First finish of 2012!

**hanging head**

March 17th

and my FIRST complete finish of 2012 is hitting my blog....

"Maltese Star" - Mystery 24

Now to make and attach a label. This one (and one other) will be mailed out to Alycia's QOV project.

Orca Bay Top done; Maltese Star quilted

Orca Bay (78"x87") {yet to be renamed?}
Another top completed that can be added to my "Tops Done" list on the side bar.

Maltese Star (63"x79")
And then, since Alycia sent some quilting mojo my way, I figured I'd actually spend some time finishing up the quilt that has been on my frame for the past month. This was from a mystery by Mystery Quilts 4 Military, mystery #24. Started: January 11, 2011. Hm.....wonder how long it'll take me to get the binding and label on this one :\ For now, my school work is calling...

Some final touches

Four quilts get 100% COMPLETELY marked off now.

Splendidly Marching Along and Transitions only needed labels to be complete. SMA will be sent to Alycia as soon as Maltese Star gets finished (my next to be loaded on the frame). Transitions will be in the hands of a new owner by the end of this week as she heads off to college.

Hopscotch needed binding; I had LOADS of this burgundy in my 2.5" strip drawer; NO IDEA where it was from???? But, used most of it :0) FINISHED!

Despite having had Roll, Roll Cottonboll marked off as" finished" in May, it still needed binding as well as a label even though it had been living on our bed :0). So, using some yellow and blue 2.5" strips from the drawer....it's FINISHED!

Feels good having those putzy tiny finishing tasks DONE! ;0)

Check
Check
Check
and
Check!

Before & After - Sewing area

Feeling ambitious, I headed downstairs after prepping dinner (BBQ Pork Chops - trying a new recipe tonight) with all intentions of loading With Heart onto the frame and get some quilting in.

BUT.....I decided it was TIME to deal with THIS!

Everytime I walk to my sewing room in the background, I always had to step over this MESS!

Two hours later, three donation boxes later, and two garbage bags later.... ahhhhhhhhh. There IS something about tidiness, isn't there!!??!?!!? I was just saying this to Angela with her lovely Before/After pictures of her longarm/sewing area.

And as most of you know, when you clean, you find/see things. Ooooohhhh...my mind was just hummmming when I came across the left over Morning Run fabrics.

Cassie would LOVE a quilt made out of these, so I pulled some fabrics amidst the cleaning time and laid them out. I haven't thought much more about this yet, so if any of you "see" a pattern for the center, feel free to share. It will most like be third, no wait, FOURTH on my to-do list.

Weekly Goals by next Friday:
1) Finish With Heart
2) Finish Hopscotch
3) Finish Maltese Star

Two and a half finishes with a Stash Report

Ugh. BOY, I've been in a slump lately and have allowed myself to play the victim instead of making the best of it and moving forward with a few different things at work. This slump has migrated its way to my quilting life; not having much of any motivation to do anything.

WELL! What a poooooooh way to live, huh?

So, this AM while catching up on blogs, I read Bonnie's "A Heart for Japan" post where she was requested to get the word out for assistance on sending quilts to Japan. Putting everything into perspective, my life is no where NEAR as bad as what it could be, so ..... I shook out of my whiny-victim mood and said....."stop sulking and get busy Amy!"

Having been two weeks since I really spent any real time quilting, I started with the quilt that was on my floor---Maltese Star (QOV Mystery #24). The final borders needed to be pieced onto it. 20 minutes later, measuring at 64"x80"----top done :0). It has been set aside because it IS meant for donation to QOV, but I wanted to get busy on some Japan donation quilts.

While I was finishing up Maltese Star, I started doing some brainstorming on how to finish up my Red Blossoms quilt that STILL was displayed on my design wall. I thought it would be a perfect quilt to finish up and donate!

A small 1" light inner border was added, in addition to the pinwheel extensions to the top/bottom, and one final 5" red border, finishing this quilt at 66"x76".

Find fabric for a backing wasn't super easy, but I think I pieced it together well enough to accomplish its job. This is yet another project showing the symmetric nature to just about everything I create. 180 degree rotational symmetry, slightly off-balance, shown here. The larger red pieces are a hand-dyed fabric that was in one of my many storage boxes.

I didn't change out my pantograph at all---still using my 4.5" Chinese Crescents, a perfect "loose" pantograph.



While I was quilting Red Blossoms, I needed a small break, so I pulled my Blue Ridge Beauty off my 'waiting table' to trim off the excess batting/backing from quilting it a few weeks back. Then took a few moments to prepare some binding and zooooooomed away, finishing off this quilt at 68"x80".

As much as I really was looking forward to having this join me upstairs as my new snuggle-quilt, it is needed much more over seas. So, off to Japan it will go!

I'm pretty tuckered out, but rather pleased with my day's progress. Another hour of binding is needed and I'll be able to check Red Blossoms off my list, too.


I mentioned a few weeks back that the girls and myself have been doing some puzzling; DH caught us in the act last weekend (it was a PJ day for sure!)


Stash Report: March 7-20
Used/week: 6.07 yds
Purch/week: 5.0 yds (backing for Raven Stars)

Used/year: 42.75 yds
Purch/year: 11.0 yds

Net Used: 31.75 yds

Not much action today...

I was downstairs by 7:30, making progress on Maltese star - Mystery 24. I didn't lay out any border treatments, I simply saw a picture in my head and went for it. Here's the current status (pictured sideways); I still want to add a final wider blue border, but I don't have enough of any one blue fabric (that I can find, anyway). There may be a gem or two that I can find in one of the donation boxes, but I didn't feel like digging in to the boxes today.

Therefore, I finished up piecing the 20 string blocks of RRCB part #7 and 6 more of the pieced blocks from part #7. I didn't take a picture before heading upstairs for lunch, nor have I been back downstairs since.

DH is down-n-out with some form of bug. Psht! He even is giving us the sympathy-craving-vomit routine. {{ewwww}}. So, rather than heading back downstairs, I've remained up here, cleaning and rearranging the living room.

And now, all of us girls are kicking back, watching Ice Age and having an afternoon snack.

Harry Potter update
Yeah, yeah....I wouldn't say I'm obsessed as some, but it IS quick reading so far. I'm on page 208 and will probably spend the next hour or so with my feet up, reading.

Stash Report: Feb. 28 - Mar. 6
Used/week: 1.75 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 36.68 yds
Purch/year: 6.0 yds

Net Used: 30.68 yds

Blue Ridge Beauty, Raven Stars, Maltese Star and a Tooth!

Blue Ridge Beauty was the first task-at-hand this morning and the quilting was completed shortly after 9:00. I had some difficulty and am a bit unclear as to what the problem was exactly. My bobbin thread had run out; so I tied off a new start......and then........a bit of tugging here-n-there and SNAP! Bobbin thread breakage. That's a first! I actually had to rip out the little bit of section I attempted to sew. Then retried after reinserting the bobbin case....SNAP again! Hmmmm........ After ripping out the small section again, I decided to give the machine a quick cleaning, rethread the upper thread AND change bobbins. **shrug** One of them worked, because I was off-n-runnin' again.

I unpinned the quilt from the frame, but it still remains hung over the bars. I didn't have floor space open to lay it out for trimming. Rather, the center of Raven Stars was still claiming the floor. Therefore, that was my next project to tackle....

and by lunch time, all the borders were added. For those of you who have been participating in the Quilt along, the final step will be posted on Wednesday (Block piecing, top piecing and borders).

Then, I pulled the remaining Maltese Star - Mystery 24 blocks so that I could piece together the final rows into a completed top. The mystery did not include any borders, but I am electing to add some. This is the stage it currently is in. An hour ago, I came upstairs to make a cup of tea. While waiting for the water to heat up, I pulled out my Harry Potter book (I started reading it last night before bed and only managed a few pages before my eyes couldn't remain open any longer), and have been reading ever since. I don't know if I'll get back downstairs anymore today/tonight. I figure I accomplished enough to consider it a full sewing day, so I'll be perfectly fine if I don't get back downstairs.

Cailtyn had a great day on Wednesday at school! I received an email from her teacher early in the day saying that she had a really loose tooth. (Psht---NO CLUE that it was even loose!). And then, right around 1:00, another email came in that said "It's out!" This is her first lost tooth, and now.....the other big tooth and two bottom teeth are all loose.

Okay....back to my reading ;0)

Some quilting and cooking going on...

A small hint from DH lead me to making Beer Cheese soup for dinner. I haven't been a Beercheese soup eater for very long. When I was pregnant with Candace I was in the Twin Cities for some math conference or another. When the group went out for lunch, there was a special going on for Wisconsin Beer cheese soup. For whatever reason, it sounded so GOOD! (remember...pregnant...). And sure enough; I was hooked! SOOOoooo creamy and cheesy. YUM! Besides, I found it curious that a cafe in Minnesota was having a special for Wisconsin beer cheese soup :0)
Last year, I was browsing through a cookbook that was put together by an area church and County Fair team of my MIL. And there it was....Beercheese soup!

Beer cheese soup recipe
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups water
1 can beer
1 cup each, diced celery, onion, carrots
2.5 cups cubed potatoes
2 cans cream chicken (or potato) soup
1.5 lb. Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes (original recipe asks for 1 lb)

Directions
Cook: water, beer, bouillon cubes, vegetables until vegetables are tender.
Stir in the cream of chicken soup and Velveeta cubes. Heat until cheese has melted.

I've been playing around a bit with this recipe because the first time I made it exactly as the recipe stated, I didn't care for the proportion of cheese used. :0( The next time I made it, I added more cheese; much more to my taste!

And then I thought....this can work both ways....so...
A small hint from me lead DH to making homemade chicken strips for dinner. He tried out a new recipe from Food Network that had him using a wet batter and then a dry batter. The batter was definitely thicker than normal, but lovely crunchy!




I baked up a batch of Rhubarb Crunch too. (Recipe here)

Now that dinner is over; except dessert--haven't had the Rhubarb yet simply because my tummy is STUFFED. I am definitely not in the mood to tackle anymore quilting.

I didn't quite get to the half-way point in the BRB quilting. I only quilted for another hour once lunch was over and lost interest. I don't think I had the needed energy today to stand for hours with the quilting frame.

I pieced all the blocks for Maltese Star mystery listed in step #6 and began piecing them into rows. I stopped after piecing three rows, no longer interested.....((yikes?? some major quilter's A.D.D. today)....

The startitis quilter in me needed something new. Afterall, that WIP list on my sidebar is simply too small!!! Therefore, I pulled out some pieces left over from some FQs used last year; I hadn't cut them down to strips yet. So, I cut them into 1.5" strips and made 14 mini-nine-patches from each set. Pictured here are 28; I have another 14 almost finished, but that was the point I needed to leave them at so I could start dinner preparations. I have no plans for them yet.

I've done a decent amount of sewing this week, but all of the fabric had already been recorded in my previous Stash Reports. The only "new" fabric was for the mini-nines today, so I'll just wait until next week to make an official Stash Report.

Happy Sunday!

Saturday sew-in status...

1. Piece Maltese Stars step #5 - DONE!

2. Piece Blue Ridge Beauty blocks into a top (and open up my design wall!) - SORTA DONE!
I pieced the blocks together into the quilt center, but haven't added borders yet. However, my design wall was finally clear again :0)

3. Write step 2 of Raven Stars - DONE.

4. Piece 1 OR 13 more Red Blossom (Pineapple Blossom) blocks - NOT DONE, but the blocks have taken over my design wall.


DH was off of work early yesterday, so he volunteered to drive the 80 miles down to Eau Claire to pick up my machine that has been sitting, waiting, since Monday. Ah yes, a lovely husband :0) Mind you, he also enjoyed his stop at the Sporting Goods store down in that area... :0) The verdict on my machine: a gear had loosened which is why is was so noisy, and the fact that the gear was loose was causing my needle/bobbin to be out-of-sync. No gear replacement was needed; just a tightening.

And all day long, I've been working some more on the RRCB HST units as my leaders-enders project.

But now...I'm a bit peetered-out. DH was up bright and early at 5:30 to head out with a family friend for a day of ice-fishing. As hard as he really tries at being silent, it still doesn't matter. I'm such a light sleeper. He apologized when I came rolling out of the bedroom at 5:45, but I simply shrugged and said "no biggy." It's the weekend! No stress and I can get my day started before the girls wake up.

Perseverance despite!

For those of you who have been around my site for awhile, you'll know that this is (sadly) not the first time my sewing table looks a little bare..... **sigh**....

I was up a bit earlier than a normal Saturday. Candace slept with me (although it was more like sleep/spin-in-circle/kick-mom-in-face type of sleeping for her). By 7:15, I had already read up on the latest blog posts and had a cup of coffee down, so I headed downstairs to start working on the Maltese Star mystery, step #3. This step was actually posted last Friday, so I am was a week behind since I wasn't home last weekend, nor was able to get much sewing in this week. A little before 9:00; step #3 was complete.

I then took a quick coffee and bagel break, but got right back to things after printing out step #4 that was posted yesterday.

I dunno....I was clippin' along.....and I noticed my machine had a "noise." My best description; it sounded like an ol' hand-crank model engine....she was "laboring."

Then my thread broke......twice. The 2nd time, I took everything apart, did some oiling.....and tried again.

Then.....click, click, click, click.

The needle and bobbin were out of time/sync. The same thing that was wrong last July.

:0(

So my buddy Lee was called; told him the symptoms, and let him know that I'd be arriving in one-n-a-half hours.

**sigh**
Not QUITE how I wanted to spend much of my day, but what's one to do when the closest Bernina dealer is 80 miles away?

Before I left, I sorted some piles of clothes and showed Cass how to run the washer/dryer again. I figured she could at least continue a few loads while I was away.

I also put my thinking cap on before I left! I decided to stop at the Public Library on my way out of town in order to check out a book-on-CD. A 90 minute one-way drive allows for too much "thinking time," and with everything that's going on lately around my school district, I simply didn't want to "think."

Short version: 11:15 a.m. 90 minute drive. "Hi Lee. Here it is." "Okay Amy, looks like she'll have to stay at the shop for awhile." "Yeah, I figured that much. Keep in touch!" Subway lunch stop. 60 minute drive. Stop at Walmart to buy valentines and other necessities. 30 minute drive. Back home. 3:00 p.m.

2 minutes later......my ol' standby Brother machine was out on my sewing table, and I was back at it!

By 4:00, I was finishing up step #4.

I've spent about 4 hours downstairs since dinner working on details for the Raven Stars quilt along. If you haven't read about that yet, the informational post will give you all the details so far.

I also spent some time pressing part of the bazillion HST's needed for Bonnie Hunter's RRCB step 5. I thought I took a picture of the 120 HST's I pressed together tonight, but obviously I didn't, cuz dey ain't on da camera card! But, before I completely turn everything off downstairs this evening, I reminded myself (FINALLY) to remove my ironing board cover in order to throw it in the washer. I LOVE the homemade spray starch recipe from CrazyMom, but it sure cakes up on the cover. This'll be the first time I've washed the cover.

My Brother is not a super-great piecing machine, but definitely better than nothing! I need to wiggle the fabric pieces around quite a bit in order to get and keep a consistent 1/4" seam. I'm sure glad I decided NOT to get rid of it when I purchased the Bernina!

And finally.....


G O   P A C K !!!!!

Maltese Star Mystery - Step 2

The Maltese Star - Mystery 24 Step #2 was published yesterday, so I spent my morning hours piecing those together. And naturally, when there is the flip-method suggested, it also means BONUS TRIANGLES :0) So, a little pressing and piecing and I have 60 Flying Geese Units set aside for a potential pieced border. I typically piece bonus Pinwheels from the bonus triangles, but I thought I'd try Flying Geese this time.


Then I figured I'd spend some time today working on some quilting for my MIL. We are getting together next weekend up at the farm for a little get-together with family friends to celebrate a late Christmas. It would be nice to have most of her quilts finished and get them back to her.

So....a little bit of lunch and then an afternoon of some more enjoyment.

Snip Snip Here....

Ummmmmmmmmmmmm.........yeah........ Allow me to introduce you to the pieces from the Maltese Star, Mystery #24 from the MysteryQuilts4Military Yahoo Group. I had NO intentions of doing this---honest engine......but when I was pressing, folding and organizing some fabric from the donation boxes last night, I came across this red, and all this white.....so I pulled some more of my blues together. And......V'IOLA! The rotary cutter just took over......and now: another quilt in the making!


In my process of going through my boxes of donations last night, I pulled out this gem. AND.....there was 3 1/2 YARDS of it!!!!! Hmm.....maybe a border? Part of the backing for Blue Ridge Beauty??? Or maybe it'll just be admired on the shelf for that next perfect project??? ;0) Nah....it'll find itself in a project soon!


Happy Monday!!!
OH! And, for those of you who had a day off today for MLK Day, I hope you enjoyed your day! I'm not quite sure why our school doesn't take vacation on this day. Anyway, today was actually a decent day; the kids were (thankfully) decently behaved for once.