Worth waiting for

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Bath and Body Works sales
(2) reaching a goal
(3) granola

This granola snack mix from Costco is a seasonal item and I've only found it during the cold months, fall into winter.

I found some today and I was thrilled!  They make it in the store, a delicious blend of honey, raisins, walnuts, cashews, cranberries, almonds, pumpkin seeds and a lot of other good stuff - definitely worth waiting for!

The other thing worth waiting for is my completed Allietare top!

First, a look at the border fabric - my first choice was this one but somehow all the white took it to the grey side.

It's a pretty fabric but I rejected it in favor of this one...

it photographs with a greyish cast, but in real life it's a nice black with white and grey doo-dads on it.


I think it looks pretty great on the Allietare top...

all done!

Each red-centered block has matching fabric within the block, and I used one constant red for the setting triangles.  Otherwise, everything was done as suggested in the mystery clues/steps.

So I'm linking up with the final Allietare linky over at Quiltville - go see what everybody else has accomplished since starting this mystery, the day after Thanksgiving!

Sew forth and sew on til later...

Back to work!

Three things to be happy about:
(1) pedestal tables
(2) new tweezers
(3) spinach, ham and cheese omelets

Well, the snow is melting and my neighbors are going back to work, so I have no one to hang out with during the day - and no excuse to NOT finish the Allietare quilt top!

I figured if Lynne over at the Patchery Menagerie can cut out and sew a flimsy in one week, while working full time and being supervised by Millie - surely to goodness I can sew ONE diagonal seam and put on two borders!

Well, actually I put on part of the first border... it wasn't any fun trimming the cooties off the setting triangles!

Very uncomfortable, whether I knelt on a pillow or stooped over, LOL.

So here 'tis, with just the sides of the inner border put on.


I like that gold, it was just the right choice for this quilt!


I'll show more progress tomorrow - sew forth and sew on til later...

Am I a slacker?

Three things to be happy about:
(1) remembering when
(2) hard peppermints
(3) great neighbors

This is my progress to date on Allietare - I pushed part of it aside so I can walk through the living room!

So, am I a slacker???

Nah - other things just claimed my attention is all!

Sunday they actually plowed our street, it was like looking down through a canyon.

The only thing is, they pressed a wall of snow against the cars on both sides of the street!

Went out Monday to ransom my car!

Somewhere under here there's a blue 2011 Honda Accord...

Getting there...

That's all I did before stopping, was getting wet feet and starting to sweat!

Yesterday, a pleasant surprise ...

Thanks, Eric!  What great neighbors I have!

And it gets better and better!

My neighbor across the street, Rachel, told me about the great stuff she finds when they take their stuff from the farm to the dump.

There's a little shed where they place things that are still good to use ... she's found fabric, clothing - even a quilt!

I told her to grab the 100% cotton shirts, people pay for those at the Goodwill!

She gave me a whole bunch that I can de-bone and cut into usable yardage.

Not only did she give me shirts, but she also gave me some ground beef from their cattle and tomatoes that she put up last summer.

I tell you, great neighbors are - great!



That's it for now, finish digging out today, help a neighbor out, sew forth and sew on...

Progress

Three things to be happy about:
(1) red delicious apples
(2) quilting magazines
(3) peach cobbler

My sister called me just to make me drool - she was planning to make a peach cobbler for Sunday dinner!  Big sisters - you just gotta love em!

You gotta love neighbors too!

Shortly after I posted yesterday's blog, my neighbor Eric came over and shoveled my sidewalk and steps!

Even the kids got involved; they were having a ball "shoveling" with their dust pans!

I took this picture around 7:30 pm last night, I thought the street lights made such a pretty snow scene...

If you compare the flower pots in this photo with the one above, you get an idea of how much more snow we got.

And finally - Allietare progress!

I got all the rows sewn together except that middle diagonal seam.  Today I'll take care of that and trim the setting triangles; I don't look forward to squatting on the floor doing all that trimming though  :*(

At this point I doubt I'll scallop the outer border - but who knows, that decision is weeks  away!

That's it for now, sew forth and sew on til later...

Allietare, and alley

Three things to be happy about:
(1) Andy Griffith Show reruns
(2) Italian operas
(3) tote bags with pockets

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this Quiltville mystery quilt!

The red that we're to cross cut for the setting triangles - for the sake of just getting on with it, I'm using just one red fabric for all the triangles rather than a scrappy variety.

It's a very pretty Christmas fabric that I may have about 3/4 yard left after this.

Sewing the flag parts.

It only took my genius mind a few minutes to figure out how to put these together!  At this point I can start sewing rows together.


And now - the alley behind my house!

The repaving project lasted just about 2 weeks, from January 4 thru the 14.

To the left, looking towards the rec center - before:

... and after

To the right towards the apartments on the west end - before:

... and after

Directly in back of my house - before:

... and after

what a difference!

I'm glad it's all done.  It was a bit inconvenient; I didn't like hearing the loud equipment at 7:30 am or hauling my garbage to the front of the house - and I definitely didn't like feeling all the vibrations - but it was worth it in the end.

Today is guild day!  We're meeting for the first time in a new location; I look forward to seeing our new home.

Have a great day, stay warm, stay dry, sew forth and sew on...

Allietare; a new project

Three things to be happy about:

(1) getting over hump day

(2) red delicious apples

(3) books on tape

I just finished listening to this Audible book by Lisa Gardner, and I realized their cover closely resembles the Allietare colors!  Red, gold, black, white - an attractive combination.

Although the story itself was sorta wierd...

Progress on the Allietare mystery - I finished all the blocks, now I need to make the setting triangles.  But not before I get over my fear(?) hesitation(?) lack of confidence(?) of doing on-point settings, which I've never done before...

So today I'll push back the furniture on my design floor and lay everything out.

If you know me well enough, you know that by now I'm at the point in this quilt where my eye has been wandering towards something else.  Don't get me wrong, I like the quilt but my fingers are itching to do something else for awhile, know what I mean?

Every time I looked at my design wall I would see this block sitting there; I blogged here about the package of pinwheel blocks I found, made from half square triangles and 2-1/2" squares.

I want to make enough for a full size quilt and the block is pretty as is, but I want to jazz it up a bit!

I said "what if I used neutrals for the background instead of muslin?"

I made a test block and looked at it from a distance; not enough to get a feel for my idea...

Here are two - the one on the left is unpieced.

I think I like what I'm seeing; I'll make a couple more, and if I really like it I'll do a tutorial.

My tute will show a faster and easier way to cut and lay out the pieces, rather than cutting a lot of 2-1/2" squares.

That's it for now, smile at someone today, sew forth and sew on...

Progress, inside and out

Three things to be happy about:
(1) a good winter moisturizer
(2) red balloons
(3) invitations

First I want to say thanks to everyone for the invitations after viewing my globe trotting map!  Renea and I have talked about visiting the Sisters (Oregon) show for years.  I've wanted to visit the Vermont festival AND Keepsake Quilting for a long time, and I even have nieces and nephews in Wisconsin.  I visited the Grand Canyon in June 2014, and my sister talks about a trip to Yellowstone - sounds intriguing!  I'd like to see what your maps would look like   :o)

I'm making the red blocks now, Allietare-ing right along!

For these blocks I'm putting a slight twist to Bonnie's pattern - rather than using random scrappy reds, I'm matching my 4-1/2" centers to the outsides of the blocks.

Not all of the centers match though, maybe 3 or 4 will be odd ones.  While working on Part 2 of the mystery if I had a piece of that particular red left that wasn't worth putting back into the bin, I very efficiently cut it down into strips.  Oh well, it's a scrap quilt after all!

Looking at the reds together in a group, I like that little grey block that pops out - square in a square in a square!

I'll finish the rest of these red blocks, then start putting the top together some time this week - progress!


Now here's some progress on the outside:

They're repaving the alley behind my house, and this is how it looked Saturday morning.

I was a bit surprised they were working because it was a very drizzly day.

He's removing hunks and chunks of the old paving, down to the dirt base.

These pictures were taken yesterday, you can see the progress they made on Saturday. They've paved all the way to 10th Street on the east end...

and they're about ready to pour concrete at the west end where the alley bends at a right angle.

They started right in back of my house on Monday last week, and with any luck they should be done in 1 or 2 more days.

I hope.

Sew forth and sew on til later...

Allietare progress, a setback

Three things to be happy about:
(1) nice neighbors
(2) new mailing labels
(3) eating breffus

I've always heard that breffus is your most important meal of the day, is that still true?  If so, my most important meal today will be oatmeal with cinnamon, brown sugar, apples, craisins, crushed almonds - and a sprinkle of tumeric!  They say tumeric is good for so many things, is that true?  I'm just going by faith, my friend Renea, and Dr. Oz on that one.

Just look at these blocks!

I'm working on the gold centered stars now, but I wanted to put them on the wall just to see what they'd look like by themselves.

So much sunshine in these blocks!

So much - Allietare!

I like this closeup - can you see the article on the Titanic?

My mother was born that year; she passed away in 1995, at age 82.


And now, an update of sorts in the alley behind my house -

They didn't work on Tuesday, but this is how it looked just before they finished yesterday evening.  While I was away from home they poured the concrete and smoothed it out.

They scored it and it was looking positive - they ended up working under the street lights, so you know they wanted to finish this step!  It must have been close to 7 pm when they stopped.

Sometime after they left someone deliberately walked down the length of the undried concrete, then turned around and walked back.  Somebody with big ole feet!

These men are trying to repair the damage, scraping off the footsteps, pouring new concrete on top, then scoring it with their metal broom.

It's overcast today so I hope this doesn't set them back.  Why do some people want to cause problems??


That's it for now, time for breffus; have a great day, do something nice for someone, sew forth and sew on...

Allietare-ing along

Three things to be happy about:
(1) hump day (even if you're retired!)
(2) finding a bargain
(3) a thoughtful gesture

My neighbors who live directly across from me spent the Christmas holidays on their farm down in Virginia, about two  hours away.  Meanwhile when I noticed their mailbox was overflowing, I collected it and held it for them until they returned.  Yesterday when Rachel came over to collect it she brought me these pretty flowers!  I posted about a visit to their farm here.

Rachel is one of the sweetest people I know, it feels so good to be thought about!

Allietare - there's something so happy about these blocks that make up the Allietare quilt!

Somehow they make me want to sing, especially when they're turned on point!  Well, hum anyway.


I'm working on the gold-centered stars at this point; since I've finished all their units, it's easier to go ahead and get them out of the way.

I have "this" many more to do - seven!

I'm finishing up the black, grey and neutral 4-patches as leaders and enders as I do these blocks... then I can put those stars together and move on to the border - whew!

That's it for now, have a great Wednesday, smell some flowers if you have any, sew forth and sew on ...