Moving On!

I did very little quilting yesterday despite my plans to spend a good portion of my day at it. I sometimes find the day after I finish a big project, especially if I really spent a lot of time and energy finishing it, that I can't focus on a different project. Sometimes the problem is the project that I decided was next isn't inspiring me enough to spend time on it.

I told myself I'd finish piecing the strip block top when I wasn't hand quilting, but I just don't feel like machine work right now. When I realized that, I pulled out the two projects that are in the works, in addition to quilting on the frame quilt. To the right is the alternating block. This one is really fun to quilt on, the long lines with gentle curves make it relaxing and enjoyable.

The other blocks are appliqued flowers. They are scrappy and were great fun to work on. These are just outlined, with a triangle quilted in each corner. I expect this one will go rather quickly, the quilting is simple and it's not a huge quilt, it measures 60 x 60.

The other projects in the works are two applique quilts. One has considerably less applique per block and it's simpler to do. This one also has flowers and alternating blocks. It's scrappy and there are 32 of these flower blocks alternating with 32 'plain' blocks with a feathered wreath to be quilted on them.

The second applique project is more tedious and is one that I consider more of a long term project. With my Christmas quilting on the horizon, this project is more of a diversion and it will likely be some time before it gets a lot of undivided attention.

There are 13 of these blocks, alternating with 12 flower blocks which are also all white on the blue background. When set together, the idea is that the block shown will "frame" the applique blocks. We'll see if it works! This one will also have an appliqued border.

So there it is! The next few weeks of quilting and applique laid out for me. In that time I'll also be marking and basting the two quilts I need to make for Christmas (the tops have been pulled from my UFO stash.

Also in the works is another slight reorganization of my sewing room. My son wants to add a fish tank stand in his room so has hung all his clothing in his closet so as to move the dresser out and make room. I'm taking the dresser for extra storage and to put a TV on it. My Grandma passed away nearly two weeks ago, we are being given her big screen TV, which leaves one I can put in my sewing room.

Somehow this room is ever changing, it seems I just get it how I think I want it and something else comes up!

Here's to a happy, quilty day for everyone!

Another UFO finished

I'm so excited! I've been working on this one for a couple of months now and am so glad to have it done!

Here is a closeup of one of the center blocks so you can see the quilting on it. I like to have a combination of straight lines and curved motifs for the quilting on most of my quilts.

To the left is a closeup of the 1/2 square motif that I used. When viewed from even a short distance, it looks like a fancy curlique motif fills the white zig zag when in reality it's a series of 1/2 square motifs. I was too chicken to try to draw in my own design that had to make that many turns!

I was going to quilt this top for my niece's wedding present last November, but my daughter said that she was hoping this one would stay at our house because she loves it. I decided right then that this will be her wedding present some day, or perhaps her housewarming gift when she gets her own apartment.

I got this idea looking at log cabin settings...I don't particularly like to make log cabin blocks, but Amish Bar blocks also work in this setting. It's the "frame" setting so I had to find something to go in the middle. I LOVE this particular block. It's fun to make and really is striking finished, yet quite simple to do as well.

In the course of doing this, I realized how quickly we could be having weddings popping up, not only with our own children but nieces and nephews as well, so I have wedding quilts on the brain. I had Rebekah help me pick out a pattern for hers, with the caveat that should she change her mind (or her young man not like it) that I could surely make another.

Lately whenever anyone asks "who's that one for?" my answer is usually "for me!"...something it took years for me to do. Several of our friends and family don't get how I could make quilts without a designated purpose, but my purpose is clear to me. The creative outlet and sense of utter peace I get when quilting is hard to explain, but I know many reading here totally get it.

The new frame quilt will soon get some attention. The first needle is threaded and the knot popped into place, it's just waiting for me to have some time...probably later today.

After the crazy busy-ness of the past couple of weeks, I barely know what to do with myself. It's a wonderful feeling to have a day stretching in front of you and being able to choose what goes in it.

My day today includes a perm, some quilting, and practice tonight along with my regular tasks of the day. Just the kind of busy day that I like!

Happy quilting!

A Passion Revisited

I've been doing some form of needlework since I was 10 years old. It started with knitting and progressed to crocheting, stamped cross stitched, needlepoint, crewel and finally a long stint with counted cross-stitch. When I found that, I felt that I found my niche (that is, until I discovered quilting!)

As I thought about the coming school year and the idea of having more time than in years prior, I got to thinking about my cross-stitching again. I've always said that someday I would pick it back up again. I think that day has come.

I love this picture of the Chicago skyline. I found the pattern in a shop and just had to have it. I've lived all my life within about 50 miles of the city, went to many Cubs games, visited museums and the lakefront. My teens now go to the city on the train with a group of friends and go shopping or to dinner to to visit friends in school there. Though I don't get there often, the sight of the skyline as we travel through on trips makes my heart beat a little faster, there is something about it that excites me. This picture measures 27 x 13 (without the mat) and right now doesn't have a place to hang, though I'm sure will again someday.

This next picture hangs in my dining room. It used to be in our family room, but then I painted the family room for my husband in camouflage colors. Our dining room has red walls and this fit right in. It measures 27 x 32 and took me two years to complete. I did work on other smaller things while working on this one. I finished it about 20 years ago, when our oldest was small.

In thinking about cross-stitching again, I remembered the wonderful frame I'd bought. We pulled it out of our crawlspace yesterday and it even had a new project mounted on the roller bars. The threads were all pulled and the pattern still on the frame. I'm ready to roll!

While finishing the ex-frame quilt is my first priority for the next few days, I'm looking forward to adding a bit of cross-stitch to my weeks. While I probably won't do it daily, as I do quilting, a little bit each week will eventually get something finished...and as the weather sours and the sun sets earlier, I like the idea of choices as to how I'm spending my time.

Today we have a rather busy day, I'm going to visit my friend's grandma for the last time (they come home tomorrow) then I have to get ready for an anniversary party. I hope to squeeze in a bit of quilting before I leave for friend's house and after the party (we don't plan to stay too late, we have church and a funeral tomorrow, so another busy day.)

I'm longing for Monday...I told my kids after 10 days of running multiple times every day, I'm staying home all day on Monday. If I knew no one would come to our door I'd even take a jammie day...but I've learned my lesson on those!

Happy stitching!

Ramblings

I'm slowly making progress on the ex-frame quilt...it seems oh so slow now that I'm nearing the end and anxious to be finished. I haven't been working on anything else, not wanting to delay the finish any longer and not wanting to get so caught up in something else that this just sits.

So I grab what spare time I can during this busy week and dream of pulling the first needle full through the new frame quilt, mounted and waiting for me to be ready.

This one will not take long at all, it's not very big and has the advantage of me being ready to start my Christmas quilting so I'll be anxious to get it done in short order.

In and among the errands, etc, yesterday, I did a big clean on my bathroom and kitchen, it feels good that both are neat and nearly sparkly (as sparkly as things get in a nearly 22 year old house.)

My two youngest have had hefty colds. Yesterday morning I was up early in anticipation of babysitting, our 13 and 15 year olds were up as they were going fishing, my husband was about to leave for work...so of course Ruthie woke up, not being used to so much activity in our house early in the morning.

Once things settled down a couple hours later, I realized I hadn't seen or heard her for a bit so I went looking...this is what I found.

I've been thinking about my applique again and think I'll pull out the two latest applique projects and try to muster up some excitement for them. Maybe pulling them out and posting a few pics will get me going. I love to applique and have only hand quilted and done a bit of piecing over the summer. With Autumn on it's way and school about to start, I should become much more productive. We homeschool, so handwork (whether it be quilting or applique) is perfect to sit and do while I'm waiting on kids to finish their pages or come with questions.

Usually I rather dread the start of the school year and the curtailing of the freedom of summer, but this year I feel oddly energized and excited for the start of the year. Perhaps because I'm longing for an end to the humidity! Also, Ruthie is much more self sufficient and able to entertain herself this year, so I should be able to get a lot accomplished this winter. Not only quilting related, but in my house and perhaps there will even be time to pick up one of my old abandoned crafts...I used to love to do counted cross-stitch and would love to pick it up again.....hhhhmmmmm....maybe that's tomorrow's post. Stay tuned!

I'm Really Still Here!

What a crazy time we've had here! I've had a lack of time and not much to say so haven't posted in a while. I don't feel like I have a whole lot to say this time, either, but here we go anyway! I'm up early today as I was supposed to babysit, but it got cancelled. I'm short on sleep as we stayed up late to watch the Cubs game...not exactly a good combination for being productive!

Since our mall trip, I've been quilting a fair amount on the quilt that was removed from the frame to do the outer blocks. I have one side left, so 14 seven inch blocks.

Usually at this point on a quilt I'm quilting constantly to get it done, but I've had so many other things to do that I just didn't have the time. While I did manage a fair amount of time, in spite of the busy-ness, it hasn't been as much as I'd like!

A good friend of mine is on vacation, her grandma lives with her and she needed someone to check in with her to see if she needs anything and visit for a little while each day so I've been doing that as well.

We've also been working on finishing paperwork for our oldest daughter to start cosmetology school in a couple of weeks.

So today I'm hoping to squeeze in some heavy duty quilting. I need to run to the store and visit friend's grandma, but still have this morning and this evening to mostly quilt...I hope...LOL.

I'm really hoping to finish these blocks by the end of the weekend, but in addition to grandma visits I have another trip to the school with my daughter, a 25th anniversary party to go to and possibly a funeral as I found out my own grandma is doing very poorly after her stroke last week.

Next week should be much quieter and I'm planning on hiding and quilting for as much time as I can muster before our school year starts the following week!

All in all, though, it's been a wonderful summer here and it really seemed to go nice and slow...but it never quite seems slow enough come Labor Day weekend!

I think the frenzy to finish this quilt might be connected with summer ending, now that I'm thinking about it. It's about this time of year that I begin to work on my Christmas gifts. I have a quilt in the frame that I haven't touched yet, knowing enough about myself to know that if I start on it, the other might never get finished! After that one, I'm doing the two cover up quilts for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law for Christmas gifts.

It's a little hard to imagine Christmas right now, with the morning sun shining on the tree I can see from where I sit, the air fresh and clean from recent storms (though I STILL am waiting for the drop in humidity!)

So here's to a productive quilty day...and sleeping in tomorrow!

Mall of America Wrap Up

Whew! What a couple of days!

We set our alarms for 6am, hoping to be on the road by 7:00. We were in the car and rolling by 6:40, so we were off to a good start! The heat wasn't too terrible until about 11:00 and it started to get pretty stifling in the van, but by then we were close enough that the excitement overshadowed that. One girl brought a six pack of mini sodas and they opened them and 'toasted' their trip as we crossed the Minnesota border (mini sodas, Minnesota, get it?) LOL.

We stopped at our hotel hoping for early check-in to no avail. We were only a mile from the Mall so we proceeded there. We sat at a stop light with the Mall straight ahead. I turned right, as the parking garage was on the right....OOOPS...we were back on the highway....bye-bye mall! Did you like it girls?? We got turned around pretty quickly and found our way to the parking garage. Of course by this time I was so turned around I had NO idea how to find our hotel again!

Their excitement as we headed to the elevators was at a fever pitch. The side of the elevators facing the mall was windows, they practically had their noses pressed against the glass looking at their destination, now only feet away. We pressed the button for the lowest floor (not realizing we were on the side the subway was on....) and when we passed ground level out the window was girders and cement. They were so close to the window (and not expecting it) that they all jumped back and screamed, which made Ruthie scream. I have to wonder what the people outside the elevator must have been thinking!

FINALLY, we were IN the mall and settled down for some shopping! I have a friend who lives close by, she met us shortly after we got there and we set out searching for bargains.

Here is a view from the third floor, you can see the 2nd and first floor in this view. This is just a very small view, this place is enormous! The girls did some serious shopping this day, spending a fair amount of time in a few of their favorite places. I was wondering if we'd even see the whole mall in our two day trip!

My big purchase was a portable DVD player to keep by my quilting frame. I love having movies on during the day, especially when I'm quilting. I've been putting them on the computer, but then it's not available for anyone else. The portable player will also be good for car trips. I'd been shopping around online and had an idea what features I wanted and what price range I wanted to be in. We used it on the way home and listening to it really helped pass the time in the car.

Day one at the mall ended at about 9:00 pm, we went back to our hotel weary, a bit poorer and very happy. After one wrong turn and a few extra driving minutes, we were back at our hotel, checked in and the girls were heading to the pool for a quick swim, after which they settled in for the night after a bit of chatter and one more look at all of their purchases.

I don't sleep well the first night in an unfamiliar place, so after a bit of TV I finally felt ready to sleep. I woke with a start at 2:30 am, there was a storm raging outside and the power had just gone off. We had set an alarm for the morning as the girls wanted to get all dolled up for day 2 at the mall, so I lay there, expecting the power to click back on pretty quickly. It didn't. I lay there for quite a while and finally fell back to sleep. We awoke just after 8...and the power was still off. The room was warm and stuffy. Without power we had no blow dryers, no curling irons, no light in the bathroom.

I've told my husband and friends that kids' attitudes can often be molded by how they are presented with things, here was my chance to test my theory in a big way. They were a little dejected over the late start (we had the alarm set for 7:30) and not having their 'makeover' morning, so I said cheerfully "it will be ok. Anyone who wants to shower can leave the door open for light, we'll just stay over by the beds so you have privacy. You all have such pretty hair you don't need to fuss with it to look good, we can get ready and be on our way."

They perked up, took turns taking quick, cold showers. And as fate would have it, the power went back on as we were getting ready to leave the room!

Tradition (if you can call the idea of continuing something done for only two years tradition) dictates a trip to Build-a-Bear. The idea was for our girls to each buy one for herself and for the friend they brought. This was to be our first stop in the morning, we intended to be there before the mall opened to get in line and do it quickly. We got a little later start than intended because of the power outage, so I was concerned that we'd have a much longer line to deal with. We actually got in and out fairly quickly. Here is Ruthie with her new Koala bear. The bear's shirt says "shop til you drop" which was really appropriate for this trip!

My other purchase was a new pair of shoes for the Fall. I liked these right away, they feel wonderful and will go with both nice slacks and dresses for church. They are black, actually, they look navy in the picture. I have visions of a nice black dress, textured black hose and these shoes.

Another thing on the agenda for day 2 was riding the roller coaster. We made a quick trip to the car to drop off our purchases and headed to the amusement park. Time was starting to run out, so while they were waiting in line for tickets and to get on the ride, I quickly went to the last store that I wanted to see. I got back just in time to see them on the ride.

We spend the last couple of hours having a meal before the ride home and making one last visit to favorite stores or seeing missed stores that they just had to have a peek in. Before we know it, the whirlwind two days are over. One of the last things they do is to get in a photo booth to take pictures. All four of them cram in there for one last tangible memory of their trip.

Now our thoughts turn to the beginning of the school year. I'm looking forward to less heat and humidity!

Today's agenda includes several small chores, driving a friend to the doctor's office and, I hope, lots of quilting. The same will hold for the rest of the week. Our oldest three are going on a camping trip next weekend and will be gone from Thursday morning until Saturday dinner, so I hope for a very relaxing, quilty week overall. The frame quilt is just about ready to come off and then I'll have to quilt the outer row of blocks in a hoop. I'm optimistically hoping to have the quilting done and be able to bind it at my quilting bee next Tuesday night.

So off to quilt I go, still smiling from our very enjoyable Mall of America trip.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane.....

(anyone else remember that song??) Ok, well, we're not really leaving on a plane, but rather in our full size van with broken air conditioning.

My girls and I are making our 2nd annual trip to the Mall of America. We're bringing two of their friends on our foray into the wild world of oversized shopping malls.

My husband and sons hunt, so have a long weekend away every fall. He calls this our hunting trip...which is actually a pretty good description of shopping, especially in a place with 3 floors, hundreds of stores and accompanying 4 teenagers with an eye for bargains...ours just ends with oodles of packages and not gutting an animal in 20 degree weather.

We're spending one night in a hotel near the mall and Rachel (15) said "packing for this trip is so easy, it's like going to a sleepover." While her list may contain only her makeup, purse, a change of clothes, her swimsuit and some pajamas, mine is considerably longer! Packing for an overnight trip isn't much different than packing for a few days for me.

We eat our breakfast and lunch in the car on the way, to save the girls money on food and leave them more for shopping. We also eat our own food for breakfast in the hotel and we bring snacks for the car trip home. With Ruthie coming along, we need a stroller and all her paraphenalia, too. I've learned a lot about myself over the years and know that the more work I do ahead, the more I can enjoy a trip, especially a short one. So yesterday I did the grocery shopping (usually a Thursday job), baked cookies and gathered up as much of what is going on the trip as possible, leaving only the final packing for today.

Also on my agenda today is as much quilting as I can squeeze in as there will be little, if any, time to do any while we are gone.

So think of me over the next two days, in a van full of giggling girls in 90 degree heat and no air conditioner, walking the biggest mall in the world, getting swollen feet and entertaining a two year old along the way...and know I'll be having just as good a time as they are!