A Special Quilt of Valor

Remember all these BOM blocks....

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

Tada, here it is...

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

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

Amy's Passion BOM/Christopher's Navy Quilt of Valor

Not much sewing happening these past few days. I have been busy with prepping to teach again this fall...lots of work to dig through everything and match the curriculum which is the same one but emphisis on a few different things and also trying to finish up an online class (ASL Linguistics) in order to earn some of my CEU's to maintain my dual national certification as an interpreter. Can't wait to have that off my list of things to do! Of course I will still need .9 credits before December, but one step at a time!

Today I rewarded all of my hard work (not only did I do that stuff but did house cleaning, dishes and laundry) with sewing the borders on my Amy's Passions BOM blocks for my newpew Christopher's Quilt of Valor.

I decided not to border it in the Navy fabric because it is directional and I didn't want to deal with that. I just got this red, and blue fabric and really wanted it to go in a future Bonnie quilt, but it was the best choice with what I had so onto this quilt it went. There is still some leftover so that is good. I now need to run up and piece the backing. I will see Ros tomorrow and hand it off! I work in a little more than an hour so gotta get dinging. Oh and I had a migraine this morning, took a triptan and it faded off. GRRRR!

No Sewing Today

I woke up this morning feeling extremely tired. I didn't get out of bed until time to get ready for work. I felt fine, but really tired. About an hour and a half after getting to work I was hit by a migraine out of nowhere. I am not sure I have ever had one come out of nowhere like this one did. Usually I know a day before to several hours before. It was strange. I took a triptan and a short break and tried to keep on video interpreting. I didn't feel like the meds were helping at all and my brain was slower than normal so it was hard to interpret. The back of my neck was hurting on both sides...and I realized this is a symptom I never complain to my doctor about. The back of my neck actually hurts to the touch. In fact part way down my spine was hurting too. Strange. After an hour and a half or so of this I told my boss I had to go home. I left three hours early and came home and laid around listening to shark week on TV and finally sleeping. I woke up awhile ago and ate some homemade chicken soup (DJ finished making it since I didn't feel well, nice of us to take turns being sick) and read some blogs.

I haven't set up my other machine yet and really don't feel up to sewing anyway. Coleman has a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and I work at 1:30 so I am hoping this month I won't have five days of migrianes again. I serioulsy can't wait to never have another one.

So anyways on to happier topics...I read Sherri and Sinta's blog and this month's Petite Project is Honeycomb which of course I already have since I belong to the Fat Quarter Shop's Schnibbles group. I decided I could play in my fabric a bit and went to find the perfect fabric (that I already have) to make this quilt in. I need a new project like I need another migraine, so no promises I will make this right now, but if I find time I would love to do it in Kate Spain's Fandango (which I won from the Year of Schnibbles from Carrie Nelson!).

While in my quilting studio I burried all the threads for this fun dishcloth. Almost makes doing dishes fun...made this from four different tiny leftover balls of yarn. I am working on another now.

I also took a few pictures of my Amy's Passions BOM Quilt of Valor for my nephew Christopher who is in the Navy.

I have been debating on the border...thought this Quilt in a Day ribbons border would be nice but maybe since I am not feeling well that idea just isn't appealing to me today. I like it, but want this quilt done and off to Ros for quilting. I am going to meet up with her on Wed or Thurs this week I think and will be passing off three quilts if I get this one done.

So as always I am thinking about sewing even if I am not sewing. I can't wait to feel better and get going on my to sew list!

Navy Quilt and Santa Swap 2

Carol is hosting a Santa Swap 2 and I was lucky enough to sign up before the deadline. Apparently there is a Santa Swap 1 that filled up and was hosted by someone else so that is why were are a 2. Check out Carol's blog if you don't already read it. She is fun!
http://carolscraftblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/my-george-quilt.html









Today she emailed me my swap partner and I have been stalking her blog tonight while watching "The Lincoln Lawyer" so I can get to know her better. Shannon in Idajo over at http://nunusquiltworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/h2h-finishes.html
is my partner! We will be sending each other little gifts from now til Christmas but we can't open them when we get them. I didn't realize that fine detail when I signed up. I am not so good with waiting, or secrets! Will be quite the challenge for me, they should have called it the Santa Swap 2 Challenge! LOL.

I did get some sewing in this morning but only took a picture of the progress with my phone. I started listening to this audiobook and the time flew by.

The small pic is okay because the quilt is puckery and needs a little bit of work. So no point in you seeing a close up, haha. I finally decided that my Viking Hus. Diamond needs a tune up. It has been almost two years since I got her (Oct. will be two years since I lost my Dad and part of my inheritance went into this machine then, I think of my Dad everyday) and she is used dang near everyday. I will haul up my Janome and see if I can improve the Navy quilt before I add borders. I really wanted a blue border once it got to this point...

but of course I have tons of red and tons of cream and only little scraps of blue left in my patriotic fabrics. So I think I will use some of the Navy fabric for a border and then use the leftovers for the backing and piece leftover fabrics into the back to make it the right size.

Today DJ was still not feeling well (she went to the doctor last Thursday and got meds but just slept tons all weekend and didn't feel she was improving) so off to the ER we went. We had the good sense to bring our little DVD player and stop at Redbox on the way. We watched "The Traveler" which wasn't all that great but it helped pass the time...and ofc I knitted too. I made a really fun colored dishcloth. It is done, but needs the ends weaved in then I will post a picture. I started another one too. I am using up all the tiny balls of yarn that I have collected in the past year. Anywho, DJ got more meds and finally is feeling better.
That took up the rest of my sewing day...by the time I got home, grocery shopping done and put away, chicken cooking for soup tomorow and the laundry done I pretty much just wanted to shower (and yay it rained here finally!) and to check out my new partner on the net. So it was a good weekend but I didn't finish the Navy quilt and I only have the one RRCB block done but I will keep on keeping on.

Saturday's Progress

My sister is turning forty this week so in honor of that she, and two of her best friends jumped out of a plane today. DJ and I went over to watch thinking we would be there for an hour or so. (I should have known better after the all day plane jump with the kids in June!). We were there about three and a half hours (some of which I finished knitting another dishcloth, look at my stack coming along!) and it is most definately the longest time I have spent outside in Arizona that didn't involve cool water. I don't know how anyone lost in the desert survives. They didn't have an indoor AC place for us to hang out in and it was a hot, sweaty morning. My sister and friends really enjoyed it and I can't wait to see the videos! It was worth it to see her doing something fun that didn't involve any alcohol. They are at the bar tonight though.

After that I took a shower and simply laid around trying to get cool and rehydrated. I finally went in the quilting studio and sewed one RRCB block up to see what it would look like.

I wish I would have picked one with more intriguing fabrics, but you get the idea. Oh and I had to unsew once because I was just sewing away not even paying attention once I was past the pinned parts. Finished this lame audiobook--yay.

I did manage to get started on my Amy's Passions BOM/Quilt of Valor for my nephew Navy quilt.

Added some more sashing...

Row two isn't sewn on yet, but later on tonight or tomorrow. I could be sewing, but don't have much motivation tonight. That sun zapped me!

I did do one more bow tie no pic on that yet. It is a cute one, oh who am I kidding those tiny bow ties are all cute!

Step 7 on Roll, Roll Cotton Boll is Half Done!

I have managed to sew up the string blocks into their appropriate sizes and numbers. I will say I did not enjoy it much. I found sewing on the bias to be a pain in my rear end. I had to play with my machine to figure out how to adjust the tension so it would not be too loose or pull to tightly. I learned something new about my machine (how to do that on my fancy machine) so that was the good part. I found that after I ironed (seriously tried to just press but grrrr) these blocks are a bit wonky no matter what I do. I have yet to trim them, but I know that isn't going to fix my troubles. I am just going to deal. If anyone has suggestions for how to do this better (for next time, God help me if there is a next time) I would appreciate it!

See the wonkiness? GRRRRR! And to top it off I am listening to "Girl in the Garden" (Bonnie isn't the only one listening to books as she sews, grin) and I am not crazy for it. The narrator is a eleven year old girl but her "voice" isn't believable. I am constantly annoyed with word choices and eleven year old would never use and the story just hasn't really gone anywhere in general. I have "State of Wonder" also from the library and I can't wait to finish the former to get to it! I should just stop listening but I am stubborn and so go to the end.

Way too much wave in those square blocks for me.

I did make two little bow ties though they aren't in a block yet.

And here is they Navy backing fabric for Christopher's quilt...I need to get on that soon!

Still knitting away making a dishcloth every day or two days..building up my Christmas giving stash. I need to get started on my master list of who is getting what. Am I the only one that does this? I have a book I keep the lists in usually and they go back about twenty years. Helps me recally what I gave who so someone doesn't get the same gift two years in a row!