A finish to brighten my day

This week, yet another member of the family was admitted to the ICU for COVID19 treatment.  This makes three.  We are hoping that yesterday's plasma transfusion does the trick and she recovers quickly.  I've been finding it hard to breathe lately, but I know it is just anxiety.  Just, I've had enough, you know?

So I turned to that which gets me through all the moments in my life when I need to calm my thoughts - quilting.  My color words quilt has been languishing for months now, basted and ready for quilting.  In fact, the recipient is already a month old now!  So this weekend, I cleaned my machine and put in a new needle, and quilted it.  I'm a hand quilter, new to machine quilting, so simple wavy and straight stitches for me.  I like how it turned out.

Then, after sewing the binding onto the front, I headed outside to sew the back down in the sunshine.

I even remembered to make a label and attach it when I attached the binding.

It will go out in Tuesday's mail - I hope the mama (and baby) likes it.

I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap and Monday Making.

November

Oh, how I love November!  No, not for the cooler temperatures, not even for Thanksgiving (which is my favorite holiday).  I love November because it means the soul-crushing grind of October is over!

So far this month,

I have napped...aaahhhh!

I have read multiple books...cozy mystery lover that I am, I read Thread & Gone by Lea Wait - A Mainely Needlepoint Mystery, Close Knit Killer by Maggie Sefton - A Knitting Mystery, and am currently reading Murder, Handcrafted by Isabella Alan - An Amish Quilt Shop Mystery.

And I finished piecing this quilt top.

All basted and ready to quilt!

I originally thought to give it to a friend who is adopting a toddler, but at 41 x 36, it feels like a baby quilt, not a toddler quilt, so I am giving it to my good friend's daughter instead as she expects her first baby.  For the toddler and her older sister, both of whom will be adopted together - yay! - I'm going to make something bigger, maybe quilts with their names on them.  We'll see.

And now that I'm not spending every evening reading essays and writing recommendation letters, I think I'm going to knit and watch an episode of something on Netflix.  Aaahhh, November!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

New Life

There's a new baby soon to arrive in the life of one of my friends, so we all know what that means?  Time to make a baby quilt!  But time is scarce these days - in the world of college advising, we generally call October Suck-tober because it is such a grind of writing recommendation letters, proofreading essays, and generally just hand-holding our seniors through a stressful time.  So instead of starting from scratch, I went digging through my UFOs.

When I came across the color words made from 1.5" squares that I started back in August 2010 (how embarrassing to have a UFO that old!), I decided that one more color word, Purple,

would round out a rainbow of words.  Since some words are shorter than others, I'm making some wonky stars with four-patch centers to fill space. 

This should go together rather quickly, I think. 

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

Can you tell I love COLOR??

I'm attempting Aunt Marti's 2016 UFO Challenge, finishing one UFO per month.  For me, finishing is getting it to the "flimsy/ready to be quilted" stage.  I managed a finish in January, but I'm really sweating about February.  She picked #9 as the one we finish, and for me, that is my color quilt that I started (and then stalled out on) back in 2010.

I figure I have at least 4 more colors to add - orange, purple, black and brown (and possibly gray) - and then all the setting and whatnot.  This quilt started because my 1.5" precut bin was overflowing.  I have since moved to a larger bin and it is, yet again, overflowing.  Might as well chip away at it.

Yesterday, I added ORANGE to the pile of completed colors.  Wish me luck getting these other colors done in time.  You may notice that I already did the short colors (red, blue, pink).  Sigh.

I will admit to being a tad bit distracted from sewing by my latest knitting project, a simple project called the Lollipop Shawl by Frankie Brown.  I got a new sport weight sock yarn in the shop whose color way reminded me of the sample in the pattern, and I couldn't wait to cast on and give it a try.  It is simple, garter stitch with a stockinette ruffle at the bottom edge.

I'm linking up with Beth's Monday Making at Love, Laugh, Quilt and Cynthia's Oh Scrap!

Happy Monday!

Erin

Checklist

As I prepare to leave for this trip to Latin America, I keep noticing little ways in which my little guys are growing up, and I fret about what I will miss while I am gone. Donald seems to incorporate more and more sophisticated words in his vocabulary every day - he doesn't sound like a little kid anymore. And he has moved into his own room and has been busily setting about making it his own space. Jason is running for Student Council Secretary (because 3rd graders can't run for President) and spent last night working on his campaign speech. This weekend he is headed to New York City with his grandmom to do A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM at the Natural History Museum. I hate to miss any of this!

However, duty calls. (For all of you misguided folks who thought this was a pleasure trip - NOPE! I'll be working or traveling every day, including Saturday and Sunday. I'll try include some fun stuff in there to share with all of you - and to get my mind off the fact that I am working every darned day!)

I need lists to keep me on task as I prepare for this trip abroad (my plane leaves in 4 hours). Unfortunately, the list shows me how much I have yet to do. The truth is, some of it just isn't going to get done!

Prepare some Dresden Plate blocks to applique onto backgrounds on this trip - check!

Finish another color word - YELLOW (W really threw me for a loop!) - check!

Stock up on books and PlayAway audio books for this trip - check!

Catch up on laundry and recycling so my family doesn't have to deal with it in my absence - check!

Help the kids clean their rooms so their Daddy won't throw away all their toys while I am gone - check!

Clean the fish bowl - check!

Prepare presentation for Friday's conference in Mexico City - nope

Edit scholarship market letters for this year that were supposed to have been mailed already - nope

Make travel arrangements for prospective students to visit campus next month - nope

Finish project for Board of Trustees meeting later this month - nope

Pack for this trip - other than my quilting and reading materials, nope

I'd better get cracking! (You can kinda see where my priorities lie, though, can't you?) Next time you hear from me, I'll be somewhere exotic...stay tuned! And be sure to leave a comment on my last post by midnight EST tonight if you want to be entered in the giveaway for a mystery gift from my travels.

Re-discovery!

I had a list for myself today.

• Bake banana bread with those bananas that are starting to attract fruit flies
• Read a book on the porch with a cup of coffee and a yummy snack
• Sweep all the floors to see how many dust puppies we can make with all the hair my dog has shed since the last time I swept
• Mop the floors to see what color they truly are
• Wash clothes since the sun is shining and the @$*!#@% dryer is on the fritz again
• Watch some TV or a movie
• Make some progress on my great-grandmother's quilt

I did everything except watch TV. Six out of seven isn't bad, now, is it? I'm feeling pretty darned good about myself!


About the book, it was Rumor of Bones by Beverly Connor, and I really enjoyed it. It is the first of a series about an archaeologist who finds herself solving mysteries, new and old. Apparently there are 5 books in the series, and I'll be going to the library tomorrow to see if they have any more of them. It seems Beverly Connor also has another series of 9 books with another female anthropologist protagonist. I imagine I'll be checking those out eventually, too. I love finding new series to fall in love with!

And while I was on the porch reading, Donald was building a house

and Jason was working on his summer workbook

(Yeah, school starts tomorrow. I TOLD him to work on it a little every day this summer, but did he listen to me? NO! Instead, the last three days have found him poring over this book for HOURS. I feel for him, but I'm not above saying "I told you so!" I did let him eat some of the fresh-from-the-oven banana bread, though.)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my Great-Grandmother's quilt, here's what it looked like in May 2009. The story of this quilt was in my first entry for this blog in June 2009.

It was falling to pieces, with holes big enough to fit my torso through.

Even though much of it was un-useable, I told my mom I would try to resurrect it. So, I've been cutting the pieces down to 2" squares where possible, and putting them back together. Some are solid blocks, some are HST. All are extremely fragile and faded and lightweight and uber-stretchy. I love all the neat fabrics and the concept behind this project, but I ran out of steam a while back, partially because I was making blocks with no idea how to set them together.

Well, today changed all that. I had and idea and tried it out and I LOVE IT! My interest in this project has been renewed! What do you think?

And as you can see on the top of the photo, my next color word is YELLOW. A couple years ago, I realized that yellow is beautiful, a very under-appreciated color. Have you re-discovered a color, one that you once passed by but now can't get enough of?

Nooooo!

Tomorrow (well, today, since I am up after midnight) is the last day of my last summer vacation week. How is this possible? I don't want the fun to end!

I spent my sewing hours the last few days stocking up on some quick gifts. I had planned to make 10 gift card keyrings, but accidentally cut one fabric twice, so I have 11.

My favorite is this green - I may have to keep it for myself.

I also made two crayon rolls, but I have more fabric picked out to make some more. These were a hit last Christmas. Don't you just love the snake fabric?

Both of these are great projects to use up that last little bit of a fabric that isn't really big enough to feature in any other project. I was diligent about cutting any leftover scraps from these fabrics into my scrap squares. Slowly but surely, I am whittling away at my scrap piles.

Those 1.5" squares continue to be fun to work with. Today, I finished GREEN. I would make the G a little differently if I were to do it again, but this works for me, too.

And since I was using black thread, I whipped up another pair of wonky stars.

Tomorrow, I want to do some handwork (sew down the binding of my mini quilt that I machine quilted so I can show you all my maiden efforts) and sew a few more blocks on my Great Grandmother's quilt and visit my mom and watch some TV and read on the porch and nap and whip up another color word (I really want to do YELLOW) and go to the pool with the kids and the list goes on. There's no way I can do everything I want to do on my last day of vacation. What I really need to do is one last load of laundry so I start the week laundry-free and mop my nasty floors. Today, I bought a new mop head, thinking that would motivate me to mop. Nope, didn't work.

Since there is so much I want to do tomorrow, I should go to bed so I can get up early and get started. Make the most of your day, too!

Just another day in paradise

Mother Nature pulled out all the stops and gave us a breathtakingly beautiful weekend! I spent quite a bit of yesterday outside, doing more laundry (did the final wash of my Bright Future quilt - after Show and Tell this weekend, it will be winging its way across the country to a new baby, due in September, so I couldn't resist taking a final photo of it),


checking out the fort the kids built in the woods behind our house,

picking blackberries (what a long, plentiful season this has been!), and going down to the creek with the kids to splash around,

(Water-bending like Aang in The Last Airbender - he was so disappointed when it didn't work)

While inside, I cleaned bathrooms (YUCK!) but only so I wouldn't feel guilty about the time I spent birthing my Christmas Tree Skirt (no more photos until it is done, hopefully by Thursday), sewing together a couple of rows of the ribbon quilt ( I VOW to have the top finished by Show and Tell on Saturday!) and playing with my 1.5" scraps. Yesterday I chose blue.

Judging from my inclination to create the short words first, can you guess what color I'll be working on next?

To round out the evening, I watched my Netflix movie, Up in the Air, while hand quilting, a little on my 4th of July Tablerunner and a little on my Christmas Tree Skirt. A perfect day!

In the red

While in the parking lot at the pool yesterday, Jason lost another tooth - his second in two weeks, and the fourth lost tooth in the family in the last 6 weeks. If they keep losing teeth at this rate, they are going to bankrupt me!

Speaking of being in the red, after we returned home from the pool, I went down to the quilt studio determined to sew together the rows of my ribbon quilt so I could get it off my design wall. But I had just a tiny bit of red thread on a spool on the machine left over from my CD holder project so I decided to sew together some of my red 1.5" squares to use that up before switching spools. Well, I got carried away.

I love making words with these scraps. I'll never make a dent in my stash or my scraps if I keep using such tiny pieces, but this was a fun exercise. The beginnings of a color quilt perhaps...

The ribbon quilt remains on the design wall, untouched.