Lotsa goody updates.....

I was up bright-n-early this morning: 4:30 am. I was awake, nose a bit stuffy since we had the windows open all night, so I think the allergens got an early start. I gave up trying to get back to sleep by 4:40, and started a pot of coffee and jumped into the shower. I spent the morning until 7:00 online perusing Bonnie's Quiltville. I fell in LOVE with Cathedral Stars all over again!!! AND... HOLY BUCKETS.....WHAT a coincidence!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! Tonight, just about 30 minutes ago, my Dad called to ask if I would be willing to make a quilt that his VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) could raffle off. HOLY BUCKETS! I KNOW just what quilt to make!!! I can't WAIT to start! BUT.......first things first. Thank GOODNESS he doesn't need it until the end of January, because I HAVE to start tackling that C'mas list more!

Last weekend, while I was moping about the house and refusing to find any energy to get my butt outside to run, I at least managed to fussy-cut 82 diamonds for Derek's Storm at Sea quilt for C'mas. 40 of them needed to be horizontally cut, while 42 of them needed to be vertically cut.














When I made my way downstairs this morning at 8:00, I started tackling the white "corners" of the diamonds to complete the sashing rectangles. (Another small world---after reading the Cathedral Stars, I was reminded to add the "Tri-Recs" ruler to my C'mas list!!!! I think it would've come in handy for this quilt!)






So.........being married to a construction worker who always jimmies up concoctions to make his job easier, I attempted this myself to tackle these corner pieces. You see that curled-up corner piece in the top pic? Well.....I rotated it this way and that way on my 6.5" square before I figured out a way to lay it so I could cut the pieces from a 4" strip of white. I grabbed a red-sharpie, marked the square, and then started cutting away. Pretty slick!!! *patting self on back* And right on target----4"x7.5" unfinished.











Then, I set those aside for a moment while I pulled out some of my pieced 2" brights that I had cut from fabric that was donated to me from my mom's church. I hope to have this Scrappy Irish Chain completed to donate to the church by Christmas also.


Let's see.....what then.......?.......
OH YES!!!! How could I forget?!?!?!?
I knew I was going to head to Walmart to see if I could find some backing for my OTR, so I putzed a bit to see exactly what my "batting status" was. I had a few bags of scraps---nothing big enough to equate to anything. I had a small collection of pieces that will be great for some crib quilts, or I could really buckle down and piece them together for a larger twin or maybe even a full. Then......I remember my mom lugging a big black-plastic-wrapped roll of something downstairs a few weeks back when they were here. She said it was the batting she was going to use on the Zion Year of the Bible quilt that I surprised her with early in August. So, I pulled the plastic off, expecting to see really THICK batting since it was so large, but something is better than nothing.

HOLY BUCKETS!!!!!!! I wasn't expecting to see a whole flippin' ROLL of nice, THIN batting!!!!!!!!! 60" wide.......gosh! There must be .......I don't even KNOW how many yards on this thing!!! I ended up rolling out 6 yards to use on the OTR today (see earlier post). I assumed it was donated by the church, but after calling her to THANK HER FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, she informed me it was from Grandma's stash.

By 10:30, me and the girls hit the road to get to Walmart, bought our necessities, bought fabric for the OTR backing, bought some red fabric for Derek's Storm at Sea, grabbed some donuts on the way home, and arrived back at 12:00. I threw the fabric into the washing machine right away, and did up the dishes in the meantime. Then, AMAZINGLY, the girls were whining for some food......GOSH! They just ate donuts on the way home! So I whipped up some lunch, finished the dishes, threw the fabric into the drier, and waited. Gosh....what did I do during that time?!?!?.....ummmmm.......I can't remember for the life of me. OHHHHHHHHHH!!!! That's right.....I went downstairs and cut some more white tri's and started sewing more of Derek's sashing rectangles. Yeah, yeah.......I'm making the sashing first because I knew I wanted the Nautical fabric for that......I needed some red for the blocks. Now I'm set :0)

Anyway, once the drier was finished, the rest of the afternoon was spent with the OTR. Again...you can read about that in the previous post where I attempt to give a run-down of the Quilting in Sections method by Marti Michell.

It's almost 8:30 pm right now, and I think DH wants the computer. Gosh---I don't know why because he's watching the Packers play the Cowboys (football). Anyway....I thought I'd end with the signs of Fall in Wisconsin. The pic on the left was taken last Saturday, and the pic on the right was taken today. Within a week, we've gone from a spotty tree here-n-there, to about 25% of the woods full of "Fall-bloom." :0)

Ooooooo------and the kinda good news---------Daycare needed to close tomorrow due to a family emergency, so I've taken a personal day so I can be home with Candace. So.........*rubbing hands together*.....guess what *I* get to do all day?!?!?!?!!?....*giddy giggle*

yes!