Can I get it all done?

School ended last Thursday. For some reason I thought I had several weeks before I went on my trip. Wrong! Now I have five days to get a whole lot of stuff done! I have Nina's birthday quilt all quilted- it just needs to be bound.

I also quickly pieced a baby quilt. The shower is June 23rd - just a week after I get back from our trip. They are doing their nursery in Auburn Tigers theme. Well....... All of the Auburn fabric is pretty obnoxious. I was able to find some blue and orange ginghams. Both are tiny little checks. It really helped to soften the Auburn fabric.

These are the fabrics for the other baby quilt I have to make this summer. I think this is way too many fabrics for the pattern I am going to use - but I would rather have too many choices than not enough.

Last night, DD wanted to have a friend sleep over so I stayed up late supervising the chaos. I got the queen size quilt pinned on the machine. This is the quilt I am quilting for the owners of the local sewing center. She already had it pin basted and had sewn a few basting lines. I dissected the whole thing yesterday morning. She was out of Warm & Natural batting at her store so she had bought a batting at Walmart. It was yucky. Do you like that excellent description? Yesterday I went in and got some W&N from her to use instead. I am hoping to get started quilting on it today. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Here's to a productive day!

Would Nina peek?

I got the top to Nina's birthday challenge quilt put together yesterday. Once I got the chance to sit down and sew for longer than five minutes at a time, the blocks went together pretty fast. I momentarily considered posting a progress picture - since I know Nina is on a mini-vacation by herself to Oregon. But I don't know if her friend in Oregon has a laptop they might be toting around with them. You will just have to wait a couple more weeks until I give it to her.

I am planning on going to Tennessee on June 5 and then leaving Ian there with my parents. Me and Maddie will go on up to Indiana on the 6th. We will come home on the following Tuesday. Me and Nines already have several places we have to eat - a Chinese buffet and the Cabbage Rose (for their yummy cashew chicken salad croissants!). And of course there will be lots of shopping thrown in for good measure. The same little town where the Cabbage Rose is located also has two quilt stores and lots of antique stores. Nina's DH suggested we go to this little town 6 years ago, when we were having a girls' day out. I was 9 months pregnant and we were trying to walk the baby out. He hung on for another two weeks! We have been going back to this town ever since.

I got the two graduation quilts down on Tuesday night. I gave them to the boys' grandma Wednesday night at bible class. She was so excited to have them done. And from what I hear - the boys both loved them.

I have one more quilt that I would love to get quilted before I go to Indiana - so I can have some more spending money! This one has already been pin basted and so I will have to dissect it before I can load it on the machine. She wants echo quilting done around the applique shapes in the quilt blocks. I am a little nervous about this!

I also need to measure a quilt that is sitting here waiting to be quilted. My friend Christie made it for her daughter's bed. It started off as a queen size quilt, but when they moved recently, they gave their daughter their old king size bed. So Christie enlarged the quilt by adding a border. Now I am worried that it will be too big for my quilt frame. I may have to haul it to Indiana with me and talking Nina into helping me get it done on her big 14 foot frame! I am just gonna do a big meander so it shouldn't take too long. Her quilting room is located out by her "Guest Suite" - so I could always sneak in there and do it at night!

I guess I should go do something useful! The house looks like a tornado hit. I'm not sure there were any survivors!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Quick update!

Tuesday -

There were no sub positions today so I have had another day to get the twins' quilts done. I finished quilting the first quilt yesterday morning and then got the second one loaded on the machine yesterday afternoon. I got it about half quilted last night and finished it up this morning. While waiting for some cupcakes to bake (for tonight's soccer party), I got the edges trimmed. The fabric she sent for the bindings turned out to be extra wide - made for a backing. Really cuts down on how many strips I had to cut and piece together! The binding for the first quilt is all pieced and ironed and draped over the quilting machine. I am avoiding it. My least favorite task is always putting on the binding. Just ask Nines - I usually try to avoid it like the plague.

The lady I quilted these two quilts for is coming to town tomorrow night and graduation is on Thursday night. I really want to get these done and give them to her tomorrow night at church.

So which one of my lovely blogging friends wants to come help me?

Where did everybody go?

Where has the past month gone?

Sorry - but this post will have to be picture-less - I can't find my camera at the the moment - let alone the cord to hook it up to my laptop!

This past month has been busy. I have hosted a double bridal shower, gone on a trip with DH to San Antonio, and been a sub lots of times at both kids' schools. Here in Auburn, it is the last week of school and everyone is a little bit hyper. Every night when I tuck Ian into bed, he gives me a count down on the days of school that are left. I'm just ready to be able to sleep in a little!

While in San Antonio, I took a cab to the closest quilt store. It is called Las Colchas - which is Spanish for The Quilts. It is located just north of downtown in a cute little cottage style house. I found some beautiful fabrics for one of the baby quilts I need to make this summer. The mama-to-be is doing the room in browns and blues. I will post a picture of the fabrics when I find my camera! The funniest part of the trip to the quilt store was the trip back to the hotel. The cab ride there cost $6. Trying to save myself another $6 (plus the fact that I would have had to phone the cab company to get a cab) - I decided I could take a public trolley back downtown. The store owner told me where I could catch the trolley (she was wrong!). I walked the 5 blocks to the BUS stop and waited there for 20 minutes - with no sign of a trolley or a bus. Finally, I gave up. I could see downtown from where I was. It started only a few blocks away - really! Being a girl that used to live in NYC, I decided I could hoof it. How far could it really be? It turned out to be several miles to our hotel. But I got a nice walking tour of San Antonio while I was roaming around. Plus all that extra exercise let me indulge in more chips and salsa at dinner!

This week I am feverishly trying to finish quilting two graduation quilts for a set of twins we go to church with. Their grandmother made the quilt tops and is hiring me to finish them for her. Craig's quilt is on the machine and is about one third quilted. Clint's quilt is waiting. Their grandmother is mathematically challenged. When I emailed her how to figure out how much the quilting would cost (cents per square inch) she emailed her daughter and said "It is either going to be twelve cents or nine thousand dollars!" Unfortunately, when I got the piles of stuff from her - the tops are both slightly bigger than the backings! UGH! I am also supposed to be binding them both for her. Graduation is on Thursday but I don't know if I will get them done by them. The boys have already seen the tops so it is no big deal.

I also have another quilt waiting to be quilted. I was in our local sewing center last week to buy fabric to make a baby quilt. The quilt owner's wife asked me if I would please take a quilt she had made for her daughter and quilt it. It has been sitting there for over a year, waiting for her husband to do it on a regular sewing machine. Now the daughter is getting married and wants the quilt done! So the quilt came home with me. At least I should have a lot of spending money when I go visit Nines in a few weeks. Yes, I am already planning on falling off the "No Buy" wagon!

Time to get busy! What have you been up to?

I really wanted too.....

I really wanted to quilt for a while today. I even got psyched up last night and bought the fabric I needed to work on Nina's birthday challenge quilt. I hope she likes red and lime green together! Just kidding. This year's challenge is a two color quilt. She chose this lovely deep red fabric with a delicate rose pattern. I got to pick the coordinating fabric. Does she trust me? Will she still love me when she sees this quilt?

Anyway, I was all set to quilt this afternoon and then the whole day got away from me. This morning was filled with Ian's soccer game (where he scored all but one of his team's goals - but they don't "keep score" - so everyone wins!) and then we went to the Vet school's open house. We saw some beautiful horses and lots of different breeds of cows. We even saw a sheep herding dog demonstration. The man directed the dog what to do by whistling - just his mouth - not a whistle. The sheep just looked bored and tired of the whole thing. Then I went and picked us up chinese for lunch. After lunch everyone was so crabby, I made us all take a nap while DH got some work done in the peace and quiet. After naps, we went looking for a new TV for the bedroom but ended up deciding to wait. By the time the kids came in from playing outside, it was time for baths, dinner, and bed.

How much sewing did I get done amongst all this? Exactly TWO four patches! Oh well....it was a wonderful day anyway...beautiful 70 degree weather...fun with the family...got to watch a couple episodes of 24, season 2.

But that leaves me with a lot of quilt to get done in the next six weeks! Wonder how my birthday quilt is coming.

Anyone out there know of a cute line of chocolate brown and light blue fabrics? I need to make a baby quilt in those colors. Let me know!

Words that start with "B" (a.k.a. my new excuses)

After my little fall off of the "no-buy" wagon over spring break, I got to thinking about the self-imposed rules. Most of us will agree that there are several B words that are allowable purchases - backing, borders, batting, bindings.

I came up with several other B words that I might have to allow:

1 - Babies - I have several baby quilts in my near future and I don't have a lot baby friendly colors in my stash. Both are going to be boy quilts. One mama-to-be is considering chocolate brown and light blue. That would so cute!

2 - Blues - just to depress Nines!

3 - things for Best Buddies! Surely, Nina will approve of this one!

4 - Bribery - I needed to buy some fat quarters for my mom - to bribe her into ever wanting to be left alone with 4 or 5 grandchildren again! It worked!

5 - just B-cause!


I got the blue and yellow hearts quilt quilted today. Now all that is left is my favorite part - the binding. In case you can't tell, that was me being sarcastic! I am subbing on Wednesday and then again next Monday and Tuesday, so I would really like to get this quilt out of the way.

Got to go make some chocolate chip cookies for the family!

How did it get to be April 6th?

I am sorry I have disappeared for so long. The last time I posted was the weekend before the week before spring break. Did that make any sense? Anyway...the week before spring break was also the Scholastic book fair at my daughter's school and yours truly was in charge of it. Fun, fun, fun. And to top it off, I subbed at the kindergarten on Thursday and at DD's school on Friday. We had a lovely spring break in Tennessee at my parent's house. The kids "helped" Papa build a tree house. It might have been quicker without their help! Me and my sister even got to have a day out together with only one of the five kids tagging along. Have you ever tried shopping for bras with an unhappy 22 month old? Exciting!

Yesterday I got to sew for about three hours straight! It was so peaceful! I managed to get these hearts machine appliqued onto the backgrounds while at my mom's house. Came home and found the perfect material for the sashing and borders. I like how it turned out. Plus it used up 2 yards from the stash and another 3 yards for the backing! I am hoping to get it onto the quilting machine today and maybe even finish it up this weekend.

I am a little surprised that Nine's hasn't tattled on me already! On my day out with my sister, we stopped by one of my favorite quilt stores in Goodlettsville, Tennessee and of course they were having a Shop Hop. They had a whole row of beautiful fabrics on clearance - most for about $3.99 a yard. I found a backing for my hand-dyed curves quilt. That purchase was legal! Then I found another blue that I fell in love with. OK, I fell slightly off the wagon. Just a little bit. But I climbed back on. I also grabbed a couple of fat quarters for Nines and for my mom (for watching the kids while me and sis went out!). When I got to the counter, the cashier told me that the fat quarters would be regular price unless I bought 20, in which case they would be a dollar a piece. I told her thanks, but I don't need 20 fat quarters. Later, I happen to look at my hand-written receipt and notice that I had bought 8 fat quarters for $2.50 each. 8 times 2.50 equals $20. Did she bother to tell me that I had already spent $20 and I should go pick out some more FREE fat quarters? NO! So I went back to the store on Friday on my way home and showed the manager my receipt. She very kindly told me I could go pick out my 12 free fat quarters. It would have been nice if the cashier could have told me this the first time around.

The thread in the picture is from Joann's. It is 40 wt. cotton quilting thread from Signature. Going to try it on the quilting machine. It is all variegated. Started off at $35. Marked down to $14.99. Rang up at $7.50! Good deal!

The white fabric is to make hand print quilts for the kids teachers. I am subbing in DS's class for two days in a couple of weeks. I plan on doing their hand prints then.

And this is my daughter, the artist. Last fall, she had a piece of artwork chosen to be in the Superintendent's Art contest. Each art teacher and principal picked one piece from each grade to represent their school. Then the district's super picked the pieces to go onto the state. Maddie was one of her school's representatives. Now she has had another piece (the cows behind her) chosen to be in an art show for the school district. They had a opening reception on Tuesday night. I think Maddie was more interested in the free chips and cookies!