Less Than Perfect

Any directions that start with a request to measure 14 squares 1 and 3/8 inches and cut them in half to yield 24 HST pieces is bound to lead to trouble. I pieced as carefully as I could and tried to iron gingerly, but the toes of the bear paw turned out considerably larger than the paw portion. If I were smart or patient I would have measured carefully and fixed it before sewing the different parts together. The bus was coming though, and I wanted to get it done before the kids got home from school.
The little toes are all turned the wrong way as well as being ruffled and uneven. While the kids were doing there homework I drafted a paper piecing pattern. Maybe that will give me better results.

The girls and I worked on a puzzle together while it rained yesterday. Tropical storm Nicole turned to the east and we didn't see much more than a heavy rain. We found a puzzle with three sizes of pieces all together. I worked on the small while Sydney did the large and Anna tried the medium. Anna gave up pretty quickly, but Sydney finished up for her and then helped me with mine.

Tropical Drama

It's never a good thing when Jim Cantore from the Weather Channel comes to town. I thought it just rained a lot this afternoon. I didn't think much of it until DH checked out the radar and said it was a tropical system headed this way. Popped up out of nowhere. I'm sitting here watching the tornado warnings wondering if it is going to turn into anything worth worrying about. It's been quiet for a while. If this is the worst weather we get this year I will be happy.

Giveaway

Micki over at Irish Muses is having a giveaway of a cool looking book called Miniatures in Minutes. Given my recent fascination with small quilt blocks, it looks like it would be right up my alley. Go and check it out, tell her I sent you.

Moving Along

I have lots of projects that have been abandoned along the wayside. I just keep plugging away at my midget blocks though. This one is number 33. It is called Merry Go Round.

I was ready to come home after work today and take a quick power nap. Instead I decided to just whip up a quick little block. That's one of the nice things about these little fellows, they are bite sized. Last night was Academic Team, so I dashed out the door as soon as Kurt was home and got home in time to snuggle into bed for the night. I don't think there is anything on the books tonight, but I got a new book from the library that I've been enjoying, so I might snuggle up with that and have a quiet home night.

Set In Sunday

Does anybody actually enjoy set in seams? I know you are supposed to do them by hand, but I never feel that my hand stitching is sturdy enough and so I use my machine anyway. I had one little mishap and sewed the long sides together instead of the short sides, but I got those back apart and put together block 32 without further mishaps. It didn't want to lie flat when it was done. But the iron and I worked together to convince it that it was the right thing to do. OK, so it may not be the flatest, squarest block I've ever done. But I guess that's why they invented the saying, "finished is better than perfect."
Ryan had his first football game of the new season today. Here is Kurt doing his coaches thing during the huddle. Isn't he cute? After that was an OM practice. This morning I took the girls to see Legends of the Guardians. It's the one in 3-D with the owls. You know it is a tried and tested premise when an 11 year old thinks the plot is predictable. In between the fun stuff it was just laundry and cleaning of the house. Sunday is pizza night and then the girls and I worked on a puzzle. Just a regular old weekend around here.

By the Numbers

Midget Block 31 has 64 pieces in a finished square of 4.5 inches. It is called Painted Star of Many Points. So far I have completed 31 blocks with a total of 982 pieces using 83 different fabrics.
This block was paper pieced, with 20 different subunits! They all came together at goofy angles with lots of sharp points that could get cut off accidentally. I procrastinated starting this block all day long. It looked scary and so I delayed. I printed out the next 30 blocks and made a list of fabrics to buy. I added up the pieces and counted fabrics. I took the girls out to lunch and with dessert and a trip to the craft store . Finally I ran out of other things to do and decided to get started. After all of that, it wasn't such a bad block to put together. Paper piecing is very methodical. The pieces are numbered, the subunits are labeled. One bit follows another in a very predictable manner. Little bits add together to make bigger bits, and eventually it all puzzles together to make a cute little block.
Ryan tied for third in his chess tournament today. He won 4 games and lost one. Somehow with a three way tie, he brought home a 5th place trophy. It's always nice to win a trophy. The girls picked out some dollhouse furniture at the craft store and spent the afternoon playing peacefully in the toyroom. Sydney wanted to make dinner all by herself. She took orders for sandwiches and served it with a side of popcorn and grapes. Not a bad day at all in my opinion.

Prep Work

I've been prepping the house for new carpet for a couple of weeks now. I'm not sure why the new carpet hasn't shown up yet, but the house is getting all organized, dusted and painted in the interim. This morning I thought I'd switch gears and prep some more midget blocks. One afternoon this week I started pulling fabric and matching it with blocks until I started to run out of some things (like page protectors and solid accent fabrics. Today I sat down and went through the next batch of blocks, making a list of fabrics to fill in the gaps and then printing foundation papers or freezer paper templates along the way.
I made my first midget block on August 3rd and we are now getting close to October. I've got the the first 30 blocks finished already, though the rate of completion has slowed considerably since school started again. I still think I'm OK on my goal to make two blocks a week though, so that is a good thing. Kurt has taken Ryan to an all day chess tournament leaving me with the girls. They would like to go to Hobby Lobby and look at the doll house furniture. Sounds like a great plan, I'll take my list and see If I can find some fabric while we are there. I hope you are all finding a few minutes today to do something fun and creative. Best wishes for a happy weekend.

Funny Story

I wasn't feeling up to cooking last night, so we decided to go out to dinner. After much discussion and debate we decided to go to Pizzeria Uno. We told the kids to load up the car and Kurt and I went around checking all the doors before heading out. The girls were complete chatterboxes all the way to the restaurant, telling us about their days at school. When we arrived we got out and waited for the kids to pile out of the car. Out came the girls, still chattering away as we all looked expectantly at the door, waiting for Ryan to come out. One two.... oh no, not a third in sight. He wasn't with us!
Engrossed in playing with his DS, he didn't hear us tell him to hop into the car. With a sinking feeling I grabbed the cell phone and shouted into the answering machine until he came to the phone. He didn't even realize we had left! It didn't seem to concern him that he was home alone and he asked if he could keep playing his DS until we got back again. I offered to keep talking to him on the phone until we got back again so he would have company, but he thought that was just silly. Zipping home again, I rushed into the house with the guilty feeling that I had unknowingly abandoned my child. He finally stopped playing his game long enough to remark, "You have returned for your long lost son abandoned at home." He smiled his goofy little grin and told me that he had evolved his Halcyon while we were gone and then asked if he could keep playing his game on the way to eat dinner. I wonder if he is scarred for life?

Last Hurah of the Weekend

I spent yesterday scrubbing baseboards and touching up the paint in the upstairs hallway. Today for an encore I spackled, sanded and painted three closets. I was pretty much done by the time the guys headed off for football practice and settled in to sew some binding and watch a movie with Sydney. I was tempted to head straight to bed as soon as the kids were settled, but I thought it would be nice to do some sewing today. Block 30 was next and didn't look too scary. Just four little nine patches with a log cabin border and some triangle corners. The pattern called for cutting the corners off of the little white strips first, but I thought they might turn out better if I just sewed the white all the way around and then trimmed them down. I'm not sure if it helped or not, but done is the best kind of block of all so I'm calling it good enough.
Kurt was nice enough to take a picture for me. As you can see, he has settled in to watch some football this evening. I keep thinking that I should learn to enjoy football for the sake of being social, but it has just never clicked with me. I'm off to call it a night nice and early tonight. This week looks like it will be a busy one, so I'd better rest now.

Necessary Tedium

I teach at an Episcopal school and the reverend starts each faculty meeting with a prayer about how we are gathering in "necessary tedium". Crossing things off the organizational list isn't exciting, but I find it strangely satisfying. One tiny bit of the universe has been restored to some sort of tidiness, however fleeting it might be.
We have new carpet on order and though they installers will move all the furniture and put it back when they are done, dealing with the clutter and mess that can accumulate under beds and in closets is far beyond the scope of their job. That gives me 7 to 10 days to get it all taken care of.
Today I tackled the wrapping supplies that live under our bed. The kids enjoy wrapping presents and are not always careful to put everything back when they are done. So this morning Sydney helped me and we sorted stacked and purged. Isn't it much nicer now?
We have a birthday party to go to this morning, but maybe this afternoon I can clear out Sydney's closet. She was doing pull ups on the clothes bar last weekend and started the disassembling process early. They can lay the carpet around closet organizers, but I thought it would be nicer to pull them out and then put them back on top of the new carpet when it is down. The girls only have one unit each in thier closets, so that isn't a big deal. Our closet hast 4 different parts though, so that will be a bit of a chore. At least it is nicely organized though and has already been purged and sorted. It isn't exciting, but it is needed work and I always feel better when it is done.