A day off?

Since we've been working so hard this fall, my gem of a boss gave us all an extra day off to use whenever we wanted during this holiday season. I decided to use mine yesterday.

Oh, the plans I had for myself! And then it snowed. And they closed the schools. So I went from having a blissfully silent day all to myself to having a day with a house full of snow-crazy kids. Oh well. You know what Woodie Allen said, "You want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."

I did get some stuff done.

• I spent an hour hand quilting my GGG quilt. Still lots of stitching to do before that one is done. Can we slow the clock down just a bit before Christmas gets here?


• I started collecting pre-cut 2" strips to sew together as binding for my String Quilt. (see comment above regarding the time left before Christmas)


• I started customizing some long-sleeved onesies for the babies I know. These cute little panels were in a box of scraps I received from Becky (I think it was Becky...) a while ago, and I thought they were perfect. So, they are fused onto the onesies, and now I'm going to go around them with a blanket stitch by hand.
  
  
  (my favorite - I'm so country...)
  
• I am always appalled by how much I spend helping Santa fill stockings every year, so I made some lilac -scented sachets to put in a couple of stockings. I didn't have to cut anything to make these; I just headed to my scrap tins for some pre-cut scrap squares and bonus triangles from other projects. I made 11 total - these 8 are the ones I brought in to work today to give to all the women who work in a support capacity in my office because they are AWESOME people!
  
  
• My custom quilt block frames arrived from Angela (and her husband, Jim), so I put my wallhangings in to see how they looked.

  
  
  FABULOUS, in my humble opinion! I need to straighten them out a bit and trim some of the backing and whatnot, but these are nearly ready to be wrapped up.

• I finally succumbed to my children's pleadings, and we decorated the tree. See my tree skirt down there? LOVE IT! Although it seems a bit to small. Whatever.
  
  
  (How do you take a decent photo of a lit up Christmas tree!?!)
  

I'm so glad that it is Friday. I foresee lots of sewing in my future this weekend, along with a sleepover for 3 of my kids' friends, karate testing (Jason and I receive our advanced Brown Belt tomorrow morning, and Donald will receive his Orange Belt), and, since the snow is still on the ground, some outdoor play. Here's hoping that your weekend is just as productive and fun as I hope mine will be!

I survived!

What DIDN'T we do this weekend!?! First, the parade on Friday night. Of course, it snowed! But we kept warm inside decorating our cars until the very last minute.

Once we were out there, the snow stopped and the kids did a great job moving forward - having a movie to watch helped!

I brought up the rear carrying the banner I made from fabric fused to fabric. I cut the letters free-hand - kind of fun, although some letters (S, N, W) are hard to get right the first time!

Saturday and Sunday were super busy, too (I won't bore you with the details of the 2 basketball games, Santa's workshop, movie, luncheon with our "adopted" international student, grocery shopping, laundry, blah, blah, blah), but I did get some sewing done.

1) All four of my wallhangings are now completed and just waiting to go into frames - photo to come when the frames arrive.
2) I finished all the sashing and cornerstones for my Plaid Dresden and got one row sewn together (I know, the photo looks the same as last time, but I promise you, there are more sewn seams this time!)

3) My latest Leaders & Enders project has been to make scrappy log cabin blocks from my scrap bag using 2" strips. Here's what I have so far, all in various stages of completion, and none completely done.

4) I did all the prep work for a project I am working on for my niece for Christmas. I've never made clothing before, but I'm trying out a skirt. We'll see...

Today is bright, but frigid, and I really just want to be on the couch quilting and sipping tea, but you know how it goes. Instead, I will embrace my full life and the excitement that each new day brings!

Rear view

Not much sewing happened at my house last night. First of all, there was basketball practice for Jason, and second of all, I am in charge of the Cub Scouts for the Christmas parade this Friday night. We are partnering with Hull's Drive In (whose Board I was recently elected onto, so this knocks out two organizational responsibilities at once), and Orrison's Tree Service, a business owned by the father of one of the cub scouts in our den. Here's the deal:

Some Cub Scouts will lead the way with our Pack banners and flags. Then comes the Tree Service truck, on the back of which will be a movie screen and projector (and generator) showing a Christmas movie (Charlie Brown, I believe). Then come the Cub Scouts, in cardboard cars, eating popcorn and watching the movie. And bringing up the rear, a Hull's Drive In banner which reads "Follow Us to Hull's Drive In."

The good news is that it is the first time I've been excited about the Christmas parade. The bad news is that I'm in charge of making the cardboard cars. I made my prototype last night (and of course forgot to take a photo), and now I have only 13 more to make by Friday. Ha! At least I don't have to decorate them - that will be the kids' responsibility while we are lining up for the parade on Friday.

But on a sewing front, I have finished 3 of the 4 twelve inch blocks to be framed. (yup, another goal not met; it seems to be starting to be a habit!) I don't really want to show the fronts until I have them framed and ready to go, but here are the backs. First, my favorite so far, probably because there is so much stitching to see:

In comparison, this one seems to need something more, don't you think?

This one, too. Hmmm, if I find myself with a little extra time before they get wrapped, I might just put a few more stitches in.

That's it! Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Who inspires you?

Lately, I've been getting lots of inspiration from Beth at Love Laugh Quilt. Thanks again, Em, for pointing me her way. First, there were the house blocks for her Friendly Neighborhood. Then yesterday, as I contemplated how to make my final 12.5" block out of my GGG fabrics, I remembered a Spiral Log Cabin I had seen on her blog. Perfect! So, now all four of my 12.5" blocks are ready for quilting. I sandwiched and basted these three last night so I will have some hand work to take with me to my mother-in-law's house for Thanksgiving.

My goal (here I go again with the goals!) is to have them quilted by the time I get home on Friday night. Angela tells me that the custom frames are nearly ready for shipment, so hopefully I can put the blocks in them next weekend and then they are done and ready for gifting.

I've been making good progress quilting the GGG quilt. I'm sad to leave it behind for 4 days, but next weekend, I'd love to just sit and quilt on it for hours.

My goal is to have it quilting by December 1, so I can start quilting another project - Donald's quilt. I made some progress sewing his borders together last night, and putting his whole top together shouldn't take more than a couple of hours more.

And finally, there was squishy mail waiting for me when I got home yesterday! I showed you most of the end-of-bolt fabrics I bought from Above All Fabrics - here are the three for which I couldn't find a photo. Aren't they yummy!

I'm so proud of myself for buying some COLOR! I'm gonna have to make something for ME; I'm thinking maybe a Mug Rug since I do enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. Which reminds me, I am cold and my coffee cup is empty - time to get my daily dose of hot caffeine.

Big plans, little progress

Well, it is decided! I will make small framed wallhangings. Thanks for your feedback everyone! The first wallhanging is currently being quilted; so far, just in the ditch around the print diamonds.

I just finished piecing the second this afternoon.

Now I need to come up with two more 12" blocks for the last two wallhangings. I already ordered custom frames from Angela (well, actually from her husband, Jim) at Country Scrap Quilts. I've bought two quilt block frames from them before and I love them!

This time, I asked that they just be frames, no shelf or knobs.

I didn't get much sewing done today because once we got home, I was interviewed for my high school's alumni newsletter over the phone for nearly an hour. I was so honored to be asked, and I really enjoyed reminiscing about high school and my adult life up until now, my dreams, my hobbies, my family. Then, I helped Donald with his homework and put a ton of fabric in the wash (seriously, a ton - I can't believe how much new fabric I had, both purchases and winnings, that I hadn't washed yet! Inforgivable!), and then it was off to Jason's basketball practice and then a Board Meeting. Lots of possible sewing time taken up with other things, but at least they were all worthwhile pursuits.

So, even though it was in my plan for myself today, I didn't cut into the Boys Will Be Boys fabric yet, but I did find a photo of a quilt that I think I'd like to recreate in these fabrics, and sketched out a plan for myself - block size, cutting instructions, how many of each I need.

This may be the most pre-planning I have ever done for a quilt! Tomorrow, after work and school but before karate and a cub scout meeting, I vow to start cutting. This is yet another project that I'd love to have done before Christmas. We shall see...

Now it is off to bed. One of these days, I'm going to catch up on everyone's blogs, but lately, I've been feeling the need to get a full 7 or 8 hours of sleep every night. If I'm craving sleep, it must mean that I need it. Sweet dreams, blogland!