In My Happy Place!

Last weekend I didn't get to blog about Sunday's sewing.  My new tiny laptop/tablet would not post pictures to Blogger.  Today I decided to try downloading Chrome and see if that worked.  It did!

 There is lots of ORANGE going on in this post.  I finished up the binding on Orange Crush which I am keeping for myself, Ros did a fab job on the quilting and the embroidered label.  LOVE IT!.

Finally got the rows together on Colton's Eye Spy quilt.  I may add some borders and get this done so I can pass it on to him.

 Last Tuesday was our Nimble Thimbles guild meeting.  Here are all of the batik blocks everyone did for our last block party for this year.  I really enjoyed that program and am happy I won once!

 We also played Quilto.  I brought in buttons and won three times!

 Not the best picture, but here are my winnings!  Really tickled with the book!

 Today I did the Quiltmaker Bitty Blocks in orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge,

 Here are all the blocks so far.  Really fun to make these tiny ones.

 Kathy is making progress on her Grand Illusion too.

 I made another orange Talkin' Turkey blok (and accidentally put peach flying geese on it.  I have two peach blocks to make and a bunch of orange points  UGH!  Looks fine on this block as far as I am concerned.  I may just cut more peach.

 Here are all of the blocks so far.  Half way done since the goal is 24.  This one is the UFO challenge my guild gave me so I have to make some progress on it each month.  I want to do Bonnie's cool border and have not figured out how I will do that with the rainbow yet so I need to get going on it!

 And since I was on a roll, I made two Betty's Choice blocks in orange.  One for me and one for Amy!  Didn't take a picture with all of them this month though.  Linking up with SoScrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

In other news today we ran all over...Pilates, pedi, haircut, shopping, etc.  I am at 101 pounds down now and we are getting up early tomorrow to go hiking because the temp is supposed to be lower than usual for this time of year.  After that up to my brother's place for a pool party.  Glad I got some sewing in today!

Indigo Sunday!

 I sewed up two blocks for the Nimble Thimbles Block Party today.  Kind of fun to work in batiks since I have been hoarding them but almost never do anything with them.  They gave us the center fabric and we were to add anything batik to it.

 Here is the RSC Betty's Choice in Indigo.  One for me and one for Amy.  These blocks are still super fun to make!  Linking up to SoScrappy!

 And here is the first of the indigo RSC Sampler blocks--this is bullseye!

Challenged myself to do a 5K on my elliptical tonight.  Took me 52 minutes--normally I do 30.  Pretty proud of myself since I could only do two minutes on the thing when I first started!

Saturday Sewing and QuiltCam!

 I spent all of Saturday (after water aerobics and Jump Pilates) sewing and sewing and sewing.  I watched QuiltCam (I had not seen any of the past five episodes).  I have now seen them all!  Kathy hung out in the garage as some guy replaced our windshield (again) and made this sign to sell on ebay.  Too cute!

I made the next Block Party block for Nimble Thimbles--Patriotic Pinwheels.  If I win this one I will do it up as another QOV.  Would be nice to have a second one done fast!

Not the best picture, but I made a backing for the Mystery quilt I made last year at Quilting on the Rim.  The gal sold her business so Becky and I didn't get to go back this year.  Bummer but hey we have the Quiltville cruise in October!

Watching QuiltCam reminded me that I should get back to work on the All People Quilt Four Patch Quiltalong.  My pile grew...

 and grew.  I decided to use some four patches that I had leftover from other projects--some needed to be trimmed down to fit, but they are doing me no good in the overflowing leftover parts bin so I am using them up!

 I made the light blue Betty's Choice blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge--one for me and one for Amy.  Linking up with SoScrappy!

 Here are all the blocks together.

 I met Jill at the butt crack of dawn (7 AM) though she said it was half way through her morning (HA!) and we hiked the Ridgeline at South Mountain.  Kathy went to the gym and went swimming.

Pretty happy with getting in that exercise early.  Now I can sew, read, and relax all day long!  If you haven't entered my giveaway click on the link and leave me a comment on that post.  I will draw randomly on Friday for the StoryPatches.  Now, what should I sew?

Shelves, Backings, Organization, and a Finish!

After a few years of waiting, Kathy finally had the time to make me a huge shelf on wheels!  I painted it turquoise.  You can see it is in a little nook that opens into my quilting studio (loft) and directly across from it is the guest bathroom(which the catbox is in since it is rarely used--thus the baby gate so the dogs can't get in it).  Next to it (covered by quilts) is a door that opens into the AC return.  I have to be able to get in that door to clean now and then (dust and dog hair) and when the AC folks come out.  So that whole nook area was wasted space and I tended to pile things up in there which was a pain if we did need to get in the door!  So now I have a shelf on wheels that I can roll out when we need to get in the AC door!  I wasted no time in reorganizing and filling the shelves either!  I used a dry erase marker to mark some of my bins (the others have post it notes inside the bins).  My modern fabrics fill an entire shelf and now I can actually see what I have!

Last Tuesday was the Nimble Thimbles meeting and we all turned in our star blocks.  Two gals won them..they really turned out great.  This month is red, white, and blue--will be fun to see how they turn out.  Would love to win so I have another QOV to donate so cross your fingers!

 We had a swap and sale meeting--I tried really hard to not even really look at anything because after my reorganization I discovered that I truly don't need anything!  I have full shelves all around.  However, one of the gals let me know that someone was selling six Happy Scrappy Houses from our Bonnie Hunter workshop.  At least I think they are from that day but in any event I had to save them!  Kathy and I did Halloween houses (and I actually need to decide if I am going to add to it or border it, would love to have it done for Halloween this year) so these won't go into that quilt, but maybe I will put them in the back or do another little quilt.  For two bucks they were a steal.

 I did get a chance to sew during the week this week too!  I made a backing for Classic Meets Modern (when I was reorganizing my shelves I picked out some bigger chunks of fabric that would make good backings--I think that is my least favorite part--making the backings!).

 I also made a GIGANTIC backing for Grand Illusion.  It is mostly teal but one strip of flaming fabric to make it big enough.  I need this quilt done before November when we do our next Kickoff party!

See what I mean about full shelves?  Many of those lights were in a bin and now that all my boxes are off the fabric shelf I got to folding them and getting them out where I can use them!
I got some outdoor pictures of Moth in the Window for Coleman and was very excited when an editor from Quiltmaker Magazine contacted me to put it on their facebook page!

Whoot whoot!

I also am still working on the weight.  I had a bad week last week and worked much harder this week to make up for it.  So 3.4 pound loss for a total of 92.8 pounds.  I did my first advanced Pilates jump class (15 minutes after a regular Pilates class) and I was able to get through it!  Really sore the next day but I went hiking (alone even) and did Pilates again the next day.  Today I rest and tomorrow Jump again.  :)

Spending the Day with Quilty Friends!

 I met up with Ann, BJ and Andrea for sushi today (after Pilates) and had a dragon roll.  It was so gorgeous I took a picture!  It was delicious too--first time I tried black rice and I liked it fine.  This picture is of BJ and I--you may remember her from a few years back on my blog...she has lost over 120 pounds with Weight Watchers and really helped inspire me to just go for it!  She is a different person and is so much happier all around.  I love this lady and don't see her often enough!

 Andrea and BJ have become really close friends and we have always have a good time when we get together.  She is funny (so is Ann but she wasn't up for pictures!).

 On a whim after paling around with Andrea and BJ I texted Barb and asked her to come sew for a bit at my place.  She was up for it and we both made our block party BOM.  Here is mine.

And here is Barb's   We all got the focus fabric and put whatever we wanted with it.  Will be a colorful and fun quilt for whoever wins this month!

Barb helped me figure out the Math for the borders (though I still didn't get them quite to size)!  I did get the inner border and pieced border on and decided on the red for the outer border.  Hope to get that done tomorrow and the backing pieced...then I can cross it off my list!

 Barb stayed for dinner (beef roast, colorful carrots and potatoes in the crock pot) and we laughed and gabbed.  It was really a nice day with friends I don't see often and a little quilting.

Sunday and I am Feeling Fine!

 Today I am back to normal!  We actually drove up to see my parents (and get some scarves and jewelry for a Glamour Shots thing in a few weeks) and got to see Colton who is almost two already!  We had sushi for dinner on the way home and stopped and got groceries and prescriptions.  After getting home I finally filled out the paperwork for my tax accountant so that is ready to be mailed tomorrow and then I paid bills and did paperwork cleanup (it overtakes the house in a week) and then I still had energy left to go and sew for a bit.  First up I did the Wild and Goosey block for the week and then I finally added the labels to my great aunt Sally and Jean Ann's quilts.  Tomorrow I hope to photograph them in the sunshine and get them boxed up to mail.

 I did sew and press some more hst's for clue four of Orange Crush.  Goal is to get those done during the week so this weekend I can get the blocks together and complete clue four.
I also continued work on the Nimble Thimbles block party block for March.  I was very careful with this (the star points are all paper pieced and are perfect) but the nine patches seem to be a titch undersized.  I have a perfect quarter inch now but perhaps I should have gone scant.  In any event, I started taking this apart and I will work on improving it.  I may redo the nine patches so they are just a tad bigger.  Still plenty of time before it needs to be done, and I want it to be decent since someone else will likely be taking it home.

Really looking forward to going back to work tomorrow at the college.  I gave my notice at my phone interpreting job the Friday before I got sick and so I am done there--just have to turn in my key on Tuesday.  I start my new phone interpreting job a week from Monday (during Spring Break from my college job) and I am really looking forward to the new atmosphere.  Most of my close co-workers already made the switch.  The place is super close to my college job and actually a lot closer to my house than the old job.  All in all I think it is a good move, though I accepted less money I think the psychological perks alone are worth it (nevermind the gas saved and the fact that I can schedule it with my college job's gaps!).  I am also trying to do a little freelance every week or so.
I am also looking forward to getting back to hiking and Pilates!  I will try Pilates on Wednesday and Friday and see if I am ready to do jump pilates again on Saturday.  May try an easy hike tomorrow after work--more like a walk in the mountains, but it is a start!

Surprise Surgery and Nimble Thimbles

  If you are on my facebook you know by now I have had emergency surgery to get my gallbladder out.  I had an attack last Tuesday night and then had pain for several days that I thought was unrelated because it was so much less than the attack.  Then after sewing all day on Saturday I started feeling it again and by midnight Saturday night I was in more pain than I can ever recall.  Kathy took me to the ER and I was quickly admitted and just after noon on Sunday I had my gallbladder and gumball size stone removed.  They said it was gangrenous and though I was terrified to be put to sleep because I had never been (and my mom and grandfather have trouble coming out of it) it all went fine and at least the HORRENDOUS pain stopped.  I am now sore and in pain but much more manageable!
I don't do well with pain meds (or any meds) so they make me sick and that makes things worse, but every day I am feeling some better.  My mom came down to be with me and Coleman and Kathy have been great too.  I really feel blessed by my friends and family and am so thankful that  I love so many folks and they love me back!
Tonight I really wanted to go to Nimble Thimbles to turn in my block but the pain meds made me really sick about the time I was to leave and so Kathy ran the block over.  Turns out I WON this month so Becky was sweet enough to pick out the blocks for me and to drop them off on her way home.  Here are the eleven I won.  Now to figure out how to put them into a top.  Love this modern Tula Pink block called Stacks.  Really fun.

Here are all the blocks everyone brought in for the block party--with the red background.  Two of us won and so we split the blocks!

I am thinking there will be more pinwheels with these but not sure just what to do with them...so feel free to give me suggestions!  I am such a pattern follower.  Winning these blocks were just what I needed though since I was really having a pity party and bawling my eyes out about not feeling well and not going to the meeting!
Tomorrow WILL be a better day!

Some Modern Stuff

 Nimble Thimbles passed out some kits of neutral and Tula Pink dots along with directions for her Towers pattern.  I grabbed a leftover pinwheel in matching colors and a few solids and a chevron to complete the block.  A little out of my comfort zone because there isn't exactly a pattern but is a little bit improv.  Glad it is done and it is okay.  The "tan" is really a pretty green...didn't photograph so well.

 I also finally got back to the Classic Meets Modern Quiltalong!  This is the December block which has a bajillion pieces so I was in no hurry to get to it.

 It took awhile and there was a bit of unsewing and it isn't perfect, but it is done!  YAY!

 Here are all twelve blocks...I put them away for now but eventually I will get to the sashing and turn it into a flimsy.  This really was a lot of fun to make all year and it stretched me a bit as a peicer--and I discoverd I love the bear paw block--and the leaf!  I still want to make a whole bunch of little leaves!  Linking up to Sew at Home Mummy!  Thank you so much Erin for hosting such a fun quiltalong.  I will be on the lookout for future fun stuff on your blog!