Crossing off

I do love to make lists, and even better to cross items off lists.  The Sweet Escape tablerunner I've been trying to finish for a month and a half finally did make it off the to-do list.

After stitching the last of the binding down today, I had some concerns about the unquilted print portions since they seemed too puffy, so I added more stitches.

 

Pretty uncontrolled serpentine quilting there--but it did solve my worry.  The tablerunner then got its first wash and dry.

I love the almost argyle look to the tablerunner (Sweet Escape, by Heather Mulder Peterson, On the Run pattern booklet). 

And the great texture from the all of the quilting.  

There was no bleeding from the charm squares and they didn't shrink more than expected, thankfully.

The plain white backing shows the quilting well.  I hope the recipient likes it too--this is a gift for the caterer for Elaine's wedding.  Elaine sent out all the invitations this week and RSVPs are already showing up in their mailbox.  She likes to cross items off lists too :)

Bear goes back in time

Bear* took a trip...

...all the way back to the Jurassic era, and there he found some dinosaur tracks.  You can tell he was pretty impressed with the size of those footprints.  Bear found them on Navajo land near Cameron, Arizona.  Bear got admitted for free, but his driver and two other companions were charged $15 apiece to look for dinosaur tracks on the Navajo land.  That was pretty impressive too!

*Bear is my dad's small blue companion who is ever ready for an outing and is always smiling.

Tuesday's Orts--Aug 30, 2011

Orts in brief yet again.  Some week it may even be a singular ort!

• Son Nick invited a few friends over on Saturday night to watch UFC fighting on TV.  Knowing how I hate boxing, he was happy to call out to me whenever there was a lot of blood or guys getting knocked out.  Ugh.
• At his request I made Hamburger Soup, one of our favorites, running out to the store to get supplies but forgetting one main ingredient, canned tomatoes.  To the rescue was a HUGE heirloom tomato from a friend.  I think the fresh tomato was a terrific substitute.
• Computer problems magically healed themselves at work, come Monday morning, but continued to plague me last night.  The Internet went down on my home computer.  I shut everything down after several attempts at fixing and trudged off to the bedroom to watch Design Star in a sulk.
• My new favorite TV show is Roseanne's Nuts, starring Roseanne Barr, about her macadamia nut farm on Hawaii and her current life.  She's still very funny in the self-deprecating way she always was.  The show is a bit silly and occasionally strange, which is probably why I like it.  One of my favorite lines from her original standup routine was, "I have anorexia dyslexia.  I never think I'm fat enough."
• At work on Friday a new patient walked in 2.5 hours late for her initial consultation (which is 80 minutes long) and gave multiple excuses as to why she missed her appointment, all of which she claimed were not her fault.  She did not once apologize for being late and still wanted to be seen that afternoon.  Amazing gall, don't you think?
• The volunteer corn plant in the front yard is getting a tassel! And the poinsettia bush in the back yard is turning into an over six foot tree:

In a couple more months it will be ready for the holidays.

Design Wall Monday--Aug 29, 2011

On my design floor today is the Wedding Quilt--DD Elaine's nuptials are only two months away!  I laid out the pieces for the remaining four rows of the quilt and got three of the already stitched rows sewn together.

The quilt will be queen sized.  The pattern (Natural Beauty from Winter 2010 Quilts and More mag) calls for a 3.5 inch border.  I may make it a bit wider but haven't decided yet.  See more Design Walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Both of our August birthday offspring (above) have now had their birthdays.  Nick had his yesterday and was surprised by his girlfriend Alison with a skydiving adventure.  We thought we had him going a little on a red herring story but he confessed afterwards that the skydiving trip was what he suspected the surprise would be all along.  Happy 26th, son!

What a bust

And not just in the sewing department!  Another difficult week at work was capped off today by the Internet going down for the second time this week--and I could not get it back--it is still busted until the I.T. guy comes on Monday.   All this stress totally zapped me several nights this week.  I tellya, this management gig is wearing me out--especially since I didn't choose the job, it fell to me suddenly when the last manager was fired.  Can't say that I'm enjoying it much right now but I am grateful to have a job when so many are out of work, and I like the people I work with, which means a lot. 

Anyway....what little fabric interaction I had this week was confined to cutting.

Pieces for the Flowers for Nana Girl quilt, my new leader-ender project.  There's 190 2.5" squares and 160 4.5 x 2.5" rectangles in that little box.  Doesn't look like much, does it?  I did throw one pink flower in there to make up for a rather dull yellow I couldn't live with in this grouping.

I'm still trying to bust a UFO too.  My record for finishing UFOs has been poor these few months.  This is the backing for the August pick, which on my list is the Strawberry Fields doll quiltalong project.  I called mine Patriotic Fields.  This is the backing laid out on my cutting mat before being sewn tonight.

And here is the sandwich all together.  Originally I thought I would hand quilt this with fans but have decided against it given my lack of skills and the many many seams to stitch over.  A new quilting plan is necessary given the deadline approaching in days!  I'll probably machine quilt it in some simple way.

We have a volunteer stalk of corn in the front yard.  I'm pretty sure any harvest will be a bust since it is a lone stalk and not likely to get pollinated.  It's up to about 4-5 feet tall now though and has been amusing to watch!  Once it is cut and dried I'll have a homegrown fall decoration :).  Here's to some sewing this weekend--the wedding quilt needs major busting!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Seriously.

Tuesday's Orts--Aug 23, 2011

Another rushed edition of the Orts--I've had three phone calls from work saying the computers are acting up and are now DOWN!

• Biggest laugh at the wedding shower was during the "how well do you know Elaine" quiz game.  The question was "What is Elaine's biggest pet peeve about Chris?"   One of her friends, I think it was Stacy, said, "What ISN'T Elaine's biggest pet peeve about Chris?" 

 Stacy won the quiz game.  (The answer to the question is that Chris turns all the damn lights on in the house and then comes and sits down on the couch.)

Her sister Chelsea didn't win anything but had fun with the ring box game.
• I like to read the real estate section of the newspaper on the weekend.  There was a very expensive house listed that was advertised as "Newly constructed--in 2008".  Um, isn't EVERY house newly constructed?  Next we'll read, "Victorian mansion, newly constructed in 1885."
• Traffic rant:  As soon as the Fair was over and traffic around our office was expected to return to normal, the City began digging up the dang street again, closing off a main intersection and lanes DAILY.  Sigh.
• My camera is frequently used and it does not have rechargeable batteries so I was going through them pretty quickly until I bought these:

I put these Energizer Advanced Lithium batteries in before our trip to Cincinnati in April and they just ran out of juice last week--so four months of use.  I think that is remarkable. 

• And finally, the happy recipient of the Scrappy Trails/Hot Tamale quilt:

It was so good to see Anna's big smile after all she's gone through the last couple of months with a cancer scare.  Her thyroid surgery was successful and her scar is healing very well.  Our co-worker tried to convince her that the quilt is ugly and she didn't really want it, but Anna held firm that she loves it!