Icy again all day...

Sooo tired of this... And another night with possible freezing precipitation in the forecast...

Spent the day out in the sewing room working on strip paper pieced 3.5" squares with Canela and Lil Bit... Sure tired of winter...

Ice again....

And moisture in the forecast for the next few days.... Grr...

Marvin bought me a Fitbit Wednesday when we went to Walmart in Brownwood to get supper and groceries while the weather was fairly good. We went to Golden Chick for supper for Marvin's first time. I had been once with a friend of mine a few months ago. We got the thigh and wing roasted chicken, green beans and a roll. The chicken and beans were good but the roll was fantastic! Next time I want to try their chicken breast and drumstick... Thighs are ok, but...I'd rather have breast meat...just didn't see it on the menu until we'd already ordered....

On another topic, we have a very old clothes washer and one day last week it made a high pitched squealing noise while in agitation cycle... Since then it's been quiet as a mouse...so I suspicion I had overloaded it. I didn't think so at the time, but as I said... It was probably old when we got it... And we've used it quite a bit... So we walked a half block to Higginbothems and bought a new GE ... It was right at closing time so we didn't take it home, then yesterday was not good weather...today is the same, so may not pick it up until tomorrow... In the meantime, the old one isn't making a peep! I'm thinking the thrift store that benefits the humane society might like the donation...who knows how long it will run for someone else!?!

On the subject of quilting, yesterday, I got only part of the Captain America block done, but I did get a water bottle sling completed to take water with me on walks with Little Bit once the weather clears.

This picture shows a Skinny Girl drink bottle instead of water, but you can get the idea.

The strap is WOF so it's long enough to wear cross shoulder...so it won't be too heavy on me to walk with. It should fit most 16 oz. bottles... Now, if warm weather will just come along...

Heat Wave!

30 degrees at lunch... Things are melting a bit even though it's not above freezing yet! We're supposed to have snow again tonight...and moisture chances the rest of the week except for Sunday... Then another hard freeze and snow again! Yuck! 

We didn't have quilting today...lots of ice still about...none of our group needs out in that! So Lil Bit, Canela and I have been working on quiilt blocks for the BOM from Santa Anna... We finished 2 today and ended up with some bonus blocks to boot!

Brrr!

Noon and 25 degrees...icy. Thankfully there's nothing falling now.

So thankful for a warm safe home and sewing room!

Well, now it's 3:00pm, and still 25 degrees... Oh well, Lil Bit, Canela and I have completed one block for the Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM... I chose Jack and the Beanstalk for the center of this one...

The Avengers...

Since I've been thinking about and making charity quilts this year, I've been focusing on boy patterns. I looked on Pintrest and found some really cute Lego Avenger paper pieced blocks through Craftsy.  I'm so sorry I can't remember the full name of the lady that designed them on her EQ program, but she's Kristy at QuietPlay.blogspot.com. I spent all day yesterday, sewing up Ironman, and all day today was spent with Batman... And while I have a lot to learn on paper piecing and I still have to embroider on Ironman's black around his eyes, and Batman's eyes and mouth, I think they'll be recognizable to the recipient... I'm pleased.

I've already printed out the patterns for Thor, Captain America, Superman, Spider-Man, and Robin...

Not sure how many I'll make to go into a quilt... I know there's also the Incredible Hulk, on the site and Wonder Woman, but I didn't see the Falcon, or the Black Widow... Anyway, if I get tired of those blocks, she also made the Star Wars characters that I'm thinking would make great quilts. the patterns say they make up at 10-1/2" unfinished, but mine end up at 9-1/2" unfinished. I'm sure it has to do with me printing from my iPad which doesn't have a size option on it...It is what it is. So 9" finished blocks it will be! ;) I'm putting the patterns in a notebook to keep because I'm thinking I might have to make more than one of these...

Baby Boy quilt finished...

Third charity quilt is finished. I tried something new for the backing.... I peced it with some leftover material with kids themes on them...

Finished front...

Finished back...

Morning View...

Pa just texted me the view on his way to work this morning.... Is this gorgeous, or what?

Two Flimsy finishes in one day...

This seems to be how I work... Several irons in the fire at once in many stages of completion... Today I was blessed to get two tops finished on the same day. The baby quilt is for CPS for a boy baby and the Roll Roll Cotton Boll is for a Reunion fund raiser....Hope to quilt the baby quilt maybe this week. The large quilt I want to save and quilt after I go to the longarm workshop with Linda Taylor in McKinney on March 19th.

Baby top...

So there was a little hiccup in today's plan...

I did get the riding mower work done but not until after the deck belt came off and Pa had to get it back on for me... But, thanks to Pa, it got done! Then I finished my second charity quilt this year... Right on time. Yay!

Quilting and lawnmowers....

Another beautiful day today! I went to my Tuesday quilting group this morning and took Gertie with me... Needless to say, Gertie was a hit and enjoyed many loving hands trying her out! When I came home, I was going to sew on the patio some more, but the weeds were so high in the yard until I decided that it would be the better part of valor for me to try to get one of the mowers to run. We have 3 push mowers and one riding mower. Of course the riding mowers' battery was dead...so it was a no go... Two of the three push mowers we have here are actually the property of our grandson Benjamin. His big one was too hard for me to pull the rope fast enough to get it to turn over and start. Marvin started it without any problem when he got home. Ben's smaller mower was out of gas and I didn't have any more. So the only push owner I could get to turnover was my old green push mower and it would start for 2 seconds and die...over and over... Well, after last year's experience with the tiller and weed eaters doing that, I knew the carburetor was gunked up from gas sitting in it over the winter. So, it was time to clean up the carburetor... So, to You tube I went, to find donyboy and his awesome tutorials on such matters...sure enough, there was one on my exact carb. By the time Marvin came home I was putting the air filter back on to try and start it after taking it all apart and cleaning it with carb cleaner and kerosene! I can't tell you how proud and thankful I was when it started on Marvin's first pull of the rope and stayed running! Yay me! And Thank You, Lord!

At this point, I had the tank off,  I wanted pictures of how many screws, etc.

The other side view of the carburetor and its screws.

And the front view...

After my pics of how it was supposed to go back together, I got down to work...

And it's running good now. What's up for tomorrow you ask? Mowing, of course! ;)

Just wish Benjamin and Cara were here to help too!

What a beautiful Day!

Canela, Li'l Bit and I are enjoying one of the prettiest days I can remember!

We just can't seem to stay inside... The warmth and beauty of the sun has us in its trance.

For a couple days now I've been working on a charity quilt... And today it came together. It's from a Kaye Wood You Tube video tutorial on how to make a 6 hour quilt. I think it took me a bit longer, but not much, and now that I get how it works, the next ones will go faster. It's made mostly with a serger in a quilt as you go fashion... I did opt to use a standard sewn binding, which I sewed initially on with my little Singer 99 handcrank machine... Then I finished the binding on my Bernina... It's more of a comforter than a quilt in my mind, but it will be nice and cuddly...

Believe it or not, it's exactly the same on both sides... And I get to use up all those narrow strips of batting that are left from quilting on my longarm... That's a huge bonus in my book! This one came out to be 50"x72" just about right for a throw or twin bed.

Gertie is here!

She's totally awesome! She got here around 3:00pm and by 6:00 I had her oiled, adjusted and sewing strip pieced blocks...its 9:30 pm now and I just quit for the night...I've been making paper pieced geese blocks. Wow...my right arm is sore...but it's way more than worth it!