Blocks Done

I was sure I would get the blocks done for Smith Mountain Majesty yesterday.  Life got in the way though, and it wasn't until today that I found those last few minutes between carpools to sew the rest.   Ryan wanted to see The Avengers in order to round out our Marvel superheros marathon.  He was pretty adamant about wanting to see it in 3-D.  Ryan doesn't get adamant about much, so we planned the day around that.  Since I was dropping off for math camp and the theater in is the same general direction, we spent the morning in my classroom finishing off the painting in the storeroom.  I had gotten most of it done during post planning, but the cabinet doors and drawer fronts and shelves still needed to get painted and put back together.  After that it was off to see the movie which lasted until it was time to get Sydney from her camp.  Theoretically there was still time to sew in the evening, but it would have taken some sort of energy or enthusiasm, and I was fresh out of both.  Have you ever had those evenings when you just sit on the couch thinking you are going to get up any minute, but never quite make it happen?
I think I'll go get the blocks pinned together now before they all start falling off of the wall.  I like to look at them for a while though and make sure that the balance and distribution are good.  There is probably enough pieces and variety in these guys that it would be hard to find a cluster of similarity anywhere. I still need to cut out the pieces for the borders, after that I can empty out the tub and figure out what is next. 
I have been spending a little time for the last few evenings cutting out a BOM pattern that I ordered as a kit from Connecting Threads.   For some reason it just never moved to the top of the list.  I think about half of the blocks are cut out now and nicely organized in little baggies with directions.  Sydney wanted a shoebox for her magic show though, and the only one I could find was holding the quilt kit. 

Second Christmas Twin

I just pulled Freddie off the frame.  He is the second of my fraternal Christmas twin quilts.  I worked on him in bits and bursts all day.  You know the routine, cut out a border, unload the dishwasher, pin it on, start the laundry.  Ryan had a friend over from the Lego team and they worked on Robots.  Sydney had her last day of basketball and Anna played with a friend.  In the afternoon, the neighborhood kids all started the typical ringing of the doorbell and cruising of the block to see who could play.  The number of kids is one of the things we love about where we live.  This evening we were invited over for cake and punch by another set of neighbors.  It's been a very nice day, and finishing of my last Christmas quilt was the perfect end.  It looks like tomorrow will be all about binding.
I haven't been able to get near my computer all day (who new I would be fighting for screen time with my 9 year old).  It looks like there are lots of new names for the scrap challenge.  If your name isn't coming up on the list yet, it is because you are coming up as no reply.  I can start a no reply list, but the one I have going so far is a list of links that go back to blogs.  Of course you don't have to have a blog to play along, but an e-mail I can reply back to would be good. 

Solstice Sewing

I was so happy today to have the sewing day that I had been looking forward to.  I was tempted to stay up until the wee hours last night and take a look at the lunar eclipse, but  knew it would have left me lethargic all day, so I got an early night and was up sewing bright and early instead.  Kurt was nice enough to help with the driving around today which left me plenty of time to sew myself silly.  He even made it home early and we all went out to dinner to the kids favorite Chinese buffet which had been closed but is now open again under new management. 

After that we drove to look at some Christmas lights.  I firmly believe that Christmas lights just don't look right hanging on palm trees, but it's what we've got.  One of Kurt's friends from work did a big fancy display which is  synchronized to music he broadcasts on a special radio frequency.  Sydney thought it was truly awesome.  She is at one of those fun stages where everything makes her happy.  Anna thought it was a really geeky thing to waste time on.  She is at the age where everyone is lame. 

Now I'm sitting here with a freshly finished quilt starting on the hand sewing of the binding.  I'm always tempted to sew the binding down by machine, but it is such a joy to sit and admire a new quilt while sewing the edges down.  I like to check for stray threads while I sew.  It gives me and excuse to watch lots of movies and relax for a bit.  What could be better than that?

Christmas Twin #1

I've been calling these two quilts the Christmas twins, so as I was thinking about famous twins. Mary Kate and Ashley just didn't seem right to me. Instead I thought about the Bobbsey twins. I couldn't remember their names though, so I googled it. Turns out there were two sets of fraternal twins, the older ones were Nan and Bert and the younger ones were Flossie and Freddie. So I'm calling Christmas twin number one Flossie.

I decided to do a simple meander with cream thread in the middle. I know other people have huge thread collections and lots of options, but  I only have a few choices so far. 

I was planning on using red thread in the red border and green thread in the other.  I couldn't find those so I chose some pink and blue instead.  It seems to blend in well enough to me. 

Once it was on the frame it didn't take long at all to get quilted.  The center section took an hour, and then I had to change the thread for the borders.  I'm not sure what the proper method is for doing the borders.  After doing the center I switched thread and worked my way across the bottom, up one side, across the top and then back down the other side in the inner border.  The top and bottom were easy enough, but I had to keep advancing the quilt while doing the sides.  Then I switched the thread and did the same thing all over again for the outer border.  Even though it seemed tedious, I guess it couldn't have been that bad, because I was done by the time I needed to get Sydney from basketball camp at 2 and I didn't start until after we came back from the vet and ate lunch. 

Now, on to the second twin.  It will be called Freddie of course and I think it has better behaved blocks than Flossie did.  Most of the blocks I ended up wanting to make more of were in the second quilt.  Back to borders I go!  I've got lots of Christmas movies recorded so I can do some binding tonight. 

One Down

I would have loved to stay in my jammies all day and quilt like crazy in celebration of the first real day of Christmas break.  However, it was not to be.  There was a lot of driving and dropping off and waiting.  Sydney loved basketball camp.  She did a reenactment of a sharks and minnows game over dinner that was quite amusing.  Ryan did a terrific job during his Lego Robotics team Skype interview with the pediatric Celiac specialist.  Mostly he just enjoyed playing with other people's Lego Robots though.  Anna had a great time at her ice skating party.  Dad did pick up duty and she showed him the shoot the duck move she has been working on.  Amongst all of that we were home long enough to eat lunch, sweep the floor and fold a load of laundry.  I think tomorrow will be better, just basketball and a trip to the vet.  I'll have to put on real clothes for those, but I should have a little time to sew. 

As soon as dinner was cleaned up and the kids were settled into bed I started cutting out the borders for my twin Christmas quilts (they are fraternal, not identical).  The bright quilt is now bordered and ready to go on the frame.  I picked out some flannel to try on the back.  It feels SO soft.

I loved making new blocks each month and quilting along with everyone else doing the Amy's block of the month.  I tried out some new patterns and found a couple that I would love to make into an entire quilt.  There was only one block that I wanted to toss out completely.  If I weren't so stubborn I would have replaced it or redone it so that it was somewhat close to the right size or at least flat or a little square.  I now remember why we don't all use templates anymore. It was called Florida Star though, so I think I had to keep it.  I am amazed that I managed to get it sewn in and bordered without any puckers, but I'm still wondering how it will ever lie flat.  My plan is to quilt it into submission.  Now I'm sitting here debating putting the first border on the other quilt versus going to bed.  I think bed is going to win. 

Tops Together

OK, last post for the day, really.  I just got the two tops together for the Christmas BOM quilts.  I don't have much for borders and backing though.  I feel a need to shop.  Unfortunately, the ice skating show starts at 4, so the girls need to be there at 3:15, it takes half an hour so we need to leave at 2:45.  Yikes, I'd better get  moving.  I've got the binding ready for hand sewing on Double Delight.  It will keep me warm and busy while I wait for the show to start.  Can't ask for much more than that. 

Design Wall Monday Nov 22

Any reasonably bright person would have picked one set of blocks to focus on in order to have an entire top finished before the end of the weekend.  However, I was using scraps before cutting into yardage and so ended up with some alternate blocks for each of two quilts instead.  Hopefully I'll be able to whip up the rest  before Thanksgiving, though I fear that things will get too busy in the next few days.  I will still need to play with the layout a bit, but the general idea is coming together.  The top quilt is my muted Christmas sampler, and the one below is my bright Christmas sampler. Maybe coming up with better names should be on my "to do" list somewhere.   I think I'll add a couple of borders to each and maybe find a nice soft flannel to back them with. 

Make sure to pop over to Judy's to see what everyone else is up to on Design Wall Monday. 

Weekend Wrapup

I finally got Double Delight loaded onto the frame this afternoon.  I've been saving it until I got better at machine quilting.  Eventually I just wanted to get it done though.  I am doing a continuous nine patch pattern in the star blocks and a flower kind of thing in the setting triangles and pink squares.  The inner yellow border is getting a ribbon candy treatment and the big blue border is getting saved for later.  I found out after I got it started that the blocks on point are just bigger than the available quilting area, causing me to make some adjustments as I figure out how to quilt half a block at a time.  I think I got it about half done before it was time to take Anna to ice skating.  Ryan's year end football party was after that, so most of the afternoon was spoken for. 

I took the extra fabric from Amy's BOM to the iceplex and started trimming fabric for the alternate squares.  I'm going with an Irish  Chain sort of block to give the sampler squares some room to breath.  I've got the blocks separated into 10 kind of bright and 10 more muted.  It should make a nice pair of Christmas snuggle quilts. 

I have been enjoying free books on the i-pad.  The first one I downloaded was Anne of Green Gables because  I thought it might be a nice one for Anna to read.  I'm not sure how I missed this series as a kid.  It is just such a delightful story.  I've been laughing out loud as I read it.  I'm sure people think I'm a bit odd, but there are worse things to be than a bit odd. 

I couldn't let a post go by without another silly picture of Sydney.  She decided to use sidewalk chalk as make-up.  Anna and Ryan both have field trips tomorrow and Sydney is going to the dentist to have a tooth pulled.  She's a little bit bummed about that.  Maybe we'll go out for ice cream after. 

Happy November

It is so hard to believe that there are only two months left in the year.  It is time to look at my "to do" list for and figure out what can be crossed off and what should be carried on to next year.  First though, is design wall Monday.  I have made 20 of Amy's Block of the months so far.  I'm not sure if I want these to live together as one quilt or if they need to be separated into the two quilts I had planned yesterday.  Hmm, I'll have to let them sit there for a while and see if they gel.  Until then, go over to Judy's blog and see what everyone else is up to.   

Here is the beginning of Trick-or-treating was last night.  With Halloween falling on a school night this year, we were all out right after dinner hoping to make it around the block before it got too late.  This is the mass of kids that started the night, but soon they split into two groups.  Surprisingly the girls took the lead while the boys brought up the rear. 

Each year our neighborhood gets a little more festive and involved.  Big foot made an appearance this year, amazing the kids with his hugeness.  We took turns sitting out in the driveway with a fireplace, making s'mores and handing out candy.  Other families sat out in lawn chairs drinking wine and handing out juice boxes.  All the festivities stopped at 8 on the nose as everyone packed up and headed to bed.

Spinning in Circles

I had to go out yesterday and get a new iron. I like to iron in the family room in order to keep an eye and ear out for everyone. I can't leave it all there though so end up just picking everything up, still on the ironing board, and moving it back to the study/sewing room. Every so often, the iron goes suicidal and jumps right off.  DH is worried about the hardwood floors, I'm just sad that I keep killing irons. 
So with my new iron and a cart full of groceries, I came home to try again.  The quilt seemed smallish to me, so I laid it out in the formal living room which holds a piano, bookshelves and my quilt blocks.  Sure enough, when measured, it wasn't anywhere close to the twin sized quilt I was shooting for.  I had a few extra blocks and more in the works, so I spent the afternoon working those through and adding them to the quilt.  I used up all my 1.5 inch strips and still don't have quite enough.  I think I need 8 more to get the size I was going for.
What to do?  What to do?  The scrap basket is overflowing again.  An afternoon sorting all that out and trimming to size would surely yield plenty of strips to finish the quilt.  That would be the smart way to go. 

A quick peek at the blogs though, yields other temptations.There are Amy's Block of the Months, all up on the wall reminding me that I should take a peek at mine.  I did use Christmas fabric after all, and that time of year is growing near.  I've made two quilts now with the Irish Chain blocks in between.  One was already gifted, but I pulled the other out to remind myself how many blocks. 

Twilight is a good size for snuggling on the couch and has kept me warm on many an evening.  10 blocks with 10 alternate squares and a good sized border.  A little sorting and arranging yields two quilts.  It wouldn't take long to use the extra fabrics to make in between blocks.  That would be a nice afternoons work. 
Wait a minute, I was going to finish off the postage stamps, wasn't I?  It's Halloween and the kids all want to go decorate and carve pumpkins.   It's Sunday and laundry is calling my name.  I guess I should just stop spinning around, pick a direction and go forward. 

One Block at a Time

Today was the first day of teacher meetings in preparation for the new school year, so there wasn't a lot of time to sew. I did take time between evening things to put together another BOM from Amy though. This one is called Star and Pinwheel and it is the second block from July. I switched the position of the green triangles. I'm pretending that I did it on purpose so that the pinwheels would stand out better. If I were making a whole quilt from this pattern, I would use a different color for the corners to get a secondary pattern going and use flying geese instead of two HST blocks to reduce the number of seems. I'm fond of star patterns, so I could see making more of these. I think I am going to skip block number three from July, which is called two stars. It is a cute block, but I think it fits in better with a Patriotic quilt than with my Christmas colors.
Today was also "meet the teacher" day for my own kids. I came home to pick them up over lunch and Dad met us there. They are all a little nervous about being at a new school this year after rezoning. I think they feel better after seeing their teachers and spending some time walking around the school. They knew lots of kids already from sports and activities or because they were also rezoned with us. They all had fun spending the rest of the day with a babysitter and baked a yummy chocolate cake. I might have to go have a piece now while I watch a recorded Covert Affairs.

Catching UP Finishing UP Counting DOWN

Sydney had an eye appointment today and picked out these glasses. She's never worn glasses before and is SO excited about it. I'm sure that will wear off soon enough. I was pretty shocked that she didn't end up with something pink or purple. She doesn't really NEED them to see, but they are supposed to make it easier for her to focus on the letters when she is reading. Anna has a Mr. Science camp this week that goes all the way to 5 in the evening. That left us plenty of time to make a trip to our BRAND NEW Hobby Lobby. Today was their grand opening though I have heard through the grapevine about people who went last week. I used my 40% off coupon to get a little purple graduated fat quarter bundle and got a little bit more fabric for the Christmas BOM at 30% off. Ryan was suitably impressed with the Lego selection and Sydney fell in love with the build your own dollhouse kits. I'm sure we'll be making a lot of trips here in the future.
We cooked out on the new grill for dinner and were just sitting down to eat when we saw a strange man on the roof next door. Yes, the houses here are close enough to each other that I could take this photo from my kitchen table. We were puzzled at first, but soon figured out that he was there to take care of a bee hive that had taken up residence in the eves. We had a swarm land on our house a couple of years ago, but I guess they didn't like our roof and moved to the one next door instead. It was pretty interesting to watch him climbing around on the roof squirting smoke and dodging bees. I'm not sure if it worked, eventually we all went back to eating before our food got cold.
After sending the kids off to bed I put together three more block of the month blocks. I am almost caught up again!!! I think these are the June Blocks: Cobwebs, Constellation and County Fair. Now, on to July -- I'd better do it quick before the August blocks come out.

Weekend Wrap Up

Blocks of the month: 54-40 or Fight, Housewife, Road to the White House
The patterns are all available at Amy's amazing blog: http://skattebo-creations.bravehost.com/bom-index.html

It was one of those weekends where we chose not to do several things because the days just seemed too full. With just two weeks until school starts, the days are getting more precious. Anna had a Girl Scout swim party this afternoon with her new troop of which I am not the leader (!). It is giving her a chance to meet some of the people from her new school. I hope that it will help ease her transition. Ryan had a chess tournament and lost all his games but took it very well. I guess only very good players come to summer tournaments.
I spent some time in between loads of laundry and dishes today sewing together some of the blocks of the month that I cut out yesterday at ice skating. I was going to piece them in order, but Road to the White house was for from May and somehow got ahead of Pennsylvania Parade from April. I'll make sure to do that one next so I don't get myself confused about what I've done. Maybe if things are calm after pizza tonight I can get some more done. Sunday is always our pizza night because we are all too tired to cook after the weekend festivities.
Sydney had a friend over to play and they made hanger art out of the ceiling fan. I should have suspected that they were a little too quiet up there. I made a rule that all the doors have to stay open, but they manage to find trouble anyway.

I managed to knock the last front wheel off of the grill while pressure washing Friday.
That meant that Kurt had to go out today and get a new one. End of summer is a good time to buy outside things. Isn't it shiny and new? I can't believe nobody wanted to cook something on it yet, but it will stay shiny for at least another day.
Next week is a maze of last minute appointments, orthodontists and ophthalmologists, I think there is still one more summer camp to go as well. It is good to take care of as much as possible during the summer, but part of me wants to enjoy just a few more days of relaxation. Now that I think about it, there haven't exactly been a lot of those lately. Maybe going back to school is a good thing.

Blog Entry Number 498 and Counting

I'm starting to collect together some things for my 500th post giveaway. So far I have a book called Mindful Meandering, which has lots of great ideas for free motion quilting. I accidentally ordered two from Amazon when I forgot I already had one saved in my cart. I also found this very cute template which I used to make Paige's Whirlygiggle quilt. I thought it was lost and bought an extra so I could finish it up. I'll dig around some more in the next couple of days to see what else I can add, so stay tuned for more info. I'll probably even include some things that aren't random things I bought by accident!
I was motivated by Judy's design wall Monday to do some sewing this evening instead of collapsing in a ball of exhausted stress after a long day at school, which was my first instinct. I had already cut out the next three in Amy's BOM, although I'm still in March. I am sure I will catch up soon enough. I'm having fun trying all the new patterns and loving the way that they are all coming together. I have worked in new fabrics in as I ran out of the old. A shopping trip may be needed in the near future to replenish the stores.


Here is a close-up of this month's blocks. I think friendship star is first, followed by cactus something and then my favorite block for it's name, scraphappy.

BOM February

I just finished off the last two blocks for Amy's BOM. The fun part of block of a block of the month is the chance to keep trying out new blocks. I've seen most of these patterns before at some point or other, but never committed to making any of them. After putting these together, I can sort out the ones I would want to use in an entire quilt from the ones I'll just happily include in my sampler and call it good enough -- and maybe a couple that I will relegate to the orphan pile and forget about for now :).
These are the 6 blocks so far for the block of the month. Do you think that Amy, as a math teacher, realizes that there are three blocks each month? I think I'll leave out the ugly ones to make a nice snuggler size for a Christmas gift. So far that Florida star is a top contender for getting lost or forgotten.

Blackford's Beauty came together very nicely. It has cute little flip and sew corners that make a little star in the middle. I think this is one that Bonnie used in Jarrod Takes a Wife. I had always pondered trying it out. I can see changing the colors up a bit and trying out a dark center with two colors of star points. Add to that some scrappy corners and it would be a happy little quilt nicely put together from the strip bins.
The second one had LOTS of half square triangles. It is called Mosaic Star, and it came from a book called Grandma's Best Full-Sized Quilt Blocks. I thought the name rang a bell when I saw the pattern, and sure enough, I went and found it on my bookshelf. I guess it is a small world of quilters. It needed a little resewing because I twisted the four patches a bit, but other than that, it came together nicely enough. It is almost exactly the right size, just a quarter of an inch too big overall. Not bad at all in my opinion.
It is almost time to go pick the kids up now, so I'll go get all my little bits and pieces put away until next month. Thanks Amy for organizing the block of the month -- even if you should be calling it blocks of the month!

BOM #4 OMG

Well, it's done. I can't say much more than that about this block. I used to make templates for everything, but it has been a while. Now I truly appreciate the accuracy of rotary cutting. Amy's directions were crystal clear, buy my execution leaves something to be desired. This one may need some minor surgery at some point in the future, but for now I'm sticking it in the box and calling it finished. Ryan is just now awake so I'd better see about getting him some lunch. Happy Monday everyone.

The Journey Begins....

....with a single step.
I always seem to to spring cleaning right around the beginning of February. Maybe something to do with my MIL coming in two weeks to stay with the kids for midwinter break? It is good to start crossing things off the list again, after all, not everything can wait for summer vacation. So, without further ado, here come the before and after pictures....Laundry room before, a popular dumping ground for everything as people enter in through the garage.
Laundry room after. Look a counter was under all that stuff! Coming soon to a blog near you, before and after of the study.
I pulled out my depression blocks today to see how far I had gotten with all the trimming of bonus half square triangles. I've taken them to ice skating for the last three weeks in a row and gotten quite a few done. All that remains is the border. I was trying to bring some sense of closure to the edges with the border, but the math is a little wonky because the unfinished squares are 1.75 inches. I wanted a background rectangle to take the place of two blocks, but cut them at 2.5 inches, when clearly they should have been 3 inches (1.75 + 1.75 -.5 for seams). I didn't quite get this one done for the January UFO challenge, but I went over to Nancy's blog today and found out that the February UFO is #7. I just finished that one! So yay, I'm ahead of the game for once (in my own mind at least). I also have 2.5 inch and 2 inch squares from various projects and a whole bunch more 1.75 inch squares. I've got ideas floating through my mind for those, so we'll see what they turn into.
Miss Sheila, my Girl Scout co-leader came over during Odyssey of the Mind today and helped me put together more Happy Block kits. We had gotten some more donated fabric, so she helped to iron and sort while I cut strips and squares. I saw that Amy has her BOM directions up for February, so I'll have to think about those as well. One of them is a Florida themed block, I had better make sure that one turns out well(templates are required :0). It is so fun to see what patterns she is coming up with. I'm sure the finished quilt will be fabulous.

One Last Thing

I didn't want to start anything major, but I had already cut out the pieces of Amy's block of the month #3, so I sent ahead and put that together so that I could put it away until next month. This block has the same pieces as #2 but the red centers are rotated. I like it the other way better, but I can see how they could work together nicely. I love finding mistakes in the picture that I've missed all along the way. One of the background triangles got sewed in upside down. I'm not sure if I'll fix it or not, but it won't happen tonight. I may do a little ironing before calling it a night. I have a big tub of leaders and enders that need to be dealt with. I'm sitting and watching the heater loose ground to the weather outside. I think there may be something wrong with it. Maybe the ironing will add some heat to the room.

BOM #2

It is SOOO cold here. Not a good day to be outside at all. There was actually frost on the windshield of the car this morning. Frost! I know some of you are used to the bitter cold, but we don't even own ice scrapers down here, we just aren't equipped. It is such a hardship every few years when we have to turn on the heat for a few days. Obviously it was a perfect evening to stay in the cozy warmth of a nicely heated house and quilt a little.
I decided to work on Amy's BOM block number 2, and am quite pleased with the way it turned out. I could easily do a whole quilt with this pattern. Isn't it cool how the little four patch shows up in the middle? I made one small modification to the directions and replaced two adjacent squares in the same color with a rectangle. It eliminated a seam and helped it lay a little nicer I think. The directions were quite clear though, and I managed to do this one without having to unsew a single mistake.