A little finish

This is my second finish in the July challenge. Doesn't measure up to my grandious plans of finishing 5 big quilts...but it is a finish. Had to adjust my expectations as time was getting short...have a couple of other small projects in the works and may be able to get them finished tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath, I have a few other things on the adgenda for tomorrow. Not ready to give up yet... more later!

I'm not really sure when I made this, I do remember buying the kit at a quilt retreat about 3 years ago. Think I put it together last fall at quilt retreat and quilted it. It only needed binding and I did that Saturday after working some on my OC borders. I've started quilting the 2 other little projects I'm going to finish!

Big Scare!

I started the day off in my sewing room declaring that it was going to be a sew day in pj's. Since I've only one finish for the July challenge I thought I'd better see what I could get cracking on. Dug thru my bin of tops to be quilted to see which ones had backings ready and if I knew what I wanted to quilt on them. When I got to the bottom of it I realized that two quilts that I wanted to get quilted during this challenge, Jim's Shakespere in the Park and Beth's Lover's Knot quilt weren't there! A quick look around didn't turn them up either. I was beginning to worry. Started pulling out stuff from the other bins that sit under the quilter. Not found. Then I started pulling stuff out of the wire baskets and didn't find them. Last time I remember I had them folded on top of one of the bins that sit under the quilter. Where are they?Pretty much had made a big mess of my quilting room...spent the rest of the day sorting thru the mess. Decided it was time I made that list of UFO's, PIG's and tops to be quilted...and maybe organize a bit. Maybe the two tops would show themselves.

The news isn't so good, but it's time to be accountable. UFO's there are 32, I would have thought a few more. PIG's there are 51. The informal fabric groupings in my cupboards I didn't include. Tops waiting for quilting...31. I wonder in what realistic time frame could I ever get this done? In addition I have four cabinets and several bins of fabric. I tried to pull some fabric I could part with while I was sorting today...it's hard...when I put my hands on the fabric I would start to envision things that I could make or it just felt good. I did gather some, but it didn't make much of a dent. I was hoping to pull at least 26 yards to balance off my purchases earlier this month. Still have to measure...

I got the room pretty much straighten up and found some projects that just need alittle bit more to finish. Maybe I can still meet the 5 by the end of July? Not today anyway. Spent all day organizing and looking for the quilt tops...a few distractions like looking at patterns, taking a nap, watching the ballgame...finally on a trip to the bathroom I remembered about my bathtub storage. A quick look seemed like it was batting and batting pieces and some shirts that need to be disected. When I dug a bit deeper and deeper I found the quilt tops at the bottom of the bin of batting packages! Hooray and a big sigh of relief! They are safely relocated to the "needs quilting" bin!

What's up with this?

Here is a picture of a quilt I made for Nate, my oldest nephew

He gave it back to me to fix. It's coming apart at the seams...not the strip sets like I might have expected but along the edges of the large novelty blocks. Here maybe you can see it better here...where the flower head pins are...

Any ideas as to why? It's not on every seam and not where the setting triangles are, and it's always just about in the middle for about an inch or so. Guess I have a bit of hand sewing to do. Other ideas I might want to consider for repair so that it doesn't happen some more?

He loves the quilt...in fact I've never have him like something I've given him so much. It did turn out well. I'll have to find the picture that gets the whole quilt and post it...later.

Finally a Finish!

My first finish for the 5 before the end of July challenge sponsored by Peg. It's the Bargello bowl from super bowl Sunday...about time wouldn't you think? It has been languishing on my quilting frame for months...finally had to suck it in and do it...the quilting that is...Madalynn was coming over to quilt her quilt on the frame and she was on a deadline. Funny thing what deadlines do for procrastinators like me...

Here's some of the quilting...I quilted it with funky feathers from Dawn's video, pajama quilter. I had to watch the video three times and practice a lot on the white board, but it turned out alright. The one criticism I have of it is that it's a bit thready for my tastes. I used Superiors King Tut thread and think I'll use a finer thread when I do it again. I also had the age old problem with the tension...it may be because of the difference weights of thread on top and in the bobbin...I'll have to see another time. I've never had much luck with King Tut and I know others just love it. I've always paired it with Bottom Line in the bobbin and maybe that is the problem?
Here's the back...there are no real obvious tension gliches and I think (hope) what is there will even out with washing.
I haven't given up hope that I will finish 5 yet before the end of July, put the final borders on my Carolina Crossroads and made a backing for it today...maybe it will be the next? I'm hoping I'll get one more quilt quilted before I go back to work on Wednesday. And if they are the only finishes for July so be it...it's 2 more than I would have done without the challenge!

A little vacation - long!

Spent a little time over at Lake Curlew with my brother and sisters and my Dad. This is Marilynn, Dad, me, and Beth just outside the cabin. I love that tree that hangs out over the lake and provides shade all morning and early afternoon keeping it from getting too hot.
Lake Curlew is in northeast Washington, about 8 hour drive to get back to my house with a few stops along the way. Of course we hit rush hour traffic in Seattle, on Friday :(

Republic is a very small town and Lake Curlew is about 15 miles from town. We stayed at Black Beach resort in a lakefront cabin. It's not much of a resort and the cabin was pretty dumpy...but it had everything we needed. My sister Beth and my dad and I shared the cabin.

Here's Dad, Beth and Mitch chatting in front of the cabin. I love that it is on the lake and has a screened porch. It's down at the very end of the resort and there weren't many others around us. The cabin next door was only occupied one of the nights we were there. That made it nice with the dogs we didn't have to be so diligent with the leashes. I brought a baby gate to confine them on the porch that helped.

My sister Marilynn and her family stayed at the resort in their RV. It was a short walk from where we were.

Here are the girls, Rachel, Marilynn's daughter and Camile, Connie's daughter working on beading outside Marilynn's RV.

My sister Connie and her SO, Jeff have some property at the end of the lake that they are starting to build on. They were staying in their trailer there, my brother Mitch and his son also stayed there in their loft and my sister Barb set up her tent over with them.

Here's a view of their property from the road. The peaked structure is their shed with a loft. All that they have developed so far...Jeff did the work himself.

Connie with their new pup, Remi, at the trailer.

Here's the view from their trailer site.

We had various arrival and departure days but did all manage to be there for a couple of days together. We were only missing Jim and his family, Beth's boys and Marlene. Too bad they weren't able to make it.

It was a nice relaxing time together. The fishing was good and the boys fished most of the day and evening. Took out time for tubing in the afternoon, of course. And Tyler was helpful in being able to go into town to fill the gas tanks for the boat.

Here's Tyler, Mitch's son working on his fishing pole.

And Jace, Marilynn's son trying to get his line untangled....

And Colton, Connie's son, plotting on how he is going to win the Bass Tournament held one night down at Connie and Jeff's place.

The kids and Jeff played in the boat tubing and trying to wakeboard...rumor has it that only Rachel was able to get up on the wakeboard...first try too! Girls rule!

What a load! Are you sure you can pull anything? Do you all have your lifejackets? Jeff is very conscientious about that....

There also was a little kayaking...Here's Marilynn bringing the kayak down from Connie's property to the RV site.
This is Rachel coming out to meet her on the dock by the RV. It's almost hard to call this a dock...maybe they are going for a living dock! It's growing all sorts of stuff!

And Mike took the kayak the rest of the way down to our cabin docks. Then the kids had some fun trying it out too.
Dad and Beth spent several hours scanning old slides and naming them.

Here's Dad horsing around with us kids...me, Beth and Jim. Get aload of those drapes, and the lamp!

And here we are in front of the only car he ever bought new...probably at Easter. They had a good time looking at all the old pictures.

I spent alot of time on the screened porch looking out at the lake and got the binding sewed down on my Bargello bowl quilt and napping.

The cabin even as rustic as it is proved to be a gathering space...it was on the lake and near the dock where the kids could fish and swim and boat.

The dogs loved swimming and jumping off the dock! Above is my Buddy, a swimming fool with his life jacket on! Below is Beth's dog, Hershey whose job in life is to retreeve, she just can't get enough of it.

Poor thing goes and goes and then is just pooped out. She kept sneaking up on the furniture she wanted a soft place to rest!

Can you see the orange shag carpet? The furniture was all pretty beat up and there wasn't a plate, glass or cup that matched. But my bed was comfy and the bathroom was only a few steps away and I loved sitting on the porch and feeling the fresh air.And the major point in its favor was it had running water! So those staying at Connie's could shower. The only worries were what we were going to have for dinner. Needed to go to town at least once a day to pick up something or other. We came up with some pretty good eating. Here's Connie and Jeff getting the barbeque going.


They have a great fire pit on their property...just right for fires at night!We had great campfires at Connie's property.

This is Jace roasting a marshmallow and Dad keeping an eye on him.And here is Camille trying to get her's just right for a somore!


This is Shawna, Marilynn's oldest daughter, with her new little puppy, Lily, trying to stay warm.


And Connie and Mitch around the fireside, trying to avoid the smoke.

All in all it was a nice trip. Of course I forgot to mention there were the boys playing board games late into the night and thru the afternoon windstorm. And Camille playing dominos with anyone who she could get. Dad, Beth and I watched movies in the evenings before bed, as there was no TV or radio. We watched The Vanishing, American Beauty, Enchanted and Pay it Forward. The only one I had seen before was Pay it Forward...it still was the best, but Enchanted was a close runner up. The others were just weird, not my cup of tea.

We also had to make a trip the the ER...Dad one evening while we were getting ready for dinner started talking nonsense. He knew he wasn't saying what he wanted to say and kept trying but it was all jibberish. After it didn't seem to be getting any better I convinced him we should visit the ER...if it was gone when we got there we wouldn't have to go in. He was improving but still knew he wasn't right when we got there...about a 20 minute drive...so we went in. Had to open up the ER...he was the only patient. The nurse was great and the doc came in, he had a CT and some lab work. The CT had to be transmitted to a different center for interpretation so it took about 40 minutes to get results. He was being monitored on a cardiac monitor while we waited. Before the results came back he was back to normal. All and all his symptoms maybe lasted an hour or so. Diagnosed as a TIA. So we left and went back and had dinner and a campfire. All in all we spent about 1 1/2 hours there...not too bad for an ER visit. Thankfully it was only a TIA because I don't think we would have been able to get treatment soon enough if it was a stroke. They would have to send him to Spokane which is at least 2 or more hours away.

That was my second visit to the ER in Republic in two visits to Lake Curlew...last time it was that Colton had caught his ear with a fish hook. I'm not sure what that says...

It was a good trip and great relaxing visit with everyone. I'm glad I'll have this memory for the summer of 2008. Back to civilazation now...and quilting!

Stash reporting

It's been awhile since I've posted...not too much going on here. I am working on the borders for my OC...getting there...need to decide what to do for the outer border. I don't have enough red that I used in the spinning stars for the border so will have to shop my stash for something else.

The last week in June was Western Washington Shop Hop. I had decided not to participate for several reasons...gas prices, I buy too much and I don't need a thing, and I haven't made any of the blocks from the shop hop I did 2 years ago. Nonetheless, it was on my mind and I had the days off...no I didn't shop hop....but I didn't really keep myself out of the stores. Went to JoAnn's for something...which I can't remember what it was now...and succumbed to their sale. This is what I bought....

That is some 1/3 yard cuts and some fat quarters along with some cream egyptian cotton. Total 12.5 yards purchased. I didn't stop there...books were 40% off, and who can refuse those? Besides poor me wasn't doing shop hop this year....so I got these

I really wasn't feeling too guilty about it all. Saturday my group meet at the library to sew and I worked on my OC borders. On the way home I did just have to drive by Carriage Country Quilts, my neighborhood quilt shop. They were still open because of shop hop...so why not pop in? Ruth had stopped by the library and showed off some of the shop hop fabric, which, low and behold was much more attractive in person that it had been on the website. Well, maybe I'll just go and check things out....so I did and this is what I got

The main shop hop fabric in the back, a group of fat quarters of the coordinates, a yard of my favorite coordinate, and a bunch of other 1/3 yard cuts (my compromise when I have to purchase yardage and I want more than a 9 inch strip but don't want to spend for a full 1/2 yard). I do really like the shop hop fabric and I have a plan for these fabrics...so I guess it becomes a PIGS(project in grocery sack). I want to redo my main bathroom and think these colors will make a good shower curtain.

These also had to come home with me. Found them on the 50% off table. No particular reason, just seemed like the thing to do.

I'm happy with what I've bought, but it really is excess of what I need and can do. So I've decided that since I'm not making much of a dent in my stash I will find an equivelent amount of yardage to donate somewhere before the end of August. So I will be pulling at least 26 yards of fabric to find a new home. I don't think it will be hard. It's a practice I'd like to use throughout my home of excess, when I bring something new in something must go. I've been working for some time now on ridding myself of stuff I don't like being crowded with and I still have a ways to go...I need this new rule so I won't backslide where I have made progress.

I'm updating my sidebar on my fabric usage, purchase and hours spent sewing. I see I'm falling behind my goal of sewing for an hour a day so I will have to devote some more time before the end of the year. I haven't had as many completions as I thought I would, so the challenge of 5 before the end of July is spurring me on. I'm pretty certain I can get 3 done as I have a few vacation days that I will spend at home, but I will try for 5 just the same.

Just updated the numbers...I'm not as far off as I thought with the sewing hours, but I have busted only half as much stash as I've purchased! Will be continuing to work on that...the 5 finishes if I can do it will make a good dent in evening things out. I will be at least even, but hopefully with less at the end of the year. I can do it!