Long time between posts

Lots going on around here.

Toffee is growing (and occasionally sleeping):


He really likes this laundry basket - but at some point he won't fit in it AT ALL.


The Small Man is losing teeth - three in one week!


We went to Austin on vacation, for the Karate Kid to be in a karate tournament there. We had great fun - watched the bats fly out from the bridge right next to our hotel. We stopped in New Orleans on the way out there, and in Athens for Quilt National on the way back. We're going to Florida in a couple of weeks so my brother can teach The Lovely Daughter how to drive.

(un)balanced

This is the haiku and challenge piece for the July haiku challenge.

Balance - yin and yang
Competing priorities
Pushing and pulling



This may be my favorite piece so far. It is "8.5 x 11" like my other pieces, but is not square - the quilting distorted the dimensions and so I left it that way.

Stash report weeks 24-25

Wellllll...I went to a "quilters yard sale" on Friday evening. One of our guild members is planning a move to Florida in the not-so-distant future and is downsizing in advance of trying to sell her house. My "added" is a gross estimate - I bought a 6-yard piece (backing!) and a 1.5-yard piece (green and white!) and the rest are all FQ or less (mostly less). Probably another 7.5 yards, just based on volume. Some are already taking their place in TMOTH's string quilt.

Just think of it as helping a friend move and not mindless stash accumulation.

I've estimated the yardage for the Halloween scarecrow at about 2 yards, and the challenge piece at about 0.25 yards.

Used this Week: 2.25 yards
Used year to Date: 60.35 yards
Added this Week: 15 yards
Added Year to Date: 39.9 yards
Net Used for 2011: 20.45 yards

Quilts finished

I finished a UFO!


I started this before Halloween last year, but never finished it - it needed some timtex around the head to keep it from being all floppy, and a couple of pockets and a dowel to make it hang straight. AND a little finishing quilting, BUT it's all done!



I also finished my May hiaku/fiber piece, "Soft"


June's piece is nearly done, and I've been working on the string quilt for TMOTH.

Catching up

Yay! My IT guy (TMOTH)fixed the netbook, so I'm all connected again.

Toffee is doing great and growing like a weed.






And a happy Fathers' Day to TMOTH:

A trip to Lowe's later in the day for a firepit for a present!

More posts on quilty stuff to come.

Stash Report Week 23

Used this Week: 1 yards
Used year to Date: 58.1 yards
Added this Week: 2.75 yards
Added Year to Date: 24.9 yards
Net Used for 2011: 33.2 yards

IN: Margaret brought a bunch of "sorta" FQ free for the taking to the Nimble Fingers meeting on Wednesday. I was almost good - nearly all of the ones that came home with me have a specific use in mind.

OUT: I made a tote bag! My netbook toasted itself last week, so no photo uploads - you'll just have to take my word about how cute it is. I used three upholstery sample panels that came home from my MIL's house.

Victory over "The Man"

Another reason for less productivity - my "quilting" machine, a bottom-of-the-line Brother CS6000i, decided to stop sewing a couple of weeks ago.

Now, I mostly have "old" machines. As in, older than I am. These machines were made for the owners to do regular maintenance on them. Not so the newer machines.

Since this "new" machine was over a year old, so out of warranty anyway, I decided to go ahead and hack into it. To compare: My featherweight has a single thumbscrew on the bottom plate which allows you to access 90% of what needs to be done. All the screws are accessible. The Brother: Five or screws later, I can crack the back of the machine open maybe an inch. I jam my checkbook box into the opening so I can work in there. MAN, was it full of fluff. Including one big bunch of fluff which was snagging up the gears. So I clean out all the fluff and clean off the gears.

This necessitates another adventure: Hardware stores to get lubricant for the [plastic] gears. The Home Depot guys treat me like a "girl" and clearly have no idea what I'm talking about when I tell them I want silicone grease. Don't have it. Strosnider's Hardware didn't have it either, but at least the guy there knew what I was talking about. I found PTFE lube at the local hobby shop on the way home from work and greased up the gears.

Taking off the stitch plate was another adventure, requiring an offset screwdriver (!). More fluff pulled out, then everything put back together.

AND IT WORKS!!

Still, I think what I really need is a Singer 301 or 201 for quilting.

Stash Report Week 22

Lots went out, but in a donation bag for the Vietnam Vets.

Used this Week: 10 yards
Used year to Date: 57.1 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 22.15 yards
Net Used for 2011: 34.95 yards

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