What a Day! (lots of pictures!!!)

 Hi There!

Gilbert and I headed out the door at 9 a.m., this morning - we did some banking and went to Home Depot to pick up a "Milwaukee" circular saw.  This winter, he came across a sale on a Milwaukee cordless drill and it was love at first sight!  Lately..... And, coincidentally, his 12 year + electrical, circular saw was on it's last legs... So, we picked up a new, cordless circular saw and Gilbert's now a Happy Camper!

*grin*

Once home, we unpacked our purchases and Gilbert worked on yesterday's quilt while I decided to cook up a batch of meat.  Tomorrow, Gilbert and I are supposed to make a batch of meat pies and tourtières.

 Gilbert helped me take a few pictures of my 2nd batik quilt that is FINALLY ready to be shipped off to the lady that commissioned this!

If you click on the picture below, you can see a bigger picture of this quilt.

While I was in my Sewing Studio, "Minou", our oldest cat, had to come in and find herself a (grooming) spot and snoozing spot.  She plunked herself down into my wicker basket.  I could hear her puuurrrr.... REAL loud!  

*grin*

Then, while emailing back and forth with my buddettes, I found out that I can take fresh berries and wash them - in this case I had blueberries on hand...

Add sugar, if I wished. In this case, I added a soup spoon of brown sugar.

And then, add some rum.  I added some dark rum.

Apparently, the blueberries will NOT go bad and I can add these as a topping to a cake or pudding or whatever.

I'll keep you all posted on how this turns out.

*grin*

Preserving Berries and Myself, too!

I have been trying my bestest to finish off 2 UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) before even DREAMING about starting a new project....  I've been trying, but I don't always succeed.  *VBG*

Anyhow, these spool blocks were blocks that I swapped with other ladies, on the internet.

Today, I pulled them out of my ziplock back, trimmed them up and placed them on my design wall.

Unfortunately, 3 of the blocks did not even come CLOSE to the required 6-1/2" square.  These 3 blocks may go on the back of what has now become my "Table Runner", rather than a square Table Topper.

See the cute small one?  My friend, Brigitte Baierl, sent me that block, for no reason 'cept to show me how SHE does her spool blocks.  

Its a 3 dimensional block - 

REALLY COOL!!!

I had to make 2 more green ones to come up with a symmetrical design. I'll be adding a skinny, probably black border and then, a bigger wider one... to finish it off.

And that's if for today.

It's now 8h38 p.m. and I'm upstairs in our little office and its STILL raining outside!

Tomorrow's another day, right?

Hope your Saturday's drier than mine!

Rosa

Oh Mother of God!!!

That's the batk quilt, thrown over the ironing board - its HUGE!!!

Gilbert finished quilting it and just before lunch, we trimmed it... Or squared it off, whatever way you want to call it.

I just sat down to bind this monstrosity and thought I'd share a pic with you.

Rosa

Bejewelled Batiks

Gilbert has this monster of a quilt loaded up on Bertha and as soon as they've finished their magic, I will be machine binding this jewel of a quilt!

Gorgeous sunshine today and I'm in the kitchen, scrubbing and cleaning while laundry is in the washer.

Where's Calcon when I need it???

(Remember that commercial??)

Rosa

Some More Pics to Share...

Hi There!

Yesterday, after the meeting, we managed to slip over to the Quebec side and do a little shopping!

No, no fabric or quilt stores but mostly groceries and a couple different and hopefully "good" bottles of wine.



Today, I managed to make 2 Batik Blocks!

According to my magazine,
this one is called
an "Hour Glass Star"



And the magazine people called this one,
a "Double Star" block.



I think I have 3 more stars to do,
buy some more dark green batik,
to put a frame around the last
five (?) blocks.

Yep, I "THOUGHT" I had purchased waaaaaay too much of this dark green batik, for the framing of each block.

Last week, I realized that I wouldn't have enough.

Bummer....

And once I finish the last 3 blocks, add the frames on the remaining blocks..... THEN, I add 2 inch black strips between each block and probably a 6 inch black border, to finish off the whole thing.

Hmmmm... which reminds me. I truly need to check my black/grey plastic tote. Not sure if I have enough black, either!

Later gators!

Rosa

23 Batik Blocks

Workin' on these blocks, today.

I need a total of 30.

Wall's getting crowded.

Rosa
Blog-on-the-Run

Twisting Batiks!

Hi There!

Did yet ANOTHER block for that Batik Quilt and this time, I used my Lil' Twister ruler.

Gilbert took 4 pictures, of each step and made a photo montage.

That's about it.

S'now almost 9 p.m. and tomorrow's another day, eh?

Rosa

I've Been Quiet But Busy....

Hi There!

Well, I managed to make 18 batik blocks before I got bored.

:-(

They're still on my design wall and YES.... the buyer is patiently waiting for her quilt but GOSH DARN.... You can't force creativity, right?!?!?

This creative person needed a break!



Soooo, since I had a lot of left over scraps and I try to keep these under a manageable pile, I decided to go to my new Quilt Idol.... Bonnie K. Hunter!



And, after a few minutes of page flipping, I decided to do "Rick Rack Nines", with my scraps.



My container of 3 blocks...



This is Monday's picture.

As of this evening, I now have 175 scrappy nine patch blocks, sewn up!

Blocks are cut at 2 inches.

Any fabric "strips" that are smaller than 2 inches, I try to cut into 1-1/4 inches, for that Lego Quilt.... And, yes, that's yet another "on-going" project.

Smaller than 1-1/4 inch?
Well, I call 'em "slivers" -
Slivers go directly into the garbage.



Now, here's a picture of my scrap pile which I'm slowly cutting into those 2 inch strips and ....

TAH-DAH!!!

As you can see, Bro is all back in one piece!!!



About 1 hour after I had posted those pics of (skeletal) Bro, Gilbert found the problem.... A "bushing" had seized, near the manual wheel. He greased it up and un-seized it and "Bro" is just like NEW!!!

And as much as I appreciated and love my Featherweight, it still wasn't "Bro"....

One more day and then it's the weekend!!!!

Rosa

A Door Closes...

Hi There!

Yesterday was my last official "Vacation Day".

Boy, did the week ever fly by quickly!

But, I really can't complain as we mainly stayed home, saved money and I got to do my favorite thing - playing in my Sewing Studio!!!

Yesterday, I managed to sash all my Batik Blocks....
and completed 2 new blocks.

This is the first time that I've ever made the "Card Trick" block... that I can remember, anyhow... and I think it came out fairly decent, wouldn't you say?

*grin*

Here's a picture of my Design Wall,
as of yesterday at 5 p.m.



Mid-February, I was told that our office would be closing for good, on the 28th of September 2012.

I was rather upset, to say the least... a few sleepless nights and several conversations in my head, later, I realized that the thing that scared me the most was the "un-certainy".

What will I do? Can I survive financially? And if not, at my age, who would hire me? And if they did, would I be able to keep up with the training and/or a new job?!??!

*insert biting fingernails*

And finally, I told myself, "Rosa.... STOP worrying! What will happen, will happen. Worrying won't help matters, anyhow!"

And, I've ALWAYS tried to focus on the glass being half full as opposed to it being half empty.

Besides.....

You know what they say?

When one door closes - another one opens.

That's all folks, for now.

Have a Super Saturday!

Rosa

Batik Progress, Once Again

Well, I actually had 13 Batik Blocks pieced. They're now all sashed. Only 17 (20 inch) more blocks to do.

This will be a honkin' huge quilt!!!

California King or, if you prefer... A king size bedspread that "falls" nicely...

Rosa
Blog-on-the-Run

8 Batik Blocks!!!

Hi There!

Well, due to my "Fatty Fingers", I messed up on a recent blog and the original post to this blog got deleted.

Here's my batik progress...

Not All Design Walls Are Plug 'n Play

Nope.

They're not all smart.

The "designer" needs to put her input and creativity in the quilt block, as well...

AND as open up her peepers and pay attention!!!

*groan*

Can you say "rippit"???

Rosa

I've Been Busy...

Hi There!

I've been busy binding quilts but I've found time to make a few blocks, for a 2 new projects.

Yes, I KNOW I have some UFO's (Un-Finished Objects), but sometimes a gal's gotta break out and CREATE something new, right?!?!?

LOL

This is my second batik quilt.

Before Christmas, I was commissioned to make a California King Quilt, with batik colors...



I've got quite a few more to make...



Last February, while in Florida visiting Frummie, she gave me 20 antique quilt blocks for Gilbert to quilt. I was to divide them up between her, Elaine and myself.

I kept two of them, to make a table runner.

Here, Gilbert's finished quilting it and he played with the background colors, on this picture. Notice it's all black and grey?!?!

Tomorrow evening, I will probably bind this table runner.

Have a great week!

Rosa

I Have Been Busy...

Hi There!

Remember my Batik Quilt?

Well, I finally finished this quilt and in November, I sold it!

This quilt was bought and given away as a birthday gift to one of the Irving ladies.

What an honour!


And the buyer has asked that I make a bigger (similar) one, for her!
As I have a few irons in the fire right now, it will have to wait till February or March.

Off to bed...

Rosa

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N !!!

Hi There!

Yesterday, I officially started my 2 week holiday and, as it the tradition, I'll be maintaining my Vacation Journal and uploading as many silly pictures as possible. *grin*

(click on the coconut drink to read what I've been doing...)




Every time I start my vacation, I automatically start humming this song!!!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N !!!

Last weekend, I managed to finish a baby quilt top, in 30's fabrics...

Thursday evening, I believe, I finished off the 2nd one and this morning, I finished the 3rd one. Mind you, I had been sewing these blocks together, for quite a while. All I really had left to do, was to sew the strips (across), together.

The other 2 "blue" ones are identical to this (pink) one 'cept they're in mostly blue colors.

And this evening, I pulled out that king size Batik quilt and, with Gilbert's help, measured the quilt and cut up the strips to make the border.

By the time I turned out the lights and shut down my sewing machine, I had 3 sides sewn on.

That's about it, in my life.

Waiting for Irene,
our tropical storm...

Rosa

Batik Progress

Hi There!

Gilbert's been helping me with cutting the green frames on these blocks. And, every time I have a few minutes, I've been sewing the green frames onto the batik blocks.

These blocks were a block swap that my friend, Helen Marie was in. She kindly forwarded her received blocks to me, a few years ago.

So, this would definitely qualify as a UFO (UnFinished Object)!

These are only a few of them.

I'm hoping to finish this one off as a King Quilt.



These blocks are squared up at 16-1/2" and as I mentioned, there are more blocks to be done.

Here's a close up of some of the blocks.

And here's a picture of the black batik that I will use in between each block.

(click on the black batik picture to see it better)

Since Gilbert and I don't particularly care for batiks, this quilt might go to my sister, Sylvie.

Not sure yet.

C U Later!

Rosa

My 2 New(?) Projects...

Hi There!

Well, next on my UFO (Un-Finished Object) Radar are some batik blocks HM, my friend in Georgia, had sent to me many, many moons ago.

I had pulled these out several times since receiving them and simply couldn't figure out HOW to put them together. *s*

Finally, Sunday morning, I realized that I needed to make 2 more blocks, which I did and upsize them to 16-1/2 inches, making sure that they'd be ALL the same size.

Doesn't look like much, right now, but trust me... I DO have a plan!

*grin*



Then, on my break today, I suddenly got the urge to work on another scrappy quilt!

So, I quickly sketched a baby quilt design on scrap paper and once I got home, after work, immediately went to work on these blocks.

Would you believe that I managed to sew all 12 blocks, in about 3 hours!?!?!?

Once again, these blocks don't look like much, but they will be snow ball blocks.

I'll be posting lots of progress pictures.

Stayed tuned!

Rosa