Merry Belated Christmas!

We had a great Christmas and I'm just now coming out of the fog. Of course I went back to work today (boohoo) after a five day weekend which was not so much fun but that's life. The Husband got sick on the day after Christmas and is still recuperating. I sure hope he doesn't pass it to anyone else, because it wasn't pleasant!



So here is a cool shot of the Christmas tree, courtesy of The Husband:


That's the back of Scarlet O'Hara to the left and a Star Wars ornament in the middle. I thought the wiggly effect of the lights was the cool part.


And here are a few shots of the tea cozy's that I made as gifts for lots-o-people. I found the pattern on Sew Mama Sew and altered it a bit to suit my supplies and lazy whims. Here are my alterations:

1. I didn't bother top-stitching the tops of the pockets. I totally didn't miss it.
2. I didn't use fusible interfacing. I had some crinoline laying around from a fellow guild member and I used that. Since it wasn't fusible, I pinned it to the back side of the inside piece and stitched it in place while sewing on the pockets. Two birds with one stone.
3. Urm, I totally eye-balled the location of the pockets, and just folded a crease in to find the middle.
4. I didn't pre-sew the ribbon/strap piece down. I just pinned the two sides together with it stuck in there and was careful to be sure that I could see a wee bit of it peaking out as I sewed over it.

I also wrote this little poem to go along with it, although the non-cooperation of my printer caused most people to instead receive my goof-ball overly enthusiastic (but humble, I hope!) explanation in person:

I am a tea cozy

I hold your bags of tea

If that doesn't suit your fancy

there's still a use for me

I can hold charge cards, gift cards and more

I hope you find something

fun for me to store!

My mom wants me to make some for her yoga studio (Well Within Health Center in Streetsboro Ohio) but I think for now I am cozied out. I also have two projects coming up with my guilds - one is a round robin which has a due date for the center square in mid-January (and yes, I haven't started!) and another where I need to use two crayon colors to make a quilt. My colors were blue and red-orange. Hmm. I already have some blocks made up in those colors for another purpose that I haven't gotten back to...maybe I have a different use for them! And of course there is the ongoing hand-piecing of the starburst quilt and The Boy's quilt needs layered, basted, quilted & bound.

Anyways, I hope you all had a great holiday, or just nice days off if you don't celebrate that sort of thing. I'll take a few days off any time of the year!

Happy Blogiversary to me!

Today is my third blogiversary. In honor of this momentous occasion I am having a quiltie giveaway. Hurray for free stuff! My local quilt shop is having a sale tomorrow and I am jumping on that train to bring you a little quiltie prize of my random (but tasteful?) choosing . Leave me a comment on this post by midnight December 5th EST to enter. You don't have to leave your email address but I do need a way to contact you - if that is your blogger profile where your email can be found or a blog where I can comment for you that is fine. I'll try to post a picture of the gift tomorrow or Sunday. Wait, today is Friday right? Right.

Because of the prohibitive costs of shipping the winner must reside in the United States or Canada.

Good luck!

Family news -- I survived hosting thanksgiving for 17 people (it was supposed to be 22) at my house for the very first time. Whew. I had a little turkey trouble which I was not expecting because I've roasted up a gobbler before. But it all turned out all right and I haven't gotten any irate 'your crummy food made me sick!' phone calls so I'll take that as a good sign. Or maybe they are too busy barfing to call...

Also everyone seems to think I have permanently volunteered to have it at my house...urm, ok....what?

Fitness news...well I'm on a temporary pit stop. Besides the fact that I hate jogging in snow, rain, cold, and dark, I had a million things to do to prepare for the festivities at my house this week. I intend to start right back up next week. Really. I mean it.

Quilting news...I have 6 of the starburst hand pieced blocks done. I had a goal to get 8 done this year, but I don't think I'm going to make that. I am working on making myself a winter coat. And you know what? It's freakin' cold here in Ohio so I've got to get that done. Don't worry, I do have a stand-in coat in the meantime. I got the binding sewn onto the front of The Girl's quilt which is a big step. I also took a machine trampunto class through one of my guilds and that was lots of fun. It required some machine quilting and I did a not too terrible job at that. Oh and I joined a Round Robin with my guild and I'm really excited about that. I have a design worked out in my head for the center and we'll see how that turns out. I am thinking I might use the machine trapunto method for part of it.

Happy May~

Lest you think I dropped off the face of the earth, here is an update. The Boy is playing t-ball this year and we've been attending his games. It is so cute how everyone on the team (and sometimes the other team, too) runs for the ball. I'm glad he is playing but he seems pretty resistant to it, at least until he gets there. I hope he hasn't inherited this trait from The Husband--having to drag and cajole him into things that he later declares fun activities, and sometimes even wonders why he resisted in the first place.

The Girl is also doing fine. Well her current favorite word is "no" (and not said gently, mind you) but otherwise she is going very well.

While I'm waiting for the Round Robin blocks I got out my last hand-piecing class project to finish. I've decided it is a learning piece and it is going to serve the purpose of learning. So even though it is nicely and carefully hand pieced, I am going to try my hand at machine quilting it. I'm even going to try free-motion, which sounds like it will be a big challenge for me. I pinned it up last night so I can start the straight line stitching tonight. I'm so excited!

Oh, and I'm going to miss seeing my secret sister open her gift tomorrow. The Boy has a game and I cannot miss it. Oh, does that mean two gifts for me in June!!!???

Ra-ra-ra!

I finished the blocks! Just in time. I'm not 100% satisfied with how they turned out. I guess I never am, since I'm somewhat of a perfectionist about quilts. I still seem to be struggling with keeping a consistent quarter inch seam. I think it may be time to invest in a quarter inch foot for my machine. But I didn't have time to rip and redo, so out they went. I mailed them today at my lunch break. Here is the Blazed Trail:


And the Snail Trail:


And here is the promised photo of the cute thank you postcard that my secret sister sent me. You know, the one that made me think that my secret sister had identified me, leading me to blurt this out at the meeting?

Isn't it adorable?

Oh, and since it has been so terribly long since I managed to post a photo, here are also some photos from the flood destruction:

Happy Birthday to me!

I just had to post real quick to say that I finished two, count 'em, TWO, blocks last night! Only 14 more to go...and 18 days to do it in.

Round Robin sewing has begun

Well I started sewing my blocks yesterday. Sigh.

Ok, my goal was to finish one block yesterday. Just one lousy block. I had about an hour and a half to play with. So I sat down, and carefully followed my instructions, checked and rechecked my quarter inch seams, and did all the proper pressing. I need to provide a quality block, ya know? So I was getting ready to press open a bunch of half triangle pieces and I called my dad. I'm chatting on the phone, and carefully pressing, and I look down and think, something is funny here. Now, I'm in the basement, and there is just one bare bulb by the ironing board and I'm thinking, this is just a trick of the light. But no. It wasn't a trick, it was my own dang stupidity staring me in the face and saying, 'HA'. I sewed one of the fabrics with the wrong side up. OMG. I spent 45 minutes carefully marking and sewing "scant" quarter inch seams (which, whoever came up with the term "scant" for something as accurate as piecing should be shot) and then cutting all of the pieces carefully apart on the lines...and it's wrong. Not even fixable wrong, just out and out wrong.

So I didn't get my one block done. I didn't have time to recreate the triangles. I have 21 days to get 16 blocks finished. Ugh.

Oh, and the only thing that kept a string of loud and vague obsenities from streaming out of my mouth was my dad asking what we are doing about our flood damage. Thankfully he can't read my thoughts. At least I think he can't.