End of Month Report - May

It's been a busy month, with a whole lot of successes. I'm quite pleased with May!

Family: The house is on the market! And the showings continue...

Cat: Wedge is doing pretty well, minus the fact that I'm now hand-feeding him. Plus, he's a whole new cat - my scaredy cat now sleeps with the Dude, ventures outside {with me}, and doesn't hide under beds when the doorbell rings. Do cats have bucket lists?

Adoption: Our I-600 was approved! Again! {The first time it's for "any orphan" - now it's specifically for William.} Still waiting to hear timeline news. And I have an agency in Washington already waiting to update our home study - luckily they think we'll only have to redo the actual home portion of it, not the whole thing.

Running: I did the Red Dirt Half last weekend. It was not a good race physically or mentally... Now I'm done for the "season" and getting ready to start the summer of speedwork.

Sewing

Rainbow Sherbet / Fractured Four Patch / Fireman T-shirt Quilt

Three finishes! And one almost finish...

Raiders T-Shirt Quilt - basting while watching the new episodes of the best show that was ever cancelled by Fox. {There's actually a lot of competition for that one. Says the Futurama/Greg the Bunny/Firefly/Undeclared/Andy Richter Controls the Universe/Kitchen Confidential/Titus fan.}

And one done as far as I can, as the recipient is still deciding on border fabric.

And that takes care of #1-3 on last month's list.

#4 was finish one of my personal tops...any of them...

And it was Boardwalk! There's a series of borders, which I like, but I don't have the fabric for them. So I don't know yet if I'll end up getting some and finishing it, or just finishing it as is. But the main top is done, so I am happy for now.

And just to throw another top into the mix, this is the first of two really-quite-random tops. This one is OSU/Packers/tennis. {And a NewFO!}

The second will be OU/Angels/Steelers, and is based on this quilt by From the Blue Chair.

RSC - finished the green blocks! Which means I'm only a month behind now!

June Goals:

1. Finish the two really-quite-random quilts. 

2. Finish the three t-shirt quilts orders. {Raiders/above-mentioned-family/family that hasn't been started yet.}

3. Finish Saturday Sampler so I can participate in A Season By Hand. Seems appropriate for an Amish quilt, right? However, this is inaccessible in the storage unit, so it only gets done if the house sells.

4. Finish Cat Tails. This actually is accessible so it might get done. Especially since I'm out of the neutral centers for the RSC blocks.

Linked:

Nothing But UFOs
A Year of Finishes
Getting It Done
Year of the Finished Project
Just Three

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts
NewFO Challenge @ Cat Patches 
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Weekly Progress - Free Time

Happy Memorial Day!

It's amazing how much you can get done when you finish all the house projects and suddenly have nothing to do all day. And so far, everyone has been helpful at keeping things picked up, so the daily maintenance for showings doesn't take all that long.

Which leaves me lots of time...interrupted time between showings, but who's going to complain about that?

So, first I worked on a family t-shirt quilt.

{This is my fake nursery, that William will never sleep in. Irony. Or something.}

All interfaced and cut out, but the woman wants a border, and so it won't be sewn together until I know if there's a color we don't want on the outside edges.

Then once I reached a standstill there, I went back to the Raiders t-shirt quilt. It's all cut out and interfaced now...and between taking that picture last night and finally getting around to writing this, I pieced most of it together.

And I finally - finally - had a Boardwalk day! All the blocks are done and being shifted around until I'm satisfied with the arrangement. Like all those dark teals are in each corner now. 

My OCD {and out-of-school} assistant is trying to make sure no like blocks are touching. Which means there's been a LOT of block moving.

And here are the few little RSC blocks I've finished as leaders/enders. I'm still working my way through the green pile...I need to finish sorting the blue bin this week.

That's it - I'm trying {obviously} to keep as little out and about as I can, so there's less to clean up with the showings.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Donations for Moore

If anyone is wondering about quilt donations for Moore, Oklahoma, my Project Linus chapter is located in OKC and is currently collecting blankets. My coordinator is really good about getting donations to the people who need it, not just Project Linus.

They are collecting quilts and blankets at Beth's Quilt Shop - 115 N Main Ave, Blanchard, OK 73010.

They take everything from tied fleece blankets to quilts. 

A simple blanket made of two 1.5 yard pieces of flannel sewn together, turned right-side out, and top stitched takes less than an hour for a 44x54" snuggly blanket. {And you can cram a bunch of those in a flat rate box!}

There's also ways to donate monetarily, or locally.

Weekly Progress - To Market

No, not Quilt Market! But the house is officially on the market! So...now I just have to make the beds and keep up with the dusting. And finally have some free time to...wait, what was it that I do in my spare time?

Oh, yeah - I used to sew! Not just cut out t-shirts every now and again!

That's all I did this week. It's not that bad, considering it's three out of five columns of a t-shirt quilt. Slice up a couple more and I'll have it ready to baste by the end of the week.

I monogrammed a bag front for a friend. She's making the Weekender - brave woman!

Design Wall still hasn't changed - big shock there. Assuming I don't get shut out of my house too much for showings, I'm going to dedicate an afternoon or morning after I finish the t-shirt quilt to this. I miss my own projects!

I made a couple 1.75 green RSC blocks as leaders/enders. And I did start ironing the dark blue bin. I think I'm only going to pick five, and five from the "other" blue bin - I don't want a lot of blue even if it is the majority of my scraps.

Oh, and Victor II? Totally passed the Dude test. All he said was, "wow, Victor looks better already!" Of course he does, sweet boy, Momma has great medicine. It helps that Victor II has the same habit of hiding in the shark's mouth.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Rainbow Sherbet - Finished!

I'm on a roll! Deadlines, you force me to complete things.

This is Rainbow Sherbet, one of my favorite quilt designs EVER. In fact, this is my second one.

It's a Jaybird quilt, originally in a magazine and now in her book. Yes, I bought the book for this pattern. {But the other ones are pretty good too.}

When my mother-in-law came to visit last September, she brought a huge stack of batiks with her. In exchange for an impressive amount of yard work, I agreed to make her a wall hanging. She browsed my books and patterns and was drawn to this one, because she has awesome taste.

I showed her the scrap variations on the pattern, and she decided on a ROYGBIV one, but with grey instead of black. {A grey Moda Marbles, to be exact.}

The quilt came together in the week that she was here, toiling in my dirt. I think there were times she doubted how it was all going to come together, but this is is definitely a Monet.

Clueless? Literally?

Tai: Do you think she's pretty?

Cher: No, she's a full-on Monet.

Tai: What's a Monet?

Cher: It's like the painting, see? From far away, it's OK, but up close, it's a big old mess.

The batting/backing were a conundrum. It's a wall hanging....a 76" full size quilt wall hanging. I wanted to go light. But still stiff enough to hold its shape on the wall. I ended up using fusible fleece with no backing. I think it was the right decision - the fusible part will help keep it from sagging, but it's much lighter than a typical quilt. Backing probably wouldn't have added that much more weight, but...

Quilting, well... Quilting is always a conundrum. I wish I could free motion quilt, but I can't. Not for lack of practice - I just don't think in doodles and feathers and "free" things. I can't even draw stippling on paper.

{Sidenote: as a kid, I colored designs on graph paper and played with my math teacher mom's tessellation blocks. Never doodled.}

I considered a couple different straight line designs, but in the end, I stitched in the ditch. Yes, it's a copout, but this thing is going to be in a second story entry way. No one is going to see the lack of quilting.

It probably should have been quilted down the middle of the colors as well - the fleece got loose after washing - but, I was going for lazy lightweight.

In the end? I love it. I will always love this pattern, even if it paralyzes me at the quilting point. {Those negative spaces deserve awesome quilting! In fact, if you're my family reading this, a great birthday present would be forcing me to make this top and have it custom quilted.}

I'm really excited that it'll be greeting everyone who walks into my MIL's house - I can't wait to see it up there! OMG, I just realized my MIL did this on purpose to get me to come visit the quilt her.

Linked:

Blogger's Quilt Festival @ Amy's Creative Side

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quilt Matters

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt {FAL List}

Weekly Update - Fusing Things

Lots done, but very little sewing this week.

First, a winner of my giveaway, which I didn't get to this weekend because we were at a wedding and I didn't want to interrupt family time. {Okay, really, the hotel internet was terrible.}

Random.org says the winner is....

....18!

Rachel, who looks like she uses panels.

She said: "Selling a house is such a pain. Empty as much as possible out so it looks bigger. No toys or pets helps, too. Good luck! The panel is cute. I know a couple of expectant moms...."

Lots of good advice from you all! I wonder if burying the Saint will work for a non-Catholic. ;)

I'm in the final crunch of cleaning, and working my way through a pile of t-shirt quilts, but first I need to take care of Victor, who died made a remarkable recovery while the Dude was at school today.

Finished!

Fractured Four Patch

A peek at Rainbow Sherbet. Full post will be up in time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

In Progress

Fusing and cutting blocks for the Raiders T-shirt Quilt.

The next stack...already measured and laid out on paper. Once the design is approved, I'll start cutting.

And in the RSC corner, I separated my blues into the suggested light/bright/dark. Except I don't really have a lot of what I'd consider bright. Which is okay - since they're wee little blocks, I don't want 30 blues compared to 10 of the other colors, so I think light/dark is enough.

As usual, the design wall isn't changing. Maybe someday soon...like when I don't have to run to three different stores to find a betta with the right coloring.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fractured Four Patch - Finished!

Just checking them off the list now! Look at me go!

This is Fractured Four Patch, a baby quilt for my sister...to give to a friend.

It was an experiment based on this block by What Comes Next. I used 9" (unfinished) starter blocks - cutting four pieces/two blocks from a quarter yard cut - for a 15" (finished) final block.

I debated using several different cuts, or just one each of the lavender/yellow. 

In retrospect...with the bigger blocks, probably should have gone with one each. If there were more, smaller blocks, the lightest lavender wouldn't stand out so much. (See: top right corner.)

And, it would have been pretty cool in two colors with all the twists and turns blending into each other. Mine are nice, but they are distinct blocks.

Also, if you make this as a full quilt, you should mark your ruler with the seams to line up. I trimmed willy-nilly figuring it would all match up in the end. It did...mostly...but it could have been done perfectly had I spent a little time with some tape.

I don't know if anyone can see it {I can, but I know which way to squint!} but I love the way the quilting looks on the back. It's just a double outline on the front, but it makes a cool pattern on the back.

The binding is straight-up perfection. As soon as my sister said "lavender and yellow" I knew that the binding would be. This stripe (Summerhouse Collection by Andover) has been in my stash forever - or at least, three years. And yet I still packed it off to the storage unit before the quilt was done.

I also made a ribbon blankie from the scraps.

45x60"

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quilt Matters

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt {FAL List}
Let's Make Baby Quilts @ Michelle's Romantic Tangle

Giveaway Day!

Hey, look, I managed to remember Giveaway Day was coming and left something out on purpose during the packing!

{Okay, not really. I have all my panels still hanging in the closet. But let's pretend I'm organized and prepared!}

{It's not really crooked. That's my mad camera skillz.}

Up for grabs: one 23x44" quilt panel by South Seas Imports. Slap some borders on it and it'll make a great baby quilt.

To enter, leave a comment with your favorite house selling tip. As a military wife, I have the moving thing down {going on #8 in 11 years!} - but I am a newbie and terrified by this house selling process!

Giveaway ends May 10 at 5 pm PST.

Check out more giveaways at Sew Mama Sew!

Weekly Progress - Moving Along

Finally, things are slowing down on the house, so I have some spare time to make some quilt deadlines! We are doing the last clean sweep this week, making sure all the paint is touched up, and possibly listing it by the weekend if our realtor thinks we're ready! Whew. That was a loooooooooong six weeks.

Finished!

Fireman T-Shirt Quilt

Almost finished!

Fractured Four Patch - just tying off the quilting threads from the middle sections. Why, oh why, did I do double lines?

Quilting!

Rainbow Sherbet - we're going to a wedding this weekend, so I'll get to hand this off to my MIL in person! {Woohoo, no shipping costs!}

Piecing

Raiders T-Shirt Quilt - yup, another one. This one won't fit my "standard" design, which is a little more fun but a little more work.

Design Wall

Haha, of course it hasn't changed. Depending on how I do on the deadline stuff, I'm going to try to fit in a Boardwalk/Cat Tails morning sometime this week.

Cutting

I cut all my green RSC blocks! Wait, that was April's color? And it's May now? And May is blue? And my blue scrap bin is...oh, whew, she knew that. Sorting it into three piles - I can do that!

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times
BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy
Scrap Basket Sunday @ Kim's Big Quilting Adventure

Fireman T-Shirt Quilt - Finished!

Finally, a finish! It's only been, what, two months?

The basic t-shirt quilt, this time for a LA fireman. {The father of this running t-shirt one.}

The cornerstones were fussy-cut from a border print. And the borders are just about perfect! Bound in black Kona, backed in black minkee.

68x80"

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Textile Diva

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

Finish-A-Long @ She Can Quilt {FAL List}