New Quilting Studio and Already Sewing!

Super happy with our new house and the decision to make the living room the quilting studio!  We made the dining room the living room and put the kitchen table in the kitchen.  We use every inch of this house and it is cozy and organized.  Took me about ten days to get everything where I wanted it...lots of naps involved and I had to rest a lot more than I would have liked, but it got done and now my reward is sewing!

We had to trash the old ironing board set up, but I liked it so much we bought the same shelves and oriented them a little differently for our space.  Here is a picture of it in progress.

 There are two built in bookshelves on each side of an unusable fireplace so I have quilting stuff on the one side and my keeper books and books to read the future grandbabies on the other side.  Not much really fits underneath in the cabinets as they are not very deep but I used it the best I could.

 Hung all the rulers behind where I sit on the wall.

 This is above the fireplace.  I have my year round sewing tree up.

 The front door has a little alcove with another door and I hung all of my metal quilts (gifted to me by my godson Koi and his mom Tara) FINALLY.  They were not hung at the old house as I had no walls left.

Kathy sits across from me when she is in here.  We each have our own U shaped space.  We bought (and she assembled) two shelves on wheels with drawers and a cabinet.  Each is under our window and helps since we lost the built ins from our old house.

 I put a bulletin board on the back of the Ikea shelf and stuck some stuff on it.  Works for me.

 This is the view from where I sit.  We put quilts in the large cabinet there and stacked more on top.  The quilts to be gifted are in the office along with the seasonal quilts to change out.  They will not all fit in here.  The top drawer has strings and the bottom drawer has tops and backs.

 My daughter is in her third trimester--YAY.  I gave her an eye spy quilt and then I made this one (she picked it from all the Patch Pals patterns.)  This was fun to make but like a puzzle to lay out!

 My friend Barb (in AZ) embroidered the cutest little animals for me to make a quilt from for the baby.  They all have fuzzy minky fabric in them and are soft and super detailed.  This picture does not do it justice, I need to get some close ups.  She gifted me 12 blocks and I decided to use a mystery pattern from a long time ago and it needed 13.  Barb whipped me up a kangaroo and it is in the mail on the way here now.

 I quilted and bound my second Scrappy Tulip quilt (from Mystery Quilts Anonymous fb group) a few days ago.  The first one I gifted to my ex chair at Basha, Marisol and this one I am not sure goes to who.  I like it enough to keep it but I have so many!

 I started the Jelly Snowflake Mystery quilt that Pat Sloan mentioned on her blog.  Info is on   A Quilting Life here.  Some are doing it in Christmas fabric, but I used the only jelly roll I have which is Moon Shine by Tula Pink.  Second clue comes out tomorrow.

 I also quilted three of my Rock Candy tabletoppers that have been done and waiting for that and binding for a long time.  They are in the gift me pile.

 Bonnie Hunter started her new leader and ender Easy Breezy.  I decided to use up a bunch of patriotic scraps and make a quilt of valor.  I kitted up 30 blocks to start in the six inch size.  They are cute!

 I am also still making a house a day. I have 106 so far.  I need to get them up on my design wall (finally redid it, the first one I put up nothing stuck to!) soon so I can get a picture of them all.  Still social distancing and being super careful.

Covid 19 Quilting in Place

We started hearing about Covid 19 around the time of my brother's wedding.  By the time my kids left Arizona (and Kathy's sister arrived for a visit the same day) I was convinced schools would close and we would be quarantining.  People thought I was being dramatic or overreacting.  I had that gut feeling it would be like nothing we had ever seen and so far that seems to be so.

We never went back after Spring Break but instead taught online.  I had cleaned my room out during Spring Break in anticipation of this.  When the announcement came they would not let us back in the school without appointments, so I am glad I did this ahead of time.  I did go back one last time to empty out papers and remove the last things from the wall, etc.

Working from home has been nuts.  Lots of work to teach a visual language online.  I am glad it is almost over.  I was still napping in the late afternoon half the days!  Of course, also did packing...usually in the morning a box or two.  It is coming together and there is not much left.  Truck comes in two days and we hired someone to drive our truck (Kathy has a torn rotator cuff) and tow one of the cars.  We will caravan with my mom and stepdad across the country. They have two dogs and we have three dogs and two cats...should be adventurous!  

So Bonnie hooked up with Gudrun for the Quarantine Quiltalong of Elvira so I made two of these quilts.  Why did I make two?  Well I was following along on the video and did not catch her saying that half the blocks had to be cut the opposite way.  You can actually put the fabric right side together and make that magic happen but she did not tell us this.  Several people made this mistake.  ACK!

 The second one goes all in one direction.  I would up throwing in some different fabrics in the first one since I had cut wrong.  I used up my Asian fabric which I really did not care for and had just never used because of that.  Think I donated these to Quilts for Kidz, I had a whole pile and now I am not sure what is packed and what was donated!

Bonnie decided to do her first mystery medallion style quiltalong.  I decided to change up the colors and used yellow for her neutral.  Not sure I would do that again as it changes the look of it so much, but many people like how it turned out.  I am not WOWED by mine though as I usually am with the Quiltville quilts.  I am wowed by others, just not mine.  Just finished it...actually kept up each week since I am working from home and could get in a little sewing or cutting or ironing during meetings online and such.  Mute sound and camera is an amazing thing!

I also decided to make one itty bitty house each day of the quarantine (started several weeks in) and now have over 70 of these houses (design wall is tossed at this point) and a good start.

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! 

Tool Belts and Bitty Blocks

 We have decided to not go so crazy this year for Christmas...that said I do still have gifts to make and give.  There are lots of little boys that could use a tool belt so I followed this awesome tutorial and made three last night (one for Colton, Ollie, and Leon) and Kathy helped with some turning out and ironing so they went quicker than I expected.

 For once I didn't have a morning job so I decided to do the last bitty block (December) but since they are pumpkins I did them in orange.  Here are the blocks..one from each month.

 And both sets. I will need to make more so I can make two samplers but for now, putting this away.

 I had posted my tool belts on Facebook and my co-worker friend Kelly asked if she could buy one for her grandson.  I do not sell the stuff I make because I don't want to get into that!  This is my fun.  However, Kelly is the one that brought me in motion sickness bands (which I accidentally left at home in the carry on I decided not to take!) and the week of Kathy's knee surgery she gave me the best homemade lasagna for us...so I am gifting her one to gift..so I made two more this morning.  One will be for Koi.

 Now I just need to pick up four sets of tools!  Well, time to get ready for work!

Wedding, Sewing and Quilting

 My boss Adam married one of my co-workers, Jodi and here are her two older gals and his two in their new family.  The wedding was beautiful. They had it in their back yard and it was perfect.  I was super impressed with it all!  I gave them this Scrappy Trips quilt that I made awhile back.  I hope they love it!

I made two friendship stars in lime green, for the RSC and Bitty Blocks for November. Then I realized that my bear paws were more lime than green so that is that

 Here are all the blocks together. One month to go.  Linking up with SoScrappy!

 I also pieced batting, quilted, bound, and labeled this quilt for my cousin's baby Kace Percy.

Kathy had total knee replacement surgery last Wednesday.  She is doing about as well as can be expected.  She went for a short walk outside today and is doing he exercises.  I know it will be worth it when she is healed, but life is crazier than usual at our place while she recovers.

Fall Quilt Camp 2015

Here are the digs at camp.  Nothing fancy at all.  I have gotten really good at wrangling myself in and out of the coffin bed! Seriously that is not the easiest bed to slip in and out of when you need to pee in the middle of the night!

 I made a quick baby quilt (pattern is on Craft Nectar's blog and is called Simple Gifts) for Colton's birth mom  because she is having a little girl and will be raising her. I think seeing him growing up (she is good friend's with my brother who is raising him) made her  realize she does want a child.  I only hope a baby sister who lives elsewhere enriches his life.  I love this gal for letting us love on Colton all his life.

 I did manage to do my brown Quiltmaker  bitty block trees. TOO FUN!  I also made Mac this cute Mr. Bones wallhaning. I will gift it to him and Liz.  I just need to get it quilted.

 Pat was kind enough to make each of us an embroidery heart to make into a pincushion at camp!  More than this were made but not all made it into the picture.  Here is Pat with my pincushion!

 After lunch on Saturday I managed to get Kathy O. and Judy to go for a hike with me after lunch Saturday.  They were planning on a walk but it was nice to have people to go with since my usual hiking/quilting buddies were not at camp this time!

 I sewed for a few hours after that and then decided that I needed to really hit it and went out alone with my ipod.

Pretty happy with my pace since this was uphill ish and I was alone.  Really felt great after!  Took a shower, had some dinner and then was ready for our quilt auction!

Edna won the sign Kathy made for me to auction off and Pat won my Christmas Past and Presents.  She has a Deaf niece that signs and was tickled with my ily hand label.  Thanks again Barb for quilting it and binding it.

I took this picture (then made one more block after) just so I could see what I had going on.  I do not plan to lay it out with this layout, lol I will play before it gets sashed!  I still have two blocks to do, sashing and the border which is pieced.  Happy my PUP saw some progress though!  These blocks are labor intensive and I felt like I didn't get as far as I would have liked--I brought Garden Party with me but did not get to it at all!

 We hung our quilts out for a show on Sunday morning.  It is always nice to see what all got made!  I love Marguerite's Love Shack quilt and I have moved that one up my list!

Here are Terri and I.  We had a blast and it was so nice to catch up with her since she has been busy going to baseball games the same night as guild.  I should start seeing her more often now that that is done!