California bound!

You guys sure are good at making someone feel better - thanks!  My kids are good at it, too - Thank God for them!  On the way to the bus stop yesterday morning, they were singing Travis Tritt's "It's a Great Day To Be Alive" song at the top of their lungs.  How can I feel blue when I'm being serenaded by such cuties with such a wonderful message?

I'm leaving for the airport as soon as I log out - headed to California to present at a conference and college fair at Stanford.  I'll get the chance to reconnect with one of my college roommates tonight just outside San Francisco - yay!  I hate that we live a continent apart, but we actually see each other about twice per year, which isn't bad.

But I have long flights ahead of me.  I always envy the people with the neck pillows, but I'm too cheap to buy one.  Today, I took matters into my own hands and made one. 

I've been wearing it around the house all morning.  So far, it is pretty darned comfortable!  I think I want to make a patchwork one next...

I also sandwiched the Good Fortune Lil Twister quilt with this fun fabric - I had exactly enough, which to me was a sign that this was the right one and to stop pulling out everything in my stash to audition:

I'm taking it with me and praying that airport security doesn't take my safety pins and quilting needles.  Even though the baby isn't due until July, I found out yesterday that the baby shower is the first weekend in June.  Gotta get crackin"!  And just in case TSA robs me again, I have 4 books and my toothbrush needle and rag rug materials to work on, too.  By golly, I'm going to get SOMETHING done while I fly the friendly skies.

Have a great weekend, and to all you mothers out there - YOU ROCK!

Feeling blue

I'm feeling a bit blue today.  It is probably partially the weather - the sun has only been out for about 3 hours total in the last 5 days.  But it is also partially all the BAD that happens in the world.  You already know about my young, new dad co-worker who was diagnosed with ALS.  I wish they would hurry up and find a cure because he's a great guy, and his family needs him.  I support him as much as I can at work and through his website, but I wish there were more I could do.

Then, two weeks ago or so, there was that drive-by shooting in Seattle.  That shouldn't affect me much living in Virginia, right?  Wrong.  The girl who was killed was the girlfriend of my uncle's girlfriend's son, a family that has been in my life for over a decade.  So while I didn't know Nicole Westbrook, I'm really hurting for her boyfriend who held her as she died, and his mom who just wants to take the pain away for her son, and my uncle, who is surrounded by grieving people.  To say nothing of Nicole Westbrook's family.



Then, last night, my husband told me that the younger brother of one of his former players has leukemia.  This is a kid I saw regularly for 4 years, a kid named Zippy whose zest for life matches his name, a kid whose adult life hasn't even begun yet.  Again, I wish I could help, but what can I do?  I can donate money, and I can make a quilt, so that is what I started last night.  I'm hoping to make something like this Fading Charms Quilt, but with larger squares so I can get it together faster.  We'll see.

On a happier note, I did finish putting the borders on my Good Fortune Lil Twister quilt last night AND I straightened up my sewing room a bit so that it doesn't so much look like a real twister hit it.

Anyone know a good joke to cheer me up?

Winning attitude

I've had to check my attitude a bit this past week.  Things haven't quite gone according to plan.  But I'm proud of myself for seeking and latching onto that ever-present silver lining.

First, lots of great ideas for names for the Charm Quilt.  The Random Number Generator selected commenter #11, Colorslut, as the winner of the 25 Charm Squares from me, which will be going out in the mail soon.

But before the name could be decided, there was a minor incident.  You see, my washer is on the blink again, so I brought the quilt to town with me to wash at the laundrymat along with the rest of my laundry.  I thought I'd be fine since I always pre-wash my fabrics, but I brought a couple of Shout Color Catchers to throw in, just in case.  Of course, I forgot that not all the  Charm Squares came from my stash, so some of them were from fabric that had never been washed.  And wouldn't you know it, some of the fabrics ran.  Not a lot, just enough to annoy me, and here I was, at a laundrymat half an hour from my home and a tight schedule and no extra color catchers, etc.  I had no choice but to take the quilt home with me.

I did a quick search online before leaving town, though, to see if there was something I should buy and soak the quilt in to fix the problem before drying the quilt.  Someone mentioned RIT Color Remover.  OK, I know where to find that, so I picked it up on my way home.  I put the quilt in some water to soak with this Color Remover, sure that soon my quilt would be back to its former glory and all clean and crinkly to boot.

WRONG!

Here's the before picture:

Here's the after picture:

I didn't cry.  I didn't cuss.  I didn't vomit, even though I felt a bit ill when I saw just how many COLORS had been REMOVED from my newly completed quilt and how unevenly they were removed.  Instead, I reassured myself that at least now, I would get to keep a quilt that I had made, since there was no way I was going to give something this UGLY to someone else.  My hubby made a great point - that it could be my home theater cuddle quilt since it is so dark down there that no one would be able to see it.  Now, I'm just kinda wishing I had ruined a larger quilt...but not really.

So now, I'm having no problems coming up with names for this puppy...

All Washed Up

 Faded Dreams

 Butt Ugly

I could go on and on...

Live and learn, right?  Any of you have some TRIED AND TRUE methods to share with me to get just a tiny bit of color running out of a quilt top without going all Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor from Home Improvement on it like I did?

The week wasn't all ugly.  I took Friday off to attend the first day of our annual Guild Quilt Retreat.  My checkboard flimsy

turned into this:

I was surprised at how quickly it went together, but also at how much the top shrank down.  What started out at 40.5" x 36" is now 22" X 25".  There was quite a bit of leftover fabric that COULD have been waste, but not for this Bonnie Hunter protoge!  I cut down what I could to make a pieced border (which I hope to get on there tonight), and the rest went into my 1.5" squares tin.  And being famous for being a scrap collector, many of my fellow retreat-ers gave me their leftovers as well.  I was able to add lots of variety to my 1.5", 2" and 2.5" squares tins.  And I'm happy to say I got it all trimmed up while I was there, so no scraps that still needed cutting came home with me.

Saturday was another "look for the silver lining" day.  I was invited to be a vendor and demonstrator at the Old Middlebrook Village Day in a nearby town.  It is an old-timey event with live music, food, and crafters.  I went last year, too, and it was lots of fun for not just me, but my kids, too.  Wouldn't you know it - it rained ALL DAY LONG!  A few hardy souls came out, but mostly it was just us vendors huddling under our tents, trying to stay warm and dry.  I'm so glad I was a hand-quilting demonstrator - not only did my quilt keep me warm throughout the day, but I also was able to make some progress quilting my Pick and Choose quilt.  Plus, I did sell a couple of things, enough to buy the kids and myself lunch and make a couple purchases from other vendors.  So, I spent a day sewing while my children cavorted about having a ball, and I made enough to break even on the day.  That's not all bad, right?

I will say that yesterday I did nothing except eat, nap and read.  After all the disappointment of the week, I needed some time to recharge my batteries so I could come to work with a winning attitude today.

Gimme a D!

D!

Gimme an O!

O!

Gimme an N!

N!

Gimme an E!

E!

What's that spell???

DONE!

Completed charm quilt - lap/baby size - 42.5"x47.5"

It needs a name besides Charm Quilt.  Got any ideas?  Leave a name suggestion in a comment and I'll draw a random winner on Sunday, May 6 to receive twenty-five different 5" charm squares from me, either all in one color family or assorted, your choice.  I used 60 different ones in this quilt, and I have MANY MORE where they came from.

Aaahhhh!  It feels so good to FINISH something!

(And yes, I was a cheerleader in the 80s.  And a spelling bee champ.)

April Bee Block and balance

It is easy making a pretty block when you start with pretty fabrics.  This block will go out in tomorrow's mail to Melinda in our Let's Bee Together quilt bee.

April Bee Block for Let's Bee Together

What isn't easy is finding balance between actual quilting and blogging.  I get so much inspiration and sense of community from blogging, but once I get online, I find it hard to get off again to actually sew!  How do YOU find the right balance?  Do you time yourself?  Only get online at certain times of day? I'm open to suggestions.

Auction and Etsy

There was a local auction today.  I missed most of it because I had to work all morning, but I did manage to get there for the last hour or so.  I had my kids and one of their friends with me, and I left them on the playground outside while I went in to see what was left.  I saw a box of linens (man, am I ever predictable!), so I got a number and took a seat.  It didn't take long for that lot to come up, and I won the bid.  All the vintage sheets quilts out there have me wanting to make one for myself, and there were 3 good sheets in there to add to my growing stash of sheets

along with some more pillowcases crying out to be made into shopping totes or aprons or something.

The rest of the linens didn't excite me, so they were dropped off at Goodwill on the way home.  Along with my other purchase...

When my kids came in to the auction room from outside, I waved at them so they would come over to me, forgetting at that instant where I was.  "SOLD!  To number...ma'am?  What's your number?"

CRAP!  In waving to my kids, I accidentally bought something!  Luckily, "my bid" was only $5.  It turns out, I bought a box of records.  Lovely.  I don't even have a record player.  Straight to Goodwill they went.

I also bought two old chairs with seats that are falling apart.  You know those chairs where the seat is made with neckties?

Why is this sideways??? Image borrowed from http://luciav.tripod.com/robyn/chairsforsale2.htm

I want to try that.  So I bought these two sad looking chairs.  Let this serve as the BEFORE picture.  Hopefully there will be an AFTER picture one of these days, although I know better than to give myself a goal completion date which I will fail to meet and then feel like a slacker loser.

So that's the auction - on to Etsy.  Some of my upcycled aprons have been selling, so I made some more to post.  First, why should the kids have all the fun with the denim aprons?  I made an adult sized one, but instead of making all that binding for the edges, I sewed one long 138" tie, fed it through channels sewn up each side of the torso, and then pinked the rest of the edges for a ragged edge look.  Two roomy, denim lined pockets made from the same pillowcase from which I made the ties, and I was done.  I love it!  Definitely gonna make more like this!

And that orange pillowcase still had more to give, so I paired it with a big floral pillowcase and made yet another half apron.  I was sure to make the pocket big enough to be functional this time, instead of just decorative.  I love orange - it makes me happy!

Enough with the little projects - I want to finish a quilt!  Time to pick up the needle and find a good movie on TV.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, y'all!

So stinkin' cute!

Remember the child-sized denim apron I made a while back?

My sister wanted it for her son, one of the cutest creatures on God's Green Earth.

But the apron is sized for kiddos about 8 - 12 years old, and he's just about to turn two.  You know what I had to do, right?  Make a toddler-sized one!

I thought I loved the first apron, but this one is my new favorite - it's just so stinkin' cute!  Stripes are FUN!

I'm sending it off tomorrow - hopefully I'll have a photo of him wearing it to share in the next week or so.

My leaders and enders work for this project was two of these blocks.

That brings my total of these blocks up to 17.  Sounds good, until you realize they are made with 1.5" squares and measure a mere 6" finished.  Gonna take many more than 17 blocks to make a serviceable quilt.

That's it for today.  I'm not going to mention the 294.75 hours I put in at work over the last three days...

I'd say "Thank God it is almost the weekend," but I have to work on Saturday, too. 

Boo hiss.