To-Do Tuesday #7

I have been linking up to Home Sewn By Us and this is my 7th week.

I celebrated my 80th birthday this past weekend and I have added some photos with family  

Our great granddaughter took some photos of us at Miguel's restaurant

Last week Dave and I had a nice walk at Santee Lakes

I didn't plan very many projects for this last week because we had a lot of things planned....

So,,,,here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of February 11 through February 17:

1. Do more Stitch Meditations yes
2. Make sure I have all the info for Bonnie Hunter's Frolic mystery before it is deleted.yes

1  I did two more of my zen stitching

2  I got everything copied that I needed about the mystery before it was deleted off the website

To-Do for the Week of February 18 through February24:

1. Finish the improv brown tablemat
2. Do at least 3 more scrappy around the cabin blocks
3. Yellow brick road quilt top ready to quilt and start FMQ

I am linking to Roseanne's Linky #28

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #6

I have been linking up to Home Sewn By Us and today is my 6th week.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of February 4 through February 10:

1. Do some Stitch Meditations at least 3 days. yes
2. FMQ improv browns quilt  yes
3. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on class lessons 4 days  yes

1  Here is the photo of the three I did this week.  I have been so interested in this since I heard about it several weeks ago and have blogged about this in previous blog posts.  These are just fun to do with no plan and just do creative stitching and enjoy the process.  I call these zen stitching.  I have a total of 7 done so far.

2  I finished FMQ on the improv quilt and have the binding sewn on and am now finishing the hand stitching binding to the back.  I did a lot of different practice stitches some for the first time.  I blogged about some of these in the last post.

3  And I worked in my class book.  I have some other pages partly done.  The only one finished is page 1.  The logo art in the photo is by Joanne Sharpe and the bottom part is done by me...the painting and doodle letters.

To-Do for the Week of February 11 through February 17:

1. Do more Stitch Meditations
2. Make sure I have all the info for Bonnie Hunter's Frolic mystery before it is deleted.

I am not going to be very specific on goals this week.....I have a birthday coming up this weekend!  I am coming to the end of my seventies!!  Hard to believe.....this time came too fast!  AND I have Aztec basketball games to watch!

I am linking to Roseanne's linky #27

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

FMQ on improv quilt

I am doing practice FMQ on the improv browns tabletopper!!

This is 14 x 57 and I started on the right end in about 10" and started with crazy matrix.  I have done this design before and blogged about it.  A design by Leah Day.

I had used the walking foot for the other tabletoppers I have made...but after one stitchng line on this one I decided I would switch to the BSR and that worked better.  I didn't want to turn the quilt each time.  It was easy to turn the smaller quilts I had done before and easier to control moving the quilt.

On this quilt.....I ended up going past the line on some areas and just filled in some random things....I will go back and fill in more and it won't stand out so much!!

The next photo is a design I am doing for the first time!  AND I am doing it without trying it on paper first!!  If this were any other quilt I would always practice on paper and another fabric practice piece.  BUT this quilt will be 5' above the floor and actually not very visible. 
click on the link by Leah Day
Open heart tutorial
It is a fun design without closing the heart and doing echoing.  I know I can do better with practice and this design will be one I use in the future.  Some of my hearts I ended up closing and not leaving open...

Linking to Free Motion Mavericks   week 266

Now I have to hurry up and do some more quilting before the BB game later this afternoon.  Our SD Aztecs are 23 and 0 and they are so fun to watch.  There will be no quilting during their games!! 

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #5

I have been linking up to Home Sewn By Us for the past several weeks.  And today is my 5th week.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of January 28 through February 3:

1. Finish batik rails quilt this month. yes
2. Do a page in my creative journal and post in FB group Decorative Journaling  yes
3. Improv browns....get the top pieced and start FMQ practice on it  almost
4. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on it 4 days. yes

1  I finished the Kiwiberry batik rails quilt the last day of January....and did a blog post about it then.  The quilt has a lot of different FMQing and I added lots of photos to that post.

2  I am in a FB group and we do creative art journaling about our life and our days!  We have to post at least once a month to stay in the group..........and here is the page I posted last month.

3  I have the top almost done of the improv browns.........the top and bottom borders are ready to be added.  I have the binding ready to add.  

4   I worked 5 days on my 2020 online class in practicing and in the class book

My last post I also blogged about what I call my zen stitching.  Last week I heard about Stitch Meditations and started doing them.  There is more about it on my last post.  Here is a photo of the four I have done this past week:

These are not art quilts....just creative stitching for mindfulness practice.  

There is a video by Liz Kettle to watch to learn about it and the rules of doing it.

To-Do for the Week of February 4 through February 10:

1. Do some Stitch Meditations at least 3 days.
2. FMQ improv browns quilt
3. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on class lessons 4 days

I am linking to Roseanne's Linky #26

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Kiwiberry batik rails finish and some zen stitching

 I finished a UFO that I started in November 2010.  I have blogged about it before and lately quite a lot!  It was a goal to finish this quilt this month.........and that is what I did!

 Here is the back.......I did a lot of different FMQ designs.......mostly as practice for the first time on each design.  This will go on our patio table.

 I took photos of all of the areas and decided to add them to this blog post.  There are words and short sentences added in different areas. AND I did some very big hand stitching in some areas!

next I will talk about what I call zen stitching.................

 This week I read a blog post about Stitch Meditations..........I became very fascinated and interested in checking out the video and learning more about it.
So here is the info I read and you can check it out on this blog post by Andrèe here 

The video she refers to is on YouTube by Liz Kettle   Stitch Meditations

Rules....No plan..take few minutes to pick materials...no taking out stitches. AND OK not to be perfect!! Here are my little pieces of creative bliss!!! I have used flannel 4 x 4 and 3 1/2 x 4 and my tiny saved scraps!!!  I like the idea with no plan and just decide as you go what you will do.  So I have spent about 30 minutes on each of these the past 3 afternoons....sitting on our patio with temps in the upper 70s............so relaxing......

And the reason I call it zen stitching.......meaning of zen is.....a state of calm attentiveness in which one's actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort.

I am linking to Free Motion Mavericks  week 265

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #4

I have been linking up to Home Sewn By Us for the past several weeks.  This is my 4th week already....I like the published list to keep me focused.  AND I like to see what others in the link are doing.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of January 21st through 27th:

1. Piece the improv table runner which will be 14 x 57 and do FMQ practice
2. Do some cutting and/or sewing of the Frolic quilt at least 4 days  yes
3. Work on 2020 Artfully Inspired LIfe book at least 4 days  yes

1.  The photo below shows the stack of blocks ready to put together.  I still need to add some more blocks so I didn't quilte get done what I had planned....but I made good progress!

2.  I did work on the Frolic quilt on 4 days

3.  I worked on my online class on 4 days.

Here are two photos from the Road to California quilt show that we attended in Ontario.  It was an amazing quilt show and very enjoyable.  The quilts were outstanding and there were a lot of vendors.

You can check online to see these quilts by the quilters....these are my photos that I took......

The first one is by Kathy McNeil called Spring Harmony

The second photo is part of the quilt by Claudia Pfeil called Bricks and Gears

To-Do for the Week of January 28 through February 3:

1. Finish batik rails quilt this month. 
2. Do a page in my creative journal and post in FB group Decorative Journaling
3. Improv browns....get the top pieced and start FMQ practice on it
4. 2020 online class Artfully Inspired Life....work on it 4 days.

I am linking to Roseanne's Linky #25

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #3

For the past two weeks I have linked up with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

Having a list keeps me focused on my plan for the week and I think I get more done with this published list.  So I am continuing with making a list and putting it on my blog.

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of January 14th through 20th:

1. Finish quilting batik rails quilt and get ready to add binding.  yes
2. Do 4 pages of Joanne Sharpe online class book Artfully Inspired Life
3. Make 4 more Scrappy Strips Around the Cabin blocks  yes
4. Start an improv table runner for the top of bookcase on office desk.  yes

1.  I finished FMQ and got the binding ready and have applied the binding....and started hand stitching the binding to the back.  Here is the photo I took yesterday of the quilt trimmed and ready for the binding.

2.  I did not get 4 pages done in my 2020 Artfully Inspired Life book but I did work in this book. 

3.  I made 4 more blocks for the Scrappy Strips Around the Cabin quilt.  The photo shows the four in a group of blocks with paw print centers.  I have 9 blocks with these fabrics to add to 21 more blocks I have of all various shapes and fabrics.

4.  I started the improv table runner.  The photo shows the groups of strips sewn together and also some of the 2 patches added together for 4 patches.  I have them numbered 1 through 9 to keep track of which ones I have joined together so I don't have repeats....for more of a variety.  Most of these are really old fabrics that I want to use up and this quilt won't be very visible because it will be up on top of the bookcase.

To-Do for the Week of January 21st through 27th:

1. Piece the improv table runner which will be 14 x 57 and do FMQ practice
2. Do some cutting and/or sewing of the Frolic quilt at least 4 days
3. Work on 2020 Artfully Inspired LIfe book at least 4 days

I am linking up with Roseannes  Linky #24.

Be sure to check it out and join in the fun!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

FMQ fun

• I am having a lot of fun doing FMQ every day.  
• In this photo I wrote the words..... create every day.
• I started doing the designs from online Bluprint class....28 Days to Better Free-Motion Quilting.
• The designs are zig zag, circuit board and simple V from this class in the photo.

I am linking up to Free Motion Mavericks

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday #2

Last week I linked up with Home Sewn By Us for To-Do Tuesday.

I found that having the published list for this week kept me focused on the things I had planned for the week and was fun and not a burden.  Since I am retired I try to relax and enjoy my days leisurely as I choose to do things.  But I also need to give myself a little push!!

Here is my list from last week and my progress

To-Do for the Week of January 7th through 13th:

1. Make progress on my batik rail quilt with FMQ and hand quilting.  I made a statement yesterday at my quilt group that I will finish this quilt this month.   yes
2. Practice FMQ at least 5 days this week   yes
3. Do some pages in my online class book with Joanne Sharpe 2020 Artfully Inspired Life   yes
4. Work on Frolic Bonnie Hunter mystery   yes

1.  I worked on the batik rails quilt every day.

2.  I did FMQ practice 6 days for at least 10 minutes.  Practice was on my batik rails quilt most of the time.   I did a blog post on Saturday with a photo of FMQ on my batik rails quilt.

3.  I worked a little bit in my 2020 Artfully Inspired Life book.

4.  I worked on part 3 of Frolic mystery doing HST on 2 different days. 

To-Do for the Week of January 14th through 20th:

1. Finish quilting batik rails quilt and get ready to add binding.
2. Do 4 pages of Joanne Sharpe online class book Artfully Inspired Life
3. Make 4 more Scrappy Strips Around the Cabin blocks
4. Start an improv table runner for the top of bookcase on office desk.

I will post my progress next week

Linking to Roseanne   Linky #23

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

FMQ practice

Today I wrote the word practice...........in my batik rales quilt.  I have been doing FMQ practice and that is what it takes to get better.  I am using this quilt as my practice. 

My inspiration for today and 10 minutes of FMQ was from Bluprint class by Christina Cameli.  From the class Free-Motion Quilting Essentials I did pebbles, spiral vine and feathers.

The other parts at the bottom are from her book Fog, Orange Peel Echoed and Plenty.

There are other parts of this photo I did with a ruler and just practice.

I still need a lot of practice to get these to look decent.......but I wanted to share what I have done this week so far.

I am linking to Free Motion Mavericks
https://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com/2020/01/sacred-geometry-for-project-quilting-at.html

I just found out about this link today and wanted to share my practice of FMQ.

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

To-Do Tuesday

I have decided to add my to-do list to my blog.....at least I will do it this week.
I have a habit of making a list every day of things I want to do.  BUT.....This will be different to post some of my things from my hand written list to my blog! I have been reading blogs of others doing this and I am joining in the fun!

  I will be adding this post to Roseanne's link     Click....It will take you to the To-Do Linky #22

To-Do for the Week of January 7th through 13th:

1. Make progress on my batik rail quilt with FMQ and hand quilting.  I made a statement yesterday at my quilt group that I will finish this quilt this month.
2. Practice FMQ at least 5 days this week
3. Do some pages in my online class book with Joanne Sharpe 2020 Artfully Inspired Life
4. Work on Frolic Bonnie Hunter mystery

At the end of the week I will post a report of how I did for the week on my goals.

Linking to Home Sewn By Us  (link above)

Smiles and hugs....Caryl

Happy New Year everyone!

A new year with all new possibilities!  Today I will be setting up my bullet journal and my list of things I want to do this year.........................and working in my new online class and......more fun things!

BUT FIRST.....I am going to watch the basketball game that starts at noon!  Aztecs are 13 and 0 so far this year!
We really enjoy watching college basketball!!

Smiles and hugs....Caryl