Two and a half finishes with a Stash Report

Ugh. BOY, I've been in a slump lately and have allowed myself to play the victim instead of making the best of it and moving forward with a few different things at work. This slump has migrated its way to my quilting life; not having much of any motivation to do anything.

WELL! What a poooooooh way to live, huh?

So, this AM while catching up on blogs, I read Bonnie's "A Heart for Japan" post where she was requested to get the word out for assistance on sending quilts to Japan. Putting everything into perspective, my life is no where NEAR as bad as what it could be, so ..... I shook out of my whiny-victim mood and said....."stop sulking and get busy Amy!"

Having been two weeks since I really spent any real time quilting, I started with the quilt that was on my floor---Maltese Star (QOV Mystery #24). The final borders needed to be pieced onto it. 20 minutes later, measuring at 64"x80"----top done :0). It has been set aside because it IS meant for donation to QOV, but I wanted to get busy on some Japan donation quilts.

While I was finishing up Maltese Star, I started doing some brainstorming on how to finish up my Red Blossoms quilt that STILL was displayed on my design wall. I thought it would be a perfect quilt to finish up and donate!

A small 1" light inner border was added, in addition to the pinwheel extensions to the top/bottom, and one final 5" red border, finishing this quilt at 66"x76".

Find fabric for a backing wasn't super easy, but I think I pieced it together well enough to accomplish its job. This is yet another project showing the symmetric nature to just about everything I create. 180 degree rotational symmetry, slightly off-balance, shown here. The larger red pieces are a hand-dyed fabric that was in one of my many storage boxes.

I didn't change out my pantograph at all---still using my 4.5" Chinese Crescents, a perfect "loose" pantograph.



While I was quilting Red Blossoms, I needed a small break, so I pulled my Blue Ridge Beauty off my 'waiting table' to trim off the excess batting/backing from quilting it a few weeks back. Then took a few moments to prepare some binding and zooooooomed away, finishing off this quilt at 68"x80".

As much as I really was looking forward to having this join me upstairs as my new snuggle-quilt, it is needed much more over seas. So, off to Japan it will go!

I'm pretty tuckered out, but rather pleased with my day's progress. Another hour of binding is needed and I'll be able to check Red Blossoms off my list, too.


I mentioned a few weeks back that the girls and myself have been doing some puzzling; DH caught us in the act last weekend (it was a PJ day for sure!)


Stash Report: March 7-20
Used/week: 6.07 yds
Purch/week: 5.0 yds (backing for Raven Stars)

Used/year: 42.75 yds
Purch/year: 11.0 yds

Net Used: 31.75 yds

Blue Ridge Beauty, Raven Stars, Maltese Star and a Tooth!

Blue Ridge Beauty was the first task-at-hand this morning and the quilting was completed shortly after 9:00. I had some difficulty and am a bit unclear as to what the problem was exactly. My bobbin thread had run out; so I tied off a new start......and then........a bit of tugging here-n-there and SNAP! Bobbin thread breakage. That's a first! I actually had to rip out the little bit of section I attempted to sew. Then retried after reinserting the bobbin case....SNAP again! Hmmmm........ After ripping out the small section again, I decided to give the machine a quick cleaning, rethread the upper thread AND change bobbins. **shrug** One of them worked, because I was off-n-runnin' again.

I unpinned the quilt from the frame, but it still remains hung over the bars. I didn't have floor space open to lay it out for trimming. Rather, the center of Raven Stars was still claiming the floor. Therefore, that was my next project to tackle....

and by lunch time, all the borders were added. For those of you who have been participating in the Quilt along, the final step will be posted on Wednesday (Block piecing, top piecing and borders).

Then, I pulled the remaining Maltese Star - Mystery 24 blocks so that I could piece together the final rows into a completed top. The mystery did not include any borders, but I am electing to add some. This is the stage it currently is in. An hour ago, I came upstairs to make a cup of tea. While waiting for the water to heat up, I pulled out my Harry Potter book (I started reading it last night before bed and only managed a few pages before my eyes couldn't remain open any longer), and have been reading ever since. I don't know if I'll get back downstairs anymore today/tonight. I figure I accomplished enough to consider it a full sewing day, so I'll be perfectly fine if I don't get back downstairs.

Cailtyn had a great day on Wednesday at school! I received an email from her teacher early in the day saying that she had a really loose tooth. (Psht---NO CLUE that it was even loose!). And then, right around 1:00, another email came in that said "It's out!" This is her first lost tooth, and now.....the other big tooth and two bottom teeth are all loose.

Okay....back to my reading ;0)

Cold Quilting!

I'm working away on the quilting of Blue Ridge Beauty.....after one pass, I realized that my fuzzy socks alone weren't going to keep my feet warm, so I went upstairs to find my slippers. Then three or four passes later, I had just about enough! Gah! 54 degrees----no WONDER that I thought it seemed a bit colder than normal! We don't heat the downstairs, and recall that I purchased a little space heater for my quilting room, BUT the quilting frame/machine is in a different part of the downstairs.

We have enough of these black $1 thin gloves in our glove-stash. The girls don't wear them much (unless they've misplaced their thicker heavy-duty-play-in-snow-and-don't-get-cold gloves.) The sacrifice made really did make a difference.

reply to a post update
Cindy writes:

Ok...I don't want to sound smart, but couldn't you unplug the portable heater and move it to where you are? Of course if its plugged in behind lots of stuff, this wouldn't be feasible.

Cindy

Yes, I thought of this as an option, but the heater is rather small; for a small room. The space where my frame is is very large, very open and I'm moving back-n-forth along the frame; never really in one space. I didn't think it would be a great solution; simply too much space to heat :0( Thanks for the suggestion, though!!!!!!!!








Company update:
SIL headed out (alone) this morning to travel to her grandpa's house. Our house is a good "inbetween" location. Besides, by stopping here, the cousins can hang out as well as DH and his brother. They just took off for a couple hours of ice-fishing with a couple of kids in tow. Cassie and Candace chose to stay behind with me, though.

A funny:
As I was trying out the new gloves, Chessa (niece) came down--already bundled up, ready for fishing-- and asked....
Chessa: "Aunt Amy, what'cha doin?" (She's 5, BTW).
Me: I'm quilting
Chessa: Why are you using the thread that way?
Me: To keep the quilt sticking together.
Chessa: {{a few moments of silence}}........why don't you just staple it together?


**giggle**.....

I DID give her a response after my giggle subsided.....and said..."Well, I don't think it would be snuggly with staples in in." To which she said....."Oh yeah! Okay Bye!" ....and off she went upstairs

Some quilting and cooking going on...

A small hint from DH lead me to making Beer Cheese soup for dinner. I haven't been a Beercheese soup eater for very long. When I was pregnant with Candace I was in the Twin Cities for some math conference or another. When the group went out for lunch, there was a special going on for Wisconsin Beer cheese soup. For whatever reason, it sounded so GOOD! (remember...pregnant...). And sure enough; I was hooked! SOOOoooo creamy and cheesy. YUM! Besides, I found it curious that a cafe in Minnesota was having a special for Wisconsin beer cheese soup :0)
Last year, I was browsing through a cookbook that was put together by an area church and County Fair team of my MIL. And there it was....Beercheese soup!

Beer cheese soup recipe
4 chicken bouillon cubes
3 cups water
1 can beer
1 cup each, diced celery, onion, carrots
2.5 cups cubed potatoes
2 cans cream chicken (or potato) soup
1.5 lb. Velveeta cheese, cut into cubes (original recipe asks for 1 lb)

Directions
Cook: water, beer, bouillon cubes, vegetables until vegetables are tender.
Stir in the cream of chicken soup and Velveeta cubes. Heat until cheese has melted.

I've been playing around a bit with this recipe because the first time I made it exactly as the recipe stated, I didn't care for the proportion of cheese used. :0( The next time I made it, I added more cheese; much more to my taste!

And then I thought....this can work both ways....so...
A small hint from me lead DH to making homemade chicken strips for dinner. He tried out a new recipe from Food Network that had him using a wet batter and then a dry batter. The batter was definitely thicker than normal, but lovely crunchy!




I baked up a batch of Rhubarb Crunch too. (Recipe here)

Now that dinner is over; except dessert--haven't had the Rhubarb yet simply because my tummy is STUFFED. I am definitely not in the mood to tackle anymore quilting.

I didn't quite get to the half-way point in the BRB quilting. I only quilted for another hour once lunch was over and lost interest. I don't think I had the needed energy today to stand for hours with the quilting frame.

I pieced all the blocks for Maltese Star mystery listed in step #6 and began piecing them into rows. I stopped after piecing three rows, no longer interested.....((yikes?? some major quilter's A.D.D. today)....

The startitis quilter in me needed something new. Afterall, that WIP list on my sidebar is simply too small!!! Therefore, I pulled out some pieces left over from some FQs used last year; I hadn't cut them down to strips yet. So, I cut them into 1.5" strips and made 14 mini-nine-patches from each set. Pictured here are 28; I have another 14 almost finished, but that was the point I needed to leave them at so I could start dinner preparations. I have no plans for them yet.

I've done a decent amount of sewing this week, but all of the fabric had already been recorded in my previous Stash Reports. The only "new" fabric was for the mini-nines today, so I'll just wait until next week to make an official Stash Report.

Happy Sunday!

Blue Ridge Beauty top done; Red Blossoms gettin' there

Blue Ridge Beauty (69"x80") - pictured sidewaysThe final borders were put on this morning---there will be no continual UFO status for this thing!!! A backing was pieced from a large amount of blue that I found in the donation boxes and already loaded up on the frame. I was hoping to get a start on the quilting today, but not so sure that will happen now.

I also worked on Red Blossoms today. Thanks to Amanda, I feel just fine only having pieced one more block to have the center finish square. (Speaking of Amanda...be sure to check out her Scrappy Red words quilt!!! As for my red quilt...the center has been pieced together, and I even spent some time piecing the bonus triangles into pinwheels for some sort of pieced border. Now that my design floor is clear of Blue Ridge Beauty, I think I'll play around with border layouts for Red Blossoms. I definitely need to break up the center from the pieced border with a light/white inner border strip.

And, as the meteorologist promised, today the temps hit the 50's!!! WOW! Heat wave! Naturally, I needed to make the most of it!!! Laced up the tennies and ran 1.8 miles once DH returned home from fishing with Caitlyn.

Oh ....
Caitlyn had a wonderful time! It was just DH and her, so she was on the receiving end of all the attention....

I have NO CLUE what this picture is all about, but DH sent it to me.

DH is cleaning the fish right now; I'm finishing up a few loads of laundry; Caitlyn and Cassie are outside feeding the animals, and Candace is writing her name on all the valentines for her class tomorrow; all signs that the weekend is coming to an end.


Stash Report Feb. 7-13
Used/week: 4.67 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 34.32 yds
Purch/year: 6.0 yds

Net Used: 28.32 yds

Saturday sew-in status...

1. Piece Maltese Stars step #5 - DONE!

2. Piece Blue Ridge Beauty blocks into a top (and open up my design wall!) - SORTA DONE!
I pieced the blocks together into the quilt center, but haven't added borders yet. However, my design wall was finally clear again :0)

3. Write step 2 of Raven Stars - DONE.

4. Piece 1 OR 13 more Red Blossom (Pineapple Blossom) blocks - NOT DONE, but the blocks have taken over my design wall.


DH was off of work early yesterday, so he volunteered to drive the 80 miles down to Eau Claire to pick up my machine that has been sitting, waiting, since Monday. Ah yes, a lovely husband :0) Mind you, he also enjoyed his stop at the Sporting Goods store down in that area... :0) The verdict on my machine: a gear had loosened which is why is was so noisy, and the fact that the gear was loose was causing my needle/bobbin to be out-of-sync. No gear replacement was needed; just a tightening.

And all day long, I've been working some more on the RRCB HST units as my leaders-enders project.

But now...I'm a bit peetered-out. DH was up bright and early at 5:30 to head out with a family friend for a day of ice-fishing. As hard as he really tries at being silent, it still doesn't matter. I'm such a light sleeper. He apologized when I came rolling out of the bedroom at 5:45, but I simply shrugged and said "no biggy." It's the weekend! No stress and I can get my day started before the girls wake up.

BRB action

It may not appear that anything more has been done to this, but there are 20 more blocks (except for the missing row that is still next to the machine for piecing). The overall layout will now be 10x12, equating to roughly 60"x72" before borders.

No more action tonight though on this.....I'm pooped!

Design wall; Blue Ridge Beauty action

My design wall hasn't seen much of a change over the past week (yeah....NO change at all!) Since I spent the weekend catching up on some quilting for my MIL, I decided tonight would actually see some more "blue" work.

I spent a couple of hours trimming up some more blue and light scraps. Naturally, I wasn't JUST working on cutting 2" scraps for the Blue Ridge Beauty but also some 2.5" scraps for my Blue Star Struck. Twenty more blocks are needed (MINIMUM) for the BRB before I'll start piecing the blocks together into a (most likely) lap-sized quilt.

I finally broke down and dished out a few dollars to purchase a small portable heater for my sewing room. It's COLD down there!!!!! In fact, yesterday morning I gave up on the 60 degree basement after finishing up a MIL quilt and spent the rest of the day upstairs in the wood-heated area!

Cailtyn enjoyed some Yoga time on the Wii yesterday. She was also enjoying the 80 degree temperature in the house from the wood heat. Even *I* ended up with shorts on by the afternoon!

More downfalls about the winter months........STATIC! I've given so many kissy-shocks over the past few evenings when tucking the girls into bed! Tonight I remember to touch their arm to discharge us before giving the goodnight kisses. Otherwise, those are some powerful 'zappy' kisses!


Anyway---it felt good to get some weekday sewing in. This is one of my more enjoyable times of the school year; Prep in the morning, Math 7 advanced section 2nd block, Math 7 regular section 3rd block, then Study hall supervision during 4th block where I assist students with math and science work or anything else they may have to do. Makes for a stress free schedule and a stress free Amy :0)

Happy Monday!

Green Beauty; Rainbow Scrap Challenge; Stash Report

Green Beauty (80" x 94")

Quilted...

...and bound. Ready for gifting to Kathy.

And here is the design I was tempted to start....

...considering this pile of scraps needed some attention. BUT, instead, I pulled out only the blues and got back to work on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Blue Ridge Beauty. And progress I made! Here are 80 blocks in an 8x10 layout, but I still had units and other scraps laying around, so I kept piecing until it reached a 10x10 layout

My design wall isn't quite large enough to house all the blocks right now (notice the blocks on the left are overlapped??) I'm not a big fan of square quilts, so I will make up 20 more blocks to add to the top/bottom and call it good. That would give me a center measuring roughly 60"x72"; add a border, and it'll be a good throw/snuggler.

Some images around the household today:





Stash Report: January 10 - 16
Used/week: 5.4 yds
Purch/week: 0.0 yds

Used/year: 14.4 yds
Purch/year: 0 yds

Net Used: 14.4 yds

The Design Wall fight...

I headed downstairs at 7:00 tonight after dinner, kids homework, etc..... you know the routine.

And, I didn't feel like quilting Green Beauty....so I didn't.

Instead, I pulled out some of the blocks I had created months ago for Bonnie Hunter's Blue Ridge Beauty just to see how they were looking.....

And it wasn't long before I heard In Flight arguing with the newly placed blocks for design wall space.....

So, rather than insisting that they place nice together, I figured I might as well just bite the bullet and piece the rest of the In Flight rows together to be able to set the top aside.

And rather than just stopping at the quilt-center, I decided to continue biting that bullet and get the borders on right away before this turned into a UFO.

In Flight (67.5" x 79.5")

Yeah...pretty happy with an unexpected flimsey finish tonight!

And now my BRB blocks were happy.......

SEE! They started growing! It's not Saturday, BUT my Scrappy Rainbow Challenge finally saw some action, AND a UFO at the same time :0)

Hey....I even decided to quilt another pass of Green Beauty before heading up for the night too. Maybe that quilting will get finished tomorrow night.