Woefully unprepared!

Last week, I visited St. Louis on a counselor visit to Washington University. 

The courthouse under the arch is where they tried the Dred Scott case - cool!

I left on Wednesday, well prepared with two books to read and six flowers worth of hexagons ready to baste and then sew together for my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt...or so I thought.

I had finished one book and all my hexagons by Thursday evening. 

I did all the basting on the planes.  I use the mylar pop-out templates, not paper.

Oops!  Ran out of templates!  Gotta add the flowers to the main quilt to free up some more templates.

Oh well, my second book would get me through the flights home on Friday, I thought.  WRONG!  The nor'easter that battered the East Coast meant that all flights were cancelled, and they couldn't re-book me on a flight home until SUNDAY!!!  Luckily, Washington University was gracious about bringing me back to campus and providing me with a room for my extended stay, but what was a gal to do?  My second book was finished before bedtime on Friday.  Luckily, Washington University is situated next to Forest Park which has a zoo, a history museum and an art museum, all FREE to the public.  Saturday was a day of exploration!  I walked miles and miles, enjoying the park, the history museum and the art museum.  I ran out of steam before I made it to the zoo, got something to eat and went to bed ridiculously early.  Then, I bought another book at the airport on Sunday to help me make it through the day.

I made it back home on Sunday just in time for Sit Down Dinner duty and study hall duty.  It's a busy week here at school, exam time, so I don't have much time to sew, but I'm using every spare moment to sew these hexie flowers onto the quilt so I can free up some more of my templates.

(If you've not used the templates before, you pop them out once a hexie is completely surrounded by other hexies.  I have a combination of "Quilt Patis" and "Brandy's Mylar Pieces" - which has apparently gone out of business - but I've also made my own templates before with card stock and a hole punch.  I prefer this method over traditional English Paper Piecing where you actually baste onto the paper.) 

The backside of my quilt.  You can see there are only templates in the outside pieces.  I use that black "stick" to pop the templates out once a hexagon is completely surrounded by other hexagons.

But starting Saturday, I have TWO WHOLE WEEKS OFF!!!  Can you tell how I excited I am?  My own children will be in school (they had a week off in February, and will have another week off in April), so I am dreaming of spending all day, every day, creating!

And in April, when I have two more counselor visits scheduled (to Vanderbilt in Nashville, and then to six colleges in Ohio: Kenyon, Denison, Wittenberg, Ohio Wesleyan, College of Wooster and Oberlin), you can best believe I am going to bring more handwork than I think I can finish, just in case!

I am linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

More of the same

My creative life this week was much like last week - a couple more On Ringo Lake blocks completed, staying up-to-date with my temperature quilt, and a few more Flutterby blocks sewn up.  These Flutterby blocks are right up my alley - precut scraps and free rein when it comes to combining colors and fabrics!

About half the fabrics I put in my ETSY shop last week sold already, so I added more this week. 

Maybe, one day in the far off future, all my remaining fabric will actually fit in my sewing room. (Ha, who am I kidding?)

I'm getting ready to head to St. Louis for work for a few days, so I'm hoping to prep some hexagons as a handwork option for the flights and my hotel room at night.  If only I could find my Grandmother's Flower Garden hexagon quilt WIP...

This photo is from 2013 - and is probably the last time I worked on this.  It looks really washed out in the sun, and wrinkled because it had been tucked away in a bag, but I love the scrappiness.

...moving is so disruptive!  It's been six months and I still can't find things!

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Oh, Scrap!

Reluctantly letting go

The frustrating search for the remaining yarn for my sweater has made it crystal clear - I have TOO MUCH STUFF!  My fabric stash is not only in my sewing room, but also in our storage unit and on shelving in the garage.  It's more than I need, and more than I can probably ever use.  As a scrap quilter, I rarely reach for yardage when it is time to make a quilt (reaching instead for pre-cut squares and strips), and as one who never wants to piece a backing (reaching instead for a wide backing), my yardage just sits and sits, appreciated, but not utilized.

It's time to let more of it go.  I started with the floral drawer, and pulled out 10 one-to-three yard cuts  to put in my ETSY shop.  Within hours, it started selling.  Bye-bye, beloved fabric...

On a happier note, I found a few moments to sew during my whirlwind weekend.  I'm up to 20 completed On Ringo Lake blocks, I'm up to date with my Temperature Quilt blocks, and I love the way the Flutterby quilt is coming along.

Here's hoping I find even more time this busy work week for both de-stashing AND sewing.

I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap and Monday Making.

I blame Pinterest!

I set big goals for myself two weeks ago when I had a long weekend.  And I did a pretty darned good job of keeping them...

I finished my hat and have been wearing it non-stop.  It is made from Mega Merino, a soft, warm and squishy yarn that I used to sell in my shop.

I removed the offending neck from my sweater, knit on a new neck CORRECTLY, and am about halfway done with one sleeve.  The only problem is, I can't remember where I put the remaining skeins of yarn to finish the sweater.  Doh!

Sweater is based on an old cotton rolled edge sweater that I love to throw on for weekend lounging.

I finished reading Raven Threads, but am only now starting Unraveled.  It's very unlike me, but I didn't read anything for a week and a half.

I'm up to date on my Temperature Quilt, and I'm liking it.  It's going to be an odd quilt, for sure, but it'll be colorful, and sometimes that's all I need to make me happy.

I hate not having a design wall! This is most of the first two columns, but I can't put them together until February is over so I can add in the February average temperatures in the right place.  The yellows are the freakishly warm days we've had.  The darker the blue, the colder it was!

I didn't quite make my goal of 20 On Ringo Lake blocks completed, but I've got 18 and am slowly assembling the rest. 

The problem is this: I opened one of those darned emails from Pinterest with some Pins they think I'd like and they were right.  I saw this pin:

Image Credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/457819118351516579/

and had to start making one right away!  Scrappy...check!  Will use up some of my overflowing pre-cut scraps...check!  Will challenge me...since I am new to Half Rectangle Triangle Blocks, check!  I haven't gotten far, but I am having fun seeing these blocks come together. 

I'm using this as a Leaders & Enders project for my On Ringo Lake quilt...or is it the other way around?  Either way, I'm at my machine every chance I get, which, unfortunately, isn't as much as I'd like.

That's OK, I have a two-week break coming up in March.  I'm going to name my goals for that now - finish piecing On Ringo Lake and baste/start hand quilting my new niece/nephew's quilt before his/her arrival at the beginning of April.

In the meantime, I have a busy weekend ahead of me - running the clock at three different basketball games for three different teams, watching my husband's team compete in the conference quarterfinals (send winning thoughts our way on Saturday afternoon), and driving a vanload of kids to the movies to see Black Panther (we, as a school, rented out a theater and buses to take our students).  I hope I can find some time to sew and knit this weekend, too!

Oh, and I spent an entire day last weekend watching Alias Grace on Netflix.  It was darker and had less resolution and clarity at the end than I typically like, but oh the quilts!  Beautiful!!!

Long Winter Weekend

One perk of boarding school life is the vacations.  Today marks the start of Long Winter Weekend, a four and a half day weekend for us.  The timing is perfect - I'm starting to feel a bit under the weather, and I can use the rest.

But I'm determined to enjoy this time off.  In a perfect world, this time off would include:

• Knitting!  I want to complete this hat that I started earlier this week,

• and make some progress on this simple rolled cuff sweater I started several years ago.  I added the neck one night while watching a movie at the drive-in movies, and was dismayed to learn in the light of the following morning that I had picked up the stitches wrong, creating an unwanted ridge.  My plan this weekend is to take the neck off and put it back on correctly.

• Reading! I have many unread books waiting in the wings, but I've selected Unraveled by Maggie Sefton and Raven Threads by K.D. McCrite as quick and easy reads for the weekend.

• Quilting!  It's time to baste my next hand quilting project.  And my fabric order from Missouri Star Quilt Company arrived today (man, they are FAST!) so I plan to catch up on the blocks for my Temperature Quilt.  

• And more quilting! I'd like to get 20 of the 50 blocks done on my On Ringo Lake quilt; I currently have 5 done, so 15 to go.

In between times, I'll be going to a couple of my son's basketball games and hosting a Super Bowl viewing party.  I'll let you know on Monday how well I did achieving my weekend goals.

Slow and steady progress

While the weekend is usually my time to create, I spent this weekend watching my 7 year old nephew and my two year old niece.  Boy, am I out of practice doing 24/7 duty with little ones!  I'm still exhausted, a day later!  But I sure do love the fact that I am close enough to spend time with family.

I read 4782 books to my niece over the weekend.  Leo, our bearded dragon, likes looking at the pictures.

So, not too much progress on my Bonnie Hunter Mystery Quilt, On Ringo Lake.  Four blocks down, forty-six to go!

I still have some brown flying geese to make, but I'm making them as I make the blocks to break up the monotony of making so many geese.

I'm keeping up with my Temperature Quilt daily.  It is fun to spend 5 minutes each morning working on it before work.  I look up the high and low temperature for my town from the day before on Weather Underground, record it on my worksheet, pull out the appropriate colors, and then sew the one seam.  Easy peasy!

I've sewn consecutive day blocks together when possible.  See all that yellow?  Warm January!

However, I'm still missing eleven of the thirty fabrics I need for the project, so I have only been able to make 15 of the 28 blocks for the month of January so far.  I went back to my local quilt shop to see if they had gotten more Kona Solids in, but no.  I tried to shop local...but I don't want to wait any longer!  I placed my first ever order with Missouri Star Quilt Company; I love the tutorials so I thought I'd give the shopping experience a try.  Besides, I always hear about those Daily Deals - I want to see what those are all about.

We get a four day weekend this weekend coming up - I foresee lots of sewing in my future!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap and Monday Making.

2018 Temperature Quilt

Moving from Virginia to Massachusetts has made me acutely aware of the temperature.  I am FREEZING!!!  And I grew up in Maine, so I should be OK with this, but I'll be the first to admit that my blood has thinned!  Thank goodness I know how to knit and quilt - I am staying warm with hot tea and lots of handmade coziness.

Back in Virginia, one of my yarn shop customers made a temperature blanket last year.

I love the idea, but wanted to translate the idea into a quilt.  I love the quilt that NeedledMom made with her sister last year using flying geese, and I know the ones they are making this year with square in a square blocks will be cool as well, but with everything on my plate right now, I wanted something even simpler so that I am likely to actually finish it.

Then, yesterday, as I was contemplating the floor tiles in the bathroom at work...

This would be super simple, faster and easier than the flying geese or the square in a square, but still allowing blocks that represent both a daily high and a daily low temperature.  My plan is to make blocks that finish at 3.5", and to add in 12 monthly averages at the beginning of each month and a yearly average block at the end of December so that I have an even 378 blocks, resulting in an 18x21 block quilt that measures 63"x73.5" without a border.

I decided to visit my local quilt shop, which just happens to be having a sale, and stock up on some Kona Solids.  I'm using the same colors that NeedledMom and her sister used - why reinvent the wheel?  They didn't have all the colors I need, but enough to get me started.

Terrible nighttime artificial light.  Here are 19 of the 30 colors I will use for this quilt, tracking temps from -23 to 96.  I have other colors ready in case it gets hotter than 96, and I'm praying that it never goes below -23 (although we've already experienced -20 this winter)

This quilt might end up looking really random, but that's OK; it will mean something to me.  So far, I really like the colors.

The 10 January blocks I can make with the fabrics that were in stock when I went shopping.  The rest will have to wait until the missing colors are back in stock.

My plan is for the daily high to always either be on top or on the left.  I am pinning tiny notes on the back of each block so that I know which date it represents and if the seam is supposed to be vertical or horizontal.

Meanwhile, I'm still plugging away at my On Ringo Lake mystery quilt.

I have most of the block pieces done, but not trimmed.  Then it is construction time!

We have a long weekend from work coming up at the end of the month, and I have designated that time as when I need to start hand quilting my new niece/nephew's quilt.

In the meantime, I've put a bunch of yarn in my ETSY shop on clearance, so I'm getting my daily steps in going back and forth to the post office several times a day.  I love how my ETSY shop supports my fiber habit, whether it be yarn or fabric.

I'm linking up with Monday Making and Oh Scrap!