OPAM for February

Fnished in the nick of time. Pinwheels from 1992. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. This doesn't show the binding on it but it's done now, but the pictures were such a pain to get with the light hitting the quilt just right to show the quilting so we're not taking another photo.

Close ups are over at my other blog; the quilter upstairs.

74 x 108 before quilting.

son

What do you do?

Andrew is working like crazy on his Science Fair Project...due today. He did the experiments by himself; he came up with the idea by himself; he has totally worked independently except for me making him move his experiment from the table to the Formica counter top and taking some dictation from him last night, since I can type faster than he can. He's been doing a great job.

This morning he wanted to get up early to finish. So I woke him up at 5; he got up; I went back to bed. At 6 I stumble down to see how he is doing. He is eating cereal in the clothes he slept in (scout uniform) and his board is empty. So I asked him what he'd been doing. HE'D SPENT AN HOUR TRYING TO GET THE LID OFF THE MILK!

Help me here. Is it me or do you think he should have been doing something else?

necklace

To illustrate a phone call I made to my Mother I'm posting these pictures.

I went to a resale store Thursday while running an errand for the Scoutmaster (my husband). I found a small cupboard that I'll post about after it is hung, a Denver plate, a small glass dish (to the right of the Denver plate), a crystal turkey dish, and a beautiful turquoise necklace. I'm a sucker for hearts and turqoise so finding them together was wonderful.

Early Thursday morning I checked my account to see how much money I had left for my groceries and was surprised at how much money was there...DUH! Thursday morning is the day I get my grocery money. I have for about 7 years but I totally forgot that so I spent more than I would have have if I hadn't gone brain dead. We will be eating beans a couple of times next week; totally worth it.

working on a quilt

My Pinwheels just came off the long-arm! The quilting is finished but...My husband is sound asleep and I can't find the camera. So I'll have to wait until tomorrow but I'm in the quiltathon and had to post something. 

I also got to spend 3 1/2 hours at a spelling bee. My eleven year old won at his school so today was the county bee. He came in 4th! Wow can he spell. I didn't write down the first 2 but he spelled;

• futon
• screen
• harpoon
• abdicate
• manhandle
• wasabi
• hygiene
• physique
• hydraulic
• contraband
• bureaucracy 

and then misspelled baloo. :(

He didn't loose control when he lost and we went out to lunch at BJ's. 

Then I finished 'frogging' the stitch in the ditch I'd done last month on this quilt; put it back in and did all the ditch work, turned it and did the top and bottom borders. I enjoyed doing the free hand spiral/ribbon ? feathers. 

I'll edit this and put a picture in tomorrow.

edit:

So frustrating; in laying it out I found 1 line of quilting that I didn't put in. Then we laid out the quilt I finished last week and found one sash that didn't get any quilting!

Seriously cute

You may not like this look but I think it wold be adorable on a small baby girl....hint, hint... 

They also have a cute acorn hat and cowboy boots.  Go over to sherbet blossom and sign up for a give away. Only booties are being given away but they're cute too; just not as cute as the hat!

quilts on my mind

These two quilts have been on my mind lately and since I have to wait for my long-arm man to come today I got them out yesterday. The pink and green one is a block sampler from 'Quilts by the Bay' (a quilt shop in Galveston). 

It was a challenge for me since the directions were written for the Marti Mitchell templates. I did not want to buy the templates... so I drafted each pattern for myself and a friend that was doing it with me.  Saved me about ...$45.

I love pink and red together. I love the pink background fabric with roses. Unfortunately we started the quilt the year the pink fabric was discontinued so it was difficult to find. (Maybe that was fortunate; I loved it so much I may have put it in EVERY block if I could have.)

I have been helping/teaching a friend make her first quilt; a t-shirt quilt. So I have been thinking about Brian's. Since I finally found the blocks I decided to lay it out. But what should I put between the blocks? I'm thinking outline each block in black and then use some of his hair color, rusty red, fabric scattered in the larger areas.

700 licks

Did you know that the tootsie roll inside a tootsie roll pop is not a sphere? It's a misshapen blob; and it takes about 700 licks to get to the center. 

Inquiring minds want to know.

How many licks does it take to drive a Mother mad? About 100.

frogging

Remember this? I had all the butterflies quilted but upon closer inspection I realized that the tension was off. So Friday and Saturday I picked out ALL the butterflies; the good news is that bad stitches are pretty easy to pull out. Last night I got them all resewn. Now for the borders....3 big fat borders that are crying out for free motion feathers. It is a little scary to dive into since the fabrics are light and my quilting will SHOW!

Those that are wondering what frogs have to do with this post; when you rip-it, rip-it, rip-it it's called frogging.

yummy food

Just to make you hungry I thought I'd post what should have been our Valentine dinner. It wasn't; we fixed this for Melissa to eat right before she had to leave for the airport last week. SOOOO good. 

It was similar to Melissa's Salmon Taco's that we all love but without the corn tortilla. 

See the bacon wrapped jalopeno's? I love them; unfortunately I can only eat the one's I fix since I am meticulous about getting every seed and every bit of white membrane out of those yummy peppers. Then I don't cough up a lung while eating them. I think the trick is meticulous cleaning; wearing rubber gloves and choosing the biggest peppers. I've made 4 cookie sheets full of these in my lifetime and have not gotten a bit of fire, yet.  What can I say? I like to live dangerously.

See the cilantro? That's the secret to a great meal, that and black beans, oh and the salmon, and the pepper things, grilled peppers, a lime to squeeze over all of it and some sliced tomatoes. That makes a perfect meal.

stash buster

First of all this is not a quilt I finished this week. I did not finish a quilt this week. Sad but true so looked through my pictures and decided this was appropriate for the season.  This started out as an exchange; I bought the fabric and made the first heart and did not like it at all so I altered the pattern and made it up for myself.  I remember selling my typewriter to a friend for $30 and using the $30 for fabric for this quilt. I worked on this every February for a while. Quilted on my domestic machine.

Stash report

in-I was gifted (thanks Mom) 1/4 yard but I don't count gifts- so 0 yards in.

out-0 yards

net-0

year to date:

In; 3.25

Out: 31.05

net -27.8

OTTLite give away

It is not common to find a give-away that involves something I really need/want. But here is someone giving away an OTTLite. My mother has one and loves it; I love it too but it lives about 900 miles from me so getting my own would be a good idea. So hop over here and check out the budget quilter.

Austin

I'm the queen of bad photo taking but grandma wanted to see more pictures of Austin and this is the best of about 15 I took. Everyone out of focus! 

centerpiece

My nod to Valentine's day. One centerpiece in the middle of our coffee table. The pillar candles are one's I made for Liz's wedding and the heart garland was crocheted for me by my niece. I made the quilt with exchange blocks and hand quilted it with hearts; one of my few hand quilted items.  the silver cake plate I got at a thrift store for $3.00 and the pearls came out of my wedding supply drawer. Inside the coffee table I have a few old valentines and a few reproduction valentines and empty heart shaped chocolate boxes. I'd like to figure out where/how to get a rhinestone pin in there and find another candle for that empty candle holder. I do have a Heart quilt up but I blogged about it last year.  If you like pretty table's check out the links at 'My Romantic Home.'

red and blue quilt

At 12 Melissa, my oldest, really wanted to go to quilt guild with me. I told her she could go when she finished the quilt she was working on. She finished it on her 13th birthday and went and got to show her quilt in show and tell.

During that meeting we had a 'sweat shop' where we worked together to make a red and green Irish Chain quilt. At the end of the meeting there was a drawing to see who got to take home the wall hanging; Melissa won that top and then for Christmas I made it large enough for a double bed, maybe queen. 

Anyway, back to her red and blue quilt. Since I was going to fabric stores and children do not particularly like going to fabric stores I would let her pick out a piece of red or blue fabric for her quilt. Then after that got pieced I'd get her another...She wanted this quilt to be big enough, but NO bigger than her body. She'd lay it down on the floor and then lay next to it to see if it was long enough to cover her yet. (Her previous quilt was a small doll quilt; not big enough to cover much of herself.)

She tied the center and machine quilted straight lines in the border and hand quilted stars in the outer corner. She even sewed the binding on herself.  After years of use the ties were coming untied and she asked me to long-arm it. We are both happy with the way it turned out. I figured it took 6 hours to just do the blocks, I didn't time the sashing or borders.

stash report

Here are both of Austin's quilts. The first is presently hanging on his wall. The second is the one I just finished; it's 36 X 41. I can only estimate how much fabric it used; 4.25 yards. You can see that the binding isn't quite finished in the photo but the light was right so we took the photo so the quilting would show up. The binding is finished and the quilt has been washed but the light hasn't been right for another photo. I've blogged about this Austin quilt and the first version here, here, here, here, and here. I really think I've gotten all the mileage I can get out of 2 small quilts.

Stash report:

in; 1 block kit for a 12" block not very much fabric...say 1/4 yard?

out; 4.25 yards

year to date:

In; 3.25

Out: 31.05

net -27.8

p.s. I found the Reisen they had just moved it over.

Reisen

I had a scare last week. I went looking for a candy I used to buy and couldn't find it. Reisen. Soo good. While Brian was sick his friends in Virginia sent him a care package; a box of candy that each had contributed too. One of those gifts was a bag of Reisen; the first time any of us had tasted it. Brian didn't eat much candy so guess who had to eat it for him? I found that Reisen helped me stay awake on the daily, then weekly visits to M.D.Anderson Hospital. (In my defense I was getting up at night with an infant; taking care of a toddler and 3 teenagers). I haven't been eating them much so when I couldn't find them momentarily I was afraid I had been the only one eating them in our community and when I quit they had to quit carrying them...it is a burden that I've carried before...
I used to eat Russell Stovers French Chocolate Mint Candy Bars; and could tell you which stores carried them in 2 counties. I LOVED THEM. Especially partially melted; 10 seconds in the microwave and they were WONDERFUL. I finally quit eating them and 6 months later they were gone. Nowhere in the 2 counties I shop in; I checked on-line and could still get them if I wanted to pay shipping. (I didn't.) I imagine I was the only person buying them and I bought enough to keep all those stores stocking them; when I quit and no one was buying them they quit stocking them. I feel responsible for the employment of the chocolate dippers at Russell Stovers. Now I notice they don't even sell them on line!

another quilt

Melissa came for a visit for Thanksgiving. When she came she brought 2 tied quilts of hers that she wanted quilted. She is here again and I thought it would be nice for her to take her quilts home; so I've been quilting them.

One she made when she was 13 and the ties were coming untied...that's in the machine right now but for some reason my husband needed to sleep so I quit.
This quilt is one her friends made her when her baby was born; it was also tied. I got it quilted today and am very happy with it. She is too. Ignore the one on the left; it's not quite finished so you won't see it until Sunday.

Austin came sick but this evening he was feeling much better and was such a happy guy. Hopefully Melissa will feel better tomorrow too. She'shoping to make 2 skirts  while I can help. She tweeked the pattern, cut it out and got the zipper in. She bought a linen in the fabric district of LA and doesn't want to cut it until she knows the pattern fits so she making her first skirt out of a gorgeous challis (?) I bought her before she got married.

new lights or sunburn in January

The original lighting with one additional small amount of light coming right behind or to the side of the needle.

What it looks like now.

If you look closely at the quilts I just finished I quilted dark green thread on dark green fabric. Sometimes I just guessed where the quilting was already finished cause I couldn't see it. I kept trying new lights; even wore a bright light head lamp for camping a couple times but still had a hard time without enough light. My dh (dear husband) installed these yesterday even though he felt bad. There are now 8 light bulbs right above the long arm. Many long arms have light bars attached but when the machine is going the lights have a slight vibration and besides they cost a fortune. This set up was about $100.  He decided this morning to lower them a bit but I want to get something in and try the new set up first.

Seriously these are daylight light bulbs and I was wondering if I should wear sunglasses in there. It is REALLY brighter than the picture shows.

Dad, he painted the board that they hang from; the board shows us how seriously warped our ceiling is.

Stash Report--OPAM

This is the Christmas Sampler I finished in January; just so I could list it as a finished OPAM (One project a month)- jk (just kidding). I did the math and it took 15 yards of fabric to make this 84 X 104 quilt. Since it was an exchange I just figured out how much fabric it took for the 48 star blocks that I made and exchanged a looong time ago in Baytown. This exchange was organized by Jan Beaman who owned the local quilt shop, the Rocking Chair, in about 1994. If anyone in blog land recognizes their block let me know: I did not get a list of participants and I'd really like to know who participated. The Santa was contributed by Sherry Hughes; but the rest I'm clueless about. I started quilting it on my domestic and finished on the long-arm.

The Little House quilt was also an exchange; about April 1995. I put together 2 small quilts with the houses. The pastel houses were finished a long time ago and quilted on my domestic machine. This one was started on the domestic and finished in January 2009!

week

In; 0 yards

out 17 yards

year to date:

In; 3 yards

Out: 26.8 yards

net -23.8 yards