Self Imposed Sewing Exile-Broken!

I couldn't do it-I could not sit here and study while my beloved machine, Gracie and hundreds (almost) of projects screamed my name-so I compromised. An hour of studying and a +80 on the practice test got me 30 minutes of studying. There are 6 modules so I could potentially earn 3 hours of sewing-well jeese I should have given myself that challenge since Thanksgiving when the studying started! I got my 3 hours!! No strings this time around-I could sew whatever I wanted-what to pick? I could have finished any number of items but instead I chose a new project from my local quilt shop: Our Gathering Place. It is a table runner of the prettiest ice green colors I have ever seen and oh so simple-4 columns and 12 rows of 3 1/2 squares with appliqued snowflakes. It will look nice in our neutral toned living room. As I was waiting for my iron to heat up (have I mentioned that I HATE this iron!) I traced my pattern pieces for my stained glass-esque piece that I have vowed to finish in 2009. I multi-tasked!

I am showing my Mom's Christmas gift in this post-she has requested Fall Theme wall hanging for her office. This is from the Quick Quilts magazine and all is from my stash except for the olive greens. The picture does not do it justice-I am quite impressed with how this turned out and love how it looks hanging from my banister-hmmmm I wonder if she will miss it-maybe she will forget I made it for her. ;)

I stippled this in the ivory parts by "floating" it on the backing and batting on Grace. HOW AWESOME! Shoot-I had it quilted in an evening-just back and forth-no twisting and maneuvering, stopping and starting. Grace earned her keep that night!

Ok-back to watching my recorded inauguration speech. I am proud of our country today-I hope this is the beginning of the end of an era and the end of a simple minded belief that one is greater than the other.

When did 2009 get here?

Seriously-when did 2008 end and how did I miss it? Oh yeah-I was out cold that night by 9:30! I must say I that I have barely checked emails in 3 weeks much less post a blog. I have made sure to keep track of my favorite bloggers: Cre8tive Quilter, Sister's Choice Quilts and Life is a Stitch - BlogHoster. There are plenty more I lurk on but these are the ones I am obsessed with reading. They are great quilters, wives, sisters, daughters, friends, bloggers, and some mothers whose wit and sense of humor makes it to the pages of their blog offering me an escape from the daily grind and my house full of testosterone!

So here we are in 2009 and I have grand plans for my WIP's and UFO's this year-the same as I did last year. I think all in all I did fairly well. Considering the ones I chose to finish were at least a decade old! I am committing to print my must do quilt projects for 2009-here we go:

• Quilt Todd and Summer's 6 year old Wedding Gift-after all it was the reason for buying Grace!
• Quilt my beloved Round Log Cabin-this to date is one of my favorites. I am not a fan of blue but I LOVE the movement and perceived circles.
• The Stain glass-esque wall hanging for my very bare, very white dining room wall.
• Quilt Mom's 9-patch wall hanging!
  

Ok so this is all I am committing too, there are about 1/2 dozen other things that should be here but I cannot commit because you know what will happen-the quilt shop will get some amazing kits in or a new line of fabric and bam I am off track. OMG! I just figured out I have QADD-Quilt Attention Deficit Disorder~Hmmm I wonder if Fabric Pills exist for therapy??

I have not allowed myself much time at the sewing machine lately-a self inflicted "NO SEW ZONE" is in place. My SPHR exam in on the 26th so I am forcing myself to study. I did however break the zone and forwarned the hubby that I was going to-he has been enlisted to help enforce the new policy. I HAD to de-stress and I have been dutifully studing daily. This brief reprieve had some rules-whatever I chose had to be something already started or if something new I had to be able to finish it-so as to not tease me into a longer furlough- and I only had the length of Mama Mia movie! I planned prior to starting the movie to be able to get the most out of the break.

I chose a Cup Cozy! My co-worker and I love our post lunch Lattes (decaf for me!) but our favorite spot is new age, organic-y, recycle....and does not offer a cardboard finger protector. SO unless we are wearing longer sleeves than necessary or gloves, we burn our fingers holding our beloved mid afternoon snacks. I saw a pattern/kit in the Connecting Threads catalog for $22-WHAT!! $22 bucks? Are you nuts? I don't mind spending money on fabric or patterns but PAHLEEZE let's make it reasonable. I scoured the treasure trove of free patterns on the Internet and discovered lots of versions and for a mere $8 bucks the pattern could be mine-nope not good enough-I want free! Kind of like Jill at Ramblings of a Fabric Obsessor with the Yo-Yo maker. I gave up on the free and set out searching the cars because I knew there had to be at least one of the Starbucky ones tucked in a side/seat pocket. Eureka!

I took apart the cardboard one and worked up a muslin prototype that is perfect, choose a great Kaffe print and VIOLA! Here is the result-Cool huh? All done within the allotted time! Now not only are our fingers cool but we are COOL with our Kaffe Cup Cozies! The Cherry Alley Cafe should be very proud as they will fit with their new age views in that they are reusable!

Uh oh-the hubby just asked how my studying was going....gotta close up and get the practice exam on my screen. See you later!

Bah Humbug

So they say....where has the time gone? Can you believe that we are two week to Christmas-I have an 8 year old who makes certain I know that A) he has only next week of school and B) Christmas is in 14 days! I have yet to complete my shopping or my sewing. On top of that I have been sick-what started as a cold 4 weeks ago was ignore-now it is bronchitis and a sinus infection. The best part about that is cough syrup with codeine-well let me tell you I haven't slept this good in a month! I think the hubby would agree because the only break he has had from my self induced misery was when we were at Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving and slept in separate rooms.

Tonight is the first night in weeks I have felt up to being on the computer (a zillion gabillion emails) or sitting at the machine and so far I have done both! Wahoo!

Last weekend the boys did a "NO MOM" shopping day while I was here working. I should have been in Philly with my sister but due to work deadlines I was here. Oh well-we did go get the tree on Saturday but did not decorate it until Sunday night because I was not up to it. To Zach's delight it was up on Sunday along with the advent calendar and some knick knacks. Whew Good Mom status regained!

Then I got a CHRISTMAS CARD in the mail and realized that I had forgotten an important part! UGH!

I have never been this far behind! I will catch up on everything including cookie baking this weekend-I am super mom and I can handle this! Yeah I know-it is the steroids talking. Whatever works!

Gracie's New Home

My secret project has arrived so here is the picture:

Something funky and whimsical for Mom & Dad's camper. The is a M&H paper pieced design and there are 2 more similar in theme for later surprises.

The Little Gracie came on Thursday in 3 boxes, 1 box later and one piece is back ordered. I of course ripped right into the boxes and began the process of putting her together. Holy Cow! I gave up after I realized I put the table boards on backwards and out of order. When the hubby asked how I was doing I put a request in for some tools to make the job easier-who knew a screwdriver could hurt.

So on Friday he bought me a screwdriver-it is the cutest little thing. I got back to work after dinner and by midnight I had the machine sitting on the platforms. It is beautiful. If I could have found an extension cord that night midnight would have been early!

So here's Gracie....

I loaded my flannel 1/2 square triangle piece on it today and away I went. No thread breaks but I did have some serious puckers on the back piece. I think it is because I rolled the back and then pinned it-the directions and how to blogs say to pin to header then roll. So maybe the next one will be better.

Sewing, sewing, DONE!!

It has been a productive week here in Central PA. I finally made sense of the gazillion 1/2 square triangles, put the remaining scrap squares into a simple flannel blanket for the dog crate, finished a block from my 2+ year old Thimbleberries quilt (the one I am hoping to find the fabric to be able to finish) and put together the cutest wall hanging that I got as a kit last Christmas.

I also added the label to a secret project...obviously you can tell who it is for but you won't be able to see it until it arrives. I bought the pattern at the Hershey Quilt show. Zachary loves the pattern-he helped pick out the fabrics at our favorite shop in Montoursville. He had such an opinion on what they should be-the ladies thought he was so cute-man does he have them fooled!

The wall hanging is too cute and allowed me to use a couple of never used stitches on my machine-love it!! One of the stitches is the blanket stitch-shoot-how cool is this?? No hand cramping, no neck pain, no puckers, no ripping it out - I will definitely be trying more of these in the future. Plus the satin stitch on this new machine is so perfect with just one pass. Where was this machine when I was sewing Greek letters on sweatshirts for my sister by the dozen!

I am anxiously awaiting my EBay purchases from Shoreline Handwerks in Monteo, NC so that I can begin work on "The Mission" stained glass wall hanging. I still have to find the black fusible binding by Clover. I am hoping that JoAnn's carries this and I don't have order it online, which would mean more waiting!

This empties out my UFO box quite a bit. I am trying to complete some of the smaller things so that I can move on to some larger projects-Pennsylvania Pavers in the brown and pink Buggy Barn fabrics-Can't wait to see that one go together. As I was digging through the UFO box I came across this - You can't see it but the 3 trees are fused on and blanket stitched in green. The stars are also fused and blanket stitched in gold. The binding is a burgundy with some molted pink where you see light spots. My mom had me do the embroidery part-it was meant to be a gift but we did not get it finished in time so my recollection of it is that I get to keep the wall hanging-Mom's recollection is that I can keep it until it is done then it is hers.....I will trade it for my Triple Irish chain hanging in her living room! Guess I get to keep it after all ;)

Mom-do you have any of the border fabric left for the binding? Yes I can make another one-especially now that the machine will do the stitch for me!! I bet I could turn these out quit quickly!

Emptying out the UFO box has caused the "Find a Quilter" pile to increase. I have been "hinting" for a Little Gracie II for a few months and the hubby finally heard me. What drove this was me asking to be budgeted for $200 so that I could get my brother's wedding quilt done before Christmas (yeah so what that their 5 year anniversary was Labor Day). He was concerned that I was being "taken" with the price tag until he researched it himself with my guidelines-NOT an all over pattern (I spent too much time perfecting those matching seams) a specific "Daisy" quilt pattern in every other block and Warm & Natural batting. He found services for slightly lower but wondered how much that thing was that I wanted-so he researched that too-"Babe-do you realize that with 4 of your quilts you have paid your self back with the Grace thing?" Me-"no kidding really - 4 quilts?? I had no idea-I have 4 right now that need to be sent for quilting".

He ordered it on Saturday and the predicted delivery date is Thursday!!! OMG! I am beyond excited! The catch is that it will be a Christmas and a birthday gift-well worth it if you ask me! I will be asking everyone else for Our Gathering Place gift certificates for sure this year!

Pajama Day!

It is 1:30 and I am still in my jammies! Wow-I haven't done this in years, without being sick. I am may be in my jammies but I am not lazy. The new house has 4 bathrooms. An hour was spent cleaning 4 toilets, 6 sinks, 1 tub and 2 showers. Thank goodness the child is crazy and loves to clean the toilets with the disposable scrubbing bubbles things so he is actually a big help. I also worked on buying fabrics for my next project: http://quickquilts.com/curiss/nov08/modernmission/. I will be using the Shangri La Moda fabrics-a red, brown, blue and 2 of the ivory tonal. There were 7 total that I wanted to use and my stash gave me 3 of those between FQ's, Jelly Rolls and Charms. Ebay was once again able to save the day and offered me the remaining 4 pieces. Hurray!! I then looked into the Clover fusible bias binding and was stunned-the 28 yards needs is going to cost 40 bucks! Sheesh-oh well. Now I wait for the Slug, aka Mail person, to deliver my treasures.

The gazillion pink half 1/2 square triangles have formed themselves into a VERY pink flannel snuggle quilt for ME-one guaranteed not to end up in the "Man Chair" or on Zack's bed. It is way to pink for either of them to be willing to use it. Ha ha ha!! I did find some nice pale yellow in the clearance bin at my local quilt shop yesterday. Hopefully this will tone down the pink of it-because I have to agree with the boys it is a LOT of pink.

Well the jammie day is over and I must go shower. There is a Halloween Party at Bucknell University that I promised Zack we would go to.

The intent was....

Who in the world knows!!

No good explanation for all these 1/2 square triangles in flannel. Hmmm must have been a girl baby blanket in the works at one point-cannot remember who the poor little girl was/is that is now without a homemade quilt. I hope that I was able to purchase something as meaningful.

The new plan is to finish the pinwheels which was not the intended pattern-in the bag with this plethora of flannel was a Quilter's Cache printout of a butter fly. What was I thinking-all these blocks all that hand embroidery!! Once finished I think I will keep it for myself. It is pink so I wont have to worry about Zach or the hubby taking it-almost guarantees that where ever I put it down it where it will be when I go to retrieve it the next time. Plus Zach has a moon blanket that is a flannel top and a flannel backing that is tied together and I love that blanket but it is too short to cover chin to under toe. Can't you just imagine the toasty-ness as you read?!!

The Joann Fabric BOM has found a home-in the family room on the spare bed. It looks cute. Zach refers to this as his "TV Room"-"The Man Cave". It houses a TV the PS2, the Wii and his toys. If I could only convince hubby to relocate the PS3 down there-then the 69" TV would be all mine!!! Yeah I don't think it is possible either but I can dream.

Connecting Threads has their books 40% off so I have been wanting the Victory Quilts book for a bit now purely because of it's theme. I ordered it last week and still have not had it arrive. I checked to make sure it had been sent and also to make sure I used the right address-yup and yup. So the delay is the Slug...watch it come tomorrow when I will have no time to pour over and savor the pages of Eleanor's creativity. Also Cre8tive Quilter (http://cre8tivequilter.blogspot.com/) mentioned doing a virtual something with a pattern from the book. Even better-incentive to complete. A little competition never hurt anyone.