WBOYC March 2023

Joining the linkup again this month but I’m going to organize this post with a focus on my Word Of The Year (WOTY): EXPERIENCES (DOING things rather than acquiring things)

Early in March I was searching Google for any quilt shows in my general vacinity and I found our county museum was having a Quilt Gala this month displaying all kinds of quilts with an emphasis on Quilts of Valor. I asked the ladies from the neighborhood sewing club if they wanted to go and two of them said Yes. We spent almost two hours looking at the quilts and exploring all the other displays at the museum – it was great! Then we picked a new-to-all restuarant for lunch and we all liked our meals – Yay!

Unfortunately our neighborhood Sewing day was cancelled this month due to the clubhouse needing emergency repairs ☹ It seems the front door hinges were somehow broken and the door almost fell on someone!! Thankfully, it was repaired within a week so there shouldn’t be any issues for next month. As fate would have it, I came down with a bug that turned into a sinus infection (not covid, tested negative twice). Luckily the Dr could fit me in the same day I called and I got an antibiotic. A few days later I was feeling good again 🙂

DH went to Maryland for 5 days which meant I had the whole place to myself and my time was all my own! There’s something to be said for having that kind of freedom…but I did miss him 🥴 I accepted invites twice to join some neighbors for Happy Hour drinks and I actually cooked dinner for myself using an air fryer recipe for salmon filet – it was really good!!

The neighborhood Book Club meeting was this past Tuesday and I had volunteered to pick the book and lead the discussion. Last month the organizer pleaded for someone to take on March and because I hate awkward silence I finally chimed in and agreed to do it!!! I’ve only been meeting with the club for about 4 months so I was a little apprehensive. I chose the book ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig (review below) because it had a really high rating on Amazon… I had no idea what the book was about! I ended up liking the book but it got mixed reviews in the club. Some folks were turned off by the first few chapters and others just don’t care for ‘fantasy fiction’. But all-in-all we had great discussions and since other leaders had brought a snack for the meeting, I decided to bring Angel food cake… if you’ve read the book you might get the tongue-in-cheek connection 😉

Reading

Yeah Maybe by Joey Hodges 4⭐

This book is technically YA, but I enjoyed it. It’s a great coming-of-age-story that perfectly captured what it’s like to be in high school and unsure of yourself and everything you thought you knew. 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 4.5⭐

I enjoyed it. The end was predictable, but it didn’t detract from following Nora through her potential other lives. Who hasn’t had a regret or two about the paths we’ve followed or left behind? The character of Hugo was a nice touch to help illustrate how the midnight library is different for everyone. Overall, an enjoyable story that left me thinking afterward.

Quilting

I completed the top for my Modern Irish Chain quilt in orange & white. This pattern was provided by another quilter who coordinates the Hands2Help challenge. The Challenge ends in June so I have time to choose a backing and get it finished. I also finished the APQUFO challenge for March, which is the blue and white quilt with pink circles. I’m not quite caught up on the Sewcialites2 QAL blocks, I still need to complete numbers 21 & 22.

And of course I started a new project… because… why not!!! LOL This is a free pattern from Moda called Dos Cuadrados and I’m using a FQ bundle curated by Ellie at Mojave Farms Quits.

March was a relatively quiet month for me, and that’s OK. I’ve got two trips scheduled in April so hopefully I’ve have more pictures to share 😉

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I’m linking up with WBOYC hosted by Donna from Retirement Reflections, Jo from And Anyways…, Sue from Women Living Well After 50 and Deb from Deb’s World.

APQ UFO finish!

Three months into the APQ UFO Challenge and I’ve got 3 quilts finished – Woohoo! The number for March is 11 and that’s the Weight Loss quilt on my list.

I started this project in Dec 2021 to track my daily healthy habits in an effort to lose weight. Here’s the significance of the different squares:

Blue – hit target water intake

White/Low volume – did not hit water intake

Pink circles – distance walked

Yellow – weigh in day, did not lose

Green weigh in day, lost weight

I abandoned tracking after about 3 months and the half assembled top sat in a bin until now. Last week I pulled out all the pieces and figured out a way to assemble them into a top. Then I pulled remnants from my stash to make the back, echoing the color scheme on the top

Then comes the hard part…how did I want to quilt it? I decided to do loopy swirls all over and echo around the pink circles. I also chose to use a steel blue thread on top just to add a little more interest

I wanted a dark binding, preferebly navy blue but I didn’t have any solids in my stash so I went with a navy star fabric…and I’m not mad at it! The finsihed size is 45×58.

This quilt will go in the donation pile for the Hands2Help challenge coming up in May.

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And just like that, I’ve started a new quilt project!!! I bought a FQ bundle from a small shop I found on tiktok, Mojave Farms, and I’ve been itching to use it! I found a free FQ pattern from Moda called Dos Cuadrados that I think it will showcase the fabrics very nicely. I rarely cut out all the pieces in advance for my quilts but I decided to do it this time. I’ve already started assembling the strips sets that will then be cross-cut to make the patchwork around the larger blocks. I’m using a pale mint green print for the background and it looks so nice with all these colors!

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DH went to Maryland last week and is currently driving home as I type! I got a lot done while I had all my days & nights to myself but I also enjoyed some quiet time to read and watch tennis. I cooked myself dinner a few nights too. I’ve been wanting to try a salmon filet in the air fryer so I found a simple seasoning recipe and boy was it good!! I only used a pinch of brown sugar because I didn’t want it to be too sweet.

This picture isn’t the best, I had already started eating! I also sauteed some zucchini and squash with baby spinach for my side.

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I had my bi-annual eye check up last week and of course my prescription has changed a little. I ordered new lenses for my favorite frames but I’m going to hold off ordering contacts. I have a couple boxes left from my last order and they still work just fine!

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That’s all for now…have a great rest of your weekend!

This and that

I started the week with a low grade sinus infection – UGH! I came down with ‘something’ over the weekend – not covid, I tested negative twice – but I could tell it was turning in to a sinus infection so I called my PC on Monday and they were able to fit me in that same afternoon!! Color me surprised!😯

The Dr agreed it was the beginning of a sinus infection and gave me an antibiotic. He said if I felt fine after 5 days I could discontinue it – he knows I hate taking pills if they are not absolutely necessary. By Friday night I was feeling much better to I’ve stopped taking them. Yay 🥳

I didn’t do any sewing for the first few days but I was back at it later in the week and I have a few flimsy tops to share!! I pulled out my APQUFO challenge for this month (#11) which is my Weight Loss quilt. I evaluated what I had put together so far and what pieces I had left to decide what kind of top I could end up with. After ripping out some blocks then adding a few more pieces I now have a top that measures 45×58 – good enough!!

I’ve already pulled some remnants from my stash to make the back and hopefully I’ll get that done today, then she’s ready for basting. I’m very hopeful this will be done by the end of the month 😉

The other top I finished this week is my Modern Irish Chain – I follwed the tutorial from Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict to make 16-patch blocks. The blocks came together relatively quickly and once they were all laid out I put the top together using a 9-patch method, here’s a picture montage of that process

A few key learnings from making this top: 1. I wouldn’t use the bold orange & white chevron fabric again…I feel it interferes with the white chain. 2. Since I pressed all my seams open, I would use a smaller stitch length so the stitches stay more secure when I cross-cut the blocks. Otherwise I’m VERY happy with the result! The top measures 70.5 square so it’s a very generous throw. For now it will sit in my WIP box until I figure out what I want to use for backing. I’ve already got an idea how I want to quilt it… I’m thinking orange peels in the ‘chains’ but I’m not sure what to do with the areas in between🤷

Sewcialites2 Block 20 was released Thursday afternoon and I stitched it up on Friday – a first for me! Only 4 more blocks, then I’ll decide if I want to use the suggested layout or come up with one of my own.

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I finished The Midnight Library for my Book Club. This is the first time I got to choose the book and I’ll be leading the discussion. I really liked this book, it starts out a little dark & depressing but the whole story is very uplifting and inspiring. I would rate this book 4.5 out of 5. The book club meeting is on the 28th so I’ve got time to gather discussion questions from the internet.

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DH will be going to Maryland for a few days next week so I’ll have tons of time to myself for reading, sewing & quilting – woohoo!!!

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Here are a couple shots I took the other day of all our bushes/plants blooming in the back yard – Spring has sprung!

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That’s about all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!!!

Catching up

I had fallen behind a few blocks in the Sewcialites2 QAL so I made sure to get caught up this week. There’s only 5 blocks left… so close to the end! Well, to the end of making blocks…then I have to figure out what fabrics I’m going to use for the setting – eeek!

I got all the blocks made for my Modern Irish Chain quilt – woohoo!!! I posted a few videos on tiktok of my journey with these blocks if you care to watch.

It’s funny, when I stand in front of my design wall the chains are not so prominent but when I take a photo I can see them plain as day 😂 I’m going to start putting the top together today, I plan to sew them into 9-patch blocks so I don’t have long rows or columns to sew. That makes it feel like it’s going faster!

This week I had a little outing with the Sewing Club ladies from the neighborhood. I had been Googling to see if there were any quilt shows in my general vacinity and I stumbled upon a display at our county museum!!! It’s going to be there the whole month so I texted the ladies and asked if anyone wanted to go…two of them said Yes. We settled on this past Thursday which turned out to be a lovely day weather-wise. There were about 40 quilts on display, most of them QOV. There were a few others that were quite old and well loved. Sorry, I didn’t take any photos!! UGH!

After walking through the whole museum we went to lunch at a new-to-all of us restaurant… and we all liked what we got! It was a great day spent with new friends 😍

And as luck would have it, our Sewing day scheduled for tomorrow had to be cancelled because the neighborhood clubhouse is having repairs done and its closed for the time being.

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I finished another book last week. I came across this one in a tiktok video from the author and she was offering the e-book for $2.99 so I decided to try it. It was a cute coming-of-age story with a few twist and turns. I enjoyed it.

At last months neighborhood book club meeting they asked for volunteers to lead for March as no one had stepped up yet… and because I hate awkward silence I finally spoke up and agreed to do it!!🫢 I’ve had a book on my TBR list for a while so I suggested that book and they all breathed a sigh of relief 😂

I ordered a copy off e-bay and started reading it last week – I sure hope it’s good!!! I’ve already Googled book club questions but I haven’t read any of them yet because I don’t want to stumble upon any spoilers 😉

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Daylight Saving Time started overnight…my bedside clock changes automatically so when I woke up at 8:44am I couldn’t believe I had slept so late!! 😂😂😂 Then I realized it was really only 7:44. Now I need to get used to the time difference, hopefully it won’t take too long!

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That’s about all for now… enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Another finish!

I finished my scrappy Cross/Plus quilt early last week! The quilting doesn’t really show up well in either of these pictures 🫤 I did an all over meander inside the gray border, an organic wavy line in the gray border and I did lower case ‘L’ loops in the piano key border. When I got to the corners I did a heart ❤ I really love how this turned out!! I offered it for sale on my FB page and if there are no takers I might send it off to a charity later this year.

This quilt was also my #6 for Feb APQ UFO Challenge and I got it done just before the month ended – Yay!

Of course I had to start another project, right? Each year I participate in Sarah’s Hands2Help charity event and before it gets started she offers up some quick quilt patterns that can be used for the event. I have been wanting to make an irish chain type quilt and she just so happened to post a tutorial for a ‘modern irish chain’ and I love it!! I also love the color way she used so I found a FQ bundle of orange fabric online and jumped on it. Here are some progress shots:

The March APQ UFO number is 11 which is my Weight Loss quilt. The key was to chart workouts and weight loss over a 6 month period… I didn’t get very far so I’m going to look at what I’ve got and try to put a quilt top together. We’ll see where this goes!

That’s about all for this week… have a great rest of your weekend!

WBOYC – February 2023

WBOYC is a monthly blog prompt that stands for What’s Been on Your Calendar and allows for #WOTY (Word of the Year) updates as well as anything else you’ve been up to during the month – so let’s see what happened in Feb!

My WOTY is EXPERIENCES which is my prompt to focus on doing things instead of acquiring things.

Appointments

I had my annual physical earlier this month. I did my blood work about a week in advance and when I saw the lab results I was worried the doctor was going to want to put me on cholesterol meds! My numbers have hoovered right around 200 for the last 5+ years but I haven’t but put on any meds. Thankfully the doctor didn’t see any reason to start meds now! Yay! Everything else looked good so I’ll see him again next Feb.

We had our annual dental cleanings this month as well. Now that I’m retired I don’t have any dental insurance but this local dentist offers a plan for 2 cleanings, exam and 1 set of Xrays for $299 a year. I thought it was a good deal so we both signed up. DH has one tooth that needs a crown so we’ll need to get that scheduled.

We got our taxes done at a local tax office this year. I had been doing them online through Turbo Tax but with retiring last year I sold off a couple of stock accounts and I was very nervous about getting those filed properly. It took about an hour and we were done! And we have a nice refund coming – Yay!

Outings

We have friends in our neighborhood that went to Aruba earlier this month. Their flight home was at midnight and they had planned for an Uber to pick them up but I volunteered to do it instead. I’m usually up until midnight-1am reading or playing games on my tablet so why not! I got to hear all about their trip on the ride home and now I’m getting a free lunch as a thank you! 😂

I attended the monthly neighborhood Ladies Lunch – it was at a quaint local restaurant called Crepe Creations and as you can guess from the name, crepes are their specialty. Unfortunately the food was just OK, many folks said they would not bother going back and I agree.

I happened to come across a Facebook post last week proclaiming 2/23 as National Margarita day so we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and celebrated!

I have a facial scheduled for tomorrow – my first in several years… I cannot wait!! And our neighborhood Book club meeting is Tuesday. I’ll be interested to hear what everyone else thought about the selection for Feb… I was not a fan!

Reading

I fininshed two books this month:

Long Shadows by Abigail Cutter

The only reason I read this book is it was chosen by our neighborhood book club. This is not the kind of story that I enjoy. Too many graphic details about the atrocities of war. I like to read for entertainment purposes and I find nothing entertaining about these types of graphic details. The ending was predictable and the main character’s final realization was all a bit sudden. This book was not for me and I would not recommend it.

The Singles Game by Lauren Weisburger

This was a very light read with no real plot that I could detect. The main character is a tennis player who starts out sweet, turns mean, then goes back to sweet again. I’ve read other books by this author and really liked them… this one I could’ve skipped

Quilting

We had our scheduled Sewing club meeting on Feb 13. The four of us sewed and chatted for 4 hours – it was awesome. I worked on my Elephant Abstractions paper pieced quilt and shortly there after I finished the top! I also finished the scrappy Cross top and should have the quilting & binding finished by tomorrow! I kept current on the Sewcialites2 QAL, and I finished January APQ quilt!! I bought two fabric bundles – one to make a specific quilt and the other just because!

Other

I ventured into making Tiktok videos – I am still blown away by the amount of quilters on there!! I don’t post often but I shared a basting technique I use and it was received pretty positively! Yay for putting myself ‘out there’!!

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I’m linking this post to the What’s Been on Your Calendar? monthly wrap-up challenge hosted by Donna, Jo, Deb, and Sue. Please visit their link page to see what other bloggers have been up to in February.

Quilting

I procrastinated quite a bit this week, but the last two days I finally made some progress on my scrappy Cross/Plus quilt (I really need a better name for it! LOL). I’ve had the backing fabric all cut out hanging on my design wall for several days and worked on getting it all pieced on Friday. Then I pulled out all my batting scraps and made “franken-batting” for it… sorry no pictures of either step 😦

I started quilting on it yesterday using wavy lines vertically through the center blocks but after three passes, the fabric started to ripple and stretch. I always have this problem when I’m straight-line quilting or anything close to it I stopped and ripped it out – ugh, that is so tedious. I almost gave up for the day but chose to keep going with a nice meander in the middle section and I got that all done!

Next step is to do a big loopy pattern through all the ‘piano keys’ in the border. I think I will also do one organic wavy line through the gray border. Hopefully I’ll get that finished today while I watch tennis.

I also pieced the back for my Elephant Abstractions quilt…it’s really nothing to look at, just all the big fabric sections left over from making the quilt. Here it is all laid out before I put it together

I really want to do straight-line quilting on this but I’m worried it will ripple or stretch because there are so many bias cuts 😦 We’re taking a trip to Charlotte in April for DH birthday and I plan to take my machine for it’s annual cleaning – I bought it at a shop in Charlotte. I’m going to ask for their input on my issues with straight-line quilting, hopefully they’ll have some tips or tricks to help me!

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I printed the instructions for Block 17 of Sewcialites2 QAL but I haven’t made it yet. It’s a pretty simple design so it should be quick.

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I finished another book this week, The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger. It was a very light read with no real plot that I could detect. The main character is a tennis player who starts out sweet, turns mean, then goes back to sweet again. I’ve read other books by this auther and really liked them… this one I could’ve skipped

We celebrated National Margarita Day last week by going out for Mexican…then I snapped this pretty sunset on the way home

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That’s about all for now…have a great rest of your weekend!!

We have another flimsy!

Yes! and this time it’s the Elephant Abstractions – WOOOOOOHOOOOOO!

Here are a few more shots of the final steps in the process… wow, those big sections are a bit of a bear to sew together! And removing all those pieces of paper felt like a celebration (but it was quite messy LOL!)

However, I’m not sure if you can find it but there is a mistake – UGH! Of course I noticed it as soon as I had removed all the paper from the back!! At first I was going to just leave it but after I slept on it I knew I would not be able to enjoy this hanging on my wall if I didn’t fix it – my eyes would always go to that one spot.

So yesterday morning I performed surgery – haha! Here’s the before & after

I’m sure it looks like a very small issue but it bugged me so I had to fix it 🙂 I’m just glad I noticed it now and not after it was quilted!!!!

I have quite a bit of fabric left over – I’m not sure if the pattern requirements were just very generous or if I ordered wrong 😐 I’m contemplating using it all to make the back… not sure I’ll want to work with greys again for a long time! HA!

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I finished two Sewcialites2QAL blocks this week… 15 & 16! Now I’m all caught up until the next block is released on Thursday.

Block 15 was pretty easy… Block 16 was a bit much! So many seams 🫤 but it sure is a pretty design! And here’s a shot of all 16 blocks together – this is going to be a VERY bright quilt 😂

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I’ve made a tiny bit of progress on the February APQUFO Challenge project – my Scrappy Cross/Plus top. I’ve decided what fabric I’m using for the backing; I just need to piece it and then get it basted. I don’t have enough of the green speck fabric so I’ll use up the remnant of the potted plant fabric. The top is so vibrant I wanted to use something calming for the back.

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We had another successful sewing club day last Monday – squeeee! It was the four of us sewing and chatting for 4 hours – so nice! I took my Elephant project and got to show them my paper-piecing process, they were very curious.

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That’s all for now… enjoy the rest of your weekend!!

We have a finish!

It’s not the Elephant 🫤 but I am making progress!! I’ve got all the pieces sewn to paper for quadrant 5, I just need to sew them together and then connect all 5 quadrants before finishing up the last section at the bottom.

So close but still so far 😂

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I finished Block 14 for Sewcialites2QAL. This one didn’t have too many small pieces so it went together pretty quick! Block 15 looks like it will be pretty easy as well.

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And now for the finish! I had made my list of UFO’s for the AQPUFO Challenge and for January they pulled number 3. That’s the Mother’s Own baby quilt I started back in 2018

I procrastinated pulling it out of the bin the whole month of January 😟 However, I didn’t want to just skip it so I pulled it out this week, got it basted, quilted and put the binding on it! YAY!!!

This finished 34 x 44. I quilted it with loops and hearts, playing off the backing fabric. I found the pink gingham in my stash and had just enough for the binding. This will go to charity if no one claims it 🙂

The APQUFO number for February is 6, which just so happens to be the scrappy cross/plus top I finished last week. I need to make a back for it and get it finished!

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If anyone happens to be on tiktok, I posted 4 videos last week showing how I use Elmer’s Washable glue to baste my quilts on my ironing board. No more crawling on the floor… or carrying all my stuff outside to use spray baste. The glue holds my sandwich together and does not gum up my needle while quilting. I’ve used this method for more than 4 years, it’s amazing (and inexpensive!) My user name is smt2024 if you’d like to check it out. I am absolutely blown away by the amount of quilters on tiktok!! 🤯

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Tomorrow is the next sewing club meet up in our neighborhood and it looks like all 4 of us will be there! Woohoo! I’m not sure what I’m going to take to work on 😲 I better get that figured out today!!

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The Superbowl is being played later today and I’ll be watching. We’ve been invited to watch the game at our friends house who just moved here from Tampa. I’ll be rooting for Philadelphia only because I’ve been following their quarterback Jalen Hurts since he got egregiously pulled from the College Playoff game when he played for Alabama. I’m so glad he’s having great success in the NFL and I hope he wins so he can send Nick Saban a thank you note (sarcastically of course!).

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That’s all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!

We have a flimsy!

But it’s not Elephant Abstractions 🫤 I put the final stitches in the scrappy Cross/Plus top this week!! I was a little hesitant about the scrappy piano key border, fearing it might be too busy, but I ended up loving it!! ❤ The gray inner border really helped define and separate 😉

Since my design wall is currently holding my Elephant Abstraction WIP, I had to lay this out on my bedroom floor and get on the bed to take a decent picture!! This top measures 58×69. I already know how I want to quilt it too: organic wavy lines vertically through the cross/plus blocks and a series of loops thru the piano keys with a heart shape in all four corners. Now let’s see how long it takes me to get it basted!!!

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I completed Block 13 of Sewcialites2 QAL. With all the small pieces that usually go into making the 6.5″ blocks, I’ve gotten pretty good at matching points.

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I haven’t made much progress on my Elephant…not sure what’s causing my procrastination but I hope it passes quickly – I’m going to make an effort to work on it today!

I haven’t mailed off the Safelight cases yet because I’m waiting on USPS to deliver the padded envelopes I need… of course, I thought I had placed my order over a week ago and when I went to check on the shipment I realized I hadn’t actually placed the order yet! DOH! 🤦 I’m hopeful the envelopes will be here tomorrow 🤞

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I planned to participate with the APQ UFO Challenge this year and somehow I’ve already skipped January 🫤 That number was 3 which is a small baby quilt top on my list – I should’ve had no problem finishing that so now I’m going to focus on two projects for Feb. This month’s number is 6, which just so happens to be the Cross/Plus quilt top I just finished!! So let’s see if I can finish these two projects while working on my Elephant and keeping up with Sewcialites2 😁

That’s about all for now… have a great rest of your weekend!!