Found Minutes

I usually get up at 7:15 and spend most of the next 45 minutes getting ready for my day. I do some toning exercises, get washed up and dressed and do some puttering around the house if I have a few extra minutes. We both leave our houses at 8:00, meeting somewhere between them, and then walk for a minimum of an hour, usually an hour and a half and sometimes as much as two. I enjoy these walks, I need these walks. What I don't like about them is they feel like time that could be spent doing something more productive.

It's an especially prevalent feeling when I know I have a lot do. In addition to the morning walk, I had planned on walking to the store this afternoon. Weather permitting I'll still do that, but this morning I have some "found minutes" Usually I'm still walking at this time, but now I've had my breakfast, read my email, am working on updating my blogs and have moved my bedroom TV to my sewing area for the day.

The quilting is coming along. Topper number 9 is ready for binding, number 10 only needs the quilted braid finished and then binding and number 11 is ready to baste. The plan for today is to bind numbers 9 and 10 and baste 11, quilt some on 11, and perhaps begin applique on number 12.

It's rather humid today so I don't think I'll be quilting on the album quilt, but I really need to get going on that. While I used to be much better at working at more than one thing at a time, that is something that has gotten harder as I'm getting older. It's one reason I've been pounding away at the toppers because I'm afraid that the album quilt won't really get much attention until they are finished.

I hope to make a serious dent in the toppers between now and Sunday night. Tomorrow afternoon I babysit, for my usual little guy, plus 2 or 3 of my friend's kids. Friday afternoon a friend is taking me to lunch and Saturday night my husband is taking me out for dinner. As much as I look forward to all of these, in the back of my mind is how it will eat into my quilting time, LOL.

This is not new, though. I have quilting on the brain. Always. I used to take a reading break in the summer, and from Christmas into January. I didn't really plan it that way, it would just happen. Usually because I had been pounding away at projects for various reasons and just needed a break. It's been quite a while since I've done that. Though I may take a day or two here and there, it's rare that I go a day without at least a few minutes of sewing time.

I don't have any new pictures to show since I've been working on the same thing for so long, but I do have some new Ruthie pictures! She just loves to be outside, but weather has not been kind this year. With all the rain, it's either raining or everything is pretty wet. We get her out every chance that we get.


This child can sleep absolutely anwhere and in any position. Here she is hanging off the chair, LOL, her feet are several inches off of the floor!

So now it's time to run, I have oodles to do today and want to use my "found minutes" wisely. Hopefully my next post will have news of several more completely finished toppers! Happy Quilting!
Sue and Ruthie

New Blog

I've become involved in a joint effort health and fitness blog here on blogspot. We have several women with different areas of knowledge and we are each writing about our health, fitness and weightloss experiences. It's a private blog, so to gain access please comment and I'll add you.

Hope to see you there!

Sue

Down to the Wire

I didn't realize that it's been so long since I posted, unfortunately I don't have nearly as much done as I should have for how much time has passed. Topper number 9 only needs binding, but I'm having trouble locating the fabric I've been using. I must have done an "I'll put it here so I know where it is" trick, so, of course, I have no idea what I've done with it.

Topper number 10 should be basted today, I only have a few leaves and the centers left to applique. The remaining background pieces are all marked and all of the flower and leaf pieces are cut and basted (except for 20 leaves, I ran out of greens in the olive-y family so will have to get another small piece when I shop next week.) I also pulled out enough of the right color beads so the actual sewing is all that is left on them, which does speed up the process.

I haven't touched the album quilt, it's now weighing heavily, but with 6 weeks to go I still do have time to finish everything. The wrinkle in the plan is that the day after my parents party, all my husband siblings and his mom come into town for a family reunion. Since we are the only locals, our house will be a gathering spot which means I have some extra work to do to get the house presentable. Though I'm not one who feels everything has to be perfect, I do have some measure of pride!

Ruthie is making strides by leaps and bounds of late, she's adding new words to her vocabulary every day and has to be right in the thick of things. With all the comings and goings here, she's kept quite busy and entertained.

One of my favorite things in the summertime is to sit outside and sew with a fire going in our firepit. I try to keep marshmallows on hand for the kids, this is Ruthie's first year really enjoying that tradition. Last year she really wasn't interested.

This coming week we have some beautiful weather forecast so I'm hoping to have a few more such afternoon/evenings this week. Hopefully that means a nice burst of work on the toppers and maybe some on the album quilt when I come back inside.

For now it's time to run. The Cubs/White Sox game is on TV and we're camped downstairs watching. The windows are open and it's a lovely day, once the game is over if the chairs outside have dried off, we may just move outside and enjoy a fire and the beautiful breeze. Until next time, happy quilting!

Sue

Resurgence of Energy

It seems the last few weeks it has been difficult for me to focus and get much of anything accomplished. With the older kids all settling into their new relationships, the younger kids enjoying the outdoors, and in general things feeling a bit less chaotic, I've found my energy and motivation again.

After bouncing up and down the same few pounds for the last few months, I'm back on my eating plan minus all the little cheats that were holding me back. I'm hoping to have at least 10 more pounds off by early August, when both of our families are having big reunions.

I was also having trouble staying motivated with my quilting, not a good thing when I have a good sized quilt to quilt and 16 toppers to have finished by August 2nd. I finished topper number 8 yesterday, so now half of them are done. I also cut all the freezer paper pieces for the remaining 8, have adhere all but 20 leaves to the fabric (I have to find another piece of green that works with my already made vine for those last 20 leaves) and most of them are now cut down and ready for basting. Today and tomorrow I'll be finishing the prepwork on those and also marking the last 8 tops so they are ready for applique. With all the prepwork done, the last 8 toppers should move along more quickly than did the first eight. I'm still also working on my strip pieced project, there are only a few pieces left to sew on each block but there are 288 blocks! I work on this when it's too hot and sticky to do handwork or I just need a bit of a break from it. Since it appears I don't have any larger quilts to make this Christmas, I have a couple of my own larger quilts earmarked for quilting once the anniversary party items are completed.

I've also been knitting dishcloths again, I had completely run out of them and wanted to replenish my supply. I'll use a few of them myself and save the rest for tucking into gifts or the occasional sale of them that comes along. Here are the latest ones, I also have one more that was made out of all the leftover skein ends that weren't enough to make another cloth but I couldn't bear to throw out. I've been alternating between appliquing (or quilting), machine stitching and knitting and am having a ball. The primary focus is the applique, but it sure is nice to throw bits of other things in the mix so as not to get too bogged down.

Our van is still not back, though should be very soon. The work is done, it started and is running fine. The short he was worried about seems to have been corrected by separating and taping the bundled wiring. He full expected to be driving the van back several days ago BUT couldn't find the nuts to reattach the dashboard. After spending several hours looking for them he concluded that someone who was helping must have moved or accidentally discarded them. Unfortunately they are reverse threaded metric nuts (I think that's right) and must be ordered from the dealer. He may be able to make them at work. In any case, it shouldn't be much longer and I'll have wheels again. Just in time for insanely high gas prices!

We'll be keeping driving to an absolute minimum. To that end, I bought a "granny cart" for doing my grocery shopping whenever possible. There are times that weather or time constraints may make walking my errands impractical, but I'll be doing that whenever I can. Not only to save gas and wear and tear on the van, but also to add to my exercise. I had tried one of the more prevalent, cheaper carts and knew that it would not really work for my needs. It wasn't big enough or sturdy enough. I found this online a few months ago and ordered it last week with some birthday money. It can be pushed or pulled, folds up flat and is really heavy duty (hold up to 250 pounds.) Since I make several different stops while I shop, it's possible with stops home and/or making trips on different days to do all my shopping on foot.

I have a few loads of laundry today and the ever present dishes along with a few other chores, but mostly I hope to work on toppers. With the party less than 2 months away, I'd really like to pound away at the toppers and the quilt so I'm not having a last minute crunch. With my husband's family coming in for a reunion a week later (they are arriving the weekend of the party) and all from out of state our house will likely be home base and I have some extra cleaning to do to make sure everything is in tip top shape before their arrival (or as tip top as it gets in a run down, well used house!)

It's quiet here today. Joshua works until 1:00, Rebekah is in school until about 1:00 but graduates TODAY and is going out to lunch with her boyfriend to celebrate. Rachel babysits all day on Tuesday and Thursday for the summer, Jonathan is at a babysitting job and then is going to pass out flyers for the yardwork job he does with Rachel's boyfriend. It's a beautiful day here and Lucas is riding his bike at the moment and I'm about to get Ruthie ready to join him. I have enough handwork here to keep me busy outside which has been the plan all along, but it's been too wet and/or cold to execute it!

A whole month of days like today and I just might finish everything on time!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Quilting Bee and Sewing Night!

Today looks to be a wonderful day. We skipped our walk this morning because of a threatening weather radar and tornado watch, but an hour after our normal leaving time it still hasn't rained and the sun even made a peek through the clouds.

I had so much to do this morning, though, that it really made it much easier without the walk in the mix. My quilting bee meets this afternoon. I have iced coffee made in the fridge and will have a pot of hot coffee available. If you're a flavored coffee drinker and have a Meijer anywhere near you, try their store brand Michigan Cherry flavored coffee. OH MY. It's fabulous. Add a little french vanilla creamer and it's heaven in a cup.

I made a chocolate pound cake last night and bought some mini eclairs so all that's left to do is clear a few things from my sewing table and I'm ready to go.

As soon as the quilting bee ends, I'll be getting dinner ready and then sewing until I drop. A friend is coming over as soon as her dinner is finished and we're going to sew and chat and watch movies until we can stay awake no longer.

We try to do these late night sewing nights every few months. I'd rather work on a project that is fun and doesn't NEED to be done. In my last post I talked about the bags I needed to make and while writing that I realized I do NOT want to spend my entire sewing night on these bags, even with as much fun as they are to do. That gave me the push that I needed and the first is done. I customized the inside pocket by adding a layer so there are two pockets hanging there instead of one. There is a cardboard insert in the bottom that gives it some stability and a magnetic closure at the top. I was really happy with how it turned out!

Bag number two is well under way. The instructions have you quilting a very large piece of fabric and then cutting it apart. I found this very tedious and difficult and it reminded me why I don't machine quilt! To make this bag, I took a different approach and cut the pieces first, slightly larger so they could be trimmed, and quilted them. MUCH easier and way more enjoyable than the first way. All of the pieces are now quilted and the construction will begin during my quilting bee this afternoon. I don't know how much of it I'll actually get done, but I'm hoping to have most of it finished so that I can finish it in quick order after the bee is over.

I'll have stroganoff sauce in the crockpot (I'm working on that while posting) so all I have to do is make the noodles which means I should be able to keep working after the bee and maybe even have the bag finished (or just about) before our sewing night officially begins.

I decided my big project for the night is to work on an old top. In looking for something else I ran across these blocks so decided I will work on them for the weekend, hoping to have the top completely done once the weekend is over. Then I will have to concentrate on the toppers and album quilt for my parents' anniversary party. I'm appliquing on topper number 8 and the quilting is under way on the album quilt, but with only two months left I'll have to pay attention to how much I'm getting finished.

Looking at this strip paper pieced project, it's probably more than I can do in a weekend, but I'll see what I can get finished and maybe I'll keep it within reach for the occasional day that I need a machine project as a distraction. For now, I'm looking forward to looking at something different for a couple of days!

Ruthie's language is exploding, both verbally and with signs. She's been quite entertaining the last couple of days and is warming up more and more to the kids' friends, who make nearly daily appearances of late. She lost her head the other night and was doing all her tricks for them, LOL, and I told them all that someday they might regret working so hard to get her to interact with them because she'll be begging to play their games and go places with them. In reality, I think our little darling will have quite the social life as it won't be long before she's included on shopping trips and the like. Here she is enjoying a bowl of ice cream.

Happy Quilting!

Sue

A Beautiful Summer Day

Our Memorial Day was lovely. I woke up tired and it was gloomy and chilly, but the forecast promised a warm day and that's what I planned for. I dressed accordingly and the weather warmed up nicely. I puttered around in the morning, did a bit of sewing and around noon began working on our afternoon barbeque.

On holidays, we generally eat our big meal mid-afternoon or so because I want the bulk of the work to be over early. We ended up eating about 4:15, all of our children AND my husband home(a rarity these days) and the girls' boyfriends as well. The food was laid out on the table inside, we fixed our plates and took them out. Typical barbeque fare of burgers, bratwurst, hot dogs was accompanied by homemade onion rings, sauerkraut, baked beans, and cole slaw and lots of fun conversation.

Rachel's boyfriend left shortly after dinner, Rebekah and her boyfriend left a while later to go watch a hockey game. I started a fire in the firepit and gradually got the meal aftermath cleaned up. We sat out until dark, enjoying the warm breeze and the crackling fire.

Ruthie got dutifully dirty, in her navy blue halter dress with flags and her bare feet. After a nice bath in the kitchen sink (she still doesn't like the big bathtub) she was clean and snuggly and ready for bed.

Today is a new day. It's cold here, only 43 right now and I'm hoping to get a lot done. I don't have anywhere to go today and have set my sights on Friday night, when I'm getting together with a friend for a sewing night. I have two bags that I need to make for friends and I decided if they are not done by Friday night, they will be the first priority then. That got me moving on the bags, since I have another project I'd really like to work on that night. One bag is nearly finished, but I don't have enough batting for the other. I may figure my grocery list early so that I can run to the store later or in the morning and get that one done, too. I can work on drafting and cutting pieces today as this next bag is a combination of two different ones and I haven't quite figured out what I need to do to make all the elements work.

When not working on bags, I'll quilt on the album quilt or applique on the next topper. I finished another on Sunday, so 7 are done, I have 9 left to do. I may mark some more backgrounds for toppers, too, as I'm working on the last marked one now.

Dinner tonight is easy, just waffles, fruit, and bacon, so it really does leave this day wide open for me and it's totally up to me how productive it is. I'd better get moving!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

What a Week!

It's been a crazy one here, more busy for me than usual, so I'm very glad it's the weekend! My family is in and out all weekend, but other than church and possibly a softball game on Monday night (rain is predicted) I get to stay put!

This is finals week for my daughter, who is in cosmetology school. Her practicals were Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday through today are written tests. She's done very well (she finds out each day how she did on that day's test) and, once today is over, she just has to complete her 1500 hours, which should happen midday on June 10th.

I had extra babysitting this week, in addition to being one of the people she worked on for her practicals. Add in errands, a (wonderful!) visit with a friend and walking and I spent 3 whole days busy with things that didn't include much in the way of household tasks or sewing. Thankfully the house isn't in too bad of shape and that means much of my weekend can be spent doing enjoyable things and recouping from the busy week.

I have a huge list of things I want to do this weekend. I plan to bake some today and tomorrow for Memorial Day. When I bake, I bake in bulk so it should last most of the week. It's sunny but chilly here, so I'm hoping the it's warm enough to spend a bit of time outside today. My husband plans to work on the garden when he gets here sometime after lunchtime and I will light up the firepit to burn up some of the branch trimmings from last weekend's work. It's a little breezy, so between that and the chill in the air I'm hoping that I can still do a bit of hand sewing outside while I work on my burning project.

I do plan to get the current table topper finished (I'm now quilting on the braid that goes around the outer edge) and begin the next one. I need to quilt a bit on the album quilt and I also hope to do some cutting and prepwork on two bags that I need to make. I'm having a sewing night next Friday with a friend (we get together around dinner time and sew until we drop) and if the bags aren't finished by then, they will be my primary project.

Weather permitting, tomorrow will be spent much as today. Putzing with household chores, lighting the firepit, sewing, cooking, baking and hanging out with whatever kids are here.

Pincushion Swap. I'm going to switch gears for a minute. I joined a pincushion swap on Teresa's blog but only a few people signed up. She agreed to leave the signups open until the end of the month so I could post it here to see if we can find a few more people who are interested. You only need to make 5 pincushions (but can do 10 if enough people sign up) and they aren't due to Teresa until July 1st.

While I love my walking, it really seems to sap my energy some days. We don't walk on weekends, mostly because we're busy with family things, but I feel like my poor old body needs time to recover. I have more energy today than I think I've had all week and I'm hoping that continues for the weekend so that I can get a lot of things done. The fact that I'll be home most of the weekend helps immensely as well, I truly am a homebody!

Ruthie mimics everything these days and thankfully she has a bunch of wonderful role models to imitate. She attempts new words every day now and she loves to be outside. Though I'm not an outdoor person, even I am hoping it begins to warm up a bit more than it is because I know the days will be a lot more fun and interesting for my two youngest if we can spend more time outside. In the meantime, she manages to keep herself quite busy inside. There was supposed to be a video here of her diapering one of her babies, but uploading videos with dialup appears to be a hit or miss operation. Two attempts and about an hour of waiting for them to upload and no success, so I'll try that another day! In the meantime, we'll have to "settle" for stills.

Happy Memorial Day weekend and may it be a quilty one!

Sue and Ruthie