Today was the day to get my hair cut.  I really don't care about the length of my hair, but long bangs drive me crazy!!!!  I repotted a couple of house plants.  A family from Roundup came and got the piano.  It took a while to get it out and loaded up, but it is gone!  Way more room in my dining room.

 Finished Blue Moon by  Janine Burke.  It has a wool batt and I quilted it with  Sulky 30 wt. cotton in a varigated blue.Now I just  have to make a label. I should have changed the dimensions. I think I did change a row, but wished I had changed two. I learned to pay more attention to the overall finished measurements.

It is 84" x 112" that isn't wide enough for Cindy's bed, so I am going to make a Bonnie Hunter pattern, Narragansett Blues. 

  Cindy and I went to Bernina yesterday for their sale , so she could pick a couple pieces of fabric.  It is going to be scrappy, but I wanted to see what kinds of fabric she liked.  She doesn't like quilts that have sashing or plain alternate blocks.

I have put off my hip replacement surgery until April 14th because of the cost benefit, but I am not able to sit and sew much.  I am spending lots of time in my recliner, so I can hand quilt or read.

I went to get a hip injection today from Dr. Phipps, but I decided to get a hip replaced on February 23 instead.  Yikes!

I didn't get a wild and goosey block done today, but I did quilt a couple hours on the Blue Moon.  I also used the new binding bars and put thezipper in the sweater that Cindy knit for Tim.  They work well, but I did have resew it 3 times.  It is important to keep the sweater flat and to use a rotary cutting mat underneath.  I swore that the right side was shorter than the left.  :)  I thought I could just sit in my chair with my feet up, but no.

A new month.....I was reading on quiltville studio that someone had lost their quilting mojo, and they were wondering why people quilted.  I guess I quilt because I have to.......

I am working on several things at this time........

I am doing well with my goal to machine quilt on Blue Moon everyday.  I shoot for about an hour.

Then I continue to work on Evelyn Sloppy"s Entwined.

Then using some scraps and refreshing my paper piecing skills, I am working on wild and goosey from Bonnie Hunter's addicted to blocks in Quiltmaker magazine. My goal is to complete one a day, and so far I have achieved the goal.

On the stashbusters yahoo group, there is often talk of a quilt called trail mix.  I did not wish to buy another book, so I have decided to use parts of it, but then make my leftover pieces into 8 inch blocks.  I really need some more containers to keep all these scrap projects straight,


Next I have decided to start to put my split 9 patch together.  I liked a log cabin layout posted by Diane Garey-Merrill.  I don't know how many more blocks I need, but I thought I would use what I have and then see.

And finally I need to get moving on the poppy quilt for my Mom's bed.

 I am hoping that listing all of these will help to keep me focused and not start something else new.  Although sitting here, I can see an applique quilt. a landscape quilt, and a kaleidoscope quilt all waiting to be worked on!

Quite a lot has happened in January that I want to note, so when I look back over the year; I can remember.  Sheila had her knees replaced on January 5th.  We had a lot of snow and drivers were getting stuck left and right, so I bought a 2014 Subaru Outback that had a little over 11,000 on January 6th.  Mom came and stayed from January 3rd to the 21st .  Matthew had 9 large polyps and several other small ones removed on the 21st.  Lucas had tubes put in on the 22nd. I haven't sewn much so far this year. I am taking Sheila to therapy 3 times a week.  I get to sit and read while I wait, so I am enjoying it.

I did finish the top of the Grand Illusion Mystery today.

I won't get to quilting it for a while because I am still quilting on Blue Moon,  I did decide to use some of my little scraps and try some wild and goosey blocks that many quilters are talking about on Quiltville Open Studio.  Here is my first block.  I am amazed by a quilt made out of this.  Time consuming for sure!

 I quilted on Blue Moon for an hour and 15 minutes.  If I kept at it someday it will be finished.

Just in case you are wondering what a polyp looks like...not anywhere comparable to a quilt!!!
Matthew had 9 this size removed from his nose and sinus cavities and then some smaller ones.

Grand Illision Clue 5

Grand Illusion Clue 5

I finished up clue 5 while watching Bonnie Hunter's webcam about 8 hours after it was live.

Bonnie Hunter's mystery

Here is my quilting partner, Gabe.

I am machine quilting Blue Moon. a kit I bought at the Bernina quilt shop.  I am using a wool batting for the first time and it is showing more depth to the quilting, especially on the back.  It is so large that it is not a great deal of fun manhandling it. I am using Sulky30 weight variegated thread on top and plain regular weight navy in the bottom.  I am having quite a bit of thread breakage.  Once again....not a great deal of fun.

 

Love to Read??

Let's Read

I created a google spreadsheet of the 2015 reading challenge. The reading challenge is Here.  If anyone wants to join, feel free to email me (etuss45@gmail.com), and I will add you.   It is a list of 50 different books which may diversify your reading.  As the challenge states, you don't have to read all 50, so join us,  Since it was suggested by Kim to two of her teacher friends, we started during Christmas vacation.  We might get to know some new authors.

I got my computer back from HP.  They replaced the hard drive, so it has been time consuming to reload everything,  I have been posting as frequently as I had planned because I just couldn't figure out how to get the pic from the ipad onto the blog (on ipad),

I finished the first 3 clues of Bonnie Hunter's mystery Grand Illusion a day before clue 4 comes out. I am getting anxious to see how all of this is going to go together. I don't have prints for my neutrals, and I think I am going to like it.  

I worked on this little mug mat.  I am not real excited about how the edges turned out, but it will be functional  There are some others in the set.  I wonder if I will do them????

I did a bit of Christmas shopping.  The traffic was pretty crazy.  I still have stocking stuffers to buy.  Gifts are mostly done.  I have some binding to put on place mats and have to make another trip to the bank.