10 hours in my sewing room - Easy Street and others

6:30 AM, and I was strolling into my quilting room.  I brought NO schoolwork home this weekend seeing that we teachers have 2 days worth of inservice on Monday & Tuesday while the kiddos have the entire week off.  Therefore, I'll plan to get some of my planning done during a couple of hours of worktime on Tuesday afternoon.

Therefore, I could FINALLY devote my undivided attention to my sewing room!  {{almost}}  From time to time, I did need to provide some meals on the table for Candace and Caitlyn.

My main project today:  Lazy Sunday.  Last weekend, I had left off piecing the sashing to the 2nd row before my bobbin thread ran out.  Hence, I wound 6 bobbins worth to start off the day, and then got to work.

I haven't done a "time-lapse" post in quite some time;  it's kind of a neat way to keep track of how fast/slow certain parts of quilting are.

A few hours into the morning, the center of Lazy Sunday was pieced.  I had also been piecing the border units as my leaders-enders, so I was making some good progress.

And then........

I forgot to continue with the time-lapse pictures!!! Whoops....

I simply was in a mode, and it was go-go-go;  and in the background, I was catching up on Bonnie's quiltcams from the past couple of months.

By mid-afternoon:  Lazy Sunday pieced!  77"x97".

Can I get an....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh  ?

LOL

All the while, I was organizing up the leader-ender section;  failed to take a picture of that though.  "Omigosh" continues to be my main leader-ender project.  Perhaps in 4 years, at this pace, it may actually be completed SOLELY as leader-ender :)

THEN, I wanted to truly have an idea of how many quilt-tops I had hanging around, waiting OH WAITING to eventually be loaded into the quilting frame for some fancy-schmancy quilting.

The newest flimsy from last weekend:  Confetti (48"x48)

Bonnie's 2012-13 mystery:  Easy Street (85"x85")

Bonnie's Jamestown Landing (84"x96")

Bonnie's Smith Mountain Morning (72"x82")

RWB Heartstrings, but after seeing it in pictures.....nopers.  It's not ready for quilting!  I foresee 18 more RWB string blocks for placement on the left-and-right sides.  This layout.....eh.  It doesn't work.  It's unfinished!

Rainbow Scrap (from 2011? I think) (42"x56")

2010 BOM - 18 block RWB (58.5"x72")

HMMM......Alycia, if you happen to catch this post, let me know if you (or anyone you know) would be willing to take the top as-is and get it quilted up as a QOV ???  I'd rather get this into the arms of a recipient sooner-than-later; and at this rate..... in my basement.... it would be MUCH "later" than sooner.

Frost 25 (73"x73")

Freeze Frame (69"x86")

And not to mention a flannel snuggler quilt that was packed away in a different bin.  And I'm sure I have another one around the basement ... somewhere!  So, with ALL of these 100% ready for backings to be pieced or loaded directly into the frame....

I figured I simply needed to put some time on Wafer Cookies!  Which I did.  For a little while.

and then.....

The afternoon sloggies took hold.  And I was ready to be done.

I had a slightly restless night, playing "mommy" to Caitlyn.  She wasn't feeling well at school yesterday, and ALMOST lasted the whole day.  But, at 1:50, the elementary secretary walked her down to my classroom.  Even a "mom-hug" wasn't enough.  So, with some amazing coworkers helping out, I was on the way out the door of the school with Caitlyn next to me by 2:15.  And by 2:50... **sigh** ...  she officially proved to me that she was indeed sick.

By 10:00, THANKFULLY, she dozed off to sleep on the couch.  

Her sister, on the other hand; WIDE AWAKE watching Doc McStuffins.

Therefore, I figured I'd try to pass the time with some crochet.  The Hallmark channel has been the background noise of choice most evenings, and last night wasn't any different (until I allowed Candace to watch some Disney) :)

These blocks, along with probably one more, will be sewn together to make a simple lil' Christmas table runner for our piano.

There ya go, folks.  The list of flimsies is a bit..... overwhelming!  BUT, at least my sewing tables are clean and tidied.  My leader-ender section is freshly organized.  My "big" WIPs have reached an acceptable stage for folding or stashing on a shelf.

I'm READY for Friday's Clue #1.

OH WAIT!  

Crud!  

LOL

No I'm not!!!  

I completely forgot to pull fabrics.

:}

Oh well...tomorrow is another day.  I don't think I have enough energy left in me to spend any more time in the sewing room tonight.  Instead, I'll grab my crochet hook for the evening.

Happy Saturday!

Full Speed Ahead :D Ahhhhh.......

5AM alarm goes off for my husband.  Of COURSE, I was waking up with him on this, my first day of SUMMER VACATION!!!!!

{{Okay, I promise this will be the LAST time I do any 'rubbin' in' of summer vacation!!  I'm just exhausted from the school year, and soooooo ready to start recharging the batteries with this break.}}

Last weekend (?), I started doing some cutting for Bonnie's Quiltmaker Lazy Sunday Mystery - Part 3 once it arrived in the mail.  First thing this morning was to piece together the 24 blocks asked for in this step.

I am actually at a small stand-still right now though until I schedule in some time for a small shopping spree.  I am OUT of usable purples!  I even searched high-n-low in the boxes of scrappy stash from various garage sales and donations;  not a single piece of usable purples!

No worries.  It'll be two more months before the next step hit my mailbox anyway :)

Then I moved on to finish up the borders on my 2010 BOM top that has been taking up my carpeted floor space downstairs for the past month.  It has officially reached flimsy status! (59" x 72").  

The main reason I pushed to finish up the flimsy was because I needed the floor space!

My mother called me yesterday with news that she has been asked to be a witness for a wedding at the end of the month.  In addition to requesting my help with dress shopping, she also put a request out for a wedding gift.  

"So, in your stash of quilts, would you happen to have a quilt that would be fitting for a wedding gift?" 

I'm SURE I did!

After some blog perusing to look at my selection of finished quilts and flimsies, I was actually a bit worried, though!  I wasn't really seeing anything fitting.

And then, for whatever reason, I thought of Forever, which I had forgotten to add to my list of flimsies!  

So?  Mom?  What do you think?  It's 70x80.  Give me a call with your thoughts :)

Although this is the first day of summer vacation for all of us, the weather is NOT cooperating!  We were not able to put in much of our garden this past weekend due to the wet weather;  we are hopelessly behind schedule with our crops up here in northern Wisconsin!  In fact, the news broadcast last night stated that if farmers didn't get their corn crops in by June 9th, they might as well not bother (not sure which organization had made that comment).

However, the cool (non-existent) Spring hasn't delayed the start of summer softball.

The other night, Caitlyn joined in with the wearing of the Blue-n-Gold with her first ever softball game!  She was super excited, despite being almost eaten alive by the mammoth-sized mosquitoes that HAD to have hatched over the past couple of days!  

And on my activity front.... **sigh**....

I've continually pushed ahead with my running despite the lingering annoyance of my left knee.  Today, however, I'm reallllllly starting to accept the inevitable that I may need to schedule an appointment to get it checked out.  I ran 3 miles last night on the treadmill and even iced it afterwards.  This morning, though, it is NOT happy with my "run through the pain" attitude.  

I don't like injuries that hinder any form of activity :(

SO, with poopy weather outside and a knee that is limiting my activity, I guess quilting is a GREAT way to spend this first day of vacation.

Happy Wednesday!

Lazy Sunday; 2010 BOM UFO; Mother's Day running

Two hours of sewing time this morning was all that was needed to piece together the 24 blocks for Bonnie's Lazy Sunday Quiltmaker mystery; Part 2.  I love that I'm all caught up AND that I'm feeling the quilting mojo returning :)

With deadlines done;  Lazy Sunday all caught up;  and having been so long since I was in any kind of "flow" in the sewing room, I elected to tidy, clean, organize, purge...

...and then I came across a buried stack of 2010 Mystery BOM blocks.

After laying them out and coming up with a sashing idea, I was off and running.

Sashed AND the first of three borders attached.    The next little 1.5" white border is prepped, and I'm planning for a final blue border (maybe 4.5" ??).  With summer looming, I realllllly want to set a goal of quilting all of these flimsies I have laying around all over the place!

By 1:30, I turned everything off and started to mentally talk myself into getting prepared for my 9 mile run today.  It was WINDY out, and I wasn't looking forward to it;  in fact, I was putting it off for as long as I could, HOPING the wind would die down :\  No such luck.

BUT, with a nice-n-easy pace in mind, the 1.5 mile windy stretches were tolerable, KNOWING I would have a 1.5 mile tail-wind as soon as I hit the turn-around.  I ran my 3-mile "Brooke Drive" loop again (x3 today);  it's a great training loop AND keeps me close to home.  I also set up a "water stop" at the loop turn-around, so I know that I'll have a water break every 3-miles.  It works out nicely :)

And my lovely lovely Candace had a Mother's Day snack surprise waiting for me when I got home :)

A Fruit-Veggie flower!  LOL.  Ranch dip at the ends of each carrot;  peanut butter in the center of the apple-slices flower, and a banana stem.  

Cassie brought home her first hardware of the track season last Friday night.  She's been working on her 400 meter run, and Friday she was scheduled to run three separate 400 meter runs.  One of them, a 1600M medley relay (200-200-400-800), she ran the 3rd leg, and ended up helping her relay take a Gold :)  I think she slept with the medal Friday night :)

Y'all know the song..."Back to Life....Back to reality..."

Yup.  Starting to sing that right now.

Happy Sunday.

BOM quilt done - "Freedom"

"Freedom" (58" x 84")

Once I finally just said......."Let go and get it done!" I was able to finish up the quilting on this long awaited BOM from 2010.

It took much of the afternoon, because everytime I came to a new block, I stopped and thought (way too long) about how I wanted it quilted.  I will let the pictures do the talking...

(This one is my favorite.  Those filler spirals are simple and could get quite addicting.)

So that's it.  It's done.  

And as many of us say from time to time:  

Done is better than perfect!

I figured I'd show all of you one of my FAVORITE tools when it comes to trimming quilt edges once quilting is complete;  it's my electric scissors that my mother-in-law gifted me sometime in the last couple of years.  SLICK-n-quick!!!!

My Sunday plans

I'm not sure if this is how I'm going to spend my Sunday....

or if I'm going to play around with some FMQ samples via Leah Day's blog...

I'm inspired to try some different FMQ designs because the quilt installed in the frame has been sitting and sitting because of my fear of FMQ.  I can't see this one completed with a pantograph;  it just doesn't seem to be pantograph-made.  SO, I'd like to venture out with some FMQ.

Kathy made a very "me" statement, hitting home to my fear of FMQ:  "No marking to do, but you must park any OCD tendencies at the door...!"
That's it right there!!!!  I have OCD tendencies when it comes to seeing perfection (or nearly perfection! :0) )

So, yah....that sounds like some fun today.

However, I see that Angela JUST posted the July color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge:  BLUE
..... so much fun stuff...

Remember the June Mystery?

I was up-n-at-em at 6:15; no longer able or WANTING to sleep. So...I made up some coffee and enjoyed sitting in the glider with the laptop, looking around at everyone's progress from this past week.

By 6:45, I was heading downstairs, looking forward to see what other project I could drum up to work on that has been sitting for months .....

First, I picked up the 17 blocks from the 2010 BOM off the floor. Someone had suggested setting them onpoint since I have an odd number of blocks.

Onpoint sounds like a nice idea. So, I just threw them up on the design wall mainly to get them off the floor and to see what I all have left after using 13 for an earlier top. These will get rearranged.....but now I'm debating what to use as sashing....blue? navy? or that gold that is used once in the center block???

I wasn't quite in "design" mode, so I continued looking around.....

and.....oh boy! Hiding on the bottom shelf, buried under my scrap fabric I was using on the crochet-rug (ummm....yeah, that's still sitting, unfinished, too).....

Judy's June Mystery blocks.

I had completely forgotten about them!!!! I went back reading over my blog to see the last time I worked on it, because I was COMPLETELY up-to-date with all my free time this summer, and I was enjoying this mystery.

The last June Mystery post reminded me of that oh-so-annoying day!!!! That was when my Bernina left me for a couple of weeks :0(

Regardless! Back to it!!!!! Sewing the top together (minus borders) has taken me just over an hour this morning, and now I'm taking a small coffee break before heading back down to sew the borders on. I abso-TOOTIN-lutely LOVE designs that have this "irish-chain-like" pattern to them! I don't know why, but I just adore diagonals!!!

So, anyway.....the day is off to a great start.

I haven't decided yet if I'll pack up around 10:00 in order to get things ready to leave by noon to head out to our school's Round 2 Playoff football game. Now that I'm on a roll, I may just decide to stay home and listen to it on the radio. **Shrug**...really don't know!

So....off I go to get the borders on. Then.....we'll see......

October BOM, Twilight, and Caramel Apples

Double Star Chain

The third October BOM was pieced today. Sometime soon I'll see what I can do with the 17 blocks that I have (recall I made a top with 13 blocks earlier this summer)

My designwall still was showcasing the Twilight layout from a month ago. Sure....why not....I was game to piece it together.

The first set of borders are pinned and ready for sewing, but.....I think that's all she wrote for today. After making some homemade Chicken-Vegetable-Noodle soup for lunch, I wasn't overly inspired anymore for quilting. Rather, I enjoyed soaking in the tub for over an hour, relaxing with the bubbles and reading a good book.

Then, after some pleading eyes from a few lil' girls, I made up some caramel apples for an afternoon snack. {Oh, and I allowed the girls to stay in their PJs all day----going green here; WHY have them dirty another set of clothes only to put their PJs on again 12 hours later????} ;0)

Happy Saturday

Like riding a bike...

Heading downstairs, I really had no idea what I was going to work on. Frankly, I couldn't remember what I had been working on last (before the vball season really took over)

So.....two of the October BOM's saw a finish tonight....

Arrowheads

Turning Star...and I didn't realize this one used set-in seams. With a little coaxing with a hot iron and spray starch, it ended up laying just fine.

Ahhhhhh...........I'm back

October BOM (sorta)

I know I don't need to tell any of you that "life is life" lately and that I haven't been able to do much in terms of quilting.

I haven't forgotten about the BOM, but I must admit that I need to take the easy way out this month and utilize someone else's instructions. Besides, these three blocks have been my eye-candy for the entire year and I knew eventually they needed to be made!!!! Plus, Marcia Hohn has done such a wonderful job with her own BlocksGalore website, I figured I'd give it a shoutout. In the event you haven't come across her site before, it's definitely worth bookmarking if you want LOADS and LOADS of blocks!!!!

I have been able to cut out most of the pieces for the three blocks for October, but haven't been able to scrap up much time to actually sew them together.

Enjoy October!!!!!


{{links take you to Marcia Hohn's instruction pages for each of the blocks}}

Arrowheads

Double Star Chain

Turning Star

September BOM posted

Yes, I've been away from the blog lately, but still able to get the September BOM's posted a few days early (see BOM page). This month brings us:

Mother's Favorite


Squares within Squares


Arrow Crown