MB III Finish

I got into the blogging thing because I wanted to participate in a swap. I have participated in 3 so far and the 4th one in process as we speak. To date the requirements were just to produce a good quality quilt somewhat following your secret partner's likes and dislikes. This current one-The Miniature Booty Swap 3-is requiring that you complete a dish towel too-I am SOOO hung up on this part! Drawing a complete blank on how to approach this or even complete this task. UGH! I have done a basic search on the Internet and still have no clue.

I am outside my comfort zone on this and it is struggle. I am working through this mental block in that I bought the dish towel and might have a plan as to what I might put on it-might.

No Quilting Here

Can you tell that my week of making sure the hubby didn't fall face first down the stairs is over? Yup I regretfully headed back to work last week and my sewing has suffered. Because not only did I head back to work, my boss was out, and my hubby can't drive so I had to be Manager and Taxi Driver. Normally we split the week night duties-but I have them all until the 6th of April-oh please please be the day the neck brace comes off! Now mind you I am the one who signed the boy up for all these activities, so I truly have no one to blame but myself but my goodness he is busy!

Monday is Drama-not too bad we pick him up from school at 4:30, Wednesday is Basketball from 6-7:30, Thursday is Cub Scouts from 6:30-7 but we live 1/2 hour away so there is an hour driving time on that one and Saturday is Basketball again ranging from 4 to 5:30 start time and lasts 90 minutes....does seem so bad you say, only 3 nights a week you say....normally I would agree with you except the hubby is not driving so add into that running back and forth from work to taxi him to eyeglass appointments, surgeon follow up, general practitioner appointment, the dog got a tick have to go to the vet appointment, "honey I ran out of coffee creamer and we need milk (WE NEED A COW) stop after work" errand, damn-didn't I just put gas in this car like two days ago errand.....Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out.....

I am spoiled-I like my quiet time on Thursday evenings-I get to sew while I watch the House Wives on Bravo. I get a blissful 90 minutes a week ALONE! So when my MIL called and said that she had a doctor's appt could her son drive her-she forgot he was in a brace and can't drive-I volunteered! She has had some liver ailments and the closest specialist to her is in Rochester NY-2 hrs from her house. She had never driven (yeah don't understand that either but hey) and my FIL is 80 and certainly should not be driving 2 hrs especially on the NY thruway! There are other siblings within a few blocks from their house-but we won't go into that this post-not enough time in the day. Plus the best part was that I would be able to see my parents (they live in the same town) and I haven't seen them since CHRISTMAS! I was so in need of the hugs only parents can give! So last Sunday I headed up to NY-I stopped at the Joann Fabrics in Dickson City-are they going out of business or had my mind romanticized how awesome that store was?? I then wandered up I81 enjoying the bright sunny day and honking at the vehicles driving bye with "GO SU" on the windshields. I was slightly north of Syracuse when I saw it...piles and patches of SNOW!!! UGH! Reaffirmed why I am slowly but surely moving south, so that the snow season is short, sweet and always remains pretty!

My visit with my parents was short but just enough to get me through to Easter weekend. I did go see my mom's new office and walked in to find my own quilt show going on-that was really neat. She had one hanging that I forgot about-cool. Thanks Mom.

My day trip with my MIL was nice also-I have known her since 2002 and been married to her oldest son for 3 years-in all that time I have NEVER had more than a 15 minute conversation with her. Stop gasping-there are 6 kids in that family so when ever I did see her to have a conversation with her, there were 5 other families which bring with it up to 9 other grand kids, needy sons and daughters. Plus my last MIL experience was NOT a good one-I think she secretly hated me-not enough time for that here either! I was a bit nervous about spending 5 hours alone with her but you know what-it was great! I had a great conversation and found that although I thought I liked her-I truly do! It was nice and I would do it again.

This weekend is somewhat packed with the FINAL basketball game and the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby-but tomorrow, so far, has no plans. This is good because I have to research making a dishtowel to accompany my MBIII wall hanging.

Take care and enjoy the sunshine!

Shelly

Nursing and Sewing

I have been home nursing the hubby after neck/spine surgery and have gotten a lot of sewing done while he has napped. I was able to finish the daggone stained glass wall hanging and now it joins the "to be quilted" pile. I was going to then start my Miniature Booty Swap III wall hanging but found that I had no appropriate fabric-I was stunned and had to look twice to make sure-nope nothing. Well that meant a little bit of Internet shopping was in order. I found the perfect fabrics at the Fat Quarter Shop and of course their service was impeccable-ordered on Monday in my hands on Thursday!

Ok so the MBIII was out as a project-what to do-Ohh I know, I know-my thangles Buck a Block of the Month. So out it came and was done in 15 minutes-the hubby was still sleeping so I had to find something to do.

So I moved on to my Debbie Mumm block of the month blocks. This one might actually do the trick as I waited for my FQS order to arrive. I got out the fabrics and directions-cut all the strips out and moved forward. I got one block done, moved to the 2nd block only to find that I cut one of the fabrics wrong!! Ugh-back to the Internet to buy a replacement piece. So now what....I rented Australia and made do with that.

Today I got my FQS order - I got that all cut out, sat down at the sewing machine to discover that I have NO WHITE thread-I have a zillion shades of off-white, tan, beige, ecru....but no pure, clean , snow white! Crazy. Must be why I stopped on my snowflake table runner-I need white to sew the snowflakes on the top of the pieced top.

So once again I have hit the quilted wall-after the kid is done with Cub Scouts We will be stopping at Walmart for white thread.

Better luck tomorrow with the sewing plans!

**Stopped at WalMart after Cub Scouts-head to the craft department, stand in front of the thread case and GASP! The white thread is empty! Empty I tell you! There is winter white, off white, ecru but no plain old, snow pure white! UGH! Then I notice the "specialty" thread-the skies opened up and the angels sang-there was literally ONE spool left. I grabbed it-whew!

Stained Glass Wall Hanging

McCall's Quick Quilt had a stained glass wall hanging in it's November 2008 issue which I though would be amazing displayed on this large bare white wall in the dining area of the great room. I have been hanging on to my 3 Sisters fabric from Moda for a while now and thought they would be beautiful in this wall hanging and the colors would compliment our furniture.

So as you may have read earlier the Pre-sew process was trace, cut, iron, cut again, place and iron again. Whew-I was bored at that point. Little did I know it would get WORSE! After you iron all the shapes on the background you have to outline ALL the pieces with the fusible bias tape-yeah all freaking 108 pieces! Not even the worst part-after fusing the bias tape you have to EDGE Stitch it along both sides! I have literally used an entire spool of black thread on the bias tape alone! So what started out as enthusiasm faded to boredom has now settled into talking myself into NOT relegating the darn thing to the UFO pile! I am down to the final 2 strips of horizontal bias binding. I like it and think it turned out really neat. I will however NEVER be doing another stained glass'esque anything AGAIN!

It will be a little bit before I can load it on the frame to quilt it because I need to piece my Miniature Booty Swap III quilt before I tie the machine up on the frame.