Fabrics, Redwork and a Tale of Woe

Busy week, but not for my sewing machine! I know it’s pining away for me… It’s hard to quilt when your machine is in California and you are in Utah.

Yes indeedy, here I am the lucky Nonnie visiting Nancy Drew and her family including two adorable grandchildren!

Curly, SWH & Sweetie

It makes for a brand-new genre of design wall! It’s called: What did I bring with me?
I bought 4 more fabrics for the Rainbow Challenge. This month the color is turquoise. My daughter took me to a quilt store that was under a mile away from her home! I’m green with envy. On Thursday when she has a day off we are going shopping and visit a few more quilt stores. I’m a happy camper.

I bought this fabric at: My Sister's Quilts in Riverton, Utah.
It's a wonderful store.

 My attempt to at least pull some minutes out for my 30/30. I have a redwork quilt I’m working towards. I started in 2007 embroidering blocks. I had copied pictures from a 1964 coloring book my Aunt Marie kept for the young nieces and nephews to color.


I’m almost done with this one:

Excuse the wrinkles from the hoop. I didn’t want to iron on the floss. I’m pretty sure I tested it for bleeding, but not taking a chance today. Also, it has a water type mark (I hope that’s what it is!) which I’m not messing with today either.

I have left all the faces blank on my blocks, except for two. One of my attempts turned out making the child looking like an alien. The other made the children look deformed. I’m looking up a friend that embroiders a lot to teach me how to do the cute faces from the 60’s.

Well, sad to say, *sniff* I have discovered that the 30/30SC challenge is too challenging. I started out March 1 with 30 minutes. Then March 3 with 60 minutes. March 5th at my weekly quilt night with friend,  I started a tree skirt for Nancy Drew and family.

Hold it right there! 30/30SC is about eking out 30 minutes of quilting everyday for March for YOURSELF. I was so tickled to start and dream about quilting just for me! Me, Me, Me! As you can see it only took 5 days for me to fall apart. I haven’t quilted everyday for someone, much less myself! Ah, shoot, I was so hoping.

That brings me to another more woeful tale. And it involves my evil pets again. First it was my cats. Read about it here, if you dare!

I am hoping your have a strong stomach, cause this ain’t gonna be pleasant. You've been warned…

On Saturday, after a grueling week of slaving away in the sweatshop that someone calls a job, I decided to fritter away my day. Quilt all day. Considering I had been through a week where I cried about an incident at work, plus got indignant about the treatment being dished out to my husband at work…It was all those hours ahead where I could dabble in my quilting room.
I was a-twitter with the excitement of working on the love-bird’s log cabin quilt. I had it spiderwebbed by column and was ready for joining the rows. The finish line was in sight! Time for the last sprint!

Arrival in Quilting Room

Picking Up theLog Cabin Bundle  from Chair

Placing Bundle on Cutting Table

Opening the Bundle

Right….There…In…The…Middle!

Dog Poop!

Where is that mangy mutt? I’m going to strangle her!

Don’t you EVEN try looking cute!

Dog slinks away avoiding looking at my face.

She'd better hide

It will take a few days years eons, okay, weeks for me to look kindly at her.

I punished her by going on vacation! What an evil scheme!

For those who are going to experience this horrific event:

1. I was able to take the three affected blocks out of the quilt since they were spiderwebbed.
2. Soak blocks (quilt) in cold water with Woolite.
3. Let soak for 30-60 minutes.
4. Upon inspection if staining is gone, remove it from water.
5. DO NOT WRING!
6. Place blocks on a hard surface. I used my washing machine top.
7. Gently scrape at any remnants of doody from fabric.
8. Rinse gently…gently…gently.
9. Press blocks together in your hand without twisting.
10. If you have not pre-washed your fabric, you will have to pin the blocks to a flat surface, gently stretching the fabric to the size of unwashed blocks.
11. If you have prewashed fabrics, continue from here.
12. Dry in a place where it will be undisturbed by Devil Dog.
13. Make sure there is air circulation to both sides or place on a thick towel.
14. Let air dry.

I thought this dog was the cutest thing when I got her!

I should have recognized the signs…

Hooking up with:

Patchwork Times
I Have to Say
Quilt Story
Linky Tuesday
WiP Wednesday
We Did It Wednesday
Needle and Thread Thursday
Fabric Frenzy
I Quilt

Picture of Woman’s Surprised Face credit: http://carseatblog.com/3405/baby-on-board-2/

30/30SC

Wait! Before you run and get your Lil’ Orphan Annie Decoder Ring… Here’s what the title means:

30/30 Sewing Challenge

Over at Berry Barn Designs there is a lot of excitement! Sarah has started a new challenge for the month of March.

Sew 30 Minutes

for

30 Days

I really long for quilting every day…it just never happens. Which is really hilarious because I really want to do a bit of housekeeping every day…it just never happens! Hmmmm.

Today is the day to show what I want to accomplish during the month. AND! it has to be for me. So goodbye Log Cabin: use some other minutes in my day! 

So here are my 3030SC:

1. The next thing up on my UFO list is quilting two quilts. Then there is finish a Lone Star that only needs one more corner square added. But what I really want to do is work on my Farmer's Wife blocks. I've made 94 blocks. I'm still trying to decide whether to make queen or king. I'm 17 blocks away from a queen and I'll make my decision then.

The photography on this isn't the best...I'd advise squinting or half closing your eyes, but that's what it looks like now. This was taken early into the making of the blocks; I have a lot more now.

Just for fun, here a few blocks that I've done.

To see other challengees, find badge on left column. Maybe you’d even want to join!