Mariposa Done Done

There is done and there is done done. It took most of the afternoon, but Mariposa is all the way done with the last stitch just taken in the binding. I'm always amazed that the last step can take as much time as all of the previous steps combined. I'll get it packaged up so that I can take it in to school tomorrow. There are three days of post planning scheduled, but I'm just about done with what I need to do. I have one parent who wants to schedule a conference and I need to count my textbooks. That should just about do it. I might take the kids in with me in the morning and let them plant some seeds in the vegetable portion of the solar innovation garden.

This is Lizzie who shamelessly stole my spot the minute I got up from my binding stitching session. Then she looked at me with that innocent "who me?" look on her face.
I've gotten a ton of comments from the Online Quilt Festival, but I haven't had a chance to look through much or respond. I think I'll do that now that my must do list is taken care of. Then I can pick the project I want to work on next and even stay up until the wee hours to work on it if the muse strikes. Aahhhhh, summer!!!!!

Mariposa is Quilted

I would have been done ages ago, but we went out to dinner and so a big chunk of my evening was booked. I tried out a ribbon pattern for the quilting, but it was looking a little striped, so I just did a basic meander in the middle and some quick feathers in the border. I used pink for those so they didn't show up too much, I'm still in the practicing stages on the whole feather concept. I got lazy when it came time to turn the quilt sideways to finish the side borders and went ahead and whipped those out on my regular sewing machine. I'll do the binding tomorrow and trim the loose ends so I can call it done. I don't like to seem too happy about being on summer vacation when other people aren't done yet -- but I am doing a little happy dance in my head right now. Summer is a very good thing.

Today is the First Day of the Rest of my Summer Vacation

Mariposa is frame ready. I got the blocks put together first thing this morning and then spent the rest of the day getting one step at a time done between all of the regular Saturday things. Iron some fabric, sweep the floor, cut a border, clean the kitchen....., You get the general idea. Kurt has taken the girls and the dog to the park so I think I'll load my quilt onto the HQ16 and get some quilting done. I'm thinking of doing a ribbon meander with maybe some feathers in the border. I think I'll do a little practice on the edges first to make sure it will work. If not, I'll just do a regular meander so I can get this done today and have tomorrow to sew down the binding.
Kurt has gotten into taking pictures of the kids while watching practices. Anna was trying out the theater on ice class this morning after her regular lesson. It's like a ballet recital, but on ice. She really enjoyed it, so I'm seeing more time at the iceplex in our future.

Summer Fun

I just finished the blocks for Mariposa. They are all laid out on the floor at that point in time when I want to let them season a bit and go to bed. Unfortunately, Lizzie mistakes quilts on the ground for the paper she potty trained on, and that is not a good thing at all. So I will gather these up and get them nicely pinned a la Elanor Burns ready to be sewn together. Maybe if I look suitably pitiful in the morning Kurt will take the girls to ice skating lessons and I can get the top finished up. I am considering finishing it with a thin yellow border and then a wider pink one. I've made bunches of extra geese, but I'm thinking of saving them for a separate quilt. I would love to have this all finished up by Monday and ready to take into school. There is nothing like a looming deadline to inspire simplicity of design.

Mariposa

Never cut fabric past midnight.

I finished the star blocks for Mariposa, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to get the chain blocks put together. Can you guess why?

Counting Down

Post number 501, and just two days of school left in the school year. I started digging for something fun to add to the giveaway and came up with some kits that I ordered from Connecting Threads. Something about a nicely packaged quilt with pretty coordinating fabric makes me terrified to dig in and I've never started any of these. So the lucky winner can choose one of these kits. They are: Cosmos in Bloom, Cosmos Strippy, and Root of the Madder Storm at Sea. The finished quilts are about 36 inches square, if you win and want more details before making a choice, I can elaborate. If you haven't entered the drawing yet, just leave me a nice comment on blog number 500.


It's Wednesday, and I keep waiting for an evening this week to spend at home. Monday I did a night out with a girlfriend who needed to get out of the house, and that was a nice change of pace. Tuesday was the last Girl Scout service meeting of the year. I was so hopeful that tonight would be my chance to devote some time to quilting, but it was home for a quick dip in the pool before heading out to football practice. I've been trying to leave it all up to Kurt, but it seems that most of the players have both parents there to lend support and so he wanted me there as well. It's not that I don't want to be supportive, I just that all of my knowledge of football comes from the movie The Blindside. I try to follow along, but I get lost and my mind wanders.

We got home in time to put the kids to bed, and I decided to work up a couple of trial blocks for the comfort quilt I was planning to make for my coworker's wife who is getting ready for chemotherapy after a double mastectomy. It is going to be called Mariposa and is a simpler version of the Twilight quilt that I made just before school started. I'll use these simple flying geese stars instead of the sampler blocks and maybe add the extra dark geese into the border. That's the plan so far anyway. I'd better get it whipped up in a hurry. I won't be seeing much of the people at work after post planning ends next week.