???? It's Friday already????

Just a few words....

A) new web-design software needs to be learned----has been my life the past few days; working with Superintendent.
B) new volleyball uniforms are in---with mistakes---spending time on the phone/emails with uni rep
C) assnt' vball coach resigned in June; had all summer to find replacement; season starts in two weeks---PANIC!

However.............
I am sitting calm and EXTREMELY EXCITED at the moment. So many things have come into place today and LIFE IS GOOD!

A) Signed web-contract yesterday and new content can be added starting next week. Whew----I have some time before vball starts and school!

B) Uniform rep has accepted blame and is honoring my original order. Confirmed at 10:28 am today that uniforms should be ready by season start

C) Today at 1:23 pm, I received a message from the "horse's mouth" herself----I have an assistant coach! We both are EXTREMELY excited to start the season; she is a former player (one of the best hitters our school has ever had). Yeah, yeah, yeah. (doin' a lil' dance)

So......life is good.


Oh.....quilting you ask????? Psht! My hands haven't touched my machine or fabric since Sunday. I could quilt all day tomorrow if I wanted, but......believe it or not, I want to head to school and spend most of the day getting organized and ready for school, vball and the new website.

So......
Happy Thursday!

Returning to school/coach mode for the day

WIth the girls still at grandma's, I decided I'd use my free day today to head to school and get some things done. I mostly handled vball "stuff" and I'd really rather not completely go into all of that since MUCH of the morning was on the phone with the uniform rep due to the mistakes that were made with the uniform numbering! About half of the tops will simply need to be sent back (all out of THEIR pocket!!!) because the error was NOT on our/my end!.....**grufff* It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't on such a tight deadline now----practice starts in a couple of weeks!

After a lunch break and some big deep breaths, I calmed myself enough to get some things done around my room; some rearranging and unpacking of lots of things that needed to be packed up in June (when I got the new carpet!) ;0) My room definitely has the new-carpet smell. Throughout the afternoon, I was in both teacher- and coach-mode. The coach's room was (is still) a mess and it took me awhile to find the box of new knee pads! I cleaned out the locker and file-cabinet of the former coach and found some gems! Videos of drills and techniques (who cares if they are copyrighted 1992??!!)

Therefore, tonight, I have been plugging through all the videos, taking notes like a dutiful student. I even transposed the living room into a make-shift half volleyball court and stepped through many of the skills and drills. Specially hitting!!! I'm a lefty, so I did one after another after another of the right-handed approach so I can teach my girls the break-down. My legs are jello after half an hour!!!! BUT I actully feel very comfortable with the right-handed skills now (and not like a quazee-modo!) Seriously--you should have seen the first few attempts! DH even watched some of the videos with me, but he has since left to go fishy. TRUST ME---I don't think I would have acted out many of these drills if he were still around :0)

So---it's 9:30; I'm NOT tired; and DH won't be home anytime before midnight. Hmmm.......I don't know if I'm in the mood to quilt though.......
AH! I'm off to finish the Coach's Vball test that needs to be completed before the 1st competition.
Let's see what y'all know....

T or F:
The official's uniform shall consist of an all-white, short-sleeved collared polo shirt; black slacks; solid black athletic shoes; and black socks, unless modified by state association when dealing with extreme heat and humidity.

*e-gah* REALLY??? I mean, does anyone REALLLLY care?!?!?
That's a T statement, by the way

Here's another:

T or F:
A libero may complete an attack from anywhere, if at the moment of contact, the ball is entirely above the height of the net.

Sorry Charlie, but that would be F. A libero can NOT attack; which is defined as striking the ball above the height of the net. She may only be a defensive player, who is able to serve.

Oooo....that was a good one. How 'bout one final one???

T or F:
Back-row players, while positioned behind the attack line, may not contact the ball below the top of the net.

Umm.....George??? That's just doesn't make ANY sense! If they couldn't contact the ball below the top of the net, the ball would either a) have to drop to the floor every play or b) a front-row player would always have to play balls below the top of the net. That's just stupid! Therefore, I dare say this is F!

Okay----if you want more---just let me know :0) I have 100 of these babies to do!

Happy Friday

Double Rainbow

Lovely name for a quilt, but this is a genuine "nature" post.

Do you see it? Faint, above the main rainbow, but it's there....

Happy Wednesday

Mother Nature is finally giving us the precipitation we need so badly

Chunky Churndash on hold... in the meantime...

Sadly, I haven't had a chance to get to the LQS to see if I can find the perfect gray for the Chunky Churndash yet, nor can I see the trip possible until Friday. So......

In the meantime....



Bonnie Hunter's Perkiomen Daydreams has seen some more progress. If my math is correct (remember, it's the summer and my brain takes a vacation sometimes!), I have 256 (of the 400) blocks completed. Laying them out certainly wasn't all that easy, but definitely exciting. This quilt is HUGE! I will not be able to lay all 400 blocks out at any one time. The quilt is 100"x100" (when complete). My game plan is to piece it into two halves (top 10 rows and the bottom 10 rows).
HA! After publishing comment...
Just to give you an idea of the size----that is a twin size mattress resting on its side at the top of the pic. I didn't even see it until after posting live!

I have been sitting, relaxing (with WINE again!!!!), and watching the evening news. FINALLY there was a heart-warming (and tear jerking) story. I don't know if any of you watched the ABC World News (with Charles Gibson) this evening, but there was a story about some individuals who came to the need of a turned-over vehicle in Milwaukee (Wisconsin). (watch it here: Rescue ABS News video. When there are stories that involved children in the age ranges of 3-9, they usually have a bigger impact on me since those are the ages of my girls. There was a 4-year old boy strapped in his carseat in the back of the flaming vehicle; and my heart just went out to the gentlemen fighting to get him out! It is so wonderful to be reminded of the good that does exist in our world when we are bombarded FAR too much with all the violence-involved news stories.

I don't know if I feel up to quilting tonight; at least I don't at the moment. It feels good to just veg and look around at my much neglected house. **sigh** Okay, so it doesn't feel good actually seeing the mess, clutter and unkeptness; it actually gets me stressed out a bit because of the guilt I feel! But...doing nothing does feel nice.

Happy Tuesday

Chunky Churndash progress...

61 blocks done and ready for the hour-glass blocks. Hopefully the perfect fabric will jump into my lap tomorrow!

At 4:00, I took yet another small break and decided to crack open the bottle of wine I bought last night. (Hey---it was five o'clock by Angela, so I figured I was okay!!!) :0) I took a pic of the wine glass; I have a set of 6 and they are absolutely beautiful. I am not (by NO means) a lady who is hoitsie-toitsie! Give me a sweatshirt and pair of blue jeans, and I'm happy. BUT, I insist on using these glasses everytime I have some wine (which is, like, once or twice a year!) They were a wedding present from my German host family, and are hand painted. The paint protrudes off the glass; pictures don't do it justice.



DH took his time getting home from a Sunday's day of work, so I continued enjoying myself downstairs by tackling some red/white/blue string blocks. I know I have other projects sitting idle, but it was fun to put together some mindless 5.5" blocks. I don't know exactly what I have planned for these yet, but am thinking of doing some HSTs with these and white fabric.

As much as I would love to head downstairs right now for yet a few more hours of sewing fun, I actually should make sure I'm gathered for tomorrow's math workshop.
Happy Sunday

My own personal Quilting Retreat day

As a thank you to my parents (mostly Mom) for helping out with the girls this week, I am making a quilt to go with their newly painted Guest Bedroom. Short version: in June when they were on their first "vacation" in YEARS, the weather was quite rainy, and their sub-pump decided to give out. It had rained on a Tuesday; they arrived home on Saturday, but hadn't needed to go downstairs until Sunday night----so.....by the time they finally realized the "problem?", the ENTIRE (finished) basement was ruined; carpet needed to be torn up, drywall needed to be replaced. This meant (and still means), a new basement (huge "living" area, 2 guest rooms, and one bathroom.)

I had seen the room last week when I picked Mom up before heading to my sister's house. So, I had some of my blues and grays on hand to "try them out" in the room. After perusing Quiltville.com for the perfect scrappy pattern, I (we) decided on Chunky Churndash, which I had already printed off sometime last year with hopes of making it someday.
Now---here's the extremely amazing part!...
With paint samples in hand, I headed out to Hancock Fabrics yesterday to find the perfect gray for the hour-glass blocks. Besides, Hancock was having a HUGE 50% off sale---perfect timing!
*shaking head, taking pulse, thermometer in mouth*
Nope....not sick! No temperature! Steady 60 beats per minute pulse....
so....HOW on earth could I have come home completely empty handed?!?!?! Seriously! I was on a mission, and the mission failed. I must have walked the aisles three times before throwing my hands up in the air. Not only did the perfect fabric elude me, I wasn't in the mood to find any "great deals" either! So, back in the car and off to Walmart to see if they had the perfect gray. NOPE! Then, off the the LQS (of my mom's town)--NOTHING EITHER! I simply am flabergasted! It seems that when I'm NOT looking for fabrics, it jumps into my hands and cart, but when I NEED the perfect fabric, it is simply no where to be found. That dang MURPHY!


However, I will not lose hope. I plan to head to my LQS tomorrow to see if I can find the perfect gray. Until then, I will make up the 61 "churndash" blocks that are needed for the quilt. I am childless AND husbandless today! I have been downstairs cutting and sewing since 9:00 and am taking a small lunch break at the moment; nothing fancy; just some spaghetti noodles with sauce. All the pieces have been stripped and cut for the churchdashes and should go together rather smoothly.

Hopefully your day is as enjoyable as mine is :0)

Happy Sunday

2:28 break
Needed to take a small break, so came up for a PB&J (peanut butter and jelly sandwich, for those of you non-mommies out there) :0). I'm also relaxing with a cup of tea; something I haven't had in a while. Not being an Englander, I rarely drink tea, but do like the lemon green tea varieties.

All 61 blocks are prepped, having sewn all the square segments into "rows" of the block. I now need to press the rows in order to piece the complete block together. Then, multiply that by 61.

My background noise of choice today started with Maid of Honor, then The Hulk, and I am almost finished with Aliens. Yeah, not quite the norm, relaxing background shows that I usually have playing, but I was getting tired of the same ol', same ol'. :0)

OH! AND! I almost forgot! I did have about a 10 minute break around 1:00 when I saw a MOUSE dart across the carpeted area downstairs. **Shudder** So, I grabbed my box of Freezer paper and stalked around for a bit (on my tiptoes!!) trying to fight the little bugger! Nice visual, huh????? Amidst my search, I did notice that one container of mouse/rat poisoning had been emptied! Gosh---how long has that (those?) little monster been mooching off of us??? I haven't seen any mice since winter ended. Ugh!

DWR DONE! Babyquilt DONE! Bag Dispenser DONE! And a few other projects underway...

Ahhhhhhhhh
Yesterday, after relaxing in the morning, I decided to FINALLY just finish the DWR! And then, I just kept going...

I spend most of the day working on the DWR, finishing it up around 4:00. It feels SO GOOD having that done and off my back--seriously! I think this is the biggest quilt I have made so far. It measures 96"x108", and is pictured on our King size bed.

With the extra pieces, MIL and I pieced together some pillow shams and an additional "monogram" pillow. MIL hand embroidered the "H". (Hmmm....I must not have taken pics of the pillow-shams, which are now in the hands of MIL for final completion; I quilted it, but she is putting the backing on.)


I was still in the mood to sew (amazingly!), so I kept going. Wednesday night I started cutting up some adorable FQ's I bought off a fellow Quiltvillian. They are just adorable!
While at my sister's last weekend, I went through all my old quilting magazines (again), and sorted them; patterns I will someday make and mags that can finally be given away. I only set aside 19 mags open to patterns (sarcastically undertoned!) Gosh---when will I ever make them all?!?!? Anyway, Wednesday afternoon, I came across a hidden box of white, white, white that had been given to my from (who else?) my mother. It was given to me last summer with all the other fabric donated to church. I simply had forgotten about it. So...I pulled some white, I went and pulled the lovely FQ's, and pulled a McCall's Quilting (March 08, I think??) The mag is downstairs right now and I'm too lazy to go get it to double check. But I'm fairly confident the pattern was called "Emma's Garden", which I have now changed to "Barnyards and Prairies". (40"x46" not counting Prairie Points)
The top was finished at 10:30, but I wasn't ready to turn off the machine yet. I pulled some yellow-check gingham from the stash and prepared backing. I pulled SIX scrap strips of batting and pieced them together. Boy, it feels good to get some of those scraps used up. It's so easy to piece the warm-n-natural batting on the machine!
The quilting is simple; SID (stitch-in-ditch) verticle lines. This is only the second time I've worked with prairie points (and I have decided I simply LOVE them!!!), but it's the first time that they have been the "border" of the quilt. The pattern called to press under 1/4" of the backing and hand-stitch to the back of the points. However, I took my time ironing and pressing the backing so that I could machine stitch the backing to the front; it didn't turn out all that bad. I finished it up just before midnight and finally called it a night! :0)

Wednesday after, while lunch was cooking, I browsed online and read through the past weeks' worth of Moda's Bake Shop blog. I had read through this pattern (Bag Dispenser; posted in June, I think) before, but wasn't really sold on it. But, for some reason, I was motivated to try it and whipped one out using some 5" scraps I recently cut up. If you haven't looked at the Moda Bake Shop blog, you really should if you are looking for some inspiration. I love the fabrics, even though I don't have any of them. But the patterns are very universal (as most are).

Here are some other things I've been working on since Sunday...

I posted about the sixteen fabrics that I've been strippin' up, getting ready (finally) to attempt the pattern pictured. I still am amazed I was able to pull all sixteen directly from what I had on hand...

Here is the other set of strips I cut up with Jille Kemp's pattern (from Red Rooster Fabrics) in mind: It's the Berries (even though I'm not using the suggested fabrics.) I'm using all of Grandma's flowery fabrics for this one; I don't think any of the fabric was something I had purchased.

I took some time to make up the June block for Now-n-Forever, the BOM by Beth Ferrier. July has just been posted, so I'll see about taking that on after I come back from Mom's this weekend.

Last Wednesday, I spent some time working on my Rolling Star UFO. I think I have been calling it Rolling Rock in the past, but now that I have found the pattern, I have corrected myself. Six down, seven more to go before being able to applique them onto blocks. Hmmmm! I'm glad I found that box of white fabric!!!

Finally, I am posting a pic of my Wafter Cookies flimsey that I finished up last Wednesday. It has joined with Seven Shirts on the wall, awaiting quilting.

So, that's it folks (I think!) I believe I have completely updated the blog on my past week's worth of quilting.

Laundry is underway and I have the task of packing up all three girls for TWO WEEKS. They will be down at both sets of grandparents for the next two weeks; next week with my parents, and the following week with DH's parents. It's so nice that they (parents) get along and that they live 5 miles apart from each other :0) I have some professional development classes for the next two weeks, so they are helping us out so we don't have to cough up $500/week for daycare! Besides, it's VBS week next week at my mom's church, so the girls will take part.

Happy Friday!

Book finished; time to sew!

Upon leaving my sister's house on Sunday, I asked her if she had a book-on-tape that I could listen to... ya know... to help ease the boredom of the looming 5 hour trip ahead. She came through!

So, while the girls finagled between a few movies with the travelling DVD player in the backseat, I put in Nora Roberts' Angels Fall. It sure DID ease the length of the trip; it seemed I made it home in no time. There are 30 "Chapters" and each one lasts about 30 mintues....so.....15 hours long roughly. That meant, 10 hours were left once I arrived home. What to do, what to do?? Because I sure couldn't wait until my next long drive to find out what was going to happen next. It got uploaded to my iPod and I listened to it while quilting downstairs. However, I found out that I couldn't hear it all too well when the sewing machine was going, so....cutting, sorting and ironing has been my task for the past few days.

Last night, at 10:30, I had no more ambition left to sort scraps, but I still had Chapters 29 and 30 left to go. DH was on the computer upstairs, so I settled in on the couch and put my feet up. I fell asleep somewhere in Chapter 29! Ugh!

Sometime in the night, Caitlyn joined DH and I in bed (nothing unusual).
Oh yeah--side note: She was a "big tough girl" yesterday by earning her passage to Kindergarten; Dr Appointment with FOUR shots!!!

Around 4:30 this morning, Candace ALSO wanted to slide into bed with DH and myself...hmmmmm. Also not unusual, but we typically are fortunate enough that only ONE wants to snuggle into bed with us on any given night. This is the first time that BOTH of them have tried to crawl in our bed---so I slid over, NEARLY falling off the edge of the bed. After 30 minutes of that, I had had enough and trudged out to the couch. Yeah, well... I guess I'm starting to show my age, because the couch wasn't the most comfortable and was up-n-at-em by 5:30---enough of the couch!

The good news---I figured I'd plug myself into my iPod again and finish the book; which is exactly what I did. It just ended; and Candace is the only one that is awake.

Therefore, with the whole day looming ahead, I can now devote my time downstairs back to actually running the sewing machine! I did manage to finish up Wafer Cookies at least to a "flimsy" stage, and it has joined Seven Shirts, hanging on the wall, awaiting the day when I will actually sandwich and quilt 'em.

I really should try to tackle another section of the DWR quilt and get it over with. Yeah...that would be the wisest. It's my only deadline, and I have two more weeks before the deadline comes due. Yeah, yeah.....(trying to convince myself).....although it would be so nice to start sewing the ions of strips that I've cut in the past couple of days....

Happy Wednesday