What I Did Over Christmas Break

If you scroll down, you can see the picture of this when I was laying it out on the conference room table. I spent a lot of time over break sewing the blocks together. I don't have any space large enough in my house to get a good look at it, my bed is the closest. The next step is to put on the borders. I'm hoping to borrow a friend's long arm machine to quilt this monster. With borders on, it'll be 116" x 90"!

Quilt Math

I got my sewing machine back from the shop yesterday. I had it in for semi-routine maintenance. The 'dashboard' has service symbols when it's time for an oiling or professional service. I oil my machine far more often than the light indicates. Maybe that's why the service symbol doesn't come on, I just bring it in when it's been a while.

Last time I had it in for service was in April of 2008. The tech provided me with some statistics from my machine's computer.

General sewing time: 25:39
Stitches: 6,802,510
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
Embroidery stitches: 502,400
Time quilting with the stitch regulator module (BSR): 1:36
BSR stitches: 5,490,480
Total time: 28:38
Total stitches: 12,795,390

Since I bought my machine used, all the embroidery work was done by the previous owner since I don't have that part.

I asked for the same statistics this time, almost three years later.

General sewing time: 99:37
stitches: 2,572,174
Time using the embroidery module: 1:23
embroidery stitches: 50,240
Time using BSR: 1:43
BSR stitches: 773,830
Total time: 102:43
Total stitches: 3,396,244
Total time turned on: 6233:51


OK, so do you see the problem here? The first set of numbers is off. By a lot, a factor of 10. I'm guessing there's an extra zero at the end of the older counts. After I adjust for that what puzzles me the most is how I could have sewn 224,782 stitches with the BSR in seven minutes.

I guess it's a new form of quilt math I'm not aware of.

Charm Pack Baby Quilt

This is a baby quilt I'm making for one of the guys in the office. I just need to put on the binding, it's already quilted and washed.

I made this from a charm pack, a pack of 40 or so 5" squares.

Keeping the order of the squares in tact, I sliced off 1.5" off each side, then the top and bottom; then shuffled the bottom center square to the top of the stack and reassemble the blocks. I then arranged the blocks on point in a zigzag pattern in the same order as the squares from the original pack. I added setting triangles and two two-inch borders. The checkerboard border was made from two fabrics that match some in the original pack which I got separately. After quilting, it finished to about 30" square.

I got to use a friend's long-arm for the first time to quilt this. It was way fun, even for a beginner. I wish I had the space and money for my own long arm. In the mean time I'll keep renting/bartering time on other machines.

July

Ok, July is gone, but the heat lingers.

I still haven't watched Howard's End yet, the netflix disc taunts me continually. I did see the rest of the Harry Potter movies before the premier of HP-VIIb. I took Kevin to see the show at midnight. It was fun, getting caught up in the whole first-night frenzy, but I really want to see it again in a normal way, no craziness, no kids in school uniforms. Dan hasn't seen it yet, either, so I'm thinking "date night!" Every time I think I have an open evening, our darling daughter gets a call asking her to work, and no daughter means no supervision for Kevin.

Speaking of Kevin, Dan and I are discussing getting him a cell phone. There are many times when he's out on his bike, for example, and I want to get a message to him, like, "come home!" Last month when Dan was in California I'd hand my phone to Kevin so he could type out a message to his dad. Sometime he'd rebel, sometime he'd answer Dan's questions, and sometimes he'd just type back what was asked of him. Written echolalia. I'm afraid, on the other hand, he'll lose it, or it'll get taken from him; he won't be responsible for it, or he'll manage to run up a $600 phone bill. Fern managed to rack up an extra $120 last month, so anything is possible with The Boy.

I have a stack of Girl Scout vests I've been ignoring and many quilting projects that should require my attention. I've set a goal of finishing one by the time state and county fair entries are due so I'll have to get it done. I need to get another quilt done by October so it can be included in a book being published by the woman who designed the patterns. Add the monthly sewing obligation of the swap we're doing in my bee. Sheesh.

OK, that's enough for now, just listing it all out makes my head hurt.

Posting Again - More Randomness

I'm behind.

Again.

Story of my life really.

I've got sewing homework due tonight I haven't finished. I am supposed to make 18 blue exchange blocks. I've got 14 blocks cut out and partially sewn. Then the bobbin ran out and I quit. I should have been working on the blocks this weekend but started a strip quilt instead. Oh well, never could get my priorities right.

I've got a girl scout vest that needs attention.
Not to mention it's that time of the year when I'll be getting a lot more vests to work on, too.

Back in March I planted a half pound pack of pea seeds. They came up nicely, growing wonderfully, I was looking forward to yummy peas right off the vine until the rabbits had a salad.

Fern is interviewing at a private high school today, she is tired of the general population at Bowie HS. for example, she's taking the HSAs this week, those minimum standard tests needed for graduation in biology, government and English, and some of her fellow students who don't take the tests seriously cause disruptions. She's just tired of it all. I don't blame her.

Ever since she took the PSAT in October she has been inundated with recruiting propaganda from colleges all over the country, most I'd never heard of. Her SAT equivalent theoretically was 1800, is that good these days? She wanted to take the SAT this spring instead of waiting until fall of her junior year so I signed her up for the session in June.

Kevin has a swim meet this weekend. Its the PG Special Olympics county meet, which is usually a big one, most counties attend, but for some reason only 47 athletes from four counties have registered so it should be over quickly. That means in the noon-2 window instead of the 4-5 window. They will be running the long races, though so that does take a lot of time. But still, fingers are crossed. I'll be there all day to time races. If anyone needs volunteer hours, I can hook you up.

Then we're off to the State Games in June and swim season will be over. yay.

I've broken part of my molar and I probably ought to have it checked out. It doesn't hurt, but it's kind of achy. Sheesh.

 

Latest Quilt Project

This is what I worked on at quilt retreat this weekend:

This is a project for my dear high school friend in Florida. She has floor-to-ceiling closets in her bedroom with a 25" space between them. She commissioned me to make something eye-catching to hang there. I'm going to add a couple borders to this, maybe even my "trademark" interlocked knot design I used on the quilt I made for Mom shown below.

This technique was developed by Lisa Walton of Dyed and Gone to Heaven, an inspiring quilter/beader from Oz. I'd love to meet her one day.
 

It's Blooming! and other discoveries

When I got into the office this morning I was delighted to find my oncidium orchid (Sweet Ears 'Pacific Gold') had started to bloom.

Apparently, I have an accent. Saturday, I went to my niece's house warming party. One of her other guests asked me where I was from, that I didn't have the typical 'Maryland' accent and couldn't place what accent I did have. I was kinda flabbergasted. I don't have an accent. Moi?

A couple of trees in our yard sustained damage from the seven feet of snow we got this past winter. I finally called a tree company to take care of the damage. $1475 to remove two trees and trim some branches! Yikes. Seems high to me so I called another company and they'll be out tonight.

I have nineteen Girl Scout vests in queue to be worked on before school starts. I'm ignoring them and have been. I'm out of glue sticks and have been waiting for the stores to start with their back-to-school sales so I can stock up. I use the glue to hold the badges in place while I sew them down. I've also been procrastinating on the badge work because I want to take July off, and because I need to get other projects worked on, like the baby quilt I posted blocks for the other day.

No way I have an accent.
 

Almost...

Ta Da!

Quilting Pattern

Do you know this person?

I created it from this site.

 

The Weekend and More

Wow, it's Wednesday already and I haven't posted anything of substance in a while.

Hold that thought, the fire alarm is going off, need to evacuate the building.

That was fun.

Anyway, we have a new vehicle, a silver Kia Sorento. Bought it last Thursday, got it home, and not thirty minutes later Dan was on the way to Chicago for the weekend for his mother's interment. He got home at 03:00 on Sunday morning with 1500 miles on it. I guess I need to post a picture of it, huh?

Friday, Kevin went to swim team practice and I headed off to Costco with a pocket full of camera memory cards. It only took an hour to load 1900 pictures into their system and pick almost 300 to have printed on real photo paper. And then it only took an hour to actually have them printed. I was impressed with that part. I also had a DVD made of all the pictures so now I have digital copies available at work since my work computer won't read the memory cards. When was the last time you had real photo-paper prints made? Been a while, huh?

Saturday was pretty much a blur, I cleaned the kitchen and baked a rhubarb pie, but that's all I remember I got done. I hadn't baked a pie in a long time and forgot to set the timer to remind me to turn down the oven after 10 minutes. Yup, the crust was a little dark, but not too bad. Oh well.

Blogging friend Lorraine is in town this week for a conference and had time in her schedule to hang out with me on Sunday. She got to experience the new vehicle. I gave her nearly burnt pie, took her to church, then took her to Baltimore's Fell's Point. We had tapas for lunch and swapped stories of our teenage daughters who don't turn in homework. I got her back to her hotel in time for her event. Our time was much too short.

I had Kevin and Fern and her boyfriend with me to Baltimore so after we dropped Lorraine off, I took the kids to the Mall. There were lots of events going on so parking was at a premium. I found a place a couple blocks away from the National Gallery of Art, so that's were we went. Kevin had been there before and made a bee-line for the basement. We spent most of our time riding the moving walkway connecting the East Wing with the West. The other two kids were on their own to explore for a while.

I haven't been quilting in a while, and I've missed it. After I got my quilt done for the show, I've focused on getting my badge sewing done. I've had several vests to work on since before spring break and now am almost finished with my backlog. When this last vest is done, I get to go back to quilting. I still have three baby quilts to finish for the aforementioned fertile office mates.

And now, here's a picture from our spring break cruise. Now that I've got these on DVD I can post more pictures.




 

Oh, a Bunch of Random Stuff

Over the last several months Fern has been watching Gilmore Girls on the TV in the sewing room. She records it from the ABC Family channel every day. I started absorbing the show by osmosis when I was working on my quilts. Then the next thing I know, I'm hooked. I'm wondering how wise it is to learn parenting-a-teen-girl tips from Lorelai Gilmore.

My grandmother would have been 94 today, but died at 86. I still miss her. Happy Birthday, Grandma. It was hard for her to celebrate, however; she lost her son this same week in 1984 and then her husband in 1992, the same week.

Today, Census is having a quilt display to honor Women's History Month. I'll be displaying two quilts. I'm hoping I'll meet other quilters from the building and we can form a once-a-month lunchtime group.

My regular Bowie guild is having their annual quilt show this weekend and my quilt is almost ready, just need to put a label on the back.

I was the only person to show up for my group session last night at the personal trainer's gym so I had a private session at the group price. My arms were very rubbery afterward with all the different things he had me do.

The new dishwasher, a couple weeks old now, is doing fine, very quiet. The capacity is a bit more and the tines have a different arrangement than the old one, so I'm still trying to learn the best loading/running procedure. It's that sweet spot I'm looking for, don't want to run it too empty, but if I wait another day, I'll have more than enough to fill it.

I think I'll make a cup of tea.

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.

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.

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.

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.



 

Almost

I know I owe a real post, life at work is getting almost back to normal. Which means I can take time to write said post.

In the mean time, visit this site and look at these adorable pockets!


 

To hold you over

I'm still alive.

Work is still crazy-busy. I wish I could blog more. Someday...

Here is a picture of my newly re-done sewing room.

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see some quilt blocks I've been working on. Look in the mirror on the wall.