Life Interrupted; not really... Dawn's Early Light, Old Town Mystery, Wedding quilt & running

My intentions were good; the execution, however...

.... LOL. It's really been since JULY!?  Oy.  Whoopsies.

Awh shucks!

But life has gone on, and maaaaaaan oh maaaaaaaan, our Wisconsin 'winter' so far has been pretty non-existent!  There have been a few short stretches of snow flurries and a cold-snap.

Bailee-girl and I (and a dear coworker) made a pact to get back into running; thankfully Bailee's been amazingly supportive of me dragging her along, despite feeling like I'm a sleigh she's pulling along some days.

Duo Christmas 5K on our Brooke Drive

Having this extra time during the holiday break from school has been wonderfully enjoyable!  Walking, running, and a fair amount of quilting has ensued.

and yesterday, on December TWENTY-EIGHTH, even though I had COMPLETE intentions of a schedule rest-day, the sunshine & 40s won us over!  Imma be catching up on my running log that was started allll those years ago on my side bar.  Kinda excited to see "where" I'm currently at.  Check it out...

The current POV in my quilting space; quite tidy, neat and organized has been an ongoing goal anytime I get into the space.  Having everything out, ready and NEAT simply makes for efficiency!  

Bonnie's "Dawn's Early Light" has progressed as my leader-ender ...

 A wedding quilt was requested of me and my mother-in-law this summer, and lots of progress has been made between Thanksgiving break and this Christmas break from school on it.  All of the blocks are pieced; tomorrow the hope is to have the center together.

And of COURSE, Bonnie's Old Town mystery is on my list of active WIPs!  I'm just about caught up to Friday's clue #7; another couple of days will get me there.

Kiddo update:

Semester break for the Freshman; wrapped up her first classes at Madison Tech for Finance

MVP Back for UW-Eau Claire is Caitlyn's bragging rights this past semester

Still can't believe this former twig of a middle-schooler has developed into a 6-foot rugby player; currently in her semester break of Junior year, heading into a Chiropractic medicine pathway.

And oldest Cassie is off adulting up in Duluth as a FedEx driver.  What a schedule she's had this past month!!!!

Here's to another great week and another few days of project progress while still on vacation; I head back on Thursday.

Talkin' Turkey centers and Strawberry patch chatter

It's not much to look at, but once the morning jobs were complete, a couple of hours this afternoon were spent in the sewing area tidying up some scraps and cutting the centers for the final 15 Talkin' Turkey blocks.  It was certainly a putzy job between taming the scraps and cutting because the size of the squares isn't the typical Bonnie "nice."  2 5/8"... yuck.

The morning was beautiful!  72 degrees and breezy, low humidity -- PERFECT for any outside work.  The strawberry patch was tilled under at the end of the last year's growing season, but not before transplanting the young 'daughter' plants shooting every which way. 

And we DOWN-SIZED!  I finally understand why most gardeners only keep their patches for two years (or 3 years max) before replanting.  Our strawberry saga began in 2012 (The planting post) with 18 plants.  18!  It IS kinda cool to think that our patches over the years started with one simple 'whim' purchase of so few plants!  We've moved the patch only twice before, leaving it stay at its new location 4 and 3 years, respectively.  Too long!  Our last patch (it was on year 3 last summer) was soooooo overgrown with all the new plants; our berries were so small.  But year two produced AMAZING fruit, in abundance! So, my new process now will be one of two things.  Either a) keep the patch ONLY two years; meaning set up a new patch after next year's growing season, OR b) keep the patch for about 3 years BUT thin out (cut away) some of the spreading daughters.

Regardless, the patch this year is smaller (by design) and producing ample fruit for the needs of my family.  Two batches of jam were already made with Sunday's picking, and now each harvest will consist of processing some into 2-3 cup packages of smashed and slightly sugared mash for freezing after vac-sealing, OR simply placing the berries in 3-lb bags for wine batches (my recipe used for strawberry wine suggests 3 lbs/gal.) 

And all those strawberry tops end up being treats for the ladies.  We lost all of our chickens after last year's (2019) winter, and with the crazy-busy schedule we had with a graduating senior and two other girls VERY active in Spring and Summer sports, we never raised any new gals for the year.  However, shortly after the beginning of the Stay-at-Home orders this March, a local neighbor and I struck up a conversation while picking up eggs from her one day, and... a week later, 6 new ladies joined our property.  Since, we've also hatched out a incubator full of eggs, and we have eleven 2-month old chicks in the adjoining pen.  Sadly, we had more chicks, but a hungry owl obliterated half of our coop before we were finally able to SECURELY "owl-proof" the roof;  those are some smart birds!!!

The rest of the day consisted of the normal household chores;  cleaning up the kitchen and laundry.  The threatening dark skies finally rolled in at early evening; thankful that the storms lost energy and only provided the much needed rain rather than severe weather.  Kayaking posts are certain to come this summer as well seeing as we've already been on the lake and rivers a good half-dozen times already.

Ahh... summer!

Virto di Mare - Quilted

This past Saturday was my first Saturday open since December 31;  the reality of being a basketball mom to three girls has kept me in the bleachers rather than in front of my machines.
However, with a little discipline and LOTS of motivation, I set out to finish up the quilting on Vitro di Mare.

... good ol' Murphy seemed to have other plans in mind!  >:|
Thankfully, I was only sidelined for a few minutes.  Seeing as I was changing out the broken needle, the time was given to perform a quick machine cleaning, removing some lint from under the bobbin and needle area, and then... I was back up-n-runnin'!

The moment a quilt is unwound from the frame is truly always a super amazing moment!  I'm forever in love with this craft!

Being President's Day, we have a scheduled vacation day at school.  Therefore, shortly, I'll be heading downstairs to see if I can finish up a customer quilt that has already been loaded on the frame:  a 103" x 103" log cabin style.  That one will keep me busy for a bit.

Happy Monday everyone!

Vitro di Mare (Bonnie's Allietare mystery) - top done

Finishing around 81" x 95", my version of Bonnie K. Hunter's Allietare quilt design has reached flimsy status.

I set out to put the finishing touches on the top a couple of Sundays ago;  the borders.  The inner border was an easy decision, as I had just enough of the darker brown fabric to pull off 2" strips, however, the final outer border required some fabric auditions.

Deciding on the green, a couple of hours later resulted in a complete 81" x 95" flimsy, ready for quilting.

Continuing the perseverance on the day, a backing was prepped, some batting sections were spliced, and all three layers were loaded on the quilting frame.  Setting up my go-to 7" feather pantograph, a few passes of quilting were completed using Aurifil thread for both the top and bobbin.

With two customer quilts coming my way this past week, today's downtime turned into some quilting work time in hopes to move this quilt off the frame and into the binding pile.

Happy Sunday everyone.

Siphoned onto the 'Tumbler L/E' bandwagon!

Bonnie's at it again!  She's established a new Leader-Ender (L/E) project for 2015 -- Tumblers.  She's proposed L/E projects in the past, but I've never participated.  Other L/Es have always been underway!  

Mind you, I have a few L/Es underway right now.... Omigosh and RWB 9-patches, but....

I was feeling inspired after catching up on some FB posts this AM.

I don't have a tumbler ruler nor a dresden ruler, but... I have a geometry background and a master's degree in Mathematics.  That should be enough :D

Geometry 101:  if two parallel lines are intersected by a transversal, alternate interior angles will be supplementary.  

Layman's terms:  as long as both transversal cuts are identically symmetrical on opposite sides of a square, units pieced together in an alternating way will result in a straight line (seam.)

So, I grabbed a piece of cardboard (one of those inserts from Hancock's packaged FQs), and cut a 2.5" square.  On the 'top' end of the square, I tapered a cut in 1/2" -- and repeated this on the other upper corner.

Result:  Top dimension (unfinished): 1.5".  Bottom dimension (unfinished): 2.5".

Despite my template being made of cardboard, it isn't rigid enough for a rotary cutter.  Psht!  No biggy!  After pressing four strips together, I simply placed the template atop the strips and then placed one of my smaller rulers along the edge of the template.

It really wasn't all that putzy, nor did it add much additional time.  A few seconds.... minor!

Then, just as if you'd have cut them from a "real" ruler... the corners need to be overlapped ever-so-slightly for accurate piecing...

 and the start of a new L/E project has begun!
And, oh my goodness-----these tumblers (at this size!)-----they're kinda stinkin' cute.

Oh, that Bonnie!!!!!

A 'Star Struck' finish

Four -and-a- half years in the making!!!  One of my oldest UFOs... (ONE of a few!....)

Star Struck (71" x 87")

 I am officially a quilter.  One who starts projects with some fastfire inspiration...

July 2, 2009 -- scraps pulled

...only to be stalled with a layout dilemma roadblock (July 9, 2009 post).

In 2010 and 2012, the blocks were pulled out again, and the stack of blocks grew....

And, finally, in January 2014, with the help of some inspiration by Angela (Andee) and Angela (SoScrappy), a top was pieced!!!

A flannel backing and some light Thinsulate batting were used to finish off the quilt.  I'm surprised I had enough flannel to have the backing all the same fabric!  A new pantograph "Fascination" was tried out....

And a UFO is finallllly checked off the list.  

Bonnie - a family event

Monday night, the household schedule was a classic chaotic busy one.

Directly after school, we super-quick needed to head home to feed the animals (dog, ducks, chickens, goats)...AND the girls, all within a 30 minute timespan.  It was then time to super-quick head back to school to have Cassie arrive for her Basketball game warm up period.  At half-time of Cassie's game, I super-quick needed to drive Caitlyn to the Primary school for her practice; and then it was back to the high-school to finish watching Cassie's game.

By the time Cassie's game and the 8th grade game that followed was finishing up, it was time to head out to pick up Caitlyn from her practice, but not before heading to the grocery store super-quick to buy some much needed groceries.

We were home by 7:30, and HUNGRY! (despite having that bite to each almost 4 hours prior).

SO..... PIZZA was on the menu!

While it was cookin' away in the oven, I did some multi-tasking of emptying the dish-washer, loading it, and reading blogs and FB.

By the time I got to Bonnie's (8:00ish), she had just posted she was Quilt-Cammin' it!!!!!  

AS BADLY as I wanted to sew, sew, sew; we all know the reality of THAT wish! ;)

BUT, the girls and I enjoyed listening to her as we ate our late-evening dinner.

Celtic Solstice - Part 1 [Bonnie Mystery]

Arriving home last night (at 8:30PM), I really had intentions of heading downstairs, but unpacking HAD to be done first!

Part of unpacking was to start laundry, stash away some Christmas presents before little eyes would see them, and then to assemble my new (much needed!) vacuum!

Candace and Caitlyn were my helpers putting it together.  And truly, the best part... once it was working, they started to FIGHT about who could vacuum the larger loft area versus the smaller bedroom floor.  

At 10:30, I headed to bed with orders that they needed to stop cleaning by 11:00.  P.M.  

I honestly don't even know when they finally slept, cuz I. was. tired!

But this AM, 5:00.... up and at 'em.  By 6:00, I was downstairs, raring to go :)

My iPhone doesn't take the best pictures;  my oranges look pink and yellow in this picture.  I've had one lil' strip of halloween fabric that I have contemplated over and over on other "orange" quilts whether to include it or not.  I finally DID!  Whoa me! :D

I've adopted Bonnie's quick pressing method as well.  It really DOES speedify up the process of pressing!  And yes, I press!  I know there are some who finger-press;  but that's not adequate for me.  Every since I started pressing (with a spray bottle next to me), I have been impressed with the better quality of piecing.  It's a no-brainer for me.  Besides, my basement room is COLD.  Being able to lay my hands on top of the fabrics directly after pressing them warms them up nicely...and it feels warmy toasty good.

Step 1 - complete.

Now what?!?!?!?

I tidies my Leader/Ender section.  These are the Omigosh units where each lil' square finishes at 0.5" I have 110 9-patches done (I need 500+)... and I have 120 4-patches done (I need 400+).  And of course, I had to get a taste of how some of the blocks would look together.  That block measures 4.5" FINISHED!  Yes....Omigosh is a VERY appropriate name :)

Then I pulled out my Christmas Goose blocks to see what I needed to do to pick up where I left off.

And this is as far as I got before breaking for the night to watch Monsters University with the girls.

  

Cassie has some friends over for the day for a little birthday celebration.  A little Just Dance 2014...

... and some bingo after an hour in the hot tub.  We are all surviving nicely.  Any wages on when they'll fall asleep??!?!  Midnight?  1 AM?  

I guess this sign from shopping yesterday rings true today :)

And speaking of Mom.....  My sister (and all of us!) enjoyed spending some time over the holidy with the newest bundle of joy to grace our extended family.....

Coco  (a chiweenie)

Soooo adorable and tiny!

Happy Saturday everyone!  Hopefully Celtic Solstice is treating you all nicely 

Oh that Bonnie; Friends; and SCHOOL SPIRIT.

AGAIN!  The classic moment of "trying to fit it all in!!!!"

The lastest news happened Thursday night!  Our volleyball team is advancing to the Regional Finals after a SUPER CAH-RAZY GYM-EXPLODING match against a number 2 seeded team (we were seeded 7th).  As a former coach of STILL some of these girls, we were simply mis-seeded.  Sadly, it happens every year.  BUT... it is what it is.  Thursday night was an AMAZING night of volleyball between two very equally matched teams.  IN-TENSE action!  The match went all the way to the final 5th game.... with a final score of 15-10.  The evening was DEFINITELY worth the cost of the ticket.  AND the gas!  LOL.  The town was 2 hours 45 minutes away----so thankfully, not having school on Friday (students) was perfect timing in order to send as many fans over to the game as possible.  I still had Teacher Inservice meetings yesterday, but it was tolerable; even with little sleep.

Upon leaving for the Thursday night match, some big ol' crocodile tears were rolling down Candace's cheek.  "It's NOT FAIR, Mom!  Why can Cassie go but not us???"

Yes, yes....Cassie travelled the distance with me, but not Candace and Caitlyn.  Oh dear.  The world came to an end.  LOL.  Yet, whenever those two are with me at local games, the lovely words, "Mom, I'm bored" pop out all too soon.  And too frequent.  LOL.  So, they weren't given a choice.

But I'm a sucker.

SO, .....

"Alright Candace.  I'll take you guys to Skate City tomorrow night (Friday night).  And you can invite a friend along."

Candace, my lovely lovely child, knows me allll too well.  She knows that sometimes...I don't always follow through, even though I have excellent intentions of doing so.

So....

she brought out...... the PINKY!

"Pinky promise, Mom?!"

So, Skate City last night happened, with a Pizza Hut trip ahead of time to boot!  And friend.

Caitlyn's friend, sadly, could not make the evening festivities.  Instead, we set up a short play date for the two of them TODAY, 10-2.  

Which brings me to the current moment.

I've been working on some new motifs for the Kaleidoscope afghan when time allows.

My first priority, this morning at 5:30AM (after a cup of coffee), was to make up a couple of blue-n-gold scarves for the game tonight!  

And, OF COURSE, the other latest news:  BONNIE'S NEW MYSTERY!!!!!

Q: "So, Amy.  Are you doing Bonnie's newest mystery?"

Bah!  What a foolish, foolish question!

A true Bonnie fan would NEVER....E-VAH... miss out on a Bonnie mystery!

Therefore, in order to prepare a BIT for the mystery coming out in November, I suppose I needed to spend a little time tidying up my sewing room AND try to (at least) turn her last mystery (via Quiltmaker magazine) into a flimsy with the few hours I have today!!!!

I pulled out the units around 10:00 and displayed them on the floor.

Then I spent an hour cutting up the last of the required units for the sashing.

But that's it for now.  LOTS and LOTS to do in the next couple of hours before needing to hit the road for the Volleyball match tonight.   And, yet again, the match is over 2 1/2 hours away!!! 

BUT, thankfully, the Farm is within an hour's drive of the competiton's school, so the girls and I will be heading out a bit earlier to visit a bit, then head to the game.

HAPPPPPPY Saturday everyone.