Happy Monday

It was a beautiful sky this morning.  Clear and brisk fall air is always a teat in Florida.    

Last night was a noisy one as the water company was digging up the street in front of our house to fix a water leak.   They started at 10:30 to work overnight and avoid the traffic.   

I had enough blocks done for Sister's Choice, so those got arranged and pinned into rows for the next quiet moment.  Not tonight, that is the Academic Team Championship.  Then I am still all full of tutoring on Tuesday and Thursday.  I do believe that I had a cancellation for Wednesday though, and with the spouse out of the house, it might be a sewing night.   

Next up were these Shoofly and Wonky Star blocks.   I seem to have missed orange and teal completely, so a bit of filling in might be needed.   I am sure that I won't get much done on that one this week, but I am already mentally planning for a full week over Thanksgiving.   Did I mention we got an entire week off?  I'm pretty happy still.  Two days of vacation and a few extra wear jeans to work day doesn't solve all the issues with teaching right now, but it is at least an admission that things are not all rosy.   Hopefully they will work on some better long term solutions to attract more qualified and talented people into the profession.   We are losing teachers and district staff at an alarming rate right now.  

Sister's Choice

Sister's Choice is a classic quilt block.  I have seen several variations on the theme, they all work on the same 5 by 5 grid, but the center of each side is often a contrasting color.   While I think this has a nice effect in the finished quilt, It isn't doesn't work as well with my one color per month theme.  I chose a variety of background colors for this sample block and then made another with consistent fabrics which I think I prefer.  It just depends on what you have available in your scrap bin.  Right now I have plenty of 2 inch strips to accomplish the uniform look.    

I always have a collection of monochromatic nine patches hanging around.   Every year I try to come up with a new way to put them to use.   They work great as leader and ender blocks because they don't take a lot of planning or organization.  This year I am going to turn them into Sister's Choice blocks.   The nine patches are made with 2 inch squares.  It would be just as cute in 2.5 inch blocks of course, or even 1.5 inch for the miniature block lover's out there.   

• 1 nine patch made from 2 inch squares (unfinished size is 5 inches)
• 8 squares in pink which are 2 inches
• 4 squares in neutral which are 2 inches
• 4 rectangle in neutral which are 5 by 2 inches

The star points use a sew and flip method.   You may use a pencil to mark a diagonal line on the back of each pink square or just eyeball it and hope for the best.   

Sew along the diagonal drawn line.  You may "double sew" these by sewing and additional line parallel to the drawn line to yield bonus triangles.  I chose not to do that this time, but I usually can't resist.   

Now flip open the corners and make sure that the edges are even.  If you have a bit of extra pink hanging off of the edges, you can trim them with scissors.  The entire unit should be the same 2 by 5 inch size as the starting rectangle.   

Go ahead and trim away the extra waste triangles, if you double sewed, these little guys will make adorable half square triangles. Repeat this procedure for all 4 rectangles.   

Each of these rectangles will surround the center nine patch, forming star points.   Add the remaining 4 background squares to the corners and sew as you would for any nine patch block.  Press away from the star points on the sides, but toward them on the top and bottom so that the seams will nest when you sew the blocks together into a top.  

Here is the same block, but with one background fabric instead of 8.   I think it adds a bit of consistency and ties the pinks together nicely.  

Here are the two blocks side by side.  I do like them both to be honest.   The block is 8 inches unfinished, which will be 7.5 in the finished quilt.  If I make 10 colors, that will be 75 inches, so I will aim for 6 to 8 of each color.   

 

Short Attention Span Quilter

My sister called this morning to make sure I had finished her curtains. "We" made a dust ruffle for Paige at Christmas and I was sent home with matching fabrics to make the curtains. We'll be seeing her again next week and so she'd like to have her curtains. Did I finish them? Of course I did, any minute now. While I'm at it, I need to finish up the pillow shams to go with the Sister's Choice quilt that I made for Mom last Christmas. It was 109 by 109 and after sewing through my finger during the quilting, it finally convinced me that I needed a quilting machine and frame.
The Sister's Choice is a Bonnie Hunter pattern that uses an extremely cool technique for making nine patches. Which then combine with sew and flip triangle points. While I was at it, I decided to go ahead and whip up a few extra blocks, because my 2.5 inch strip drawer won't close, and there were some pretty jelly roll remnants that wanted to be played with. No definite plans yet, but they seem like they might turn into a Christmas quilt and a baby quilt. So, back to the pillow shams, I was going to use the same nine patch for the middle so that it ties in to the quilt, but then just use simple cornerstones and sashing strips so that they don't look exactly the same. I had the leftover fabric conveniently saved, so it shouldn't take long to get those finished up. Assuming I don't get sidetracked again that is.

Ho Ho Ho

Happy Christmas day to everyone out there. We are safely in the cold rain of Georgia today ready for round two of our Christmas festivities.

I quilted frantically to get Sister's Choice ready for Mom in time and it is officially done. As soon as I sat down to start stitching the binding down, Lizzie scootched on over to keep me company. She is an excellent quilting companion and didn't seem to mind the time required to stitch down almost 500 linear inches of binding!! I'm well caught up on my DVR backlog now and the quilt is ready for Christmas giving.
I caught up on everyone's blogs on my iphone during the trip and Amy has me thinking about my quilting plans for next year. I think I finished 8 of my UFOs on the Patchwork Penguin Challenge. I was absolutely reliable until School started again in August and then I hardly sewed anything for 4 months. It was an excellent challenge though and I finished off several projects that I am sure would have languished without the extra motivation. I've got several lists going now with ideas for next year and will have to figure out how to do one of those cool photo collages to highlight my accomplishments for last year.
I also finished another Dear Jane Block in the car. I forget what the name was.

Update on Crazy

Thanksgiving was great. We got to see all of my family and Kurt's as well. The kids all had so much fun playing with their cousins. I took some terrific pictures, but left the camera at Mom's house. I ALMOST got mom's quilt done. It is sitting near the sewing machine ready to go. I had to rethread the machine though because Anna and I are making a Kimono for her Holiday's around the World celebration next week in school. The quilt will make a great Christmas gift, right? Ryan read 23 Cam Jansen books to go to a special party in the library and got some special spy gear as a prize.
We are in the middle of a big school rezoning fight and it has become my new hobby. Who knew that taking on the school board could take so much time? There is a big meeting tomorrow and Kurt is going to speak in defense of the plan we have developed as an alternative to the really crazy plans they have put forth. Apparently there are an infinite number of ways to present exactly the same data to make it support entirely contradictory ideas. I'm not sure what the final outcome will be, but we will feel better for getting involved in the process when it is all done.
Just 5 teaching days left in the semester and then 4 days of finals. Santa is coming a little early this year and he will be bringing a new Pug puppy to our house. I've fought getting a dog for a long time now but finally caved. I guess I just need another hobby to add to the list, right?

Back and Basting

I must admit that I have accomplished very little on the quilting front lately. School has taken over my life almost entirely, and the little bit of time and energy I have left at the end of the day is swallowed by the kids with their activities and agendas. Thanksgiving is looming though, and I had a mental deadline that I wanted to meet. The sisters choice quilt I promised Mom has been sitting in a corner of the study getting wrinkled since pre-planning started in August. I dusted it off (literally) and started the layering process yesterday after Ice skating, and girls day (movie lunch and shoe shopping). Sydney jumped right in and wanted to help with the "hand sewing" required to get a piece of batting big enough for this monstrously huge quilt.She thought sewing was pretty fun and wanted to know if I would buy her a machine when she was a grown up so she could sew too. She thought maybe she could sew with just her hands until then though.
I got it pinned up last night and this morning and even started on the actual quilting after more ice skating and before OM this afternoon. Tomorrow night is lost to sewing because we have a community action meeting about some proposed school rezoning that is going on. I guess I'd better get busy or it won't quite make it. I'm tempted to spend some time catching up on other people's blogs, but I guess that can wait for just a bit longer.

One Little Bit at a Time

I finally found the mental energy today to pull out my Sister's Choice Quilt for Mom. We're going to be headed up for Thanksgiving and I really need to take the finished quilt when we go. I think that things are starting to settle into a pattern around here. It is not a relaxing pattern, but it is at least becoming predictable. It's not just that I am busier at work these days, I counted on that. It is also that the kids are also getting busier. Piano, sports and cheer-leading happen during aftercare, but the gymnastics, ice skating, football, chess and scouts still take up most of the evenings and weekends. It is all good stuff, but finding time to sit in front of a sewing machine isn't always possible. Maybe I should find some handwork to satisfy my creative urges for a while?
Anyway, I pieced a back today at 120x120 inches to have a bit of a cushion for the 114x114 Sisters Choice top! This flimsy is ginormous! I fit it to the bed though, so that is the size it should be. I also did a bit of clearing out in the guest bedroom, so I can set it up to sew again. I'm sure that will make it easier to pop in for a few minutes when I am feeling the urge. I have enough batting on hand, but it will have to be pieced together to fit. I should be able to start the basting tomorrow if all goes well. Kurt is going to be out of town for a conference, so I won't feel at all guilty about having it out for a while. I hope I have enough safety pins.
I am feeling a little bummed about falling off the UFO a month challenge. I can still hop back on the wagon for October, but I've completely missed August and September. Still, I feel good about having finished 7 UFOs so far. Maybe next year I'll make it a 10 month challenge in recognition of the fact that things are pretty busy at the beginning of the school year.

Still a Quilter?

I recently went on facebook and asked a simple question, "How long can you go without running and still call yourself a runner?" Now I'm starting to think the same about quilting. Girl Scout paperwork has taken over the desk where my sewing machine used to sit. I did run yesterday, but the quilting is still on a bit of a hiatus. I keep thinking that things will settle down -- I keep thinking it will be soon. This is a short week at school. We've combined the PSAT with parent conferences and teacher in-services to have a nice long weekend for the kids. Maybe this will be my chance. The quarter has just ended and so grading is up to date. Maybe I'll take a stitch or two soon. Not tonight, I have a meeting, or tomorrow, that is Girl Scouts, then Wednesday is football, but I don't have to go. Maybe that will my chance. I'll send the girls along to cheer and get out Mom's Sister's Choice to baste. It has to be done before Thanksgiving. I'd better get going.

Coming up for Air?

It is hard to believe how long it has been since my last post. It is too easy it is to fall out of a routine when new commitments start pulling on your time. I have only added one extra class to my schedule, but the switch from part to full time has taken over a much larger proportion of my day. It is all going well and my days are full of lots of good things, but full they are. The kids are still loving their time everyday in aftercare. They are signed up for lots of extra lessons and activities and still don't want me to pull them away from the fun too early.
We were able to make it to Georgia this weekend to visit with family. It was great to have all of the cousins together with plenty of time to play and talk and just hang out together.

Zach is doing very well right now. He is happy and getting into everything. The oxygen is still a constant reminder of his health issues as is the feeding tube, but there is still hope that those might go away eventually.

It is great to be close enough to family to see them on a long weekend. I know Mom would love for us to live even closer, but it is good to be able to make the drive on a somewhat regular basis.

Obviously, activity on the quilting front has been slim. I took the Tea Rose Sampler for Paige to have on her new bed and she took to it right away. It hasn't made it onto the bed yet because she is too busy snuggling with it. I hadn't specifically intended that quilt for her, but until the Whirly Giggles comes together, it seems to be making her happy. I took the Sister's Choice up with the materials to put on the final border and get it layered and sized to the bed. I managed to get two of the four sides on, but couldn't make much progress with everything else going on.
Next weekend seems calm so far. Maybe I'll be able to find some quality time with my machine and finish up a little bit of something. Maybe.

Little Walking Petri Dishes

It took 7 whole days after school started for the germs to get to me. Everyone is worried about the swine flu, but I have been overcome with a common head cold. Usually I would tough it out and go to work anyway, but showing up sniffling and red nosed would probably not go over so well right now. So here I sit with my tissues and orange juice, doing very little of anything at all.
The first week of school was good. My kids are settling in nicely and are happy with their teachers. My classes are good. The new prep is taking a lot of time, but I like the material and the students. Juggling the three classes is fun, and I'm never bored.
On the quilting front, I finished up the first border on Mom's Sister's Choice quilt. It needs to be ironed so I can get the last border measured up. I'm going to try quilting it in two sections. Although I've never done it that way, Amy does all her quilts that way and swears by it. I'm hoping I have some time to get it all layered up this weekend.

Two Havles, Not yet Hole

I just finished sewing together the blocks for the 2nd half of Sister's Choice. Wow did that take a long time! I really haven't done much else yet today. The second half still doesn't have a border, so I'll take care of that tomorrow. I'm not sure what to do with the corners. Usually my quilts hang shorter than this. Is the corner of a bedspread supposed to be rounded or squared up or what?

Half Quilt

I got half of Mom's quilt put together last night. I don't have quite enough green for the other half of the first border, so I'll either put the other half together and add the border later or run out today for a bit more green. The final border will be enough of the green to make it the right size. Anna's bed is queen sized, so I'll take it up there to see how it hangs. It is supposed to fall to the ground, so the exact dimensions are somewhat important.

I also got a few blocks cut out for my next quilt while supervising swimming yesterday afternoon. I sent those through as leaders and enders while making the top. This is a quilt for my niece Paige and the colors are based on some sheets that my sister gave me to make a dust ruffle. Dust ruffles seem to be a recurring theme around here lately. I'm also supposed to make one for my nephew Zach. If I were a really good sister I'd get those put together and off in the mail ASAP. The kids are standing patiently by the pool waiting for me to come out, so I'd better grab my fabric and go watch.

Blocks Done

Finally finished the blocks for the Sister's Choice quilt! Mom decided that she like the green lattice after all, so I'm using the yellow as corner stones. I made it 8 blocks by 8, so that leaves room for about 6 inches of border all around.

I initially thought that I would use extra squares, but it seemed to blend in with the yellow corner stones. Then I thought about breaking the squares up into patches with some green strips.
It seemed pretty busy, so I also considered using 4.5 inch strips instead, again breaking them up with the green where the cornerstones are.
The other option is a simple solid border. I could also give up on borders completely and just make another row of blocks to make the quilt finish at 108 by 108. I'll let it simmer overnight and see how it looks in the light of day. Tonight I think I'll cut out the rest of the yellow squares and call it a night. Hopefully I'll be ready to sew the blocks together tomorrow. The kids want to go to the zoo, so maybe in the afternoon.

Valence or Dust Ruffle

We call these dust ruffles, but Amanda says they are called valences "over the pond". Either way, I made a skirt for the bottom of Anna's bed yesterday. I used bleached white muslin and sewed it right over the top of her old ruffle. It is lightly pleated. I need to get to work on a new quilt for her bed, but for now, she has commandeered the toy room quilt which is called The Shirt off my Back. It is made of shirts and is so soft and comfortable. Her room and furniture are painted and reassembled now, all that remain are the decorative touches. That is the part she is most interested in, of course, but I am happy to have the room fully functional again.
I am getting very close to having all of the blocks done for Sister's Choice. The star points are ready to go, it is just a matter of putting the pieces together now. I would love to have that part done today, we will see how much attention the kids and house and such all need today. Kurt has been at work extra hours lately with a big deadline looming and customers in from out of town. They are hoping, along with the rest of us, to see a shuttle launch in the near future. It has been postponed five times now I think, but maybe today will be the day.

Last Party of the Season

I'm sure some people have social seasons and have rounds of society soirees to attend on an annual basis. At our house we have a rash of summer birthdays which require a series of cake eating and pool splashing birthday parties. I put a lot of effort into the girls parties in May, so Kurt took the initiative on this one. I picked the time, and then he sent out an e-mail and handled RSVPs. We were expecting 7 kids, but somehow ended up with 14. Everyone seemed to show up with a sibling or a friend, and then the neighbors joined in too! When it comes to birthday parties, the more people, the more fun I guess. We should have made a bigger cake though, they ate every last crumb! So no next day leftovers to enjoy.

Most of the time the kids all splashed in the pool and tried to attack each other with squirt guns and water balloons. Kurt jumped right in and wrestled with them. He used to be a camp counselor, so he is good at fending off multiple kids at the same time. We even managed to keep everyone outside almost all of the time, so the house remained company clean and shiny.
Today, the kids were all happy to hang out at home and play with new birthday toys. I took advantage of the quiet time to work some more on Sister's Choice. All of the nine patch units are done now and the rest is cut out and partially put together. I have it all spread out on the ping pong table now so I can lay the blocks out as they get done and admire them. I'm so glad we got the new table, I just hope nobody wants to play ping pong right away.

New Basting Table

Oops, I mean new ping pong table. Ryan and I wandered past a garage sale on Thursday and they had a ping pong table for sale. The kids had really enjoyed playing with one at the 4th of July party, so we picked up this table with delivery included. (The teenage boys carried it around the corner to our garage.) It will live in the toy room, but we have it in the formal living room until after Ryan's birthday party tomorrow. Kurt has always wanted to use this room for a pool table, but I feel strongly about having that NOT be the first thing people see when they walk in the front door. I've already got a few quilts pulled out and ready to baste on that huge flat surface. Maybe I can get to those tonight after the kids are in bed. It will be nice not to have to crawl around on the floor quite so much.
I've been working away on the Sister's Choice quilt for Mom. Everyone seemed to agree that they liked the green sashing strips best. Everyone except Mom of course. She really likes the yellow, so yellow it is. She wants the quilt to be 9 feet by 9 feet, which is 81 blocks. I might make it 8 by 8 and use the same flying geese border from Old Hurricane Road. Mom commented that she really liked that quilt. I think I am about halfway done with the piecing, although it is hard to tell, because I've got blocks in various stages of construction.
Kurt volunteered to take Sydney to camp yesterday morning so that I could stay up and sew into the wee hours of the morning. I pulled out the overflowing scrap basket and several stacks of recently acquired fabric, and ironed and cut and organized for hours on end. I've been pulling from the 2.5 inch bin a lot recently, so the 2 inch bin is heaping. I'll see if I can pull my next project from there. Maybe another Scrappy Irish Chain? The last one went to charity and I kind of miss it.
Summer vacation is going great. I think it will be very calm for a while after Ryan's party tomorrow. Everyone has finished their camps, so there will be less running around for the next couple of weeks. I need to start thinking about getting ready for school next year, vacation is more than half over already! I've gotten a lot done on the house though, so I guess that is a good thing.

Yellow or Green

Here are some Sister's Choice blocks with yellow sashing:
Here are the same blocks with a green sashing:
Any opinions? I know what I think, and I have a vote from Kurt. I guess Mom should get a vote as well. Any other suggestions?

I continued cutting out blocks for Mom's Sister's Choice quilt today. After a bowling trip this morning the kids accompanied me to the fabric store to pick up some fabric for sashings and backings. I got 8 yards of green and gold backing fabric from the half-off clearance shelf for $2 each! Also some fat quarters and remnants jumped into my cart while we were there, and I found the buttery yellow that you see in the first photo.
The kids kept me busy most of the day, but I did get some fabric ironed and put away as well as working on tidying the study and laundry room some.
Anna went over to her friend Sierra's house for a play date this afternoon. They hang out for hours and days on end, so I didn't expect to hear from her until after dinner. When the phone rang at 4 it was Anna in tears. After getting her calmed down enough that I could understand what was going on, I learned that she and Sierra had given their Baby Wets and Wiggles dolls a bath and they were broken. The girls have been taking care of their dolls like real babies. They brought them fireworks so they could play together. They put them in matching outfits. I don't think Anna could have been more upset about a real baby being hurt. So when she got home, we did a little baby doll surgery and took everything apart to let it dry until morning. She put all of the broken bits and pieces into a pillow-lined basket and took it to bed with her.

Fabric Choices for Mom

My Aunt Brenda loves to do jigsaw puzzles. Mom likes to get them framed and hang them up around the house. She has several Norman Rockwell puzzles that usually hang in the family room.

These two puzzles of little girls hang in the guest bedroom at her new house. Mom wants to plan the colors of the room around these two puzzles and asked me to make her a quilt for the bed. She wants it to be bedspread sized so that she doesn't need to use a dust ruffle.
I was thinking of using Bonnie Hunter's Sister's Choice pattern with green, blue, brown, yellow and creamy background colors. I pulled these potential fabrics from the 2.5 inch strip bin and put together a few squares to try out the pattern. I didn't see many buttery yellows in there, so I will go to the stash to look for those. Then I thought I would use a consistent green for the star points.
So, Mom, take a look at the colors and the pattern and let me know what you think. (Mom reads my blog because I put pictures of the kids in here) Also, if you could measure the bed for me, that would be a big help.
I think I'll call it a night before I go any further in case Mom wants something different. Also, my arms are so tired from painting today. Also, I got in a run this evening for a change. Only three miles, but at least I got out there again. All in all, I'm pretty tired, but it is for lots of good reasons.