Fresh Off the Frame

I just pulled Judy's June Mystery off of the frame. I'm going to call it Girl Scout Cookies. Even though it isn't readily apparent, all the colored fabrics are Girl Scout themed. It's been sitting on the frame for days now, and I've been doing drive by quilting. Wake up, quilt a row, drive somebody somewhere, come back and quilt another row. Watch the kids swim, quilt three rows before lunch. And so it goes. It is of course, dark by now, so I'll have to get a proper picture in the morning. Maybe by then I'll have it trimmed and the binding ready to sew on.
DH is off tomorrow, so this is our Friday night. Not exactly date night around here, but I guess I should go and be social for a while anyway. I'm hoping he'll get up early to do the morning driving and leave me to sleep in. I'm running out of days to sleep late, just 4 more days until teachers are back at school.

Weekend Fun

Last night we took the kids to a Weird Al Yankovich show. It was their first concert ever. They are big fans and know a lot of the songs by heart. Does that say something about the intelligence level of the lyrics? It didn't start until 8, which is bedtime in our house, so we were a bit worried that they would be fast asleep before the concert was done.

Sydney is the only one who fell asleep for any extended period of time, she snuggled up on my lap and snoozed through all the noise starting right in the middle of Eat It, one of her favorite songs. She perked up again for the encore though, and didn't seem upset about missing part of the concert.

This was Ryan's favorite song and he was singing along with all his might and bopping up and down in his seat. We're big fans of all things Star Wars around here.

I took Amy's BOM to ice skating this morning to get caught up a bit. I didn't realize how far behind I had gotten! They are all cut out now though, and I should be able to do the sewing portion some time tomorrow. I took time this afternoon to load the June Mystery Quilt onto the frame. I chose a pantograph called Saxon and got the first row sewn before it was time to think about dinner.
I'm taking care of a neighbors two dogs while they are away for a couple of days. I went down earlier to feed them their dinner. The doberman discovered a bird that had gotten trapped in the pool screen and was frantically chasing it around and around. She wasn't very smart about it though, and was outside trying to catch the poor bird who was inside and couldn't figure out what to do. I chased them both around in circles for what seemed like hours before finally catching the poor bird in a towel and pitching it over the fence. While all of this was going on, the other dog, a golden retriever, decided to take a swim in the pool. It was quite a sight I'm sure, me running after a bird, yelling at the dog to leave it alone while dragging the other one out of the pool, dripping wet and pitiful. It made me so glad that we have just one small dog.

Good Day

I wasn't sure it was going to be a good day when the alarm went off at 5:35. I haven't seen o dark thirty since summer started. It's hard to get a run in before the heat of the day takes over though, and I had a date for 6 miles at 6 o'clock. I got a blister at three miles and headed home, but 4.7 miles is better than no miles, and my running partner is the most understanding person I know.
After that is was home to shower and do all the regular morning things. I was at Joann's right after they opened with my 50% off coupon in hand. I needed something for the back of the June mystery quilt which really needs a name already. Bought backing and binding and couldn't resist a visit to the half off clearance sale. I love clearance! Found some suede type stuff for an idea I have for the master bedroom and a piece that should work for the back of a patriotic quilt, maybe a QOV? Found another clearance section with summer plastic for the kitchen and couldn't pass up on 70% off. Did I mention how much I really love clearance? Lunch was my favorite Jason's Deli, right next to Joann's. Made it home by noon just in time for a quick nap. Had to make up for that 5:35 alarm clock, right? I took a book with me so that I could pretend to read, but nobody was buying that.
Play date followed play date all afternoon while I whittled away at the three borders that this quilt called for while running the new fabric through the wash cycle. Sunday is pizza night at our house, during the summer we watch recorded episodes of Wipeout which the kids think is the best show EVER. Stories were followed by bed, and now at 8:29 I am happily cutting away at a brand new quilt. This one if for Anna. She wants wonky yellow stars and a moon on a dark blue background with the following words, "Reach for the moon, even if you miss you will land among the stars." It's a lot of words, but maybe I'll mix some wonky Tonya R. letters with some embroidery to make it all fit. Or I could make the letters smallish and they could go all around the border? Anna has a queen sized bed, so there is room to play.

Blinking Borders

There was a swim meet this morning. Kurt took Sydney and Ryan so that I could take Anna to ice skating. On Tuesday Sydney hated swimming, she never wanted to go to swim team again and didn't know why I was making her do it. By Thursday she wanted to go to every meet and made me promise she could sign up again next time.
Check out Ryan's stellar form on the dive in. Did I mention that we practiced?

I don't know why I find borders to be so tedious. Binding doesn't bother me, and I do fine on backings. But I've been puttering away at the borders to the June Mystery ALL DAY LONG. Now, you have to understand that all day means when I wasn't doing something with or for the kids, so the actual minutes spent are probably pretty minimal.
After the swimming and skating there was some cleaning and laundry and then a series of kids in and in of the house, through the pool and back again. I took my drawer of 2.5 inch squares along played with those while I supervised. I should be all set for leaders and enders for the next few years. Our new neighbors moved in today and they have an 8 year old boy. With all the friends that Sydney has around the block, it is nice to have some more boys for Ryan to play with.
So, back to quilting again:
I didn't seem to have enough of the background fabric for the second border, and mixed in another fat quarter from the Girl Scout bundle with a light background. I might take all the teals from the stack and use them to make the binding. Usually I would use the extras to piece a back, but I have enough that I can make another quilt of some sort. Sydney seems to like this one, so maybe I can make the next one for Anna and they can both have their own Girl Scout quilt. I think the next one should have more green in it though, it isn't immediately obvious that this is a Girl Scout themed quilt at all.

June Mystery

I just finished putting the blocks together for the June Mystery. Even though it is summer, the days seem to fill up on their own.
I took this picture of the back because I thought it looked so pretty with the light shining through. Just like stained glass. The leaders and enders I used to turn the rows are still dangling on the sides.


Kurt's boss has a 17 year old son that was in a car accident three days ago. He was turning left when another car ran a red light and crashed into the driver's side door. Despite emergency surgery to repair the damage, he remained non responsive and was declared brain dead yesterday afternoon. Although I didn't know him, my girlfriend has a son the same age and they went to kindergarten together. She wanted to go to the hospital to pay her respects and so we took a card over together last night. The priest was there as they waited for the organ donation team to show up. We went out to dinner after that and talked about lots of things; death and family and life. It's been a thoughtful day around here. I wrote a whole post about it, but didn't publish it because this is a quilt blog after all.

Today is Ryan's birthday though, and he wanted to go and see Despicable Me. Tonight we are going to dinner at TGI Friday's and having cake and presents.

Nothing

Today is the FIRST day this summer with absolutely nothing on the schedule. No camps, no swim team, no doctors, no dentist. Nada, zip, nothing. How cool is that? Sydney wanted to sew a little and put a stack of squares together from the leaders and enders basket. I asked if she wanted to make her own quilt and she was SO excited. She has some kitty-kat fabric that she picked out during a trip to the fabric store at some point in the past, but was having trouble finding colors she liked to go with it. Now she wants us to go to the fabric store this afternoon to pick something out. It seems like I only post pictures of Sydney lately, it's not that the other two aren't adorably cute, they just don't spend as much time hanging out with me as Sydney. I did get the blocks together for Judy's mystery, though they aren't pressed yet. I'll do a little arranging and get them put together some time today I am sure. While going out to the fabric store, there are a couple of movies that all three of the kids wanted to see that had to wait for a week they were all free. This is it -- the only week of the summer without plans.

Signs

Guess which block made me think it was time to quit for the night? All the chain blocks are done, but the rest of the star blocks need two seems each, and obviously that pink one needs some frog stitching.

Here is a towel frog that Sydney made before bed tonight. Maybe I should buy her some matching white towels like the ones from the cruise.

Slowly, Slowly

Some things seem to take much longer than they should. The study reorganization is ongoing. These plastic drawer organizers have been repurposed for use under the quilting frame. They used to hold Girl Scout Craft Supplies and Scrapbooking. How long has it been since I did any scrapbooking? I can't bring myself to get rid of any of it, thinking I'll come back to it all someday, but until then it is taking up a lot of space.
So back to the quilting space, there are big drawers for 2 inch, 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch strips. The small drawers to the left hold squares of various sizes. Left of that is ready made bits and pieces in different sizes. So far there are half square triangles, flying geese, 4 patches, 9 patches and extra binding strips. I've still got another set of the smaller drawers, but I'm not sure it I should use it or get a set of the bigger drawers instead. The 1.5 inch strips are still homeless and I've got strings and crumbs to think about.



While all of that is going on, I'm working my way through the next two steps in Judy's June Mystery. While working last night I was getting impatient to see a finished block, so I went ahead and got a couple put together. The rest are in that "oh so close" along the way stage where everything is partially there but nothing is quite done yet.


Sydney was nice enough to help me out when I ran out of leaders and enders. She was matching up 2.5 inch squares for me, but was having a hard time getting right sides together using my favorite "jelly sides in" saying. Instead I told her the pretty sides kissed in the middle. She thought that was hilarious and had to say it at least once for every pair she put together.

Design Wall Monday June 14

OK, first let me say that for those who are aware of my recent difficulties knowing what day it is, I looked it up and today is Monday June 14. I double checked and I'm almost sure I'm right. I have finished step 1 and 2 of Judy's June Mystery on Friday, so that was still up on my wall this morning. Today was spent catching up on ironing of recent fabric acquisitions and leader and ender squares.

I spent a good deal of time this weekend cleaning and organizing in the laundry and quilting rooms. One of the things I found was a box of random 4 inch squares. 4 inches, what could I use those for? I guess they could be cut down and fed into the 2 inch box, but looking for more quick finishes to practice quilting, I decided to just throw them together into four patches and see how far they would go. I don't think it is enough for an entire top, so I was thinking of sashing them to a standard size of 10.5 inches and then filling in with other sized four patches sashed to the same size. I threw some up on the wall with 2.5 inch base squares, but I have other sizes I could use as well. I think it will come together quickly and give me a good opportunity to use up some oddly sized squares that have been aging for a while. What do you think?

Be sure to check out other people's design walls on Judy's blog. It is fun to see what other people are creating.


Today was actually pretty calm. The girls had swim team this morning and then Ryan got dropped off at Cub Scout camp. I had the rest of the day unplanned until ice skating make-ups at 5. It seemed like a good opportunity to get something significant done, but I was feeling headachey and sluggish today. I think I'll watch a little TV tonight and stitch down some binding. Christmas Lights has jumped to the front of the line because the orphan binding that I have been collecting together for Four Square seems to have disappeared. That was part of the motivation for the cleaning and organizing this weekend, but so far it hasn't shown up. Very rarely do things disappear forever, so maybe it will show up again.

"Sew in" Progress

Well, I checked the date again after reading a comment on Amy's blog and found out that the sew-in isn't until next Friday. The same day as my first ever long arm quilting class. Bummer. All is well though, I went ahead and sewed away the evening tonight just in case I can't make it back in time.
Kurt is taking Ryan and Sydney to the swim meet in the morning, leaving me to take just Anna to ice skating. That means I get to sleep in late. Happy day! He even volunteered to chauffeur Ryan to a chess thing this evening (mostly because it is near the bar where his work friends hang out). Anyway, I used the time to finish off step two of Judy's June Mystery. There are 68 four patches with the darker teal and then 36 little skinny strips with the lighter color. I'm not sure yet how they will all fit together, but I'm happy to be caught up. I also worked on some wonky log cabin blocks with the leftovers from last years pineapple quilt.
Sydney was having a blast at her rock climbing show this afternoon. Each camper got to choose three skills to show off for the parents. Sydney did repelling, tight rope walking and the flying squirrel. The child truly has no fear. She jumps in with absolute confidence and lots of enthusiasm to anything she wants to do.

Step 1 and Nifty Cheap Tools

I just finished off step 1 of the June Mystery in time to bop off and pick Sydney up from rock climbing camp. I checked on Amy who has already finished step 1, trimmed a set of blocks for an exchange and put together a challenge top. She makes me feel like I am moving in slow motion. Yesterday while picking up some barrettes to help Anna to get her hair to stay in her swim cap I stumbled on some manicure sticks. Not being a high maintenance kind of person, I thought they would be good to use as a stiletto while quilting. They have colorful sandpaper like ends that keep the seams all headed the right directions without putting fingertips in peril.
The other cheap quilting tool I am in love with is a flannel backed table cloth that I picked up for $3 on clearance. 4 thumbtacks secure it to the wall as a perfect removable design wall. I've got in-laws coming to stay in the near future and am already starting to think about how my studio can transform back into a guest bedroom again.

In more exciting quilt related news; I got a notice through my handiquilters yahoo group that a quilt shop not too far away is having a series of handiquilting classes next weekend. I called first thing this morning and signed up for two classes next Friday!! It is a day off for Kurt so he will be happy to stay home and hang with the kids. One class is about using rulers and the other one is some special BEST technique. That of course motivated me to finally call about getting my free in home orientation that comes with the HQ16, and I'm waiting to hear back from them about when that will be.

Gotta go get Sydney now, I'll post scary pictures of her climbing way too high when I get back.

Crazy Days of Summer

I am still waiting for those lazy days of summer to hit. You know the ones I mean? When you wake up in the morning with a whole day wide open and ready for filling. Today is the closest we've come. I got Sydney off to Rock Climbing camp, and she has an exhibition of what she learned for the week at 3, but until then I am wide open. I got a redbox movie for the other two kids and I think I will finally settle down and get some sewing done. I need to finish step one of the Judy June Mystery and then I peeked ahead to step 3, it looks pretty straight forward. I've been doing some general cleaning and organizing, now I'll decide whether to throw Christmas Lights onto the frame or sit down for some chain piecing.
I saw that Amy is joining in on the Friday Night Sew-In, so I am going to play along as well. I hope to be sewing something, and doing it with other people sounds like fun. Go over to Crafty Vegas Mom and see who else is playing along.

Summer Days

Yesterday was the first day that summer vacation was regular -- with no postplanning, no vacation, no holidays. It started with swim team at 8 am. Ryan had volleyball camp so Kurt volunteered to drop him off. I got a bit of a panicked call at 9:05 informing me that the volleyball camp consisted of Ryan and 50 girls. I guess volleyball is a girl sport at those ages around here. I can't think of a single school with a male volleyball team now that I think about it.
Then I started in on the summer cleaning list. I organized the Tupperware cupboard and tidied the kitchen before tackling the fridge.

This was before.
And this was after.
I even cleared off all the notes and pictures and magnets from the front. While all of that was going on, Anna had a friend over to play which involved 11 year old drama. Sydney had several friends over and hosted a little marathon of Just Dance on the Wii, no drama necessary. Then she went to play outside, coming home with a skinned knee. Band-aids make everything better at 7. Kurt wanted me to "just check" on Ryan, so that involved spending half an hour driving back and forth through a detour and road construction so I could go and ask the lady running the camp if he was OK. He was of course, so I came back home to finish my fridge cleaning. There was a panicked message from one of the moms who had heard that Sydney got hurt and confused our trip to check on Ryan with a trip to the emergency room for stitches. That required a bit of reasurrance, but after the whole dog mauling incident I guess I can't blame her for worrying.

When all of that fun was finally over, I decided to enjoy a little fabric fondling. I had been wavering as to what to use for the "colored" blocks in Judy's June Mystery. Sydney had picked out the dark and light teal along with the background fabric, but I hadn't decided what I wanted to go with them yet. After pulling a bit of this and a bit of that I decided to use the fat quarter bundle of Girl Scout Fabric that I ordered in January. I got a bit of cutting done for that before it was time to go back through the road construction (no detour this time:)) to get Ryan again. I made yummy baked spaghetti for dinner prompting the kids to ask why I couldn't make good tasting stuff like that all the time. Clean up of the kitchen was followed by clean up of the kids and then bedtime. I made sure to get a nice early night so that I could get up this morning to run. I'm trying to get back into training mode again and Amy's post yesterday helped motivate me.
Speaking of motivation, did you know that today is National Running Day? So go strap on your sneakers and run a bit. I was out bright and early this morning and I'm going to feel good about it all day long.