Progress on the Improv quilt

I wanted to just stay home and sew this weekend, but that didn't happen. Friday night turned out to be a good time watching my nephew play and then again Saturday night with his bandmates. On Saturday night they had technical problems and my nephew's wireless unit for his guitar was not working so he had to plug in. Well, he likes to leave the stage during his solos and walk through the crowd, so I ended up helping with the cord so it did not get tangled as he moved thru the crowd -crouching down so I didn't block people's view.

I did get some quilting done on this quilt. Here is a shot of the back and the front. I am really going to have to focus this week and try to get as much done as possible since next Saturday I will be gone all day. My nephew's band is in a Battle of the Bands contest and it is an all day affair with 12 bands participating. It starts at 3 p.m. and ends at 9 with my nephew's band playing at 8 p.m. The cool part is Ripper Owens is going to perform at 9 p.m.

Quilting and more snow

It is hard to take a picture of snow and capture it. This is at 5:50 this morning as I begin to shovel the 3 inches of very heavy snowman packing snow. The wind is howling although I didn't get cold. The roads were terrible on my way to work. I could not go more than 20 mph, but I made it in one piece so I am a happy camper!


Here is a shot of the driveway. This is how fast the snow is coming down. The snow on the right is where I first shoveled and where I shoveled on the left shows what accumilated after 30 minutes. It is suppose to continue to snow until 1 P.M. today.


The quilting has started on the improv quilt for my friend's daughter.


Tonight my nephew is doing a solo show at Ripper Ownes resturant/bar in town. Ripper filled in for Rob Halford of Judias Priest for a number of years. Saturday night my nephew's band, Retro, is playing at resturant/bar that they played in December. The management was so happy with their performance that they wanted them back. The rest of the weekend is quilting and getting those alterations done.

Have a good one!

Suprise bag

An acquaintance of mine gave this garbage bag full of fabric that was one of several given to her.


The fabric almost all turned out to be polyester is every form - knit, texture, silky, double knit, and gaberdine. There were a few homespun plaids, but they did not feel like they were all cotton. I was nice of her to think of me, but this is going to the goodwill.

It's back ...

the snow, that is. It was all gone for a few days and POW! here it is again. I shoveled 2 1/2 inches when I got home after work and this morning there was another 4inches to shovel. When I got to work I even had to shovel out my parking spot - the plow guys had just started on the lot. I need a nap!

This is my brother's car in my driveway with the yard stick on the roof.


6 1/2"

The weekend went fast!

I had a good time Saturday going to the bulk food store for cheese and spices; meet up with a friend, P, and went over to the quilt shop; then we went over to see the twin girls. This is the only piece of fabric I bought at the shop, but I did sign up to go on a bus trip with my friend to the IX center in Cleveland to a Sewing and Quilting Expo. It was only $30.00 and that included the ticket, the bus, one free class session, and a gift bag. This way P and I can just hang out together. P has gone to this before and her favorite part is just seeing all the new stuff the vendors have.


Aren't they cute?



My friend, K, came over on Sunday and we got the quilt for her daughter pin basted. It took all afternoon to make the back. I am just glad it is finally ready for quilting.


Here is the pieced strip we made for the back.


I trimmed down these t-shirts and started to sash them together Sunday morning. I have some cool fabric in my stash with baseballs and bats on it and I plan on using that for the binding. This is a donation piece for the local rec center. My brother is good friends with the lady that runs the place and she use to be in charge of the baseball league.

Yeah, it's Friday!

A big thank you for all your hugs and empathy with this filing project I am in the middle of. Last night I was whipped and went to be at 8:15. To say the least I was not in a good mood yesterday between my arms and shoulders hurting and not getting any help. One of the guys did help me pull some of the drawing off the racks and on to the island so I could take off the holder, roll, etc. Some of those drawings are so heavy I just can't pull them up so I loosen the bolts on the holder and just let the drawing fall on the floor.

The island doesn't look much better than yesterday. I was digging around and found a bunch more drawing just stuffed on a shelf willy nilly. So yesterday afternoon I sorted them into piles according to project and today I will bag them up.



The racks before I rolled, bagged, labeled, and shelved 37 rolls of drawings.


he racks after. I still have a few more drawings to roll and bag, but the majority are put away.


I am not going to think about work and just have a good time this weekend. Saturday I am headed to Tuscarawas County - where I lived before I moved to Akron - I am going to go see the couple that had the twin girls. The girls are 4 1/2 months old now and weight about 10 pounds. I kid the father that they are finally the size of real babies! I going to head to my favorite bulk food store and stock up on spices that I need, and visit the quilt shop that moved to check out the new store. I am meeting up with a friend for breakfast before we head over to the quilt shop. I have heard that the new shop is really nice. Sunday my friend K is coming over to help pin baste the quilt we are making for her daughter.

Take care and have a wonderful weekend.

Where's my help?

I managed to put a label on a quilt and that was it. I was so tired when I got home last night. Read on and you will know why. I was suppose to get help moving all this stuff, but as ususal I got stuck doing it by myself.

Before - those brown bags contain the construction drawings for all the projects/schools we have been the construction managers for the school district.


After I moved 22 boxes and 108 rolls of drawings to the basement storage room.



Before

After - I moved the loose drawings to the center island for sorting - see the next picture.



So as I was moving the loose drawings on to the center island one of the project engineers (PE) said he had some stuff in his office left from the last PE that used that office. He added a couple of boxes plus a bunch of drawings - more to sort. After sorting I have to move all of this downstairs.


Then this afternoon after I get the table cleared off I need to take the drawings we don't need anymore off the wall racks, roll them up, put them in a brown bag, label them, and move them downstairs.


Another fun filled day at work. Can you believe I am a estimator/Contract administrator with an f**king MBA and I am doing this? Yes, I am grateful that I have a job, but all I wanted was some help. Some of the boxes weight 50 - 60 pounds and I am feeling it today. Maybe that is why I am crabby.

It's Wednesday already

I was really tired when I got home from work yesterday so I did not accomplish much. I did fix my bicycle seat and I finished these three blocks this morning. This week is flying by! I still have not gotten started on those alterations yet. Maybe I will force myself to at least start on them tonight, but I have a feeling I am going to be pretty tired tonight ... why? read on ...


My mission today at work is to move as many of these boxes to the school district's storage room in the ajoining building as I can. I will have to group the boxes by school, label them, and file any loose paperwork before they go downstairs. These are all constuction documents that need to be kept.

Additions to the stash

Lately I have been enamored with Jane Sassaman fabrics. I found a great deal on these Hothouse Garden Prints.


This piece was more gold than it looked on the computer screen, but I still like it and it will work well with other fabric I have.


I thought this piece would make fun binding.

A busy weekend

The opening for the M.C. Escher exhibit was a hit! I worked the bar with two other people and for more than an hour we were slammed with customers. The event started at 7 and by 9 things really died down. I did not get to see the exhibit because we were so busy. I will have to go another time, but I heard from different people that they thought it was great.

While I was at the museum, a woman in charge of the Paula Nadelstern exhibit for June asked me again if I would help with the show. Of course I said yes. They want to pick my brain for marketing and possibly some demonstrations. I think its a wonderful opportunity and I am looking forward to being involved.

My friend, K, and I spent 8 hours working on the quilt for her daughter on Saturday. We had most of the center blocks done, but then we decided to add a couple more of pieces green to the upper left block.
Here is the before picture


And here is the current look of the piece.

On Sunday I had tear apart some seams to insert two of the pieces, but one of the pieces I had to slice the fabric, stay stitch, press the 1/4" under around the 3 sided opening, put glue on the 1/4" and place on top of the green fabric. Once the glue dried, I flipped back the quilt top around the inserted piece and stitched it. I was happy with the way it turned out. It is hard to stitch 90 degree corners without getting a pucker, but they didn't pucker at all. I will make sure I quilt this area close to the edge of the blue fabric and the corners, because this would be the weakest area of the entire quilt. Yestday I also sewed together the lower two blocks together and then joined the top section and bottom section together. I plan on getting the borders on this week (the borders in the picture are just pinned up) and Sunday K is coming to help pin baste it so I can get started quilting. I need to have the quilting done by March 13.

I did not get to work on my dutch wax blocks this weekend at all since I spent so much time on K's quilt.

Yeah it is Friday!

Here is the sunrise this morning -just beautiful. It is actually more pink to the eye than yellow.


I was so tired after work yesterday that I did not accomplish much. I did manage to get three more blocks completed. I was concerned that the tie dye fabric would be to white (the third block down on the right) to blend in with the rest of the fabrics, but I think it looks pretty good. This is not the final arrangement - I just wanted to get them up on the design wall.


I may just make the entire top with just blocks like this baby quilt only make it queen size.


Or I may add some elements that I had in this quilt.


This is going to be a busy weekend. Tonight I am working at the art museum for an opening of an exhibit. I will be working at the bar serving wine. Saturday I have to get my hair cut then my friend is coming over and we will be working some more on this quilt for her daughter.

Sunday morning I have to go to the grocery store. Have not been there in three weeks. The rest of Sunday will be making dutch wax blocks.

Have a great and safe weekend!

Cold, cold, cold!

It is 2 degrees. What else can I say about that?

I finished cutting my strips and squares of Dutch wax fabric. I also had one piece of tie-dyed fabric that was made in Ghana that I cut. It has a white background with orange and green dyed stripes. I think it will add a little highlight throughout the quilt. I have some other tie-dyes, but they all are on the darker side. I ended up cutting almost 18 yards of fabric.

I can't believe I was able to borrow this book from the library. I was suprised that they even had it. The local library has a system now that you can search other libraries in Ohio and borrow from them. I don't think the local library had a strong quilt book buying interest, but some other libraries do so it has been great to find some of the newest books out there. I will spend some time this weekend getting into this book.

Baby, it's cold outside!

The news said it was 5 degrees, but my car said it is a balmy 10. I finally found my polar fleece ear band so my ears were nice and toasty taking out the trash this morning.

I managed to get more strips of my Dutch wax fabric cut last evening. The stack is growing and will be ready for a weekend of sewing.



I had a friend of a friend stop by last evening with some alterations. It consists of hemming pants and hemming jacket sleeves. I could use the extra cash in case I decide I want to go on a bus trip to the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati in April. A quilt shop in Kent, Ohio is sponsoring a bus. We would stop at several quilt shops on the way down on Friday, Saturday would be the Festival, and Sunday we would stop at the Fabric Shack in Waynesville on the way back (I have heade great things about this shop). The price includes the bus, ticket to the festival, and hotel. I would like to find a roommate so the cost would be $235.00. Should I go?

Dutch wax and snow

I got a few strips and squares cut out of my Dutch wax fabric for making the block shown in the picture.


Here are the rest of my Dutch wax prints I need to cut strips from.



I think the name of this tree is a Serviceberry. They look so pretty with the white snow against the bright red berries. There are six of these in a traffic island in the parking lot at work. I just had to take some pictures of them with the fresh snow on them. I had about 3/4" of heavy wet snow in the driveway when I got home after work last night - which I shoveled - and this morning there was 2" of light fluffy stuff. It is still snowing, but it seems to have slowed down.

You remember these strips of scraps that I showed last week? Well I worked on them this weekend and turn them into ...


these patches.


I ended up with 534 patches and I have just touch the tip of the scrap iceberg! I am thinking that I may use some of these to make the family xmas quilt for 2011. The box I had to store these patches in is already full. I guess I need a bigger box!

Getting ready for a weekend of sewing

I got the pieces and partial blocks dug out of the box and organized so now I can see what I need. I need to cut a bunch of strips from the fabric I have already been using and then intergrate into those fabrics strips and squares the fabric I bought 13 months ago at St. Theresa's Textile Trove. The other job I still need to finish is sewing up those scrap stripes to the Kona snow strips and cut those into patches. I have an appointment to get a perm tomorrow morning and a baby shower to attend on Sunday afternoon which will cut into my sewing time. I think I will use those times as my breaktime and not waste anytime taking a break while I am in the studio.

Have a warm, safe, and productive weekend!