Olympic Quilting Madness

To be honest, I'd be getting a lot more done if I wasn't so drawn by this computer, LOL, but in spite of some time spent each day checking email and a couple of bulletin boards that I like, I've actually spent a fair amount of time quilting.

The strip blocks are in sets of four and I may start piecing them together tonight. I'd love to start quilting on this one, but I don't think I have backing here for it, though I may poke around some and see if I can piece some together. This won't have sashing or even a border, I think it will be complete on it's own with the binding being a suitable "ending" to the quilt. I won't know for sure until I get it put together and try out a few pieces for borders, just in case. The nice thing about this one is no marking required, which means I can get right to the basting and can quilt even if the lighting is less than ideal.

I pieced together the sashing for the leaf block quilt and have one of the blocks appliqued. So far this one is not thrilling me, so I'm having trouble working on it, but will continue on as often I find these "so so" quilts are gems when they are finished. I feel like the sashing is overpowering (though this is one of the lighter blocks) yet my eye still bounces back and forth between the block and the sashing so it might work out in the end. For now, I'll likely spend more time on other projects, but seeing the picture does renew my motivation on this one.

One of the perks of my husband working in the high school are the many cast offs that come our way. We've gotten bookshelves, chairs, and various other items that would otherwise be thrown out. When he called the other night, he said he had a music player. Not a cd player, he said, but you hook it to the computer somehow. It turned out to be similar to an MP3 player. There was a box full of them, brand new, still in the packages, earmarked for the garbage. The custodial staff split them up, and we got 2 of them. I had thought about suggesting an MP3 player for my birthday, but wasn't sure how much I'd really use one so nixed the idea. Here is my chance to find out how much I'll use it. The downside is it only holds one CD, but I think that will be fine for me as the most I'd be using it at a time is an hour or two. The upside is (aside from being FREE, lol) is that it's quite easy to change what music is on it. I like to walk to the store, and used to always have someone wanting to walk with me, but lately everyone is pretty busy around here. I don't really like to walk alone, but needed to walk to the store yesterday, the music player made the walk much more enjoyable.

Now for the real madness. I've planned a new project. As if 16 of the topper blocks weren't enough, I'm making 16 more for a quilt. The green will be consistent throughout the blocks, each block will be a different combination of colors. Of course, the blocks weren't enough of a project, the sashing between them will have a braid appliqued on, celtic style. The outer border will likely have some combination of appliqued celtic bias and flowers, but I may wait to decide until I see what the top "needs" to make it complete.

I spent yesterday tracing and cutting the freezer paper pieces for this quilt. I haven't decided if I'll do all the prepwork before starting to applique or not, I'll just have to see as I go along what I feel like doing. In the bag are 48 posie pieces in 3 different sizes (16 each) and 320 leaf pieces. I'm figuring I'll need to make about 180 yards of bias for the stems and appliqued sashing/border motifs. That in itself is a daunting task, but one that is quite enjoyable when I'm in the mood to do it. As this is a "no deadline" project, I can wait until I'm in the mood!

While cleaning out the garage a few days ago, Jonathan found my old table top ironing board. The cover was ripped, which I'm sure is why it was put aside, so while pictures were loading (we have dialup...loading pictures is slow!) I pulled out some batting and fabric to recover it and started pinning rows for the strip block quilt. With those two things waiting and my quilting updates complete, I'm ready to vacate this seat and get some work done. A full evening of Olympic coverage will entertain me while I work.

Of course, I can't take my leave without a Ruthie picture. She's taken to putting herself to bed many nights. She will come and give hugs and kisses and head off to her room. Sometimes she comes back out again, and other times it remains quiet, leading me to investigate to be sure she's sleeping and not into mischief. This is what I found one night, I can't imagine falling asleep in that position!

Happy Quilting!

Go USA!

Sue and Ruthie

The Best Kind of Busy

Before I get to my quilting adventures, I have to brag on Lucas. He's 7 and last night was his Awana Grand Prix night. A month or so ago they got their blocks of wood to be carved as they wish. Many are various versions of cars and trucks, some clearly done by the children, some clearly done by their parents.

Lucas decided he wanted to make a rat. Yikes. I gently tried to talk him out of it, wondering how in the world we would make that block of wood look like a rat. He would not be swayed.

Joshua (21) did the rough carve for the shape and Lucas did all the sanding and painted it. He helped pick out the nose, eyes and ears and I hot glued them on. Here is the result.

We were quite pleased with it and he happily went off to the races. I was unable to go along because of car issues, I waited almost nervously, hoping that he had a good night and that his car made it down the track. I needn't have worried. He came home even happier, with a first place trophy for design. Not only did he win the trophy, but Joshua says he had a fan club. EVERYONE loved his car and when his car ran everyone in the room was rooting for the "mouse", even the kids he was racing against! There were 3 little girls that were particularly vocal and one asked if she could have the car (thank goodness he's still too young to be swayed by a cute girl!) His car definitely was the buzz of the night. He nearly had a chance to win for speed, too, getting to the final heat in the first bracket. The first place car for speed was a wedge of cheese, I can't believe no one thought to get a picture of the mouse and cheese together.

Afterwards they could run the cars just for fun. During the race, the tail had to be taped up so as to keep the car regulation length and not potentially obstruct other cars but afterwards he could take it down. It was even more of a hit then, the tail wiggling out behind, the kids said it looked just like a mouse was running down the track.

Now onto quilting! As the weather warms I know my time to quilt will likely be greatly diminished so I'm taking full advantage now. I plan to start walking most, if not all, of the local errands so that will take a fair amount of time. I do hope to be able to do a fair amount of handwork while outside with Ruthie, but that is somewhat weather dependent.

In the last couple of days I've gotten a lot of my little things done. I made the binding the for the baby quilt (I always make the binding when I finish the top.) I did all the cutting for the leaf block quilt, it has stars as the cornerstones of the sashing and it's set on point so there are the funny sized side pieces to contend with. I even made the binding and put everything in this basket. My problem lately is I've had so many projects going that I have elements of them all over my sewing room. I'm spending the rest of the day organizing them all so I can easily find what I need/want to do.

The things I'd been putting off was designing the toppers. I'm really looking forward to doing them, but I sometimes find the design process frustrating. I tend to go overboard and I was afraid of doing that to myself again. With 16 of these to make, it's imperative that I be reasonable about it.

I ended up semi-reasonable. I determined early on that it needed to be a circular design so the candle and vase could go in the middle. I tend to get frustrated appliquing flowers with all the little indents, so was going to make yo-yo flowers. I experimented laying out a few of those and it seemed too corny. After looking through several books, I found a wonderful pattern, the posie had gentle curves and it seemed doable. I substituted a symmetrical leaf for an asymmetrical one for ease in making and placing pieces and will put a small yo-yo as the center circle with a little pearl in the middle. I have the freezer paper pieces cut for the first one and fabrics pulled, hopefully today I'll be ironing them together and maybe even basting some of the pieces. I'm anxious now to get this first block together so I can see what I've gotten myself into!

Everything is ready to go on the ring block quilt, I'm having to stop myself from beginning the construction but I really want to save it for tomorrow night. A good part of my day today will be spent getting ready for tomorrow. Straightening my sewing room and making eggrolls and crab rangoon being top on the list. I hope that I'm still left with some quilting time today...I should be...but with grocery shopping and babysitting thrown in the mix it will be a busy day.

Now I have to run. I still have bedhead and with any luck my husband will be back with his van so I can grocery shop in about half an hour. I'll leave you with a picture of Ruthie, who lined up her various dollies on the steps and planted herself in the middle of them, quite please with herself.

Happy Quilting!

Sue and Ruthie