Lounging & creating!

This was my the first weekend in about two months that I didn't have company.  While I LOVE having company, especially my family, I think it is considered poor form to hang out on the computer or in the sewing room when they are here, so I haven't had much time for either sewing or blogging.  But this weekend...

The view from my porch yesterday.  It was a glorious day, warm with a nice breeze, and I stayed put out there for hours, sometimes at the cast iron cafe table, but more often lying down on one of the wicker loveseats!

I spent yesterday on my porch: snacking, reading, knitting, counting my blessings.

Then, when the sun went down, I moved down to the sewing room and got to work.  I've been working on blocks for my guild's Comfort Quilts program - they are quite easy and addicting to make.

I'm also finding these strippy flippy scrappy happy blocks quite addicting, too!  I think I'll finish this row and then add one more full column.  After that, I'm thinking a thin, orange inner border and a scrappy piano keys border.

Look at all the violets that have arrived in the mail from my Block Lotto winnings!

And finally, I never jumped on the Granny Square Quilt Block wagon, but I've been wanting to try one ever since I first saw them.  Of course, I didn't want to have to cut all those individual squares, so this was my first attempt, playing around with sewing strips together and subcutting.  I still need to tweak my process, but I think there is a Granny Square quilt in my future.

It's been a wonderful couple of creative days!  I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap! and Monday Making.

Flying Right Along!

I FINALLY pieced a back for my niece's log cabin quilt.  I don't know what my problem is - I will put a million pieces together to make a quilt top, but if my backing fabric isn't big enough, I screech to a halt at the thought of piecing a backing.  However, my sister is coming for a visit at the beginning of April with my niece and nephew, and I'd love to send my niece's quilt home with them.  I got the back pieced and the quilt sandwiched in about an hour and a half, and have spent several hours hand quilting it so far.

The front of little Cecelia's quilt

The pieced back of Cecelia's quilt - happy to report that I completely used up those scraps in the back!

I've also now received all of my Block Lotto winnings from January, so it is time to PLAY with layout.  I am determined to get these sewn into a top SOONER rather than later - I love them!  I think I'm going to make a few more blocks, though...

And look what I picked up at an auction earlier this week!  I spied this cute little wooden sewing box, which, in reality, isn't in the best shape, but when I opened it up and saw all the wooden spools, I just HAD to have it!

Life is good.

The sun is shining, and the temps are mild.

I have finished reading application files for the season, so my free time is back to being my free time.

My mom is here for a visit.

Lots of fun things are happening at my shop.

Life is GOOD!

(I'm linking up with Oh Scrap!)

Another day in paradise (aka the sewing room)

What a difference having an organized sewing room makes!  I've been down there more this past month than the past year combined!!  Today, I worked on my February Block Lotto blocks, Snails Trails,

These 6" blocks had to use brown and a light or low volume print.  I hope to make 5 more before month's end. 

as well as a house block for the 2016 Neighborhood Block Party.

This is a 12.5" block, based on a photo of a house block I saw online.

And then, of course, I've been cutting and cutting and cutting my scraps.  I swear, it doesn't seem like the scrap pile is getting any smaller, even though my precut bins are filling up.  I've got 7 weeks to get my scraps under control and then whatever is left untamed must go!

Winning!

Aaahh, what a glorious day off!  I started the day by sleeping in, and then laying about while I finished reading my book.  This one was Forget Me Knot by Mary Marks, the first in a cozy quilt mystery series.

This one was a good one!  I enjoyed the characters, the plot, the quilting, everything about it!  If you like cozies, I recommend this one.  I'll be on the lookout for the next 3 books in this series.

I also spent some time attacking my scraps, cutting some up into squares and using some to make 4 more Strippy Flippy Scrappy Happy blocks - I now have 9 and the design is starting to emerge.  Love it!

Finally, I checked email and learned that I won 50 Birds In The Air blocks from this month's Block Lotto!!  Woo hoo!  I know this means I'll have another UFO to add to the pile instead of blocks going out, but I love these blocks and am happy that they will be staying with me and getting 41 new friends to play with.

I hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

Staying the course

I know it is early in the year to be crowing about goals met, but I'm staying on track so far to get my quilting life organized and under control.  I made my 9 Block Lotto blocks for this month,

6" Birds in the Air

and every time I had to press a piece for the blocks, I also pressed a scrap (or two or five) and took them to the cutting mat to cut them to size.  LOTS of scrap management happened this weekend!  I posted 3 more fabrics to my Etsy shop.  And I'm completely moved back into my sewing room, although I do have one corner of STUFF that is still not organized and put away.  I'm tackling it a little bit at a time, and doing a pretty good job of getting rid of things I'll likely never use.  Yay me!

A Million Different Directions

I'm supposed to be working on class samples right now, and I'm about to, but I am determined to get back to my regular blog posts.  I love blogging!  It is really frustrating me that I haven't been making/finding the time for it.

Instead, I've been knitting...

I was given 8 oz of reclaimed 100% cashmere, and wanted to make something fun and easy.  This Ruffled Scarf pattern lets me practice my short rows and wrap and turn, and the yarn is so soft to work with!

 and getting back into Block Lotto...

This month we are making 7"x14" purple (or gray or brown) and white chevron blocks

 and working on class samples for a Dresden Plate Possibilities class I want to teach.

This is the scrappy pieced block, obviously.  I'll also have a stack and whack/kaleidoscope version and a more traditional version.  We'll be making pillows while they learn how to use the ruler and piece the blocks. 

Oh, and I'm still learning how to run a business, trying to be the best and most present mom and wife I can be, and discovering the joys of Downton Abbey and Doc Martin!  I've been running in a million different directions at once, but boy, life is fun these days!

Birds, best friends, bindings...

On Friday morning, looking down the barrel of the weekend to come, I was unsure if I had the stamina to make it, but here it is Sunday night, and I am happy to report that I survived.  Adam and Jason went to Atlanta for the Division 3 Men's Basketball Championship (yay, Amherst College, national champs!), so it was just me and Donald at home.  I had to do something to make up for him being left behind with mom, right?

Friday night was stay at home and relax night to rest up for the weekend.  My plan was to sew, sew, sew.  But when I got to my sewing room, my machine didn't work!  The needle wouldn't move, and there was an error message on the screen!

Mind you, my oven has not worked for TWO YEARS and I'm OK with that, but I went into a near panic when I couldn't sew.  I took the machine apart, cleaned and oiled everything, and put it back together again.  I don't know what the problem was, but I got it working again after about two hours.  Whew!  I made two April Block Lotto bird blocks just to be sure.

By then, it was too late to do much else, so I went to bed.

Saturday morning we led the Pledge of Allegiance at the MS Walk with the cub scouts, then walked a couple of miles with the other walkers.  We ran errands, and then I hopped on the highway to travel the 150 miles roundtrip to Donald's best friend's house to pick him up for a sleepover.  They've been friends since the infant room at daycare, so it was rough on both of them when Evan moved away two years ago.  We try to still get them together a couple times a year.  They are so cute together, picking up right where they left off, talking a mile a minute, and never getting into disagreements.  Evan is welcome at my house anytime!

When we got back to town, we went to the First Annual Monacan Round Dance - native american drumming and singing and crafts and regalia - it was cool!  Then, back home for a couple of hours in the spring sunshine before heading out to the Drive-In where I was volunteering for the evening.

Today was not the day of rest I had wanted.  While Evan and Donald played all morning, I packed an enormous box for Goodwill (trying to clean and purge), and then treated myself to sewing on the binding on baby Ella's quilt.  I'm only about a third of the way done sewing the back down, but I hope to finish tomorrow afternoon.  Yay, I might even have something for Show and Tell at this month's Guild Meeting!

I had just enough of this pink to make a binding.  I love using up odd pieces of fabric!

I'd been waiting for the right quilt to use this big busy print as a backing, and this is it!

After Evan went home, it was off to lead a cub scout den meeting.  Today, they earned their Marbles belt loop - I had forgotten how much fun it is to play marbles!  Then a quick visit to a friend who was purging some fabric (I promise, I didn't bring home even a fraction of what I took to Goodwill!), and then dinner with my friend, Michelle, and her family.  We have a standing invitation every two weeks, and I love going because not only is the food always amazing, but it is nice to spend time with another woman who is also surrounded by boys and men, an understanding ally in the friendly battle between estrogen and testoterone.  Today, it was especially wonderful to go because I had to come home and do even more cleaning.  Our house in on the market - since I have given notice at work, we MAY need to downsize.  That saddens me because I love my house and because moving is such a pain, but the house hasn't been this neat since we moved in nine years ago!  Anyway, there's someone coming to look at it tomorrow, so as much as I despise housework, it had to be done.  Right now, I'm exhausted, but happy.  And tomorrow, Adam and Jason will be home again. 

A clean and full house, can't beat that!

Reveling!

There is so much to revel in this season!

Family - my twin sister and her husband and two kids came to spend Christmas with us.  My brother and his partner and her two kids also came over on Christmas day and spent the night.  There were presents and food, of course, but also lots of games, some exercise (ugh!  My sister drags me running with her every time we are together.  I HATE to run!  The only good part is the sense of accomplishment afterwards), and lots of laughter.  Plus, my gorgeous little niece wanted to do some sewing.  I was more than happy to oblige.  She made two denim bookmarks, one for her and one for her dad, plus two little 4-patch sachets filled with sweet pea scented rice.

She can barely see over my ironing board!

But she was meticulous about sewing, going a nice even slow speed and sewing a remarkably straight seam. 

Sewing - I was sad to say goodbye to family, but after they left, I realized I could get back down to my sewing room.  My kids were exhausted, and were happy to entertain themselves for a while while I worked on a Hurricane Sandy quilt today, plus made my December Let's Bee Together blocks

Quick and easy sewing - little 4.5" foundation pieced string blocks 

and 5 Block Lotto blocks for January.

Tall Shoo-fly blocks measuring 6" x 9" finished, with white, spring or lime green, true red and black - I like the look of these, and they were super easy to make

When I went to post them today, I realized it is still December - maybe I should make some more of December's blocks while I still have the time.

I also mailed out my ugly, lame-o house block for Beth's Neighborhood House Party over at Love, Laugh, Quilt.

I kept meaning to embellish it, but never found the time.  Sheesh!  I even forgot a window and a door!  Oh well. It probably won't get there in time anyway.

Generosity - people continue to give to the Hurricane Sandy quilt relief project.  An anonymous box of orphan/sampler blocks came

12 B&W sampler blocks

12 fall colored/themed sampler blocks

and a whole passel of HST blocks

plus a quilt that is already sandwiched and ready for quilting.

Some of the shamrocks are already appliqued on, others are just pinned in place. See that round roll of matching binding?  This will be an easy one to finish.  Thanks, Marcia!

Our project is getting some recognition, too.  There was an article in the Republican-Herald newspaper out of Pottsville, PA on the Monday before Christmas and a reporter from the Roanoke Times out of Roanoke, VA called me yesterday and is sending a photographer to my house on Monday to get photos of the blocks and quilts.

Can you guess what I'll be doing this weekend?  Yup!  Cleaning up the sewing room!

Sunday sewing and mail call

It was a crazy week for me at work, one that included a full meltdown featuring LOTS of angry tears.  Does anyone else cry when they are angry?  Does anyone else hate that they cry when angry? I always feel like it makes me seem weak, but oh, did I need that cry!  Thank goodness my husband works nearby, so I called him to walk with me so I could vent and cry in a safe environment.  Next week has to be better.

I didn't get to sew at all this week, but I'm trying to make up for it today.  In addition to putting together another Hurricane Sandy quilt top (you guys have sent me enough blocks to keep me busy for months!  Thanks!), I also started on December's Block Lotto blocks, Star Crossed.  I've made three so far, but plan to make more, hopefully the full 9 for more chances to win!

In addition to working my tail off all week, I also opened LOTS of mail from all of you:

Wednesday's Mail: 17 blocks and some yardage for backing plus a completed quilt - Thanks, Cathy from AZ and Cindy from OH!

Thursday's Mail: 4 completed quilts, 4 quilt tops, some orphan blocks and LOTS of disappearing 4-patch blocks (I forgot to count before adding them with the others) NOTE that Wendy and her quild guild are responsible for a lot of this mail, but I left my notes with the guild name at work - sorry about that!

Completed quilt - thanks, Lane in TX!

Completed quilt - thanks, Lane in TX!

1 baby quilt top, various blocks - thanks, Laurel in LA!

Completed quilt - thanks, Wendy and the Common Thread Quilt Guild! 

Completed quilt - thanks, Wendy and the Common Thread Quilt Guild! 

HUGE quilt top - thanks, Wendy and the Common Thread Quilt Guild! 

Quilt top - thanks, Wendy and the Common Thread Quilt Guild! 

I LOVE THIS QUILT TOP - thanks, Wendy and the Common Thread Quilt Guild! 

60 blocks - thanks, Barb in AL, Mani and Christine in Ontario, Margaret in Alberta and Wendy and the Common Thread Quilt Guild! 

Friday's Mail: 8 blocks - Thanks, Sherril and Kay from MA!

Saturday's Mail: 6 blocks - Thanks, Dianne from VA and Terrie and Sharon from CT!

Back at it!

I'm back at work. Yay.

(was that convincing?)

The problem with working is that it keeps me from doing other things.  I put together another quilt top this weekend, but I have so many more to go!

The 4th top I've assembled so far.

4 more blocks arrived on Saturday - thanks Marlene from New Zealand and Robin from CA!  Aren't they pretty?

And I finished one open block on my Scrappy String Star quilt, but there are 3 more of those to fill up.

I'm loving the look, even if I did orient it sideways.  Looks very folk artsy to me. 

Close up of my big stitches with embroidery floss

I made 4 freehand mugs for November's Block Lotto, but I'd love to make the maximum 9 blocks so I have more chances to win.

Instead, I'm at work.

Better get back to it.

Happy Monday, everyone. (in my best Eeyore voice)