January NEWFO

 Wahoo!! I actually did start a NEWFO this month! 

Bruce bought me a gift certificate to Country Quilts and Bears and this book

 

that I needed to take a paper piecing class.  I had a lot of fun and now I know how to paper piece! Once you get it, it's so easy! I see a lot of paper piecing in my future. 

Here's the project I started. 

 Looks kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, doesn't it? I started out putting a few of the pieces in the wrong places..... Apparently my understanding of the directions was not correct.

 After some frustration and measuring and more frustration and re-measuring.... I broke down and called our instructor, Lynn. This was huge for me because I truly hate to bother people with something I'm sure I can figure out, but I was ready to trim the pieces to make them fit and sense won over. Thankfully, she was very helpful and we laughed about it. I must point out that there are some errors in the book that she pointed out to us before we started. The publisher has apparently not been clued in to the errors and Lynn is going to send them all the ones she's found.  Here is the section after I fixed it (the right way).

And here is the block almost finished. I still have to do some embroidery and add the borders and back, but the hard part is done! 

 I did intend to post a bunch of stuff between my last post and this one, but I've been busy and trying to not be on the computer as much. I've written plenty of posts in my head. Maybe, now that I'm getting a few of my projects finished up and things around the house fixed, I will be able to update this more often.

I did finish assembling Bruce's flannel and denim blanket. I started to wash it to get the fringed edges to fray, but our washer drain is clogged and made a mess of the garage..... That will be addressed this weekend (I hope).The dirty laundry is piling up and I am not a big fan of laundromats.  It only took Bruce two months to fix the toilet. He just did it tonight when we got home from work. It was a big pain in the neck. Had to remove the whole toilet to replace the wax ring. Yuck and double yuck. 40 years of crud under there. Icky.Icky. Icky. Enough said.

  

Back to Bruce's blanket. I had a lot of help from Riley....

Yes Mom, I like the flannel you've selected.

Testing the comfort level of the flannel.

 I didn't want this section to run away, so I decided to hold it down for you.

It probably took longer than it should have to complete the blanket, with all the help I had, but I'm not one to turn down a helping hand or paw.

Thanks for stopping in! ~Amy