Housekeeping

 Yesterday was spent blissfully putting around the sewing room doing lots of organizing and sewing up of odds and ends.  Call it a quilters version of spring cleaning.  There were lots of extra bits sitting next to the machine waiting to be sewn together.  Postage stamps, nine patches and lots of HST units came together to the first 6 chapters of Wuthering Heights on Librivox.

 Then the evening brought ironing along with Muppets in Space and Spiderman 2.  Sydney was the only kid left in the family at that point as everyone else was away at sleepovers.  Look at how cute the itty bitty nine patches are on the back.  The seams nestle just perfectly.

  Here is a freshly ironed stack of green scraps.  I need to decide which of these will go to sampler blocks and start trimming the rest to useable sizes.
I'm not sure how much sewing time there will be today.  Sydney is making birthday cupcakes for school while Anna types away at a paper for school.  The new Godzilla movie is the plan for today along with a birthday dinner and I think a double header for football.  Did I mention that there are just 8 more school days to go?  Starting to get excited about summer.  

Slowdown Sunday -- Handwork

I have a lovely little stack of Dear Jane blocks wanting to have a little bit of handwork done to them.  They are all tucked away in a box just waiting for a little bit of down time.  There hasn't been anything worthwhile of TV lately, so I have been working on reading a book in the evenings instead.

I did find a bit of time while watching Harry Potter with Sydney to practice my knitting.  I found an easy pattern for a knitted dishcloth with a seed and stockinette stitch.  After three rows I realized I didn't remember the difference between knitting and purling though, so one border is a garter stitch instead.  Thanks to the nice tutorials at about.com, I have it all figured out now.  One cloth took almost an entire ball of cotton yarn, so I'll pick up another shade next time I am at the store.  Does anyone have different pattern for a knitted dishcloth I could try?  I'd like to keep adding new stitches until I get to the point that I could make a pair of socks. What would my next step be?

Yesterday was taken up with a massive scrap cutting extravaganza.  With all my Dear Jane activity, the bin was overflowing.  Now I have plenty of 1, 1.5 and 2 inch strips for all of my ongoing scrap projects.  Best of all, there is room in the basket for the extras from more projects.  I guess that means I should go and find something to finish.  Somewhere in the closet are at least two quilts who are waiting for borders.   

Slowpoke Sunday - Dear Jane

Having applique blocks ready to go makes it easy enough to pick up a baggie and take a stitch or two when things calm down from time to time.  I have already posted several finished blocks to appear in the new year when my Rainbow Dear Jane project officially begins.  Some blocks require both applique and traditional piecing, so this block isn't quite done yet, but the handwork portion is complete.  Head over to Kathy's blog to see what other handwork is happening on Slow Stitching Sunday.   

I've been slowly working my way through the scrap bin getting things ready for next years rainbow scrap challenge.  I focused on 1.5 and 1 inch strips for some postage stamp blocks and some itty bitty nine patches.  Bonnie Hunter was nice enough to keep me company during quilt cam time.  What a fun way to spend an afternoon!
Just 4 more days of school before winter break!  I still need to do one last proofreading session for my AP Bio exam, but the rest is all done and ready to go.  It is nice to end the semester before break and be able to leave everything on my desk with absolutely no guilt.  

Good Friday

So my day off started with a trip to the dentist, a visit from the air conditioner repairman and a piano lesson.  By lunchtime I was all out of errands and happy to settle down with a pile of scraps.  It seems like I just had an extravaganza of scrap taming, but the basket was full again and waiting to be sorted, cut and put away.  Lizzie is keeping me company, snoring away at my side.  It is good to have company.  Kurt volunteered for the afternoon round of errands and has taken the kids off for haircuts, Easter shoes and pool chemicals.  I'm itching to sew something, but first I'd better finish off my little piles of chaos. 

A Day's Work

For most of the day I sorted and trimmed and organized.  By the end of the day I had two things.

An empty scrap basket....

and a dining room table.

Taming Scraps

This morning I got almost entirely caught up on Orca Bay. I still have a pile of blocks and parts waiting for ironing. As soon as that is done I'll count to make sure I have enough of everything.  In any case, I'm ready for the new clue tomorrow.  I couldn't hide away all day though, so I pulled my scrap basket out and did some sorting at the dining room table so that I could keep tabs on all the comings and goings. 

  Then I spent most of the afternoon taming scraps.  They have been piling up in a basket for a while, waiting for a little attention. I focused on squares to feed the leader and ender projects, using my GO cutter to streamline the process.  I've got some tumbler blocks going as well as some more red and green bits for the double wedding ring table runner.   

Anything too small to get cut into a nice square or strip will get sorted into a crumb jar to become part of the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The jars are a little emptier than they were last year, but somehow they seem to keep producing lots of fun bits for blocks. 
Oh, I also updated my blog margins to show the midget blocks I've been working on for a while now.  I've gotten 66 done so far in about a year and half.  Each of the blocks that I've completed links to a post.  If nothing else, It will make it easier for me to keep track of which blocks are done.  

Hopscotch Done

Just pulled the Carolina Crossroads quilt off the frame.  It was a Bonnie Hunter scrap user pattern from Quiltmaker Magazine.  I didn't put a lot of thought into color selection as I was just "trying out" a pattern.  Still, it is a quilt now.  I was calling it Scraptastrophy while it was in progress, but when I looked back at earlier entries I realized that I was calling it Hopscotch before.  That seems like a nicer name.  I think I'll see if I have any orphan blue binding hanging out so I can finish it off officially. 
We made it back from Georgia yesterday and then went out to enjoy the fireworks and symphony at Cocoa Beach.  We met up with some friends there and had a very nice time.  I think everyone will be happy to have a quiet day at home now and recuperate from all the activity. 

Motley Crew

Just finished the back of Scraptastrophy.  It is a modified courthouse steps arrangement that used up an odd assortment of blue hued fabrics that have been lurking in my stash for quite a while.  The fish on the top were from Ryan's baby quilt.  He had a fish theme going when he was born -- 10 years ago.    The flowers one up from the bottom are from Sydney's baby quilt - 8 years ago.  She had a bugs and flowers theme in her nursery.  The red white and blue part in the middle was part of a quilt kit that I bought on clearance when a local craft shop was going out of business -6 years ago.  Now that I've moved some oldies out I think there is some room for newer fabric in the cupboard.  First though, I think I'll go throw this guy on the quilt frame so that people can walk through the family room. 

Design Wall Monday June 27, 2011

 I've been doing nine patches as leaders and enders for a while now.  I thought I might have enough for a top, but I think I'm probably only halfway there.  I was thinking of using the same fabric as alternate squares that I used as the lattice strips in my Postage Stamp Quilt.  I think that I have enough, which is nice, because I always seem to run out of background fabric faster than anything else. 

Scraptastrophy was last in the stack of finished tops awaiting Bs.  I went with random blues to keep the completely random scrap theme going.  I have even more random blues ready to piece together for the back.  Maybe a large random log cabin effect?  We shall see.  I'll visit the orphan binding drawer and this one will be ready for the frame.  Perhaps another double loop variation with a floral kind of motif? 
The kids were grumpy about going to swim team this morning but it got us all up  and out, which can be good in the summer.  This afternoon Anna had a visit to the orthodontist.  In between quilting and kids I got caught up on laundry and did some general cleaning type stuff.  Tomorrow looks about the same and then Wednesday and Thursday I'm in to work half a day.  We are coordinating curriculum as a department and aligning the new textbooks to the new standards and end of course exam.  Should be fun. 

Landscaping

Last week a couple of the neighbors were getting new trees put in.  Last winter was unusually cold and there were lots of dead palm trees around the block.  What started as a couple of trees to replace the dead ones, ended up as a whole landscaping package with rocks and edging and shrubs.  It is done now just in time for it to get cold again.

The air has taken on a definite flavor of fall, motivating us all to pull out our jackets and long sleeved shirts.  There was not a single child at the bus stop this morning in pants that fit.  Everyone was wearing last years clothes, leaving lots of sock and ankle showing. I guess we'll do some wardrobe organization this weekend. 

Last night I used a couple of hours of evening time after the kids were in bed to continue sorting through my scraps. I still have a stack of shirts from the Goodwill clearance center that I was using to cut tumbler blocks with my GO cutter. I'm not ready to start sewing them together yet, but they will be ready next time I want to start a new scrap project. The basket is getting emptier, little bit by little bit.

Grand Central Station

It always happens when Kurt is out of town.  It seems like a nice calm week until everything implodes.  We were getting some trees put in.  Nothing major.  Just replacing some things that died in the record settingly bitter cold winter.  Somehow a couple of trees turned into a big landscaping thing which led to a cut phone wire.  It was actually a nice break from the political adds to have broken phone for a few days.  I finally gave in and called to have the line repaired and they showed up around dinner time to chat with the landscaping crew.  So I'm doing the dinner thing, along with the supervising of kids and friends thing whilst trying to clean up the kitchen and keep an ear out for the workers outside.  Then add the phone guy to the mix and the neighbors milling about talking about the new trees.  It was at this point that the guy from Cub Scouts showed up to deliver the bags for food collection next week.  He wanted to give directions.  Really?  Because I need more to manage at this point in my life? 
I think the evening rush has passed.  We're down to one friend over and getting ready for baths and bed.  The workers have left for the night and tomorrow should be a calm day.  Monday and Tuesday required a bit of shuffling to pull off the dual Mom/Dad jobs simultaneously, but Wednesdays are calm and peaceful.  I've even got a friend coming over to work on a crafty Girl Scout project. 
I did enjoy having a few minutes this afternoon before the bus to get some yardage ironed.  It's supposed to be border fabric for Starlight.  Though this week doesn't look promising for getting lots done, at least I can get them folded up together so I don't forget what the plan was.  It will be better than leaving it piled about randomly in any case. 

I am trying to work through the scrap basket a bit at a time.  I found these nifty jars while shopping for groceries on the weekend, thinking they might be a more attractive way to store my color sorted crumbs than the Ziploc bags I have been using. My sewing room still isn't put back together again after the carpet, It's all in need of a good sorting and organizing effort which hasn't bubbled to the top of the list quite yet. 

Tiny Steps

Yesterday was another busy day. We had a make-up lesson for ice skating which overlapped with an academic team match. Kurt and I did the kid swap which allowed me just enough time to pop into Hobby Lobby on the way to the competition. I got home just in time to head to bed so I could start all over again today.
Today was a better day. I don't have to go to the meetings that happen on the third Tuesdays after school, so I took advantage of the extra free time to do a little sewing. I decided to swap out the sashing strips on the postage stamp blocks and go for a more uniform look. Initially I envisioned a white on white strip, but it seemed too stark. I'm still not sure about the green, but I'll let it simmer and see what I think in the light of day. The design wall hasn't made it back up again after the new carpet, so I'll let the floor do the work for today. I am starting to notice a visible difference in the 1.5 inch strip drawer. I wonder how many more blocks I can make before they are gone?
Sydney got one of her costumes for the holiday show. I made her promise not to wear it around the house until after the performance, but she did ask permission to try it on before putting it away. The kids swam this afternoon. I had to turn on the hot tub for them because the solar heater sprang a leak last week. It has actually been quite fall-like lately, at least by Florida standards.

Asexual Reproduction?!

There is no other explanation for the explosive growth of my scrap basket. I'm sure it couldn't have been more than a couple of weeks ago that I was doing a happy dance because it was empty. Now look at it! Full to overflowing. Maybe if all is calm around here this evening I'll get out the GO and do some cutting. I've worked my way through all the 2.5 inch squares I had stacked up for L&Es. That would be a good use of some scraps. I've ordered some 1930 reproduction fabrics from Hancock's of Paducah and some from Connecting Threads. I'll feel really guilty if it comes in before I've dealt with this pile of fabric fun.

Housekeeping

I'm feeling very virtuous after spending time today organizing, ironing and cutting scraps. My scrap basket is entirely empty! I dug down through the last year of leftovers and turned them into tidy strips and squares and such. When done with that, I ironed the new fabric fresh out of the laundry and started in on my bucket of cut up shirts. Yikes, no wonder I needed that afternoon nap today! I kept cutting more tumbler blocks from the shirts, but I'm not down to the bottom of those yet. Sydney wanted to help and had lots of fun turning the crank on the GO cutter.
The kids are starting to get excited about starting a new year of school. There is just one week of vacation left for them and Wednesday is the big day when they get to go in to meet their teachers and do all the registration stuff. It's also my first day of preplanning meetings, so that will be a lot of fun juggling. Kurt is usually available to hang out with them during the few days that don't overlap, but he's got important meetings those days. The kids are excited about having babysitters though, so life is good.

Nine Patch Bonanza

I finished up the nine patches that I needed for Mom's pillow shams. Pillows are pretty small compared to beds, so I don't think I'll need too many. The 2.5 inch bin wouldn't close though, so I kept pulling strips that I thought were pretty, pairing them up as I went. I see two more quilts in the works, one with pastel colors and one with Christmas colors. I'll do some quick math to figure out how many I'll need and pull some more strips. The nine patches don't work too well as leaders and enders compared to four patches though because there are too many pieces to keep matched up
Even after all those nine patches, my 2.5 inch strip bin won't even think about closing. I guess I'll make a few more.
Today is the great cousin swap in reverse. I have missed my girls and can't wait to see them again. They have been having fun though, and a little separation can be a good thing. Schedules are out for the new school year along with supply lists and meeting dates. I guess it is time to start shifting gears out of summer mode.

Cushions

I spent most of last week sorting through the scrap basket and turning everything into squares and strips. I'm trying to get the study and laundry room organized again. I'm getting very close to being done with the Sister's Choice blocks, but I got sidetracked.
Kurt has decided he wants to work on redoing the toy room. We've moved out the very scary old couch and replaced it with some chairs for the kids. Now that I think about it, we ordered that couch from Montgomery Wards for our first apartment 15 years ago. When we moved into this house(5 years ago), I had intended to make cushions for the top of the toy shelves. I made a prototype, but Kurt thought it was too flat, and so we've only had the one sad little cushion for the last 5 years. So when the couch made its way to the curb, I grabbed out the cushions and cut them to fit the top of the shelves. Then I spent yesterday sewing covers for them. I was pretty happy with how they turned out, but Kurt constantly fails to be impressed with my abilities. He just looked at them and said, "Yea, but I've seen you make things lots of times." So anyway, there they are, 14 linear feet of unimpressive matching cushions.
Next on the agenda, to do something about the curtains he doesn't like because they are too hard to open and close. I wish getting the kids to pick up all the toys was on the list somewhere, but that seems to be a losing battle. We spent hours up there on Thursday and it was perfect, now it looks (again) like something exploded.

This morning we went to church to watch Anna sing her songs from VBS (vacation bible school) last week. They had a picnic afterward and Sydney has now decided that we should go to church all the time because she likes cotton candy and snow cones, even though she didn't want to sing all those songs about God.

Strung Out

The kids were up bright and early in search of Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies. They spent the morning playing with the kites and outside toys they found in their baskets. I know there aren't too many years left of happy surprises and willing suspension of disbelief. I'm glad that we all pretended, at least for today, that magic is still possible. Ryan especially is always quick to point out myths, but he was happy enough to play along with our little game. Sydney is still enthralled with the wonder of it all. I know it can't last much longer.

I have 2 borders anxiously waiting for me to make some decisions, but today was not a day for decisions. I felt a serious need for some mindless sewing.

After pulling out the last of the scraps from my men's shirt quilts, I decided to work on some string blocks. I was sure I had done quite a few already, but maybe they got used in the nursing home quilts? I had phone book pages conveniently stashed in the same tub as the scraps and dumped them into a happy heap on the floor before diving in and sewing myself silly. I decided to work with a simple diagonal layout and finished up a goodly number of blocks. With the one still sitting on the ironing board, it looks like about 25. I took pictures along the way thinking I might make a quick tutorial if anyone is interested.

When I got tired of making string blocks, I picked up the trimmings from those and started making crumb blocks. I kept the trash can handy, and anything that was too small ended up finally retired. It is fun to think about the evolution of these scraps. They started their life as shirts before being worked into quilts, the leavings of those turned into string quilts, and the last gasping fragments made their way into these humble little crumb blocks. Looking at the picutures, I can also see some scraps my neighbor left when she moved away and some partial blocks from Carolina Crossroads. I think that was the first of the mystery quilts that I did. These little guys got squared up to 6.5 inches. I think I will set them with a wide blue lattice and some bright red corner stones.

Ryan had a timeline project due tomorrow so we finished that up after dinner. The kids are all fast asleep already. Tomorrow it's back to the usual routine of school and work. Just 5 more weeks for me, 4 until the seniors are gone. I need to get summer camps and schedules all pinned down -- it will be here before I know it.

Quilt Show

I was surprised when my mother-in-law wanted to go to a quilt show together, but I was happy to oblige! had so much fun looking at all of the beautiful patterns, colors and techniques. "Mom" seemed to be having a good time too, and asked questions about the different methods we were seeing. Before long she was able to tell the difference between the hand and machine quilted tops and separate the pieced blocks from the applique. She seemed drawn to the earth tones and didn't care for the "art" quilts at all, preferring the more traditional blocks. I found myself drawn to quilts with careful value placement that gave shaded effects. I liked the way the different yellows and golds made this quilt seem to glow. I think the green contrast adds nice movement and the reversal of the color placement in the sashing strips is a nice touch. It was quilted with lots of straight lines following the diagonal.

This one had fabulous quilting in each of the stripes and gave a cool woven effect. I keep thinking I'll try a bright and black quilt sometime, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

Ryan was anxious to have an OM practice today to begin preparing for the state competition, he even volunteered to make the snack and worked diligently on blueberry muffins for everyone. They got a little carried away with the spray paint today, but started working on a box city for their dinosaurs to demolish.

Last night I got busy organizing and putting away all of the scrap squares I've been producing lately. I've used lots of two inch squares, but I still seem to have more to spare. I went ahead and sorted everything into colors because I've got a leader ender thing going that's called crayon box. It's a 16 patch with a solid ring around a white center. I am thinking about alternating it with a yellow and green square of some sort to suggest a crayola carton. I made good progress on the Scrappy Irish Chain, but in the wee hours of the morning realized that I might have made a small math error causing me to make twice as many blocks as I need. I looked up the size of a standard twin quilt, and compared that to the finished block size to determine the number of columns and row. However, I think I forgot about the fact that their are two types of blocks, thus requiring only half as many of each. I think the mistake is still recoverable, as I only got about half done with the blocks. I can put the two halves back together and end up with about the right number.

Anna and Sydney both came to cookie booths with me this morning and then wanted a picnic for lunch. I'm not sure how they managed to eat their lunch on the swing set, but they were having fun and playing well together, so I can't complain.
I was planning to stay up tonight and watch the academy awards while cutting some more scraps, but I 'm tuckered out from my late night. I think I'll curl up in bed and watch the arrivals until I fall asleep.

Slow and Steady

Sydney learned a new song in music class. It starts, "Slow and steady, always ready, I will get there some day soon." Then the second verse starts, "I'm the fastest bunny rabbit, running is my happy habit." I like to think I'm the slow and steady, but lately I've been more like the rabid rabbit.
Last night was the second quilting session for our Girl Scout Troop. We are making good progress on the quilts. I always have a bell ringer to keep the girls busy while everyone is showing up. Last night I had them work on hand sewing the bindings on the quilts we had already finished. They are all still seriously lacking the fine motor skills to handle a blind hem stitch, but they gave it a good try. It was so busy that I forgot to take pictures, but when the quilts are finished, I'll get a picture of all of the girls with their quilts. They are all pretty proud of themselves.
Tonight was the leader meeting and training for cookie sales. We don't start selling cookies until January, but there won't be any more of the service unit meetings until after then. Kurt has clients in from out of town, so he's been out with them for the past two evenings. Sydney and Ryan entertained themselves in front of the TV last night during scouts, and all three of the kids came with me to tonight's meeting. I'll have to spend some quality time with them tomorrow to make up for it, because they were all very good.
Obviously there hasn't been a lot of progress on a personal quilting front. I finished chaining together the rest of my leftover Dresden plate blades. The plan was to turn them into a couple of lap quilts, but when I finished putting them together, I stretched them up and down the stairs and there were 6 flights! I Wrapped them up around a 12 inch ruler and counted 53 feet. I guess that is a little more than a couple of lap quilts. It does demonstrate the power of leaders and enders though, all of that was "free" sewing.
I finished gathering up the trimmings from the finished lap quilts and threw everything into my scrap basket. It is overflowing with lots of good stuff. Maybe my weekend project will be sorting through and cutting some more bits and pieces. It is like meditating for me, but with pretty colors. I also ordered a couple of scrap bags from Homestead Hearth, which I had seen linked in someones blog. They had some great sale fabric and I got several cuts along with the scraps. They have been washed, and are waiting to be ironed now, so I can get them put away.
I hope you are all having a good week, there is a cold snap here, and if it doesn't end soon we may have to turn on the heat! It made me think of the snow flurries I've seen mentioned already in other people's blogs and give thanks for living in Florida where our high near 69, low in the middle 40s seems like a hardship. The kids have had to find long pants and jackets! Happy quilting to you all, and stay warm and safe.

Scrapmaster

I signed up for a scrap exchange a while ago. I have mine ready to send off, but haven't popped it in the mail yet. However, I got this fabulous package of scraps from Emily. She even included an adorable quilted card and a lovely note saying she noticed that I used lots of brights in my quilts and tried to focus on those. Thanks so much Emily!
While I was in a scrappy mode, I pulled out the scrap bin this afternoon and trimmed down some squares. I won a bag of scraps a while back on eBay and have been working my way slowly through those. It's so fun to play with all the little bits and pieces and think about how much fun it will be to put them all together. I think I'll definitely start working on my Irish Chain quilt as soon as I am ready to start another finish.
I was scheduled nonstop all day, so it was nice to sit outside today watching the kids play and sorting through my scraps. It's been a busy week so far, and I think this is the first night I haven't had to go out to a meeting of some sort. My mom called earlier to say that my nephew Zach is back in the hospital again (he came home yesterday). It isn't the bronchial problem they thought it was, so they've scheduled him for a heart catheterization tomorrow. They've moved him from the local hospital he was at previously, back to the heart center where he had his surgery a year and a half ago. If his patches are failing, they will be the best people to deal with the issue. The poor little guy has been through so much in his life, I hope this doesn't end up needing more surgery.