I am a Winner, You Could Be Too

One of the Internet contests I participate in is the FabShopHop, where you visit the participating on-line quilt shops, and find the shop hop bunny. When you find the required number of bunnies, you're entered in the grand prize drawings. You're also entered in a drawing for a $10 gift certificate from each of the shops you visit.

I don't know how many people do this, but I know my odds of winning one of the big prizes are very very slim; however, I have fun doing playing along. During January's hop I didn't have time to play much, remember work was crazy, I even worked through lunch most days.

Needless to say, I was surprised when I got the email the other day saying I'd won a $10 certificate from one of the January shops. I went to that shop and started poking around trying to decide what I might like to get with my $10.

I soon discovered the shop owner's style in fabric selection doesn't appeal to me.

It might appeal to you. That's why I decided I would give away my certificate.

The fine print:
Leave me a comment here, on the blog, FB comments won't count.
I'll pick a winner next Monday 3/1/10.
Judging is at the sole discretion of the blog author.
The certificate is only good at Bayside Quilting until 3/31/10.

More about the Weekend

Saturday afternoon I took Kevin to the barber shop for a haircut. I'd never gone in there on the weekend before, so I was a little unfamiliar with the procedure when almost every waiting area chair is taken. Usually I take him on a weekday evening when there is no or very little wait. I wasn't raised on the barber shop culture, being a girl and all. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about taking Kevin for a haircut, I just don't know those unspoken rules about waiting and whose turn it is.

A barber will finish with a client and call out "can I help someone," or "who's next?" For a second no one moves. I see all these people waiting, but no one is getting up. I look around, Kevin can't be next, we just got there, surely someone will get up. The barber calls again and someone does take his chair. I settle back and occupy myself with solitaire on my phone. Kevin is content watching the show. He learns by watching so sitting still in a barber chair is nothing new, he's a pro. Getting him to verbalize what he wants is a whole other ball game.

There's another woman who is jabbering a lot to her grandson's barber and to whomever will listen to her. I focus on my solitaire. A couple more chairs open up and get taken. I figure out some clients are waiting for specific cutters, others, like us, don't care. Another chair opens and no one moves and I guess it's Kevin's turn.

How much do you tip on a $14 haircut?

Fern skated at the Bowie Valentine Invitational Competition on Sunday. She participated in three events, her technical program, solo compulsories and with the large production team.

I thought she did a good job but was a little wobbly during her technical program, and didn't hold her spirals very long (skating backward on one foot, other leg parallel to the ice). I've seen her skate better in practice so I wasn't surprised when she got forth out of four skaters, disappointed, yes, but not surprised.

Then she did her compulsories. I thought she did great and videoed her with my phone. After she was done I asked her if she wanted to see the video. "No Mom, I was just there." I got a completely opposite response when I offered it to her coach. She studied it and beamed about how long the spirals were and that her sit-spin had eight revolutions. There was some kind of mix-up when it was time to award the medals for her event so we had to wait much too long to find out.

The large group event, the production team went well. I'd not seen it yet so I got to see it with a fresh eye. It is a 4-minute program where about 30 skaters do routines to songs with a jungle theme. Bowie's competition was the team from Piney Orchard. Their show had a "Family Game Night" theme and it was very cute and well done. At awards time, Piney got second, and Bowie took first.

Then, they got around to awarding the medals for the compulsory events. Fern got first place out of three skaters. Needless to say, I was just thrilled.


 

Another baby quilt

Friday I posted about the baby boom in my office and the quilts I'm making. This is the top for the boy due next month. I got the top for the girl finished and basted over the weekend too. Now I just need to quilt and bind them, but I'm not stressing about it. I'll just present them in their current state at the shower on Wednesday. I'm sure the dads will be happy anyway.

At the barber shop on a Saturday

A New Quilt

I work with mostly guys in my office, young guys. Well, younger than I am. Young fertile guys.

Two babies are due next month and one in June. And I've promised baby quilts. Two boys and a girl. This one is for the girl. It needs one more border strip at the bottom, then quilting. The group baby shower is next Wednesday. Do you think I can get them done? I've already decided to not work on the June's baby quilt until after our guild's show since I still need to finish the quilt for that but I should be able to knock out two simple pieces quickly.

Oh, but wait, Fern's ice skating competition is Sunday and I have no idea what time she's on the ice. Got to find that out. Kevin skis on Sunday, too. Maybe I'll be able to sew on binding while I wait for her to perform. If I get that far with the quilts. (OK, this just in, she is scheduled to skate her freestyle program at 12:30 ±10 minutes; and her compulsories at 3:00 ±10 minutes. Please come by to watch.)

I hope these guys in my office are blessed with great kids as I have been.

The top is quilted

This is the picture of the quilt top before I started quilting it. I'm showing this instead of one of the current state of the quilt because I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

Last night I finished quilting the top and trimmed the edges. Tonight I'll cut the binding and start the long process of sewing the binding on.

I still need to get the quilt that will actually be in the quilt show next month finished, but I'm so close to getting this one done, I want closure on it.

More progress from the retreat

I played with a new technique of dyeing fabrics a la Amy Johnston. I'll describe it more when I don't have to tap it out on the phone.

Progress at the quilt retreat

I've had this quilt forever and got to work on it this weekend. It's almost done, I just need to quilt the last border and bind it.

Ta-da!

A Little Snow: a view of the back porch

Snow Day

I have finished my stack of badge sewing so now I can concentrate on fun things, like quilting.

The kids were off yesterday because of snow and I stayed home with them. I got my sewing room straightened up a bit and got the floor vacuumed.

Our quilting bee is doing an exchange this year where we choose our fabrics, then pass them around to members to make the next block in the pattern so in the end, we'll have a set of blocks made by our fellow members. We're using Big Horn Quilts' Beige Behemoth pattern.

I dyed all that fabric a couple weeks ago for this project and was anxious to pass it on. Frankly, I was tired of looking at it. To my dismay, we are to make the first block ourselves with our fabrics, thus setting the tone for the entire quilt. I didn't want that responsibility. I needed distance from all that fabric I just spent hours and hours dying.

That was two weeks ago. It took that long to work through the paid sewing obligation. So, yesterday I was able to start on the exchange blocks without much anxiety. The 20" block is made up of eight components, two of which I got done.

We're due for 12-24 more inches of snow tomorrow so it looks like I'll have plenty of time to work on the rest over the weekend.

I'll try to upload a picture from the camera later since I still can't find the memory card reader for unloading the photos from my camera.


 

Weekend Round-up, Among OtherThings

I'm not usually one of those moms that dash off to the ER at the sight of blood, but when the sight of blood wasn't ending, I took The Boy in. I knew there was nothing to stitch up, since the edge of his left index finger was gone, but I knew I couldn't stop the bleeding by myself. He was cutting salami.

Dan was in Tampa for the weekend golfing with his friends.

I did a lot of laundry this weekend. The last load is in the dryer right now. It's the "everything else" load. Usually I pick through what is on the floor of the laundry room to make a load of like items, darks, pastels, colors, whites, towels. The "everything else" load is the stuff that falls through, the stuff that doesn't pass muster on previous sorting rounds. It's the load you hate to put away because it's usually a bunch of mismatched socks and shirts that are too small for your youngest child. You know. I'll have that load waiting for me tonight. Oh joy.

Lost is back tomorrow night after a nine-month hiatus. I gotta make sure the DVRs are set. Yes, both of them. I started a Lost marathon yesterday by rewatching season 5. This interrupted a Lois & Clark season 1 marathon and ended up being interrupted by watching How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days because we wanted to send it back to Netflix.

I found Season 1 of Lois and Clark on eBay for The Girl (and myself!) because I enjoyed it 16 years ago and thought she might like it, too. "Like it" turned out to be an understatement. She loves it and thinks Dean Cain is wonderful, gorgeous, and very good-looking. He was quite yummy in that show, wasn't he? I found Season 2 on eBay and she had that watched in a heartbeat. Now she's dying to have Seasons 3 and 4, but I can't find them as cheaply as I found 1 & 2 and I'm not willing to pay $61 per season at Borders, or even $40 at Amazon. She'll get her homework done and I'll keep looking for bargains online.

I've had 21 Girl Scout vests to work on this month. I didn't think my stack would ever diminish, but it's down and I now have only four to go, then it's back to personal sewing/quilting. Yay.

The quilt retreat is coming up at the end of next week so I've made a list of projects to take with me. It's a small list, only ten or twelve things. Sheesh. I probably ought to take my ritalin with me so I can stay focused and not get overwhelmed. And get stuff done. There are three guys in my office whose wives are due with babies and I've promised them all baby quilts. Silly me. The nice thing about baby quilts is that you can make them small and no one will complain.

I ordered a portable sewing machine table with some birthday and badge-sewing money. It should be here in time for the retreat. This new table will make it easier to do machine quilting at retreat, where it was impossible before because the table was not flush with the bed of the sewing machine.

Since I haven't had a proper blog post in a while, I'd better stop here. I can't give away all my secrets at once, and, I still have real work to do even though the crush is (almost) past.