Very Busy With Nothing Finished ...

Well, here we are quickly approaching the middle of February. Time for an update. I feel like I've been busy but I'm not too sure I have much to show for it. So let's see what we've got now.

#7 - Augusta

#8 - Aunt

First up is Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler quilt. I posted #1-5 HERE and I was in the middle of #6 - April while at retreat. You can see me working on it HERE but I don't know where my picture of the completed April has gone. I'll search and keep you posted. I've done a few more blocks since then which is good, right? I must confess that Ava was done in a previous attempt at this quilt. However, the other three I recently completed. It looks like there is an upcoming stretch where I've already done them. Yay!

#9 - Autumn

#10 - Ava

#11 - Bea starts the B names and I've actually already done her too EXCEPT there's a slight error that will be corrected before I post her. *Red face*

I have to say that I'm really liking what I see as these are getting done.  Already trying to visualize how I'm going to finish this up. I need to stay focused though. 10 are done and only 89 to go! *Snicker*

This past weekend I was able to spend a couple of days with friends sewing. Seemed like a good time to work some more on Bonnie Hunter's On Ringo Lake. What started off looking like this mess:

Turned into this mess! I believe this block is sometimes referred to as Birds in the Air. That's 48 of them laying there with skazillions more to go. Pretty sure this will be a retreat project. Can't really see myself working diligently on this project at home. It's pretty intense.

In the meantime, Loopy Academy kicked off on the 1st of this month. I'm working on Senior Year, 2nd Semester. One of the projects has to be a sweater or a vest. I decided to work on Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Baby Nouveau-ne. You can find the pattern on Ravelry. I've admired it for a while and thought it challenging enough to be fun but easy enough for Olympics watching too. This picture was actually taken the day before yesterday.

Last night I got one sleeve fully knitted and I'm halfway done with the second. I can't wait to finish it up, weave in the loose ends, and block it. It is going to be so cute! I've got several girly sweaters in my Grandma's Hope Chest so I thought I'd add a blue boy's one to the lot. (I'm going to use some of the leftover yarn from this project with a multi-color yarn to make some Hobo Mitts for my daughter -- at her request. Of course, by the time they're done it will be spring but she'll have them for next winter!)

As an aside, I'm almost done with the 2nd border of Mosaics and will be stitching up more hexies for the third border very soon. This is also a terrific Olympics watching project. Pictures coming soon!

Keep on sewing & knitting!

Retreat Weekend!

I love Retreat Weekends and I especially look forward to this one. It always fall on Martin Luther King's Birthday weekend and is located about 40 minutes from home. Such perfect timing -- Christmas holiday is over and the house is slowly getting back to normal. Also the closer the retreat, the more time for sewing! I did get a little bit of a later start than normal. I had to stop by my mother's house to check on her bandage. She had a "scrape biopsy" done on her upper right arm. It was hard for her to change out the band-aid since she's right-handed. No problem ... just put me a little behind but it was OK by me.

So what did I accomplish? What felt like 100s of flying geese for On Ringo Lake, the mystery quilt presented by Bonnie Hunter. In fact, it was 152 but they are squared-up to perfection and sewn together in pairs. Yes, that's 76 pairs with more needed! If you want to see this quilt, visit Bonnie's Quiltville blog right here. You can still download the pattern but I'm pretty sure it will be leaving the website soon.

Since I'm also starting back on my Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt, I took that project with me as well. I finished Block #7 - April. It is a 6" block = tiny! I was working on Block #3 too but then discovered some of it was paper-pieced and I didn't have that part printed out. I'm so grateful that Angie at Gnome Angel started this back up again. She has terrific tips on block assembly, Marti Michell has tutorials for putting together the patchwork blocks, and the book has a CD complete with paper-piecing patterns. This go-round we're piecing the blocks in numerical order, with the goal to complete 2 per week. That puts us done in a year as there are 99 blocks plus assembly. I plan on getting several more blocks in order over the weekend. At least I got one block done at retreat!

Our retreat's fearless leader, LindaLee, always offers a small project. This retreat was no exception and we put together a matching pair of microwave bowl cozies. They were so cute and easy! I hope to make bunches of them up for the family! So cute!

Tonight is FNSI. I've been working on an embroidery project and plan on finishing it up tonight while watching the Australian Open Tennis Tournament. Wendy of Sugarlane Designs is our hostess and it's not too late to join us. If you click here, you'll go to her website and you can sign in. We have fun all over the world from Australia to USA to Europe and possibly more! Sewing is always more fun with friends!

Keep on sewing!

On Ringo Lake Block

On Ringo Lake Mystery Quilt has come to an end ... of clues, that is. There will be lots of sewing on it for me over the next several weeks ... months .... hopefully not YEARS!!!! I do have a history of letting time slip by without finishing up projects in a timely manner.

New button to provide incentive to keep on quilting. Haha! If you want to see how others are coming along on this quilt, check it out right HERE. I took a cue from my friend Dana and put together one block.

I'm happy with how it looks and I'll keep on with this. It only gets prettier with the sashing and layout!

Keep on sewing!

On Ringo Lake Part 5

In between Christmas & today, we said good-bye to our daughter. It's always sad to see her go but I'm happy to see how much her kitties welcome her home. Sarah has her own life and I'm happy that she shares what time she can with us. She also always welcomes us when we visit her.

I put together a bit of On Ringo Lake Part 5. It was a re-run of Part 2 only using a different color. Perfect because life is busy enough this time of year.

Linking up with Bonnie HERE . It's amazing how far all us On Ringo Lakers have come. I think we're all looking forward to seeing how this mystery is going to come together. Looking good!

This post is short & sweet. I'm off to a Mid-Way Between Christmas & New Year Party!

Keep on sewing!

PS I started updating my blog for the new year. It's a work in progress and sure to change over the next couple of days!

On Ringo Lake Part 4

Short post today. Daughter is arriving today and brother & his family on Friday. Am I ready? Nope but here we go anyway!

Linking up with On Ringo Lake Part 4 HERE!

I'm still managing to do a little (emphasis on LITTLE for sure this week!) on these clues. Looking forward to seeing how they will all come together! This morning I did 4 units for Clue 4. *wink* Made sense to me! I did two of them -- the outside ones in the picture -- per Bonnie's instructions (which were good!) and two of them -- the inside ones -- using Lynn Wilder's Patchwork Math method (also good). Both leave bias edges outside which I don't like to do because I invariably will stretch that sucker out. Big bummer! I pressed these units with Best Press to try to avoid that issue.

Anyway, if one of the next steps is to sew a HST onto these units, then I have a way that I will use that works well for me. However, if we don't, I've got a lot of these individual units to master!!! UGH! 

Have a Merry Christmas, my friends. I know I will because I'll be surrounded by family.

Keep on sewing!!

On Ringo Lake Part 3

Man, this mystery quilt sure does cook along. So glad I decided to take Bonnie Hunter up and just do a few segments of each clue. You know, I screw up enough but can you imagine what a mess I'd have if I tried to actually keep up by completing every clue???? Just to prove my point, we were to make mirror images of pieced rectangles. I cut out enough to do 14 figuring I'd make 7 pointing each way. Well wouldn't you know I ended up with 9 and 5??!! Still equals 14 but definitely not evenly! Hahahaha! Check it out in the picture below:

I also discovered that I've mixed up my colors without telling myself! Ha! Where I was going to have green is now purple and vice versa. It's OK though because my screw up goes through all the clues so far so I'm good, just not what I had in mind at the beginning.

There are a lot of people playing with Bonnie's On Ringo Lake Mystery. Check out their combos right here: Link Up #3. It's definitely not too late to join in!

Keep on sewing!

On Ringo Lake, Part 2

So far, so good. I am keeping up with the clues, if you can call it that. Again I only did a few of Clue #2 but I'm really liking what I see so far in the link-ups. Some of the quilters have been arranging their clues in interesting block formations. Hmmmm .... are they on the right track OR has Bonnie thrown them a curve? We'll see as the journey progress. If you'd like to see what others have been up to, LINK HERE!

In the meantime, here are my Clue #2 blocks: Flying Geese!

On a side note, look at this gorgeous beauty who has been showing up on our own pond lately! I think I'll call him Ringo because his timing is perfect. This is the 2nd day (not in a row, though) that he's made an appearance. I haven't seen him in a couple days but that doesn't mean he's not around. He could just be hanging out at the other pond in our subdivision.

Wherever he is, I hope he's having a wonderful day and I wish the same for you. Let's sew!!!

On Ringo Lake & Autumn Jubilee

Do you follow Bonnie Hunter of the Quiltville Blog? Every year on the Friday after Thanksgiving she begins a mystery quilt-a-long and this year's is titled On Ringo Lake. Clue #1 came out last Friday and I've decided to give it a shot. For the last couple of years I've watched others make her scrappy-style mystery quilts and I've wished I'd joined along. This year I'm going to sew with the Quiltville group but I'm only going to do a few of the weekly blocks until I see how the pattern turns out. If I like it, I'll finish it 100% of the way it was meant to be. If I decide it's not quite my style, I'll piece together what I've got and see what else I come up with. Sounds like a good plan, right?

Clue #1 was to make 9-patches. Bonnie is using colors inspired  by her photo of Ringo Lake. Here is her button so you can get an idea of her color palette. To see everyone's progress, click HERE for the Monday Link-up.

I'll be using slightly different colors. Her chocolate browns will also be my chocolate browns. (Yum! I love chocolate!) Her turquoise will be my green and her melon will be my purple. These are my blocks for this week. Nothing too spectacular to look at so far but it is progress!

On another front, I have been making headway on my Autumn Jubilee lap quilt. This quilt-a-long was generously hosted by Carole from From My Carolina Home Blog. Not only did she post directions for this quilt in 3 sizes, but there was also a tablet cover and a wool candle mat you could make. Again a very generous gift from yet another sweet blogger. I believe I've shared her information here before but here's another plug because it's so worth it! Click HERE to check out EVERYTHING she offers -- gardening, cooking, card making, traveling, and (of course) quilting.

Here are a couple pictures of my blocks. When I laid them out on the floor, they became "Polly Approved"!

My guild, Hearts 'n' Hands, offers quite a few charity opportunities. One of them that I enjoy contributing to is the Linus Project, quilts for children in need. The part I enjoy is quilting the top that someone else made. I do this on my domestic machine, apply the label, and sew down the binding. I try to do two each year but I do believe this is the first one for 2017. I'll have to make    up for that in 2018!

Here are a couple of pictures of the quilt I'm finishing up. First the front. I chose this top to quilt because it looked to me like a little boy's quilt. They seem to be made less often than little girl quilts. Probably because we like to make the "pretty" ones.

Since we recently enjoyed Thanksgiving, I would be remiss if I didn't mention two of the people I'm most thankful for. That's my husband who tolerates my quirkiness and my occasional OCD behavior. Sitting at the table with him is my mother, 84 years young and still enjoying life and can still smile when I lash out at whoever gets in my way when frustrated. A not-so-nice side of me, for sure ... 

I'll close off this post with a picture of Gracie. After all, Polly was mentioned earlier in the post and we need to keep things even, not to mention I'm thankful for her too. She's my walking buddy! Look at that face -- what a sweet girl, resting her big, old mug on my leg!

Hope you're having a great week! Until next time, let's sew!