Snuck in a little Sewing Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today's Progress

Today I quilted the four patch leftovers (after spending about forty minutes trying to put the walking foot on my Janome...it was the first time I have used it on that machine and the screw would NOT cooperate. I enlisted help, I kept my cool, eventually after the others gave up I got it. Not taking it off til I quilt the other two quilts on my list!). I took a few pictures of this quilt outside in the Arizona sunshine and they are missing from my camera. It has been that kind of day. So here is a pic I snapped for facebook before the binding was on (and before the trimming) and another of it on the couch which is what I made it for.

I keep forgetting to mention that I got my Valley of the Sun Shop Hop passport and charm. I will take a picture of the charm when I think of it. It is looking like a bunch of us will try to do the shop hop together this year.

More on my crazy day, I tripped over a dog and dropped my laptop with my flash drive in it. Laptop landed on the dog and then the floor so it didn't break but the flash drive busted right off. I almost threw up. All of the stuff I have been revamping for the class I teach next week was on it. I had emailed two of the things I have been working on, so I was able to recover those but the rest is probably gone. I dug out my discs and copied over a TON of files and attempted to reorganize it but I know I am missing things and especially the stuff I need on Tuesday. We took it to Best Buy...they said they could send it out for 250 or I could try to get someone to solder (spelling?) it and see if I could recover the stuff on it. That reminded me of the computer guy we have used before who has a store here...so since he was already closed I will go see him tomorrow. If I can recover the stuff for less than 100 bucks I will go for it, otherwise I will be putting in more time at the computer. Life goes on but grrrr. Sad thing is I do always back up things but was waiting til I was done putzing with it first so I didn't have two different versions saved. I guess an old version saved is better than NO version saved, Lord help me!

I also got my interpreting work schedule (we start on Monday) and it is a bit all over the place. Two days a week I work for two hours then have almost 5 hours off (I live a half hour away) and then work for four more hours. My longest day is Saturday...I agreed to take a long class on Saturday and they added another one to it. I figure it is for 16 weeks so I can deal with it and hope next semester is more to my liking. I also heard from my teaching boss...may be giving me another class (which is great but it is ASL 2 and I haven't prepped anything for it, starts next Tuesday) but I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth becasue it fits into part of my gap in my schedule. Yay, me.

My day did perk up though because about and hour ago I heard from Sheri that I won a gift certificate from Shabyy Fabrics. Whoot, whoot, she and Shabby Fabrics have made my otherwise lousy day!

And the Rest of the Story...

Yesterday after a long nap I got up and sewed for about three hours. I cut a bunch more bowties and was happy to notice that several of the blue fabrics now completed bow ties two pics up were from my Grandma Nan's fabrics. She passed away a year ago last night so it was coincidental that I ran across these fabrics and decided they needed to be made into bow ties right then and there in honor of Grandma Nan who also loved to sew. I miss her.

Picture below is my Smith Mountain Morning quarter square triangles made with Triangulations. They turned out very nicely!

I also sewed up these little blocks for my daughter Hannah's wall hanging. I mixed them up a few ways and took photos (discovered one turned after and fixed it) but haven't sewn these into rows yet. I have some green leftovers from the same quilt and am thinking I might sew them up and see if that adds some interest.

I started listening to the radio version of Lord of the Rings which is really good! I am already on disc four. I enjoy my sewing so much more with a good story!

Here is Kathy's NYE mystery that she made for her nephew Seth. I managed to machine bind it with a scrappy leftover mish mash of binding. He will love it..he is four and this is his forth or fifth quilt! He loves them to death.

Then today I also pulled out my leftover four patches and cut some red squares to match and whipped up this little couch quilt. DJ is in getting it set to be basted right now (whoot, whoot!)

Here is what I have so far for the Cheddar Challenge. Two nine patches are done and the rest are just hanging out for now.

Cowboys and Aliens was decent. All of us went (DJ, CJ, Randy and I) which is a rarity. I am going to go help DJ baste the four patch quilt, a baby quilt and a little dolly or doggy quilt...that might be it for sewing tonight, but I am off work tomorrow so when I get done with my prep planning stuff I hope to be sewing!