Friday, April 8, 2016

How I Spent Part of my Time in March!

March was great weather wise this year.  No snow or ice--very unlike winter. I loved it!!!!

We had some big losses--Dan's sister, Mae, a college friend, and a dear woman who was like my sister. I guess this is par for the course when you get to be our age,

I did get some blocks completed.
First off, I worked on my Farm Girl Blocks and got 14 finished.

I also completed 8 blocks from the Splendid Sampler.


I finished 8 Broken Dishes which will go into a Quilt of Valor. They are very scrappy!

I took a workshop our guild sponsored from my friend Raija Salomaa using her pattern, Kimberling in January. I finished one block in March. 

Our Guild had a baby quilt Workshop in March and I found some partially completed blocks  and finished them and got the top done. 3 of them were completed and I finished another 9 to make the top.

I made 2 mug rugs using one of the block patterns from Splendid Sampler.

Last, but not least I participated in a workshop at Pieces and Patches in which we colored on fabric. I got one block done. This is a self portrait!


That is a total of 43 blocks! I now have a grand total of 218 for the year so far.

Well, now it might be a good idea to something made out of all those blocks this month.

I also spent some time with the grands.
This is Grey all dressed up at Mae's funeral.

Hazel made some crowns and also sewed some triangles together.




Ash and Eowyn wanted to learn to embroider and really did a great job.

At the end of the month we went to our favorite park in Fayetteville, Wilson Park and played in the castle.



Kathy







Monday, March 28, 2016

February 350 Block Challenge

Blocks Completed in February 


4 Scrappy Broken Dishes blocks which will end up being a Quilt of Valor.

6 Gift Box blocks which I completed in order to substitute teach a class for our guild.












The first 5 blocks from the Splendid Sampler Quilt Along online. I know--they are sideways as usual!















16 blocks from Farm Girl Vintage book our Itty Bitty group is doing as a quilt along. Again my signature style--sideways!










I also made one additional arrowhead block to finish a gift quilt which is yet to be gifted! That makes my total for February 32 blocks! Whoop! Whoop! It only took me a whole month to get it posted! Yea Me!

Kathy











Monday, February 8, 2016

My New Year's Obssession!

This post is totally un-quilty, doll or family related. It is a confession about my TV watching obsession this year. I started watching a British series, The Midsomer Murders on Netflix. I thought it would be about murders in England that took place in the summer. Wrong! Midsomer is a geographic location with many, many murders, using a variety of methods and weapons. 
There are over 100 episodes(I've watched most of them) with at least a couple of murders in each and sometimes 2 or 3. The series started in 1997 and still continues. It's kind of like a car wreck--you can't take your eyes off!
I learned many things from this series.
1. For a quiet little country side, there are an awful lot of psychopaths running around committing murders, using a wide variety of methods and weapons! My favorite weapon was a pair of tailor shears. I own two pair. Impressive aren't they! The murderer, in that instance, used the scissors open as in the pic and sliced both sides of the victim's neck. Yikes!
2. It can be very confusing living around there! You never know when a long lost brother, sister, or father might show up. You never know when a girl or boy friend might turn out to be a sister or brother! There were also many cases when a sister or a brother turned out to be totally unrelated. The funny thing was, though, no one seemed very surprised. Mistresses were common and often not a secret. You kind of needed a score card to keep up with all the various affairs. A very interesting neighborhood!

3.  I learned a lot about past times of the Midsomer country side. The murders revolved around golf, croquet, cricket, chess, football, theater, fox hunting and many more. Very educational!

4. I recognized many of the actors from Downton Abbey, Last Tango in Halifax, and other British shows. Some well known actors such as Colin Firth and Orlando Bloom were in it. My very favorite was Hayley Mills , who was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. I was afraid there for awhile that she was the murderer, but she wasn't. Whew!!!!!! That was a relief!

I feel like I just confessed to being hooked on a soap opera!  Well, there are still a few episodes I haven't watched so I guess I'd better run! I'll take my scissors and settle in.

Kathy

Sunday, February 7, 2016

January 350 Block Challenge

 These are my quilt blocks I completed in January!

12 Farm Girl blocks. They are sideways, but I don't seem to be able to fix it at this time!







 I completed 50 6" arrowhead blocks.
I also finished 23 11 1/2" arrowhead blocks.


This is my Alletaire mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter. This month I completed all 50 blocks.

This month I completed 143 blocks. I am shocked!!!!! I also finished 3 Quilts of Valor, but I will talk more about that later.