February Goals

And here are the February goals.  Of course I am ambitious!

Easy Street – Done done.

Orca Bay – Progress.  I will be happy if it is sandwiched and somewhere in the quilting process. 

Blue Boxy Stars – Done done.  This was in January’s homework pile; I've budgeted 2 months for this one, so now it’s time to finish it!

Beau’s – Started.  Nancy, Near Philadelphia hosted two lovely swaps, a quilt for Miss Melanie and Ashley’s quilt.  If you know anything about Gone With the Wind, you can see where I got the name Beau’s quilt.  I hope to combine all these blocks, pieces and parts together into a very large quilt for my king sized bed that holds two pretty fluffy people!  Any start on this will make my day!

Homework

5 LCRR blocks – I never finished a set for a swapper and she still has one of my sets.  There are 20 blocks total, so I am doing 5 per month.

Just Takes 2 (JT2) – I diligently saved all the downloads last year for me to make them this year.  My colors are unbleached muslin and pink.  Since there are 4 Tuesdays in February, I will do 11-18.

String Blocks – Many of these were done as homework last year.  Since the quilt will be 30 blocks, I am taking a third of what is made, making enough more to get to 10 blocks, and joining them together into two rows, as the blocks are QAYG. 

Color Challenge Sampler – This is actually 2 challenges in one.  One is a color challenge and another is a monthly free sampler off of someone’s blog.  I’m combining the two.  No clue at this writing on the February color.

Yellow Log Cabin / LCRR – Completely undo one row and start sewing the top together.

BOMs

Yes I do BOMs too.  I like free ones or the ones where it’s bring your block at the appointed time and get your next block free. 

So, yeah, 2 finishes.  When I need to quilt large quilts, I take over the large kitchen table for quilting and I put up a large table in the living room to hold the quilts when they are not being quilted.  It kinda takes over the first floor.  So when I do it, I try to get a lot done.  I did this over Christmas and got 4 quilts done, so it’s worth it when I do it.  I love my very understanding family!

January Month End Report

OK, way back on January 1 or so, I picked the items I want to work on.  Here’s where I stand:

Old Tobacco Road – Complete!

My version is named The Three Sisters, as it represents corn, beans and squash, the three complimentary crops in Illinois agriculture.  My pieces are 75% of Bonnie’s size, and the quilt is generally smaller.  It busted 1.46 yards and hangs in my cube at work.

Easy Street – Progress

I had hoped to be at the point where the binding was attached, but I am not.  I need to put a 3 inch border all around it so it looks like it’s floating and then sandwich, quilt, etc. 

Orca Bay – Progress

Since Orca Bay Wednesdays (OBW) have returned, I have really made some progress on this one.  At year end, I had one fourth of the top put together.  Now I have a full half done, the rest of the star rows done and I’m working on the last little 3.5 inch string blocks to finish up the connector rows.  Any progress on this one is wonderful.

Yellow Log Cabin / LCRR – Status changed to Homework

I am trying the various techniques in the Marti Mitchell book Machine Quilting in Sections.  However, this has been a disaster on this quilt and I love the blocks too much to just finish for the sake of finishing.  Yes, this means I’m ripping and redoing.  So into the homework pile it goes.  Right now it’s in time out.

Homework

Just like it sounds; I assign myself homework.  This means I only have to do a certain amount on a particular project and then put it aside for the month.  I have 5 items in Homework status here in January.  I am happy to report that I am caught up with my homework!

5 LCRR blocks – I never finished a set for a swapper and she still has one of my sets.  There are 20 blocks total, so I am doing 5 per month.

Just Takes 2 (JT2) – I diligently saved all the downloads last year for me to make them this year.  My colors are unbleached muslin and pink.  Since there are 5 Tuesdays in January, I did the first 10 blocks.

Blue Boxy Stars – I found a bunch of 2.5” blue strips pre-cut, so I decided to make some boxy stars.  The 120 little blockettes are done.  Then I did 8 star blocks.

String Blocks – Many of these were done as homework last year.  Since the quilt will be 30 blocks, I am taking a third of what is made, making enough more to get to 10 blocks, and joining them together into two rows, as the blocks are QAYG. 

Color Challenge Sampler – This is actually 2 challenges in one.  One is a color challenge and another is a monthly free sampler off of someone’s blog.  I’m combining the two.  This month’s color was hot pink.

BOMs

Yes I do BOMs too.  I like free ones or the ones where it’s bring your block at the appointed time and get your next block free.  I’m all caught up on these as well.

The Tale of Woe

I wrote this earlier this week - doesn't matter.

Today is a tale of woe. 

I have been working diligently on finding alternate methods of quilting large quilts, as my main machine is a Janome Gem and has about a 5 inch harp space.  You really can’t blame me for trying.  Meanwhile, Ed, an older Kenmore that I have, has been pressed into service as of late to handle simple quilting. Ed’s internal cams are cracked so he can only manage a straight stitch at this point.  I officially am no longer investing money into Ed in any way; I was told that parts cannot be found.  It’s OK – Ed was a donation from a guy named Ed. 

So in this pursuit of alternate quilting and finishing methods, I bought the Marti Mitchell book about quilting in sections.  One method was to do quilt as you go on small sections, then machine sew the top sections together and hand stitch the backings.  OK, I thought, let’s give this a whirl.  So I took a yellow set of log cabin blocks and got started.  I will tell you that I love these blocks more than I ever thought I would.

The blocks are huge – 18.5 inches unfinished.  I like this large size; they sew up quickly and are fun.  20 make a twin sized quilt no problem.  For those of you following along, I recently took 20 log cabin blocks that were green and white and made them into a lovely St. Pat’s quilt that was quilted on Ed over the span of a week.  Since I finally have a table to sandwich quilts and a machine to handle them, I began to rethink my approach to the yellow blocks.  After all, the St. Pat’s quilt really went together smoothly….

But I forged on.  By the time I quilted the St. Pat’s quilt, the 20 yellow blocks had all been made into individual quilt sandwiches and had all been quilted.  I was in the process of sewing the blocks into rows and then doing all of that joyous hand sewing.  Now, I don’t mind hand sewing, but usually that is the binding and when the hand sewing is done, so is the quilt.  Not the case with this one.

I fought this quilt.  I shoved aside; made excuses not to do handwork, you name it.  But I recently decided enough was enough and it needed to be done.  So last week I sewed a lot of rows together to make the quilt itself so that the final hand sewing could be done.  I even took it in the car with us to Chicago this weekend and made myself work on it.  I sewed on it last night during Downton Abbey.

And then I saw it.  On the front side, there are poofy mountains.  In order to get the proper overlap on the back, I had pulled the two squares together too much and thus the top would no longer lay flat.  It was all over the quilt. All over. I about cried.

And then I decided that I loved these blocks too much.  I had slogged on all this time with the mantra of done was better than perfect and I would never do this method again.  But now done wasn’t any good any more.  It was inferior to my quiltmaking; an insult to my art.  No way. 

I stopped what I was doing.  I made a new plan.  This quilt now has homework status, which means it will be worked on each month until completed, as all of the work is just no fun.  Necessary, but no fun.  For January, I will do no more.  For February and future months, I will have to think about it.  My goal is to have about 4 quilts available for a finish in a month and 5 homework assignments and then BOMs from Peddlers Way.  That’s like 10 things per month to choose from.  I may buy a new backing; there is a wonderful fabric in the sale room at my LQS that would work.  It will be OK.

Blocks are done

I did complete the blocks on Friday; it took about 3 hours just to do the last 13 A blocks.  When I sit down and try and estimate how much time the blocks took, I'm think somewhere in the 10 hour neighborhood.  I had to remind myself to enjoy the process.

I needed that 3 hours of quilting on Friday because work was a beyond stressful day.  We were accepting an accounting file into the accounting system for the first time from a new upstream system and it could have gone one of two ways: smooth sailing and done by 10am or we're working all weekend.  We ended up up working the weekend.  My part is done, but one of my programmers has pieces left to do.

I want to get the top done, sans borders, tonight, but there is a Girl Scout meeting to run.  We shall see.  There's a lot of football on and the return of Downton Abbey (which is thankfully on my DVR), so maybe I will be inspired to sew.

I also worked on cutting out more boxy stars.  When I sort through my precut blue strips, I decided to pull out all obvious prints - the airplanes, the trains, the flowers.  I want this quilt to just read blue.  So when I did all of that I only have 20 blocks and I really want 30.  So more strip cutting will need to be done.

Now on to next week - what are my goals?  I do know that I will be away from home for Monday night and I have to prepare for a large GS event on Saturday, so my time belongs there.  So goals for next week:  borders on Easy Street, backing for Easy Street, sandwiching Easy Street, something (anything!) on Orca Bay and continued work on the yellow LCRR.  On other fronts, 2 sessions in my bedroom and 2 chapters of insurance.

Short a Goose!

I knew I might be short a goose when I had an extra 2 * 3.5 black and white brick lying around.  I held on it it, just in case.  I'm glad I did.

I sewed for another 1.5 hours today (2 episodes on a TV show on DVD).  I got 6 of the remaining 7 B blocks done, but of course I couldn't get the last one done due to the missing goose.  I kitted up all the little parts and will sew that tomorrow.  I also finished sewing the centers of the rest of the A blocks, of which I had 13 left to go.

Tomorrow, thank the universe, is Friday, so I can hopefully get far on the blocks.  My goal is to have the top done, sans borders, by the time I go to bed on Sunday night.  I have a lot of things to accomplish between now and them, many of which do not involve sewing, so here goes nothing.  I am at least equipped with good DVDs.  I am technically ahead of where I wanted to be at this point in the work week, so that has to help.

I also figured out that I am at least #24 on the Queen's list.  I was declared on New Year's Day to be #25 and the queen has already abdicated, and I have no idea how many other finishes were in there.  I have no idea how quickly I can churn something out.  I do have Old Tobacco Road all sandwiched  which  is good, but it's small and I don't want to waste my small finish just yet.

Bit by bit

I can't work flex hours this week because we had a holiday (don't ask).  So when I got home at 4 today, I got right to it.  I planned to sew the centers of the block B (the star block) for Easy Street.  I sewed until 6pm and got all 7 of those centers done and also 6 for block A, plus I started on the outer parts of block B.  I was really productive!

So tomorrow I need to run some errands after work and then go weigh in.  Maybe when I get home I can get an hour in for sewing.  I would love to finish the 7 B blocks; I'm so close.

5 blocks done

I started on Easy Street and got 5 blocks done.  Since it is set on point, I did the 5 block row and now it's lying on my living room floor.  I hope to do 5 blocks per night, but with work, that is probably unrealistic.  I also finished all the side triangles, which I didn't get done last night.

I also made the backing for Old Tobacco Road and got it sandwiched.  I consulted with Ted and I think I even know how it will be quilted.  Whew.  Sometimes that is the hardest part.

I also found some blue 2.5 inch strips and so I started cutting them up for a Bonnie Boxy Stars quilt.  No idea where this is going; just making one for inventory.

I also thought for a while on homework and put it all on a post it in my sewing area.  No out of sight, out of mind if I can help it.

OK, so what can I get done between tomorrow night and bedtime on Friday night?  Let's aim for progress on the Easy Street blocks.  The centers are actually very easy for each block, so I may just line those up and get those done.  I also would like to get 5 boxy star blocks done and one long seam done on the yellow LCRR.

2012 in Review

I finished 17 items in 2012, busting about 77 yards.  Not quite 100 yards, but it's a goal every year.  I am super-happy with my finishes.

30s Barn Raising.

Barnyard Bats

Boxing Day

Christmas 2 BOM

Grandma Says (Anita's Arrowhead)

Mini Hopscotch

Layla's baby quilt

Red, White and Back mat and runner
Chiclets runner

Seaside Rose Jacket back

Seaside Rose Jacket front

Australia fat quarters

Red hearts

Sophia's big girl quilt

St. Pat's LCRR

Watermelon Slice and Seed

Purple Strings

77 yards busted.  A fun year and a lot of quilting.  Here's hoping 2013 holds even more finishes!

Getting It Done Jan 2013

Judy over at Patchwork Times has taken the UFO per month concept to a new place.  Let's list 4 things we want to get done.  It could just be a step of a quilt or a finish; it doesn't matter.  It's about accountability to each other.

So here are my 4:

Three of mine deal with Bonnie Hunter Quiltville quilts; the last is a log cabin.  I only desire to get each one to the point where the binding is attached.  I'll do the handwork when I get there.  All 4 enter 2013 as UFOs.

1.  Easy Street.  As I write this, we are awaiting the last step.

2.  Orca Bay, which I call Green Bay.  This one is lying in pieces, in bins and baskets, all over my sewing area.

3.  Old Tobacco Road, which I call The Three Sisters.  I have shrunken this by 25% in piece size and I am only doing 3 rows of crops instead of 5, and it's not as long, etc.  Right now I hope to finish the top tonight.  I have 3+ hours left to do so!

4.  Yellow log cabin.  The top is half assembled.  Ugh.  I just need to finish it off.

Pray for snow days for both school and work!

Days 6, 7 and 8

On the sixth, seventh and eighth days of Shutdown, my true love gave to me....

...an insane desire to finish this project!  Boxing Day measures 61 * 69 and busted 6.32 yards of fabric.

After finishing the Christmas 2 BOM quilt, I was bound and determined to get rid of my Christmas fabrics.  I mean, I wanted them G O N E.  So I spent the week before Christmas going through all of those scraps and cutting as many 2" strips as a I could (I had a fair amount already cut up from a project from 2011).  On December 23rd I started attaching the strips in a QAYG fashion.  I went as far as I could with the strips I had.  When I ran out of the various random pieces I had, I was done.  The width was determined by the yardage I got for the back, which is a funky pink retro pink and white holiday fabric, which is very complimentary to the pink ornament fabric in the top.  Yesterday I finished the strips and today I did the binding while my DD has a friend over.  Both girls gave it a thumbs-up.

Face it, this is ugly-cute.  I can't bear to part with it.  And yes, there are still scraps left, but I am done for this year.

So far this shutdown, I have busted about 30 yards of fabric and 2 items on my UFO list.  I don't know if I will get any more finishes in this year, but if that's all that happens here on Shutdown, it was not bad.

And to those who have asked about the Christmas 2 BOM quilt and the extra point, Ellen did contact me, confirmed my math and gave me the extra point.

Meanwhile, my DD is conspiring for a sleepover!

Days 4 and 5

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

..a workday of quilting because it was Christmas Eve.  I worked a lot on my Christmas UFO, plus I started sewing a new quilt that evening.

On the fifth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

...a finish!  This UFO entitled Christmas 2 BOM used up 9.33 yards of fabric and it's 80 inches square.

This quilt of course has a story.  Way back when we still lived in Brookfield, I did 2 different BOMs at 2 different shops.  Each month, I also made the block out of my Christmas stash, which was made up of remnants and deep sales at Joann's, etc.  Of course, one set of blocks finished at 9 and the other at 10.  And to do this setting, I needed the 25th block.  Then we moved and it languished.

I decided this fall that this was it.  It had to be done.  So I drug it out, sashed the blocks to make them all the same size, made the 25th block, set the whole nightmare together and then did the inner border.  I then worked my butt off on that outer pieced border; some of those rectangles are crumb blocks!  

And then I got stumped after Thanksgiving on how to quilt it.  No joke it sat there giving me the stink eye (one person said it was looking at me askance and I said it was looking at me like o.O).  Anyway, I asked my DH what to do and he said (because he values his marriage and my sanity) to just do some diagonal lines.  I fought this thing.  Putting 80 inches on point through the DSM is like 120 inches and that is no small feat!  After it was quilted, my DH did explain that he felt that the quilt could have standed some beautiful quilting in the setting triangles and borders, but he knew I was at my wit's end.  He's a smart guy, that Ted of mine.

Anyway, on Christmas Eve I attached the binding and on Christmas Day I handsewed the binding down while watching a lot of Harry Potter movies.  A Christmas quilt ready on Christmas - a Christmas miracle, according to a friend of mine!

Enjoy!

On the Second Day of Shutdown...

On the second day of shutdown, my true love gave to me....

...a late post.  Sorry about that.  Yesterday was a travel day to and from family.  But in all sincerity, here's Saturday's item:

...A finished St. Pat's quilt!

Years ago I was in a round robin that made the blocks.  I finally made the top, pieced the back and here is the finished quilt.  Please excuse my bedroom; it's the only spot to take a pic of a quilt this big!  St. Pat's is a meaningful day in our family; my oldest nephew was born on St. Pat's.  

This quilt is 72 x 90, and I did it all by myself.  It busted 9.56 yards from stash.

For the First Day of Shutdown....

Welcome to the 12 Days of Shutdown!  I have ambitious goals for these 12 days, which include busting a total of 56.07 yards.  I am a woman on a mission.

Shutdown is when the university my DH works closes down for 7 days during the holiday season.  I mean everything shuts down.  Everything.  My initial goal was to have that entire time off and be home with my family, but this project I am on at work will not permit that.  I will have to work some time here and there, some of it in the office and some of it at home.  But my 12 Days of Shutdown plans are not deterred!

For the first day of shutdown, my true love gave to me….

A finished 30s Barn Raising quilt.  Pattern is by Michelle at http://mychellem.blogspot.com/ and the pattern is at the http://www.modabakeshop.com/.  This measures 60 inches square and busted 5.42 yards of fabric.  This quilt will go into inventory; it has not yet revealed its owner to me. 

Here’s the story behind this quilt.  A few years ago, my sister asked me about old timey fabrics so that a friend of hers could repair a family quilt.  She and I went on to the Fat Quarter Shop website and looked at styles of fabrics.  My sister Kim determined that her friend needed 30s fabrics for the repairs and that nickels would be fine.  So we ordered 2 packets of Aunt Grace nickels and some 20s nickels as well.  I had them shipped to Kim; Kim gave them to the friend and we both thought that was that.

Fast forward 5 years and Kim comes to my house and hands me her stash.  It was overwhelming her, which means, by stashbuster definitions, it needs to be managed.  She chose to manage it by giving it to me.  It was one garbage bag.  (Comparatively, I have a room or more.)  In there were the nickels, with only 2 used.  I asked Kim about it and she said the friend just gave them back. 

So I chose to make this quilt with these nickels.  The white also came from Kim’s stash.  I only needed to buy the back and the binding.  I don’t have an affinity for 30s fabrics and thus I don’t have any stash of them, so it was a necessary buy.  Nearly every nickel was used; I have a few 2.5” blocks left and those will go into a project that needs a lot of those.

So after the orthodontist today (she’s getting them put on), I hope to continue cutting and preparing for my Boxing Day quilt and some other things.  I left work early yesterday to beat the weather and I made it with 15 minutes to spare before the horribleness set in.  So Renee and I watched a lot of Harry Potter.  She made bead necklaces for a craft fair at school today while I went through an enormous bag of Christmas scraps.  I have plans for the Boxing Day quilt using the scraps, so I was cutting lots of 2 inch strips.  Whatever scraps are left are being put into a littler bag for Christmas crumbs.  I cannot wait to be done with Christmas fabrics!  I cannot believe they have stretched this far; 2 bed sized quilt tops have already been made with them, and Boxing Day will be lap sized and Christmas crumbs will be whatever it turns out to be. 

4 Weeks Left

I did make more progress this week.  I went ahead and finished the St. Pat's LCRR, which is twin-sized.  I also finished 2 BOM blocks, Step 3 of Easy Street and another 25% of Step 1 of Easy Street.  I also worked on quilting the Christmas 2 BOM some more.

So this week I am out 2 nights in a row and then home for 3.  I am also hosting the Schwitzner Sibling Christmas on 12/16, so I have to food shop, present shop and clean my house.  I have given up on my house; I just need to let it go.  Lon g story there, but I need to let it go.

So the goals for this week are to sew 2 short seams on the yellow LCRR during Downton Abbey tonight, and finish quilting this Christmas quilt.  I would like to attach some yellow rows on the LCRR plus finish the BOM blocks plus do the BOM block due on the 15th plus do some work on my interpretation of Old Tobacco Road.  No idea how this is happening.

All of this will come together during the 12 Days of Shutdown.....

5 weeks left

Well, I did accomplish quite a lot this past week.

As of last Friday:

1.  The 30s quilt is done done.
2.  Binding was started on the St. Pat's quilt.
3.  A quarter of the quilting was done on the Christmas 2 BOM quilt.

And the weekend:

1. A lot of binding done on the St. Pat's quilt (Downton Abbey!).
2. A BOM block completed and another cut out.
3. Easy Street step 2 done and a quarter of Step 1 done.

Of course I have goals for the week.  I have one night of meetings, and I'd like to slip away for an evening this week and see Lincoln.  So I have a few goals to get through the week.

By Friday night:

1. Finish the St. Pat's binding.
2. Finish the last 3 BOM blocks.
3. Finish Step 1 for Easy Street.
4. Attach the next row on the yellow LCRR.
5. More quilting on the Christmas 2 BOM.

6 weeks left

I think there are about 6 weeks left in the year.  That's fine by me.  Here's where I'm at and where I'm going.

This weekend, since I had 4 days off in a row, I made it a mini-retreat after Thanksgiving dinner.  I had 3 tops finished and backing and batting at the ready.  I have already sandwiched 2, quilted those 2, trimmed those 2 and I have the binding attached on one.  One more binding to attach.  These are not tiny quilts; one is 60 inches square (the 30s quilt) and the other is 72 by 90 (the St. Pat's quilt).

The third quilt is the Christmas 2 BOM, which has languished most of Renee's lifetime.  The top is done and I have the back, etc, but I haven't sandwiched it yet or anything.  The reason is that I have no idea how I am going to quilt this one.  The other two I had a plan; this one I got nothing.

So tomorrow I hope to attach the second binding and prep binding handwork kits for all of the TVs.  I also hope to at least sandwich the Christmas 2 BOM quilt so that I can see it to get ideas.

I also plan to clean my room tomorrow.  The great bookcase swap outlined a few posts ago got hijacked for a better idea.  So Ted implemented said idea.  And that meant he did stuff in our room.  And now I must clean it.  So they will go see Wreck It Ralph while I clean.  Trust me, this works for all of us.

So of course Bonnie's mystery just started.  I want to do it, but need fabrics.  The LQS is having a sale next weekend, so I will be a bit behind when I start but that's OK.  I also want to make a modified version (3/4 scale, only 3 columns) of Old Tobacco Road and I want to get all 4 sections of my Orca Bay sewn together.

I keep moving forward with my BOMs and I want to complete the project for the one that I will get the last block for next weekend.

I have decided to do some sort of row quilt / lasagna quilt / 1600 jelly roll races quilt with the leftover Christmas fabrics.  I want to be done with these fabrics.  Trust me, I need to be done with these fabrics.

The yellow quilt languishes on.  Just work with me on this.

So my idealistic year end list:

Done done
St. Pat's
30s
Yellow LCRR
Old Tobacco Road
Batik BOM
Christmas 2 BOM

Tops done
Orca Bay
Easy Street
The Dashing Bachelor, a Christmas mystery

So that's like a finish a week.  No big deal.

I also finally bought some dies and mats to use with my Baby Go.  I am keeping all of the scraps from these quilts aside so that I may process them right away.  I know I need 2.5 inch squares for one thing and 2 inch squares for another.  I have a Drunkard's Path die to make turtles.  I have the value die to cut some other stuff up for a charm quilt or something.

So yeah nothing big going on.

Barnyard Bats

Sometimes you gotta make a quilt.  So here is my Barnyard Bats quilt.

I made it this weekend, using the tutorial from Elizabeth at Oh, Fransson!  It was nice to actually start and finish something in a reasonable time frame!  It used .74 yards.

(Please ignore my messy cube and that damned PC that frickin BROKE today.  Don't ask.  When you take Excel away from an accountant, you take your life into your own hands.  Just sayin'.)

Well, hi

Yeah, well, hi.  It's been a bit since I posted.  Here are some updates on various things.

Knitting - I'm back into knitting.  I have several projects started and so now I have a UFO problem there!  I am not making sweaters or buying super-expensive yarn or anything.  I'm making a lot of scarves, shawls, etc.  Right now I have 2 on the needles: a blue wingspan and a mauve simple-shawl.  I want to make sure these 2 get done before I start anything new or head over to a different UFO.

Crochet - Same thing as knitting, but nothing I'm diligently working on.  Once I get the 2 knitting projects done, then I'll reassess all yarn things and get it organized.

Yarn reorganization means that I need to take bookcases out of Renee's room and move them into my room to hold the yarn stuff.  So yeah, I have to clean out the corner the bookcases are to go in, then move them in there and reload them.  And figure out what to do with Renee's stuff until her room is painted and ready for new bookcases....you get the idea.

Quilting - I'm handling this slowly due to all the entertaining we need to do between Election Day and New Year's.  It's like 5 or 6 events.  Anyway, I started the barnyard bats little project on Oh Fransson! and I need to get all caught up on all my BOM blocks.  Stashbusters says to have a Fall Finishing Party and try to get 3 more UFOs done.   I think I will be doing it slightly differently.

I want to finish the yellow LCRR, but it requires a lot of handwork.  So that is slow-going.

I want to finish the Christmas quilt, but that requires a lot of room, which I don't have right now.

I want to finish the barnyard bats and by God I will.

I want to make a jacket out of the $5 BOM I am in.  Since the last block is due to be picked up in the first week of December, that will be a nice project to work in there at year-end.  Work is due to be very busy this year-end so stress relief will be needed.

I want to finish the barn raising quilt by Michelle's Romantic Tangle that I started.

I have no idea how this is all going to get done.  Right now I need to schedule a plumber for my front powder room and so getting ready to have my main floor presentable to people is my number one goal. So far so slow.

But I passed my insurance exam....

In which I deviate....

Normally I write about quilting and crafting here.  Sometimes more frequently than others.  But I am not defined only by my quilting.  (Although if I were, that wouldn't be that bad!)  I have other things gnawing at me.

Right now in my life, for the remainder of this year, I need to clean my house.  Yes, for the holidays, but more importantly, because I feel driven to do so.  You know what I mean.  You just *have* to.

Except I have no energy.  I do not know why.  Well, I know one piece-  I hate to clean.  But I am driven!  I want this done!  For the first time in my life, I am inspired to decorate!

But it requires energy.  And I don't have any.

I have heard some chatter about dietary changes boosting energy.  I am a firm believer in nutrition, although you would not know it to look at me.  My friend says you would know it to eat at my table; I do a lot of from scratch cooking.

So I'm trying to clean and maybe make a change or two.  It all begins with walking away from the Super-Sized Coke....

42

What is today, you ask?  Why, it’s the World Wide Day of Play!  So get outside and have some fun!  And yes, it’s that too.  I am now the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.

(test post to see if blogger and I can be friends after I opened a gmail account....)

Friday check in

So Monday I wrote about my year end plans here for chipping away at that UFO list.  Here’s where I stand.

I got paid yesterday, so there should be a finish.  I have an hour of binding work to do on one quilt and it will be done.  I should finish that this weekend and post it here and make my move me down post and also post for Judy.  Whew.  Lots of posting but it will be a finish. 

My machine is ready!  So I will head up north and get that tomorrow.  Yes, in all of the rain from Hurricane Isaac.  Sadly the rain will be too much too late for this year, but if it sets us up well for next year, then maybe we can recover.  With the machine being done, I plan on sewing up the rows for my yellow LCRR, doing the BOM block that I have to pick up on Sunday and finishing the blocks on the Christmas 2 BOM.  The Christmas 2 BOM has 25 blocks to it.  12 have been finished and 12 more need some sort of coping borders to get them to the right size.  Then I have to do the 25^th block myself.  If I can get through all of that this weekend, I will be far on that one.

For mindless piecing and other work, I hope to work on a PIF quilt which is Bonnie’s Weed Whacker.  I have 75% of the strips cut.  I’d like to finish cutting the strips and then start sewing up the pairs. 

The next 2 weeks do not hold a lot of promise for sewing.  I hope to do the hand work for the yellow LCRR rows in that time, as well as the binding on another quilt.  That will get me through another payday....

Fall Plans

And now it's time for the plans themselves.

I started the year with 26 declared UFOs.  I have completed 4 of them (I think).  I need to do at least 8 more to have done one per month; 9 would be better.  That is the first goal.

Done
Seaside Rose jacket
Chiclets table runner
Purple Strings
Watermelon Slice

To Do in 2012
Australia quilt
Red hearts quilt
Yellow LCRR
St. Pat's LCRR
Christmas 2 BOM
Orca Bay
Renee's BOM quilt
Hopscotch
Huge Fence Rail

For the record everything I have started this year I have finished except for 4 things: 2 BOMs and 2 PIF quilts.  Not too shabby.  I get the last block for one of the BOMs December 1 so that may not become a UFO.  1 if not 2 of the PIF quilts may get done before year end as well as a leader-ender.  The last BOM starts mid-year and that is just the way life is.

To accomplish this, I need to do 1 UFO per paycheck (I get paid every 2 weeks) and 2 of them better have 2 finishes.  While I am out of pocket for a machine this week, there are some prep things I can do, plus 2 of the above items are in the binding stage, so finishes are forthcoming.

Fall

Well, it's almost Labor Day, which is the unofficial start of Fall.  Actually nowadays I think it might be the start of school which indicates the start of Fall, but that was way back on August 22.  But anyway, as the corn continues to turn brown and the beans are beginning that process, it's time to think Fall.

I have been away from quilting for a bit; I just finished 2 sister quilts for my nieces, one of which was migrating up to a big girl bed for the other, who decided to be like her maternal grandmother and make a grand entrance a week late.  After finishing those 2 quilts, which I loved to make, I took a quilty break.  I can only do so much at one time and since it is Fall and Back to School, Girl Scouts is more demanding of my time right now.

But BOMs wait for no one, except the passage of time.  So Friday I was done with work at 12.30 and I came home and sewed one block.  It's one of those Buck a Block ones but this one does not give enough fabric to do 2 blocks per packet; the blocks are more detailed than in past years.

So I sew my one block, run out to the LQS, come back from the LQS (64 miles round trip) and neat the school bus to my home.  We watch Iron Man while I sew up the rest of the BOMs.

I always get 2 of the Buck a Block BOM kits and this time, there isn't enough fabric to make the positive and negative versions of the block in each packet.  So I am making 3 blocks per 2 packets.  The odd numbers months will have 2 lights and 1 dark, which means the even months will be the opposite.  So anyway, I sewed up months 1 and 2 and now have a baggie with all my BOM crap in it in the red sale bag for my LQS.

The other BOM that I am in I did the block way back at the beginning of the month when I got it just to get it out of the way.

All of this was done in preparation for my beloved Janome Jem 760 Ruby to go off to be cleaned.  I had planned to drop her off at the dealer on September 1, as I had to be in Chicagoland anyway.  But Dad needed some surgery and so I had to go up yesterday.  I dropped off Ruby yesterday in the rain and I hope to pick her up on September 1.

So where am I going with this?  Oh heavens, I should get back to that.  I had time to think during all the driving I've done.

I have some Fall plans.  I'm going to put them in another post so I can find them quickly.

August

It’s been a while. Life has been both exhausting and crazy at the same time.


On a quilty front, things are moving along, albeit slowly. I need to quilt to keep my sanity but things are so busy, I am not getting enough time. So I am carving out the time as I can.

I’ve decided that my goal right now is to get as many things as possible to the hand binding stage. I need to have my machine serviced desperately and I will drop it off on September 1. But I won’t get it back for quite some time, like September 22. That’s OK, as the other aspects of my life will be beyond busy at that point, but I will need stuff to do. So if I have a pile of binding ready to go, that will help.

What was the red strings quilt, which is now just the red hearts quilt, is to this point. The Australia quilt has been there for a few months. I am now starting the process of joining all the yellow LCRR blocks together after FINALLY finishing quilting them all last night during the Olympics. I have 2 more quilts I’d like to get to this point as well. That would make for 5 things that would need to be done and frankly that should be more than enough. 4 are UFOs.

Go! and feet

2 things:

I'm pretty sure the left foot pain I am having is planar faciitis.  I need to make a doctor's appointment to figure out exactly which treatments are wise.  If gym shoes are wise, please, sweet Jesus, let me get a doctor's note.

The other thing is that I was at my LQS today in the sale room.  I start there.  I had forgotten my store tote, which can function as a coupon on regularly priced items, so I was going to limit purchases to sale items, which the bag doesn't work for.  So I'm in there and I find a backing for something and then I am wandering around and I do a double-take.

They had not one, but two, Accuquilt GO! Babies in there for half off.  That's $70, people.  My credit card bill rolls over on Thursday and I have to go out that way on Friday to get Renee from week 4 of camp, so I will be stopping by and grabbing some GO things.

I had decided long ago that I was only going to get a GO if and only if it was under $100.  This fits the bill.  The Baby's dies fit my needs.  The 2.5 strip is there, the nickel is there and the small tumbler is there.  Those were the big desires.  There are others, but those were the big ones.

I'm so giddy with excitement.  I mentioned it to Ted and he was fine with it.  So double yay.

Mid-Season Report

Well, we are at the half-year mark.  Time to reevaluate. 

I have completed 4 UFOs from my list and for many things, if I have started them, I have finished them.  This is not a bad thing.  As for my 100 yard dash from stash, I’m at 23.11 yards, which is fine.

My goals for the year are to complete 19 or 20 UFOs, thus showing that I completed 75% of my list.  That’s not too shabby.  I also want to continue with the idea that I finish what I start in 2012.  For now, that is the 6 Pay It Forward quilts.  Again, not too shabby.  I need to make 3 more things super-quick this month, but again, they have to be done by month-end, so it’s all good.

When I look at what I want to complete in the near future, this is the list:

UFOs (7)

Red strings

Yellow LCRR

St. Pat’s LCRR

PIF-Weed Whacker

Christmas 2 BOM

Black and White BOM

Australia FQs

New Items (3)

United Way jacket

Sophia 1600

Layla 1600

My goal is to get all of these with the binding attached by the start of the Olympics and then I will bind like crazy.  In actuality, I will get 7 of them done and progress on the other 3.  Any progress is still progress.  If I do get the 7 done, that would be 40+ yards from stash and nearly 2,000 inches of binding, not to mention 4 off the UFO list. 

I am also using Wednesdays as Orca Bay Wednesdays, to see if I will ever finish this quilt.  I made some good progress this week.

Happy 4th!!!

Happy 4th!  As we all know, freedom isn't free, so for everyone who is serving or has served, thank you for making it possible for me to sit around, drink coffee and type this post.

I love parades, especially the one on the 4th.  When the 4th falls on a Sunday, Hinsdale and Brookfield have their parades on different days, thus giving me TWO parades!  I'm giddy with excitement!

Alas and alack, B-N does not do a parade for today.  They do parades for Memorial Day and Labor Day, but not for the 4th.  At least we get fireworks.

And the corn is tasseling....

Camporee!

OK, this isn't a quilty post.  As you know, I do Girl Scouts.  I wasn't a Girl Scout as a child, but I am as an adult.  This weekend, we hosted about 70 girls and 25 adults for the weekend of camping at our local GS campground.  This has been over a year in the planning.  I was in charge of food.  I now know what $1100 in groceries from Sam's Club looks like and I can confirm it fits in my minivan.


First of all, now that I have seen how horrible the weather has been this past weekend between heat, fire, crazy storms and power outages, I am incredibly thankful to God that we are all safe.  We had no first aid issues either.


It was incredibly hot, incredibly humid and incredibly busy!  We dealt with 100 degree heat indices, blazing sun, lightning, thunder, rain and cool fronts.  We ate, drank and played.  Field games were played, cardboard boats were raced in the lake and girls made friends.  (We intentionally mixed the girls up from their troops into color teams to build friendships.) Our wildest expectations were exceeded.  We have had both kids and grown-ups sign up for next year's committee.


And we are so tired.  OMG tired.  Like, I came home and took a nap at noon tired.  I have laundry everywhere, no food in my house and I just don't care.  I took tomorrow and Tuesday off for my weekend.  Thank goodness Wednesday is a holiday!  Then I have to slug through 2 days at work before another weekend.  


Well, I guess here's a quilty note.   I've declared all Wednesday sewing henceforth Orca Bay sewing.  So welcome to Orca Bay Wednesdays!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

MIA

I know I've been MIA for a while.  I have not been feeling that great and I do not know why.  Well, I know a few pieces - work, diet, etc.  But today I woke up and wanted to go back to bed for like days.  This is not like me.  My husband took my temp.

We did get Renee off to camp, which seriously took everything I had.  I had a sinus headache, which left with medicine, and then a half hour later a migraine hit due to being outside in the sun and heat handling camp check-in.  I was a bona-fide mess.  We came home and I slept for 2 hours.  Then I made Ted run out and get Chinese for dinner.

I took the rest of the evening off.  I need a slug day or two or ten.  But for tonight, I am resting.

The string hearts quilt will be next up, as I need it for Relay for Life.  The Australia quilt has 2 feet of binding left to do.  I then want to focus on finishing up a few more things.  If I could have a big binding stack for the Olympics, that would be wonderful!

But I also have the homefront to worry about.  This week, I want to clean out Renee's room.  I seriously want everything but the bed out this week.  She has been informed and she is OK with it.

I did pass my insurance exam.  1 down and 6 more to go to get this certification.  The bonus will buy my next sewing machine.  Motivation!!!