Overdue Update

Here is my looooong overdue update. Over the holidays I took an unexpected sabbatical from blogging. I was still getting some quilting done, but was busy with traveling and shopping and Christmas preparation that blogging went by the wayside. Unfortunately, this January my schedule has made it difficult for me to pick up where I left off. Starting in the New Year, I’ve added to my work schedule by doing phlebotomy during the daytime hours. To make matters worse, during my regular x-ray shifts, we’ve been working on a HUGE file room purge. Normally I get to do a lot of internet surfing (blog reading!) at work. I’ve even done some blog posts while at work, but right now, I don’t have a spare minute. I’m super behind on reading all of my favorite blogs, but the end of our file room project is in sight and I’ll be back to my old routine soon. Plus, the longer I’ve put off posting, the bigger the hurdle has become to write this return entry. Here’s a summary of what’s transpired since I’ve last been here.

While home at Christmas, I did a bit of quilting on the longarm. I had big aspirations because I had a lot of time off from work, but I’ve found that I work best under time pressure and without a deadline, my pace slooooows wayyyy downnnn. The first thing I tackled was the wallhanging my Aunt Nancy gave me for my birthday. It turned out ok, but now that it’s done, there are things I would have done differently. Every project seems to be a learning experience! The biggest take home lesson was that I put a complicated feather pattern in four big blocks, but because there was a busy floral pattern on the fabric, you can’t see the feathers at all. =( Oh well, it was good practice.

The other project I worked on was quilting Woodpile, a twin sized top that I’ve had done for a while (1 year?). It’s cool jewel tones and white and I’m keeping it for myself to use in my spare room. I bought a stencil that fit the triangular shape of the light/dark areas, but as I was quilting, I wasn’t thrilled with the way it was looking. After about 2/3 of the way through, I thought of a way that could have improved the results. Drat. Why didn’t I think of that earlier?? I didn’t finish the borders, so I left it at my parent’s house, to finish it later. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I realize that the quilting isn’t dense enough, so I might go back in and do some meandering around the stenciled shape. Maybe. It just needs more than what I’ve done so far.

More catching up later…

Another busy week!

Sew much going on! I've been like the tortoise this week-- Slow and steady. Nothing is 100% complete and I've added a few new things to my list of projects.

I'll start by showing off some shopping. I went to Hancock's last Friday and was able to use a Joann's coupon to get this sewing machine tote bag for 40% off. I've had my eye on the bag before, but wasn't sure if the dimensions were quite right for my machine. I still didn't know my machine base size, but figured if it wasn't right, I could return it. Good news-- it works! It's not a perfect match, but for $17 it is quite nice.

While there, they had Halloween fabric 75% off. I thought these skeletons were fabulous and would make a great scrub top that I could get away with year round. I'm an x-ray tech, so it doesn't get any better than this! Now if only my garment sewing skills could improve...

On the quilty front:

I finished piecing the In the Beginning wallhanging (mitered borders and all). Now it's in the queue to be quilted.

Funky Boxes are almost all together (I'll save a pic for when it's done). Bindings are on the quilts for Baby Emily and Big Sis Ella (again saving pics for later). Hopefully I can get the hand sewing done on the bindings in the next 2 weeks and register them as complete when I go to UFO club at Millhouse.

Last, but not least, Amy, Shelly and I got together Monday to sew and make some fun bags. Here are our results:

(left to right: Shelly, me, Amy)

Life Lesson

Irons are Hot!

Ask me how I know? I touched the metal cylinder part of this one with several fingers today.

Grrrrr. I've owned this iron for quite a while, but rarely have I used it. Normally, I want a lot of steam and don't need precision, so I just use my regular iron. Today, I started putting the blocks together of Funky Box Baby Quilt and realized that this is the perfect opportunity to use the little pen shaped iron. Here are the seams that I was trying to press open.

It's been 30 minutes since the "incident" and my hand is doing better. The ice was hurting just as much as the burn. I think I'm going to have a blister on the pad of my middle finger and the inside part of my thumb. ='( I think I'll make it.

On a brighter note: The funky boxes are looking cool and it's not taking very long to put them together. Right before the "incident", I remarked to myself, "Huh, it's only been about 45 minutes and I've gotten this much done?!?!!!". I have more done than this photo, but this section was feeling the most photogenic.



In other Wisconsin news, we had some prett strong flurries yesterday. I tried to capture them in a picture. The spots you see here are the flakes, not your eyes playing tricks on you.

My Christmas Cactus seems to be ready for winter, because it's already blooming!

One last quilty note: Instead of working on all the other projects I have going on right now, I decided to start the wallhanging Nancy gave me. It's pretty simple, but I still managed to make some boo-boos. Despite those (which will remain un-named) it's going together well. All I have left to do is one seam (top 1/3 to bottom 2/3) and the borders. It calls for mitered borders and I don't like those, so I'm dragging my feet a little bit.