Week 9 Goals and Ramblings

I’ve taken Leap Day off to get my tetanus shot for grad school and also to take DD for her annual physical, so the rest of the time I hope to quilt like a nut! I really need to in order to make the quilt show, which is a week from tomorrow!

Week 9 Goals:

Crayon quilt done (except for handsewing on back)
Batik Lover’s done (except for extra quilting DH wants)

Friday goal:

All crayons done. 4 are quilted and 5 are not there yet. I need to get the other 4 quilted, cut all crayons to the same size, attach binding to the bottom of each crayon and to the tips of each crayon. I then need to hand sew down these binding pieces. Then I need to add binding down the side of each crayon as single fold binding. Then I need to sew the crayons together, using that long binding. And then hand sew those bindings down (which will most likely happen after the show).

Other stuff:

The Batik Lover’s quilt needs to have the top pieced (halfway done), sandwiched and quilted. I want to see from DH what he wants and do about half of it before adding the binding. I can have it half quilted to his desire in order to hang it in the show.

So overall, my main weekend goal is to have everything together and need handwork. Anything else is gravy. As it is, this is gonna be hard.

Week 8 Report

Goals for this week:
All crayons quilted.
All crayons cut.
Batik Lover’s sandwiched.

After that, I really need to think about which way to go next.

And what I got done…

Orange crayon and black crayon. Not enough, but better than nothing.

My week ended this morning, as my week always begins when my work week ends, and I’ve taken tomorrow off. May I get a lot done tomorrow. DD wants to stay home with me instead of going to daycare, which is fine IF she understands that I have to put the pedal to the metal and get ‘r done.

Tuesday night

Well, I did finish the quilting on the orange crayon. I also did about 1/3 of the quilting on the black crayon. Not enough for my liking, but better than none.

I did take Friday off, but of course, I'm done being queen on Friday at 6am. Go figure!

I don't wanna be queen

I am currently queen and will be until 6am Friday. Of course, I took off Friday to finish my 2 quilts for the show, so I will miss the queen thing by like 12 hours. How is that for my karma in life right about now?!?!?

I didn’t quilt last night, but I did work on my paper and I am also in receipt of 219 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Oy.

week 8

Um, yeah, I’m a bit behind. It’s now week 8 in my quilting universe. In the last 4 weeks, I’ve been taking 2 insurance exams for work, 2 exams for grad school, handling my DD’s 7th birthday and having influenza. So, not a lot of sewing going on.

However, the quilt show is in less than 2 weeks. I have got to get me rear in gear to get the 2 quilts I am hanging done. So I did actually quilt some this weekend – I worked on crayons.

So as of right now:

Brown – sandwiched
Red – piecing
Orange – quilting
Yellow – done
Green – sandwiched
Blue – piecing
Purple – done
Black – sandwiched

As for the Batik Lover’s, the top and bottom piano key borders are done and the side are half-pieced. The 2 bottom rows are pieced together.

Goals for this week:
All crayons quilted.
All crayons cut.
Batik Lover’s sandwiched.

After that, I really need to think about which way to go next.

Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is that I quilted for about 25 minutes yesterday. I did complete the purple braid quilting. I also started to finish the orange braid quilting, but the bobbin ran out and the bobbin winder is 2 floors below this machine. I did not sew on the black or red braids, nor did I unpick anything.

Tonight I have one test. The goal would be to finish the orange braid, sew 10 on black and red and unpick the brown braid. Slowly but surely, I will get there.

an actual quilty update

The flu and my hands are not getting along. If this is what arthritis feels like, y’all can have it! My hands ache something fierce non-stop.

I did take some time on Sunday at sew on the purple crayon. Each crayon has 3 steps: the braid, the sandwiching and the quilting (on each braid). The yellow crayon is all done. The orange one still needs some quilting, as I ran out of thread and have since bought more. The purple crayon needed to be quilted, and as of right now is ¾ of the way done.

The other 5 crayons suffer from the fatal design flaw and all need to be fixed, rebraided (can we all say ‘y-seams’?) and then have steps 2 and 3 done. My goal this weekend, and it’s been weeks since I had any quilting goals, is to get this stupid crayon quilt done. I work only until 1 on Friday, so that gives me Friday night. Saturday we need to go to Chicago, but I should be able to get something done that night. Sunday is DD’s kid party, but that is not at my house, so I am hoping that I can get more done Sunday night.

Mini-goal: finish purple crayon and orange crayon tonight. Sew 10 strips on the black braid and on the red braid. Unpick brown braid.

Let’s see how this goes. Recovering from this flu is like recovering from mono.

a-ha!

Now I know why I've been in a funk. I have influenza! I did have the shot and I have a mild case, but still, it saps your energy.

I postponed DD's birthday party for today until March 1. Currently Ted is taking her to the mall and we will head out for an early supper at Chili's. I am just exhausted. I try to study for 15 minutes and do light housework for 15 minutes. I did that for 5 hours yesterday and then I picked up the living room of toys during the news hour at 5. By 7:30 last night I was in bed and promptly slept 12 hours.

So now it is all about pacing. I need to get through these tests this upcoming week, so that is my number 1 concern. I did allow myself to start on the bargello when last I sewed and I did get one panel sewn together, so now it needs pressing and cutting and all of that. The pain in my hands is unbelievable from the flu, so I may just progress on anything that doesn't require precision cutting. I can get pretty far I think.

So it's all about pacing and regaining strength. I think I can make all of my deadlines if I just take one bite at a time.

hiding out...and thinking too much

I’m been laying low. Sorry about that. It’s been all about school and tests and it really won’t let up until about Feb 29.

I have not been able to sew. Last weekend I took the time to sew some Valentine’s postcards that were on a panel from last year. That was fun and fast. So that busted an infinitesimal amount of stash and nearly a whole spool of deep red thread. It was nice to do something new.

My sewing funk comes from the idea that I absolutely must finish 1 table runner and 2 quilts for the quilt show in a month. Yes, I know, people work better under a deadline and I am no exception, but since I’ve decided to get UFOs done, starting with those, I’ve been in a funk. And I’ve had to stop myself from full-blown launching into the New Year’s Sudoku quilt challenge, Carolina Crossroads in full force, SITP and the Bargello bowl. 4 items that would have turned into UFOs because another 4 cool ideas would have come along to start. At least I know the source of my madness.

Another question that is coming up in my mind is if I make all these quilts, then where to they all go? Yes I can give them away, but I like these patterns and frankly would like to keep them. But for what? Where? Why? This is moving me deeper into the funk.

Meanwhile I have the family DD birthday party on the 16th (have to clean), 3 exams in 2 days on the 20th and 21st, and then the kid party on the 24th (at the place, not at my house). And Ted is traveling for 5 of those 16 days. My stress is stressed just thinking of everything that needs to be done.

So in order to cope, I have to get a lot of studying done, but besides that, I’ve decided that I will work to certain defined points on the 2 quilts, try to accomplish the table runner, do one or two bobbins’ worth of FMQ on an older UFO (a Bonnie My Blue Heaven) and I can start the bargello. I actually cut an entire 2 gallon Ziploc of 2.5 strips when I was doing the cutting for the Dad quilt. I cut a 5” WOF piece, cut 2 nickels for the bin, 1 nickel for a disappearing 9-patch (a UFO, sadly), pieces for the Dad quilt (a Bonnie Backroads to OK) and then took the rest and cut it lengthwise into 2.5” strips and said hey here we go. I know that there are over 128 different fabs in that bag.

My thought process involved a girl here at work. I have had the pleasure of working with her because I took on a task for the time being at the request of management. She is trying to get pregnant and is having a medical hard time. Since I have had all the troubles I have had, I can relate. So I went by her cube today for some work related thing and she has a sign posted for a benefit (needing silent auction items!!!) for a little boy that is ill. Her DH is a cop and one of the parents of this little boy is a cop or a firefighter or some other civil servant. So I figured I would donate the bargello to the silent auction and the My Blue Heaven to the boy. This way I get to work on new stuff, it doesn’t become another UFO, an old UFO gets finished and put to good use, I and the 3 things I need to get done for the show will see some progress.

How I will manage quilting, cleaning and studying is something I haven’t figured out yet. Work hard, play hard I guess.

Postcards

I just made my first postcards! I had a Sandy Gervais panel from last year (the valentine fabs) and it had 6 postcards on it. Well, I just got those made up and they are all addressed and ready to go to the post office. That was so easy!

I also finished my Easter egg coasters this morning. The 2 big table topper eggs are also done, so that is a huge thing off my list.

We did go out yesterday and buy the back for the batik lover's quilt. The top has half the rows done and half of the piano key border done. I'd sew today, but no, I have to volunteer for soccer registration (why on the Superbowl?!?!?) and then head to a party. So no more sewing for me.

SNOW DAY!

It was a great snow day. I haven't had one as an adult ever, so we had lots of fun. I put 2 rows together of my batik lover's quilt and did 2 sides of the piano key border. I did study 2 chapters for school. We shovelled snow while DD played in it and then I made blondies with cinnamon chips. Yummy! And had hot cocoa! Penny, the whole area was just shut down, so your niece was no doubt at home. They don't exactly plow well. At least my prof let us out early on Thursday night by half an hour.

Today we need to run to Morton to get the back for the batik lover's quilt. It's for DH and so he has to pick the back. I'm hanging this quilt in a show in March, so I need to shake a leg on it. It is turning out beautiful. DH just loves batiks, and it was a guild swap last year for the blocks, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Of course, there's nothing like waiting until the last minute to get it done!