Back away from the iron!

I KNOW what you're thinking......"ha, dufus Amy forgot the iron on her ironing board!"

But.....NO, I didn't leave the iron laying on my ironing board! Honest engine!

Can you see the smoke? I was quilting away, when I hear......"Tsssssssssssss"
When I looked over to the iron, I see a small waver of smoke rising and I thought..."Oh my. I guess a lady bug got too close to the iron."

Then.....a nasty-NASTY smell of burning/burnt/smoldering electrical wires hit the air.....and the iron was taking its last few breaths of life.

When I went over to check things out, I set the iron on the ironing board for a NANO-second, and that top pic was the result. I couldn't BUH-LIEVE it! I can't fathom how hot the iron must have been to have created that mark within a NANO-second!!!!!

The good news:
I had already pressed the top and bottom of the Quilts 4 Kids project that arrived in my mail today from my MIL, so I was able to quilt the entire top.
She asked me to quilt it for her. So, I have my FIRST customer quilt {{but I guess it doesn't count if it's for my MIL and I'm not getting paid for it}} ;0)

The bad news: I couldn't completely finish it because I couldn't press the binding. Therefore, tomorrow directly after school, I'm off to the store to buy a new iron.


My MIL sent another small quilt that she is gifting to her doctor, so I laid it out, decided what pantograph design to use and chose some thread. And that's all I was able to accomplish tonight without an iron :0(
{{yeah, I COULD have pieced some parts of Hannah's Rotation, but I'm saving that for Friday night and Saturday.}}

And again, I have some lovely 'surprises' on the camera's card courtesy of Candace...... LOL.....enjoy the show :0)









Happy Wednesday!

American Classic finished; Hannah's Rotation progress, May UFO

American Classic bound...

Labeled...

...and boxed, ready to be shipped to Alycia.


So, now....I MUST concentrate most of my time on Hannah's Rotation.
The top two rows...

... and bottom two rows
are complete. Just two more rows in the center to finish up this top! GOAL: Finish up the top by Sunday!!! It sure would be nice to put this project behind me.


Nancy (Patchwork Penguin) choose #3 for the May UFO. That would be my Steppin' Out quilt I am making with some batik-ish looking dyed fabrics. Back on April 11th, this was the status of the top...I am VERY near a complete finish with this one; just awaiting a final border and then quilting.


Gosh, I feel good today! I think I really needed this weekend in front of the two sewing machines! I was all smiles today at work; was my normal "cheerleader" self to most of the students who are slowly starting to sense the end of the school year {{sorry kiddos! You have 5 weeks left!!!}}

If I can stay this happy and stress free, Hannah's Rotation just MAY NOT kill me! :0)

Happy Monday!

Planting; American Classic quilted; Stash reports April 19-May 2

The mid-morning hours were spent planting seeds...
the whole family was involved....
Caitlyn and Cassie filling containers with dirt...

Candace checking to see if the hole was there...

Even I had my pic taken. DH thought he was being so sneaky. Hmpf--I knew he was there the whole time!

Yeah---this'd be DH

In the end, oh gosh---I don't even know how many of each we planted: tomatoes, watermelon, peppers, cucumbers, beans... Those of us who live in the cold north don't even THINK about putting plants outdoors until Memorial Weekend (end of May). In fact, last year on June 19 we had frost!!!! I remember this well because we lost LOTS of plants!!! We're ready this year though---have been saving up the milk cartons for mini-greenhouses and frost protectant once we get to the outdoor stage.

This is a cute lil' indoor greenhouse my parents bought for us two years ago; I can't remember what the occasion was. It's fun to watch the little seedlings sprout, and well.....we live in a cold climate! The only way we'd ever had veggies at a decent harvest time is to start them indoors.

On the quilting front...
I finished up Deer Camp last night, binding, hanging sleeve and label all complete. I still need to hand stitch the label and hanging sleeve down, so ALMOST done....

American Classic was just pulled off the frame and I hope to get binding made up and put on yet this evening. I also am working on the label to attach right away too. It would be nice to ship out some of these quilts that have been just sitting around. I have three ready for Quilts 4 Kids and now the American Classic for Alycia's Warrior Games or No Solider Forgotten.

Happy Sunday...
hopefully one more post to come tonight. I haven't done a stash report in two weeks!

8:45 update
Yeah---I've parked my butt and haven't done anything downstairs other than turn everything off. I'm tired and am enjoying putting my feet up.

So...here's the weekly stash report:
Stash Report: April 19 - April 25
Used this week: 1.778 yards
Purchased this week: 18 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 105.05 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 131.75 yards
Net used: -26.7 yards
{{uh-oh! Even MORE in the red}}

Stash Report: April 26 - May 2
Used this week: 7.264 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 112.314 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 131.75 yards
Net used: -19.436 yards

Deer Camp quilted; American Classic started....

The quilting room was humming at 7:00 a.m. My littlest alarm clock dragged me out of bed at 6:15 since she was ready for breakfast. I guess there is something to be said about those internal clocks... (YET, this is the one who drags her feet on a typical morning). Hmpf....never fails!

But that's okay---
I finished putting borders on American Classic and then pieced a backing and cut batting. By the time I finished up those steps, it was time for a mid-morning breakfast and then a shopping spree for that brown thread I ran out of last night (the spree also brought home seeds, potting soil and a few other supplies for starting some tomato, pepper and watermelon plants. That project awaits tomorrow morning).

Deer Camp quilting was more time-consuming than Leapin' Lizards. a) it's larger. b) I didn't do an overall panto pattern.

Border treatments used this little design. Also, I wasn't sure about how to do the side borders; I THINK I read somewhere that ladies i) finish up the quilting everywhere else, ii) remove the quilt from the frame, then iii) reload quilt in opposite direction to finish side borders. Well---that's was I did and it worked.

The inner panel was quilted with a panto. They are SO much nicer to follow when first starting out on the frame rather than just doing free-hand.

Binding awaits yet, and that may be what I'll work on when I head back downstairs.

American Classic was loaded around 3:00, and I have a bit more than half finished, but my back is letting me know that I've been quilting most of the afternoon. I find that my frame is a bit too low for me; I wouldn't mind having it a bit taller. Considering how short I am (5'4" on a good day), I wonder how taller ladies manage on this frame.

We just had some "Brupper" {{Cassie's term for breakfast at supper time}}. Scrambled eggs for some; eggs-over-easy for others; toast-n-jelly....

And just a bit ago, I kicked DH off the computer for an hour so I could update. It's almost 7:00 and I hope to have a couple more hours of work to show before the night is over.

Happy Saturday.

Quilting Marathon, anyone?

I have been able to sneak in a little bit of quilting Wed. and Thurs. evening this week---Deer Camp (March's UFO task) WILL see a finish either tonight or tomorrow.

...with loads of quilts awaiting borders and quilting right behind it.....

Therefore---I have decided NOT to travel down to my parent's this weekend for the annual "Rummage around Stratford" weekend; 100's of garage sales around the town my parents live in.

Instead---I'm devoting my weekend (or MOST of it) to quilting!!!! Anyone up to the same this weekend??? Wanna join me???

Another project screaming at me from the back burner is Hannah's Rotation. Award's Day is looming closer and closer, and I'm not sure this baby is gonna make it on time.... Boy, I need a magic wand for this one!

And as badly as I want to jump right into yet ANOTHER new project....I just C-A-N-N-O-T!
But here is a snapshot of the pattern my SIL choose for her "floofy" quilt....
and the fabric selection....


I feel so lazy right now though---I don't know if I'll get downstairs to some quilting tonight.

And have you seen!?!!?!? Amanda Jean (CrazyMomQuilts) is back! Talkin' about a motivator!!! I don't know how she does it all!

Okay---the girls just put in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" {{Cassie ADORES the "original"---specially the Oompa-Loompas}}, so I either need to mosey downstairs right away, or I'll be 'sucked' into the movie!!!

Happy Friday!

9:30 pm update
Grrrrrrr!!!.....
I was doing SO WELL with the Deer Camp quilting. Then......brown thread ran out. I am completely EMPTY of any shade of brown.....
**sigh**
I guess I need to make a quick run to town tomorrow so I can finish it up and get it off the frame. In the meantime, I cut some borders for American Classic, which will be the next quilt to be loaded in the frame.

Again, Happy Friday!

Time needs to slow down!

It's Wednesday night already!
Monday was shot with unpacking from the long weekend...
Last night was terrible because a nasty head cold took over my body and I felt like doing NOTHING...
Tonight---I sure hope to see some quilting time

I'm trying to not allow Angela to "get to me"---yeah, she's already gloating at the three weeks (THREE WEEKS!!!!) that she has left of the school year. WOW! Where has this school year gone???

We'll be there soon enough----5 weeks for us (3 for seniors)

C-R-A-Z-Y!

Happy Wednesday!

Monday morning ramblings...

Gosh, for a day I could actually sleep in, I was up at 5:40 a.m. wide awake. I've been out catching up on everyone's weekend and figured I might as well drop in a few words myself.

I finished sorting through my magazines; ended up keeping 5 magazines and 42 patterns that were torn out and placed in page protectors in a binder. I will be giving the magazines with patterns torn out to my MIL, maybe later today after the funeral.

I haven't mentioned yet the reason I'm staying at my parents through today (Monday.) My grandmother ('real' Dad's mother) passed away last week. I hadn't seen her in a long time, and I think Dad was quite surprised when I said I would be there, but she's Grandma.

My Dad comes from a family of 18; (my Mom from a family of 16). They divorced when I was 2 years old, and as I grew older, I would often joke about "golly--imagine if we were to put together a reunion involving both my 'real' parents---it'd be half the town!"

I usually don't care to read too many obituaries; too blah and boring and factual--rare is it when an obituary gets written like this one: Grandma. I just found it more personable; almost as if you didnt' know her, you truly got a sense of what type of person she was. Of her 18 children, 14 are still live, with 46 grandchilden, 62 great-grandchildren and 20 great-great-grandchildren. With numbers like that, I'm sure you can well imagine the scene at last night's wake. At one point, many of us joked about needing name tags with the family-tree written on it (ie: Amy, youngest daughter of Ron, 3rd oldest boy of Mary(Grandma))

So---the household is waking up, and I suppose I can hand the laptop over to hubby to check out his online game status (I think it's called Evony??). {{I think he's going through withdrawal}} LOL

Happy Monday everyone

At the Parent's

Hanging out at the parent's house this weekend; we're up and at'em, watching Sunday morning cartoons rigt now; Candace cuddled in next to me in "Grandpa's recliner" and Grandpa is stuck over in "Grandma's glider" while Grandma is on the couch cuddled next to Caitlyn. DH is also on the couch; cuddling with no one :0)

I didn't bring a quilting project, per se. I kinda sorta did, though.
Before leaving the house, I packed up every quilting magazine I could find in a box and threw 'em in the car. Two big boxes full. Yesterday, I started sifting through one box; going through each magazine; ripping out patterns that I HOPE to someday make and organizing them into a binder with sheet protectors (small purchase while shopping at Walmart yesterday). So far, I have gone through one box; half of the magazines are on the "toss" pile (since patterns were removed from them), while they other half are on the "sell on ebay?" pile (since I didn't take a single pattern from it). OH---there are only THREE so far that I have kept whole and will be keeping for myself because they have more than 2 patterns in them that I would be interested in making. LOL. Thank goodness I'm young and have YEARS ahead of me to make all these projects!!! I bought the smaller package of sheet protectors (50), so I DO have a limit.....

On the ride down to my parents, I worked on the May BOM files. I can promise you one thing: all three blocks are nice-n-easy this month!!! Watch for them Thursday or Friday evening....

Yesterday, I also dragged my SIL to Hancock Fabrics because she has requested a quilt in blues and browns. We all know how many blue hues there are, right??! I wan't about to try to figure out her colors, so she needed to come and pick them out. Sorry, but pics will need to wait until I'm back home because I don't want to tinker to try to a) uploads pics to Dad's computer, and b) I don't want to WAIT for the pic to upload to Blogger {{my parents SERIOUSLY have to get something other than dial-up!}}

Then, when we arrived back "home," I had her sift through my quilting magazines to see if she saw a pattern she liked. That poor girl! She's not a quilter, and so when she started seeing all the cutting and piecing, etc... she commented "Gosh--I've never really observed patterns before. I just want something 'floofy'."

Well--THAT comment helped me immensely! She will not want cotton batting---too heavy. She will not want a fancy pattern with lots of seam---too heavy. She will not want lots of quilting done---to stiff and heavy.

SO---we found a LOVELY simply pattern; big square blocks with some smaller strips of sashing...{{again, pic to come later}}

So...it's almost 8:00 am, coffee is done and the powdered-sugar donuts are calling my name!

Happy Sunday!