2019 is under way!

With the New Year comes new goals, quilt alongs, BOM and projects. I have set some goals this year and joined some quilt alongs and BOM. Hopefully I didn't do too much! 

It is so hard to resist! 

One of my goals is to make charity blocks for Covered in Love. You can read more about this charity at Kat & Cat Quilts. Every 2 months, the block changes. For January and February the block is a variation of a string block. 

Here are my blocks that I will send to Covered in Love.

I will continue the monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by So Scrappy. January's color is red. This year I will make the reverse rainbow starburst block.

You can find the tutorial here.

I will link up to Scrappy Saturday.

I also joined the Quiet Play Pattern Club. Each month, around the 15th, 3 patterns will be released and emailed. One word block, one picture block and a bonus block from her favorites. Quiet Play is known for her foundation pieced, rainbow, geometric blocks. I'm excited to get started!

I was intrigued by the Bitty Block Follow-A-Long over at Quilt Art Designs. I love the challenge of working with tiny pieces (and it was a challenge!) This is another paper pieced block project. 

This month the Bitty Block is a Tiny Bee.

I will also be doing the Block of the Month Optical illusion with Nine Patch blocks over at Heleen Pinkster Quilt Design. It appears that you just make this at your leisure as I don't see a link up for it. I haven't pulled fabrics for this yet. 

I like the optical illusion challenge of this quilt!

The last BOM I'm interested in is Scandinavian Flowers over at Angie's Bits and Pieces. This is an applique BOM which is not usually my thing but I will be away from my sewing room for 2+ weeks in February and I thought that I could practice this skill. I will get January and February blocks ready before I leave to bring with me. Time to perfect this skill!

I also started a medallion quilt. I don't have pictures yet. This is a quilt that I have had in my head for a while. Materials were purchased back in late summer/fall. Stay tuned. 

 Of coarse, I need to catch up on quilting the quilts left from 2018. 

I did finish Dog 'n Quilt, one of my Rainbow Scrap quilts. 

In this picture you can see the stand that my hubby got me for Christmas. I can hang my quilts to make taking photos easier!

The quilting is a simple straight line, 1" apart and stitched in the ditch around the dog. 

The back is a purple floral from my stash.

This quilt was made entirely from scraps and stash. Yay! 

It finished at 43" x 53" and will be donated to charity. 

Exciting news!

The New Year came in the most exciting way this year! 

On New Year's Day morning, we got a call from my daughter around 7:30am with the news that they (daughter and son-in-law) were heading to the hospital to have our first grandchild! 

What! She wasn't due until the 19th. 

Her water bag broke around 4:30am and contractions were strong and regular. 

OK we wait....

(they live in Austin and we live near Chicago)

A little after 10am, our grandson was born. He is small (5lbs 15 oz) but everyone is doing fine! 

My hubby made them a bedside cradle and we were planning on delivering it the following weekend. So as planned, we headed down for a quick trip. 

We were able to get in some snuggles

and enjoy meeting this new addition to our family. 

He is so precious!

He fits into the little hat that I knitted.

Proud and happy Tante (aunt)

Before heading back home :(  

We will be heading back in February for an extended stay! 

I miss him already 😍

Happy New Year!

In 2018, I started the daily recording and making of blocks for My Temperature quilt. It is hard to believe that I actually made it for the whole year! Even though I fell behind in making the blocks daily and even sometimes weekly and monthly, I always recorded the high and low temperatures and then caught up as time allowed! 

I periodically showed my progress on my posts. 

Now that 2018 is over, I made my final block today 

and put together the quilt top! 

It is interesting to see how the colors changed throughout the year. 

We started off 2018 very cold! The deepest blues were mostly from the first week in January 2018 and were briefly repeated in early February. 

The rest of the winter, early spring, and late fall the weather was mostly in the 30℉ - 50℉ range (light blues-greens-yellows). 

In early May, we saw warmer temperatures (reds) that stayed around (for the most part) all summer and into early fall. 

I would say that 2018 was probably warmer than normal for a longer period of time and we had some colder weather earlier in the fall then normal.

It will be a while before I do the quilting as right now I'm quite behind in the quilting process. 

Making this quilt was an interesting project and a lesson in perseverance!

Linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River and To DO Tuesday at Stitch All the Things.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge finish

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and time with family and friends. We had a wonderful time and found time to rest and reflect on the Reason for the Season, the Birth of Jesus!

I also found some time to work in my sewing room completing my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt, Rainbow Geese. 

I added blocks of peach and gray to bring the total blocks to 12. In making these blocks, the small HST blocks become a bonus. They are 3/4" finished and work great in the border. I'm linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday. This will be my last flimsy finish in 2018. 

I have also kept up with my Temperature quilt...only 7 blocks to go!  

I'm looking forward to new challenges in 2019! 

What challenges, quilt alongs, mystery quilts, etc. have you joined for 2019? 

Some sunshine finally!

Hello Mr. Sunshine! It has been a while since you have come out! 

I finally was able to take some pictures of My Little Blue Neighborhood quilt. Since it has been done, we has seen little sunshine and it also gets dark so early that by the time I get home from school, there isn't time to do a photo shoot. 

Last Saturday, I was able to go to the place that I wanted to do some photos only to find that it was too sunny. My quilt was washed out.

The shadows were coming quickly.

On the back I put the 3 houses that I found duplicates of and started a 'new subdivision' for my neighborhood. 

The colors and whites are a bit off due to too much sunlight but I really like the painted brick wall background so I went back again for another shoot.

The colors are much better! 

Just down from the 1st photo shoot, I found a string already strung across the bricks. How convenient! 

 All labeled! A finish!

I also started putting together my Flying Geese RSC quilt. I added two additional blocks, one gray and the other peach, to make 12 blocks. 

I also pulled out the small HSTs that resulted from making the flying geese blocks. I am planning on using them for a border as shown above. They are pretty small and will finish at about 3/4" , adding about 1 1/2" to the size of the quilt. It should finish at 37.5" x 49.5". 

I added another row to my temperature quilt...only 2 rows left for 2018!

Linking to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River,  Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy.

Busy times and updates

Once again I have failed to keep up with life, quilting and blogging. 

The month of November was quite a blur as we welcomed (and helped move) our DD1, her partner and dog, Ole to our home after they lost their lease and decided to try to save some money to buy instead of keep renting. We moved most of their things to storage and the rest to our house. 

We are glad to help but I have to admit, it is a bit of adjustment after being empty nesters for many years. 

Thanksgiving week, we welcomed home our DD2, our SIL and their dog, Miss Sadie and our DD3. The house was full and BUSY!

We hiked. We ate out. We visited. We cooked. We crafted. We baked. 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. So many blessings to be thankful for! We took the opportunity for a family picture (missing one). 

On Friday, we ventured downtown as our out-of-town kids wanted to have a family day there. We strolled through Maggie Daly Park, and Millennium Park. Saw the Chicago Christmas tree and went to Cindy's on top of the Chicago Athletic Association Building for a beautiful view of the skyline. We also went to the (very crowded) Christkindlmarket for some holiday cheer!

 Maggie Daly Park

kids of all ages @Maggie Daly Park 

 Millennium Park

 Chicago Tree
still too light out to get the full effect

view from Cindy's

 my daughters and me from Cindy's

hubby bought me a giant pretzel at the market

On Saturday, we had a Baby Shower for my DD2 with our friends and family. 

(I am limiting the number of pictures from the shower as this post is a bit photo heavy)

dessert table

 center piece we crafted

our dear friend said the welcome and dedication

On Sunday, DD3 flew back home early. DD2, SIL and Miss Sadie headed back home a little after 1:00pm. A storm was brewing so even though it was sad to see them go, we were happy for them to get out before the weather got bad. 

It was a good thing because at 1am my husband woke and said we had lost power. The blizzard was in full force. It was 36+ hours before we had electricity and HEAT. Schools were closed for a Snow Day on Monday so my job was cancelled. By Monday night, the temperature had dropped to 20º and it was COLD in our house. It gets dark by 4:30 so we had candles and battery operated lanterns to give some light. My husband had to leave for an out-of-town business trip which left my daughter and me with 2 dogs. Thankfully, the power was restored on Tuesday afternoon! It took a bit to get everything back online but we are back up. 

As for quilting, My Little Blue House quilt is waiting for an opportunity to photograph it. It is all finished. I hope to have pictures soon!

I also put together one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. 

I decided to add a dog as if sitting in front of the quilt as I took a picture. Kind of like a photo bomb...? This will be a charity quilt. It is waiting to be sandwiched and quilted. 

Linking up to Scrap Happy Saturday @ So Scrappy

I also have been working on trying to catch up on my Temperature quilt. I continued to log the daily highs and lows but have to admit that I fell quite behind on actually making the blocks. 

At least, I'm into November now.  See how the temperatures are dropping. Orange and reds are gone for the year. I will start to see more greens and blues now as we come to the end of 2018! 

In the Nick of Time

October is almost over and yesterday was the last Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge ~ Scrap Happy Saturday! 

I had to get my dark green blocks completed!

So I carved out a bit of time this week to catch up, once again, on the blocks. 

Here is the Plus Blocks: 

and the Flying Geese Block:

I usually make a few more blocks to add to the size of the quilt even though this was the last official color of the month. 

I will link to Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy. 

 Now on to catching up on my Temperature Quilt!