Working on languishing projects

My son graduated high school in 2009.  Do you think his signature quilt that I made him for graduation has languished about long enough?  sigh.  Tonight I went upstairs for half an hour and trimmed the sides, made a label and sewed it on, and cut the strips for binding it.  I would have stayed up there longer but it was unbearably hot.  I have a fan up there, just didn't want to bother dragging it out and all that.  I think it's well passed time I get that quilt done and give it to him already.

Like I needed more fabric...

I did need it, honest, I did!  How could I have resisted these cute fabrics? 

I got both of them in San Francisco.  The bears are just so cute.  I couldn't leave them at the shop...  And the town just caught my eye.  So cool!

Home Again!

We are back from San Francisco - tired, but still psyched by the great time we had! 

Is this a majestic sight or what?  The mighty Redwood Trees in Muir Woods were one of the highlights of our trip.  Muir Woods is just breathtaking.  The fact that these trees are hundreds of years old is mind boggling. 

The Golden Gate Bridge!  We traveled over the bay on this American Icon.  Our tour guide (thanks, Uncle!), pointed out the finer points of the bridge, including the tie off cables on either side of the structure for workers to attach themselves to when working on the bridge.  Not a job I think I would want...

Fisherman's Wharf was cool!  Lots and lots of people.  So much to see, I know we only only saw a fraction of it all.

Sea lions at Pier 39 on the floating docks were a kick!  The story goes that the sea lions just showed up and decided these docks were a good place to crash.  While the city of SF was trying to decide how to move them on their merry way, people started flocking to see them.  So SF turned them into a tourist attraction.  This picture was taken off the top area of Pier 39.  The good part was we weren't downwind...  Haha. 

Alcatraz.  I have to admit, I was not at all excited about this part of our trip.  When we got on the ferry to go out to the island, the boat started tossing and turning - I told Ev that if the boat tipped over I was never going to let him forget it!  Visiting Alcatraz was one of the 'must do' things on Ev's list, not mine.  When we first got on the island, all I could think of was that I was at an old prison with hundreds of birds (which we all know I'm not too fond of) and lots of bird poop...  Well, I have to tell you, once we were inside the prison and started the walking tour, with the headphones, hearing all about the details of the place, it just came alive for me.  It really really was interesting!  I'm glad we went.  I'm also glad they didn't keep us...  haha.

This restaurant, Stacks, was within walking distance of my uncle's place.  We ate there for breakfast each morning because the food was so good!  The service was pretty awesome, too.  Really friendly staff.  I had decided that I would eat sourdough bread every day I was out there.  Most of it was eaten at Stacks!  We went out for a steak to another restaurant one night.  It was a nice place, too.  But I liked Stacks best!

We visited more places than this, but for now, I'm going to close.  Still have a little jet lag... haha.

Going AWOL

Going to be gone from the blog a few days.  Heading out for vacation in sunny CA.  So excited!  Been packing and getting ready all day today.

Going to visit a few quilt shops, of course.  Looking forward to that part alot!  What I'm really looking forward to is seeing my uncle who I haven't seen for ages.  Just can't wait!  woohoo!

Be back in a few days!

Past and Present

Here's the pics from the three quilts I finished:

 Stained Glass

 Cascading Colors

Warm Batiks

Back of Warm Batiks.  Persimmon colored thread, loopy loop free motion quilting.

 Back of Cascading Colors.  Varigated thread, loopy loop free motion quilting.

Back of Stained Glass.  Varigated thread, loopy loop free motion quilting.

That's the present.  The past is what I've been working on a little bit last night and today.  Remember Bonnie Hunter's Mystery 'Roll Roll Cotton Boll'?  Well, I have all the pieces cut, they just needed to be assembled into blocks.  I made a few of them and until I figure out what I want to do next, I think when I want to sew, I had better work on RRCB.  It's aged long enough, don't you think?  haha.

Three for Three

Three quilts were finished in the last three days!  Warm Batiks, Cascading Colors, and Stained Glass were all completed.  Right down to the labels!  Woohoo!  I have a bit of a break now between the birthdays, I think.  Next one is in September.  It will sneak up on me, so I better get it done so I don't have to worry about it, right?

I also loaded up three wheelbarrow full of dirt from the front yard and transferred it to the back yard to fill in holes where my precious Ivy had dug.  She insists that the baby bunnies that next under the steps each year have to be 'played' with, consequently the dirt under the steps to the pool has been dug at many times.  At some point the pool steps are going to be crooked and falling down if we don't put more dirt there, and since having the water line dug up earlier in the year provided us with the dirt, why not?  Think I might be pretty sore tomorrow because not only did I move dirt, I used the electric chainsaw to cut down brush behind the garage this morning.

The third three - well, I took three showers!  haha.  One in the morning, again after chopping brush and finally after moving dirt!

I'll post pics of the quilts soon.

A bunch of binding and a bunch of burgers

Kind of an odd combo, but this was what I was up to tonight:

These are the strips that make up the binding for Cascading Colors, all sewn together and ready to go.  I have the label made and ready to attach.  I am binding Stained Glass in black.  I cut them out and sewed them together, and made the label and attached it. 

And here's the bunch of burgers.  Kind of a blurry shot because the plate is covered with plastic wrap, but there are 10 mini double cheeseburgers on that beautiful big purple plate.  Now, why in the world did I make that many?  Johanna isn't going to be home tonight, Nick doesn't live here, and I won't eat more than one.  Ev won't eat 9 burgers!  Well, he will have something yummy to take to lunch tomorrow.

Considering it was a work day, I feel like I got a lot done today in the sewing room.  I spent about two and a half hours sewing.  It was funny because I went upstairs before I made the burgers and did some sewing and left the window open.  I thought I was done for the night, so after I was done cooking I went upstairs to shut the window and ended up staying there another hour!

One of my favorite movies, The Princess Bride, is on t.v. tonight.  I have lost count of how many times I have watched it.  If you have never seen it, you really should.  I know it probably is considered a children's movie, but there's so many adult nuances (not dirty) in it that a person never gets bored.  Great acting, too!

Being productive before work

This morning after I got out of the shower and was dressed, except for my shoes, I went up to the sewing room and did a little bit on warm batiks.  I sewed the binding to three sides of the quilt on the back.  Tonight it shouldn't be a problem getting that quilt completely finished. 

And then hopefully I can get the strips cut for the other two that need binding.  Oh, and I can't forget to get them labelled too!  Poor Nick's signature quilt is still patiently waiting to have the binding put on it!  Maybe, just maybe, I will get around to that sometime soon...

What I accomplished tonight

I didn't get a lot done, but I did get a few things done upstairs.  It was just too humid and hot to stay there for any length of time.  I have a feeling the little Featherweight machine is going to get a lot of use this summer at the kitchen table!

I managed to trim up Cascading Colors and cut binding strips for the warm batiks quilt.  I also sewed the binding strips together and picked out the thread to use.  Oh, and I wrote out a label for it and sewed it to the corner by machine and then the one edge by hand.  I'm real close to having these three done.

There is still a light rain falling.  It's so neat to have the windows open and hear the soft patter of the rain and the chorus of peeper frogs singing.

Why I still feel needed

My darling son ran out of gas.  In the rain.  And called his mom.