I Lied

I said my next post was going to be about hunting weekend, but there have been a couple of posts since then and here is another. There has been so much going on all of a sudden that I haven't gotten to that one, but it will come in the next day or so as I'm finally starting to focus on it.

The strip quilt is done and has moved on to it's new home. I gave it to my daughter to bring to her boyfriend's house for a couch quilt.

I'm REALLY liking these. They are great scrap users, are really heavy and warm, in part because of so many seams, and they are so easy to make and quilt. I love the back of this one. The strips are 3/4 inches wide and I quilted just next to the seam so the quilting lines are 3/4 inch apart.

I'm hoping to spend a good part of the next couple of days quilting so that I can finish the "joyful" quilt I'm working on by hunting weekend. It's not very big, so this is doable if I spend my usual quilting time.


I have an old project pulled out to quilt on as soon as the current one is finished. The hanger full of binding has been taunting me, it's time to finish up some of those older projects!


I've also pulled out 3 tops that I'd like to baste. I'll probably only have batting for two of them, but we'll see how that goes. With two of them basted, I'll have my winter quilting cut out for me, and there are also a few other smaller things that are already basted and can be quilted, things like placemats and small wallhangings.


I'll finish up with some Ruthie pictures. She asked to have her picture taken in this hat.


And a couple of sleeping pictures. Lucas has one of those backrest things on his bed and she loves that spot during the day if she's watching movies. If it's mid to late afternoon when she works her way up there, I can be pretty sure she'll fall asleep. Usually I know if she's fallen asleep just because of the length of time she's quiet, but other times she'll take a short cat nap. That is usually followed by her coming out of her room, sleepy-eyed and smiling, saying "eep" (sleep) to tell me she'd just taken a nap.





She was completely out of it for this nap!

I'm finally feeling like the cloud is being lifted. We still have work to do around here and things that need to be taken care of, but the return of the van, the fixing of our furnace (I was relighting the pilot during the night all last winter, by the end of the winter I was having trouble lighting it at all) and a few other positive things, I'm cautiously optimistic that things are on the upswing, after 8 or so long years of difficulty. Time will tell! In the meantime, I have quilts calling my name and the next couple of days should afford me a fair amount of quilting time. Time to get to it!
Sue and Ruthie

A Little Update and a Link

First, the link. Barb over at Ocean Waves Quilts is doing a giveaway with a wonderful prize! You have until October 22nd to sign up, so check it out and throw your name in the hat, she would love to hear from you!

Things have been busy here, our kids' youth group had their annual pumpkin launch so we spent the last week or so on final details, which means me being available at a moments notice to supervise flag making, power tool use and helping to solve little problems along the way. A wonderful time was had by all. Joshua's giant slingshot threw a pumpkin 460 feet, clearing the field they were shooting in, crossing the road (still pretty high in the air) and landing in the trees across the way.

Jonathan made a trebuchet with his friend, they are both 14. They did all of the work themselves, Jonathan even asked how to use the sewing machine and sewed his flags himself. Unfortunately the practice launches bent the axle holding the weight box and they were unable to do the official competition launches. After a few minutes of intense disappointment he was looking toward next year and what they could do to make the machine stronger to try again.

What quilting time I've had has been spent on the strip quilt, which is coming along nicely. I'm really hoping to have this one finished in the next week or so. I have a couple smaller quilts basted and partially quilted so I think I'll pull those out and finish them. The posy quilt will also get more attention once this one is finished.

It's a chilly, rainy day here, perfect for quilting. I went grocery shopping this morning and have a few quick chores to do and then I should be able to relax and quilt for a good part of what is left of the day.

The house smells like cinnamon, a friend brought me a starter for Amish Friendship Bread and I baked it today. I don't have anyone who wants them, so I'm going to keep it going here and make different versions of the loaf cake style recipe and will also use some to make sourdough bread. Ruthie is in a snuggly mood today and was walking around with this quilt wrapped around her.

Any length of time without Ruthie chatter will probably result in the picture on the right. If she's tired she has no problem settling in somewhere comfy (or not so comfy!) and taking a little snooze.

While I'd love to take a nap today, I know doing so will mean having trouble sleeping tonight. I'm going to get those chores done and hopefully moving around will renew my energy a bit so I can quilt without it putting me to sleep!

Until next time,

Happy Quilting!

Sue

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

Whew!

The sewing for the party is done. All of it. This is what the centerpieces will look like. I thought of putting some kind of bow around the top of the vase, but it just seemed like it would be too cluttered. I got white tablecloths to put underneath but now am wondering if purple would have been better, though purples can be difficult and since there are a variety of purple fabrics that may not have worked that well anyway.

My plan was to send a centerpiece home with each female head of household, so I needed 16 of them. I really didn't want to just give them out in plastic bags, nor did I have the money to go out and buy gift bags for all of them, so I made them. This is the "package" that will go home with each lady at the party, there are a few different florals used for the bags. These went way faster than I expected them to, which was a good thing as I wasn't able to start them until yesterday morning. All but one was finished when I went to bed last night and that one was cut, with handles made.

I finished the album quilt Tuesday night and that was a big relief. There was a short time there I really didn't think it would get finished at all, and I was dreading the thought of having to bring it home to finish it after the party. I'm very pleased with how it came out and look forward to having everyone sign it. I plan to bring some wise words from I Corinthians 13 to fill in any blank spaces. Here is a closeup of the border.

The weekend ahead will be quite busy. We are picking up the tables and chairs from church on Saturday morning and bringing them to my sister's house and setting them up. We'll get back in time to start getting ready and then will head back over to her house for the afternoon and early evening. Our older kids play on the church softball team, they are in the playoffs and have a game at 8:30 Saturday evening. I expect they will be leaving before the party ends, but since it's starting at 2:00, I don't expect it to go much past 8:00. I'm hoping we can get it all torn down and even get to see a bit of the game before heading back home again.

Sunday my husband's family (his mom, his siblings and their families) comes into town and that starts a week of activities ending Saturday with a big reunion of their whole extended family. While we will still have work obligations to fulfill, we will participate in as many of the activities during the week as we are able to.

I'm really looking forward to the week, but also looking forward to next Sunday, when all the craziness is over and I can relax in front of the Olympics with a project of my choice. To that end, I'm already daydreaming about what I want to work on in the spare minutes of the coming week and the (hopefully) abundant minutes of the following couple of weeks. I plan to get a lot of handwork done, but also hope to finish the strip block top. There are only a few pieces left to sew on each block but 288 blocks to sew so still quite a bit of work left on that.

Our oldest daugher, Rebekah, graduated from cosmetology school in June. She's taking her state board test on Monday and will find out that day if she passed. She's been applying for jobs but not really having much luck until this week. She went for an interview and had to bring a model to do a haircut and partial highlights. They said she did a fantastic job and want her to call the day after her test. That job is sounding quite promising on many levels (hours, pay, and benefits are all good) and she's very excited. She did haircuts on Lucas and I the other day and Ruthie had to have one, too. She needed her bangs cut which we usually do quickly with her in one of our laps. Right now her hair is quite long and usually in a ponytail or braid, but come fall I'd like it to be a few inches shorter with layers. We thought this would be good practice to see how well she might sit for that. She was quite pleased with the whole process and had to fluff up her hair just like Mom does when she is finished. I think there will be lots of fun hairdos in her future with a talented sister to take care of them for her!

So that's my very long and rather all over the place update. Here's to seeing you on the other side!

Sue