How are we doing today?

I’m doing okay. Nothing exciting to speak of – no sewing or cutting or pressing. Instead we went to the library. It was time to sign the small people up for the summer reading program at our local library.  This year the theme is super heroes.  They had all kinds of fun things set up and free hot dogs and lots of super hero books out and games and photo opportunities and even a couple of comic book stores had stands there.  Kids everywhere and most of them dressed as their favorite super hero.  That was our afternoon and it was a blast.

However, that means that I did not get a chance to work on the ever exciting floor pillow.  That’s okay though, I know we will get it done soon.  Then it will be back to the wedding quilt and Small Blonde’s quilt.

It’s safe to say that I certainly have my work cut out for me with getting these projects done.  I do like the feeling of progress I get by spending consecutive days in my sewing room.  Don’t misunderstand me, it isn’t as though I am in there for hours on end.  I’m really only in there for an hour or (if I’m lucky) two.  Please remember that I also like to watch tv while I am in my room and sometimes I get a bit distracted and may watch a little too much between sewing or pressing.  It is really amazing how much I feel like I’m getting done just by spending that small amount of time in my room on a regular basis.  I like this new habit.  I just hope to keep it all going.

I hope your revolutions are going well!

 

I did get stuff done today!

I am here to keep myself honest. Today I did manage to finish the rest of the blocks for Wedding Quilt #2 and we got the pieces cut for the Pokemon floor pillow.  Hoping we can see it together tomorrow. 

And so I took the day off!

Yes I did, I took the day off.  I pretty much took the day off of everything.  I think sometimes that you just need to do that for yourself and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Today I got back to it. More time in the sewing room and I have the final seams left for the wedding quilt blocks.  I look forward to being able to complete them tomorrow.  Small Blonde and I had a chat this afternoon about how the summer was going to go…so that we still had some kind of a routine and that he knew we would have some fun things to look forward to.  We have 2 day camps and one vacation Bible school coming up so that will be lots of fun for him, not to mention that it will be some time away from his brother.  We also talked about designs for his quilt and he and I are on the same page so that was good.  We just have a little bit of shopping to do and then we’ll be all set to start.

Small Blonde also gave the go ahead to do a floor pillow instead of pillowcases.  He was hoping we would start that today, but with any luck I’ll be able to do the cutting for that tomorrow.  Key word being luck.  If not tomorrow, I’m sure it will be before the weekend is over.  Honestly, now that school is over I’m just looking forward to getting up before the boys and enjoying a quiet cup of coffee before the day begins.  Ahh, summer.

The really good news is that there should be some pictures of our progress coming really soon!  I can’t wait to take my son a little farther in the quilting world.  He has been around fabric and color since the day he was born and is pretty good at matching colors up for things that go together.  I have no doubt that we will do just fine on this project.

A fairly uneventful day.

Well, I have been doing great today!  I have been staying on track for getting my time on the elliptical, I was able to get in my sewing room to get some more work done on those blocks, and here I am keeping up with posting.  All in all, it’s been a fairly good day and I look forward to a repeat tomorrow.  I hope yours has been the same.

I did get a lecture from the Small Blonde today.  He noticed that his Pokemon fabric had not been transformed into pillowcases for his bed.  He informed me that I could the fabric to my sewing room the next time that I went upstairs so that I would be able to sew the pillowcases.  I told him I would get to them when I get to them.  He then volunteered to watch his little brother so that I could have time to sew them.  I may just take him up on that!  I’m not sure that I will be able to convince him to do a floor pillow instead.  We shall see though…we shall see.

It’s nice when the day is fairly uneventful.  Here’s to hoping tomorrow is the same.

We are halfway there!

Well, a little over halfway there.  Aren’t you excited?  I am.  I am terribly excited that I’ve made it this far.  Not only because it gives me a chance to write daily, but also because I’ve been using this momentum in my other Revolutions.  I’ve been fairly successful in getting back on the elliptical and we’re working on getting the house reorganized.  So, all in all, this has been a very good challenge for me.

I am sorry to report that there were no Pokemon pillowcases made this afternoon, although I did manage to get some sewing done on the wedding quilt.  The remaining blocks are about 1/3 of the way assembled so with any luck I should be able to finish them up tomorrow during nap time.  At least that is my next goal.  I’m sew excited to get back to work in my room!  (See what I did there?  Don’t you love puns?)

I put off the Pokemon pillowcases because I had another thought….floor pillows.  I’m wondering if it would be better to make a couple of large floor pillows for the boys.  I have 1 yard each of the red and blue and a couple of yards of the black with the pokeballs.  Think I need to go get some more?  Maybe I’ll just make one out of those fabrics and pick up some Mickey Mouse for the smaller boy.  I guess I’ll be hanging out on Pinterest later to see what kind of options are out there.

Once I get some decisions made there, it will be time to get to work on Small Blonde’s project.  We are supposed to have some rainy days coming up so I think that will give us the perfect opportunity to go over the plan for his quilt and perhaps get started separating the panel.  Want a sneak peek?  Of course you do!

 

After pulling out the panel again I find myself wondering about its size and that maybe we should have gotten 2.  Or maybe I just need to look around and see what I can find at my local shops and online.  Maybe there is another panel we can use to give us some more size.  Don’t worry, this isn’t the full size of the panel, I’ll be sure to snap a full size picture once we start getting things prepared.

Now you can see why I was looking for elephant skin…although there are no snow leopards in the panel…I’m sure we will find something!

Okay, off to check out floor pillows and see if that is something I can accomplish quickly.

 

Keeping on track.

Today we attempted to shop for some more fabric for our summer project. We did not have so much luck although the Small Blonde did discover that there was Pokemon fabric. So, we walked out with enough of those to make 2 pillow cases. He was pretty excited about that. With any luck I can whip those up tomorrow. Although now I am on the hunt for fabric that looks like elephant skin. Hopefully we will find something that will do for that soon.

Here’s what we found:

I did get to work on Wedding Quilt #2 this afternoon and I am proud to report that all the trimming is done and I can now finish piecing the blocks together. Yahoo! It only took me a couple of episodes of Supernatural to finish the task. I’m just glad that part is done. Just a few blocks to do and then I can get that top assembled. It feels like victory is in my grasp. Of course Wedding Quilt #3 is waiting quietly in the wings.

We will get there my friends, we will get there.

Now getting back on track!

As promised I am back to keep this 21 day challenge on track.

I actually got to spend some time in my sewing room today! I didn’t get a whole lot done, but I made it in there. What did I do? I did some trimming. I have some block units that I made too large…go figure. So, they need to all be trimmed down so I can get the blocks assembled. It feels like it will take forever but I’m sure that I will be able to knock it out during Little Red’s next nap time. At least that’s what I’m hoping for. Then I can get my machine out and get to sewing.  It is one of the wedding quilts so I am a little anxious to get back to work on it.

I do have one upcoming project that I am fairly excited about. Small Blonde and I will be getting ready to start his first quilt this summer, and by first quilt I mean first quilt that he makes.  I’m not sure how it will go, but he is pretty excited. I’m hoping that the process will go well for him. He is 6, so he may get easily frustrated and I have to remember to trust him (not necessarily with the rotary cutter).  I suppose it would be more accurate to say I need to remember to give him a chance.  It will be a learning experience for both of us.

What are we going to do? Well, at our Guild’s last quilt show we looked at quilts and shopped the vendors. He picked out his own fabric, I was just the bankroll. When we get started I’ll post some pictures of our progress. For now you’ll have to imagine…. I should mention that Small Blonde has a fascination with cats. House cats certainly, but mainly with the large African cats and cheetahs in particular. At the very first booth we visited he found a panel of African animals (including the cheetah of course!) and was disappointed that the male lion was also included (because he just doesn’t like them – you know 6-year-old logic and all). Of course we bought it. At the subsequent booths he searched for animal prints and as he was carrying his purchases he also talked to each of the vendors and showed them everything he had purchased from previous vendors. Most were enchanted with him, after all how often do they see a young boy picking out coordinating fabrics for a project?

No, seriously, he was coordinating his fabrics as we went along. I guess that comes from growing up in a quilting household. Color has always been important and he’s been around the craft since day 1 and, the best part I think, he is proud of quilting.  For  a long time he coordinated his socks to the color of his shirt. I know that won’t last forever, but it was interesting to watch him apply what he was learning about coordinating.  He has watched me pull together fabrics for a project and has even joined in.  I think it has been a good experience for him and I really am so excited to see how this project will go.  I believe that he will be extraordinarily proud of his work. I know I will be.

To that end I will be drafting up a fairly simple pattern and we will more than likely need to visit a quilt shop or two to round out what we have. School is out in another week so we should be getting started on this fairly soon.  Stay tuned, I’m sure that it will be interesting!

Yes, I dropped the ball.

You knew it would happen though didn’t you? Not that I thought you would be wishing I would, it’s just that the reality is that creating new habits is hard work.  The important part is that we get up and continue.  I think we could say that for a lot of things, get up and continue.  It’s not always about starting over.  After all if you have a quilt project that needs to be finished, you want to continue after a mistake not start over. Well, you get the picture and I won’t wax philosophical this early in the morning.  Well, early for me mainly because I don’t like mornings.

Yes, it’s true, I don’t like mornings.  I would much rather spend them asleep.  However I have a school aged child and that means that everyone has to get up so said child makes it to school and the mornings where I get to sleep in are a thing of the past.  I have a reputation at retreat for being a sound sleeper and difficult to awaken and also not enjoying mornings.  To that end they put Inez and I in charge of breakfast (we did agree to it) which is mainly a continental affair.  Inez gets up early and gets it all put out.  I get up late and put it all away.  Hey, it works.

Okay, I’m sorry for the shortness of this one but I will be back later in the day as I am counting this on as making up for yesterday’s missed entry.

Cheers!

Time for a visual!

As promised, I am back again and it should be much better today than yesterday.

Now, about those wedding quilts…Did I tell you the story about the first one?  If I have you may want to skip ahead because I’m going to tell it now.  The newlyweds (that is closing in on their 1 year anniversary….) are baseball fans.  However, they are also a house divided with one being a Cubs fan and the other a Dodgers fan.  Now, I’m in a bit of a good place with that because their colors are similar.  Blue and white for the Dodgers and red, white, and blue for the Cubs.  My thought was that I would do half the border in one team and the other half in the other team.  There I encountered the first problem.  It is difficult to find MLB fabric in a cotton. Fleece, yes and maybe even flannel but nothing for cotton.  Well, that certainly put a damper on things.  It was also getting close to the date and I was hoping that I would be able to get it done in time to take with us.  To that end, Inez had a partially done top that was in the right colors that she was happy to send my way.  So, I took it to retreat to finish it up and as I was getting ready to put my borders on I discovered that it was not exactly square.  This is not a slam on Inez.  After we talked about it we figured that was the reason why it had never been finished.  However, this did put me right back to the drawing board with the wedding right around the corner.

I spend part of retreat browsing magazines and books that others had brought so I could get an idea for what to do next.  I was fortunate because someone brought the book City Blocks by Nancy Rink.  You can see it here.  The cover girl on this book was inspiring for more of us at retreat and so when we headed off to the quilt shop there were a couple of monkeys who went in search of the book and were purchasing fabrics with the intent of doing the cover quilt.  I, on the other hand, was searching for the fabrics to go with the borders that I had already purchased for this quilt in quantities necessary for the pattern.  The Monkeys did not find the book at the shop we visited and upon returning to retreat, they promptly ordered it online.  The book was just a huge hit!

I was able to find everything I needed and spent the rest of the retreat cutting and assembling the blocks.  I obviously wasn’t able to get it done in time, but it is done now and beyond ready to go.

Are you ready to see it?  Well, here it is!  It’s kinda modern.

 

I tried really hard to make sure that the fabrics would represent both teams.  And look!  Baseballs!

This was one of my favorites.  A lot of folks liked it but didn’t realize that it was baseball bats!  How cool is that?

 

It is FINALLY getting ready to be shipped off so I’ll let you know how well they like it.  Oh, and the quilting part.  I did that too.  I was a little worried that I made it too dense…but I was trying to keep my loops round so we could continue to carry out that baseball theme.  At the bottom I quilted in their names and the date of their wedding.  Now, the most important part!  Getting it to them!

I hope your revolutions are going well – I’ve been working on mine as well.  Not only the blog, but also getting back on the elliptical.  I’ve managed the last 3 days in a row and I’m planning on getting up there again today. Yea!  We made it to Day 8 and we are still going strong.  See you tomorrow!

Solidarity!

It’s late, and I didn’t forget to do the blog today it just ended up being a busy day… you know laundry and event at school and and and. Well, we have all had those days.

I’m sorry this will be short, but I didn’t want to skip a day especially since we are now 1/3 through our challenge! I hope yours is going as well as mine is.

See you tomorrow!