Africa here we come, graduation month is a must

The month of May is a busy one for us and I can tell you it won't be in the needlework or quilting arena. Our granddaughter has many an activity and event this month in honor of her graduating high school. The high school graduation is a memorable time in a young woman's life and we are blessed to be able to share in it.
Prom:

Senior

Junior

How wonderful is it to see these events as grandparents? And graduation comes this coming Friday.

Throughout these events/celebrations, I was able to finish another mugrug, this one for April, themed Fruit 

 Apple Blossoms in April lead to a basket of apples in the fall.

I was able to finish, well almost finish the flimsy for BTF#2. I miscut so had to order the last border. And so it sits waiting for me to pick up the mail, return from our next fabulous journey, and get Miss Betsy out of deep storage.

Throughout this period of time we are planning our next epic journey, this time to Africa with friends from Europe. With this in mind, Miss Betsy is put into deep storage as she is a minor irritant sitting there waiting for me to come to her and use her many talents. 

I managed to make a sandwich for my flying geese UFO. I had already sandwiched them but it was way to flimsy for even a summer quilt. So Mr. Rippit came to visit and we ripped everything out and started again. It is now at the point where I can quilt it on Miss Betsy. Do I dare get her out and try? We leave in less than a week and still have some things left to do in getting ready? hmmmmm

And so the question remains, will I get it done to qualify for this quarters Stashbuster's UFO Challenge or will I have to pay a penalty?

I tried to be productive ...

So I tried to be more productive in April, at least that was the plan. And as all planning goes sometimes, mine went awry. An unplanned, quick trip to Panama found me taking my needlework with me - no quilting.

The last couple of days I managed to complete a little bit more of Zach's quilt squares, until I ran out of the main blue. How could I have miscalculated? I had one more complete round of blue to do. to do.

 now the fun will be to try and match it up as the fabric is at least 1.5 years old.

I found inspiration for a way to present all my molls in the oddest place - a bathroom in a quilting/knitting shop.

 so of course while in Panamá, I had to buy more molas.

 This is the one that I will make into a cover for the printer which will definitely add some color to the house.

As soon as we returned, out came Miss Betsy and I was able to do some random sewing at random times in between our random ramblings. 

Christmas Cracker completed in Panama but the embellishment added once back stateside.

 First up was finishing up Rainbow Jane's Spanish Moss.

 Next was to finish March's mugrug - Luck in all Shapes ...

As well as adding to my stash at a wonderful store found near Lake Somerville State Park. This will make a flimsy for BTF #2.

I continued to work haphazardly on the Santa Stamp cross stitch. I am motivated to get it finished as I want to start a pattern that I bought while in Edmonton. It is a big project so will no doubt last a few years just like this one has. :)

Somehow life always seems to get in the way so I really haven't done much more than this. Sometimes I feel like I have done nothing yet when I start to list it all out, I have actually done a little something. I should just stop berating myself and go with the flow ...

New toy and mug rug finish

My new toy allowed me a fast finish(due before midnight tonight) of February's One Toe Out of the Box mug rug with "Love" as the theme.

Two Hearts Beat as One

The background fabric of floating hearts is pretty busy so I made the appliqué very plain - simply the two intertwined hearts. The floating hearts have been FMQd. The right side, middle hearts on white fabric is densely quilted for the mug to sit on. I do now understand why the instructions recommended that appliqué pieces be backed with a "wonder under" type fabric and then cut like paper. It was hard to get the hearts straight and tight in order to satan stitch around them. I ended up using spots of glue out of another appliqué kit. The glue claims to wash out easily or even soak out. This was a fun project and already March's theme - "Luck" is sending all sorts of ideas pulsing through my mind.

I did not get the February UFO finished as I had hoped. Monkeys Jumping on the Bed still waits the final border to be quilted, squaring and trimming, the binding applied and then a label. Hopefully within the first few days of March a finish ill be accomplished.

Working helper skelter on the blocks for Brooke and Zach's quilts. Also need to get started on Blake's so that he can see them as well when he comes.

Celebration of February

February is a great month for Danny and me: both have birthdays, Valentine's Day, and anniversary. To celebrate this year we took a quick car trip to Port Aransas on the Texas Coast. We also decided that this would be a great place to bring the grands for Spring Break.

 The weather was cold and rainy most of the time but it sure was refreshing. The skies were grey, overcast and often times rainy.

The car tripping allowed for more knitting on the second cowl. It is slowly getting to the right length of 54+" but I did have a visit from Mr. Rippit. Had moved the ribbing by one stitch and boy what a look that gave. LOL  Am inching slowly forward as we move the RV however, and now only have about 10inches left to do. Being a "car/RV trip only" project, and no further tripping after this one in the foreseeable future, it might take a bit to get it done. Our RV moving will only be around one area within a radius of about 25 miles.

Hoteling it when the evening weather outside is cold and blustery allows for more work to be done on the Christmas cracker as well.

I got all the beads on and finished to the point where I have to gather or ruffle some flair. As I have never done this, it will be an interesting learning experience. There are no instructions on how to do it so will be doing some trial and error I am sure.

My main focus for this month will be trying to complete a UFO Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and doing another mug-rug for the month of February with Love being the moniker. For the quilt, I am doing some playing with Superior Threads Glitter and the different embroidery motifs on the machine.

I had gotten to the last square and Miss Betsy started to squeak on me. I called a service centre and got "Oh Oh, you better bring it in" which I ended up doing once we got to the Corpus Christi area. In the meantime I inched my way along trying to finish up the basic square and inner border on the quilt so that I could do the outer border on Mr. Brother. Also had Miss Betsy serviced and yet, horrors upon horrors, had it back within 36 hours. Can't beat that - didn't even have time to get out Mr. Brother in her stead. So now Mr. Brother is now in being serviced. The only thing left on the quilt is the outside border, the binding, and the label. Can I do it?

The mug-rug will use up some of the fabric FQs that I got at the Waco "Winter Wonderland Quilt Show" - Stonehenge's Sweetheart grouping.

 This is what I have to work with.

I have an idea but am not sure how it will work out. Here too time will tell.

 basted, ready to work with. I was going to put hands being held on it but I didn't ave any flesh colored stash and as I want it all to be stash, .....

As we are planning on being in one place for greater lengths of time this month and next, I got out Rainbow Jane and restarted her. I have updated the website found on the right of the blog. I actually finished the second block

and printed off instructions for 2 more blocks, one square and one triangle, but not the templates. The templates come from the software and I think that is still in the storage unit. Drats! Maybe I can copy them from the book. When I reviewed the blocks found in the first series I found that I am probably going to get over my aversion to curves in quilting piecing - there is lots of it. But for now, more traditional piecing. Man, the pieces are tiny, fiddly and hard to match up even with paper piecing. I can see why people take forever to make one of these. I even managed to get the template onto Photoshop where I can add the finished blocks to it.

Now that we are settled in for 10 days, I will hopefully finish both the quilt and the mug rug and start a couple more of the Rainbow Janes.