On a Roll Now

I'm just starting to get into my summer groove. I finished the Dresden plates quilt today -- even the binding! I went ahead and washed it, because I used washable marker to sketch in the border. I don't know why I've spent so much time and money trying out fancy quilting markers when Crayola comes in an eight pack for only $2! Here is Sydney with her new quilt -- I've already got it on her bed and it fits great.
Anna took off on an airplane today to go and visit her grandparents in North Carolina. I tried not to be nervous about sending her on an airplane all alone. Kurt took her to the airport and checked her in, by the time he was home again, she had already landed on the other end. Ryan is in Chess camp all week and I'm taking a teacher certification class on giftedness. That leaves Sydney in preschool again. The camp is only a half day, so I've lined up a babysitter for the afternoon. Sydney wants to come home to play with the sitter, but I don't know if I'll have time to pick her up during our lunch break. I guess I'll have to play it by ear and see how everything works out tomorrow.
I'm itching to jump in to quilting the OC, but I don't know if I should start, knowing I'll be busy all week. I saw a quilting pattern on the pajama quilter web site that has straight lines and little triangles. I don't know if I should try that out our wait for the DVD I've ordered to come in. Something to think about I guess.

Marching On

I spent bits of the day sporadically stitching down the binding on the "echino thingy" quilt. I was ALMOST done when naptime hit. I decided I'd rather save the binding for sitting next to the pool and watching the kids swim, so I sat down to get started on the quilting for Dresden Plates. I had orriginally planned to outline each wedge and then fill in the background with a grid or a stipple. I got halfway around one plate and decided stitch in the ditch is way too tedious. Instead I decided for overall unmarked free motion. I was going for a double loop kind of thing that is supposed to look sort of like an olive. I don't know how much it looks like an olive, but it was kind of fun to do. I've ordered the pajama quilter DVD that I keep reading about, so maybe that will lead to some new ideas in free motion quilting. I'd better get back at it,or nap time will be over and the kids will need me for something. Kurt has gone in to work again, so it's just women and children again.

Basting Bash

I've been basting myself bloody this evening. I still have the OC left to go, but I ran out of safety pins and decided to call it a night. It's so frustrating, because I remember buying three extra packages the last time I was grocery shopping. I don't think I could have used that many, but I turned the laundry room upside down and couldn't find any more pins. I was planning on getting some serious quilting done tomorrow while my husband hung out with the kids, but now it looks like he's not going to take his day off. He is usually off every other Friday, but they have a deadline coming up, and have all been working a lot of late nights this week. I hope he is able to at least take Saturday off. I'm enjoying spending time at home with the kids, but It's nice to have some adult company as well.
We worked on cleaning the toy room today and then filled up the rest of the day with play dates. Anna had two friends over this morning, and then Ryan had someone over this afternoon. It's great that there are so many kids in the neighborhood. It's so nice to have people knocking on the door to see if someone can play.

And the answer is...D, none of the above

After much debate about which purple to use, I dug deeper and found a scrap in the incoming lap quilt fabric that was too small to use for lap quilts. Since it wasn't full width of fabric, I switched it out with one of the new purples and used it up for the outside lattice. It is more gray than the one I wanted to use, but hey, it's gone now, and that is a good thing. I couldn't try out the size on Sydney's bed because she is asleep in it, so I cleared of the daybed in the study and tried it on for size. A small outside border should make it just about the right size and it will be done. I'm thinking pink. I would bet a lot of money that Sydney won't use it because it isn't "comfy" enough. She has definite ideas about what she likes and doesn't.
I took the dark purple along with some of the newly donated fabric and put together a few more sets for the Girl Scout Quilts. I can do some cutting this weekend and get those kitted up.
This was Ryan's writing homework tonight. They can write 5 sentences about anything they want. He was very curious about why someone would want to burn down someones house and how they could tell if it was arson. Then he asked what those people would do without shelter. The little people in the picture are screaming while their houses burn. All the fires are out now, only the consequences remain.
I missed the parent meeting for kindergarten orientation last night. There are 5 kids on our block that will be in kindergarten next year! I was the only one that missed the meeting, but I didn't want to get a sitter twice in the same week. I think I know how kindergarten works by now. Thursday is ballet and chess club and gymnastics. I am in the car from 12 to 4 on Thursdays with pickups and dropoffs. Anna and I spent three hours this afternoon trying to do long division while Sydney colored me a picture of fish. Tomorrow is graduation rehearsal and something called crossing over for the cub scouts. I'm supposed to bring a dessert. Kurt should be home tomorrow before bed time, I think I'll have a tiny shred of sanity left by then.

The End is in Sight

We had a test today on organic chemistry, and it was the last before finals! Trying to accomplish anything this time of year is an exercise in futility. The alternative is to admit that you have given up, and that can only lead to chaos. I finally finalized my finals and even finished my budget for forensic science next year. They still won't tell me what else I'll be teaching, so I can't do the other classes yet. We got our end of the year instructions yesterday, so I'll have to start checking all of that off of my to do list.
On the quilty front, I decided on a purple for the Dresden Plates Quilt and got those cut and layed out. The darn quilt has been on the floor for almost a week now, and I need to get it picked soon. I sat with the kids watching pokemon before bed tonight and paired up ALL of the leftover blades. I think I'll use them as leaders and enders for a while and use them for more stripy quilts. I think they would look good alternated with white bands.

A Tale of Three Purples

Sydney's Dresden Plates Quilt has been spread out on the floor of the formal living room since Sunday because I didn't have enough sashing strips for the outside border. I have a post by Nines stuck in the back of my mind about "naive" quilts and can't finish this one without an outside lattice. I must have planned to, when I cut out all the bits O so long ago, unless I just ran out of fabric and put it in a box. Finishing UFOs is full of surprises. I guess the good thing about scrappy is that you can pull a partial quilt out of a box and add a few more fabrics to finish it up. That wouldn't work with a color coordinated quilt from a specific collection of fabrics.
I wanted to use purple for the outside and was fresh out. I made Bonnies Blue Ridge Beauty in purple a while ago, and used every scrap of purple in the house. So, knowing that I have several partial lap quilt kits that could use purple, I went ahead and picked out three today as I dashed in and out after work but before afternoon pick up detail and Tuesday faculty meeting. On the left is purple dots, in the middle is dark flowery and on the left is light. Which one looks best? The blocks are in light medium and dark, so I'm a little torn. What do you guys think? Left, middle or right?

The fires seem better today. The wind died down some, so It gave them a chance to get some of the blazes under control. Palm Bay schools all canceled classes, but we were fine in this region of the county. The worst of it seems to be missing us so far, I hope it stays that way. There are collections going at all of the kids schools for supplies for the firefighters as well as the people living in shelters. I have a few boxes of extra girl scout cookies that I'll send in, and then I can make a trip to the store tomorrow afternoon for some of the items of the requested list.
I talked to Kurt last night and updated him on the happenings of the day. I told him he could should look at my blog to see a picture of Anna at the bridging ceremony. He said he doesn't know the address! So I'll e-mail it to him and think about what it means that I have to check his itinerary to see when he'll be back and he has to check my blog to see Anna's Girl Scout ceremony.

Happy Mother's Day

Anna made me breakfast this morning. It didn't come to me in bed, but it was waiting at the table when I got up. I am a lucky Mom.
Sydney was helping me today to make HER quilt. I trimmed the Dresden Plates down to size, and she helped me arrange them and lay down the sashing. As I was ironing the strips and handing them to her, she told me what a good sewing person I was. She said I was so fast and good at making quilts that I should consider entering a competition for sewing. Then she said that was silly, because they didn't have contests like that, but If they did, I would be the winner for sure. This is the same four year old who was diagnosed with a developmental delay in speech at 18 months. I think she's got if figured out now.
After that I decided to work the the next step of the OC quilt. I looked and looked, and couldn't find my easy angle ruler anywhere. Honestly, looking at the space next to my sewing machine, who could imagine that I'd have trouble finding something? I practically had to clean the whole study before the ruler showed up, right next to the machine, under a pair of gloves, scissors, two spools of thread, three bobbins, a drawer of accessories, a phone, a pile of scraps and a cup of corn starch. Just the essentials.

After getting all the pieces cut, I chain pieced a bunch, but then had to put one block together all the way to see how it would look. I'm not thrilled about the color combination so far, but I'm going to let it go for now. I'm thinking I should have chosen a stronger green to stand out more compared to the scraps. I was going for a frosty sherbet thing, but I may have gone too light.

Finally, I got four Girl Scout quilts "kitted" One complete yard for the back and then just over a yard of various coordinating strips for the front and four strips of binding fabric. I thought I would be able to pull together more quilts from my stash, but I just don't have that much fabric I guess. Enough to go with lots of stuff, but not enough to make much from scratch. I've got several people who have volunteered more fabric, so I'll keep sorting as that comes in and supplement when I need to. I asked my friend to help me come up with a name for our project, and she suggested Scouting Lap Scraps or Scout Patches. What do you think? Does anyone else have a good idea? The goal is to present 3o lap quilts to elderly residents of an Alzheimer's care unit while caroling this Christmas.

On the Prowl for UFOs

I'm feeling good about checking things off the perpetual to do list, so I went searching for something else to finish off. This quilt was supposed to be for Sydney's room back when it had a flower garden theme. It has since been redone in a mermaid and castle theme, but the colors still work, so I'm going to finish it up. I was going to do a quilt as you go, but didn't like the way the lattice was working out and put it away to age for a while.
If I move the quilts I've finished this year to the bottom of my list, I can add this one and still maintain 10 works in progress. I'm cheating by adding the Girl Scout Quilts to the done list but not the WIP list. Hey -- it's my blog -- I can make up my own rules!

I have 12 blocks done, two of which are quilted, but I also have 15 more blocks cut and sorted into baggies. I get that part. What I don't get is why I did all that and still kept cutting fan blades. I must have just kept going until all the fabric was gone. Look at those stacks of blades! Exactly how many quilts did I think I was going to make? Maybe I'll use the extras for a modified piano key type border. After that I guess I can make some Chinese coin strips. Hmm, something to think about. I'd better go measure the bed before I make any solid decisions.