Killing time and old blue jeans

Well here I sit at my aunt and uncle's house again, killing time while my husband works on our bed frame. It's about 40 degrees outside and Tony and Russ (my uncle) are making drawers for the sides of it. It looks great!! I am really excited because it is finally almost done. Apparently the drawers are a lot of work so Tony has been putting it off. I brought some knitting with me but I'm not interested in the project so I'm procrastinating too. Seems to run in the family. LoL!

Other than my Granny's quilt I didn't get anything else quilty done this week. I did make a couple bags to list in my etsy shop but not like the ones I usually make. I had a pair of much beloved blue jeans bust a hole in the top of the inseam for the 3rd or 4th time and so they were beyond repair. So I cut them up! HA HA! I cut 10" off the very bottom of the legs and made 2 little handbags with it. I machine appliqued batik hearts to the front, lined them and then added a batik strap and button tab. They turned out pretty cute. Don't know if they will sell but if not I have little sisters and their friends I can pawn them off on. I just couldn't think of tossing them without trying to turn them into something else first. I saved the top of the jeans to make a fairly large handbag. I sewed the fly shut, leaving the pockets all usable. I've lined it and made the straps for it but I need to pick up a zipper. It is just too wide to use a button tab. It's pretty cute, can't wait to get it done to post pics!

I have signed up once again for N2Quiltings Liberate Your Stash Challenged issued by Lucy Coleman. Basically any fabric purchased before Jan. 31 2009 is eligible for use in anything we can come up with. This is good because I don't have much stash anymore and HOPEFULLY Santa will bring me some fabric or fabric store gift cards, LOL! I plan on making at least 3 queen sized quilts out of my scrap box next year.

I have also joined N2Quilting's UFO Challenge. We make a list of each item we have that is an UnFinished Object or a Work In Progress (WIP) and try to cross them off our list as the year goes on. The person who finishes the most unfinished projects wins. Ashamedly I have 2 items on my list that were there when Lucy issued this challenge in 2006. *sigh* I made my list the other day, 11 items. All but 2 are at least twin sized but half of them are King sized. Guess I have my work cut out for me. :-D

Here's a little something funny. A tune about stuff a Mom says in a day, set to the William Tell Overture

Granny's quilt

I've been harping about needing to make a quilt top for my Granny for Christmas. Mom made one about 45" square to give to her and the plan for mine is to use it to back Mom's so we end up with a reversible quilt. The one I'm making is just 16 plain squares seperated by sashings. When Mom is done quilting it I am going to paint all Granny's grandkids' (and great-grandkids') handprints in the plain squares.


This should have been a simple project. In fact I even already had the sashing, cornerstone and border fabrics in my stash--I pulled them out of my Loving Shakespeare stash. My Granny's favorite color is red though she has spent the last 50 years catering to my Papa whose favorite color is blue, so everything she owns is blue. Very curious; she doesn't even wear red. My favorite color is also red and my dh's is blue (and hot pink), and so I made Granny's quilt red too. Maybe it's a little defiance on my part, shaking my fist at the future and hoping I never lose myself so much to please people. Either way, I love the fabrics! The border fabrics
is from the Tattoo Hearts by Alexander Henry (2004). Yummy!
Kinda funny, it looks a little like my tattoo!

Mom calls last night and said, I need that top, I need to quilt that quilt!

I got 3 of the rows pieced with rows of sashing between them and they weren't going together right. I was sure that I cut everything to the same measurements so for the last row I made sure to pin everything, but no luck. I looked at the finished piece and it was horrible! Points/corners off by a mile. SO I picked up my seam ripper and TOOK IT ALL APART. Dangit! What should have been a half hour job took more 2 and a half hours. I started working on it at 10:30pm (we did church last night then Walmart so got home at 10) and finished about 1:30, adding a break to nurse the baby but it's still another late night! I am still not totally happy with the points and corners. From the fabrics being ironed, cut, sewn, ironed, ripped, ironed, trimmed and sewn they were a little bit wonky but I didn't have any more fabric to cut new. It's not really bad but there is a nagging voice in my head that says after 12 years of quilting my piecing should be dang near perfect.


But this morning, here it is, finished! Ironed! Pictures taken! Folded neatly to give to Mom. Whew. One more down!

The Black and White Quilt Challenge!

Yesterday I was invited to join The Black and White Quilt Challenge!
I have a year to complete my quilt, well actually til November, and the project must be black, white and one other color.

I don't have a lot of black and white fabrics anymore, most some 5" charms left from last years charm swap on N2Quilting. Good excuse to go buy fabric, eh? I wish I had stumbled on this challenge a little earlier and I could have entered that Split Personality bag sold. It was all black and white on one side and all red on the other. Would've been an easy entry, LOL!

You can check out the rules for this challenge by visiting
http://bwquiltchallenge.blogspot.com/2008/11/challenge.html

And hit the main blog
http://bwquiltchallenge.blogspot.com/ to look at the other participants stashes, works in progress and finished quilts or inspiration quilts! They are gorgeous!

Star Row Robin

Years and years ago I was in a row robin. I made a 12"x60" row of blocks and mailed it on for people add too. Last year I got out the top, pinned and began quilting it. I tried to quilt something different down every row. I outline quilted some, stipple quilted, did free-hand continuous spirals (badly!), etc. I need to do a little more quilting in the row with moons in it but my original row, which is actually the second in the quilt now, has no quilting. I can't decide what to do in it. What do you think?

I already went ahead and bound the quilt since only 1 more row really needs quilting. I figured better to do that then let the edges get all torn up until I finally finish it. This has been on my UFO list since 2002, LoL! I'd like to finish it up before the new year.

I actually made the bottom row too, since the quilt top came back 12" too short for a twin. The finished quilt is twin sized and I love it! I handdyed the yellow fabric my original rows of stars was made with (the row with the hearts uses some of my handdye too). I sent 3yds of the navy with blue stars on with my row. I absolutely love that fabric!

Okay so I'm selfish

I have another blog to post later with pictures, quilty and creative things, but right now I'm going to complain.

I'm sitting here nursing the baby instead of making dinner and I'm starving. Not unlike a child, this makes me just a little cranky. This brings me to the selfish thing. As I sit, nursing and starving I am wishing I was independantly wealthy.

Why? Because. If I were filthy rich I wouldn't have any gray in my hair, I would pay someone to fix it. I would pay off my parents house and buy Tony some teeth. I would have a fabric stash again. I would pay off my cars and I could have picked every single card off the Angel Tree at Walmart and bought all the sad little kids each a present, sneakers AND a coat.

But the biggest reason why I wish I was rollin' in it is my husband could have a part time job flipping burgers just to get him out of my hair for a little while, but the rest of the time he could be here to help me!

I am sick, starving and drowning in housework I don't have the energy for. The creative bug has bitten today and I'm doing baggy things because I can work on that 5 minutes at a time and it takes less energy than loading my dishwasher, but then I feel guilty. I wouldn't have to feel like a whiner or need to borrow a sibling once a week to get anything done. Tony could play with babies, hold the craby one while I make dinner, take Jeremiah fishing. It's cold, okay, he could play Candy Land with Jeremiah.

Sorry I'm whining; I know for thousands of years woman have had babies, killed and cooked dinner and kept their husbands happy and some have managed to even brush their hair with all of that. I'll suck it up in a minute and I'll be back to my feeble attempts at being Wonder Woman. I just needed to vent and be selfish for a minute. LoL! Thanks for listening. Now that's over I should mention I am so very thankful for my husband's full time job, for our nice cars (even if they aren't paid for just yet), for the fabric I do have to play with. I praise the Lord for my healthy, beautiful, intelligent children. I am blessed to be able to stay home full time with them and I take none of that for granted!

Artistic ADD

Artistic ADD, yeah that's what it is. That's my problem. I just can't help myself. No impulse control. Well, maybe a little impulse control.

I say "artistic" but it's probably more I'm just bored. I'm still sick so I don't have energy to do anything anyway, but I feel like I should. I mean things other than the laundry, dishes, bathrooms to clean, vacuuming, don't mention dusting.

I have 2 shirts to make for my Dad for Christmas. Hopefully I can get them cut out while Mom's here on Thursday. I've made clothing, but not enough to have any confidence in my abilities and since Mom is a master seamstress I shall await her help.

I finished Berverly's hat on Sunday. The picture looks distorted because I put my big old hand in it to try to get the cables to show up. I used a black eyelast yarn and just did straight knitting, no ribbings, until I ran out of the black yarn. Then I switched to a plain red acrylic and knit with cables. I used 4 double pointed needles and each needle had 24 stitches.

I knit 2, pearled 1, k6, p1, k4, p1, k6, p1, k2 across each needle. Every 6th row I cabled the middle 4 knit stitches. It looks SO cute on her, I shall have to get a picture soon.

When I finished it I began a blue hat to use up some blue fun fur. I'm knitting this on circular needles because the stitches kept slipping off my DPNs. I am doing k2, p2 ribbing on this then it will have a pearl stitch running diagonally up the hat in a spiral every 8 stitches. I don't know what I'm going to do with this when it's done. *shrugs* Maybe list it on my etsy or find someone to give it to.

I have a quilt for my Granny to put together. Hopefully today. It is just 16 muslin squares seperated by sashings. When it's done, quilted and washed I'll paint all her grandkids' hands on it.

I have 3 more quilted bags in my head. And yesterday I had this sudden notion that I NEED to make a bunch of variable or ohio star quilt blocks and set them into a quilt. I'm exercising impulse control on this one. Holding off as long as I can. Maybe until after Christmas. I am also having a rather agressive urge to cut the rest of my sad little stash into diamonds and make a scrappy Bethleham Star baby quilt. I have ALWAYS wanted to make this pattern and have been fighting off the urge for about 6 months now. Might have to give in. Then I'll have to find someone having a baby to give it to, LOL! This is a pic of a wallhanging I made my Aunt Traci for Christmas 2 years ago. I used 5" Christmas charms, but used all the "lights" wrong side up to make them lighter.

But alas, I am tired and puny and will have to just lay on the couch and watch Stealing Beauty.

Oh, crap

WARNING: This blog is NOT for the faint of heart. My world is covered in poo.

Maybe I should begin at the beginning.

Hannah hadn't have a bowel movement in about 4 days. I fed her prunes. I fed her apple sauce. I fed her pintos and cheese from Taco Bell. Saturday I had to scurry around in the 38 degree weather with the kids and during the afternoon Hannah decided to poop everywhere we went. On the 3rd trip to the changing table in Walmart's notoriously disgusting bathroom carrying my diaper bag, Jeremiah, Hannah, Hannah's quilt, Jeremiah's jacket, hat and scarf, Hannah got something nasty on my sweatshirt. By then it was 28 degrees and I am wandering around the parking lot looking for my (white, Chevy Impala that EVERYONE OWNS) car.

The result was a sore throat on Saturday night that had developed into a full blown flu by last night. Overnight both my kids caught it. So today my children and I have been laying around sniffling and coughing.

I tried to lay on my bed with them and have a nap but Hannah (maybe her throat is hurting?) nursed for 2 HOURS! Everytime I tried to get away from her she would cry. Loudly. By the time I finally was able to roll over to try to nap myself Jeremiah was awake and coughing up a storm because his medicine had worn off. Of course.

I boxed darling, sleeping Hannah in the middle of the bed with pillows and came out to give Jeremiah some more cough syrup. About 30 minutes later he said, "I'm gonna go check on my baby sister" and I began dinner. 2 minutes later he returns and says, "Mama, Hannah's awake but there's something weird on Daddy's pillow." She's been throwing up mucus all day so I figured that was it, oh great, and went to get her.

It was Not Snot.
She had pooped her diaper and overflowed it, then rolled in it. It was on 4 pillows. It was on my sheets. It was on my HUGE, KING SIZED, puffy comforter my DMIL gave us. The thing won't even FIT in my washer. I have a super-capacity washer, but it's a 1998 super-capacity washer not a brand new, if-your-kid-barfs-on-the-seat-of-your-grandparents'-Buick-you-can-fit-the-whole-car-in-the-washing-machine super capacity washer.

I started to cry.
I picked up the baby, stripped her clothes on the bed and took her to the kitchen where I sat her in the sink and hosed her off. Bad idea, then I had poop on my PUR filter. Crap! Had Jeremiah run and get me a bar of soap and a towel... baby's now clean.

Took the pillow cases of my pillows, sheets of my bed and threw them in the tub. Shoved the whole comforter in the washing machine. It won't get clean, but it will be clean enough that dear hubby can take it to the super-loader at the laundromat on his way home from the dentist in the morning. Next I will wash the sheets and pillows. Then I will give Jeremiah a shower. I think he managed to get away unscathed but better not to take any chances. I made him take his clothes off and wash his hands. Twice.

Dinner is finally done, thank God for frozen ravioli and Prego. Now maybe the rest of the night can be uneventful. Thankfully, also, Hannah's nose is now running clear instead of green, albeit running like no tomorrow. I am tired of sucking out baby noses. And I am tired of being covered in poo. And, I am tired.

Fa ra ra ra ra

I just love the movie a Christmas Story. Mayhem and chaos, ah...dear, dear memories of Christmases past. LOL! In the honor of the movie's 25th anniversary I made an oriental/Christmas fabric bag a while back. Since Christmas is almost upon us and I would hate to see it hang around until next Christmas I've put it on sale for 20% off the original listing price.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16495443

Yesterday I did manage to make and list 2 more bags made from civil war repros. I have another full-sized one and another small knitting project sized one. I've titled them War is NOT Civil. It's as political-activist as I get. I just don't have the energy to get excited about things I can't change. I'm sticking to teaching my kids morals and not worrying about other stuff. The Lord will take care of us, no matter what's going on. I felt quite triumphant; 2 bags in one day! Then I looked at my house. Then I felt guilty. LoL!

My best and only friend called tonight to say they are back in town until Sunday night, so she will try to get over here tomorrow night and visit! I haven't seen her since April, so I'm hoping to have a nice (if short) visit. Since her kids just happen to be my wonderful godchildren, I picked up a couple little things for them for Christmas at the store tonight. I had made Summer (8) a bag from fun/bright girly prints so I got her some hair things and lip smackers to put in it. My friend, Bethany has been on me for a year for a knit hat with a "HUGE puffy ball on top" so that's what she's getting, with matching fingerless gloves. :-)

I have tons of email to catch up on, if I owe you an email I am sorry! I'm calling it an early night as far as computing goes. Tony and I rented HellBoy 2 so we're going to have a nice romantic movie night when he gets home, LoL. (Our first date we went to see HellBoy.) I need to pick up the house some more, give Jeremiah then me a shower and maybe sew?? on Granny's quilt. In an hour. Yikes!

Not Paisley

This is just a quickie post, because I need to upload a picture.
I listed a Little Hippy Batik bag in my etsy shop and said the lining of it was a pretty paisley print. I lied. I'm sorry! I started to line another bag with the same fabric tonight and realized they are NOT paislies but some kind of weird fan, primitive flower...something or anothers. So I am putting a link to this in that etsy listing, to clear up confusion. Sorry if this confuses you! Thanks!

Half Square Triangle Pictorial

I posted this in the photos section of the yahoo group N2Quilting, where I am a moderator. I thought I'd post it now out here in cyberspace where other people can see it.

Henceforth half-square triangles will be refered to as HSTs, to save me time and prolong carple-tunnel syndrome, LoL!

Start with 2 squares one inch bigger than you need your finished HST to be. For example, I am using 4" charms so my HSTs will square to 3.5", and in a finished block will be 3".

You'll need one dark square and one light square for every 2 HSTs you want to make.

Take the light squares and lay them face down, so you're looking at the wrong side of the fabric. Use a pencil or quilt-marking pen and draw a diagonal line down the center of the block.

Lay the dark and light squares right sides together, with the light fabric on top so you're looking at the diagonal line you drew.
Sew, using a 1/4" seam allowance, a straight line down each side of the diagonal line you drew.

Cut the blocks apart on the line that you drew

Press your HSTs

Line the block up so you can "square it up" or trim, as some people call it, to whatever size your HST needs to be. Mine need to be 3.5"

Now we have 2 finished HSTs, size 3.5". This is the size you need to make a 9" finished block. I was making churn dash blocks and simple friendship star blocks when I did this tutorial.

More binding!

Praise the Lord who "knows the things you have need of before you ask Him." (Matt 6:8)!! A person usually isn't so excited about quilt bimding, but I am thrilled! I sat down this morning to put binding on a quilt for Christmas and RAN OUT of binding less than 3 feet from the end. Crap, crap. I thought I had bought enough but apparently not and JoAnn's is 30 miles from my house and I couldn't really afford to go buy more. So I spent all day almost-silently fuming about my lack of binding and my brain damage for not buying enough (meant to buy 5/8ths yd, bought 1/3 yd).

Mom, Dad and the kids came over and I got the idea that maybe, maybe I had a couple pieces of that fabric in my scrap box because I love it and have used it before. I found 2 little pieces that was big enough for about 14" of straight-grain binding, I thought I could use it and just piece a little bit of something else in the gap. Then I remembered that I save all the leftover pieces of binding I have, because I can sew them all together to use on a utility quilt (I did that for my scrappy squares quilt) or for potholders, whatever. Praise God, praise God! I had a BUNCH of binding made out of that same fabric I was needing!! I had used it to bind a row-robin a while back and apparently had a bunch of it leftover! Woohoo! I was able to finish the binding on this quilt, and as soon as I take all the safety pins out of it I can wash it.

Of course, since everyone was here I can't find the label...*sigh*
Anyway, not much else going on. Just wanted to share my little bitty praise report for the day. I didn't get any Bible in yet today, but the last couple days I've managed to sneak at least 30 minutes of uninterupted quiet time for myself with my Bible! It's only been a couple days but I can already tell the difference; I feel better inside. Hopefully when Tony gets home he can watch the kids, LoL!

Jeremiah and I started wrapping Christmas presents 'cause he was stressing about the tree being up with nothing under it. :-) I should have known better, sitting on the floor ruins my back so now I'm hurting and I'm going to have to go lay on the couch. Just so happens that A Christmas Story is on TV, what a shame, I will have to watch it. Fudge...LOL!

And the winner is...

Anna!

Anna (aka) Spinweaver623 has been randomly selected by my 3 year old to be the recipient of the Little Hippy batik bag that I've had up for grabs. I've sent her a private e-mail to let her know and I look forward to mailing this cute little bag to her. I hope she will love it!

I had a lot of fun doing this giveaway. The suspense was great! Jeremiah even had fun picking the winner (he picked a number). I will definitely have to do this again in a few months.

Back on the home front...

My sister Diantha spent the night again Sunday night and Mom picked her up last night about dinner time. Boy is she a lot of help. Not only did she help watch the kids, allowing me to get boocoos of housework done but she also snipped all the seams on Hannah's shaggy quilt for Christmas! AND I had time to quilt the whole Ugly Quilt, which is now not Ugly at all so maybe it's a Swan Quilt. I am definitely going to have to take Diantha shopping this week and let her pick something, or give her money if she'd rather. The Word says that a workman is worthy of his pay and Diantha is too.

I had Tony hold up the shaggy so I could get a picture and then he couldn't resist showing Hannah to see her reaction. At least she's little and will still be surprised at Christmas, LOL!

On the agenda for today is to finish cleaning my room and the kitchen, make and put binding on the Swan Quilt and maybe start folding all the laundry I did yesterday. I guess this morning Tony and Jeremiah are going to dig the crib out of storage and put it up since Hannah outgrew the safety of her bassinette about a week ago and so has been sleeping with us...and keeping me awake.

I washed Hannah's shaggy last night too, so it's all ready to wrap. I might wrap a couple presents later to put under the tree because Jeremiah is all concerned about them. : ) Plus it will help make the house look more Christmassy. I thought while I was at it I'd share a pic of my Scrappy Squares quilt that I made using 2.5" cut charms. The quilt is queen size and has roughly over 1,600 squares in it.