Why there has been no productivity here

Join me in welcoming Toffee to the family!








He's a male golden retriever, a couple of months old. Like all babies, he sleeps a lot.


This is good, because otherwise keeping up with him would kill us.


Puppy-proofing is obviously incomplete, but I can see progress.

Stash report week 21

Easy-peasy this week - nothing in, nothing out. I have some hope that puppy-proofing will lead to greater productivity down the road, just not *soon*.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 47.1 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 22.15 yards
Net Used for 2011: 24.95 yards

Stash report week 20

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 47.1 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 22.15 yards
Net Used for 2011: 24.95 yards

Zip. Zilch. Nada. I did some work on a haiku challenge quilt, but it's still not done.
I have an idea for a self-portrait challenge, but didn't owrk on it.
I printed labels, but didn't sew any on.

It was just a busy week/weekend. Daughter: Prom. Middle kid: Karate tournament. Small Man: Birthday Party. Me: I bought a puppy!

Going with the cosmic flow here - I looked in the newspaper on a whim on Sunday, saw puppies for sale, went to visit and picked one out. He comes home on Saturday.

2011 Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival

What a blissful Mother's Day. We went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. The weather was perfect - sunny, not too hot - and the kids were only a little bit whiny. The Lovely Daughter stayed home to study for her AP test next week, so we brought her back some soap and a tote bag.

The first time I went to this event was many years ago. TMOTH was still working at the pharmaceutical company, and was off to some scientific conference. I was home alone - with only 2 kids at the time - and got a wild hair to go, so off we went. The Lovely Daughter was maybe 6, the Karate Kid 3, so 9 years ago. I missed a year a couple of years ago because it was rainy, and regretted not going all year!!

So, there were sheep:










Some were friendlier than others. This guy had discovered that if he stood up and stuck his head over the stall, someone would come along and give him scratches. (That's my arm there, scratching his chin. I think the Karate Kid is the one rubbing his nose.)




You need a sweater when you've just been shorn:


My favorites were these dudes with the dreads and the wicked cool fleece:










I don't know the name of the breed, but I don't think we're going to be raising sheep any time soon.

The boys really liked the alpacas (they wanted to see llamas):


I think they enjoyed it anyway.




We didn't buy any sheep, and we didn't actually buy any wool, either (it makes me itch), but did find some good things. TMOTH and I both found nice deerskin gardening gloves at a reasonable price, and I got to pick out my Mother's Day gift. That was where the biggest purchase of the day occurred, at Earth Guild's booth. I finally succumbed to the lure of dyeing and bought a beginner's dye kit and book. I'm excited about what I can play with over the summer.

Stash report week 19

Better this week!

I finished the Kitty Quilt, even though it's not due for the karate tournament until next week. I'm calling this 5 yards busted.


Detail shot - The patchwork has a trellis straight-line quilting, and stippling around the kitties in the printed panels:


Half a yard of the pink batiks I bought last week went to my secret sister at the guild, and I only added a fat quarter (gift from MY secret sister).

Used this Week: 5.5 yards
Used year to Date: 47.1 yards
Added this Week: .25 yards
Added Year to Date: 22.15 yards
Net Used for 2011: 24.95 yards

May UFO

The May number is 9 - which for me is a Christmas wallhanging. I might actually be able to get this one finished!

Stash report week 18

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 41.6 yards
Added this Week: 1.8 yards
Added Year to Date: 21.9 yards
Net Used for 2011: 19.7 yards

I bought some pink batiks this week for cherry blossoms for a challenge quilt. That may never happen; we'll see.

There's kind of a creative slump going on right now, hopefully quilt guild meeting tonight will provide some inspiration.

Stash report week 17

Used this Week: 10 yards
Used year to Date: 41.6yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 20.1 yards
Net Used for 2011: 21.5 yards

Not much sewing, but LOTS of purging on Sunday. I went through a couple more boxes of my mother-in-law's stuff that was still sitting in the living room and tossed quite a bit of it. 10 yards is a pretty conservative estimate.

And now for something completely different

Spring break here! Saturday I went thrift shopping with The Lovely Daughter; yesterday we all went to Hershey Park. Today was *supposed* to be a rest-up day, but The Lovely Daughter had a party to be driven to and the Small Man decided it was TIME to make chocolate pizza. I have no idea where he got this idea, other than it was likely at school, but it was fully formed. I modified a refrigerator cookie recipe from Betty Crocker and patted enough of the dough into a pizza pan to what i thought was the right thickness, and baked it.


Small Man explaining how it needs to be done:


So I put on the chocolate frosting-from-a-can, and he got to work:




He was very intent, and made sure nearly every square millimeter was covered with some sort of candy:






And we had one very happy and proud Small Man at the end of it. (It was yummy!)

Stash report week 16

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 31.6yards
Added this Week: 14 yards
Added Year to Date: 20.1 yards
Net Used for 2011: 11.5 yards

I took a hit this week, but it was worth it :)
6 yards of one material at $1 per yard, 5 yards of another at $2 per yard for backings. And then three yards of fun flannel for PJ pants.

Stash Report Week 15

Amish Diamonds: 35 x 53. This is quilted and more than half bound, so I'm calling that stash busted. The 1.5 yards added is what came home with me from the "FREE - take me home" box at guild meeting on Monday.

Used this Week: 6 yards
Used year to Date: 31.6yards
Added this Week: 1.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 6.1 yards
Net Used for 2011: 25.5 yards

I've committed to donating the kitties quilt for the Karate Kid's karate school auction, to raise money for their trip to Austin to compete in the Junior Olympics, so that will be DONE in the next week or two.

Stash Report Week 14

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 25.6yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 4.6 yards
Net Used for 2011: 21.0 yards

"You do the most intriguing things sometimes."

This is what TMOTH said as he walked by this afternoon as I was sewing down yet another half-inch square with a sequin and bead.

Last weekend's sit-n-sew

No finishes for March :(

I did have a GREAT time at our guild's sit-n-sew, and made some progress on UFOs.

I spent most of my time on this:


Lots of floor space to put down the painters tape to mark off my quilting lines. Close-up here (quilting lines will eventually go the other way to make diamonds):


This started as last year's guild challenge, until it became clear it was getting too big. This was the March UFO. It now has its borders and I've started quilting it - in the ditch, with the quilting lines continuing in the borders.


I also finished the background for a blue/purple/orange channel:

Bunny art

The other evening TMOTH was trying to get some paperwork printed for one of the kids, and the Small Man was badgering him with questions and trying to impress him with odd facts.

At that point, I rooted around in our junk closet, found an old watercolor set and some brushes, and asked the Small Man to come in the dining room with me, so we could paint! He was perfectly happy with this, and we painted awhile, and then I told him I would teach him how to paint a bunny.

This is what I painted (along with instructions about how I do it - paint the ears first, add the head, then the body, then the feet and tail):


So Small Man painted along with me, then on his own added green eyes, a red mouth, and whiskers, and grass underneath:


We finished up and went up to bed. The Lovely Daughter came down and found the supplies, and painted this:


This from someone who told me recently she doesn't like watercolor because "you can't fix your mistakes."

Stash Report Week 13

Used this Week: 5.5 yards
Used year to Date: 25.6yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 4.6 yards
Net Used for 2011: 21.0 yards

"USED" this week is the material I pulled to send to someone else. It's a best guess at what is going into the box.

I did get a lot done on a couple of UFOs this weekend at our guild's Sit-n-Sew, but no finishes yet. Hopefully by NEXT weekend.

March Piggy Info

Jill's having a year of the PIGS, and since I didn't answer the first March question (the first half of March was a blur!!) this one's a two-fer.

First, do I have my own sewing space? HAH. Ha, ha, hee, hee, ho, ho, ho. Maybe in another 10 years when the older two are done with college. No. So where do I sew?

1. I share part of the playroom. I have most of my quilting stuff stored in there, along with various other crafty bits. I have my grandmother's Hoosier cabinet in there, and it holds a bunch of stuff; a utility shelf, with bins for fabric; bins stashed behind the couch; bins stuffed under tables - you get the picture. My FashionMate resides in this room, but I don't use it much because the boys don't much like me sewing when they're on the computer or PlayStation or Wii.

2. I have more bins of material in the bedroom. This is where nearly all of the yarn lives as well. I also have my big cutting mat on the floor of the bedroom.

3. Most actual sewing gets done in the dining room. The Featherweight and little Brother live in there most of the time. I have a small rotating mat I keep in there, and a miniature ironing board and the iron.

4. There are also various sewing machines that need various amounts of work scattered around the rest of the house. Most are serving as end tables or computer tables.

Second, what would help be more creative? Without a doubt, better organization. It's just not something that comes naturally, and I hate spending time on putting stuff away when I could be doing something more fun.

Stash Report Week 12

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 20.1 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 4.6 yards
Net Used for 2011: 15.5 yards

Busy, busy week. I replaced the belt on the Featherweight and now it sews painfully slowly. So I ordered two new belts this morning, and think I'll just put the old belt back on and see if it will go again. At least before it was sewing, just slipping to start.

Friends' giveaways

I have a couple of quilting buddies who are having some super giveaways:

An internet pal, Marilyn, is giving away some yummy fat quarters.

My fellow guild member, the Quixotic Crafter is having a SUPER giveaway of charm squares. Tell her I sent you!

Spring is HERE!!!

I know it's not official until tomorrow night, but the forsythia is blooming, and we have frogs calling in our "pond" (an abandoned wading pool) and bulbs are popping up all over. And it's not freezing!

My new toy

Who wouldn't love a beautiful faux wood Formica cabinet?


Especially when it's chipped so you can see the fiberboard underneath?


Even more so that this amazing piece only cost me $35.95 plus tax?


NO???

Well, what if you open it up?


There's a hint of what's inside...open it all the way up and pull out the machine, and...



What a beauty! Mint and emerald green, barely a scratch, electric cords in good shape...



Not sure why there are two spool pins. I've found a grainy scan of a manual, and threaded it as best as I can figure out...and it kind of sews. There seems to be an issue with the feed dogs not engaging as fully as they should. I'll fiddle with it a little, and if I can't whip it into shape I'll take it to Jeff the miracle worker.

In actual sewing news, I'm working on a challenge: Blue, purple, and orange.


What? You don't see any orange? Just wait...I have over a week left!

Haiku Challenge

This month's challenge word was "Sunshine."

What popped into my head was an image of a sunflower. After taking Elly Sienkiewicz's class on the ruched rose last week, I had an idea of adapting that technique to make the center, so off we went.


This is the center all gathered up. I took a salad plate and drew my circle, then used the 6-pointed template to make the triangular gathering marks all the way around the edge (way more than 6!) and a couple of smaller circles to gather the middle. I LOVE the way this worked!


Different yellows fused to WonderUnder for the petals. I didn't use all of these for the final flower.


A piece of snow-dyed fabric from over a year ago for the background.


A copy of the Territorial seed catalog for inspiration. A glass of wine doesn't hurt, either!


Petals fused and ready to quilt. I did a zig-zag freemotion around all of the petals, then some echo quilting around the entire flower.


The end result. I'm really happy with this - it actually worked pretty much like the vision of it in my head.

The haiku:
Like sunshine distilled
The sunflowers nod their heads
Dancing in the wind

Stash Report Week 11

Used this Week: .3 yards
Used year to Date: 20.1 yards
Added this Week: 1.4 yards
Added Year to Date: 4.6 yards
Net Used for 2011: 15.5 yards


I gave my secret sister the two fat quarters I won in last month's door prize guild drawing, but since I can't see that I added them in when I won them, I can't count them as out the door, either! And a trip to G Street's quilt club meeting netted a bag of scrap strips.

The challenge used, again, 0.3 yards by my estimate.

I'm hoping to work on UFOs later this week, although I have a ton of WORK this week. I also seem to have a math error somewhere along the way :(

Elly Sienkiewicz workshop

I had a lovely rainy day yesterday sewing with Ellie Sienkiewicz.

I learned how to do reverse applique, and that it's just not for me (in progress for stems):


And also learned a technique for making a ruched rose that I can see adapting to other shapes as well:


Her talk tonight was on the Baltimore Album quilts as a study in social change. Very interesting!!

Stash Report Week 10

Used this Week: 3 yards
Used year to Date: 19.8 yards
Added this Week: 1.4 yards
Added Year to Date: 3.2 yards
Net Used for 2011: 15.6 yards

I got my kittens UFO sandwiched and pinned, but that's all. A trip to G street resulted in the 1.4 yards added. Tossing some junky old curtain material that I didn't even want to use for backing for string blocks was the 3 yards. (And I think it was likely more than that - but I didn't want to unfold it to measure accurately!)

February UFO

Not finished, but progress:
1. I found the flimsy (major accomplishment there!)
2. Pulled some backing material from stash
3. Actually found leftover fabric from the top (!!!!) and used it along with some cream backing to piece a strip to make the backing big enough
4. Laid out my batting left over from Kim's quilt and it's big enough!
5. Bought a spool of variegated pink thread to quilt with

I still need to:
1. Sew that pieced strip to the bigger piece of backing and press
2. Sandwich and pin/baste
3. Quilt
4. Piece binding, bind, label

Will try to update with a photo later.

Stash Report Week 9

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 16.8 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 2.8 yards
Net Used for 2011: 14.0 yards

S-L-O-W week for sewing. At least I didn't add anything!