Cathy's Aunt Sukey--3 parts done!!!

Woo-hooo.....for not feeling that well, I still decided to just slowly continue on Cathy's quilt, and v'iola! Before I knew it, I put the last quilting stitches on her third part.

So, before I head off to volleyball, I thought I'd just give a "show-n-tell" with pictures. I'm heading to my mom's tomorrow---I would LOVE it if I could put the three pieces together before I head out, but....*shrug*....we'll see

Naturally, the colors are not true---we all know what we need to go through to try to get the quilting to show nicely :0)

Progress-Cathy's Aunt Sukey

Once again---early rising: 6:15 am. Both Candace and Caitlyn crawled into bed sometime in the night, so at 1:30am, I hooved it up to Caitlyn's bed---there just wasn't enough room for DH, those two, AND myself. So...Caitlyn's room doesn't have a clock---the birds were singing, sun was blaring, I figured it was past 7:00 for sure! Oh well.....

Coffee, bagel, yada-yada. But I got basting Cathy's Aunt Sukey right away this morning before the sun realllly started blaring through our windows. Once 8:30 rolls around, we don't have a chance getting away from the sun upstairs until about 2:30, so those are the hours I usually like heading downstairs to sew or "hide" in our back bedroom. Verrrrry cool in those places. These are our windows that face South-East---VERY nice in the winter months though (on sunny days!). The heat that comes through these windows with the sun is amazing.....


Anway.....once I had the quilt (top corner piece #1) basted, the girls were getting a bit ancy (as I was using the kitchen floor), so I had them take up the tape while I fixed up some cereal and bagels for them. Wow---we really are a bagel family---Cailtyn loves bagels with cream cheese, and Candace any myself enjoy a strawberry cream cheese on ours.

But finally, around 8:30, I was able to head downstairs to put my first quilting stitches in the sandwich! Yeah.......
after half an hour of simple stitching in the ditch, it was time to move to an "outline" about 1/4 inch in from the seams on the light gold/yellow pieces. However, a simple straight stitch seemed to boring-----playtime with the different stitches followed for about 15 minutes. I decided on stictch #146. BOY---was that PUTZY once I finally started stitching the blocks. I had one block completely done and needed to take a break---girls were getting a little bored and ancy. So.....hmmmmmmm, an "outing" was needed; more thread was needed; PERFECT OPPORTUNIY! I'll be killing two birds with one stone. So, at 10:45 we rolled out the door for a "drive" and ended up the the LQS with beginning quilt in hand. Of course, the lady (who helped me pick out the mauve and light gold/yellow fabric) wanted the show-n-tell session and she helped me pick out some yellow, green, and mauve threads I needed to complete the quilting. It was a short visit, ONLY thread was bought. We stopped of at good ol' McD's for some lunch, and headed home.

Once the girls were settled after eating lunch, I was back downstairs to finish up the other three blocks with stitch #146 before getting to the FUN part of the yellow fabric flowers. WOW--that went so much slicker than I expected---I am VERY PLEASED with how well the flowers turned out! I FMQ inside the "center-piece" blocks (black/flowered fabric).

And....my first oiling was requested! I told my FIL (father-in-law) about the "oil" light and he chuckled! (He's a driver education instructor) So of course he joked about having a machine that was smart enough to remind the driver that it was time for an oil change!

Just LOOK at that lint! It's amazing, really, at what can get built up within a week's time.

By 4:30, I wrapped up most of the marked quilting, then headed upstairs to mark the green sashing. I had completely forgot about those yesterday, so......
I was only able to get a few marked before needing to throw together some supper and get ready for Volleyball. DH and I play on a league every Wednedsay---what FUN! I coached vball for my first 7 years of teaching; referee'd in college; played in HS---love the sport! DH never really played, but has REALLY turned into a great player----tsch! How could he NOT???? He's 6'6" for crying out loud! All he has to do is stand with arms straight up and he's towering over the net! :0)

But.....FINALLY------they arrived!

Of ALLLLL the nights to come home with the pigs, he would HAVE to choose a VBall night!!! He was already running late, so we hustled WARP SPEED to get them settled before bolting off to Vball---we were only a few minutes late.

Champion and Eddie were a hoot to watch once they realized they had new "farm mates." They pranced about; flared their nostrils; winnied like little spoiled brats; and just down-right didn't know what to think of them.

Grandma and Grandpa came for a short visit tonight on their way to the "Farm" up north. So, they packed up Cassie and took her with since we'll be coming up on Friday anyway. The two little ones weren't too keen on not being able to go with G-MA/G-PA, but we tried to be "smarter psychologically" and told them they needed to be sure the new pigs get settled and told them they had the responsibility of naming them (and not Cassie) :0) *wink* It worked. Amazing sometimes!

Looking forward to a quieter house tomorrow---#2 and #3 should play nicely together and I should be able to get some more quality time in quilting. I should be wrapping up piece #1 and hopefully start on piece #2 tomorrow (same size and shape for bottom corner.)

Happy Quilting!

Okay, SHORT post tonight :0)

*chuckling at the comments from last night's post*

Okay...I'll make this one short and sweet---no photos, even! How's that?? :0)

I awoke @ 6:30; no shower (pee-u!); coffee and bagel; sandwiched and basted baby-quilt that I'd been ripping; avoided the heat of the day by heading downstairs to start quilting; got upset by TENSION ISSUES AGAIN!!! (but I think that's because the user has to play with the settings a bit more when using VERY thin fabric and batting (ummm...the batting is actually a piece of flannel); so, changed my "upstairs-hand-sewing-job" to quilting the baby quilt and put the Desert Stars away for another year ( :0) );

OKAY ---I LIED!!! I'll Ban my "never tell a lie" flag!!!!

Here's a shot of how the baby quilt was marked with cute concentric hearts and some grids; using verigated pastel thread.

Okay...back to the quick post-----lunch; did some more hand quilting on baby quilt; Candace fell asleep at 2:00; I headed downstairs to start piecing the backing (after IRONING NINE YARDS OF FABRIC!) for Cathy's Aunt Sukey; piddled with measurements and TRIPLE checked before making any cuts; didn't feel like basting---oh yeah : DUH! I needed to mark the quilt markings first; back upstairs to mark one corner of quilt using the hard-wood floor; made supper; did a little hand-quilting; hung out with girls and Dad watching "Wipe Out" (eh---it's okay; the big red rubber balls get us cracking up almost every time!); started to watch "I survived a Japanese Game Show," but laced up the laces 10 minutes later; ran 3.2 miles; shushed girls to bed; drank some water; logged on; posted.....oh wait...that's what I'm doing right now----no past tense there :0)

Whew---even typed like THAT, it still seems like a whirl-wind, huh?

Okay, I'm off to check out Blog Roll at Blogger.com (THANKS LORI!) I hope I find it and get it working!

Take me to warp speed, Scottie!

Yesterday update
Since I didn't get back online last night, here was the GLORIOUS DAY update I had with the girls....


For most of the morning, it was a DORA day----Cassie drew (using a stencil) on the magic screen, while Candace and Caitlyn (with mom's help) put a Dora puzzle together. Caitlyn wasn't quite up to dressing yet----I had forgotten about that when I snapped the pics, BUT she DID need to have her "clogging" shoes on. (That's what I call them---they are about 2 sizes too big for her; hand-me-down from older sister, but she loves them!) ---oh well...





After lunch, and after some weeding in the garden, it was time to saddle up! Each of the girls had their turns up and down the driveway, and then poor Eddie was done. I did feel a bit bad that I didn't saddle up Champion and let Cassie ride him---he's a bit more spunky and likes to have riders. Like I said the other day, Eddie isn't much of a riding horse---which is why he's PERFECT for Candace and Cailtyn; he's verrrrrry calm! Champion has some some spunk, though.

So, yeah----Inever got around to bloggin again last night----and NOPE, did not get downstairs. By the time DH got home (7:00), and we got around to making dinner, I was starting to get pooped. THEN, while viewing the guide on the TV, I saw Nannie McPhee was on--what a wonderful movie. I hadn't seen it, but had always wanted to, so.....another perfect opportunity for quality family time. And yes----(*holding up the 'will never tell a lie' flag*), I cried at the end. I'm a sucker for a happy ending!!!!

By the time we shuffled the girls to bed after the movie (9:00), and vegged some more in front of the TV, bed was calllling out me name. That 1:00am bedtime from the night before (remember...when Candace was WIDE awake and having tea with mom)...well, it finally kicked in.


Today----up bright an early for me on a day when there are no plans; 6:30am. I showered before the girls got up and even got some coffee and a bagel in before they stirred. Oh---and I ripped out the last quilting stitches on the baby blanket that is begging for requilting, so......ho-hum.....what to do now "upstairs" when the girls are bored with playing downstairs.....
Since no one was up YET (7:10), I headed downstairs to peek and dig out an "upstairs" project......
lo-n-behold! Here is yet again a project I had started last fall when inspiration took over control of my mind. I had so many scraps from grandma and wanted to try to burn some of them up (this was PRE-BONNIE!) So, I had come across this "Desert Stars" pattern, and I thought...."Eh----perfect scrap-burner!" So....my first attempt at hand-piecing---here I come! I had a stack already cut out, so for the next hour (inbetween cereal and bagel preparation for the girls), I pieced. It did take awhile to get the hang of how to place my fingers to get a nice running stitch (and not POKE myself!!!!)

However, by 8:00 (when Lazy Town came on---what another wonderful show! I love it!), I snuck downstairs to try to finish the blocks on Cathy's quilt. Oh....I found the name of the block too......"Aunt Sukey's Choice"......So, I think the name of this quilt will be Cathy's Aunt Sukey.
And after that point, I completely lost track of any sense of time. Here and there, throughout the morning, I toggled between sewing up the blocks and keeping the girls happy with snacks, games, and toys. I dunno........All I really remember was that at 12:30-ish, I wrapped up all the blocks and headed up to make lunch.
Upon opening cabinets and the fridge, I realized how slim the pickin's were. We settled on the last can of Chef-Boy-R-Dees (sp?) Ravioli. However, we packed ourselves up directly after lunch and headed to the grocery store :0)
And SHOCKER! Gas jumped! We finally broke the $4.00 barrior! We were holding at 3.97 for sooooo long, but today: 4.09. *sigh*

Amazingly, the girls were EXCELLENT at the store! I even gave in and bought a tub of ice cream!!!
I wasn't sure if I wanted to push my luck, but decided to take a QUICK detour to the local Craft store (I wouldn't call it a Quilt shop----it's kind of like the old Ben Franklin stores.) However, I wanted to see what deals they may have on fabric for a backing for Cathy's quilt. I was being optimistic that I would be quilting by the end of the week, so I wanted to make sure I had all supplies handy. They had some poly-cotton for 2.49/yard in the PERFECT pink/mauve shade. It definitely isn't as great a quality as 100% cotton, but I couldn't beat that price. Specially knowing a needed NINE yards!!!! So, $30.00 later (and ONLY 5 minutes!!!!!!), we were back on the road heading home to unpack groceries, and to dig into the ice cream right away!

Candace fell asleep on the way, so I carried her to the bedroom where she napped until 4:30!!! Wow!
After the older girls had some ice cream, they were ready for some "quite time," too, so Cassie chose Ratatouille (SP?).

Naturally, I took this opportunity to head back downstairs. (This was about 2:30/3:00).


Wellll---finally getting to the title of this post, I don't know HOW I did it but----by 5:30, the top was pieced!!! And perfect timing to get upstairs to make some dinner for me and the girls. (DH was working late-----gotta "make hay when the sun shines.")

This top is H-U-G-E!!! I don't have the measurements, but to give you an idea----the area that the quilt is currently laying on holds easily TWO CC quilts! It requires King size batting, and....9.5 yards backing, for crying out loud!!! I am SOOO glad this pattern explains how to quilt it in sections! I am sooo excited, yet nervous, to take on this task. From this point on, I will REALLLLY be taking my time on the quilting. Kinda "measure THREE times, cut once" mentality. I've read and re-read the quiting in sections material, but it's sitting next to me and will be re-read yet one more time tonight before hitting the hay.

Oh---but don't think my day was over yet.....

When DH rolled in at 8:00, I was "tieing up some loose ends," but decided to shush the girls outside with DH. I STILL can't believe that I shut all the lights off downstairs to go up and "tie up the laces." This is the FIRST time this summer where it was "I feel like running" ran through my mind instead of..."ugh...come on....you can do it....you need to do it....otherwise you aren't going to be ready in August for that Half....." ;0) It was SOOOO GORGEOUS outside!!! No wind; upper 70's; low humidity! I was worried I would be sluffin' a bit since I haven't run since last Monday (BAD ME!), but....WOW! My heart was great....cardio wasn't making it go into much of an overdrive....and for ONCE my legs weren't feeling like they had 300 pound weights on them! About 2.5 miles into the run, I needed to take a quick detour (5 minutes) to a neighbor's house to pick up an Avon catalog (I LOVE their skin-so-soft shower gel!), but then back on the road for another 2.5! I knew I needed to use my "good-feeling-run" wisely, so I turned it into an AI (Aerobic interval) training run;
okay, for those non-runners, you can skip this part---mainly just for my record here :0)
After a mile warm up, I did 4 1:00 AI's, 2 1:30 AI's (neighbor break), 4 more 1-1:30 AI's (except one that was 2:00+---daydreaming about being pulverized by a bear! *giggle*)

Upon arriving back home, I shushed the girls inside. THEY NEEDED BATHS BIGTIME TONIGHT!!! (Dare I say it's been probably 5 days since they last had a bath??? *GULP*) It was already 9:10, but too bad----no plans tomorrow again, so a late bedtime is not a problem. And of COURSE, after bathtime, they needed one last snack before bed---so after a final icecream cone, they finallly were trudging up the stairs at 9:45pm!

So, here I sit---having taken almost an hour to write this post! WHEW!
As always, thanks for tuning in to my small neck of the woods!
Happy sewing!

Stoppin to smell the roses----AND some quilting, too :0)

As Amanda joked in her comment, "do I ever stop to smell the roses?"
Well, today, as stated last night, I had intentions of having some time with the girls today since DH was going to be working.
However, plans changed a bit earlier than expected, because DH decided to just TAKE THE DAY OFF. Wooo-hooooo! We had a relaxing morning, some coffee, cereal, cartoons, and the lot. By 9:00, it was time to get the day started. All three girls headed outside with "Dad," so I took ONE HOUR for myself downstairs finishing up the 4-blocks for Cathy's 60th quilt.

Candace came in from outside around 10:00, so it was time for a mid-morning snack. Yogurt was the snack of choice---that and apple juice. While she was snacking, I snapped a few photos of the Scarecrow wall-hanging that had been resting on the back of the couch. (And yes, now you can see that ugly styrofoam wall I was talking about the other day. The walls obviously haven't been finished yet downstairs).
The satin stitch can now be seen :0) I also did a little quilting; the pumpkins were outlined and some of the shadowed lines were enunciated with stitch lines; the jacket was outlined; and I'm still thinking of adding some REAL buttons to the jacket directly over the painted-on ones.













Post snack, Candace and I headed back outside to see what Dad was up to. He was putzing in the garden; so I grabbed a hoe and started weeding/hoeing the rows of corn. The day was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!!! Slight breeze; mid 70's; partly cloudy. For the next hour or so, we worked on the garden, weeding, and even though it's almost July, we decided to plant yet a few more rows of beans, corn, and some peppers.

Lunchtime was at about 12:30, where I fried up some potatoes, and we had some Chicken fingers and pear slices. Afterwards, I can't really recall what all took place. But throughout the rest of the afternoon, I floated between relaxing with the girls inside and "putzing" outside in the garden with DH. I ATTEMPTED to get Candace to relax and try to nap, but HMPF! That didn't quite happen.

By 5:30, it was supper time----brats and hotdogs on the grill. Naturally, Candace was getting a little whiny; so it was NO SURPRISE that after supper, she ZONKED out on our bed. I took that opportunity to head outside with DH once again---this time to clip Champions' (horse) hooves---they were SO LONG! Cassie took THAT opportunity to jump up on Eddie and try to stroll around the meadow bareback with him. However, Eddie is stubborn, and doesn't enjoy riders---he didn't budge much! Once Champion was clipped, though, she climbed up on him and enjoyed about 20 minutes strolling around the pasture. He's such a good horse! (pony).

By 7:00, I was able to have "me" time, and headed (of course) downstairs to work some more on Cathy's quilt. Since all the 4-blocks were completed this morning, it was now time to tackle cutting all the strips into half-triangles and quarter-tris. The magazine that has this pattern also offered a FREE "Triangle Corner Template," but now that I've been using the Easy Angle and Companion rulers via Bonnie's patterns, I set the little "marti-mitchell template" aside. (sorry Marti).

Once the triangles were cut, it was time to start piecing again......
....and piecing is a "piece" of cake with this lovely seam-guide!!!

What was I piecing???? LOTS and LOTS of flying geese!



72 of these...........










Then came 72 of these---which I reallllly only thought I would get pieced, and leave behind the machine in a lovely chain to tackle tomorrow.


But then, BLESS Cassie's heart---she came downstairs around 9:00 (hey---it's Saturday---I'm not so picky on bedtime on Saturdays) and decided to help me cut the chains apart and stack them in piles of 10.




So this second batch of flying-geese went together by 9:40. Yeah....... (Cutting all those dog-ears really can get annoying, though).




To end the evening, I couldn't NOT put together at least ONE complete block. So.....here it is....ALMOST perfect....one little black corner doesn't match up (bottom part of the block), but I'll take it :0) The border around the block (almost not noticable) is the green fabric we (MIL and me) chose to use as the sashing.



Tomorrow's plans??? Don't know. DH IS going to work on some side jobs with a buddy, so it will only be me and girls. I was thinking of having Cass calls some friends to see if they want to come over for "pony rides." :0)

Productive day...

When I headed downstairs, I still wasn't quite sure what I wanted to work on. However, I really DID want to start on "Cathy's 60th" quilt (the quilt that needs to be made by the end of August for the friend of the family. For lack of a better name right now---Cathy's 60th is it! since it's her 60th birthday.)

But, lo-n-behold----I hadn't washed ANY of the fabrics yet. So...off to the machine----and what to do in the meantime???

Putz, of course!

First, I thought I'd add some simple little hangers to the trial block I made. Now I just need to find a nicer hanger than just this little dowel :0)










Then, I really felt inspired when I came across these pieces I had cut out and stored in one of my Grandma's "old" quilt books. The book is downstairs right now, but (going from memory) the block is called Mohawk Trail. I had SO MUCH FUN using the blanket stitch feature on my machine. Ohhhhhh......it's soooooooo easy to do applique with a machine that handles a NICE blanket stitch! For now, the finished block (17.5" unfinished) will sit until I decide what to do with it. I don't know if I'll feel inspired to create an entire quilt of these blocks, or if this block will join in with other orphan blocks for a crazy sampler quilt.

By this time, the fabrics had been moved into the dryer----so more putzing.
DH has asked me to make a quilt for his head-contractor, Scot, for Christmas. Naturally, being a hunter of all sorts, a Camoflauge quilt was requested. I've been slowly adding to my camo stash since about last Christmas, and these are the fabrics I have chosen for him so far. I've also been looking around for different patterns, and I might actually make a "controlled" Chunky Churndash.


Lunch time! DH threw this recipe together a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted something quick, so I made the "mini-bagel-pizza" for lunch. Very simple-----throw half a bagel in the toaster; then layer with pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese. Put under a lo-broiler for a few minutes, and v'iola! Instant "easy" lunch that the kids love!!!


Post-lunch: A few weeks back, this was a goodie that I won as a give-away. Still waiting for the fabrics to get dry, I figured I'd tackle getting this sandwiched and basted. And of course, even though the dryer timer went off while basting, I couldn't just LEAVE the darn thing laying out on the floor-----it needed INSTANT quilting. So----Not only did I have a day with my lovely Blanket stitch earlier----now I could try my first real SATIN stitch. Ooooooooo------so COOL!!!! I don't have pics yet, but will put them up tomorrow for sure. I just received my Connecting Threads order, where I had ordered some "Fall Virigated" (sp?) thread. PERFECT! But---boy! It sure took a long time to go all the way around the edge of the scarecrow.

So, finally came the time when I needed to take a break from down-stairs. DH was home early due to being "rained out" (even though it wasn't raining by us). So, the girls got their suits on and headed out to the "turtle pool" again; DH headed to the garden, and I WAS going to get some mowing done, but the mower had other things in mind. The belt needed replacing, and we didn't have the correct belt handy to get it going---so....... (now, here comes the whining)----it was TOOO MUGGGGGY for me! I had no ambition of helping in the garden, so, back downstairs I went, fabric from the dryer in tow.

I wasn't downstairs long when "drama" was breaking out upstairs. Ooooo----those girls can drive each other crazy (and ME too!) So, for the next couple of hours, I was upstairs, toggling between preparing supper, refereeing the girls, and ripping out the baby blanket quilting. (Slowly making progress on that---but no big hurry!)

By 8:00, I was able to head back downstairs to finish up the ironing. I even cut out ALMOST all the pieces. Well, all the pieces are cut out, but some of the strips need cutting yet into half-triangles, etc.

At 9:00, I took a quick time-out to shush the girls off to bed. Sorry---bad mommy tonight; no stories. They were all pretty much pooped out anyway, so bedtime wasn't a struggle tonight! Whew......

To wrap up the evening, I needed to get SOME piecing done on Cathy's quilt, so I took the mauve and cream strips, pieced them, and make about half of the required 4-blocks needed.

Oh---and that reminds me! This pattern REALLLY over-estimated the fabrics needed. The picture above showing all the pieces----yeah, well, on the left of that picture is all the excess fabric I have! I can definitely see some pillow shams being created!!!!

Whew----Nice productive day :0) Tomorrow needs to be a family day, though. DH will be working on some of his side-jobs, so it'll just be me and the girls again. However, I need to do something "organized" with them to keep them sane. Baking cookies is on the agenda for sure---not sure if the day will involve an "outing" or not.