A great day!

Today has been a great day. The sun was shining this morning. The birds were singing, the lilacs are blooming and it was calm. It is my day today. I feel like celebrating because I am a year older.

So I started this morning with a new beginning. A new quilt using fabric I have been saving. I love this Just One star pattern and thought I would make one for me. I discovered it after making blocks for the Quilts of Valor charity.

I watched Biggest Loser and the celebration of accomplishment was wonderful. Celebrating the winners. All of them are winners to me, a couple were gifted with money.

I decided to be brave and celebrate my successes. today.

2009

2011

Family. Home. Job. Weight loss. Quilting. Violin. Friends. Love. Friendship. Clarity of mind. Strength of body. Peace of Soul. Just to name a few. I may just keep adding to the list as the day progresses and thinking about what a great journey this year has been so far and will continue to be.


Have a great day every one. I know I am.

First flowers of spring have finally arrived!

May is just flying by. I haven't been increasingly busy but the warmer weather makes time go by so fast. That's is what happens when you have 6 month of winter.

I continue to work on my happiness project but this was a week of testing my goals, again. I have found that I was weary of it because, just because. It is hard and every day. And I didn't always suceed in keeping my goals. Just like dieting, exercising, cleaning the house, doing laundry.....the list goes on. You know the things you need to do but don't want to do.

Here are the thing I like to do to balance out life:

I finished piecing my Victory Quilt. I need to add a border. Or two. I love this little quilt. The  little 6 inch blocks were hard to do as they are cut and pieced traditionally. I am finding paper piecing to be so much easier. Now what to do? I have to think about what pattern I want to use for the next quilt. I have several precut sets that I have been saving for just the right moment.

I was digging through my stash and gave away several large pieces of fabric that were not quilting fabrics. I found some fabric I bought at a garage sale when a drapery business closed. I think I will sew new curtains to give the house a new look!

Spring cleaning of the gardens happened today and all that fresh air has made me tired. Tomorrow we will plant the cold season veggies. Lets hope for a better growing season this year!

Stop by http://www.finishedstitches.blogspot.com/ to see the long arm quilts that we have done.

Design Wall Monday

The Civil War Diary Quilt is nearly finished but computer issues have it on hold, and a different project sometimes is in order. So I revived this project, 6 inch blocks from the Victory Quilts book. I love the 1940's inspired fabrics. I am so used to paper piecing that the traditional piecing was hard for me to do. I have 6 more blocks to make and then I can put the little quilt together. The collection of blocks previously made are on the top of the table.

See the links here and here for quilts that I have finished or pieced this week.

Would you like to know what I have been up to lately?

Mother's Day flowers

...OK besides working? I did finish my spring cleaning on the first floor. I don't have Better Homes and Gardens rooms but they are much better and cleaner than when I started this in January. Don't have the guts to post the before and after pictures for the spare bedroom and the living room/dining room.



I have been a bit sidelined on the Civil War Diary Quilt due to computer issues and the need to change projects. So instead I worked on....



Perfect 10 Quilt



Love this Perfect 10 pattern, complete with a complimentary border. I am not a big border fan so I made it a bit narrower than the pattern. The owls are so cute.



Vicki's Folly



Here is Vicki's Folly. This is a totally improvisational quilt. I just made it. For fun. I love it.

Went to my son's NHS induction this past week. It was very interesting to hear what the young people had to say about what they planned to do after high school. The dreams of being a doctor, a lawyer, engineers, to be a musician , wanting to go to college for a degree of "some kind" and to "live a happy life." It made me want to go back to college, the enthusiasm was contagious!! The future looks very bright for this group of kids.

I have had a week or two of wanting to not work on things that I committed to doing this year. I played in the community orchestra spring concert a week ago. It was hard for me to play the pieces and I nearly called off at the last minute. Nerves. Things like the happiness project, cleaning my house, exercising were all nearly stopped in favor of something new, fun and ,well , easy. Must be spring fever and the reminder coming up that I will be a year older !! So I decided to revisit my goals and try again. And I decided that a big YEAH is alright on the year older thing.

Design Wall Monday

100 piece block!

I finished it! This block of the Civil War Diary Quilt has 100 pieces. I think it proved to me that I can make whatever I want if I set my mind to it. You have to click on it to make it bigger to see and count all of the pieces!!!

Perfect 10 pattern used

 This quilt I pieced Friday night and Saturday. It take 10 fat quarters plus. I used the little owl fabrics I have been collecting and I love it. I have to buy some border fabrics. My computer is acting up and eq isn't loaded in it right now. Sooo, the last 18 blocks of the Civil War Diary quilt will have to wait. That's OK, I was getting a little stressed with those tiny blocks. This big block quilt was FUN!

Improvisation Quilt

This quilt has charm packs and panels that I have had for a while. I decided to make a quilt with it that was more modern. I liked the look of many quilts that are pieced together but with a improvisational look. I am making the squares 9 inches and it is working out great. I watched show about architecture in England and they have buildings that were built for their look and called them follies. One is all built with it all threes. So my husband said, when I told him my quilt was based on three and multiples of threes, that this quilt should be named a folly and I agree. So this quilt is named Vicki's Folly. I really like how it is turning out.