Finishes for OMG at Elm Street Quilts

 I am linking with Elm Street Quilts for her One Monthly Goal Completion tally.  The Come To Jesus in the quilting world.  I think it really helped me, because i would have continued to put off binding that Santa quilt, like I have for the last 11 years.

You know, the other day I found out that Patty of Elm Street Quilts does not live on Elm Street.  Hmmmmm.

Also I realized that if you are going to be a quilter of any note you need to be named either Patty or Julie.  Isn't that weird?  There sure are a lot of Pattys and Julies out there in the quilting world.  But just how many quilters do you know named glenda?  Or glen?

Not many, which is one reason I have always hated my name.  I should have stuck with the nickname my brother gave me, Sissy.  But I don't really see myself as a Sissy.  Or the one my father always called me, gaggie.  No, not like gagging, but more like gog.  Or grog.  You know, I do miss hearing that.  Only two people ever called me gaggie, and I miss both of them.  Diane lives a couple of cities over in Covington.  And I don't get to see her often, but when I do, she always calls me gaggie!

But I digress.....Finishes.........

I projected four goals.......and I finished all of them.

1.  Bind Santa - Done     

2.  Quilt at least one quilt - done (and I quilted two actually for extra brownie points!  I should win something just for that).  Next month my goals should be to bind these guys.

I did quilt the Improv Strpes but I must have put that photo somewhere really safe  because I cannot find it in my quilt photo anywhere.  So you need to just take my word on this one.

Or go  here and check out for yourself.  







I do have the Triangle Quilt to show, front and back.  Make it larger by clicking on them.

3.   Quilt for the Naval Cadet Ball is finished and delivered for the Big Raffle!







 4.  Do some embroidery on the One Road Thru Town for the CFAL Journeys Show in 2018.  I still can't believe I am so far ahead of having a piece ready!  Usually I am sitting in the venue while everyone is hanging stuff and working feverishly to get the piece finished!

Like I said, I should win.........because I went above and beyond and quilted that extra quilt in there.....Patty, you listening?

So Just How Many UFOs Do I Have?

That is the question on the table.

A count this afternoon comes  out to be:

29 tops and 7 in various states of progress.

Not as bad as I thought!  Whew, I feel better.  I was thinking it was more like 40!  There are several I can think of that I can no longer find since the flood last year.  Like my teal sewing machine quilt.  I made a million and a half of these 3 inch half square triangles and sewed them together to look like a sewing machine.  Nowhere in sight now.  And I still don't my photos recovered from LiveDrive.  I can't  get Andrew to work on it for me.  He  avoids anything I  do.  I just don't know why he won't help me with this. 

I guess I am going to have to call my friend Caroline and see if her hubby Greg can work on it for me.  It should be easy enough to do, if you know what you are doing.

I need to be part of two years of those UFO numbers Challenges to get this list done done.

So after Swooze and I had a text discussion about how many UFOs we had, I was all motivated to go in and get the backing together for three of them and get one on the frame.  I pulled them out of the pile.

100 Meter Swim - I knew what the backing was to be; those great swimming ladies.  So I put it aside.



 I need to find a strip of orange to make a pop in that backing and it can go on the frame.  Of course, I have plenty of orangey fabric somewhere in my stash, but I still put it aside.

I know how I want to quilt the pool water.  And the cement surround wll be pebbles.  So maybe I need to pull this one back out and get  it done.

 Triangles - I really love this one.  I pulled a fat quarter pack and used a
newly purchased ruler and made these great huge triangle blocks.  Once together I thought I needed more, so I put them aside.  I can make more, or make a smaller quilt.  Or add negative space.  So I pulled several pieces of fabric that would make some nice negative space.  Nothing thrilled me.  So I put it aside.

I thought I liked the weird light green better but  seeing this, I actually like the blue better, It makes the colors look richer.

 Funny, how that works.  I like looking at thing like this in a photograph, it gives a different perspective.



Improv Stripes -  I pulled 5 possible backings.  Nothing made me happy.  I thought I needed to have some sort of pattern on the backing.  But what I had enough of, wouldn't work.



And I really have nothing short of a solid black, grey or white that will work.  So I put that aside.

Two thoughts came to me.  I was crippled by indecision, or as Ann of Fret Not Yourself said " I am trying to marry conflicting guidelines: 1) give quilts enough time to evolve and 2) quit tucking projects away for years."

The second thought was:  Thank god I don't hand quilt my stuff, I would NEVER get anything done!

the "Finished" Line

 I had a hair appointment at 11 am.  At 10:30 I had to leave my quilt room with one seam left to get it all together. 

This afternoon, after my hairdresser worked her magic on my really grey roots, I sewed that seam and finished the quilt top!


I need to look through my list of Ultra Amazing Fabulously Unique Quilt Names and find a great name for this quilt.

I like Aqualosity.....but really?  I should have put one aqua block in for that!  Hindsight!

 Here are some close ups of the Stripe sections.  Some doggy, some windows, some stripes themselves.

All wonderfully complete!












And the last two are leftover blocks that are 12 x 12 pieces I can either add to a  larger quilt or use as single pieces themselves.

Parrots?

Man, the pictures from Houston are rough to watch.  I heard a lot of references to the Cajun Navy though.  Those are Louisianians with boats who go into the flood areas and bring people and their pets to safer places.

It made me proud to hear the Houston Police Chief and and the Houston Mayer talk about my Cajun Navy and how they were helping the rescue effort.

           

My elbow surgery went well, he said it was the easiest he has ever had with that kind of thing.  The injections they gave me to numb the spot worked so well that by mid afternoon my elbow was finally noticeable.  And hurting.

And I found that it is very difficult to see your elbow and even more difficult to take a picture of it.  

I worked on my Improv Stripes again.  And again it got bigger.  I put my foot down and, in no uncertain terms, made it straighten up and fly right.  I have one more space to fill in.

But the dilemma is that America's Got Talent is on.  I DO have a TV in my sewing room, you know. 



From here........................................

To here....................................see that one little space.  Let's see if I can fill it and not create another whole row.

whole sections are sewn together.  Like the top right extends to halfway middle to about 2/3 the way down.  And the bottom right is one together now as well.

The top left is mostly together.  Each piece is not tied to any one spot, which is probably why they are so mobile all the time.

When I looked at yesterday's progression, I kept seeing that parrot sitting over the quilt.  You know what that is, right?

Funny, huh?  There is no way I could make a parrot that perfect!  LOL

Maybe I should take a page from Carol at Quilted Fabric Art and try my hand at one though.  This one looks pretty cool!

Improv Stripes

It seems to just grow on its own.  Will it ever end?  Somehow, every time I take a section down and piece it together, another gap appears that needs to be filled in.  Before the flood I would have had tons and tons of red scrappies to use, but now I have run out of red scraps and am now working on my yardages.  I'll show you the progression below.

I did not get to work on the Sawyer Dino quilt, but maybe tomorrow.   I had to get the Microsoft key for my computer so it would work again, and I had my torture session Physical Therapy.  I have a small surgery scheduled in the morning for my elbow.  We will see if I can use it enough.  It may be too sore.

At least it is not raining right now.  I had about  2 1/2 inches in my rain gauge by 9 pm tonight.

I cooked some Chicken Stroganoff Carrie and I put together for slow cooker freezer meals, man was it good!  Do you want the recipe?

I said, this is good.  Frank said, not good, exquisite!  It must have been good, he rarely says much more than good and I have to ask him.

I gave half of it to Dale and Barb for their dinner.  With two rolls; they love the rolls I get at Sam's.  They are still in the RV, but they are getting close to moving back in.  Like a month.  Their floors are done except for a slight miscalculation by the flooring guy, like their entire master bedroom.  And he does that for a living?

Let's see the progression of those scrappy Improv Stripes: 

these were the first two I made !














They were so addictive, I kept going.

Even after Frank went to bed, I got back up (because he was snoring at a thousand decibels) and kept on sewing.

It is coming together, but I knew it needed to be larger.

So I started into the yardage.  And the new fabrics I just ordered for a black and white quilt.........well, what's a girl to do?














And I kept having to fill in the holes.  When I did, they kept appearing somewhere else, wha?
















I couldn't get that long gaping strip filled in.  No matter what I did, it kept appearing somewhere else!

Still there, just further down now.  But at least there are big sections already sewn together and they can't be moved around too much more.



I really hope to have this monster finished by tomorrow.


Who knows, it may just have another incarnation yet!

Monday Work

I am going to get the Improv Stripes put together.

And maybe get the Dino Panel  I got for Sawyer while I was in North Carolina may get put on the longarm.  It should be a quick finish.

I will keep it here for him, if Carrie gets her hands on it, I will never see it again.

While I was at the CAAWS Shelter yesterday, Julie brought me the painting of McGee she did for me.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

There he sits with his Martini and Rope Toy.  Yep, that's McGee!

Here is the Leaves quilt I finished yesterday.  The binding is now done!

All I need is a label, which is what I hate to do most of all.

They call her Iris.  Do you wonder why?

A Night at the Improv - Quilt, That Is

Now that the pillowcases are finished, I can branch out into some other stuff.

I finished sewing the rounds on The Fishes quilt so I could decide what to add next.  It took too much brain power and my head was hurting so I just took it down.  I forgot to take a photo but the only difference is a seam.

Oh  and there is a fish round on the top too.

I guess it is different.  I will take a photo tomorrow for you.

I spent the rest of the day doing Improv Stripes for the Quilt Along I am nearly 4 weeks behind in.  It seemed like the first ones went quick quick quick. These are going pretty fast but it seems like they are not filling in much.

I guess the blocks  have doubled the space.  Here is before and now.

And I need to work on Sawyer's quilt.

So many things going on!  And it feels real good!

I am going to link up with Nina Marie at Creations for her Off the Wall Friday posts.  You can check out the other people's creations by clicking here.

Dr. Who In My Own Family

Busy weekend once again.  Hope yours was a nice.  I would rather be busy than to lay around.  Even though I did that Saturday afternoon when I just had to sleep.

I felt like I had a fever, but couldn't get the thermometer to work.  Stupid things are so complicated these days.  A few years ago, we used to have a strip that you put on your forehead and it showed a number  Now  you have to turn them on, get them to light up......aughhh.

We even went to the pharmacy to see if we could get a simple device.  And came home with a regular thermometer with no mercury.  Now I can't see where the line is!  Nothing is perfect!

I have half a mind to use the Temp Gun I gave Frank last year to measure the temp of the air coming through the ductwork! Remember I went around shooting the temp of dogs, fabric, stove, window, chairs.  Remember that?

My CFAL meeting was today.  Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana.  We turned in our pieces for the show that will hang at the Arts Council of Livingston Paris for two months.  I forgot to take photos of my piece before I took it in.  Dumb.  But I will get a good photo of it in a nice place all hung up at the show.  That's even better!

 I brought my Wreck This Journal book and turned it to the Invite People To Draw Here page.  And a few did.  I was happy.  And I can also bring it to several other places to get their artistic hand.

This week I can continue to work on my Improv Stripes Quilt Along Quilt. I think they are already putting the finishing touches on their quilts so I am REALLY behind.  The week in North Carolina did me in here.

And I can continue to work on the Fishes Quilt.   I need to put it all together and add a final outside row.  I will have more fish borders so I may have to add them in or even do a couple of pillows for the front room sofa.

And I need to put the swimming pool together and get it on the Avante frame.  I already know how I want to quilt the pool and the cement around it.  Yep, pebbles, of course!


I have decided that I need to finish quilts not just make tops for the proverbial pile.

I also have to finish up Sawyer's quilt.  I am thinking I have half the blocks done.  Maybe just over half, I can't remember.  All I know is that I had 17 fat quarters!  And they each make two.

We had dinner with the young man himself.  Well, we had Mediterranean and he had milk.

And he mostly slept.

This is him right before we left.  He was really excited about going!

And doesn't he look a little like the Daleks from Dr. Who? (when he was the best one, Tom Baker.)