Tuesday, January 29, 2008

While I didn't quilt last night, I did do homework. Does that count? :-)

Monday, January 28, 2008

Carolina Crossroads - cutting has commenced!

I actually dipped my big toe in the water! As I was cutting all of my piano keys from 1.5” strips, I saved everything that was greater than a square and less than the smallest key I needed, which was 3.5”. So I have some 9 patch squares going! I’m so excited!

I also found a lovely pink batik that I may use as the focus fabric. I want to see how much of it I have. I remember I bought whatever was on the bolt. Here’s hoping it’s a lot, like 3+ yards.

I want to make the quilt longer, so I need to make one more ring row and one more star row. That means I will have to make 9 extra blocks total. So I spent some time on that math as well.

weekend update

Thursday – I PASSED MY TEST! However, I had class, so nothing really happened that evening except me lying around and vegging before class. I had earned it!

Friday – DAY OFF! First I went through and finished the other 9 Chiclets blocks that are homework here for Q1. That was a huge pain in the butt off my mind. Then I went in search of my St. Pat’s stuff and it has disappeared. Well dang! The point was to find it and make a silent auction item from it, as the show is a week before St. Pat’s.

So I dropped back 10 and punted. I found my unused Easter fabrics and decided on making a huge striped egg for a table topper. So I cut strips, prepped a back with batting, and I was off to the races. By the end of the evening, I had the whole thing sewn. It was 18 inches wide and the WOF, so I was hoping to get 2 eggs out of it. I got 2 eggs and 11 little eggs for coasters, so when I determine the yards from stash, I will just use 18 inches and the WOF. There was very little waste.

Saturday – We started the morning with no power, so that was an adventure. I did a lot of housework type stuff and errand type stuff, so no so much sewing. I did start cutting the piano keys for the batik quilt.

The batik quilt was a pattern from a magazine called the Puzzler and our guild called it the batik lover’s quilt. Each person was to make 12 of one square and we were to swap. Included in our swap bag were to be some extra strips for the piano key border to provide unity and continuity throughout the quilt. So I started pressing, measuring, sorting and cutting those out. (By the time I was done, I only had to supplement from stash for 5% of the keys, which isn’t bad.)

Sunday – I cut out 2 large Easter eggs and 11 small ones. I sewed the binding on the 2 big and one of the small and the one small did not turn out well. I may have to postcard finish those. I did get one of the bindings stitched down on the big one and it won’t lay 100% completely flat. I need to iron it and see if that helps.

I also finished cutting the piano key border for my batik quilt and started sewing it together. I got 52 of the 260 keys done and they are attached into 4 sections, making me about 20% of the way done. Whoever said that with scrap quilts, when you’re done cutting, you’re halfway done wasn’t kidding!

Week 5 goals

Goals for Week 5:
Pictures into guild for show
Crayons quilted:
Orange
Purple
Black
Red
Blue
Brown
Green
Table Runners for Quilt show
Pam
Other
St. Pat’s
January Table Runner
Batik Lover’s quilt
Carolina Crossroads
Chiclets
100th day of school quilt

Week 4

Goals for Week 4:
Pictures into guild for show
Crayons quilted:
Orange
Purple
Black
Red
Blue
Brown
Green
Table Runners for Quilt show
Pam
Other
St. Pat’s
January Table Runner
Carolina Crossroads
Chiclets
100th day of school quilt

What I got done:

I passed my test! Since I passed, I took Friday off, so my quilty weekend started Thursday night.

Stashbusting efforts:

No buying and no sewing, so net effect of a big fat zero.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Almost...

The test is tomorrow, so all I'm doing is going nuts trying to study. So no sewing but no stash acquisition either!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Week 3

Goals for Week 3:
Pictures into guild for show
Crayons quilted:
Orange
Purple
Black
Red
Blue
Table Runners for Quilt show
January Table Runner
Carolina Crossroads
Chiclets
100th day of school quilt

What I got done:

Friday – 9 chiclets blocks. Goal is 6 per month to finish and this gets me all of January and half of February.

Saturday – too busy to sew.

Sunday – too busy and too tired to sew.

Monday – did nothing – church meeting.

Tuesday – did nothing.

Wednesday – nothing due to class.

Thursday – nothing due to class

Stashbusting efforts:

Well, I didn’t add to the stash, which is always a good sign! LOL. I did work on a really annoying UFO, so that is like double points in my book. My stress level over this insurance exam is off the roof and I will be much better next Thursday afternoon when it’s over. I did indeed take next Friday off as a reward to myself. Sometimes you just need to do it.

It was just as well I did not start the table runner projects for the quilt show, as the other person making identical items had some design issues. Now that we have it all hammered out, I should be good to go.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

CC Revealed!!!!

Well, I got Bonnie’s all important special notice last night and WOW is all I can say! What else can you say??!? Thank you, Bonnie comes to mind.

It is a fantastic quilt. It is also predominately a blue quilt. So I’m glad to see how it turned out so I can work on my color placement. The only other thing I plan on doing is adding another row to the bottom so it’s a tad larger (and busts more stash).

Now that class has started, now I can start on this quilt. Next weekend during the Stashbusters retreat weekend, I plan on getting going. We shall see. This weekend is already tied up with a little kid sleepover for 2 nights, studying for class and studying most importantly for my insurance exam.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Noodle!

Oh. Dear. God.

No quilting last night on my last night of freedom for the next 6 years of my life (I start grad school tonight).

And no studying for the exam today. Eek.

But I did get assigned to a very cool project today and it is the BOMB. I am very excited.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

The Waffler

Now I’m rethinking my colors for the CC. Should I do all scrappy for blue, whatever neutral lights I have for the cream and pink for the red? Hmm…

The pros are that I would be able to go through my Ziploc bags of scraps (sorted by color) and get rid of a lot of stuff and process whatever else is in there and really get a handle on the little stuff. Another pro is although I want to try a pink and brown quilt, I’m not sure I want one that’s 80 x 80. A third benefit (although implied) is that the entire thing could most definitely come from stash.

The cons are that I am waffling and I don’t get a pink and brown quilt right now.

I so cannot wait for this insurance exam to be over. It’s next Thursday the 24th and I am taking the 25th as a mental health day. I plan to quilt all weekend long. DH is in total support of this. I think the only getting out we may do is to quilt shops to drop off fliers for the quilt show, so everything will be quilting related. I so need this weekend.

So back to CC. If you’re reading this, let me know your thoughts.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Weekend Update

Overall, it was not a hugely productive sewing weekend, but since I am less than 2 weeks away from an insurance exam, this is not surprising.

Friday night required some quilting. DD had been sick all day and frankly she was nothing more than a huge pain in the butt. So after a fun adventure at ISU trying to get an ID, I got home and she was asleep taking a nap. So Ted and watched some tivo (Numbers) and after she woke up, I started to sew.

Now I have to make an appreciation table runner for the quilt show co-chair and then I have decided to make 2 more table runners as well for the quilt show silent auction. I figured I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to PP the appreciation table runner (God, how I hate paper piecing!), so I figured I would start my homework on the chiclets.

Somehow, some way before we moved, I made something like 50+ 16-patches for a series of chiclets quilts. Well, the pattern then requires the 16-patches to be framed with a background fabric and some HSTs. Well, making over 400 scrappy HSTs can get a bit tedious! So the project got stuffed into some Ziplocs and shoved in a box and moved.

Fast forward to the move. I took a look at this and decided I had invested too much and that the process was tedious but not hateful and technically the blocks looked good, so I should continue. I decided that I would complete 6 blocks a month until they were all done. So each time I did 6 blocks, I would take a fat eighth and some WOW and make some HSTs using the grid method. Then I would pull out of the existing HST bag and pull enough for 24 HSTs, press, square and sew.

I did indeed do 6 in October and 12 in November during my retreat. I completed 9 on Friday night while watching Gladiator on TNT. It’s not exactly a movie where you need to hear every word and stay riveted to the screen, so it made for good mindless sewing. I got the 9 done and called it an evening. I hope to do the other 9 this coming weekend and then I am done with chiclets for the first quarter of this year.

I have decided that the chiclets will become the TV room/Family room quilt for the couch. So the blocks now have a home, which is good. This will be completely from stash, which is also good. I’m a fan of free quilts.

Saturday involved the MBA orientation, studying a lot and managing DH and DD after they returned from an adventurous trip to Bensenville for a funeral. Let’s just say syrup ended up all over the minivan.

Sunday involved a prolonged morning at church, some football and some studying. No quilting.

It turned out that I couldn’t start on my appreciation table runner at all anyway because the person making the other one wanted to mail me another block and her PP template so that we would be consistent. So it worked out just as well. I want to make the other 2 runners from the scraps of the first, so I just have to wait it out.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Week 3 Goals

Goals for Week 3:
Pictures into guild for show
Crayons quilted:
Orange
Purple
Black
Red
Blue
Table Runners for Quilt show
January Table Runner
Carolina Crossroads
Chiclets
100th day of school quilt

Week 2

Goals for Week 2:
Pictures into guild for show
Crayons quilted:
Yellow
Orange
Purple
Black

What I got done:

Friday - I do not even remember. I did go to the doctor and get some antibiotics, so I bet I slept the rest of the day.

Saturday – Went up to Crest Hill and met up with my bee and did some quilt show stuff. DD sewed 2 rows of her 100th Day of School quilt.

Sunday – Worked on the black crayon. Sandwiched the orange crayon. Finished the last 4 broken dishes blocks made from waste triangles from my snowman/snowball quilt. I plan to use these blocks for the January table runner.

Monday – Finished yellow crayon. Started orange crayon.

Tuesday – No sewing, but I did make some headway in my very cluttered house, so that helped out from a mental health point of view.

Wednesday – all of the orange crayon until I ran out of thread. Boo.

Thursday – I fell asleep over my insurance books.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

CC - Step 6 revealed

Let's just say, based on Step 6 being revealed, that I think I want to swap where the pink and brown will be in my blocks and where the purple and green will be in Kim's blocks. I want a predominately pink and cream quilt and I want Kim to have a predominately purple and cream quilt, so we shall see what else happens with this quilt.

No, I haven't started cutting. Life got way to crazy over New Year's and being sick did not help. Add to that the fact that the quilt show is in 2 months and my 2 quilts aren't ready and you can see what's going on in my life. But I am SO itching to start this quilt!

Maybe this weekend. It will be my Spring 08 quilt. I start grad school next week, so if I can do one full projects plus UFOs each term, I will be pleased as punch. I study a lot and sew a lot. I was already doing my MBA when we moved, (so I have to start over) so I have practice on how to balance school, work and quilting.

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Sidewinder Review

Here’s my review on the SideWinder, the latest hot gadget in quilting.

First a bit of background. I have an older Kenmore that I used as my DSM for a long time, only recently replacing it with the Janome Gem last spring. The Kenmore had only 3 issues with it. It’s heavy, I can’t free motion on it (no doubt operator error, but whatever) and the bobbin winder is broken. Now I really don’t feel like spending a ton of money to repair this feature.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving time, when I brought my Janome in for service. I then was sewing on the Kenmore (named Ed, as I really did get it from a gay guy named Ed), and I had no way to wind bobbins (I was using the Janome, you see…). So I had to get a Side Winder.

The pros: It winds bobbins and you don’t have to unthread your machine. It threads them for more than one bobbin type. It is plug in and battery operated. It is small. And it’s way cheaper than fixing Ed.

The cons: It doesn’t have a stop button. Why do you need one? Well, if your spool runs out, the bobbin keeps going, though nothing is happening. It only stops if the bobbin is full. So in order to stop it, I have to pull the plug (from the unit to the power cord – not out of the wall). What do you do if you’re on battery? It only winds the bobbins about 2/3 full.

So how do I feel about owning it? Good, for Ed the Kenmore. But don’t be fooled by illusions of grandeur.

Week 2

Goals for Week 2:
Pictures into guild for show
Crayons quilted:
Yellow
Orange
Purple
Black

I'm now at the point where I need to focus on Quilt Show duties first and foremost. Right now, I want to get 2 crayons a week quilted so that the whole quilt can be done by the end of January. The other things are 2 table runners for the silent auction and a table runner for one of the 2 that chaired the show.

I am still working on some other things as rewards for completing the "have-to's."

Then there are some admin duties I need to focus on. Oy!

Week 1

Goals for Week 1:
Pictures into guild for show
CC – Kim – clue 1
CC – Me – clue 1
Anything else I want!!!

What I got done:

Friday – Christmas party with my bee. Very fun!!!

Saturday – After getting home in the afternoon and taking a nap, I got the purple crayon fixed and sandwiched for quilting. I also sewed 50 pieces on the black crayon.

Sunday – Despite feeling all congested, I did get the yellow crayon fixed and sandwiched for quilting. I also got the upstairs quilting station set up.

Monday – Up in Chicago with sick MIL – don’t ask.

Tuesday – After all the craziness, I did manage to quilt half of the yellow crayon. It went far faster than I expected, so it should be a far more manageable project to complete than what I thought.

I did not get to go to the Treadle to get browns for my CC, nor could I cut Kim’s CC. Such is life. We’ll get there.

Wednesday – Despite being exhausted (I think the kids gave me something), I did sit for 10 minutes and quilted a fourth of the other side of the yellow crayon. Not much, but if that what it takes….I’m taking it.

Thursday – nothing.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

If that what it takes....

I only got in 10 minutes yesterday, so I did a fourth of the other side of the yellow crayon. Right now, if that is all that can be done, I will take it.

DH is still up with his mom. DD and I are holding down the fort, in this zero degree nonsense. I like cold and I live in Illinois, but even I will admit this is cold. However, I am still not wearing a winter coat. That would be admitting defeat!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Several Days of Catch-Up

Friday – Christmas party with my bee. Very fun!!!

Saturday – After getting home in the afternoon and taking a nap, I got the purple crayon fixed and sandwiched for quilting. I also sewed 50 pieces on the black crayon.

Sunday – Despite feeling all congested, I did get the yellow crayon fixed and sandwiched for quilting. I also got the upstairs quilting station set up.

Monday – Up in Chicago with sick MIL – don’t ask.

Tuesday – After all the craziness, I did manage to quilt half of the yellow crayon. It went far faster than I expected, so it should be a far more manageable project to complete than what I thought.

I did not get to go to the Treadle to get browns for my CC, nor could I cut Kim’s CC. Such is life. We’ll get there.