Fall Break Comes to an End

 Fall break is over much to quickly!  We had a great but quick vacation to San Francisco with my mom--if I am get a minute I will pick some pictures and post them here.  I miss blogging and reading my blogs but I just trained back at my old video relay job and since we cannot have our phones with us while we work (but we have access to the internet) I will again be reading and commenting on blogs!  I miss them and rarely seem to fit them in with my crazy schedule but it works perfectly to read them while on hold at that job!  I am a good multitasker even though they say people are not!
So on to the sewing.  I sewed a ton with Kathy last night and most of today!  YAY.  She is just done with clue 5 of En Provence (always working til the last second that girl!) and I got a ton of stuff caught up and done! 

 I have had these hexagon trivets mostly ready to go for a long time...you may remember I made a bunch with Christmas fabric then decided I needed to make some regular ones...finally got all 17 done today while watching specials about Prince. 

My online PACKER quilter friend Nancy sent me some leftover spool blocks she had after completing her spool quilt.  I wanted to link to it on her blog but I could not find a picture of it even though I have seen one! Anyways I have two blocks left so if any of you also want to donate your blocks because you had random leftovers or lost steam I will home them in a heartbeat!  I love how all the different fabrics look in these fun leader/ender blocks of Bonnie's.  I did not do this years even though I had big plans to do placemats...it just never happened.  

 My UFO Challenge for this month is my two sets of Bitty Blocks. I did not make a row of each and so I have two different size blocks and so there they sit.  I studied them again today and decided to just put them away for now.  Not happening!

 I FINALLY got out this little kit Barb and I bought about a year ago at a quilt show.  It is not done yet...I accidentally put the wrong size red outer border on (still another border to go) and so I ripped it out while soaking in the tub tonight (multitasker, told you.  Epsom salts, help with the migraines).  So if I get a few minutes to sew this week I will be resewing smaller borders and the cream border.  LOVE this tiny little quilt!

Tomorrow I go back to work (teaching) and the kids come back on Wednesday.  The time went so fast!  I did get alot of planning for the quarter, some lesson planning, test writing, etc. done on break so feeling like I might not be AS overwhelmed as we go.   However, I am now freelancing two nights a week til December and most likely at my new VRS job one night a week too.  Add Pilates to that and I am one busy camper.  Super excited to have insurance though...already used it to pick up meds and get new glasses! 

Ring Around the Hexies Continues!

 While watching the Seahawks kick butt in the superbowl I did a little hand sewing on my pieced hexies.  And I am linking up to Slow Stitching Sunday!  I finished up these three, but then I needed to make enough for one more set.  I got right on it after the game.

 If you haven't made pieced hexies before, you can see in the lower left what the part you sew looks like, then top center is the hexie placed where it will be glued (or hand basted) on.  I just trim each side to a quarter inch and glue them so they look like they are supposed to.

I sewed up all four of the easy block that the hexies will be attached to.  These aren't attached yet, just laid out for effect.  I also made all the hst's for the alternate block (didn't take a picture of them) and cut some of the parts.  I am hoping to get a few of those blocks made now that this project is making progress!

Here is Bonnie's picture...this is what I am aiming for!  Ros how are you coming on yours?  It is really a fun little quilt!
Oh and I was flattered to get an email that my spools quilt is the cover photo for the Aurifil Thread Page on Flickr!  That made my day!

Spoolin' Around

 I decided to just get to it and start sewing all my spools from Bonnie's Spoolin' Around challenge together.  I had more blue blocks than anything since I apparently REALLY like blue fabric and have now stopped buying it until I use what I have.  I sewed a blue spool into the upper right corner of almost ever four patch of these blocks and then I put them into rows.

 And it grew into this!  It isn't nearly as big as it feels like it should be.  I felt like I was sewing spools til the cows came home.  I haven't decided it I am adding a border or tucking it away til I feel like making more spools (the day may never come) so this is as far as it goes.  I only had one leftover spool, and one leftover that was a double.  I am hoping I don't have any doubles in it, but one or two could have snuck in.  There are seven rows of eight four patches.  I am so glad to check that off as mostly done because I am already working on Bonnie's next challenge!  I plan to only make a small version of that.  I decided I prefer leaders and enders with less steps.  The bow ties two years ago were perfect.  Not too complicated.  The spools were a little harder and this year's split nine patch is too much for me as a leader/ender.  I wind up just doing a block here and there on its own and never actually do it as a leader/ender.  Sort of defeats the purpose!

 I also picked out the not so great quilting in Broken Crockery and bound it.  Now I can enjoy it on the wall and have it no longer be a UFO.  I guess I am in the mood to finish things up!

Kathy quilted CJ's black. red and white wall hanging (leftovers from his night and day quilt) that has been waiting for a bit too, so I can cross that off the list too.  

Quiltville Spool Challenge Progress Report

 I have been Spoolin' Around with Bonnie Hunter this past year and have really enjoyed it!  I haven't counted these spools yet, but the link up encouraged me to finish up the few spools I had left (below) so now I am done making spools (unless the math requires more when it gets put together).  Here are some of the pictures of the spools as they have come along this year.  No time to lay them all out just now.

So I am linking up with Bonnie to show my progress so far.  Her spools are already in a quilt and quilted (I swear she has a twin who quilts 20 hours a day--wink) so check the link to see it!  She has already posted a challenge for this year on this post and I do plan to do that one too.  (Last year's cheddar bow ties are at least a top already...what's one more quilt?)  So who else is in--the more the merrier!

If you are interested in seeing my own little parade of Bonnie quilts click here!

A Day of Sewing :)

Kathy got her yellow on today and made both her scrap jar stars for the Rainbow BOM!  

I too got my yellow on for the Rainbow BOM today!  Both Jack in the Box blocks are made and hst's are pressed and ready to become pinwheels!  I also managed to finish up the last of the blue spools for Bonnie's Spoolin' Around Yearlong Challenge!  Speaking of Bonnie I managed to catch QuiltCam live today too!  I counted them and there are about sixty!

I also put together two blocks together for the Drunkard's Path Quiltalong for the PHXMQG.  This pattern is called Learning Curve and has two different blocks in it.

 Not the best photo here, but you get the idea.  The curves are going together really easily!

More Blues and Some Woodworking

More blue spools!

 I watched Bonnie on QuiltCam last night and sewed up some more blue spools.  I am getting close to getting all those blues done!  I have not been trimming these up as I should be as I go and I know I will be wishing I did soon but...lol.  Bonnie mentioned she thinks she has about 500 spools done.  Apparently her motto is GO BIG OR GO HOME!  I haven't counted but am sure I have less than 200...if I had to guess I would say 125.  Maybe I will count them soon.  I am happy they are seeing progress each month thanks to Angela's Rainbow BOM challenge, but 500..that Bonnie is AMAZING, seriously, like wow!

 In other news, Kathy is replicating the Adirondack chairs and table that my parents gave us a few years ago.  Ours were falling apart from the Arizona sun.  This is my table and this is Becky's second chair (she already picked up her table and another chair) my chairs are in progress too.  Coleman has been helping Kathy with the sanding and putting together of this stuff.  He is spending less time on his computer and more time doing this stuff which is great, but soon it will be TOO hot to be outside doing anything.  

Speaking of tables, after almost five years of being here we finally found some end tables in the mission style to match our entertainment center table.  So excited to have an all matching living room--finally!  Not sure why we didn't get to that sooner, but after not finding anything in the stores that really matched or struck me we just picked up cheap modern looking tables at Ikea.  Then funny enough I sort of stopped looking even though I hated those tables.  They will be recycled on to one of the boys--perfect bachelor type furniture!  

Had my final ASL 4 class today--well they did interviews so have a little bit of grading to do and then get final grades in the computer and other semester will be under my belt, whew!  I started taking an online class about teaching in the community college (which is required for teaching at a community college in AZ and is paid for by my college) and have finished three of my nine assignments already.  Brings back memories of homework squeezed in anywhere--my goal is to just do an assignment or two a week which is doable.  I looked ahead and the final assignment is creating my syllabus.  I am way ahead on that one, ha.  Just have to improve upon it based on the advice given in the course and I will be set.  Irony of it all, I am not sure I am actually teaching in the fall!  New health care laws mean changes for how many hours I can work with teaching and interpreting combined (used to be considered separate) so will be crunching numbers and figuring out what the plan is soon.

Sweet Saturday Sewing the Blues

 Yesterday Kathy and I went and babysat our new nephew Colton and in between watching him I did a little lace sock knitting.  :)

 Today I had a lot of fun in the sewing room.  (I have been having lots of migraines this week and today's went away around 2 PM and I was happy to sew without a throbbing head!).  I had to paper piece this cute little gnome guy.

 Did my two blue Jack in the Box blocks for Angela's Rainbow BOM with obviously is BLUE this month!  Kathy also did her Scrap Jar Stars in blue.

 I am a titch behind on the Skillbuilder BOM.  I have decided I am only doing the blocks I want and I have no plans to quilt them individually...that takes the pressure off.  So here is the Woven Star from Alyssa's Skillbuilder BOM which was a fun one to make.

 This is the Cheveron Block..I decided to do this one in Packer colors.  It will be turned into a pillow backed in Packer fabric and most likely will be a gift for my sister who has a Packer room :) GO PACK GO!

 I have been watching Centennial on the DVD player and occasionally listening to Great Expectations too.  I love having cable in my quilting studio again so sometimes I watch my TIVO stuff (now I can watch it in any room that has cable..whoot, whoot).

 I have a huge start on my blue spools.  Have more left to go, and weeded out the doubles I had.  I really enjoyed my day of sewing the blues!

Sweet Sunday Sewing :)

 Kathy decided to add another Rainbow Block of the month to the other one she is doing (which she is doing two of each month) so at the end of the year she will have three rainbow quilts.  She is all caught up already which is amazing!
I finished sewing the rest of my green spools and they outnumber all the other colors now even with nine of them in a pillow!

 Today's spools above and previous ones below--that is alot of green!

 Here are all the stacks I have so far separated by color.  It is working well to try to get the rainbow bom color done each month..really pushes me to do them, not sure why I didn't think of that last year for the bow ties!

Kathy bought a GIGANTIC TV today and we did some TV shuffling.  Coleman also just inherited a huge (old heavy on wheels) TV for his room from my parents' move...put that all together and his old flat screen TV is in the sewing room (now with cable and dvr YIPEEE) and the flat screen living room TV is in our bedroom (though not hooked up yet--lol) and we now have two extra older not as huge TV's just hanging out.  To think my great grandparents just had one TV at their house and no cable, ha!  I did manage to bike five days this week too so I am getting back on the wagon and trying not to be a couch potato! The day just flew by and I didn't even start another Wild and Goosey block or watch Bonnie's last QuiltCam that I missed.  Maybe I can do that after work tomorrow :)

Succulent Garden for my Gnome and Emerald Challenge Fun!

 I finished up my green pinwheels to go with my green Jack in the Box blocks--so happy to be all caught up on that (a few more spools to go in green) before May gets here and another color!

 Today I planted a succulent garden!  I have wanted to do this for a long time and I hope the transplant went okay and it will grow and fill in the pot.  It is my gnome's new home and is on the new table and chairs my parents gifted to me when they moved.  Hoping this weekend we will grill out and eat in the backyard!

Tomorrow is the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild meeting (after the 35th Ave. BOM and black bag day) and I really procrastinated making something for the emerald challenge.  I really had planned to make this cool star block in a block in a block in three shades of green but just wasn't motivated enough in the end.  Then I realized that I could pick out some of my green spools (from my Spoolin Around challenge) and make a pillow to match my future quilt.  I made a few more green spools, picked out the more modern or more emerald ones that I liked and just went for it.  I am happy with it and am glad to have something finished for the challenge!  Can't wait to see what others have made!

We also spent tonight (and really all week) watching CNN and seeing all the craziness in Boston and then the explosion in Texas then back to Watertown for an unprecedented manhunt.  So sad that so many people have died this week unexpectedly--my prayers go out to any and all affected.  Kathy is from Greenfield, Mass and ordered herself a Boston Strong shirt to add to her Red Sox shirt collection.   We both hope we never see something so crazy happen in our backyard.  Prayers going up for Boston and for West too.

Hitting the Green and So Much More--FINALLY!

We have not been on our regular schedule where we have lots of time to sew on the weekends lately.  One thing after another going on and it seems we are never here or if we are we are too tired to think about sewing!  I got into the TV show "The Tudors" on my AmazonPrime and in the last week or two watched four seasons worth while working on socks or handsewing.  Today we helped my parents move--AGAIN.  Yes this is about the 5th time they have moved since we moved to Arizona (4.5 years ago).  They are only moving about five minutes from the last house they were in.  Today we moved boxes and a few pieces of furniture.  Kathy and I washed a gazillion dishes (I should have taken photos--mom has wine glasses, champagne glasses, hurricane glasses, margarita glasses, Packer glasses, drink glasses, shot glasses, more wine glasses...you get the idea.)  

We arrived home so very tired from head to toe (and I got a massage yesterday which rocked, but I am so sore from that already!) but we persevered and sewed!  I had to get going on some GREEN for Angela's Rainbow BOM.  I made nine of these tonight and added them to my previous greens.

Meanwhile, Kathy caught up on her orange blocks from last month.  She got both done but I snapped this before the second one was done.  We also noticed that one of her purple blocks has the bottom star points turned around.  I think I blogged about it and no one said anything and we have looked admiringly at them for two months now, sheesh!  We both love the scrap jar star block in orange!

 In the car on the way to and from mom's I handtacked my hexies down.  I improved so much on these four pincushions.  You can see the stitches are not so good in the first two, but the second two look good!  We filled them with walnut shells (bought at the pet store cheap) and I whip stitched them closed.  One is for the exchange at the PHXMQG, one I may keep and two will be gifts and may count for my Christmas Through the Year item this month!

 These four blocks are the 35th Ave. BOM blocks for this month.  I am happy with how they came out (Kathy has hers done too) but I didn't care for the 2 7/8 x 3 inch of some of the blocks while others are 3 x 3.  It was WAY too easy to turn blocks and then be off on the seam allowance.  There was a bit of unsewing and a bit of reseaming happening with these.  So glad they are done and I hope next month is one easy block!

 Not the greatest photo, but here are all of my 35th Ave. BOM blocks so far :)

Tomorrow we are sleeping in and then we will sew and catch up on all the QuiltCam's we have missed lately.  I think there are two or three...that is how crazy life has been--Bonnie's number one fan hasn't even had time to catch QuiltCam!  :)