2 stars, 1 star

I finished two more stars for Jason's karate quilt - 5 down, 5 to go.

I also finished reading True Love Quilting Club by Lori Wilde. I got the book through Paperback Swap, which I just joined last week. I'm still trying to expand my quilt fiction library. I should have not bothered with this book, though. I was so disappointed. First of all, it could have been 1/3 as long - it was one of those books where it seems like the author tells you the same thing 2 or 3 times as a general rule, and not even in a different way. Makes me wonder if the author thinks the reader is an idiot. Add to that the fact that the characters weren't particularly well developed and that it was as predictable as night following day, and I was sorry to have ordered it. But my disappointment was compounded by the (what I saw as) gratuitous sex in the book. Lots and lots of it. I can deal with the romance, but I can do without the "throbbing member". Oh well, live and learn.

Emilie Richards, Jennifer Chiaverini, Earlene Fowler, Marie Bostwick, Lizbie Brown, Sandra Dallas, Terri Thayer, Clare O'Donohue and Arlene Sachitano - I implore you, PLEASE churn out some more books so I can have some enjoyable quilt fiction to read!

No middle ground

For some reason, I seem to always either be in over-drive, running from one activity to another with no time to sit still, or I'm as lazy as they come, getting nothing done. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. That's how last week was.

BUSY!!! - Monday, even though I was home sick, I ended up having to go to Cub Scouts that evening because my co-leader had a confirmed case of strep throat and someone needed to be in charge, especially since we had a special guest, an astronomer from the university to teach us all kinds of wonderful things for our Astronomy Belt Loop and Pin. I made it through the evening, and actually felt well enough for work on

BUSY!!! - Tuesday, which is good because I had to run a Phone-a-thon to scholarship winners that evening until 10 PM - LONG day!

BUSY!!! - No rest on Wednesday because we had to go to karate. Our Pre-black belt class is NO JOKE - they have never worked us so hard in the two years we've been going there. They have definitely turned it up a notch or two for us.

LAZY!!! - Then Thursday hit, and I couldn't find the energy to do ANYTHING after work. I grabbed Donald's quilt and worked on his binding a bit while watching the beginning of Season 2 of MONARCH OF THE GLEN in our theater room; eventually, it was just me watching with his quilt on my lap - not much progress.

LAZY!!! - Friday was much of the same - I came home and read until bedtime, with a brief break for dinner.

BUSY!!! - Then Saturday, it was back to the other extreme - I woke up and was off and running

1) filed my taxes

2) errands in town - bank, library, etc

3) went to an auction for about an hour - I LOVE auctions! No good finds this time. There were some quilts, but nothing I just had to have.

4) karate class

5) planetarium with the cub scouts

6) bowling with the cub scouts

7) took Jason and Donald to get their ears pierced (they had a personal hygiene challenge to overcome before I would let them do this - a month straight of showers EVERY DAY. They made it seem easy, and now my reluctant bather is wanting 1/2 hour showers every night - I've created a monster!)

8) volunteering at the Drive In Movies

Whew! Up before 6 AM and not in bed until 1:30 AM! I thought maybe I'd sleep in on Sunday, but nope. But Sunday there was finally a little bit of balance - a little bit of housework, but also some time on the porch with a quilt and a book, and some time sewing a bit on Jason's quilt -

no design yet, but I keep making different elements to throw in there and eventually I'm sure it will come together.

Today after work, I was determined to blog (thanks to those of you who've been checking in on me!) and maybe sew a star or two, but then I'm taking the kids to the skatepark before karate class because it is a BEAUTIFUL day! I hope it is beautiful in your part of the world, too!

Home sick :(

My throat is killing me and my head is pounding. I stayed home today to try to get well, but so far, I'm not having much success. I may need to head to the doctor in the morning to see if I have strep throat since everyone else seems to have it.

Here's a photo of my mini karate quilt that I made for my karate instructor for his birthday.

And on Sunday, when I wasn't feeling so miserable, I finished the top that I made with the the stencil looking panels - it finishes about 51" square (although it sure doesn't look square, does it - funny how fabric placement can make a piece look bigger or smaller or longer or wider than it actually is).

After working with just 3 fabrics, I had to pull out some scraps to stimulate my mind, so I worked on my Virginia Bound a bit more. I think I'll leave this up on my design wall for a while; I've been working on this quilt off and on for quite some time and I'd like to make significant progress.

OK, that's it, back to bed for me.

Indomitable Spirit

If you read yesterday's post, you know I was feeling pretty low. Not so anymore.

First, I showed up at the karate test early and someone had found and brought my top. Yay! I'll still have to do 50 pushups at class next week, but at least all my hard work was going to pay off. The test itself wasn't perfect. I fell down doing a spinning hook kick, a kick I have done thousands of times. I sat in shock for a moment, but then jumped back up and got going again. I got kicked by the girl next to me. Ouch! I have a bruise, but I asked the instructor if we could spread out a bit, and we kept going. During knife defenses, I completely forgot one of them. My partner was gracious and told me what to do and we completed it successfully the next two times through. At board breaking time, I cleared my earlier mishaps from my mind and kicked through that thing like it was nothing - I knew I could. Triumph! Then, at the end, when we received our pre-black belts and were listening to our instructor ramble a bit before dismissing us, he told us that the theme for the Pre-Black Belt class is INDOMITABLE SPIRIT. It was like a light went on in my heart. THAT was what was lacking in me lately. Life has been hectic and stressful with a couple disappointments lately, sure, but I can't affect what happens TO me, I can only affect how I RESPOND. And I should be responding with an INDOMITABLE SPIRIT. No more loser posts, guys; I've got a new mantra!

The day just got better from there. I swung by the restaurant, and they had found my camera. Yay! I feel the need to go sew something so I can take photos! If nothing else, I can't wait for the karate studio to open back up next week so I can take a photo of the quilt I made for Master Clements.

I took the kids to the community (indoor) pool because they were have a free family fun swim for two hours. We were there for - you guessed it - two hours! Then, since it is the end of the month and I only get paid once a month and I am broker than broke, I took the kids to a restaurant in town where I had a gift certificate. We did a great job of not spending more than the gift certificate, but when we got to the register, we found out that the gift certificate was for the sister restaurant in another town. Oops! But with my indomitable spirit attitude, I told the kids we were going to be able to eat out again soon! Then off to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities, again with a gift card that I had been carrying around for a rainy day. We had fun trying to spend exactly that amount of money, and managed to just go over by 2 cents, but everyone has 2 cents in the bottom of their purse, right? Then, it was off to the drive-in movies, where I was volunteering so we could all watch both the movies for free, plus get free popcorn. If only I had gone to the right restaurant, we'd have had an entire afternoon and evening of free food and entertainment, but as it stands we did all that only spending $11.

I'm not always so poor at the end of the month, but not only did we have our huge twice annual heating bill due this month, but we also bought the home theater seating. Check it out! (and yes, I know that we STILL haven't painted down there, but I think having the furniture there will inspire me to get going on that project.)

The kids were the first to try it out. I'm pretty sure the delivery truck was still in our driveway when I took these photos.

I still haven't watched anything down there, but I have tried out 4 of the six chairs and they are COMFY! I'm gonna have to start watching more TV and movies just so I can sit down there! In fact, that's where I will likely spend a chunk of time today when I am not sewing and cleaning house a bit. Have a great Sunday, all!

Loser

I am a loser. Literally. I lose things. Here's the latest...

Last night, we had a surprise birthday party for my karate teacher. His birthday is actually March 30, so I thought I had more time to make his gift, and I procrastinated. Then, word of the surprise party came along, and I had to get my butt in gear. I wanted to print a sillouette of a side kick from the computer, applique it onto a background, border it with the colors of the different belt levels, quilt in some of the key words like "Honor" and "Respect", making a small wallhanging for the dojo. Wednesday night I finally decided to get started, but my printer wouldn't print so I had to wait another day until my (wonderful) husband got that working again. So, on Thursday night at 8:30 PM, I finally started working on his gift to give him Friday night at 6:00 PM. Luckily, I had the day off from work on Friday, so I should be able to get it done.

Things were going swimmingly and I was digging how things were looking. I got everything I needed done on the machine done by about 11 PM on Thursday. I had fused on the sillouette, but I wanted to blanket stitch around it to ensure that it stayed on. By hand. Of course, I don't do this very often, so I had forgotten HOW to blanket stitch. I went looking for my handy-dandy printed out guide to various hand stitches that I printed out last time I was doing blanket stitch. Hmmm, now where did I put that? LOST. I finally gave up and looked up Blanket Stitch on my Blackberry (which I guess I should have done initially) and at 11:30 PM, I was ready to begin. I turned on the TV to watch a movie while I did it. Big mistake - I watched something I've never seen before, which means I worked more slowly that I would have liked because I was watching TV more than anything else. I remembered that I hadn't eaten dinner yet. (Did I feed the kids? Sure hope so, 'cause they are already in bed. I think, unless I misplaced them, too. Take a quick trip upstairs to check on them - fast asleep and not looking malnourished. Back downstairs to cut some cheese to eat with some crackers while I watch the end of this movie. What!?! The end of the movie? But I'm not done sewing yet!)

At 2:45 AM, I stagger off to bed, loving the look of the appliqued piece, but that could be because I'm cross-eyed from lack of sleep.

My darling Donald slept in until 8 AM (meanwhile, I had to wake Jason up at 10 AM - I swear there is a teenager trapped in that 8-year-old body). The quilt top still looked good in the morning light, so I went down to sandwich it and get started with the hand quilting. I had other things to do that day - pop in to work for a few minutes to finalize some letters to scholarship winners and non-winners, take the kids and dog for a walk on the Chessie Trail, prepare the movie theater for furniture delivery, wash our karate uniforms to be ready for our Pre-Black Belt test later this morning. But at 5:30 PM, the quilting was done, and I had sewn on both a label and a sleeve. I had to abandon some of my quilting plans because of time restraints, but I still really like the way the little quilt (approx 12.5"x14.5") turned out. I wrapped it in wrapping paper, and we were off and arrived ON TIME. I grabbed my gift and my camera, and we went in.

Here's where the details get a bit fuzzy. There were tons of people in the restaurant (I feel for the few people who WEREN'T there for the birthday party because there was a large, loud lot of us) and getting a table was tricky and after he arrived I still had his gift to give him, but my camera was nowhere in sight. I went back out to the car. Nope, not there. I looked around at our table; nope, not there. In my brain, I just assumed I had left it home, and I asked someone else to take a photo of the little quilt for me. Hopefully, she'll get the photo to me sooner rather than later. I hate having a whole post about a project, start to finish, but having no photo so show for it! (and before you ask, because EVERYONE does - no, I do not have a camera on my phone. I am the only person on EARTH apparently, who does not have a camera on her phone)

I went home and tore the house apart looking for the camera, but no luck. I called the restaurant twice, but again, no luck. I have no idea where that stinking camera is! Hopefully, if someone finds it, they will recognize my kids and get it back to me (the benefits of living in a small town and having beautiful, outgoing children).

Already feeling down about the camera, I got the clothes out of the dryer to lay out our uniforms for the karate test this morning. Everything is there except my top. I take everything out of our karate bags, I scour the car, I do the rest of the laundry in the house thinking maybe I mixed it up with another load. Nada. I can't test today without my uniform top, so I called all three instructors and left messages, even though it is 9:30 at night and I don't like to call anyone that late. Nada. But if I come early in the AM, maybe it will have turned up or they'll have a loaner for me. Either way, however, I know I have 50 pushups ahead of me - if you leave any piece of your uniform or equipment at the dojo, it is 50 pushups per piece.

I went to bed feeling like a loser, and woke up feeling the same way. I'm hopeful that writing about my boneheaded-ness will make me feel better about myself. In the grand scheme of things, these aren't big problems, I know.

But I'm also starting to wonder - this is the second instance in only 7 days of me not having a shirt. Perhaps there are some latent, exhibitionist tendencies stirring to life in my (exposed) chest...

May your days be better than mine have been lately!

My tiny contribution for Japan

I had to hem my son's karate pants before our Pre-Black Belt test this coming Saturday. Hemming - ICK! I was avoiding the sewing room so I wouldn't have to do it. But then I saw that Beth is collecting blocks to make a quilt (or two? or three?) to send to Japan. That got me down into the sewing room in a jiffy. I've been a bit paralysed by the enormity of the troubles in Japan, and feeling a bit helpless to do anything about it besides send money. But a quilt block, that I can manage. Especially since it is a scrappy one that can be made from units that I already have pre-cut in my scrap tins. In no time at all, I had made FOUR blocks to send.

I wonder how she's going to lay them out - perhaps like this?

Thanks, Beth, for mobilizing me into some sort of action, no matter how small.

And check out what was in the mail for me when I got home:

Thank you, Nancy, for the lovely apron and the books. My friends are the greatest! I made a new chicken curry recipe last night with mango and raisins (pretty adventurouse for me) while wearing that apron and SUCCESS - NO LEFTOVERS! Even my 5-year-old ate some! It must have been the apron!

(Oh, and I DID hem the pants. Yay, me!)

Weekend project

If you have had a chance to read my last post, you know that I was in desperate need for 1) some down time and 2) some successes, no matter how small. What better way to get both than through quilting?

On my drive home from West Virginia on Saturday afternoon, I stopped at Tamarack as I always do. I love looking at all the craftsmanship, and since there are so many quilts, getting ideas. I forgot my camera (no big surprise if you remember all the other things I forgot on that trip!), but I did have my handy-dandy little graph paper sketchbook. I jotted down prices and sketches and whatnot as I made my way through the wares.

I came upon a very simple table topper, machine quilted in the ditch, selling for $42. Some of the prices amaze me - I couldn't imagine paying that much for something so simple. But it gave me an idea of something I could make to feature some focus fabric that I had recently acquired.

Rewind to LAST weekend, which I know I never posted about. Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts and the quilt guild meeting took place at the same time. I was loathe to miss either, and found myself racing back and forth several times. Jason's Pinewood Derby car came in last every time, but I told him that 4 was my favorite number (that's how many cars in each race) and that he should be proud. And at the quilt guild meeting, a woman was selling off LOTS of books plus a few other odds and ends. I picked up two panels from her for $1 each, as well as a book, Quilting (Instant Expert) by Jenni Dobson. (Note to publishers: when you make a book spiral bound like this one, I am very likely to buy - I LOVE spiral bound quilting books!!!)

I began with the stencil panels - we finally bought seating for our home theatre (after it is delivered later this week, if I disappear for a while, don't worry - I'll eventually run out of movies that I haven't seen on Netflix and re-emerge) and I figure we need some lap quilts to snuggle up with while we are watching movies. Right now, we share blankets on the (world's ugliest and most uncomfortable) couch that is down there now, but these are 2 rows of 3 reclining leather seats with armrests with drink holders in between. It would be awkward to share a blanket over the armrest, especially if there is a drink up there.

So I began to play with those stenciled panels, setting them in a square and putting them on point, but in my mind's eye, I only saw myself using 8 or 9 of the panels for this small quilt.

I decided to whip up a tabletopper or wall quilt using one of the remaining panels. Sketched, cut, sewn, sandwiched, HAND quilted and bound, all in a day and a half.

I feel so accomplished and rejuvenated! And I like it so much, I may just whip up another one and commit myself to only using 8 panels in the lap quilt.

Of course, if you know me at all, you are probably scratching your head at all the matchy-matchy stuff I'm working on - where are the scraps!?! Never fear, they were my leader/ender project as I played more with my 1.5" scrap squares.

Another home theater lap quilt in the works?