Happy Day

Happy last day with students. Start of summer vacation. Happy Quilt Festival. I had so much fun going through all the blogs with the online quilt festival last year that I had to participate again. I think I posted my Elm Creek Sampler last year. One of the things that is fun about sampler quilts is that in trying out lots of new patterns, every once in a while you like one so much that you decide to make a whole quilt out of it. Pineapple Welcome is just such a quilt. I had dabbled in paper piecing, but never tried it on an entire quilt. It is just the right size to hang in my entryway and so I decided to make it a true welcome quilt by adding the word in a variety of languages around the border. It is finished with a scalloped border which wasn't nearly as difficult as I had feared. So be sure to visit Amy's blog and check out some of the other quilts and their stories. You can also visit my 500th post and enter the giveaway drawing. Just a few more days 'till my birthday when I will pick a winner. For now it is the first day of the rest of my summer. Happy quilting everyone!!

April Finish

I just finished up the binding on the Welcome quilt. It still wants a label but is proudly hanging in the front foyer. Nancy Hasn't posted a UFO yet for May, so I'll have to assess and think about what is next. I still need to put the words into the Starlight quilt and I have some more happy blocks to make for a sample quilt for the Girl Scout meeting. I've still got the Double Delight out waiting patiently for borders. Hmm, that sounds like enough to keep my busy for a month without a new UFO to add.
Sydney wanted this quilt to be hers. She says it's OK if I make her another as long as it has a curved edge with different colors. She would also like some of the purple sparkly fabric that was in the doll quilt I made this weekend and maybe some flowers like the ones in the corners, but with purple. I guess it is good that she knows what she wants.

I won the giveaway that Amanda was having for her 200th post!! Make sure you go visit. It is so fun to win something. I don't even know what I've won but I'm still happy thinking of little goodies in the mail. Thanks so much Amanda, not only for having a giveaway, but also for having a blog and leaving such nice comments for us all.

Quilted

I'm sure you are all getting good and tired of seeing this quilt by now. But, as one of my running partners says, I'm terribly chuffed with myself. I've just finished the quilting on the Welcome quilt -- simple diagonal grid in the center and wavy lines flowing around the letters outside. My machine was acting up a bit and skipping stitches. She's due for her well baby exam soon, I'm sure that will fix it. Next on the agenda (deep breath) is attempting a scalloped border. I'm terrified of messing it all up, but I have scallops in my head and want to give it a shot. I think I'll save it until tomorrow, because the first step is to cut bias strips, and that might require some planning and organization. I saw the quilt in a day lady do a thing with freezer paper cut to the right size and then folded again and again to make a template. I think I'll try that to get the spacing just right. Then she marked it with a sharpie marker, and I'm not brave enough to try that.

Ooops, I forgot to mention that Amanda is having a giveaway for her 200th post. Go over and check it out. Leave her a comment and tell her I said "Hi".

Welcome Flimsy

I have officially gotten my Welcome quilt to the flimsy stage! (For my non-quilter friends, that is the un-quilted top.) I sincerely hope that I didn't misspell anything else. It's all fastened down now, so it would take some work to undo. There are some potential backing fabrics auditioning on the family room floor right now. I went crazy buying this fabric for my Elm Creek Sampler quilt, so there were plenty to choose from. I added in some fat quarters that I won in a giveaway a tiny bit ago, and I think they mix together happily. The tub isn't even close to empty yet, so I'm thinking of adding in some of the lights and putting a wonky log cabin on the someday list. I am patting myself on the back for starting this one and getting it to this stage in just 20 days. Thanks to Patchwork Penguins UFO challenge, I'm doing well on my list. I guess spring break had something to do with my success, but I'm still smiling from ear to ear.

I just got back from the Girl Scout SUM (service unit meeting). I dropped off my Buttons and Bowties quilt for donation. It was my March UFO and I just never quite liked the color combinations on that one. It was much easier to say goodbye to that one than the Scrappy Irish Chain last month. I worked forever on that one as leaders and enders and was super happy with how it turned out. I need to start thinking about the Happy Blocks project again and try to put something together before the next SUM which is the last before summer. I got some more of the sock monkey fabric in from Fat Quarter Shop, so I should be able to put a sample together to show everyone the plan. After I come up with a plan of course.

OK, I just spent half an hour putting in all those links. Somebody please follow them so I don't feel like I've shamelessly squandered my time:). Fringe is on TV and I watched a Hulu marathon of it this weekend. I had never seen it before then, but now I'm feeling attached to the characters. I think I'll watch while I plan out the Welcome Back and scrounge for some batting. Happy Tuesday everyone. It's almost hump day.

Ooops

Late night quilting can be hazardous to your sanity. I should have gone to bed last night instead of trying to connect the letters to my quilt. I didn't do any ironing thankfully, because when I looked at the photo I had snapped, I realized that welcome had a few extra letters. Unlike the time I put the "A" backwards in the Yes We Can quilt, I didn't attatch it. I did however, take it as a sign to call it quits and head to bed for the night. Dyslexics of the world untie!

Grades are due today and it is the first day of gymnastics for Sydney. Maybe tonight I can commit to these letters and get them attached so I can layer the quilt. I'm a little anxious to see how the quilting process will work with the fusible. Maybe I'll just quilt around the letters? Amy has finished up yet another quilt and her beautiful work has inspired me to get this one checked off the list.

Welcome

The pineapple quilt was destined for the front foyer, therefore it has evolved into the welcome quilt. It says welcome in English, Hawaiian, Irish, Japanese, French and Kiribati. I think it still needs a skinny bias strip and maybe the English welcome needs to be bigger. I haven't fastened anything down yet. It started as applique, but I decided to cheat and use fusible. I used my scrapbooking sizzix to cut out the letters. I have gotten more use out that thing than you can imagine. I even used it to cut fruit roll ups to decorate a birthday cake one year. I really hate fusible, but I spent an hour preparing the first flower and decided I needed to finish more than I needed to create delicate needle turn. This is supposed to be my April project after all. I'm still pondering the scalloped border. I'll get that figured out before I start ironing. Speaking of ironing, mine burned out last night. I guess I do more ironing than an average person, but it wasn't all that old. A leg fell off the barbeque grill today and the chlorine generator for the pool just got replaced. Groups of three right? I should be in the clear now.

Pinewood Derby

Tonight the Cub Scouts came over to work on their pinewood derby cars. Kurt got the garage all set up with tools (pardon the chaos, unfortunately, this is how our garage usually looks). He doesn't have a bandsaw, which he thought was critical for optimal curve cutting, and so asked our neighbor if we could use his garage for that part of the process. The kids all had their designs planned out ahead of time and after tracing them onto the wood blocks, we all traipsed down to do the cutting and then came back again for the sanding and painting. The boys seemed to enjoy the painting and decorating more than anything else. The dads seemed most concerned with getting the cars as close to the 5 ounce weight limit as possible and spent lots of time drilling holes in the cars and filling them with birdshot and candle wax. Sydney and Anna both wanted to make cars as well, and painted them many shades of purple and pink. It was good that we limited the fun to the garage, because lots of glitter seemed to be part of the fun (for the boys as well as the girls).

I spent most of the day getting the top done for my pineapple blocks quilt. Actually, putting the top together took about 1o minutes first thing this morning. Getting the %$#@* paper off of the blocks took the rest of the day. I will definitely find a more efficient way to handle that part of the process next time I try a foundation block. I am thinking that water soluble stabilizer might be the way to go. I'm trying out applique flowers now, so maybe tomorrow I'll have some options to show.

Pineapple Blocks Done

I just finished off the pineapple blocks. It helps that I decided to make it 5 x 6 rather than the 6 x 7 I had planned. I've got it up on my portable design wall so I can tinker with the blocks. I can't make the little corner bits stay down for the anything. I think I need some sort of border to let the eye rest a little after all of that color. I'm thinking of trying a scalloped border just because I've never done one before. I think the curves would contrast nicely with all the angles of the blocks. Maybe a wide white strip with some sort of applique in it, what do you think? I tried last night to get some of the foundation paper out of the blocks. Are there any paper piecers out there with some helpful advice? It seems like it is going to be slow and tedious process. I don't mind slow and tedious, but the fiddling makes the blocks wonky. I don't usually mind wonky, but this is not that kind of quilt.

Spring break is going well. It is nice not to go anywhere for a change. I loved the cruise we took for fall break, but it is also nice to be able to putter around the house. I did some painting today, catching the touch up from our house painting and freshening up some baseboards and doors.

Spring Break!

It is Sunday and I am looking forward to a week off. The kids had their OM competition yesterday and I took the girls ice skating this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow we'll hit the zoo or the beach. It is nice to have some free time to look forward to.

I was up until the wee hours on Friday morning working on my pineapple blocks. I sat the laptop up next to the sewing machine and used Hulu to catch up on the last season of ER. I used to watch it regularly, but lost track over time, so it was fun to watch all of the episodes leading up to the finale. The paper piecing on the new quilt is going slowly compared to the sewing I am used to, but the results are worth it I hope. I ran out of the Fundation paper I had been using and had to run out to Joann's for more on Sunday. They didn't have anymore, so I bought some pattern paper from the interfacing aisle. It seems a little flimsier than the stuff I was using, but I guess it is working well enough and it is much cheaper than the ready to go kind.

I've been making a mental list of spring break projects. I'm not sure how far I'll get, but I'd like to do some general painting, cleaning and organizing. I worked on the garage today so I could get my car back in. We had planned to have a garage sale last weekend, but got rained out. I've stashed everything in the corner so we can try again next weekend. After that it's off to Goodwill with all of it so we can put both cars in again.

Getting Started and Finishing Up

It's the home stretch to spring break. Just one half day to make it through (15 minute periods). I think I can make it, but it's going to be close. It was truly one of those days that makes me wonder if I chose the right line of work. I'm not going to start a rant, so I'll just leave it at that.

I got the first 5 blocks done on my new quilt. I was starting to think that I didn't have enough color variety going on, so I cut up a fat quarter bundle that I won in a giveaway a while ago. I may have way too many strips now, but I'm envisioning a wonky log cabin with the leftovas from this one.

Fresh Start

New projects are so much fun! After three months of UFO's it is way too fun to cut into "fresh" fabric and start something new. I got the beginning of my first 5 blocks done for the pineapple quilt. I needed to do something soothing to settle my nerves after a particularly stressful day at work. I need to write a new version of the test I gave today before morning, but then maybe I can get another round or two done before bed. Most of my students will be gone on field trips tomorrow and then Thursday is grandparents day and Friday has 15 minute periods before the break, so it really is the home stretch now. I am planning on sewing into the wee hours of the morning and reading the new Jennifer Chiaverini book.

Familiar Conversation

Him: That's a pretty bright quilt. What is it for?

Me: It is for being a quilt. What do you think it is for?

Later the same day....

Me: I am finally done with my quilt.

Him: Which done is this? The top done, the back done, the layering done or the real done?

Me: All done

Him: Wow, even the quilting?

Me: Yes, even the quilting.

Him: That's great, what was this one for again?

I just finished putting the binding on Buttons and Bowties. This is my second charity quilt for the Girl Scout project. I used up a bunch of random Hawaiian prints on the back. I'm not sure why, but I thought having a theme would tie it together better. These were gifted from my neighbor who moved away, and she would appreciate having them used in a charity quilt. So that is my March UFO officially done with a full day to spare! Three months and three UFO's finished forever. I'm liking this resolution.

I checked Patchwork Penguin to see what the UFO for April is. It is #4. For me that is the Pineapple in Brights. Yea! I have to admit that I cheated on this one. I didn't have 12 UFO's so I put one NSY (not started yet) on the list. I saved all the extras from my Elm Creek Quilt because I really liked the way they looked together. I had planned a much larger quilt when I started that one. I guess that is part of the fun of 6 inch blocks. Anyway, I loved the pineapple block and wanted to make a whole quilt out of it. I have not done a ton of paper piecing, so this will be good practice. Since this is a new project, I think I'll keep it small. A 6 x 7 setting will fit nicely on the quilt hanger by the front door. That's 42 blocks. Thankfully spring break is next week, maybe I'll have time for some power sewing.