Chunky Churndash finished! Paintbox blocks done. Stash report March 15-21 & 22-28

Chunky Churndash finally sees a finish! Just in time to be gifted to my mother for her 60th birthday. The quilting was VERY simple! Stitch-in-ditch. I did not quilt this one in sections, and it's BIG! Gosh---NOW I remember why I like the quilting-in-sections method! I couldn't imagine doing anything elaborate while trying to control all the bulk under the arm. Yikes! But, it's done. Bound...and SOON to be labeled. Oh--it's pictured on our King size bed; it's meant for a full size bed--it should be just right.

I also finished up my last two sets of Paintbox blocks...

Set #9

Set #10

So all 80 blocks await time for me to piece them into the top.


Here-n-there throughout the day, I helped Cass set up her bead-loom kit. This was the first time we attempted it, and it went fairly smoothly.
By the time we packed it up for the day, she beaded two bracelets; one for herself and one for Candace.


I did not report my stash last week, so I'll report both weeks right now...
Stash Report: March 15-21
Used this week: 9.777 yards (curtains, backing for Snuggler)
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 87.081 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 86.25 yards
Net used: 0.831 yards
I'm in the BLACK!!!!! Yeah!!!!!

Stash Report: March 22-28
Used this week: 1.792 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 88.873 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 86.25 yards
Net used: 2.623 yards

Happy Sunday!

April BOM up :0)

In addition to a few other things today, I enjoyed sitting with some technology to ensure the April BOM choices made their way to you. [[Quick link]]

The blocks this month:
Fifty-Four Forty or Fight (ONE of my all-time favorites!)

Housewife

Pennsylvania Parade


In addition to the Easy Angle ruler we have utilized on many blocks so far, this month I am also introducing two more Specialty rulers...
The Companion Angle ruler. This is being utilized on Housewife and Pennsylvania Parade to create quarter-square-triangles (QSTs).

The Tri-Recs ruler set. These are being used on 54-40 or Fight. These two rulers are sold as one set.


If you don't have the rulers, nor intend to purchase them----it's OKAY! I found all of these blocks online and posted links within my tutorials to lead you to the online tutorials. The reason I enjoy using these rulers is because of the system I adopted from Bonnie Hunter of using and sorting strips. Haven't heard of it??? Read more about Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User's system. These rulers work very nicely with "nice" strips (ya know, the 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3.5", 4.5" strips)---rather than needing to cut a square at 5 1/4" or 3 7/8"....bleh! I rarely use strips other than those suggested in Bonnie's system. Why?? Because they make sense and go well together, JUST like she says :0) And---they're NICE!

Oh dear-- a week of no updates

Yes, I'm here.
Yes, I HAVE been doing some sewing, but not at much as normal. Life got hectic for the moment at school again, and my evenings have simply been used for major vegetation! I've been exhausted!

I finished up the last of the curtains -- one for the kitchen window above the sink and one for the dining room door. Both face the west, so when we sit down for dinner or wash up the dinner dishes, the sun blares at us, looming above the horizon before setting, and is quite BRIGHT on many days. I have no pictures---simply didn't take them yet. Someday.

Last Monday morning, Paul's phone rang at 6:01 AM. The post office was calling........"Your CHICKS are here. Come and get them, PUH-LEASE!!!!!"
LOL---I guess a box of chirping chicks is enough for anyone! I can't imagine how the shipping guy(s) handled them :0)The post office is just a hop-skip-jump away, so I started getting the girls ready for school. Dad arrived back when the girls were sitting at the breakfast table. He had one simple rule---"Don't touch!" The picture of Caitlyn shows perfectly how bad they wanted to hold one. The paperwork showed they had been hatched two days before arriving.
[[No, the chicks really don't have red heads; we ordered for a buddy as well, so we asked the company to mark the two separate orders clearly since they were mailed in the same crate.]]

I am looking forward to a day in front of the sewing machine. Yesterday was a long one; we watched Cassie's Destination Imagination team compete ((NOT at a local city)). They were aliens trying to share the importance that "too much technology isn't a good thing!"
POOR OPAL! She had so much red body-paint on her. We went through a whole box of baby-wipes trying to get it all off!
This was Cass's team's first year of competition and they were satisfied with their performance, although slightly sad that they didn't earn an award. One team from our school will be advancing to the State-level competition.

The middle-school venue had access to a swimming pool, so after her competition, we dressed up all three girls in their suits and they "swam" for an hour.
The awards ceremony last almost an hour and started late.....Candace simply couldn't take anymore.

[[But she DID stay awake for the enitre 2 hour ride home]]


Happy Sunday! I'm off to start my day downstairs.

Okay---enough of the 2-hour shows!!!

First of all----four days of running, and still going strong! Well....THREE days (Monday, Tuesday and Today) of running; yesterday was more like a mile of "drag-behind-the-dog-who-has-never-been-leash-trained-but-owner-was-willing-to-start-a-running-regimen" run, so I'm not counting it.
And the shin-splints are bearing down 100%---gotta get done with this post and ice them.

Anyway---the title of this post:

YEAH! Between Tuesday night's "Biggest Loser" weekly episodes, and tonight's mid-season 2-hour continuation of "Flash Forward," I haven't been able to get much accomplished on the quilting front! :0(

Ummm...my goal of those labels? Um, yeah....slow going! Maybe I'll be finding myself doing some hand-sewing up at the farm this weekend to get them on the quilts so they can be left with MIL. We haven't been up to the farm in MONTHS and G'ma & G'pa are whining to see the girls. What'cha gonna do?

Happy Thursday!

I ran...

...
...
!!!
And the 1.8 miles kicked my butt!

Happy Monday

A week in review; 4 finishes; Bernina back *yippee*; Stash Report 3/8-3/14

First things first----
after another week of mostly NO sewing, my Bernina shop guy called me Friday afternoon to let me know she was fixed. Directly after school, I hauled my lil' tuckus down to Eau Claire to pick it up before the shop closed at 6:00. I JUST made it!!!! With a few other stops on the way back home, I waltzed in around 8:30; too late to really begin any sewing.

But Saturday-------whoa yeah!
Quilts for Kids - NICU quilt #1 quilted {{Precious One}}


Quilts for Kids - NICU quilt #2 quilted {{Beary Precious}}


And Quilts for Kids - NICU quilt #3 quilted {{another Beary Precious}} -- NO PIC.

Then I moved on to Paintbox quilting.....


Family time-out

Paul took Candace out fishing on Tuesday, with his brother and buddy. I don't have a picture of the ice TODAY (Paul didn't take the camera), but we have (finally) had some warm weather hit us since Tuesday---hitting near 60 today. Actually, I haven't checked actual temps today, but I would beg to say it was over 60 degrees. It was GORGEOUS today!!!!! Set up Cassie's basketball hoop, grabbed the shovel and moved some dirt around in the front yard......
(fish from last week....)

anyway......
back to sewing....
Today, I worked a bit on some WIP blocks.....
Carolina Christmas -- 15 more of step 4....


Another Hannah's Rotation. GOSH---putzy, putzy pattern. Very much like putting together a puzzle....


Paintbox - set number 8...



I usually don't set goals for a week, BUT...
I need to label 12 quilts this week so they can be handed over to MIL next weekend. She is setting up for a craft sale the last weekend of March and she is willing to put some of my quilts out...

• Class Act (baby/crib)
  
• Steppin' Out (full)
  
• Christmas Lights (throw)
  
• Irish Chain (lap)
  
• Lucidity (throw/twin)
  
• Double Wedding Ring (wall-hanging)
  
• Candy Dish (previously Now-n-Forever) (lap)
  
• Kaleidoscope (baby/crib)
  
• Paintbox (lap)
  
• Baby Pin (previously Pinwheels and Prairies) (baby/crib)
  
• and then the three Quilts for Kids labels
  

Stash Report: March 8 - 14
Used this week: 6.569 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 77.304 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 86.25 yards
Net used: -8.946 yards

Happy Sunday

Happy PI Day too!!!!! (3.14159.......)

I almost forgot Success #4: Perkiomen Daydreams

DONE-DONE and hung!

Success #2 and #3; March UFO; Stash Report March 1 - 7

Yesterday morning (Sunday), both DH and I were up by 5:30. YIKES! Yeah, I know! By 8:00, both of us were completely motivated to get some "stuff" done, so...I asked him if he was willing to tackle the wood requirements of the curtains I started TWO weeks ago already while I did some finishing touches on the fabric.


Remember Success #1?

Well, here is FINALLLLLLLY Success #2...
...and Success #3...
[[yeah, the cords are currently tied to the door handles--until we get some appropriate tie-hooks.]]

I haven't been doing much quilting work; I have taken out Deer Camp, my March UFO. NOW I remember why I put it away last year (2009).

Short version: I whipped out this baby in ONE DAY back in April, 2008. I was motivated and pumped after a day at a Quilt Show; I purchased the panel and sewed up the log cabins that evening. However, this was BEFORE I knew a few finer methods of quilting....
ie: proper measuring
ie: proper cutting of borders
ie: mastering the 1/4" seam

You can't tell that great from the pic; but the center panel is MUCH larger than the outer border of blocks; and the outer borders aren't pictured from this April 2008 version.
WHY is the panel so much larger??? I had a larger seam allowance than 1/4" when I made the log cabin blocks, and over 20+ seams, that made a HUGE difference in actual size. I was mathematically cutting my borders to what they SHOULD have been, but....well.....

After a couple of hours of ripping...UGH! That reminds me! Not only did I not know a lot about measuring back then, nor have the 1/4" mastered....I used a STUPID stitch length!!!!!! It was seriously 1MM or less!!!! Ripping out those seams was NOT fun! But---with a couple of hours in front of the TV this past week, all borders (outer and inner) were unsewn, awaiting appropriate measurements.

The inner border was only 1" too long and 1.5" too wide. NOT BAD! But the outer border.....
...one side was THREE INCHES too long and the other was 2.5 inches too long! Holy Cow! No wonder it wasn't hanging nicely.

It is now in a nice FLAT, SQUARE flimsy stage, and **sigh**....will await the return of my Bernina for quilting.

Yeah----STILL no Bernina! No wonder I haven't done much quilting! My Brother just doesn't hold a candle to the Bernina!

So...I helped take over my daughter's project :0)
Remember latch-hook ruggin????? I LOVED doing these as a little girl! I'll admit that Cass and I have each done about 50% of the complete project. There are still two rows left, and then she'll be done. We hope to make this into a pillow.

---

Although I did a LITTLE bit of quilting, no stash was used.... Simple report this week:
Stash Report: March 1
Used this week: 0 yards
Purchased this week: 0 yards
Used-to-date 2010: 70.735 yards
Purchased-to-date 2010: 86.25 yards
Net used: -15.515 yards


Happy Monday

Do me a favor???

Willing to put in a vote for Caitlyn's Flowers?
Head over to the Quilting Gallery: Vote for little girl quilts post. There are 30 entrants, and of course, feel free to vote for any quilt you deem fitting. I decided to enter Caitlyn's quilt. Voting remains open until Sunday.

THANKS

HAPPY FRIDAY!

...**sigh**...

today is Thursday
which means (at LEAST) one happy thought enters my mind...
...
...
Tomorrow is FRIDAY!

I haven't sewed a stitch this week. I've been in bed by 9:00 latest every night
tired...
fighting a small head-cold these past couple of days, but I don't think that's the reason I've been tired...
school is getting to be a handful; discipline (an UN-ENDING battle), and deadlines looming...just...."avoidance" of what needs to be done; "procrastination" may be another good word.
BUT, students DO sometimes amaze me! Today, both of my 7th grade math classes were GOOD. I even had one of my boys (typically a TOTAL pill!) say to me "Skattebo (that's me)--this was actually FUN today!".
Ummm.....we were doing long division to change fractions to decimals AND setting up proportions. Not quite the typical "fun" day......?????
Oh well..... "What ever floats your boat!"
[[isn't that a fun saying???]]

Optimistically: I actually saw many lightbulbs turn on!!! FINALLY! Long division has been with them for a couple of years now; it's nice to see some of them finally figuring it out.


Happy Thursday
Here's to one more day before the weekend.

OH NO! Arizona Cactus measurement error!

Thanks to Linda, I did some measurement double-checking.

Oh Linda---I'm SOOOO sorry!!!!

The blue rectangles listed should be SIX inches, not 5.5 inches. MY BAD!!!! The picture (when zoomed in) shows 6 inches; Sadly I think my mind went to "finished size."

I'm off to update the file.....


Update has been made! You may need to refresh your PDF page when you view it if you've already viewed it recently.

SORRY AGAIN for the error!