Shoot for the Moon

This one was finished a little bit ago, but I never hung it up for a photo.  I was going through making a list of finished quilts for the year and didn't find many.  I dug a little deeper though and started adding to the list.  This poor little quilt sat on the quilting frame for months.  I'm glad it is done.  

4 Months on the Frame

 I can't remember ever leaving a quilt on the frame for so long.  Life does get in the way of quilting though, and a project set aside is easy to leave after a while. I'm not sure if I'll try to bind this one right away or start the great sewing room clean up.  Tomorrow is a school holiday in any case, so I'll have another day to play.

 Here is the back, a random assortment of blue squares that made a big dent in the scrap bin.  I'm headed off to Boston for a work trip on Thursday, so I really should start to think about finding some warm clothes to pack.  A group of 5 teachers from our county is going to a workshop on brain based learning.  I am really excited to go even though it is another day out of the classroom.  My students seem to miss me which is nice of them.  

What Next?

One of the best parts of the weekend is that big sigh of relief on Friday afternoon followed by the giddy thought of being able to pull out a project and work guilt free for a while. I've been volunteering in Anna's classroom on Fridays, doing hands on science. As soon as that was done, I headed home and started hunting for my weekend project.My midget blocks called to me, I still have that new paper piecing template I drafted for the last block that I want to try out. Yes, this is number one on the want to do list if not the should do list.
My leader's and enders have gotten out of hand and need to be sorted and ironed and such. That wouldn't take long and would help things look a little less chaotic. Definitely on the list for the weekend, but maybe not first up.
The bed has magically attracted lots of extra stuff; mending, fabric, all sorts of miscellaneous junk that seems to land here. This must be done before the new carpet shows up on Tuesday.

Anna is really anxious for me to finish her quilt. It's going to take some thought tough, and it might be beyond the scope of my mental capabilities at the end of a long week.
This scrap quilt has been hanging on the wall for a while now. It wouldn't take long to whip it together into a flimsy.

Yes, that is the winner. When in doubt, pick off the low lying fruit and grab the one ready for a quick finish. I've got two quilts put together into flimsies now that need to be ironed. I hope redbox has something good so that I can have a little ironing party tomorrow. After that I'm going to cross some more off of the ought to be done list.

Little Bits of Lots of Things

If I had chosen a focus project for the weekend, I'm sure I could have made good progress, maybe even finished something off. As it was, I chipped away at lots of projects and puttered around the house. It was a nice and relaxing way to spend a rainy holiday. This morning I got out the GO cutter and turned the extras from yesterday's moon fabric into string blocks. I'll take the extras from that, sew them together again and make some crumb blocks next. Using the 6.5 inch die is a nifty way of making strings without all that messy paper and flipping and sewing. These are all yellow and will eventually turn into a monochromatic string quilt (Amy suggested String Cheese for a name -- isn't that cute?).
Working here and there I got the words for the moon quilt put together into two big blocks with a moon and a star. I'll let this one continue to simmer and figure out what comes next in the light of day. Anna doesn't want a lot of different fabrics, but if I had know the background was going to be consistent, I would have used different yellows in the letters. It's all going to be very uniform and even if she sticks to her guns. It is her quilt though, so if she wants to to be boring, so be it. I'm trying to subtly sneak some variety in there without her noticing.
Next up, with the design wall empty, I took a lint roller to it and then rotated one to put up another. Now I've got lots more room to play so I threw up my current L&E project (another 4 squared) along with the nine patches for Mom's shams and the leftovers from my last few projects. While pondering all of that, I sewed the brown and green pinwheels together. They were the bonus blocks for the Sage Blossom quilt that was a baby shower gift. I don't seem to have enough of any of the others to make a statement yet, so they may all go into the orphan bin for a bit. I'm sure eventually something will grow into a quilt. Sewing is funny that way, isn't it? Make enough quilts and eventually something will come from the leftovers, much like the volunteer tomatoes that thrive in the compost pile.

Design Floor on Monday

I spent most of yesterday putting the words together for Anna's Shoot for the Moon quilt. I measured the top of her bed and taped it out onto the floor to make sure the blocks would fit the right way. I thought I would fill in the empty spaces with 5 inch blue squares. Now that I see it all together though, it seems a little busy. I asked Anna what she thought (it is her quilt after all) and she wants just the same blue fabric from the words to fill in all the space on the top. It's a good thing I got lots of blue fabric! I think I'll do several borders, but just along the three sides. The top of the bed fits against the wall and the pillow will go on top of that part. Maybe by the end of the day I'll have the top part done and be ready to start on borders.

Moon Block

Anna has been asking when I was going to finish her quilt. We are in the process of getting new carpet, and I will have to move the quilting machine out of the study for a while. I am thinking about using the move as an opportunity to set it up full size and quilt a couple of BIG quilts that I have in the works. This one will need to be queen sized, so it will be one of those projects.

I spent most of today getting the words put together and then decided to take a break before inserting the punctuation to make the moon. Out came the yellow crumbs and strings! The study looks a little frightening right now, but I produced LOTS of yellow crumb fabric in the process of getting enough for this 19 inch moon block. The carpet guy is going to be here at 4 to get the contract signed, so I'd better get moving.

Anna made dinner last night while Kurt was away at his football thing. Grilled cheese with instant mashed potatoes and fruit kabobs. She did it all by herself and even set the table with pretty china and candles.

Design Wall Monday, August 2, 2010

I didn't make any progress on my letters yesterday. I needed more of the blue background. I did go out to buy that, but it started a frenzy of washing and ironing and cutting. I finally reached the bottom of my scrap basket! Now I can get back to work on the letters and make a few more stars.
Go see what other people are working on at Judy L's Design Wall Monday

Something New

The best part of finishing a project is the guilt free beginning of something new. This one isn't entirely new. I've had the fabric collected together for a while now, and I started with a couple of star blocks last week. Today I started on the letters though and they are all done, but not put together yet. This quilt is one that Anna requested. Her room is moons and stars and she chose the saying and requested wonky stars like the ones in this quilt. The design is still under construction, but I'm thinking that "shoot for the moon" will go in the upper left corner, maybe followed by a dot dot dot. Then the lower right corner will have "even if you miss, you will land among the stars. Then at the top I'm thinking of making a big moon out of yellow and orange crumbs. then the bottom half will have the star blocks randomly sprinkled around among a varied blue background. I'd like all of that to fit on the top of the bed, so I might do a border of yellow stars for the overhang part of the bed.
Kurt was off today, giving me time to work though it was still sprinkled in with looking after the kids. We had lots of friends over and it was quite loud all day. He was nice enough to take them all to Hobby Lobby tonight and all is calm and quiet at the moment. I think I'll settle down with the remote control and hand sew some binding. Maybe I'll tidy a bit first. Wonky letters are lots of fun, but they sure do make a mess.

Design Wall Monday July 12

Happy Monday. I am feeling so good about finishing off the June Mystery Quilt to be named later that I couldn't wait to jump in to a new quilt. Anna has been reminding me lately that I owe her a quilt, so I started in on that first thing. I had to shuffle Anna off to VBS first, but I rushed home and got in these three blocks before it was time to pick her up again. Just as we were getting ready to load everyone up and head out the door, the FedEx man showed up with TWO big boxes. One was a game table for Ryan's birthday with some assembly required. But the other was my brand new accuquilt GO! No assembly required on that one. As soon as we all got back home again it was opened up and cutting scraps into bits and pieces. Now I'm running around in circles trying to figure out what to do next. I want to cut fabric with my new toy, but I need to get myself a little organized and figure out what I'm going to cut and what I'm going to do with the pieces. I have lots of ideas of course, but right now I'm lacking the discipline to focus and plan. Aren't new toys fun?
Anna had an appointment for some testing this afternoon so we all went out for ice cream as treat when it was done. Del's freeze is one of the first places I went to when we moved to town. I signed up for a prenatal aerobics class while pregnant with Anna and we used to get ice cream when it was done. Nothing could be funnier than a gaggle of big pregnant ladies at an ice cream shop. Put's an image in your head, doesn't it?