Monday, June 16, 2008

Sunday's baby steps

Well, for the first time what seems like forever, I stepped into the family room to sew. After the ironing board disaster, I went and bought a cheap cover at Target. Well, the soda got into the bottom casing of the iron which is open because the cord winds into there. So now the new cover has soda spots on it. Whatever.

I cut 10 2” strips of cream and then picked out the blues to go with and got a few things sewn together.

I would hope to sew tonight, but I have part 3 of the root canal, so I will be sedated come this afternoon and that will carry me through until the morning. Tomorrow night we have swimming so maybe I can get down there to sew later on.

Ted figured out why I’ve been so tired. Work for me has really picked up and I have not had that happen in a very long time. So now I need to adapt. It’s good to at least have a reason as to why it is happening!

I’ve already listed my sewing goals, but now a mini-goal is to get the wedding quilt done before I leave for California in August.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Death of the Ironing Board Cover

Well, yesterday turned out to be a double-bust for sewing. I had to go back home to Chicagoland for my annual appointment with my OB and then I stayed for dinner at my sister’s. by the time I got home, I was toast and everyone else was toast. I had gotten up at 5 yesterday morning to make sure I worked enough yesterday before leaving before the doctor’s. thus leading to the extreme tiredness.

Then late last night, Ted reported that a soft drink from a fast food place had exploded on the ironing board. I had left my drink from Sunday’s lunch on the ironing board and the cup gave way and it leaked all over my very scorched ironing board cover. So I just rolled it up and tossed it out. Ted thought for sure the world had ended and it leaked through the pad, etc.

So now I can’t sew until I get a new pad. I’m scheduled for a Target run Friday night, so I guess things will wait until then. Or maybe I’ll just a use for a few days. But tonight contains swimming lessons for both me and DD, and then we need to pick up our farmer produce, so there went tonight!

Monday, June 09, 2008

Second Mini-Challenge

Second Mini-Challenge

My second mini-challenge will run from now until 08/07/08, which is when we leave for vacation. The theme of this challenge is Next Steps. I need to get through the next steps of each of these quilts to feel like something is happening.

1. OC – top done
2. CC – top done
3. Batik Lover’s quilt – top done and sandwiched. I had to withdraw this one from my quilt show earlier this year because it wouldn’t come together. Now that I have gone through and cut from every milk crate, I have put all batik scraps I could find in one spot to finish off the piano key border. Also, one of the blocks in the swap was horribly made, so I will remake that one so the top looks proper.
4. Red Fence Rail – I started this one in the early 1990’s when Ted and I were dating. I have since hosted a log cabin round robin to make a log cabin red back so that this one will be reversible. The goal is to finish both tops.
5. King Center – I have made a 50” center for a scrap quilt for our bed. (We have one on the bed now, but in winter, we need more.) The goal is to sandwich and quilt this center.
6. Super Secret King Center – This is for an online friend. I need to make the 50” center, sandwich it and quilt it. The goal is to run the construction of my King center and her King center concurrently.
7. Xmas Sampler – A few years ago, I did 2 blocks of the month from 2 different stores. I made one block in Christmas fabrics of each block so that I would have 24 blocks done and then I need to make one more, set them all on point, etc. The first goal is to finish the blocks. I am more than halfway done. The second goal would be to finish the top.

Meanwhile, the following remains undone from my first mini-challenge:

Lasagna #2
Brownies Quilt
Baby Boy Quilt
P&P wedding gift
Joyful quilt

This makes 12 projects to work on in the next 7+ weeks. Plus there are a few small things I would like to do. I need some coasters for work that are thematic. I would like to make a few more dresser mats like the little red mat, which is really just making a glorified placemat. I would like to make 2 bags for swimming class, so that after we come home from swimming, the bag and all of its contents can just be dumped into the washer. Plus I need to complete 18 chiclets blocks per quarter. And I did actually make enough pinwheels to make 2 P&P, so to finish off that second one would be a nice bonus.

I am going on a 4 day retreat July 31 – Aug 3. My goal is to take all of my Christmas fabrics (a Rubbermaid tote), buy some WOW or something and make a Blue Ridge Beauty. That’s all I plan on bringing to that retreat.

My last goal of the year will be to finish these items. I will be in class at the point this challenge starts, so no thought is a good thing. God help me if Bonnie does another challenge.
It was a long weekend with DD. Ted was gone for 4 days are returned very late (11:30pm) last night, so I am plumb worn out. Not a stitch of sewing got done, but I did get through my kitchen and my second floor for cleaning.

I hope to sew every night this week.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

weekend preview

I made an executive decision about my exam and I paid $75 and moved it to October. I am greatly relieved. This was the main source of stress for the famous first 10 days of June, so now that this has been handled, the rest of life is falling into place.

Ted has been feeling better. It seems that after he hurt his ankle, the Percocet they gave him produced a ton of massive side effects which were all detrimental. So he needed another 10 days to recover from the Percocet. Now that he is well, he leaves on yet another business trip tomorrow morning. So he will be gone from early Thursday until late Sunday.

Now that I have no exam, my goal is to enjoy DD and get some stuff done. What gets done, gets done. No more, no less. Tomorrow we plan on going swimming after work/daycare and then going to La Bamba for burritos as big as our heads. Friday night I will make low key, just because that is my style. Maybe homemade milkshakes. Saturday, we plan to make homemade spinach fettuccine. Sunday we plan on going to church. Otherwise we will hang loose.

So how does all of this relate to quilting? I am nearly done with my mini-challenge. I wanted to finish 8 things and I think I will finish 4. Since this is my hobby, I will not beat myself up over this. This is actually pretty good, considering all that went on, including my root canal stuff.

So I hope to work on the 16 patches for the P&P. I also hope to finish lasagna #2. I see that the resolution to the OC has been posted by Bonnie and so of course now I am spurred to continue. I also have the next mini-challenge planned, even before this one is done. I’m such a nut.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Weekend

I did manage a bit of quilting time on Sunday. I sewed some 2” WOC strips to colors for making the 16 patch blocks for the P&P quilt. Not a lot, but it was some time. I will be grateful if I get about 15 minutes per day until the exam is over, but I will strive for that 15 minutes.