RRCB Step 3 action; Country Style Ribs

I took my time perusing everyone's blogs before actually getting downstairs this morning to start my work on RRCB Step #3. By 9:00, I was getting organized, enjoying my third cup of coffee (doctored up with some sugar and Peppermint-Mocha flavored creamer). I began by digging through my string bin, 1.5" bin and 2" bin. The thought crossed my mind to see what my 2.5" bin had, BUT I figured if there is anything in there worth using, I'd use them for a scrappy binding.

It's mid afternoon and I've taken a few breaks (lunch, referee'ing girls, tidying presents as they get unpacked/opened). I have 24 sewn at this point; not de-papered yet....

...I did a decent job diminishing my pile from this morning and have replenished it with what I found in my 3.5" and 4.5" bins (cut down to smaller strips, of course).

But knowing that dinner was looming in a few hours, I took a small break; checked the fire and dug around the chest-freezer to see what sounded good for dinner. The chest freezer is PACKED (no pic), so I grabbed what was closest to the top: "Country Style Ribs". Hmm.....don't recall 'country style ribs' from the pigs last year.....so I went to Google-land to see what I could find....


Country Style Ribs are prepped and the first stage of this recipe is under way.

Off to start either another batch of RRCB Step 3's OR maybe I'll see what I can find for Step 5.

Too Good to Cut Challenge - Wrapup

Rosewillow posted for us to wrap up the Too Good to Cut Challenge, and since I never really put together a final post, today is a good day to do this.....

First:
* Rosewillow's Wrap up post
* Rosewillow's Original Guidelines

I can't believe the year has gone by already!!!!

and even more-so, I can't believe I completed it, but

I COMPLETED IT!

June 30th, gifting to recipient, Dolly for her retirement

January 1, 2010: Day 1
The first day of my challenge, I was so gung-ho and excited to start! Although I was only able to find the "perfect fabrics," it was enough to call it a start.

May 31, 2010: Challenge start {{see end of post}}
Five months laters, {{LOL}} I finally was starting the actual challenge by cutting into the fabrics. :0)

June 11, 2010: Top Done
Then, once school was out for the year, I lunged full-speed-ahead and had the top done within my first week of summer vacation!

June 29, 2010: Quilting
Quilting commenced on June 29th once I determined a recipient for the quilt (and her retirement party was the next day) ;0)

And on June 30, 2010, the quilt was completed just in time to be gifted to a dear coworker. When I shared the story with her about the 'Too Good to Cut' challenge, she had even a bigger appreciation for the quilt knowing I deemed these fabrics too good to cut.

Project wrap up:
* Size: 54" x 79"
* The pattern is by Jennifer Chiaverini: Johanna's Collection.
* The fabric line mostly used was Robyn Pandolph's Moondance.
* Quilting pantograph: Feather Me
* Quilting time: 5-6 hours

My overall feelings/thoughts:
I LOVED THIS CHALLENGE! Those fabrics would still be stashed away in my stash, too pretty to cut in to, if not for this challenge. But now, they are in the hands of a lovely lady who has a wonderful appreciation for the final product. {{and have you noticed that the banner at the top of my page is of this quilt???}}

GOOD MORNING!!!! Day 1 of vacation

Ahhhhhh......
not even 7:00 am yet, but up and raring to go! VACATION OFFICIALLY BEGINS TODAY now that the holiday partying and traveling is over!

We arrived home around 9:30 pm last night after watching the Packers WIN BIG :0) {{oh yeah, and Christmas #3 with DH's family}}. I think we'll have one more small Christmas, date-to-be-determined-later, with dear family friends up at the farm; most likely sometime in late January.

Sheeeesh! I should have taken a picture of the entryway as DH kept unloading and unloading and unloading the truck last night. Golly! I didn't realize a whole STORE was bought out this year! I did my best to unpack some of the gifts and store them away already, but.....most of them just ended up under the tree, left for the girls to put away play with for the rest of the week.

Coffee is perking away, almost ready to drink. YUM!
And then.......today.......is a ME day! Total ME day {with some feeding of children at one time or another too}.

Tomorrow I'll worry about the house getting back into a decent state.....psht.....would it be so bad to wait until Friday for that too?

Anyway, I'm rambling....

Today; IF I feel up to working on Trav's Camo quilt, I may do that, but I'm thinking that I'd rather do some RRCB catching up!

Ahhhhhhhhhh.......
Happy Monday! {{A true true apology for anyone needing to head back to work today -- like DH}}

Halleluia

Vacation has finally come!!!

bags are packed for traveling to G'ma/G'pa tomorrow;

presents are wrapped and packed for the trip AND for a surprise visit from Santa tonight.

We can't be home for Christmas Day this year (we seldom are); BUT I worked out a deal with Santa. He is willing to make the trip one night early---he's going to swing by before hitting Europe since he knows we're heading out. SO, hopefully, we'll have some happy faces upon waking tomorrow before needing to head out for Christmas with the Grandparents.

Truly Truly---Have a wonderful Christmas to all of you out there! Hug your loved ones extra tight and let them know you love them.

Merry Christmas to each of you!
-Amy

OH! I almost forgot! The winner is......

With 40 commenters, my random number generator chose commenter # 12........


Gari said...
Hi, I am from Alabama. I made 36 placemats for Christmas. They are all done, some are wrapped, and some are ready to be mailed, well almost. I hope to have them on their way Monday. The others will be hand delivered. Merry Christmas and happy 600th.
-December 11, 2010 10:34 PM


Yayyyyyy Gari! Email heading your way.

Thanks for everyone for commenting and making me feel better that there ARE others out there burning the midnight oil working on last minute Christmas gifts!

Happy Sunday!

Another finish; do I have ONE more miracle in me???

Oh, what a day!!!
Packed full and I'm still feeling like I'm going strong.....
Up and revin' the engine by 8:00; hitting the Statistics books until 3:00. (YUP! 7 hours almost non-stop; it's to be expected by now....How far away is January 21st????)

BUT, at 3:00, I literally went from one table to another.....
the dining room table was replaced with my quilting table.....Jen's quilt was a callin'!

Jen's Diamonds (86" x 96")
My SIL and brother have a queen size bed, so this baby will be just the right size! It's pictured on my king size bed.....freshly laundered and ready for packaging and wrapping.

And here's the backing I mentioned yesterday. I burned through a nice amount of stash for this one. The quilting is VERY simple! Horizontal lines! That's it. My SIL wanted it "floofy" {{lol...still love that description}}, so I used polyester batting and VERY little quilting to keep it "flexible." At least it was a quick one to quilt up.


So, I'm wondering....can I pull off a miracle before next Sunday when we celebrate Christmas with DH's family???

I pulled out the fabric I purchased last month for BIL's (DH's brother) quilt. He made his wishes very clear. Simple. Camo. and Heavy! SO! Heavy denim camo was purchased as well as black demin. This fabric is QUITE different sewing than the typical cotton. I will NOT be loading this top on the frame when I get to the quilting point. My plans: purchase a queen size black sheet, cut batting to fit and TIE this quilt.

I took a personal day tomorrow so I could make Caitlyn's Christmas Program at 1:30; I haven't taken a personal day in quite a while, so.....I don't feel too guilty about this one. {{although my Statistics students were pouting that I'm giving them a test tomorrow---on a MONDAY---and I'm not there to answer any questions they may have.}} Anyway....I'll be up to take Candace to before-school care and then I'll be back home working away on Trav's (BIL) quilt. If I get this top done before I leave for my family Friday morning, it will be VERY likely to be completed by Sunday's celebration with DH's family. I have ALL DAY Saturday with no plans other than relaxing at my parent's house....so....PLENTY of time! :0)

Ooooooooo......I'm liking this week's stash report!

Stash Report: Dec. 13 - 19
Used/week: 14.25 yards
Purchased/week: 0.0 yards

Used/year: 242.146 yards
Purchased/year: 221.736 yards

Net used: 20.41 yards

Happy 5 days 'til Christmas!!!!!!!!!

Some evening progress...

Truly, truly, I had NO intentions of finishing up step #4 of RRCB tonight when I headed downstairs. I merely wanted to prep for it. But...psht.....by the time I had the fabrics cut and organized, my movie of choice still had about half the time left, so....I starting strippin' away. I finished step #4 while watching New Moon AND even had time for a snack break! {{I made a pan of Rhubarb Crunch this afternoon---yum!}}

It was only 9:00, and I wasn't really tired yet. I was up for some mindless piecing.......

I grabbed the hourglass units for In Flight that had been lain aside a month ago. I finished piecing them into these pinwheel units by 10:15.

Before I completely closed up shop for the evening, I took another 15 minutes to sort the units on the design wall. It's been empty for weeks!

Hmmm...still not overly tired. Wonder how much caffeine was in that tea I had this evening!??!!?!?

On the frame and on the sewing table...

The main part of the day, I spent piecing a backing for Jen's Diamonds. I didn't have enough of any one, or two, or three fabrics, so I pulled as many blues/browns/cremes I could to create a pieced backing. Mostly made of 10" blocks checkerboarded, with a few strips of fabs here-n-there. At one point, I planned on taking a picture of it before loading it on the frame, but......yeah.....I kinda forgot by the time I came back down from "momma-style-cleaning" in the loft.

MY GOODNESS!!! Will those girls EVER learn how to clean without "momma-style-throwing-into-a-garbage-bag" cleaning?? {{giggle}}....I'm wondering when there aren't going to be any toys LEFT up there because I've tossed all of them in a garbage bag at one time or another. Hmmmm....must be like scraps; they simply multiply over night without knowing how.


Anyway....so Jen's Diamonds is loaded on the frame and will await tomorrow or some other crunch time this week. I simply am too pooped to quilt this tonight; not even starting. Blah....


Gotta LOVE Leaders-n-Enders method! If you haven't heard of this method yet, TRULY TRULY take a few moments of your time in order to SAVE you time in the long run.

Today, while piecing the backing for Jen's quilt, I finished up RRCB Step #2 units, so my game plan tonight is to printout Step #4 and see about prepping that for L/E.

I still have a backup L/E project lying around...my Buckeye Beauty - Fall Swap blocks that I'm making MORE of in order to have a nice large quilt. I have been sewing the L/E for a few months now....very leisurely....so I wanted to have an idea of how many I have in all at this point....

Sixty-seven (67) complete sets to make sixty-seven 8" blocks. So, I'm thinking.....a 7x9 layout (that's 63 total blocks for a center measuring roughly 56"x72"). Four blocks will be left over to use at corner blocks to complete the borders I'll piece together for it.

Hmmm.....guess all these twosies will be pieced for some "extra" 4-patches for some other project in the future.

I'm sure this will come as NO SURPRISE to any other quilter out there.....

I have SO MANY "gonna-be-made" quilts floating around in my mind AND in my sewing room. I made up my mind that this little some-day-to-be-made-into-a-quilt fabric roll is going to be a Christmas gift for my MIL. Oh----soooooo hard to part with it, but....psht! As if I don't have enough other 'some-day-to-be-made-into-a-quilt' fabrics all over my sewing room!!!

I'll share this Random Reflections pattern with her as a possible use for the fabrics.

Okay---still have some energy so I'm off to see about prepping RRCB Step #4.

Happy Saturday Evening!