My furlough week, so far

After shut-down on Tuesday morning, I started working on a double Irish chain quilt. I really just needed something almost completely mindless.

I had a bunch of 2.5 inch pink squares in a bag'o'squares I'd bought at the white elephant sale at a local quilt show a couple of years ago. I found a big piece of floral that was bundled with some flannel as a backing, but I decided that backing wouldn't go with that quilt all that well. So it became the major part of the top. The Lovely Daughter told me I should use teal/turquoise with the pink and cream, so I pulled a chunk out of the stash.

Blocks:


Entire top:
 

Close-up of the border:



Again, all from stash. A pink that's a little darker than most of the ones in the top, and a butterfly print that's a little more green but still has some blue tones in it, and works with the rest of the top. I have a darker tan/brown batik that I think will give me enough for the binding.

Today I need to clean and oil my machine for the sit-and-sew tomorrow, and make sure I'm taking all that I need for a day of sewing - this time with friends!

Linking to Nina's Off-the-Wall Friday even though this is about as NON-art-quilty as it gets :) Hoping it will help get my mojo back.

2013 Stash Report Week 39

Lots of catching up to do!

I finished the house blocks quilt (~2 yards) and a pillow for TMOTH's birthday (~1 yard).

Here's the pillow:


I bought a scrap bag at G Street's September Quilt Club (which was an awesome trunk show; ~1.3 yards) and also brought home some bits and pieces from the Betheda Quilter's show on Friday - they're all small pieces, maybe 2 yards in all. And 2.5 yards to work on The Lovely Daughter's best friend's quilt.

Yards in this month: 5.8
Yards out this month: 3.0
Cumulative yards in: 11.3
Cumulative yards out: 31.9
Net gain/loss: 20.6 USED

I have some hopes for bigger finishes soon. There's the Christmas panel for a small wallhanging that's being hand-quilted, and I'm taking lots of stuff to a quilting day out next Saturday, including this:


It's a VERY long-term UFO. My Memaw and I found it on a thrifting trip. The plaid blocks are hand-sewn, flannel. and VERY wonky. I have blue and camel flannel to border the blocks in to hopefully de-wonk them.

 

Old Stitchery Books

One of my used bookstore weaknesses:


The modern stuff with photos is pretty, but not nearly as useful as these older books with drawings and clearly written instructions.

Saturday morning

It's been a looong trying summer, full of ups and downs.

The first trip to Florida was in early July. First was the karate tournament in Ft. Lauderdale:


The team as a whole did well. My small man wound up with a second-place medal in sparring in his age/weight group! (There were two kids in the bracket, but to be fair, he fought well even though he lost.) The Karate Kid didn't place, but part of it is that he's gained just enough weight to be in the higher-weight bracket, so a lot of the kids have a bit more weight on him.


Then back up the state a little bit for my brother's wedding.
The family:


A rare photo of the Karate Kid, smiling and in a tux, no less:


The Small Man:


My Lovely Daughter, being obnoxious (she's in front of my brother):


Little Brother and his bride-to-be taking photos before the wedding:


Little Brother and new bride dancing at the reception:


It was an absolutely beautiful wedding. We get to spend one cloudy day at the beach, and back we traipse to Maryland.





Early August, Little Brother calls me that they've taken Mom to the ER, probably dehydration. Next day, I fly to Florida in time to spend an hour with her before she passes away. Raging sepsis, organ shutdown, and she's gone.

A favorite photo of Mom from our scanned photos for the funeral:


The family drove down for the funeral, and I drove back with them. In less than a week, I drive BACK to Florida with the Lovely Daughter to move her into her college dorm.

I packed up all of Mom's clothes in the back of the van and am sorting through them. I brought back a bunch of Mom's t-shirts and will likely make a quilt or quilts out of them.

House block swap

I recently took part in a block swap with friends from the C-R-A-F-T Yahoo group. We each made house blocks that represented our own home, then sent them off to the swap Queens who parceled them back out to each of us.

I sewed the blocks together before we left Maryland and then threw everything into a bag. I put it all together on my mom's dining room table.

Mine is in the middle of the middle row. (I didn't plan it that way, it's just where it showed up):

The close-up shows the floral - I was going to just sash with this, but some of the blocks were too blendy, so I bordered all blocks with a minty green solid first.


The backing is a pale blue sprigged floral - very sort of 80s, I suspect.

2013 Stash Report Week 24

No posts for about a month ~ eek!

The yardage in is a combination of "gift" FQ from volunteering for the quilt show (4 batik FQ in lovely teals), winning one FQ in the guild raffle, and purchases from a "yard sale" at the guild meeting.

I finished the voodoo mask for a friend (estimate of  0.2 yards) and made an Elvis cape for my 2nd-grader's living history presentation (estimate of 1.5 yards busted).

Yards in this month: 3.5
Yards out this month: 1.7
Cumulative yards in: 5.5
Cumulative yards out: 28.9
Net gain/loss: 23.4 USED

Voodoo mask

Nearly done - I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the back.

The backstory - a friend has had a cancer recurrence, and described visualizing her cancer cells as shrunken heads on stick legs, running away during treatment. The idea of a voodoo mask to support this vision popped into my head, and this is the result.

The embellishments are vintage mother-of-pearl buttons, sewn on with glass beads. Perle cotton stitching.

I'm very excited to use this as my debut showing in Off the Wall Friday on Nina-Marie's blog!

2013 Stash Report Week 19

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0.2
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 27.2
Net gain/loss: 25.2 USED

The out numbers are a guess over the past two weeks, for trimmings that went in the trash can working on a quilt for the Lovely Daughter's BFF. I thought about buying fabric this weekend - 15% off coupon to Jo-Ann's - but did other stuff instead.

And in happy news, TMOTH lost his glasses! That's not so much the good news, although he found them, but he ALSO found my camera while he was hunting for the glasses.



I've gotten quite a few stars done and have started fitting them together. TLD saw what I've gotten done and commented: "The blocks aren't the same size!" I said - "No." and she just smiled. Not a fan of symmetry, that one.

 

April progress report

1. finish 13 projects - I finished a UFO for the show, Laura's Cats; a different challenge quilt; and made a beret for my Small Man. That brings my total to eight. I've started working again on a graduation quilt for The Lovely Daughter's BFF and my 30s/40s colonial ladies quilt. And I bought some kanzashi flower makers at the show and plan to work on some actual little things to sell at next year's show.
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - Most days - lots of motivation with the show!
3. 2013 in 2013:  In April, only 24 pieces of "stuff" left the house. That brings my total to 578. I really need to pitch some stuff to neaten up to get ready for visitors for graduation at the end of the month.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. Not a great month at this.

Friendship Star Quild Guild show

Our guild show was this weekend. I volunteered for most of the show time, and am tired to the bone - The Lovely Daughter's musical was this weekend, so I picked her up at 1 am from IHOP Friday night and at 2 am from the cast party last night. This mama doesn't do well on little sleep, and the big dog doesn't believe in sleeping in.

But lots of lovely quilts were on display.

The Lovely Daughter's quilt was finally done:


I had a quilt entered in the Ultimate Guild Challenge, and one in our local guild's "challenging fabric" challenge:


This quilt won first place in that challenge:


And this is the one I liked the best - the quilter "hid" the hideous fabrics in a bunch of others that played well together:


The show is always good for inspiration. This is a great scrap quilt I plan to make pretty soon:


And I always love me a scrappy sampler:


More later - need to take some boys to bed.

2013 Stash Report Week 17

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 6.9
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 27
Net gain/loss: 25 USED


I made 12 more pincushion blanks for the show, about 5 x  5 each. My math works out to 0.2 yards!

AND I finished a UFO, my Lovely Daughter's quilt - to the tune of 6.7 yards.

The most amazing part - I bought NO fabric at the show! I bought a ball of perle cotton and some 12-wt. Sulky blendables (a package of 5) AND four of these really cool Clover kanzashi flower makers. They're a really fun tool!

A lovely day

I had such a wonderful day today, I wanted to share.

The day started with the critters letting us sleep in, until some time after 7! For breakfast, I had leftover biscuits, toasted with butter (one of my very favorite things in the entire world). Then I sat down to watch Sunday Morning, and finished sewing the binding on a challenge quilt while I watched.

A little bit of cleaning later, I went out to the shop to ask TMOTH if he wanted pizza for lunch, since I was heating some up for me and the kids. Yes, he did, but more importantly - it was absolutely fabulously gorgeous outside. WARM and SUNNY.

So we ate our pizza outside :) I'd started pruning our boxwoods once I put the pizza in the oven, and after lunch, I pruned them so we could walk through, and scraped/swept the pavers. (As an aside, if the morons who owned our house before us had spend just 5 minutes figuring out how big the plants were going to get, we would not have the Boxwood Problem.) Then spent some time working on the patio, just to keep outside. This is the after picture:



I put a lot of our seashells into a planter on the patio where I can enjoy them.


Cookie did not want his picture taken. At all.




Toffee was just sad he had to stay in the house.

 
The Small Man wants to be "an artist" for his career day at school next week. TMOTH is making him a palette, and I made him a red beret.

Dinnertime - I managed to pull dinner together with pasta, vegetables, sausage, and stale hamburger buns!

The Lovely Daughter and her boyfriend made brownies, so we're just waiting for them to cool enough to eat!!

And now I'm sitting watching the country music awards, working on her quilt.

Nothing big today, just a day full of simple pleasures. I hope that you all had a lovely Sunday.

2013 Stash Report Week 14

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 2.8
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 20.1
Net gain/loss: 18.1 USED

I finished another small challenge quilt; I'm calling this one 2.5 yards as well.
 

I also made  the Small Man a beret today :) Best estimate is 0.3 yards, I think. I used the tutorial here. It was easy-peasy and looks awesome.

March progress report

Well, March was depressing. It seems as if winter will never end - although today there were reports of sunlight, and it was not as cold as it's been. Nature knows that spring is imminent - we have daffodils blooming away in the yard, and the spring peepers are out at night. Hopefully our wood frogs will return to the "pond" this year as well.

Keeping up with the housework was a dismal flop last month, although I did manage to get rid of 133 items. But this is a new month - one that will hopefully be much warmer and I won't feel the need to hibernate!

1. finish 13 projects - ONE completely done in March; the guild challenge quilt that HAD to be done for turn-in today. That brings my total to five. I should have at least two more finished this month for the show turn-in.
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - I missed a few days here and there, but mostly accomplished this again.
3. 2013 in 2013:  In February, 122 pieces of "stuff" left the house. That brings my total to 554. So I need to pick up the pace a little bit, but I'm not behind - yet.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. Posts fell off even more, although this was partly due to more quilting!.

2013 Stash Report Week 13

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 2.5
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 17.3
Net gain/loss: 15.3 USED

I finished a small quilt for our guild challenge this weekend - actually this entire past week was spent mostly quilting. 



It took me FOREVER to think of a design that would fit with the theme - Tutti Frutti - and then of course I was time crunched to get it done for turn-in tonight! The bottom line is that I'm very happy with it - and will even hang it up in my house! 

2013 Stash Report Week 10

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

Still no change, even with more work

- One guild challenge top quilting almost done. And I bought a big framing square at the Home Depot that will help with trimming.
- More of the Lovely Daughter's quilt is quilted. 
- Still no work on the other guild challenge!

2013 Stash Report Wek 9

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

Still no change. I did get quite a bit of work done this week.

- One guild challenge top is complete and quilting well underway.
- More of the Lovely Daughter's quilt is quilted. 
- I have an idea for the other guild challenge, but NO idea if I can get it done by the first of April!

PROGRESS in February

1. finish 13 projects - TWO done in February; one UFO (a cathedral window pillow) and one new (another heating pad cover). That brings my total to four.
2. Spend 13 minutes a day sewing - I missed a few days here and there, but mostly accomplished this again.
3. 2013 in 2013:  In February, 122 pieces of "stuff" left the house. That brings my total to 421.
4. Keep track of what I'm doing by starting blogging again - I feel much more productive when I have a record of what I've done. So far so good, although posts fell off some.

February is HARD. It's cold, it's dark, and I slow to a crawl. But the daffodils believe that spring is coming, so I have to believe.

2013 Stash Report Week 8

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: 0
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

No change this week. I've done some work on The Lovely Daughter's quilt, and pulled some background material for an applique project, and REALLY need to work today on a guild challenge (and possibly start another challenge).

And I sewed a couple of pieces of poly batting into makeshift bags for the aquarium filter, but that doesn't really count against stash :) 

2013 Stash Report Week 7

Yards in this week: 0
Yards out this week: .6
Cumulative yards in: 2
Cumulative yards out: 14.8
Net gain/loss: 12.8 USED

Nibble, nibble, nibble at the stash. And yet, any used is good. And I'm happy to be playing with the fabric.