The First Day

 

The First Day of a New Year and we are having a horrid ice/snow storm.  I plan to sew the day away using these books.  I have these thanks to Speleobooks finding them for me.  I now have the 1st and 2nd editions of the 'Encyclopedia' (not getting the third).  I have a lot of blocks to make for our guild's President's Challenge - I make a 6" block from each of the blocks members have made for the 'theme' chosen.  We are learning the history of these blocks and sharing the resource used.

I hope you get to use the first day for some stitches,

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon 

HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

 

I would like to thank CARLA for hosting this end of the year Hop that I hope delivers many of us into the New Year  with Hope, Love, and much Creativity.  I am not one to make resolutions because let's face it - we break resolutions to quickly.  Instead I want a New year to be all about New to break with the disastrous year we call 2020.

I have so many NEW things that just weren't touched or thought about and I think it is a perfect time to get them out.

Technique's:  Fractured quilts, playing with Curves, Pixel, a Scallop Border, and Rope Bowls.

Tools:  I need a new seam ripper (or two), my rulers are worn with corners cut off, a nice sharp thread snip and my old scissors taken to be sharpened.  I don't have a lot of specialty rulers, but a few I have were for a class to learn a new technique - they need revisiting and I hope I remember how to use them (U-Tube).

Fabrics:  Being a scrap quilter, I don't treat myself to New fabric unless it is a basic needed to marry all those scraps.  To support our LQS I plan to purchase something NEW each month to use with my other NEWs for the year.

Patterns:  I have patterns (hard copy and e-files) that I want to play with before they become too old and some of them refer back to Technique' and Rulers.

Books:  I am not a collector of books or magazines, but I have been adding to my 'historical' books.  I do enjoy the history of blocks and quilt design so I will be particular in what is added this year - Civil War Era.

As much as I am attached to the historical and classic side of quilting, I do love whimsy and another way to look at things in my quilting, so there will be the free will of just PLAY because it makes me smile.

I try to keep anything NEW with BOMs, QALs, and of course I love to participate in HOPS - so they get put on the side bar.   

Please be sure to visit all the hosts that are sharing their Resolutions today for a banner new year: 

Just Let Me Quilt

MooseStashQuilting

Words & Stitches

 Sew Many Yarns

Websterquilt

Cocoa Quilts

QuiltFabrication

Stitchin At Home

Ms P Designs USA

Life in the Scrapatch

Kathy Kwilts and More

Karen's Korner

Quilt Schmilt

selina quilts

The Joyful Quilter

Becky’s adventures in quilting and travel 

Karrin's Crazy World

Quilting and Learning: What a Combo

VroomansQuilts

Cynthia's Creating Ark

PamelaQuilts

Quilting Patchwork & Appliqué

Kathleen McMusing

Quilting Gail

Homespun Hannah's Blog

appliqueand...

Songbird Designs

Storied Quilts

Susie’s World

She's Stitchin Again

Creatin' in the Sticks

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Monday Making

As some of you know, there were no plans for Christmas at VroomansQuilts due to Covid, Mom's health and the threat of this.  Yes, we had the Valley on high alert for an epic flood which led to early Christmas morning evacuations, roads and towns closed off, and fingers crossed that it wouldn't be as bad as the Storm Irene flooding - which many of our small communities still haven't recovered from.

They say there is a silver lining to everything.  Sunday we pulled a post-Christmas dinner with brother, SIL, and my daughter's family to brighten Mom's day.  It was so good to see all three of my grands.

Today I'm doing some clean up, maybe some play with the scraps my daughter brought me, and to dust up the draft post to be ready for the next and last HOP of the year.  It's ONE DAY of super ideas to make 2021 a much better year:

Wednesday, December 30th

Just Let Me Quilt

MooseStashQuilting

Words & Stitches

 Sew Many Yarns

Websterquilt

Cocoa Quilts

QuiltFabrication

Stitchin At Home

Ms P Designs USA

Life in the Scrapatch

Kathy Kwilts and More

Karen's Korner

Quilt Schmilt

selina quilts

The Joyful Quilter

Becky’s adventures in quilting and travel 

Karrin's Crazy World

Quilting and Learning: What a Combo

VroomansQuilts

Cynthia's Creating Ark

PamelaQuilts

Quilting Patchwork & Appliqué

Kathleen McMusing

Quilting Gail

Homespun Hannah's Blog

appliqueand...

Songbird Designs

Storied Quilts

Susie’s World

She's Stitchin Again

Creatin' in the Sticks

Sewingly Yours.

Sharon 

Best of 2020

 

For several years Cheryl has hosted the Best of 2020 with just a few rules and suggestions for selecting 5 posts from the year.  I decided to chose 5 that represent me as a quilter.

I had a lot of people confused with my 'goal' theme on the side bar.  I had collected a number of family fabric, patterns, and designs of various animals I felt it a good year to get to them.  AND it turned out to be a good way to deal with the stressful 2020 year.

There were large quilts of bears, moose, horses (and a Unicorn), cat theme fabric collection used up and these fun CHICKENS using up a lot of my homespuns.  There were smaller quilts of kitties, dogs, ostriches, triceratops and owls.  I still have a few animal quilts to make, but will save those for some'fun' days of quilting to ease any stress in 2021.

I love to participate in a lot of Blog Hops thru the year and 2020 saw almost one a month.  This was a really fun one and showed that even the simplest 'SQUARE" could make some great quilts.  The boxed square is a pattern I frequently use to eat up scraps and for making donation quilts.

This was the first year that I participated in OMG - one monthly goal - and it made for a lot of projects moved into the next phase and even pushed the envelope on getting a LOT of  quilts "quilted".  This one is special as it was a finish of one of my Mom's 'project in a bag' from 50 years ago.  

MY GUILD is a big part of my quilting and these people do so much for their communities from heart to hand.  We were so missing our gatherings due to lock down, that I called an outdoor social gathering once restrictions lifted.  Yes, we have some 'roosters' in our coop.  They enjoyed this so much that we decided to meet once a month thru the summer (we usually take the summer off) as outdoor social time and they were well attended.

 

Another blessing came from the Covid Lock Down - my daughter working from home finally had time to enjoy her quilting as well as teaching the next generation quilter.  This is my 5 yr. old grand daughter who loves scrappy and bright.   She even likes to design her own - maybe there's a book in the future?

Please be sure to visit the BEST OF 2020 link ups and even consider adding your own post.

Thank you for visiting,

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Scrappy Wednesday

 

It's slow going, but the Easy Peasy blocks are coming together with six more rows to go.  I'm not making mine as big as Bonnie is, but this will make a nice donation size for our guild collection - yes, I'll add a couple of borders and a colorful fleece will be nice for the back.

I'm not a bah humbugger (most of the time), but we may be stranded for several days again.  This time it will be flooding!  Just 2020 adding more stress to the year.  With all the snow and then 2 days of heavy rain - Christmas Eve thru Christmas Day - we are already receiving alerts from local officials.

Did the grocery's today and a few local errands tomorrow - I am hunkering down with the furkids for the next few days.

Sewingly YOurs,

Sharon

Happy Winter Solstice

 After all the snow and days of sub temps, today the sun is shining and bit warmer.  The glisten and shimmer is a welcome site today as I run a number of errands.

Tonight I hope to catch a site of the Christmas Star created by Jupiter and Saturn. 

And with this in mind, I think I will finish wrapping at the table.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

And It Snowed

 

I've taken a lot of photos of my favorite apple tree with the big 'ass' barn behind it many times so you should get the feel for how much snow is up that trunk.  And those old chicken barns' roofs - hope they don't collapse.

My porch sets a little more that 2 feet from ground to landing and the snow obviously is above that - whooo-eeee!  I swept the porch enough so the furkids could come out, but where can they go?

A quick shot to the right at my Mom's porch - she's not going anywhere either.  I've used that porch for a lot of quilt photo shoots, so you know how high that is.

We were in a state of Emegency and every major and minor road was shut down in a lot of counties.  The decision was to wait for the cavalery tomorrow.  They are going to have to park at the neighbors and walk in as even the bottom of the long lane has been super blowed in by the road crews.  SO - I sewed.  These are from Bonnie Hunter's previous scrap challenge and I need just a few more blocks to put this one together.

So yeah - it snowed!

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Sew Snow

 I'm sure a lot of you are in the path of this 'first' winter storm - remember we had snow back in October.  I haven't touched my machine in so long that this is a good excuse to sew the day away and let the rest just 'wait'.

I have my little corner set up and I am going to enjoy a little play.  Well, there will be time to head out to do some shoveling.  There is still work to be done, but it will wait out this storm.  My furkids are so totally confused with all this moving around.  Bella has been hiding in the linen closet upstairs and Moe does what ever moves to avoid walking thru a room.  Maybe the familiar hum of the sewing machine will calm them down.

Stay Safe and warm,

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Monday Making

 

Well, I am making a bigger mess today before the real clean up begins.  SO, I really need to watch my step!

I really hope to be done by Wednesday for some scrap play - I need to sew.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Disarray

 

Why is it that when you are trying to clean and straighten, you actually make more of a mess?  This area was cleared and minimalized - now harbors a disarray.  Half will be put in their new home and the other half is headed out the door.

All of that came out of this corner to make for a new slate.  I really wanted to move my sewing upstairs into a bedroom that is as large at this down stairs room.  BUT with still the need for care of my Mom  and a reminder that I need to limit those stairs (a wee slip and slide with no injuries), I have come up with a plan B - or is it Z?

  But this mess is getting sorted thru and half will be joining that other half to fit in it's new space.  I have used part of this huge central hall (total drafty waste of space) for many years as my stash storage.  Once this is cleared it will become a small bedroom for a little more comfort for myself as Mom's care heightens.

Some things will go upstairs, but not items I need on hand or use frequently.  Hopefully all this disarray will aid in the new year's plans.

  

Hopefully I will be ready to reveal the 'grand plan' with CARLA'S end of the year HOP.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Monday Making

 

I still am working on reoganizing rooms, so the only stitching done was to get those pillowcases finished for our guild meeting.  BUT I would like to share that  the gals -Carole and Carla- have put their heads (and hearts) together to keep us in the Hop Lovin' Mood for the new year.   

If you would like to sign up, please contact Carole.  I'm certainly getting on fire to sew something.

AND we all need a little Holiday Humor:

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

Just A Little Christmas

 

Reminder to please visit the Virtual Cookie Hop and enjoy a Little Christmas

December 1

Creatin' in the Sticks

Doreen – Just Let Me Quilt Guest

Bumbleberry Stitches

Home Sewn By Us

Quilt Schmilt

Food for Thought

Life in the Scrapatch

Ms P Designs USA

Just Sew Quilter

Cathie's Craftworks

Cynthia's Creating Ark

 December 2

MooseStashQuilting

Karen's Korner

Sew Many Yarns

Selina Quilts

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Days Filled With Joy

Words & Stitches

Just Because Quilts

Beaquilter

 December 3

Quiltscapes

Websterquilt

DayBrook Designs

Karrin’s Crazy World

Samelia's Mum

Songbird Designs

For The Love Of Geese

Stitchin At Home

Dreamworthy Quilts

That Fabric Feeling

 December 4

Just Let Me Quilt

Quilt Fabrication

DesertSky Quilting

Seams To Be Sew

Happy Cottage Quilter

Pumpkin Patch Patterns & Quilting

The Darling Dogwood

Kathleen McMusing

Scrapdash

Scrappy Wednesday

 

I was going thru some of the yardage on bolts and found this.  I must have picked this up on a end of bolt sale long ago.  I would have prefered a yellow for the cuff, but you use what you have.  These are pillowcases using the 'hot dog' (or burrito) method and are for our guild charity drive for the Community Christmas Baskets.  I was able to cut 8 cases and use all of both fabrics up - just little end strips that went in the string tote.

I was doing pretty good at the prep stage until I got some 'help'.  I'll let him keep the one while I work on the the other 7.  I'm sure he will get bored and move on to the couch for his nap - then I can finish up.

Another guild project - our entry into 'Snowmen Along Main Street'.  Our clumsy skating snowman has his 3rd year, but we added a Miss this year.  Mister was made from scraps donated by many members and I saved all the left overs - that bag is now out of the house.  Thanks to Ginny and her hubby for hanging and the photo.

 And the guild sponsored a lighted Angel for the 'Lights in the Park'.  Thank you member, Martha, for picking up the 'Giant' Angel frame - I spent an afternoon zip tieing 900 lights to her - and the she delivered her back for the Rotary to set up the display.

I need to take Mom for a drive to see the Snowmen and then the lights.

And as you can see, it is starting to snow here!!!

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon

 

Monday Making

 

I found these little gems in container (with other little gems) while doing my reorganization.  60 little Broken Dishes blocks that were bonus units from another quilt.  These are only 4.5" unfinished so I have to find a pattern/design with a mixer to make this of some size - or go small.

I realized after find these blocks that I never showed the original quilt.  This is the quilt those gems came from.  The Lincoln Quilt - flip corners from the star 'geese' units.  This will probably be my January 2021 finishing piece.

And it's Cyber Monday - sales, sales, sales!!!  I actually bought some fabric a few weeks ago on a good sale.  All those quilts that needed yardage to do borders with.  Ha - got my next year's plan mapped out and I'll use OMG again to make it all happen.

Don't forget the Cookies Hop is starting tomorrow - it's that time of year to bake!  

A lot of sites are posting special holiday gifts and projects, but I have a love of this shop and wish they were on my coast.  TemeculaQuiltCo is hosting an 'archive' posting of their holiday free projects.  I've made many of them, but how fun to revisit and maybe once the dust has settled I'll actually make a couple again. 

End the year with something that makes you smile, gives you a giggle, warms your heart.

Sewingly Yours,

Sharon