Friday Morning Bark

Easter is renewal and Spring came early this year in Minnesota.  The lawn mowers are running again, people are beginning to til their gardens..much too early, I think.  We've been getting some frost at night but not much rain.

I might get the doll quilt finished by tonight so I can send it off to my swap partner next week.  Today I'm planning to do a bit more clean up in the yard and start shopping for a new washing machine.  Yikes!  Tomorrow will be spent preparing for guests on Sunday.  


Hope you all have a nice Easter.  Minnie and I will be back next week with a Morning Bark.

HAPPY EASTER

 

Blog Challenged

I get very discouraged with myself when some simple techno thingy confounds me.  You'd think I would've figured this out long before now.  Here's the thing.  After how many months have I been blogging?  Not that many, actually, but I just discovered that I have to update the "Blogs I'm Following" from time to time.  I thought they would show up automatically every time I clicked on one to follow.  So, I apologize if your blog hasn't shown up here.  I'll be a better steward of the blog in the future.

Remember that should list ?  It helps to list things and talk about it.  I'm making progress.  Hair cut appointment made for Thursday, picked out the flooring for the laundry room and it's scheduled to be installed in two weeks, made a doctor's appointment but will probably cancel it as my back feels normal again even after I worked all day yesterday raking and picking up leaves.  Go figure.  I have the Easter dinner planned and the kitchen floor has been mopped.  Gave blood today and after I finish up here, I'm heading to the sewing cave for some bliss time.

Speaking of the sewing cave, I ordered this fabric from Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

 It's called Biscotti, a fat quarter bundle of 9 different cookie fabrics and the top piece is a panel with these cute sayings.

 

I must have had cookies on my mind and I impulsively ordered this with no plan of what I'm going to do with it.  I do see some future mug rugs and maybe apron trimmings.  

I'll sign off leaving you with two pictures of spring in Minnesota.  Off to the sewing cave.

 

 

FO Challenge

Hard to believe it's the last day of March already.  I started a few new projects for March..

This first one might end up being the doll quilt for May so I'm not going to show too much of it.  Just a snippet.

This is a scrappy Delectable Mountains from  my excess blue fabrics.

 One more block on Sunbonnet Sue is finished.  I thought I'd be moving along faster on her.  At least my months are up to date.

 I received a beautiful sampling of fabric from my friend Pat when she visited San Diego in December.  It's called Dark Chocolate & Lavender by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill Fabrics.

She didn't buy me all of this (wish she had) so I had to go in search of more.  Of course, I couldn't find it anywhere so I contacted the shop in San Diego.  Rosie's Calico Cupboard Quilt Shop
doesn't have an online catalog but I emailed Rosie and she responded immediately and found the fabric I needed.  Only $8.75 a yard and she sent it right out.  I ordered on Friday and it was in my mailbox in Minnesota on Monday.  Anyway, I decided to make a Sister's Choice quilt for a very special person.  

 I thought there was something else but I guess this is enough.  

I should get busy now.

Dealing with the Shoulds

I've been ruminating about everything I should be doing the past couple of days.  And what it ended up doing is almost paralyzing me.  I didn't get my walk in this morning because it took me almost an hour to check email, blogs and get the printer to working again.  Besides, the sun wasn't shining so I just stayed in my jams until after 9:00.  However, I did go out for that walk after lunch and decided that if I made a list of all my shoulds I would probably get some of them accomplished.  So, I'm going to publicly share my list, print it out, and revisit it in a couple of days..okay, weeks..to see what I've done and left undone.

Here goes.  I should:

Wash the windows

Clean the house.  Easter Sunday dinner will be held at my house this year so I should get busy.   You know what will happen?  I'll get the kitchen floor scrubbed, bathroom cleaned, living room and dining room dusted and vacuumed and to heck with the rest.  Good enough!

Get a haircut.

Go to the flooring store and start the process of replacing the laundry room floor.  Once that starts, I'll have to shop for a new washer as mine is slowly dying.  I hate shopping for anything that costs hundreds of dollars that I can't cut up and sew back together to make something beautiful with.  $$$

Start quilting the Blue Beast.  I did get it pin basted.  

 I just need to come up with a design.  

Clean out the closet.  I can't even show you a picture of that.  I'm too embarrassed.  Let's just say it use to be a walk-in closet.

Make the doctor appointment to see what is really going on with my back.   $$$

Transplant those Hostas I've been meaning to do for two years.

If I do everything on this list, when will I have time for the sewing room?  You see my dilemma?  Do you have a should list?

Monday Morning Bark

I wasn't going to "bark" this morning because it's a dark, cold day and I didn't feel very positive in my brain.  Minnie even went back to bed and stuck her head under the covers.  However, I always walk in the morning and decided that what I needed to do was to put on my winter jacket, hat and scarf and brave the elements.  Walking always cleans the cobwebs out of my head.  The temperature is 42 degrees but, with a northeast wind, it feels more like 32.  Our plan was to work out in the yard today.  That's not going to happen.  Perhaps it would be best to head to the city and do our hunting and gathering.

The sewing room saw some action over the weekend.  I did a second block on the Dark Chocolate and Lavender quilt.  I don't think I've blogged about this yet.  My friend Pat brought me a sampling of this line of fabric from San Diego and I've been saving it for a special project.  Of course, I needed more so the hunt was on.  I'll give you the whole story on a future blog sometime this week.  Wait until you see this fabric.

I also started another scrappy mini quilt.  Yikes!  What am I doing?  Like I don't have enough projects going on?  After we get our shopping done today, I will do some quilting on the doll quilt for the monthly Doll Quilt Swap.   Then, get some applique pieces ready for my evening hand sewing.  It might be a good day to bake cookies, too.  

There's always something to do.

FMQ Challenge for March

I really liked the March tute by Ann Fahl.  It flowed so easily out of me.  The only part that didn't look to well were my circles and I'm not even going to show those.  However, the stars and flowers were my favorite.  This is how it looks on my sampler

 This is the front.  Pink thread on white flannel.

This is the light green flannel backing.

I decided this would be the perfect quilting pattern for that scrappy star quilt I did in January.  

 I quilted the loopy stars on the main part of the quilt. 

 
 I did  clam shells on the inner border and vining flowers on the outside border.  The flowers were done in a variegated thread.

I think this has been one of my most satisfying quilts to make.  I used scraps throughout.  And, the quilting just flowed.  Thank you Ann Fahl for an inspiring lesson and thank you, Sew Cal Gal, for bringing all the wonderful teachers to our homes every month.

Just Had to Share This...

This was my "Astrograph" this morning:

TAURUS  It may not be smart to push for certain things, such as matters that affect your material affairs, if you sense the timing is bad.  Listen to what your instincts are telling you.

All you Taurus people, watch what you add to your stash today.