Blue Ridge Beauty top done; Red Blossoms gettin' there

Blue Ridge Beauty (69"x80") - pictured sidewaysThe final borders were put on this morning---there will be no continual UFO status for this thing!!! A backing was pieced from a large amount of blue that I found in the donation boxes and already loaded up on the frame. I was hoping to get a start on the quilting today, but not so sure that will happen now.

I also worked on Red Blossoms today. Thanks to Amanda, I feel just fine only having pieced one more block to have the center finish square. (Speaking of Amanda...be sure to check out her Scrappy Red words quilt!!! As for my red quilt...the center has been pieced together, and I even spent some time piecing the bonus triangles into pinwheels for some sort of pieced border. Now that my design floor is clear of Blue Ridge Beauty, I think I'll play around with border layouts for Red Blossoms. I definitely need to break up the center from the pieced border with a light/white inner border strip.

And, as the meteorologist promised, today the temps hit the 50's!!! WOW! Heat wave! Naturally, I needed to make the most of it!!! Laced up the tennies and ran 1.8 miles once DH returned home from fishing with Caitlyn.

Oh ....
Caitlyn had a wonderful time! It was just DH and her, so she was on the receiving end of all the attention....

I have NO CLUE what this picture is all about, but DH sent it to me.

DH is cleaning the fish right now; I'm finishing up a few loads of laundry; Caitlyn and Cassie are outside feeding the animals, and Candace is writing her name on all the valentines for her class tomorrow; all signs that the weekend is coming to an end.


Stash Report Feb. 7-13
Used/week: 4.67 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 34.32 yds
Purch/year: 6.0 yds

Net Used: 28.32 yds

Saturday sew-in status...

1. Piece Maltese Stars step #5 - DONE!

2. Piece Blue Ridge Beauty blocks into a top (and open up my design wall!) - SORTA DONE!
I pieced the blocks together into the quilt center, but haven't added borders yet. However, my design wall was finally clear again :0)

3. Write step 2 of Raven Stars - DONE.

4. Piece 1 OR 13 more Red Blossom (Pineapple Blossom) blocks - NOT DONE, but the blocks have taken over my design wall.


DH was off of work early yesterday, so he volunteered to drive the 80 miles down to Eau Claire to pick up my machine that has been sitting, waiting, since Monday. Ah yes, a lovely husband :0) Mind you, he also enjoyed his stop at the Sporting Goods store down in that area... :0) The verdict on my machine: a gear had loosened which is why is was so noisy, and the fact that the gear was loose was causing my needle/bobbin to be out-of-sync. No gear replacement was needed; just a tightening.

And all day long, I've been working some more on the RRCB HST units as my leaders-enders project.

But now...I'm a bit peetered-out. DH was up bright and early at 5:30 to head out with a family friend for a day of ice-fishing. As hard as he really tries at being silent, it still doesn't matter. I'm such a light sleeper. He apologized when I came rolling out of the bedroom at 5:45, but I simply shrugged and said "no biggy." It's the weekend! No stress and I can get my day started before the girls wake up.

A sew-in weekend! My goals:

No plans for anything much this weekend; just hanging out at home. So, unless something else arises, I plan to sew.....

Goals:
1. Piece Maltese Stars step #5
2. Piece Blue Ridge Beauty blocks into a top (and open up my design wall!)
3. Write step 2 of Raven Stars
4. Piece 1 OR 13 more Red Blossom (Pineapple Blossom) blocks

"Way behind" Wednesday (???)

;0)

If you notice the list of Midget blocks on my sidebar, you'll see the last one I pieced was #8. Can you see the # of this one on the printout??? ;0) Yeah.... #9 and #10 were NOT looking too appealing to me tonight. In fact, #9 looks downright intimidating! I'll need a two-hour sitting for that one, I think. And #10....ugh! Just wasn't in the mood to do any paper-piecing with the few precious minutes I had tonight. SO.....#11 "Signal" it was!

I haven't worked on these in awhile, not since before Volleyball season. Angela is WAAAY ahead of me, but I just may make a push to catch up with her now that her life seems to be keeping her away from oodles of quilting time :0) {{Psht...yah right! She has about 30 done!!!!}}

Quilt-along: Raven Stars - Step 1: Cutting

This entire quilt center is going to be pieced from 2.5" strips and will result in very little waste ;0)

I usually do not cut out all of my pieces at the start of a project anymore. However, I have participated in two mysteries recently where the first step was to complete all the cutting, and I must say, it's been nice to have it done and out of the way, so that when steps are posted, I can get right to the piecing!

In all reality, this may just be the most time consuming step of this entire quilt-along. I couldn't believe how long it took me to cut it all out; over two hours certainly. So, take your time; spread it out. Or, you could simply just cut all the 2.5" strips for this step and wait until the steps get posted to cut the smaller pieces/units; the choice is yours.

Cutting Directions
Black
18 - 2.5" strips.
Set 11 strips aside. Using the remaining 7 strips and your TRI ruler, cut 168 "tri units."



Purple
20 - 2.5" strips.
Set 13 strips aside. Using the remaining 7 strips and your EZ Angle ruler, cut 168 HST (half-square-triangle) units.


White
37 - 2.5" strips.
Using 21 of the strips, subcut into 336 - 2.5" squares.
Using 7 of the strips, cut 168 - HSTs
Using the remaining 9 strips and the RECS ruler, cut 168 PAIRS of "recs units."

**TIPS for the "RECS" units**:
Keep your fabric folded in half (wrong OR right sides together; doesn't matter). Do this so that you obtain the required "mirrored image" of each unit in the finished block. Keep the pairs together. You can see a small stack of my "pairs" started at the lower left of the above picture. The picture to the left shows how these pieces will eventually be used in a later step. VERY important to have the mirroring!!!
Cut that tiny notch off the corner. You can see it pictured above. Yeah, it will be putzy, BUT will save you a headache later on when we piece the units together.

That's it!
Remember, borders have not been included yet. I will cut those out once the center is pieced.

Some of you dynamo quilters out there will be able to figure out how to sew some of these pieces together; Go for it if you want!

The next scheduled posting: 2/16/11 - Step 2: 9-patches

Design "floor" Monday; Red Blossoms

Since my design wall still houses the Blue Ridge Beauty blocks and I can't see taking them down until they are pieced into a top, AND since I don't really want to work on those blocks right now....

I shooshed all of the girls' toys to the side to open up some floor space to get a glimpse of how the Red Blossoms blocks looked since I finished piecing the 35 of them tonight. Originally I was planning a 5x7 layout, but....I love this "barn raising" layout. It's a symmetrical layout, and 35 blcoks just aren't going to play well without a few more. Now to decide....just whip out one more for a 6x6 layout, OR 13 more to have a 6x8 layout??? Mmmmm... I think this is an easy answer for me since I am not a big fan of "square" quilts. 13 more blocks to find scraps for.

And so far, 140 bonus tris that will find their way into a pieced border.

Also, I ran on the 'dreadmill' tonight. Nothing long; nothing fast, but I ran. One mile. I wasn't in the greatest mood when I arrived home, BUT Amy, Infinity Quilter kinda got me motivated via an email today to get my butt going again! We shared a couple of emails say "Woo-hoo to the Pack" {{she's a fellow Wisconsinite}} and she made a comment about running the Green Bay Cellcom 5K in May because it finishes with a lap around Lambeau Field. I ran it back in 2006 (I had told her 2003, but I was mistaken.) Anyway.....I kinda thought it may be nice to get my butt motivated again and get some races on my 2011 calendar! So, I spoke with a coworker who has finished one 5K in her life and thought she might like some motivation as well! We're going to see about runnin' it up together!
So anyway, got home...not too happy, but for one reason or another, I stuck to the gameplan to get on the treadmill. I did a little run/walk interval workout and sure was huffin' it up by the close of the mile! When I was back upstairs, I read over my mail (BONNIE'S BOOK ARRIVED!!!!) and listened to Caitlyn read her Reading assignment for the night; looked through the kitchen cabinets to find something for dinner; decided on homemade pizza (the easy way with a package crust); started frying up some pork sausage for toppings; had the girls get bundled up again to leave to pick up Cass from basketball practice. And....I was feeling TONS better than what I would have HAD I not run! I guarantee it! So, this is my reminder-----I will HATE running on the dreadmill, but....I WILL feel so much better once I'm done.

There!

Happy Monday!

Red!

I tell ya, if I would always get this much done when I wake up at 4:30, I'd be doing it more often!!!

;0)

Nah! You know as well as I do that the weekend is "different!" 4:30 on a weekday....PSHT! Fat chance!

Anyway, couldn't sleep for one reason or another this morning. So by 4:45, I just got up and started my day with a cup of coffee and my computer. By 6:00, I wasn't finding any new blog updates, so......t'scha! Might as well head downstairs!

I wasn't sure if I would start up the machine; I didn't want to risk waking anyone, even though my room is quite a distance away from any sleeping ears.

Regardless, I pulled red, red, red and more red.

By 10:00, I had a whole cutting board filled and organized with enough units to make thirty-five (35) Bonnie Hunter's Pineapple Blossom blocks. I saw a rendition in all blue recently, and absolutely loved it. This is a fun pattern and GREAT way to use up scraps.

Took a little brunch-break, and then back to it.

At 3:00, I decided to finally close up shop but not before nearly piecing all 35 blocks. All that remains is the final white corners...

For any of you who have made this block before or any number of Bonnie Hunter blocks, you know she uses the flip-method quite a bit, which leads to bonus triangles. Seventy (70) bonus tris already done; 70 more will be completed once the final white corners are added.

I also took time to piece and press a few more HSTs for RRCB. 240 done. Slow-n-steady :0)

Oh, and remember that pic from last night (right)? WHAT a difference a little "soak in a tub" makes!






Okay.

So.

Now.....




ARE


YOU


READY


FOR


SOME


FOOOOOOOOOOOOTBALL!?!?!!?!??



Good luck Pack! Let the game begin!

Perseverance despite!

For those of you who have been around my site for awhile, you'll know that this is (sadly) not the first time my sewing table looks a little bare..... **sigh**....

I was up a bit earlier than a normal Saturday. Candace slept with me (although it was more like sleep/spin-in-circle/kick-mom-in-face type of sleeping for her). By 7:15, I had already read up on the latest blog posts and had a cup of coffee down, so I headed downstairs to start working on the Maltese Star mystery, step #3. This step was actually posted last Friday, so I am was a week behind since I wasn't home last weekend, nor was able to get much sewing in this week. A little before 9:00; step #3 was complete.

I then took a quick coffee and bagel break, but got right back to things after printing out step #4 that was posted yesterday.

I dunno....I was clippin' along.....and I noticed my machine had a "noise." My best description; it sounded like an ol' hand-crank model engine....she was "laboring."

Then my thread broke......twice. The 2nd time, I took everything apart, did some oiling.....and tried again.

Then.....click, click, click, click.

The needle and bobbin were out of time/sync. The same thing that was wrong last July.

:0(

So my buddy Lee was called; told him the symptoms, and let him know that I'd be arriving in one-n-a-half hours.

**sigh**
Not QUITE how I wanted to spend much of my day, but what's one to do when the closest Bernina dealer is 80 miles away?

Before I left, I sorted some piles of clothes and showed Cass how to run the washer/dryer again. I figured she could at least continue a few loads while I was away.

I also put my thinking cap on before I left! I decided to stop at the Public Library on my way out of town in order to check out a book-on-CD. A 90 minute one-way drive allows for too much "thinking time," and with everything that's going on lately around my school district, I simply didn't want to "think."

Short version: 11:15 a.m. 90 minute drive. "Hi Lee. Here it is." "Okay Amy, looks like she'll have to stay at the shop for awhile." "Yeah, I figured that much. Keep in touch!" Subway lunch stop. 60 minute drive. Stop at Walmart to buy valentines and other necessities. 30 minute drive. Back home. 3:00 p.m.

2 minutes later......my ol' standby Brother machine was out on my sewing table, and I was back at it!

By 4:00, I was finishing up step #4.

I've spent about 4 hours downstairs since dinner working on details for the Raven Stars quilt along. If you haven't read about that yet, the informational post will give you all the details so far.

I also spent some time pressing part of the bazillion HST's needed for Bonnie Hunter's RRCB step 5. I thought I took a picture of the 120 HST's I pressed together tonight, but obviously I didn't, cuz dey ain't on da camera card! But, before I completely turn everything off downstairs this evening, I reminded myself (FINALLY) to remove my ironing board cover in order to throw it in the washer. I LOVE the homemade spray starch recipe from CrazyMom, but it sure cakes up on the cover. This'll be the first time I've washed the cover.

My Brother is not a super-great piecing machine, but definitely better than nothing! I need to wiggle the fabric pieces around quite a bit in order to get and keep a consistent 1/4" seam. I'm sure glad I decided NOT to get rid of it when I purchased the Bernina!

And finally.....


G O   P A C K !!!!!