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)

Board meeting vs. BORED meeting

I have a Board Meeting once a month for our non-profit community-owned drive-in movies here in town, and I usually have to bring my kids along with me.  They call them BORED meetings, and I can understand why - what 7 year old wants to spend 2 hours discussing the price of buttered popcorn or staffing issues or fundraising ideas?  (although, Jason did suggest one time that we use kids as carhops so people can order from their cars, and we are actually considering it for next season!)

Our meeting space is actually right next door to the (indoors) movie theater in town, so last night, I let them go see The Amazing Spiderman (again!) while I went to my meeting next door.  Boy were they excited, not just to miss the BORED meeting, but also to go to the movies alone! (turns out, one of the city cops that we know was seated behind them, so when they came out of the theater, he let me know that they were perfectly behaved - I couldn't have planned it any better if I had tried!)

I brought my little pink and green scrap quilt to work on at the meeting.  I know some people think it is wrong to sew or knit at a meeting, but truly, it helps me to stay focused on what is going on at the meeting rather than daydream about what else I'd rather be doing.  And I participate MUCH MORE than some Board Members who sit there silently (with nothing in their hands) throughout the entire meeting, so they can't claim I'm not paying attention.

Anyway, I'm really liking this big stitch quilting.  I will definitely give this a try on some other quilts. 

I have some wide open white space, and wasn't sure how to fill that. I was thinking, since it is embroidery floss, perhaps I could try some french knots. LOVE IT!

Hmmm, that one on the bottom right is crooked...I wonder how much that is going to bother me.  Enough to take it out and do it again?  Unlikely!

Superpowers!

With both Spiderman and Batman movies out this summer, I'm not surprised that the boys have resurrected their superhero action figures and are saving the world in the backseat every time we get in the car.  Even adults are in on the act, re-igniting that age-old question, "If you could have any superpower in the world, what would it be?" (what would YOURS be, by the way?)

Have you seen this Amy Bradley applique pattern for SUPERQUILTER?  Following the whole "superhero" theme, someone made one of these and entered it in the fair this year!

I want to say, "the ability to heal others with just a touch," but guys, at my core, I am just more selfish than that.  When asked that very question this past weekend, I responded, "to be able to stop time for everyone except for me.  While everyone else is in suspended animation, I could catch up on my sleep without missing anything important or exciting, finish up projects on time, and come up with witty responses to snarky comments that are made to me - you know, the ones where you wake up in the middle of the night and say, 'Man, I should have said THAT!'."

(sigh) Mother Theresa, I am not.  But I was feeling a lot of self-imposed pressure this weekend.  My Pick and Choose quilt had to be turned in to the fair by Monday at noon if it was to hang in the quilt show.  I've had a quilt in the fair every year for the last 8 years, and I wasn't about to miss this one.  It shouldn't have been a problem, I was close to being done, and had all weekend to work on it.  But then, at the last minute, the boys and I were invited to a karate leadership overnight retreat, complete with ropes course participation, and I couldn't NOT let my kids (and myself) participate just because I'm a procrastinator.  So we went, and I worked on the quilt during the 10 minutes of free time after meals and surreptitiously with my Bean N Read light in the cabin after lights out. (GREAT purchase, by the way.  I even quilted at the drive-in last weekend!)  Then, on Sunday night, I pulled an all-nighter trying to get it done, taking one 2-hour nap, and then a 15 minute nap every hour on the hour from 4 AM on. 

I got SO CLOSE to being done, but not quite.  Another hour and a half would have been enough time, but as it turns out, we came home from our retreat to find that one of our hens, Peck, had died, and I had a very sad little boy to console and a chicken funeral to facilitate. (side note: I live in Rockbridge County.  After digging a grave for Peck, I'll say our county is aptly named - there are rocks EVERYWHERE!)  All that took about 2 hours, but I'd rather have a not-quite-done quilt and a kid who had someone to help him deal with his grief over the passing of his favorite hen, than a completed quilt and a bereft boy.

So, I turned in the not-quite-done quilt.  One block, which is actually at about eye level now that the quilt is hanging, is not as quilted as the other 24 blocks, and the 4 corners of the quilt have no quilting in them at all.  The judge will not like it, but let's be honest, I wasn't going to be winning any awards anyway - we have some uber-talented hand quilters in this area, and I just can't compete.  The whole point of entering a quilt is to 1) make sure I finish at least one quilt a year and 2) promote quilting and our guild throughout the area.  So I think I'll post a challenge on Facebook for my local friends - visit my quilt at the quilt show at the fair, pick out which block is not quite done, and I'll give a handmade little something to everyone who gets it right.  There is more to the county fair than the animals and the music and the midway, after all!

Now that my quilt is entered, did I take a break from quilting?  Heck no!  I had an hour at home yesterday between work and the boys' swim meet, so I sandwiched a little doll/baby quilt that I made 7  years ago from left over strips and bonus triangles from a quilt I made for a friend.

I've been wanting to try my hand at BIG STITCH quilting with embroidery floss.  So there I was at the pool for the second week in a row, QUILTING in the 90+ degree heat.  (yup, I'm that crazy quilt lady in town for sure now!)

I think it is harder to keep the stitch sizes even when they are so big, but so far, I am liking this method of quilting, and am already thinking of other quilts I'd like to do it in. 

Do you have photos online of quilts you have quilted using the BIG STITCH method and embroidery floss?  If so, I'd love it if you'd post a link in a comment so I can see and get ideas.

And once I get to spend some daylight hours at home again (not this week - I can't believe how busy we are this week!), I want to finish up blocks for my Let's Bee Together quilt.  I received blocks from 3 more participants recently, and I LOVE how the quilt is coming along!