Still on a roll!

Someone must have wished me luck yesterday! The Essential Triangle Tool I was looking for!

I'll admit I did said a quick prayer to the patron saint of lost things, St. Anthony.  He almost never fails me.

 I took a class called "Geese on a String" at Mountain Quiltfest 2019 with instructor Bonnie Hunter this past May. I blogged about it - Mountain Quiltfest 2019.
I purchased the ruler straight from Bonnie herself 😊.

After class, I packed everything up nicely into this plastic bag.

Unfortunately, I never got back to working on it. It's another UFO, but I am determined to return to it!

With the Essential Triangle Tool located, I became determined to complete clue #3.

Clue #s 1,2, & 3 safely stored in a box.

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical that my 1/4 inch seam would be compatible with the Essential Triangle Tool. I also changed the presser foot on my machine to the quilter's 1/4" guide. I was certain I'd have to do a few sample half square triangles until I found the perfect seam.

But it was nearly perfect on the first try!!

I only need to clip one dog ear. That's it! No trimming necessary!

the first two sets for Clue #4.
Yes! I'm still on a roll!
Wishing you progress on whatever you are working on too.  See you soon!

No stopping me now!

We had planned to go on a road trip today. Just as we put our shoes on the thunderstorms started and the weather report showed it would continue storming all day.

We decided it's better to do our road trip on Monday.
And so, instead of being on the road, I got to work in my sewing room much of the day!

I opened a box labeled "crafts and books."

Surprise! It was old computer magazines and catalogs.  The box was my Hearts stuff and not mine! Most of it went into recycling and one item went into his computer room.  Another box gone! Yay!!

Of course, since I was in my room, I took some time to finish the sewing part of clue #3 of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt Frolic.

Isn't this little duck fabric is too sweet!

It makes me smile and want to cuddle something!

now my half square triangles are ready for trimming.

And I'm painfully aware that if I used Ms. Hunter's Essential Triangle Tool ruler, I'd probably just have to clip dog ears. But can you guess where my ruler is?  It has yet to be unpacked. I couldn't wait.  The end result is the same. By the time of this update, I'm half way through trimming.

However, peeking into the next clue is revealing to me how much easier it will be with the Essential Triangle Tool. So! wish me luck that I find that ruler in the next few boxes!

(and yet, I have other triangle rulers that I can figure to use in much the same way that is demonstrated. Also, Bonnie Hunter includes traditional rotary methods for cutting the required pieces. So I am thankfully not at a halt without the tool!)

One other item I'm keeping my eye out for is my portable design wall. Again, it's not necessary for me to continue, but it is quite helpful.  Especially as I want to continue working on my son's fiance's quilt. I think last I told you about it was in my blog update One thing leads to another.  Eeeep! that was back in July! I really don't want this to become another long term Unfinished Project!

Alright then! I think I'm ready to unpack another box. I'll let you know if the items turn up 😊

what's to stress about?

I am not sure what I am going to blog about today.

Life is busy, as it is for most around the Christmas season.

I continue to put my new house in order, there are still unpacked boxes in almost every room.

I guess there are some tell-tale signs of that I might be slightly stressed about putting my house in order. 

Some kitchen items are missing and I'm coming to the conclusion that two drawers were perhaps left behind. I can't recall checking that side of the kitchen to make sure they had been emptied when the packers packed everything up.

Specifically, the kitchen knives are definitely missing. I had it in my head that the rolling pin was in those same drawers. So when we were at the grocery store buying cookie ingredients, a rolling pin was purchased as well.

And we made cookies...

 

... Texas shaped cookies!! 😆💕

Then I cleaned up. Went to put the new rolling pin away....

and there was my old rolling pin...

 ... in the drawer...

... in plain view...
... ready to be of service at a moments notice!
🙆 now i have two rolling pins. Want to come roll out cookies with me?
I quickly checked all the drawers again for the kitchen knives, but no such luck there.

Actually, aside from the few missing utensils, setting the kitchen and the living room and most of the other rooms has been quite easy.

To my surprise, it's my sewing/craft things that has me stressed.

I have a vision of what I want my sewing room to look like...
...all the yardage pieces of fabric folded the same way to fit perfectly into the shelves

... all the smaller fabrics between 1/4 yard to 1/2 yard folded into boxes

... all the smaller scraps trimmed and kept neatly in boxes...

... But it's not happening as quickly as I would like it to set up.

This is my room as I am blogging today.

I have debated with myself how much of my mess I want to show you.
But this is part of my quilting/crafting journey and that's what this blog is all about!
Some might call me a perfectionist (in the crafting area) but Never! is anything perfect.

When getting ready to move and getting rooms in order for the packers, my sewing room got the least attention. It was a mess.  Fabrics and projects mixed together. Books in every corner. ..knitting, crocheting, yarn, styrofoam balls, and a ton of miscellaneous crafting things.. all placed in my room.

Mind you, my room made sense to me! but what does a mover know about my organization?
I purposely stayed out of the room when they were packing because I knew I would micro-manage and majorly slow down their work. I figured I would sort it when unpacking...
was that a mistake or not?
a blessing in disguise, perhaps?

This is how my unpacking is going...
Each box is a mystery.  Only labeled with the words "Sewing Room."
Some have the additional word "fabric" or "books" or "misc."
When I eagerly unfold the flaps there's no telling what I'll find.
I love the easy ones that have the folded fabric on the mini-bolt cards (pictured above)
but too often it's a Pandora's box...

obviously fabrics were grabbed up and shoved into a box.
Everything mixed together.
LOL, those poor packers, they were probably at a complete loss as to what was what in my room.
It's not their job to organize or clean, they just grab whatever is there and put it in a box. Breakables are wrapped with paper, lots and lots of paper is used. No breakables in this box.
For me, on this end, having to handle and sort every item, is an eye opener.
I. Have. A. Lot. Of. Stuff!!
a lot of forgotten stuff!

This little John Deer Christmas stocking was hiding in this particular box. 🎄
Maybe at the time I made it I didn't like the way it turned out. But now I think it's super cute! I'm gonna send it out to a special someone as a belated Christmas gift.
I've already gone through 3 boxes before i opened this box, I'm not going to sort this one at this moment and so I'm not going to show all my goodies 😜.  I think you get the idea of what I'm dealing with here!

I do want to show you that the mini-bolt cards don't work quite as well as I would like right now.
They are a half inch taller than the shelf space...
these are the standard cubby shelves from Walmart or Ikea.

I'll turn the mini-bolts on their sides for now. But I'm hoping as a reward for unpacking all my boxes, my Heartbeat will have custom floor to ceiling shelves put in that are tall enough to accommodate the height. 🙏
I had 100 of these mini-bolt cards. they were quickly all used up (or I haven't unpacked the last few empty cards yet.) It's obvious that I could use more. For now I'm just going to roll up the fabric on a mini-bolt and slip the card out and stack it on the shelf. I might like it enough to not need to purchase more mini-bolt cards... we'll see...

I have also found out that fabric pieces bigger than 1/2 yard don't fold as well into the the scrap boxes and less than 1 yard pieces don't stay well on the mini-bolts.
I plan to fold them to half the width of the cubby and I can put two stacks side by side.

Setting up is going to take time. a lot of time.  I won't stress that it's not instant. (I also have to remind myself that it's been the holidays, most of my time has been spent enjoying my kids that were visiting and not in my sewing room!)
I have come to see these Pandora's boxes as blessings.
I can let go of a lot items that I am pretty sure I'll never get back to using (those styrofoam balls for instance. And fabrics too! can you believe it?)  I'm happy to pass them on to someone who will be happy to use them now.  I think Scrap Creative Reuse in Denton, TX is a great place to donate those items.

In the meantime....
I have started a new project. LOL, that's not news, right?
My quilting friend Judy Stokes is a huge Bonnie Hunter fan. I've written about how big of a fan in my blog post Mountain Quiltfest 2019.
Judy is of course participating in this year's Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt Frolic. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I couldn't resist having a look at Bonnie's blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips to see what it was about this year.
The second sentence in the intro to the mystery says, "This year it’s all about the Texas wildflowers!"
And I was hooked!

And it's ever so convenient as I'm sorting through my fabric!

I've found enough to start with the clues!

Clue #1 complete:

Clue #2 complete:

and I'm working on clue #3: (yes, I'm a trimmer)

Clue #5 was released today. I'm slightly behind, but you know what? I'm OK with that!
I'm unpacking. I'm visiting with family. I'm piecing at my sewing machine. I'm attending sit and sews. And I've joined the Denton Quilter guild!
I am busy and life is really really good!

Phew! Hardly a moment to breathe.

Hi all! Last I updated was on November 22. That was more than two weeks ago! It seems so long ago in some ways and only a minute ago in others.

A lot has happened in these two weeks. Let's see...

The Monday before Thanksgiving, we got the keys to our new house! I'm still in awe. It's so amazing!

That evening my son and his girlfriend flew in to spend Thanksgiving with us.
On Tuesday our house hold things were delivered to our new home. Our son and his girlfriend took care of the pets at the apartment and brought us food while we tended to the moving details.
I managed to get beds and bathrooms in order. And our daughter flew in later that evening.
Wednesday morning I continued unpacking, trying to get the kitchen set. And I soon found out that many of the boxes are mislabeled. I wasn't having any luck finding the cooking or eating utensils.
Thankfully, our awesome realtor Bruce  Lynn delivered  a pre-prepared Thanksgiving dinner ready to be popped into the oven because he knew it would be nearly impossible to unpack AND make Thanksgiving dinner. He wanted our first Thanksgiving in our new house to be amazing and not stressful.

(I highly recommend Bruce Lynn if you are getting ready to buy or sell a house in the DFW area! I could list several more things he did that was above and beyond. I appreciate all he did for us!)

To add to the blessings we had already received, our son proposed to his girlfriend over dinner. And she said, "Yes!!"  And now I can't get enough of saying, "My son and his fiance."   Aww, my heart is sooo full to overflowing!!
(I'll insert their engagement photo here if/when they give me the ok to use it.)

And then family time was over.  "My son and his fiance" flew back home on Friday. Daughter went back to school on Sunday. What wonderful time we had. It was difficult letting them go again.

All the while, I was unpacking a box here and there when there was a moment between family outings.  To this day, I still haven't found the kitchen knives, but I've got priorities like getting my sewing room going!!

However, there was a big deadline looming, I was down to the last three days to focus all my attention on getting this quilt top put together.

At the beginning of the year, the Possum Town Quilt Guild president Barb Deacon and her team of officers presented several opportunities to guild members. One of those was an "Ugly Fabric" challenge. I blogged a little bit about this in the post titled "Three Projects." If you want, you can go to the Possum Town Quilters of Columbus, MS , USA blog post and see all the blocks that were in the challenge.

I felt all the challenges were presented in a way that allowed me to show my Whimsy-ness. I was given freedom to do what I do. I was inspired...
It was as if I had been given a gift.  So I wanted to show my appreciation and give something back to PTQ 2019 President Barb.

The original idea was to have members make an extra "Ugly Fabric" challenge block secretly and give to me. But I also wanted to include those members that didn't participate in the challenge.   So the only restriction I put on these blocks were that they had to be no smaller than 8 inch and no larger than 12 inch squares.
I embroidered the name of the maker on each block.

I'm pleased with the final result. I hope Barb loves it as much as I do. (She has a longarm machine so she gets to quilt it herself 😜.) I hope that as she looks at each block and sees who made it she thinks, "yes, that looks exactly like something she would make!"

Oh, yes!  I wanted to tell you a couple ways that packing paper can be repurposed! It really came in handy when I was working on this top.

It can be used to sketch applique designs...

And it's great as a stabilizer for stitching the fused appliques.

 
Tearing the paper away was super easy.



Thursday morning found me at the local USPS store posting this quilt top over-night delivery to Mississippi so it could be presented to Barb at the PTQ Christmas party on Saturday.  I'll tell you, there's nothing like waiting until the last minute!! If I was any later in finishing, I would have had to drive it to MS myself. Phew!

As I've been unpacking and setting up my sewing room, of course I'm unpacking UFOs (UnFinished prOjects.) ...
...but I think that's it for now.  I'm going to take a moment to breathe and enjoy the many recent blessings. I'll come back soon(ish) and tell you what UFO is back on the work table now, as well as the new project I couldn't resist starting.
Wishing you many blessings.

Thursday Missions Quilting

This is the group I've been seeking!!

Every Thursday from 9 to 11:30.

 

Hand quilting around a frame in Quilting bee fashion.

 Good conversation while stitching.

The group hand quilts tops for a fee. The money earned is given to a mission that is dedicated to helping women and children all around the world. 

I asked how busy the group is. I was wondering there's ever any shortage of tops to quilt. The answer - there is a waiting-list long to enough to keep them busy for the next two years at least!

The end of the day is at 11:30 sharp.

 

The frames are folded in half and stored in a back room until next week.

Happy Thursday quilting!!

The Denton Quilt Guild November meeting.

I'm continuing to "try on" quilt guilds and groups.  It's been a fun experience. There's so much quilting going on around me it's making my head spin.

The Denton Quilt Guild meets every 3rd Tuesday of the month.
Oh gosh. Where do I start?!
My overall impression of this guild is that it offers many many opportunities. A quilter just has to decide to grab up those opportunities!!

The above photo is a panoramic view of what I walked into this past Tuesday evening. The sign-in table is on the right and the snack table is on the left.

The website states that the guild has more than 200 members. I'm sure by time the meeting started there were pretty close to 100 in attendence!

With that many, I was just another body in a group of quilters.  Luckily, I had met Jo-Rhonda the day before at the Graceful Quilters Bee. She was ready to be a friendly familiar face.  Without her I would've been completely lost.
Thank you, Jo-Rhonda for being my tour guide!

This meeting was dedicated to feature the many quilting bees available to DQG members.  "Bees" are small groups that have formed and meet outside of the guild meeting. Some are technique based. One focuses on wool applique and crazy quilting. 

Another is the Arts Quilting Bee, that promoted so many different techniques I couldn't begin to list.
There is a Book/Blocks of the Month Quilting Bee. A theme is named for the year, like "great women in espionage," then blocks are made in relation to the theme.

An Embroidery Bee is all about machine embroidery.

There are a few are simply Sit and Sew Bees, bring your own project and come for the company.

Some of the Bees meet at a member's house, some meet at bigger venues like church halls.

Some are daytime, some are in the evening.

There are so many options once your a member of the Denton Quilt Guild!!

The guild is a non profit organization. As such, it has a major focus on community outreach. Kids Kuilts, Quilts of Valor, and Habitat for Humanity quilts were talked about during this meeting.

As well as a Stocking drive (not really what it was called but I can't remember) where the guild made over 1200 Christmas stockings this year! I can only list a few of the programs. DQG community outreach is pretty impressive!

It was a lot of information for me to absorb in just a couple of hours. I'm sure I have missed a few things. The meeting was Tuesday evening and it is now Friday morning. That's how long it's taken me to compose this update because I'm still processing!!
😁 I'm pretty sold on this quilt guild. Membership is $35/year. That's a fantastic deal for everything that comes with it! I haven't even mentioned the monthly presentations!!  You can find that info on their webpage Denton Quilt Guild.

Oh yes! Last but not least.
Show and Tell!! (But I only got a couple pictures.)

 

Graceful Quilters Bee

When I reached out on the Texas Quilter's Group on Facebook, looking for guilds or sewing groups, Donna Cost invited me to visit the Graceful Quilters Bee.

She said, "Meetings are on the 1st and 3rd Mondays at Grace Bible Church in downtown Sanger from 9:30-3ish. Many of us at also members of Common Threads QG in Gainesville and some are members of Denton QG. Welcome to Texas!"

I surprised the group when I walked in. They weren't really expecting a newcomer. But when I asked for Donna, she knew exactly who I was. She jumped out of her seat and immediately gave me a welcoming hug! Then she excitedly introduced me to the group and how I happened to be there.

Quilters are encouraged to bring whatever they want to work on. I took my hand piecing project, the double wedding ring. 

Brenda, sitting on the bottom right on the picture above, and Teresa, sitting straight across from Brenda are the group organizers.  Today, they are working on a quilt top that will be given to the Grace Bible Church as a thank you for offering the space for the Bee meeting.

 

Three more quilters walked in after I took pictures and set up tables. There is room for many more!!

(I apologise for the poor quality in my photos. My phone was quite low on batteries and I didn't think to take a charger with me.)

This is Donna in the purple shirt. She was working on putting binding on a prayer quilt that will be given to a family who's house had burned down.

The next photos are close-ups of some sayings written on the quilt.

I'll tell you, there is no shortage of quilting in Texas!
To tell the truth..
Quilt Guilds. Quilt Groups. Quilt stores.
They are all starting to get mashed together in my head. Too many for me to keep track of.
I could easily become overwhelmed.
Instead, I'm going to keep my heart open to opportunities. And I will follow the leads when they present themselves.

Opportunities like - from todays Graceful Quilter Bee group I have been invited to two charity quilting groups (one is a hand quilting group that meets weekly!! THAT is exactly what I've been hoping for!) and the Gainesville Quilt Guild. It should be interesting to see each group. I'll certainly keep you updated 😊.


Back to today's pictures...
I took a selfie to prove my attendance.
I deleted it from my photos because I have a bit of a crazy-eyed look going on. But, as you can see, I restored the pic and added it here because...  well, that's me 🥰!

Whimsy Hita!