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.

Lizzie Helps Me Quilt

I was going to do a linear sort of water type pattern on square root. It seemed too tight in the border though, so I switched to a bigger wobbly sort of spiral pattern. I'm trying to keep the quilting lines about finger to thumb width apart. I think it's going pretty quickly. Lizzie came in to keep me company. She isn't allowed in the quilting room, but I had to take a quick photo before I kicked her out.



I've just gotten far enough that all the batting is up off the floor and I'm trying to decide whether to go and finish it up tonight of come back to it in the morning.

Happy 4th

I hope everyone in the US is having a happy holiday. We were at a neighbors pool party and barbecue this afternoon. The kids had lots of fun swimming and water sliding and playing soccer. We had planned to go north to watch the fireworks like we do every year, but it is very rainy right now. I'm sure it will stop eventually, but it is a bit of a drive and then you have to park and walk quite a distance and it just doesn't seem like much fun in the damp. Honestly, after just getting back from a trip, I'm not in a hurry to go anywhere right now.

I managed (eventually) to get square root onto the reassembled frame today. Ask me how many ways there are to incorrectly load a quilt onto a frame-- I am now familiar with them all! I don't know why I found it so difficult to get everything going in the right direction. Maybe my mind is still on vacation. I think all is well now. I'm watching Wipeout with the kids right now. Some actual quilting will done as soon as they head to bed. They've made a tent in the toy room and are planning to sleep there as consolation for the missed fireworks.

Post Vacation

5 empty suitcases, 5 loads of clean laundry, 3 sleeping children and 1 dog who is happy to be home. Life after vacation is getting back to normal. Sydney got a book on making towel animals as a souvenir, so maybe a little bit of vacation will carry on for a while. So far she has made us a dog, a bat and an elephant.
I emptied the camera, but we didn't take that many pictures while we were away. Most of the shore excursions were wet, so we didn't end up bringing the camera along that much. I did get this one of the boat as we went from the waterfall to the dolphin cove on Jamaica. We had a waterproof camera while we were climbing, so hopefully some of those will turn out.


I took this one as we were leaving stingray city in Grand Cayman. The kids had enjoyed the stingrays so much when we took them on a cruise three years ago that they wanted to go again. This was basically a big sandbar in the middle of nowhere with lots and lots of stingrays. Again,we carried a waterproof camera, so we'll have to wait on those photos. Now that I think of it, I've got pictures on my phone as well, so maybe I'll get those off tomorrow and try to cobble together some sort of cohesive story.


I can't have a post on a quilt blog without something quilt related somewhere, so here is a picture of square root which has its borders on now. It doesn't show up much in the picture, but the border is a blue and white stripe. I didn't want to mess with trying to miter the stripes or cut them so they would match up. Instead I just made some cornerstones. The extra bits and pieces are sewn together to make a little stripe for the back. I will get it on the frame in the morning as soon as I get it all reassembled. Everything got put away for company before the cruise. We were traveling with Kurt's family and they all came to spend a night here before we departed.

Back Home at Last

In case you were wondering where I'd been for the past week, we took the family on a cruise vacation. I didn't announce it ahead of time, because they say that is just inviting people to come and rob your house while you are away. (As if quilt blog readers are out on the prowl for houses to burgularize:-0) We are home safe and sound now though, and starting the post vacation recovery process. I'll post photos as soon as I manage to unpack the camera.
It was a 6 day trip to Key West, Grand Cayman and Jamaica, full of lots of fun excursions and time with all the family. I'm working through blogs now to see what everyone has been up to. I did take handwork along, and managed to finish three dishcloths and 1.5 stitcheries, but I have missed my machines and my sewing space.