When will winter end?

Ok, our area has been slammed over and over with precipitation this winter and I'm tired of it. We've had 2 days since December 1 with no white on the ground. That is not now, although a lot melted over the weekend. Today we expect freezing rain to start mid-afternoon, with probable snow arriving tomorrow on top of that. Yikes!

Nothing I can do about it though. Except gear up for more shoveling. Will this translate into a day off from work? I can hope, though the University rarely shuts down. May be good reason to sit tight Tuesday and/or Wednesday at home and just take the day off. Think I'll pack accordingly on my way out the door today.

So the past weekend I started quilting the bubbles on batik quilt. Four bobbins later, and two of the seven panels are done. My poor old Pfaff doesn't like the intensive sewing. Hang in a little longer sweetie. I also played with creating a pattern for a small ruler holder. Made my first set of pockets, which of course ended up 1/2" too narrow, to hold my 6 1/2" square. That's the largest one I wanted to have in there. So for now I'll use this pocket set to hold smaller ones and rethink the cutting sizes and sewing techniques to make it a bit wider.

This will hopefully be a great item for me. When on retreat, or even at home, I find my small rulers like to hide in crevices, wander the cutting table, and disappear at the worst times. I want something to corral about 8 small rulers of various sizes in one place. Something I can grab and go with just for these babies. I'll let you know how I do.

Love those long weekends

That extra day just makes it so nice to spend time working out kinks on projects. I finished sewing down all those pesky circles on this quilt I started at the guild Princeton retreat last May. Then I had time to piece together the back with some more batiks, and get it pin basted. My inspiration for the quilt was a pattern by Ann Sandrin called Happy New Year that was from the Quilter's Home website back when Mark Lipinski was its organizer/editor. Mine has fewer bubbles, but I liked it this way. I wasn't really going for the New Year theme. I have more columns, but suspect they are narrower than the original. In fact, once I got to piecing, I sort of kept the picture in sight to inspire, but let the strip piecing just steer me to the final sizes. I found all the batiks as jelly rolls at Walmart, and decided to add some black and run with it. It's really long, about 100" and about 75" wide.

So now I have to decide how to quilt it. Contrasting thread (black) or one that will fade away? Feathers down each column, or meander, or stitch in the ditch? I don't want the quilting to jump out, so I'm thinking a neutral color, but I don't think I can face all the ditches with any level of patience.

Long weekend ahead-Yippeeee!

I know it's just been two weeks since I got back to work after that nice long holiday break. But if feels like two months. Boy where did the time go? Where did my sleeping hours go? Seems my DD was up soooo late too many school nights, and I was up with her in sympathy, if not in actual homework support. I've told my girls that if I knew 22 years ago I would be taking chemistry or physics again for their sake, I would have stayed childless! Really, that's how it seems, only worse, because I don't have the benefit of going to their classes and having the stuff explained. I swear the chemistry and physics teacher associations have conspired to not let anything helpful be on the internet. Ok, I can find the formulas, and explanation on why you use them, and what the variables all mean etc. But useful examples that are anything close to what my kids get for homework? Forget it!

So I am really looking forward to three days of vacation. Yes, some time will go towards housework, grocery shopping, cooking. Another huge chunk I'll spend keeping up with my DD's classwork so I can have an educated discussion about Civil War reconstruction issues or significant passages in "Ethan Frome" or her first  efforts with pre-calculus subjects or (lord help me) the newest physics topics. But I also know there will be more time available to get downstairs to the sewing machine.

So my goal for the weekend:

1. Sew down all the black circles on the 'bubble' batik quilt, do a photo and post that. The for good measure, piece its back. Basting would be great, but not required.
2. Solve the issues I have with Celtic Cat and get that puppy (ok kitty) layered. I'd like to be able to start that quilting along the leading soon. Again, a photo would be nice.

I'll post later to tell you how I did.

Christmas almost packed away

My free time last night was used to sort and repack our family's holiday decorations. While I have 2 shelving units (9 shelves) full of assorted items, including one dismantled tree, there were only 3 boxes I deem really necessary for decorating our home.


I have to wait for DD1 to unload her apartment decorations and tree from a car trunk to truly have everything stowed away, but I'm close. I still have to figure out the best place to stash two more artificial trees that just don't break down into branches, but also don't repack very well in their original boxes. No matter how much we smash the branches together and flatten that sucker!

While I finished all the black bias edging on Celtic Cat, I'm not too wild about it. I don't know where the pattern maker got her binding, but the stuff for sale in the Midwest is thick enough to not allow me to turn sharp curves, and I just don't think I like the way leaf points look. I didn't even try to do the facial features they show-just no way would they be delicate enough. So I need to sit on that project a bit, maybe put it on the wall to speak to me, before I layer and start sewing the black down. I'll post that pic later this week.

So I think I'll take up my batik strip quilt with bubbles to continue with the black stitching around the bubbles. Then I can piece the batik back, layer and get that quilted. Target date is to finish that project by mid-February.

I also have to finish the two mystery round robin corner set ins. I know what to do with the batik star, but am stumped with the flower one. Again, I'll post pics this week.

Happy New Year 2011

Another year has simply flown by, but what a good year it was. I had the last two weeks off from work, and there was a lot to do at home. Cooking, baking, candy making, and of course some quilting. I raced to finish quilting and bind the two Tom's t-shirt quilts made for my sister and Tom's daughter Jan. Jeanne got hers last Wednesday; she got first choice. I'll now add the label to Jan's and bring it back to St. Louis when Jan is also in town so she can have hers. Here they are:

Jan's quilt

Jeanne's quilt

I simply meandered the quilting all over in loops.

So good to have these done. They were fun to design and relatively quick to quilt.

Now on to other projects. I spent some time adding the fusible black bias to the Celtic Cat wall hanging. Still need to outline the cats on that one. Maybe tonight. I'll show that soon. I also need to spend some time reorganizing the holiday storage in the basement, an annual event for me. We took down all the Christmas decorations New Year's Day, but I didn't put them away yet. They are all over the basement, spilling over into my sewing area, on purpose. One sure way I'll put them away sooner rather than later. Then perhaps I should spend some time cleaning up the sewing space? I still have some select non-quilt items taking up floor space that I could photograph and put on Craig's list for sale.

That's it for now. No 2011 resolutions to post. I'm just going to work my way down that UFO list I have and make every effort to keep quilting time on my weekly list of things to do.