Girl Scout Camp, Here We Come!

Well, my company has come and gone and I even got some time Sunday afternoon to play with fabric. As you may know, I volunteered to teach DD's Girl Scout troop how to quilt and the campout is next weekend. So I've been buying fabric so that these 14 girls (ages 9 - 10) can make their own quilt. They all voted about what kinds of colors they wanted and so I went out and found fabric. Yesterday afternoon and evening I sat in front of the TV and cut all the backings out (1 yard long x selvage to selvage wide) and got about half of the 6" squares cut out. I hope to have the other half done tonight (although I need to buy groceries after work and do laundry). I'm waiting to hear back from WalMart about possible donation that I will use for batting and thread. Hopefully I'll hear today.

Here's what I have planned: (This is an overnight from Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon)

Saturday afternoon - evening
- 15 minutes of the history of quilts, discussion on types of quilts (whole cloth, pieced, applique, crazy, etc)

- 1 hour Design time - each girl will get to pick one of the backings, then find 42 (6 x 7) squares that she wants to use in her quilt front. I have a digital camera and will take a picture of each girl with her design to give her so that she can remember the layout she chose - with 14 girls, there won't be enough room for everyone to layout their quilts all at the same time. It will also give them a memory as I want the girl in the picture, too.

Sunday
- Sewing and quilting/tieing - there will be 5-6 adult women, including me, so I'm hopeful that I won't get too stressed out running from girl to girl.

Stations (since not every girl will have her own machine, some of the girls will need other things to do while waiting their turn and to give girls a chance to get up and stretch and do something)

• Design a block - I'm making a small design wall and will have felt shapes cut out that they can design a block - squares, triangles, rectangles, etc. I'll take pictures from their final design on that too.
• Needle threading - I'll have different sizes of needles and they will try to thread all the different needles and notice how hard it is for the ones that have really small eyes.
• Measuring - I'll have a bunch of different rulers, including yardsticks, tape measures, etc. and they will have to measure and cut their own yarn for the tieing.
• Quilt Books and Magazines - I'll bring a bunch of my own books and they can look at what the industry is doing.

The only thing that may be a problem is that I may be the only one with a walking foot. Since I'm planning to have the backing pulled up over the front and then sewed down, each of them will need that. I've thought about doing it pillowcase style and turning them inside out, but would need the walking foot for that, too, to make sure that the batting is caught inside. Any ideas? If I have to, I can do them myself on my machine in about 10 minutes each, but that would take alot of time in total.

I'm organized in my head, but know that I still have a lot of things to do before we leave Saturday. Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!

Time Away from Quilting...

I've got company coming this weekend, so I've started to clean my house. I might be done in time for Easter (bg). I've let the house cleaning get really bad since Christmas and I need to get it under control. So quilting is going to have to go on the back burner for the next few days and until my company leaves on Sunday. Then its back to the fun stuff!

Florida Sea Shell Throw

I got started this weekend on the throw I'm making for my Dad in Florida. He comes back up north at the end of March, so I have a real incentive to get this done quickly. I bought the fabric (Wilmington's Weekend Getaway) while in Florida during our Christmas vacation in December.

This throw will be a big one that he can pull over himself while napping in front of the TV.

DD had another friend spend the night Saturday night, so they have been very busy all day today playing on the computer. I laid out the blocks on the living room floor early this afternoon to look at how they would look and went back to cut out more blocks from the panel fabric. I came back 30 minutes later and the two girls were playing Barbie in the middle of the fabric. They weren't using the fabric in their play, just sitting on it and messing up the layout. I couldn't believe it. I know that lots of people have trouble with pets who want to be part of the action, but I didn't think I'd have that problem with a couple of 9 year old girls!

Otherwise, this was a much better weekend than the last one. Ran a few errands on Saturday (including a trip to the library where I came away with 20 pounds of books) and went to church this morning. Delivered a few more Girl Scout cookies to DD's customers and then took Molly, our 3 year old Golden Retriever to the pet store, which has a do-it-yourself bathing area. Molly loves to roll in other animals (mostly wild animals) poop, and with the deer and rabbits that roam in our backyard, she's been smelling pretty ripe. I couldn't stand it long enough to wait for an appointment at the groomer, so off we went to clean her up. It was a wild experience, but well worth the small amount of money it cost. And now she smells nice and clean.

Trip Around the World is DONE!

I got up early this morning and hand sewed the binding onto the back of my Trip Around the World quilt. I stated this quilt in October at a quilting retreat and now its done! I had alot of starts and stops with this one, mostly between major steps (flimsy done, then waited 3 months to get it to the long arm quilter, back from the long arm quilter and waited 3 weeks before putting on the binding, etc). I think I'm going to name it Pilgrim's Trip (the retreat was at a place called Pilgrim Center in Green Lake, WI).

Here's a close up of the quilting. I'm glad I went and had a professional quilt it for me. I would have been just sick if I had tried to do it myself and screwed it up.

I'm really pleased with it. These are definitely MY colors. You know how it is, some colors just speak to you.

On to my next project, a throw for my dad in FL.

Need to Work on Something Else....

I've spent several days working on some stupid HST using the Thangles paper method. Uhhhgggg! I don't know what I'm doing wrong. The first set I did turned out great. I was amazed. This second set has been awful. Same fabric, same size triangles, but the corners don't meet and at this point, I think I'm going to have to tear them all apart and put them together again, 'cause nothing fits together. And since that seems like alot of work, I just threw the whole thing into the bin I have for that project and got out something else.

I really want a good method for HST because I really want to do several quilts with those shapes and I thought that the Thangles BOM would be a good way to learn how to do them. I guess I'll have to figure out what I did wrong or find another method.

I decided to put the binding on my Trip Around the World quilt. It came back from the long arm quilter about 2 weeks ago and I really want to see it done. I took it with me to church Weds night for Ash Weds service and before the service I cut off all the extra batting and backing that was still attached. So now I have a clean item that I can manage on my machine.

I had put aside the fabric that I wanted to use, so it wasn't hard to find it and cut the pieces, miter them together and iron them in half. But do I have the right color thread? No, I do not. So a trip to WalMart is on the agenda for after work today to get maroon colored thread (we need dog food, too, so I am multitasking).

Yesterday I ordered EQ6. My dad bought me quilting software about 15 years ago (and 5 computers ago) that I enjoyed playing with. I have no idea what it was called or where it is now. But I thought it was time to be a little more creative so I ordered it.

Not much else going on this week. DD has a couple of long term assignments coming up: the dreaded SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT and a Ancestry project. I always hated science fairs when I was in school because I knew that my projects were really dopey and I never had a really cool one (well, the volcano one was cool) like some of my classmates that did electricity and stuff. I searched on line yesterday for some ideas for a 4th grade science fair project. Of course, I was doing it by myself, DD was watching Hannah Montana or some other show and wasn't interested in finding a science fair project because that's not due for another week and a half. Any ideas?

I'm hoping that this weekend is better than last and that I get some quilting done. I think when I get the binding on that I will start a new project. That will motivate me!

Lousey Weekend.....

How come when you have all these great thoughts of what you're going to accomplish on a weekend, then the weekend comes and you don't get 10% done that you wanted to?

Saturday morning started out really good (although the weather was bad). Since I work full time, I don't let a little weather slow me down on running all my errands on Saturday, so as soon as DD got her butt out of bed, off we went. Ran several errands in the driving snow (did get to the re-sale shop and got 5 more plaid shirts), including picking up Girl Scout cookies that she sold and we needed to deliver. Got home, unloaded the car with GS cookies (which filled up my family room) and spent two hours sorting and bagging all the orders. Many of the cookies were to people at church, so we (okay, I) really wanted to get them all ready to take to church on Sunday morning.

After the GS cookies, I decided that I really needed to sweep the kitchen and other linoleum floors downstairs as the dog hair (we have a Golden Retriever) was really getting icky. From there it seemed only the right thing to do to run the vacuum on the rest of the downstairs. Housework has always been my downfall and Saturday was no exception. DD did help as she unloaded and then loaded the dishwasher.

About 4pm, I decided that I should go out and snowblow the driveway (it had been snowing a little over 12 hours and I had about 5 inches in the driveway). I got the snowblower running and on the first trip down the driveway my boot hit a patch of ice and I went down with a thud right on my tailbone. There was no windmilling of the arms, no real slipping, just a powerful whump as I landed on my butt. It was quite painful and as I was laying there in the driving snow in the late afternoon dusk, I wondered how long I would lay there before someone came to help me. I quickly realized that freezing to death would probably happen first, so I rolled over to see if I still had use of my lower extremities (I did!) and pushed myself back to my feet. I pushed the snowblower back up to the garage to get it re-started (it has electric start which means that I don't have to pull the cord, but I do have to plug it in and push the button for it to start). For some reason, a split second before I fell, the snowblower engine died. I got it restarted and proceded to blow the driveway. I fell a second time (same patch of ice), but I had time to twist when I fell, so I landed on my hip instead of my butt. So after 20 minutes of snowblowing and using the shovel where the snowblower won't fit (on my front porch and steps), I dragged my butt inside to proceed to whine about how bad I felt and that I couldn't go pick up DD's overnight guest because I didn't want to go back out and even sit in the car. DD called her friend and said friend's mom offered to have my DD spend the night at their house and even come pick her up.

I was in second heaven. I would have all night to myself! But could I sit there by the sewing machine and sew? No, only about 15 minutes at a time, then I needed to get up and walk around. So I got the one block for the Thangles BOM put together. Of course, I found an error in the directions for the block which means that the BOM kits I have do not have enough of one of the fabrics (its the 3 piece block in the upper left on the photo in the previous post). It should be aqua on three corners and brown only on one corner.

Sunday I picked up DD on the way to church. She had a total attitude (although she was good with her customers) with me and of course, by this time, the last thing I wanted to do was more GS cookies. But we finished and only came home with about 10% of the church orders unclaimed. Because she had mouthed off, she was grounded to her room for the rest of the day, other than homework that she had to get done and a dinner party that had been scheduled (with my friends). When it was her bedtime, I started to go upstairs to tuck her in and she met me at the top of the stairs and said she was okay and that I didn't have to come up stairs (remember, I'm still really sore from my fall the day before). I should have been suspicious, but I made her promise me she would go right to sleep. An hour and a half later when I was heading upstairs (my slippers make a lot of noise on the linoleum) she heard me coming and started making minor crashes and running around. So when I got to her room, she was in bed with the blanket pulled over her but the light was on and she still had her glasses on her face. I told her how disappointed I was and how I guess I couldn't trust her when she promised me something and what would Grandpa and Aunt Jennifer say when I told them what she had done. She starts bawling and I just ignored her and continued to get myself ready for bed.

This morning she asked me what Aunt Jennifer said. So now I know who she's worried about disappointing -- not me!

So that was my weekend. I'm still really sore and think I'm going to call it a day pretty soon and go home and take some more Aleve and maybe sit in a hot tub for a while. I don't think anything is broken because now it doesn't hurt to sit down (I DO have a lot of padding back there) and I think its just muscle aches.

Maybe I should be glad to be back at work....

What the Heck Have You Been Up To????

Sorry its been so long since I last posted. Its been a very busy week. But I was thinking about you all.





Early in the week, I worked on these two pillowcases for my Dad. These are the first pillow cases I've done, so the experience was a new one. He actually picked out the fabric for these at a quilt shop I dragged him to last October. Yes, I know the main fabric is on sideways, but when I got down to cutting it all out, there wasn't enough fabric for two pillow cases if I wanted the design to go the right way (who knew when I bought the fabric that it would matter -- apparently not the lady who sold me the fabric and she knew that I was making pillow cases!). Anyway, these are going out in the mail today.





Last Saturday I went shop hopping and while at the LQS I picked up 3 block kits for the Thangles BOM that the shop is sponsoring. So here's the first block that I've been working on. Its a double block -- a block within a block. Two more to go before I put those away and work on something else.




The "something else" has been going around and around in my head all week. I've got loads of fabric that I've bought for the past 6 months with "projects" in mind. I'm thinking I'd better work on a quilt for my dad in FL before he comes back for the summer. I bought a bunch of Florida fabric -- shells, palm trees, etc, when I was in FL at Christmas time, so I'm thinking that those warm weather fabrics might help me out of my mid-winter blues.



Speaking of mid-winter blues, it snowing outside. Snowing SIDEWAYS!. I'm only about a quarter of a mile from Lake Michigan and the snow is blowing off the lake from the east. Now as most people in the midwest know, weather here comes in from the west, or sometimes from the south. But rarely from the east. It must be some kind of swirl coming back around off of the lake. And its not a diagonal. No, its pretty much horizontal. We're supposed to get 3-5 inches today up here north of Milwaukee. South of Milwaukee is supposed to get 5-7". Yuck!



Tuesday night I went to DD's Girl Scout meeting to tell the girls what we'd be doing at the campout next month (relax, the campout is in a winterized building). I showed them some quilts that I had done and showed them the sample quilt like they were going to make. They are really excited. There's 15 signed up. I had them fill out a questionnaire on color preferences and I was really surprised that many of them picked animal print and green! I have no idea where the green came from. Even my own daughter (who is a very pink and purple person) voted for green. So I've been looking at animal fabric both on line and in some stores. I talked to a lady in the fabric department at WalMart last night about them donating fabric or thread or batting to the cause. She told me to call during the week and talk to the department manager. So I guess I'll have to wait until Monday. But even if I get the fabric for $3.00 a yard, the fabric alone will cost almost $100. Plus the batting, thread, pins, etc. I know the girls have money in their account, but it just seems like alot. So I'm hoping to get a bunch donated.


I did hear from a lovely lady in GA who works for the GS and runs quilt workshops with the girls in GA. Wow! What a wonderful operation. It would be cool if this campout expanded that far, but I need to take it one step at a time. Here's the link to the group in GA. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OhSewEasyQuilters/



Later today we're supposed to go get DD signed up for summer softball and then pick up the Girl Scout cookies that we sold and get them ready for delivery. So we'll be out trudging through the snow and cold both today and tomorrow. Before I knew how much snow we were going to get today, I thought we'd drive over to Madison and check out the quilt shops over there. But with this kind of snow, I'd hate to get stuck 100 miles away from home, so I think we'll just stick close.

Well, that's all that's new in my part of the world. Hope you all have a wonderful, warm weekend.