A Lovely year of finishes, May finish.

I really need to make smaller goals for myself :-), especially now that my son is out of school for the summer.   The past few months I have found myself running myself ragged to the point where I'm not enjoying life.  Most days it feels like a chore just to do anything.  You can all look at my past blog posts and see that they are getting further and further apart.  My 'me goal' for June will be to blog at least once a week.  

For May I set my goal to finish a the quilt top of all the squares I trimmed up last month.  I am pleased to say that I did finish the quilt top just yesterday.   I love it!   I'm really glad I was able to get pictures yesterday because it is raining buckets today.  

While working on this, I was talking to Melissa over at Sew Bittersweet Designs on what to use for the setting triangles around the outside.  When I put white with it, it just made my eyes cross and then she suggested using a blue of some sort.  I had a small piece of  blue in my stash so I sent her a picture and so with that picture in my head no matter what I tried, I couldn't make myself like the white.  

So there it is.  Bold and Beautiful.  There is a story that goes with this quilt and I will tell it one day, but you are going to have to wait in limbo for a little while longer.  

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope all of the mom's who read my blog have a fabulous mother's day.  My mom called me earlier this week asking if this weekend would be good for her and dad to come for a visit.  Well not really, but I told her yes. I won't be going to the track with my husband and son for my son's birthday, I'm ok with that I haven't seen my parents since I drove up there 2 months ago (it is almost 3 hours one way to their house).

I was out shopping earlier this week and I have to admit, I bought my own Mother's day gift.  None of you know my husband so I have to say he didn't screw it up this year :-)  I got what I wanted and I didn't have to spell it out for him or rely on the kids to get it right.  For a while I have been wanting a bird feeder (I feel that makes me old, but oh well) so I purchased one and a hook and some bird seed.  I have had several little visitors and I enjoy watching their antics at and around the feeder.    

Here are a few pictures of my little visitors.

Red Headed Finch

Cardinal and there is a Finch keeping its eye on him.

I believe this a woodpecker of some sort.  he had a very long thin beak.

Another Red headed Finch, he likes the sunflower seeds

I think he is trying to decide which one is the grand prize.

Happy Mother's day to all the mom's out there.  Dad's, I'll get you next month.   

A Lovely Year of Finishes-May

May is always a very busy month for my family.  My son has a birthday this month, there is the Indy 500 and all the practice days that go with it. We are right in the middle of soccer season for my son, and after today my son has 2 more Monday's left of school for this year.

To add to the craziness of May, my husband and I volunteered or time and skills over the weekend to do some home renovations and repairs for a disabled Veteran. Dan, served our country with 2 tours over seas during Desert Storm, and suffered a brain injury while serving.  One of my husbands friends organized the renovations and is hoping to do another one in November.  I can't wait and I promise I will take more than one picture at the next one.

Here is a peek of before and after on the counter tops that were replaced in Dan's kitchen.  We also repainted all the trim, doors, and cabinets in the kitchen. The dark counter on the left is the new look.

Now,on to my my May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  My goal this month is to take all those blocks I trimmed up last month and complete a quilt top.  I need to plan the layout and cut sashing if I decide it looks better with than without.

April goal met, A lovely year of finishes.

I did it!  I got all 66 of the Granny Square blocks trimmed up.

Start

Finish

You may be thinking that trimming off the corners wouldn't take very long to do and you are indeed correct. I had to completely take apart and re-sew 16 of the blocks. That is what took the most time, roughly 3 weeks.  It took me a minimum of an hour to take each block apart and put it back together.  There were many factors of why the blocks had to be taken apart, improper seam allowances, squares cut the wrong size, you get the picture.    My advice to anyone making blocks as part of a group project, make sure you cut your pieces accurately and check your seam allowance as well. You would be surprised at how often you are using a 3/8" seam instead of 1/4".  Draw lines on your machine or use a piece of tape to mark things.  

I'm linking up with the Lovely Year of Finishes with Sew Bittersweet Designs and Fiber of all Sorts.