Rationalization

It's not terrible to start a new quilt as long as you finish an old one, right? I can't resist another Quiltville mystery, so I had no choice but to finish something off. I had 81 out of 120 blocks done on the patriotic log cabin, so it was the lucky winner! I started to get a little wonky about 11 last night, but I figured no one would ever notice if every single log wasn't exactly in order -- right? As long as you stand back a bit and squint your eyes it is absolutely perfect. And since perfection is overrated, I think my artistic license will just add flavor. I'll let it age in on the floor of the formal living room overnight, and if nothing screams by then, I'll sew it together!
Then, feeling smug about finishing the blocks for the log cabin made the process of picking out colors for orange crush even more fun. My theme is rainbow sherbet, so I chose lemon, lime, orange and either grape or strawberry. I don't have a clear idea yet of how the scrap salad is going to play in, so I just pulled out anything in my 2 inch scrap tub that was bright or pastel. And in case there aren't enough scraps, I pulled a few more bits and pieces from the stash. All in all, not a bad days work.


Aha, as I was looking at the log cabin picture, I found twisted block -- just went to fix it -- so all is well

Itchin to get Quiltin

Life has been busy around here with Easter and ballet recitals. Work seems to stay hectic no matter how hard I try to get caught up, and my laundry must be reproducing itself in the dark of night. Spring break is right around the corner, and summer vacation can't be far behind!
I have more projects started than I know what to do with, and yet, I saw the Orange Crush mystery quilt coming up and thought I had to participate! The first clue won't be posted until Monday, so I'm rationalizing by devoting the weekend to finishing some things up. I haven't decided yet what I'll do, but I am definitely going to make some sort of significant progress over the weekend.

Weekend Update

The in laws were in Florida on vacation this week and came over for dinner on Friday night. We were all sitting out by the pool chatting when I heard this exclamation from upstairs. My son had spotted a nest outside and thought it was wasps. We all went up to examine and determined that it was a bee swarm! The picture isn't the best, but there was no way we were going to open the window. I know it wasn't there last weekend, because we cut two palm trees down right in front of the eve in question and we would have noticed. We called the exterminators, but before they called back the swarm was gone!
I started an Easter table topper, I think it will be called Hunting Eggs. I'm using the circle technique that I saw Dale Flemming do on Simply Quilts. I'm making a table topper to give to a friend who hosts an Easter Party every year. My husband thought the colors were too subtle, but I didn't want to go with anything too bright as my friend is sort of a pastel person. I'm not quite sure what I want to do with the sky yet. I thought about seeing if I could make some clouds using the same technique.
Check out my grout! The kitchen floor was next on my list of chores I keep putting off. My husband suggested muriatic acid, and wow did it clean! I think it was actually dissolving the top layer of grout, but it looks so sparkly clean! You can also see our new kitchen table in the picture, which we were forced to buy when the leg fell off our old table again.

Sewing? Not So Much.

This weekend was our local Girl Scout Camporee. It is for all the troops from our local service unit, which is quite large. Last year there must have been 600 girl scouts all camping out. This year the weather was somewhat less than ideal. Older troops camp for two nights, the first of which brought tornadic activity and torrential downpours. Most of the older girls packed up that morning and never came back. We were lucky to be slotted for the second night which was supposed to be dry, but with temperatures in the 40s. I know to people up north that might seem quite balmy for this time of the year, but not to us Floridians! Most of our kids don't even own a winter coat and have no concept of dressing in layers. I spent a good portion of the weekend explaining that long pants are warmer than capris and tennis shoes are warmer than flip-flops. They just don't get it.

I think they all had a good time, and learned many valuable camping skills. For some this was the first time they had ever camped or slept away from home without parents. Those are big steps for them. Even putting up a tent became an adventure in teamwork.



I'm itching to get back to some sewing which I just haven't had the energy for recently. I got some antibiotics for a lingering sinus infection and am starting to feel human again. If I can just adjust to daylight savings I'll be good to go.

Reorganization

One of my neighbors was working at a local craft store when they went out of business. After the store closing, they threw out all sorts of shelves and fixtures. This was an extra display stand that she saved from the dumpster. It originally had a big top portion with crown molding and hooks for hanging stock. I pulled that off and used part of it to construct a new top. I'll trim a cutting mat to size and attach that for a perfect counter height work surface. The bottom is made for 12 x 12 paper storage with room for all of my paper separated by theme and color. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. And best of all -- it was free!I went to a crop on Friday, this is one of the pages I made with pictures from my sons room. My husband painted superheros on his walls, and I was so happy with the way they turned out. Of course that was two years ago, and now he's into Pokemon, but I don't think the superheros are going to disappear anytime soon.