A perfect day for quilting... (as long as you have AC!)

OMGoodness! If you can get past the dust and visible grease....yeah, that says 123.1 degrees!!! Mind you, it's in the sun.....BUT STILL!!!!! I DID venture out to give Shadow some water for drinking and doused him with some as well...ugh! Opressive!!!!! He was having a nap in the shade, in a lovely "cool" pit he dug next to his house. He seems to be taking the heat well!

I printed out the next handful of midget blocks with intentions of catching up to Angela, but when I turned the light on in my quilting room, my Twilight units caught my eye. That sounded like a better plan than the midgets, so....New Moon was placed into the DVD, and away I went.

By the end of the movie, this is how far I was. The final "arrow units" had been cut, sewn, and started to be pressed.

Pressing took quite a bit longer than usual because I took my time pressing the seams open. This sure made for some perfect points!!!

After some lunch, I THEN had intentions of hitting the midget blocks.....but.....

eh....I was having too much fun with the Twilight blocks. SO.....Twilight was put into the DVD player (again), and onward I went.

By mid-movie, I pieced my first two complete blocks. Unfortunately, they are about 1/4" too small in certain areas....so.....hmmmm.........

I set them aside for the time being to stew over what my next steps will be. Maybe I'll remove my name from the list (it wouldn't hurt my feelings at all, because I can imagine these blocks looking AMAZING together in another quilt similar to Green Beauty (aka: Jared Takes a Wife). Maybe I'll change my block for the swap??? I dunno. But if these continue being a bit small, I wouldn't feel right AT ALL swapping them out.

Hmmmm....maybe tonight I'll get to the midget blocks?????
(I'm sensing that familiar feeling.......U........F........O........) ;0)
LOL


Oh yeah----I DO have other things up on my Design Wall from working on my September BOM blocks over the past couple of days. All three are done but the directions need to be typed up yet. Yeah....they're blurred out on the bottom ;0) Kinda neat how that first one blurred to show a circular design! Have no fear, though----no curved piecing coming.

Twilight Swap information -- interested in joining???

Per request (and I actually meant to do this in my last post, but forgot...)
I am a member of the Block Swappers Yahoo group - (Stashbuster Swap subgroup). This group is hosting the swap, so if you are interested after reading the Twilight swap directions (8 KB PDF file) (uploaded to my Skattebo Creations website so you can read it), please head over to Block Swappers Yahoo group to sign up to be a member.

There are currenlty 13 ladies signed up for the swap using the following block patterns: "Amish Diamond, Antique Tile, Blackford's Beauty (that's mine), Contrary Wife, Farmer's Wife, Kansas Troubles, Linked Chevron, Mississippi, Nelson's Victory, Sawtooth Star, The Old Red and Blue Block". The swap has now been opened to people to make more than one style of block (one lady has chosen "Nonesuch" IF more people sign up), but until the numbers go up, I won't choose to make another block because I don't want duplicates.

A satisfying day

I wasn't able to spend the entire day downstairs, but I am very satisfied with how my entire day went :0)

7:00 AM--shower, drink coffee, kiss DH goodbye for the weekend :0(
7:45 -- wake girls and go through typical "morning stuff"
9:15 -- Cassie's eye appointment, followed by a few errands (groceries and pharmacy)
11:00 -- arrive home, unload car, start lunch, start laundry
12:00 -- clean up lunch table, put next load of clothes in machine/dryer; head outside to pick green beans
12:45 -- soak green beans in sink; take care of next load of laundry (INCLUDING FOLDING!!!!)
1:00 -- headed downstairs

With so many projects sitting idle, I decided it was time to start my "Twilight" block swap. It isn't due until October, but....well....yeah, you know. Volleyball season is right around the corner; I didn't want to NOT get around to these.
The idea behind the swap is to use the colors that appear on the Twilight saga books: red, black, white, gray. Swappers may choose any 12" block of her liking. My choice: Blackford's Beauty. This is the block that Bonnie used in her Jared Takes a Wife, this is also one of the blocks that I posted for February 2010 BOM. It's definitely one of my favorites! So, to be "in-the-mood" for a Twilight inspired block, I threw the DVD into the machine and sewed for the duration of the movie. This is how far I got....
Fifty-two of these corner units; I'm making 13 blocks (12 for swapping and one for myself).

These are the other fabrics I will be using in the block. I'm taking my time; pressing with spray-starch.

OH! Speaking of which.....DEFINITELY WORTH LOOKING AT! If you haven't already taken a peek at Amanda Jean's homemade spray starch, you simply MUST! I used to be so skimpy with when, where, how much spray starch I used in the past because it was SO expensive! $7.00 a bottle! And when a bottle could be gone within 3 days of serious quilting-----PSHT! I don't think so! Therefore---tried out AmandaJean's "recipe." LOVE IT! LOVE IT! Water = free. Corn starch---psht? $??? always have it on hand. Essential oil: $9.00/bottle, which will last for YEARS!!!!!!! In the last two weeks, I must have refilled my bottle 3 times already---that's a LOT of savings!!!

Anyway---I did take one small break in the movie to take care of another load of laundry (AND FOLDED AGAIN!!!)
So, movie ended around 3:00. As badly as I wanted to keep pluggin' away at the blocks, I had other pressing projects too!

Knowing (again) that Vball season will definitely reduce the amount of machine time I'll have, I HAD to start spending some time on the September (and October) BOM's. So....what movie to put in?????.....
The mask of Zorro -- I figured it was fitting; not knowing who Zorro is....not knowing what the blocks will look like. ??? Yeah, okay....maybe pushing it a little bit.

BUT, by midway through the movie (around 4:15), the first September BOM was finished. {{a lil' peek at the flying geese we'll be using}}

At that point, the movie was paused and dinner preparations took over (after, of course, another load of laundry taken care of). Dinner: BBQ on bun, pickles, mac-n-cheese, baked beans, pink lemonade.
5:00 -- tidy up kitchen, unload dishwasher and reload with supper dishes, take care of ANOTHER load of laundry while drawing a bath for #2 and #3. Bathe girls and tidy up bedroom/bathroom/kitchen all at the same time.
6:00 -- take girls out of bath, trim Candace's hair.......and yup! ANOTHER load of laundry!
6:30 -- head back downstairs, unpause the movie and tackled the 2nd BOM for September...

some more flying geese units....and...umm....a "long" flying geese unit :0)

8:00 -- movie ended; block finished, a small bit of tidying the sewing room. Headed upstairs to shoosh the girls to brush teeth. Take care of the LAST load of laundry (I've lost track, but I think it was 6 total washers full), make Cassie's bed with freshly washed sheets, tuck all three girls into Cass's bed, carry Candace back downstairs to take care of a nasty toenail that was hurting her, wipe away her tears, and tuck her in to Mom's bed. (Yeah....I think that was her game plan all along!) ;0) No biggy----no hubby tonight, and the girls REALLLLLY need to get some sleep tonight. They have a tendency of NOT sleeping until too late when they all sleep together. (go figure, right?)

And now----computer time :0)

Tomorrow will be another long, energy-seeping day. I was asked to play in a Vball tournament a few weeks back and gladly accepted, NOT realizing that DH wasn't going to be AWAY for the majority of the weekend. I don't really want to call a babysitter to watch the girls, even though they would probably LOVE that. Instead, I'll be schlepping them along with me. Last year, the tournament started at 9:00 a.m. and ended at 8:00 p.m. (DH and I were done by 6:00 though because our team lost before the final two rounds of the tournament.) I'm sure they will be perfect lil' angels for me :0) **crossing fingers**