Tuesday's Orts--11/22/11

Tuesday's orts--the bits of thoughts and happenings of my week that land here.

• My sewing machine also had a birthday last week.  DH Grant bought it for my 40th birthday so it is a decade old--a Husqvarna "Lily".  It is a really good machine which has never needed any repairs, thank goodness, and has only had an occasional spa day. 
• Thanksgiving dinner shopping was pretty painless as I went to Trader Joe's and Target late on Saturday night.  But when I got home with three cartons of turkey gravy I got to thinking--is six cups of gravy enough for 21 people? 
• I shop late at night mostly due to C.O.W. (crabby old woman) tendencies towards misbehaving/whining kids/crying babies.  I did act in a big buttinski way towards two kids about 5 and 7 who had gotten bored and were on the floor wrestling and hitting each other while their parents were down a nearby aisle looking at Christmas lights.  I didn't really mean to be so intrusive but found myself saying, after they ignored a pointed stare, "You guys better stop that RIGHT NOW".  The dad popped his head out from the aisle and told them to get up.  I quickly wheeled my cart away muttering something about "someone was going to get hurt".  Moo!
• Son Nick slept badly the other night when he was away at a hotel.  His girlfriend told him he said, in his sleep, "Oh, CRAP".  Nick told me it must have been during an elaborate dream he had about going bowling with Steven Seagal and losing badly.   
• Traffic rant:  There is no excuse for parking in a Handicapped Only spot without a placard or license plate giving permission to do so. Especially if there are 15 other open spots within feet of your tricked out, lowered import car with loud booming music pouring out the open windows, you young idiot.
• Grant is left-handed, which means he folds clothes backwards opposite from how I do.  He also puts soda cans in the fridge dispenser backward opposite from me.  Also the butter knife is faced backwards opposite on top of the butter dish.
• I was reading through some saved gmail chats between DD Elaine and me over the past months while all the wedding planning was going on.  I miss those chats!  We had some pretty hilarious exchanges.

Two years ago this week I brought home a souvenir from the Sydney, Australia airport, on my way home from Queensland, where I watched my Aussie friend Susie marry her mate Jon at their beautiful home in Port Douglas.  This cute little sheila cheers me on as I sew...Oi! Oi! Oi!

Design Wall Monday--Nov 21, 2011

On my design surface is another new project, which jumped to the front of the line while I was avoiding contemplating quilting on the wedding quilt.  This is a comfort quilt destined for Quilts for Kids.  I showed the skull, flame and stripe fabrics last week and my plan for a strippie quilt.  Finally some sewing happened over the weekend.

I had just enough of the skull fabric to cut three 6.5" strips, but had to piece the flame fabric for enough width for two of the strips.  Luckily it is a busy fabric so difficult to see the seams. I cut all the pieces and stitched the top together in just a couple of hours.  It will finish in the 40 x 45" range.

Even got a backing made...

..and the binding cut and sewn.  All of the fabrics came from stash and scraps and I am very happy to move them on.  This orange piece was in a bag of "scraps by the pound" I bought at my LQS a year or two ago.  It was fun to get a wide variety with fabrics I would not normally choose.  Just now I am short on reds so it's time to get another bag.

I like to chain sew my binding, just flipping the right side up on the loose end of the strip and adding the next strip.  Eyeballing that seam does not work for me so a mechanical pencil and small 1" x 6" ruler are always within reach for marking.  Not shown here are the cut borders and finished backing and binding all ready for the Flowers for Nana Girl quilt.  I will have three more quilts to sandwich once I get all of my basting pins out of the wedding quilt!  I got brave and started the quilting on it Sunday night but didn't get far enough to share pics yet. See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

NQR

That's what I've got to show in the sewing/quilting vein--Nothing Quilt Related.  Every day I planned to sew and every day I didn't!   Here's a recap of my busy week:
Monday:  My birthday.   I had a lot of transcription work in the morning, then had to run to the bank for DD Erica, then to the store to get ingredients to make a cheesecake, then back home to meet DD Elaine to sort through all the unsold garage sale items and the leftover wedding decor.  After that I ran to meet my mom at her recently departed dear friend's house to look at some clothing and sewing items I might want.  Following that Grant and I went out to dinner for my birthday, then stopped at the mall to get my present--a pair of UGGS for my perpetually cold feet.  When I came home I was so tired I laid down on the bed for a minute to pet the cat before making a cheesecake I planned to take to work, but fell asleep for like two and a half hours before getting up to get ready for bed.  No sewing.
Tuesday:  Back to work after my "day off".  Busy busy day, stopped to buy backing fabric for Nana Girl quilt.  Washed and ironed fabric.  No sewing.
Wednesday:  Another busy busy work day.  Got home at an okay time, ate dinner, washed a crapload of dishes and cleaned the kitchen, sorted through all the garage sale items and listed them for the donation truck arriving the next day, while the cream cheese softened for my recipe.  Got a phone call from my last brother with LATE birthday wishes, and started making the cheesecake at 10:30 pm.  Finally went to bed around midnight once the cheesecake cooled enough to put in the fridge.  No sewing.
Thursday: Plenty of work at both jobs, even ran during my lunch half-hour to pick up a tape from my former Job #3 boss who I occasionally still type for.  Grant went to dinner with a friend so I, after leaving work after 7 pm, went clothes shopping.  Got home after 8:30, ate leftovers at 9:00, admired my newly empty family room, pottered about, looked at a few blogs, and climbed into bed at 10:30 to read.  No sewing.
Today, Friday:  Woke up at 3:30 a.m. and could not get back to sleep.  Got up around 4, sat at my sewing machine for awhile working on quilt backing MATH and a mending project for Elaine.  Tried to sleep on the couch from about 5 to 7, mostly fitfully.  Got up, wrestled with the new format for echocardiograms at Job #1, busy busy day at Job #2, left there at 5:30 pm, watched a movie with Grant, ate dinner, and here I am blogging with you folks.  Still no sewing, too tired tonight.  But I do have pictures to share.

I snuck away for a quick lunch today at a nearby seafood restaurant and ate my favorite giant fish taco outside, enjoying the brief sunshine and a peekaboo view of the ocean before a storm blew in.  Sorry, I didn't pull out my camera until my taco was half eaten so no pic of that.

The restaurant is boat shaped and quite popular with locals and tourists alike.  It was a Japanese restaurant for years but I never went to it then. This is in the older part of town once filled with homes built in the late 1800's to mid teens; the area is now a mixture of historic homes, hotels and motels, apartments, rentals and businesses of all types, hugging the bluff above the sea. The taller building behind it is craftsman style condos that went up just a couple of years ago.

Right next door is this beautiful Victorian cottage that has been restored to picture perfect.  A crew is working on the house next to it--you can see the Tyvek house wrap toward the back of the house.  Can't wait to see how that one turns out.

Tomorrow I'm determined to put stitches in something, anything!

One Word Wednesday

Stadium-seating?

Design Wall Monday--Nov 14, 2011

On my design surface is my version of Flowers for Nana Girl, from Kim Brackett's Scrap Basket Sensations. 

The sashing and rows came together pretty easily, which is always nice.

I hope to get both borders as easily--this is just a mock up.

Had a lovely weekend capped by going out to brunch Sunday to celebrate a birthday--mine!  Yep, today's the day I turn 50.  Hard to believe five decades are now behind me.  From left to right that's my son-in-law Chris, daughter Elaine, me, son Nick, my mom and dad, my mother-in-law Frances, and my hubby Grant.  Nick's girlfriend Alison took the photo.

Beyond the gate we were posed against was the Pacific and a beautiful view looking out to the Channel Islands, a national park. 

This mural in the lobby of the Embassy Suites hotel where we went for brunch depicts what it might have looked like a few hundred years ago when the Spanish were settling in the area. Not much different, really!  See more design walls on Judy's Patchwork Times.

Triple Eleven

Once in a century date--though each day in a century is completely unique anyway, right?  Grant and I marked the special date by signing and initialing and dating a hundred mortgage refinance documents.  Since we met it has been nothing but legal documents, as I so often tease him.

Bad news:  Job #1 has been so slow I have had far too many mornings with barely any medical transcription work.  Good news:  I had a bunch of time to sew before going to Job #2 and completed all the sashing for the Flowers for Nana Girl quilt.

I laid it out and started constructing the rows, even got two of the rows stitched together by late last night.  Three more block rows to assemble; then I need to stitch all rows for the center before  moving on to the borders.  My goal is to have this quilt finished by the end of the month.  I have batting but will have to purchase flannel backing.  Don't know why I didn't get that last weekend when I was at JoAnn's.  Duh.

A shamefully overdue Quilts for Kids project is still awaiting basting, quilting, and binding.  I want to send another quilt in with it but have a question.  Are skulls and flames too aggressive for a donation quilt for sick kids?  I've read that teenaged boys are a neglected segment and feel this combo of fabrics from my stash might appeal.  It will be an abbreviated strippie quilt with just these three fabrics.  Opinions, please!

One Word Wednesday

Bird!