Wrapping up the Year

So this year I had big plans... 6 quilts!
however... God of course had other plans... Moving... Twice
Traveling to 4 continents, ,which was amazing and working my tail off... then retiring.
Funny how things work out.

So needless to say with everything all squeezed in I managed to finish only two quilts...

and I didn't meet my new years resolution either. which was running a 5K, see above for my excuses :D
so next year... make 4 quilts and run a 5K, I will go on record again saying it is my new years resolution, if my husband can run a marathon I can surely run 3 miles... right?

well the last quilt is off to be quilted :D

And now I have a new distraction...

I know, I feel this is cheating too... but I didn't know how else I was going to cut thousands of perfect little hexagons... how those women did it in the 30s is beyond me... but I don't plan to do it by hand... cause then I would probably mess it up...

Here are my first two hexagons. I'm sure this project will take FOREVER, because it is going to be a queen sized Grandmothers flower garden, and I am going to hand sew and hand quilt it all. Now I know you think I'm crazy, I think so too :D but I WILL NOT GIVE THIS ONE AWAY... end of story.

so over the next 30 or so years check back for updates :D

Workin' hard

So as you know I'm now a stay at home wife.
and should have plenty of time to work on quilts... but I never seem to... not sure why.
but this week I neglected everything else...

and finished cutting out all of the squares

And made these ones into triangles

and finished half the quilt... hopefully I can finish this weekend!!!

House Wife Wednesday

Well,
Yesterday started out like a typical day, except I was feeling a little tired so I slept in a little, then I got up did a little ironing, washed some curtains and decided to go shopping for the like 5 things on my list. Since one of them was a larger litterbox for Mister.
He decided it was ok to pee on the mat outside of his litter box... for future reference... it is NOT ok.
so I picked that up and dropped off some ice cream for Josh, to celebrate me passing my NC license test! YEY!
Also I picked up an cape for hair cutting, and last night Josh let me cut his hair for the first time.

After some trial and error we got it done

Oops I cut into Josh's Side burn :-/

He then decided since he had to shave his sideburns off, why not shave his entire face...

Keep in mind in the over 9 years we have been together, I have NEVER seen Josh without facial hair... 

What do you think?

I'm getting used to it...

Tuesday

Well Finally back to quilting. yey!
Yesterday I worked on cutting squares out for my quilt, and the problem was the plaid was straight

but I needed them to be on an angle...

so it took a while... and I only got 20 cut out before I had to eat lunch and get a few other things done.

Then before I went to the grocery store I stopped by a store Teresa suggested, and they have a once a month quilt meeting, so I gave them my e-mail address and they are going to mail me before their next get together, and I talked to the lady that was working in the store, and she was super nice, and said because I dont work during the day that she could teach me stuff during the day for free. How awesome is that???!!!  However all of the fabric there is very expensive ,but its really really pretty...

Thanks Teresa

House wife week 2

Staying at home alone all day with no interaction is harder than I thought. I am not sure how people do it all the time, I guess time will tell.
however I did get all of the laundry done in one day this time :D
now today is putting other boxes away and perhaps do a little vacuuming.
Yesterday I finally made it to the Y for a class. I did the body flow, it was a mix of tai Chi, Yoga and Pilates, I did ok in it, but today I only feel a little sore... so that is good. I guess that means off to the gym again today :D and I think today I have a little time for quilting!!! finally!

Miss Michigan

I have been thinking a lot about what I miss about Michigan
so far this is what I have
What I miss about Michigan
1. My family and Friends
2. My job
3. Meijer
4. The speed limit
5. Knowing where I am going
6. Straight and flat roads

Things I don't miss about Michigan
1. Snow/Cold
2. My job

hm....this pro/con list isn't looking so good

House wife monologue days 1 and 2

Well since my last blog, I moved to North Carolina,
and retired from work, and now am a stay at home wife.
which at day 2 could be a little better.
Yesterday I woke up and packed josh breakfast, did like 5 loads of laundry and then I also signed up for the Y. and unpacked a couple of boxes. Then I made dinner, spaghetti. Josh hauled a couple heavy boxes up stairs and then set up the wireless router...
Today I got up ate breakfast with Josh, packed his lunch and got a birthday card from my mother inlaw... thank you :D
I also washed some bedspreads and balanced the check book and finally went grocery shopping, I thought I would check out food lion since it is pretty much right across the street, they had some of the stuff I needed, but also seemed a little high priced... so I am going to gather pricing data (because I have time to do comparisons now) and figure out which store is the best. But since Food lion didnt have everything I need I headed to the Walmart in Belmont...
well I got lost on the way there :( I had to stop and ask for directions ( I know you are thinking, but Lisa you own a GPS, why yes I do but the walmart and my house are both so new they are not in my GPS... time to update maps) so I stop and ask for directions, and the lady was real nice but she goes "Honey, you aren't from around here are you?" what gave it away? the lack of an accent or the michigan license plate?

Well walmart had some more of the stuff I needed, but not all... so after going to two grocery stores... and getting lost I decided to head home and call it a day... I called josh at work to pick up the one thing I needed for dinner tonight, Manacotti noodles... at yet a second walmart... lets hope they have them. Yes each walmart has different stuff because of the demographic in the area. sigh...

tomorrow I guess I'll try out bilo and another walmart

Slowest week ever

So...
I went to Brazil, then I came home and put in my two weeks notice at work...
then my cousin's wedding last weekend, and now I have to wait out these two weeks.
its only tuesday at noon and I'm bored... what am I going to do for the next two weeks??
if only I could quilt at work...

Branching out

So yesterday I got home from vacation and in my mail was the new Joann's Ad, I didn't have anything in particular that I needed, so I thought, well perhaps I can pick up some remnants with the 10% off your entire purchase.
So I went to town today to run some errands and I stopped by Joann fabrics.
and well... they were having a 50% off red tag fabric sale and 99 cent patterns.
so I decided what time is better than now to branch out and try to sew some clothes for super cheap. (cause i've only sewn one dress before,without a pattern, and well it fit ok, but I messed up the darts, thankfully it was just for halloween, so it was ok)
so I bought this pattern for 99 cents... usually $15!!!!  (I think I will make two dresses)

and I bought this fabric and buttons to make them with...

I got this fabric for 1.35 a yard!

I got this fabric for .90 cents a yard!!!

and of course I will finish the 5 remaining quilts first...

Free

you can get a toilet paper cover... for free...
unfortunatley only the orange is left

at respecttheroll.com

and you need a UPC from cottonelle

:D
however 8-10 weeks for delivery!

Quilting is a sport to stretch for

So...

Saturday woke up bright and early at 10am :D and started working on making binding, which I made perfectly for the first time ever. yey! Then Squared up the quilt and pinned the binding on.

then we got out Mom's old 1960's singer which I LOVE how it sews in comparison to mine and I started to sew the binding on, we made a small mistake by not stitching in the ditch which was easily remedied and another round around the quilt I went...

then it was time to call it a day...

Sunday morning I woke up and on the way down stairs for brea

kfast my peddle foot cramped up... I guess the vintage sewing machines require you to push harder... or something... I should have stretched...

then we got the front of the binding pinned on and I ran to joanns for some tan thread to put on the bobbin to match the back and finally started to sew the front on, I choose not to sew it straight because I know myself and cannot sew straight...

and 3 out of 4 corners turned out great!!! and now I'm all done with Quilt 1

:D yey!

Progress on quilt two... still only have 1/2 the squares cut out... but there are more important things going on now...

Love it!

So today when I got home to my parents house, after two-ish weeks of anticipation I ran upstairs to my old bedroom and found the box that contained my quilt, all quilted by a friend!
and this is what I saw!
and I Love it love it love it!!!!
:D
so this weekend... trim, square and bind...

Finished!

well... the top anyway...

its finally done, 3 twilight movies later and I finished the ironing and the folding and the top of the quilt :D

One step at a time

Thats right, take it one step at a time.

I finished ironing the fabric for the edges of the quilt I started making so long ago...

tonight I have more ironing and laundry to do... but its thursday... so that means friday and then Saturday I have ALL day! and ALL day sunday too :D

so perhaps it will be done and qulit 2 can start... its hard to think about a quilt in this heat!

but next weekend is a wedding, then i have a week and then brazil for two weekends... and then... well... only time will tell. :D 5.2 quilts to go...

5ish months to go... wish me luck.

Lazy Summer

well, not really lazy I guess just busy with other stuff

since the last post I finished the other two rows, so the quilt is now a better size, and I had to buy another accent fabric to make it look right for the boarders, so I bought that and washed it, but I havent ironed or cut it or even sewed it on... thats all that needs to be done.

then I hope that Teresa can help me out :D and let me know what I need to do so she can quilt my quilt.

but I've been busy

I went to my parents house and showed my quilt to grandma and got to see my great grandma's "Grandma's flower garden", all pieced and then finished by my grandma. and then I worked on doing laundry and being lazy and doing dishes, for the holiday weekend I spent out of state

and now I am back for 2 days and then off to Poland.

so I need to do some laundry and ironing for that...

yikes, so maybe in a week I'll have an update that I actually made progress...lol

soooo...

So today I thought about it while I was at work, because why think about work... when I could think about quilting :D

so I think the quilt is a hair short, so I got home and I put it on my bed and yes, its a hair short... boooo... so now I need to make a could more rows of squares...

so I did a little bit of cutting before I went for a bike ride and then Taco bell... cause there is nothing like eating the calories you just burnt off... and guess what Kim asked me to be in her wedding :D

I'm super excited cause I love weddings :D

so tomorrow I will finish cutting :D

All pieced!

All done!

yey! well kind of...lol...

tomorrow I will cut strips to sew on the outside.

what strips should I do?

Rockin it out

So today I finished pinning the non-circle squares together, and sewed them into squares!

now, what color strips should I use? I think I want to do two...

probably the first one in tan? and the second one the green?? or should I do the orange?

what do you guys think?

oh and I bought a new cutting mat, since during this project I some how pretty much wore out the self healing line at 13 1/2 line :D oops...

Happier

So...

I was happy last post... which was like an hour or so ago...

but now I've sewed all of my half circles into circles... and I seriously could not be more delighted with how they turned out... Pretty darn close to perfect... except 1... that one is not getting redone... yey!

and honestly I feel on top of the world right now, going into this project I was not sure I was skilled enough to pull off a circle. I am so proud of myself... not to brag or anything, but I feel so happy!!!! and honestly I feel like I could sew anything...lol... but I'll focus on this quilt. t-6 days till I want to have the top done.

Happy

So the fruits of my tearing seams and repinning and sewing came to fruition today, and I couldnt be happier, I'm really really glad I did it. All but two came out PERFECT! and those two are close... so I think I will leave those.

My mom would be proud... listening to her advice to take out seams all the time... and on this quilt I have been paying attention, I dont know how many I have redone, but its been a lot, but I think its been worth it and I sure hope Lillia will agree when she gets this quilt for Christmas... But then again, I'm sure a quilt for an 8 year old will not be the most exciting thing she gets at Christmas, it might take some time for her to appreciate it. I think I'm ok with that.

back to the pinning to make full squares.

Apparently a perfectionist

lol...

well all day at work the imperfect one kept bothering me,

so I came home and I sorted out the good, the bad and the almost good... and decided the bad were the only ones coming apart, they will get a second try...

don't ask how many

the number is too high to admit...

:D

First time for everything

so last night I tried sewing without cutting the thread between each square it turned out pretty well... I did all 72 of the 1/2 circles of orange last night...

now my problem is, when I look at the half circle some of them came out perfect, some came out close and some are waaaayyy off...

what do I do about the ones that are way off... do I take them apart and retry, cause if I take them apart, I would need to take apart other ones to try and match them up with...

but I mean they are really noticiable, some are close and I'm not sure I really want to retake apart all of the ones that arent a perfect match... what should I do?

288!

So today, I sewed the last square. Over the past few days I pinned the orange squares together to make half circles. and now working on sewing them! yey! all 288 squares done.

June update

Well its been 10 days short of a month since my last update.
but today I sewed a lot, after doing 3 loads of laundry and all of my ironing for the past two weeks, grocery shopping and some other stuff...
but I sewed all of the squares I had pinned,
so if all goes well during ironing (which I hope to do tomorrow) I will have only have a few squares to pin and then I can start putting it together and seeing the quilt finally develop.

I can not wait, goal have the top finished by the time I visit my parents for fathers day... lets hope I keep this deadline!

Sewing Update

I know its been a while,
but I went to Florida, and then I have been putting along doing a little bit of work on the quilt and my body.
Running as well as biking, over 13 miles one day! Awesome!
so...
now to the quilting, I have pinned again today until I am out of pins.but I still have some to do

then I ironed until all of the squares I had sewn were ironed, and I then I trimmed them. 103 squares ironed and ready...185 to go.these ones needed to get re ironed and repinned and resewn... ugh...

ok that number seems insurmountable.
but I will prevail... I will.
but in the meantime I picked up 8 yards of fabric at Goodwill for $8 :D

Slacker

Well... as you can tell by my lack of an update in over two weeks, I have not gotten a lot accomplished... the more I think about this goal... the more I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna be able to get six quilts done by Christmas...
never the less I am plugging along at a snails pace.
today I finished trimming the squares I had a quick chance to iron last week. I officially have 61 squares with their 1/4 circle sewed in, ironed and trimmed.
some more are sewed awaiting the iron, others are pinned waiting their turn at the sewing machine...still more sit in a pile on the table waiting to be pinned.

in my defense my schedule has been crazy late night meetings, early morning meetings, working ridiculous hours, then out of town for 4 days and now I'm getting ready to be gone for 8 days...
hopefully after this it will calm down... although mention of Poland in June was made... we shall see...

I shall prevail.

Making Progress

Today I shrunk that pile I had pinned up.
I sewed 98, 4 of which I had to tear out, so 94 are ready for ironing, some may not make it through the ironing process, depending on how well the little wrinkles iron out.
which means 114... 10 left... although I think I must have a couple spares.
now to have my 11pm meeting...

Keep on Keepin on

Coming up with Witty titles, or not so witty titles for keeping up progress is getting harder...

anyway
yesterday I decided i was going to pin those pesky squares until I ran out of squares or pins, which ever came first, pins lost.

I hope to get some of them sewed today as I am working from home... so I gain 2 hours of my life back by not driving.
yey

Slow and Steady

Yesterday while Josh was getting the oil changed, I was able to sew 15 more squares, unfortunatley I had to tear out 3, leaving me with a total of 12 for the day, and 20 over all. 124 of this print to finish! yikes

My Favorite Part

Now I am finally on to my fav. part. Where when I finish putting a square together, I can start to see the design of the quilt and I see that hopefully the fabrics i picked out look good together! so far so good I think!

A step in the right direction

So the fun part begins!!!
I finished my first square for the quilt for Lillia!!!!

Done Cutting!

Finally I am done cutting for twin Quilt #1...
now to catch up on my dishes and ironing :D

Not Helpful

So waiting for my 11pm meeting.
I thought I would get a little bit of my cutting done for my quilt.
Mister thought otherwise.

Scrappy

So I have been making progress,
I have 3/4 of the circles cut out of the squares...

but what do i do with the scraps that are left over? I'm not sure they are big enough to do much with...

Distracted

So yesterday at lunch I bought the new Sweet Valley confidential book and read the whole thing.
it was good... back to quilting tonight...

Workin on it

Today I got all of the strips I had cut into squares.
however, I am a few squares short... so tomorrow I will cut more strips and more squares.
but I'm making progress...
this means, squares done tuesday, circle cutting starts wednesday...

half-productive

Well this weekend I only managed to get 1/2 of what I wanted done.
which is 1/2 of the quilts squares for the first quilt cut out.
but I got some of the laundry done, enough to keep me over until next week, and I got almost all of the dishes done... and I am almost caught up on my TV watching... lol...
notice I did not actually accomplish anything I set out to do this weekend.
ugh
so through out this week I plan to work hard at work, and make sure everything is in line there and then I plan to cut a lot at home so I can get all of the squares cut out this week. at this rate I will not be done with six quilts by Christmas especially since summer is coming and I'm sure my desire to stay inside will be zero...

Practice Makes Perfect

Well, I took a quick break from quilting this weekend to cook corned beef and potatoes, and do a little vegging out with the husband...
but today I'm back at it....
and the 4th practice square is what I was looking for!
I cut the circle part a little bigger than I needed to, and had to trim it, but its the first one that wasn't too short :D
so off to cutting the real fabric now! yikes

Almost

Last night I tried it out.
I think I need to make my circle a little bigger and then try again, I got a little pucker too. I will need to work that out tonight, with another practice one...

Circles and Squares

So... now that I have all the right utensils to cut circles out of squares...
now how do I sew circles back into squares? where I get the seam allowance is confusing me...

Cutting the Perfect Circle.

I have been doing some research, how do you cut the perfect circle.
there are two options, get a stencil and then draw a line and cut on the line, or get a protractor like deal that does it for you.
Knowing how my protractor skills were back in the day in math class, I have decided that maybe a combination of both tools will be helpful,
thankfully I have two coupons and I will be visiting Joann Fabrics tomorrow after work with both.
Then Washing and ironing shall commence again...

MAD

So,
can I be mad at inanimate objects? YES!
ugh, stupid Iron,
I thought I was so close to being done,
yes I swear for the past 3 days all I have done is Iron for hours on end.
I guess that is what happens when you buy enough fabric for 6 quilts.
Wash and Iron for days.
so there I am ironing, 9 yards in, (thankfully not all one fabric) and my iron decides to puke some weird yellow stuff on my fabric!
what! I stare at it and almost break into tears, ok so maybe that was a little extreme, but I was not happy.
Sigh
so now as I have the last two in the dryer this one section of 3 yards is now awaiting its turn in the washer.
so now, tomorrow will wrap up my washing and ironing, and here I thought I might actually get to some cutting this week, apparently I was wrong.
ugh.

Back in Action

It has been almost a year since my last update.
And one of my friends encouraged me to keep a blog to keep myself on track with the 6 twin sized quilts I have to make in time for Christmas, which gives me, just over 8 months to do so.
A little more than a month for each quilt.
The plan is to finish all of the tops, then decide if I have time to actually quilt or if I should tie them, so lets hope the tops go quick :D
I officially have all of the fabric either ordered or with me, so that is a good start.

I have decided to start with a new pattern, Around the world,
It will be my first one without all straight lines, so adding curves will be a new challenge for me. I decided to start with this one first because A. I have all of the fabric for this one and B. I decided to do the hardest one first while I still have time and patience :D

This one will be done in the green color scheme.

I have washed and ironed the tan, just the two greens are waiting to be done now.
but I have other laundry to do too, I hope to get to the fabric today.