First Winter UFO finish.....

 

I finished stitching the button eyes on tonight. I'm calling it done. 

I like the look of the buttonhole stitch around the duckies. This was taken before the ducky got his sight! 

Now to hang it up in the sewing room.

First thing to work on off the Winter UFO list...

 The Row by Row - 2015 of the duckies looks like the easiest thing to get finished. It is also 'new' and ducks are fun so I'm working on this to be the 'first' finish on the list.

The instructions say to do a buttonhole stitch around the applique. I looked it up - I have never done that before so the bonus is - learning something new! I do like to add to my skills each year, don't you?

This kit was from Fabric, Fabric, Fabric in Rockledge, FL. All I had to do was iron the fusible applique onto the 2 strips of fabric I had sewn together. Looks like I need to buttonhole stitch around all the applique using embroidery thread, trim it, quilt it (hand, machine?) and then bind it and add the buttons for the eyes. 

I think this will look cute hanging in the sewing room. Wish me luck.

Design floor Monday....

Results from Sunday sewing! I decided that since I got some working hours in Sunday morning, the kids were at Grandma's and the kitchen got a little cleaning and organizing my reward was to sew for a few hours.

I had left out my grandmothers choice blocks on the floor from last weekend..... but some 4 legged animals decided to have a party and this is what I was looking at on Sunday morning.

By the end of the day it is in three sections and looking like this....

Adding the maroon and red squares to the dresden plates was next up. I still have 6 of these left to finish off (4 are on their background waiting for the squares, 2 need middles, backgrounds and squares) but here is a shot of the blocks I have done. These are coming out at 16 inches.

I also have been making selected blocks for a row by row quilt over at the RSC Challenge. I had not sewn a few month's blocks into their rows but had made the blocks, so between projects I got these 4 rows sewn together.

Progress is a good thing. Not sure that quilt will be finished by the end of the month but it should get to a top stage by then.

Row By Row Experience....

I was poking around on-line yesterday and found out that the Row by Row Experience starts today!
The travel dates this year are June 21, 2016 through September 6, 2016. The theme - Home Sweet Home.

I picked up a few of the patterns last year, mostly while on vacation at the beach around the Melbourne area - and only made one of them up! Hey - I think I hit 5 shops in about 2.5 hours so it was a great little shop hop!  Do I want to join in this year... heck yeah. Will I? Hmmmm not sure. The good thing about this is that the shops that are participating offer their pattern for free. Most also offer a kit of their block - which is a great deal... and some have fabric license plates from their shops. Last year I joined up with Angela and her daughter from the RSC Challenge over at SoScrappy and hit a few shops over by the beach while I was on vacation. I'm heading over again early next week..... might have to hit a shop or two while there..... just for the free pattern of course.

My Quilting in Vermont Facebook group was my 'reminder'. One of my favorite shops Yankee Pride in Essex Jct. Vermont posted their row... and it reminded me of my good friend Michelle up in VT. She loves the Wizard of OZ and the row is Dorothy's red shoes on the yellow brick road. Very fitting for the theme this year of 'Home Sweet Home'.

Will you be joining in? The link above has options to find stores that are participating by state or province (Canada is joining in this year again!).


Below are some photo's of my rows from last year.

Last year's Row by Row patterns and license plates.

The one row I actually made!

A shot of the row from the store... love this one. Might have to pull it out and make it. They added beads which just made this a spectacular row. 

Last Saturday in Orange....

I did manage to get a little bit of sewing in this week. I have 8 of 9 blocks made for the row along quilt. Not sure how I miscounted when cutting but I should be able to squeeze one more in today.

I added a couple 16 patch blocks to help even out some color options from last year's blocks. I failed on my OMG this month... did not even touch it... maybe I'll try and get these into a colorful Goodnight Irene quilt top in May?

I keep looking at the pile of dresden plates I made last year... I think I will start to appliqué them to the background by the color each month. I hope to cut the background and hand stitch that orange one down tonight. Maybe I'll cut 4 backgrounds and cover the colors we have hit so far this year?


Hopefully I will get some sewing time in today to finish up some orange scraps... lots of birds in the air parts are waiting to be sewn together....and to make my purple butterfly's. I have them cut out... and ready to sew.

First up.... weeding the garden before it gets way too hot! 90 degrees and humid.... I guess summer is here. At least I have my nice quiet air conditioned house to look forward to this afternoon. Greg is taking the kids to Grandma and she is putting him to work trimming in her yard for a little bit. If only I didn't have this lovely sore throat and cough....

Linking up with Angela our host of the RSC Challenge.

RSC Saturday... finishing up red.

This is a little de ja vu from last week but I did add 4 more of the flying geese blocks to make 17 total for the stack.

I also managed to finish the last set of blocks into a top this week.... all fixed from the incorrectly sewn on row of yesterday's post.

With Emily - my quilt poser.

My reward was to quickly put the duckie Row by Row together from Fabric, Fabric, Fabric. So darn cute - it measures 36.5x9.5 inches. One down - 7 to go =).

 Linking up Saturday morning with Angela over at the RSC Challenge. I hope to sneak out of work after finishing month end and grabbing my last row in Lady Lake =).

Row by Row Experience!

Three days without a computer...ok, I had my i phone but I just checked a few e-mails and the weather with that. Well, I also used the map app for directions. Directions, you say? Yup - there is a row by row experience going on this summer and after doing some research on it last week (and stopping by my local quilt shop to get their row), there were quite a few quilt shops in the area I was heading to. Yes, I ditched the family (I did make sure the hubby was ok with it) and hit some quilt shops in the Rockledge (Cocoa Beach/Melbourne) area. I found six shops and would you believe in just a couple of hours I hit 5 of them! I also got to meet up with RSC Challenge host Angela and her daughter Anna to hit four of them. So fun!

We started at The Quilt Place in Rockledge where they have a very cute row of sailboats. I just got the free pattern there and I am going to use my hand dyed fabric and batiks to make that row.
We then went to Fabric, Fabric, Fabric five minutes down the road to get  a cute row of duckies! They are pre cut and have the fusible web on them already so I purchased that kit and pattern. Then we went to Quilting Folks Sewing Galary to pick up a very cute row of different blues and tans for water and sand with some applique starfish and octopus on it. They had also added some beads which just made it sparkle. Yup - got that pattern with the fabric and I think I'll put one in the quilt and make a table runner for my table using my fabrics. Five minutes from that one was Quilts and Lace where I just got the pattern. That row is a thermometer and I have some red rick rack from my grandmother that I think I'll use to outline the thermometer. On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at Sew Central - which is a great little quilt shop. Very friendly staff and I picked up a kit of the nautical flags spelling out water. Water is the theme for this year. They are a Viking dealer (I have a Quilt Designer sewing machine) and had the greatest beach bench pillows..... did I think to take a picture? Of course not but great inspiring quilts hanging all around.

There was also time on the beach building sand castles, boogie boarding (Grandma, Aidan and Greg) and jumping waves. Some walks on the beach with the kids crabbing at night and with my friend Shelly and her kids who was down from NY on vacation. Lots of time in the pool and pirate ship kiddie pool as well. 

 Mr Crab on the beach - posing for a photo.

Three more weeks until school starts....not that I am counting down the days or anything!

Time to throw in a batch of laundry and maybe grab something to stitch.