A Day Late

This just sums up my life this week.  I am trying to play catch up, but seem to keep falling even farther behind.
I continue to plug along with my quilting on Peaceful Pathways, I should finish the next to last border this afternoon.  The final HST border should be easy and maybe done by next week.  Then on to the binding, and I am done.  My plan is to give it to my older son and his wife when they celebrate their 25th anniversary, two years from now. 
Progress on my first block in the Forget Me Not quilt has also been very slow.  I didn't like the greens that I was using so I scrapped the first block and started over again, using some yellow-greens instead of the original blue-greens.  I am much happier with it but I only have the stems done and one leaf so far.  I need to finish cutting the rest of the leaves and try to catch up by the 15th.  I will have quite a bit of time to do handwork starting in June, when I go to New York for an extended visit so I may have to count on getting caught up then.  My mom, who is 100, enjoys watching me stitch while I visit with her, in the nursing home.
I still need to plan my Easter dinner menu and make a shopping list..... nothing like waiting until the last minute.  This should be my last entertaining in Florida for the season.  Last weekend we hosted the neighborhood block party here at our house.  The weather did not cooperate, we had 50 mile winds and lost the tents that we had set up earlier in the day.  Then it rained......... so 47 people had to eat and visit in the house instead of outside as planned.  It went well, all things considered, lol.

I hope you all have a great week!  Keep sharing your photos of Forget Me Not.... I need the motivation!

I have finally chosen my fabrics for Esther's newest quilt, Forget Me Not. 

Part 2 has been launched today, and I have started on mine.  I am trying to prepare enough pieces so that I can take it on our cruise as my handwork.  I will probably be able to get the leaves and stems started on our trip.  I have chosen the peony design.

This week our small guild had a mini-retreat.  It was great to spend two days with friends.  We worked on Hawaiian applique, drawing our own designs.  I am not an artist at all, but I must say it was a lot of fun and I felt quite creative.  I need some new accent pillows for my living room so they will become pillows some day.

I won't be able to post next week, we will be cruising the southern Carribean.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Here is a picture of my new HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen.  I practiced using it yesterday, quilting this small charity quilt in about an hour.  So far, I am very happy with it.  Inserting the bobbin is a bit tricky, but once I figured it out, it was smooth sailing.  I will need lots more practice and some intricate patterns to practice on, so I will be pulling out my EQ7 quilting designs later today.

I am anxious to shop for my fabrics for Esther's new BOM.  I guess I need to find a focal fabric, and then add some small pieces for the appliques.  I am planning to use neutral batiks for the blocks, but I will keep an open mind about using something darker and more daring.  

Off to do some housework (ugh) and laundry.  I hope everyone has a great week.  I will share my fabric choices when I settle on them. 

New quilting machine!

Pillowcases are done, now I have to get to the post office and send them off to Atlanta.  Aidan especially liked the Monopoly money fabric, but Grandma prefers the turtles.

This morning some friends are coming over and we are starting our guild opportunity quilt.  (When did the word "raffle" become extinct?)  We chose the fabrics a couple of weeks ago and the plan is to cut and package the pieces for other members to assemble.  The center will be a large applique and I think it is coming to me today to work on.

Yesterday my neighbor and I attended a large sewing expo.  It was incredibly crowded but we did manage to boost the local economy.  My purchase was a quilting machine!  I can't wait to pick it up on Monday and begin to learn how to use it.  It isn't a longarm because I dont have space for one.  It sits on its own table and has a hoop that you use to move the fabric under it.  I really hope that it helps to improve my quilting stitches.  I probably will need lots of practice.

Sharing a picture of an older quilt today.  I made this a couple of years ago, but I am so happy now with the way it looks against my newly painted red/orange wall. 

Been a busy week here, my daughter and youngest grandson have been with us.  They leave to travel back to Atlanta tomorrow morning.  No sewing this week, but we did a trip to the fabric store where Aidan picked out some fabric for some personalized pillowcases.  So Grandma will have some sewing and embroidering  to do this weekend.   And his mom found some really cute fabric for a new apron.  They were out of the pattern that she liked, so we are waiting for the order to arrive before I can start that project.

Peaceful Pathways is sitting here on my sewing table, waiting for me to return to quilting it.  I had set some completion goals for it, but somehow they didn't work out.  But it's on the list, lol.

Have a great week!  I hope to have some completed work to share next week.

WOW Wednesday

Sitting here today taking it a bit easier than usual.  We had the interior of the house painted over the last few days, and everything now has to be put back into place.  Somewhere in the process, I have hurt my shoulder so the work has slowed considerably.  So I am sitting here, doing some paper piecing for a charity quilt.  The good thing is that I am using up a bunch of scraps! 

My local quilt guild donates quilts to the local sheriff's department and they give them out to children in distress.  Our very small guild usually manages to donate about 100 quilts per year.

My quilting on Peaceful Pathways is halted for a while.  I am not sure that pushing that heavy quilt thru my machine hasn't contributed to the shoulder pain, so I will avoid it for the next few days at least.  I am anxious to get back to it and finish it.

Looking forward to the first installment of Esther's new BOM.  Several of my friends here locally have joined the group and we plan to work together on it.  Sounds like a lot of fun.

Back to my paper piecing.  Have a wonderful week!

WOW Wednesday

This week finds me still plugging along with quilting my Peaceful Pathways quilt.  The center is completed except for the corner blocks.  I am waiting on delivery of a new-to-me product called Paper Solvy by Sulky.  It is supposed to be good for printing a quilting design and then you can sew thru the paper and dissolve it in water when your design is completed.  Meanwhile, I am quilting the Lovers knot blocks, in the ditch stitching.  Boring work but it is looking good.  Then I plan to use my decorative stitches and continue quilting them on the diagonal.  Then will come the challenge of the feathered border..... hopefully using the Paper Solvy on that. 
We are all anxiously awaiting Esther's package...... it must be so frustrating.  I am looking forward to seeing her color choices later this week.  Then I will plan a shopping trip.
'Til next week, you all take care.