Finding a daycare stinks!

The plot grows thicker with our daycare troubles. I actually had to call the place that said they would call us and let us know if they found a spot for him. Of course they didn't, which is probably why they didn't call. Why call someone you can't get money from, after all? I mean, why be courteous or professional and do what you say you are going to do even if you know it isn't what the customer wants to hear?

In desperation I called the other place. Get this. They no longer have room for either kid. So what now? When I was a kid daycares weren't commonplace around our house or maybe we were too old or it was too expensive. I'm not sure. But they sent us to the YMCA for afterschool care--called "latchkey" at the time to indicate the abandoned nature of the children.

So I called them up. And thank goodness they bus to his school. I went right up there and signed him up & paid in full so they couldn't turn me away later. Then they inform me that his application has to be approved. What?! NOoooooOOOooooo! So after a few pointed questions I found the reason he could be rejected is that his bus is full, and that she can find out if it is full by calling the director. I then insisted that she do so right now with me as her witness. And she did, and he said there was room, though it's been two days and I still haven't received approval. Grr. The Girl is now signed up at the place where The Boy is still on the waiting list. This would be because we want to pick them up and drop them off at the same place. Eventually.

In other news, lest you forget that this blog is actually about quilting and sewing:

• I finished the guild challenge and turned it in. I didn't win a prize, but since I basically threw it together in a month and attempted my first free-motion quilting on it, I didn't expect even the nice compliments I got.
• I sewed up three pillow cases. One for The Boy, one for The Girl, and one for The Husband's cousin who was in the hospital. Poor kid. She had some kind of bacterial infection painful enough to require a morphine drip. :(
• I am almost finished sewing up a minky baby blankie for my cousin who had her baby about a month ago. Oops.
• And on the upcoming agenda: winter coats for The Boy, The Girl, and--get this--me! I almost never get to sew for me. We'll see if it gets done. Fabric.com says my fabric should be arriving today. I can't wait to touch it! The Boy chose a royal blue wool that is already hanging from the line downstairs, waiting for me to transfer the pattern & get moving. The Girl chose hot pink wool. And I mean HOT!

Fitness progress

I look the picture of fitness here, don't I? We went on a trek to the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad this past weekend. That's me looking surprised to be on a train. Or that would be the apparent source of my surprise, anyway. Next is a pretty view on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River.
And here's our conductor, punching our tickets. He nicely did not comment on the possibly contraband snacks I brought for the kiddies.

Oh yeah...fitness. This week I got in just a smidge under 7 miles. I was hoping to get in 3 miles tonight but events consipired against us. We went to visit a new potential daycare for the kiddies and then out to dinner and that just blew away the whole evening. When the kids were finally in bed the weather was turning dark & rainy so I did a placeholder lap and that is the end of it.

On the subject of daycare: it is for us a necessary evil. I don't like the idea of anyone other than us watching the kids, but this is the way it is for us right now. Their current center is no longer able to bus The Boy to school so unless we can figure a way to teleport him there we have to find a new place. We have a choice of 2. So I visited one and was impressed with The Girl's new potential room, but not The Boy's room. Tonight we visited choice number 2, and we took the kiddies with us because it was an open house.

We arrive and the asst. director asks some questions, then she talks to the kids. I hear her ask almost immediately, what school do you go to? And The Boy answered (correctly, even.) And we begin a tour. We get to the end of a 30-some minute tour (long because I basically demand a full speech on everything, these are my offspring after all and they must be cared for properly) and I happen to mention why we are leaving our other center. She cocks her head at me and says, oh, I think our bus to that school is full.

What? WHAT??? Full? How can it be full, if your enrollment is not full? And why did you not mention this 30 minutes ago, before showing my children your happy shiny activities and bribing them with sno-cones when my son explicitly answered your question of where he goes to school?

I was quite annoyed. She went and checked the list and, well, yes, the bus is full. We are now on a waiting list. OMG. They will be starting at their new center August 18th...only 11 days away. We could just give up and put them in the other place...but my gut tells me this is the place they should go. She said she would let me know next week. Gah. Can we push it any closer? If this were a cussin' blog, there would be rip-roaring profanity right now.

On a happier note, here is a long-promised photo of one of the sunburst blocks. This one is my favorite so far, and I have 4 of 16 complete. I haven't been able to work on it because I'm working on a guild challenge but that is a secret reveal so I can't show it here yet. At least, I think it is a secret.

Wish me luck on the daycare dilemma. Sometimes I just cannot believe our luck.

10 minute goal

This is the fabric for the baby quilt I've been working on. It's a wee bit blurry and you can barely see the quilting. I was a little naughty and didn't baste it and now I am producing some minor wrinkles around the edges. I figured, oh, it's small, it doesn't need basting in a hoop! Wrong answer. I'm making stead progress, though. Hopefully soon I will be binding that sucker!

I also started working on my new purse. I cut out all of the pieces and bought a zipper for it today. With any luck I'll be able to work on it tonight post-kiddie bedtime, jog 10 minutes of quilting & shower. Yeah, I'm probably not going to get to work on it.

Oh and I see I didn't get any bites on the Pay it Forward. Not to be selfish, but I'm kinda glad. Last night at the guild meeting I volunteered to sew pillowcases for the hospital and on top of all of my other stuff...I just probably would have taken years to get a home made giftie out.

1/2 way to goal #1

I made it through one week! Ok, so it wasn't a full week because it started on Tuesday. But I went jogging three times, watched my portions, and only visited the snack machine one time. Wee! One more week to a new pair of jogging pants.

Today I went to order my dress for Chalicat's wedding. She graciously asked me to be her matron of honor (that sounds so old) and it was time to order my dress. Get this: I got to order a size....drum roll....8!!!

Unfortunately I didn't get much quilting done this week. I started on block number two of the sunburst quilt, but I only got a quarter of the pieced circlet done. Maybe I can get to some more of it tonight.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year, everyone!

So the first post of the year is all about goals. I have so many, they are all competing for that small bit of attention not taken up by life in general. The big one is I want to lose weight. I've slowly been gaining since I returned to work post-The Girl. I did lose most of my pregnancy weight (though is there such a thing as a toned belly after kid 2???) but now weight is slowly creeping back on. Obesity is pretty rampant on both sides of my family, and the advice I seem to hear from them is that preventing fat is a whole lot easier than getting rid of it. So. That said, my main goal here is to lose weight. My initial goal is 5 pounds. In January, I will be trying to do that by:

• Exercising no less than 3 times per week
• Only visiting the snack machine 1 time per week at work (I have to give myself something, otherwise I'd go bonkers and start snarfing everything in sight.)
• Watching my portions (which is vague, but really what I mean is being careful to eat a single serving.)

[Note: I don't actually expect to lose a full 5 pounds in a month with only these modifications.] As you can probably guess, I am easing in to this a bit. The thing about the exercising is, my exercise of choice is jogging, and darned if I don't hate to run in yucky cold and snowy weather. I also have two little tidbits planned for myself: if I can go two weeks and meet all of the goals, then I can shop for a new pair of running pants. If I make it to the end of the month, I get a new running bra.

I started it off well -- this afternoon I went for my first jog in probably more than two months. I went a whole mile! Yeeha! Now if I can only resist eating something naughty as a reward. I won't be going major distances until the weather is better. I suppose that leaves room to sneak in a longer run on those occasional nice days. Anyways, the lesser goal will keep me from giving up as easily.

In other more quilt-related news, here are my sewing goals:

• Finish binding The Girl's quilt
• Baste, quilt & bind The Boy's quilt
• Finish at least 10 of the hand-pieced blocks for the sunburst quilt

I already finished one of those blocks. Though I finished it yesterday so I guess I still have 10 more to go for the year :)

Other goals...post more often, try to improve my wardrobe, be more patient, savor life!

Here's looking forward to a great year!!!!

And the winners are...

Joyce & Freeblady! You are the quiltie gift winners. I asked The Boy to name a number under 10, and after much prompting (you know, a number that is less than 10? But more than 0? Don't you have a favorite number? Just say a number?!) he finally said 2. Then I said, ok, I need one more number less than 10. Well, I wouldn't have accepted 8 since that was my own comment, but anyway he definitely just wanted out of the line of questioning and said, "oonnnnne?" in that tone that says, mommy, I just don't get it--can I go now?

Congratulations to the winners!

In other news, I completed the top of The Boy's quilt. And I am working on the binding of The Girl's quilt. I doubt I will finish that, it generally takes me forever to sew down a binding. But that is at least one goal finished for the year. Shwew!

I neglected to mention last time I posted that I got some cute Christmas exchange gifts at both of my guild meetings. At one I got a yard of varying fabrics in homespun-like colors. I was thinking I might make an applique block to frame. I generally think it is dorky to decorate with quilt patterned things that aren't quilts but I think I can make an exception for something that is appliqued.

At guild two I got three awesome things...a really cute hand-made pin-cushion--which I am already using--a set of triangle rulers, and (my favorite!) a needle threader. I've wanted to get one for awhile but I kept shying away, thinking I'd rather spend my quiltie dollars on fabric or thread rather than a gadget I might not use too much. So I was really excited about it.

Also at guild two we got a packet of fat quarters for a challenge quilt. I really love the colors in it. So far there is no theme to the challenge. It just has to be at least 30x30 and less than 60x60. I am patiently waiting for inspiration to strike.

I am about half-way down with my first hand-pieced block from the rosy fabrics. I neglected to mention that the pattern I am using is from Quilter's Newsletter #394 and is called Sunburst with Holly Leaves. The link has a little picture of it; since I don't want to step on copyright laws I'm not going to repeat the picture here until I have my own blocks to show. Anyway, I am not crazy about the holly leaf blocks so I'll probably do something else there. I do love hand quilting so maybe I will just leave them open as showcase areas for a quilting motif.

And since I mentioned hand-quilting, I joined a hand-quilting blog ring. It is my preferred part of the process, so when I stumbled across it I could barely contain myself.

And just to stick in a photo...Cottage Living is my favorite magazine. Yes, folks, it somehow manages to barely slip by even the quilting magazines I receive. I even have this goofball rule about it. For some reason, decorating the house has been a difficult task for me. It is just so darn overwhelming, and I don't want to waste money on something that turns out looking like the anti-home & garden. So, when I get a Cottage Living in the mail, I am not allowed to read it until I do some decorating tidbit around the house. Since December is already so crazy I allowed the Christmas decorations to service the rule. I still haven't read it, though. I was reading Spindle's End by Robin McKinley. Someone at work recommended it and I liked it, though be warned it is a retelling of sleeping beauty and is considered juvenile fiction (though it read very well, in my opinion.)

I hope everyone is having a terrific holiday season!

Goals: hit or miss?

I happened to look back and see what my quiltie goals for the year were. It seems I need to finish a quilt top for The Boy and bind The Girl's quilt to make any reasonable claim of having reached the goals. Oops. I guess I could maybe finish The Boy's quilt top. It only needs borders, but I can already tell they are going to turn out wavy. I'm a bit miffed, actually. My project that was supposed to help me practice precision and accuracy came out looking like it came out of a bag of Frito Lays. (Err, wavy chips, that is.)

Above is The Boy's quilt before I got the rows sewn together. Quite bright, no?

So it is back to the drawing board on the accuracy/precision practice. Sigh.

Oh, and in spite of my best efforts I could not resist the rosy fabric. I took it to work and started it last week, I think on the 4th. It is hand-pieced and will take forever, I'm sure. But it isn't interfering with either one of the kids' projects, since I am working on those at home.

Peek-a-boo

Well hey, I guess all I had to do to get more comments was to give something away! He. If you don't know what I mean, visit the previous post and leave a comment before 12/15 for a chance at a little quilt gift. I did visit a number of new blogs and left comments, just as part of my effort to get to know the know quilt blog ring that I joined. So maybe that accounts for the increased comment traffic. Or maybe my charm is finally working it's magic. Ha ha.


I went to a new quilt shop the other day. It was a good 45 minutes away and I had a gift certificate that I didn't want to expire. You may remember that I had a block that The Girl practiced a few stitches on, which I mentioned a few posts back. Well, I still really love the pattern, and still want to make it. So I decided I was going to try and do it in a more traditional color scheme, like turkey red and white. But...I wasn't seeing anything in that shade that I liked, so I bought some fabric that was more, um, I guess I would call it Civil War pink? I just know I don't want to call it mauve. I am so excited about it, I couldn't even photograph it for real because then I would want to start work on it right away, and I still have two other projects that need to be done, The Boy's quilt top, and The Girls quilt binding. So this is just a little peek into the bag:

The pink one at the bottom is a paisley, and it is my favorite. I was prepared to do the entire quilt in that fabric when I found it, but alas, the store only had one yard.

This is a shot of the shadow of our Christmas tree, after The Husband showed his mountain-man colors. He chopped it down and dragged it to our car just like Pa Ingall's. Only he used a wagon. And Pa didn't have the farm owner tie it to the top.

This is an artistic interpretation of the tree, post-decoration done by (who else) The Husband.

That was quick

I finished the first step of The Boy's quilt. That really was quick, as the title of the book that the pattern came from implies. Of course there are more steps to go. Hopefully they can each be accomplished in about an hour and a half like the first step. Though the initial cutting did take me the better part of an afternoon.

I know Halloween has passed, but this is how The Boy and Girl got decked out for trick or treat. Those are The Husband's feet in the foreground. He wanted me to be sure to point them out. I made both of the costumes, much to the detriment of the Secret Project deadline. However I still got it done so there. The Children are already talking about what they want to be next Halloween.

Be free, and give warmth

Today the Secret Project went home to it's owners. I finished the binding and attached the label The Husband made for it this afternoon and barely got it washed and dried in time. The Husband had to stay home a few extra minutes to wait for it to dry and wrap it. I took the kids off to dinner and only had to answer that he would be along shortly once or twice.



So, here is a photo of it before I finished it:





And here are the proud new owners, and me:





And the new owners admiring a childhood photo of The Husband on the quilt:





It was welcomed with open arms, to many oohs and aahs. I am a bit sad to see it go home. Not because I wanted to keep it, but more because I often feel somewhat abandoned by completed projects. Weird, I know. It was my crafty companion for the better part of a year, and now it's all grown up and leaving the nest. Sigh.

I am super happy with how it turned out. My only regret about it is that I missed two people in the family tree that really should have been on it. And I did learn some things from it:
1) You really ought to iron the top before basting it. I know I should and got lazy and didn't and when I was quilting and found some seams flopped in two different directions I wished I hadn't been so darn lazy
2) Binding isn't so hard if you use a walking foot and do the corners carefully. I had never heard of using a walking foot before. I recently saw it mentioned on a Fons & Porter episode.
3) I enjoyed doing free style hand quilted feathers (only in the center medallion)
4) I like hand piecing too, but when there is a deadline it isn't a good idea
5) Skipped stitches when machine quilting is probably from using the incorrect needle



So be free, little quilt. Don't let the dog pee on you.

Next WIP: a quilt for The Boy. I already have fabric and a pattern picked out. Hmm, when can I start?

Oh, the humanity!

So Monday night I eagerly dragged out the sewing machine to begin my machine quilting adventure. Like many of my other crafty adventures, it was not yet to be. I got out my brand new walking foot and after much eyebrow scrunching and eyeball squinting I figured out how to attach it and got the general gist of how it should work.

But oh no.

The screw that holds the foot on the shank is TOO LONG! What?! How can that be? The extra bit at the end of the screw sticks out so far that it interferes with the up and down motion of the, err, arm thingie on the walking foot. Ugh!

So off to Joann's at lunch, to see if they had any presser-foot screws that might be shorter. Nope. They referred me to a sewing machine shop but I only have time at lunch to shop in one place. So I didn't have time, and since today I got sucked into various crafty blogs I didn't get to go today, either!

Oh, and I had The Husband drop off the secret sister gift since we went to The Boy's t-ball game. He thought the person he gave it to had no idea what he was talking about but accepted it anyway. I wonder if she got it? I guess I can't ask, eh?

Cuttin' it up

Hurrah! I started on my blocks for the round robin last night. I cut into one of my four fabrics. I finished cutting all of the pieces that I need from that fabric.

I don't understand it, though. I thought I estimated fairly close how much fabric I would need. I think I ordered 3 yards of each of 4 fabrics. Which, yeah, I was of course trying to err on the side of caution since running out of a fabric mid-block would not be an option. So I cut into the actual challenge fabric, and got all the pieces I needed cut for my first block (the second block doesn't use the challenge fabric) and I think I only used maybe a yard. A yard and a quarter, at best.

Oops.

So I guess when the exchange is over and I have all of the blocks, I'll have plenty of fabric left to add borders and sashing, etc.

And in other news. We have experienced a flood. One of the kids accidently left the bathroom faucet on full blast all day while we were at work last Wednesday. When I came home I found it raining in the kitchen, as well as the basement. Ugh. We are now in the throws of trying to get it cleaned up and fixed. I can't believe how damaging a little water is. Ok, it was a LOT of water. We currently have an emergency services company visiting our house daily to check on the myriad of giant (super loud) fans and dehumidifiers spread around the house. Today they want to cut out the soffit that is over the cabinets in the kitchen. Of course they already tore up the bathroom flooring and cut holes in the kitchen ceiling.

This does not look good for the sale of our house. Obviously we can't put it on the market in this condition, not unless we want people laughing and pointing. So. We're kind of floating around in limbo, not really sure where life is going. I guess that's the joy of the ride, right?

Quick coat update

This weekend I actually made progress on the coat! It is looking so adorable. It does not have arms yet, nor a lining, and the collar is only pinned on but it is beginning to take shape. I was so afraid to start it because I spent a fair amount of money on the fabric. It just finally occurred to me that I had better at least try to sew it because I've already cut out the pieces and she'll probably be too big to wear it next year.

Never fear, in Ohio she could be wearing it until May.

Crafty Progress

Yes, I've made progress! And don't fall out of your chair, but I have photos.

Without further ado, the crafty accomplishments:

The Boy's third Ohio Star block is complete. I am not crazy about the color. It's too piney. I picked this print because he refers to all coniferous trees as "Christmas Trees", which of course I find adorable. In case you can't tell, the tiny white dots on the green fabric are little pine trees.




I also finally finished the little mini-quilt I made in a class last year. It is just a nine patch and isn't all that impressive but I gave it to The Girl to use as a doll blanket. She immediately declared it a puppy blanket, and here it is gracing one of her favorite puppies:

And here is a top view:

And the really big super-wow news...I finished quilting The Girl's quilt. Woohoo! This is me rounding the final corner:

And the folded quilt in all it's glory on the couch:

I am a little scared to bind it. The pink stripes extend out further than the white so there will be a lot of corners. But I bet when I'm done I will have finally mastered binding!

Santa was good to me!

Christmas Recovery is well-underway at our house. Most of the toys have been sprung from their maximum-security packaging and the house is still littered with the contents of Santa's bag. But I did get all the wrapping paper bits thrown out, and many of the boxes recycled.

So, what did Santa (i.e., The Husband) bring me?

Jinny Beyer's book, Quiltmaking by Hand, which can be purchased at her website.

The hilarious movie "Raising Arizona", starring Nicholas Cage

A Nano Ipod - cool. I didn't even ask for that!

A variety of quilt marking pencils, as The Husband didn't know that I meant actual colored pencils when I asked for colored pencils

A watch (which I really needed)

"Wicked" and "Confessions of an evil step sister", both by the same guy but I don't recall his name.

An extra bowl for my KitchenAid mixer

And a new cookie baking sheet (I only had one, which can get pretty tedious).

Quite the haul. I'm already reading Wicked and I think it is good writing but I am so sad for little Febula (sp?). I hope I don't feel this way for the whole book because it is kind of depressing.

I am in the process of formulating a list of 2006's crafty accomplishments. Unfortunately The Girl's quilt will not be one of my conquests, but it will be done soon. I am about 1/3 of the way through quilting the border.

Happy New Year to all!!!

Broken goal

Ok, I know it was my goal to include a photo in at least every other post. But I've only had time to post from work lately and no photos around.

But I thought I needed to update you on The Girl's quilt progress. I have finished quilting the main portion of the top. Ta-dah! Now I am on to quilting the border. I decided to just stitch in the ditch and add her name in script in one bar of the border.

Unfortunately I still have not finished cutting out her coat pieces, though, so that means no sewing of the coat either. I am thinking it won't be done in time for Thanksgiving wear. I am a little sad about that but not bent out of shape.

And I did finish painting the kitchen window, which had been scuffed up when we had our counters and cabinets replaced last year. I just need to scrape the slopped-on-the-glass paint and also (ahem) sew the curtain. I know, I know. It's been forever since I started that project.

Oh, and a new development. We need new living room carpet. The other day The Husband and The Boy went to get haircuts, and I was left at home to give The Girl a bath. The Husband had started a fire before he left, and while I was upstairs with The Girl in the bathroom I heard a big thump. I knew right away what it was...a giant log that The Husband put in the fire before he left fell out. I raced downstairs and found it sitting on both the hearth and carpet. I used the poker tool to get it back on the hearth, but I wasn't fast enough. We now have a pretty good-sized blackened melted area of the carpet. D'oh. Then of course I'm standing there thinking, this log is on fire for crying out loud, how am I supposed to get it back in there? After several quick fire-tool experiments I found I could lift it by balancing it on the poker and the shovel. I hoisted it back in and this time closed the glass doors. Then I threw a glass of water on the smoldering carpet so I could get back to the girl. We had originally planned to replace the carpet in January or February, so really it's not a big deal. But still. It used to look at least semi-presentable with only shadows of stains. This is like a black hole, irresistably drawing your eye as if your eye is made of of mass, light, and gravity. Ugh.

Nothing else major to report, except that I've started collecting photos for the secret project. That's been fun except the kiddies keep trying to step on them.