Birds, best friends, bindings...

On Friday morning, looking down the barrel of the weekend to come, I was unsure if I had the stamina to make it, but here it is Sunday night, and I am happy to report that I survived.  Adam and Jason went to Atlanta for the Division 3 Men's Basketball Championship (yay, Amherst College, national champs!), so it was just me and Donald at home.  I had to do something to make up for him being left behind with mom, right?

Friday night was stay at home and relax night to rest up for the weekend.  My plan was to sew, sew, sew.  But when I got to my sewing room, my machine didn't work!  The needle wouldn't move, and there was an error message on the screen!

Mind you, my oven has not worked for TWO YEARS and I'm OK with that, but I went into a near panic when I couldn't sew.  I took the machine apart, cleaned and oiled everything, and put it back together again.  I don't know what the problem was, but I got it working again after about two hours.  Whew!  I made two April Block Lotto bird blocks just to be sure.

By then, it was too late to do much else, so I went to bed.

Saturday morning we led the Pledge of Allegiance at the MS Walk with the cub scouts, then walked a couple of miles with the other walkers.  We ran errands, and then I hopped on the highway to travel the 150 miles roundtrip to Donald's best friend's house to pick him up for a sleepover.  They've been friends since the infant room at daycare, so it was rough on both of them when Evan moved away two years ago.  We try to still get them together a couple times a year.  They are so cute together, picking up right where they left off, talking a mile a minute, and never getting into disagreements.  Evan is welcome at my house anytime!

When we got back to town, we went to the First Annual Monacan Round Dance - native american drumming and singing and crafts and regalia - it was cool!  Then, back home for a couple of hours in the spring sunshine before heading out to the Drive-In where I was volunteering for the evening.

Today was not the day of rest I had wanted.  While Evan and Donald played all morning, I packed an enormous box for Goodwill (trying to clean and purge), and then treated myself to sewing on the binding on baby Ella's quilt.  I'm only about a third of the way done sewing the back down, but I hope to finish tomorrow afternoon.  Yay, I might even have something for Show and Tell at this month's Guild Meeting!

I had just enough of this pink to make a binding.  I love using up odd pieces of fabric!

I'd been waiting for the right quilt to use this big busy print as a backing, and this is it!

After Evan went home, it was off to lead a cub scout den meeting.  Today, they earned their Marbles belt loop - I had forgotten how much fun it is to play marbles!  Then a quick visit to a friend who was purging some fabric (I promise, I didn't bring home even a fraction of what I took to Goodwill!), and then dinner with my friend, Michelle, and her family.  We have a standing invitation every two weeks, and I love going because not only is the food always amazing, but it is nice to spend time with another woman who is also surrounded by boys and men, an understanding ally in the friendly battle between estrogen and testoterone.  Today, it was especially wonderful to go because I had to come home and do even more cleaning.  Our house in on the market - since I have given notice at work, we MAY need to downsize.  That saddens me because I love my house and because moving is such a pain, but the house hasn't been this neat since we moved in nine years ago!  Anyway, there's someone coming to look at it tomorrow, so as much as I despise housework, it had to be done.  Right now, I'm exhausted, but happy.  And tomorrow, Adam and Jason will be home again. 

A clean and full house, can't beat that!

Crazy

My co-workers have been besieged with a whole host of illnesses and misfortunes in the past year.  It is frightening and emotionally exhausting and just sad.  But times of trouble also tend to pull people together, and I've witnessed that over the past year, too, all of us pulling together to support one of our own.  The latest is a retired professor who works with us in Admissions part time for part of the year, who just found out that he is riddled with cancer.  From what I understand, he is not going to be pursuing treatment and he is deteriorating quickly.

When he is gone, we will have lost a gem.  He is generous and funny, compassionate and brilliant, creative and dedicated, and one of the easiest people that I've ever had the pleasure to work with.  I want to visit him, but I'm afraid of breaking down in his presence and doing more harm than good.  I want to give him something, but what?  I'm a lousy cook, and besides, my oven STILL doesn't work.  His wife is a gifted and prolific quilter, so he certainly doesn't need a quilt.  Hmmm....

I decided on a quilted card.  Quilting is what I know, what I do in times of stress and trouble.  Perhaps he doesn't need a quilt, but if I can just think of what I want to say, then a quilted card seems to be the best delivery for me.

I got some cardstock and some solid scraps, choose a decorative stitch, and made a crazy quilt block card.  Now, if I can just think of what to say on the inside...

Much easier to write are the Hurricane Sandy Thank You Cards.  More went out in the mail today, and I have nearly finished addressing them all.  Whew!  But so worth it!

Stitches and stamps

My co-worker's baby came 2 months early.  Ella Clare is a cutie with LOTS of hair. Her APGAR scores were great, so the prognosis is good, but she'll be in NICU for a while yet.  I've been wearing my fingers out trying to get her quilt ready to welcome her when she gets home, and I think I'm going to make it.  I bet I have only one or two evenings left of quilting, and I hope to bind it this weekend.  This was such a fun quilt to make - I feel certain I'll be making more with different color schemes.  I love making baby quilts - they come together so quickly! 

I've addressed and about 110 Hurricane Sandy Relief Quilt Thank You postcards - halfway there! 

Running in place

We spent the last few days in Pennsylvania with my mother-in-law.  She is at home and doing OK.  It was good to spend some time with her, chatting while watching her two favorite shows - NCIS and Fraiser.  And by now, I think everyone knows what I do when I watch TV, right?  QUILT!  I worked on the rainbow rail fence quilt for hours upon hours.  With all those straight lines, I figured it needed curves, so I popped it in the hoop and quilted concentric circles using the hoop and the length of my pinkie finger as a guide.

It was a good idea in theory, but my curves just weren't uniform enough for me, so then I spent hours upon hours taking all the stitches out.  Man, I hate that!  But now that I'm back home, I plan to do some freehand baptist fans using one of my half circle rulers as a guide to get me started on each fan.  I love the way baptist fans look, so I'm happy about that, but I'm not happy about starting over - I feel like I've been running in place, doing all that work with nothing to show for it.

But the mail cheered me when I got home.  My hubby says I single-handedly keep the postal service in business.  I'll certainly be keeping them busy this week.  Know what this is?

250 thank you post cards to send out to the folks who helped me out with the Hurricane Sandy Quilt project.  If you are one of them, watch your mailbox for some love from me.

And an update on that project - I have one completed quilt and 5 being long-arm quilted right now, with a couple more still waiting for quilting.  They'll get done eventually, but not until these babies get their quilts.

OK, off to address some postcards.  Happy Easter, everyone!

Bonus!

Why do I always feel like I am disclosing on here what I DIDN'T get done? (sigh)

So, I didn't get the 2nd baby quilt top put together yet, although I did get all the Indian Hatchet blocks pieced.

I REALLY wish I had enough blue/gray fabric for one more block because this is one quilt I think I would really like to be square (8 x 8), but since I used every scrap of that fabric already, it will remain a rectangle (7 x 9).  Or perhaps I make it 7 x 8...or maybe I move the "center" further down...we'll see once I start sewing it together.

And I am forcing myself to sew these blocks together before I tackle this tempting pile of BONUS TRIANGLES!  There is a mini quilt in here just screaming to be made!

Enjoy your weekend, everybody!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

Baby rainbow quilt #1 is pieced and ready for sandwiching and quilting.  However, another pregnant friend was taken to the hospital this weekend, and will likely be staying there until her baby makes an appearance, whether it is 2 days from now or 2 weeks.  I hope it is 2 weeks or more because she is only 32 weeks pregnant and that baby needs more time to develop before coming out to meet us.  But when he/she arrives, I want to be sure there is a quilt waiting.  So before working on rainbow quilt #2 for the other twin (the baby shower isn't until May 11), I started piecing a quilt for this other baby who seems to be in a hurry to get here.

I needed something quick and easy, as well as something scrappy and colorful, preferably something where I can use some of my pre-cut scrap squares.  I absolutely LOVE this quilt by Andie Johnson, so I decided to make something similar.  I've gotta say, though, her scraps are WAY MORE FUN than mine!  Do we all feel that way about other people's scraps?

Here's what I've got so far - blocks aren't sewn together yet.

I have 37 more blocks to make, which will be super quick because I cut all the blue/gray fabric yesterday and the scrap tins are overflowing with pre-cut squares to sew onto the corners.  It will be 7 blocks x 9 blocks, a rectangle, because I could only cut 63 squares out of the yardage I had.  I used Bonnie Hunter's Smokey Mountain Stars tutorial to make the "Indian Hatchet" blocks.  I hope to be able to finish piecing it today and get it sandwiched to hand quilt this weekend.  Even though it is cold outside, the Drive-In is open again for the season, so we'll be there this weekend to see Wreck-It Ralph and Parental Guidance.  Thanks to my handy little hands-free LED light, I can quilt while I watch the movie in the dark.  It doesn't get much better than that!

Inquiring minds want to know

Well, then, I guess Toothbrush Rugs aren't widely known.  Basically, it is a crocheted rag rug made with strips of fabric, but I don't know how to crochet so I use a toothbrush needle.  The toothbrush needle is usually made from plastic, but some people custom make them from wood.

Back during the Depression era, they were made from toothbrushes, which nearly always had a hole at the end of the handle.  The bristle end was cut off and then filed down to a rounded "needle" point.  You tear (or cut, but I think tearing is better because you you eliminate much of the fraying that way, it is quicker, and oh so therapeutic to just RIP!) fabric strips the width of your fabric from selvage to selvage.  I don't know the exact width you are supposed to use, but I tear mine approximately 1.5" wide (but I don't measure).

Here's my first rug on a porch chair before I realized how great it would be under my sewing machine pedal. 

I learned the technique by watching the video at Rag Rug Cafe.  I have fabric that isn't really appropriate for quilting, but that I wanted to use for something.  My first round rug has been under my sewing machine pedal for months now.  I love that it keeps the pedal in place - the pedal used to always scoot around on my wood laminate floor in my sewing studio.  The rugs can be round or oval or hearts or rectangular.  I encourage you to Google "toothbrush rugs" if you want to learn more.

But after all that explanation, I haven't really worked on my rag rug since my last post.Instead, I've been focusing on cranking out some baby quilts.  First up, one of my karate instructors is having twins (girls, they say). For her birthday a couple of years ago, I made her a mini confetti quilt in rainbow colors, so I'm planning to make rainbow quilts for her babies, too.  I started with this rail fence - the blocks are made but not sewn together yet.

Inquiring minds want to know - how do you feel about square quilts?  For some reason, I am more drawn to rectangular quilts, so I am debating adding another row or two.  What do you think?

I plan to make the other twin a quilt in the same colors, but probably a chevron pattern - similar, but not the same, just like twins.  You guys know I'm an identical twin, right?  Twins hold a very special place in my heart!

Oh, and bonus for the rail fence quilt - I made the blocks using my pre-cut 5" charm squares so I wouldn't have to seek out and cut fabric.  I put the two fabrics right-sides together, sewed along two opposite ends, then cut 2" in from each sewn side, giving me two identical sets of 3.5" x 5" blocks.  I set one set aside because I only wanted each fabric to show up once in the quilt - you know, scrappy ole' me.  To the first set, I added a 2" x 5" white to each block, and voila, 5" rail fence blocks.  But now, I have a whole other set available, just awaiting the white, so I can make another baby quilt for another expecting mother some other day without too much preparation.  I love it when things work out like that!

On the home front, things are stable.  My MIL is hanging in there at home.  I'm hoping to get back up to see her during my kids' spring break later this month.  My mom has been struggling with some health issues, too, and I'd love to get up there to see her, but all the snow days have cut my kids' spring break in half, and it would be a challenge for us to make it all the way up to New Hampshire and back in just 4 days.  The boys and I have been busy with scouting (Pinewood Derby was this past weekend), and karate (my third mid-term test is this Thursday - I'm on track to test for my second-degree black belt in October).

Oh, and I gave notice at my job, so starting in July, I'll be a free agent.  I've already arranged to teach quilting to middle school aged kids at an art camp in July.  I'm ready to stop working at the breakneck pace I've been maintaining for years and be more creative.  I feel excited and proud of myself for taking this leap of faith (after all, who gives up a secure and lucrative job in a recession and sequester and in this job market???), but I'll admit, I'm a bit nauseous, too, not knowing what comes next.  I'm choosing to just believe in myself and that someone up there rewards leaps of faith.