Sneaky

I’ve gotten devious. Or smart, depending on how you look at it. I realize that I pretty much stay here at work for lunch and bring something to heat up. I only have a half-hour to eat, but once you show me anyone in this building who enforces that rule, we’ll talk. But when I go downstairs to eat, it’s usually more like 15 minutes – eat and run. They do have a TV and put on CNN, which is nice.

So I’ve decided to start bring in my GFG to work on. I will sew 5 hexs per day. Since each of my flowers are triple bloom with a full white border, that means it will take me 12 business days to complete the hex sewing of a flower. Then I’ll go ahead and start flower construction. This is about 15 minutes of sewing time per day, guaranteed.

I’d love to get one flower done per calendar month. I would just ROCK if I did that. But fat chance, that is not happening. I’d be pleased with 6 flowers this year. I have another 6 or 7 done at home. I plan on connecting using green diamonds, so my other goal this year is to have a single bloom flower of the flowers I’ve done. That should take up the rest of the time.

Tonight starts class. I’ve heard that this prof is incredibly dull, treats you like you were stupid and spends 3 evenings teaching us how to get on to the internet. I hope he knows that Vint Cerf invented the internet (he did – go google it right now). I worked at MCI when Vint did, so I know my knowledge is correct. So here’s hoping that tonight’s class is short because we are just introducing ourselves and going through the syllabus.

The End of Freedom

Tomorrow, I go back to class for 18 weeks and then it's right into another 6 weeks doing double time. I'm essentially in school until the 4th of July. That's a long stretch in life, it seems.

So today I worked my tail off to get my fab 5 set up for the term. The Christmas BRB is still in a pile on my bedroom floor. That one will wait to be sandwiched until I have more spray baste. Watermelon Slice is sandwiched and ready to go, except I have no idea on how to quilt it or any appropriate thread. I sandwiched Patches & Pinwheels with the last of the spray baste (and pinned as well) this evening. There's a pucker ot two in the back; I just don't care. It's mean for my DD to enjoy while watching TV and playing in our basement family room. The Chiclets #1 quilt was easily basted without issue this afternoon and it's ready to go.

I do have ideas on how to quilt both the BRB and the P&P, so at least I can get started on the P&P. I need some thoughts/inspiration for the Chiclets quilt and for Watermelon Slice. For WS, I need to read what people are doing on A Pocketful of Mysteries; maybe that will insprire me.

As far as the flannel quilt goes, I took it out and assessed it. Realized that I could just plod on. Worked on it for an hour the other day. Tried to work on it again today and sewed it very very wrong. Threw it out. As I was pitching it, DH saw and asked. When I explained, he helped me. I've only thrown away 2 projects ever and both times it was so liberating. This was time #2.

So my fab 5 is now a fab 4.

Once I got all of that dne, I took out a baggie and started making some crumb blocks from the contents. I ahve had a hankering to make crumb blocks for a while and once my fab 5 were ready for teh school term, I got right to it.

New goals:

1 hour of some sort of sewing a night.

2009 resolutions

I have made some quilty New Year’s resolutions. Let’s see how this goes.

Resolutions

I resolve to update this blog at least once a week with my quilty progress. I’ve been really bad about it and I just need to be better about it. It’s just that simple.

I resolve to put pictures up on this blog. Blogs with pictures are better and that is a fact. I also just have been too lazy about learning new computer things and have relied on Ted. Well, after Ted broke BOTH PCs in December, I feel the need to be a bit more proactive.

I resolve to have 52 crafts this year of some sort or another. This is for another challenge somewhere else, but since 90+% of them will be most likely be quilty, here’s a good place to talk about them.

I resolve to bust 100 yards from stash. I work my stash inventory like the IRS – everything you’ve got, plus everything you’ve bought this year is inventory. No one told me it had to age in the stash a certain amount of time to be considered stash. If the time elapsed is 5 minutes, who cares? Makes my math easier.

I resolve to make sure my husband Ted and my DD each get quilts from me. Somehow, they always get the short end of the stick.

How To’s

I’m not sure how to accomplish all of that. I do know that when I am in grad school, I quilt a lot less, especially if I am also taking insurance exams for work. Fortunately, for all of 2009, I have decided to take only one insurance exam and it is January 28. So one crisis is solved. However, quilting during grad school still is a challenge.

I have figured out that the picking of fabrics, cutting of fabrics, piecing, and making units and subunits and blocks requires an attention to detail I do not possess during the school term. So I have decided to work a lot on UFOs. A UFO, as defined by me, is any project that has been committed in some way to cloth – from fabric and a pattern have been selected to blocks are done and anything and everything in between.

I’ve also decided that working on groups of 5 at a time seems to make sense, so I will tweak a Stashbusters idea, and have the Fabulous 5. My goal right now is to get as many of the Fab 5 to the ‘ready to be quilted’ stage. Quilting is something I can do with ease during the school term, so if I can get lots of things sandwiched and ready to quilt, life is good. I go back to class on the 12^th, so I may try to get 10 or even 15 items ready to go, so that I have an inventory of quilt sandwiches to work on. I hate making the quilt sandwich, but hey, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. I need enough inventory to get me through to spring break in early March.

That said, here are my first Fab 5 (if no goal is stated, then it’s completion):

1. Christmas Blue Ridge Beauty (BRB) – For you Bonnie Hunter fans, I took her BRB and made each diamond either red or green. This took some thought, but it did bust a lot of Christmas stash, which was the point. I have fallen out love with my Christmas stash and I really do the holiday low key anyway, so this seemed like a good idea. The top is all done and the backing has been selected. Part of my holiday quilt collection, representing December.

2. Watermelon Slice – For you Dorothy Young mystery quilters on A Pocketful of Mysteries, I did her Christmas quilt for the second time and it turned out great. It was what I needed to get back in the quilty groove. I got fabrics selected, the top is made and the whole monster is sandwiched and ready to quilt. Part of my holiday quilt collection, representing June (maybe August – not sure).

3. Patches & Pinwheels – Another Bonnie Hunter pattern. When I made the pinwheels, I made 80+ spinning each way, which meant I had enough for 2 quilts. The first quilt is done and went to a silent auction. The second quilt, which will be for my family room, is in rows.

4. Flannel quilt – You know the type, flannel front and back in squares, and sewn together and snip the edges and all of that. It was abandoned long ago and it’s been unearthed. So let’s get this done and donated.

5. Chiclets #1 –The Chiclets pattern was running around Stashbusters for a while there and I started a bazillion blocks. The reason for starting them no longer exists, so I now have a bazillion finished blocks. I plan to set them 4 x 5 and use my roll of plaid fabric (my official charity backing fabric for now) to finish these off into Project Linus quilts.

Thoughts for the next Fab 5:

1. Ted’s birthday quilt
2. Chiclets #2
3. Inauguration dresser quilt (election challenge)
4.
5.