What, already the end of the month ...

I can not believe it, already the end of the month. We have had a busy celebratory month both in the touristing arena and for me, the sewing and knitting arena. I sew when we are in site and knit while riding in a car, so lately I have accomplished a lot there (at least for me).

First off, we have the new UFO Number Game announced. Yup, here they are: Low number is #4

Other number is #41. Oh yeah, my #4 has been finished - so will replace it with #6, DS#1s quilt. I do not have high numbers which gives me more time to work on #1, OUR Quilt, to bring it to a finish as well. At least to the flimsie stage would be nice. February's numbers, #7 - got lost in the shuffle, and assigned #3, Mom's Quilt, to replace the lack of the high number - completed as a UFO to move me down the list. 

Remember the toque that I made? Well, it was made initially for DH but it is slightly snug on his head so it became a donation for my Mom's senior's group. But first I have to make a set for it. That means mittens and a scarf. Driving around Louisiana this last week, I started the mittens.

After many false starts and a couple of Mr Rippit's down to the ribbing, I have finally got it the way that I like it. I like the colours but am not sure if they are what a teen would like.

DS#1s quilt is giving me a pretty good learning curve. I am making a pattern called "Magic Cube" from KwiltArt. It is a pattern that I bought in Houston and got started right before the New Year so that it would be a good UFO to have.  I changed the colorway however, to  on a black background.
The learning curve involved the sewing of the triangles that made up the cube in the centre so that there was no "tenting" at the joins of all 6 triangles. Had yet to master that. IT came together beautifully and there is no "tenting" - so that is another skill that I have finally mastered.

The radiating spokes are also coming along once I figured out that the freezer paper method should have been drawn in the reverse. All is ok though, it will be reversed, but who will know - only me!

 The cutting instructions are very vague and after reading them numerous times, I still had to revamp what I was doing. They are coming along just fine now and should have all four sides completed in a couple of days of sewing off and on. The name for this quilt still has not come to me. Guess it needs to flow a bit more and get put together for the inspiration.

OUR Quilt has progressed with the completion another block last evening. Once again I thank my guardian angel that all the seams and points lined up. This is going to be a majestic quilt once finished and am hoping for it to be on the bed by the Christmas season, including pillow cases.

And to a new start this year, the 365 Challenge. These are definitely hard to get my fingers wrapped around. They are so little and I often have trouble working the very small pieces. I collect the patterns as they come out but have little towards completing the blocks and catching up. So much of the time was focused on completing the quilt for Mom and after, I never got back into doing them. My next JOT will be to cut out some of the blocks, ready to sew together.

I did finish up DGDs 2nd (requested) pillow case, which now needs to get put in the mail. I have decided to use up a lot of the 2/3yds of fabric that I have and make pillowcases or maybe the pillowcase dresses for African children. And from what I saw in Africa, some of those little girls could use them along with a pair of panties. 

On to more sewing ....    

UFO Bites the dust

Today I finished and claimed another UFO - this time a quilt that was requested by my mother for her granddaughter. I designed, pieced and quilted this quilt, amidst much frustration and wailing (albeit silently).

 "Wall of Dreams"

The design is that of photos on a wall. Hence the frames around the pictures and a shadow behind them. The pictures are actually cross stitch work done by mother.

 (Sorry for the shadows from the branches of the trees) The quilt itself is quilted in a simple double cross hatch which pops the actual pictures. The cross hatching goes right up to the fram around the pictures. For the backing I found a horse panel and coordinating fabric which worked well.

 

Total size is 56"x 81" for a total of 7.44 yards busted. It was immediately sent off by FedEx to my mother. Here's hoping that she gets it before this weekend. My niece is coming into town this weekend and Mom should be able to give it to her then.

So now with a sigh of relief, I am able to concentrate on what is next. I immediately got out the easiest of all of the UFOs - another pillowcase for my DGD, that is ready to sew. I thought that it would be a quick put together. Ha ha the joke is on me. I used the stitch width to do a modified basting of the turn on the hem. Then I proceeded to sew the seams. Yup, all in long stitch. So then Mr Rippit came to visit and it wasn't such a quick sew up after all. So it sits on the sewing table and I am on the computer!

All the fabrics came in for DS#1s quilt so that will be the next one up along with the squars that are with the 365Callenge and OUR Quilt. So I will once again be busy and with somewhat of a time constraint. I have decided to not stress about the 365 Challenge blocks - they will get done when they get done. OUR Quilt is much more time oriented as I want it finished and on our bed at Thanksgiving: After all, it is a Christmas fabric themed quilt.

Another time issue is that I need to organize all my stash that is in the RV. I want to put them into a "do next" pile so to speak, although it will be in a plastic container. so onward I go ....

2016: Another attempt

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day: a new year and a blank page to write on. Gone are the half finished saved blogs of last year, gone are the downer days, gone are the not so charitable thoughts, and not so gone are the UFOs of quilting and other 2 Busy Hands endeavors. Today brings all anew and it will only be what I make of it. So here I am, a blank page staring me in the face asking to be written on and I am only being positive.

Now remember, positivity is my word this year. So 2015, in a positive vein, what hapened in the world of Shirley's 2 Busy Hands?

As always, travel is a big part of our life and we did a great amount of it, both large and small. Why even a day trip can be exciting and give one a major experience. And in this context, my 2 Busy Hands often took a back seat and yet, always with a project near at hand.

The positive that came out of devastation, a fire in the storage unit where I keep my stashes, allows me now to downsize and update. What more could one ask for? Oh I lost some favourites but I will soon have more favourites and new challenges.

Like last year, I will once again join in the Stashbusters' UFO Challenge, even though I have only those projects that just happened to be in the RV at the time. I had cleaned a lot of them out so the number is low. Along with the UFO Challenge, I will also limitedly partake of the Numbers Game. And guess what, the low number is a number that I happen to have! I will always have a low number as they are between 1 and 10 but the higher ones I will find myself working on the last one for sure. For January, this month, the numbers are

3(small) and 51(large). 

My list contains:

	Description	Date started
1	OUR Quilt - Sampler queen	2014
2	Row by Row x 2	2014
3	Mom's Quilt	2014
4	Halloween/T-Day table topper	2015
5	NYB	2015
6	DS#1 Quilt	2015
7	DS#2 Quilt	2015
8	DIL #2 Quilt	2015
9	DGDog #1 Quilt Toby	2015
10	DGDog #2 Quilt Buddy	2015
11	Dash Cover	2015
12	Row x Row x 2	2015
13	DGD 2nd pillowcase	2015

Some of these from 2015 are very recent additions. [snicker, snicker] Of course, the fun begins as I try to do something about this list. Photos? Can I be persistent in posting them? We shall see. It is one of my "want to do's for this year.

And then, to make things even more exciting and jumbled up, I joined or at least committed to being a part of a 365 [day] Challenge out of Australia.

 This is a small part of this quilt. It is supposed to be 90" square when done but I am thinking mine will no dobt be smaller.

I am already a little late in that I just downloaded the information and decided on the colours. But the early blocks are simple ones and I will be able to get them done real fast to catch up. Of course, me thinks I will always be playing "catch up", starting this next week. We are heading out on our first jaunt of the year - a trip to New York City with our granddaughter Brooke.

As well as quilting I have UFOs under the headings of knitting, needlework and cross stitch. I will never ever want for a project, that is for sure. Some are large and others are small and portable. These go along with me when we travel. I did manage to finish up a 2015 knitting UFO - a toque and even putting a pom pom on it. Now I have to wait for more yarn to make a scarf and a pair of mitts. This will go to my mother for her charity senior's knot group that give to underprivileged children in her city. The children live in a very cold area during the winter and often go to school without any covering and warmth at all. This helps out a bit. Now to finish up a cold weather coat shawl and a brightly coloured spring/fall sweater (finally got more yarn right before Christmas).

I had numerous needlework UFOs but am unsure how many I actually have left here in the RV. I do know that the Christmas Crackers are here so they will be done before anything else. That will get a nice little pile out from beside my Laz-e-boy.

And last but not least, I will keep track of expenditures and busting. 

Can I do it? I will certainly give it a good try......

Christmas comes on the 25th of each month ...

On Stashbusters someone, I don't know who, dedicated the 25th of each month to be the day that you work on your forthcoming Christmas list. To date I have never participated in this - today being different. I am working on the Jinny Beyer 2014 Row by Row. This is going to be a Christmas gift for a sibling. Rather than make it into a row, I turned the focal fabric 1/4 turn and made a wall hanger:

 Today I went out a bought the backing and will sandwich it and get started on the quilting tonight. The binding will be plain Kona black.

I was good in this arena too and only bought enough to do the backing, and nada más. This will be, when completed, the first of 4 row by rows that I committed to making on the UFO Challenge as well.

But Christmas really did come today. I picked up my mail and there sat the package with my Jinny Beyer fabrics for her Craftsy BOM (free too). [http://www.craftsy.com/classes/search?query=Jinny%20Beyer] I am doing a challenge for this one with my quilting group in Panama - show and tell to be attended in January, 2016 (which to my way of thinking is not enough time to complete the Dec BOM and get it sandwiched, quilted, and bound before leaving on the 6th of January). 

I also received the fabrics for my mother's cross-stitch quilt for my niece.

 

She has 5 of these horse subject cross-stitch squares, not enough to really make a twin size quilt. So I suggested that she incorporate the squares into a pre-printed panel(s) themed quilt. This is what we came up with... The lower right is a panel, the upper right is the backing and the squares and panel will be framed in the wood-grained fabric. Oh oh, I forgot about the white - guess I need to hit the stash in the storage unit before we leave here. This will be an interesting quilt to do and won't count for any of my SB's challenges - just a helping hand for my mother. I thought about putting the panel in the upper left hand corner and shadow quilting the horses with the cross-stitched squares down the right hand side. Will have to lay it out to see if I like it or not. There is also a panel of smaller blocks I believe in this series which I could use if need be. All of this will be a good chance for me to learn my new EQ7 for Mac.

It is always like Christmas when we go and pick up the mail.

Anyone up for participating in this year's Row by Row shop hop? The theme is water so the rows should be real interesting - in fact a few have already been announced and examples are:

 

Drop a line if you are ...

I have been working on the Granny squares for the coat that I am wanting to make. It is the project that I do while we travel short distances on the RV. This will not be so prolific now as I recently got my learner's permit for the RV and DH will be wanting me to drive this thing - not my favorite thing to do. I am now wondering if I am going to have enough wool in the end - if not, I need to order as it took forever to get what I have.

And last but definitely not least, I finished the flimsy for Blake's quilt. I made it extra long for a growing young man. I am actually holding it up at arm's length and still it bunched on the floor.

 The photo doesn't do it justice but alas, it has gone to the longarmers for finishing. I will bind it with the same blue found in the outer-most border.

I feel prolific and yet when compared to others, I am not. Still I feel a great sense of pride in what I have done. I have a lot of wanna do's but am realistic in managing what I now get started to allow me the luxury of doing what I want, when I want and can.