Thursday, June 28, 2007

Number Four

Okay. Here's the 4th thing I finished on my list today. This quilt has been all but finished for 5 years - it just needed binding. I know it's hard to see, but it has Americana embroidered blocks with crayon shading. I don't know if the fold lines are going to come out easily.

Here's a close-up of one of the blocks - wrinkles and all.


I started something new tonight. When it gets to a "showable" stage I'll give you a peek.

Time for The Tonight Show. A friend of mine is on vacay in LA with her family and they got tickets for tonight's taping. Maybe I'll see her!

The Third

Another of Audrey's quilt tops. Quilted and bound. On to item number next!


Two Down

Quilted and bound. This is Audrey's quilt - she picked out the fabrics and pieced it herself.

My helpers are still helping.....


And yes, Sophies DOES own the pointy-end of the ironing board......

One Down

One obligation complete. Now all I have to do is pack it up and pass it on.

The garden cart rain gauge. This was empty Sunday evening. I measured 6-3/4" in it and it's still raining......and we're not even getting the worst of it. Wish I could send some to all of you who are in desperate need! I know how that is - we were in a severe drought last summer. Perhaps this is a case of "Be very careful what you wish for...".

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Flood

Just curious....is the massive flooding of North Texas making the national news? People are drowning and thousands of homes have been destroyed.

More rain is coming. Please pray for those who are suffering.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The Excavation

I found my cord to the camera! Here's a shot of the pie I made Saturday night. It's a lemon cream pie with real meringue. Just don't be too harsh...since I had to refrigerate it overnight, the meringue shrunk. But it had sugar beads on it the next morning! In my southern upbringing, sugar beads are the sign of a good meringue!

Okay, I kicked my own butt and finished up the clean sweep in my sewing room. I shut the door in order to keep the furballs out. I moved furniture around and swept the floors and vacuumed the area rugs. I even threw things away and emptied the trashcan. The room is now ready for me to begin work again.

The downside to cleaning up the clutter is finding projects that need attention. These are things outside of the UFOs that are properly stored in their little project bins waiting for me to get back to them. This is a quilt top that Audrey made. It's not big (about 38" x 45"), so it shouldn't take that long to finish. I got backing and binding for it today.


Another one of Audrey's tops - about the same size. Again, I got backing/binding for it today.

This is a quilt kit I picked up at the local guild meeting I attended in May. We do our own version of Quilts of Valor for soldiers at Ft. Hood. It's pre-cut squares of 4 fabrics of questionable quality. I had totally forgotten I had it. I drew up a plan in EQ6 just so I would know how to distribute the fabrics evenly. I don't have to quilt it - I can pass it back to the guild for someone else to quilt. A couple of hours should knock this out.
I also uncovered this kit that I won as a door prize at the Dallas Quilt Show in March. It's a Benartex Building Blocks kits - all the pieces are pre-cut and the instructions have several block suggestions and you get to decide what you want to make. The fabric is Christmas Cats....it doesn't really thrill me. Do I make it and donate it to charity, or do I pass it on as is?

I found a roll of fabrics that I bought at Moda several months ago...it was (50) 11"x20" pieces of sample yardage. I don't even know what line it is. Anyway, I took it to work on Saturday and cut it into tumblers using my new Accucut die-cut machine. So now I have 400 tumblers waiting to be made into something.

Then there's the quilt that I made after the fall Quilt Market in 2001. Made the top, had it quilted by my buddy Richard Larson, and used it as a display in the store. It still doesn't have binding. How hard would it be to get that done? Not long at all. I just need to do it. I'll show the front of the quilt when I get it done.

So, the $64,000 question is: Will I actually do all of these chores before I start a new project? I may have to spend my free time building an ark. It's still raining. And raining. And raining. I have a nice crop of mushrooms on the front lawn.

Time for bed. Peace out.

Still Schlumping

After not making much progress on Friday in the clean-up of the sewing room, I have yet to return.

I DID make a pie on Saturday night for the church picnic on Sunday. For those of you who know me, cooking is not on my Top 10 list of things to do. I can cook; I choose not to! I even have a picture of said pie, but I can't locate the cord for my camera.

After church and the picnic on Sunday, I came home and took a nap and then read a book. A WHOLE book.....450 pages. Stayed up way too late doing it, too.

Nothing last night, either. Let's hold out hope for this evening. But don't hold your breath.

Friday, June 22, 2007

The Clean Sweep

These two are SO not helping me make much progress.....


Thursday, June 21, 2007

In a Schlump

Have you ever been in a schlump? You know...you have all these great ideas in your head, all these things you want to accomplish, all these things that NEED to be done, but absolutely no energy or drive to do it? With the end of school and becoming Mom's Taxi Service (more so than normal), trying to change my lifestyle through diet and excercise, and more work to get done than hours in a day, I have kind of cratered.

It doesn't help that my sewing room looks like the Mad Scientist (or a family of small hyenas) has moved in. Now, I'm NOT a neatnik. But, there comes a point when anything productive comes to a screeching halt due to the chaos. Merle doesn't mind, but I do.


My goal for tomorrow (and the weekend, if necessary) is to put things back in order. Wish me luck.

However, one of those "I gotta get this done NOW" tasks came up - the Strip Club sample for July. So, since I could actually get to my sewing machine, I pieced the strips at home and did all the cutting/subcutting at work.

This was a quick and fun quilt to make. I wonder how it would look completely scrappy? The 2-1/2" strip bin is overflowing.....Oh well, that's for another day.

Monday, June 04, 2007

An explosion of strings....

I was scheduled to teach a Spider Web class on Saturday (with Bonnie's permission, of course). I only had one student signed up, so I begged Diane and Sue to come on in and take the class too. Funny thing is, the paying student didn't show up! So, we basically made a giant mess and had a great time sewing together.

So, can any one explain why there appears to be more strings in the bucket after making 9 blocks than there was before we started?