Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Mrs. Indecisive has turned into Mrs. I've made up my mind

Last week for the life of me I could not make up my mind. I was a rudderless boat being taken wherever the wind would take me. I've been working on 2 quilts at the same time. Quilt #1 is the Kansas rbr quilt which is due at next month's guild meeting. I'd wanted to use hexagons & the first method flopped & so I went to the next method & I think we have a winner! I've put a row of hexies between each row & I've got all of the rows sewn together. The quilt is pretty long & narrow so I'm going to put a panel of hexies on the right side of the rows to make it a bit wider. It's looking like another big quilt. I just have problems going small I guess.

I'm using the "Mad City Moma" quilt as my L/E quilt. This is the quilt that I was so incredibly indecisive about. Here's the block 

I was loving how this was looking & was making it just like the pattern. Here's all 16 blocks laid out on the floor.

The original design has yellow sashings & purple corner stones so I went into my stash & found those colors in batiks

I liked it but the more I looked at it the more those star points on the sides of the blocks bothered me. So I cut out some more black squares & now we have this option.

The issue that I had with this option was that you only saw the stars, because they really pop out at you & you miss the background beauty. The hum hauling & going back & forth was making me crazy & I just needed to make a choice & go with it. So I'm making the second option with all of the black stars. There will be a inner black border followed by a wide pieced (using all of the leftover 1.5" squares) outer border. 


Farm news: I think that I'm starting to understand the word bog. Since Thanksgiving we've had close to 7" of rain. The ponds are the fullest that I've ever seen them. We've also decided that this would be the best time to dig a trench to put a waterer back in the pasture. Complete insanity but we've gotta have that waterer. Yesterday while feeding hay I had to drive over the filled in part of the trench & the back tire of the tractor sank & I was stuck. I'm very greatful for 4 wheel drive! I really shouldn't be complaining though, we could be trying to do this in the freezing cold. Last week before the latest storm we had 3 days that was over 60. Incredible. If you don't like the weather just wait a bit & you'll get another season. 

I hope that y'all are having a great day. More later on,

Vicky
 




Saturday, December 5, 2015

Side tracked & changing taste buds

Well I got side tracked big time last week. I was supposed to be working on my VIP projects & I did try. I am pursuing using hexagons on my Kansas rbr quilt. When I laid it out I was frustrated because it was not working like I had it pictured in my head. I just wanted something to put under the needle. So I gathered up all of the Kansas rbr pieces & went in search of something that I could sew. I found a 2 gallon zip lock bag full of 1.5" strips. A while back I had gone through a bunch of my batik scraps & I cut the scraps up to their fullest potential & got a 2 gallon bag of 1.5" strips, 1 gallon 2" strips  & 1 gallon of 2.5" strips.

My original plan was to make Bonnie Hunters "Crabapple" quilt using the 1.5" strips. I had already started making little 9 patches using the 1.5" strips. I just wasn't feeling it anymore & decided (because we can) to change course & make "Mad City Mama" instead. 
The strips were dumped on the kitchen table & now I needed to make 25 patches. While sewing the 25 patches I thought well what if I made the center square another 25 patch that way I would be able to use up more of the scraps. So that's what I did & got all of them finsished up last night. I made the mistake of looking on Pinterest last night & found some wonderful eye candy when I looked up Mad City Mama. Someone used the same colored center square as the star points & it just made the quilt glo. So now I've changed tactics again, maybe. I'll lay it out both ways & decided which I like better.

All of this got started last Friday into Saturday. While I was sewing on MCM, a new way for me to use the hexagons popped into my head but I was already working on MCM. So now I'm sewing like a mad woman trying to get one done so that I can work on another & enjoy myself along the way. I'll keep y'all updated on my progress.

I am a firm believer that your taste buds change over time. Just because you like something now doesn't always mean you'll like it in 5-10 years. Well my taste buds have been changing  & it's throwing my husband for a loop. First I used to be a HUGE Dr.Pepper fan & now I can't stand it & I only want Pepsi. Second, I have been a fan of coffe forever & I really like it when it's cold outside. My taste buds have changed & I'm experimenting with tea. I should state that I'm a southern girl when it used to come to tea, I liked it cold & with sugar! Well in town there is a wonderful British tea (Queens Pantry qptea.com) shop that has everything you could want in regards to tea. I stopped by the other day & came home with 2 different teas & directions on how to make it using my french press. So far I'm a big fan of the Creme Brûlée tea.

I'd better get my rear in gear. I need to make some bread before going to my church tonight. The church puts on a large production depicting life in Bethlehem at the time when Jesus was born. Everyone chips in & helps & I love that. I get to work in the costume department! It'll be a fun & fast evening. I also need to get the Christmas tree up. Tried to yesterday but the lights on the tree would not come on. Husband had to "MacGyver" it last year for the lights to work & this year they just weren't going to come on so he got us a new one. I would have gone & picked it out but I have a depth perception problem & the one time I did pick out a tree it filled up our tiny house. I guess I just like to go big!  

I hope that y'all are doing well. I'll write more later on, 


Vicky