I Admit It....

I've been stalling, or at least uninspired. I have 5 quilts that have to be done this year as gifts, and several more that I'd like to see at least started.

I picked patterns for a few of them, made templates for one, printed triangle paper for two more, but still, they sat. My desire to finish the ring quilt, and my lack of enthusiasm for the new projects, prevented me from starting them, and distractions have made the last border of the ring quilt take a lot longer than I'd have liked.

BUT...it's done. Finally. And with the finishing of it Saturday night came a very welcome surge of energy for the new projects. The quilt is so big, I don't have anywhere in my house big enough to get far enough away to photograph the whole thing...and it's too wet to take pictures outside. Here is a stretched out view, such as it is.

Below is a view of the border motifs.

And here it is draped over my little couch by the window.
I spent my free time on Sunday pinning fabric to triangle paper for part of Marshall's quilt (I'm hoping to buy at least one more of the needed fabrics this week) and for one of my nieces' quilts. The pattern I said was Emma's quilt has changed as I didn't have enough of the background fabric I pulled for the whole thing. As I chose new fabrics, the new choices seemed to fit Katie more, so it has become hers and I have to choose a new pattern for Emma.

The triangle paper is pinned for Katie's quilt, and I've cut the larger 1/2 square triangles and pinned them together.

I had a nice stack of sewing waiting by machine this morning.

As Rachel and I decided to watch a movie after her Bible study, I really didn't want to start the machine work yesterday because I couldn't to it and watch the movie at the same time. Instead, I got the freezer paper templates all marked for Debbie's quilt (my sister-in-law) and I cut that out while we watched the movie. These are the stems and leaves that are cut from freezer paper, the green fabric is what they will be made of.

When my husband has to go to bed earlier than I can fall asleep, I make a late night out of it if I'm able. Last night, after watching "No Reservations" with Rachel, Lucas, and Ruthie, both Lucas and Rachel went to bed, but Miss Ruth was still raring to go. We settled in to watch "27 Dresses" and about midway I looked over to see this...

On today's agenda is the stack of sewing by my machine, then cutting apart the triangle paper pieces and maybe even pressing them and pinning them for the next step.

The quilt that weighs heaviest on my mind at the moment is Marshall's as I'd really like to have it finished by his party, which is on May 23rd. I'm hoping to get both the red and the border fabrics on Thursday, the batting next week and be basting the weekend of the first. That will give me 3 weeks to quilt it.

Once that one is done, I can breathe easier as the other 4 are all for Christmas. While I'd still like to work my way through them and be done by the end of September, only time will tell if that is a realistic goal.

I also really want to spend some time on the posy and celtic as I'd love to be basting that on hunting weekend, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving. I still have to secure the second side of several sections of the applique and need to get fabric to make more bias for the border design. It may be hard to find the combination of colors I'd like to see in one fabric, so that's an unknown at the moment.

Ruthie came downstairs a little while ago in this getup, she was in Rachel's room and got into some of her accessories.

While waiting for pictures to load, I've been able to get some of the sewing done, so the pieces for Marshall's quilt are sewn now. We have sports fever in our house these days, with both the Bulls and Blackhawks in the playoffs in addition to our baseball addiction. Tonight will be spent in some combination of machine sewing, unpinning, perhaps repinning, pressing fabric to freezer paper and cutting for yo-yos while watching first the Bulls, then the Blackhawks both go for wins in their games.

Time to get to it!

Happy Quilting,

Sue

What Have I Done!

I will be quilting my fingers off this year. While the list is daunting, even for me, I'm really excited about it and feel really challenged.

The bad news is that the flying geese quilt will not be the next in the hoop. I'm disappointed about that, but with the addition of a graduation quilt to my list, the money for batting for the geese quilt needs to go towards fabric for Marshall's graduation quilt. Marshall is Rachel's boyfriend, they've been dating for nearly a year now and he has given her a beautiful emerald promise ring. He's very likely going to school only about an hour or so away, which will make weekend visits possible and I'm sure they'll be on the phone for at least a few minutes each day. It dawned on me just the other day that we will be invited to his graduation party. We really can't afford to give cash for a gift but a quilt for his dorm room should fit the bill. Rachel talked to his mom on the sly to make sure they didn't already have a plan for his bedding and I was given the go ahead. It is now about 2 months until the graduation and I don't even have the fabric, nor can I get it for a couple of weeks. It's an easy pattern, though, so still doable (except it will have to be set aside when he's here, LOL) and if all else fails I can wrap it undone and take it back to finish as he won't be needing it until August.

This pattern will actually be made twice this year, once for Marshall, in red, black and white and once for my niece, in mauve, peach, and aqua with a small print background. I have triangle paper printed for both quilts and plan to cut fabric for Emma's today. I was able to pull from my stash, so hers will be started first, though the piecing on this one will be set aside if it's not finished before getting fabric for Marshall's.

While thinking of the strip block shade for my sewing room, I decided to go ahead and print foundation blocks for the quilt to go on the couch by the window. I made the blocks a little smaller for this one to make better use of the scraps and it will take 256 blocks to make the size I want. This will most definitely be an "I need a break day" project or something to work on if I'm at an impasse on everything else...which isn't too likely. I can't help but keep one of these in progress, it helps to keep my scraps under control and allows me some mindless busy work if I need it.

This is the pattern piece for the shade for our bedroom. This, unfortunately, will be a back burner project. I was really hoping to have it done by the end of this year, that will depend very much on how everything else goes. If some of these projects that need to be done go more quickly than I anticipate, then there still might be time. With warmer weather coming and Ruthie loving the outdoors, that will eat into my sewing time, though I've thought about bringing my machine out to the picnic table, and of course I can hand quilt outside if it's not too hot or windy. This pattern was a pain to enlarge, I don't draw well freehand at all, so I used our business copier and enlarged it in small bits and then pieced it together like a puzzle. It was a challenge, but actually quite fun to do. At the end of each calyx is a folded 3D rosebud. I'm really looking forward to this one, and am still trying to figure out what to do for the cornice cover.

Here's the recap of work for this year.

Have to do:

Marshall's quilt, which I really hope will be done by the end of May

Brother in law's quilt, for Christmas

Sister in law's quilt, for Christmas

Quilts for 2 nieces, also for Christmas

Want to do:

Roman shade for sewing room

Roman shade for our bedroom

Cornice covers for both shades

Finish applique sashing and border on posy and celtic quilt

My tentative plan for hunting weekend this year is basting several quilts. The posy and celtic if it's ready, the flying geese quilt and at least 2 more tops in my pile.

Today, something very unusual is happening. For about 2 hours, I will be alone in my house. My husband is taking Lucas and Ruthie to a movie (Ruthie's first time to a movie theater), Rebekah is working and the other kids are at a youth conference. I plan to pop some popcorn, put on a movie and quilt the whole time they are gone.

I'm finally on the borders of this one. The one inch border just got a quilting line 1/4" from each side. The floral border has hearts in it, I'm just about to turn the corner and then one side of those is left. The outer border has the flower/leaf unit from the ring blocks and the flower worked into a feather motif going around the quilt. I can't wait to get to that outer border, which is being quilted in pink thread and as each is finished I know that I'm that much closer to being done with this quilt! The binding is made and waiting and my machine is set up and ready to go.

Speaking of my machine, I've switched for a while to the Featherweight, for a few reasons. One is that I was pretty discouraged when the reverse lever BROKE OFF of my regular machine. I don't use it very often as I mostly piece quilts with it, but it made me sad nonetheless. Another is that I have more bobbins for my Featherweight than for my White and the bobbins actually hold more thread. With all of the sewing I have to do this year, having to stop fewer times to change bobbins or thread them all up again will be nice. The fact that it's a smaller machine is also nice as I can sew and still chat with the kids, my husband, or friends without feeling like I'm hidden behind my machine. It also makes the table look less crowded so I don't mind it sitting there when not in use and it's really nice to be able to sit and sew a few seams if I find myself with unexpected spare minutes.

Ruthie's hair is nearly always in a pony tail, but last Sunday I left it down and curled it with a curling iron. It was adorable and she looked so much older in her tiny little body! Potty training is going well, she still has accidents but overall I'm very pleased with how well she's doing. We've graduated to pullups at night and when out, so no more diapers!
And here she is with the ever present ponytail. Her speech is also improving immensely, she's adding new words all the time and the "old words" are becoming clearer. She is walking faster and beginning to run, can walk (rather than scoot) down the stairs, and is taking in everything around her. I'm so glad the other kids are such good examples for her, because she mimics so much of what she sees.

I'm really hoping to have the hearts done before my moviegoers leave so I can spend the time they are gone working on that outer border. I'd better scoot! Have a great day and
Happy Quilting!
Sue

Long Time, No "See!"

It's been busy here! Not really anything particularly different or interesting, just the "usual" busy-ness of a household of 8 with a quilting Mom. I had hoped that by the time I posted again the ring quilt would be done, but when I laid it out and saw how much there really was to do, I knew that was unlikely. It's getting there, though, I have 11 blocks left to quilt (of 64) and the borders to do. My plan earlier in the week was to be on the borders by the time the kids left for the campout tomorrow noon, that won't happen. Now I'm hoping to be on borders by Friday night and binding by next weekend.

Since I last posted, Jonathan has had a birthday, he turned 15. Birthdays in our house are pretty nicely spaced overall. Our oldest two have birthdays only 11 days apart, but the rest of us are spaced 6-8 weeks apart, all year long. Birthdays tend to run several days in our house as my husband works evenings. The big birthday dinner always happens on the weekend, when he is home. The kids get to choose what they want for dinner and dessert for the family dinner and now also get to choose the meal on the actual day, if it's during the week. Now that they are bigger, most of them opt for shopping and lunch out for their birthdays, rather than us trying to pick out something they'd like. Jonathan wanted tools and camping equipment, so my husband took him to shop and then they picked me up and the 3 of us had lunch out. His birthday dinner was lasagna with homemade rolls, his choice nearly every year, and a trifle for dessert. We eat our big meal soon after church on Sundays, so the trifle was served at supper time, along with a variety of snacks.This is the next set of strip blocks. They were going to be "just" a throw quilt, but once I decided the roman shade for my sewing room would be made of them, I shifted the plan. I thought I'd be using some of the blocks for the shade, and could add a few more to make a matching throw for the couch by the window...but boy did I figure wrong! I actually had to make an extra 28 blocks to have enough for just the shade and cornice cover. The throw will have to wait, though I enjoy these blocks so much that I'm sure very soon another set will be in the works. I still have a lot of strips left, and more scraps to be cut. This project will be on hold for a bit while I get the Christmas quilts going.

Also still in progress is the posy and celtic quilt. This one is my takealong right now as it fits nicely in a bag with the few supplies needed to work on it. The braid pieces are all on, though many of them are only sewn down on one side. The finishing part is really easy since no pinning or thinking are involved, which make it the perfect "keeping my hands" busy project right now. I'm still trying to figure out the border, I don't have enough braid bias left to use that, which was the plan. I'm going to poke around and find something that incorporates most or all of the colors in the quilt, or see if I can get more of the green.

Next up in the hoop is the flying geese quilt. I'll be getting the batting for that with my groceries tomorrow and when my fingers need a break from hand quilting I'll be marking and basting this one.

The Christmas quilts will also be started along the way here. I have triangle paper printed for one niece's quilt, I have to practice with my curved piecing quilt for the other. For my sister-in-law's quilt I need to ready some applique and pull fabric, this will be the project to work on when Ruthie wants to be outside. I probably will need to buy fabric for my brother-in-law's quilt, so that one will be waiting a bit. When I have this many projects in the works, I keep a list of the next thing to do on each one, so I don't have to try to figure it out every time I switch projects. I think I'll make that list today, it really helps me stay on task.

Here is Lucas on Crazy Day at Awanas. He wanted to wear the clothing they wore for the Awana Games the weekend before and we put this gold gluey stuff in his hair to spike it. The ribbon is the first place medal his team won at the games, he was so excited!

And Ruthie! She is doing so well and is so proud! Potty training is well under way and most days she is staying dry. I think we're going to try pullups this week for nighttime and when out. She says new words every day and often is answering questions with words we didn't even know she knew yet. She loves to be outside, though the weather hasn't been too cooperative, yet. She eats well, sleeps well, and we're falling into quite a lovely routine.

So I guess that's it for now, if I'm going to get my big list of things to do actually finished today, I need to get a move on!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Busy Busy!

I've been happily busy, mostly with quilting. I've also been busy with some extra household things, going through and packing up what's not needed and storing what can be used later, while donating or discarding things that can't.

We tend to be savers here, as it seems as soon as we rid ourselves of something it's needed soon after. That served me well today as yesterday my new mouse and keyboard stopped working. Jonathan found old ones in our crawlspace and that's what I'm using at present. I haven't given up on the new, cordless ones, but know that's a task best left for when I'm feeling motivated and like my problem solving skills are in full swing.

In the meantime, I'm happy to have the old ones!

I'm on block number 11 (of 64) of the ring flower quilt. It hasn't been getting much attention because of the posy and celtic quilt, but all in good time. I'm hoping to get at least a few more blocks quilted on this one during the coming week. Once the posy and celtic top is done, the ring flower quilt will be the priority. I'm a little afraid of putting the posy and celtic top down for too long as it still seems like a daunting project and I'm afraid if I leave it sit for too long, it will sit for VERY long. I'm also so thrilled with the results of the posy and celtic quilt that it's actually hard to work on anything else right now. The main problem is my very sore underneath finger, which could surely use a rest. Though the same finger is underneath for quilting, I end up hitting a different part of it so can alternate between the two.

For now, I'll suffer, LOL, because I'm LOVING this. I was concerned that where the braids met at the intersections that it would just be a jumble and I'd lose the under/over feel of it but was pleasantly surprised as I laid it out to see that most definitely is not the case. Now that I've got the logistics of it all worked out, I'm working bigger sections at once. Combined with the fact that I've done so much applique lately, this is moving along much faster than I anticipated.

Another concern after sewing the first section was that it would over power the posy blocks, but that doesn't seem to be the case, as seen in this view a little further away. The blocks stand out even more in reality, and looking at the pictures my eye keeps moving around just fine and isn't getting stuck on the braid, so I think it's ok. It sure is hard not to second guess everything sometimes!

I've yet to decide for sure what will be on the outer border. I did pick out a design to applique in the same way, and may add some posies to that. I won't be deciding for sure what I'm doing until the rest is finished so I can gauge how much or how little needs to happen in the border for proper balance.

Everyone is in bed here and has been for a while now. I had figured on spending the quiet time appliquing but decided to do this post instead since there is so little uninterrupted time during the day. Tomorrow Rebekah is highlighting my hair and I promised Rachel we could do DDR for a while, it's our current choice for exercise until the weather is warm enough for me to start walking again. Other than that, though, I should be able to spend quite a bit of time quilting tomorrow, laundry and dishes are all caught up and the day is relatively free.

And Miss Ruthie. Her language skills are exploding of late. She'll try to say almost anything now and her speech is getting clearer. She has a long way to go, but words have almost completely replaced signs and she now looks for things to say. Last night I washed her hair in the kitchen sink (laying her on the counter) and when we got finished, she ran to the stairs and yelled down (we have a tri-level, so short flights and the family room is visible from the stairs) "Daddy! Wash!" He said "Did Mom wash your hair?" She said "yeah!" (yeah is said in an adorable sing-songy voice every time she said it.)

She will often go to one of her siblings and say, pointing to her head, "Mom, hair, OW!" (Translation, Mom brushed my hair and it hurt.) We have a long way to go, but are so pleased with the current progress and it really seems to be snowballing, coming faster and faster all the time.

A few minutes of applique and it will be time for bed. I'd hoped to make it a late, late night, but I'm feeling pretty tired and don't want to push it, I'd rather be well rested and ready for a productive day tomorrow!

Happy Quilting!

Sue

Quilting Frenzy

I'm in one. Though in the 10 days since I last posted I've also done a boatload of cooking. Our son turned 22 on Monday and Sunday he had several friends over for playoff football and pretty much all they could eat. I spent Saturday doing all the prepwork, which took most of the day and cooked for most of the day on Sunday, but it was well worth it.

I'll be doing it all again for Super Bowl Sunday, though, as of now, for our family and the two boyfriends.

For the most part, though, I'm in a quilting frenzy. After spending the weekend cooking and cleaning it all up, I decided I'd take Monday "off". It was actually Joshua's birthday that day, but he had to work until 2:30. When he got home, about 3:15, he left here with my husband and other two sons (along with a friend and to drop off Rebekah), Rachel was babysitting. So at 3:30, my whole family was gone except Ruthie and they didn't get back home until 9:00. I had saved leftovers from the day before so I didn't have to cook and I sat and quilted for nearly the entire day. The result was four blocks completed on the ring quilt and I'm thrilled with the results.

I also have 3 tops that are in the works that I want to spend time on. One is the Posy and Celtic top and the next step on that one is to add the sashing and sew the blocks together. I'm hoping to get a start on that later today, but that depends on the flying geese. The blocks are finished and sewn into rows, I cut the border fabric this morning and will spend today sewing that top together. I hope to get it finished this afternoon, but one never knows what will thwart my efforts with all the activity here! At left is a picture of 2 of the rows sewn together and the barely visible border fabric. I went through my entire stash trying to find just the right fabric and I'd nearly given up when I found this one. I'm really excited to see it all put together!

In the planning stage I have an Irish Chain, being done as part of an email group. I've chosen my fabrics, figured out my size requirements and how to make the blocks, and have written out the cutting directions. I'm hoping to have this one cut by the end of the weekend and maybe even have a start on the sewing, but I'll have to see how time plays out. I'm doing a Double Irish Chain and the open white spaces will have flowers appliqued in them. I'm really excited about this project!

I promised myself that I would finish quilting "Joyful" before starting the ring flower quilt, and I did. When I photographed the top, I had a hard time getting the colors to photograph true to color, this time they are spot on.

Here is a closeup of the quilting on the blocks and borders.

And here is a closeup of the back. I enjoy the backs of my quilts nearly as much as the fronts!

And no post is complete without a Ruthie picture. She was quiet for a while so I went to see if she was sleeping and found her all curled up with a blanket and a movie. I never tire of that smile!

I babysit all afternoon today and have to get a quick lunch before he comes. I'm hoping to get some, if not all, of the flying geese top assembled this afternoon and Thursday nights are quiet here so I should be able to finish whatever is not done. Then there is all the paper to pull off since this one is paper pieced. I don't mind that, though, it's great TV work!

Here's to a healthy, productive day, and QUILTY day for all!
Sue and Ruthie

Hunting Weekend Update - Day 3

I decided to write my day 3 update as I finish things so if it seems disjointed, that's why. I've been doing them in the morning, but Sunday morning we have church and Rebekah and Brian will be coming for dinner after church. I may not go as I still have a hefty cough that will be quite disruptive if I can't keep it at bay for the hour, but want to be able to post tonight in case I'm able to go.

11:30am First item checked off my list is marking the border of a table runner. I tested this for Tyanne some time ago. The quilting on this will be mostly outlining except for the border. It's very long, so I can't get a picture of the whole thing without it being distorted, but you get the gist!

12:55pm I've just finished a bunch of prepwork. These are things that I hoped to have finished before this weekend even started, but I was thwarted by the flu. The backs are now ready for nearly all the things that I want to baste. I have one more piece to mark (a piece of fabric that will be made into a bag, so will be marked with 1 1/2 to 2 inch cross hatching) and then I can start the basting process.

2:35pm The bag fabric is marked with 1 1/2 inch diamond shaped cross hatching. Now the basting can begin. I needed the table to be cleared off for marking, so I'm ready to go. This is the part I've both been looking forward to and dreading at the same time. I know that my back will ache and my fingers will be sore by the time it's all finished, but in the end I will have a pile of quilts ready for hand quilting.

3:40pm Noah's quilt is basted. Yay! That went a lot faster than I expected. I do pin baste a lot of the time these days, mostly for the time aspect. As I move the hoop, the pins within that area are removed, so once I finish the pins are out. Since this is for Christmas, the Joyful quilt will be put aside for now and I'll work on this one.

4:40pm The bag has been pinned and is ready for machine quilting.

5:00pm I just finished basting the table runner.

Now for the biggest project of the day, basting the ring flower quilt. This one will need to be thread basted, because I don't have enough pins, LOL, and it will likely be a longer term quilting project. I don't like to have pins in something for a long time, so will thread baste if I know I won't be doing something right away. This one is big, 92 x 92, so it will take a while. Hopefully I'll be able to get everything aligned properly the first time. Lately large quilts have been giving me fits when it comes to basting and I end up pulling basting and re-aligning at least once. I'm really hoping that doesn't happen this time!

It's 12:43am and I'm not quite ( but almost) finished basting the ring quilt. It's not been without it's problems. I very carefully laid everything out and basted a big middle section only to find that I'd mismeasured the backing and it was short on two sides. Ugh. I added a strip to each side and went along my merry way. I was nearly finished when I realized that somehow I ended up with a big tuck in the back so I've had to pull some threads and readjust, but I think I can now finish up.

Once finished, I may just sit for a bit and then go to bed. If I get a second wind, I'm going to set my machine up and do a bit of machine quilting on the bag or do some hand quilting on Noah's quilt.

Ruthie and Lucas have been great, hanging out with me and doing some of their own thing, allowing me to get so much done.

With just a few more lines to baste, I'm just about finished and am so glad. My back is protesting all the hours spent basting today, my bed is sounding better and better!

Happy Quilting (or sleeping!)

Sue

HUNTING WEEKEND!!!

It's coming :) Now only 9 days away with all the pieces falling into place. We make easy meals, watch lots of movies, I stay up as late as I can and I sew as much as possible. I have quite a list of things I hope to work on while they are all gone.

Hunting weekend is as close as I get to a vacation a lot of years and I use it like a quilting retreat. Since I have to sing at church on Sunday this time, it does thwart my plan a bit as this means getting up early both Saturday and Sunday, as Saturday we practice and Sunday we arrive early to make sure all is in order.

They were debating on whether to leave Thursday afternoon (preferred by them and me) or early Friday morning, but a few things have happened that make leaving Thursday much more doable. My husband was momentarily put out with me when I told him I was hoping they leave on Thursday, LOL.

I knew that them leaving Friday meant that Thursday would be much more difficult for me. It meant cooking a big dinner Thursday instead of an easy meal. It meant the hunting gear piling up in the main area of the house...including my sewing area...and also meant that I'd have to really focus to get any sewing done on Thursday night as it would be completely chaotic in here until everyone went to bed and by the time I settled and focused there wouldn't be much time.

With them leaving on Thursday afternoon, I get an extra evening out of the deal. While I babysit until 5:30, if they are gone mid-afternoon that means an easy meal and getting my focus together while my little charge is here. I can begin to lay out my projects for the evening and be ready to roll when he is picked up. It also means staying up late without the worry of disturbing the sleeping hunters and no concern of being woke up early in the morning while they prepare to leave, which would have hampered my sewing later in the day.

Hunting weekend is like my last hurrah before the busy-ness of the holidays starts. I promised Lucas McDonald's for dinner one night. Our tight budget doesn't allow for meals out very often so it's been ages since we've been there.

Rebekah and her boyfriend will be here for dinner one of the days, but she'll help and we're doing a fairly easy and definitely fun meal.

Lucas is looking forward to "fun" food....he's helping to pick out the meals. I'm looking forward to major sewing time.

Usually I have something big in mind for that weekend, often some kind of marathon project having to do with Christmas or something new that I know I need to concentrate on with as few interruptions as possible.

This year, I have a whole list of things I hope to get to. The main thing is basting a couple of big tops. I pulled out 3 tops to baste, but will probably only have batting for two. One, I've decided, is going to need a different outer border. The border on it is what is keeping me from wanting to quilt on it so I'm going to have to pull it off and see what I can figure out. I may just go with white and a nice feathered quilting design and use the dark pink that is there now for the binding.

I was also hoping to put together the Posies and Celtic top, but I'm not sure if I'll have the blocks done in time. Once the top is together there is a lot of celtic applique work to be done, so this is a huge, ongoing project at this point. I do still have time, I'm just not sure if I can get the joyful quilt quilted in time to also get the posy blocks done.

If I'm careful with my time, I may be able to get both the "Joyful" quilt quilted AND the posy blocks done before next Thursday, which would be really wonderful. I'm a little afraid of splitting my time too much and having neither done. I guess when I think about it, the posy blocks should probably be the priority since finishing them means being able to move on. I can always quilt on the "Joyful" quilt whenever I need a few minutes to sit with my feet up.

Also on the list for that weekend is some work on the next strip block quilt. I have one seam sewing, so the large "background" triangle and one strip are on the paper foundation. There is considerably less piecing to do on these blocks as compared to the strip quilt I just finished. I could realistically make quite a dent in these.

Another thing I really need to get finished that weekend is the top for a quilt for the little one I babysit for. I'd like to give him this for Christmas so it's important for me to get it ready for quilting as soon as possible. I haven't even started this one, yet, but perhaps in the next few days when my fingers are too sore to sew or I'm too tired to sew any more I will pull out some books and fabric to see what I can come up with.

Just writing about it all really is getting me excited. In light of all the positive things going on here lately, I'm particularly looking forward to this (hopefully) relaxing weekend! I don't know that I ever get quite as relaxed as my daughter!


Speaking of that, it will be interesting to see how I sleep this time. Generally, I enjoy the few nights of having the bed to myself, stretching out, not having someone else pulling on the blankets, and just leaving the TV on if it's helping me to sleep.

I usually don't sleep all that well when he's gone, though. Lately, I've needed more sleep than I used to. I was hoping to be one of those people that needs less sleep as they age, but I think my years of losing sleep in the night over kidlets has caught up to me!

If I can't sleep, but can be productive, all the better for me. If I can't sleep but am too tired to get anything done, I will be disappointed. It won't be long now until I find out which way it will go.

And now, if I'd like to make any progress on anything today, it's time to scoot. I was babysitting but he just got picked up, and otherwise it's a fairly quiet day here which should mean some nice quilting time. It's cold and rainy and just perfect for curling up under a quilt with some handwork and a hot beverage. I'll do just that!

Happy Quilting to all,

Sue

Wow, What a Night!

My grand total quilting time for yesterday was 11 hours, 5 minutes. My day didn't end until 6 this morning and I restarted my timer when I woke up a few hours later.

My friend came about 5:30 and I had dinner well under way. We ate and visited and then started sewing somewhere around 6:30. My main goal for the night was to finish this top, and by about 11 the middle was all assembled. As I laid out the chosen border fabric, I was disappointed. It wasn't quite what I expected when viewed up against the assembled blocks. After literally going through all my larger pieces of fabric I still wasn't finding just the right thing. I did finally find a piece I liked, it made all the ring blocks pop (I felt like they were getting lost with everything else) but it still wasn't quite right. I took the original floral I picked out and made it a smaller border next to the blocks and did a larger border out of the solid rose color...and I think I really like the result. It still seems a little odd to me, but I like to experiment with color...not every quilt will be a masterpiece! It will be just as warm and cuddly as a beauty.

My friend Tyanne had given me quite a few pieces of fabric while weeding down her stash. Every so often I'm the beneficiary of such kindnesses from various friends and acquaintances. I never turn down quilting fabric and love the challenge of working with pieces I wouldn't have necessarily picked out. Both of these fabrics grabbed me, so I decided to make something that would work with the amounts that I had. This 60 x 60 quilt is the result. The purple is actually more of a reddish purple. The smaller picture gives a better view of the pattern, I can't seem to get the colors to photograph true. The larger picture is closer colorwise. The two fabrics are the same value, which makes the pattern a little hard to see, but I know from experience that it will very likely show up much better once quilted.

With those two quilt tops finished, I'm turning my attention to other things. With the toppers designed and the pieces cut for the first one, I want to get at least some of the pieces on today. I started the day with 2 stem pieces on. I've also had bowtie blocks cut for hand piecing for years. For the first several years I quilted, everything was done by hand, I didn't use a machine for any part of quilting, not even attaching the binding to the front. Mostly because I used to say my machine and I didn't get along...it seemed I struggled through anything I tried to sew by machine. My Dad was diagnosed with cancer 10 years ago and I wanted him to have a quilt while going through chemo, I knew I needed to get it to the quilting stage as soon as I could so I machine pieced my first quilt on a 100 year old treadle. I didn't feel like I could do inset seams by machine so had this "when I feel like working on it" hand piecing project waiting in the wings.

I'm now not so machine challenged and found a pattern in a magazine that uses bowtie blocks and has a beautiful applique border. I pulled out my box of already cut bowtie pieces. The pieces for each block are pinned together. A few of the blocks are already finished and I decided to keep a separate pincushion to watch my progress. As I do each block I place it's pin in the cushion. It will be a fun way to keep track of progress, as the stack of finished blocks grows and the pincushion fills up. Here are some of the finished blocks. I also hope to add some more pins to my cushion today.

Another thing I have in mind is to spend some time hand quilting. The black and red quilt is nearly finished, with only 1/2 of the borders left to do and I would really like to finish that today. Realistically I'm not sure it's possible, with my lack of sleep last night and the day slowly slipping away. I do hope to make a dent in it, though, with finishing tomorrow in mind. My husband and most of the kids are heading out to a mall for a while tomorrow afternoon, leaving me some extra quilting time (gee, darn.)

This morning found all my kids at home so they were playing cards at the table for a while. My oldest and youngest daughters were playing a hand together. Now they are beginning to scatter, one babysitting, one at work and another bumming around with a friend. I'm going to go take advantage of the free moments and hit up these new projects. I'll keep you posted!

Sue and Ruthie

Lots of Little Things

That's what this week is going to be.

I'm having a retreat night with a friend on Friday night. She's coming just after I get home from my quilting bee, we'll make a quick and easy dinner and then we'll sew until we drop. Hopefully we'll make it until morning, which is the plan.

I'm doing some careful plannning and prepping this week so Friday will be as productive and as much fun as possible.

First off, the food. We love sauteed cabbage, mushrooms and shrimp, that will be our dinner. I'll chop the vegetables in the morning and all we'll have to do is toss it all in a skillet. Thursday I'm making eggrolls and crab rangoon, those will go into the deep fryer while dinner is sauteeing and they will also make good nibbles later in the night for staving off the sleepies. I saw a recipe on the Food Network for Procuitto wrapped carrots which will also make another good nibbly thing. Combined with nuts and some cheese, the food is covered and it's all easy and delicious.

With a bunch of projects in the works, usually a couple come to the forefront. I don't want to let any of them fall into the cracks, though, so I made a list this week of the next step on each so I can progress on them all. I hope to have all of these little things done this week as I'm saving the big steps on a couple of projects for our Friday night sewing fest. These little things include cutting background for the anniversary toppers and for the "leaf" blocks (a design made with leaf shaped elements), choosing fabric for the toppers and sketching out a design, marking the small border on my current hand quilting project, cutting sashing pieces for the leaf blocks, choosing border fabric for the (now finished) ring blocks, choosing fabric for the celtic border on the leaf block quilt, marking the ring blocks and marking, basting and making binding for the baby quilt I just finished. Whew!

My major project for Friday night is putting together the ring block top. If I finish that (I should barring complications along the way), I might do some hand quilting and also have a bunch of bowtie blocks cut and ready to sew. More than likely I will just machine sew as hand quilting is so relaxing for me I'm afraid it might put me to sleep. Pictured are the ring blocks with their alternating block. I'm very excited about quilting this one, though with toppers and the album quilt to be done by August, this one will likely sit on the back burner for most of the summer.

While going through a cabinet in my kitchen I found all the cups that go with my set of china. We bought the china at a garage sale, I think it's seconds, actually, as there are some flaws in the designs on some pieces if you look for them. I never use these cups, even when we have company, I'm a mug kind of girl and drink my coffee in a tall latte cup. I LOVE pincushions so decided to make pincushions out of the china cups. I picked 3 different fabrics and went to town. I had enough saucers for almost all of them, the saucer will be good for holding a spool of thread, small scissors, thimble and other small notions.

One of these will go to my friend Friday night, a little souvenir from our "retreat night." They were great fun to make and it makes me want to scour antique shops for mismatched china cups to make some more!

While typing out my long list of "little things" I've been trying to figure out which ones I want to do today. The ring blocks are almost all marked, so I'll certainly finish that today. I have part of one piece of sashing left to quilt before I need to mark the small border on my hoop quilt, I'll finish that quilting and mark it so I have it to work on while watching TV tonight.

I also plan to cut the background for the toppers and leaf blocks and would like to mark and baste the baby quilt. I can't show that one yet as it's a test project for my friend Tyanne and she requests that I not show my test work until the pattern is published. I'm more than happy to oblige. Visit her website to see her patterns and learn more about her.

If I finish the planned things for today, I'll just pick something else from my list. I have today and tomorrow to get the bulk of it done as Thursday and Friday are both busy for a good part of the day.

Ruthie LOVED the pincushion cups when she saw them. My sewing table is visible coming down the stairs and she stopped, her eyes got huge, she pointed and giggled and quickly made her way to the table where she climbed on the chair and gently patted each cushion that she could reach.

I look forward to the days when she can quilt with me. She is interested in all the little supplies and doodads that go with quilting and will sometimes play in the fabric. She definitely loves quilts and lays claim on all the small ones I make. I lay them out on the floor to get a good look and she happily lays on each one, then picks it up and walks away. I just might have to see if I can find some sewing cards for her and soon she'll be able to glue fabric scraps to paper. She's definitely a quilter in the making!

So that's it for today, I've got to run if I expect to get any of my list done today. Except for possibly having music practice tonight (I sing 1-2 times per month on the worship team) my day is wide open, I'm hoping to make the most of it!

Happy Quilting!

Sue and Ruthie