up and labeled, I decided to give a gift to myself…………the gift of starting a new quilt.

I’ve had this jelly roll and charm pack for a long time – and the yummy white fabric – AND the Cluck Cluck Sew pattern, Basket Case.

I read the directions, cut into the fabric, and made four blocks.

That was fun.  I must remember to send myself a Thank You note.

 

 

A binding finish

Tonight I finished the binding on the quilt made for a fund raiser at our church.

Thanks to the 2013 Mission Trip adults and especially Lindsay, this quilt will help raise funds for the 2014 Mission Trip.

 

Straight lines and free-motion

Today I had a chance to do some more long-arm practicing.  After watching some lessons from Kimmy Brunner on Craftsy, I tired using a ruler to do a straight line star.  It is not as easy as she makes it look.  You can see my one big bobble on the left side.

 

Then I tried a free-motion flower motif that I copied from a quilt my niece recently had quilted.  It starts out with four oval petal shapes which are surrounded by a heart shape, which then is echoed until it fills the space.  It was fairly easy to do and I like the look of it very much.

 

There is so much to learn and years of practicing ahead of me.  I’m almost at the end of a bolt of muslin and just purchased another bolt.  This time I got a wider bolt so that I would have more room to practice and not have to advance the fabric so quickly.

How long will it take before I feel confident in my long-arm quilting abilities?  That is the unanswerable question!

 Bonnie