Twelve hours, and I didn't want to quit!!!

It was another 5AM alarm that eagerly roused me from bed (although I had been awake since about 4:30 again).  **sigh** I will miss this stress-free living once Thursday rolls around and I need to head back to school :\

Dishes, coffee, bagel... the same routine.

Kisses to Paul at 5:45...

and then, it was time to get RSC12 taken care of!!! (with the Missouri Quilt Company tutorials playing in the background).  I actually followed one of those YouTube ads to this 'station.'  Heaven knows I didn't need to really watch any of the tutorials, but... it was decent background noise.  

I kept looking at the picture of the design wall last night, and I really was becoming partial to the small diamondy alternating blocks.  BUT, I'm also a symmetrical person at heart, SO I started the day by making up two more string blocks:  light greens and light purples.

BUT, maybe you can figure out what was wrong with the plan of adding those blocks to the left end of row #2 and row #4....

I didn't even take a picture of the design wall, but.......

the plan in my head ..... well, it was broken :(  By adding those two blocks to the left end of #2 and #4, I created a big 12" gap in rows #1, 3, & 5.  

That was no good....

Ho hum, ho hum....

Well, at least I had 12 blocks now, SO, I simply put them in a 3x4 layout, and pieced 'em together!

I didn't use paper-backing for the string piecing;  rather I used some bleached muslin as the foundation. Now I understand when Bonnie mentions how heavy the tops become when using fabric as the foundation.  I clearly had to press the seams open for this entire quilt.

And then came time to play with border options.

Those lil' diamonds ended up working just about PERFECTLY as an outer border, but first, a small inner border was needed.

And dog-gone-it!  I figured I could use my design wall to "measure" out my border strips, but... that's one heavy quilt top!  And it kept falling to the floor.

Therefore, it was time to move the quilt to the floor for border treatments.

Only, there was one small problem...

My floor space was occupied with Christmas Goose.  It's been there...waiting ever so patiently for weeks.

Alright lil' quilt!  You deserved to be pieced!

Christmas Goose (72" x 91")

I'm not 100% sold yet on it being completely done.  There's something I like about having one final border to seal it all off.  But, .... then again, it's pretty cool the way it is.  What's the standard Queen size quilt measurements, anyway???

Pretty neat finish considering this is where it all began.  Men's shirts.  Thanks Bonnie!!!!!!

And before I went back to quilting work, 

I gave the basement carpet (aka: my design floor carpet) a good vacuuming.

Rainbow Diamonds (50" x 62")

Which meant I could lay out RSC14 -- Rainbow Diamonds without worry of loose strings or other debris!  

Do I like it?  You bet'cha!  I think it'll be FUN for a little girl!  Now... to find (or wait for) a recipient.

And then, Nancy jingled through Facebook Skype, and we spent an hour sewing together...

LOL -- Heya Nancy -- Guess I shoulda looked at the snapshot right away...

It took me awhile to figure out exactly what I wanted to work on.  

My design wall was empty.

I didn't want to work on any more floor layouts with Nancy piecing away in front of me.

So, pulled out my 2.5" scrap squares and organized them up a bit.

And pieced another couple of Jack in the Box blocks from the other part of my 2012 RSC.  

After seeing Andee's AMAZING completed Jack-in-the-Box top yesterday, I am newly motivated to have my other 2012 blocks see a finish!  But, I need more in order to make the quilt a desirable size.

And then, sadly, it was time for me to shut everything down in order to make dinner for the family.
Twelve hours total.  And I could STILL go for more.  Go-Go-Energizer bunny today for some reason :)

Happy Monday!

Oh, and BTW...remember I had been watching Missouri Quilt Co's YouTube station?  By the time I shut everything down, 59 tutorials had played.  And many, many, many more ideas of quilts are rambling in my head now.  Good golly!

Slow Stitch Sunday - some down time

I was up at 5AM with Paul's alarm again.  And again, coffee was brewed, dishes were completed, and a bagel was eaten before heading downstairs by 6AM...

All of Bonnie's CS step 5 are now prepped for the final stitch, and sitting next to the sewing machine, acting as leaders-enders for whatever project I wanted to work on next...

My design wall has LITERALLY been unchanged for over a year!

This was the picture from November, 2012!  Alright....since then, the Hawaii Sunset blocks (lower section) have been completed, and are now awaiting sashing.  The Jack in the Box blocks were removed at one point, but have been resting on a shelf, untouched.

But the strings.... yup.  They are still up there!

I can't remember the last time when I actually worked on my 2011 or 2012 Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  But with 2014 looming, and my 2014 RSC sample hanging out in the lower right, it was time to clear the wall!

And then.... designer's block returned :\  The rainbow string blocks are cool, BUT...I never had a plan in mind for them.  I just pieced 'em.  Cuz they were cool.  

Therefore, lesson #1 for my 2014 RSC -- Have. A. Plan.  (which I think I do) :)

In 2012, when I pieced the Jack in the Box blocks in addition to the String blocks, I cut off the bonus triangles and turned them into some scrappy diamond units.  

I thought they'd be perfect to use as a filler block (see the sample block on the left).  BUT, one slight problem --- I never squared up the bonus triangles to 2" before piecing the diamond units.  Their sizes are simply....wonky, and inconsistent with each other.  I tried to make due anyway.

But, it just isn't going to work.  Plus, I didn't like the look of the sample. 

So then... I played some more and came up with the current look.  I know it would help matters if I would piece two more string blocks -- to make the quilt be a little more symmetrical.

Eh.  

Therefore, I'm GLAD it's Sunday!  More specific, I'm glad that it's Kathy's Slow Stitch Sunday.  After the marathon quilting day yesterday, and the silly designer's block affecting me right now... I'm simply in the mood to sit with a crochet hook in my hand!

I haven't worked on any Granny Squares in awhile, so... that's my game plan for the next couple of hours.

Happy Sunday.

November Rainbow Scrap blocks

The day was extremely fitting to work on some gray blocks for Angela's Rainbow Scrap challenge.  It was a gloomy, dreary, rainy and cold Wisconsin day...

I caught up with my Jack-in-the-Box blocks from last month too...

I didn't have intentions of working downstairs today (Sunday), but seeing my ADHD design wall in pictures....I have an itch to get back down there.  Besides, the Packers have a BYE this week, so there's nothing keeping me away ('cept for a couple of hours of school work that I'll eventually need to put in.)

Orca Bay and Hawaii Sunset; two colorful quilts!

After about three hours of quilting, I was ready to give it a rest with about half of it complete.  It's at least up, off the floor now.

So then I broke open Ann Marie's package!  WOW!!!!!  LOVE LOVE these colors!

And the back!  Super awesome rotational symmetry!  Oh Ann Marie;  you and I have so much in common.    I tried out some threads and decided on a stand-by blendable taupe color.....

...but I only had a little bit left on my last spool.  Naturally, I had to stop everything, and take a quick trip up to the quiltshop!

And, of COURSE, more than just a backup spool of thread was purchased!

I figured, after making two green/purple/orange quilts lately, I had to replenish the dents in the stash.  Gosh, I love these three colors together!!!!

Once back home, I was no longer "feeling" my quilting frame, so Andee's package was opened straight away :)  Fun, fun, fun Hawaii Sunset units!  {{And DOGGIE TREATS for Shadow!!! Awwww.}}

Since Bonnie was on quiltcam, I sat and joined her for a couple hours of sewing.

All of Andee's 9-patches received hugs by some inner borders...

and then a couple of a few blocks were pieced.  My favorite 9-patch:  the white one in the upper left corner, with the mustard center!  LOVE LOVE that little touch of a 3rd color in the 9-patch!

My Rainbow Strings were rearranged to the upper area of the design wall;  every month was completed except for the "neutral" month.  That string block may still happen;  either that or maybe I'll do something stringy with neutrals for sashing units.

Candace swiped the camera to take some pictures of all the activity outside today.  The sun was brilliant, yet still a very chilly day!  Low 40s (??)

Last weekend, Paul added some bells to the goats' collars.  Goodness golly, they are a hilarious duo!  They just come-a-runnin' whenever anyone heads outside.  If the girls simply crack open the door to peek out, they try to nudge and head-butt their way inside.

And Paul....?  I'm not really sure if he was cleaning or making a mess!  It's that time of year when he (I would say 'we,' but we all know that's not extremely truthful) tidies up the yard and garage to prepare everything for the winter season.  He worked on organizing and storing the potatoes into the root cellar, among other things.

Golly!  7:26 PM!  Where did the day go?

The girls and I are sitting with a movie;  nothing else much planned for tonight.

Rainbow Scraps and Embroidery

"Brown, Brown, Brown"  -Professor Higgins

October is Brown month in Angela's 2012 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  A string block was pieced up...

...and added to the design wall of random projects.  

EM had some work to do today;  some towels for an upcoming wedding gift.  I still need to add the Family name to the dish towels.

Clara is the little girl of the lady getting married at the end of the month;  I couldn't leave her out of the gift-receiving :)

EM also did some other projects, but they are in the dryer right now;  I embroidered my name on a hoodie of mine;  just playing and trying things out.  Lesson learned:  turn the name upside-down, so that when the hoodie is down, it's right-side up.  

 You know what everyone else was doing while I was sewing and doing up the laundry???

:D

I think the girls' friends are going to stop coming over.  Every time someone visits, we Paul puts them to work.  Pictured here....Katrina (in the fuzzy bear hat).... is helping out with the potatoes.

A visitor just knocked on the door.... so I'm off for now.  

Happy Saturday.

Rainbow Orange; and some towel embroidery

NO AGENDA TODAY!  Gotta love days like that, huh?  I grabbed the orange string bag to make up the September Rainbow Scrap string block.  I have so few orange scraps (yay!), therefore there will be no September Jack-in-the-Box blocks.  

And of COURSE I found time to play with EM.  After watching some YouTube videos over the past week, I was confident I could tackle embroidering a towel.  I grabbed one of our hand wash towels and tested it out.  Easy Peasy baby!

So then......BRING on a real project!  Cassie chose the lettering on her LAKERS school-spirit monogramed towel.

The name was just a tad bit too high for my liking, but other than that....it turned out just fine.

About 30 minutes ago, I came upstairs to prep the final stage of some BBQ Ribs (back and country-style).  T-minus 45 minutes and counting until we can dig into these delicious babies.

Alrighty...I have yet to spend some time with my school work.  I think I will do the bare minimum (5 minutes per class?) to at least have something ready to go for tomorrow.  :D  Then I'll worry about the rest of the week tomorrow.

The 29.6 degree morning temperature didn't deter me from capturing the sunrise in a photo.  This quote is on the wall of our lady's staff bathroom;  it seemed perfect to add it to the photo.

I hope your Sunday was glorious! 

The signs are all around...

Fall is here.....

Beautiful picture captured by a friend and shared via Facebook

Taken just moments ago.....and YES!  They are heading due-south! :\

And even Angela (SoScrappy) is joining in on the Fall festivities, choosing Orange/"Pumpkin color" as the September's selection for the 2012 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  As bad as I would like to head downstairs for much of the day and sew away today.......

I can't.

My husband has taken over Brett Favre's philosophy of what retirement means.  >:|  Remember last week's volleyball fiesta after coming out of retirement for a day?  

Well..... 2 nights ago he committed us both to play again THIS weekend (today).  Paul, Paul, Paul.....

LOL.

It's all good.  The team we're playing with today is super relaxed, all in it for the fun..... and today, there will be SIX players on the court and not just FOUR! :-)  Already a better situation :)

The day is expected to be beautiful;  high of 79 degrees; 0% chance of rain; and FULL of "fair-type" events for our town's "Town & Country Days."  

I hope your Labor Day 3-day weekend is spectacular for my US comrads;  and for everyone else, well...I hope you also have a spectacular 2-day weekend :D

Freeze Frame - Quiltathon complete :)

Freeze Frame (69" x 86")

This morning, the final two hour clues (#11 & #12) were completed;  a load of nested borders!  But they didn't get the best of me :)

Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month is "teal."  I don't have any scrap teals, but I did burn through over a yard-n-a-half of teal yardage with all of these borders.

I would LOVE to load it on the frame right away;  I am absoLUTEly in love with this one!  I haven't sewed with fun, bright, jewel-toned fabrics in such a long time;  I loved every time I had to press the borders because I was able to look at the border blocks.  Really "happy" fabrics!

Anyway---yes, I would love to load it on the frame, but I still have Star Harbor loaded, and I don't think it will see much (any?) action today.  The tomatoes and chickens are screaming my name for the afternoon.  I'm in charge of making chicken stock---for the first time.

I hope your Saturday is amazing!  The weather here is GORGEOUS!!!!  Sunny and LOW LOW LOW humidity.

If you missed my 1000th post, consider taking a moment to read it?  I don't think you'll be too disappointed.

A productive Saturday (despite a snafu)

With coffee cup in hand this morning, I headed downstairs around 7:30 after sending Paul off with a kiss to one of the jobs he needed to work at this morning.  First up on my list was to complete Step #3B/4 of the QOV Mystery #28: Star Path.  And believe it or not----I PINNED those star points because the square-in-a-square units weren't quite coming out at 1/4".  Definitely worth the little bit of extra time needed :)  {{And notice the almost empty cup of coffee?  That may have been cup 3 or 4!!!!  Yikers!}}

THEN!  Since it is Rainbow Scrap Saturday AND the fact that my Jamestown Landing units were still waiting in layout stage on the floor (which I need SOON for when I finish up 'Diamond Fields.') I started piecing the top together.  It was either that, or pick up all the units for storage for some other day (aka: the start of a UFO).  :D  And you should notice----the right side of the screen is showing my Framed Rectangle leader-ender area.

And I was sewing along........finding a great rhythm......

I finished up the 36 block C(1) units for Framed Rectangle as my leader-enders between piecing rows for Jamestown Landing.....so I started leader-endering the 36 block C(2) units......

and....ummm.........**scratching head**......

Huh?  Okay...clearly there are measurements "off."  So.....I sat....LITERALLY for probably 10 minutes, TRYING to figure out what was going on.  The lower 6.5" strip NEEDED to be 6.5" in order to have the complete block C finishing at 12".  So, what on EARTH is going on?  Clearly the top unit is pieced correctly......using 4" center and 2" side units. ????? NO matter WHAT I did....I.  Was.  Confused.

I looked at the picture OVER and OVER and OVER......recalculated OVER and OVER and OVER.

What. Is. Going. On?

And then............LOOK CLOSELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The blocks don't finish at 10x12!  They finish at 10X13!!!!!!!!!!

For crying out loud!  How on EARTH did I miss that??????

And OF COURSE I had already cut out all 36 sets of matching units!  Goodness golly!

So.....what to do, what to do.  I couldn't see trying to cut more units at the correct size!  Besides, many of the scraps aren't available anymore in order to even DO that!

So....I thought!  Well...."this is Framed Rectangles!  What if I were to add MORE rectangles??!!?"

Hmmm?  Maybe?......

And then, when piecing the next row of Jamestown....I thought...."OHHH!  What if I were to add a splash of color????"

And then, as I pieced a few more rows.... and a few more leader-enders.....

I started playing on the design wall.

What if they BOTH were used in the quilt?.....

Or.......

Maybe a MIX of both of them!??!??  For now...these idea are stewing in my brain.

 At least Jamestown Landing's center was pieced during all of that.

Timing was perfect too!  Just as I was putting the final stitches into Jamestown, Paul was arriving back home.  The boat was loaded up....a snack was had by all.....and we were OFF to the Lake to meet up with friends.

I hope your Saturday was amazing!