Quick vacation update

I love vacation! I have taken two naps in two days - unheard of! The kids and I had a great time exploring Yale once I had finished what I had to do for work. Here they are on the steps of the Yale Law School, armed with paper airplanes that they charmed out of the security guard.

By the time we were ready to take the train to Massachusetts, they were wiped out.

Staying with my sister and her family is always fun. We took a bike ride (8 of us). How neat to have kids who can begin to do for themselves.

I finished the binding on her quilt on the way here. I am still hand quilting it, though. I also read Shadows in the Night by Janet Babin. I hope she writes more - there wasn't as much quilting as I had hoped, but the story was fun.

Well, gotta run. Literally. My sister is a runner, so I get exercise when I am here. It takes all year to recover from visiting her.

On the road

We hit the road after work yesterday. We spent the night at my mother-in-laws last night. For those of you who followed my old blog, she is looking and feeling MUCH better. I'm so glad I prepared all this handwork to do on this trip. I've been working on securing the scrappy blue binding on the Crumb Cake Stand quilt for my sister, and I like how it is looking. I hope to have it done by the time we get to her house tomorrow afternoon.

Well, the road is calling! I'll check in again at a later stop.

I came to my senses

Yup, I was definitely biting off more than I can chew when I started dreaming about making a lampshade BEFORE I head out on vacation tomorrow. You know all those details that need to be dealt with before a vacation? They were really stressing me out last night. I was snapping at the kids (poor things!), going about my household and motherly duties as if I held a grudge. Finally, my husband, who deserves to be named a saint, told the kids I needed some alone time and took them into another room until bedtime, at which point he put them to bed. Meanwhile, I read. I mean, I have 3 million things to do, and what do I do, but sit there with a book. Are you ever so overwhelmed with a to-do that you can't even get started? That was me last night.

Finally, I said to myself, at least get ONE thing done. The sleeves for my niece's and nephew's quilts should be quick and easy, right?



As usually happens when I begin to sew, I found my groove. From there, I created a sleeve for my Guild challenge quilt from last year.



I sewed on the last binding edge for the quilt I am finishing up for a generous woman that I met in Atlanta this April. She had a quilt that needed just a bit more hand quilting and then binding, and for that she sent me all of her quilting notions, books and fabric since she wasn't going to quilt anymore (WHAT!?!) and wanted to free up space in her house.

I whipped up a scrappy blue binding for my sister's Crumb Cake Stand quilt and sewed it on, so all I have left to do on that quilt is finish the hand quilting and sew the other side of the binding down, all of which can be done by hand. I went to bed feeling pretty good about myself, although I am bleary eyed this morning because I was up until 1:30 AM! Tonight, I just need to was one more load of laundry (I got one done last night), pack for me and the kids, and get Jason's quilt done with him. Then, I can go on vacation with a lighthearted, self-satisfied step!

The quilter's version of cramming!

I leave for a week's vacation this Thursday after work. I'll be traveling first to Yale to attend a program for work, and then on to Amherst, Massachusetts to stay with my twin sister and her family. With all the preparation that goes into taking a trip, that means not much sewing is going to be happening in the next few days. Before I leave, though, I need to make sleeves for my niece's and nephew's baby quilts - my sister wants to hang them on their walls now that they are older. I also need to finish hand quilting her quilt and at least attach the binding and sleeve so I can finish it while I am up there visiting her. I also need to help Jason finish his quilt so that he can enter it in the County Fair. I had hoped to have several finishes done to enter in the fair myself, but I may just have to put my sister's quilt in. I sure am good at starting things - it is the finishes I struggle with.

But perhaps I can tackle just a little project before I go. The kids destroyed a lamp shade in their room. I'm not mad, it is just an opportunity for me to try something I've been wanting to try - making a fabric lamp shade! How about something like this?

(photo from Moda Bake Shop)
It seems quick and easy, especially since I already have so many strips cut. Plus, I could use those tiny bias tapes for the top and bottom edges, right? Hmmm... If I can make the time before Thursday (notice I said make, not FIND), I just may have to give this a try.

While on vacation, my goal is to finish taking apart my grandmother's quilt. I'll bring along a rotary cutter, 6" ruler and my mini foldaway Omnigrid to see if I can get everything ready for sewing it back together when I return.

(do you have one of these? If so, don't you love it!?!)

I miss you, Dad!

I got off work at 1 PM, and rushed home to change clothes and drive over the mountain to have a joint Father's Day celebration and 4th birthday party for my youngest son at my mom's house. I hadn't seen my kids since Thursday, so I was pretty anxious to see them. As I was getting dressed, I pulled out one of my father's old t-shirts to wear. My father died in a car accident on May 28, 2005, three weeks before my youngest son was born. I wasn't ready for him to go - he was only 63 years old, and we were in the midst of reconnecting and getting to know one another again after some challenging years when my parents divorced. At least I had the foresight, through my grief, to ask for his clothing. There wasn't much, but I was able to find two t-shirts, one long sleeved and one short sleeved, that weren't too terribly big on me and that were in decent shape that I kept to wear on days like today. The rest of the t-shirts, I cut apart to make a memory quilt for me and my family.

I completed it a year and a half ago, and presented it to my mother for Christmas - even though they had divorced and both remarried, they remained best of friends. The plan was to allow the quilt to rotate among members of the family - we are so widespread - so that we all have a chance to use it and honor him. It hasn't made it back to me yet, but my turn will come soon. For today, I was happy just to wear his shirt. I couldn't help but laugh when I arrived at my mother's and realized she was unwittingly wearing a pair of his old athletic shorts. His spirit is with us still today, I believe.



Once at my mother's, we had a great time with tacos and cake and ice cream

and presents

and badminton (perhaps the long skirt and floppy hat were a bad idea - I was terrible!).


Seeing my brother on Father's Day, though, is a surreal experience for me. He doesn't really look like my father,

but his mannerisms, his walk, his gestures, his laugh, they are identical. It is like seeing a 30 year old version of my father, and I spent a lot of time today choking back tears. I miss you, Dad. Happy Father's Day!

Stealing time to stitch

Today was the second 13-hour work day in a row for me (yes, it is SATURDAY, and yes, I have to work again TOMORROW!). It hasn't been as bad as I had anticipated. The kids are having a ball spending the weekend at my mom's ("They haven't even asked about you," my mom says. Thanks. I didn't need to know that!), and I have met some really fascinating people. But fascinating people aside, time at work means time that I am not quilting. Luckily, I have found little windows of time today to get some stitching done. First, I had the foresight to bring my hand quilting with me to work. In between sessions, I found a quiet corner to put a few stitches in. Then, after the session I led in the early afternoon but before the reception and dinner, I raced home to check on my dog, put in two loads of laundry, sweep the floors (I had no idea a short haired dog - lab - could shed SO MUCH!), and sew. I got two more Pick and Choose blocks done - I'm up to 20 of the 25 done.

One of these blocks I think is beautiful, the other, hideous. I'm sure you can tell which is which. No matter, once it is set into the quilt, it will work.

With Father's Day and Donald's 4th birthday tomorrow, plus work in the morning, I am sure I won't have a chance to sew tomorrow. Why aren't there more hours in the day?

WIPs and UFOs

To me, there is a difference between Works in Progress (WIPs) and Unfinished Objects (UFOs). For WIPs, I have a plan. They aren't done because I got distracted with the next "must-do!" project, and when I return to them, I know exactly how and where to start up again. For example, I know where I am going with this Bonnie Hunter pattern, Virginia Bound.
I just needed more neutral scraps to continue. Of course, while waiting to get the scraps, I got sidetracked by some other projects, but I WILL go back to this one. Or my Grandmother's Flower Garden.

I mainly work on this during the summers when I am on vacation since it travels well, and I hate to be too far away from a quilting project, even if I am on vacation. Before I continue with this flannel buzz saw quilt, I am waiting for more flannel scraps that someone in the guild has promised me.

So again, there is a plan.

UFOs are different. Since I make most of my quilts from ideas in my head instead of patterns on a page, I often get stuck. I don't necessarily have an idea for the whole quilt before I begin, so I often reach a point where I can't figure out what to do next. Take this UFO for example. Originally, this was to be for my mother.

I wanted to do a medallion on point, then make it square, which I did. Then, I thought it would be fun to put it on point again. OK, but now, I don't know what to do to make it square again. This UFO is about 4 1/2 years in the making. I have since made my mother another quilt, a Delectable Mountains which both she and I love. But what to do with this forgotten stepchild of a quilt?

About 4 years ago, I made this quilt for a friend (she is in the AKA sorority, and their colors are pink and green).

I had some scraps left over, so I started piecing this together.
Yet again, I got to a place where I wasn't sure what to do next. In fact, I had added a white border with 3-dimensional prarie points on each side, but it was just too busy, so I took them off again. Hmmm, what next?

My first completed quilt was a baby quilt for my nephew.
I had a couple of these fussy cut bathing ducks left over, so I made them the centers for these log cabin blocks.

But now what? This has been languishing for quite some time in the UFO pile, too.

There are others, but you get the idea. Does anyone else experience this? Just getting stuck? Of course, one way to avoid this would be to make all my quilts from a pattern, but that just isn't how I operate. Even the quilts I make from patterns are mine in some way, usually with different borders, perhaps with an altered placement. I guess I do this to myself, but it is so frustrating to me to leave something unfinished with no plan to finish it.