Starlight Done

Just pulled Starlight off the frame!  I'm glad I went with the swirlies instead of the stars.  I think I'll go get the binding put on so I have an excuse to sit and watch TV after the kids go to bed.  I have a couple of things recorded from last week while I was gone.

Small Change in Plans

I tried out some stars and swirls in the border, but they looked too pointy I think.  Instead I am trying out these swirly shapes which are so fun and relaxing to sew.  Kurt has taken all three kids to the beach for surfing and I am still hanging out in my PJs enjoying some quiet time.  I am going to be so totally spoiled by the time school starts again.  Until then, I'm loving life. 

Back to the Bs

I got home last night after a LONG wet ride across the state of Florida.  We've been in a bit of a drought, so it is nice to have the rain, but it made for slow going on the road.  The rain followed me home, which made it a great day to take the kids to see a movie. 
It was a great week at the AP Bio workshop, I'm full of lots of new ideas that just need to be processed and implemented.  It was nice to get away for a few days, but it is always so good to get back home again.  I took the Elm Creek Quilt along for hand quilting and it is getting SO CLOSE to being done.  I am on the last block, so all that remains are the borders.  With several long car trips on the schedule, I think it will be finished soon enough.  I am pondering a basket applique project as my next carry along, I know I saw a cute one on somebodies blog recently. 

This afternoon I pulled out the next quilt on the list in need of borders, backing and binding.  Starlight is now ready for the frame. I think I'll do free hand stars on this for obvious reasons.  I was thinking about white thread, but that would stand out a lot on that green border, maybe lime green? 
Sydney has two friends over for a sleepover, though there isn't any sleeping yet.  Maybe they will all sleep in tomorrow?  Well, maybe not.

June is Over

I'm so close to finishing my June UFO. I'm not sure why I have been so unmotivated lately. Maybe just because I can be. So I'll just pretend that June is a 31 day month and finish this one off before too much longer. I think I'll quilt it with a light green thread and put some sort of round motif in the middle of each square? I'll have to see if I have any stencils that will work for that. I'm not exactly thrilled with the purple, but at the same time it reads pretty flat and I guess that gives it a little interest? I seem to enjoy the idea of sampler quilts much more than actually finishing them off. Somehow they take so much longer than regular quilts. I've still got the Starlight quilt out in the middle of the formal living room, so I should do something about finishing the border up on that. I could even pull out Double Delight and finish all three borders at the same time! On second thought, maybe that is too much ambition. I would like to get some of these checked off the list so that I can switch gears for a bit. I've had a number of requests for non-quilt sewing. It might make me nervous to sew on things that are not flat.
Summer has been peaceful around here. There are no more trips planned in the near future, and most of our summer camps are finished. We've been having play dates, sleepovers and even a few days of hanging out around the house. I've haven't accomplished any major projects, but I've had plenty of time to putter on small things. I organized part of the garage and laundry room, and sorted through clothes and closets. It is nice to be able to just hang out with the kids for a while, especially now that they are getting past the point of needing constant supervision.

Girl Scout Monday

Tonight was the night for our Girl Scout Troop to take a tour of the pet shop.

Look at the adorable hats we got.

We worked on our Caring for Animals Badge. The ladies who work at the store did a very nice job of telling us about all of the different animals and what kind of care each needed. The girls were so excited to hold and pet all of the animals.

I had a little time last night to work and started putting together the letters for Star light Star bright. Looking at the photo, the top of the second S seems to have disappeared. I still need to make two more blocks for the bottom. I'm always surprised at how long a twin sized quilt is. This will be another donation quilt, so it needs to be the right size. I want to spend a few minutes puttering away at the welcome quilt, but I need to get to bed early. I've been up until midnight too many evenings recently and I am in serious pain from lack of sleep. I even tried to take a nap this afternoon, but Sydney prevented that from happening. I spent all afternoon at school finishing up grades and preparing for an electrophoresis lab tomorrow. The kids are all counting down the days, so getting anything done is like pushing jello up a hill.

Wonky Options

I sashed out the wonky stars to make them all fit together, but decided that I needed to either make more blocks or add something else. Having the attention span I do, I opted to add some wonky letters. To follow the star block theme I decided on "Star light, star bright". Initially I thought I would add the words to the border, but then I decided to replace individual blocks to spread them through the quilt. Of course when I got them done, they were too big to fit in a single block, so I had to come up with another plan B. My issue with the border plan is that I always get caught with wrapping words on the bottom -- do you wrap them upside down, or leave them right side up and wreck the flow? Maybe I should start on the right and leave the bottom empty? So please look at my two pictures while mentally filling in the missing blocks.

I need some feedback about which plan is better: option A --wrap around border, option B - in the middle. I'm having way too much fun playing with these blocks, it almost makes me forget that I have a never ending to do list that did not include this project until last night.

Happy Quilt Festival

I decided to celebrate the online Quilt Festival by making some wonky star blocks. They started with a 3.5 inch base square and then I double sewed the corners to make 2.5 and 2 inch base squares. I think I'll float all the blocks in a wide white sashing and mix all the sizes together. Another column should make it about twin sized with a dark border of some sort. I'll make a few more tomorrow I think.

This morning we ended up double booked with Ice Skating and the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. We had to pass on the chess tournament, but it's hard to be so many places at the same time. Anna passed her test to go to the next level of skating and Ryan won in his age group at the Pinewood Derby. Even Sydney took 2nd place in the sibling division. His den took the first three places overall and will all be headed to the next level of competition. We all came home happy and spent a nice relaxing afternoon at home.

I'm supposed to run in the morning, so I'd better get some sleep before it is morning. I hope everyone else is having a happy quilt festival weekend.