Sunday, March 31, 2013

End of Month Report - March

Oh, March. You were...a month.


And I'm starting to panic about our pending move. Quilters who have sold their homes - what did you do while the house was on the market? Keep just a few piecing projects around? Quilt through a pile of tops? I'm losing my sewing room {will get to keep a table in the office} and definitely losing my cutting table. 

And obviously I have to keep things picked up, so my sewing table can't look like it looks now!

Adoption: as far as we know, the time in country is back to normal, which is a huge sigh of relief. There was a possibility we'd have to spend 2-4+ weeks there, which is a bit harder with an older kid who should really not miss that much school. Now it's back to the week. Hopefully.

Running: two half marathons down! And I am officially a Half Fanatic. My times weren't quite where I wanted them {even though one was a PR.} But hey - I've got two more before the end of May to get the time I want.

 Sewing: in March, I planned to...

 Keep up with Cat Tails - I'm a couple blocks behind due to Spring Break, but I'll catch up in April.

 Quilt Star Wall Hanging, Frolicking Pinwheels, and Skorca. Haha, no. I didn't quilt anything in March.
Make a new Creeper pillow. The Dude changed his mind and it's a Zombie pillow.


Make seven out of fourteen Boardwalk blocks. I made four. BUT - I have an excuse. I can't, for the life of me, figure out how I cut five blocks out of one pink fat quarter. I need five from the remaining teals, so I need to figure that out first! {Or buy additional fabric.}

 Also worked on...
{Some day I'll be a nine patch just like the big kids!}
Turning Flirt strip sets into blocks.

{RSC} orange - not something I have a lot of, but I've got all the blocks cut and ready as leaders/enders.

{NewFO} I should have done one from my list, but my sister ordered a baby quilt for a friend, so I'm counting that and not unrolling a jelly roll... It's basted and on it's way to being done this week. 

 So, plans for next month...

1. Get the house ready to go on the market. Wait, that's not very glamorous. Or sewing-related...other than the complete removal of my sewing stuff.

2. Finish the Cat Tails top and the Saturday Sampler top - which really means, get down to the store for more black!

3. My commissioned project for the month, a fireman t-shirt quilt.

4. Boardwalk...get those last blocks done!

Linked:

Posted by Kate at 5:51 PM 13 comments
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Saturday, March 30, 2013

Blog Following...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

 Ah, changes.

In case you were wondering, you can also follow me...

...on Pinterest

...on Twitter
{although posting is extremely sporadic}

 ...on Flickr
{although almost everything is here first}

 ...on Facebook

...on Daily Mile 

And that's about all the social media I can manage in my life right now.
Posted by Kate at 9:22 AM 2 comments

Monday, March 25, 2013

Weekly Progress - Bad News/Good News

Bad News: my sweet baby kitty has lymphoma. Not the white one who lives in the quilt room, but the black one who prefers the sunny spots. I got him almost twelve years ago as an eight-week-old kitten, so this is...hard.

Good News: he's responding well to steroids and chemo for now. It's palliative care, but I'm happy that he's comfortable. And he's certainly loving the extra cuddles.

Bad News: my calf is pretty sore...

Good News: ...because I did this...again.

Bad News: I got almost no sewing done in the last two weeks...

Good News: ...mostly because I was prepping for and then going on a cruise. {Or cuddling with the cat.} 

Oh, and you should always do a half marathon before a cruise. Then when your judge-y husband is questioning how many ice creams you've had that day, you can be all "I just ran a half marathon!" Even if it's Thursday.

It was very hard to leave my Wedge at the vet for a week, but she wanted to observe him for a few days into the treatment anyway, so it worked out okay. And by okay, I mean, I nearly started crying into my third glass of wine at the fancy steakhouse on board. But okay.

Anyway, I did get some sewing done.

{Finished} the Dude's birthday present, a Minecraft Zombie pillow. He sleeps with it every night, and it is affectionately known as "Zombs." Yeah. He's weird.
Pieced all the strips for Flirt Marks the Spot, and started pulling the strips into blocks. {And that color is not at all accurate. New sewing room = bad lighting.}

{Design Wall} ...sigh... I should just stop posting. Haven't finished any new blocks, therefore the Wall is not changing. Going to make Boardwalk a priority this week.

Color pull for a Disappearing Four Patch with a Twist quilt for my sister. I need three more yellows...
{Fifteen Minute Challenge/Rainbow Scrap Challenge}
...so I pulled my yellow/orange scrap box to see what I could come up with. I'm massively behind on orange for my RSC, so it was about time I got sorting this box in my fifteen minutes.

 ...oh, and I got a commission for a rainbow chevron quilt {ala Red Pepper Quilts} so I'll be pulling for that, too.
Last week during my fifteen minutes, I worked on organizing some of the random projects in my old sewing space, and learned two things.

 a} I have too many UFOs/PIGs. Some of those are stalled projects...some have never started. At least they're labeled now?
b} I may have too many shoes.

Posted by Kate at 9:16 PM 7 comments
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Friday, March 15, 2013

Minecraft Zombie Pillow - Finished!

This creature turns eight tomorrow.

{Santa left him reindeer food. I suspect he's planning to steal a reindeer next Christmas.}

EIGHT.

He requested a Minecraft Zombie pillow.

{16x16"}

As you can see, it's vastly different from the Minecraft Creeper. I did oblige him with pixelation this time. I don't think a single piece of this green is actually Emerald...


The backing was a no-brainer. The Dude loooooooooooves minkee. {Mom loves using selvage ends so there's no hemming.}

{Ooooh, minkee...}

This year, he...
...survived his dad's longest deployment {and the first one he'll remember}
...learned how to read - and how to love reading
...asked if his little brother would come knowing the Gangnam Style dance

...got retainers to widen his mouth {wait, we want him to have a BIGGER mouth?}
...gained a ton of self-confidence as he learned to ride horseback
...let his hair grow out because people told him he looked like a California surfer dude
...watched every.single.episode of the new Doctor Who with me
...ran his first 5K {and second...and first Disney race}
...traveled to Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Disneyland, Washington DC, Atlanta, and New York City
...obsessed over Angry Birds, Minecraft, and Just Dance 4


Linked:

Posted by Kate at 10:13 AM 10 comments
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Monday, March 11, 2013

Weekly Progress - Some...

I did not get a ton done this week - life got in the way of the sewing room. And it is continuing this week, to the point that there will be no post next week - I'll be on spring break.

Continuing my trend of only finishing pillows, this is the top for the Dude's birthday pillow. It's a Minecraft zombie, which is obviously vastly different from the Creeper.

This week's Cat Tails.

With Boardwalk base blocks as leaders/enders.

Which means the design wall hasn't changed, since none of the blocks are actually done.

Flirt strip sets are slowly becoming block pieces.

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} On Monday I pulled out all my orange from the big scrap box for my Rainbow quilt. It's not much. I still have to dig through my yellow/orange bin and see if I can come up with ten blocks worth.

But the BIG fifteen minute thing was moving my fabric shelves into the playroom/soon-to-be-all-mine-room. I've been sorting old projects and fabrics and actually organizing what goes on the shelves. Clearly, the cat goes on one of them.

Posted by Kate at 7:05 PM 9 comments
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Monday, March 4, 2013

Weekly Progress - MORE SNOW!

We did get the winter storm they predicted last week, and it was about as good as Oklahoma gets.
{Yeah wind, blast that tree!}

We lost power overnight, so I shoveled myself to the car to check Facebook. Luckily it was back by 10 am....other friends out here were not as lucky!
{Of course I had to make french toast! I had bread, eggs, and milk!}

 Of course, my dear husband decided that the middle of a snowstorm was the best time to tell me we were moving back to Spokane, WA. You know, the place that got something close to 100" of snow the last winter we were there.

 He's buying me a snowblower for my birthday.

 Anyway... I waited until the end of the month to get anything significant done on my sewing projects... Good thing for those monthly link-ups to keep me moving! So while it looks like I did a lot this week, really, most of the stuff was near completion and I just finished it off.

{Finished!} Layer Cake Snowballs - post here.

{Finished!} Starburst Pillow - I'm really glad I went with a pillow instead of a quilt. I know it wouldn't have gotten done if I tried for a whole quilt. The quilting is based on Karamat's Mini-Swoon Swap - I wanted to practice before tackling my Swoon!

{BOM} I started putting together the Sampler, but quickly ran out of the black. Go figure - you need a lot of that!
 {Design Wall} All the pink blocks for Boardwalk. It will not look this pink! I ironed and started cutting the teal fat quarters today.


{Rainbow Scrap Challenge} These have been finishing up throughout the month as little leaders/enders. March is orange, which will be hard - I don't have a lot of it.
My new Flirt project is mostly cut out and strip sets are forming. And look - it's the ONLY thing on the cutting table!
I also made a set of Cat Tails. But I don't remember which set it was. One of these...
Oh, and I did this. Yes, the medal is bigger than my hand. Yes, I beat my Tulsa time. Yes, hills make your butt hurt. A LOT.

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} I took a deep breath and plunged into the horrors of the scrap box, where bags of old projects are sent to never be sorted. Stuff I want to keep together are now boxed and labeled. And I have a bigger pile of scraps to re-sort into colors. {Still not enough orange!}

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces


Posted by Kate at 8:40 PM 8 comments
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Friday, March 1, 2013

Layer Cake Snowballs - Finished!

I am not late for last Christmas. I am EARLY for NEXT Christmas.


So this top was done last July...yeah...

I did a week-by-week tutorial on it.
Week 1 ~ Week 2 ~ Week 3 ~ Week 4


{Oklahoma obliged me with snow for the pictures}

I did simple quilting, outline the layer cake slices. I probably should have done more, but...I didn't!


The front is a Joy {Kate Spain/Moda} layer cake, with red and green Konas. I do not remember the exact shades.

The backing/binding is Tinsel {Maude Asbury/Blend} and it matches perfectly.

approx. 57x67"

Linked:


Posted by Kate at 8:49 AM 14 comments
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