OC progress

I'm still working on step 2. All the pieces are cut and I've made about 10 or so blocks. Had some emergency sewing that took over. Spring birthdays! All my nieces and newphews have spring birthdays! The party is Sunday and I'll be gone to Cancun. Decided a card with some money wasn't enough so decided to make some pillowcases for them. Also it was a good chance to do some stashbusting! I made 10 pillowcases, finished an apron, and made a boxy bag. So I'm counting 13 yards of fabric busted! Yeah! Here's a few pictures....
The other project that has been keeping me from working on the OC mystery is this...

What is it? It's my guest bedroom believe it or not. It's where I have been putting everything that I don't know what to do with to take care of later. Well later has come...I'm going to have an overnight guest and I'm going to have to find the bed!

Unfortunately the clean up doesn't just involve this one room...oh no. I had to work in the garage to clean the mess I have there so I could put some of the stuff from the quest room that I still don't know what I want to do with but need to move somewhere so I can find the bed!

And this is the closet under the stairs...before
I had to clean out the closet under the stairs so I could make it into a coat closet to hang up all the coats that were piled on the bed when I took over the closet downstairs for more pantry space. Whew! I'm tired now of going up and down the stairs moving all this stuff I have to have all over the place!

The closet after...

The coat closet has been created! And look see what is hiding behind my coats! I found more batting and some pillow forms! There is a whole bunch of minkee and a little bit of fleece for socks and hats, my foam mattress for quilt camp and the extra vacuum. I'll probably be able to stash some more in here too...

Barb is coming Friday. I have a doctors appointment and I need to pack and clean house and still find the bed! Didn't do any work on it today...had a hair appointment and ran around doing errands and picking up things I would need for my trip. Finished the last of the sewing and then met Beth for dinner to give her my goodies for the kids. Working tomorrow, so I'm starting to feel alittle pinched for time! So no OC for me. Good thing step 3 is a quickie, maybe I will be able to catch up when I get home. But once I'm there....no worries, just sun and relaxation! Pass the margaritas!

May not be posting till I return from Cancun...haven't decided if I will take the laptop or not. I hope to have a hand project to take along.

A Good Day

Today Dad came for a visit. It was good to see him again. He's been gone away south over the winter, but did get back home to enjoy about 6 inches of April snow, I hadn't seen him since before Thanksgiving. He's a big help to me. Knows how to do all kind of things...he's a do it yourself kind of guy. Maybe cause he can't bear to pay anyone to do it for him. I have to admit I am following in his footsteps. He still rides me about how much I spend....and I do spend too much, but on stuff, not someone doing something for me if I can do it myself, or Dad can do it for me! I help him sometimes too, but not nearly enough. I think that should change. He slowing down some...we are about even now...I've never had alot of get up and go...wish I had inherited that, but I've always had trouble keeping up with him when we are working.

But today I did good. He always gets here early, around 9am anyway. That's usually about the time I'm thinking of getting up on my day off. Not today, I was up about 7:45 and moving. Stripped my bed and started the sheets in the wash, vacuumed the mainfloor and downstairs, mopped the floor and cleaned my master bathroom and refreshed the other two and then started a second load of laundry. I was ready for a cup of coffee when he got here about 9:15. Why oh why can't I do this always? It wasn't that hard and it felt good. I'm going to try and give it a shot. That little bit didn't make my house clean, but good enough. I'm such a procrastinator and there is lots I would like to do around here.

Anyways, after we had coffee, we decided to do a little project. One that I had tried do a while back but ran into issues. And it took a few trips to the hardware stores and then to order on line the right size drawer glides. But I had done all that so I had all the stuff and we got to work.

A while back the upper slide out had broken and I decided that when I fixed it I was going to make a second one for the lower level, it makes it so much easier to see what you have and get at it. I need to make my storage space work for all it worth as I have so little. I did get it fixed, but never made the lower slide out. But today...Ola! Dad, he knows how to do everything! So in a few hours we got it made and installed...had to do a little problem solving there...but it's in and the stuff is put away!

The big loss of the day was that I broke one of my favorite pans when putting them away. Why oh why couldn't it have been one of those yucky pyrex pans?

And then we had lunch. Still alot of time left in the day...and I had done so much! Not at all like me. But I hadn't been on the computer all day, or had the TV on.

So we went on to figuring out some other projects I want to do, but will wait for Travis to be available. He's my 20 yr old nephew who's got muscles...and is a good worker. I'll hire him and Dad will teach him and I'll supervise and make lunch. That's how it usually is. So we looked at the plumbing job I had in mind...which I did have bid on and it was outrageous! And we looked at the fence that needs repair. So then we went to Lowe's and got all the supplies we will need. I didn't know what the plumbing would take, but it should be pretty simple. Not too many things needed. So we are all set for when Travis is finished with baseball season and college finals.

I also picked up a birdhouse and bird feeder. I'm hoping I can entice the birds that are trying to get into the side of the house next to me to make their nest in my birdhouse. Put it outside my kitchen window when we got home.

And then we had a break and visited a bit more and then he headed home. Bye, bye Dad...thanks so much for getting me off my duff! I love you!

It was just after 3 pm. So I headed off to the post office to get my mail. A few packages of stuff I bought online...yeah, yeah I buy too much. But the best was the Fons and Porter new magazine. It has several projects I want to make, especially the one on the cover! I sat down and, and well, that was kind the end of my getting stuff done. I read for a bit, was on the computer, watched the news, took a nap and then watched the Mariners game...the usual kind of stuff. I was still hoping to finish cutting step 2 of OC...guess it will wait till Saturday when we quilt at the library. Gotta think about going to bed now, have to be at work at 6:30 tomorrow morning! Night, night!

Beautiful quilt giveaway ... go see!

This beautiful quilt is in a give away! Go enter for yourself at Camile's blog
and don't forget to say that I sent you!

Step 2 is trouble!

I was going along just fine on step 2. I had made a trial block and it came out great. So I was cutting away using my easy angle ruler. It's a 4 1/2 inch ruler, I thought I had a bigger one, but I couldn't find it. Well it is okay for cutting the 2 inch strips but when cutting the 3 1/2 inch strips I was having trouble...my fingers were getting in the way...almost, yes almost, close enough mind you, cut my finger. That was it. Started turning things all about in my sewing room looking for the larger ruler. It must be in a good spot cause I couldn't find it. Lightbulb idea! JoAnn's has rulers on sale 50% off...I'll just pop on over and get another. Easy, peasy....right? You might think so...the ruler was no problem...on sale for $3.00. So why did I spend $50.? Look what else came home with me....The quilting fabrics were 40% off, so I had to take a look...and while I'm at it, why not just get a little more variety for my lights. Oh oh! Look at these cute fat quarters...how did they get in my basket? And then there was this pink paisley...I walked away once...but it called me back. It'd make a cute tote bag. I want to make some whatchamacallit bags for the girls, it'd be good for that too. Ok, I'll get it...just a yard...well there was another 1/2 yard on the bolt so they offered that to me at an additional 50% off...who can refuse? So total 4 yards of fabric purchased. Not helping my stashbusting. My balance sheet is in the RED. Gotta get some quilts finished so I can change that balance! I don't count anything used until it is finished, finished. Incentive you see.

Also got these books...I love quilt books! They were 40% off too. I really want to make something from the Simple Traditions book....they are lovely, but it's applique...I'm going to try it....soon!

I do need to go on a book reduction diet as well as the fabric reduction diet...but not this year...that is just too much deprivation.

Orange Crush progress

The 4 patches are done! I have 150 of them sewn and pressed. So what is all this?

It doesn't look like I've made a dent in the pile. I know there are at least another 150 here, probably more. I decided that since step 2 was posted and I am notorious for always being behind that I would save these 2 patches for a leader ender project. That way I would have a chance to stay up to date on the OC mystery. So on I go to step 2! Gotta get cutting.

Where is Spring?

Brrrrr! It's cold out! So strange from last weekend where it was 80 degrees! It's been snowing. In April. In Seattle. Those of you who know me know that I'm only a fair weather gardener, and while I have good intentions I really don't like working outside unless it is reasonably nice. I don't work in the rain and I don't work in the cold. I've cut the grass once so far this year...that was last Saturday. I have these plants I ordered because they make them look so good on QVC...they don't tell you how much work they will be outside when it is not nice out. Well I've been waiting to get mine outside...but it's been too cold for me and too cold for the plants. So here they sit on my counter. I'm proud that they haven't died yet. Good thing I didn't get to them last weekend or they would have. There are multiple kinds of tomatoes, 6 different varieties, 9 plants. I'm going to give the duplicates to one of my sisters. If these grow I'm going to be sick of tomatoes...how many can one person eat? I know I will be sharing them. I hope we have a nice enough summer to get a good crop. There are also 3 different kinds of clematis here and 2 wisteria plants. I really do want a nice looking yard...if I could only do it by remote from inside the house! Where it is dry and warm.

Orange Crush progress report

I spent my quilting time last week cutting my scraps into strips for my scrap storage. I concentrated on 2 inch and 3.5 inch strips as that is what we need for the OC mystery. Also added some 2.5 inch and some squares if that was all I could get out of a scrap. I've cut up about half of my leftovers and fabrics I had pulled from my shelves, the not so loved fabrics. My scrap drawers are getting full! I'm using Bonnie's scrap management technique. I figure if I have strips I can get squares with only alittle cutting and if I need strips I'm ready to go. I used my 1.5 inch strips for Carolina Crossroads and it was easy to get started...not so easy to keep up! I'm so glad this time we have 2 weeks between clues, maybe I will be able to stay up with the mystery :)!

Last Sunday, at our sewing outing at the library, I worked on my 4 patches. Here is the pile of strips I sewed! Will it make 15o 4 patches?

I think so, and maybe a few to spare. These are all the 2 patch blocks I got from that pile of strips. Haven't got them into 4's yet, I'm not worried if there are extras, I know what I can do with them. Haven't counted them but I'm sure there will be aleast 150. Biggest regret is that I forgot to bring my shape cutter plus with me so had to cut all of these individually.

Here's the troubling part...the drawers for the strips hardly seem if there is a dent in them...the lights alittle, but the darks are still overflowing.

March accounting

I'm alittle behind with my March accounting...seems we are nearing on mid April already. So what's new? That's how I seem to do eveything these days. I've been very tired and keep getting my sleep all messed up by napping during the day, if I'm not working, then not sleeping at night well and then working my 12 hours shift on only a few hours of sleep and feeling even more tired and sleeping all day when I'm off again! A vicious cycle! Went to the MD the other day tho and had some labs drawn, maybe my thyroid medication needs adjusting, or there is some other explanation. I did it again today...after running some errands, I came home and started reading email and watching the Mariner's and fell asleep. Not really awake again till 9 pm...should be going to bed about now, but I'm not tired and I'm fighting the urge to go downstairs and sew! Want to finish my 4 patches! So I'm having a glass of wine and hoping it will make me sleepy and I'm going to head off to bed soon! Really!

Back to the accounting...I updated my sidebar to show that I sewed 27.5 hours in March, busted 43 yards of fabric (gave it away) and only purchased 1.5 yards, well, not quite even, it was 1 yard plus a charm pack, but I decided to count the charm pack as half a yard for easier accounting.

This is a little box bag I made for one of our traveling nurses who was leaving us for retirement...lucky her! I filled it with all kinds of kisses. It is made from the shop hop fabric from a couple of years ago. Love this "Washington" fabric! Still haven't done anything with my shop hop blocks or fabric now and it's been 2 years (almost)! Here is the tutorial for the Box bag. This was the first one that I made and I followed the directions exactly...it's a good technique for the zipper, but in the future I will use different dimensions, I would like it alittle shallower I think, but it was easy to do and a good starting place.

Ipod touch giveaway

Well this isn't a quilting post but thought I'd share this with my friends. I found it by browsing around in blogland. I've been up to alot of that lately...aren't laptops great? I sit and watch TV and read blogs and email. Multi tasking at it's best! Anyway use the link and go find out about the giveaway, and then get back to quilting!

I did cut some strips today to get ready for OC. I hope to sew clue #1 over the weekend.

Orange Crush Choices - Too Many!

Rather than doing any quilting I have been playing in my fabrics looking for what I have that will work for the OC mystery. I pulled everything I had in large enough quanity and looked "solid" color from high and low and made a real mess in my sewing room. I've now narrowed it down to the following choices and ask for your help in making a final decision.





The first is most like Bonnie's choices...on the second I subsituted a purple for the black.





Not quite sure where I would use a quilt with these colors but I like them, and I always like what Bonnie does.

These next choices I think would make a nice quilt I could use in my living room. I have used the green and burgandy fabric in another project, a runner I have in the living room.



Love the fabric on the far right in the second picture...it has gold metalic highlights. I'm not sure it has enough contrast with the others tho.

The brown with the acorns on it is a bit warmer, however I think I would use the other which is a mottled brown and black and the pattern doesn't show as much.



This is alittle softer palete with the spring yellow and pink....I think I would use it in my living room as well. The dark is a real deep mottled burgandy which goes with my burgandy leather sofa.








These next choices I think would make a quilt I would use in my car...it's a blue/green minivan. I think it is more a teal blue than green. It's a good idea to have a quilt in your car, and I don't, yet.








The colors on the right are very bright and I would be tempted to use my bright scrap strips in lights and darks with this combo.

And then there is this combo. I don't know where it would go...as if that really matters....but I like them.









Just kind of clasic. Could be good.




And then I tried the orangy fabric from above with the fabrics I like for my living room....hmmmm.....



So what to do, what to do? I thought it would be helpful to look at the choices in pictures....but I'm not so sure....I'm more confused....what do YOU think?

I'm going to go quilt my Bargello....really, I mean it this time! And let all this percolate.

Procrastination = Shopping

I've been playing in my fabrics and have not done any quilting...seem to be procrastinating and I'm getting excited about OC.

Yesterday I just had to get out of the house, so took a trip to, what else?, the fabric stores! I was looking for an issue of Austrailian Patchwork and Quilting from earlier this year. No luck...they aren't even carring the magazine. Did find that Joann's carries the magazine but I guess the one I want is too old. I was also looking for the book More Nickle Quilts, but didn't find it either. So I didn't buy anybooks or magazines. Good girl! Those were the only things on my list. I came home and ordered from Amazon. It's cheaper than in the quilt stores but I always order more books to get the free shipping so it doesn't end up saving me anything. I ordered Lisa Boyer's books too.

However....I went to the Quilt Barn for the first time since they moved into their new digs. Like it! Usually don't find that when a quilt shop moves from a quaint location to a strip mall type place that the move is an improvement...in this case it was! More room and still felt cozy. I was so tempted to just pick out fabrics for my OC...and buy this and that....I was so very tempted...and these days I don't often find myself being so tempted. But I just had to buy something! It's such a nice shop, and they need my support! I remembered that I had bought a pattern for a tote bag that uses charm squares...this shop had lots of charm packs to pick from...so how could I not? Also found some prewound bobbins for my HQ. And the coordinate needed for the tote bag.

I also visited Pacific Fabrics and Joann's and didn't buy a thing! Amazing for me...am I sick? Not really, just acutely aware of how much is in my stash.

I went to the sewing machine shop to see if they had a single hole needle plate for my Pfaff, and they did, so it came home with me too. All in all a nice outing and not too much damage done.

Oh yeah, and Buddy got to go to the pet store too. We got some cat food. He didn't mind one bit! He was so excited that he got to do alittle shopping of his own.

Random Act of Kindness?

When I came home from quilting at the library on Saturday I noticed that someone had cut my grass in my front yard. It was a surprise and I was thrilled it was done and mystified. My first thought is that my nephew, Travis had come by, but no, he was playing ball,a double header, and the back wasn't cut and he would have done that too. Started to realize that it was one of my neighbors...yikes...is my yard that bad? Terror and quilt feelings now... The grass was starting to get a bit long, but I don't think it was to the obnoxious state yet. Everyone who knows me knows that I'm not all that fond of yardwork and I'm a bigtime procrastinator. My neighbors pretty much keep to themselves and I don't really know them and it has never happened before so I'm alittle bewildered. I've decided to take it as an act of kindness and appreciate it for that. I think it may have been one of the guys who rents the house next door. They have only been in there about 4 months or so, and I noted their front was cut too. So maybe I'll bake them some cookies or something...one of these days.

Today was a day for cleaning house, making calls, getting the mail, doing laundry and grocery shopping. I did stop by the local quilt shop, Carriage Country Quilts, (picture above) alittle over a mile from my house. I was good! I wanted to get the book More Nickel Quilts but they didn't have it. I found a pattern for a tote bag and that was all I bought! No fabric! I fondled lots, and thought about combos for the OC...but didn't buy any. Decided I have to shop my stash first and I know it will be a great quilt even tho it isn't made from the newest fabrics. I'm finding that I'm starting to drool over the reproduction and civil war prints that I've not really been attracted to in the past....probably because my stash is deficient in that catagory.

No further progress on my CC...have decided what to do for the borders. I received the panto in the mail today that I think I may quilt it with....the improved clamshell pattern. Still have to make a decision on the batting I'm going to use on the BB and get it quilted and make a backing for the CC and quilt it. My goal is to have that done by next Sunday. There I have said it...it shall be so. (I wish anyway, lol)

Orange Crush, Yikes!

The new mystery on www.Quiltville.com is about to get underway...I'm excited but I really, really want to finish my CC first! I'm still plugging away, no new pictures yet, but I have started working on the borders. Dragging my feet on quilting the Bargello too, but I did make the binding today. Baby steps, I know but I'm working on it. The fabric requirements for the new mystery is giving me an adrenaline boost tho...a push to the finish...what is it that runners get?


Since I don't have any quilt pictures right now I thought I'd post this picture...I love looking at pictures on other peoples blogs...I took it alittle over a week ago on one of those days that felt like spring might be coming but it couldn't make up it's mind whether to rain or shine. It's looking out my slidder on the north side of my house. Looked like that rainbow was coming right out of that house. Wonder where the pot of gold is? Looks like they could use it to fix whatever they have that grey sheet hanging over and I could use some too!


Oh yes! I almost forgot...busted 43 yds of fabric today! Gave it away to friends in my quilting group. That counts! I don't have to struggle to find a place to keep it or worry about using it up before I die. :)

Lack of Motivation

Okay, so this last weekend was national quilting day and I had a 4 day weekend...why oh why could I not get motivated to sew???? Didn't do too much I must confess but sit on my kiester and surf the web and read blogs, also watched some movies and caught up on some reading that is collecting by my chair, made some delicious apple dumplings....but not much to be proud of.


Finally, Sunday afternoon, late afternoon, I forced myself to go downstairs to my quilting room and see if I could find something productive I could do...maybe quilt the Bargello Bowl? Well started to tidy up a bit and came across this tote...it's the leftovers from 3 baby quilts I made using mary's triangle...all with different arrangements. I thought I would empty it and sort the leftovers into my strip bins....

Well, I'm pretty tired of this fabric after making 3 quilts from it, but as I started to put it away I started to challenge myself on how to use it up...make another quilt. I had lots of leftover 5 inch squares I had cut for the other quilts. For some reason when I was making the earlier quilts I just kept cutting and cutting until I cut up all the fabric. So it's pretty much all cut up into the pieces I needed for those quilts.
This is the one that I have left. I've saved it to mark my quilting progress. It was one of the earliest quilts I quilted on the HQ16....did a line dancing technique. I turned out ok, but could use some work on stitch lenght consistency....my machine does not have a stitch regulator.




I started thinking about a technique I saw on TV awhile back....a long while back! But thought I could try it with what I had leftover. So I combined the 5 inch blocks into sets of one pair and one spare....
The I cut the pair in half on the diagonal....
Next came sewing the triangle pieces onto the squares....

And then cutting them apart.....

And mixing them up and sewing them back together....and squaring them up to 6 1/2 inches

Makes a block that looks a lot more complicated than it was to make....a good thing!

Before I was ready for bed I had 12 blocks made and I now have created another unfinished project! And totally didn't make any progress on my CC or Bargello...and I WILL have them finished before I start the next quiltville mystery!

I decided I needed some more blocks so tonight I worked on making some more while I watched Dancing with the Stars. Since I didn't really want too many more blocks, but I did want variety so I tried making them with two colors of triangles on the squares, like this....

It only produced 2 quarters like I wanted so it didn't really save much time...had to sew more to get less....so I went back to making them with the same color on the outside. Now I have leftovers....it just never ends! Stay tuned to see how I plan on setting these blocks...I have an idea but gotta work the next few days so there won't be any sewing time.

Checking In

Haven't got any quilt pictures to show right now, so here are my babies, Heidi my kitty and Buddy my big baby. Buddy is waiting patiently hoping Heidi will not eat all her food so he can. He is so submissive...the cat is the boss, even tho he out weighs her 10 to 1...he's about 100 lbs!

I have sewn my Carolina Crossroads blocks together, but I'm not going to say how I chose to do it yet as I don't have a picture. Will hopefully get borders on this weekend and then will post a picture.

I haven't had much time for sewing lately, or maybe it's not enough energy. I worked an extra day of overtime last week, been to the dentist, and seems like I've been running around too much. I'm looking forward to the weekend as I will have 4 days off. It's predicted to rain for most of it so I won't have to feel guilty about not working in the yard, but boy does it need it. I'll do alittle laundry and abit of housekeeping and then quilt. Oh, and there is a quilt show this weekend that I might decide to go to. Okay I better get myself to bed so I can get up for work in the morning...took a nap this afternoon around 5 and I'm not sleepy yet...I should never sit down around that time of day!