End of Month Report - July

 July  involved a lot of this...

...and this...

...with a little bit of sewing and wedding stuff thrown in!

Family: our house in Oklahoma is under contract and should close soon. We found a new place in Washington - renting this time - and will be moving in today. Well, the Dude and I. Our stuff might be here in a week. Let's just say it was NOT a good move for our stuff.

The Dude: got the award for muddiest at Cub Scouts camp. And he has the once-white t-shirt to prove it!

We stopped at Dinosaur and Craters of the Moon National Monuments on our way to Washington, and we all had a great time. The Dude especially loved the pteroglyphs at Dinosaur and the lava tube caves at Craters. I'll have a full post on that once I can use a computer that takes camera cards!

The cat: is already meeting with his new cancer vet in Spokane. Cancer is still in remission, but he is getting a feeding tube, as my 17 pound behemoth is now six pounds. :(

Adoption: well, let's just say the agency asked us to update the home study asap because travel may be in the near future. Which still could be a while.

Wedding: threw a very purple bridal shower in between all the moving and house hunting. And made sure I had a professional photographer around, so the photos are amazing! Full post on that soon, too. {Hey, I have nothing to do until the boxes are delivered!} I believe Lori is posting about it on Friday, if you want to see more.

Running: very little this month - just some sprints (ow) and a nice pre-shower run with Lori. In which we got lost in my parents' development, but managed the fastest 3.5 miles for either of us in the recent past.

Sewing: okay, this got to be a long update before I even got to the sewing!

Two quilt finishes - a second family t-shirt quilt, and a second really random quilt.

Finished the blues from, um, May, maybe? But that caught me up to the end of June on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Obviously my teal scraps were elsewhere this month.


{The following pictures were taken with hotel room lighting and a cell phone. Sorry.}

There was some shopping along the way, of course! I picked up everything but the neutral to make a quilt for my son's foster mother in Korea. The quilt is based on the "Road to Oklahoma" block {since we thought we'd be in Oklahoma when he came} so it seems appropriate that the fabric came from the road to Washington.

And I grabbed three pieces of Happy Go Lucky to finish off my little collection for Spin Cycle. Now I just need the neutrals {and time} to start that one!




And the biggie - my mother-in-law talked me into making this massive kit. The pattern has instructions to break it down into a BOM, so I will spend some time cutting and bagging it for that, in between unpacking. I've got just under two years before her 60th birthday!

So my four goals from last month? The two quilts are done, the move is...done-ish, and the sanity was gone by halfway through the month.

This month, I'd like to:

1. Move in/unpack.

2. Finish St. Paul's Cross. Yeah, I'm only two blocks in. No biggie. I'm sure I totally remember how to paper piece.

3. Start "H is for Henry."

4. Start the Road to OK/WA quilt.

Linked:

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

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

Weekly Progress - The End

Oh, Oklahoma... I never much liked you. With the extreme summer heat, the mediocre winters, the poisonous spiders, the tornadoes...and the wind. Seriously. The wind. Even in the summer, it just felt like living in a blow dryer. I really only liked September-November here.

But there are great people, of course, who will be missed. People, groups, and places who helped hone my skills in quilting and running. I ran my first half marathon here {well, in Florida. But while living here.} I took my first quilting class here {well, I made a half dozen or so quilts before that...but we don't talk about those.}

I went to my LQS, Prairie Quilt, one last time this week, to use my punchcard discount. Since I'm being a responsible adult, I bought backing for a quilt I already have on the list and a pattern that's on the list. {And a fat quarter for a quilt that's on the list that doesn't really need more fabric, but whatever. Mostly responsible adult.}

Finished!

 My last batch of squadron baby blankets.

My last t-shirt quilt.
{Okay, not really. I have a pile of shirts to take with me for the next one.}

No Rainbow Scrap leader/ender blocks, since there was nothing but some quilting this week. I did originally say I didn't have much teal, but I realized, hello, half of Boardwalk is aqua/teal! But also packed.

Speaking of packed...

Don't the packers know that it's Projects In Grocery-sacks? Do we need to start calling them FIZ?

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

Family T-Shirt Quilt #2 - Finished!

This is one that falls under "only for a good friend." In fact, her son is my son's bestest friend {and the reason he is not pleased with moving.}

This is more than forty different t-shirts. Way, way past my maximum and took longer to get it organized on paper than it did to put it together. I'm not going to lie, it took two glasses of wine to finally fit the puzzle together.

This Dare t-shirt was the bane of my existence. It's like the kids didn't even think about how it would look in a quilt someday when they were busy signing on the shoulders and centimeters from the collar!

But eventually, it did all come together.

The backing is dark blue flannel from Joann's and the binding is a mottled blue from Hobby Lobby.

The quilting is an extra special touch that makes me smile. It's the Ohio Star, and they are headed back to Ohio after this assignment. So I tell the Dude, "Maybe Daddy will get a job at Wright-Patt next, and you and D will be together again." It's a small Air Force, you never know.

70x78"

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}

Finish-A-Long 3rd Quarter Goals

This is a repost of my neverending UFO list, with a few specific items highlighted as must-dos in this quarter.

Orders

Family T-Shirt Quilt #2 - in progress

Chevron Baby Quilt - ordered

Matching PJ set - ordered

Gobble Gobble Mini - ordered

Pillow Shams - ordered

Vera Bradley Stars Quilt - ordered

Witch Table Runner - ordered

H is for Henry - ordered
Squadron T-Shirt Quilt - ordered

Obviously the orders come first. Luckily the table runner and mini for my mother are easy ones. The Chevron baby quilt will be a good excuse to go through my scraps as I unpack. Henry's quilt fabric {pictured above} arrived last week, as did Henry.

The Vera Bradley Stars is also a possibility - the fabric owner was worried that her precious would get lost in the move, so she held off on mailing it. {Am I super terrified my preciouses will be lost in the move? Yes, yes I am.}

To Be Quilted

Layer Cake Quilt Along

Skorca!

Christmas Stars
Four Patch Frenzy 1
Frolicking Pinwheels 1
Heart Table Runner
Leftover Bunting Quilt
Nine Patch Snowballs
Ornament Table Runner
Pink Hunter's Star
Postage Stamp Table Runner
Sunkissed Pillow
Swoon

I want Swoon to be my Blogger's Quilt Festival quilt this fall. So I need to hunt down the last piece of fabric for backing and get moving on that.

Partially Pieced

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2012

Boardwalk

Cat Tails

Four Patch Frenzy 2
Fat Quarter Stars
Frolicking Pinwheels 2
Log Cabin Shoes
Polaroid Quilt
Saturday Sampler 2012
St. Paul's Cross
Strip XOs
Woven Snowmen
Flirt Marks the Spot
Cat Flying Geese
Cars

Toy Story 1

Toy Story 2

My bestest friend's birthday is September, and this year she also finishes up her doctoral dissertation. St. Paul's Cross will take a lot of work {Y-seams and paper piecing, oh my!} But I really, really want to get it done.

Just Needs Borders

Central Park Sudoku
Chunky Log Cabin
Summer Drinks

Planned {as in, I already own the fabric}

Cardinal Charm Tesselation
Coffee panels and yardage
Lone Star
Pez Schnibble
Voila Pumpkin Kit
Bonnie & Camille Spin City
Monkey Jelly Roll
Trip Around the World
California Girl Double Hourglass
Hello Luscious Avignon Picnic
Mason Jar quilt
Homespun + Jeans

Star Wars Pixelated

Scrap Project {as in, scraps that are partially pieced in some way and enough to make a mini or pillow, or there's enough that I can get another entire quilt out of it and am therefore unwilling to separate them...}

Civil War Scraps
HST Joy Scraps
HST Swoon Scraps
Winnie the Pooh Scraps
Sew Cherry HST Scraps
Fairy Scraps
Saturday Sampler '11 Scraps
Pink Hunter Star Scraps
Blue Hunter Star Scraps
Steelers Scraps

Small Project {already in some stage of production}

OU/OSU Bunting
Crayon Rolls
Car Organizer
Red Suede Purse

Linked:
She Can Quilt Finish-Along

Weekly Progress - Big Things

Major events happening around here. Because I needed more on my plate before we moved.

We accepted a contract on the house! Yay! Awesome! Now I need to add inspections and carpet cleaning to my before-we-leave list! {Not that I'm complaining. Really. Honest.}

{I claim this minivan in the name of Run Disney.}

We bought a minivan! Yay! Awesome! Now I need to get it registered before we leave. And use it to make a million and a half trips to the storage unit to empty that. And repack it.

I plan on having everything that will go with us packed before the movers arrive next week. And that would be everything we need for the move, plus the bridal shower. Should be fun.

Finished!

Really Random Quilt #2

In Progress:

The last t-shirt quilt is 75% quilted - the grid is almost done, then I have some diagonal lines to add.

Design Wall...is no more. I broke down the insulation and threw it out {saving the flannel, of course.} Sad day.

And I caught up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! And July is teal, of which I already made two, and...that's the extent of my teal scraps. So, woo! All done for July!

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

Really Random Quilt #2

This one was slightly harder than the first random quilt. For this one, she requested OU, Steelers, and Angels...not exactly things that go together!

However, I have a ton of OU and Steeler scraps, so I started hunting for something that would work while she hunted for Angels fabric.

Which, turns out there's not any! She lucked out on a 8x15" slab on eBay, and pilfered one of her son's t-shirts. Since we had almost no Angels fabric, I wanted to make the most of what we had.

I was drawn to this pattern, done in OSU by Kate from Life in Pieces, mixed with this quilt by Kati from the blue chair. Mostly, I liked the randomness of Kati's but the slab piecework {and therefore no 90º corner seams} of Kate's.

This is as close to improv piecing I'll ever get...all the main blocks are 12.5", unplanned until I started each one. And I really doubted the process the entire time, especially the negative space in the corners. 

But now that it's done...I love it! I can't say it turned out the way I pictured it, because I didn't really have a "picture" plan, but I think it turned out really well.

I mean, how else would you blend all these fabrics? {Which started a debate about letting children in the same household support OSU/Packers vs. OU/Steelers.}

The solid is Kona Marine and the backing is black minky. {Yes, this is her fourth quilt backed in the same minky.}

42x56"

Linked:

Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict

TGIFF @ Quokka Quilts

Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts

Link A Finish Friday @ Richard and Tanya Quilts

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

Weekly Progress - Time Management

Something I need to work on, obviously. The realization that I had four quilts to finish before we leave/end of Fourth of July weekend really kicked me into gear. Luckily they're all easy and/or close to done.

Finished!

Really Random Quilt #1

Family T-Shirt Quilt #1

Design Wall: Really Random Quilt #2 - all but the top two corner blocks are done. I ran out of blue. But the calculations are done - including binding so I'm not making yet another trip - and I will be out to get more blue as soon as the Dude is awake.

Family T-Shirt Quilt #2 is well on its way, with most of the rows assembled. I have to cut three more shirts to fill a couple holes.

And my Rainbow Scrap Challenge is loving all this piecing! I finished all the yellows, as well as the previously unfinished orange, and a couple blues. I might run out of blues before the next color is announced!

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