Playing Catch-Up

Just under the wire (they're due tomorrow by noon), I got my blocks for this month's Block Lotto done:

I think they're kind of pretty, so I'm kind of hoping I win this month.  But if not, at least they were both fun and easy to make.

Next, I'm doing a quick kind-of fix.  One of the blocks turned in for the Ugly Nine-Patch exchange... well, she misread the instructions and cut her blocks down to 4 1/2".  Basically cutting the seam allowance off.  So for the one  I got, I'm tearing it apart and going to resew it with 1/8" seam allowances and try to make up the difference as best I can.  Quick, easy project while I try to figure out what I need to be doing next.  Blocks of the Month for my guild, probably....

Just Keep Swimming

Welp, got Niecelet's dress and the boys' vests done before we left, and they worked very well for the family photo shoot.  I still have to finish the matching bloomers for Niecelet and mail them to my sister, though.

Then we got home and one of our cats was collapsed on the floor.  I ended up taking her to an emergency clinic and had to make the hard decision to have her put to sleep.  I... have spent a lot of time crying the last couple days.

I have to keep moving, though.  I have two little boys and project due dates forcing me forward.  I've spent some time the last couple days sewing down the binding on the wall hanging, and have got that completed now.  Onward to the hanging sleeves for the four other quilts going in the show, and the Block Lotto blocks for this month.

Coming down to the wire

Squiddle's vest done.  Niecelet's dress done.  Panty covers to go with dress, half done.  Jazzy's vest in my lap, corduroy and China silk layers being pinned within an inch of their lives.

I've given up on entering anything but the round robin quilt in the quilt show because I don't have the time to measure and fill out the paperwork right now.  Leaving for airport at 2:30 tomorrow, guild tonight, still a hell of a lotta stuff to accomplish.

As the saying goes, hold my beer and watch this.

Recalculating

The pattern I was going to use for Jazzy and Niecelet... the instructions sheet has disappeared.  Grr.  After a good lookabout for it, I decided to spare myself some pain and riffled through my collection of baby girl clothing patterns and found one that had a dress with similar style lines that would work.  I'm less sure about the romper in it for Jazzy, but that goes under my whole issue with the paucity of patterns for little boys' clothing.

A tip/technique I don't think I learned anywhere but came up with myself: if you may want to later reuse a pattern in a different size, dry-iron the pattern paper on a low setting to remove folds and wrinkles, then dry-iron a sheet of white tissue paper on top, smooth side up.  The two layers will stick to each other.  Trace off the size you need.  I use a Pigma micron pen and don't even have to move the paper off the ironing board because the felt tip means I'm using almost no pressure.  Refold original pattern, put it back in the envelope.

(My grandfather always complained about my grandmother not being able to refold paper maps properly, back in Ye Olden Days before Google Maps.  I never understood his gender bias on this, as I was always easily able to refold them.  Then I found my friend suffered the same problem with being unable to refold pattern sheets along the original lines.  Maybe there's a certain mindset regarding spatial mathematics that makes this skillset easy or not?)

Tomorrow: more cutting and sewing.  There's no seam finishes in this pattern, so I think I'm going to use my pinking shears (inherited from that same grandma!) to cut everything....

Vest Victory!

Squiddle's vest is finished.  At least up until the point when I decide I want buttons on it instead of it just being an open vest.  But I'm on a deadline - two other garments to finish by Wednesday, and at least six quilt blocks to sew by Tuesday night.  So buttons are a low priority right now.

On to Niecelet's dress!

Priorities

Squiddle's vest is about half done.  More if you count the tedious "trace and alter the pattern and cut it out in two layers, one of which is China silk" part.  I could be further along, but...

...I spent the most delicious hour this afternoon with a baby asleep on my shoulder.

I can sew stuff the rest of my life.  But there is only a finite window when I get to have one of my boys draped on me, sound asleep.

Some things you cannot buy for love or money.

Switching Gears

Binding on the wallhanging is just over a quarter done.  But!  Tuesday night at the board meeting for the quilt guild, it was clarified that the paperwork for quilt show entries needs to be turned in next week - the entries themselves don't have to be turned in until next month's meeting.

Phew.

And in rereading the newsletter for my other quilt guild, I realized that the group meeting I thought was next Wednesday... was this week.  And since my parents delayed their departure until today, I was able to go.  And glad I did!  The speaker had some fascinating techniques for borders.

So, having set aside quilty stuff for a few days, I'm working on stuff for the trip up north next week.  I've finished the double-sided flannel blanket I've made for Niecelet (using up ~2.5 yards of flannel and a packet of baby blanket binding), and pulled patterns for a matching set of outfits for Squiddle, Jazzy, and Niecelet.

Of course, I also still need to make the Block of the Month samples for guild meeting next Tuesday night, but I think I can bang out these outfits pretty quick.  Let's see how quick!

Bound Up In Binding

I finished quilting the round robin piece yesterday and got the binding sewn on as well as the hanging sleeve stitched on and stitched down.  Today I'm working on getting the binding sewn down on the back.  Hoping to get it largely done in bits and snatches and maybe during Quilt-Cam tonight.  Then a quick wash and the project will be done.

Aside from that and taking care of two little boys, I've also got turkey soup simmering on the stove and have spent a bit of time weeding one of my larger garden beds.  I'm leaving the Egyptian onions in place, and it looks like a couple of last year's parsnips went to seed so now there're baby parnsips in a couple spots... but other than that, the bed is going to be planted in popcorn and pie pumpkins.  Low maintenance and I don't have to worry about missing the harvest window with popcorn.

I've also started ruthlessly shortening the Mount ToBeRead that resides on my desk.  Truth be told, I need to do a general purge of our four bookcases down to the stuff I really love.  (I should note: they are our bookcases, but most of the books on them are mine.  So I wouldn't be touching Wonderful Husband's books.  Just mine.)  But this is a start, and in the process I found I had The Runaway Quilt, so I put that on the bed for my reading material when Jazzy gets nursies.  So far it's pretty interesting.

Quilting Steadily Along...

Okay, got everything up to and including that third purple square last night.  Wrangled the chaos back into its boxes and the boxes back into their slots this morning and marked the big black triangles with their gold stars, the gold triangles, and the black stripes just outside them.  My goal for tonight is to get that much done.  If I can start in on that first row of HSTs as well, that'll be a bonus.

Deadline Looming!

I realized today that it's less than two weeks until the guild meeting which is the soft turn-in date for quilts for the April quilt show.  Now, I have four or five finished quilts I'd like to put in the show, but they all need hanging sleeves added.  And some of them more specific labels added.  And pillowcases or bags with my name on to go in.  Mrr.  Plus I want to sew a trio of cute kiddie outfits between now and the 15th....

But the important item for the quilt show is this:

Last year I participated in the guild's round robin challenge, and they'd like all five of them together in the show.  So this afternoon, while the boys were indulging in a rare nap-at-the-same-time, I tore apart my fabric shelves looking for this, then found it (of course) sitting on top of my sewing desk.  I've got it pressed, a label done up and sewn on, and spray-basted.  I've also cut out a bit of fabric for a hanging sleeve, marked quilting motifs for everything inside that third purple square, and prepped my sewing machine for free-motion quilting.

So in a bit, as soon as the boys let me, I'll be at my machine, quilting amidst the chaos.

Scratch!

I've made myself a small goal of sewing a pillowcase each month this year for the Quilts For Kids group my guild runs.

It works a lot better if I don't misread the pattern and make it 6" too short.

Insert bad words here.

Fortunately I figured this out before sewing any vital seams shut.  I don't have enough of this fabric to just scrap and redo it from scratch, so I've cut another 7" strip and will be piecing it onto the body of the pillowcase later today....