Sidelined!

. . .  by a toothache!  UGH!  I have nothing to report for this week!!! other than I have been in, and still am in, extreme pain.  The story:  well, actually about 3 weeks ago I went to the dentist to have some work done - but everything came to an abrupt stop!  After getting me checked in, the dental assistant took my blood pressure 2x - it was 187 over some other ridiculous # - can't even remember now because everyone, including the dentist, was carrying on like I was passing over the threshold of death at that moment.  Yes, I admit it - I've never paid attention to my health.  Other than the birth of my children, I do not go to the doctor, I have not been sick or had problems - so this lead me to believe nothing was wrong.  Anyhow, this made the dentist decide to not work on me until my doctor signed off that I was medically stable - went to see the doctor - he would not.  Made me get the blood work all checked - cholesterol, blood pressure - everything is not anywhere near what it should be.  I have to also say, in all my years of going to the dentist I have never before had them check my blood pressure before working on me.  For everything, there is a purpose.  Ok, I get it, my diet, my exercise, my pressure pills, a re-check in February then I get the "sign-off".  Still, I'm not obese, I feel fine, I'm not taking this too seriously, I'm eating - not tracking, you know - it's okay.  First quilt guild meeting a little over a week ago - our guest speaker is a cardiologist.  What??? Okay . . . all the statistics she gave, all the numbers she ran, all the possible scenarios she gave, all say the same thing.  I'm in the ground.  Shortly.  I'm listening now, I'm listening!  Okay, okay.  Now we get to the beginning of this week - bam!  The tooth I wanted looked had has really taken a bad turn - still no sign-off from the doctor until I've been on this medication for a month, and still no work from the dentist until the doctor signs off.  Finally after much pleading (and crying), I got pain meds, which made me sick, and then finally antibiotics.  Four days of the antibiotics and the pain is starting to ease up.  I have not eaten yet though - BUT today for the first time when I checked, my blood pressure is perfect!  How, Oh Lord, will you get me to February, and across the finish line on this one?  I'm counting the days.

I do at least have this picture from the baby shower on Thursday.  I was very happy that mother-to-be liked the baby quilt! :)

LOG-ing Away :)

I started piecing my log cabin blocks together.  I prefer sewing the blocks onto long strips and then cutting/squareing up, rather than cutting out each of those pieces and then trying to sew them all together - like a puzzle.

They're coming along nicely.  After dinner, I was able to squeeze a little sewing time in before bed - so here they are so far.  They are actually closer to the red in the above picture, rather than the below picture.  My lighting is terrible. I've tucked them safely away, hoping I can finish them on Monday, and possibly start the sashing.

Happy sewing!

First Quilts of the Year!

Here are the baby HST quilt tops pieced, basted, and ready to quilt!  For the first quarter of this year I'm definitely in a "no purchase" zone - so I have to use what's in my stash.  I had this green flannel that was exactly just the right size to back both.

I did a simple free motion loopty-loop with a star.  Very quick to fill in the quilts.  On with the binding and then the printed labels  :)

. . . trying to show the loopy - star thingie that I did - hard to see the stitches. . .

I was glad to have one finished in time to take with me last night to our first guild meeting of the New Year.
Will finish the binding on Baby Quilt #2 this afternoon!

That's it for envelope #1 folks!  Outta here!



 

Off & Running . . .

Well, it's week 2 and I can show you that at the end of week 1, my project bag looked like this:

I have here large envelopes with all of my projects cut out and ready to go . . . HST for 2 baby quilts, strips of red, white, and blue for a QOV log cabin quilt, Bonnie's Blues, 4 blocks for my version Rose of the Sharon Quilt, 3 blocks for Farmer's Wife Sampler, black/white and orange for the Dare to Dresden Challenge.

So I was ready to hit the ground running today, and I felt like I had a very productive day.  I had 64 squares (50 were from a charm pack) which I stitched into 128 HST, enough for 2 baby quilts.

I did not originally have the baby quilts in mind to do - but I found out Thursday that I would be going to a baby shower at the end of next week, so I thought I'd better slip it in.  By doing the HST, I was able to utilize some charm fabric I had sitting around for quite a bit, adding some extra pieces here and there from my stash - and after cut, it left me with double.  I'll stitch up the second quilt and take to guild meeting.  Our outreach program has several venues we currently donate to.  Our local hospital requests quilts for the babies in the NICU - they cover the incubators with the quilts to shield the babies from the lights.  The quilts then go home with the little ones when they are finally able to leave with their family. :)  I have all the rows stitched, wanted to layout them one more time to make sure everything is turned the way I intended - LOL.  Will stitch the rows together tomorrow and hopefully get them basted.

Like a kid in a candy store . . .

That's the kind of week I've had! :)  I've been cutting away - BUT - I've also been taking a class.  Color Play for Quilters with Joen Wolfrom - on the Craftsy website.

I also purchased her book Color Play. I love the convenience of taking a class online - being able to stop it, replay, still having the ability to ask the instructor questions.  I have taken three classes with them so far, and have been very pleased with all of them.  I have to say I have enjoyed this one the most.  I have previously dyed my own fabric for a couple of years.  I enjoyed it, but I enjoyed getting right to the sewing more, and eventually started purchasing dyed fabric - but Joen's process on explaining and understanding color theory and the exercises done in the class are the most clear - at least they have been for me, and things clicked for me in this class that I didn't get before.  No, I don't think I'm jumping in to dyeing again any time soon - but it has made me excited about color, and I will not make a quilt again without employing this newly acquired understanding.  I still have to practice and become more comfortable with making my color selections.  I had been contemplating over the last month whether or not I would/should make journal quilts of some type during this new year.  Not for a group, or just to do it.  I've always felt that it would have to be for learning, practicing, and development of something - but what I couldn't decide.  Now I see it will be to help me to enhance my skills with my fabric selection - primarily working on value, and dimension/depth.   "Experimenting with Value and Dimension" -  So add that to my list!

What are looking forward to working on in the New Year?  Whats inspiring you to get creating?

Cutting Week

Well, it's my cutting week, and I've been getting a good start on getting things going for January.  In addition to the red and white log cabin, and four Rose of Sharon blocks,  I've cut out Bonnie's Blues.  Its a 2 block quilt I'm making for my BFF (Bonnie)'s birthday coming up in March.  I arranged the blocks in two layouts.  After seeing it, I wanted a little more negative space than what I had come up with in the first layout, so I made the blocks smaller, and widened the sashing.

Well that's cut - the only definite plans I had for January were the log cabin, and Bonnie's Blues.  But this is "cut week" so on with the show.  Between work, family, and life in general - if I miraculously somehow manage to have more sewing time before the end of the month comes, I need to have something to work on, and there's no need to waste this time that I have my "cut area" set up.   I've also had on my side burner the Farmer's Wife Sampler - which I also happened to get with my EQ7, so I printed out the first 3 blocks - just figure that will be some filler.

 Here we have the Wrench, The Garden Patch, and the Practical Orchard.  Not set on the coloring yet - gotta dig through my fabrics and get settled on something - need to cut these out this week! :)

To BOM or To Not BOM??

I loved the BOM done last year for The Quilt Show.  The Sedona Star by Sarah Vedeler.  I downloaded the pattern, and would also love to dive in to this one.  This is the color it was done in - but I think I would like black and white . . .

then there's the BOM they're doing for 2013 . . .  Two of Us by Sue Nickels and Pat Holly.

I love these colors!!

Welcome 2013!

A very happy and blessed New Year to you! :)

As a school bus driver I have had the last week off - splendid holiday, and some much needed down time.  When I wasn't here and there visiting with family - my FAVORITE activity has been playing with my Christmas present!  Hubby got me the EQ7 - and I just LOVE it!

In an attempt to better manage my time and limited space, I will be trying something new.  Since I am cutting and sewing all on the same small table area - it takes a great deal of put/picking up and getting out/setting up to plan, cut, or sew.  It's very frustrating and time consuming going between tasks.  So I thought if I could plan out what projects I'm interested in working on, say this month, then cut, cut, cut for the first week of the month, as many projects as I can - then I could put up my cutting mat, clear the area, and set up for sewing for the remaining 3 weeks.  I don't actually know if I can cut enough for 3 weeks - but then I guess there's always playing on my EQ7 if I run out of things to do until my next "cutting" session!

So, with this being week 1, I'm going to see what I can get cut and prepped for sewing this month.  First up is a red and white log cabin.  I saw this quilt a year ago on one of my favorite blogs Alycia Quilts.

I've been dying to make one ever since.  One of my first projects I toyed with on my EQ7 was this log cabin.  After getting the hang of the software I played with another version of the layout also.

So this is what I've cut out this morning, and I've got the foundation blocks cut for an applique project.  I saw the Rose of Sharon Block Challenge in an old issue of Quilter's Newsletter, and I remembered those blocks - and ALL additional blocks from the various quilters who participated in this challenge - were available for free download from the ElectricQuilt website.  

So my background blocks are ready, and I think I may applique 1 or 2 blocks each month making this a long-term project.  I don't know how many blocks were downloaded with the file - its all the blocks everyone involved in the challenge created - not just the blocks from the book.  I got dizzy after I got through looking at about half!  Really! Several hundred - just beautiful!  Just trying to just pick out a few to make a quilt!

Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut!

One thing I LOVE about New Year's Eve and New Year's Day - Twilight Zone!  I've got my little TV, and all those wonderful black and white episodes to keep me company! :)