A week off and no progress in the sewing room!

Yikes.... where did the week go? Another Sunday morning and packing up the suitcase for the week away again. Last week just flew by and not much sewing went on. Bummer.

I did do a few crumbs in the last post. Decided to go with a scrappy solid sashing and cornerstones for the crumb quilt... but have not done the cutting out yet.

I made a label for the star struck quilt and attached that and popped it into the mail yesterday. That should arrive to it's new home Monday or Tuesday.

I hope to do a little sewing this afternoon (fingers crossed) but it depends on the kids and how quickly I can mop all the floors and vacuum the sewing room and get it back ready for company.

Things I did accomplish...... Cleaned the house before company for Thanksgiving. Put on a Turkey meal with all the fixings including home made pumpkin pudding and apple pie. Went walking on a near by nature trail with the kids... and did lots of playing, reading books, crafts, pretend play and laundry and all the fun things you get to do with kids. I did brave the stores on Saturday for a bit and got the oil changed in the car and a start of my xmas shopping done. Oh... I also put the fall holiday things away and got the house decorated for Christmas. Hmmmmm I think that is what took up most of the last couple of days. Lets hope Grandma doesn't have to put it all away from too many little hands touching things they should not.
This year... it is 'my' tree with all my ornaments. The last few years we have been doing 'G''s tree with all his ornaments from the time he was born. More of a kids type of tree. Mine is a more victorian flare with the maroon/white and dainty things that can break. This is the tree as of this morning..... keep in mind the kids helped decorate so some of the ornaments are all grouped together at their height. They did a pretty good job I think.

The Christmas tree skirt is something I made many years ago with my friend Joanna. I also have a kiddie one with all kids Christmas prints that I use other years... or if we ever decide to have 2 Christmas trees.... probably next year as the kids room should have the last of the moving boxes out of there at that point.



Next weekend.... I need to make my countdown Christmas snakes for the kids. I made these all for my neices and nephews years ago and now it is their parents job to fill them. I'm just doing 10 days for mine this year... a little something to unwrap as a count down to Christmas. I've got enough things for 8 days (yesterday's shopping trip) and just need a couple more to fill the last 2. Now... lets see if I can find some Christmas fabrics so I am all set to make them next weekend.
Have a great week everyone.

Crumblies.....

I was able to do my final 4 crumb blocks to have 42 for my main part of the quilt.


Yes, I found those 30's prints that went missing a couple of weeks ago.... after I had purchased a few more FQ's while up in Vermont last month. Oh well.... gives me some extra's for the borders.
I am currently debating with myself on setting it like this or using the blue or some other solid or a mix of solids for a sashing to make this a little bit bigger. I seem to have cut them down to 5.5 inches for the unfinished..... now that is a tiny block! I want this to be a usable size.... so it does need to be bigger. I think the sashing might help there... but I'll have to play with it and see.
For the outer border......I think I will do the alphabet and little Miss Em can have this one for the end of her bed and cuddling on the couch. It will coordinate well with the log cabin one I am making her...if I ever get those creams cut for her quilt!
So, thoughts on sashings? I need all the help I can get on this one.

A weekend off....

Kind of. Back from another week away for training. Two weeks down and two to go. We do get this coming week off, so I hope to get a few things done or started on in the sewing room while I am home. I also have to work 2 days in a store as part of the training so that takes away 2 days there and there is Thanksgiving this week too. I'm hosting so a bit of time will go into cooking and cleaning as well. All in all.... a busy week at home for me.

I did manage to finish the binding for the Star Struck quilt. I just need to make the label, attach it and print out some pics of the kids and send this up to Vermont to it's new owner. I hope she likes it and thinks of the kids when she sees it.


I also did 2 more of the JL blocks last week and 2 today but didn't get a chance to write it up. I now have 8 of these blocks done and hope to make two more later this week. I have the 4 patches and HST's all set so this is easy sewing right now for the next 4 or 5 blocks I think.
These are the 2 from last week,
the two today

and all 8 of my blocks so far.

My goals this week are to get two quilts quilted and the bindings on so I can finish them while I am away at training again. I found the box of warm and natural batting and have the backings made already. Just need to pin and quilt... and maybe make one of the bindings.
I'd also like to get some of the creams cut for Em's quilt and get started on that. At least one Midget block done.... hope for two though. Of course... put out a few more of the JL blocks as well... all the parts are done so that one should be easy. I also need 4 more crumb blocks to be up to my 42 for the inside.... I think I can do that today as well. Of course... Bonnie Hunter has a mystery that started yesterday over at Quiltville.com.... I really want to do that too, but think I'll just have to print out those directions for the next couple of weeks. Maybe it will be a Christmas week mystery for me?
There. That's my goals for the week...... lets see how I do!

Jacobs Ladder Week 2

I was able to sew a bunch more of the HST's and the four patches and now have 4 of these pretty blocks put together.



I am estimating that I need 30 blocks for a set of 5x6. At 12 inches a block that should be a good sized lap quilt I think. I had enough HST's cut to make 11 blocks... so I'll need to raid the stash again and cut some more fabrics when I get home next weekend.

Tiny Tuesday - a Midget Block!

After a bit of time off from these, they have come back! They arrived down here in Florida two weeks ago and I was able to sew up #11 - Signal over the weekend. This one has 29 pieces in it. It shows really dark in the picture.


I have fabrics pulled for #9 and #10 and hope to get one of them done for next week.



These are the midget blocks that I have done so far. I never noticed before how many green's there are!


Go check out how others are doing over at Jill's.

Kids....

Wednesday, Grandma and Papa took the kids so I could complete some on-line training before I headed to 'pool school' this week. Grandma (MIL) decided to take the kids shopping and let them each pick out something for me for my birthday yesterday. They also ordered a triple chocolate cake.... which was Awesome!

They had the kids in the cart and pushed them through the whole store... lots of comments and quite the conversation as my 3 year old son is quite the talker (I really wish he came with an off switch sometimes!). It sounds like everyone in the store was getting a kick out of watching this process. AT had picked up a brown bracelet and held onto it all the way around the store..... until he got to the checkout. On it, was a clear jar with big colorful watches. He immediately said.....' I want that'. Had both in his hand and Grandma said, you can only choose one. What a dilemma! He decided I needed the watch so I can have 3... 'One, Two, Three! Just like Me!' I guess the check out person was laughing pretty good by this point! This is what my wonderful 3 year old picked out for my birthday.... all by himself.


Now, little Emily - age 2, was walking with Papa (who is 79) and found some long, sparkly, dangling earrings and was holding them all through the store (that explains the questions from AT about ear rings and pierced ears on Thursday!).... until she saw this on the shelf


She handed the ear rings to Papa and grabbed this little jewelry holder. Don't my kids coordinate well?



All in all, it was a great birthday. I was able to spend the afternoon in the sewing room and finished a Midget Block for Tiny Tuesday and got my Star Struck quilt quilted and the binding sewn on. All set to bring with me to training to finish up in the hotel room without any cats 'helping' me! I'll post that picture when it is completed.
Hope you all had as good a Friday as I did. Now... onto cleaning that 4th bedroom of moving boxes and craft things so it will be all set for MIL to sleep in while we are gone next week. I think I've done everything on my list so far.... except cut out the creams for Emily's quilt. I may bring with me to do some evening in the hotel.... unless I have some time tomorrow after the room is all set for company.

Jacobs Ladder..... some blocks!

Well, I've been busy working on my to do list from my last post. The 5 hours of training is done and all tests taken (big thanks to MIL for taking the kids yesterday so I could get that done). Since they had timers on the page...and sometimes only one little paragraph on the page.... I sewed some 2 patches and 4 patches and trimmed down those HST's... (I did the 4 inch squares and made 2 matching HST's). Today I put these two blocks together.

I am enjoying this process and think this will be donated to my friend Kelly for next June's 'Lacing up for Cancer' quilt for her to raffle off.

During the last 'class' I opened my midget box of civil war fabrics and pulled some fabrics for blocks 9, 10 and 12 while waiting for the timer to go off so I could turn the page. If I ever get a 30-60 minute block of time I think I'll put one of them together for next Tuesday's 'Tiny Tuesday'.

Oh no... I really need to do some more of the crumb blocks too.... but for now the kids finally settled down (1 hour after put down for naps and one huge booboo on a finger that I need to check once AT wakes up (he was under his bed and pushing the slats up with his feet and a finger that is a little swollen when it got smushed....but I think he was able to move it.) The joys of parent hood.

The next post.... I'll let you know what the kids did with Grandma and Papa yesterday in preparation for tomorrow!