Sunday, February 26, 2012

Moving On..

This weekend I finally started making my dad's MSU string quilt (this years xmas gift), and I tell you what- it's  nice that the blocks can be assembled so quickly.  After making the Christmas tree blocks that averaged around and hour and a half construction time, these little babies fly off my machine like its on fire!  Downside?  I only have to make a zillion of them, I have 10 done so far, and I have no where near enough fabric.  Makes my husband's U of M quilt look like a distant dream...



I'm also avoiding the tree quilt like it's the plague.  Really.  I took a nap yesterday just to avoid it.  Today I thought that I should at least look at it since it is cute and I need to love it again.


Then I thought that I should maybe think about this border thing.  It was unanimous that I put one on there but that means I have to think about it some more and I'm running dangerously low on my red/green fabric that I'm pretty determined to use as backing.  (Thank you to all who gave their opinion!  I love reading them :)  ).  I did find this though, that I thought about including in the border.


It might even be cute to just use that.  I'm not ready for this commitment though so I'm taking it with me to quilting on Wednesday (I did fail to go last week which is why there has been no momentum- Mama Spark needs to push me to finish this one..)

My cat (Annie) has recently been quite put out that I am no longer letting her lounge all over my fabrics.  In attempts to get even with me she refuses to let me touch her and pouts constantly.  See her pout.


Luckily, she finds other shenanigans to get herself into and seems to forget that she no longer has fabric or sewing chair privileges.



Thursday I'm leaving for who-knows-where Canada to attend an AFS conference.  Luckily I am going with a crafty co-work who loves to knit and her idea of a good night is sitting with a glass of wine and creating things of sting.  We have already established that I will be bringing quilting and snacks and we will have a mini vacation after conference hours!  Well, that's what we hope anyways otherwise I will get virtually nothing done this week!   Until then...

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Reading List

I love to read and I'll read anything and everything so long as it is mildly interesting.  I read before bed to help wind down from the day and I also read at work (audio books that is).  I go through about a book every 3 weeks and an audio book nearly every other day.  I enjoy it, though I can't even tell you how many books I've read lately.

In attempts to diversify and find something new I've started randomly wandering about my library and picking books with interesting spines or sweet titles.  Last month I happened to stumble upon Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek Quilt novels and it has been lovely.  So far I have read the Lost Quilter, The Quilter's Homecoming and am reading The Union Quilters.  They are fantastic and since I read them before bed, I am constantly dreaming of quilting.  I find it works well for me since I don't have much time during the week to do it! Question; has anyone read this series and is there an order they should be read in?  Jennifer's site says that you can read them whenever, but I was curious what everyone else thought about it.

If you haven't read them and are a reader, I would highly recommend them!  A new book was just published (Sonoma Rose) and I can't wait to read it!

Monday, February 20, 2012

Christmas Trees and New Friends!

Thank you all for taking the time to stop by!  I couldn't believe it today when I emerged from my sewing room to discover everyone who had viewed my page since Mama Spark mentioned me on her last blog (thank you dear! and holy cow! on the progress made on her Dad's quilt). 

I had today off and wanted to get my Christmas trees at least in rows to maybe bring to the next quilting night.  This is where I'm at;



I have managed to sew together the horizontal rows but in the process of ironing all the seams I noticed that I did a very poor job matching sashings on some of them because I never intended to in the first place.  When putting the blocks together I noticed that some fit and some didn't- whatever, no big deal.  WRONG!  It is a big deal and I can't stop STARING at them!  I'm tempted to go through and rip them out and sew them back together but I spent 5 hours working on the stupid thing today and can't bring myself to do it yet.  To add to it there are some blocks that just won't match because the inner square turned into a monster for some reason so that disheartens me even more. 


I also have to decide if I should put a border around the whole thing or leave it be the way it is.  I'm tempted to leave it since my one experimental block turned into a table runner which turned into a lap quilt which turned into this odd two-person lap/decoration quilt thing.  Problem was I just couldn't stop making the blocks because they got cuter and cuter each time! 

I also received a lovely valentines card in the mail from my friend who moved south so now I have Hammy to watch over me in my sewing room.  I may bring him to work in attempts to have my friend's humor back at the lab :)



Any thoughts??  I'd love to hear them!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Progress?

Why Hello Again!

It's been a while, but I found I just had nothing to say!  These last two weeks have went by in a whirlwind of activity.  I have been putting in 50 hours at work attempting to finish a project and then the in-laws moved in.  They have been here for a week and a half and no progress has been made to get them back home so the countdown can't even be established yet!

Wednesdays I get together with Mama Spark and she helps me out with my projects and teaches me everything that I need to know!  The past two times all I have done is work on the binding to my first rail fence and no, it still isn't done but at least it looks nice so far.  I have made progress with my Christmas Tree quilt though!  I took pictures of 3 different blocks, loaded them into PowerPoint, and designed the top!  It worked though I had to have hubby help me so I didn't throw the computer through a wall due to slow loading pictures!  Now I'm about halfway done with the sashing and I hope to finish the remaining today so I can show you!

Also, if you aren't seeing me from Mama Spark's blog you should saunter over there since today is her last day of a giveaway!  She has reached 500 followers and has hit her 1000th blog post!  That's a feat if I do say so myself.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Week in review

Well, I was successful in getting just about nothing done this week at all.  DH is still working a ridiculous amount so I have no drive to do anything, plus my work load is amping up and I'm not exactly excited about it.  I missed quilting this week because I forgot my stuff at home that morning putting me behind (again) on my binding skills.  Then I met my parents for dinner on Thursday putting me home way past my bedtime.  This morning I wasn't feeling the greatest and then it was off to the dentist to spend some hard earned money on my teeth, then back onto the couch I went.  I also learned that my in-laws and their two dogs are going to be moving in with us for a month.  Fantastic.  Can't wait.

I was in the process of finishing my Christmas tree blocks until about 20 minutes ago when I got a call from DH telling me to research stoves to buy and set up in the basement since he NEVER STOPS WORKING.  Well, that was boring and I'm surprised that I actually started doing it because look at what I created minutes before...



My first, adorable, Christmas tree block.  I just want to snuggle it, it's so amazingly cute.  I'm hoping I'll be able to create a few of these this weekend even though all of my plans are up in the air now.  We might be celebrating DH's birthday this weekend (his parents will be in tow for his actual birthday which means that in the 6th year of us I will still not have spent a birthday alone with him), I probably will be up to my elbows in cleaning products preparing for two more people to roam my house, I'll definitely be doing all of my regular chores, I'll more than likely have to prepare super bowl snacks for DH, and I know I will be attempting to quilt to save my sanity.  As my sanity usually is the last thing to be attended to, the probability of sewing is getting smaller and smaller by the minute. 

I also decided that I want to learn how to embroider.  That should be interesting :)

Back to range shopping.  Hope you all had a good week!