Muddling Through

Don 't forget to enter the giveaway from last Saturday.  I'll draw a name out of the hat before the start of ScrapHappy Saturday this week.  The lucky winner will receive a lovely collection of fabric hand-dyed by Vicki Welsh.  What better way is there to prepare for a new year than having fabulous fabric to inspire creative projects?

My sewing time hasn't been focused lately on what needs to be done, but rather on what can be done with a $99 machine.  I sewed for a lot of years with a brother from Wal-Mart, but I wasn't quite doing the same level of sewing then.  Hawaii Sunset just had a few more geese in need of finishing.  Paper piecing does well enough without a quarter inch foot, so those got crossed off the list.  I won't try putting any blocks together though, the bigger foot makes seeing intersections too difficult and the seams seem to keep getting un-nested or even flipped.  It is nice to have all the blocks finished though.  Every step is a little closer to a finished quilt.
I can do crumbs and strings well enough, so I think next on the list will be to finish the blocks for Bonny's Anniversary quilt.   We need to prepare some fabric for photo printing as well which will take a bit of time.

The semester is starting to wind down and I am anxious to get some serious sewing done during the break.  Just 10 more Dear Jane blocks in the center section! How cool would it be to have all of them done this year?  There are two quilts waiting for borders, Midgets and Jamestown.  Getting the quilting machine fired up would be so much fun right now.  Until then though, I still have a bit of binding to get done. 

Making a List

I spent some time in the sewing room this morning taking stock.  It is always nice to start the new year with an idea of what to look forward to.  I pondered that today as I tried to make a list of all of the things I might be working on this year.  Some are in WIP (works in progress), some are UFOs (unfinished fabric objects), and some are NSY (not started yet).  While making the list, it occurred to me that I hadn't worked on my Blue Dear Jane in quite a while.  I'm not sure why it got put on the back burner, probably needing to clean up for company.  Still, making the list has inspired me to pull it out again and take a few stitches.  I'm sure I can find a block to finish off this evening before I pull out some school work to finish off.  Just one more week of school before the winter holiday.  Time to cross everything off my school to do list for the semester!

I hope you have a few minutes during the busy holiday season to sit quietly with some handwork.  Head over to Kathy's Quilts to see what other hand sewers are working on this weekend.  

Sunday Sewing Time

I've been putting off serious sewing until my machine comes home again.  Since that hasn't happened yet, I decided to do some crumb sewing today.  When we went to North Carolina over Labor Day weekend for my in-laws 50th wedding anniversary, I brought along some fabric squares and collected signatures and well-wishes.  Kurt wants me to get the quilt done sooner rather than later now that his mom has started chemotherapy.  We have some pictures as well, from the party as well as from the wedding to add into the quilt.  It is still evolving, but at least I made a start.

This was the original inspiration quilt.  It is an antique that Bonny got when her mom passed away several years ago.  She isn't sure who made the quilt originally, but it has been passed through the family for many years.  

Scraphappy Saturday GIVEAWAY!

One of the nice things about the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is that there is always next year.  Unless you have run out of scraps, anything you don't finish this year can just get rolled over to the new year.  I've been hosting the challenge for a while now, and I haven't run out of scraps yet.  With my machine STILL in the shop since November 2nd, planning for a fresh start is what I do best.  Along with each new start though, is the chance to add in new and exciting elements.
The most exciting plan in the works for a new year of the RSC is that there will be giveaways next year from our first ever sponsor, Vicki Welsh!   There is a button on the right sidebar that takes you to her Etsy Shop where she sells so many beautiful hand dyed fabrics in all of the colors of the rainbow.  She also blogs at Field Trips in Fiber where you can see some of the lovely creations she sews with her fabrics.  Please go visit her and let her know how excited we are about her participation.
There will be a giveaway each month.  To participate, just leave a comment about what you plan to do with the fabric if you win on the post announcing the giveaway.  I'll check back next Saturday and announce the winner.  As for me, I'm already a winner!  In addition to the giveaway fabric Vicki was kind enough to send me some fabulous fabric for me to keep.  It has been killing me not to have a machine with all that hand dyed loveliness waiting for me.  As for what I plan to do with it though?  Flying geese immediately came to mind.  I found a free pattern here that might work, or I could even draw up my own design.
So, please feel free to link up if you have rainbow scrappiness to share, but also leave me a comment so that I can get ready for the first giveaway!  Good luck.

Just a Taste

What a week it has been already!  After the big Lego tournament this weekend, last night was the final Academic Team match. Following a fabulous season, we finished a disappointing second place in the championship match.  Still, we came home with two trophies and two students going on to the state competition.  I will be one of the coaches again.  Fortunately though, practices for that won't start until after the winter break.  We are all slogging through the last week before exams and then a nice break.  I am still buried in school work, but spent a few minutes in protest tonight getting a tiny start on step 2 of the solstice mystery.  Still avoiding the sewing part until my machine comes home again, but cutting and drawing lines is a simple diversion.

Slowing Down Now

 At the end of a long and busy weekend, it feels to good to just sit for a few minutes.  Thanks to my handy bobbin ring and tin of sewing supplies, everything I need to finish off the binding for the Green Crossroads quilt is ready to go.

I am sitting here in the light of a partially decorated Christmas tree planning on a little slow Sunday stitching.  I'm waiting for Kurt to move the ladder to the other side of the tree so that I can get decorations on the other top half.  The girls and I have just gotten back from a movie, grocery trip and hair cuts.  Frozen was just adorably cute.  It even kept me surprised and avoided all of the really predictable Disney plot lines.  Be sure to visit Kathy's Quilts and see what slow Sunday handwork everyone else has going on.  

Lego Tournament

 Yesterday was jam packed with the Lego Tournament.  Ryan and Anna are both on the team together this year along with four other boys from the school.  Sydney had a birthday party in the middle so it was interspersed with lots of driving around.

 They all took turns running the robot during each of the three matches.  Everything went just as planned, and our high score of 246 points earned us a trophy for the robot challenge.  There are 3 other categories though for technical design, presentation of research and core values.

In the end we ended up as one of three teams who qualified to go on to the regional tournament in February.  We have already signed up for another qualifying tournament in January, so that one will be good practice to get all of the parts in tip top shape.
It was a lot of fun, but such a long and loud day!   Academic team will have their district tournament tomorrow.  Looks like the last couple of weeks before winter break will be busy busy busy.  The girls want to see Frozen today and the boys are off for an afternoon on Dungeons and Dragon.   Sewing?  Still hasn't popped up to the top of the list.  

ScrapHappy Saturday Roundup Month

This is the time of year to start thinking about finishing things up.  Did you miss a month along the way?  Do you have a quilt in need of just a block or two more?  To celebrate the end of the year I got out one of my favorite rainbow scrap quilts from last year.  This came from a collection of crumb squares.  I was hesitant to include the black and brown blocks at first, but I think they add a lot to the quilt.
We are off at a Lego Robotics Tournament today.  I'm a bit buried in school work as well, but I am still hoping to find a bit of time to sew -- just not sure when.  Hopefully things will start to wind down soon for the winter break.  Just one more week of regular class work and then semester exam prep will begin.
What are you up to on this glorious scrappy Saturday?  Use misterlinky below to share your progress on 2013.  Or if you prefer, you can even start to ponder your plans for 2014.  Next week I'll tell you about our sponsor for the new year and the great giveaways that I have planned.  It looks like next year is already shaping up to be fabulous.

Its a Start

My sewing room was getting to the stage where it was so cluttered I just wanted to avoid it.  I was thinking I'd do a big clean-up when my sewing machine came home again, but that has not happened yet.  She has been in the shop for over a month now!  I got a call two weeks ago saying the front cover was broken and they needed authorization to order a new one.  They assured me it would be ready yesterday.  Then today I got a call saying that the front cover broke because the something screw was broken and they needed authorization to order a new one of those.  Seriously?  I don't think they understand what it is like to be without a sewing machine for so long when I am used to sewing on a regular basis.  I tried to express this to them, but they didn't seem to get it.  Kind of odd for people that run a quilt shop, right?
So I have some tape marking the quarter inch seam on Anna's machine and I decided I needed to sew at least a little.  Step one of my mystery quilt is all cut out, and the first two sets of 10 are sewn and pressed.  I had fun digging into my nicely color coordinated bags of scraps for useable sizes.  I hope I don't use them all up before the new Rainbow Scrap Challenge starts in January!  OK, so that isn't likely, but it was nice to revisit the ghosts of quilts past.  I used lots of nice blues leftover from the  4th of July quilt from two summers ago, and some lovely fabrics leftover from Smith Mountain.  I even did enough straightening that the sewing room is useable again.  

Shout Out

I had a question about how to make a button.  I really am not an expert, but I found a nice "Grab my Button" code generator here: http://www.mycoolrealm.com/sandbox/gbgen/
After using Picasa to put some letters on top of a picture, I posted the picture on a blog post so that it would have a url. The code generator worked great and made quick work of making the html code that then pasted into an html generator on blogger.  It might work differently if you are not on blogger, I am not an expert by any measure though, so If I can do it, you surely can too.