THE MODERN DIARY

A Little of This...A Little of That!

2012-01-29T20:15:00.006-07:00

Randy gave me this audiobook for Christmas so I have been listening to it while I sew (un

less DJ is hanging with me and then we were watching Firefly). The story is alright but not great. Good thing Randy doesn't read my blog, lol.

I started out by finishing up the Mourning Crosses quilts. I wanted to get three made for sure and I accomplished that! They all need the last outer border which I ordered from Thousands of Bolts last night. Can't wait to see how it looks on these! For the second and third quilts I put my Dad's shirts in a cross pattern...second block in the tow and bottom row and the first and third block in the middle row.

So that is what three of them look like so far. I can't wait to finish them up and send them out.

Made and attached a border to Lil' Twister Valentine too. And I cut and made my bow tie blocks with my Dad's shirt fabric too! The golf block and the plaid next to it are really from the quilt I made him...the leftovers pieces of fabric I had from that. But all of it reminds me of Dad.

While digging around in the flannel bin I again came across a bunch of these blocks sewn into long rows by the kids (about ten years ago) and decided to pull some apart and turn it into a doggy size quilt. No sense in it sitting in the bin any longer.

And decided to jump on one more bandwagon...Christmas Through the Year. This is the first thing I made for it. Two dolly buntings (I made about four or five of these and gifted them last year, so here are two more for this year!) are ready for Christmas. Feels good to get a jump on it! I just hope I can keep it up each month!
Back to work tomorrow, but a little bit of this and a little bit of that meant A LOT got done today!

Saturday Quilting and Sewing with Pink Lemonade!

2012-01-28T20:37:00.004-07:00

I made four more mourning crosses blocks with my Dad's flannel shirts in the center. They kind of are all wonky because I am not lining up the stripes or anything, but I like it. Only a ton more to go since I am for sure making two more of these little wallhangings and maybe three more. I decided I am going to add some of Dad's shirts to my bow tie quilt so I don't need to make a fifth one! So that will be coming soon. I made two bow ties today from my basket but no pic yet.
DJ helped me out by doing the spray basting on three of my little quilts. So I quilted this one with pink thread. Just went in both directions on the big squares.
I dug in my leftover binding drawer for binding and had the EXACT amount to do this one. The binding isn't civil war fabric but the color went and so I just went with it. I am glad I did because when it was done I realized that this quilt matches the Double Delight on the bed in my room (yes I finally put it on the bed!) and so it is hanging over the bed. Will get a photo of it all when the bed is made!

I also quilted this one across in both directions though I didn't easily find binding for it so this is as far as it went. Figured I should finish it for Valentine's day. One of my co-workers saw in on facebook and texted me to ask if she could buy it. That made my night though it isn't baby size which is what she was looking for.

Went and saw "The Grey" today which was a bit too gory for me but it was a decent story. I knew DJ would like it and it would be easy to interpret. We tend to save some of the movies for when they are out on DVD so she can watch the captioning and I don't have to interpret in the theater. This is 2012 and it is RIDICULOUS that all movies are not just open captioned. Hearing people would get used to it (just as they get used to other handicap accessible things) and Deaf people could enjoy what everyone else takes for granted. I am just sayin!

Home Town/ Around the Block Schnibbles is Quilted

2012-01-27T14:14:00.002-07:00

Haven't even seen this baby quilted in person, but Ros blogged about quilting my Home Town/Around the Block schnibbles so I snapped up the picture to show off! She does a nice job with these little ones and I always want to keep them all!
Well, I am working all day and night (with this quick hour off) so there is all the quilty fun I am having today. I hope to get in more tomorrow!

Ruth's First Quilt is Done!

2012-01-22T21:22:00.003-07:00

Ruth came over for a few hours today and finished piecing her quilt. Next she basted it (all by herself!) with basting spray and pins, quilted it and bound it. It is really cute and I think our co-worker who is expecting is going to be tickled! I guess she is doing the baby's room in pink and brown so this quilt will be the highlight of the room--at least in my opinion!

While Ruth was working on her quilt I did several more blocks for Mourning Crosses. After Ruth left I got the sashing and first border on it. I was working with the fabric that I have in my stash and I need to get more black fabric. I really didn't have much to choose from. The border/sashing has cute little cherries on it, hardly seems like mourning fabric but it was available! I decided to go ahead and cut up some of my dad's flannel shirts that have been sitting waiting to find their way into a quilt or two. This is the perfect one for them...so I want to make several of these so I can give one to Margie (my dad's lifetime girlfriend) and my uncle Jim...maybe my sister and my uncle Rick if I get real ambitious. I had thought I would do one for me too, but I think I will just incorporate the fabric into the cheddar challenge quilt I am doing instead because I plan on keeping that one and I have memories of Gma Nan in that one already!

And another photo of Ruth's quilt though just before trimming I think.

Sew, Sew, Sew :)

2012-01-21T20:14:00.008-07:00

Sometimes I am in the mood to putter and not to really do a huge project. So I went ahead and did a few (not so) leaders and enders for my Cheddary Challenge quilt. Then I laid them out in a different arrangement and smiled!

Then I whipped up some of my leftover charm squares that seemed Valentin

e-ish (some of them are actually from a Christmas packet) so that I could play with my Lil' Twister ruler again.

So today after having brunch with DJ and her grandfather I cut it out and carefully pinned it up and viola it turned out!

So since today I got this great new book in the mail I had to play along with the yahoo group I recently joined that makes small quilts. They picked this quilt out for January and so I started at my leftover parts box and picked out some hst's that I could use for the first few cross blocks. Tomorrow I will try to do some more. I think I am on a small quilt kick. So much fun to make!

I didn't strictly follow the colors since I was using leftover hst's but I will be adding more black to the next blocks so it should balance out okay.
Now to watch a movie or two and knit on my second sock :)

Pink Lemonade Flimsy Done and my First Sock!

2012-01-15T22:26:00.003-07:00

My first sock is finally done and I am continuing to work on the second one. I love it!
I haven't weaved the ends in yet, but I have plenty of time to do that while I finish the other one.
I saw that Lori posted the last bit for Pink Lemonade so I decided to cheer myself up after that awful Packer loss. Seriously a sad day here! So it took no time at all to cut what was left and do the four corner blocks. And only a little more time to sew it all together. Not sure how I will quilt it but Lori will post some ideas and I will see if I can copy any of them...lol! I have decided I really, really enjoy making small quilts like this. They go quickly and give fast satisfaction and they look so cute on the wall! I am getting quite a little collection and may have to dedicate a wall for them all sometime soon. At this point I just change out one in a spot by my sewing area, but I think there are getting to be too many for that! YAY. I don't think I am ready to give away any of these little ones yet either!

I was just organizing my pictures and updating my flickr too and I am amazed at all I accomplished at the sewing machine in January. I hope I get half as much done in February!

Teaching Ruth to Sew

2012-01-15T15:07:00.004-07:00

This morning I went to Ruth's house to teach her how to sew on a machine. She treated me to breakfast and bloody mary's and then brought out this beauty! I think she said it was her hubby's grandmother that hand pieced it and they got the top and had someone quilt it for them. It is really stunning with so many colors and such personality. Gorgeous! Seeing this up close made my day!
We started with something simpler though...a Bonnie Hunter "Streak of Sunshine" quilt. Ruth had picked the fabrics on her own and we cut the strips and arranged them in an order we liked.
Ruth sewed them into strips.
Then we cut them again and arranged them, did some unsewing and resewing and got this!
Ruth added the narrow border and we got the outer border cut but ran out of time to sew it on because I had to get home to the Packer game! I think it looks great and our co-worker Chelsi (who is expecting her first, a girl) is going to love it. That Ruth would not only learn to sew but put in the time and money on this for Chelsi's baby is really special! I hope I have nurtured a new quilter. One can never have too many quilting friends!

Now to watch the Packers and finish knitting my sock!

Orca Bay Clue Seven is Done--Mostly!

2012-01-14T23:56:00.005-07:00

Fabulous mail I received today (and my Fairy Tale charm packs from a few days ago). I am stocked up on thread for awhile.
This afternoon after Becky's grad party (congrats Becky!) DJ and I finished our Hulu marathon of "Once Upon a Time" and then started "Terra Nova" which we like too while I sewed and sewed and sewed and OMG sewed the rest of clue seven. I did these flying geese in sets of ten, sewing, ironing and cutting off the dog ears...127 flying geese (which I think may be too big but I am not really going to double check and depress myself at this point). I still have to do the four hourglass units to officially say clue seven is done, but go with it. I need to feel progress.
Look at that stack of geese coming along...
All of my pieces look like they may turn into a quilt top finally! I honestly feel like putting this one away for awhile til its UFO number comes up. Usually when I get to the end I can't wait to finish, but I have a feeling I am going to need to adjust those flying geese and I just can't even think about that now.
Here is what it is looking like when I lay it out. I love the colors and I am not sure I have the yellow squares going the right way. Just wanted to get an idea.
Tomorrow I heading to a co-worker's house to teach her to sew a baby quilt for another co-worker. Then I will be home to watch the Packers play! Might get back to finishing up knitting my socks..it has been awhile.

Pink Lemonade Little Quilt Step Two Done!

2012-01-14T14:27:00.004-07:00

Last night I made my ten half blocks and today I got them ironed and laid them out to get an idea of what things will look like. I don't know if this is the cheddar background I will use yet, but it is the biggest piece (other than solid) that I have onhand.
I am liking how it looks so far. I am almost out of double pinks since I used TONS of them in Double Delight I think it was so I will put that on my shopping list lol.

Speaking of shopping I grabbed up two charm packs online the other day...with doing a year of Schnibbles it is always good to have some extra charm packs on hand! I can't remember the line at the moment but it was fairy tales and I thought it was cute.

Clue Six is Done!

2012-01-14T01:46:00.002-07:00

Something came up for June so I wound up sewing at home today..but since I had hauled all my stuff down I set up shop in the living room and we finally checked out Randy's Hulu and started watching "Once Upon a Time" which is pretty good as I had heard. Meanwhile I sewed for FOREVER finishing up the light blocks of clue six (Ohio Stars) and then ran upstairs to iron and trim them and while the iron was heating up I cut out the half blocks for Pink Lemonade. You can see some of that to the left in the picture above. I got all ten of those sewn up though they aren't ironed so pic will wait til tomorrow on that.
Then I whipped up (hahahha as if...whipped up) all the dark blocks. I did put yellow in the centers and I hope I got them all right. Funny I did block by block on the light ones and did plenty of unsewing because I was grabbing from the wrong pile all the time. When I did the darks I just did assembly line sewing and it went much smoother for me. I like the immediate gratification of doing each block but it sure slows me down!
So happy they are done (though the darks need ironing and trimming up--they are done lol) and since I already have about half of clue seven done I can proudly say I am on clue 7.5 of Orca Bay!

Pink Lemonade Little Quilt

2012-01-13T10:05:00.003-07:00

Lori over at Humble Quilts http://humblequilts.blogspot.com/ is posting this little Pink Lemonade reproduction quilt from one that she has (or has a photo of). I have been watching several blogs as people are following along...like I did with her last three little quiltalongs! I always think I will find time later, I save and even print the steps and figure I will fit them in somewhere. Then at midnight last night (after a day of prepping for teaching--done and housecleaning) I though I would "just cut out the pieces" after all I have a good selection of fabrics perfect for this that I rarely get to play with. Then I thought I would sew just one block...the one I had the half square triangles all made up in my orphan basket (only those had the right colors!) so I did that one--it has different pink background fabric but that is okay because so does the original.

DJ was playing a videogame and since I was happy to sew on she was happy to play on..so I kept on sewing! Sort of happy accident I cut too many of the colored fabrics so some of them got sewn too for the next step they will become half blocks.

I had to lay them out on top of some cheddar so you can see where it is going. These blocks make me smile. I love simple, quick and easy, and I love them. Thanks Lori for getting me on it! Now off to take CJ to two doctor's appointments and then stopping at the college to do a few things and then I am off to June's to sew Orca Bay. Gotta go pack the car!

January UFO Challenge is Met!

2012-01-09T23:50:00.004-07:00

Worked all day, had a healthy dinner when I got home (trying....lol) and then I quilted and bound this baby all by myself tonight. Wasn't easy because I went around all those snowball blocks and used my new machine which doesn't have a wide throat! But it is done and bound in all different scrappy colors (which you can't really see in this pic) but I was happy to use up leftover bindings from my drawer!
Here is the crazy backing that says "love" all over it. I think DJ's six year old niece in Virginia will love it!

Cheddary Challenge Progress

2012-01-09T00:01:00.000-07:00

Whenever my little basket of scraps gets low I fill it back up...I am really enjoying making these little bow ties and admiring them on my design wall all year long!
Today I finished off my ninth block and put it on the wall.
It isn't very big yet, but I love the variety of scraps. Bottom row in the center is the "ticket" in at the National Storytelling Festival that I had to pin to my shirt all weekend. Several of the blues in there are my grandma Nan's scraps that I inherited now that she is gone. The Mary Engelbreit black with flowers reminds me of sewing with June and loving her dark background fabric so I had to buy this similar fabric. So many memories and so much enjoyment from Bonnie's Cheddary Challenge! The purple is my daughter's favorite color (and looks like I need to scare up some more purple!).
I can't wait to check out all of the links on Bonnie's blog tomorrow so I can see how everyone else is coming along with this challenge!

NYE Mystery 2011 is a Flimsy

2012-01-08T21:06:00.007-07:00

Kathy came over today and we working on the NYE Mystery for 2011. I got my top together and am undecided on what to do with the borders for now. Glad to have it done, this is the first year that the flimsy wasn't together the same day as the mystery and I felt bummed about that!

Kathy has all the units you see here done and now just needs to assemble the blocks. I love her colors though she is worried it is too much white.

It has been a month of joining all kinds of stuff in blogland and so I decided to jump in on Angela over at http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2011/12/rainbow-scrap-challenge-2012_22.html for her Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Luckily her rules are flexible and I don't have to use scraps unless I want to! The color for January is red so I thought I would jump in and pick a block to make in every color of the rainbow as we go. It is always nice to find myself with a "bonus" quilt top at the end of the year! I looked through my Quiltmaker magazines at all of the Bonnie Hunter blocks for one that was good for only two colors (neutrals and the color of thhe month...) and I came up with the same one Amy did! http://skattebo-skattebo.blogspot.com/2012/01/rainbow-scrap-challenge-january-red.html if you want to see her blocks. I have copied Amy successfully before and she doesn't mind so I am doing it again! Here is my first block in red. I didn't follow the directions right the first time (what, me?) and had to redo half the blocks so that I was sewing on the half line instead of cutting on it so that it all fit together (now I have four extra small flying geese to stick in the what do I do with this unit box) and this block is called "Jack in the Box" and I love how it looks!I also put together a few more bow ties and then constructed another block.

DJ and I also got this spray basted and pinned so I can get to quilting it (this is the UFO Challenge for January)!And (s0rry for the blur) this is also spray basted and pinned. This is on the UFO list, so it will be that much closer to done when its number comes up!
I also sewed a few more light blocks on Orca Bay and trimmed them up. It was a nice day and I am happy with getting in lots of sewing time this weekend!

And Another Clue Done, Another Clue Done, Another One Bites the Dust...

2012-01-07T21:56:00.006-07:00

I had several songs running through my head today while endlessly sewing Orca Bay clue five! The first one you may recall from Miss Sherri and Lambchop I made a few word substitutions but it goes like this "this is the clue that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend...some people started sewing it not knowing what it was and now they sew forever just because this is

the clue that never ends...." that little ditty is hard to get out of your head and since I sewed at Ros' today with her and BJ they didn't really want to sing it along with me...

I managed to sew several of these babies incorrectly and some even made it past my first quality control and got another black triangle sewn to them before they were discovered (nine of those to be exact) so I had to do a bit of unsewing and then I came home and resewed and cut thirty more triangles (counting is apparently not my strong suit, I had too many hst's and not enough triangles!) and whipped those babies together. So the next song that came to me was "Another One Bites the Dust!" that at least got the other one out of my head! Clue five is done WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT WHOOT. That is seriously one long clue (made longer by

the fact that I sewed 102 of them to the clue seven light triangle as I went along).

When I arrived home I was excited to see that my prize from the SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show. It is a really pretty quilty Christmas ornament from http://www.quiltedinclay.com/
It is the limited edition 2011 ornament which sold out, but they have some really neat looking stuff.

The above picture is from their website so you can see the detail, it is very sweet! Anyway, after finishing off clue five with not a whole lot of help from DJ and Bug (we were watching Hangover Two)...
I decided to lay out the pieces so I could get a sense of what this quilt will look like. I am thinking I am going to want to put yellow centers in the dark blocks as some others have done. I like it though!

I managed to sew up eight more light colored stars, press and trim them before packing it in. We are watching a few more movies this evening and chilling.

DJ made us French Onion soup (so good!) and I whipped up two drawstring bags for my knitting. I looked online and for 20 bucks I could buy one but for fifteen minutes of my time I could make one! I didn't like the size of the first one for my sock stuff so I hacked off the bottom for number two and it is perfect. I will be making more of these because I know Hannah is going to want one in purple. It makes a nice gift for a knitter. Been thinking about joining that Christmas all year group...this may be my first project for that. :)
So Orca Bay update: Clues 1-5 are done, clue six is in progress (10 total blocks done, all parts cut), clue 7-102 blocs done, 127 flying geese to go....it is getting there! WHOOT WHOOT, again, I can't help it!

First UFO and Orca Bay Coming Up for Air

2012-01-04T22:27:00.004-07:00

I am happy to report my first UFO has become a flimsy! Really that was easy since I only had to add two more rows and a border to make it so. DJ needs another quilt top for her niece's belated Christmas gift so that is what this will become. Hopefully we will get it basted and I will attempt to quilt it soon! I still have some leftover blocks in this pattern so I may put together another flimsy too so I can get it off my UFO list. (Oh, I realized tonight that I have a thirteenth UFO if I count the NYE Mystery which is waiting to be sewing into rows and get some borders).
I also made some binding for the Full House Around the Block Schnibble that I have packed up for Ros. Sorry my ironing board cover has already seen better days!
I also finished and pressed 100 (well somehow there are 102) of these babies from clue 6 I think it is. I have four of the other half done to attach to the green triangles...so LOTS left to go on that. I think that step gets pretty boring. I also finally sneak peaked a look at one each of the blocks to help me feel like this quilt is getting somewhere! I like them!
And here is the whole mess of it all packed up to go to Ros' and sew. I need to deliver a quilt top and miss the gang. June, you are welcome to come with me Saturday if you are reading this! So I had a nice night of sewing tonight. Tomorrow I work late and Friday I have to prep, prep, prep so I may not get much done til Saturday but I cherish every minute of it! Oh, I used my new travelling machine (the Brother) tonight and sewed like a top for me!

2012 UFO Challenge

2012-01-04T10:40:00.014-07:00

I have never done a UFO challenge mostly because I am a finisher and don't have many UFO's. Really what I have is more WIP's sometimes I take a long break before getting back to them but I would be hard pressed to find 12. I decided to inventory what I have going on and low and behold I have twelve! So before they take over my world I guess I will try to get to some of them! Judy over at Patwork Times is issuing the challenge again this year.
http://www.patchworktimes.com/2012-ufo-challenge/

1. First up of course is ORCA BAY/Long Lake! I will be working on this until it is done anyway so hopefully it isn't up right away, this baby takes time.

2. My sister's CROWN QUILT. This one is not even all cut out yet, but I would love to have it done in time to give her for her birthday in August.

3. This is my CHRISTMAS TREE SKIRT that is a flimsy. I just didn't have time to get it done before Christmas as I had hoped, but I got my daughter's matching one done and she loved it. This will be a quicker finish than most!

4. This is TWIST OF FATE which is cut out and barely started (not sure where the pic is for that) and really I just was doing this at quilt camp as a filler. I am not as excited about this one as I was when I had to have it. I think the pattern is so cool but I wasn't too keen on it all by the time I got going on it. I seem to recall lots of hst's and if I could see the future I would say of all of these UFO's this is the one most likely to not get done this year...I hope this number is drawn anytime soon.

5. These are the 9 PATCH AND SNOWBALL blocks I did each month in a different color several years ago. I think I even put some into rows but I have a whole bin of them I need to just make a top or two out of it and get quilted. I may need to make more blocks in various colors to bring it to completion. Apparently the first number drawn was five so this is the one I will start with. I randomly put the pictures in here but I am glad this easier one came up!

6. RANDY'S SMITH MOUNTAIN MORNING quilt is about this far. I want this one done by November to give him for his birthday and I was planning to get back to it once Orca Bay is done, as this one also takes some time.
7. MY QUILT HISTORY BLOCKS need to be put in a top and sent off to Ros for quilting. I have these blocks and several extras of my own since not everyone did her trade as promised. So I need to figure out what to do with this one and just get it done!

8. I SPY SQUARES QUILT is in tub and I occasionally add to it or so on it, but I may as well go ahead and make another one of these since I have it started.

9. MAC's BLUEWORK BLOCKS...I have several of these bluework blocks done and somewhere lost the motivation to keep on doing them. I need to either complete some more blocks or get the top together and be done with it! This project may take all year!

10. PINEAPPLE BLOSSOM BLOCKS...I was doing some of these whenever I was at June's house and got tired of what I had brought along or finished up what I had going so this is as many blocks as I have. I need to turn it into a top already! Looks like I may need to make another block or two too.

11. MY BROKEN CROCKERY this one is a flimsy which I love and didn't want to wreck by quilting it myself. I need to either bite the bullet and do it by machine or by hand or just see if Ros can do a tiny one for me.

12. MY SEASONS BARGELLO quilt is a flimsy but Ros and I decided it wasn't great like this and we should just take it apart and do it as little quilts for my wall or something. I know I will be happier with that but unsewing really sucks so I just stuck in the drawer. LOL.

So there you have it. I dug deep and discovered twelve projects I can sort of call UFO's...serioulsy, there aren't anymore. It will be nice to get them down to three or four managable works in progress though. I don't want the UFO ship to set sail on me as it has so many other, LOL! Are you doing Judy's UFO challenge?

Something Fun for Me

2012-01-03T22:09:00.005-07:00

After work today I played with my leftover strips from the Schnibbles I sewed and using the black face mask as a sort of pattern and looking over the directions from my Amy Butler pattern I whipped up a fun eye mask. I hate it when there is any light when I have a migraine so I wear this little black one alot. Sometimes I can't find it so two will be nice.
I also cut out the triangles for Orca Bay with my Easy Angle ruler. I know Bonnie LOVES this ruler, but most of the time I get Kathy to do my cutting with it because it takes me forever to get the hang of flipping it correctly to cut. I sometimes am SO unvisual I wonder how I am a sign language interpreter!

I also sewed ten more of clue 5 and then couldn't resist sewing the white triangles to ten of them. One teeny, tiny step at a time I will get this done. I spent quite a bit of time today at work (on hold on the phone) reading blogs and drooling over all the nice Ocra Bay quilts that are coming together far quicker than mine. While that is very motivating to see and gives me a good kick in the pants I just can't seem to make much progress. Sometimes I just like a small project that gives me quick satisfaction!

Can you see the way my thread is skipping or something? I was really getting frustrated with my Viking tonight. I would have gone on to do more but I had to resew quite a few seams. I changed thread (it was almost out so I thought the weight of it was messing up the machine), I rethreaded bobbin and top thread, I pulled out all underneath and cleaned out all the lint, I spoke nicely and not so nicely to it and it just was sometimes doing this. I have had trouble with the machine ever since I got it "fixed" and it is driving me nuts. Any suggestions out there for this?

Working all day tomorrow but will be thinking on Orca Bay....and dreaming that is is done so that I can get back to Smith Mountain Morning which is waiting in the wings!

Oh I did sew four little cheddary challenge leaders and enders too. Those make me smile!

Full House Around the Neighborhood Schnibbles Flimsy Done!

2012-01-02T21:49:00.003-07:00

I worked all day (and it was a crazy busy day!) and came home and sewed all night. I really need to get to prepping for next semester's classes, but Kathy was supposed to come over for NYE Mystery sewing (she cancelled again) so that is my excuse for sewing anyway. Smile. First I trimmed up the house blocks.

Then I sewed a checkerboard together like Carrie has in her pillow even though this one is full size. It looks really cute in her pink pillow but I can see that is was just TOO busy for this top.

I decided to do some ripping and make nine patches to surround in white for the corners. I would like to point out that I am a pattern follower and I was largely on my own trying to figure this out since I wanted the full size and not the mini version (the houses match the Schnibbles pattern but I had to figure the rest). This is way out of my element but I am happy I did it.

I am trying to decide if I should add the blue polka dotted sky as a border all around the whole quilt, or just bind it in that to frame it out. I am tickled I got the first Schnibbles done and have something for Ros to quilt for me :)

A Brand New Day, A Brand New Year of Schnibbles!

2012-01-01T22:32:00.008-07:00

Two years ago I was a dedicated participant in the first "Year of Schnibbles" and with it I discovered the fun of making small quilts. I made one each month and gave away several but kept at least half of them because they were too cute to pass on! Carrie over at http://www.missrosiesquiltco.com/ is the designer and though she lives in my neck of the woods I haven't met her--yet! I stole this picture from her blog to show you how sweet she was to thank all of us in her latest book:I think I only made one quilt for last year's fun. They expanded to other small quilts and I was not as motivated to complete the quilts. I bought a few patterns, and even picked out fabric once or twice. But it is a new day, a new year and a brand new year of Schnibbles and I needed something to get me out of the funk I have been in for two days. (I will blame constant migraine pain and the meds I have to take to to function). So this evening after reading Sheri and Sinta's blogs I decided that I had always wanted to make the new Schnibble and away I went! I already had the pattern for Full House since I belong to the Fat Quarter Shop's "Miss Rosie's Quilt Pattern Company Pattern Club" http://www.fatquartershop.com/store/stores_app/Browse_Item_Details.asp?sid=994512052239945&Store_id=499&page_id=23&Item_ID=54842&Parent_Ids= if you love them as much as I do!

I decided to use A Breath of Avignon and after taking this photo I realized I had leftover yardage in this line too which came in handy since I only had one charm pack. Isn't this little house ADORABLE?
And this one? The cutting went fast!
Then I auditioned a few different "sky" fabrics with DJ's help.

This last one won out, since it looks like sky.
The sewing went quick! DJ helped with the ironing. I didn't do as scant a seam allowance on the house parts as I should have but my measurement is right...I need to cut down the roof sections and they will be perfect...
I really like the lay out that Simone http://simonedeklerk.blogspot.com/2011/09/september-bow-wow-wow-bag.html has for her Full House pattern which Carrie later made in miniature and turned into a pillow. I want the full size version though so we will see if I can manage it! Here is how it will look in part. I can put a checkerboard in the middle, or a solid piece and a small checkerboard border around it.
Thought about using the green since it looks kind of like grass...this green isn't from the line but matches well.

I have to work all day tomorrow and Kathy (who ditched me today, lol) is supposed to come over to finish up our NYE mystery quilts in the evening. When I get that done I may work on this a bit.

The other sewing I did today was finishing up clue one of Orca Bay (FINALLY, can I get an AMEN) and getting all the squares cut for clue five I think it was.

This Schnibble really made my day better. Thanks Sinta and Sherri and Carrie! If you need to join check out http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2012/01/january.html and the links there for more information. It is guaranteed to bring smiles to you too!

Completed Quilts 2011

2012-01-01T17:01:00.005-07:00

These are most of the completed quilts of 2011 and where they went. One picture accidentally made it in twice and a few didn't make it in, but all in all alot was sewn and finished in 2011.

1. 121 Carolina Crossroads June 2011, 2. 123 NYE Mystery 2010, given to DJ's niece Bella 3. Lil' Twister Christmas, mine 4. 145 Hannah's Christmas Tree Skirt ,Hannah has 5. 142 Baby Boy Quilt, given to DJ's nephew Cody 6. 141 Baby Girl Quilt, given to DJ's niece Gabby 7. Lil' Twister Halloween, mine 8. Mom and Dad's Christmas Quilt, given to Toni and Gary Hirn 9. 135 Baby Quilt, 10. 131 Downy Quilts for Kids Donation Quilt, 11. 130 Downy Quilts for Kids Donation Quilt, given to Hannah's good friend Jolie's baby 12. 113 Quilt of Valor, given to my nephew Christopher Simons 13. 93 Slide Show , given to Mackenzie Daniels for his graduation from high school 14. 127 Streak of Sunshine for Kelly's Baby Xavier, 15. in there twice 16. 148 Karen's Lil' Twister, 17. 151 Hannah's Broken Crockery, 18. 151 Hannah's Broken Crockery back, Hannah's 19. 143 144 Tablerunners,given to DJ's sisters, mom, gma 20. 129 Simple Quilt for Lily

NYE Mystery 2011

2011-12-31T22:47:00.003-07:00

Today was Ann B. Smith's NYE mystery. Above are a few of my pictures. All my blocks are done for a lap size but I am not sure that it isn't WAY TOO BUSY and needs sashing or something to tone it down so I haven't sewn the blocks together. Kathy came over (below is her fabric and how far she got, she will return tomorrow to sew some more). The day started out with a migraine and we whizzed through the first clue and then sat around for an hour waiting on the second clue (that has never happened before) I think it was because we did strips instead of squares so the nine patch parts went quickly. I did twenty Orca Bay units while waiting and later on Randy got in on the ironing and ironed all of the rest of my clue ones...yay, tomorrow I hope to sew them together. Anyways somewhere around clue two or three I had my head down at my sewing machine and Kathy told me to take a sumitriptan and lay down for a bit. Thankfully the migraine did fade considerably and has stayed away all day.

It was a rough day around here anyways and I didn't really enjoy all the triangles in the quilt and everything I sewed was wonky. There were plenty of tears and after Kathy left I went and layed down again fully intending to just go to sleep. DJ came in and cheered me (even brought me flowers and a new year's hat) and I came out to see Randy ironing trying to help me along. I am sure lucky to have so many people that love me even when I am crabby. So I finished the blocks and finished an audiobook and started another one (thanks Ros). It wasn't the day I hoped for but at least I got to sew. Tomorrow I will get the top and backing together and keep working on Orca Bay. Bonnie's last clue comes out and I am excited for the big reveal.

Still Swimming in Orca Bay!

2011-12-30T23:27:00.003-07:00

Can you see that I have made progress on Orca Bay? I worked on it a little bit last night and then again today for about ten hours! I know I made progress, but still seems I am being pulled under since Bonnie is so dependable about putting out the clues! I can't get caught up because the next one is out, and the next one and day after tomorrow the last one will be out! It has been lots of fun and this is where I am at as I head to bed. (Tomorrow is Ann B. Smith's NYE Mystery which I have done for the past six years so long day of sewing, but not sure I will get to sneak in much Orca Bay sewing!).

Clue one--the hourglasses are all sewn, cut, trimmed, de-dogeared, de-papered and about half of them are done and half are waiting to be ironed and sewn together. I can finally see the light at the end of this tunnel. Spent lots of time on clue one today. (**1/1 edit**this clue is DONE!)

Clue two-the smaller yellow strings, done.

Clue three-the 350 hst's are done

Clue four-the green triangles--128 of them are DONE! This was where alot of my time went today.

Clue five-all 350 triangles are cut and thrity(** 1/1 edit ** 52) of them are assembled. Will try to sneak some of these in tomorrow.

Clue six-most darks and all greens cut, lights in strips waiting to be cut, (**1/1 edit all are cut) no blocks assembled or even laid out as sneak peak because then I will just want to skip all the previous stuff and do this clue. Trying to use it as a carrot to get me there.

Clue seven- can you hear me laughing. Nothing cut, clue barely read.

Bonnie if you are reading this, thank you for doing this every year. I really look forward to it and I feel all the quilts I make from your patterns are truly heirlooms to hand down. You rock!
So still swimming in Orca Bay (or Long Lake) and since my favorite sport is swimming I am content to stay there.

A Little Bit of This and That

2011-12-30T23:13:00.005-07:00

Not the greatest pictures, but here is my nephew Christopher and his finance Christian (we call her Pickle) with his Quilt of Valor I made him. He was very impressed with the Navy backing fabric and seemed to really be glad to take a quilt to his apartment. He is currently stationed in San Diego with the Navy so his other quilts I have made him--well his mom won't release them to him yet!
Here is my (step) Dad with Mom looking on as they opened their quilt.
Mom checked out the label and was quite impressed (thanks again Ros). They went on and on for two days about how intricate the quilt was and were happy to have it. Not sure where they put it..I had hopes it would wind up on the guest bed (in the room we were in) but it didn't happen!
I finally decided to get the first border on Auntie's Anvil so I could see some progress on it!
Finally busted out my new sewing machine (my honey got me!). This one is really for travel sewing...it is nice and lightweight and I like it already. I tried it out and got it all set for Kathy to use tomorrow when we do the annual NYE mystery.

Yesterday I finally got the binding on DJ's nephew's Christmas quilt. We have two done and one to go...their box will obviously be late. DJ didn't decide til late that we should make them quilts and there just hasn't been time!
I just used scraps of binding in the colors of the quilt. I love how that looks.

I had my last sock class today but no new pictures yet. I learned how to do the ribbing and the surprisingly stretchy bind off. I can't wait to get the first one completely done, but too much sewing to do at the moment! I spent the rest of the day sewing......but that is another post!

Secret Santa Thank You and More

2011-12-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

First off here we are at the Grand Canyon! I had been there once before about ten years ago (not to this spot) but this is DJ, Hannah and Mac's first time. We visited the South Rim and took lots of pictures. We rode the train from Williams which I highly reccommend. It is really beautiful even if it was a bit chilly in December to visit!
This is my whole Arizona family (and my kids who travelled here from Wisconsin) on Christmas Eve. We posed for pictures in ordinary clothes, but thought it would be fun to do a Packer photo with drinks in hand. Only about two of the family members aren't Packer fans--but we are working on them. Everyone donned a Packer jersey (a few were borrowed, lol) and we included a few of the dogs (I have Bug) and amidst yelling GO PACK GO! we got some good photos.
Now on to my Secret Santa Swap gifts. I opened them with the kids on our Christmas Eve. This is a cool bag to put in all kinds of goodies for sewing. I already filled it for my next trip to June's or Ros' for sewing. Can you see it is made from Denyse Schmidt fabric? I love it!
Speaking of DS fabric...do you see all the beautiful fabric from her line Shannon got me? She also sent several homespuns which I will be adding to my scrappy quilts..I love the plaids. Oh and some love candies too. Here is a picture of all of my loot. I was squealing with joy with every gift I opened. Shannon nailed the fabric I liked and made me SO MANY goodies. I got a sewing machine cover (which I needed!) The cutest pincushion ever, pins, needles, notebooks, including one with a handmade cover and a note inside, and a really cute thread catcher too. I love that it all matches (from the same DS line) and was made especially for me. I have to say I got a lot of fun gifts for Christmas but these really were the highlight (shh, don't tell everyone else) because Shannon really took the time to get to know me through my blog! I am such a lucky Santa Sack 2 participant. Thanks again Shannon! I love it all very much!

Hope you had a MC

2011-12-26T14:08:00.002-07:00

Go Pack! We enjoyed the game half with my mom and dad and kids and half with my sister and her partying group. They have a bar on their porch with TV and a little heater so we watched the game outside there though it was a bit nippy for AZ. Night time it does get cold here. Good time to use our new Christmas sweatshirts!
Here is my entire family on my mom's side that was here for Christmas Eve. We donned our Packer gear and our drinks (mine was diet Dr. Pepper) and snapped a zillion pictures. Got a few dogs in the photo too, but there were more inside.

Here is my sock coming along...I figured out how to close the heel with the help of memory from class and you tube. Then I opened up the leg--cutting that stitch was SCARY...so afraid I would lose the whole thing, but it worked. Now I am working up the leg! Won't be long and I will be on sock number two!

I got lots of fabric for Christmas..from DJ, from my Santa Swap Partner Shannon and from my Dad who had my name for the stocking drawing. We haven't uploaded photos yet (these were off facebook from my phone or my sister's uploads) but will have lots to show you as we are off to the Grand Canyon in just a few minutes!

I'm Drowning in Orca Bay!

2011-12-23T18:13:00.005-07:00

I am drowning in Orca Bay! Bonnie decided to be nice to the Aussies and send along the next clue a day early when I hadn't really gotten to the last clue. Oy Vey! I did sneak in about two hours of sewing, cutting, pressing, ripping and organizing and just for the heck of it ONE triangle for clue five. So here is where things stand:

Clue one is still a little over half done (and I need them for step six so...). Clue Two and Three are DONE! Clue Four is over half done at 70/128. Clue Five has 1/350, smile though all the triangles are cut and all the hst's are ready to be sewn (I won't mention I sewed about ten of them together INCORRECTLY because in my mind I lay them out like Bonnie does and then upon further inspection I have turned the hst's the wrong way, close but not quite. Did manage to rip all that out and return to the stacks). For Clue Six all I have is a few neutral squares cut out. I

may bring the fabric with me to my mom's tomorrow in the hopes that in the few days we are there I might get a chance to cut all of the stuff for Clue Six. I am enjoying it and my hat is absolutely off to anyone who is managing to keep up. And for those of you doing two and keeping up--well you must only eat, sleep and sew! SMILE.

My younger two kids arrived on Wednesday night from Wisconsin (CJ is already here with me). So very good to see Hannah and Mac! It has been a wild few days already. I had to work yesterday then we went shopping for a bit and came home and I taught Hannah how to knit! She is working on her first dishcloth in purple of course.

Last night while we were doing that, DJ went to urgent care, then to the ER, then they kept her overnight. Finally got to come home today and they think she just has a skin infection but they were worried had infection in her abdomen and could need surgery! It was crazy, but I think they were just being cautious. We hope so anyway.

So this afternoon we made my Great Grandma Myrt's Cornflake Cookies and some Rollout Sugar Cookies (from a Tupperware recipe I got way back when) and we only frosted enough to sample. The rest are waiting for us to get another burst of energy. Those babies are labor intensive, lol. We also made dips to take to Mom's but I still need to make Vegetable Pizza. Lots of vege chopping in my future.

Oh, notice the tiny rolling pins? We actually used kid sized ones from our play-doh supplies until I found my rolling pin which hasn't seen the light of day in several years!

So the kids are keeping me busy as well as my sock knitting. I went to class on Wednesday (was supposed to be the last class...we started out with five gals, last week we had four and this week we had two...and neither of us are done so he agreed to meet with us again next week Friday!) and they were impressed with the improvement of my sock knitting and helped me get in the lifelines on this sock and such. Learned how to do the kitchner stitch (I think it is called) in which to close up the heel which I am going to finish soon. I am loving it now that I sort of get it.

It is farther than this already but haven't got a more current pic yet.

Here is the quilt label Ros made for me that I sewed on Mom and Dad's quilt. Can't wait to give it to them tomorrow! I also sewed Christopher's label on.

Ann B. Smith's NYE Mystery is Cut...

2011-12-17T21:07:00.001-07:00

Here are the color choices I went with for the NYE Mystery. Kathy and I spent the day cutting and bagging the clues. I only had one small meltdown since I was careful to cross out the directions we didn't need (they are all on one sheet for scrappy or non scrappy, etc) but then forgot to tell her the lap size clues and instead did the crib size. Realized the error when we were almost done and could not believe it. So we basically had to start over and the confusion of cutting two quilts scrappy (usually we don't do scrappy on these NYE's) and what was in the bag already and we else we had to cut...well it wasn't pretty. So much for a stress free start!

The day did end better though with (as far as we could tell) all the clues cut into the right and labeled bags. I forgot to take a picture of Kathy's before cut fabrics but on the left are her clues and on the right are mine. She went with batiks (blue, purple and green) and is donating the leftover fabric to my stash since I supplied her with the white on white (thanks BJ and Ros for telling me where to get a screaming deal on that--I still have about 4 yards left and may get up there to get some more to replace what we used today).

We did get some black/brown triangles cut for Orca Bay clue five today too. We also cut triangulations and depapered and ironed them as well. So update on Orca Bay is Clue one: 128/224 done, Clue two: DONE, Clue three: 278/350, Clue four: 54/128 (I sewed some of these while the cutting was going on!) and Clue five: none, but ready to sew. HAHA, I will get there, one cut and one stitch at a time.

DJ bought me some flowers today too :)Now we are watching "The Help" and I am going to see what can be done about my messed up sock...I dropped some stitches and made the mistake of taking it off the needles to fix it (now I know better) and I can't get the stitches back on the needles. Seriously sock knitting is tough!

Lil' Twister Come Around Again :)

2011-12-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Bug likes to be in all the photos and break in each little quilt I finish! So here she is trying to be in the picture or get in my lap! But behind her you can see much unpicking commenced and now I have another quilted and bound Lil' Twister! Hopefully by now you have forgotten just how bad my grey snowflake quilting was...this is just simple straight lines in white and it looks MUCH better. It makes me smile so I may just keep this one for a bit.

I did get some time to work on Orca Bay but didn't get a picture on my camera though not much new and exciting anyway. I almost have clue three done which is a good thing because Bonnie gave us clue five today and it uses those little hst's to make bigger triangles. So I will try to finish up clue three and get started on clue 5....not sure if I am liking working in ADD fashion and out of order, etc. I am very methodical and I have discovered that I like to finish a clue before moving on to the next one, but I am more motivated to keep up if I don't feel AS behind. So half a dozen of one, six of the other as my grandmother used to say. I am working all day today (blogging while on hold) but will be getting to this tomorrow--finally!

The plan is to cut fabrics for the NYE Mystery and to work on Orca Bay/Long Lake, Wisc. as much of the day as I want to. So excited that my Saturday work schedule is done for this semester! That took up way too much of my sewing time!

This Just In: Orca Bay Sees Progress!

2011-12-15T15:51:00.005-07:00

Can I get a whoot whoot? Finally got in some sewing time today. Had to work EARLY but got a few hours in after that, then went to another job and some time to sew again after it...in another hour I go in and close the center (that I opened in this AM) kind of a wild day. But no migraine and I got to sew, so a good one. Orca Bay clue two is officially done! Clue three saw progress on cutting, depapering and ironing too. More to go on that, but getting there. Clue one may never be done since I have to go back and figure out how to get the colors in the right place with my triangulations papers or just do it Bonnie's way which works too. Clue four did see several blocks done and cut in half so I am overjoyed with the progress finally.

Don't burst my bubble and remind me Bonnie is throwing another clue at us tomorrow morning and I work all day! Saturday I will be cutting out my NYE Mystery and bagging up the clues, but other than that I plan to keep on keeping on with Orca Bay (or as I call it Long Lake, Wisc).

Here are my squares before I cut them in half...really loving how the greens are all different shades and so peaceful looking! Can't wait to see how Bonnie brings this one together!

Sock Knitting--An Adventure I Won't Soon Forget!

2011-12-14T23:35:00.007-07:00

Here is what my sock is looking like right now, but let me tell you (or show you) the adventure I have been on this last week to master the art of sock knitting. I really am proud of how far I have come this week (with the help of a teacher at the Fiber Factory) but oh man this is no adventure for the weary!
My first sock was with different yarn. I kept doing things wrong so my teacher had to fix it over and over. Just before leaving the first class I realized I was doing each row instead of each round and that was the majority of my issue. Apparently no one else has done this in this class. LOL, I told the teacher that I was a BEGINNER! I only know how to make one pattern of dishcloth and can manage a scarf. So after ripping out and redoing it three times in that yarn I decided to break into the rainbow yarn and give it a go. The toe takes some doing, and now that I had redone it about eight times it makes sense to me.
So looks like it is coming along...
All week trying really hard...
Then suddenly I realize I have turned it all around and am now knitting on the inside and not on the outside. Makes for a great gnome size cap. Couldn't bear to rip it out, so I grabbed more yarn and started over--AGAIN.

Ripped to the last correct part, or so I thought.

And started the next sock in the same colors. See how my toe is getting better each time? LOL.
I do a lot of knitting in the car as the photos might show. It is one place I can eek out a little more time!
Each color added it so exciting! See the pin? I dropped some stitches and didn't realize it til rows later. DJ ran it in to the shop while I was working to see what could be done. It turns out what could be done was more ripping.
So here we are again with a shorter sock and no hope it will be to the point in which our homework required by class time.
This is about the point I made it to before the second class. The teacher said it is looking good and I have taken to the magic loop. So all is not in vain apparently. I do love the actual knitting, but sure can find the hard way to making ONE sock. I really hope I can get up to the spot we are supposed to be for class next week.
Of course that entails doing the "lifelines" on my own that two other gals did in class today. I should say there were five of us and one didn't show today. Two are doing great (they are experienced sock knitters new to this pattern) and one was really frustrated and ripping at our second class. I felt bad for her. She and I both had headaches and and weren't close to done with the first week's homework. The teacher said we can come early next week and hopefully get caught up!

There will be A SOCK, at least one so I can say I did it! SMILE.

Broken Crockery and Orca Bay

2011-12-14T23:11:00.005-07:00

Most of you know by now that if there is a way to do it wrong I can find it...note the picture above...yep, somehow I messed them up. So much for going back to a clue after a break. The good news is no matter what the next sheet is I have a match. HaHa, looking on the bright side. So clue one didn't actually see any progress. Clue two fared much better...I made twenty more

blocks I believe so a total of 54 are made with 18 to go! They are depapered and trimmed.

These sunny blocks really make me smile. Can't wait to see what Bonnie does with them!

The pins each mark off ten. Learned awhile back there was much less counting involved it I just marked them as I went!

I also quilted and bound Hannah's Broken Crockery wallhanging. You may recall the extra blocks were leftover from Carolina Christmas...lots used in the front and some in the back. I am pretty happy with this little imperfect quilt and hope Hannah likes it.

The back may be cuter than the front!

Couldn't resist showing you Carolina Christmas again...this is just the top and it is laying on another quilt. I love Bonnie mysteries! Ros borrowed me a ton of audio-books last time I saw her. So I ma partway through this one and it is keeping me entertained as I sew.

Had a bad migraine today which involved throwing up at work and calling in sick to my second job. I did a lot of resting and feel much better but work at 6 AM tomorrow so really hoping that was the worst of it. UGH!

Orca Bay Clue Four in Progress!

2011-12-11T23:53:00.003-07:00

Orca Bay finally got some time at the sewing machine on Saturday! I have lined up the clues from left to right so I can inventory where I am at! While I am on clue four, I am NOT done with clue one, two or three yet. I have 80 of clue one done with 12 more to be depapered (I need 224). I have 36 of the 72 clue two yellow string blocks done (half, happy dance). I have 95 plus a ton to be depapered and about five sheets to be cut of clue three. I think I need to sew one more page and then get them ironed and such and that clue will be done. And clue four, my green strings which become triangles, I have a total of 12 triangles done--I need 128 total. LOL.
Coming along. I see I mixed up my clue two and three baskets, but you get the idea.
Cutting them up.
Can you see all that depapering I need to do? Lots more to go, but I am happy that it is seeing progress. I am getting close to half way done and am liking my colors and having fun trying to keep up. Check out Bonnie's blog and quiltville.com and join in!

Planning for the NYE Mystery

2011-12-11T23:24:00.006-07:00

I started my sock knitting class based on Cat Bordhi's book. It isn't so easy as the dishcloths I have made a million of. I have started over five times or so. This one has boo boo's in it but trying my best to just keep going for the practice of it. I was finally going along and doing well when I somehow turned things around and started knitting the inside and got a ridge I didn't want on my sock with the knit side inside the sock. I have pulled all that out and have tried to get it back in the needles to continue knitting....that isn't going so well so I keep pulling it out...DJ is currently trying to get it back on the needles. Meanwhile I am going to start another in. I am never going to get my sock homework done by Wednesday's class!

I finally took some time tonight to try to figure out what fabrics to use for Ann B. Smith's annual New Year's Eve Mystery quilt. Here are one of my choices...

And here is another choice...switched out the purple for a more red color.
And this is all the fabric I have in this line by Mark Lipinski that has been waiting for me to come up with something good to sew it into. Which colors would you use? We need a background (my only easy choice) and two mediums and a POP color. Some of my fabrics are medium and some are darks...I think that will be okay though. Usually I do these quilts with one color for each so this will be my first scrappy if I wind up doing it this way.

Sewed this up tonight for another Lil Twister..it is puckery as my auto tension wasn't doing its job or something. idk!

Sewed with AZ huggy bunch on the way up to a party in Cave Creek on Saturday. Here is Ros working on her butterflies and quilt bindings.

And here is BJ--way ahead of me on Orca Bay! She shared several good tips with me that she picked up reading the quiltville or quilt talk list. I am way behind on my mail too!

She was cruising on clue four in reds! We couldn't resist putting our clue threes together to see what they would look like! (hers are blue and mine are yellow).
I wanted to show you my presents arrived from Shannon. I am dying to open them but resisting so far! They don't even all fit in my Santa Sack!

Here is the view from the loft of our tree. We got home from being overnight at Mom and Dad's and cleaned (as in did the windows, washed the drapes, vacuumed, etc.) and set up the tree. Kathy came by with Rosie and hung out and gabbed with us while we worked hard. So very happy to have accomplished that this busy weekend!

A Christmas Finish...Can I Get a Whoot Whoot?

2011-12-05T22:24:00.004-07:00

DJ and I worked on quilting this little guy quilt...hoping once it is washed and the sticky spray stuff comes out it lays a little better but it is for a little one and won't be in pristine condition for long anyway. DJ is just learning how to do all this, lol. I did some more sewing on Orca Bay clue 3 (and did the math to do a half size quilt too...figure that will motivate me to try to catch up half of each clue and as it comes together I may add to it as time allows, but at least that way I don't feel like I am running in place and burning no calories!) This is as far as the next 72 hst's got. So now I have 95--sort of!
And I finally got Hannah's Christmas Tree Skirt binding on! I started it earlier today (I worked at 6 30 AM and was home by 130..wrapped Christmas gifts, put my bad knee on ice and attached the binding til it was time to go back to work.) and finished it up after I was done working for the day--after icing the leg again. Lasted about two hours before I had to put my leg up and ice again. Knee is improving faster than I would ever believe, but too slow for this impatient person anyway!

Back to the skirt, the pattern is on Moda Bake Shop "Fruitcake Under the Tree" and I love how it came out. I hope my daughter does too. She requested a tree skirt last year and umm here it is now!
I hope she didn't buy one in the mean time! I backed it with some muslin I got for free from my knitting teacher's fabric giveaway! I figured no point in putting 15 dollars worth of fabric no one will see on the back. My matching skirt is still a flimsy and I am not taking bets it will be done before next Christmas. Too many irons in the fire (or needles in the machine) to get to stuff for me! I really am pleased as punch with this one! Especially since I quilted it myself and it isn't bad :)

In other news I enjoyed participating in SewCalGal's quilt show...I managed to get the most votes overall (by my count) but somehow I didn't win--I am guessing some of my votes were thrown out or something (some were anon since facebookers came over and commented and many of them don't do blogs, etc. but I can tell you they were voting because they were commenting on my facebook!) but I did win a random prize which I will share when I get it. Mom always told me life isn't fair and so again mom is right, lol. SMILE, the winners' quilts were amazing so I resisted the urge to ask how the counting was done and moved on, but I had to say something! Oh well, I am a work in progress.

Hope your Holiday items are getting sewn and you are ticking things off your list!

Orca Bay Clue Three in Progress!

2011-12-04T21:04:00.003-07:00

I have had a knee injury and so spent the weekend literally on the pull out couch downstairs. Tonight I finally made it up the stairs to my quilting studio so I could at least say I started Orca Bay (Long Lake, lol) clue three! I managed to put together eight more of clue two (total nine done, 63 to go) and did a sheet of clue three as well!

Clue one at the top, two in the middle and three on the bottom (complete with my mess up on clue two which may get trimmed down as a happy mistake for clue three).

I had to play a little bit too!

So there 23 of clue three done and only 327 to go, roflmfao. Perhaps I should half this quilt? On the up side, only one more week of regular classes left then it is finals week. I should be able to have NOTHING work related to do for at least a week or so over break before I bust in to getting ready for next semester. Only two ASL classes to prep for next semester though and I taught them this semester so much of the work is now done! YAY.

Even though I don't have much time to sew, I am loving every blasted minute of Orca Bay! If you are one of the rare folks who hasn't heard of it or isn't doing it...it isn't too late! Go to quiltville.com and find the clues!

Shamelessly Asking for Your Vote!

2011-12-03T22:40:00.005-07:00

I entered my Holiday Lights quilt in the Christmas Quilt show at http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2011/12/vote-for-your-favorite-entries.html?showComment=1322976209771#c900000109098973934 so feel free to go and vote for my quilt (#42) in the Christmas category if you want to help me win! THANKS!

Designed by Bonnie K. Hunter for Quiltmaker Magazine. Thanks again Bonnie!
Oh and quilted by the amazing Ros Atwood. Check out my header to see the Christmas Lights she quilted in there! I LOVE THIS QUILT!

Orca Bay Update and Quilt Swap, Oh My!

2011-11-29T01:46:00.005-07:00

You may recall my small quilt swap Lil' Twister that is currently on its way to Karen (still unpicking the red border one...) but here is a little parade of some of the other swap quilts. I hope Mary doesn't mind I lifted these pictures from her blog...and I am not sure if there are more or if these are it.

Love how they are all completely different! Just wait, I will show you mine but first...
I have one teeny tiny block sewn for Orca Bay clue two...but I did get yellow strips all cut up and ready to go and DJ cut the phone book papers to size. I have been battling the migraines and just haven't had energy for sewing (or much else) the past two days. It will get done though and I am truly enjoying all the blog posts about everyone else's progress!

Karen over at http://karen-logcabinquilter.blogspot.com/2011/11/swap-quilt-finished.html was my partner (her quilt is on its way to her now!) and this beauty arrived late Saturday when we remembered to check the mail. I absolutely love it. It is nothing I would ever attempt myself (you may recall the one blue and yellow Baltimore album applique block I did a long while back...the pieces are ironed on but now actual appliqueing ever took place!) The reproduction fabrics are so beautiful and and I really appreciate all the hard work Karen put into this. Of course, she hand quilted it too...I will absolutely treasure it forever. This is my first quilt exchange and proving Karen is half as happy as I am, it will not be my last. I have a thing for mini quilts anyway and am getting quite a little collection going too!

You can see all that hand quilting on the back...she even added a hanging sleeve (something I didn't even think of) and a label too. Shout out to Mary at http://mary-myneedlethread.blogspot.com/ for this genius idea and the work of coordinating everything. Count me in for the next one Mary!

I already moved other quilts to make way to hang this beauty. It is in the upstairs hallway right outside my quilting studio so I will see it as I come up the stairs and wander in and out of the room.
In case any of you want to know the pattern is from a Lori Smith pattern called "From My Heart to Your Hands" and it is exquisite. Do you love it as much as I do? Thanks Karen, this honestly might be my favorite gift this year!

Did I Mention that I am More of a Piecer?

2011-11-26T22:05:00.004-07:00

I spent today finishing up my small quilt swap quilt-Lil' Twister. I spent thirty minutes trying to figure out what to quilt (after an hour of web research for ideas) and then I decided to add snowflakes to the center of each twist. I didn't realize how UGLY it was turning out til I had done them all. I didn't like the grey thread I had thought would blend in more and I was only happy with about four of the snowflakes.
So plan two...I cut and pieced up the second one (one is for my partner and one is for me) so that I could have another go at it (meanwhile I have been ripping out those everlasting snowflakes and it might take me all winter, lol).
Coming together.
Same fabrics but a green border on this one. Maybe no one will notice the swap, LOL! I then quilted this one simply (which is all I know how to do) and I actually like how it came out. I just hope it passes muster for my partner. I wish could have done the swirly thing I envisioned for this quilt, but maybe one day.
All bound and waiting for a label...will get it in the mail by the first, YAY! Alright, back to ripping snowflakes :)

The Quilt that Started it all...

2011-11-26T21:29:00.005-07:00

Stamped Cross Stitched quilt I made while pregnant with Mac (who is now 19).

Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville challenged us to link up with our first quilt so.. this isn't the first quilt, it is actually quilt number seven which is really the quilt that started it all! I had sewn a few Christmas tree skirts and three quilts before this (scanned pictures from journal) but then didn't sew anything quilty from 1990 or so until 2003 when I got an itch to make this quilt which I had seen in a magazine. I so enjoyed the process that I have constantly been quilting since. I started out with one quilt at a time and now there are always a half a dozen or so in various stages and I am constantly looking for the next fix--ah I mean quilt! This quilt (modeled here with Randy's daughter Rachel) was for Randy's first granddaughter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T19:05:00.003-07:00

Here are my mom and (step) dad with Contessa Many Kisses enjoying Thanksgiving dinner outside at Suli and Diegos' place. He is a chef and here are the FOUR turkeys he made for the 22 people that came to dinner--smoked, buried, oven, and deep fried.

Finished off the border of the this Christmas tablerunner today, yay.
Created a backing a la Bonnie Hunter style with leftover strips and hst's from Carolina Christmas. I also added a scrappy border to the front of Hannah's quilt (this is the back) and forgot to take a picture of it with the regular camera. So little puttering was done. I can't seem to get fired up to continue clue one since I don't think I have the right size triangulations paper printed. I did drag out an old phone book to start on clue two just so I can say I did. It might not happen tonight though because we have plans to watch Water for Elephants! **Edit: got the picture! I think I should have done a one color thin border in one fabric before adding the scrappy border. It needs a bit of an eye rest, but I think this is done anyway. I enjoyed using up those pieces from Carolina Christmas that I had left over!

Wednesday Night Sewing!

2011-11-24T11:14:00.004-07:00

Not sure how my baby boy is turning 19 today, but he is! Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

I got completely lucky and didn't have to work last night (but as a freelancer, got paid!) so I came home and did some sewing. After looking around the net for a good boy idea I wound up sewing this tic tac toe board for Randy's nephew. Randy's transmission went out and money is TIGHT for him so I dug into my stash and made his four granddaughters doll carriers but the one grandson needed something. This is more Christmassy than boyish, but hopefully he will like it. We just need to find some large x's and o's or make some.

I also finally sewed Hannah's little Broken Crockery wallhanging blocks together. I have been looking at them on the design wall for ever and ever...and picking them us as they fall off forever and ever! I attempted to put the darkest fabrics in an X shape to add some interest too.
I think next it will get a solid purple border and then it may be done or it may get these green blocks added to it, but I am not nuts for the green blocks like I have laid out below.
And I finally sewed together Bonnie's Auntie's Anvil blocks. I only made six, but with a border it will be good size for my little wallhanging spot.
I have about 80 of the hourglass blocks together for Orca Bay. Since today is Thankgiving and the Packers are on then we have to head to Sulis' house I don't think much sewing will happen today...tomorrow I plan to start the next clue no matter where I am on clue one! Can't wait!

Parade of Bonnie K. Hunter Quilts!

2011-11-24T09:31:00.006-07:00

I am not sure if I am the only one who has added EVERYONE who posted a link to Bonnie's Monday blog to reader so I can follow along with all the bloggers who are working on Orca Bay but I am really enjoying reading about the various methods everyone is using and colors and their love of Bonnie! This morning I was reading http://anniesquilting.blogspot.com/2011/11/blast-from-past.html and Annie had a little parade of ALL of her Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilts which got me to thinking I should recap too! Any excuse to post my Bonnie quilts again, lol! I did sew a bit more on clue one...after taking someone's advice I decided to use my triangulations for clue one. I am SO much more happy with how accurate they are for me. So I got out my half square triangulations (yes even after reading Bonnie's caution about the fact that these really are qst's not hst's) and made a page which oddly (HAHA) didn't look like qst's. Then I had to hunt for the qst trianguations which were oddly not on the same disc as the hst's. Finally with a little help from a friend I located it! Next I had to figure out what size to use (see why I am a direction follower?) so I went with the 2 inch finished. I made a page and hmmm..they are slightly smaller than the others. I cam make them work but not sure why they are smaller. Anyone doing triangulations or better at Math than me (that is most of you, folks!) who can tell me what size qst's I am supposed to be using?

Ok on to my mini parade of Bonnie Memories!

First up was Carolina Crossroads, but since I had just discovered Bonnie and the yahoo group

and they were already in progress on that I skipped it and waited for the next one. Orange Crush was next from March to October 2008 and I have to tell you I was LEARY of all that orange. I didn't care for this quilt all throughout the making and didn't yet know that I could completely trust Bonnie. Then as it came together (I actually made two when Kathy didn't keep up with the sewing but showing my main one) I suddenly LOVED it! I didn't want to give it away, but I did. It is on my list to make another.

Next up was Double Delight which may just be my favorite. I fell in love with Cheddar on this quilt! I spent hours on the border and learned that the time was worth it to really make this quilt perfect. December 2008-October 2009.

Christmas lights was in Quiltmaker Magazine over three months. This one was the easiest mystery Bonnie has done due to the limited space a magazine has compared to her blog. It was really doable and is a good one to start with it you are not sure about jumping in with all the little pieces of most of them! November 2009.

Carolina Christmas was made with purple since it is my daughter's favorite color. I wasn't afraid to use orange and did another wild border. November 2009-February 2010.

I had always been bummed that I didn't do Carolina Crossroads, so finally I got on that on my own and made one. Really pleased with it! June 2010-June 2011.

Last year I made Roll, Roll Cotton Boll. I think this was the only mystery I started and didn't keep up with! I had never done strings and eventually they won me over (see how much Bonnie has changed my quilting?) I didn't love this one as much until it came together. I think that is part of the fun of the mystery! This is the only one that isn't quilted. It is awaiting funds and not sure who will get it yet, so it just waits. November 2010 to September 2011.

So sans Tobacco Road I have completed six mysteries with Bonnie and now working on Orca Baby--the seventh! I look forward to it every year and know my quilting has grown leaps and bounds by following her CLEAR step by step with pictures directions. Everything is doable in small steps so she makes it seem easy! Thanks Bonnie for all that you do from your number one fan!

A Little Bit of Sewing Today

2011-11-20T23:53:00.003-07:00

I added a green border to the other Lil' Twister quilt and took a side by side picture for Shannon and anyone else wondering how much size you lose when going from the squares to the lil' twists. I didn't measure yet, but it really is a decent amount. There are about 2 inch size squares left over which can be re-purposed too so it isn't all waste. The look is worth it I think!
Here you can also see the size difference.
I decided to help myself keep it all straight by sewing the Eleanor Burns way..I left the attaching stitches on while I sewed. Worked really well for keeping this straight...took this pic and then noticed one block was sewn wrong (off the wall then added to this) so I fixed it before I got to sewing the rows. See it third block on the bottom left...ooops!
I did work on Orca Bay though just a little bit. I spent too much of the day watching the Packer game (10 and 0!) and grocery shopping. Also did a bit of cleaning and a long lost friend stopped over unannounced. Not sure where the whole day went! So close to 70 of step one are done. No more cut even...ah tomorrow I will try to do some more.
I am loving this Lil' Twister, I think I am addicted to them! Really lots to look at!

Our Christmas Card

2011-11-20T01:10:00.004-07:00

I know it is teeny tiny but this is the Christmas card DJ and I just ordered. It was really fun trying to pick out our favorite picture from each month. We did cheat a little and December is actually from the very end of October!

Saturday Sewing :)

2011-11-19T22:40:00.007-07:00

I finished piecing my Christmas tree skirt...you can see Hannah's too. I ordered some stripy fabric from this collection to do the binding with so hoping to get at least hers bound next weekend.
I worked this morning (after a late night out with DJ, first at Pink Spot and then at Charlies' Bar) and then had no energy to do anything. Eventually I went in and did some sewing. I added a border to this little quilt.

Then I cut it with that wicked Lil' Twister ruler and put it up on my wall. I have one more to add a border to and do. One of these is for a quilt swap I signed up for (what was I thinking!) it really stresses me out because I worry I am not sending the same quality work as I am getting. But time to bite the bullet and just do it! I thought this little quilt would be nice and I most likely will tie it because I don't want to ruin it with my quilting! I may do the other one is either green, brown or the light aqua fabric since I have chunks of each of those. The best one will be heading off (or the one that is done by mail date!).

I quilted another tablerunner for DJ's family. Of course the dogs took turns posing on it. This is Bug.

And this is Zoe.

I finally machine bound Christopher's Quilt of Valor. Not bad from that galloping horse I hope you are on!
Once again this was from Amy's Passions BOM last year. I added a Navy block to it since Christopher is in the Navy and I am really proud to give this one to him and his fiance this Christmas!

I did do some cutting and sewing of Orca Bay units, but didn't get any more assembled. Feels like a tiny drop in a big bucket, but I wanted to get some of that Christmas stuff going. I am SO looking forward to next week...I will be off work for four whole days! I plan to really be getting some stuff done, but of course Bonnie will give us a new clue on Friday so I will be lucky to be caught up on that. I still love it though!

Orca Bay Clue One in Progress!

2011-11-18T17:01:00.003-07:00

I have chosen my fabric colors (going out on a limb here) and have started on Orca Bay clue one!

I hate to not follow Bonnie's colors but I just did Carolina Crossroads not too long ago in red, white and blue so I didn't want to add black and do those colors again. I hope I will not be kicking myself later.

So I went with the colors of Long Lake in Wisconsin (where my grandparents built a cottage and I spent alot of summers) if you aren't looking towards the lake, lol. White/cream and pale yellow for lights, brown with some black thrown in for Bonnie's black, and green and yellow in place of her red and blue. I haven't decided which for which but will make that decision when I get to the first clue involving those colors.

Here are the first of my clue one units...I have 36 made so far and I have to stop to head out to a Deaf event with DJ. Can you believe she and I have been togther for a year already? I can hardly believe it. I work tomorrow morning but I want to keep working on this clue and get some Christmas gift progress in as well! GO PACK GO!

I Won, I Won! Thanks Bonnie K. Hunter and Quiltmaker!

2011-11-17T00:05:00.005-07:00

Bonnie K. Hunter posted this on Monday and completely made my day"
"Our next winner is Andee in AZ!

She writes:

Wow you have a lot of comments! I am a sign language interpreter and my dream assignment would be interpreting one of your quilt classes! Not sure what else to tell you unexpected about me!

Andee, I had this same thing happen in New Mexico when I visited the Santa Fe guild! They have one deaf member, and TWO interpreters came to interpret the meeting for her. I was nervous at first! I usually talk pretty fast, trying to get it all in in the time that is allotted..but a funny thing happened…when I reached the end of my time, and was closing my presentation with my “How Many Quilts” poem….I slowed way down to be sure that the interpreters could get the full narrative to the deaf guild member, and I was mesmerized by how beautiful the hand signs are….I was nearly in tears by the time I was done!

Thanks for the special job that you do!

Your copy of 100 blocks will be coming directly from Quiltmaker Magazine in Golden Colorado!"

I am doing the happy dance here because Bonnie emailed me twice and wrote about me on her blog. So one day when I meet her I can remind her how we *know* each other, lol!

I am also getting jazzed for Bonnie's new mystery which starts on Friday folks! I haven't picked my colors (but I tend to copy Bonnie so I can't possibly go wrong) though I have checked out Angela http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-mystery-quilt.html had a nice color idea on her blog and Amy in Wisconsin likes the color combo too..so I know I can't go wrong with that either--grin! It may come down to what I have here because I plan to use stash. Who else is joining in? Come on!

Looking forward to sewing on my machine which came home today...HAPPY DANCE! Ros' machine has been a Godsend and I really like a Pfaff so it was great to try it out, but I can't wait to get back to mine. Oh, turns out the guy forgot to connect a cable so that was why my bobbin motor didn't wind. Whew!

In other news, my post observation conference was today and my boss had nothing but positive things to say after observing my fabulous ASL 1 class! He said they will be in touch soon for next semester's needs so that made me feel good.

Staycation in Prescott

2011-11-13T20:37:00.012-07:00

Sorry ahead of time..I can't get the info to line up with the pictures which drives me nuts, but just giving up on it tonight!

DJ and I needed a weekend getaway that didn't break the budget so we planned going camping. Then last week we were talking about how cold it will be camping this late in the year and about all the stuff we needed to get to sewing for Christmas...my parents had previously mentioned that we could stay at their mostly empty house in Prescott any weekend we wanted, so the next thing you know we were camping and sewing indoors!

We accomplished far more sewing that I would have thought possible and I watched several movies and listened to two audiobooks! But before I get to all of that...check out my huge stack of Secret Santa Swap 2 gifts from Shannon! Two more gifts arrived and it was all I could do not to peak in there!

Have I mentioned I am not good at waiting? And I finally took a picture of my civil war swap strips from the last quiltvilleswap. Some of these fabrics are just GORGEOUS! I can hardly wait to do something with them.

I love the variety I have now.

So back to our sort of Staycation! I started out Friday with DJ cutting and me whipping up several doll baby buntings for Christmas gifts. I decided to break into the Mark Lipinski fabric I had to have a few years ago which has just been hanging out getting no love.

So here is the view I was looking at while sewing. The sun sets over that mountain and it takes your breath away. It is my favorite moment of the day!

We made the binding and got these two Christmas table runners bound.

Of course in and around it all I made more cheddar bow ties!

I sewed a bunch of squares together (two tops) and need to get some borders on them before I take that lil twister ruler to them!

Here is the first of the baby doll buntings.

This is Saturday's breakfast (more like lunch time by the time DJ got up and made it, but I had been sewing for hours by then!)

Of course Bug came along and had a blast.

Five of the six baby doll buntings I made. Four of them are for Randy's granddaughters for Christmas.

This quick and easy quilt is for DJ's nephew for Christmas. Really like how it turned out and since it is strips it went together so quickly!

Blurry for some reason, but this is Hannah's tree skirt. I quilted it and trimmed it.

It just needs me to cut the center out and get the binding made and attached. I also made myself one but forgot to bring the setting triangle red fabric for all of it, so it is mostly pieced together.

Here is the second one that I will use the Lil Twister on.

So today I decide to have my own little parade of stuff! DJ was still sleeping and I artfully arranged everything on the pool table (that doesn't fit at Mom and Dad's new house).

There are two of these Peter Cottontail tops. One is quilted and bound, the other one awaits.

See here it is.

DJ did do a teeny bit of sewing today. She is still trying to master curves while quilting..she isn't particularly liking it!

Sewing with Ros' Machine! (Thanks Ros!)

2011-11-07T00:08:00.003-07:00

I had an extremely productive day in all things, laundry, cleaning, cooking, CEU earning, chatting with Christine, watching the Packers go 8-0 (GO PACK GO!), prepping for ASL class and even managed to get in some sewing at the end of the day!

First I quilted a Christmas tablerunner in the ditch...two down, one to go. I need to make the binding and get it on and two more gifts will be ready. Next I whipped up the last row of this Auntie's Anvil Mini Top. I think this is the size it is going to be. It makes me smile and that was the point of it. I haven't even started Bonnie's next mini and the third one just came out too! This one is my favorite, the second one is okay and I like the third one better so may skip right to that for my next fun mini.

Meanwhile, DJ eyed some leftover pieces I had unearthed while cleaning recently and so we decided to turn them into blocks and see if there were enough of them for her Gma Letha's southwest looking quilt. This is about what we have to work with...looks kind of crazy busy to me. Any suggestions on ways to subdue it or to make it larger or should be just go for it? I didn't pick out these fabrics for the last recipient either, so maybe it just isn't my thing. I will be HAPPY to get them out of my quilting studio anyway.

DJ and I were planning on going camping next weekend so I took Saturday off work...the temperatures have finally fallen and we were thinking we might be freezing to death to go camping...suddenly tonight DJ decided she wants to make her sister's three kids a little quilt, and this one for Letha and the tablerunners we are doing for her family...so she thought we should have a mini quilt camp ourselves instead of camping! What a fab idea! My parents' house in Prescott is free all weekend (there isn't much left in it....bedroom set, loveseat, chair, tv, dvd, and pool table, lol!) and my mom said we were welcome to have a getaway weekend up there...so that is the plan. We already started packing up a ton of stuff we can cut and sew up there in between sitting by the fire, going for a few walks and watching some movies. I am really happy to get ahead on my Christmas sewing again....I hope Ros doesn't mind her machine going on another field trip (if I don't have mine back) but I promise to take extra good care of it!

Finally a Day of Sewing at Ros' Place!

2011-11-06T00:17:00.010-07:00

After work this morning DJ and I toodled on north to Ros' place and sewed away for a few hours before heading to my folks' place for dinner. Ros let me borrow her Pfaff (and I mean she let me take it home with me, Lord bless her!) so I can actually sew again. My machine hasn't even been looked at at the shop...so I am not too happy about that but now that I have a machine to use for a bit I can breathe anyway! So I took a few pictures (but after Alyssa left so I didn't get any of her doing her needlework) so here is BJ. She did a good deed today and sewed up a bedcovering for a friend in need. It turned out really nicely and I didn't snap a picture! You cna see a bit of it near her machine though. Ros was working on a binding here.

DJ was working on cutting and laying out the Crown quilt...it is one heck of an undertaking and my sister is going to be overjoyed to get it.

Ros did some show and tell. I LOVE this quilt, the pattern and the colors so Ros shared her pattern. I hope to find time to make it one of these days. I forget the name of it but something about 5 yards of fabric..

This is Olivia piggy. It was really cute too!

Ah here is a not all sewn, but at least set up block for the Crown quilt. It took all four of us, in the end, to figure out how all this went. I have a pattern but am adding the Crown stuff to it so it is hard to match the colors and make any kind of sense of it. The gal online who made one of these...her picture came in handy (and I am ever more inspired that she managed to put a big one of these together without a picture!). Anyway this picture is to help us get the layout right from here on out!

What did I work on you may be asking yourself...well I finally got around to sewing my brother's surgical cap in PACKER fabric (GO PACK GO!) and DJ modeled it for me. It wasn't as hard as I expected it to be so I may have to make a few more!

For a good bit of the time I was at Ros' I worked on Hannah's Christmas tree skirt from Moda Bake Shop. It is called "Fruitcake Under the Tree" and since I have some issue with following directions I mixed up the colors more than the pattern called for (was supposed to be hourclass type blocks with a light and a dark) This way look scrappier and I like it, but I like their version too. This is as far as it had come together when I had to leave Ros' place. We headed up to New River and had dinner with my mom and (step) dad. He cooked steak on the grill and we watched a movie, gabbed and I knitted. It was really nice! Then we came home and...

happily sewed the rest of this skirt together! I hope Hannah likes it...now to get it quilted, smile.

Tomorrow Christine (co-worker and friend) is coming over again and we are working on CEU's for our national certification. I have a few more to get and will be done with them for this cycle tomorrow! It is a Math workshop because Christine and I are thinking about putting together and presenting a Math sign workshop in our area. It is desperately needed...Math isn't my strong suit, but signing is so we are doing our research and getting ready. Sometimes I think my plate is overheaping not just onto the table, but onto the floor. SMILE!

Signed Up for a Sock Class--FINALLY!

2011-11-06T00:17:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to learn to knit socks for years now...first I had to learn, and relearn and relearn how to knit. I finally have cast on, knit, purl and cast off down! I have made a zillion or more dishcloths and they finally look pretty good if I do say so myself. Everytime I almost sign up to learn how to knit socks I change my mind because it is crazy to think of the cost of the class, the supplies, book, yarn, etc for a PAIR OF SOCKS! And most of the time here in Arizona I don't even wear socks. Not sure why I feel the need to make some, but I do and the urge hasn't gone away....so since I figure I can divide the cost of the class and the book by every pair of socks I make (that is if I ever figure out the first pair) that Math sounds better to me so I am doing it! I signed up for a class in December at http://fiberfactory.com/
The class is "magic loop socks" and it uses the book "Personal Footprints for Insouciant Sock Knitters" by Cat Bordhi which I going to order. Any excuse to order another book! LOL.
I bought some yarn today and I can hardly wait to get started...but I will be waiting because I don't have a clue how to go about it!
A co-worker of mine was crocheting socks the other day and she gave me a copy of her favorite pattern which I also would love to try, but not sure that I can figure it out unless I con her into hanging with me and helping me!

Blogger's Quilt Festival--Roll Roll Cotton Boll!

2011-10-31T20:35:00.006-07:00

Here's my entry for Blogger's Quilt Festival sponsored over at: http://amyscreativeside.com

It is that time again--Blogger's Quilt Festival! I decided I would share my Bonnie K. Hunter Roll, Roll Cotton Boll quilt this time around. This quilt took me a bit longer than some (though not as long as some others, lol) to make. It was Bonnie's mystery quilt last year and I followed her color scheme and even her border suggestions. It was my first time making string blocks and though at first I really hated them, I really started to enjoy them as time went on. I also didn't like how the whole quilt was coming together at first (though I trust Bonnie so I just kept on sewing) and in the end I loved it! There are so many pieces in all of my Bonnie quilts and that is the reason they are so special to me. The hours and hours I put into sewing them really shows my love of piecing. This one also has some blue and white striped fabric that was my great grandparents...it was once on a homemade quilt frame and through an ill fated transport it would up all broken on the highway. All I could salvage (except the measurements) was the fabric which is heavier than cotton. I have taken to putting some of it in all my Bonnie quilts because it makes me smile so think I have something of that quilt frame in every quilt.

I think what I learned about myself while making this quilt is that perserverence pays off. I remember several times wanting to quilt making this quilt, or wanting to only make half the size of it, or to not make the string blocks but I reminded myself how happy I always am when I am done with my quiltville quilts so I just kept on sewing. My quilt wasn't done first, isn't the most perfect, and isn't the best but I love it just the same.

This quilt isn't quilted yet but is being saved for something really special..I just don't know what yet!

Progress from Awhile Back

2011-10-31T11:07:00.003-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Here are my Secret Santa Swap Two gifts from Shannon that I have neglected to post a picture on! I can guess the little tiny one because of the noise it makes when I shake it, but no idea on the other two! Thanks Shannon--oh and your next set of gifts is going in the mail today! Where did October go?

I got the fabric to make Hannah and I a Christmas tree skirt. The pattern is off Moda Bake Shop if I remember right and I liked their choice of fabric so I found a bunch on clearance and have been admiring it.

This is as far as I got awhile back when I still had my machine to sew on. This is Smith Mountain Morning for Randy. My quarter inch seam isn't what it should be (as always) and so there has been some fudging. It doesn't help that I am forever working on more than one machine. Doing the best I can with what I have! Both June and Ros did offer to borrow me a machine and I do appreciate that but am hoping to have mine back soon!

Desert Botanical Gardens sans Sewing

2011-10-29T20:05:00.006-07:00

My machine is still in the hospital and I am just about mad...last weekend we kept busy by going to the Desert Botanical Garden and to the Flea Market. This helped kill time and take my mind off not sewing...but...still! Here are Randy and DJ.

And DJ and I!

My first desert pumpkin patch...and hayride in 96 degree heat. Made me miss Wisconsin!

The flowers were so gorgeous!

This was artwork on the wall...Monet's inspiration I think.

Walking up the mountain..see the giant ants ahead? There are tons of insect sculptures all around and kids like to hunt for them.

We took a seat for a bit and right next to us on a rock was this guy! We took a ton of pictures of him and spent about 8 minutes admiring him!

Of course I also did some knitting. This picture reminds me of what my Grandma Nan always looked like knitting, LOL!

These pictures were off DJ's grandfather's camera..I have yet to download mine. I did get some fabric in the mail for Hannah's Christmas tree skirt so I need to get clicking, cutting and I hope one day soon, sewing!

Machine back at the Hospital

2011-10-26T14:32:00.003-07:00

My lovely Viking Husq. Diamond is back in the "hospital" ....I just got it back about two weeks ago and was told that the bobbins I was using weren't the right one for the machine. I purchased the expensive bobbins (lovely green color) and then attempted to get them wound for use. Well, my sidewinder won't work with the green bobbins because the center is too small to fit on the sidewinder....in fact my other machines won't fit them for winding either. Really? So I dug out the book and attempted to wind the bobbin on my Diamond. I am pretty sure I did do this when I first got the machine, but it is easier to wind a bunch of bobbins on the sidewinder so I didn't use the bobbin winder regularily. Now the Diamond has two motors, one for sewing and one for bobbin winding...guess what? My bobbin winding motor doesn't appear to be working so I can't wind any of the right size bobbins! So luckily the shop said I could bring it back and they wouldn't charge me for labor since it was apparently missed in the tune up the week before. So back to the hospital she went and now once again I have no machine to sew on.
Do you feel my pain? It seems like forever since I have had time and a working machine to sew on. I know it hasn't been that long and I have been keeping busy with knitting and work and prepping for work, but I miss my machine! Anyone got any cheese to go with my whine?
I am also trying to get back to daily exercise and eating right. I sort of (cough, cough) fell off the wagon during the summer. I am happy once I get going on doing the right thing and what I need to do, but I am not so happy easing into it.
End of rant....
On a good note I got my next installment of gifts from Shannon and haven't had a chance to take a picture and tell her thank you, so THANKS! For some reason I cannot comment on half the blogs I read anymore, including Shannon's. It has something to do with adding my work account and I don't know how to fix that so if you used to get comments from me and you aren't now, know I am still reading your blog and I need to figure out how to adjust my settings so I can comment.

So Much to Say...

2011-10-15T16:17:00.006-07:00

Here is a picture of some of my knitting...I have made a ton of these dishcloths now and in fact am thinking I should branch out and try something (anything) else! I have this pattern down and at least have lots of Christmas gifts premade!

Here is the picture of the fabric I bought in Tennessee. I thought it was cute, but no clue where it will wind up.
The shop we went to was featured in a magazine (which I bought there) so you can see some photos of the shop.

They had tons of bright fabrics.

I finally sewed a back onto this panel I won over a year ago. I think I will mail it off to my daughter and she can figure out what to do with it!

Finally got the binding on this little Schnibble. Looks good from a galloping horse at 20 feet. Sigh. Done though--happy about that. It will be a dog or dolly quilt, so either way it is fine.

Also did a few more of the inside of the Smith Mountain Morning blocks and remembered to take a picture. I have more to do.

Finished the quilting on this tablerunner...trimmed it, next I need to make and attach binding.

Best of all I got this Halloween quilt tied. We used purple and orange floss to tie it and it makes me smile.

Here is the backing fabric on both of the Halloweed quilts. Love it too. Very happy to have used some of this year's shop hop purchases already.

National Story Telling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee

2011-10-09T09:29:00.006-07:00

Tennessee Quilts is the first thing you see when you enter the festival grounds (held downtown) and that made my day! I did make it in there and bought a yard of clearance fabric and a magazine. This show was featured in the magazine so...

Jonesbourough, Tennessee.

Friday night we all went to Ghost Stories...some of us weren't in the picture, but everyone was there! The interpreters were across a little stream in the dark next to the gazebo thing...the stories were good but DJ really couldn't see enough to enjoy them.

See the terp (Joy) on the left.

(Saturday night) Out to dinner at Fatz with the ENTIRE Neff crew that made it. My Dad's brother Jim is the one standing...and his other brother Rick is in the red (his other brother Lewis died many years ago). Rick's daughter Lindy is next to him (wife Lisa across) and Jim's daughter Carla is last woman on the left with her husband Chris and three children (Joseph, Emma and Maggie Lou) and his son Brian is in the yellow next to his new wife Joy (pregnant with their daughter) Jim's daughter Tricia and her hubby and daughter weren't able to come (neither was my sister Tina). Mary, on the left end is Jim's second wife (Norma passed away years ago too). Of course you see me and DJ on the right end of the table. We went around a shared stories of Grandma Nan since that is why we all come together and talked about all those who are gone forever and those who didn't make it. It was a really nice meal.

Here is a ton of the storytellers called up to sing "If I had a Hammer.." which interestingly enough I learned from my Neff cousins while canoeing the boundry waters of Canada with them and our dads.

Here is the Saturday night Midnight Cabaret perfomance of Michale Reno Harrell with one of the amazing interpreters (Liz) interpreting for him and us!

I haven't done any sewing but am working on my third dishcloth...I lost ANOTHER knitting needle right after we arrived. My purse zips all the way down on the sides and I guess the needle slid out when we moved from chairs in the back to chairs in the front. I retraced my steps, but the needle was gone. Can't recall if I blogged about it, but a little bit ago I lost a knitting needle out of my car at an intersection (it fell on the floor, I couldn't find it, opened the door for a better look and it must have fallen out because that was the last I saw of it. So since I replaced that set I had three, now lost one (stay with me on this math) and so I have a complete set again..though one is in Arizona! So I had to stop at Wal-Mart and buy another set but they are metal. I hope I can bring them on the plane. Anyways, I like to think that Grandma Nan needed those needles in heaven so she just snuck them from me! SMILE, that woman could knit!

Lil' Twister Halloween Fun

2011-10-05T22:48:00.003-07:00

The other day I sewed up the Halloween squares I bought on the shop hop and added a black border to them. No pic after black border, batteries were dead. Then today I snuck in sewing time before work and again before work...I cut the squares apart with the Lil' Twister ruler and did some resewing...so it went from this (picture black border, lol) to...

This! It was really fun to see it come together. When I do it again I will try to leave out bigger prints as the cute pictures get lost when you cut them up. The little prints turn out pretty cool though.It is a little one and I like it so much I want to pack it in my suitcase to the National Storytelling Festival, lol. We leave bright and early tomorrow (hear me groan on the early part) and come back on Monday. I am brining knitting with me and maybe my handsewing but other than that no actual sewing will occur. I can't wait for next weekend--we are staying home with no plans and I am going to sew!

Have you Missed Me?

2011-10-02T21:09:00.006-07:00

Well I have missed blogging! I finally got my Viking machine back on Friday! I managed to get this little Peanut Butter Bars mini quilt sewn up in and around my crazy life. We also cooked a turkey and the fixins because we had to make pasties with my mom and sister Saturday...and we had bought a ton of meat and needed to mix up meatloaf and hamburgers to freeze...we were in the middle of all of this when we realized CJ was having an allergic reaction to one of his new meds. Off to the ER we went and stayed until about 2 something AM. I did manage to knit half a dishcloth while I was there. When we got home we had tons of stuff to finish up and clean up before bed. Nevermind I had worked at 6 AM Friday so total sleep in those two night was about 10 hours. NOT ENOUGH! Somehow I managed to work and make it to Mom's on Saturday were we made a zillion pasties. Mine were turkey, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and a small batch of hamburger, potatoes and carrots. This is my step dad's mom's recipe and is a great thing to keep on hand in the freezer for busy nights (every night, lol). This pic is my mom and nephew Ben working on the pastry for the crust.

Today we stopped at DJ's grandfather's place (and gave him some pasties) and caught some of the Packer game (he has free NFL ticket and we will be visiting him more often on game days!) and then after unloading and reworking the freezers to fit the pasties I made this little orange Auntie's Anvil block.

DJ did some cutting of tiny muslin squares and some ironing..this is the first center of a block coming together for Smith Mountain Morning. I also cut my civil war strips for my swap and got them ready to mail AND wrapped my Santa Swap 2 Partner Shannon's gifts and got those ready to go out (a few days behind schedule--how did October get her so dang fast?)
Then I sewed these fun squares into a little quilt top. I wanted to do something

Halloweenish and I plan to use my cool Lil' Twister ruler to make these blocks even more fun! Hope to get to it before we leave on Thursday for the National Storytelling Festival!

I also managed to finish listening to Angel of Darkness, which wasn't so great but was a Goodwill find so oh well and updated my book journal with all the books I have been reading and listening to. I am incredibly happy and blessed tonight and I hope you are too!

Shop Hop Day Two or Four :)

2011-09-26T00:30:00.007-07:00

Saturday DJ and I hooked up with Ros, BJ, Alyssa and Lauren after they went to Quiltz and The Olde Worlde Quilt Shop. We met them on the west side at In Stitches which is where the Hunter's Star picture was taken. Here we all are getting our demo.

Finally got a picture of DJ too. The shop gal took pictures of us all with two cameras and somehow they didn't actually take...so since she was busy with another person DJ wound up taking the pictures again! I love that Happy Hour quilt in the background too!

Next we went to Bearly Stitchin and I should have taken photos as I went because it is all a blur what I bought where! This is the store that I left my Viking at for repair and I ordered their demo which was a cool ruler that locks onto your hst's for trimming. I think I have almost every ruler made now. LOL. This ruler has a channel on the bottom of it and it works like magic. I can't believe I haven't seen them all over blogs so far. I will show it when I get it!

For lunch we had Wildflower...I had french onion soup which was excellent and part of a sandwich which was also good and the other half was eaten for dinner much later! These amazing glass flowers were hanging in the restaurant...just had to get a picture of them!

After that we went to Quilter's Bee which is BJ's favorite store. There was a long demo of a few books with a cool cutting system to speed up your quiltmaking. DJ and I really wanted one of the books but since it was sold out we had to order it. I can't even remember the author's name but maybe Deb Caffrey?

The last shop hop store was SunValley Quilts where we turned in our stamped passports.

The bonus shop may have been my favorite of the day. At Arizona Quilts I fell in love with several fabrics on the fifty percent off rack and two others too.

At Arizona Quilts the gal there showed us her Civil War BOM from last year. This photo doesn't even do it justice. Both Lauren and I fell in love with it!

That cheddar and green block is my favorite!

Here are some of my fabrics...almost bought that top cheddar at two different stores! The light green with horses and the blue dots were on the clearance racks and the shirting has little roosters on it...I couldn't resist it!

Underneath these cheddars you can see the yard of backing fabric I bought. I love the cheater cloth stuff for my backings and I think this one will go on the back of the Bread and Butter quilt I prepped today.

In this stack you see some of the fabrics again...the bandana and cowboy/horse fabric was on clearance and I know it will wind up in a quilt for a little boy. The scizzors fabric I thought would be cute for either my iron cover that I might be making with the modern quilt guild, or for some sewing mat or something. It was supposed to be half off but my receipt doesn't show it...good thing I really like it!

Here is a better picture of the cute cowboy fabric...fifty percent off--how could I say no? I also bought a few things for my swap partner Shannon but not showing anything so I won't ruin her suprise!

Found some Packer fabic..hard to find in Arizona! My brother just asked me to make him a surgical cap out of Packer fabric so some of this is already cut and pinned (and in line which is fast backing up next to my non working machine!). DJ, Randy and I went to Dos Gringos to watch the Packers vs. Bears today too...was a good game! GO PACK GO!

Ah this is DJ's growing fabric pile. She kept picking things out and enjoyed herself more than I thought she would. The jelly roll and orange fabrics she already had here at home, bu all the rest was her loot from the shop hop. She wants to make a rainbow quilt. She also got good deals on her stuff.

After we finished the shop hop DJ and I drove out to see my sister and brother and nephew and then on to see my Mom and Dad. Spent a few hours there and had dinner before heading home. We figured we were in their neck of the woods so we should drop in (which we never do!). Mom is back from Disney and finally feeling well. She gave me a stuffed Cheshire Cat which I love! Well, it is 1 AM and I work tomorrow so I better get dinging (as my best friend Monica always says).

Shop Hop, Smith Mountain Morning and Santa Sack Swap Two Arrived!

2011-09-25T23:38:00.004-07:00

Here is the Arizona Huggy Bench (minus our youngest member and DJ who took the photo) as we shop hopped! This photo was taken at one of the shops (I already can't recall which) but I did buy the ruler they were selling for the hunter's star quilt we posed in front of. I am making that Crown quilt for my sister and I think it will help it be a snap. Lots to show and tell you about day two, but will leave that for another post since I am not getting much sewing donw to talk about. My Viking is in the shop and my Singer and Janome are not working. Even hooked up the antique machine to see if it works but it isn't sewing (need to google that machine and see if I even have it threaded right!).

I got my first gifts from the Santa Sack Swap Two and have been remiss in posting about them! I can't open the gifts til Christmas so no idea what they are but I got a really cute handmade card with a sweet note inside from Shannon and here is my sack to put my presents in as they arrive. I think it is really perfect! I have it hanging in my quilting studio awaiting the next set of gifts.

So after the Packers kicked some Bear behind.... since I am not able to sew (seriously going nuts on that!) I did some more knitting and then started on some cutting. This is Smith Mountain Morning. All the peices are cut for this block except the muslim squares. So that was some forward progress!

Then I pinned the small brown logs to the centers on both sides and lined them up next to the machine (along with an Auntie's anvil block and a Bread and Butter flag I cut and pinned today) for sewing. Wish some actual sewing was going on...can't believe I own four machines and not a one of them works at present! GRRRR!!

Designer Mystery BOM is Done :)

2011-09-23T21:50:00.004-07:00

It has been a more than crazy week and I don't even know where the camera is (and I need to take it on the shop hop so I better get looking for it--the cord is right here though, sigh!). However, I have some pictures because Ros Atwood finished quilting my Designer Mystery BOM quilt which is for my parents for Christmas. She used a varigated rainbow type thread to quilt it and she says the pictures don't do it justice. I will get it from her tomorrow and I can't wait!

Here are some close up photos. I sure hope my parents love this quilt as much as I do. They already have a tabletopper I made them from this fabric and I may make some Christmas napkins from the leftovers if I find myself with time on my hands (dreaming!).

I love the fabrics in the quilt and really enjoyed making it even though I am usually not a huge fan of sampler type quilts. This one was lots of fun! I got my first swap from Santa Sack Swap 2 with some gifts...thanks Shannon, I will post pictures this weekend I promise!

Shop Hop Day Two :)

2011-09-17T18:42:00.009-07:00

First I am SO happy that the missing cameral cord was located by my roommate! Now I can show you the phots from yesterday and today. Here is Auntie's Anvil designed by Bonnie K. Hunter...hoping to make another one of these blocks tonight but we will see how it goes.

The purple fabric will back Hannah's wallhanging (made of hst's left over from Carolina Christmas) though it is still in progress. The orange I just LOVED...Orange Crush mystery quilt turned me into an orange fabric lover. The gal who cut it was oohing and aahing over too, she had an orange shirt on.

This is the panel DJ wanted...she is going to try quilting it herself. She can hardly wait. I still have several things waiting for me to quilt so...
One of the gals who was supposed to come with us today got in a major car accident five minutes from Ros' house this morning. Lauren is fine but her car is toast. We all decided to go ahead and pick up some civil war fabric for her sinice she was missing the first leg of the shop hop...her first one. When we were at the Bernina Connection, one of the owners heard the story and told us to pick out a half dozen fat eights to give to her on her behalf. Seriously a generous thing to do. I have to say they are a fabulous store! Here is a picture of the four of us that got to go (DJ went to but didn't pose...she snapped the pics oh and she didn't wear a tiarra either) so here are Alissa, BJ, Ros and I all bejeweled at The Cutting Edge. We had lunch down the street at Pockets. It was a compromise since we had gotten off to a late start we didn't really want a long drawn out meal, but some of us were hungry! The food was amazingly good and after Ros located her missing credit card (read that..search purse, search car, call quilt shop, and search purse again only to have it turn up after ten minutes) we had a nice lunch!

Here are my purchases from Zoe's Trunk. The three fat quarter on the right are for Alicia. The two in middle are mine and the Halloween charm squares are mine too!

Next we went to Quilter's Oasis....this store is super friendly and we got quite a welcome from the customers who loved our tiarras. It was really fun...next year we might make T shirts, lol. I found these fabrics...the red civil war one will be part of my civil war swap on quiltvilleswap, the blue with the birds I will make some tissue covers with, it was just too cute to pass up and on clearance too. Last year I bought their special and this year I did too. They had the Deb Tucker Square squared....it will make trimming up square in a squares a cinch and since the tool last year was also a Deb Tucker and is my current favorite ruler I had to have it.

Our last stop of the day was Bernina Connection. This is Ros favorite store and I found several fabric deals. I was tempted by their special (an electronic seam ripper) but decided to try this other similar thing I have at home first. The grey alcohol fabric is for the back of Randy's Smith Mountain Morning (once it is together) and it was half off! The Halloween fabric was also half off and will be the back of whatever I make out of the charm squares or the panel I have at home. I picked out a few other little goodies and bought the shop hop pattern. I had been thinking about it and since I can use my new Deb Tucker ruler with it just decided to get it. May dig out my long had and not used batiks to make one of the "Sparkle, Shine and Shimmer" quilts. Here is the pattern pic a little closer up. Every store had this pattern on display, and each one was different. Really cool how the fabric choices create such variety!

Progress on Antie's Anvil and Shop Hop

2011-09-16T19:45:00.005-07:00

(old photo but man, I love how this came out!) Today I worked my video relay job at 6 AM and after that went to interpret at the college I work at. As soon as work was done, Dj and I started the shop hop tonight since I have to work tomorrow morning and will be meeting up with the AZ Huggy Bunch after my morning work. So after work today DJ and I started out at Three Dudes…they were fabulous and friendly as always and guess what they were selling something that was on my list to look for to buy! So ofc I bought it. It is one of those whirilygig kind of rulers…you sew a bunch of squares together and then line up the ruler and cut and then resew and you have pinwheel kind of things. I keep seeing quilts made from this ruler on blogs and have had it on my list for awhile. I bought the smaller one that you use with charm squares, I am hoping to try it out with some Halloween fabric if I find some. They also had an inexpensive quilt marking pen that irons right off.

Next we went over to Quilter’s Ranch. They were selling a program for making quilt labels. I have one, I don’t use it. Didn’t buy anything there…they have great Halloween fabric but no little charm packs which is what I was looking for.

Last stop we went to Cutting Edge where I hope to meet up with the AHB tomorrow. They had the binding tool for sale. I have seen the youtube video about that and it looks fabulous but I am reminding myself that I have rulers and fabric from last years shop hop I need to use yet! I did manage to buy some orange and some purple fabric from the clearance section way in the back for 6 bucks a yard and one cool Christmas panel that DJ really liked…she wants to try actually quilting it into a tablerunner for us.
Tomorrow will be a blast because there will be six of us running from store to store and lunch together wearing tiarras...well, DJ isn't wearing a tiarra! I am really looking forward to it.

When we got home after a bit of cleaning I whipped up a test for my ASL 3 class (there seems to always be something, good thing I really enjoy it!) and took photos of my purchases. I then spent a good half hour running all over the house trying to find the camera. As you can see from the lack of photos in this post it was to no avail! Apparently Randy borrowed it and he is at work without his phone (don't you know) so I don't know where it is. Coleman tried a half dozen cords he had but hmm, too wide, too long, too something...so I snapped a quick photo of my Auntie's Anvil progress (yellow block made just before the camera cord search commenced) and at least I can show you that! Next up is orange!

Auntie's Anvil Block

2011-09-12T11:10:00.004-07:00

Bonnie K. Hunter's "Auntie's Anvil" block. This one is made from leftover hst's I had and some snips off my two inch strips. It is pretty small and I am looking forward to making some more!

More Pics and a Tiny Purchase

2011-09-11T18:07:00.003-07:00

Forgot about taking photos this morning so late afternoon pics will have to do. At least I could spread it out in my yard. My neighbor across the way, one door down, came home as I was seemingly taking photos of my rocks and looked at me strangely. Not sure he realized there was a quilt there!

I have to say I love it more and more.

Stopped in at JoAnn's and got a few more yards of Denyse Schmidt's new line. I think I am satisfied by the five I picked though I wouldn't turn my nose up at any of the others! I really need to start cutting up some of this fabric.

Finished more knitted dishrags...found the southwest looking colors and am working on some of those. Will have plenty for Christmas gifts!

Finally bought a new vaccuum...ours died a few weeks ago. We don't have much carpet but the rugs and carpet we do have seem to attract dog hair. And since we dogsat Kathy's dogs for a total of seven dogs for about two weeks this past month...well it feels so good to have moved all the furniture and dusted and vaccuumed it all! Meatloaf and potatoes are in the oven, I am freshly showered and soon will go pick Randy up from the airport (he was in Ohio for two weeks). Oh and the laundry is about done too. I managed to get all the prep for this week's classes done and the only thing that I haven't found time for is sewing! Maybe late tonight I can sneak in a little sewing! I stopped and saw June today for a bit and it was nice catching up with her. DJ and I had accidently taken her rotary cutter home (we brought ours that is exactly the same and used it and then took both home!) so we returned that. OOPS!

Yesterday I got to meet up with the Phoenix Branch of the Modern Quilt Guild for the second time. We met at Jona's house and other than Laura and Margarite who came with me and Jona I think everyone else was new to me. I haven't been for like ten months but hope to start going regularily. It is a really nice group of friendly quilt loving people. I am amazed at all the talent in our group...I consider myself to be just a quilter...I don't design quilts or patterns (or want to!) and really am better suited to following those creative people's patterns! I am hoping Jona will post some of the pictures she took of our show and tell and I can borrow them over here. I fell in love with a cute little quilt made from Max and Whiskers fabric which I don't have! Really there were so many awesome quilts and great conversation!

Roll Roll Cotton Boll Flimsy is DONE!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-10T23:35:00.003-07:00

I can't tell you the joy I feel at completing this top! The border took me several hours to get on the quilt correctly since my measurements weren't the same as Bonnie's. I really have a time with pieced borders, but in this case it was well worth it. This quilt has grown and grown on me and now that the border is on I really like it!

It was so huge and since it is dark out (blessedly cool since we had a monsoon two nights in a row so the whole house is opened up right now and I am soooo happy to have fresh cool air!) that I could barely get a decent picture of it. DJ had to stand on top of furniture while I held the dogs back to get this photo. I am sure I will take more out in the sunlight towmorrow. I am so glad to have this done in time for Bonnie's next mystery in November. I don't think I will be done with Smith Mountain Morning by then, but at least I can get back to it! WHOOT WHOOT. And no migraine today, bliss!

9/11...Ten Years Later

2011-09-10T00:38:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been ten years since 9/11 changed our country forever. I wasn't blogging back then (was there such a thing then) so I thought I would tell you the story of where I was when that day...Back then I was living in Eau Claire, Wisconsin (my hometown) and was attending UWEC working on my B.A. I was also working as the lead interpreter at CVTC that day. I was driving in to town to TA for a class I was taking with Katherine Schnieider (who by the way is an amazing woman and author too!) who happens to be blind. This was a great experience for me since I am used to working with the Deaf and I learned alot about working with the blind from her. Anyways, I think I was listening to a CD and when it ended I popped it out and caught what was going on on the radio. I remember sitting in my car in the parking lot in absolute shock. I think only the first plane had hit at that time. We didn't even realize it wasn't just a random sad accident. When it came time for class, responsible student that I am, I went to class. Most everyone was abuzz about what was going on and there was a TV in the hall with it on but I didn't have time to see much before class. Many teachers were just turning it on in the classroom or letting their classes go that day (both at the University and Tech) but our instructor went on with class. I will say that I have NEVER been more distracted and felt the time go so slow as I did that morning. When class was done I had to hurry over to work just a few minutes away and when I got there I saw immediately what all was going on. CVTC had TV's in the hallway and I didn't even make it to my office. I just stood there gawking along with lots of other people. I can remember the moment I realized the second plane had hit and that we were under attack. Such disbelief. I think most of us thought we were untouchable, and in that moment everything changed. Unfortunately none of the coverage was captioned and so I wound up interpreting it, while trying to process it, all day at work. It was one of the hardest work days I have ever experienced. I felt like most everyone could just stand and stare and try to deal with things, but I had to work interpreting despite what I was feeling. Some of the students were really shocked and scared and the news was speculating on where would be next...the fear of the unknown really bites.

A few days later a local radio station asked people to head to the fairgrounds dressed in red, white and blue for a photo to show that Wisconsin Cares. I was a girl scout leader at the time, and so I and one of the other mothers took all our girl scouts including our own daughters, and my youngest son Mac (think CJ was at respite) to be in the photo. We are on the left side of the U in the picture below close to the middle/top. Alot more people turned up than they expected so that is the mass you see above the letters. Really, we felt far removed from all of it and yet needed to do something. It wasn't much, but as someone who doesn't always get involved in protesting or campaigning this was something I felt I had to do. So we did.

I think I saw others that I knew there that day, but I wonder who else was there that I didn't even realize at the time.

Chippewa Valley Shows how much Wisconsin Cares

I hope nothing like 9/11 ever has to happen again. So senseless that so many innocent people died, and so many others became ill and are still suffering and dying.

Last Step of RRCB and Two Years Ago Today...

2011-09-10T00:14:00.004-07:00

Just realized my first photo doesn't show the green border at all...haha, this quilt it just too large! The close up at least you can see the progress I made tonight on RRCB. I finished piecing the outer border and cut and added the inner green border. I would have liked to have added that outer border, but I think that I need to add more to it, because it isn't looking like it is going to fit right. I know I am not suprised by that, my quarter inch isn't the same as Bonnie's--yet!

Close up RRCB with green border

I hope to finish this tomorrow, but I have to work in the morning (and praying my migraine doesn't return..was a bad morning and afternoon for me today) and then I am planning to finally make it to another meeting of the Phoenix Moder Quilt Guild! I am looking forward to doing some hand sewing on my hexies and getting to know the gals a bit more. But once I am home I may try to get this quilt off my to be done list! I am really ready to be done with it.
And I can't let today go by without saying wow, how did two years pass since my Dad died? The days just keep marching on. I really do miss him and think of things that I wish I had asked him or that I want to share with him. He was a huge Packer fan and belatedly turned me into one (he gave me tickets to a game at Lambeau which would hook anyone--GO PACK GO!) and every game I see I hope my Dad is somehow cheering from heaven. So I just wanted to give my Dad a shout out, I love you Dad!

Christmas Tablerunners

2011-09-05T21:24:00.004-07:00

Here are three Christmas tablerunner tops. We did get them all pinned for quilting too, but I didn't get pictures of that. The two from 12 Days of Christmas (all leftover fabric from the BOM by Fat Quarter Shop--man they were generous!) will go to DJ's two Deaf grandmothers. The Merry and Bright I am not sure who will wind up with. I am a happy camper to be working on the Christmas list!

Other than that we managed to get the majority of the baseboard and such down today--finally! Also did laundry (does that ever end?) and got some cleaning done. I did manage to write a few tests and get semi organized for my classes too. Back to work tomorrow!

Working on Some Christmas Gifts!

2011-09-05T02:24:00.003-07:00

DJ and I decided to makeeach of her two grandmothers a Christmassy tablerunner

with fabric I already have here at home. Since we are doing that I decided we should make a few extras because I always find them homes. I had leftover Merry and Bright and 12 Days of Christmas so that is what we got going on. DJ did the cutting (what wasn't already a charm) and I got to sewing. Listened to Lady Gaga and tried to bear the heat. Sal the AC guy is going to come tomorrow. Can't wait! Here is the first top sans a border.

And here is a stack of strips all ready to be turned into a few more tablerunners. We did these ones with a half charm square on each side so I won't have to add another border. So far nine strips made.

And I only added one little bow tie with the scissor fabric (bottom right) which is fabric leftover from the quilt I made my Grandma Nan which eventually covered her casket and now my cousin Lindy has! I love all the memories in these bow ties!

Ok, Really, Step Seven is Done!

2011-09-04T18:59:00.003-07:00

Here is the proof. Step seven of Roll, Roll Cotton Boll is finally complete. Thre was a wee bit of unsewing at the end when I somehow mixed up which end the little triangle went on but now it is all together.

The border is is progress but don't know that I will get it to it this weekend since I haven't done didley for prep. Gonna start on that as soon as this blog is finished. I think this quilt has grown on me and think the border will make it even better!

We stopped at Goodwill today and I bought the last gnome on the left there for 4.99! It is so cute and has been added to my outdoor gnome collection which is rapidly fading in the Arizona sun. Off to prep!

Step 7.9, LOL

2011-09-03T23:22:00.004-07:00

I am STILL on step 7...thought I had it completed but today when I went to look at the layout of the rows I discovered that is still step 7. Bonnie, my favorite scrappy designer and quilter, likes LONG steps with lots of pieces. (and I guess, so do I, hahah!) So here is today's sewing progress.

Ah, oops. Both ends were hanging the wrong way despite my pinning...I had to do a bit of unsewing on this row.

Growing!

I think this is the half way point. I had had enough by this time and so I switched gears and did some sewing and ironing of the SMM and the border for RRCB. Got the stack next to my machine all sewn and half ironed. I also did some fabric folding today. I still love the pieced blocks, but am not nuts for the string blocks with them yet. That is okay, hopefully someone else will love it since it is likely to become a gift.

My latest Fat Quarter Shop Schnibbles patterns arrived today too! Loving the ones in the front of the picture and less nuts for those in the back. They may windup as gifts or in a giveaway since I really need to get it together and do one soon!

Here is a sneak peek of the SMM centers of one of the blocks. Loving them. Amy posted her top today (made with some of the same swap fabrics) and if that is motivating me to get going on this I don't know what would!

I was interpreting for an instructor the other day and he was saying that the point of blogs was to say to everyone "look at me, I am important" or something to that effect...it got me to thinking that I read blogs for inspiration and motivation and hope that others read my blog for the same. While ofc I am posting about my accomplishments and what I have done the point for me isn't to say look at me. I feel like us quilters are mostly one big happy family and we just enjoying getting to know each other!

I went to JoAnn's today with my coupons and got two yards of each of these fabrics in Denyse Schmidt's new Sugar Creek line. I want the green one with the flowers which I didn't find at that particular store and then maybe a half yard of the others but I controlled myself since shop hop is coming up in a few weeks and I don't even have a project in mind for these fabrics. I love the blue and the green though...it really reminds me of my Grandma Char whose favorite colors were blue and green. Her formal living room and dining room were in those colors and she collected green depression glass. I know she would really have loved this fabric. My daughter's middle name is Charlene for her. She has been gone now almost 24 years but she still lives on in my heart. Home again, home again....

RRCB Step 7 is Officially Done!

2011-09-02T22:30:00.005-07:00

I wrote my entire blog post then accidently highlighted it and deleted it. GRRR! So once again...I have officially finished step 7 of RRCB! I trimmed all the string blocks to 11 inches while watching "Three Men and a Little Lady" which I somehow had never seen. It wasn't great, but helped make the trimming more enjoyable. Not sure why I couldn't have gotten to that sooner. Some of the blocks are still a little wonkier than I would like, but I think the top will turn out fine. I did discover I had one fabric sewn in backwards, I noticed it earlier, but am leaving it for posterity, lol.

Next to my machine you can see I am working on step 8 too...this is the border coming together. Next to that is the in progress centers of some of the Smith Mountain Morning blocks. I am Bonnie's number one fan!

This is what I am listening to lately. It isn't great but I keep listening. It is about a group of high school girls who make a pact to get pregnant. That is the only believeable part of the whole thing. It all just doesn't ring true.

I am excited to work two hours tomorrow and then be off work for three whole days. I have some prep work to do (powerpoints, tests, packets, etc.) but I plan on getting in plenty of sewing time! I am hoping my next blog post will have a row or two of RRCB sewn together!

Crown Quilt Sees Progress

2011-08-30T23:26:00.003-07:00

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!

2011-08-29T00:00:00.002-07:00

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

2011-08-28T00:55:00.005-07:00

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

2011-08-27T20:32:00.003-07:00

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

2011-08-26T23:01:00.005-07:00

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.