Happy Birthday

Ryan wanted to see Despicable Me for his birthday and have dinner out. He and Kurt designed his birthday cake to look like a Baukugan (400 Gs!). We spent the rest of the evening by the pool watching the kids swim. There is a meet tomorrow and they were "practicing". Even though it was hot during the day, sitting under the fan in the shade it was quite pleasant. I got a whole basket of 2.5 inch squares matched up for leaders and enders while they splashed. Everyone is fast asleep now and I'm off to do some ironing. Maybe I'll get some borders done tonight, or maybe I'll have an early night too.

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.

Thrifty Thursday

I get such a kick out of Tool Time Tuesday and Wordless Wednesday that I thought I would try my own version called Thrifty Thursday. I am going to be talking about inexpensive or free items that can be used for crafting. I'm not sure if all the ideas will be quilt related, but I'll see how things develop.
Today I am featuring Lunchable containers. Most Mom's know what these are, all too convenient little lunches with lots of packaging and little nutritional value. I don't let the kids eat them often, but with trips to the beach, zoo and parks in the summer, it is an easy and quick meal on the go. Most of the little containers have dividers for meat and cheese and could be useful for craft projects like beading or painting. The one I like though, is a little bigger at 5 by 7 by 3 inches and is just the perfect size for holding little quilt squares in various stages of construction. I have one next to the machine holding squares ready to be sewn and another with the sewn squares ready to go to the ironing board. Another holds the ironed blocks ready to be put away or used. They are just the right size to fit in my plastic organizer drawers, so when I collect a few more I might use them to separate squares or scraps by color or value. If you don't have kids or don't let them eat lunchables, look at the packaging on the foods that you do buy, are there any that are a convenient size or shape to work for you? Maybe a strawberry basket, a chip tin or a bakery container? Give it some thought next time you are shopping or browsing your pantry.
So do you have thrifty ideas to share? Send me your thoughts, and if I feature them on a future post, I will find a thrifty little gift to send to you. Maybe a square of recycled fabric or a nifty gadget. Leave me a comment or send me an e-mail. I hope you are all having a thrifty day.

Shirts Deconstructed

I finally got around to the shirts that I picked up at Goodwill on Saturday. I have it down to a science now. A little tub or trash can sits at my feet along with a cup for the buttons. The seams and scraps get dropped down while I harvest the pieces of fabric.
I'm not sure yet what I'll do with these. I am thinking of saving it to use with the Go Cutter when it comes in, hopefully soon. I got a really good price on ebay along with free shipping on the 4th of July. I even found a tumbler die, and it all added up to almost exactly the same amount as the change from the basket.
I took the kids to see Marmaduke this afternoon and there was a great quilt hanging on the wall at the beginning of the movie. I kept looking for it every time someone walked past. It had great fall colors with two different backgrounds, one a darker beige that looked almost tea died. I so wished I could hit pause and check it out. It was a modified nine patch alternating with a sashed square for an Irish chain type effect. I get such a kick out of seeing quilts in movies. We all ate so much popcorn that nobody was very hungry for dinner.

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.

In a Bind

Today I was ready to be bound and tied. No, I really was just ready to sew down binding. This is my highly scientific method of figuring out whether I have enough binding made. I cut two strips for the long sides and one for the short sides and then throw in an extra just in case.


And here are the three quilts that are now ready for the hand sewing stage. Square Root is on the bottom, followed by Crumb Cake in the middle and Four Square on top. I should have plenty of hand sewing for the next few evenings.

Square Root Needs Binding

Added to the ever growing "needs binding" list, here is Square Root. The sun shining through lets you see you back at the same time as the front. Maybe I should hang it backwards to I can shoot from the other side of the pool?

Here is a shot of the back so you can see the quilting a little bit. it kind of looks like a topographic map to me. I just cut up a pile of binding strips, so I guess I will work on that a while. There was a Royal Pains marathon on TV while we were away, so I have entertainment for hours of handwork just sitting in the DVR waiting. I think the main goal for today though is to get my sewing room organized a bit more. I have a bunch of those plastic drawer organizers that I am going to use to hold precut strips and squares. They are in bins now in the laundry room, but I thought they might be more accessible sitting under the quilting frame. There is certainly a lot of room there. I guess whatever it is I'm going to do, I'd better get started. Have a happy Monday, it should be a nice three day weekend for those in the U.S. that still work during the summers. For me it looks a lot like yesterday which will look a lot like most days for the next 5 weeks. Sigh, summer is half gone. I'd better get busy.

Square Root Quilted

I decided to go ahead and finish the quilting tonight. Tomorrow is still officially a holiday so I can sleep in late. I was trying to decoratively drape it over a chair to get a picture, but Lizzie wouldn't budge. So here is a non decorative picture with a little extra personality. I guess binding will be the job for tomorrow. I think I still have two more on the list.