G-man's quilt

Close-up of G-man's quilt. Note that there are only two different pieces--a solid square and a triangle square. Each block had eight of each. Rotating the blocks made the diagonal pattern. This is a Sandy Gervais design from AP&Q magazine (April 2004). It is predominantly blue, then red, and caramel, with brown and white/cream for contrast. I collected many many different fabrics for this quilt and a few were leftover scraps, but not many!

This is my tired assistant--that was a lot of pinning! Thanks Mom.

More photos

G-man's quilt after pinning.

Back of Pineapple Blossom--this was a creative scrap search to fit!

Closeup of a few "bonus triangles" I used

I did this years ago and never made the pillow I originally planned. Now it is going to be a little quilted wallhanging .

Another oldie UFO cross-stitch.

And still more photos in the next post!

All work, no play

This week has turned out to be just that, all work and no play. Well, except for blog reading, that is, and a little shopping. Is anyone else having trouble finding shoes they like? My work wardrobe for shoes is getting worn out and I'm having a terrible time finding anything suitable. Mind you, I wear a 9 1/2 or 10 so shoes that are cute in size 6 look entirely different in my size. I wear low heels most of the time because I really don't need to be nearly six feet tall while I am at work--I sit 90% of the day! So far, three different stores have failed to separate me from my money. There is an outlet mall nearby and I think I'm gonna hit that over the weekend.

My sewing machine has remained untouched all week and I haven't had time to play with my camera either, though I did manage to buy batteries for it. Looking forward to a little quilt action tonight since G-man will be out playing music. Last night we went to a local Inn to watch "The Chopping Block", a chef/restaurant competition show on NBC that featured the company G-man works for, U.S. Foodservice. The contestants got to shop in the trucks for all their food--they only had 15 minutes though, and their restaurant had to open the following night! We watched the show with some of his coworkers and had some free appetizers and drinks on the company, which was a pleasant diversion. Crab cakes were really good, and so were the onion rings.

Plan for the weekend is to get G-man's quilt binding on and shop for some shirtings for The Boy's quilt, do some cutting on E1's blocks, and generally enjoy quilty things in between cleaning out the garage and going to the shoe outlet. Sounds very exciting, doesn't it?

Lazy Weekend

I started my weekend with a list of to-do's but my basic, inherent love of lazing won out mostly. Saturday I did get G-man's binding sewn together, pressed and accordion folded ready to apply, but there it sits. Went to E1 for a bang trim--she's my hairstylist as well as my eldest DD--at the salon where she works (Michael Kelley), bringing her lunch as requested. I can see again! Added bonus: she told me my hair is getting really gray. I corrected her because it is NOT gray. It is WHITE. Good thing I have a professional who takes care of that for me.

Visited the mall to return some catalog items--an unusual thing occurred when I tried on the pants I ordered: they were too long. This almost never happens to me, being nearly 5'9". They had other problems or I would have shortened them myself... Clearance rack shopping earned me a pretty green sweater for under 20 bucks and I treated myself to an $8 mall food court meal. I love Rubio's Fish Especial Tacos with guacamole. After that I dropped by my mom and dad's house where my dad interrupted my starting to mention The Boy's (DS) new job to tell me he found out about it by reading my blog!! Good sleuthing dad! E2 also dropped by while I was there, to pick up her birthday card. She stayed approximately 4 minutes and then was off again. Some quilty stuff happened late in the evening when I did some cutting for The Boy's quilt and G-man watched a rented movie, The Changeling.

Sunday I never went anywhere but wasted away my entire morning lazing about, reading the paper, petting the cats, watching mindless TV and thinking of all the things I should be doing. That word almost never motivates me to start something and generally makes it so I can't decide what to do first. Finally I got my rear in gear and cut and cut and cut squares and triangles, interspersed with ironing fabric, watching Harry Potter movies, dilly-dorking in the backyard, and mucking around with the computer trying to hook up a new keyboard and mouse and external USB port thingie. I only succeeded at the external port but my camera battery is dead and I can't upload my photos. I also can't print anything because my printer is out of one color of ink. I did actually do some paying work, too, clearing the dictation from the hospital. Finally, some more sewing got done late in the evening when I put some 4-patches together for the block centers for The Boy's quilt. Not a bad weekend but not much accomplished!

A happy week

A quartet of happy things occurred this week, only one of them quilt related, but pleasant nonetheless. First, I got Susie's little quilt mailed off on Monday. I'll try to post pics tomorrow. On Tuesday, a new nephew arrived via my brother #2's family---their 6th child--fat and healthy except for some low blood sugar that was cured by breastfeeding. Momma and baby John are home with the rest of the bunch now, but probably not getting much rest...

On Wednesday, thanks to the generous help and recommendation of a kindly neighbor, The Boy (DS) got a job after being unemployed for 2-1/2 months. He starts Monday working for a concrete boring company (I think!) and is very grateful to have a job again. He came over and watched "Lost" with me on Wednesday night and it was wonderful to see him smile again.

On a work-related note, Thursday's office mail brought a very large check from Medicare, whom we have been trying to get to recognize our new address for five months, and it was a nightmare of calls and waiting, more info needed, faxing, calls and waiting. Palmetto, who took over California Medicare claims processing, finally updated their files---until they did so, they would "pay" the claims and send them to secondary insurance companies, but would not release the funds to us per their protocol of "do not forward"--i.e., no mail to a forwarded address. Finally, I got word that our address had at last been updated, and in two days the check arrived. We all did a happy dance, but none more than Dr. P!

I'm planning on getting some fabric cutting done this evening so I can sew tomorrow, but may have to wait for better light in the morning for that, and just work on the trimming and binding of G-man's (DH) quilt tonight. My eyes are tired.

Can't believe we'll have Daylight Savings start already this weekend. Sheesh. I really NEED that hour of sleep, darn it!

Birthday girl

Above is a photo of my DD's, E1 and E2. E2 is on the left and today is her birthday--our youngest is 19! When she was little, we called her the Hurricane because she had two speeds, Warp 10 and Stop. She has had personality plus since day 1 as well as a fierce loyalty to her friends and family. She is always coming and going with a contingent of friends and is not afraid to show her intelligence or her heart. We are so proud of all our "kids" (that's part of our DS in the photo too) and what good people they are turning out to be.

Wrestling

My upper body workout of the week occurred for multiple hours yesterday afternoon as I quilted my DH's 72 x 84" quilt through the 5" arm of my Viking sewing machine. Originally I was only going to machine quilt the diagonal lines of the design, which are 12 inches apart, and hand quilt within the blocks. I just wasn't satisfied with the amount of machine quilting even though I knew I was in for a wrestling match to follow the center diamond shape of the blocks. But I listened to my inner voice and dedicated the hours to it. I knew I would always wish I had done it if I had just let it go!

My sewing desk is an old metal desk, vintage 50's, but small--my husband used it as a kid! I often set up a card table to extend surface area beyond the desk to hold the weight of the quilt. For the last several months, however, thanks to Bonnie Hunter's tip-sharing at Quiltville, I have also set up my ironing board to my left. I can't believe I never thought of it myself before, but, DUH. It makes it so much easier to work with instead of throwing it over my shoulder or wadding it in my lap. Of course I did have to get up 40 times and re-roll and rearrange so the quilt would fit through that 5" opening!

Binding will go on next so I don't have quite so much weight and bulk to work with as I add the hand quilting. Pics to come...