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!

Decisions! Decisions! I Need Help!

I have been talking about this quilt for so long and now I am pleased and thrilled to announce that I have finished ALL the blocks! All 64! Sixty-four! Six tens and four ones. Omigoodness! I've been teaching young children too long...

Behold and see!
 
I wanted to try a more “artistic” (read interesting) way of photographing my blocks. I mean…how many times can you see a log cabin block over the course of months?

I’m so excited to start sewing the top together. Soon it will be a flimsy! Aspiring to be a quilt. I love that name “flimsy”; I just heard it a few months ago. I didn’t know what it was originally then figured out it meant a quilt top without batting & quilting.

I’m also working on my Spool Quilt as a leader ender. I had started it last summer then switched to the Sister’s Choice quilt blocks. I realized that there are a lot, many, many blocks to make for the SC. The Spool Quilt is much more manageable, as in less blocks in the quilt. I switched back to the Spools to get it done first. You can see some of the blocks and even a log cabin progress report here.

I asked for your help last week in finding more of the darkest blue fabric for the Log Cabin so I could continue with making blocks for a quilt for myself. You are wonderful people, do you know that? Well, you are! I found it at Thousands of Bolts. Yes the fabric AND at a bargain price of $5.95/yd. I paid $11/yd the first time I bought it.

I bought 6 yards of it. Just a teensy weensy bit overboard, I should say. I thought 3 yds would probably do, but that blue is the last two strips of a 14” block. I figured I’d buy a bit more to be safe…which I had done in the first place. And you know where that landed me. Hmmmm. I knew 6 yards was more than enough, but I love, love, love that fabric so much I thought of future quilts that could have parts of yummy blue-ness in them. My head started to swim. I clicked on the “Order” button, finalizing the 6 yards and thought, “Whooppee!”

Of course, my stash count next week is going to take a hit. But I’m sure all will be well over the months.

So thank you, thank you gracious readers. You sure are a swell bunch!
And speaking of your help and stash counts, I need another helping hand of your knowledge. I am participating in the HST BOM at Quilt Arts Design. (See the badge on the left sidebar.) I’m joining in a couple of months late, but figure I CAN do it. I know a cool, quick way to make HSTs and I love them.


Now here’s where your help comes in. I’ve always wanted to make a red & white quilt. I’ve chosen two gorgeous fabrics: one dark and one light. I think I need a third fabric for mediums. I’m not doing scrappy here, just the two materials above and one more.

Could you pretty please with a cherry on top, leave answers in the comments below and let me know what your experienced (or non-experienced—because we all can tell what we like!) answers.

Here are my questions:
1. Do you have any ideas for a medium piece? I’ve looked through my stash and have nothing. Should I choose a fabric with red, black and white that is medium? The red flowery/star fabric has black in it. What would you suggest?
2. Do you think I should have more than three fabrics, for instance: another dark, another medium (makes 2) and another light?
3. Could you come to a quilt store with me and help me pick the fabrics? Cookies provided!
4. Do you think I should go scrappy? I love scrappy. I thought just the unity of 3 or 6 fabrics would be fun.
I’m looking forward to reading your answers! You helped me before with my Spiderweb quilt borders, so I know I can count on you.

Have a lovely week!

Sharing with: Patchwork Times, Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday, Free Motion by the River, We Did It! Wednesday, WIP Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday, I Quilt, Fabric Frenzy Friday

No Threads of Thought Here!

I promise no songs today! Scout’s Honor! (Last Mond
ay was a holiday for me too--see song I wrote in tribute) Although I am humming "It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary" from Mary Poppins! Or "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma! Go ahead, see if you can get those out of your mind for the rest of the day!

Excitement abounds today...our bathroom is going to be finished! You might recall that my hubby started remodeling the "guest" bathroom in April. The bathroom only had a tub. The only shower was in the Master Bath. With our son and daughter-in-law coming, he wanted to get a shower in so we all wouldn't be trying to use one shower.

He got pretty far along, up to the point of tiling. Then Things Came Up. Fast forward to last Tuesday. We have been re-financing our house. Everything's a go. Then financing People called to say they wanted the bathroom finished before the loan would go through. Reasonable People that they are, they wanted it done by Tuesday. You know, they're such Good Guys. Well, they are. They are re-financing our home! But, honestly...7 days to finish up? We needed to hire a Tile Guy to finish. I'm sure there were plenty of Tile Guys who happened to have two days in the week ahead (now behind!) free to do our bathroom.

Goodness Abounds! We asked the tile store. They gave us a few names. We called the first one. He had time. He'd be over in less than an hour to look at our bathroom and give us an estimate! I'm always scared about hiring unknown people to work on our house. When he knocked and I opened the door and knew everything was going to be all right. Do you ever have those feelings where the Spirit is telling you it's going to be fine? That's what happened when I saw our Tile Guy. I knew immediately he would do fine, very fine indeed. He finishes up tomorrow and his work from Friday was excellent. We love our Tile Guy. And we're thankful that the Spirit let me know he was a good guy.

I just got off the phone with my youngest GD, Curly. It always so much fun to hear her newest antics and to talk to her! We grandmothers have to brag...there's a rule about that somewhere!

Curly playing with Princess
Sophia and Princess Sophia!

Curly has been going through the "stage" of having imaginary friends. She now has "another grandma", "another mommy" and a "brother". The brother isn't at home right now, he ran away and got caught by the witches and wolves! Nancy Drew, her real mommy, told me that the other day Curly came in and said, "My other mommy made this for you," and handed her a scarf. What a darling! I'll be seeing her soon when Spring Break comes around. The good news is that she doesn't have "another Nonnie"!

The most exciting, fantabulous, excitulating news is that I have 5 more blocks left to finish the Log Cabin for my TGS & OSLW. Whoopee ti yi yo!!! ** I’ve already begun on the Final Five and only have 3 more rounds left on each. Oh frabjous day! Calooh! Callay! **

And now begins the end…sewing the blocks together. As stated before, I have some sort of genetic inability to lay out a log cabin in the barn raising pattern. My hubby helped me get the 6 rows displayed correctly. Once that was done, with help from my readers, I decided to make it 8 rows by 8 columns with no borders. I have marked each of the original 36 blocks with row and column number. Now I just have to get the 15 extra blocks in correct order….or I might have a barn raising followed by a barn crashing!

An inauspicious beginning!

" Oh honey!!! I need your help in here. For just a few seconds!"

Mosey on over and check out all the other quilty fun-ness at these wonderful places! (Badges in sidebar).

Design Wall at Patchwork Times
Show and Tell Tuesday at I Have to Say
Fabric Story at Quilt Story
Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River
WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced
It's a Party at Creative Princess
We Did It Wednesday at Sew Much Ado
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
I Quilt at Pretty Bobbins
Thank Goodness it's Finished Friday
Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts


** “Whoppe ti yi yo” is from Git Along, Little Doggies, an traditional cowboy ballad
** “Oh frabjous day! Calooh! Callay!” from Jabberwocky.

Pink Design Wall & January Quilting Results

Happy, happy, joyful Monday!

It may seem a little overboard for most, but I have the day off today. Hurrah!

I'm a teacher of blind and visually impaired students. In this county they take off the Monday before President's Day as a holiday; I like to think of it as Lincoln's Birthday. The following week we have President's Day Holiday. I'm a-shiver with Quilting Time.

OH QUILTING TIME!

(sung to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree)

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time!

How wondrous are your hours.

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time

It's like sunshine on the flowers.

I scarce can sleep the night before

As dreams of fabric o'er which I pore

Oh quilting time, oh quilting time,

I toss and turn till comes the dawn. 

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time!

I wake up bright and early

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time!

My patience holds, but barely.

With fabric cut and iron hot

Machine is ready to sew a lot

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time

Your wonders are amazing.

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time!

The hours pass like minutes

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time!

Too soon my time doth exit.

I long for more dear time with you

Cutting, pinning, sewing too

Oh quilting time, oh quilting time!

Pressing seams is quite divine.

Oh quilting time, Oh quilting time

I count the hours between thee

Oh quilting time, oh quilting time

Come quickly now, I do so plead

Everybody sing!

I didn't even wax this poetic for summer vacation! Sometime ya just hav'ta let it out!

On my design wall today are part this month's blocks for Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month the color is PINK! I blogged on Saturday about my blocks for the RSC quilters. You can read every pinkalicious detail here.

Here are the five I got done yesterday:

Check out the tabs above for my Quilty Goals for 2014. I've added my January progress. Then check out my Stash Count for January. I'm looking good. Oh yeah!

And thank you so much for dropping by. I love to see that lots of you have looked. I adore comments. Let me know if you sang my song (in a closet or to one you love!)

After you've made it through my blog, singing, oohing and aahhing, trot on over to these blogs that I am sharing with. (Badges on right sidebar).

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

Show & Tell Tuesday @ I Have to Say

Fabric Story @ Quilt Story

Linky Tuesday @ Freemotion by the River

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

It's A Party @ Creative Princess

We Did It Wednesday @ Sew Much Ado

In the Pink! Rainbow Scraps

This month at soscrappy the color is Pink! Like Pink Panther. Pinker than Pepto Bismol. Tasty pink like cotton candy. Sweet pink like strawberry ice cream. Christmas pink like Sweetie at Christmas.

Yikes! I thought...I don't have much pink fabric. What am I to do? (Wringing hands). I'd better go look at the dismal amount of pink I have.

My pinks drawer...and that's not counting my pink fat quarters!

Whoa doggie! That's a lot of pink. Bright pink! Dark pink! Flowery pink! Pastel pink! Let's not go overboard, I think you know what I mean...This month is brights and darks. Save the pastels for later, she (the creative mind behind Rainbow Scrap Challenge) said.

There I am, in pink heaven, picking out the brights and darks. Omigosh! The stack is growing and growing and growing... 21 chosen. Eek! All in one month????? Am I crrrr-aaaa-zzzy, or what? (Do NOT answer)

Thank goodness I chose an easy block, the Snowball. Here's the pinks I've picked.

Dark pinks top, bright pinks middle, just because I want pinks bottom

In the drawer picture, you can see some pinks tied together with a fabric strip. Those are the ones for pastel pink!

I'm counting the pinks I've chosen. One, two, three...six...ten...thirteen! Shut the door! Isn't that an unlucky number? Truth be told, that is my husband's favorite number. This coming from a guy whose favorite color is black. You can see why I married this guy...he's interesting!

Must....add....one....more....pink the little voice in my head said.

Hopefully you can see the sparkly little diamonds!

More math! Wahoo! 14 fabrics divided by 3 weeks left in February equals 4.666666666. I need to make roughly 4 and a half blocks per week to get all the colors in. Can do! Another reason I chose snowballs.

See you next week! Have a pinkety pinkest pinky week!

Merry Christmas 41 Days Late!

To Get You in the Mood for a Story About Christmas

Wowser! Is it really 41 days since Christmas?? And is it already February? How is it that time up close goes slowly but time in chunks goes quickly? I guess it's a question for the universe...

Leading up to Christmas I had two quilting Christmas gifts that I couldn't post because I hadn't given them yet. Finally, I got to give Sweetie her present on Christmas Day. I was there! Hundred times of wonderful! You can see a picture of the zebra pillows and my granddaughter here and general Christmas fun with Nancy Drew's family here.

More Christmas ambience

My second quilty Christmas present was for Noel Heart. Unfortunately she and her husband were very sick with a virus over Christmas. They didn't see anyone. They didn't get to travel over here to see us. I felt so sorry for them. We finally got together after the New Year when they were back on their feet. I finally got to give Noel Heart her "Christmas Present".

It really wasn't her Christmas Present...it was supposed to be given to her before Christmas, but they never made it over. Very disappointing. A few years ago, Noel Heart has said how much she wanted a Christmas tree skirt. I started keeping my eye out for a good pattern. I just couldn't find one... Last year in October, my friend and I went to Pacific International Quilt Festival. We stopped at one of the vendor's booths and I swear I could hear triumphal trumpets majestically playing in the background! There was a Christmas Skirt pattern! I started doing the Happy Dance right there. Many people smiled. Some laughed and pointed. Other quilters nodded, knowing what a good quilt discovery feels like. Then some of them were just disgruntled because I was blocking the aisle.

The Tree Skirt was everything I had hoped for. It was beautiful. It was big. It was EASY. Gotta love EASY! It had a special ruler, and it was a good affordable price. My quest was over. Now I had to make the skirt.

This is an Advent Calendar my Mom
made for TGS

Fast forward. This was supposed to be her Thanksgiving gift.*

*(I didn't want to make you look very far for the asterik!) My Mom started a tradition of giving me a Christmas decoration on Thanksgiving. Once I was married, she started doing this so I would have Christmas things for my house. It was lovely. I decided to carry on the tradition and once each of my children has started in their own home, I've given them Christmas decorations.

And now, in January, Noel Heart was getting hers. She was overwhelmed. She was so happy to get one and she thought it was beautiful. What more can a Mom and quilter want?

I forgot to take pictures, but Noel Heart did it for me. I wish we had a tree to show it off. Just a little too late for that photo op! Hope you like it!

It's a whooping 54" diameter!

I decided stitch-in-the-ditch was perfect for this.

Hooking up with Patchwork Times, Show and Tell Tuesday, Fabric Story, Linky Tuesday, WiP Wednesday, We Did It Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday, I Quilt, Finish it Up Friday

Quilts From My Sewing Machine #5, Christine's Summer

It's another glorious Saturday. I came home yesterday with a virus, but I feel better today. I guess it wasn't a virus...it sure felt good to sleep most of the day though!

This Saturday is my turn for the sharing of family quilts. I like the story behind this one. It's about a sweet, giving friend of mine.

Name:  Christine's Summer
Life Quilt #13

Begun in April 2008 and finished November 2008

Size: 46" x 53" (lap)

Pieced by myself and Quilted by Ann L

I decided that I would start making quilts and humanitarian items for the guild and the Church. My first project was a pinwheel quilt. I had found some red plaid 5” squares in Marie’s things and decided they would make a cute single bed quilt for the Church. The Church Humanitarian site said they needed twin size bedspreads and quilts. I counted up how many blocks I would need. To make the single size I needed 63 block and I did my math and found I'd have 68 blocks!

 It was after I made all the 68 half square triangles that I realized that it took four half square triangles to make a block. I never have had much luck in quilting math! Obviously now I wouldn't have enough for a single quilt. But, no matter, I could still give it to the community quilts. I now had 17 blocks. I could make a 4x4 block quilt, which amounted to a baby quilt, and have one left over. What I really wanted was to make a 4x5 block quilt to make a rectangular lap quilt. But I lacked 3 blocks to do that layout.

I decided to cut down 3 or 4 of the red pinwheel blocks to make smaller blocks and border them with a plain fabric. (1-31-14: I notice now that only one red block was cut down. And it bothers me! I want one or two more smaller red ones. I found some good blue plaid fabric in my stash and made 3-4 large pinwheel blocks and 3-4 smaller blue plaid blocks with borders. (1-31-14: There are only 2 small ones and 1 large. I guess I changed my mind.)

I was ready to put the top together, when tragedy struck! I fell and broke my right hand and all quilting came to a halt while I had the cast on.

After the cast came off, I still couldn’t get right back into quilting. The first day after my cast was off, I spent a blissful day quilting. Then there was payback: my hand hurt miserably for a week. My PT told me “Bad Girl!” and I had to temper my enthusiasm. The new quilting regime was quilt for an hour and ice hand for 20 minutes, quilt for an hour and ice hand…

The backing is a lovely turtle batik. I was saving it for
something special. Christine chose it for the backing
and it did, indeed, get used for someone special.

When I got the pinwheel quilt top completed, it was very cute. I began having second thoughts about giving it to charity because I liked it so much. Enter Christine. Having a cast on my hand had stopped me from being able to tend to my flower garden, just as the beginning of prime springtime. At church I was bemoaning the fact, when Christine Lopes, a girl just back from her first year at BYU, offered to help me weed and plant! It was a match made in heaven. All summer long Christine came over weekly and we put in a morning in the garden. Even after my cast came off, she continued to come. She was having a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed her company. We capped off the summer by painting my refurbished, redecorated quilting room.

Stupid thread! It was invisible until I
took the picture, honest! Then it
just jumped out as I clicked the shutter.

I showed Christine the quilts I had done and was working on. She liked them all but it was clear she like the little pinwheel quilt a lot. I was happy to find just the right person to give my lovely quilt.

I delayed a little in getting it done, thinking that I would be able to machine quilt it myself. Alas, when I tried machine quilting on a charity quilt my hand was sending painful repercussions to my brain. I shelved the idea and Christine’s quilt went to the quilter.

As I mentioned above, Christine helped me paint my new quilt room. It's good I had help because the part I did made my hand ache. Here is a picture of Christine with our cat, Daytona and shelves from the sewing room. 

 Not to be left out, my dog, Miko, kept us company!

I wish it wasn't so wobbly, but this is the best picture I have of my sewing room. Walls are lovely sage green. Dresser is both cutting and ironing space . Drawers hold notions, fat quarters and plaid cut-down shirts.

And here's another wall. I keep fabric in the stackable Sterilite drawers, plus more containers on top!

I Love Words

I'll confess. I'm a thesaurus junkie. Hello, my name is Terri and I'm a ... When I read a book, three
quarters of my brain is following the plot, but the other quarter... Oh my goodness! What are you doing? I'm looking at ways the author puts together a sentence,   describes something, and the interesting words used. Even when I write this blog, my handy online thesaurus is never far away.


Some of my favorites:

plethora: just the way it rolls of the tongue and the meaning also
   "overabundance"

splendiferous: again a lovely word to just say for pure joy of it sound
   "splendid"

eclectic: another choice of mine both for meaning and for the way it sounds. Here's how I use it a lot: I have an eclectic taste in music.
   :selecting or choosing from various sources"

nefarious: great synonym for heinous, odious, horrible, vile...

and my list goes on, and on, and on:

The definitions above are from dictionary.com.

And here's some fun from Google and dictionary.com. Pictures from dictionary.com and Google Images.

Eleven British Terms That Flummox Americans:

British Saloon

Saloon in US

Pants in US

British pants

British Muppet
(stupid person)

Muppet in US

British Jumper
(sweater)

Jumper in US

Digestive Biscuits
not-so-sweet cookie/cake/cracker

Biscuits in US

Braces in the US

British braces

Bonnet in US

British bonnet (hood)

British boot

Boot in US

British dummy

Dummy in US

British pudding

Pudding in US

British Zebra Crossing
(crosswalk)

Zebra crossing in US

And now, students, you have had your lesson in Vocabulary. The added bonus is now you can go to England and speak like a native!

Ta-ta

Cheerio

Tarah

(all ways to say Goodbye in British English)