Bits and Pieces at a Time

Do it now! can affect every phase of your life. It can help you do the things you should do but don't feel like doing. It can keep you from procrastinating when an unpleasant duty faces you. But it can also help you do those things that you want to do. It helps you seize those precious moments that, if lost, may never be retrieved. 

Napoleon Hill

I have been busy in my studio and trying to stay off the computer.  I can actually get a few more things done if I don't spend as many hours in Blog Land!  My husband had a birthday last week, one of those ending in '9', and mine is fast approaching.  They make you think of what you have accomplished in this world so far and what you want to accomplish before you check out.  When you know there are more days behind you than ahead you can really start to zone in on what needs to be done.  Not trying to be morbid here, just facing reality.

One of the realities we faced this month was that our deck had seen much better days.  Here is a picture from last year.  Even the quilt doesn't make it look better.

The Old Deck

Here are a couple of shots from last week.  

Looking out from my dining area door.

Looking up from the yard.

The joists and posts were fine so we didn't replace those.  The top boards and rails were a different story.  I'll have more pictures later.  There are still a few finishing touches to be done but WOW you will like the results.

On the Quilting Front I got this Turning 20 quilted.  It's not mine so you only get a peek.  That's ONE off my to do list marked DONE!

I also got this baby quilt bound.  This is a new picture of the quilt bound and washed.  That makes TWO items DONE!

I'm still playing with the decorative stitches when finishing the binding.  On this one I used a feather stitch and I liked it much better than the 3 step Zig Zag.  I think next time I'll try sewing the binding on the back so the stitches will be on the binding on the front side.

My long losing streak has ended!  I won a prize from none other than the awesome Amy Bradley during the Ho, Ho, Ho Blog Hop!  My prize arrived, the lovely Dragonfly pattern along with a cute little blank card and a discount coupon for her web site.  This one is so cute! It will be on my 'to do list' soon!  Boy does that woman have talent!

Many Thanks to Amy!

This is a picture of my elephant ears because I haven't forgotten about the EQ Giveaway I've been promising.  (Do you get it?  Elephants don't forget.)  This week I hit 50,000 page views on the blog!  I know to many of you this is a small number.  I also am approaching 500 followers if I add up the different numbers of the ways people can follow my blog.  I may be over it but there are some methods that I can't track.  Or, I may be way under because I know many of you have been using different ways to follow since Google Reader stopped and so I may be counting you twice.  

The Elephant Ears have loved all the rain this summer!

  
One of the reasons I haven't posted was because I couldn't find the EQ7 package.  It had been put in a 'safe place' I was sure but I couldn't remember where.  I've been looking for it for several weeks.  Now I'm not one that loses things on a regular basis.  Even in the chaos of my studio I can usually put my hands on what I'm looking for without to much effort.  There are exceptions to this of course.  Anyway I didn't want to start publicizing the giveaway until I had my hands on it.  Finally this week I found it!  It was of course in plain sight, sort of.  I had been looking for the software box.  Finally I was sitting at my sewing machine and it occurred to me that it had been in the cardboard shipping box last time I saw it.   I turned my head and there it was, right were I had walked by it at least twice every time I went down the stairs to my studio.  LOL 

This little search has made me realize that my studio has reached CRITICAL MASS!  So I have started to put away some of the fabric and projects that have been laying about.  Part of the reason for the mess is that for the months when I was having knee pain I or my husband would just take things downstairs and dump them.  Then in June I cleaned out the extra bedroom removing all the things there that I had been using to sew upstairs.  I made a small dent in things yesterday and will continue to work on it Bits and Pieces at a Time.  I need to be running my Innova and getting a number of quilts done so the cleaning and sorting will be done on my breaks.  NO, I'M NOT TAKING PICTURES of the BEFORE!!!

Oh, but you want to hear more about the Giveaway don't you!  I promised summer, which doesn't end until the 3rd week of September.  I'm thinking it will run the first 2 weeks of September.  This one will be for FOLLOWERS ONLY!  Look for the post Labor Day Weekend.

Well, that's a few bits of what's been happening in my life.  What have you lost or found lately?  

Linking with:  Live a Colorful Life and Richard and Tanya Quilts and 
Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Oh! Tweety Baby!

When I was a young man, I didn't think about having a family. My wife and I were too poor to have babies. Then all of a sudden, one came along and scared the hell out of us because we had no money. Once the baby arrives, you make do somehow. You fall in love with the baby and life adjusts itself. You find you don't need as much money as you thought. When that happens, you can ask the questions that should have come before the baby. 

Ray Bradbury

I thought I'd take a few minutes to share one of my finishes for the month.  I've been trying to get better acquainted with Aislin Joy my new Innova longarm.  We have been getting along pretty well so far.  I finished this charity baby quilt and tried several new things on it.

This is the second panel like this that I've quilted.  I shared the other one a while back.

What's not to love about Tweety Bird?

I tried to see how small I could get with some background shells.

I used the plaid as a guide for some Terry Twist quilting.  It gives some good texture.

 Here is a view of the back.

I used a 3 step Zig Zag to stitch the binding down.  Can't say I'm thrilled with it but it holds it down OK.  Next time I'll use a more decorative stitch.  I have dozens to choose from on my machine and this is a good place to play with them.

I'm linking to New to Me at Celtic Thistle Stitches

Today is the first day of the Ho, Ho, Ho Blog Hop.  My post is tomorrow so I need to go finish things up,  In the meantime check out the list of the ones posting today at Sew We Quilt or you can see the list for the whole hop at Just Let Me Quilt