Life In Pieces

Foto Finish - Leap

2012-02-25T06:58:00.000-06:00

It is it really already Saturday? Not that I'm complaining, but it was a really fast week. I was pretty much AWOL from the home computer the last few days. This week, the 8 hours at work has been spent in front of my computer writing reports. I was pretty much typed out by the time I got home most nights this week. I have at least 3 more weeks of report writing. Maybe I'll build up some stamina and still have some words left over to use at night.

Barbara at Cat Patches has put suggested "Leap" as this week's Foto Finish topic. After combing through my shots, it became obvious that I was going to have to go for a different interpretation. Apparently we don't leap much in this family. But I did come across this image from 3 years ago.

Doesn't it look like she's ready to just leap into that water? This is Kiddo (aka Drama Teen) running into the surf on Galveston Island. This was Spring Break of 2009. It was her, one of her school friends and I out to see the sights around Houston that week. My Guy had bailed due to an impending international trip. When DT was little we lived 15 miles from the Gulf. During the summer we took a lot of weekend trips to the beach. The beach is the one big thing she misses about living in TX. It wasn't particularly warm this overcast morning in March. DT's school friend had never been to one of the coasts, so it was her first glimpse of the ocean. There was absolutely no chance of keeping them out of the water. So I gave up and prepared to deal with two wet, cold girls. But they were good sports about all of it, maybe because the next stop was lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, another of DT's favorite things from living in TX.

That's it for this week. Check out the other leaps over at Cat Patches.

15 Minute Challenge - February 21st

2012-02-21T06:26:00.000-06:00

Have you ever reached a point where you have more ideas in your head or challenges you want to participate in than you possibly have time for? I certainly felt that way this weekend after finding 2 new projects that I really want to start now. Last week, I ignored my sewing room for the most part, couldn't work up the interest (or energy) to spend any time there. But I think those few days offto let my brain rest was necessary. Since coming up with these two new projects, I'm feeling a lot more energized about spending time in the sewing room.

It's been a year since I challenged myself to spend a minimum of 15 minutes every day in my sewing room. It started as a month long challenge to myself because my projects weren't moving along at a pace to meet my goals. That challenge to myself made a big difference in my ability to get projects to completion. What I learned last week is that sometimes taking a break from the challenge is also necessary in order to keep up your enthusiaism. This week's report reflects a renewed energy.

A total of 6 out of 7 days isn't bad. In addition to what's on the report, I also roughed out a quilt layout for a new scrap project that I hope to start before the end of the month.

Moving on to the more exciting stuff. The winner of the "Necessories" pattern and fat quarters is:

# 8 Nana N of Seaside Sewing

Congratulations Nana!

We've reached day 52 of the 66 days the experts claim it takes, on average, for someone to develop a new habit. This week's motivation to stick with the challenge is likely to give you some thoughts on new projects to ignight your ethusiaism

I've not made a jelly row quilt yet, but Strip-Smart Quilts by Kathy Brown has me wanting too and Redwork with a Twist by Pat Sloan had me pulling out some completed embroidery blocks to consider what might be done with them. So it's time for you to link up and share how ethusiastic you were last week about spending 15 mintues a day sewing/crafting. A quick reminder, to be eligable for the give-away, the post you link up must have "15 Minute Challenge" somewhere in the title or text of the post and a "report" of what you did with your 15 minutes each day you sewed. It can be as simple as a list, or as complex as a photo collage.

Stash Report - February 19th

2012-02-19T06:39:00.000-06:00

Weekends always seem to fly by, maybe even more so when they are 3 day weekends. We goofed off on Friday. My Guy and I took a drive over the hills and through the plains to a small town with a quilt shop I'd never been too. It was a very nice place, small but with a reasonable selection of fabrics. As you'll see in the stash report in a sec, I did some significant damage. But I have plans for all the fabric that came home. The only sewing this week was for the McCall's Mystery Quilt. Most of the week has been spent on planning and laying out the next two Fat Quarter Stars blocks for the Moose on the Porch Quilt along.

A new project is also in the planning stages. I've been wanting to participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge since last year, but never came up with a project. I wanted a scrappy project that would require one or two scrappy blocks a month. Inspiration struck this weekend and last night was spent roughing out a quilt plan in EQ. I'm behind since I missed January, but I'll catch up before the end of the year. I'm going to start on February's green blocks today.

So not much sewing this week, just lots of planning. So the stash report looks really lopsided.

Used last week: 0.41 yards
Added last week: 21 yards

Used for 2012: 4.3 yards
Added for 2012: 51.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 47.2 yards

So what came home?

These are going to be paired with a set of embroidered blocks I dug out of the sewing closet Thursday night. If you read Friday's post, these will be paired with the goose blocks.

I feel in love with the black, rust and beige print on the right. I have a lot of 2.5" rust strips left over from a previous project that will go beautifully with that print. The solid black is for my planned Dresden Plate project. I'm not sure how well that's going to work out, but I've always wanted to use a black background with brights. We'll see if that works.

So over the weekend, I've added 3 new quilts to my quilt "play list" for 2012. Guess I better get busy sewing!

Check out more stash reports over at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - The Way I See It

2012-02-18T07:02:00.001-06:00

The Life in Pieces crew gets a three day weekend this week. A three day weekend where we don't have to be out the door at way to early in the morning or be anywhere but home. So this morning I can drink a couple cups of coffee while I write, read and comment. At some point laundry must be started, but I can put that off for a little bit, at least until I figure out what to post for this week's Foto Finish.

The optional theme this week is "The Way I See It". Isn't every photograph taken a reflection of how the photographer sees it? The choice of subject matter, focus, and framing are all up to the person pushing that little button on top of the camera. The harder part of photography is getting each viewer to see the same thing the photographer did. I learned a long time ago that what I say is not necessarily what the person listening hears. Isn't it the same way with a looking at an image? Each person interprets a photograph based on their view of the world. So even though the image may be what I see, there is no guarantee that the viewer will see the same thing.

This is what I saw looking out my dining room window last September.

What do you see?

For more Foto Finishes, check out all the links over at Cat Patches.

Favorite Things Friday - February 17th

2012-02-17T10:07:00.001-06:00

At the Life in Pieces abode this Friday is an off work, out of school day. Drama Teen is out due to a teacher in service and the rest of the family is taking our 19/30 day off work. With all the running we've been doing, plus that which is still left on the schedule for the next few weeks, the plan is to have a slow, slothful day. Even My Guy is still in his pjs this morning.

I'm a bit late in getting to this week's Favorite Things Friday event, so graciously hosted each week by Shay over at Quilting in My Pyjamas. I made the mistake of starting a really good book and my intent to just read a chapter while the computer was booting turned into several chapters. So before it gets any later, on to the FTF part of the post.

This week's favorite was brought to mind by Barbara over at Cat Patches. She's in the process of restoring a quilt made with nursery rhyme blocks embroidered by her mother. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would hand embroidery printed blocks that she would later make into a quilt. A couple of those quilts were the subject of previous FTF post. Watching Barbara restore her mother's blocks brought to mind that at one time, I loved to embroider too and had a set of completed embroidered blocks that had never been set into a quilt. After a bit of digging around in the sewing room I found that set.

I remember working on these blocks, but I don't remember when they were finished. Maybe about the time I finished high school? Roses are my favorite flower and my wedding colors were blue and yellow, so obviously I've liked that combination for a long time. I'll apologize for the state of the blocks, I just put them up on design wall as is. They really do need to be pressed.

In the same pile there were 6 more completed blocks that I think are supposed to be a set.

I remember working on the goose blocks, but don't remember the 3 paler pink blocks. My Guy has recently been suggesting that my memory isn't what it used to be. He may be right. Along with the completed blocks I found this set that has obviously been started, but I don't remember starting them.

Purple is another favorite color, though I usually pair it with yellow, not green. But that color combination looks good in these blocks.

In the pile were also two sets of printed blocks that have never been started.

I have no idea how old these are.

In with the quilt blocks was a partially embroidered baby quilt that I started before Drama Teen was born. Plus one partially embroidered table runner, one table runner still in the package, two sets of unstarted pillow cases, along with one counted cross stitched afghan about half done and several other counted cross stitch projects in various stages of completion. Think maybe my subconscious was trying to protect me from remembering this whole set of UFOs? I'm sure that's the case.

I haven't embroidered seriously in years, probably since starting that baby quilt for DT. Embroidery was a favorite past time in my younger years, in part because it was something I could share with my grandmother. We would sit together in her living room sometimes and talk while both of us were busy stitching in our hoops. Times I wouldn't trade for anything.

15 Minute Challenge - February 14th

2012-02-14T06:44:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentines Day! My sweetie is up North in Wyoming, so our celebration is slated for later this week. Drama Teen and I have plans for a special Valentines Edition of Girls Night Out once swim practice is over tonight.

To be honest, I've been dreading today a bit. My sewing mojo was pretty nonexistent last week. Even the threat of having to fess up to my slothfulness wasn't enough to motivate me to enter the sewing room, even for just 15 minutes. So my report looks pretty pathetic.

No sewing related activity until Saturday, when I finally decided to clean up and reorganize my sewing room. Sunday and Monday I did do some work on the McCall's Mystery Quilt, but overall a pretty wasted week on the sewing front. Hopefully I can get back on track this week and make some progress on both the February UFO and The Fat Quarter Stars block that's supposed to be done today.

On to the more interesting stuff, the winner of last week's give away for the charm packs and the Back to Charm School book is

#7 - Kate of Katie Mae Quilts

Congratulations Kate! Kate is a regular participant in the 15 Minute Challenge. You should check out Kate's Felt Food Friday posts. She's been creating a whole feast for her little "Dude".

How do you get into the mood to sew? Do you ever have days, weeks, months, where the idea of getting into your sewing room doesn't appeal? I know sometimes we all need a break and maybe that's what last week was. The Life in Pieces crew does lead a pretty activity intensive lifestyle around here, so often my time in the sewing room is right at bed time and I'm already tired.

So while I look for my motivation, I'd like to encourage yours. It's one more week closer to March 6th, the 66 day mark. Which is the time, on average, that most people need to make a new activity a habit. This week the give away is 4 fat quarters and a pattern from Patterns by Annie called "Necessories".

A little wallet with the blue print and the orange dots would be so cute.

So link up with how you did on finding 15 minutes to sew last week. Remember your post needs the words "15 Minutes Challenge" somewhere in the title or text and a list of some type that notes what you did on the sewing/craft front during the previous 7 days.

1. Liz
2. Pat
3. PJ off Avondale Rd.
4. Amanda

5. libbyQ
6. Thea
7. Hueisei
8. Nana N

9. Kate
10. Hueisei

Stash Report - February 12th

2012-02-12T06:58:00.000-06:00

Winter finally decided to pay a visit to Oklahoma this week. It's been in the high 30s/low 40s all week, then it got really cold yesterday. Today will be no better. Snow is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow. I think the cold zapped all my quilting mojo this week. Not much going on in the sewing room this week, well at least not in front of the machine. A bit of sewing got done on the McCall's Mystery quilt, so there is a little something to report.

Used last week: 0.27 yards
Added last week: 0 yards

Used for 2012: 3.94 yards
Added for 2012: 30.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 26.56 yards

Not a stellar week, but not a complete loss either. Hopefully the quilting mojo will return with the warmer weather forecast for next week.

As usual, I'm linking up with Judy's Stash Report over at Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - Doors

2012-02-11T06:19:00.001-06:00

Winter finally decided to blow in this week. The highs have been in the high 30's/low 40's most of the week. The high today is only supposed to be 34 F and there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow evening and Monday. Other than running Drama Teen to the high school so she can take the ACT test this morning, nothing else is scheduled for today. So my plan is to stay indoors as much as possible, get a bit of house work done, catch up on laundry, and sew a bit. For the next little while I'm going to write this week's Foto Finish post, catch up on blog reading and hopefully my email as well.

Barbara's suggested theme this week is "doors". Not a typical photographic subject for me. My Guy does a lot of architecture photography, he loves really old buildings. So thinking back to the last time he found a worthy subject, I did remember a side trip we made during our fall break get away last year.

Old churches are a favorite with My Guy. Old churches have a certain grace and peace about them that make for some intereseting photographs. This old Catholic church had stained glass in both front doors. I like stained glass, though the light wasn't the best for a really spectacular shot, I took this one anyway. We just happen to see the spire from the highway as we were driving by on our way home. My Guy utilized the family rule about travel photography (anyone who sees a photo op can call for a stop as long as we are not on a time schedule). It was a nice way to spend an hour before we started the drive home.

Now it's time for a second cup of coffee while I check out what other door photos are posted over on Cat Patches. Have a wonderful weekend.

Favorite Thing Friday - February 10th

2012-02-10T06:15:00.001-06:00

Finally it's Friday. It's been a long week, but not a bad week. The weekend will be crazy as is typical for the Life in Pieces crew. Drama Teen needs to be in two places at once, but will just have to content herself with being in one place at a time. Her crazy schedule doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon, so I guess that means that mine won't be slowing done any time soon either.

Even so today is Friday. I can wear jeans to work. There are no meetings on my calender for today. We don't have anything planned for tonight. So this week, Friday is my favorite thing.

For more favorite things, see what's been posted over at Quilting in my Pyjamas.

Wordless Wednesday - Just Ducky Weather

2012-02-07T21:39:00.002-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - February 7th

2012-02-07T06:58:00.000-06:00

Tuesday already? My computer says it's Tuesday, but I think the rest of me is still stuck on Sunday. Oh well. It is indeed Tuesday, so it's time to look back at how diligent we all were in finding time to sew or (insert your favorite art/craft) here. Last week wasn't bad.

I didn't do much sewing, but I did do a lot of prep work on this month's UFO for the Patchwork Times challenge. Now that I have the border fabrics picked out, maybe I'll make some progress on that this week.

To shift gears slightly, I've been doing some reading and contemplation of goals, both personal and work related. The calender has just rolled into the first full week of February. How many of your 2012 goals are you still working towards? From what I've been reading, and from what my personal experience has been, most goals (New Years resolutions) are pretty much DOA by the first of February. A couple of weeks ago I noted that research shows it takes on average 66 days to form a new habit. If you count from the first of the year, we'll pass that milestone on March 6th.

Where am I going with this? I decided that maybe a give away or two or 4 would be a good incentive to help you keep working towards finding those 15 minutes of "me time" to work on your sewing. Plus, it was a year ago this month that I started challenging myself to spend 15 minutes a day in my sewing room. What better way to celebrate?

Here's the guidelines for the give away:

1. Link up your 15 Minute Challenge post using Mr. Linky each Tuesday in February.

2. Your linked post has to include the words "15 Minute Challenge" in the body of the text or in the title.

3. Plus, in the post somewhere has to be a list of what you did or didn't do the previous 7 days. You can use pictures of the projects, a fancy report like I use, or a simple Tuesday through Monday list.

4. You have until the next Monday to link up with the week's challenge.

I'll use a random number generator to pull one winner from those who link up with each weekly challenge post in February and meet the above guidelines. The winner will be identified in the next week's post. I think that covers it.

What is this week's give away?

It's a copy of Back to Charm School by Mary Etherington and Connie Tesene, plus 4 charm packs of the Connecting Threads "Symphony of Blues" collection.

Now that you've stuck through all of that, link up with how well you did with your 15 minute challenge goals.

1. Thea
2. Shay
3. Nana B
4. Pat

5. PJ off Avondale Rd.
6. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts
7. Kate
8. libbyQ

9. Hueisei
10. Barb H

Stash Report - February 5th

2012-02-05T07:24:00.000-06:00

Thank goodness it's Sunday! It truly will be a day of rest around the Life in Pieces abode. Well, I'll need to get a few loads of laundry done, but other than that, not too much will be going on. District Science fair was this weekend. Drama Teen had a project entered yesterday. I judged Friday and My Guy judged Saturday. Then for My Guy and I, it was on to the annual school auction last night. So yesterday was pretty packed. Not much sewing going on, but I did make a break for it yesterday morning and ended up in Tulsa with a couple of hours to pet fabric. Lots of pretty stuff out there, but I only bought what I needed to put borders on the purple and yellow quilt.

Not sure exactly how I'm going to use the yellow yet, in the border or just as binding. I'm going to need to play a bit.

How does the stash report look?

Used last week: 0.65 yards
Added last week: 8 yards

Used for 2012: 3.67 yards
Added for 2012: 30.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 26.83 yards

My stashed numbers aren't outrageous, but higher than they were last year at this time. This year's objective in stash management is all on using fabric, not banning fabric purchases, especially those that are needed to finish projects. Though I do need to do a better job on the fabric usage end of things.

That's it for my report this week. We're not a football following family, but if yours is, enjoy the Super Bowl festivities.

Click over to Patchwork Times for more stash stories.

Foto Finish - Through the Window

2012-02-04T06:33:00.003-06:00

This week has certainly sped past. I'm not quite sure how it got to be Saturday. Today is the district science fair for the middle and high school students. Drama Teen has a project entered and My Guy will be judging today. I only have to get DT and one of her classmates to the venue and set up. Judging lasts for about three hours, then the girls will get pizza while the judges finish up the paper work, so rather than sitting around for four hours, I have plans for a quick trip to Tulsa to find border fabrics for the purple and yellow quilt. This time I'm taking the quilt with me so hopefully what I buy will not end up as just enhancing the stash like the other 4 fabrics I've already purchased.

Moving on, it's Foto Finish over at Cat Patches today. The optional theme this week is Through the Window. I had an image in mind for today, but I couldn't find it. Thankfully another image in the files fit the bill.

Over spring break last year, we took a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. The town is well known for it's hot springs and bath houses. We toured one of the bath houses. It was pretty amazing, lots of gorgeous stained glass and beautiful tile work. We toyed with the idea of going to one of the working bath houses and getting a "treatment", but we all decided we'd rather go eat instead, (Boring lot aren't we?)

Well it just about time to wake the girls up and get them moving. DT's classmate spent the night last night because her mother has another commitment this weekend. I'm hoping they didn't stay up half the night talking, grumpy girls are just not fun in the morning. But, I'm going to get to pet fabric later today, so I can survive anything this morning.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Favorite Thing Friday - February 2nd

2012-02-02T22:09:00.000-06:00

Happy almost Friday! I'm posting early (it's only Thursday in my neck of the woods) because as is typical at the Life in Pieces, there is a lot going on this weekend.

I'm a photography gadget person. Well, maybe not so much me, but My Guy is. Over the years I've been gifted a few gadgets. Some work, some kinda work, some either don't work or they are smarter than I am (probably the latter). At any rate, back in October I bought myself a gadget that's kinda a photography thing, but it's also a quilty thing too. I was tired of having quilt photographs that looked like this:

Yes you can see the quilt, but it just looks funny to me. I just don't have a place where I can hang a quilt to get a nice full on shot of any of my larger projects. So after reading some interesting tutorials on how to get good pictures of your quilts (like this one), I finally ordered one of these:

It's a photographer's backdrop frame (with the completed Flurry quilt as the model). So now I can hang up a quilt and get a nice front on shot of the whole quilt.

I like this perspective much better.

A quilt isn't really done until I've posted it's picture. The tutorial at the link above recommended you sew on a hanging sleeve to mount a quilt on the backdrop frame. I'm too lazy to sew on then take off a hanging sleeve. Next best thing? Curtain rings. I bought 2 packages of the big rings at Hobby Lobby. They have little clips at the bottom and the rings just slide over the cross bar. I used those to hang the quilt. The clips just barely cover the binding so you can either crop them out or Photoshop them out. As long as you evenly distribute the weight of the quilt across a number of the rings, it doesn't seem to cause any problems no longer than the quilt is up on the frame having it's picture made. For larger quilts you use more of the rings, for smaller quilts not as many.

So my favorite thing this week is being able "pose" my quilts. I'm not sure the pictures will be any better, but at least the funky angles will be gone.

To see more favorite things, check out all the links over at Quilting in Pyjamas.

2012 UFO Challenge - January Progress

2012-02-01T20:44:00.000-06:00

My 2012 UFO list contains only 4 quilts. That's all that's left after 3 years of very focused effort on UFO completions. Most of what is left on the list is going to take a fair amount of effort. I joined Patchwork Times' 2012 UFO Challenge with the sure knowledge that it would take me longer than 1 month to finish each quilt. My goal was to make significant progress on each project and hopefully finish each by the end of the year, or at least get close.

For January Judy picked quilt #5, which is the Scrappy Stars project started back in 2003. I started January with this.

And ended January with this:

I ended up changing out some of the background fabrics for simple tone on tones because the backgrounds with the red prints on them tended to muddy the design when viewed in EQ. Three new prints for the stars were also added. Even though it doesn't look like a lot of progress, I'm pretty happy with how it went. But for now, this project will go back in the box and I'll move on to February's project.

Today Judy drew #1, which is the Purple and Yellow scrap quilt.

It needs borders and backing before it can be sent out for quilting. This one might get finished enough to be quilted by the end of the month, but I don't think it will get completed. We'll see.

Since I don't have a completed UFO I'm not linking up with Judy's progress reports. But you can click here if you want to see what did get crossed off UFO lists this month.

Wordless Wednesday - And The Beat Goes On

2012-02-01T05:26:00.000-06:00

2012 New FO Challenge - January

2012-01-31T21:00:00.000-06:00

Barbara over at Cat Patches found herself UFOless at the beginning of 2012 and decided to create at least 12 more (one per month) so she could enjoy all the UFO challenges in 2013. Hence the 2012 New FO Challenge. I wasn't as brave as Barbara, my New FO plan only includes 4 new quilts in 2012.

The Mystery Quilt published in the Dec/Jan edition of McCall's Quilting Magazine caught my eye and I decided to make that my first new project for 2012. I had fun picking out fabrics from my stash and starting on the first clue.

I picked the yellow floral fabric as my theme fabric and pulled the other 3 to go with it. I've finished the first clue and am about half way finished with clue #2.

So far, no instructions for fabrics A and D. I'm curious to see how this quilt is going to come together, but I have to wait till March for the next (last) clue!

Check out all the New FO projects over at Cat Patches.

15 Minute Challenge - January 31st

2012-01-31T06:57:00.000-06:00

My Guy and I were off yesterday. Most of the day was spent on sewing, with a few loads of laundry here and there thrown in. So it was a nice day. Today it's back to work. Today is also Tuesday so it's time to look back and see how well you did at finding time to quilt or do some other art/craft activity over the last 7 days. I didn't have a bad week, considering we had an away swim meet over the weekend.

I need to figure out how to fit in some hand piecing at the meets. It's hard on Saturdays because the stands are usually pretty crowded. Even so, I managed to find at least 15 minutes to sew 5 out of the last 7 days. I guess technically last Tuesday wasn't sewing, but I did drive to Tulsa to take a quilting class. Since it will help me with finishing up quilts, I'm counting it.

I mentioned a give away for the end of February in my last post. I'm still refining the details of that. I hope to have all the logistics worked out by next week's post. I don't mean to be a tease, but what I had wanted to do isn't easily managed, so I need to rethink a few things.

So how did you do last week on finding time to exercise your creativity muscles? Write a post and link up.

1. Amanda
2. libbyQ
3. Pat

4. Pat
5. Darla
6. Shay

7. Kate
8. PJ off Avondale Rd.

Design Wall Monday - January 30th

2012-01-30T07:13:00.001-06:00

January is almost over. For some reason this month out of all the others seems to move the slowest. I noticed that last year. It just seemed like January drifted by, while the other 11 months just flew. Maybe it's just me.

Today is the last Design Wall of January. It hasn't been a bad month, there are 3 projects up on the two design walls. The Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along hasn't changed from last week, so I'm not posting a picture of it. I spent a lot of time cutting out the new lighter backgrounds for the Scrappy Stars quilt (UFO #5) and not as much time sewing on it, but I did finish one block.

The March/April issue of McCall's Quilting Magazine showed up this week with clue #2 for the Mystery quilt. Most of clue #2 is cutting the fabric, but I did get the yellow bricks cut and added to the half hourglass blocks.

Next I have to add the bricks to the hourglass blocks. I'll start on that today.

So nothing terribly exciting on the design wall this week, just bits and pieces of progress. What's up on your design wall? I'm going to check out what everyone has been up too over at Judy's Patchwork Times. But first I'm going to get my second cup of coffee so I can just hang out there a while.

Stash Report - January 29th

2012-01-29T07:02:00.001-06:00

Not much sewing going on this weekend, but that's typical for swim meet weekends. I did manage to get into the sewing room most evenings this last week. I've been working on the McCall's Quilting Magazine Mystery quilt and that has used a bit of fabric.

Used last week: 1.42 yards
Added last week: 0 yards

Used for 2012: 3.02 yards
Added for 2012: 22.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 19.48 yards

On the down side, I'm still in the red. But on the up side, I've used more fabric than I did in January 2011, plus the net stashed has dropped below 20 yards. So more good than bad going on with the report.

Check out Patchwork Times to see how the rest of the world is doing with stash management.

Foto Finish - White

2012-01-28T17:15:00.000-06:00

It's another swim meet weekend, so not much time to write a post this morning. Warm up starts at 7:30 and Drama Teen has to report to her coach 15 minutes before the team is scheduled to be in the water. Add in time to shower, eat, get DT up, and I really do need to get moving into today's topic.

Barbara over at Cat Patches has proposed "white" as today's topic for Foto Finish. My first thought was maybe to go for a snow shot. We've not had much white stuff this year, but about this time last year, we had plenty.

It's now late afternoon and I'm just now getting back to this post. The fire alarms went off in the hotel at about 6 AM. Evacuation was required. We got DT up, grabbed what we could carry and left. They couldn't find the source of the alarm so we couldn't go back in. The only option seemed to be proceed to DT's swim meet. Ten hours later we are back and since the hotel seems undamaged I would assume it must have been a false alarm.

So what did I plan to post for Foto Finish? A white ...

... rose. Roses are such beautiful flowers and they are so photogenic. Never found one yet that looked "bad" in a photo.

Check out Cat Patches for more Foto Finishes.

Favorite Thing Friday - January 27th

2012-01-27T06:24:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday! I've only got 4 hours in the office this morning and then I'm off until Tuesday. It's a swim meet weekend, so we'll be busy the better part of Saturday and Sunday, but at least My Guy and I will be off on Monday. My plan is to spend most of that day in my sewing room. We'll see how that works.

Days off are definitely a favorite thing, but I actually had another favorite I wanted to share. My poor workhorse FujiFilm Finepix Z point and shoot camera is dying. Once the subject of a another FTF post, the little thing has been used so much that the slider off/on switch doesn't always turn the camera on. Several ~~black mail~~ candid photographs of Drama Teen have been missed recently. My Guy was becoming very concerned with my reputation (cursing under your breath at school functions is rather frowned upon at DT's school); so for Christmas this year he gifted me with a new point and shoot.

It's a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V. It takes 16.2 mega pixel pictures, has one of the best optical zooms available plus all kind of cool functions.

I've been so happy with it that the DSLR hasn't been out of the camera bag much since Christmas. In fact, it hadn't seen the light of day until I pulled it out and set it up to take the pictures for this post. This Sony now resides in my purse so I have a camera with me where ever I go, because you never know when you'll see that "perfect for a post" photograph. I just need to work on stopping to take said photo rather than just driving on by.

Have a wonderful weekend. Brighten up your Friday by checking out all the other favorite things posted over at Quilting in My Pyjamas.

Wordless Wednesday - Wishing for Summer

2012-01-25T05:20:00.000-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - January 24th

2012-01-24T06:04:00.000-06:00

Life was calmer at Life in Pieces last week, so more sewing happened. It was a really good week.

Sewing happened 7 out of the last 7 days. Usually for at least 30 minutes. Yesterday's design wall post shows all the progress. I'm caught up on both the FQS quilt along and the McCall's Quilting Mystery Quilt, and made some progress on UFO #5. I've already used more fabric this month than I did all of January last year. So even though sewing for at least 15 minutes each night hasn't always happened, it's happened enough to result in good progress on all this year's goals.

Turning off the computer by 8:30 each evening has helped me get up the stairs to the sewing room most nights. I'm working to make that a habit (along with exercising and eating right). Did you know it can take someone 18 to 254 days to form a habit, with the average for most people being about 66 days (based on the results of one scientific study found here). You can miss one day and not affect your success, miss more and it's harder. If you can stick with your plan to sew/craft 15 minutes per day till the end of February, that's 60 days. Check back next week, there will be details about a give away at the end of February that might motivate you to stick to your plan to find your "creative" time each day.

So how did you do this week? Write up how you did or didn't do for the last 7 days at finding time in your day to exercise the creative part of your brain.

1. Liz
2. libbyQ
3. Pat

4. Marti
5. Thea
6. PJ - off Avondale Rd

7. Kate
8. Kari @ The Purple Quiltapotamus

Design Wall Monday - January 23rd

2012-01-23T06:54:00.001-06:00

It was a productive weekend in the sewing room for a change. A little laundry and housework was worked in as well. Drama Teen was allowed to sleep in till 10 AM, which had been her most fervent wish for the weekend. My Guy got in a bike ride in spite of the strong winds. So overall a very relaxing weekend here at Life in Pieces.

So what's up on the design wall? Blocks 8 and 9 of Moose on the Porch's Fat Quarter Stars have been completed and are up on the big design wall.

I'm enjoying playing with the red, white and black palette. Just 3 more blocks and it will be time to figure out how to set this one together.

Progress was also made on UFO #5, the Scrappy Stars quilt.

After mocking this one up in EQ, several of the original patterned backgrounds have been removed and replaced with lighter tone on tone tans and beiges. I may need to pull one or two other lighter neutrals to go with the lightest neutral. It looks a little out of place all by itself and the EQ mock up clearly showed that lighter backgrounds make the quilt look less busy.

The McCall's Quilting Mystery Quilt was started during Friday Night Sew In. Last night I finished up all the blocks from clue #1.

Now I have to wait for the March/April issue of McCall's Quilting to do anymore on this project. And since I'm caught up with the Fat Quarter Stars blocks, that leaves UFO #5 as the only ongoing project for the rest of January that I can make additional progress with.

That's it for my design wall. If you haven't yet, check out the other design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - January 22nd

2012-01-22T06:59:00.001-06:00

It's been a nice weekend here at Life in Pieces. Other than church and a pizza run last night, I've not been out of the house. The sewing room saw some action yesterday, so the stash report shows a bit going out.

Used last week: 1.32 yards
Added last week: 0 yards

Used for 2012: 1.6 yards
Added for 2012: 22.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 20.9 yards

Still way in the red, but the goal this year isn't stash reduction. This year the goal is to balance the stash, add in the blenders and mixers so that it's easier to shop the stash and come up with fabrics for a complete quilt. The other half of the stash management strategy is to use more fabric. I've already used more fabric than last January. So not too bad for the third report of 2012.

Jump over to Patchwork Times for more tales of the stash.

FNSI Progress

2012-01-21T15:35:00.000-06:00

Friday Night Sew In was actually possible at my house this week, so I took the opportunity to participate. I'm caught up on the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along and the fabrics for UFO#5 are cut, ready to be assembled as a leaders and enders project. Fabrics had been selected for the McCall's Mystery quilt, but they needed to be pressed and cut in order to start working on the first clue.

All the squares for Clue #1 were cut.

Then I was ready to start piecing.

I finished the first 10 of 40 hourglass blocks called for in the first clue. Not a bad start considering I didn't get to the sewing machine until almost 8 PM.

Check out Crafty Vegas Mom to see how everyone else did this weekend.

Foto Finish - Where I Live

2012-01-21T08:35:00.000-06:00

The "no place to go weekend" has been wonderful so far. We all slept in a bit this morning. So my Foto Finish post is a bit later than normal. The very talented sponsor of Foto Finish, Barbara over at Cat Patches, has graciously decided to reintroduce the weekly themes for those of us who can't pick out a photo to post without some guidance. But the themes are optional. Works for me. Thank you Barbara.

This week's optional theme is "Where I Live". In searching through my images, I cam across this one from a few years ago.

This is the empty field at the end of our street. Our neighborhood is on the very edge of town. Past this point it is all prairie and farms. Oklahoma is for the most part flat and doesn't have the most beautiful landscape in terms of hills, trees, and forests. But the prairie does show off the endless sky to great advantage. I like the dark background created by the clouds and the gold tones of the field and tree. The sun provides the most beautiful golden light on many late winter afternoons. I just have to convince myself to bundle up and deal with the bitterly cold winds that usually come with winter so I can go take photographs. I usually end up staying home in my cozy, heated sewing room.

Check out all the other Foto Finishes over at Cat Patches.

Favorite Things Friday - January 20th

2012-01-20T06:16:00.002-06:00

Wow, it's Friday again. This week was much calmer than last week. A lot of that may have to do with the fact that I spent the better part of two days this week in bed sick. But even without that, the week was slower on a lot of different fronts.

Since it's Friday, it's time to link up with Shay over at Quilting in my Pyjamas for Favorite Thing Friday. I didn't have to think too hard about what my favorite thing is this week.

It's the days in the circled in red. There's nothing on the calender for that Friday, Saturday and the Sunday that didn't get included, but is also blank. So this weekend, I have no place I have to be. No coolers to fill, no swim bags to pack, no getting Drama Teen up and moving at 6:00 AM. I'll be able to drink my first cup of coffee in the recliner. Maybe I'll actually get a chance to read a few blog posts and sew a bit. My kind of weekend!

Have a wonderful weekend!

An Opportunity to Play-the Friday Night Sew In

2012-01-19T06:03:00.000-06:00

Thanks for all the get well wishes. I'm feeling much better, so it's back to work for me today. I've been so fuzzy brained this week with whatever it was that was making me feel miserable, that I was completely out of touch with what the rest of the Life in Pieces crew had scheduled this week. But last night it became clear that Friday night I'm on my own for most of the evening. Drama Teen has a church youth group thing and My Guy will be out of town. So I'll be home, with no distractions for several hours. So I'll be playing along with Crafty Vegas Mom during the Friday Night Sew In.

I'm caught up on the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along, have fabric cut ready to piece UFO #5 as a leaders and enders project. What I haven't made progress on this month is the McCall's Mystery Quilt.

The fabric for that project has been just setting on the self. So I'll get it pressed, cut and hopefully get to the sewing stage before the evening is out. If you can play along, the sign up this month is over at Crafty Vegas Mom's blog.

Wordless Wednesday - Winter

2012-01-18T05:42:00.000-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - January 17th

2012-01-17T05:56:00.001-06:00

What a difference a week makes. I did really well last week finding 15 minutes to sew most nights, but not this week.

Only 3 nights out of 7 saw any activity in my sewing room. Tuesday and Wednesday night were taken up with helping Drama Teen get her science fair project ready. Thursday night was busy with science fair parent night and stuff for the swim meet. Friday we all volunteered at the swim meet. It was so late when we got home from dinner we all went straight to bed. I did find some time over the weekend and last night to finish up block 7 for the FQS quilt along and get block 8 almost cut out. Some nights I'm just not going to be able to find those 15 minutes due to other commitments. Unfortunately last week had 3 of those nights. How do you manage to find your "me time" on nights where you have other commitments?

This week should be much calmer. Especially since I seem to have come down with a nasty cold and plan to head back to bed once I'm done with this post.

So how did you do with finding time to sew, knit, embroider, scrapbook, or other art/craft fetish over the last 7 days? Please share your success or set backs by linking up below.

1. Pat
2. Liz
3. libbyQ
4. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts

5. Shay
6. Jay
7. Michelle
8. Thea

9. Kate
10. PJ - off Avondale Rd

Design Wall Monday - January 16th

2012-01-16T06:08:00.000-06:00

It's Monday already? Last week was really busy, hopefully things will slow down some this week. The volleyball tournament was over in the early afternoon yesterday, so there was time for some laundry and some sewing.

So what's up on the design wall? Block 7 from the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along.

It's not perfect, but it's done! I'm not a big fan of sewing with templates. Thankfully the directions were pretty clear and the block went together pretty smoothly. I had hoped to get to block 8 but that didn't happen. All that's up on the design wall is the first 7 FQS blocks.

The red, black and white color scheme is one I've never worked with before. It certainly makes for bold blocks.

That's if for my design wall. I'm hoping to make some progress on both the Scrappy Stars and the McCall's Mystery quilt this week, in addition to completing blocks 8 and 9 of the FQS. Probably won't get to all of that this week, but it should be a more productive week than last week was.

Have a great week. Check out Patchwork Times for more inspiration.

Stash Report - January 15th

2012-01-15T06:03:00.001-06:00

Not much playing with fabric this week at Life in Pieces. Though I did get into the sewing room long enough to finish cutting out block 6 for the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along. Maybe I'll actually get that block sewn together tonight. That would be nice as block 9 comes out on Tuesday.

The stash report for 2012 is starting off in the wrong direction. We had some time after the volleyball tournament to stop by one of the quilt shops yesterday so I could pick up some lighter neutrals for the Scrappy Stars UFO. Several suggested last week that I try lighter backgrounds to reduce the business of the quilt and that worked really well (Thanks, Liz, Trudy, Kate and Melanie). Unfortunately, There are almost no neutrals in my stash, so I bought extra so there will be some to put back into the stash when the project is over. So the stash report took another hit.

Used last week: 0 yards
Added last week: 12 yards

Used for 2012: 0.28 yards
Added for 2012: 22.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 22.22 yards

Here's what came home yesterday.

Not a great start to the new year, but I had decided that this year wasn't going to be about stash reduction, but about adding the fabrics I needed to finish projects.

It's time to go wake up Drama Teen for day two of the volleyball tournament. Check out what's going on with stash management this week by jumping over to Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - Reading

2012-01-14T05:51:00.001-06:00

It's volleyball tournament weekend and I have just a few minutes before I need to head to the kitchen to make sandwiches and cut strawberries for lunch. I've not been on the computer much, just long enough to write a few posts, but there's not been much time to read posts. I miss seeing what everyone is up to. Hopefully I can fix that tomorrow afternoon, when things should slow down a bit.

Today is Foto Finish over at Cat Patches. I've been struggling a bit to decide on photos to post. So I was looking for a way to come up with my own themes each week. I checked out the word of the day over at Dictionary.com. Sorry, but coming up with an image for "desinence" was beyond my capabilities. But I checked out the quote of the day and found inspiration from that.

"Go three days without reading and your speech will become tasteless." Chinese proverb.

There was one rainy day during last summer's vacation where we hung out at the local coffee shop, drank coffee, read, and played around with the cameras. I borrowed My Guy's Lens Baby and was just playing around to see what kind of images it made and this was one of the shots that resulted.

Kitchen duty calls, so it's time to go. Check out all the other great Foto Finishes over at Cat Patches.

Favorite Thing Friday - January 13th

2012-01-13T06:12:00.000-06:00

TGIF squared! Not that things will slow down any this weekend, but I have high hopes that next week will be much slower paced. However between now and then, there is a swim meet tonight and a volleyball tournament the rest of the weekend.

One activity has been checked off the list this week, Drama Teen's school science fair was yesterday. Thankfully DT has a science teacher that actually requires that parts of the project be turned in at regular intervals well in advance of the fair, which means that the periods of frantic and panicked work are well spaced throughout the first and second second semester. By Christmas all the work, except for putting the board together was done. However, no matter how much I nagged, DT wouldn't just get that part done. Finally, last Sunday, she finally consented to at least start getting the information into the right format ready to print out. Tuesday night, she fixed all the errors on her report and slides for the poster and printed all that out. But decided to wait on printing out the photos-all two of them.

Wednesday night was crunch time. All her evidence cards had to be organized, pictures printed, and everything glued down to the poster. All was well until she went to print the pictures at about 9 PM, the color printer finally choose to give up the ghost. After one scene in which DT showed that I'd chosen her "teen" name appropriately, she realized that it was black and white photos or nothing. Poster done and we were in bed by 11. (One mother confided last night that they were up with their daughter until 3 AM).

Was it worth it?

See the big smile on DT's face? She finished 1st in the chemistry division for her grade.

So what's my favorite thing this week? It's that my kitchen table no longer holds 6 lasagna pans with soaking and drying knives. It's that there is no more running back to school to pick up the science notebook the night before an assignment is due. It's that there are no more 5:30 PM on Sunday runs to Staples for whatever because that part has to be done before Monday morning. It's that my job as copy editor and printer operator is over for one more year. The biggest favorite is seeing the big smile on DT's face when she realized that all the work had paid off and she'd won a blue ribbon.

Have a wonderful weekend. Hook up with Shay over at Quilting in my Pyjamas for more favorite things.

Wordless Wednesday - Spring Break

2012-01-11T05:30:00.001-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - January 10th

2012-01-10T05:57:00.001-06:00

How are your quilty resolutions going this second week of January? I've made good progress on all but the stash management and even there I'm not doing too bad. But I made the mistake of looking at Hancock Fabric's new catalog on line last night. Oooh, there are lots of pretty, pretty fabrics for spring. I may be in big trouble on that front.

I've done pretty well with finding a few minutes each day to sew, ending the week with 6 out of 7 days with at least 15 minutes spent on quilt related projects.

No sewing on Friday as we celebrated Drama Teen's birthday in Tulsa. I was just too tired when we got home and ended up going straight to bed. Still not a bad week. I've been making myself turn off the computer no later than 8:30 PM and head upstairs to the sewing room. So that's been working for me.

I've been starting up new projects and fine tuning older ones. One big time soak has been my stash organization or maybe I should say lack there of. I finally got most of the stash out of plastic bins where I can see it, but most if it's not folded to to fit on the shelves and it's not sorted by color. Trying to see if the stash has something that will work in a project has been an exercise in frustration. It would take significant time to stop and do nothing but organize, but maybe that's what I should do. Of course, there's not much time to do that either. Since January is the month of new beginnings, maybe it's time to challenge myself to spend a couple of nights a week folding and sorting the stash closet. That will take me away from sewing, but I think I'd benefit from not spending hours looking to see what I really have in any given color. I'm going to try that this week, see how it works.

Now it's your turn. Write a post about what you did last week on the crafty front and include anything that's keeping you from making the most of your craft time. Use Mr. Linky to share it here.

1. Liz
2. Thea
3. Pat

4. Shay
5. Darla
6. Kate

7. Amanda
8. Jay

Design Wall Monday - January 9th

2012-01-09T06:58:00.000-06:00

Not much up on the design wall this week, as most of my time went towards figuring out what to do with UFO #5. I posted yesterday that I realized the originally selected patterned background fabric wasn't going to work. I bought new fabric to replace those, but still didn't like how it was working out. Thanks to all who suggested using more of the lighter background fabric, that made a huge difference.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of light neutrals in my stash, so it's back to the quilt shop. This pattern is derived from Folk Art Christmas Stars by Robyn Pandolph for Moda Fabrics. The pattern I'm working from was adapted by Vicki McGowan, who taught the class where this quilt was started.

The only other sewing room activity that occurred this week was prepping the templates and cutting out the pieces for block 7 of the Moose on the Porch Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along.

The background pieces still need to be cut out. I really hate working with templates, which is why this block is still not done. Hopefully by next week both block 7 and 8 will be up on the design wall with the previous blocks.

That's it for my design wall this week. For more design walls, check out Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - January 8th

2012-01-08T09:00:00.000-06:00

How did your first week of 2012 go?   I can't say that ours was laid back, everyone is back to work, school, and practice. It's actually good. Vacation is fun and relaxing, but having a known schedule tends to focus me on what I need/want to get done each day.

Some sewing happened this week, but not much. Here's this week's stash report.

Used last week: 0.28 yards
Added last week: 10.5 yards

Used for 2012: 0.28 yards
Added for 2012: 10.5 yards

Net stashed for 2012: 10.22 yards

If you want to know why behind the addition of the 10 plus yards, read on. But be warned that it's a long, sad tale of woe that is still hoping for a happy ending.

Most of the sewing room time this week was spent wrestling with the Scrappy Stars UFO. This is the oldest UFO on the list and was started when I was still pretty much a newbie to quilting. The first shock when I opened the box was that the pattern had no picture of the quilt. I've slept quite a bit in the last 9 years, but I do have a fuzzy memory of the instructor's demo quilt. Or is it my fabric placement plan that I'm seeing in my head? Either way, I decided to scan the fabrics into the computer and do a mock up of the quilt in EQ. Oh boy, what a mess!

Three of the original background fabrics for the stars are prints, with a lot of red in them. They look fine with the fabric used in the stars, but make for a very busy quilt. Bottom line they aren't good backgrounds, that red just pops off the quilt in inappropriate places. So the first order of business was to replace those patterned backgrounds with tone on tone neutrals. So yesterday these came home:

Plus a few more florals to use in the stars since I wanted to make this a queen sized quilt.

After plugging all of the new fabrics into the EQ draft, 2 of the new neutrals and the roses with the beige background were dropped from the layout. The last result looks like this:

Which is infinitely better than the original mock up. I may drop out the lightest background fabric and see how that looks. The layout isn't exactly balanced and you have to be careful because the fabric swatches in EQ don't always translate well (since you scan such a limited repeat). But this looks promising enough that I'm going to proceed with making the stars. I played a little with other blocks to alternate with the star blocks which would add in more neutral space and reduce the large blocks of print. That approach will lessen the business a bit. Any other suggestions?

That's it for my stash report. Not exactly the direction I wanted to go at the beginning of the year, but I do want to finish up this UFO into a nice quilt as it's intended to be my Mom's when it's finished. To check out how other stashes fared this first week in 2012, check out Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - January 7th

2012-01-07T07:08:00.001-06:00

The first week of 2012 is almost past. It was back to work for me this week, back to school for the Drama Teen (the new alias for Kiddo). Life is settling into it's familiar pattern of work deadlines and priority shifts on projects for me. Swim practice, volleyball practice and looming on the horizon the dreaded science fair poster due Thursday for poor D.T.

This morning, I'm sitting in the recliner contemplating what to post for Foto Finish and reflecting very positively on D.T.'s move into the teen ranks. We're off to a swim meet today, but D.T. has now aged up into the senior ranks. Warm ups aren't until 12 noon. No running around in the wee hours to get bags packed, snacks made, get it all into the car and on the road at 0 dark thirty. I actually have time to contemplate and browse images at my leisure. Which I've done and came up with this one from the fall.

On one of our "free" weekends last September, we decided to make the trek to Tulsa and spend the day at the Philbrook Museum. In addition to an exceptional art collection, the grounds are beautiful. That time of year the Monarch's are plentiful as they migrate south to their winter homes. I didn't have the DSLR with me that day, so this shot comes from the point and shoot. It does pretty well for a little camera. It was windy that day, but thankfully the butterflies weren't all the skittish, so you could get up close and wait for a break in the wind.

That's it for me this week. Grap your next cup of coffee and check out all the other Foto Finishes over at Cat Patches.

Favorite Things Friday - 1st Edition 2012

2012-01-05T21:13:00.001-06:00

It's been awhile since I joined Mrs. P over at Quilting in My Pyjamas for Favorite Things Friday. Sadly, the last couple of months in 2011 were scheduling nightmares, and favorite things got lost in all the shuffling. But 2012 is a new year and I've been stockpiling favorite things (actually pictures of the favorite things) over the holiday. So I'm good to go for a few Fridays anyway.

My family was very good to me over the holidays and gave me lots of new favorite things. One of the most special were two gifts from my sister.

I know this looks like a frame with buttons and it is that. But the buttons are very special. They come from my Grandmother's button stash. This extensive collection, as my sister tells it anyway, made it's way into the trunk of her car via a well meaning uncle (meaning she didn't find the stash until she got home). I learned embroidery from my Grandmother, who also quilted and sewed gorgeous clothing. I had forgotten all the jackets/blazers Grandma made until I opened this part of my gift.

All those shiny, coppery buttons just right for that fire engine red (Grandma's favorite color) jacket she wore over the white blouse, with the black skirt for Sunday services.

For now both decorate the bookcase in my sewing room where I can see them from the machine. Thanks Sis!

(By the way, the well meaning uncle got an ornament too, along with a note "Bet you thought you'd never see these again." I have a very cool sister by the way, but that's probably another post entirely.)

Check out more favorite things over at Quilting in my Pyjamas.

Wordless Wednesday - Swim Meet

2012-01-04T05:21:00.000-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - Welcome to 2012

2012-01-03T05:39:00.000-06:00

It's back to work for me today. The first week of vacation was really rushed with all the holiday preparations. The second week was much more relaxed with lots of time for sewing. So I did really well this week in finding time to sew.

I did more than just 15 minutes each day, but that's going to be harder this week with work and Kiddo's practice schedule. There is a swim meet this next weekend and a volleyball tournament the weekend after. Thankfully both events are local, so at least there is no out of town travel. But finding time on the weekends is going to be a challenge for a few weeks.

If I'm honest, the biggest impediment to getting to my sewing room is the computer. It's so easy once I get home to just sit in the recliner, read blogs and answer email. Then I convince myself I'm too tired to sew and spend more time on the computer. So the computer is going off at 8 PM leaving me at least an hour to sew each night.

So what keeps you out of the sewing room? Link up and share your thoughts on that, as well as how much crafting time you were able to carve out for yourself over the last week.

1. Pat
2. Marti
3. Thea

4. Ramblings of an Empty Mind (linky)
5. Kate
6. Liz

7. landscapelady

2011 - Life in Pieces Final Report

2012-01-02T17:06:00.000-06:00

I've been tying up loose ends for 2011, cleaning up the sewing room, putting up left over yardage and cutting up scraps in addition to getting started on 2012 projects. In the same spirit, I've been cleaning up the blog, updating pages and other blog house keeping chores. I was getting ready to update the Goals tab for 2012 and realized I hadn't really taken stock of how well I did on meeting the 2011 goals. So here goes:

1. Finish 4 UFOs - 50% (finished 2)

2. Start 4 new quilts - 100% (started 4)

3. Catalog Pigs, Finish One, Start Another - 100%

4. Stash Management - 29%
          Use 2 stash fabrics in each quilt - 86%
          New fabric budget of 40 yards - 0%
          Use more fabric than I buy - 0%

Finished Quilts - 7

Works in Progress - 5

Not a bad year. I did really well on getting quilts started and so-so on finishing UFOs. In terms of stash reduction, at first glance I didn't do really well. I did use at least one stash fabric in each project I finished, so a good job there. But even though I bought more than I used, I did much better on keeping the stash enhancement reasonable. If you compare 2011 to 2010, I did really well. In 2010 I enhanced the stash by over 300 yards, in 2011 the enhancement dropped to just under 50 yards. I am proud of that achievement, even though I didn't meet my original goals.

More starts, more UFO finishes coupled with selective buying for finishes and a budget for "must have fabric" is the core of my 2012 goals. I'm looking forward to a fun year. Hope you are too.

Design Wall Monday - January 2nd

2012-01-02T07:01:00.000-06:00

New Year's Day was quiet around here. Most of the day was spent in my PJ's in the sewing room. It took a bit to get going, after all madness of the holidays and finishing up three projects, it seemed strange to be moving on.

So what's up on the design wall after the one day "sew in"? Block 6 of Moose on the Porch Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along was finished.

Block 8 comes out soon, so block 7 needs to be stitched today or I'll be behind again.

The first NewFO project is the McCall's Quilting Mystery quilt. Part one was in the Jan/Feb issue of the magazine. After much auditioning of fabric, here's the palette for that quilt.

All 4 pieces came from the stash. I've had the yellow with the tea cups and strawberries on it for a while. It's actually a bit brighter than shows in the photo. Hopefully the blocks for part 1 will be up on the design wall next week.

I also pulled out the box that contains UFO #5 for Judy's 2012 UFO challenge. Scrappy Stars dates from 2003. I don't think I've touched it since then. So it took me a while to reread the pattern, sort through the fabrics and decide what direction I was going in. No pictures this week, but hopefully this one will also be up on the design wall next week. I'm going to try to piece it as a leaders and enders project while I'm working on the stars and mystery blocks.

That's it for my design wall. I'm going to grab a second cup of coffee and check out what's on yours over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - End of 2011

2012-01-01T08:28:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! We made it till the ball dropped, then all three of us sleep walked through our bed time rituals and were pretty much asleep by 12:30 AM.

I spent much of the evening in my sewing room. It was supposed to have been most of the afternoon as well, but a sudden headache put an end to that. I didn't get much sewing done, but I took some time to put up fabric from some completed projects, deal with the scraps, etc. Now I'm ready to start some new projects as well as work on my four remaining UFOs.

Judy has her stash report labeled as Week #1, but I'd rather keep my tally by calender year, so this report will cover the last 2 weeks of 2011 (due to holiday travel, I wasn't able to report last week). So how did I end up for 2011?

Used last 2 weeks: 7.21 yards
Added last 2 weeks: 34 yards

Used for 2011: 60.79 yards
Added for 2011: 104.12 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 43.33 yards

Not a bad year all in all. I used just over 60 yards, which is more than I used in 2010. I bought about a third of what was purchased in 2010 and in the end enhanced the stash by less than 50 yards. Not bad for a year where stash reduction was the goal. I'm happy with the stash management of the last year. Not a reduction as planned, but not a huge increase either.

I did add 34 yards this last week. Mainly because as I contemplated my list of new projects for 2012, I realized I had some holes in my stash. I'm really short on large cuts of tone on tones to use with all the gorgeous focus fabrics I tend to buy. So I used the sales going on the week after Christmas to fill that gap.

Pretty purples. Which may get used to finish the purple and yellow scrap quilt or may get used with the scraps from that project.

Sale tone on tones to help fill the gaps in my stash. These were all on sale.

Added to the Christmas fabric stash too. Hard to resist 50% off.

This last year was about stash reduction and limiting purchases. For 2012, the focus will be on using fabric, completing projects rather than limiting purchases. Though I've set a target of no more than 100 yards of "just because I like it fabric". Fabric needed to complete UFOs, WIPs or quilts on my 2012 project list will not be counted in that 100 yards. We'll see how that approach works for the next year.

How did you do in 2011? Did you get a good start on 2012? Check out Judy's Patchwork times for more stash talk.

Foto Finish - Goodbye to 2011

2011-12-31T07:40:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year's Eve! If you are going out on the town have fun, be a safe. We'll stay home, eat cheese and crackers, then watch the ball drop on TV. Will we make it to midnight, maybe/maybe not. How about you?

This is the last Foto Finish for 2011. Barbara has decided to drop the themes, at least for now. So how to select a photo for today? This one seemed appropriate for the end of the year.

The sunset Thursday night was just beautiful. The sky was such a deep, dark red. We just stayed outside and watched the sun sink in the west and the reds, turn to purples then to midnight blue. It's been a while since I just stood and watched the sun set.

Sunsets always make me a bit reflective. This past year has been a good, if hectic one at Life in Pieces. No big dramas though, for which I'm very thankful. Next year will see some major changes at work as the company undergoes restructuring. Our pre-teen will become a teen in about a week. Kids grow up so fast. She's demanding a new "blog" name, telling me that she is no longer a "kiddo". So I'm putting some thought into making that change. I'm sure we'll have bigger challenges and changes in 2012, but that's part of life. There's never a dull moment around here. I wouldn't have it any other way.

May 2012 be a year of adventure and joy for you and yours.

2012 NewFO List

2011-12-28T18:04:00.000-06:00

Barbara over at Cat Patches did such a good job this year at Judy's UFO challenge that she's left with no UFOs to do the challenge in 2012. To remedy that situation so it doesn't occur in 2013, Barbara is going to start one new project a month.   Isn't that a cool idea? She's even sharing the fun and sponsoring a challenge.

I do have a few UFOs (click here to see) and have signed on to participate in the 2012 UFO challenge.   But Barbara has reminded me that if I finish all my UFOs in 2012, I won't have any for the challenge in 2013. So it's obvious that new projects really need to be started this year.  However, knowing how hectic the schedule gets around here, trying to start 12 new projects would just be frustrating.  So the plan is to start 6 new projects in 2012. Here's my list (more or less in order).

1. Mystery Quilt. The Jan/Feb issue of McCall's Quilting includes the instructions for a three part mystery. I've done two other mystery quilts and enjoyed each.  I'm intrigued by the fabric choices presented in the magazine, so think this one would be fun to play along with. Plus it addresses another goal, to actually make a pattern from one of the many magazines I subscribe to.

2. Jigsaw from Lehmann Quilting. This pattern was requested by Kiddo last July and I still haven't started it. She'd probably like me to finish it before she graduates from high school (in 4 years), so it's second on the list.

3. Angel Quilt, from original design. Two SILs got quilts this Christmas, two didn't. So I have some sewing to do before next Christmas. I've started playing with designs, but don't have anything final. I want to use at least one of these fabrics in the quilt.

4. Dresden Plate. This would be a new technique for me. I'll probably make something based on a pattern from Anelie Belden's "Thoroughly Modern Dresden". This is another two-fer project. With all the books in my quilting library, it's been a long time since one was used to make a quilt. It's time to put at least one book to work.

5. Buzz Lightyear. One of my PIGS (Projects In Grocery Sacks). I bought this fabric when Kiddo was about 4 or 5, when Toy Story was popular the first time around. She picked out the fabrics and helped design the quilt, but it never got made. I'm thinking this would be a good quilt to donate to the school auction. But it may end up finding a home with some other little boy, you never know. I'd just like to get it out of the PIGS pile (another goal).

6. Project Using a Speciality Ruler. Yes, I'm guilty of collecting gadgets then never using them. So it seems like a good idea to make something from a ruler in my collection. I really like the look of quilts made with diamonds separated by a narrow sashing, but I've been too scared to attempt such a project. It's definitely time to get over that.

So that's my list. Add in the 4 UFOs and I've just committed myself to working on 10 quilts this year. Should be interesting to say the least.

Wordless Wednesday - Sunset

2011-12-28T05:02:00.001-06:00

2012 UFO Challenge - Quilt List

2011-12-27T20:44:00.000-06:00

Judy of Patchwork Times is again sponsoring a UFO challenge. I didn't play along last year, but decided that it would be fun to try my hand at the challenge this year. I only have 4 UFOs. However, I also have a day job and Kiddo is playing multiple sports this spring, so it's not likely that I'd be able to finish any of the UFOs in a single month. Each project has been assigned 3 numbers and I'll switch between the 4 based on what number Judy pulls each month. If they all get done by the end of the year that would be fabulous.

Here's my list:

1,2,3: Purple/Yellow Scrap Quilt - From 2006

Needs borders and the backing made before it can be shipped off for quilting.

4,5,6: Scrappy Stars - From 2003

Only 4 blocks completed. This is supposed to be a queen sized quilt. I have no idea how many more blocks I need to make.

7,8,9: Moose on the Porch Layer Cake Quilt Along - From 2010

All the blocks are completed and the setting has been designed. Just need to cut and assemble the sashing, the borders, make a back and it can go off for quilting.

10,11,12 RWB (Red, White and Blue) Stars - from 2005

This started as a technique class at the local quilt shop. I intended to make a quilt, but didn't get past the first block.

So that's my UFO list for 2012. Even if they don't all get done, any progress at all would be a plus.

15 Minute Challenge - 2011 in Review

2011-12-27T07:23:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas. The Life in Pieces crew and extended family all had a good time. Other than a few excess pounds, I didn't get anything that I didn't want. I'll be getting a jump on my New Year's resolutions by putting in some time in the gym during Kiddo's swim practice this week.

This is the last 15 Minute Challenge report of 2011. Looking back, this challenge started for me back in February, when the lack of progress on my quilting projects was beginning to frustrate me. Surely I could find 15 minutes every night to sew. How can it be so hard to find my way up the stairs to the sewing room to do something I really, really like to do? Actually, really, really need to do to maintain some sense of sanity in my crazy world of work deadlines and family stuff. I really am a nicer, saner person if I get a daily dose of fabric handling (there must be something to the rumor that fabric gives off mood enhancing pheromones). I started 5 new quilts this year, finished 7, and am close to finishing 2 others. I'm pretty sure that challenging myself to spend those 15 minutes sewing each day is a big factor in having made that much progress.

For whatever reason, having to report my success or failure to my blog buddies each week was a good motivator for me. More often than not, the fact that I had to write a report was the sole motivator getting me up those stairs some weeks. (Doesn't that sound pathetic?) So the 15 Minute Challenge will continue in 2012. Rules for 2012 are the same as they were for 2011. Spend 15 minutes a day, or as many days a week as you think you can routinely manage, doing whatever art/craft (depending upon which camp you are in on that subject) project that brings joy and sanity to your life. You decide what activities count. So if organizing your stash is needed, you can count that as your 15 minutes. If shopping for some fabulous fabric is needed to start/finish a project, you can count that.

So let's wrap up 2011. Did you get those Christmas gifts sewn and under the tree? I did better than expected on the finishing gift front. Geisha became a finished top, the label was added to the Texas Twilight and Flurry was finished. I had really good (though rushed) week.

Christmas Eve was the only day I didn't manage to find time to sew. It was filled with last minute Christmas shopping and other family activities.

Did your sewing time become present wrapping time, baking time or family time (all very valued activities this time of year)? Share how your week went by linking up below.

1. Liz

2. Pat

Design Wall Monday - December 26th

2011-12-26T07:48:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. I certainly did. The last week was a shopping and wrapping frenzy around Life in Pieces. Manic sewing was also well in evidence as can be seen in my late bedtimes on a few nights last week. Thankfully, I did "finish" two Christmas gifts during those late hours. The last two borders were added to the Geisha quilt so I could at least wrap a finished top up for my niece.

My niece was thrilled with the top. I'll get the back assembled this next week, then get it off to Trudy for quilting.

I finally got the binding on the Flurry quilt about noon on Friday. Leaving me just enough time to get photographs before it was wrapped and loaded up in the car as a gift for one of my sister-in-law's.

She liked her gift as well. She likes both the front and back. My Guy and Kiddo like the back of this quilt better than the front.

Trudy quilted this using holly leaves and berries along with a few snow flakes here and there.

Trudy did a wonderful job as usual.

The only thing left on the design wall is the Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along, but I've not made any progress on that this week due to the aforementioned manic Christmas sewing.

I'm off this next week and have plans to do some sewing room clean up and reorg, along with some significant piecing. To see what everyone else has been up to, check out Judy's Patchwork Times for more design walls.

Foto Finish - Colorful

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Christmas Eve! The present wrapping is done and the Christmas gift quilts are all snug in their boxes under the tree. So now I'm kicked back with my coffee contemplating what to post for this week's Foto Finish. Barbara's theme this week is colorful. This image seemed appropriate for today.

These were a gift from my supervisor. I love all color and texture in this picture, especially all the red. I've seen white poinsettias and even pink poinsettias.

Though not quite this pink. What if they could be purple?

My favorite color is blue.

I kinda like the blue. Not very Christmassy is it? Still, this color and the shape of the flower remind me of winter and snowflakes.

I don't usually play much with Photoshop Elements other than to do a bit of cropping, but I couldn't resist playing with the color slider in light of Barbara's theme this week.

Have a very Merry Christmas. Before you get to into the holiday, take a break and check out the colors over at Cat Patches.

Wordless Wednesday - An Evening Drive

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - December 20th

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

Are you ready? I'm not. But then again, I didn't expect to be as I never am. There is some small comfort in the fact that history does often repeat itself.

I'm actually doing much better on the sewing front than elsewhere. The Geisha top is done! Yeah! Now just one label and one binding and I'll be done with Christmas gift projects. I was able to double my time in the sewing room this week.

Early last week was focused on getting day job stuff done before vacation. It was much easier to find time to sew once the weekend came. So not a bad week. Between now and Christmas I'll make time to finish up the last gifts so they can be under the tree, but most of my time will be on Christmas preparations, like wrapping presents and maybe a bit of baking.

Did you find a few minutes of sanity in your sewing room last week? If so or if not, let us know how it's going in your part of the world.

1. Pat
2. Liz

3. Thea
4. Marcia

5. Kate

Design Wall Monday - December 19th

2011-12-19T07:29:00.000-06:00

It's Monday, Christmas is Sunday. I have a lot to do between now and then. How about you?

Not much sewing going on here in the last couple of weeks. Between holiday prep and work stuff, it's just been hard to get into the sewing room. I didn't bother to post last Monday, nothing had changed up on the design wall. I have snuck in a few minutes of sewing here and there this weekend, so do have a small amount of progress to show. I'm almost done with the borders for the Geisha quilt.

The last border looks very different depending upon the lighting. It has a lot of reflective gold in it. It really does look much better in person than it does in the photo. All that's left are the horizontal borders. Those are sewn and cut to size, I just didn't have time last night to get them attached. How I managed to pick two border fabrics that were directional I don't know. Must not have been focusing on the color part and not the assembly part.

Hopefully the Geisha top will be done today. I still have to label one quilt and put the binding on a second before Christmas. I'm getting there slowly but surely.

That's what's up on my design wall. Check out the other design wall goodies by stopping by Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - December 18th

2011-12-18T06:23:00.001-06:00

Only 7 days till Christmas! Only 14 days till the new year! I'm looking forward to the holidays. I'm on vacation the next 2 weeks, so will have time to do a little baking, a lot of gift wrapping and maybe some sewing. After Christmas I should be able to do a lot of sewing.

This week was hectic, which has been a pretty constant theme with me since about mid November. Consequently, it was another week with very little sewing going on. Even so, there was still a bit going out this week.

Used this week: 0.25 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 53.58 yards
Add year to date: 70.12 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 16.54 yards

I'm still working on the borders for the Geisha quilt, those should be done today. Then the top will get wrapped up for Christmas. The purple and yellow quilt just needs borders, which I hope to get to after Christmas, then I can assemble it's back. So I have a slim chance of making it back to the black before the end of the year.

Have you started thinking about your 2012 stash management goals? I don't think I want to do another year of limiting my purchases, though I don't know that 70 yards is limiting. I'm thinking a focus on using more would be a better way to approach my stash. I'll be giving that some thought over the next couple of weeks.

That's it for me this week. For more dashing through the stash, check out Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - Ribbon

2011-12-17T06:22:00.002-06:00

It's Saturday, finally. The end of another crazy busy week and the beginning of 2 weeks of vacation. Yeah! I've been MIA this week on the blog, mainly due to end of year reports that had to be in on Friday so I could take vacation. I've put in a number of evenings this week and a few early mornings trying to get stuff done and turned in. Nothing like making it in under the wire. The last report went to the boss at 5:15 PM yesterday just before I had to leave to pick up Kiddo from swim practice. Now I can pretty much concentrate on Christmas stuff, which has become a dire need with stuff needing to get to UPS by Monday. I do hope to spend some time catching up with email and everyone's blogs. And of course, some sewing will sneak in there as well.

Barbara's theme for this week's Foto Finish is "ribbon". Some of my best memories of Christmas are helping Mom wrap Christmas gifts (as well as eating all the icing when we decorated sugar cookies, but I digress). My Mom loves pretty packages, often making her own bows to get just the right bow for a package. I know she passed that love down to me. My holiday wrapping stash is proof of that.

As you can see I have a lot of bows that are meant to be put on the tree. Those bows are great if you have to ship a lot of your gifts or end up jam packing everything into the car to make the drive to spend time with family. The regular "fluffy" bows get crushed and look yucky, so I've looked for bows that can take a bit of close contact with another package and still look good. The "pom pom" bows also hold up well at close quarters, so they've been creeping into the holiday stash in recent years. I'm still working on trying to make these "everyday item" shots look more glamorous, that skill definitely needs more work.

That's it for me this morning. Take a break from your holiday preparations to visit Cat Patches for more ribbons to get wrapped up in.

15 Minute Challenge - December 13th

2011-12-13T05:48:00.000-06:00

Can you believe that? Only 11 days till Christmas! I'm not ready, but there is comfort in knowing that I'm in just about the same place as last year and I still managed to get done what had to get done before Christmas without too many late nights or panicked shopping trips.

On the other hand, I'm not feeling real great about this week's challenge report.

Yes only two days where anything sewing related happened. It was just one of those crazy weeks where the rest of my life didn't mesh well with my quilting life. Those weeks happen occasionally. This week looks to be much more conductive to sewing than last week.

I do plan to continue the 15 Minute Challenge in 2012, though I'm playing with making some changes for next year. Nothing firm yet, just some thoughts floating around in my head. If you have any thoughts about the challenge you'd like to share, I'd be interested.

So how did your week go?

1. Pat
2. Liz
3. Kate @katiemaequilts

4. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts
5. Thea
6. Marcia

7. Polar Pathway (w/Linky)

Stash Report - December 11th

2011-12-11T05:13:00.001-06:00

The Christmas tree is out of the box and assembled, but it still needs to be decorated. That's on tap for this afternoon once we get done with the swim meet.

I noted in my post yesterday that it has been a busy week. I've not done any significant sewing since last Monday. But I did get some sewing done last Sunday, so there is a bit to report.

Used this week: 0.81 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 53.33 yards
Added year to date: 70.12 yards

Net Stashed for 2011: 16.79 yards

Not a bad report for not being in the sewing room much this week. I'm hoping to fit in a little sewing time this evening after the tree is up, but to be honest I'm more likely to end up in the recliner asleep with the computer in my lap. It's been a busy weekend.

If you've got some time, hop over to Patchwork Times for more stash busting news.

Foto Finish - Holiday Decor

2011-12-10T05:41:00.001-06:00

What a week! The week started with a faulty heating system at work. My office was 58 F on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday it was in the low 60's. They were still working on it Friday. I'm hopeful of having a reasonably warm office when I get back to work on Monday. We've had the normal sport practices, but this week was also Kiddo's Christmas program and then one evening of Christmas shopping for the Angel tree at work. I wish the weekend was going to be slower, but it's a swim meet weekend, with 7 AM warm ups. I'll need to go drag Kiddo out of bed in few minutes.

With all that going on, it's been hard to get into the Christmas spirit around here. No tree up yet. No packages wrapped yet. Since today's Foto Finish theme is holiday decor, I had to go looking at previous year's pics, since there is definitely no decorating going on here at the moment.

This is actually a very small part of the holiday display at my sister's house last year. She has a significant collection of all things gingerbread related. You can just make out the gingerbread baker in the background. My sister goes all out for the holidays, she decorates almost every room in her house. Me, I do good most years to get a tree up.

I'm hopeful that our tree will go up this afternoon. Things should slow down some this week. If it doesn't, things will definitely start looking up the week after since we'll start our holiday vacation. I hope your holiday preparations are in full swing. Take a break, grab a cup of hot chocolate and hop over to Cat Patches for some quick holiday cheer.

Wordless Wednesday - Winter

2011-12-07T05:48:00.001-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - December 6th

2011-12-06T05:54:00.001-06:00

My Christmas shopping is on schedule and that's about all I can claim in terms of being ready for this holiday season. Well that's not quite true, I'm more than ready for the 2 weeks of vacation that's coming up.

I've learned (yet again) that it takes more time to finish a project than you think it will. Geisha is progressing, but I don't think it's going to get done in time for Christmas. I can finish the top, but I don't think I can get it to the quilter and back again in time for Christmas. I'm contemplating wrapping up just the finished top to put under the tree. Has anyone done that? How well did that work out?

Having just said all that you'd think I'd be spending every spare minute in the sewing room. That just didn't happen last week.

Thursday I didn't feel well, so I didn't sew. Friday was marathon Christmas shopping. Which needed to be done, but I was too tired when I got home to spend any time sewing. So just 5 days out of 7 last week where I made it to the sewing room. Which really isn't shabby at all considering the schedule we've had. In the overall scheme of things, it's been a good year. Striving for 15 minutes in the sewing room every day has meant that I've done a pretty good job of meeting most of my quilting goals for the year. So even if Geisha doesn't get completely done, it has gone from being an idea and a pile of fabric into something real. Which was really the whole point.

How did your crafty efforts go last week? Are you making progress or did you have other priorities with the holiday so quickly approaching? Here's Mr. Linky, link up and share how your holiday crafty efforts are going.

1. 501quiltblocks
2. Thea
3. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts

4. Kate @katiemaequilts
5. Liz
6. Triple Tulips - Marcia

7. Angie in So Cal

Design Wall Monday - December 5th

2011-12-05T05:40:00.001-06:00

How's the Christmas preparations going? If I were giving myself grades, I'd get an A in shopping and a F in holiday decorating and gift wrapping. Just haven't gotten there yet. Mainly because I've been trying really hard to finish the Geisha quilt. I made good progress on Saturday till I realized that the fabric choice for my first border was just lousy. Of course I didn't realize that until I had both vertical borders sewn on. After some playing around on the design wall and a consult with My Guy, I unsewed the lousy choice, cut new borders and tried again.

I still have two more sets of borders to add. This may have to be wrapped up as a completed top for Christmas with the promise the new owner will get it back quilted after the first of the year. We'll see. The tree is not up, nor are any gifts wrapped. Kiddo's Christmas program is this week, plus she has a swim meet this weekend. Time to sew is going to be a precious commodity this week.

On the other design wall are the first 5 blocks from Moose on the Porch Quilts Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along.

These blocks have been assembled as leaders and enders while I've been working on the Geisha quilt. I know the block in the lower left stands out since it's the only one that has red corners. There are still 7 blocks left, so I'm hoping there are a couple more blocks with the corners in the set. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with how this project is progressing.

That's it for me this week. Hope your holiday preparations are going well. I'm hoping to sit down for a few minutes this evening with a cup of tea to check out all the other design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - December 4th

2011-12-04T07:17:00.001-06:00

It's been a good weekend to sew since it was cold and wet. I spent most of yesterday in my sewing room, though the stash report doesn't really show that. Today we'll (actually I'll) put the Christmas tree up. Once it's up with the lights on it, I can turn it over to Kiddo for her to hang the ornaments.

As I mentioned above the stash report looks pretty anemic considering I spent most of yesterday sewing. In part, that's because I started on the borders for the Geisha quilt and then decided that one of the borders just wasn't going to work. With some input from My Guy, an alternative has been worked out. Now I just have to unsew the last set of borders from yesterday. Since I have to do that, the yardage for that last border has been backed out of the report.

Used this week: 0.66 yards
Added this week: 9 yards

Used year to date: 52.52 yards
Added year to date: 70.12 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 17.60 yards

Did you notice the 9 yards in this week? That doesn't help the report either. Part of this yardage will be used for borders for the purple and yellow quilt. I played with the fabric that was in my stash and just didn't really like any of the options. I've spent a lot of time on this quilt and just can't make myself finish it with borders I'm not thrilled with.

The dark purple in middle will be used as a narrow border around the quilt, then there will be a wider border of one of the two medium range prints. I'm leaning more towards the "viney" one at the moment, but I haven't played with these 3 on the design wall yet so that could change.

I hope your report is moving in the right direction. Check out Patchwork Times for more stories of the stash.

Foto Finish - Cold

2011-12-03T06:06:00.001-06:00

It's a typical, Saturday. Well maybe typical is the wrong word, maybe I should start by saying it's my favorite kind of Saturday. The kind I can start in my recliner, with my first (second or third) cup of coffee. The computer is on and I'm writing this post, looking forward to reading eveyone's blogs, then catching up with emails. The crew here at In Pieces has been everywhere but home it seems the last few weekends. It's nice to catch a break. The plan for the rest of the day is to work on the Geisha quilt in hopes it can be mailed to Trudy Monday. It's cold, it's raining and after walking miles yesterday in both solo and Kiddo Christmas shopping modes, my legs are really sore. So it's a perfect day to stay in and just sew.

Before I get to the sewing part of the day, it is time for this week's Foto Finish post. The theme this week is cold. I didn't have to look far. Last February we started the month with a miserable snow and ice storm. This poor guy took refuge in our rose bushes. Doesn't he look really cold?

Later in the month, we had a record low of -29 F. It was below freezing the day I snapped this shot, but not quite that cold. I'm hoping we are not on tap for as cold and snowy of a winter has we had last year. However, the forecast is for snow on Monday. I guess I can still hope for warmer temps.

Check out Cat Patches for more chilling shots.

Favorite Things Friday

2011-12-02T05:35:00.001-06:00

TGIF! I'm on vacation today - yahoo! Christmas shopping is the plan. All by myself shopping. No Kiddo, whose feed start to hurt after the first hour (with all her swimming and volleyball you'd think she'd have more shopping stamina). No My Guy asking after the first hour "Aren't we done yet?". I really don't have that much to get, I've already done a fair amount of my shopping via the Internet. But I'm looking forward to one of those rare days when I'm on my own. So I can dilly dally if I want. No arguments over where to have lunch (or when to have it). I really do enjoy my family, but with the break neck pace we've been on the last month, a day where I get to set the pace is definitely welcome.

So that's my favorite thing this week. Wander over to Quilting in My Pyjama's to check out the rest of this week's favorite things.

Wordless Wednesday - Playing Games

2011-11-30T05:45:00.001-06:00

15 Minute Challenge - November 29th

2011-11-29T05:48:00.001-06:00

I'm having a hard time getting my mind around that. How about you?

I was off most of last week, but we typically visit My Guy's family for Thanksgiving, so I wasn't home much the last week. Significant progress was made on the Geisha quilt before I left. But it couldn't go with me, so the Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks came along for the trip. Not Christmas sewing, but the handwork was nice to have in the car during the drive.

Not a bad week, 7 out of 7 days with some type of quilty activity even though it wasn't all Christmas related sewing. I'm beginning to doubt that the Geisha quilt done in time for Christmas. If I can get it done by the weekend, maybe. We'll see if that happens.

How did you do last week? Were you able to fit in some sewing along with the baking and family time? Here's Mr Linky so you can share your crafty successes from last week.

1. Pat
2. Kate @katiemaequilts
3. Liz

4. Shay
5. Thea
6. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts

7. Imaginary Blooms by Marcia

Design Wall Monday - November 28th

2011-11-28T05:41:00.001-06:00

Have you recovered from the all the festivities and shopping of last weekend? I didn't do any Christmas shopping this weekend. I did a bunch of cyber shopping last Wednesday before the holiday. I checked out a few of the Cyber Monday deals this morning but haven't seen anything tempting as yet.

It's Monday, so it's time to show what's up on the design wall. I've not posted the last couple of weeks due to business travel and other family obligations. I'm still working on the Geisha quilt. I managed to get the sashing all done before we left for the holiday last week.

Now I just need to add the borders, which hopefully will happen this week. I'm not sure this one is going to get done for Christmas. I'll keep working on it and we'll see if it slides in under the wire.

To see what else is up on design walls this week, check out Judy's Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - November 27th

2011-11-27T06:40:00.001-06:00

Wow! As Judy points out, it's the last weekend in November. Only four more weeks in 2011! I'm always amazed at how quickly those last few weeks go. Must have something to do with all the shopping and wrapping that gets added to the schedule this time of year.

I missed last week's report because of Kiddo's swim meet. But since I was away on business for most of that week, it wouldn't have been a great report anyway. On to this week's report. For the first time in 13 weeks, I've added fabric to the stash. I won a Fairy Frost charm pack from Konda of Moose on the Porch Quilts as part of her Fat Quarter Stars Quilt Along.

Thank you Konda. I love wide spectrum of colors in this pack.

Not sure what I'm going to make with this one, but I'm sure I find something. I'd really like to try mixing all these colors with black. Probably a project for next year.

I did manage to get some sewing done this week before we started the Thanksgiving visit with family. So there is a little out to balance out the little in.

Used this week: 0.82 yards
Added this week: 0.87 yards

Used year to date: 51.86 yards
Added year to date: 61.12 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 9.26 yards

I almost broke even for the week, so not too big of a set back. Plus I'm still under 10 yards stashed for the year, which compared to last year is terrific! Not sure I'll get back into the black over the next 4 weeks, but I'm going to try. My stash management goal for this year was just to use more than I bought.

How's your stash management going? Good luck to all the bloggers linking in with Judy over at Patchwork Times on meeting their stash management objectives.

Foto Finish - Birds

2011-11-25T22:56:00.001-06:00

Is it Saturday? I've been off since Tuesday and it's easy to loose track of the days. I think we finished off the last of the turkey left overs at dinner tonight. Now I just need to work off the ? pounds I've gained since Thursday.

I missed last Saturday's Foto Finish due to business travel and Kiddo's swim meet. I'm ready for this week. I even have a brand new photo to post.

It was a glorious warm and sunny Thanksgiving this year. My Guy was nice enough to loan me his newest telephoto lens for our morning walk. With it I was able to get this shot of a Cedar Waxwing having his own Thanksgiving feast of left over Persimmons. There was a whole flock of Cedar Waxwings enjoying the bounty. We watched them for awhile before heading back indoors to enjoy our own Thanksgiving feast.

For more "fowl fotos"check out Cat Patches.

Favorite Thing Friday - November 25th

2011-11-25T06:57:00.001-06:00

If you live in the US, I'm guessing you are either sleeping off all the turkey and dressing from yesterday or you are out shopping on Black Friday. Either way, I hope your Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful. If you live elsewhere in the world, Happy Friday.

Since it is Friday, so it's time for FTF with Shay over at Quilting in My Pyjamas. I didn't have to think too long to come up with this week's favorite. My Guy's family has a long standing tradition of taking a walk after Thanksgiving dinner. All the women (with the occasional assist from one of the guys) pitch in and clean up the kitchen, then most all family heads out for a walk.

My Guy doesn't go far without his camera.

Neither does Kiddo.

Daisy dog goes along as well.

After walking off dinner, we head back to the kitchen for pie and coffee. After that? I took a much needed nap.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:57:00.001-06:00

May your day be full of blessings, family, and good food.

From Kate, My Guy and Kiddo

Wordless Wednesday

2011-11-23T06:32:00.001-06:00

15 Minuted Challenge - November 21st

2011-11-22T05:51:00.001-06:00

Are you ready? Because it's only:

This week it's Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US. Are you baking or sewing? Can one bake and sew? I know I can't. I'm fortunate that my guy loves to bake and since we long ago learned that two in the kitchen doesn't really work for us, I've abandoned that field to him, and go sew. Not really a sacrifice, he's a better baker than I am anyway.

I've been a bit scarce the last week. It's been frantic and manic at the In Pieces house. I was out on a 5 day business trip last week. Unfortunately the hotel where I stayed had lousy Internet access, so no emailing or blog reading for me. Came home on Thursday evening, had enough time to run a couple loads of laundry before we left on Friday for Kiddo's weekend swim meet. So in the last 7 days, I've been home for 2 of them. Which clearly shows in the lack of sewing noted on the 15 minute challenge report this week.

Only 2 of the last 7 days saw any type of sewing room activity. That's definitely better than nothing. The Geisha quilt is coming along, I'm almost finished with the sashing. If I can get the borders on, I may still be able to get it shipped out for quilting in time for it to be a wrapped and under the tree for Christmas. This week should be a better, even with all the family activities we have planned for Thanksgiving.

Did you find 15 minutes to be crafty or did life get in the way? Link up and share how successful you were at carving out time for crafty stuff.

1. 501quiltblocks
2. Liz
3. Kate @katiemaequilts

4. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts
5. Shay
6. Thea

7. Marcia's First Bloom Quilt

15 Minute Challenge - November 15th

2011-11-15T04:30:00.000-06:00

Christmas is coming, really, really fast!!!

Not as good a week as I had hoped. But progress was made.

Only 4 of the last 7 days spent on sewing stuff and only 3 spent on Christmas stuff. I have a very challenging schedule next week, so I don't look for next week's report to improve much, in fact it may be worse. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

How did you do this week on being crafty? Was it a good week or a bad week? Naughty or nice? Whoops, probably jumping the gun on that one a bit. Here's Mr. Linky, link up if you are willing.

1. 501quiltblocks
2. Kate @katiemaequilts
3. liz

4. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts
5. Shay
6. Marcia

7. Thea

Stash Report - November 13th

2011-11-13T07:18:00.001-06:00

It's been a quick week with lots going on at work and at home. Unfortunately, not much sewing going on as a consequence. Progress was made on the Geisha quilt, so I do have a bit going out this week.

Used this week: 0.92 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 50.90 yards
Added year to date: 60.25 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 9.35 yards

Nothing in this week helped me gain ground on the stash reduction. I'm finally less than 10 yards in the red. I should be able to break even if I have the time to sew. With the holidays coming up, I'm going to have to spend time I'd usually be sewing doing other things like baking and the gift buying/wrapping. I love the holidays, so I'll take the trade off. I'm off the whole week after Christmas. So I'll have a chance to put some effort in the stash reduction front right before we end the year. It doesn't matter when right, just before midnight December 31st?

Have a great week. Check out Patchwork Times for more tales of the stash.

Foto Finish - Pets

2011-11-12T08:26:00.001-06:00

Normally, Life in Pieces is a a few times a week undertaking, but after taking a few days off of the computer and cleasning my writing palette with a marathon reading session, I find I have more to say than can be contained in one post.

Not really. Acutally it's Saturday, which means it's time to raid the digital photo files in hopes of finding something that fits Cat Patches theme for the week. This week is a hard one for me. I'm very allergic to animal dander. So though I love cats and dogs, having one in the house is just not a good idea. It's too hot in the summer and cold in the winter here in Oklahoma to subject a dog to a complete outdoor existence, hence we have no pets. That fact is very much a drag for Kiddo. She loves animals. So to make up for the lack of live animals, she has a complete menagerie of stuffed animals. Including her favorite Simba.

Simba is a almost full sized white tiger. He's been Kiddo's buddy ever since Santa delivered him in 2006. Simba is fully car trained. He doesn't mind sitting in the back of the Jeep on top of the luggage or being squished into the back seat of the car with Kiddo. He doesn't like to fly though. He finds overhead bins quite uncomfortable. So in those instances he sends his mate, Siberian to watch over Kiddo.

Siberian doesn't mind being under the seat or even being stuffed into the overhead bins for take off. Simba, being the good guy he is, takes over cub care in his mate's absence.

A little over a year ago, Kiddo decided that Simba and Siberian were getting too old to travel with her. They now have comfortable permanent accomdations at the foot of Kiddo's bed and watch over her when she's home.

Check out the other buddies and friends posted at Cat Patches.

Favorite Things Friday - Saturday Version

2011-11-12T07:10:00.001-06:00

What a week! Thank goodness it's Saturday. I've been AWOL the last few days. It's not so much that it's been busy, I was just tired of being on the computer. I spend a lot of time on the computer at work, so many of us do these days. Recently my work days (and a few nights) have been full of report writing. I must have reached my limit on written communication this week. Though I love the written word, trying to get those words on paper can be amazingly difficult. Especially when you have to write within the lines so to speak, my division has a style guide that must be adhered to. So answering emails and writing blogs was really not something I wanted to do the last couple of nights.

So what did I do last night instead of rushing home to write an FTF post? I did one of my favorite things instead. After work, Kiddo and I went to the local Hastings (the only bookstore in our small town) to hang out for a couple of hours. I love wandering around book stores, thankfully Kiddo does to. You can pick up the random volume that has an interesting title or cover and read a bit. I like to skip around, a page here, a paragraph there. Maybe it's too weird for me, maybe it doesn't fit my mood at the moment, or maybe the pages draw me in and it ends up in the pile that has to go home with me.

Both Kiddo and I arrived home with a few new tomes to enjoy. Then I proceeded to partake in another favorite. I put on my pjs, grabbed one of my new escapes routes, then spent the rest of the evening here

with a murder/romance story that kept me riveted for most of the evening.

It seems that reading last night has purged my palette so I can write today. So Shay forgive me for being a very late FTF this week.

If you haven't already linked up with Shay and the other more timely FTF writers check out Quilting in my Pyjamas.

15 Minute Challenge - November 8th

2011-11-08T06:15:00.001-06:00

Welcome to week 5 of the "crazed Christmas sewing" installment of the 15 minute challenge. Reality has set in, of the five quilts I had hoped to finish as Christmas gifts, I'll get 3 done. Which is perfectly OK. There will be Christmas next year, as well as birthdays, Mother's Day, because I love you days, so it's not worth adding sewing stress to an all ready overloaded schedule.

I still have a ways to go on the Geisha quilt, I worked on it 6 out of the last 7 days. All the blocks are finished and I started adding the sashing last night. Hopefully adding all the sashing will go quickly. But I have 4 borders to add, plus the backing to piece before it's ready for quilting.

Friday night I was so tired that any time in the sewing room was likely going to end up with me needing bandages or spending extensive time with the seam ripper. It seemed to be more productive to just go to bed earlier and get a jump on Saturday. Do you ever have days like that, where it really is just more productive to avoid your sewing room?

I have just about 2 weeks left before I hit the deadline for getting the Geisha project shipped out for quilting. I'm going to have to spend more than 15 minutes every night of the time I'm home to make the deadline. I still have to put a label on the Texas Twilight quilt, then bind and label the Flurry quilt. But those are things I can do while Geisha is off being quilted. That's my game plan for the next couple of weeks.

Are you managing to spend 15 minutes a day on your Christmas sewing or keeping up with other crafty projects on your to do list? Link up and let us know how things are going in your sewing space.

1. Kate @katiemaequilts
2. Shay

3. Thea
4. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts

5. 501quiltblocks
6. Marcia

Design Wall Monday - November 7th

2011-11-07T06:50:00.000-06:00

I'm a bit groggy this morning. Supposedly we are sleeping later, but we went to bed later too. At least the aftershocks from Saturday's earthquake didn't keep us up or wake us up. What a weird weekend.

We were actually home this weekend. Kiddo had no games, no school stuff to go to. She did get started on her science fair project, but other than having to spend a few minutes as one of her study subjects, she didn't need much from Mom.

Since we were home, I did manage to get some significant sewing done this weekend. I finished all the blocks for the Geisha quilt. I've put them up on the design wall to play with placement.

Hopefully I'll have time to play with the layout tonight and get started on the sashing. I'm using the same dark blue in the sashing as was used in the center frame of the block. The fabric in the large Geisha panel was the inspiration for this quilt. I found it on line several years ago and just loved it. It just took me a while to come up with the quilt to highlight it.

So that's my design wall this week. Click over to Judy's Patchwork Times to post your design wall and check out what's been going up on other design walls.

Stash Report - November 6th

2011-11-06T07:43:00.000-06:00

I live in Oklahoma, a state known for it's spring tornado season. Which I've learned to deal with. Last night we had a 5.6 earthquake which was really, really freaky. My sewing room is on the second floor and it was really weird and just a tad scary to have all that swaying going on for what seemed like forever. I haven't turned on the TV this morning, but from what the local news stations have posted on line, there are reports of significant damage near the central part of the state. Not exactly the type of excitement I was looking for this weekend.

I was sewing last night when the quake hit (again it was a really, really strange sensation). Still I did manage to finish up 6 blocks for the Geisha quilt last night. I had also made the binding for the Flurry quilt and another 3 Geisha blocks earlier in the week. So I have a bit going out this week.

Used this week: 1.31 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 49.98
Added year to date: 60.25 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 10.27 yards.

Over 1 yard out is a good week for me. Nothing in helps the stash numbers too. Another milestone was passed this week. I've used more fabric year to date than I used all last year. With 7 more weeks in the year and at least one more quilt back that will get made, I should manage a bit more than 50 yards out this year. To get back to the black, I need to hit over 60 yards out. That's doable I think.

We are getting down to the wire in terms of years end. To see how close others are to their stash management objectives, check out Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - Photographer's Choice

2011-11-05T07:06:00.000-05:00

This week Barbara made the Foto Finish theme really easy, we can pick any photograph we want. I say easy, but it's actually harder in some ways with no guidelines. I could spend the whole morning opening files and highlighting favorite shots. That's one of the things I really enjoy about doing a Foto Finish post, looking at all the photos and finding those that I've forgotten.

I decided this week to go with a recent photograph. Last weekend My Guy and I snuck in a mini fall photography session while Kiddo was helping to decorate for her school's Fun Night. While enjoying the brilliant fall color in one of our local parks, I came across a tree with the most unusual berries.

The tree was just loaded with these bright pink and red berries. Add in the blue skies and the yellow leaves and I had all kinds of photo ops with this one tree. It took a bit of looking this morning, but I think this is an Eastern Wahoo. Also known as an Eastern Burning Bush or if you are into the Latin names, an Enonymus atropurpureus.

That's it for me this week. I'm going to go check out all the other photographer choices over at Cat Patches. Can't wait to see what everyone decided to post this week.

Favorite Things Friday - November 3rd

2011-11-03T19:24:00.002-05:00

Thursday night and counting. Friday will be here soon. After the whirlwind of the last few weeks, there are actually no "have to be at" events this weekend. We can stay home all weekend! That in of itself is a pretty good favorite thing. But I do have something else in mind to share.

My Guy and Kiddo have a wonderful father/daughter relationship. He constantly claims he doesn't understand her and she consistently claims she doesn't get her Dad. See something in common already! Kiddo does know how to amuse her Dad. My Guy loves kitchen gadgets. She found a couple of kitchen gadgets that her Dad couldn't possibly live without. This is what he got for his birthday last month.

Which was appropriately relabeled as the -

- Alien ice cream scoop.

Every Dad needs one of those. Dads everywhere also need-

-Mr. Well Dressed Alien Pizza cutter.

Needless to say, My Guy was absolutely thrilled with his new kitchen gadgets. Another unassailable example of how well Kiddo and My Guy truely understand each other.

What's my favorite thing? The look on his face when he opened the bag, which was not photographed because I was laughing too hard to hold the camera steady!

For more favorites, check out what's posted over at Quilting in My Pyjamas.

15 Minute Challenge - November 1st

2011-11-01T06:29:00.000-05:00

The ghosts and goblins are all gone. There's a pile of candy wrappers on the dining room table where Kiddo did her homework last night. Halloween is over and it's November already. So welcome to week 4 of "Oh No It's November Already!" version of the 15 Minute Challenge - Christmas Sewing edition. I'm working hard to finish 5 quilts that I want to give as Christmas gifts this year by committing to spending at least 15 minutes in my sewing room each day. I did OK this week, working on projects 7 out of the 7 days last week.

Though 3 nights weren't actually sewing nights, I've spent some time on the computer working up a label for Texas Twilight. I know what I want it to look like and I'm not there yet. I had some CD drive problems that I'm having to work around. I want to load a photo to add to the label, but the computer won't cooperate.

I did make significant progress on the Geisha quilt. We don't have much going on this next weekend, so I'm thinking of a doing a private quilt retreat to see if I can finish the Geisha top so it can go to Trudy for quilting.  That's probably my last chance for significant progress on Christmas sewing, things get busy after that with business travel, swim meets and Thanksgiving preparations. What I want quilted for Christmas has to be in the mail to Trudy just after Thanksgiving for her to have time to finish it and mail it back. So my deadlines are getting close.

If you are looking for a more concentrated bout of Christmas sewing closer to the big date, you should check out Cat Patchs' Occupy Your Sewing Room blog event.

She has prizes and such if you participate. Since I work I can't dedicate the time she proposes, but I may try to kick it up a bit during that week to see if I can get some other projects done. If I start on Jigsaw, maybe I can get it done in time for Kiddo's birthday. I don't think she's getting it for Christmas this year.

How did you do this week on finding time for crafting?   Link up with Mr. Linky and let us know.

1. Think outside the BLOCK!

2. Kate

3. 501quiltblocks

Design Wall Monday - October 31st

2011-10-31T06:12:00.002-05:00

Happy Halloween! We're ready for tonight's trick or treaters. My Guy and Kiddo spent last evening carving pumpkins. I think they've been watching too much of "Halloween Wars" on the Food Network. This year we will have a vampire and a mummy greating the trick or treaters tonight. (I was initially alarmed when My Guy popped into my sewing room and asked if we had a roll of gauze bandages anywhere in the house.)

This Halloween is a bit sad for me., Kiddo will not be out pounding the pavement in search of candy this year for the first time since she was 2. At 12, she could probably squeeze out one more year, but at 5' 2" Kiddo looks a lot older than she is. There is a costume party on her schedule tonight, so she's not terribly bummed.

Since it is Monday, it's time to show what's up on the design wall. I got the Flurry binding sewn yesterday, but that's laying on the cutting table, not up on the design wall. That's my only "new" project this week. I've made some progress on the Geisha blocks.

Only 11 more blocks to frame before I can start working on the sashing, so I'm more than half way there.

That's it for me this week. Check out more Halloween eye candy over at Judy's Patchwork Times.

Stash Report - October 30th

2011-10-30T06:53:00.000-05:00

Can you believe that it is the last weekend in October? Our morning temperatures have dipped into the below freezing range, though it's still nice in the afternoon. It's definitely fall.

With the cooler temps you'd think there would be more going on in the sewing room. Unfortunately I think less went on this week than last week. Definitely less fabric getting used.

Used this week: 0.53 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date:   48.67 yards
Added year to date:   60.25 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 11.58 yards

There have been no additions to the stash for the last 10 weeks, so that's working in my favor. Unfortunately that's going to change this next week. I don't have enough of any fabric to put borders on the purple/yellow scrap quilt, so I'm going to need to order a few yards of a dark and a light purple so I can finish that project.   On the bright side that fabric will come in, then go right back out.

That's it for me this week. Check out Patchwork Times for more tales of the stash.

Bloggers Fall Quilt Festival - Fall 2011

2011-10-29T14:44:00.000-05:00

It's time again for the Blogger's Quilt Festival so graciously sponsored by Amy's Creative Side. I'm a little late getting my entry posted this year due to photography problems. This quilt was completed last week and has been dubbed "Texas Twilight" by My Guy.

This quilt has made previous appearances on my blog while it was under construction as the Buck-A-Block quilt. The light background blocks are made from Thangles Buck-A-Block #2 designed by Mary B. Hayes. The black and dark blue setting was self designed. These blocks were offered as a BOM by the local quilt shop when we lived in Texas back in 2006. I didn't actually start working on the blocks until about mid year last year.

This quilt was supposed to have green sashing with a blue bonnet print as the border. But that proposed setting would not gel with the blocks. I ended up going in a completely different direction. The dark fabric in the Thangles blocks is actually bluebonnets on a black background, hence the black. The blue is a good match to the blue dots in the light background fabric. I like the finished quilt even though looks nothing like the original plan. Sometimes the blocks just have other ideas than you do.

Trudy Lindemann did the quilting. She used diagonal lines in the blue setting triangles and wide borders. In the narrow blue border she did a modified feather motif and then loops in the pieced blocks. It turned out beautifully.

Grab a cup of coffee (or tea) and hop over to Amy's to check out all the wonderful quilts posted as part of this fall's show.

Foto Finish - Something Round

2011-10-29T06:59:00.000-05:00

It's Saturday! Finally. It always seems like the week you are back at work after taking vacation is unusually long. At least it works that way for me.

The previous two weeks, Barbara's Foto Finish themes have been a challenge. This week I was pretty sure there would be something in my files that would work. To be honest, I had too many shots that would work. Finally I asked My Guy to make the call. He narrowed it down to two and I finally picked this one because we both agreed it fit the theme best.

I like the colored tops of all the markers. I'm not sure why it is, but there is something appealing about a brand new box of colored makers, pencils, or crayons. I can't draw to save my life, but I still love the idea of a new box of color. These are actually scrapbooking markers that I bought for one of Kiddo's projects. Now they reside in the sewing room and I use them to color my hand written piecing instructions when color placement is important.

Circle around to Cat Patches to see more round somethings.

Favorite Thing Friday - October 27th

2011-10-27T19:51:00.001-05:00

It's not quite Friday in my corner of the world, but it's close. Maybe by writing my Favorite Thing Friday thing post I'll get a good jump going into the weekend. After a day spent in meetings, I most definitely need some powerful positive thinking!

Last week was Fall Break for Kiddo. She had 3 days out of school. We had great plans for the long weekend, but after a mix up with the volleyball schedule, an unexpected business trip for me and an out of nowhere assignment for My Guy, we weren't sure there would be any plans. However, we did manage to cobble together a short family trip where we:

Looked at big rocks

Climbed into the big rocks

Checked out one of Jesse James' hideouts.

And photographed the fall foliage.

So the rocky start to Fall Break ended up being a rocky end too. But in the end we all had a great time.

That's it for my favorite thing this week. Check out all the other Friday favorites over at Shay's Quilting in My Pyjamas.

15 Minute Challenge - October 25th

2011-10-25T06:13:00.001-05:00

It's week 3 of the 15 Minute Challenge - The "Where Does the Time Go" Christmas Sewing version.

Progress was made this week on the Christmas gift sewing I wanted to do. It never seems to be as much time as I would like, but managing to find at least 15 minutes to sew 5 out of 7 days in a very busy week is not bad.

The binding is done on the Buck-a-Block quilt, which has now been dubbed Texas Twilight (thanks to My Guy for that spiffy name). Now it just needs a label and then it will be finished. I'm making progress on the Geisha quilt. No progress on the other 3 gift quilts on my list. Though once the Texas Twilight is labeled, I'll start working on the binding for Flurry. I'm confident that I can finish 3 of the 5 quilts for Christmas. I've not given up on the other 2, but it's looking less and less likely that they will make it to the finished column. However, I do have 5 vacation days that I need to take between now and the end of the year or I lose them. So there may be a one or two day sew-a-thon in my future.

Did you manage to find time for Christmas sewing or other crafty endeavors this last week? If so (or if not), write up your tale and share it with Mister Linky.

Design Wall Monday - October 24th

2011-10-24T06:55:00.000-05:00

Monday, already? Most of last week I was lucky enough to be on vacation, though the first two days of the week I was out of town on business. It's hard to do much on the blog when I'm traveling for work, so there was no Design Wall post last week. I'll make up for it this week.

Block 2 for the Moose on the Porch Fat Quarter Stars Quilt along is done.

My block is simpler than the pattern provided. I just liked the cleaner look, especially when paired with the first block.

All the blocks for the purple and yellow quilt have been sewn together.

The original pattern didn't use borders, but I'm going to add a couple. That may mean ordering some fabric as most of the purple I have left is all as fat quarters. I really like how this one is turning out. This UFO almost didn't get finished becuase I wasn't thrilled with the first 3 blocks made in the class. It definitely deserved a second chance.

Progress was also made on the Geisha quilt.

I'm not setting the blocks this way, there will be dark blue sashing between the blocks in the final quilt.

That's it for my design wall. Hop over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see other design walls.

Stash Report - October 23rd

2011-10-23T06:46:00.000-05:00

It was a busy week. I had a business trip the first part of the week and then Kiddo was on fall break the last part of the week. We snuck in a very short trip to one of the state parks where we climbed on rocks for an afternoon and found several wonderful restaurants where we added back all those calories we worked off (and then some probably).

Some sewing did happen. I finished 5 blocks for the Geisha quilt and finished the Fat Quarter Stars block 2, so there is a little going out.

Used this week: 0.6 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 48.14 yards
Added year to date: 60.25 yards

Net Stashed for 2011: 12.11 yards

I did check out one quilt shop while we were out and about, but didn't find anything that had to come home with me. I have just a little over two months to work back to being in the black. There are two quilts I've been working on that will need backs in the near future. I have the fabric for those two in my stash, so that should help move me in the right direction. I'd really like to end the year in the black.

How's your stash management going? Link up over at Patchwork Times and share.

Foto Finish - Something Spooky

2011-10-22T09:25:00.001-05:00

For the second week in a row Barbara's Foto Finish theme has elicited a groan. Something spooky? I was pretty sure my image files were going to be severely lacking any potential images for this week. Unfortunately, I wasn't wrong. So this morning, I grabbed the camera and went looking for inspiration. I had a few thoughts, none of which yielded what I was looking for. Then I remembered something my daughter had decided on as party favors for a Halloween movie party she hosted a few years ago.

These skeletal glasses were very popular with the girls. They all sat around watching the movies eating popcorn with with bubbly grape juice in their spooky champagne glasses acting so sophisticated, as only 9 year old girls can.

For truly spooky images, check out what has been posted over at Cat Patches.

15 Minute Challenge - October 18th

2011-10-18T05:00:00.000-05:00

Welcome to week 2 of the 15 Minute Challenge - The "What Was I Thinking" Christmas Sewing version.

Real life has begun to intrude on my dream of finishing 5 quilts for Christmas gifts. What was I thinking! I forgot that I have a week long business trip in November, plus I got tapped for a business trip this week. So that ends up being 8 days out of my sewing time before Christmas. I really may have to rethink my strategy. Especially since I only managed 4 days this last week. One day was actually spent on a non-Christmas project, but I'm going to count the time anyway.

I'm not going to panic just yet (even though it sounds like I have). We'll see what things look like after next week. If things still look dim in terms of having time, I'll trim my quilt Christmas list.

So how did you do this week on achieving your crafty goals, Christmas related or not? Use Mr. Linky to share your week's goals or woes as the case may be.

Stash Report - October 16th

2011-10-16T06:38:00.000-05:00

Half way through October as of yesterday. Hard to believe isn't it. I'll be glad when October is over. It's crunch time at work and the deadlines have been keeping me pretty busy. I did get some sewing in this week. I finished 3 blocks for the Geisha quilt, so I have just a little going out this week.

Used this week: 0.27 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used to year to date: 47.54 yards
Added year to date: 60.25 yards

Net stashed for 2011: 12.71 yards

Nothing in again this week, which helps in moving me just a bit closer to being back in the black again.

To see how stash management is going globally, check out Judy's Patchwork Times.

Foto Finish - Orange

2011-10-15T07:47:00.001-05:00

When I read Barbara's Foto Finish theme for this week, I groaned. I was pretty sure my photo selection for orange was going to be zero and with this week's schedule, grabbing a new shot was going to be a challenge. You'd think for someone who lives in the state of Oklahoma orange would be fairly easy to come by in a photograph. On any given weekend, you'll see a lot people out and about in either deep red or bright orange, the colors of the two state universities. I have even less of an excuse for having limited orange shots in my portfolio since I'm an alumni of the one with orange and black school colors.

Surprisingly, the photo files contained a fair number of orange themed shots to chose from. I whittled it down to three, then sought the opinion of the resident photography guru in our house, My Guy, as to which one to post. This was his choice.

This one is the "orangest" of the three according to My Guy. If you can't tell, it's the petal of a Tiger Lily. This shot was taken on our trip to Washington State a few years ago. I love using a macro lens to capture the texture and details of flower petals. Each petal is a work of art in itself.

To see the world through orange colored glasses, check out who linked up to Cat Patches for this week's Foto Finish.

Favorite Thing Friday - October 14th

2011-10-14T06:39:00.000-05:00

It's Friday, finally! Time to not only actually contemplate favorite things, but maybe to actually do one or two. I've been contemplating favorite things for the last couple of days and as I start to write this post, still haven't come up with anything worthy to write about. That has been an ongoing struggle the last few weeks, what to write about on Friday. With My Guy on the road the previous 4 weeks, Kiddo's insane practice schedule and the multitude of deadlines at work, I seem to be incapable of thinking of a single favorite thing.  So if I can't decide on a single worthy topic to write about, maybe it's time for a list.

Kate's Top Ten Little Things in Life

10. Sun sets
9. Sun rises
8. the blue, blue skies of fall
7. My Guy's ginger cream scones (which he made yesterday)
6. Reading a good book
  5. Spur of the moment photography expeditions
4.  Spending time in my sewing room
3.  Being silly with Kiddo
2.  Pillow talk with My Guy
1. Hanging out with My Guy and Kiddo

That's it from my corner of the world. Check out all the other favorite things over at Quilting in My Pyjamas.