Runnin' (?) in a winter wonderland......

Finally, mother-nature has decided to have our landscape look like winter :0) I was (still am?) planning to get together with a couple of ladies to run 2 miles at 2:30 today.....but....well.....Those are some HUGE flakes coming down right now!

Scot's camo quilt (officially called Countryview Camo with DH's assistance) was completed yesterday; label yet to be added today. Tonight will showcase a final pic.

Ron's Old Tobacco Roads quilt's binding was just completed 5 minutes ago; label already sewn on; all that remains is to fix the corners, which will be next on the list once I finish the blog update.

Derek's Storm at Sea quilt is half quilted, using a "wave-like" vertical meander. That will be next on the list after OTR corners. I hope to check ALL the C'mas quilts off the list by the end of the day, with a Grand Finale slideshow tonight on my blog.

So...then....without further ado.....time to get stitchin'!
Happy (snowy) Sunday!

Returning to quilting....

Once I finished breaking dawn, it was time to for lunch----cheddarwursts (nothing too fancy).

Then, since C'mas is still looming and I decided to spend every free waking moment lately immersed in the fantasy world of Stephanie Meyer, I figured it was finally time to return to quilting.

I made progress on Scot's Camo quilt, to the point the top is ALMOST complete. I think I'll add 15 more inches of "borders" on the top and call it a pillow tuck. So far, it is 78" by 83". I will NOT be quilting this baby since it is mostly a heavy denim/flannel combo of camoflauge fabrics. It will simply be tied, so once the top is finished, the complete "finishing" won't be that far off.

I also have Derek's Storm at Sea awaiting quilting, which SHOULD have been completed this weekend...but.....well......*snicker* other things took priority :0) 'Tis alright, though, because once his is quilted, I have met all my goals! (and THEN some!)

Remember that Christmas Stocking quilt from last Wednesday???? I've decided to gift it to a coworker, an aide to our Special Education department. Without her, I would really be concerned for these kids---she has such a huge heart!



So----for the later part of the afternoon, I decided to tackle creating the labels for all the quilts, and have sewed almost all of them on. They all resemble Jan's Family Gems label, however, hers was the only one I added a "special message" to.

I suppose I'll tackle some hand sewing; I still have C'mas Stockings binding to sew down, as well as Jan's and Ron's Old Tobacco Roads label. Oh----and I STILL need to fix the corner's on Ron's OTR yet too.

The movie Bean is coming on at 6:00 and I figured we'd make it a family comedy night tonight. Perfect!

Happy Sunday

The Quilting Fairy visited....

That's all I can say! She MUST have visited during the night and sprinkled me with Quilting Dust because NOTHING else can explain the sewing/quilting frenzy I've had this weekend!

I didn't even get downstairs until 11:00 this morning, because once Cassie woke up and I folded a few more loads of clothes, we decided to run into town to grab some donuts and return the movies before the "day really began." *hmpf!* :0)

Anyway, the first project I tackled was to baste and start quilting Isaac's Blue Heaven. The Packer game (Green Bay Packers) started at noon, so I turned the radio on and quilted the game away. By the time our punter missed the game winning fieldgoal, I was putting the finishing touches on it and did the "cheat binding" method again. The quilting was a simple meander in all the white areas.



Then, after a late lunch (DH drove into the yard as the game was ending), I headed back downstairs, and BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I decided to work on Derek's Storm at Sea. One sewing minute lead to another......and the rows were together within 30 minutes! Gosh, that thing has been a monkey on my back! Then.......holy buckets, after a little contemplating, a small red border was added to the sides. Then..........hmmmmmmmmmm......then I sat at looked, and looked, and debated. I still had almost a yard of the blue Nautical fabric yet, and I knew it would just sit to collect dust if I didn't use most of it up. So......the original "lap quilt" ended up being rather large. I needed to do a little visual measuring to match up the lines of the nautical objects since the border needed to be pieced. All-in-all, I have about 4 inches of the fabric left----and what's more!!!! THE TOP IS DONE! WOW!!!!! It is pictured on a King size bed, so.........its a wee bit larger than I originally intended! *grin*

I decided to shoot a pic of the OTR at the same time since I hadn't yet. This is almost done---still working on hand-sewing the binding down. This is going to be gifted to my brother for Christmas.




Masha's Wonky Nines was finished up yesterday. This quilting was quite fun to do, although it was difficult (as always) to "fight" the bulk in the sewing machine. There are puckers on the back, but overall, I like the flowery meander.

So, a dent was finally made in the C'mas project list.

• Isaac-DONE.
  
• Masha-DONE.
  
• Ron(brother)-BINDING.
  
• Derek-TOP DONE.
  
• Jan (BLOCKS MADE) that's right---I still need to get those out and snap a pic.
  
• Andre (NEXT to be quilted)
  
• Scot? Hmm......I suppose I can still set him as a goal by C'mas.
  

Finally, taking a moment AWAY from quilting.....I almost forgot to have Cass open up her birthday present from my sister so she could wear her new jacket. I had to call my sis to find out which box it was in since there are four of them sitting in the entry way. Cass's bday isn't until the 28th, but winter weather temperatures have been with us for awhile.


Okay-----I suppose. I wrote my three assessments for tomorrow: Pre-Calc HW Quiz; Math 8 Pre-test; Algebra 8 Pre-test. Everything else can wait....

Happy New Week!


o

"Out of this World" done---onto the next one...

Finishing up Andre's quilt came to be quite easy. It was a fun, controlled BRIGHT scrappy quilt---twin size. The top will be added to my brother's OTR and Masha's Wonky Nines pile, awaiting when I need to get into a "quiltying frenzy" to finish all of them up. I finished up Andre's early in the evening (well, if 8:30 is considered early----it is when you don't begin until 8:00). And OF COURSE, Derek's Storm at Sea is FOREVER calling at me from its location on the carpet---still awaiting to have all the rows sewn together. *shudder* There is just SOMETHING about it that has become a nagging child pulling on my pants leg and I keep putting it off until I "feel like working on it." I KNOW that time WILL come----I will be patient.

So, I figured I'd take a little time to piece together some of my leader-ender square-strips that had been collecting and growing in the basket on my table. I was AMAZED to see I already had enough to complete 6 entire 6x6 blocks for my Scrappy Irish Chain. Slowly but surely I think this baby will get completed so it can be donated to my mother's church for Christmas.


Finally, since those blocks didn't take too long to piece, I figured I might as well jump right in to the next quilt on my C'mas list. I'd been searching and searching for the "right" pattern, and I STILL don't know if it's the right one, but....it'll have to do! Isaac's My Blue Heaven was begun tonight, having completed 3 (of 20) blocks. These blocks go together rather quickly, and the quilt will too since these babies are 12 inches!!! I have been setting aside my blues, knowing I was going to use them for Isaac, and I was finally able to find a PERFECT opportunity to use up the basketball and baseball "starry" remnants I had from making Zach's quilt last C'mas.

However, alas, it tis time to hit the hay.
*chuckle*...nothing like using Shakespearien terms along with some slang redneck terms :0)

Happy Friday (ALMOST!)

Relaxin' with some quilting

This afternoon after arriving home and updating the blog with the marathon results, I decided to head downstairs to see what I could get done while actually having some energy. I actually didn't mind tackling sewing Dereks' Storm at Sea rows together. All the rows are now sewn individually, and I was able to sew a couple of the rows together before needing to come up to make some dinner.

After dinner, I headed back downstairs to rearrange the carpet area. I lost interest in Derek's quilt for the moment, so I wanted to lay out Andre's Out of this World blocks. I also was able to sew all of his rows together (after snapping this shot) before heading up here to update the blog. DH is breathing down my neck for me to get my biscuits to bed!





I thought I'd share some comments and a pic from Keri (pictured right) about her's and Pam's Half-marathon

here we are! we made it-- 1:57 and still smiling :) we made our second annual debut with great buddy gene harrington and joined up with his son andy and our superior friends around 8am. a beautiful day to run, tho, as amy said the trail was a bit soft from all the rain making for extra leg work. pam and i used a whole bunch of energy leaping back and forth during the first 3 mile shake out; we underestimated and started way too far back. after a bathroom break at mile 3 we were on our way for the rest of the morning. we were so surprised and so happy to see jill, megan and leo at mile...where was that?? we got so excited by the surprise that we used up all of our reserve jumping and squealing with excitement. SO SO worth it. how did they know we needed them right then and there??

we were both welcomed into the finish by our boys and stuck around for amy until it started to rain. we were so close to seeing you come in amy!! great job on the run--so glad casey got to greet you :)

I responded back to her with....:

*laffin*
HEY---have you ever noticed "backgrounds" in pics you've taken????

How 'bout that half-naked hottie to the left background of Pam!?!?!?!?
*giggle*

GREAT JOB! 1:57 EVEN after burning up your energy hoopin'-n-hollarin'
How are the legs today?? Seriously, if my toe wasn't so sore, I actually COULD manage an EZ 3 miler right now :0) It took awhile for my stomach to settle down and stop crampin (it seems ANY mileage over 10 makes my innerds jumble up and cramp) :0(

Thanks for the effort of hangin around. The rain hit me just before mile 20---another lady who played "tortoise and hare" with me for a mile was currently in front of me, looking up, wondering the same thing I was----"where in the HECK is the rain coming from?" Seriously---I didn't see cloud in the sky. As I passed her, I asked her that exact thought, she just laughed and said it might not be all that bad to wash away the stinky sweat from her body. At least she was still able to chuckle at that point of the race.

And her final response this evening:

okay, so i had to go back and look at the photo--dude! i remember his shorts! and, there was a lady running the full--that i laughed with pam about--who had the SAME shorts! perhaps they're married?? or, just both happen to have, e-hemmm, really good taste :)
i was just glad to see that we both look like we're not in pain but were completely exhausted!

my quads are sore today. every time i go to bend down i am reminded of yesterday. i was spoiled with hot tub jets as bryan and i took the boys to a hotel for the night. we even (humbly) took down every last bite of a LARGE pizza from Coops...followed by a French silk pie from Perkins--thank god there was still a full half left when it was all said and done. i was asleep before 7:30 for the night :) my husband was/is a rockstar....totally took over kids and me. now home and back to reality :)

so sorry about your little toe :( read your blog and saw pics. painful looking....tho, with the weather, you could probably wear sandals tomorrow!

i'll check in tues when i'm back at school :)
get rest!
k

Just figured there were a good couple of chuckles there worth sharing....

Night all

MOTIVATION! Finally!

Whoo-hoo! Finally a day off where motivation wasn't lacking! I started downstairs around 8:00 this morning with high hopes of cutting into my new fabric from Friday's purchase. HOWEVER, those fabrics are mainly being reserved for the Cathedral Stars donation quilt I am planning to make for my Dad's VFW. BUT, here they are-----



and here they are after being washed and dried. I REALLLLLLY debated with myself on whether to wash them up since they are only 1/4 yard each, and we ALLLL know what happens to fabric after being washed and dried. FRAYYYYING! However, these colors are so bright, and I plan to use 100% cotton white as the background, so I didn't want to risk any bleeding, so.......washed they were. (OH! You see that basket behind the pile on the floor? That is what still is in need of ironing from the donations from my mom's church).

And neatly ironed with much of the fraying cut off.









Before starting on any ONE project, I began the day by sifting through yet MORE donations from my mom. This time, however, she purchased them purposely for me while at an auction a few weeks back. Many of the fabrics are "homey" browns, flowers, etc. But there was one red "star" fabric that would be PERFECT for Andre's Out of this World quilt. (See below)



Ooooo-----and check this baby out! Stashed at the bottom of the big box was this gem. I'll set it aside---maybe putz with adding some more blocks, borders, and donate it to Mom's church???






Anyway, after playing through those fabrics, I finally dug into the yardard for Andre's Out of this World quilt. I'm using a midnight-blue-star fabric and white, with bright colors for the stars. After about 3 hours, 96 half-square white/blue blocks were made and 96 quarter-square/half-square white/blue/bright blocks were made. (And in case you like numbers----that equated to about 576 dog ears to be cut!) That brought me to preparing lunch (chicken-noodle soup, ring bologna and grilled cheese sandwiches). PERFECT for a cold, rainy Fall day :0)

Anyway, then I was faced with a dilemma. In order to start piecing some blocks together, I needed table space. However, Derek's Storm at Sea final square-in-a-square sashing blocks (errr.....PIECES of those blocks) were taking up the space. SO...I buckled down, took a deep breath, and just FINISHED piecing those buggers! Yeah---at least they are done now. They really were beginning to be a major guilt-trip on my mind everytime I went downstairs this week. I just didn't have the heart to plow through them though. Anyway, so pictured here are the two blocks needed for Out of this World and Storm at Sea sashing squares.

Naturally, since I finished all the blocks for Derek's (Storm at Sea)quilt, I might as well lay them out on the floor so that THAT space can be freed up for Andre's (Out of this World)quilt. I sewed two rows together, and said...."Nope---I'm done!" They aren't that fun to piece----uh-oh! BUT...soon....I'll have to get them sewn----I need that floor space!!!




Finally, before coming upstairs to make supper, I whipped out one quick block for Andre's quilt. I've made this pattern before for my nephew, Zach's quilt. I think the colors chosen this time will once again be perfect for a 13 year old boy :0)


Supper is almost ready----Meatloaf and fried potatoes. I'm so hungry!!!
It's almost 6:00----holy buckets! Where did the day go??? *grin*

I hope to head back down later tonight once the girls are in bed. My parents are up for the night, and I don't think they'll be offended if I head off to my "quiet" space :0)

Parent Teacher Conferences tonight

Hi all---I have 15 minutes before P/T conferences, so I thought I'd peek in quick and touch base.

Wednesday already: WOW!-----Monday night I was swamped with papers to grade and to get grades UPDATED before tonight's conferences. I think I snuck downstairs for an hour to work some more on Derek's Storm at Sea, but I made the mistake of turning on the end of "Walk the Line," and I found myself watching the screen more than I was watching the sewing machine and fabric! YIKES!

Last night (Tuesday), I actually did NOT have any school work, but instead of sewing, I made it a night of "Mommy baking fun foods" time. Cassie had a Kid's cookbook from the school Library, and she already had a page bookmarked for "Domino Cookies."

DUH ME! I didn't take ANY pics of the baking experience, but the cookies were a HIT with her class today. I also sent some along with Candace to daycare, and they were a hit there as well.

Basically, they are sugar cookies cut into small rectangles, about the size of a domino. Then, choc chips are placed UP-SIDE DOWN on the cookies to resemble the dots on the dominos. And OF COURSE, some people THINK I can be super-mom----but PSHT! I DID NOT make the sugar cookies from scratch! No-no-------it's called: "going to the grocery store and buying the Pillsbury pre-made refrigerated sugar cookie dough." :0) Then Cass had fun rolling out the dough and we practiced our measurement skills to cut the cookies as close to 1.5" x 2.5" as possible. She, Caitlyn and Candace all decorated the cookies into Domino fashion. It was quite an easy "craft." The "line" on the domino was created by simply scoring the cookie with a dull knife or a butter knife.

I hope to get some sewing in tomorrow night. Friday I will be home nursing DH----he has a minor "surgery" planned, so I might have some sewing time then also. I will be heading to my parent's house this weekend with the girls to watch my nephew play Football and to also see G'ma and G'pa Lee (they haven't seen them in awhile).

Alright-----5 min to go----last minute room tidying up :0)

Happy Wednesday

Derek's Storm at Sea progress...

Here are the "red blocks" that I mentioned the other day. I was able to wrap these up last Monday and an hour here-n-there during the week. I was actually quite impressed how well the points matched up----I had never done a square-in-a-square before.




This morning, I didn't really have any ambition to work on finishing up the sashing blocks. IN FACT, I printed out My Blue Heaven (NOT Bonnie's MBH) and was going to start cutting blue fabric for Isaac's C'mas gift (son of a friend.) HOWEVER, my conscience kept saying...."don't start YET another project until you finish another......" So, as you can see, I actually DID finish up all the sashing blocks and laid out everything on the downstairs carpet. The sashing squares are about 1/3 done. All the fabric is cut, and the inner square is sewn to the first outer square. They are square-in-a-square also, only MUCH smaller, obviously.

I came upstairs about an hour ago; I just wanted to put my feet up again and was getting a bit tired of sewing. So, rather than beating a dead horse, I just called it quits. DH isn't home yet with the girls, but I expect them soon. Perhaps I'll head back down after the girls are in bed tonight with hopes of finishing up the sashing squares.

Happy Sunday!

*wave*

Yup
I'm here
Still alive
trying to survive HOMECOMING WEEK!!!!!
*heavy-10-o'clock-in-the-evening-with-a-headache-sigh*

Tomorrow is Friday; Pre-Calculus PSHT! Class will last 10 minutes, so just gonna "hang loose" until FLOAT DECORATING dismissal. Then Math 7---PSHT! Gonna practice plotting points and have a debate about whether the "creature" created on the graph is a Duck or a Frog! *chuckle*.....EVERY YEAR I have students literally arguing if the pic is a Duck or Frog. I'll be sure to snap a pic of it and post it here so you can decide for yourself. That'll bring me to just after lunch; then the rest of the afternoon (weather HOPEFULLY permitting) the entire 7-12 will be out at the football field watching the Class Competition games. ALWAYS a riot and lots of good pics for the website. We have a wonderful Senior class this year leading our Student Council.

Anyway----I actually did get downstairs for a smidge over an hour last night, but wasn't really in the mood to sew, so I organized scraps, cutting up some more 2" squares for the Scrappy Irish Chain.

Oh golly----I haven't updated since Sunday! Yes, I spent quite a bit of Monday downstairs with Derek's Storm at Sea. All the red blocks are complete and about 1/5 of the sashing blocks are done. I am looking forward to some quiet time on Sunday just to myself since DH and the girls are heading up to the Farm to see Gma and Gpa. I have a Half-marathon on Saturday again around here, so I'll be by my lonesome.

So, there's the short-n-sweet update.

Regarding running---my legs were VERY sore on Sunday, still sore on Monday, however I went out for a short, simple 2 miles and they amazingly felt great. Tuesday was a 6 mile speed workout, and I haven't run since. That's alright....I'll coast into Saturday.

Alright---night all!

Lotsa goody updates.....

I was up bright-n-early this morning: 4:30 am. I was awake, nose a bit stuffy since we had the windows open all night, so I think the allergens got an early start. I gave up trying to get back to sleep by 4:40, and started a pot of coffee and jumped into the shower. I spent the morning until 7:00 online perusing Bonnie's Quiltville. I fell in LOVE with Cathedral Stars all over again!!! AND... HOLY BUCKETS.....WHAT a coincidence!!! SERIOUSLY!!!! Tonight, just about 30 minutes ago, my Dad called to ask if I would be willing to make a quilt that his VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) could raffle off. HOLY BUCKETS! I KNOW just what quilt to make!!! I can't WAIT to start! BUT.......first things first. Thank GOODNESS he doesn't need it until the end of January, because I HAVE to start tackling that C'mas list more!

Last weekend, while I was moping about the house and refusing to find any energy to get my butt outside to run, I at least managed to fussy-cut 82 diamonds for Derek's Storm at Sea quilt for C'mas. 40 of them needed to be horizontally cut, while 42 of them needed to be vertically cut.














When I made my way downstairs this morning at 8:00, I started tackling the white "corners" of the diamonds to complete the sashing rectangles. (Another small world---after reading the Cathedral Stars, I was reminded to add the "Tri-Recs" ruler to my C'mas list!!!! I think it would've come in handy for this quilt!)






So.........being married to a construction worker who always jimmies up concoctions to make his job easier, I attempted this myself to tackle these corner pieces. You see that curled-up corner piece in the top pic? Well.....I rotated it this way and that way on my 6.5" square before I figured out a way to lay it so I could cut the pieces from a 4" strip of white. I grabbed a red-sharpie, marked the square, and then started cutting away. Pretty slick!!! *patting self on back* And right on target----4"x7.5" unfinished.











Then, I set those aside for a moment while I pulled out some of my pieced 2" brights that I had cut from fabric that was donated to me from my mom's church. I hope to have this Scrappy Irish Chain completed to donate to the church by Christmas also.


Let's see.....what then.......?.......
OH YES!!!! How could I forget?!?!?!?
I knew I was going to head to Walmart to see if I could find some backing for my OTR, so I putzed a bit to see exactly what my "batting status" was. I had a few bags of scraps---nothing big enough to equate to anything. I had a small collection of pieces that will be great for some crib quilts, or I could really buckle down and piece them together for a larger twin or maybe even a full. Then......I remember my mom lugging a big black-plastic-wrapped roll of something downstairs a few weeks back when they were here. She said it was the batting she was going to use on the Zion Year of the Bible quilt that I surprised her with early in August. So, I pulled the plastic off, expecting to see really THICK batting since it was so large, but something is better than nothing.

HOLY BUCKETS!!!!!!! I wasn't expecting to see a whole flippin' ROLL of nice, THIN batting!!!!!!!!! 60" wide.......gosh! There must be .......I don't even KNOW how many yards on this thing!!! I ended up rolling out 6 yards to use on the OTR today (see earlier post). I assumed it was donated by the church, but after calling her to THANK HER FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART, she informed me it was from Grandma's stash.

By 10:30, me and the girls hit the road to get to Walmart, bought our necessities, bought fabric for the OTR backing, bought some red fabric for Derek's Storm at Sea, grabbed some donuts on the way home, and arrived back at 12:00. I threw the fabric into the washing machine right away, and did up the dishes in the meantime. Then, AMAZINGLY, the girls were whining for some food......GOSH! They just ate donuts on the way home! So I whipped up some lunch, finished the dishes, threw the fabric into the drier, and waited. Gosh....what did I do during that time?!?!?.....ummmmm.......I can't remember for the life of me. OHHHHHHHHHH!!!! That's right.....I went downstairs and cut some more white tri's and started sewing more of Derek's sashing rectangles. Yeah, yeah.......I'm making the sashing first because I knew I wanted the Nautical fabric for that......I needed some red for the blocks. Now I'm set :0)

Anyway, once the drier was finished, the rest of the afternoon was spent with the OTR. Again...you can read about that in the previous post where I attempt to give a run-down of the Quilting in Sections method by Marti Michell.

It's almost 8:30 pm right now, and I think DH wants the computer. Gosh---I don't know why because he's watching the Packers play the Cowboys (football). Anyway....I thought I'd end with the signs of Fall in Wisconsin. The pic on the left was taken last Saturday, and the pic on the right was taken today. Within a week, we've gone from a spotty tree here-n-there, to about 25% of the woods full of "Fall-bloom." :0)

Ooooooo------and the kinda good news---------Daycare needed to close tomorrow due to a family emergency, so I've taken a personal day so I can be home with Candace. So.........*rubbing hands together*.....guess what *I* get to do all day?!?!?!?!!?....*giddy giggle*

yes!

OTR at a standstill.... what next?

This is as far as I can go on the OTR at this time. I will be quilting it in sections (2 sections), so I am not able to sew the borders on yet. That actually will happen once both quilted sections get sewn together, and I'll be homefree! I don't have anything in mind for a backing yet, so I'm at a standstill. Also, I don't think I have any batting left in my stock!! OH DEAR!!! I haven't bought any all summer because I had been getting so much "donated" to me from family members----but I'm EMPTY now!

I don't expect to go shopping until this weekend, so now I have to think about what to work on next. Of course, I have many many UFO's, but I'm contemplating that C'mas list! Time is really ticking away FAST now that school has started, and my quilting time is definitely limited now. I've started Scot's (DH's boss) Camo quilt, but I think I've actually found a pattern for my BIL's "nautical" quilt. It's a "Storm at Sea" pattern..... So......

I'm tired AGAIN! No running tonight even though I should have. The next night I MIGHT be able to run will be Friday since DH has to work tomorrow night and I have to work the Vball game Thur night. I suppose I could always jump on the treadmill (DREADmill), but that get's SOOOOO BORRRRRRING for any amount of time longer than 30 minutes!

Okay----I'm off to do some last minute email checking, and then I'm off to bed again by 9:00.
Happy Tuesday