Interlocking Squares

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 36.375 yards
Added this Week: 5.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 69.875 yards
Net Used for 2010: -39 yards

No change again. I worked over 50 hours last week. So the wind was out of my sails before I got home. I have about a month and a half of long hours so there are some long days. While I know folks that can work longs hours, clean house and sew in a single bound, I’m not one of them. I have a hard time sleeping because I worry about things that may not have gotten finished. I’m kind of a train wreck by the time it is over. My husband is now in fend-for-yourself mode. This isn’t his first rodeo so he knows the routine.

I tend to do lots of crazy stuff when I work long hours. I managed to totally mess up the Wendy’s drive thru line. Drove off without my food. Parked and went into the restaurant. By the time I got up to the line and explained what had happened, everyone behind me had gotten the wrong food. Yikes! Anyhoo, will be a couple of weeks before I go back to Wendy’s. Hopefully, they won’t recognize me when I return.

Today, I decided if I wanted to participant in the Free Motion Quilt Along hosted by Christina at A Few Scraps, I was going to have to get the top pieced or it wasn’t going to happen. I really want to be good at free motion and I learn something new from every teacher. So I really want to do this. Our instructions were to use fabric we didn’t really want anymore. I found this polka dot fabric in my stash that I got on clearance for $4 a yard. I bought it to practice on. It’s a good quality fabric but definitely not a color I would normally pick. I added some old scraps. I think I met our goal, this is one ugly quilt. Ha!

Nothing in and nothing out. Really unproductive week in the sewing room. Maybe next week will be better.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 36.375 yards
Added this Week: 5.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 69.875 yards
Net Used for 2010: -39 yards

I won’t be getting much accomplished until October. My work is really busy August through part of October.

I did however purchase some fat quarters of the Castle Peeps by Lizzy House from Andover. Elizabeth over at Oh Fransson has the cutest pattern using these fabrics called Mixtape Quilts II. It’s calling my name.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 36.375 yards
Added this Week: 6.375 yards
Added Year to Date: 69.875 yards
Net Used for 2010: -33.5 yards

Summer and fall are the busiest seasons of my job so I haven’t had much energy for sewing when I get home. But I guess I’ve made time for shopping. LOL. Burgundy Buttons had a sale this past week. One day was 15% off so I picked up some Moda bella solids and these lovely charm packs. I really like the colors and designs in both lines. Should make some cool quilts.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 36.375 yards
Added this Week: 3.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 63.5 yards
Net Used for 2010: -27.125 yards

Yesterday, a friend and I met in Yoder, KS and went to Demelia’s Quilt Shop. They have such cool fabrics. Very nice and trendy stuff. I picked up a few stencils and I found this gem on their clearance aisle. I have a couple of jelly rolls from Cotton Blossoms and this should make a cute border or binding for a couple of projects. At only $5 a yard, it was too good to pass up.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 36.375 yards
Added this Week: 3.375 yards
Added Year to Date: 60 yards
Net Used for 2010: -23.625 yards

I didn’t get much done this week except picking up a few more charm packs. I have a serious addiction to charms. But they absolutely so cute and I love small projects.

My husband started a new job on Friday and we are on the same schedule for the first time in our marriage. It is a real blessing. He had a job where he worked physically hard for 11 years. It was starting to take its toll on him and it was time for a change. He was exhausted and really didn’t have a life. When you work different shifts, you miss everything. Don’t get me wrong – we appreciated his job and it certainly helped get the kids through school/college. So now it is his time to do what he enjoys doing. Anyhow, I thought it was so cool to get home and was almost finished fixing supper before he walked in the door. Seemed like normal – whatever that is. He was excited to tell me about his first day and I couldn’t wait to get home to hear about it. For years, we have worked around the others schedule. We both walked around trying not to wake the other up. So this is a great change for both of us.

Saturday we went shopping. My husband gets to wear polo shirts and khaki shorts to work everyday. Is this a dream job or what! Plus it is the perfect time to buy shorts. End of summer clearance. Today we had lunch with my daughter. It is her 24th birthday. Wow! Time has flown. The is the second time we had lunch with she and her boyfriend. The first impression wasn’t so good. Today was much better. Usually, I’m pretty good on the first impressions. But maybe we were a little too hasty. What is more nerve racking than meeting your girlfriend’s parents? LOL

Used this Week: 7 yards
Used year to Date: 36.375 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 56.625 yards
Net Used for 2010: -20.25 yards

I’ve been messing around with this quilt since fall. It feels really good to get it finished. The piecing went quickly but for some reason, I procrastinated getting it layered and machine quilted together.

I did get the free motion quilting finished . Lots of mistakes but learning something with every project. I need to work on visibility. Most of us in our forties are in the reading glasses window. My eye sight wasn’t good before I got to my forties. The reading glasses seem like a hassle. I can’t really say that the vision is that much better. Maybe another trip to the eye doctor would be in order.

The other thing I need to correct is the lighting. I’ve skimmed a few articles on indirect lighting but didn’t really give it my full attention. It has my attention now. I’ve got a couple of floor lamps sitting around the cabinet along with another cabinet to help hold the quilt off to my left side. It just feels cluttered around my desk. I think I’ll discuss with Mr. Nice Guy because he is mechanically inclined and will have a McGyverish idea about how I can make this work better.

I got this brilliant idea about using a large extension table on top of my sewing cabinet to better my line of sight. While it brought the quilt closer to me, my arms were higher than a 90 degree angle. My shoulders and neck were killing me after stitching the first third of the quilt. It was hard to move the quilt around. In hind sight, I probably should have fluffed the quilt around the table more but it was kind of a pain in the rear. I was constantly adjusting the quilt. The sewing machine returned to sitting in the cabinet for the remainder of the quilting which was much better on the neck, shoulders and back. Moving the quilt went much better as well.

I didn’t order or receive any fabric this week. But I am working on getting a quilt finished. I’ve been busy machine quilting. I have to laugh because I did this on my first free motion quilt and said I learned my lesson but I did it again. I spent hours marking this quilt with a stipple stencil. But when I got my quilt up on the table and started sewing, I had such a hard time seeing some of the markings. I should have tried pouncing but I tried to use a blue marking pen/white chalk pencil. I could see the blue on the white and the white on the black but boy it was tough to see the markings on the aqua and some of the orange. So I just started sewing. Some spots are better than others. The practice is good. I got about 1/3 of the way finished. So maybe next weekend, I’ll be able to count this as finished.

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 29.375 yards
Added this Week: 11.0 yards
Added Year to Date: 45.625 yards
Net Used for 2010: -27.25 yards

I kind of went the wrong direction this week and finished nothing. I purchased 12 fat quarters of Tufted Tweets, 8 charm packs, and 1/2 yard of Tweet Tweet fabric. I had these great intentions of sewing this week. The best laid plans… Everything was crazy at work this week. We are closing this year’s fiscal records and starting next year’s info. We are also switching to new software which has shortened the turn around time. Not complaining. Just has been exhausting. But the deadline is Tuesday so I’m almost done. Yea!

I managed to get to the movies this afternoon with Mr. Nice Guy to see Eclipse. I enjoyed the date but not as impressed with the movie. This is my favorite book of the series so I had high expectations. It wasn’t as bad as the first movie, Twilight. But we didn’t think it was as good as the 2nd movie, New Moon. I guess I would say it’s ok. We left a little disappointed. We definitely didn’t like the new Victoria. Who knows what happened between the studio and the first actress that played Victoria. But I think it was a mistake to replace her. But if your a Twilight book fan, you should go see it. I’d be interested to hear what you thought.

Used this Week: 3.375 yards
Used year to Date: 29.375 yards
Added this Week: 1.25 yards
Added Year to Date: 45.625 yards
Net Used for 2010: -16.25 yards

I didn’t get any projects finished. But I had a giveaway and gave a few charm packs away. Then I purchased 5 fat quarters for a quilt class today with Toby Lischko. I won some fabric from http://villagecomforts.com/ and purchased a few extras of fat quarters of Holiday Flourish 2 last year. So this weekend while in Wichita at the quilt show, my daughter and I stopped at Sunflower Quilts in Derby to find some additional fat quarters to match. There just happened to be a bus tour at the shop. One of the ladies in the tour just happened to be shopping in the same aisle so she helped us pick out some fat quarters. She was nice and had a good eye for color. Those are the fat quarters at the bottom of the photo. I can’t wait to see how this project turns out.