Cassie's progress...

Cassie kept her nose to the grindstone for a solid HOUR...

...

{Cassie}: Mom, so is this, like, my machine now?
{Me}: Hmm...how 'bout after 36 hours of sewing on it, we can call it your machine?
{Cassie}: REALLY? How 'bout I start a chart of my sewing time?
{Me}: Well, Cassie, if you create one quilt, you'll be well on your way to 36 hours...
{Cassie}: Can I make one for Cailtyn and Candace, too?
{Me}: That is a great idea, honey

....
{After another 30 minutes on "her" sewing machine}

{Cassie}: So, like, can we go shopping for some of my own fabric?

LOL

A monster has been created!!!!!!!

We had some errands to run this morning, and the girls are all still hanging out in my car watching some movie. {{shaking head}}. They'll be in there for a while, GUARANTEED!

So, with coffee in hand, I'm off to play with my design wall. I still don't know which layout I like the best for the Paintbox blocks, so maybe I'll just leave them be for the time being and work on my A Scrappy Picnic blocks. Please consider giving me your own feedback about which layout YOU like the best for the Paintbox blocks. If the "vote" stays kinda even, I may just end up tossing a coin! ;0)

Cassie sewing solo...

So, you keeping up with all my posts??? ;0) This is only my 46th (for the month of June)!

I considered just tacking this update on the last post, but this one really deserves its own.

I set her up with her own desk upstairs in the loft. After a couple of practice strips, I stacked her up with a pile of 2" lights and darks to make some 4-patches. We'll see how long she lasts.

I considered using larger squares, but....eh....she'll be just fine.

her lil' company....yeah...okay...we'll see how long THIS happy scene lasts....

Self Diagnosed...I'm ADHD---let's go back to Paintbox

Cassie was more interested in a TV show than learning to sew, so I hung up my OWN wall {{yeah, just a few push-pins and I have my OWN wall for use {{Walmart $5.00 tablecloth purchase}}....who needs DH anyway??)

Lately, I can't stay on one project too long----I get bored. Yup, yup---that's why my UFO and WIP list gets bigger instead of smaller.

Remember my Paintbox blocks?


So....kinda Like-Colorish Chromatic?
hmm...I can see moving that bottom red row back up by the other one...maybe move a couple other rows....yeah...yeah.....WOW! I should design from pictures more often...

Or Random All over?
ignore that lil' gap

a 1.5" white sashing (finished) will go around each block....

Okay...Cassie is ready to sew now that I reappeared upstairs...... "out of sight, out of mind".....

Guess the Design Wall will need to wait 'til later...

Losing patience; quilting frame experience learning tips--{{UPDATE}}

Okay...three hours into quilting this thing and I need a break! It is soooooooo slow! And putzy!

I'm tyring my Bernina on the frame; I lose about 2 inches of quilting space, but I knew I wanted to try some more precise quilting, so I really wanted a stitch regulator available.

So...a few things I've learned....

a) It's hard to see the quilting area when on the Bernina. Here's my line of view from the front. Can you see the needle?
Yeah...me either. So, I've had my Yoga alotment for the day trying to maneauver to see where I'm going...bending to the left, bending to the right, squatting down in front...

b) The Juki98 quilts MUCH faster, but no regulator :0(

c) Doing echo quilting with only 5" of quilting space IS NOT fun, easy {{or very consistent}} when the blocks are 8+. :0( Once I get this thing done, I'll show you the attempt at echo quilting around the flowers.

d) Until I either get i) a larger throated machine or ii) a stitch regulator for the Juki, I will most likely stick to pantographs or simple {{thoughtless}} meandering designs.

Alright, alright.....another hour and THEN maybe I'll hang up the quilting shoes for the day....


**{{sigh}}**
It WOULD be nice to finish this today before DH needs to leave for Marshfield, cuz then he could take it with him to deliver to MIL {{oh yeah...it's her quilt she asked me quilt up for her}}. But I don't think that's going to happen.....

2:00
Alright...I stuck the "git 'er done" motto in my head.....

Six hours of quilting, and it's finished....

Echo quilting around each of the flowers; my first real attempt at it...

The flowers had such a "poof" to them that was fun, so I onlly did a little swirly-gig on four of the petals...Can you see in this picture?

Here's a darker flower...

....hmmm....looking at this picture makes me think I could have (should have) done a swirly-gig on each petal. Oh well...se'la'vee (sp?)....it's already in DH's truck on its way to MIL. It is what it is.....

Okay---2:00.....lots of day time left; cloudy, rainy day (AGAIN)....
Cassie is begging to sew, so I'll see about setting her up on my Brother.
Cassie is begging for a "purse," so I'll kill two birds with one stone...

I said I love Him, right?

Okay---"Patience is a Virtue,"

BUT I'm NOT VERY VIRTUOUS!

That's it?!?!?!? 5 hours of "working," and THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SHOW FOR IT!?!?!?!?!?

{{**sigh**}}

I love you honey....I know---I need to be patient. "Rome wasn't built in a day!"

I could well imagine someone looking at this pic and saying...."That's it?!?!?!? 5 hours of "working," and THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE TO SHOW FOR IT!?!?!?!?!?. {{okay, more like 3.5 hours}}.....that's my latest log time; all 4 colorways set for me to tackle today :0) Kinda a fun lil' project so far. AND made a decent little dent in the 2.5" strip bin.

Okay, back to Paul to show he actually WAS working.....

well, he was working for MOST of the time. Boy---he's on the phone more than a teenage girl!

So, when he was talking through this conversation, I grabbed the camera and went for a little walk around the yard.

It seems every year, we have a family of Killdeer birds that nest on the side of our driveway. Three weeks ago, I needed to mow and I hadn't spotted the nest yet. I LOOKED AND LOOKED AND LOOKED for that nest, all the while Mama and Papa bird were frantically trying to lure me away. Have you ever seen what a killdeer does; they play "wounded" and make a whole ruckus!!! Anyway....I GAVE UP!!!!! I couldn't find it! So, I mowed.

And I didn't see Mama and Papa anymore. :0(

But then, just this week, they showed back up!!!! So, off I went searching again. STILL with no luck. But leave it to eagle-eye-DH! He found 'em.
And all the while I was admiring the nest to take this picture, Mama bird was going through her "lure-the-predator-away" act. (the two previous pics). "Tis okay Mama...I only wanted to look."

Oh yeah!!!! Here's another animal, FAMILY of animals that have "nested" in our yard...
Oh suuuuuuure.......he's all cute and adorable looking in the picture.....

BUT....if you have groundhogs in YOUR yard, GARDEN and STRAWBERRY PATCHES, you wouldn't think they were all that cute!

Dun-da-daaaaaaaaaaa
Where'd you see it honey? I'll get that wascally gwoundhog!

In the end, he ended up with two groundhogs bagged and maybe wounded another, because he couldn't find the one he was searching for in the picture above.

I stand corrected.....DH informed me...."BTW, it's a GOPHER, not a groundhog. A groundhog is like 3 times that size." {{I guess he DOES read my blog afterall}}

Yeah, yeah....PETA would love us.... You know what we have to say to that??? "Deal with it!"

I had been putting off making the label for Kool Kat, Quilt 4 Kids, but I put my nose to the grind stone for 20 minutes last night to check this task off my list.
All four quilts are now packaged up to be shipped today.

And for as BADLY as I want my walls, that project will be put on hold until DH returns from his other job. He's working on a slight remodel for his sister's Fitness Center, so he's heading out of town for the weekend. I could tag along, but I don't wanna. There's plenty here to keep me busy :0)

{{giggle}} -- A couple of detours

Ummmm........I need to stay away from the computer in the wee hours of the morning.....

WAY TOO MUCH INSPIRITATION OUT THERE!!!! This time---it's Moda Bake Shop's fault......the culprit: Avignon Picnic. It seemed the PERFECT pattern to tackle the growing 2.5" strip bin!!!!!
{{chuckle}}--"inspiritation?....LOL....ummm...okay, I guess I'm good at making up words too!

So.....let A Scrappy Picnic commence!

{{Oh, and check out that print out! I was playing with the printer-setting-window today. Why hadn't I thought of this before???? I have an option "pages on each page"....This was a 4-page PDF pattern, so I selected "4". V'iola! All 4 print on ONE page---small print, but my eyes are still young enough. Besides, I really only needed the pictures. Just thought I'd share...}}
I've never really kept track of how long it takes to make certain quilts....so this will be the first I document as I create it.

sorted.....into 7 colorways (greens, reds/oranges, pinks/purples, blues, browns/blacks, yellows, lights), but I'm only going to use the greens, red/oranges, blues & browns/blacks. The others will await some other special project in the future :0)

I contemplated using my scrappy lights, but ended up deciding on a nice, bleached white, CONSISTENT muslin. White goes with everything, right? ;0)

And rather than strip-piecing all of the scraps, I actually cut most of the bricks ahead of time. I had a feeling too much of the scraps and white would need to be tossed into the "crumb" box because of all the odds-n-end sizes. This actually worked out MUCH better for the little bit of extra time it took...

Blues done :0)

and as I started tackling the green strips....I hear this "rumbly-rumble"......

huh...wha...?...where is that noise coming from? It's not raining out, is it????

{{{happy squeel}}}
I KNOW THAT TRUCK!!!! Last night, at some point, I had asked Him what his plans were for today because his construction jobs have had Him here-there-n-everywhere lately. His response: "well, if the wood gets delivered, I'll work on the downstairs bedroom." {{HA! bedroom? Okay honey, I'll let you keep calling it that, but the girls are JUST gonna have to learn how to share the two bedrooms upstairs!}} That silly DH ordered all the wood supplies yesterday to be delivered today! Have I told you lately how much I love Him??? ;0)

So, I quickly finished up the greens and then started tidying up to make room for DH's equipment and work area....

....I need to tidy up more often!!!!!! LOOOOOOK at what I found in a cute lil' Christmas box....
I had completely forgotten about this lil' gift from Hythe, one of my Beginning Quilting students from last year. Sometimes I really do wonder about "fate" and all that......I was JUST thinking I needed some more "tan/cream" colored thread!

So, that got me inspired for a brief time (15 minutes) to tackle this bag of Christmas fabrics...
They may find themselves in another Moda Bake Shop pattern that I was admiring this AM too.....(Fruitcake Under My Tree) -- just posted today.

DH and I had good timing....as I was finishing up the pressing and folding of the Christmas Fabric, the truck was just leaving...


So, A Scrappy Picnic will need to be set aside for a little bit.
Time invested: 2 hours.

We needed to run a quick errand (take his truck into the shop----why are vehicles such a pain sometimes????), return some movies to the Library, pick up a window for a client, .... and now.....I wait. DH wanted to run to the client's house to quickly install the window; and he took the girls with him. So....I figured a quick update was a perfect way to utilize this hour until he returns. Then....a little lunch, and then.......WALLLLLS!!!!!!

I'm sure you can expect pics tonight.....

Perfect piecing! {{and a few other things...}}

I'm tickled....
I needed to measure out some borders tonight, and I usually just "measure" by laying the strips on top of the quilt down the center. (Read about Bonnie's Border tips here...) But here, I had to verify my measurement.....LOOK AT THAT PERFECT PIECING!!!! 50.5 needed to be the measurement! Wooo-hooooo!!!

Alright...alright...I wasn't going to show this one, but I WILL!!!!! This one needed to be 76.5......just a SMIDGE OFF!

Momma made some yummies for a snack tonight, too. Smore's via microwave :0)



OH! And check out this gem. I've established a new goal; every night/day I need to press-n-fold fabric from my boxes for at least 15 minutes.
I really have no idea if this came from Grandma's collection or if it was in one of the many, many boxes my mother has donated to me from various garage sales, goodwill sprees, or from the church's old collection. I really like the "oldness" to it----vintage, would you say? I didn't actually measure out how much there was, but at least 2 yards :0) Hmmmmm.......now to find the perfect pattern to use it in!

Psht----this was a garage sale find from last Friday (the quilt rack, NOT the fox skin). ONLY ONE DOLLAR!!!! Great find!!!!! LOL.....I told DH the caption for this pic should be...."No, that's NOT a cat." {{since so many quilters seem to have cats....}}......anyhoo......

I'd like to show you more pictures of the quilt I was working on tonight, but it'll stay quiet for a bit longer. {{One hint: BOM.}}

Alright all; gonna go check out the evening posts and then.....ah heck....I'm not tired yet, so maybe some drafting? Magazine browsing? Oooo....OR....I could finally crack open the newest Stephanie Meyer's book: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Did you know you can read it here free (until July 5th)? I grabbed a copy at Target over the weekend. Gosh---for as obsessed as I was with the series, I'm surprised I haven't ignored life to get it read!!!

'night all.

Kool Kat done; Judy's June mystery progress; Homemade French fries???

I snuck in some time this afternoon .... {{okay, so I didn't "sneak"....I just sewed allllllll day!!!}}
Kool Kat is in the washer, quilted and bound. I will need to make up a label tonight since this is a donated Quilts 4 Kids from my stash. The quilting was a fast, simple, edge-to-edge loopty-loop.

And then, once that was finished up (around 3:30), I figured it would be a perfect time to work on Judy's June Mystery Step #4 before I needed to start thinking about dinner....

I didn't realize it was such a quick, fun step! :0) I'm liking my fabric choices so far :0)


Have you ever attempted making homemade french fries? Through trial-n-error, DH has finally mastered the method! {{yes, I will give him credit! He's quite the chef when he wants to be!!!!}}.
First, slice your potatoes to your liking. We usually just punch 'em through this fry maker.
Then (and this IS an important step!), lay them out between two towels and rub gently to dry as much moisture as possible.
Once the fryer is ready, fry 'em up for a bit. Time really depends on how thick the fries are. You don't want to COMPLETELY cook them yet, so remove and let them drain for a few minutes (2-3). Then....(and this is the SECOND important step)....fry them AGAIN until they are crispy brown.

Okay....they're in the fryer right now, so I gotta run!

Tonight's agenda? Probably Dizzy, QOV Mystery 22, step #4. I might also consider working on the BOM. July is RIGHT around the corner already.