Quilter's Accountability Report for October 12

Well, I was sick last week, and whatever it was that I had lingered longer than I thought it would.

Here's my list from last week, with my comments:

1. Continue to work on Mom's jacket, and finish it if possible. I made some progress on this on Sunday evening -- see this post. I hope to finish it up this week, but I didn't bring it with me to Kansas City, so it'll be Sunday before I can work on it again.

2. Quilt Oak Leaves and Reel. (This has been loaded on the HQ16 for quite some time now, and just needs to be done!) I never got to any quilting this week at all.

3. Quilt Sugar and Spice. Like I said in #2 above, I never got to any quilting this week at all.

4. Quilt Thimbleberries Goose in the Pond. And again, I never got to any quilting this week at all.


This week, I'm at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Kansas City, MO. I'm taking a number of classes, so I'll come home with some things that may be getting my attention more than UFOs. Also, I'm not sure whether or not I'll be home for long -- I may need to go to Ohio on Monday. So it doesn't seem likely that I'll get to much if any actual quilting this week. I may be able to do some piecing or other sewing "stuff," so I'll just leave my list stand again for this week, and hope that I can at least finish up my mother's jacket so I have something to show as finished next week. Anything else will just be a bonus at this point. After I get back from Ohio (assuming I go), I'm going to have to really get busy and get some tops quilted. A friend and I are planning a "binding party" over Thanksgiving, or around then, so I'll need to have some quilts quilted and ready to bind.

Check out Bari's blog, to see what other quilters have been accomplishing this week. Sorry I didn't have any pictures to show you today -- but the next few days, I'll be showing pictures of my class projects, so stay tuned! Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Tuesday -- Packing, and Another Pair of Socks

I finished up these socks yesterday. I love the colors -- they're fun, and it makes me happy to look at them. The picture's colors aren't completely true -- what looks gray here is a sort of sage-y, lime-y soft green.



I'm packing and getting ready for my time in Kansas City this week, at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. I'm taking some fun classes, or at least I expect they'll be fun. I'll post pictures of the class projects here, though they may very well not be in a finished state this week.

I'm off to check my list one more time, to make sure I don't forget anything. Gotta remember to pack my newest pair of socks! Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Design Wall Monday, October 10

This is a project I've been "working on" for some time now. I made myself a jacket like this in a workshop, and when my mother saw it, she wanted one "just like it." It's using a sweatshirt as a base, with fabrics fairly randomly applied onto the surface:

And here are the sleeves (ignore the corner of the jacket body in the lower left corner):

I really hate to make the same thing a second time, so this has languished for quite a while. Now I'm in the mode of wanting to finish things and get them moved on to their final homes. Since my mother's birthday is Thursday, I had some motivation to pull it out and finish it up. It won't be done in time to get to her for her birthday (since I also have to mail it), but it'll be a late birthday gift for this year. I can't remember when I made my jacket, but I think it's been at least 5 years ago now.

Last night I finished all the stitching around the various fabrics, and did the quilting on the sleeves. I need to quilt the jacket body, embellish it a bit (that will involve couching down some decorative yarns and/or trims, and adding some Swarovski crystals), and assemble it. Then I'll bind the sleeve edges, the front and bottom edges, and it'll be done. I don't know if I'll finish it in this upcoming week, but I'll try. I'm going to be at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo in Kansas City, MO from Wednesday through Saturday, and I'm taking quite a few classes there. But maybe I can finish it up in my room in the evenings, or on Sunday when I get back. Watch this space for class project photos as well ;-)

Check out Judy's blog to see what's on other folks' design walls today. Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again any time.

Not a Good Year for Tires in Our House...

So, you might remember this post, when I blew out a tire on my truck. Well, not to be outdone, DH blew out both driver's side tires on his van this week. Monday, or it might have been Tuesday morning. I've been sick, and sleeping a lot, so I've sorta lost track of the days of the week a bit. He was getting ready to go to bed (he works nights, and sleeps during the day) in the morning, and went out to get something for me. He must have been sleepier than he realized, and apparently hit a curb or something as he was making a U-turn to get to our street. He had to ride on the rims to get to the house. I didn't think to take pictures of it, but it was ugly.

Because nothing is ever straightforward with us, and (mostly) because DH really, really likes to do everything himself if he can, he decided not to do what I suggested -- get a flatbed truck to tow it to the dealership, where he could get two new tires put on two new rims, get them mounted on the front (and the remaining sound front tire moved to the left rear), and get it aligned. No, he thought he'd "keep things simpler" (yes, he actually used that expression with a straight face!) and do it this way: get new rims from the dealer, go to a local tire/service place and get tires and get them mounted on the rims, replace the tires in the right places on the van himself, then drive the van to the dealer to get an alignment. Where I'd have to pick him up, and then drive him back to the dealership when the alignment was done. Yes, definitely simpler that way, right? Well, proving the old adage that the best laid plans of mice and men, etc., it didn't work out like that. He called the dealer, and they only had one rim in. The second one would be in today. So today he went and picked up the two rims, drove to the place where he was going to buy the tires, chose what he wanted, and left the rims. Well, they called back to say that there were pressure sensors in the tires, and they couldn't put the new tires on the rims without them. He didn't think his vehicle had them, but he went out and looked, and sure enough, it did. But our driveway's on a bit of an incline, and he didn't think it would be stable enough to jack the van up, and leave it jacked up, so he could remove the old rims and get to the sensors to take them in. As if to prove that point, the van slid off the jack and rolled out into the street. Sigh! So I proposed that maybe now the most sensible thing was to go with my original suggestion. He got the rims back from the other place where he'd left them, and I called AAA to get a flat-bed tow truck dispatched. They should have it done tomorrow -- but it could have been done and back here already if we'd gone this route to start. Still, we learn to pick our battles, don't we?

I don't have any pictures of that whole debacle to share, but here's a picture of Max, who's annoyed because he was sleeping until he heard the camera, and got disturbed. That's his "don't bother me, I'm sleeping" glare ;-)



I'm hoping to do some knitting and/or quilting tonight, so maybe there'll be progress to show tomorrow. Thanks for coming by to play. Come back again soon.

Quilter's Accountability Report for October 5, 2011

After I came home from my spring quilting retreat on May 15, I didn't do much sewing at all, other than a few project bags and a couple of tote bags. Last week, of course, I was at another retreat, and I got quite a lot done.

Here's my last QA list from back some time in June I think:

1. Continue to work on Mom's jacket, and finish it if possible. I still haven't touched this. Her birthday is next week, so maybe I should make this a priority...

2. Quilt Oak Leaves and Reel. (This has been loaded on the HQ16 for quite some time now, and just needs to be done!) This is still sitting on the machine, but I'm determined to quilt it this weekend.

3. Quilt Sugar and Spice. I did some ditch quilting on this at retreat, and still want to add some free-motion quilting to it. But, there's been some progress...

4. Quilt Thimbleberries Goose in the Pond. I'll load this after I quilt Oak Leaves & Reel. Soon!

5. Add borders to Wolf Quilt. I got this done at retreat.



6. Add borders to As Time Goes By Quilt. Got this done some time ago. I'm really happy with this top. Hope to quilt it soon, too. I thought I had a picture of this one on the hard drive, but don't seem to. I'll take a picture when I quilt and bind it.


For next week, I'll let the remaining things on this list stand, and try to get to them. That should be more than enough to fill any available sewing time. Stop by Bari's blog, and see how other folks did with their lists.

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

More Finished Socks

When I got home from retreat on Sunday afternoon, I felt pretty lousy. I pretty much went right to bed, and slept for a few hours. When I got back up, I felt a little better -- just being home in my own bed and my own environment helps some. I didn't feel up to unloading the truck, or doing any sewing, or even any knitting that required any thought. But I did feel able to finish up this pair of plain vanilla socks, which are for my friend Renae:

They're bright and happy, and I hope she'll enjoy wearing them.

I also had a knitting project at retreat with me, and worked on it a little bit each morning. It's a great way for me to ease into the day and get my brain in gear. Friday morning, I had so little left to do on these that I spent the extra hour to finish them up and weave in the ends. These are for DH, and he's already happily sporting them:


On Saturday, I was already feeling pretty bad and didn't really feel up to any more sewing. So I cast on the toes for a new pair of socks which will also be for DH. But this will be a project that will just live in his vehicle, so if we're out somewhere and I've forgotten to bring any knitting with me, I'll work on them. So it'll likely be quite some time before they're finished, but they have no deadline, so that's fine.

I'm feeling better today, though the cold became pretty nasty and I also developed laryngitis. I slept quite a bit yesterday, and that and time have seemed to help some.

Later today, I'll have a Quilter's Accountability post -- I haven't done one in months, but I really want to get back in that habit. I'm planning to do a lot of quilting and finishing things up in this last quarter of the year, so I hope to have lots of good stuff to post here.

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.

Retreat Progress Days 5 & 6

Well, on Friday I started to think I was coming down with a cold. I was sneezy, blowing my nose a lot, coughing, and my throat was quite sore. I wasn't nearly as productive as I had been earlier, but I did get all the strip sets made for a Strip Club project from some years back called "Triple Chain," but couldn't make the blocks, because I came away without the rectangles of background fabric. But, the strip sets are all made, some of them are already cut into segments, and the rest are ready to be cut.

Then, I've already shown this top, which I put together earlier in the week:But, when I posted the blocks earlier, I said I'd take closeup pictures of them. So I did that for you now. And here they all are, for your perusal:
















By Saturday, it was completely obvious that I did, indeed, have a cold. I didn't do any sewing at all that day, but knitted a bit, and mostly just chatted and hung out with everyone. The last day is always a bit sad. We'll head for home today just after lunch. It's been a lot of fun, and I've gotten a lot done, but I'll be really glad to be home with my kitties and sleeping in my own bed again!

Thanks for stopping by to play. Come back again soon.