Crown Quilt Sees Progress

Last night I trimmed a ton of hst's for my favorite sister Tina's Crown Quilt...DJ ripped the papers and we made quick work of these yellow and violet hst's! I still have a few more to make in these colors and a ton more with the dark purple too. This quilt is sort of lazily in progress. I just got wild and sewed what I had pinned and got it going.

I have done a little sewing on Smith Mountain Morning too...no photo yet. Baby steps!

In case you are dying to know...I still haven't trimmed the RRCB blocks. Somehow I just keep putting that off! I have plans to get it done this weekend. I wound up agreeing to sub a class on Saturday but other than that I have a long weekend and I plan to enjoy it!

Santa Swap 2 Take One!

My model (who shall remain nameless) reluctantly agreed to pose with my Santa Swap 2 partner's bag. Shannon likes 30's fabrics so I am hoping my fabric choice is one she will like.
I was super happy with my handles. I honestly would rather buy handles and use them because they look too homemade to me, but I decided the bag was charming enough and I am just my worst critic. I have made this bag before and forgot how large it is once it is made. That is good though because we are sending two gifts for the next four months and can't open them until Christmas time.

I can't say what little goodies I have packed up for Shannon, but since she filled out her likes and dislikes sheet I had something to go on. I will get this stuff in the mail this week!

Late Night Sewing

DJ fell asleep early and I decided to head back to my quilting studio....I did some sewing, ironing and pinning on Smith Mountain Morning. This picture shows you what is done so far for that quilt. I have a LONG way to go--I don't even have the logs and all cut and haven't begun to figure out the star tips. There are templates in the book and I need to ask Amy if she used them or had some other idea of Mathmatical genius and uses the Easy Angle or something. I am not big on templates but am even less big on Math (even though I have interpreted College Algebra and all the courses leading up to it almost as many times as I have fingers!)
I also did some pinning on the Roll, Roll Cotton Boll borders. These are going to come together much quicker than the trimming of the string blocks I think.

Of course I couldn't resist adding to my cheddary challenge bow ties. I have enough to put another block together now. I think these would be really cute in tiny doll quilts, but I can envision a huge one of these that gets passed down in my family so I am going to try for that. (and maybe do a tiny doll quilt out of doubles or something).

Meanwhile I have been keeping an eye on Hurricane Irene. Seriously a huge storm and I can't imagine what it is like for all those in the path. I have never been near a hurricane (though I do have a little tornado experience...When I was young back in July of 1980 my county in Wisconsin had four tornados (F1 to F3) and the power was out for days after. I can recall how strange it was and how we couldn't break the habit of flipping light switches as we entered rooms. Also the huge cookouts everyone had because we could still grill and our meat was going to go bad. I stayed with my great Grandma Myrt for the week to help her out. I was actually up at Long Lake during the tornados and I remember one heck of a storm, but wasn't in town when it all happened. Nature just leaves me in awe. Prayers going up for our East Coast Americans.

Sewing Day at June's House

Here is June.

And here is DJ. She was working on cutting up the Crown Royal bags and cutting all the hst's for that quilt (think we have almost a third or so done of the hst's sewn and cut).


In addition to sewing up the light purple and yellow hsts, I sewed all of these border units.

See them piling up?

And they are all ironed. The left side shows the 12 corner units, and the start of the side units. These are, of course for Roll, Roll Cotton Boll! I brought my blocks with me and was really hoping to trim them but didn't get that far.

I also had to get a picture of June's Roll, Roll Cotton Boll block colors. Her red is brighter and her green in bluer (looks greener in the photo) and I really like them. June likes my colors. LOL, maybe we should trade if we ever get them done!

We had a nice day (went way too quick) and ate potato salad and ribs and lots of coffee (for me, see my bottomless mug? Herve keeps the coffee pot on at all times! Thanks Herve!) We had to leave earlier than we wanted for a work party I had to get to. Not sure you can see in this tiny picture, but Organ Stop Pizza has a huge organ and lots of noise and lights and such. I was glad to see it all, but in no hurry to go back again. Luckily we all know sign language so we could "talk" just fine through all the chaos!



We came home and cleaned up and immediately put on light clothes and are sitting by our bedroom AC. The house AC isn't keeping up. It is still eighty degrees in here. I have a ton of work related stuff to get done tomorrow and all I can think about it getting back to my sewing machine.

(Not So) Pictureless Post

I was debating blogging since I haven't done so all week and didn't snap any photos today..hey wait I did put one on facebook I can go get, lol. I have been crazy busy back to work. Interpreting college classes and teaching three of them too. All told I survived the Arizona heat despite wearing black most everyday (to contrast with my hands) and having to hike seriously from the farthest points across campus daily. Before work today I quickly quilted my Paganini quilt (hey I have a pic of that on fb too!) so I could get the foot changed out!








Then off to work I went. I finished work today and went out for lunch at a Thai place with my friend and co-worker Christine. Was nice catching up with her and not long after she was in a car accident but her and the kids with her are all fine. I am so glad for that, she is an amazing lady and we have lots in common so I wouldn't want anything to happen to her. And at lunch one of the things we talked about was losing a child and how we couldn't cope with that.
Anyway, I came home and got right to sewing and DJ got right to cutting out the stuff for my sister's Crown Royal Quilt! I managed to make a few blocks but only took a picture of the one.

Once I get four done you will be able to see the star pattern it makes. I was shooting for that tonight, but the Packer game was on and I no longer have cable TVin my sewing room (instead the TV is a videophone for DJ) so I managed to catch the last, best, five minutes of the game and never went back in to sew. I did however haul all the stuff to my bedroom and pinned for an hour. So I have my center blocks pinned for Smith Mountain Morning, four more of the other center blocks pinned, lots of crown yellow/blue hst sheets pinned, and my RRCB border and twelve corner blocks pinned. I should have taken pictures because that is alot of progress!

I work tomorrow for two hours and then I am heading to June's house to sew. That is the reason I pinned the night away. Makes it real easy to gab with June if I don't have to think at all while I sew. I will be sure to get some photos tomorrow!

I also want to put some prayers up for Randy's youngest grandaughter who is in ICU right now from an accident overdose. She isn't even two and is in a coma until the drug gets out of her system. Very scary. Also praying for anyone who may be in the path of Hurricane Irene. Lots going on in the world right now.

A Special Quilt of Valor

Remember all these BOM blocks....

And how some of them went off to a soldier for QOV and some were saved for another special sailor?

Tada, here it is...

Ros is done quilting my nephew Christopher's Quilt of Valor! He is in the Navy and I really felt I had to make him (and his new fiance, Christian)a special Quilt of Valor. I will gift him this at Christmas and he has seen it on facebook. I have made him a few quilts before but my sister didn't let them leave her house when he moved out. She says maybe someday, lol. So this will be his first quilt at his apartment which he will get to see when he is home on leave. Christopher is six weeks older than my middle child, Hannah. For a time he even lived with us and he is near and dear to my heart.

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As always Ros did a great job quilting this one. I am always so happy with the love she puts into every stitch! Thanks again to Amy of Amy's Passion's for all of the great BOM blocks she put up and motivated me to stitch. I hope she does that again soon (hint, hint) because it worked out really well to make them all in red, white and blue and have some great QOV's when they were done!

Snuck in a little Sewing Time

Here is the picture I took of my cute little four patch for my couch that I thought disappeared off of my camera. Apparently when I dropped the camera the memory card dislodged and so only the last picture was on it because I took it after I dropped it. Without the card the camera holds exactly one picture. LOL.

You may recall that I won a drawing that Sherri from A Quilting Life did a little bit ago! I wasted no time in ordering my winnings from http://www.shabbyfabrics.com and I am tickled with it. I was impressed that they quickly answered a question I had and they sent me a few coupons for future orders. I have never ordered from them before, but now they are bookmarked. Thanks Sherri
and Shabby Fabrics! You made my day twice (the day I won and the day they arrived :))

Another good mail day was a few days ago when I got my quiltvilleswap package in the mail. I have not done a lot of swaps and this is my first with the group. I was a bit disappointed that I got back so many of my own hst's (because I had spent the time putting them in bags with my name and email and then had to take them all back out again) but I suspect it is because I missed that original swap and the hostess went ahead and let those of us stragglers send them in (I just rejoined the group and missed it) and I suspect there just weren't many to swap. So oh well! I did get some other ones to mix in and I was tickled to see I had skinny strips from Amy of Amy's Passions--she got some of my stuff too. Very fun to know that there will be a quilt in Wisconsin with some of my fabrics and one in Arizona with some of hers! Blogging really has enriched my life!

I was really hoping I could sneak in some sewing yesterday...DJ floated down the Salt River with some friends and I wanted to go but since I am suddenly teaching three different classes and had only prepped for one I stayed home to get things set. I had it in my head that the semester started on Monday and before I knew I was teaching three classes I had agreed to interpret two Saturday classes (one pretty much all day) and so I was sipping my first cup of coffee and prepping when I got a text from my team asking where I was. WHAT? Are you kidding me? I am never late, never miss, seriously...so within about forty minutes I was showered and in the classroom. My amazing team knows I am never late and never miss and was so sweet about it. I owe her big time. I was also quite freaked out because there went my prep day...and then God was good to me...the teacher cancelled the all day class (which is my second class) and I was able to go back home again. DJ had the car so Randy drove me and then had to turn around and come get me again. What a morning. So I didn't get to sew yesterday at all, but I accomplished tons and thank goodness all around. I can get through next week teaching and go from there! Oh and good news my bus drive stuff was recovered! So excited to have all of that back and now on disc. I also reorganized it all and will make sense of it as the semster goes on. I have ammassed a lot of stuff which is great, but if it isn't organized it doesn't do me much good!

This morning I woke up with a migraine. Sigh. So it has been a slow start kind of day but I was determined to sew...I quilted up this little baby quilt. Then I pieced together some scrap binding and bound it by machine. I tried doing it Ros' way and am pretty pleased with it. Next I need to try BJ's method which uses some glue!

We are dogsitting Kathy's dogs again (my former dogs) and here is Rosie posing with the back of the baby quilt. Quite busy, this backing was originally purchased for Tara's quilt backing but I changed my mind on that and so I had a ton of this to back some fun quilts with. I also sewed up one little cheddar challenge block. My head still hurts and have some work stuff to do, so I am going to try to get done what I need to. I hope to sew again some fine day, lol!

Wishing I was Sewing!

I am wishing I was sewing...but life sometimes gets in the way. I was supposed to be teaching one leisurely class this semester (and still work my other two jobs) and then there were two. And of course, two different levels of ASL so two preps. Then as of this morning I was offered/begged to take on one more class, and yep you guessed it, it is a different level and another prep. I am so not a last minute person and I was so overwhelmed this morning! I have taught all of these classes before but there is a new revamped curicullum for the one level, and a supplementary book that I haven't read yet, the second level not too many things I have to change and the third level they cover some of the units but not all that I have done before. They don't use the supplementary book that I used to use. Boring you, sorry...basically in a nutshell I have my work cut out for me! Today I worked ALL day and am happy to say that I have things well in hand (for the first week anyway!) and tomorrow I will get some more done, but they I am rewarding myself with some sewing! See that RRCB? I need to get trimming some blocks...or see this SMM? My strip swap arrived (no pic yet) and Amy is getting way ahead of me so I want to get to more of it!

And since I haven't been sewing I will show you some stuff I was thinking about sewing the other day. My daughter wants a Christmas Tree Skirt and I would like a new one too. I like the pattern above though I need a degree ruler to make it so haven't started it yet. This is the pattern I made three of back in about 1992..funny, it is a Thimbleberries pattern back before I knew what that meant. Can you see that this was before rotary cutting? I made the patterns out of an old manila folder...and I had extra base blocks (which are aweful now that I really know how to sew!)

Here is a picture from my old journal of two of the skirts I made.

Here are a bunch of the Mickey Mouses I cut up to make potholders from. They are made from my leftover bargello strips. Finally found a use for those strips two years later! The last picture is last Saturday at Ros' place. This is the Arizona Huggy Bunch--I visited them to drop off some quilts to Ros and I really want to make time to go sew with them because they were having a lot of fun sewing up some Quilts of Valor!