13 hours!!! of sewing. **heavenly sigh**

Yes.....from 7:30 AM until NOW (11:00 PM), {{minus a 2-hour dinner break}}....

It was GLORIOUS GLORIOUS GLORIOUS!

Ready to see it all!?!?!  :D

The day started with binding.  LOTS of binding.  First up:  Star Path - QOV Mystery #28

And it didn't take very long for me to reach my first snafu of the day :\  Hm.....tension! (AGAIN!  Remember that post not too long ago about tension?)  I re-threaded everything...and moments later, my thread broke.  Hmm.....someone wasn't happy.

Alright lil' lady!  I'll give you a thorough cleaning, if you insist!

Cleaned, oiled......... and we were back rolling :) with BEAUTIFUL stitches and a softer hummmmmm...... She was happy again!

And don'tcha hate it when this happens......??

No biggy.... leaned over and grabbed another random red 2.5" strip from the strip bin....

Didn't even clip the threads;  just kept toodling along to add the additional red strip and kept going on my merry way.

And did NOT think ahead!  Duh!  I should have trimmed up the binding a bit as to NOT hit a seam in the corner turn.  Oh well.......

Star Path (65" x 75") -- The first of the day;  DONE! 

Then, after a coffee refill, I pulled out Old Glory for the next binding session....

Really Amy!??!!???!  TWO quilts with short binding??!!?

Oh well......I wasn't about to be deterred!  I grabbed another strip....NOT REMEMBERING to cut down what was on the quilt! so the seam met in the corner : AGAIN! 

Old Glory (55" x 69.5") 

Whoo-hoo!  The biggest (only?) goals of the day:  Accomplished!  Before Noon, even :)  These two will be hitting the mail tomorrow on their way to Karen; Wisconsin's QOV representative.

And since I was on a binding roll:  

Star Harbor (59" x 73") was also finished up!  Wahooooooo!  THREE finishes in one morning!  I wasn't sure about the gold binding at first..... However, it framed it all quite nicely, if I may say so :)

And all complete---WITH labels! BEFORE NOON! (I think-----it's all kind of a haze to me now)

 So.... wow!  Three finishes.....what to do next, right??!?!?

Start a new project, of course!!!! Ohhh....... I blame Andee and Andra for this one!  They've twisted my sewing arm!  The three of us are working out some unit swaps for this......

With Andee on Facebook chat, I spent my afternoon working on some 9-patches and 4-patches.  Not finished with either pile... but a good start. 

And then..........HOLD ME BACK!  

The flying geese units!  I have NEVER needed to make flying geese this ADORABLY small before!!!  In fact, I didn't even hesitate to just snip off the bonus triangle without double-sewing!  **GASP** Way too small!  The trimmings were snipped into my (giveaway) crumb box.  I don't crumb quilt, but I save them up and give them away once the box is full.  Another person's trash..... :)

Around 4:30 in the afternoon, I excused myself from Andee (and Kathy), and made dinner.  Tacos tonight.  Usually a big hit with my family :)

And then.....BACK AT IT!  But I was honestly about to close up shop;  getting poooopered out!

And LOOOOOOOOOOOOK who ended up joining in my evening! 

First, Bonnie is the small video on the middle-left of the screen.  What????  She's leaving for Bali TOMORROW!!!!  I can't believe she Quilt-cammed tonight.

And then.......after some chatting with Nancy on Facebook, she called me up for a video chat.  What a blast!!!!  Little did she KNOW that I keep my camera with me at ALL times in the quilt room!!!!

A second wind hit me..... and I quilted the evening away.

By 11:00 PM EST, Bonnie bid us goodnight.  Nancy stuck around for a bit longer to finish up the last few of her 9-patch parts before heading out.

And then...........

SILENCE!!!

DEAD SILENCE!!

After hours of SOMEONE with me in my quilt room via technology...... it was eerily silent.  I had finished up the last of my prepped flying geese units and was trimming off the triangles.... so... it was REALLY silent!  I hadn't turned the music back on when Nancy and I ended our call...the only noise was coming from the hum of the light above me and the slicing of my scissors.

BUT!  I have 252 flying geese done;  separated into 3 different sets of 12 geese;  my plan right now is to keep creating 3 sets;  one I'll keep, one will go to Andra and one to Andee.  

How many does the quilt need??  SIX HUNDRED!  I think I spent about 8 hours alone on these geese today/tonight.  Quite tedious..... But after Bonnie mysteries....psht!  This is SO do-able!

AND THEN!!! Just as I was about to turn everything off, I stood and saw my design wall. 

 

See the gaps!?!?!?  I FINISHED the "C" blocks today as my leader-enders.  Bonnie's timing is PERFECT to start a new leader-ender project: Spoolin' Around  She said she would blog about that tomorrow morning with measurements before needing to get into Bali-mode.  I can't wait!  

I took the "A" and "B" blocks down from the wall... and joined them in with the "C" blocks.....

I just put them on the floor;  haven't done any moving around of blocks yet.  

No wonder I don't have much more in the way of blue scraps!  Actually, I don't have a SINGLE blue 2.5" OR 2" strip left!  (other than what I've set aside in my QOV strip bin).

So, there ya have it.  My computer screen is showing 11:56PM right now.  WOW!  Almost an hour to write this post.  I certainly will miss the leisurely schedule of summer! This week, I need to put in 16 hours at the school (flexible time), and then inservice is next Wednesday and Thursday.  I still have a few days of summer left;  and you can betcha that they will be filled :)

I hope hope hope you had a wonderful weekend!

RWB all over the place!

Today, with inspiration and motivation BACK in action, I was busy, busy, busy quilting Old Glory in-between loads of laundry.  KNOWING I had LOTS of laundry, I set the alarm clock on my phone for every 45 minutes so that I wouldn't get "lost downstairs" all day.  Worked like a charm, 'cept for the one time when I was SO tuned into my quilting that the alarm nearly gave me a heart attack and I made a little 'oops' in the quilting!  I've lost track of how many loads I've done....maybe the 8th is in the washer???  (Yeah, it got a bit out of hand the past two weeks!)

I tried out a new pantograph on Old Glory:  Pageboy.  It's extremely repetitive, wouldn't you say?  I'll have to think some more on how much I like it and what types of quilts to use it on.  I LOVED the actual quilting of it;  a nice-n-easy loopy pattern that went rather quickly.

I never showed a close up of the quilting on Star Harbor the other day.  Pantograph:  Climber.  A very forgiving panto, and not so repetitive/linear looking.

So now, I am resting my back for a bit with a sit-down before needing to make dinner and start my evening goals of labels and binding in order to get these out to Karen, the Wisconsin QOV contact person.  Bonnie is giving the impression that she is going to be on QuiltCam tonight, and I can't wait to have a sewing-buddy while I'm working away this evening.

Found this the other day:  figured it would hit home with a few of us :)

Happy Weekend!

Star Harbor - Cheers!

The tension issues did NOT get the best of me!  Wha-hooo :0)

Paul arrived home JUST in time......WITH wine!  Boy---he knew what kind of afternoon I had!   THREE total rows needed ripping and re-quilting.

Cheers!!!  Hmm.....not good enough....

Cheers!!!  Hmm...nope....still not good enough...

Cheers!!  Mmm.......how strong is this wine?

LOL!  Good enough! It's a good thing the quilting is DONE!  After all of these 'wine-takes," ...wooo-weeee!  I'd be afraid to see what the quilting would look like now.  {{I'm not much of a drinker...half a glass.....and it's time to cut me off already!}}

Happy Monday 8-)

A Starry day

Well, the motivation dust was wearing off for sure.  I woke up a bit sluggish today and with a sore back, but I relaxed with some coffee, ibuprofin and the laptop.  By 7:30, I was ready to meander my way downstairs to load Star Path onto the quilt frame and see how far I could get by the time I needed to drop off Candace and Caitlyn to a play-date at 10:00.

QOV Mystery #28: Star Path (65" x 75")

A nice, small quilt was enjoyable after having had two King size quilts on the frame recently.

Binding has not been completed yet, but I set it aside for now because I was in the mood to sit for a bit. My back was a bit achy despite having taken the ibuprofin :(

Star Harbor (57"x72")

So, I pulled out Star Harbor and worked on the final inner border and the outside border.  Fabrics were gathered and sewn into a backing right away.......and early this afternoon I even loaded it all up on the quilting frame.

I would LOVE to say that I quilted it up lickity-split, but I was fading fast.  Pooper-doopered out.  And KILLLLER back ache!

 As I was packing up, I heard a chirp-chirp-chirp rukus.  One of the adolescents (no longer babies!) was out walking around on the cement walk-out.  I'm sure s/he was looking for some bugs or worms after the bit of rain we received. 

After dinner, I was guilted a little bit into heading out to the garden, (after taking a couple more ibuprofin), so I picked a few ripe cucumbers and tomatoes, and also gave the younger tomato plants a much needed haircut.  There was one easily over 5 feet tall!

I'm now relaxing with the Olympics.  My back is finally feeling better....I think the ibuprofin is finally permeating the muscles.  Plus, the Icy-Hot I rubbed on it has a wonderful relaxing aspect too ;)

July motivation - Star Harbor

Today's motivation has been two years in the making.

July 2010----- My Quiltmaker magazine (July/August 2010) arrives and I oogle over "Star Harbor" {Designer: Eileen Fowler}

June 2011----- I raid my stash for some left over odds-n-ends from other projects and set the magazine and fabrics aside.

This morning:  I pulled those fabrics and magazine from my shelf......

and WENT FOR IT!

Picking up tricks-n-tips throughout the years makes for some quick quilting!

One of those "tips:"  Bonnie's method of keeping chain-pieced units strung together and carrying them to the ironing board for pressing.

My first few times trying this method were frustrating!  But with project after project of LOADS of chain-pieced units (SPECIALLY those Bonnie-mysteries :p), I soon came to love this tip.

It certainly allowed for all 12 "Y" blocks.....

.... and 6 "Z" blocks to be pieced quick(er).

By foregoing lunch, I was able to push through piecing the quilt center!

(Have no fear, however....I am eating some Mac-n-Cheese between typing sentences ) :D

:D

What a fun morning!

Rainbow scraps; With heart quilting; blue finds

This morning, I had to finish tidying up since there were scraps strewn all over the ironing and cutting boards from last night's cleaning. I was all set to work on yellow, but once the tidying and cutting and trimming was through, I really didn't have many yellow "scraps." I have some yellow fabrics, but no scraps, so I'll have to put yellow aside for now. Instead, I had a pile of oranges, browns and pinks, so those were made up.

The next few hours were used to prepare a backing for With Heart, loading it to the frame and almost half of the quilting has been completed.


Last night while sitting with my feet up, thumbing through my stack of quilting magazines, this pattern caught my eye. I knew I had some left over fabric from Hostess with Heart, so when I took a break from the quilting frame, I searched through my shelves to see what I had that could work. I am/was mostly set with all the farbics, but the blues were hard to come by in my stash. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to sift through another box of donations from my mother last summer (or was it the summer before???) Anyway, another box emptied and another partial box restacked, ready for re-donation (NOTHING quilt-worthy). However, a blue caught my eye, so I pulled it out, and LOOK!.....

All these pre-cut, pre-sewn pieces were folded up in the fabrics, all set to be made into some hour-glass blocks. I'll have to play with those later on.....

Time to prepare dinner; BBQ ribs have been cooking at 225 for the last three hours (the last hour with sauce) and milk-rice needs to be made (one of my favorite 'german' sidedishes).

Happy Saturday