On A Different Continent

Whee!  We flew to England last Wednesday, and while 3/4 of the family is time-adjusted, Jazzy is not.  Joy!  Wonderful Husband and/or myself have been getting up with him in the middle of the night for a few hours each night.

The evening before we left, though, my guild had the big Round Robin reveal.  First, here are the two that I did rounds one and two on.  The reveal was done before break, and all twelve were laid on the ground so everyone could walk around during break and get a better look at them.

And then here's mine!  I love it, and I especially love how Lorraine fussy-cut and hand appliqued all those butterflies in the last border!

No sewing machine here in the UK, but I've done a little embroidery to keep my sanity during sleep deprivation.  And it's time to start hustling Squiddle bedwards, so off I go!

Catching Up With Myself

I spent this morning running around doing errands, and this evening is to be spent at quilt guild, so I have... four hours here in the middle of the day.  Which I should be spending packing, doing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning the house, cleaning the patio.  Eek!  Well, I do have a few more hours tomorrow morning before we leave for the airport, but still.  Tall list!

Here's the block I'm presenting at guild tonight for January's block of the month: a 9" yellow churn dash with either black or white background.

For now, time to relace my white trainers since they've been through the wash, and then, when Squiddle wakes, go raid the boys' dresser for socks to pack for them.

T-Minus Three Days

Getting ready to fly on Wednesday!  It's obviously been eating into my sewing time, though I did have time to finish the final round of my guild's Round Robin challenge for 2017:

We all get them back on Tuesday... and given that when I asked my fellow board members for suggestions on this one, Lorraine said she worked on it last, I know who has mine now! ^_^

Tonight we did mini-Christmas, exchanging gifts with my parents, since we'll be in a different country from them on Christmas, and more especially since their gift to Squiddle will be useful on the flight.  Among other things, I had made my mother some pillowcases, and I was pleased that when she opened them she thought the fabric was very Scandinavian, as that's exactly why I'd thought she would like it. ^_^  I got a couple books and a rust eraser for use on my vintage sewing machines.  The only downside was that one of the gifts for my father hasn't arrived yet.  (Neither has one for my niece.)  Well, they'll get here when they get here.

Sometimes it's not me...

Having got most of my to-do list done, and the minutes for last night's board meeting already typed up, I decided I could participate in this year's Christmas ornament exchange with my guild.  So I looked for a tutorial for Scandinavian Woven Stars, which I have made before.

And the result was a MESS.

Being confuzzled, I checked out another tutorial.  And this one worked.

So, no, it wasn't me.  It was the directions.  What a relief!

And I've decided to make six.  One for the guild, one for me, one for parents, one for parents-in-law, one for sister, and one for sister-in-law.  They're pretty easy and fast, so I've got three done now and am turning in for the night.

The GOOD tutorial is here.

To-Dos, Updated

(1) type up Minutes for both November meetings
(2) type up handout and signup sheet for next year's block exchange
(3) make samples for next year's block exchange
(4) type up handout for the January Block of the Month
(5) make samples for the January Block of the Month
(6) type up handout for the February Block of the Month
(7) make samples for the February Block of the Month (only two instead of my usual six, but enough for now)
(8) do the Round Robin project
(9) get all the handouts printed out

I've found a good border fabric for the Round Robin project, but I feel like I need to so something beyond just slapping on a plain round of fabric. Maybe make some white bias tape and do swirly designs...?

Feeling Swamped

Waa.  Trying to catch up on all my stuff for guild!  I'm going to be gone for both January meetings, so my to-do list looks like:

(1) type up Minutes for both November meetings (done)
(2) type up handout and signup sheet for next year's block exchange (done)
(3) make samples for next year's block exchange
(4) type up handout for the January Block of the Month (done)
(5) make samples for the January Block of the Month (done)
(6) type up handout for the February Block of the Month
(7) make samples for the February Block of the Month
(8) do the Round Robin project
(9) get all the handouts printed out

I need to have all this done by the 12th.  Plus packing and wrapping gifts and Christmas shopping, and and and! :)

Roger's Quilt

And here's the other finish for this month!  I present Roger's Quilt:

I've been saving up some of these fabrics for years.  There's, let's see, two train fabrics, three golf fabrics, one baseball fabric, and two (the blue and the gold) that were in a grab bag with some of the others and just went with.  The brown sashing and binding came from the freebies table at guild last month, the green border fabric was another grab bag find, and the red cornerstones were sitting in my stash.  Actually in my Civil War fabrics pile, but still stash.  And the backing, which is not pictured, is also deep stash.

I was constrained by how little I had of some of the fabrics.  I ended up trying to alternate dark and light diagonal rows just to make it work.  The gold's not as light as I would like for that arrangement, but, again... working with what I had.  Simple straight-line quilting both diagonally through the blocks and vertically and horizontally through the sashing.

Keziah's Quilt

Finally, a post with pictures!  Here is Keziah's Quilt:

The blocks are Bonnie Hunter's "Idaho Squares" pattern, both from her Addicted To Scraps book... and from her Addicted To Scraps column in Quiltmaker magazine, back in May/June of 2015.  I've been making these as leader/enders for a while now, out of small bright squares and blue/pink/purple centers.  I had a stack of twenty-one done, and used sixteen for this quilt.  I'd always intended them to go into a baby quilt, so, perfect!  The orange batik inner border and turquoise batik outer border and binding have been sitting in my stash for probably fifteen years, waiting for their chance to shine.

I'm also kind of proud of the back.  I'd been thinking of using up some of the pink flannel that I probably have a whole bolt of, but these four flannel pieces turned up in one of the huge $4 grab bags I sometimes find at one of the local thrift shops.  No two pieces were big enough on their own, so I staggered them and made a pieced back.  Serendipity.

Haha! Finished~!

Thanksgiving was a day mostly on my feet, cooking cooking cooking.  Granted, it was only for four adults, a preschooler, and a toddler.  But doing the traditional menu is getting a lot of things ready for the table at the same time.  Still, success!

Black Friday I spent basting Roger's Quilt and getting three-quarters of the way through the quilting.  Today I finished the quilting, then, while pulling out the pile of scraps to cut binding, realized I had enough extra of the sashing/binding for the body of a pillow, and a couple of the (non-themed) other fabrics made up a flange and head, so... I sewed up a matching pillowcase.  And finished the binding and tossed quilt and pillowcase both through the washer and dryer. 

Tomorrow, pictures!

Reading Roundup!

A couple weeks ago, at one of the thrift stores I frequent, I stood looking at the books selection.  And wondering if someone had dumped their entire collection of cozy mysteries at the store's donation center.  Because there were well over a hundred!

("Cozy mysteries" being murder mysteries wherein the protagonist is heavily into a craft of some sort.  Sewing, knitting, embroidery... there were even scrapbooking mysteries!)

Out of a sense of amused curiosity, I looked for quilting titles, and found two.  And a dressmaking title that also had promise.  Hey, for $.50 I wanted to try them and see!  So, my results:

Quilt or Innocence, by Elizabeth Craig.  I tried to like this one, but honestly, the characters all felt like cardboard cutouts - wooden and interchangeable (I had trouble keeping them straight).  And for a supposed group of longtime friends, they were all really quick to accuse one another of murder in a heartbeat.  Maybe the stiffness to this book was because it was the first one in its series, but regardless, I'm not going looking for any more of the volumes.  Going to drop this one at the quilt guild's freebies table, let someone else have it.

A Drunkard's Path, by Clare O'Donohue. This one is book two in a series, which may be an advantage as the writer knows their characters and situation better.  This one felt more "realistic," for whatever value that holds, than the other two.  I did peg the killer before the book ended, but there were enough details that I hadn't guessed to make it satisfying.  However, if the main character and her boyfriend were supposed to have chemistry, I couldn't see it.  I felt like I was being told that they were making out, without any emotions or behavior being shown to warrant it.  I'll probably pass this one on to my mother, see if she likes it.

Deadly Patterns, by Melissa Bourbon. This one is book three of its series, and themed on dressmaking rather than quilting.  But!  This one also contains urban fantasy, magical realism... whatever you want to call it.  The protagonist has a Gift, as do the other women in her family.  Her house, in fact, is haunted by the benign spirit of her great-grandmother.  So this appealed heavily to my reading interests.  The mystery was interesting (again, I pegged the killer, but not all the details).  My only complaints would be the need for a family tree at the beginning of the book (it's at the end), and that the rightful ownership of the coin discovered at the end was never detailed.  Still, my favorite of the three, and one I'm definitely keeping.  And I'm going to keep my eye out for others in the series!

Busy Day Doing Other Things

Not much sewing today.  I got the label sewn onto the backing of Roger's Quilt, and another label sewn onto another quilt I'm giving as a Christmas gift.  Oh, and tossed Keziah's quilt through the wash.  Current count is we're taking four quilts to England.  Good thing we have a generous luggage allowance!

Found Sewing Time

Sitting at my desk in the office listening to Squiddle whine/thump/monologue.  (His bed is just on the other side of the wall from my desk.)  He's four now and getting decidedly difficult about taking naps.  Jazzy, meanwhile, is laying on my bed taking nap #2.  And mummy is taking the time to sew down the mitered corners of Keziah's finished quilt before tossing it in the washer.  I never used to sew them down - then I had them pop out in the wash a few times, and now I always do.  Just a couple minutes of handwork and it's all good.

Next, to press and assemble the backing for Roger's Quilt....

Progress!

I sat down late this afternoon and, while the boys played in the backyard, and then, after dark, while Squiddle watched Wonderful Husband play Breath of the Wild and Jazzy had nap #2, powered through quilting the baby quilt.  I sew them so infrequently that I always forget how fast I can quilt something that's just 50" square.  Even with (mostly) free-motion quilting!  So now I just have to cut and sew on the binding, wash it, and it's done.  (Yes, it has a label.  I try to put those on the back before basting, so they're quilted in.)

And Wonderful Husband helped me pick out a backing for the quilt for his father.  It's a lovely vaguely-Asian indigo and cream print that's been in my stash since before we married.  I kept holding onto it "for something special."  Well, "special" fabrics never get used, so I'm striking that phrase from my sewing vocabulary.  See The End Of The Stash and Stash Less.  A quilt for my father-in-law is certainly something special, so off that hoarded fabric goes!  And whatever trimmings remain after it's quilted, well, maybe I'll finally start that blue-and-white Triple Irish Chain quilt I muse about sometimes.

(Also, Wonderful Husband is not a quilter, but wow he has a fantastic eye for color combinations!  He picked the alternate squares and both borders for the baby quilt, and I have to admit his choice for the backing for his father's quilt is dead on and much better than what I had picked out.  I love this man.)

Needed This Like A Hole... In One

I've embarked on a new quilt.  It's not like I don't already have a stack of tops waiting to be quilted, and a list of sewing that I need to do in the few weeks before we flee the country (and I lose access to my sewing machine and stash) for our winter holiday with family and friends.

But nooooo.  Over the past couple years I've been setting aside fabrics that matched my father-in-law's interests.  I've garnered them from the Bargain Basement, guild yardsales, and thrift shop grab bag hauls.  Golf fabrics, train fabrics, baseball fabrics.  And I was going to cut into them to make him a couple themed pillowcases for Christmas.  But then I realized that the pieces that were long enough had chunks cut out.  So no go on that plan.  BUT! I could cut them into squares, and sash them, and border that....

So I cut 64 6.5" squares.  And pulled some brown fabric I got in the freebies heap at guild this month, and made that into 2.5" sashing strips and first border.  And found a good red for corner squares.  And a green from a grab bag that kind of reminds me of a golf course got cut into 5.5" outer border strips....

I'm halfway through sewing the last border on.  So now I have to muse on what from the stash will make good backing.  (I have more of the brown for binding.)  It will be about the same size as the Strawberries and Cream quilt, and I'll do the same simple straight-line quilting that I did on that one.  So the quilting will only take a day or so.

But first, I basted a baby quilt this morning, so quilting that is next.

BoMs

Since I run the block of the month for the Orange County Quilters Guild, I'm always trying to be a month ahead of seasonal events.  Though I admit some months I give myself a break and go non-seasonal!  The block to turn in at the November meeting, for instance, was this 1930s Twist block:

It went across fairly well - 67 blocks got turned in last night (including my six sample blocks), and one guild member told me she'd made enough of them for a queen-sized quilt for herself!  Obviously I need to do more blocks themed on reproduction fabrics.

Next month's block is an applique block I drafted myself.  Christmas ornaments!  Very simple, just a circle and a square on a green background.  Though I did list a couple ideas on the instruction sheet for how to jazz things up, should the creator be so inclined. :)

This year I've been having everything finish to either 6" or 6"x9".  I think next year I'll go a little bigger and have 8" blocks be my goal.  And, since I'm missing January's meeting, I'll need to have January and February all ready for the next guild meeting.  Time to put on my thinking cap!

Guild Round Robin, Month 2

Here's my completed round for this month's Round Robin challenge for the Orange County Quilter's Guild:

I was really stuck on what to do with this one, until I remembered what one of the speakers at the Orange Grove Quilter's Guild said about Round Robin projects: set them on point.  So I drafted up stripey setting triangles and my math was pretty much dead-on.  Though I do have to admit that as I was sewing the navy and orange and pale gray all together, I kept feeling like this was for a college or sports team!  Something about the way the colors went together.  That and the fact that I was mostly dealing with solids instead of prints, maybe?

Anyhow, I'm turning this one in at the meeting tonight and getting the last piece to work on.  And then next month we all get our original projects back.  I can't wait to see what three other quilters have made of the the one I turned in!

Things I've Been Working On

The other day Wonderful Husband gave me some advice which more-or-less amounted to find the time and just baste some tops and quilt them already.  So I did so, basting one night after we got Jazzy and Squiddle into bed, then spending the next day doing some simple straight-line quilting on this:

This one is 70" square, and I don't really have anything in mind for it.  Sofa quilt, maybe.  I just took 49 of the 50 alternate squares I had made (double size, so 10" rather than 5") I had made once upon a time for Bonnie Hunter's Garden Party pattern, and sewed them together.  I still like the pattern and I would like to make it someday, but right now I'd rather have a finished quilt than yet another set of blocks hanging out in my WIP bin.

If I had to do this one again, I might use a darker fabric for the binding, but otherwise I'm perfectly satisfied with it.  The backing is a red print I've been hanging onto forever and was just about the perfect size - one corner was about an inch shy so there's a small hand-piecing slash on the back, but if you don't know it's there, it's darn near invisible. ^_^

Halloween 2017

And I reappear!

Halloween went off well.  I finished the boys' costumes and took them both trick-or-treating around the neighborhood:

Two young witches and a fortuneteller.  I made both the boys' robes and hot-glued the stars onto Squiddle's hat.  For myself, I just pulled blouse and skirt and a couple of scarves from my closet and found some hoop and silver moon earrings in my jewelry box.  Low-stress costuming for the win!  I ended up carrying Jazzy most of the way.  Fortunately our planned route only compassed two streets.

Wash and Dry

Got Jazzy's costume finished on Wednesday night.  Both he and Squiddle wore their witch costumes to the Mommy-Baby group yesterday, as well as to Squiddle's class this morning, where there was a costume party and trick-or-treating around the school's offices, and a potluck.  (I made candy corn jellos for both groups.  There are about ten left over. I know what we're having for dessert the next few days. I need to think of something different to make for the Tuesday class potluck.)  And of course both boys got food on their costumes.  Ah well, that's what the washing machine is for!

The Witching Hour Approaches

Ah, the costumer's favorite holiday: Halloween!  Approaching fast.  And thus my serger has been dragged out and I am making costumes for little boys and, if time, their daddy and myself as well.  The serger has never gotten a great deal of use, but most of what it has, has been in service of sewing for little boys.  Very handy to not have to finish seams!

Squiddle is now four and when asked what he wants to be for Halloween, declared "A witch!"  And he wants the same for Jazzy, who is one.  And Daddy and I should be wizards.  Apparently this is an age-based dichotomy rather than the usual gender divide?  But whatever.

I hit JoAnns when patterns were a dollar, and pulled some lightweight black probably-linen-and-cotton-blend off my shelves for the boys' costumes.  It's sixty inches wide and like three yards long and it's not enough for both.  Grr!  But I've got Squiddle's cut out and sewn - I am pinning the hems tonight, and then tomorrow he and his daddy can hot-glue stars onto the witch's hat Granny sent him, and that will be all good.

For Jazzy's costume, I've got a very-dark-navy-almost-black that I'll pull and press tomorrow...

Knowing When To Quit

Yesterday I proceeded to further deconstruct my sewing mess area and cull more stuff.  To the point where I was stressed out and near tears because no matter how much I pulled out to cull, there was no visible impact on the sheer amount of stuff I have.

So I gave up.

I threw in the towel and called it good for this month.  I have like six or seven big bags of stuff to haul to guild next month.  Maybe after that I'll do another round of culling to take in to the December meeting.  But for now I've reassembled my sewing area, and it is slightly cleaner and tidier and less stressful on me, which was the goal anyway.  And I rewarded myself by sewing!  I've finished another album block, moved a bit along on the final set of purple stars, and hemmed a precut length of canvas-weight fabric into a runner.  (And cleaned and organized the TV area and coffee table, and put the runner there.)

Lightening the Load

I finished those four pillowcases today and cut out another two.  But my big task has been a dive into a massive stash/projects cull.  I'm up to four paper grocery bags to drop on the freebies table at guild next month.  I'm also finding myself reminded of a quote that pops up (usually in connection to activism burnout and self-care) on my Tumblr once in a while: "You are not obliged to complete the work. But neither are you free to abandon it."  Well, I'm abandoning rather a lot.  But at least I'm abandoning it in the direction of other people who might be interested in completing it.

Now I just have to rediscover the dining table.

Stream of Sewishness

All 56 blue string blocks trimmed and depapered.  And the remaining blue things starting to get sorted out.  This project got rid of all my blue strings, left me very few blue 1.5" strips, took a not-insignificant bite out of my blue 2" strips, and also made a good dent in my blue chunks-and-scraps.

(In among all the sewing, Jazzy got into my 1.5" strip bin.  I let him, as it was keeping the baby quietly entertained while Mummy power-sewed.  Still, the upshot is that what had been a neatly folded and stacked color-coded bin is now all just stuffed back in willy-nilly. Sigh...)

The next step for this project is to cut the embroidered kitchen towels to 12.5" squares and find the right gold in my stash, cut some 1.5" strips, and border those squares.  Then I get to do the layout.

But I couldn't deal with that today, so I pulled fabric out of the dryer - last week's grand $4 thrift store grab bag haul, a large piece from the stash, and a couple yards of character fabric I'd bought on purpose.  Fold fold fold.  Iron the character fabric and a bit from the thrift store, cut them, pull out and piece a couple 1.5" strips and iron them in half to make a flange, and now to pin.  Pillowcases are easy and fast - not quite instant gratification, but not too far off.

Got the Blues

Miracle of miracles, the boys actually took a nap at the same time this afternoon!  Which meant sewing time for Mummy, which meant I got to finish the last of the 56 blue string-pieced blocks I need for Aunt Debi's quilt!

On the right are a couple more 5" Album blocks, the bottom one scrappy but more controlled, and the top one truly monochrome.

Now I just need to trim the string blocks square and then start depapering them.

Tiny Piecer

I got through both guild meetings okay, though yesterday morning's included a five-minute intense coughing session where two different people asked me if I needed water.  I waved them off, unable to answer.  Hard to talk, let alone drink, when you're having trouble getting enough air to breathe.  Fortunately, that's the worst that this lingering whatever has been.

So at the Tuesday night guild I dropped a great big bag of stuff on the freebies table and came home with a much smaller assortment of someone else's scraps.  (If they're not picked up by the end of the evening, they either go in the trash or to Goodwill, depending on what they are.)  Last night I sorted through the bits and bobs and pulled out those pieces that will go to the blue string blocks, the ones that will go into my general stash, and the bits that I don't like which will become Nine-Patches for the last month of the Ugly Fabrics Nine-Patch Exchange.  I also sorted out the pieces that I thought might work for American Civil War period reproductions.  And I pulled out Treasury of Quilts and opened it to the Album block.  And I took a few of the smallest scraps and cut them up and sewed them together into this:

(my hand included for scale)

My previous limit for too-small-to-keep was anything less than one and a half inches square.  I now may have to revise that slightly - the square blocks in this are one and three-eighths inches before sewing!  I want to make another in two fabrics, not scrappy, to see what it comes out like.  But the three fabrics in this were literally the last scraps I could eke out of what I got.  The green rectangle in the upper left is made up of two pieces, as is the goose turd green square in the lower right corner!  I'm actually rather proud of that latter one - it's hard to tell even in person.

There's a fine line between thrifty and insanity.  I may be flirting with it....

Cough Cough Thud

Guild tonight, guild tomorrow morning.  And I have a nagging tickle-in-my-throat cough I can't shake that's making life and sleep difficult.  Also, at times, breathing.  Blargh.

In among last night's bout of insomnia I tried to figure out who and what I need to be sewing things for.  I... need to consult Wonderful Husband about this, and nail down a holiday gift sewing list.

On the plus side, I have a big bag of donations to drop on the guild tonight!

Block By Block

Tuesday was the officer's meeting for the Orange County Quilters Guild.  It looks like, barring anyone else wanting the position, I'll probably be secretary again next year.  Which I am good with!  The real problem is going to be finding someone with the proper skill set to be treasurer.  Probably something I should learn - it would be a good resume skill for when I go back to work.

And since then I've been working furiously on guild blocks.  I finished the five pumpkin blocks for Orange Grove's block-of-the-month, and have just today finished my half-a-dozen samples and instructions writeup for Orange County's.  I decided to eschew anything seasonal for November, and just went with what I'm calling "Vintage Twist":

And, having finished those, I'm back to work on the 7" blue string-pieced blocks for the quilt my aunt commissioned for her mother's birthday (November 24th).  I need 56 blocks.  I had 22 done and pressed and trimmed and ready to depaper.  I've sewn 4 more today.  30 to go!

ETA: 14 blocks done tonight.  20 to go.  Bed now.

Piccy time!

There, got the Round Robin complete and took a picture of it~! The center Hunter's Star block that I was given is twelve inches.  I added the black borders with 3" stars and running stitch embroidery and brought it up to 22" square for the next person to add their own touch to.

And since I was pulling pictures off my camera, here's the animal baby quilt I made from scrubs offcuts.  Busy fabrics!

And my first round robin quilt as displayed at the OC Fair this year:

Stitch by Stitch

Wonderful Husband is back home and on the mend.  Squiddle and Jazzy are almost fully recovered.  So back I go to sewing as stress relief.

I've pulled out the block I got in my guild's Round Robin exchange and have been working on it.  I framed it in black, and put three 3" stars (pattern from Civil War Remembered) in two corners.  I showed it to Wonderful Husband and he thought my asymmetrical design needed something in the other two corners.  So I got out my chalk pen and drew some swoops on the empty space and once they looked decent to me, pulled out the #5 perle cottons I got at the thrift store the other week.  A little more running stitch in gold and white, and it'll be done.  One more project checked off my list (for this month).

On Hiatus

No quilting for the last few days, or for the next few days.  Wonderful Husband is in the hospital (nothing serious-serious, just they want him on a medicinal IV drip for 48 hours and not infecting the public), so I'm effectively single-parenting it for a few days....

Sewing and Sick Babies

Waiting for the washing machine repairman to show up.  I have one more seam to sew on Jazzy's Christmas pillow, but I need to press the last seam first, and I don't want to haul out the ironing board right now....  I've been being good and putting it away every night.

That said, the current set of blocks got finished last night, so my next step anyway is going to be pressing and cutting more fabric.  Sigh.  I've got four Wheel of Fortune blocks (goal: 36) and ten Purple Star blocks (goal: 26) done, as well as twenty Ugly Nine-Patch blocks made up for this month's exchange.  Plus I counted up my current leader-and-ender project and somehow I've got eighteen finished Idaho Square Dance block in that stack. (Goal: who knows?)

Squiddle has been sick (he's now in the probably-still-infectuous-but-feels-fine stage), and Jazzy has caught it.  First fever, then sore throat, then lasting red spots.  It's not the chicken pox, and the doctor said it was probably a virus and we just have to ride it out.  Fortunately Jazzy is napping at the moment, because he hasn't been happy.  (Understatement.)  He and I got to bed at a quarter past two this morning.

Sigh.  In anticipation of it getting worked on today, I cleared off the washer, so the stuff that was on it got put on the dining table this morning, and has been being moved to its forever homes.  I should finish that task first so that I can have the table clear for other tasks.

That and I should "debone" the shirt I got at the thrift store yesterday, to use in the Wheel of Fortune project....

Back in the Saddle

It's been a couple weeks.  Part of that time, I was incommunicado.  You see, Wonderful Husband and I had promised ourselves that when our boys were big enough, we'd start going camping.  So we used up the tail end of his paternity leave window and took Squiddle and Jazzy and up to Yosemite!  We hit kind of a sweet spot so far as weekday reservations just after school started, so the park wasn't too crowded.  Though that was tempered by the smoke haze from wildfires outside the park.  Still, a wonderful vacation and one I hope we can repeat.  An annual camping trip during our family's three-week birthday period would be a nice tradition to start.

Since we got back, I've been on fire with sewing!  Last guild meeting I turned in the finished Animal Baby Quilt as well as two pillowcases to the Quilts for Kids group, and I've already got another pillowcase done for next month.  Plus I sewed one for part of Squiddle's Christmas present and tucked it away, and have the one for part of Jazzy's Christmas present on my lap being pinned at the moment.  I just need to find the right fabrics for one for Niecelet.  And then start pondering pyjama patterns and fabrics for all three, to go with.  (Another tradition I'm thinking of starting.)

I'm doing my guild's Round Robin again this year.  I turned in my block with a whole bundle of fabrics for the others to use if they choose, and am currently pondering what to do with the Hunter's Star I have to border this month.  I've also been sewing some star blocks from this pattern by Country Threads Chicken Scratch.  They're very easy to do and satisfying to make in pairs.  I need to decide how many I want to make.

But at the same time, I've been feeling like I need to start stretching my piecing skills beyond what is easy for me.  So, inspired by the whole whock of quilting books I've acquired lately, I've dug into Betsy Chutchian's History Repeated (a birthday gift from my sister-in-law) and started making Wheel of Fortune blocks.  I've also been going through Barbara Brackman's 2015 series of posts about 1800s fabrics and using them to help me pull fabrics for the Wheels of Fortune.  I... have a surprising amount of fabric that is (at least to my untutored eye) acceptable.

Also, I took my Singer 101 in to the Sewing Center of Orange County to see if Steve could get it working for me again.  We picked it up today.  It now bypasses the knee pedal and has a foot pedal, but it sews again, which is the important thing.  Hooray!

Anyhow, that's what I've been up to.  Back to pinning so I can get to bed soonish.

September Starts!

I vanished for a whole month~!  Ugh, sorry about that.

Let's see.  What did I do for the month?  I took my boys and the three of us flew up to Washington to visit my sister and her baby.  Just like her mama, Niecelet is so cute!  And my sister and I did a great deal of thrift-storing and not a great deal of jamming.  The former is much easier than the latter with two babies (one very mobile) and a preschooler.

How does that relate to sewing, you may wonder?  Well, I may have needed to borrow a duffel bag from my sister to haul all my new books back.  I swear, one thrift store in particular, someone must have dumped their entire stash of quilt books.  And the Venn diagram of their tastes and mine had a LARGE overlap.  Plus I may have been collecting row-by-rows as we went along.

After returning home, we've all been struck down by whatever got caught on the airplane.  And it's been miserable hot.  But I've been trying to finish a few projects to donate to the Quilts For Kids group at my guild.  I've finished one pillowcase that has been lingering on my desk for months, and sewn a label onto the veterinary scrubs triangle baby quilt.  I've also pulled out the Jaws fabric I got at Costume College's Bargain Basement, used that to sew up my Ugly Fabric 9-Patches for the month, and realized I had a block of it big enough to do up another pillowcase, so that got cut out and sewn as well.

I would <i>like</i> to be quilting.  But it's just too bloody hot.  Furniture is actively warm to the touch!  So the Jacob's Ladder quilt top I got for $10 at Costume College is waiting.  About 1/6th finished.  Where it's been since our guild demo day at the OC Fair.

In other news, I had my 41st birthday, which, in light of the miserable weather and all of us being different degrees of sick, kind of wasn't.  Though I got lots of lovely books!  Including a couple quilting books I've been coveting.  And Wonderful Husband bought me a couple more row-by-rows as a gift from my boys. :)  So I have things to sew.  But I'm trying to be good and not chase rabbit down their holes until I've knocked another few WIPs off my stack.

Costume College 2017 in review

It's creeping up toward midnight and I'm taking a turn minding Jazzy in the office so Wonderful Husband can get some sleep.  He does this often enough for me when the baby doesn't want to sleep on schedule, so it's my turn for a change.

Where to start?  Costume College was this last weekend, expanded to four days this year!  I didn't get the day limited class I would have liked on Thursday, but the Friday Victorian Corsets workshop had a two-hour fitting session that evening, which necessitated some dancing and shuffling and Wonderful Husband taking off from work a touch early so I could make it.

Friday?  The workshop was great.  My corset is something like 85% complete.  I just need to put the bones in and the top and bottom binding on.  The traffic, however, was hellish.  Because I'm a nursing mother, this year I needed to commute back and forth and pump milk a couple times a day.  And Wonderful Husband wasn't able to take Friday off, so I had to drop the boys off at my parents' before College and pick them up afterward.  I spent four and a half hours driving that day, and didn't get home until 8pm.  At which point I really needed dinner.

Saturday was my busy teaching day.  The Fabulous Fabric Fairy Wings class went well.  I felt a bit disorganized, but I had about 30 students (I need to mail the handout to a few; I only made 25) and I think they were excited by what they learned.  I attended a bit of a lecture on organizing your sewing room, which gave me a few tips but also made me feel like, no, maybe I don't really have that much fabric in comparison.  Then I took a workshop on Downton Abbey necklaces (I've now finished mine), which was fun.  And, finally, I taught the 1950s Petticoat class.  Which, I kind of feel like I need to figure out how to streamline it a touch, but given that they're all individually measured, I can't really cut the fabric ahead of time for the students.  Still, it went well.

Sunday I spent most of the day in a class about Precious Metal Clay, which, ooh, really tempting (if a bit pricey) for a new hobby.  I did get frustrated at one point and went for a walk down to the Bargain Basement to do some retail therapy ($5) and clear my head.  After that things went better and I had a great deal of fun, ending up with two pendants and a pair of earrings and a tiny smidge of clay left over.  After that, I had just a little free time to make my purchases in the dealer's hall (black and white coutil for future corsets, a 1950s quilt top, and an embroidered tablecloth for my mother; about $50 total), then taught my final class, Machine Quilting.  Let us say that I've been going to Costume College at this same hotel for years now, and this was the first time I've even known the classroom existed.  And also that this was the last class of College.  Even so, I'm slightly disappointed that I only had two students.  Still, I gave them my best and I think they left with a good handle on it.

I am quite pleased that the sewing machine I fixed up and donated to the Bargain Basement went for $100.  But I definitely prefer staying at the hotel when possible; commuting it is annoying.  Not so much for missing evening activities - I don't like the Social, and I've never been to the Gala - but for the pressure of it and the massive time/energy black hole that is traffic.  I also felt overscheduled this year, to the point where I didn't get to talk to friends I don't see elsewhere for more than a minute or two.  I kept wishing for more time.

But, oh, I did have such a good time....

Prep Work

It's almost midnight.  Jazzy is resisting sleep.  Costume College starts tomorrow.  Pfaugh.

That said, I've got everything packed and ready to go for the first part of the Victorian Corset class tomorrow.  And after stressing myself into a mini meltdown earlier today (fueled in part by obviously sleeping hella wrong on my left shoulder and painkillers doing nada to help), the fairy wing wires situation has been resolved.  I borrowed my father's boltcutters, we dug the wire spools out of the garage, and measured and cut new wing wires this evening.  I've folded them at the midpoints, and my plans for tomorrow morning involve shaping them to the wings.

*stress*stress*stress*

My first teaching class at this Costume College is the Fairy Wings class.  I pulled my wings out tonight.  Hey, I even found the pattern for one of the sets, sweet bonus!

I cannot find the wing wires for either set.

The class is on Saturday.

Wonderful Husband, fortunately, has his chill about this because I do not have mine.  We have more wire in the garage, he says.  I just need to figure out how much I need cut for each set.

Meanwhile I'm still going though an internal monologue that consists of swear words and self-blame and more swear words.  Did not need this additional stressor right now.

Icky Sicky

As the title implies, yes, I've been sick.  The whole house has been sick.  We're going onto week 2 of the summer cold/flu.  Blargh.  Blargh, I say!

Plus this coming weekend is Costume College.  So I've been focusing on prep for that.  I do not have any costumes this year.  I'm hoping, really hoping, that making a Victorian Corset in the all-day Friday workshop will kickstart something for me.  Because I would really, really LOVE to get back into that groove.

Saturday I will be teaching a morning class on full-size fabric fairy wings.  Which I taught some years back and couldn't find my handout for when I searched.  Then I realized I had taught it back in the good old handwritten handout days.  So I'm having to transcribe, improve, and search for new images for it, while the baby wants me to hold him so he can bash the keyboard.  Saturday afternoon I'm teaching a 1950s petticoats workshop, and thank goodness, all the prep for that is done, signed, sealed, ready.  And Sunday afternoon I'll be teaching a machine quilting class.  I'd like to revise the slideshow and handout for it, but if I can't, it's solid, just... more repetitive than I'd like.

Making Things

As proof that quilts aren't the only thing I make, here's the icebox cake I did for my uncle and aunt's Fourth of July party:

And, of course, I got the quiet quilt finished:

The center four squares are each a quarter inch smaller than the others, so the center of the sashing is half an inch wider than the rest of it.  It's bound in the same gold as the corner blocks.  I didn't think to take a picture of the back, but it's another pale print with two green strips on the sides to make up the width.  I measured and mathed, but no matter how I plotted, I just didn't have enough of that pale artist print to make up the whole back.  Alas.

And, at the other end of the color spectrum, this is my current project:

My friend Jill had given me a whole bunch of offcuts from medical scrubs.  Veterinary scrubs, I suspect, given they all have animal prints.  But among the varying pieces were a whole bunch of nearly equilateral triangles of these three prints.  I measured the smallest, counted the pieces, and printed up some triangular graph paper to figure out if I had enough to make anything.  And, as it happened, what I had makes up a baby quilt.  It's roughly 39"x45".  So I trimmed and sewed and this is the result.

As Wonderful Husband put it, not fabrics I would have chosen to put together.  But they were freebies and it's been a fast project,  Plus I haven't worked much with equilateral triangles before.  I think it was a line from Full Metal Panic that went "Everything is experience." :)  I'm trying to decide what fabric to use as a backing.  These are my quick and fast pulls from the stash:

Go Me!

A very late post (oh crap, it's past midnight already?!) and I may regret this tomorrow, but I pushed through and got the quiet quilt completely quilted today.  Hooray!  Tomorrow will be trimming and binding and other fun things, but it's a jazzy kind of high to know I can get things done like this.

For now, turning off the computer, guiding Wonderful Husband away from his new Switch and his new Zelda game, and hieing off to bed.

The Quiet Quilt

This afternoon I finally got the backing, batting, and top for the low-volume quilt laid out and basted:

This one is very much not in my usual mien, and there's a reason for that: it started with the center sixteen four-patches, which were among the stuff I bought at Costume College last year.  I had to trim them and then dig deep into my stash to find a fabrics that kind of went-with.  I'm trying very hard to work from my stash only.  As it is, the sashing is the back side of that particular fabric, and the fabric with the pink peonies I had to use every last scrap: a few of the patches are pieced! Fortunately the alternate blocks in the four-patches are simple undyed muslin, which I had on hand.

At this point I've done straight-line quilting in the sashing, and I know what free-motion designs I want to do in the blocks.  But that will take waiting until sometime when Jazzy is napping so I can put all the stuff on my sewing desk onto the ground in order to be able to move the quilt about freely...

Catching Up

Got the Deep Purple wallhanging dropped off at the fairgrounds on Saturday.  This was after the mommy-baby yoga class I go to, so I had both Jazzy and Squiddle with me.  I got my free ticket for my entry, and I'll get another free ticket for working my guild's booth on our day there.  So we're going to the fair this year!  We haven't gone to the fair in years, so this will be the first time for the boys.  The big Ferris wheel stays set up year round, I believe, so Squiddle really wanted to go on it on Saturday.  I had to explain it wasn't plugged in yet.

Otherwise, I have pieced together every. single. last. green string I have.  And is it enough?  No.  But I've got two sides of the final border on the workshop wallhanging, which I've decided I'm going to call Poinsettia Landing.  And the rest of the border that I've pieced set aside.  I need to beg green strings from my guildmates, I guess.

Being still in kind of a string-piecing headspace, I pulled out the foundation papers for String-X and used up all my yellow strings for another block inspired by the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Then I counted up how many I had, and I have fifty quarter-blocks.  It takes forty-eight to make the quilt.  So I'm depapering them, then will do a layout and see how I want them to go.  Some are randomly scrappy, some are RSC colors, so.  Then I'll trim the corners, cut the triangles, and start assembling this into a top.

And the weather is finally turned tolerable again, so hopefully sometime in the next couple days I can get the low-volume quilt basted!

Chugging Along

I stole some cutting and sewing time today and got done the last six tumblers for the ginormous bright tumbler quilt, then sewed the last row together.  I've also stitched another length of green thread on the Christmas tablecloth, finishing off one small bouquet and moving on to the next.

Tomorrow I take the round robin wall hanging and drop it off at the county fair.  The finishes picture I have of it hanging in my guild's quilt show has lousy lighting, so here it is as a flimsy:

Coming Up Daisies

The last of the cross-stitch daisies blocks I've been working on for what seems like forever.  I was trying to get this last block to have all the crosses going the same way... then I muffed it on two flower petals.  Sigh.  Still, not like anyone is ever likely to find the flaws and critique me on them.

Ways to Beat the Heat

Ha!  I finished the last daisy block... and forgot to take a picture of it while the daycube still glowed.  Ah well, tomorrow.  I have subsequently unfolded the tablecloth (roughly 75" x 55") and started in on that.  It's three colors: red, green, and yellow, all pretty close to primary.  The red is all done.  The green, I have six small bouquets and one large along one side, and then eight small and two more large in the center.  The yellow, I have the same number of bows as bouquets, plus fifty bajillion French knots.  I might have this done by this Christmas, but next is more likely.

Thinking to switch out sewing machines and give another a workout (the 301A got put away last night as part of an effort to tidy up), I pulled out my Singer 101 that lives in a Queen Anne table.

No dice.  Something's wrong between the plug and the motor and light.  Wonderful Husband, who has taken electrician's classes far more recently than myself, wasn't able to diagnose it either let alone fix it.  So at some point I'm going to need to lay out money and take the whole thing, table and all, in for repair....

Degrees of Separation

Four more petals to go and the cross-stitch daisies will be done.  So close...!

And one of the odd things about blogland is when one of the blogs you follow shares pictures of another blog's blocks and you stop and think to yourself "Wait a minute, those look familiar.  Very familiar!"

I was sitting right next to Beth in Bonnie Hunter's class.  Small world!

To-Go Projects

I made no progress on the wallhanging today.  This morning was spent doing a lot of needful things around the house, and this afternoon the boys and I decamped coastward to my parents' place where it is routinely eight degrees or more cooler than here in Anaheim.  I plan to repeat this pattern the next couple days since it's in the nineties.

That said, I'm nearing the end on the last of the twelve cross-stitch quilt blocks.  I've dug out the next project, which is actually the previous project as well.  Handily, I even still have the floss colors in my to-go box.  But first, nine more white daisy petals to finish....

Going Small

I've been working on the Jamestown Landing blocks and have made the executive decision to do four blocks, a couple of borders, and call it good at a Christmas wallhanging.  I have small children, I don't have time to piece 168 (I kid you not, that is the actual number required) 4 1/2" neutral string blocks.  At some point, when my boys are bigger, I will revisit the pattern and make an actual bed-sized quilt to go with the wallhanging.  But that day is not today.

So far I have the four blocks sewn and put together, and the first border added on.  Next up will be the outer border, which I'm doing of green strings.  I suspect I do not have enough green strings.  I suspect I may need to e-mail one of my fellow class-goers and offer her a trade: my neutral strings for her green....

Jamestown Landing with Bonnie Hunter!

I took my first quilting class since 1992, and it was with quilt world star Bonnie Hunter!  I joined a whole new guild to be able to take this class, and signed up for it seven months in advance.  I'm lucky that she was teaching at one of the local guilds, and that my parents were able to take care of the boys that day so I could attend.

Our classroom was the clubhouse of a townhome tract in Huntington Beach.  The parking was a bit tricky to find, but the room was well-lit and the A/C worked, huzzah!  (It's turned hot again.)

Here's my workstation, with my Singer 301A.  Bonnie, a well-known lover of vintage machines, liked mine.  (I got to be her first demo girl.)  There were also four Featherweights in the class and one non-Singer vintage machine that I wanted to get a better look at but kept forgetting to.

And Bonnie herself, here teaching us how to properly use specialty triangle cutting tools:

And almost all the completed class blocks laid out together.  I think one more was added after I took this picture.  Mine's the red and green one, which I actually sewed the wrong way for the effect I wanted.  I ripped the two long seams last night and redid them correctly as well as finishing my second nearly-complete block.

And my picture with Bonnie and my block, in front of her quilt.  It was kind of funny to me: the uniform of the day seemed to be trousers and colored knit tops (many with quilty sayings like Bonnie's "Netflix and Quilt"), and here I am in a long flowing skirt and bright colors top and bottom.  Ah well.  Life is too short to wear boring skirts!

ETA: Here's Bonnie's post about the workshop.  My machine and I are in a few of her photos in the slideshow.

A Bonnie Hunter Lecture

So yesterday at the OGQG meeting we had Bonnie Hunter as our guest speaker!  (Here's her post about it. I'm probably that spot of dark blonde in the upper right of the first picture.)  I knew her talk was going to be popular, but was actually kind of funny when I got there right when doors were supposed to open and people were having to hunt for parking.  I found some pretty easily, but then I knew about parking in the back of the lot by the RVs.  There were over 50 guests attending the meeting!  Inside, it wasn't quite standing room only, but the Elk's Lodge was still rather full.

Her talk was great.  I've been following her for a couple years, so she didn't really cover anything revolutionary or ground-breaking to me, but seeing some of her quilts in person was really neat.  And when she brought out Pineapple Crazy... well, I'd seen pictures of it.  They don't do justice.  It's jaw-droppingly amazing.

I had taken the X-Plus quilt in for Show And Tell and since she was sitting in the front row I got to hear her really liking it.  And I bought her three books that I did not have, especially since she had them at a really nice "so I don't have to ship them back home" price. ^_^  I spent part of yesterday evening kitting up supplies for the Jamestown Landing class I'm taking with her tomorrow.  I'm still a bit waffly - do I want to do it in cream with green chains and stars, or do I want to make it a Christmas quilt and do it in cream with green chains and red stars?  Today I need to finish kitting up, and also catch up on stuff here around the house.

On BoMs

Survived getting the house and yard sprayed for termites.  Most things are now returned to their original positions.  My sewing area being the exception.

Got through the OCQG general meeting last night.  Despite people saying they liked the double bowtie block, only 30 were turned in. :(

We'll see how well next month goes.  I've offered both a simple and a complex variation of the Pinwheel block in patriotic colors:

(The OGQG meeting today had 65 blocks turned in for their block of the month!  But meeting attendance is roughly double for that guild.  So I guess percentage-wise it all equals out?)

Ouch

Tweaked my left shoulder this afternoon transferring the baby from his nursies-on-the-rocking-chair-pillow into his crib.  Have taken painkillers and am letting Wonderful Husband do the lion's share of work around the house this evening.

Tomorrow afternoon we have Terminix coming to deal with our flea infestation.  Prepping for this is involving cleaning the floors and putting as much stuff as possible up on beds, tables, counters.  Obviously a lot of the latter can't be done until tomorrow (we need to sleep on the beds, etc.).  Fortunately I did my sewing area before throwing out my shoulder.

That said, I still have at least four more pinwheel blocks to sew (and photograph!) tonight or tomorrow for the guild's BoM.  And my Singer 15 is now closed up and buried under baskets of sewing stuff.  So my plan is to haul the 301 onto the dining table, oil and lube it, and give it a good workout.  It's the machine I've been planning to take to the workshop with Bonnie Hunter this Friday, and I've never actually sewn on it before.  Killing multiple birds with one stone and all that.

But first I need to do more sweeping.

Blue Blocks

Okay, feeling a bit more under control.  I've got four of the eighteen pinwheel blocks done (and perhaps more importantly, worked out all the cutting sizes and written up the instructions) as well as having sewn three of the Wedding Ring blocks.  Between the two blocks, lots of blue fabrics on my sewing desk and ironing board!

*runs around, head on fire*

I've got the low-volume quilt top finished.  I solved the problem of not enough neutrals that went together by flipping one fabric to make it work and using its backside as sashing.  I also pieced a backing from the stash.  I even have enough of the backing fabric left to make either a pillowcase or storage bag to go with.  I just need world enough and time (or, more concisely, living room floor enough and time) to get it basted.

But that's going to have to wait a week and a half.  I have guild meeting #1 next Tuesday night and I need to sew my Ugly Fabric Nine-Patches for the exchange.  And at least six, but hopefully eighteen, pinwheels for the Block of the Month.  And photograph them and write up the instruction sheet for the BoM!  And then the next morning will be guild meeting #2.  And I would like to sew five Single Wedding Ring blocks for that block exchange, but we'll see.  And next Friday will be my workshop with Bonnie Hunter!  So I need to get everything together for that and give my 301 a tuneup and a workout.

Plus taking care of the two little boys and cooking and cleaning and making sure Wonderful Husband doesn't run himself into the ground.

...I may have engaged in a little retail therapy today.  Stress relief!

ETA: Nine-Patches sewn.

On to the next project

I'm aiming to give several people quilts this Christmas.  Wonderful Husband found a design he thinks will work well for a particular person, and it's one I'd be interested in sewing.  But I'm making him pick the colors/fabric, preferably from my stash.

So while he's dithering on that, I've pulled out a set of sixteen muted-color four-patch blocks I got at Costume College last year, and laying them out on the bed.  Four of one fabric surrounded by the twelve of the other fabric makes sixteen, so if I do one more round and some sashing, I'll need to make another twenty blocks, but that will bring it to a good size.  I've been auditioning various fabrics from the stash.  I have one piece that will work well - but I've only enough of it for another twelve blocks.  Maybe if I do the four corners in a different fabric?

I think I just need to pick one and start pressing.

Also, I need to bite the bullet and submit my wallhanging and maybe a bed quilt to the Orange County Fair.  Maybe the crane quilt?  The deadline is tomorrow at 6pm.

A Finish!

I was good, I took pictures!  Here's the X-Plus quilt, as held up by Wonderful Husband in the shade:

It's approximately 70" x 80", made mostly from blocks won from Block Lotto simple straight-line quilting to follow the X and Plus motifs, and the binding is a bunch of black-and-white print scraps that finished it off pretty well.

And a picture of the quilt on a quilt's natural environment: a bed.  Though this one is maybe more of a sofa snuggle quilt size?  Regardless, I think it turned out well.

Vintage baby quilt salvage

I finished sewing the binding down on the X-Plus quilt last night and tossed it through the washer and dryer.  This afternoon I pulled out the next project in the queue:

I bought this baby quilt for $8 at an estate sale back in early April.  (Pictures from then. Jazzy was napping on the bed and I draped it atop him to take the photo.)

Most of the appliques had areas where they had lifted away.  I spent this afternoon repairing them.  I also hand-darned a couple of small tears - one on the ground fabric, two on a hat.  The quilting is broken all over the place but I'm not sure I have the skills or patience to fix all the breaks.

Two of the three fisherboys had lost most of their fishing lines.  I re-embroidered those.  I need to put a new binding on the quilt, but I don't have any appropriate fabric.  I do, however, have a couple gift cards to Orange Quilt Bee, so I figure I'll take this there on Wednesday and ask for help.

Then, after I repair the binding, I'm planning to soak it for a couple days in some Retro Clean and see how many of the stains come out.  And put on a label detailing what I've done to the quilt.  Then... I dunno?  It's not sturdy enough that I'd want to use it as intended, but it's also not really right for a wall hanging.  Maybe I'll ask my guildmates for suggestions.

Git R Done

HA.  Not only have I consolidated my three racks of thread spools down into two (thereby removing the one on the floor which would've been in reach of the baby when he inevitably realizes there's an area of the house into which he has not yet crawled), but ALSO I sat down yesterday evening and just JAMMED at the quilting.  Admittedly it's all straightline quilting, which is far less time consuming than free-motion, but within four hours (which includes a break for dinner) I got the X-Plus quilt all quilted.

(Yes, I'm feeling chuffed.  Thus the not-quite-random capitalizations.)

Today, around Squiddle's morning class and all the usual household folderol, I've been pressing and cutting black and white prints into strips to make the binding...

Hot Weather Has Arrived

We have apparently hit flea season.  Joy!  The cat (Sushi) got treated with Advantage II before I let him out this morning, and, as Squiddle had at least a couple dozen bites on him this morning (I actually picked one flea out of his hair) all his bedding is going through the wash on hot.  As will be the sofa covers later.  And I'm squashing every flea that I find.  Jainist I'm not.

It's turned quite hot the last couple days but is supposed to cool down again later this week.  I did take advantage of the relative coolth this morning to get the X-Plus quilt basted together.  I want to start in on quilting it!  But I know I'll be less miserable if I wait on it until midweek.  So meantime I need to find other projects (beyond the omnipresent housework) to do....

Grr

My first instinct was right; even cut and pieced, the length of fabric is about five inches too narrow for the quilt top.  So I've pulled a second, coordinating, piece to turn into a roughly ten-inch strip down the center.  Of course, I'd already put the ironing board, iron, cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter away....  Ah well.  My own fault for jumping the gun.  I just really wanted to get this one basted today.  But now the Squiddle is up from the nap he refused to take today, and overly active.  Le sigh....

A Flimsy Finished

Got up early this morning and started sewing.  The X-Plus blocks are now a top and I've pulled some fabric for the backing.  I'm not sure it's quite enough; I need to look at it again and revisit my mental math in the morning.  And probably pull a second fabric to piece with it.  But for right now I need to go put away toddler toys and clean up the kitchen from making chicken pot pie for dinner... then shower and bed.

From Not Enough To Too Many

Block of the month quilt row fixed and added on.  It now fits; hooray!  Though I still need to make the April row. ^_^;;

I also laid out the X-Plus blocks on my bed and pinned them into rows.  Apparently I miscalculated (seems to be a theme this week) and I have one block extra.  Better one too many than one too few?  I may use it on the back or maybe I'll save it as an orphan for some other project.

But for tonight, since Jazzy has now discovered crawling in forward gear, my task is babyproofing my sewing area, getting things up and out of babyish reach.  Wish me luck!

Bollocks

My math apparently sucks.  I put the row together and it's 8" too short.  I did another round of math, and Wonderful Husband double-checked it for me... if I make one more block and sashing, and cut all the sashings down from 5/8" finished to 1/2" finished, then it should fit.

Sigh.  Let me go get my seam ripper....