Top, done!

So, I posted about seeing coyotes on Sunday morning.  On Monday morning, driving my boys to their bus stops, we saw another on the short street that leads into our tract.  It was clearly a different one because it had brown fur.  I tried to get a picture, but it disappeared into the brush before I could get my phone camera trained on it.  Still, the boys were very excited!  Haven't seen any since.

Also, the reason I drive my boys to their bus stops is that despite going to the same school, they ride different buses!  Squiddle tested into the district's advanced program, so he doesn't go to our local school but one about 10-15 minutes' drive in the other direction.  Jazzy wanted to go to the same school as his brother, so we applied for a transfer for him, and got it.  (I'm actually quite pleased; theirs is the only school in the district with a dedicated art teacher.)  But only students in the advance program can ride that bus.  So we were going to have to drive Jazzy to school each day.  BUT!  Since he has a speech delay, he has an IEP so he gets to ride on the IEP bus.  The problem is that the two buses arrive, morning and afternoon, about 30 minutes apart.  So it's easiest for me to take both of them at the same time, and keep them contained and entertained within the car.  Lately I've been reading Elephant in the Kitchen aloud while we wait for Jazzy's bus, and he seems to be enjoying it.  And in the afternoon, I do my own reading while waiting for the buses.

So, sewing-wise, I finished the Ugly 9-Patch top!

I had enough of the two greens left to cut and start sewing a pair of matching pillowcases.  I still need to piece a backing.  I found six yards of a lime green print in my stash that I have no idea when/how/why I acquired it, as well as a yard of a green-peas-on-white print that I will never use and want to get rid of.  So tomorrow I will piece those into a backing, and then worry about basting and quilting things.

Today, I've been focusing on writing.  I am posting about 4000 words a week on my story, and as of last night I only had about 1200 done.  Currently at 4490 words, and am calling the chapter done.  Victory!

Sunday Report

A bit of excitement this time-change morning!  (I would have gone back to bed after feeding the cat, but 15 minutes later Jazzy decided it was time for him to get up, sooo....)

But as I was sitting here at my desk, trying to work up the enthusiasm to do things, I saw a couple of neighborhood dogs frisking across the front lawn.  Except then I realized: those don't look like any of the neighborhood dogs I know.

I've lived here for three years, and while I've heard the local coyotes a time or two, I've never before seen any of them!  They're beautiful, and I'm excited, but they're also very much the reason we build our chicken coop to be Fort Knox, and the reason Sushi is an indoors-only cat.

So!  Things I have been working on.  I completed the top and backing for Squiddle's quilt:

They're currently draped across the guest bed with the door closed, to keep them smooth, flat, and free of cat fur until I can get them basted and ready to quilt.

Because!  I realized that I have a UFO (UnFinished Object) quilt due at my next two guild meetings.  For the one on the 22nd, I only need to have it done to a top, but for the one on April 5th, it's supposed to be finished!  So I pulled out the bag of (apparently) 157 blocks from the Ugly Fabrics 9-Patch Exchange I ran for the Orange County Quilt Guild several years ago:

I have one extra turquoise-and-black patch, which may go on the back.  For now, all the rows are sewn and pressed, waiting to be joined.  My plan is to get this to a finished top, bang together a backing, then get it and Squiddle's quilt basted one after another.

Progress, However Incremental

Went to the Gig Harbor quilt guild yesterday.  There was no Treasure Table this month, but I was able to drop off a book I'd culled, to go in next month's.  The program was Four Corners, so I learned about two techniques and two rulers that were new to me... none of which I think I'll ever use.  But!  It was good to learn things.  I also got to shill for new members for the shrunken Quilters By The Bay guild, so maybe that will do some good?  And, miracle of miracles, the meeting got out on time such that I didn't need to sneak out early to meet the boys' buses!

And!  I've now finished all forty-nine blocks for Squiddle's quilt.

Today I get to start stitching them together.  Then, after that's done, I get to make the backing, then start in on turning all those Ugly Nine-Patches into a quilt top, since that's now due at two separate guilds for a UFO challenge....

The Cake Is Not A Lie

So, yesterday was my mom's birthday.  I made the cake!

Triple layer strawberry cake, from The Cake Doctor book.  Very yummy!  Though, unfortunately, I went with store-bought icing, and all those strawberries went sliiiiiding off the cake during the car drive over to my parents'. :(  So they got stuck back on with toothpicks.  Stab!

I haven't been getting much reading done, since I've been concentrating on writing and quilting, but I did (finally!) finish The Silent Tower (369pp) by Barbara Hambly.  I'm not sure what to think of what's happening in it, but it is very much set up as the first part of a series.  Additionally, it takes about a third of the way into the book for the two disparate universes in it to start to mesh.  So, maybe not recommended at this juncture?

And I also bit the bullet, used up my January allowance, and purchased a physical copy of Penric's Demon (135pp) by Lois McMaster Bujold.  I finally have the whole series in book form!  And I've determined that I reallyreally like reading a physical book over a digital one.  (Wonderful Husband is the opposite.)  Rereading this in a physical format was a completely different experience than reading it on a screen.  Much love for Penric and Desdemona!  And now I want to reread the whole series.  Preferably in internal chronology order.  Maybe by the time I finish, Subterranean Press will actually have gotten Knot of Shadows printed and in the mail to me. :)

All You Need Is Love

So last weekend, I participated in the virtual Treadle On Gathering.  Which was quite fun and interesting and I learned more than a few things!  Not all of them having to do with treadle machines, either. ^_^

I also cut up rather a lot of my current scrap pile into usable parts, and finished my other Sneaky Secret Project:

This is 13.5" square, and all the reds are scraps from the quilt I'm making for Squiddle.  It's my fourth mini quilt (and I've just finished the top for my fifth), so I'm thinking of grouping them on a wall somewhere for a display?  Who knows.  Anyhow, it's cute, and was finished in time for Valentine's Day.

Red Things

So, I have finished reading The Red Pyramid (516pp), the first of the Kane Chronicles trilogy.  It was slightly less easy to follow than the Percy Jackson books, but then I have a more thorough grounding in Greek mythology than I do in Egyptian.  I blame the American public education system.

Also, I have finished three parts of the Sneaky Secret Project!  (Part four still in progress.)  You see, I had found a pattern for Valentine's Day card quilts.  And since I had all those red scraps from the quilt I am making for Squiddle, I made three cards, for my boys and my husband:

Caveat on the pattern: it gives you the size for the side triangles, but not the corner triangles.  I used Bonnie Hunter's tutorial to help me figure out the math for those.

And!  Since I used a plain cream fabric for the backing, I'll actually be able to write on these Valentine's cards.

Monday Progress

The star blocks are complete!

Now I just need to pull 12 or 24 reds, and 9 or 18 off-whites (depending on how much variety I'm going for) and start cutting strips to make the X blocks!

But first, Sneaky Secret Project lies in the scraps: