Miscellaneous

For those of you who signed up at the beginning of the month for my Nothing But UFOs in 2013 it is time to show us what you have finished. If you linked up here the first few days of January you can now link up here and show us your posts where you accomplished some of your goals.  You have until January 31 to link up. On February 1 I will announce the winner of the giveaway if you finished at least one of your goals. If you didn't finish any don't be discouraged you can try again in February where you can link up again with another giveaway. Can't wait to see what you did this month. (Remember you can only link up now if you linked up at the beginning of the month.)

Last night was another crochet class where I am learning to read a pattern. Some patterns are still confusing to me because they don't use the same terminology. I still have several rounds to go on this project. 

 Since I am caught up on my UFOs for this month I decided to pull out a pattern for a pillow I need to make for my daughter-in-law. If you follow my blog you know that I tried to make a pillow cover a month to give to her for Christmas. I made ten. So even though I did not officially start this it is still a UFO to me. My daughter-in-law has a birthday in March and my son has one at the beginning of April within weeks of each other. I thought this would make a fun pillow they can put out during their birthday months.  This pattern is from Volume 5 of the 100 Quiltmaker blocks magazine. I love these magazines and have every issue.

 With that being said how would like a chance to win Volume 1? Quiltmaker was having a giveaway for the first magazine and a mug. I have been trying to win a mug ever since they starting publishing the magazine. I finally won the mug with the first issue blocks on it.

 If you would like a chance to win the magazine, not the mug, just tell me in the comment box, "I want the magazine." I will announce the winner February 1 along with the winner of my UFO giveaway. ( to be eligible for the UFO giveaway you had to link up at the beginning of the Jan.)

With Passion,
Carrie P.

A Big, Big House..

with lots and lots of room! I finished up row number ten of the Bee In My Bonnet row along. 

 I am all caught up.

 My goal was to keep up with all the rows that Lori shared for this month and I accomplished that. So I am linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes at Sew Bitter Sweet Designs.
I am also linking up to Lyn's BOMs Away!

My other goal for January was to get Mr. P's quilt top together which I did. I am taking the quilt to Laura tomorrow so she can quilt it for me.
I also got one side of my daughter's quilt hand quilted. Three more sides to go!

I am adding the link for you to now show me a post where you finished one of your UFOs that you mentioned at the beginning of the month. (click here to see your link at the beginning of the month)

I look forward to seeing at least one of your finishes. To have a chance to win my giveaway you had to add a link at the beginning of the month and the end of the month. I will announce the winner of the giveaway for this month on February 1.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Cutting Pieces

This morning I thought I would go up to my sewing room to cut pieces for the next row from Lori's row along. I have all the pieces cut and will sew tomorrow.

 Before I went upstairs I spotted an Eastern Towhee out the window which is a rare thing in my yard. I took a few photos but they didn't turn out well. You can see a better photos here and hear it's song.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Applique Addicts

My applique bee met for the first time this year. It was good to see everyone and to see what they are working on. Look at this fabulous quilt top Jane finished!

  Jane brought these cute little blocks to work on during our time together.

 It seems wool was thing that most of the ladies chose to work on during the bee.

 These two photos are really one long piece but I couldn't take a picture of the whole thing. Jonnie is working on this piece.

 Brenda is making her Hop To It quilt in wool.

 Susan is also working in wool! Hey Susan!

 Another wool block done by Beverly.

Last but not least, Charlotte is also working with some bright wool!

All this wool makes me want to pull out one of my wool UFOs. I might just do that for February!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

This and That

This is Mr. P's quilt top with the borders finally sewn on.

 I even got the binding made. I know they look different but the binding really is the same as the borders.

 That is my practice piece of crocheting. For those of you that crochet you can see I am having issues. I tried different stitches but as you can see I am having problems keeping my edges even. I have a hard time figuring out the last stitch. I don't want to count each stitch so if you crochet and have any advice I would appreciate any you could give me. My teacher says I will learn as I practice more.

 I learned how to make a granny square last night in class. Pretty fun. As soon as I get better at crochet I really want to start a hexagon granny square afghan.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Thursday night parts of North Carolina saw its first snow. I love the snow. Some years our area sees a lot of snow, other years not so much snow. Mr. P. and I would walk out on the porch as it was snowing to see some huge flakes. We also had snow thunder which was very odd. I dressed warmly the next morning to go outside to take some photos. I enjoyed walking around my yard exploring and taking photos of what ever caught my eye. It was so beautiful.

Somehow I caught this gold finch in mid air flying to the feeder.

 We actually lost power around 5:30am and it wasn't turned back on until 11:00am. I sure am glad we have this wood burning stove to help keep the house warm. Our home is total electric so when the power goes off we always wait in anticipation for it to come back on. During the time the power was out I practiced my crocheting and did some more hand quilting on my daughter's quilt.

 Check out these tracks in the snow. These were very foreign to me and it took Mr. P. and I  a while to figure what kind of animal left theses tracks. We did a little online searching and figured out these are running rabbit tracks.

  Yesterday the mailman brought me a package all the way from Australia.

 
 Jenny of Elefantz was having a giveaway of the new issue this Australian magazine.  I was one of the winners. She also sent some lovely thread from Australia.

 The reason she was having a giveaway was because she is featured in the magazine. If you read Jenny's blog you know how creative she is. She is so generous to share free patterns with us all too. I have made several of her patterns.

Thanks so much Jenny for the magazine and the thread. Can't wait to find the perfect project for the thread.

Now that we have power turned back on I might try to finish making the borders for Mr. P's quilt this weekend.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Keeping my Brain Young

I taught myself to crochet some basic stitches about 25 years ago. I thought it might be fun to crochet again. I signed up for a class at one of our local knitting/quilting shops. I bought this fun variegated yarn at the shop and re-learned some basic stitches again. My problem is trying to read the patterns and deciphering all the abbreviations. If you crochet you know what I am talking about.  

I have three more classes. Until the class meets again I am supposed to practice. I bought some yellow cotton yarn that I will practice with and save that variegated yarn for something special. Now only if learning something new would keep my body young like my brain!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Lovely Finishes

It is mid-month check in for A Lovely Year of Finishes. So far I am on track. I said I would finish my mitten row and any other row that Lori posts on her blog. The stars were the next row which I finished today. Lori mentioned she would be posting another row in two weeks. That would be the 28th so that means I would do that row too.

I am linking up this post on Melissa's blog because I have some "Lovely Finishes."

I just want to say that I am proud of you that have linked up with me at the beginning of the year. I have been visiting your blogs and many of you have been working hard on "Nothing but UFOs" Keep up the good work!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

One down...

fifteen to go. My first star for the row number 9 by Lori Holt.

Do you read Pat Sloan's blog? She is writing posts on UFO busting. Her first tip is know what you have. She shows you in the post how sort them into groups and how to determine which UFOs to keep and which ones to get rid of. You can read the post here. She will be sharing a tip a month

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Yesterday and Today...

I worked on sewing the borders for Mr. P's quilt. I still have more to do. I also made the frame that will go around the little Valentine stitchery that I showed you all yesterday.

 I found a pretty Christmas box to put all the kits in as they come in the mail. At the end of the year I will give myself a really fun gift!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Little Quilts

Remember this photo I posted at the end of November?

 I finished the little quilt. I have had company twice this week so I haven't had much time to work on my UFO list but I finally got the binding and sleeve sewn on this little UFO. I wanted to have it done for Christmas but so much was going on during December it did not get done. This little quilt is a pattern that Missie of Hallbrook Designs was sharing during the Think Christmas blog hop. I changed the bird some and added more stars.

 Ever since I bought my Ackfeld wire table stand I have been wanting to make more little quilts to hang on it. I get the Shabby Fabrics newsletter and they were sharing a new club called the Sweet Stitches Club in the newsletter. When I saw it was for quilts to hang on the wire stand and it was Kathy Schmitz's designs I knew I had to join. Here is the first kit.

I know what you are thinking! I am doing nothing but UFOs this year. I know and I am going to. I am going to sew the pieced borders of each kit because there are stickers on the fabric which I don't want to leave on for a long time. After I make the pieced borders I will put all the little kits in a box and save the embroidery part for next year.
I have a big button on my blog that says "Nothing but UFOs for 2013" and I will continue to work on them no matter how much I want to make these little quilts. Oh, it is so tempting!!!!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Finished...

just in time because Lori has put up the next row on her blog. Friendship stars. I was trying to be so careful while making these mittens. Somehow I sewed a small square on the wrong side of a mitten and the cuff wouldn't fit right. It took me a while to figure it out. I had to make a new mitten. I thought I was sewing the little squares on the right side but I ended up making a mitten go the same way as the first one. It was those two in the center so I just sewed them in the opposite direction. I was afraid to try to make another one because of the problems I was having.

 When I took a picture to put on my blog one mitten jumped out  at me. Another one wrong! I forgot to add a little square. I can't believed I missed it the whole time I was putting the row together. So I just un-sewed a little bit of the section so I could fix it. The photo above is the corrected row. (see the orange arrow)

Hopefully I won't have any issues with the next row or the one Lori will be posting in two weeks!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Sewing Mittens

This morning I had planned to sew the whole row of mittens for the row along quilt. I tried to get connected to the internet and for some reason I could not. I needed it so I could see Lori's excellent tutorial for the mittens on her blog. So what's a girl to do?

I cleaned up my sewing room some, met my husband during his lunch hour to walk for our exercise, and went to the grocery store for a few things. Once I ate lunch I tried again to connect to the internet. It worked and I sewed the main mitten shapes. Tomorrow I will add the cuffs and hopefully sew the row together.

Making progress! How are your UFOs coming along?

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Rotary Cutting

This morning I got all the background pieces cut out for my next row in the Lori Holt's row along. Look how little some of those pieces are!

This afternoon I got the pieces cut out for the mittens. There are two of each color.

Tomorrow I will sew!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Accomplishment!

Yesterday I was able to sew three of the blocks for Mr. P's quilt and today I finished the last two.

Here are all them together. I know how I want to set them but I need to buy some fabric for the sashing. These blocks are from a quilt that Dawn Heese designed. You can see her quilt here. I am going to set my differently because I don't want my quilt to be a square. Stay tuned to see my setting. Thanks for sharing your quilt with us, Dawn.

 So this week I will work on my row along from Lori Holt's blog, the mittens row.  Until tomorrow I will go ahead and continue my hand quilting and link up to Kathy's blog for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Kudos go to LynCC of What a Hoot!,  and Mama T of Mama T Keeps you in Stitches. and Simone de Klerk for finishing their first UFO!  You go girls!

With Passion,
Carrie P.

2013 is the year to Finish!

Yesterday I had my whole day planned out. Then the interruptions came. Nothing major but they did change my plans for the day. I had planned to get the three blocks sewn on Mr. P's quilt. I did get some pieces sewn. I will see if I can get them done today. I was also able to do a little hand quilting while watching TV last night.

One thing I have noticed since the new year started is that many bloggers have the same idea of working on UFOs. One such challenge is called a Lovely Year of Finishes hosted by Melissa and Shanna.  You can read more on their blogs.  You pick one project to finish each month. So I am linking up and I will finished the mitten row and any other row that Lori puts on her blog this month.

Lynne is also hosting a party to finish all kinds of projects, not just quilting UFOs. You can read more here.

Just a words about my challenge. The title "Nothing but UFOs" is really for me and of course, any one else who wanted to just work on UFOs this year. I know how hard it is to not start something new. And if you do that it is fine but you are welcome to join in any month with your three UFOs for the month and link up. You still have time to link up today with your post showing what you are going to work on. And you can also link up to the other blogs that I shared today.

With Passion,

Carrie P.