Contemplating What To Work On Next

I am settling in to retirement and working on balancing completing projects I have started and trying new ones.  Besides the UFOs I really want to do a cleaning and organizing of my sewing stuff.  Allietare is still being worked on but the top is close to being done.

I am one of the co-VPs of Programs for one of the guilds I belong to and I was teacher’s helper for Gay Young when she taught a workshop for us.  Gay does beautiful work and she is a lovely person.  http://gayyoungart.com  I didn’t take the class myself, but I was inspired by her work and the projects started by the students, so I am thinking another landscape will be in my future. 

 

So, I played one day last week painting muslin for sky scenes.  Here are some pictures, drying in the sun.  

I have been doing small nine patches with 2 inch squares and I was thinking I had enough to put together.  Here is a picture of them with some new fabrics I purchased.  I am contemplating fabrics to alternate with the nine patches.  I have 116 of the 5 inch blocks; but I decided that I will need 200 so I have plenty of time to work out how I want to put them together.  These are my leader/ender project.

I like to sew in the morning after I take Brandon to school.  I am enjoying my new freedom.

Allietare Blocks Done

All the blocks are pieced.  I have put some together in rows, but I still need to do piecing on the setting triangles before it can go together. 

Other Sewing...

No, I don't mean mending.  I am trying to basically work on one quilt at a time at least until I get the top pieced.  On the Allietare I have all the grey blocks done and 18 of the 30 red and gold blocks.  It is coming along nicely. 

Sometimes, though a small project is fun and I just made this mini snap bag.  Gourmet Quilter has this video and a downloadable pattern on her website.  Mini Snap Bag

It went very quickly and I think it will work nicely to hold cards I seldom use in my purse like reward cards, zoo membership etc.

Grandchildren visited during Spring Break

It was so fun!  We went to the zoo.  On the last picture Lulu is holding a piece of fabric where we sampled many of the decorative stitches on my pfaff.  A simple pleasure for both of us after she helped me on the donation quilt.

Donation Quilt Friendship Star

I belong to two guilds now, Bear Creek and Plano.  This was a donation through Plano.  It was made of blocks swapped a few years ago on the APQS Forum.

I put extra blocks in the backing but then didn't center it well.  I glue basted the quilt together and I could have started over but I just went with lobbing off some portion of stars.  It is just quilted with stitch in the ditch on my sewing machine.  I muttered all to myself in basting and quilting because if I had the sewing room organized and the long arm set up it would have been much simpler.  I also donated a matching pillow case.

Good-bye

Two little sweeties left my nest in early March.  They are with a very supportive, happy family.  I was so relieved to have some time for rest and activities, but I cried also.  I was too emotional to blog.  There are many positives as Brandon and I will be able to keep in close touch with them.