Spring to Finish

What a great idea! Jacquie at Tall Grass Prairie Studios has offered some motivation to complete unfinished projects in April. If you haven't already noticed, I work well under pressure, especially with a deadline. Take a look at my list in the sidebar. Six completed projects by March 1, then nothing! That's an exaggeration. I did make 40 tea wallets, one ATC and a quilt top. But not even close to my level of productivity before March 1.

April will be the month to finish UFO's. Here's my list of active projects:
Blue & white lap quilt (gift at end of May)
3 red, white & blue tops to quilt for QOV
Easy Weave top to quilt
A Tisket, A Tasket*
Bears in the Farmhouse- finish border & quilt
Geese in the Forest- continue piecing
Janet's picnic quilt- machine quilt for her {{hugs!}}

*My plan is to make quarterly wallhangings. After I applique Feb & March, I'll combine them with the January block for a long, vertical hanging.

Julia's UFO is an adorable apron made with Kaffe Fasset fabrics. She and her boyfriend love to bake and they always make a huge mess. Soon, she can do it in style! She has inherited my procrastination gene. Instead of sewing, she started a crochet flower scarf last night. That apple has not fallen far from this tree!

I need to make 15 paper-pieced pins and an ATC by tomorrow night. I told you...deadline! And we have family coming for Easter, so I should be cleaning my house. First things first. Breakfast!

Love and Prayers to the people suffering in Italy.
Tina

P.S. The Red Sox opening day game was postponed until today. Go Sox! I'm wearing my Dustin Pedroia jersey today.

P.P.S I'm eating a bowl of new Banana Nut Cheerios. YUM! Tastes just like banana bread.

Yarny Fun

I haven't done any sewing in a while (except to apply scout patches). But I have been playing with yarn. My current favorite blog is Attic 24. This is Lucy's Neat Ripple pattern, which I LOVE. I wanted to try it with the yarn I had on hand, but now I want some nicer yarn. I'm already a fabric snob. Will I become a yarn snob, too?!


I just got my Ravelry invitation so I spent a few minutes browsing the crochet scarf patterns this morning. This is the Seashell Scarf by Alla Koval. I'm liking this, too.


My mother and I took a trip to Walmart yesterday and we both bought a batch of Homespun yarns to make another prayer shawl. She used a smaller hook than I did, and I like the way it worked up better than with the giant hook. She bought the Waterfall color below, and I got Apple Green. Are we ready for summer or what? All of these projects will be coming to baseball games with me! Yeah! It's Opening Day!

Go Sox!!
Tina

P.S. Almost forgot... Watch Heather B. Armstrong on Oprah today! Heather writes my other favorite blog, Dooce.

Fabric!

I love packages! My eQuilter order from the most recent sale arrived this morning. eQuilter is my favorite online store. How great is this chocolate fabric? If you can't read the sayings, visit eQuilter. My favorite is "Milk Chocolate is a Dairy Food."I desperately needed creams and neutrals, hence the 3 yards. Julia will use the star stripe for her QOV's. The bright beach stripe makes me smile. The orange doesn't go with anything else in the pile, but I was lacking in orange stash.This fabric makes me happy, but it doesn't help my stash busting efforts. I bought 5 yards of muslin at JoAnn's last weekend for foundation string piecing. I hate to count that under fabrics purchased, but I suppose I must. I'd better go sew something and use up some fabric!

Ciao,
Tina

The Peepers are Peeping!

A sure sign of spring! The spring peepers have started peeping!

Tea for Tuesday

I finished 40 tea wallets today as gifts for Girl Scout volunteers.
I used 4 yards of fabric from the stash, including the smiling daisy print that I bought in 2000 when Julia was a Girl Scout Daisy!
Inside, I included a fruity herbal tea bag and a little Thank You note.
Now they are ready to wrap.Finally, we have some blooms in the yard.
And the weeds are growing quite nicely already!

The blog has kept me focused on finishing quilting projects,

I hope it will help keep the garden weeded, too.

Ciao,
Tina

My Son the Rock Star

Pete's new band played in the middle school talent show tonight. We're very proud of our rocker! They didn't have a singer, so we encouraged him to do it. He wasn't convinced he could until yesterday's rehearsal. Unfortunately, the balance wasn't right, so we couldn't hear the guitars very well. If you're feeling brave, here's Obsidian (how cool is that band name?) covering Hendrix's Foxy Lady.



Ciao,
Tina

Lots of Scouts

I haven't talked about scouts in a while. I was ecstatic that we had full attendance at two Girl Scout meetings in a row. So I had to take a picture! A couple of years ago, we commissioned my nephew who is in art school to design a logo for our troop. We put it on t-shirts, note cards, swaps and stickers. We might need something new before our next big trip.
At next week's leader meeting, we'll be celebrating Leader Appreciation Month. The tea wallets from this tutorial are my latest assembly-line, stash busting project. If I can make 40 in 8 days, they will be gifts for my leaders. Shhh. I think only a couple of them read my blog.I just went looking for buttons for the tea wallets. My mother's old sewing basket is full of buttons still on their original cards. 31 cents! I love the strip of double knit polyester with the covered buttons sewn on. I'll have to ask mom what the garment was.And a little something for the Boy Scout in my house. A big pile of fabric from Alderwood Quilts. Super service!! We had a nice chat about this line of fabric and Eagle Scouts. Why doesn't GSUSA license some fabric already?! I'm hopeful it will happen before the centennial in 2012. I don't have a plan yet for Pete's Boy Scout quilt, but I wanted to get the fabric before it is no longer available, although it's in its 3rd printing. I told him it will be his Eagle quilt and he's good with that. He's ready for his board of review to advance to the next rank. (I'm a bad mother. I can't remember which one.)Julia is getting her application together for her Girl Scout Silver Award project. You'll be seeing her soon as a guest blogger. Here's a hint: QOV.

Ciao,
Tina