Continuing on...

The Month of DaGMT continues~

I learned today that a kind, wonderful man I have worked with in community theater lost his wife this week to ovarian cancer. They have two small children (4 & 1) and this news is just so devastating. If you're the praying sort, please lift this family up.

   I have sewn every day except Sundays and last Saturday when I spent the day at the annual Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show. I enjoy that day so much- my dear friend Diane and I have made it our tradition to go together and I love her company so much. I bought a few treats this year (we were unemployed last year so I didn't buy much) : a wool candle mat kit, some pre-cut squares, a few fat quarters, a redwork pattern and the one thing I really wanted but didn't know it--- a ruler that makes joining the ends of binding a snap to put together. I'm not sure what's wrong with my brain but when I sew on a binding I struggle to get that nice bias seam on the last connection. I watched a demo of this tool and knew I had to have it!

  Progress has been made on the Scrap Vomit blocks (no pictures) and the blocks for the 'Taking Names' test/swap. I also made the doll quilt for this months Doll Quilter's Monthly exchange. Incedently, it will be my last as I have withdrawn from the group.
 

                                                                      swap blocks

doll quilt

 

 

A UFO done~

DaGMT Progress
                                            Tuesday, Wednesday/ Feb. 12 & 13

                             Presenting "Bear Tracks", my first machine-quilted, flannel top,
                            pattern test subject quilt (for Cindy at Quilt Doodle Doodles ).
                             Begun in the spring of 2012, finished in February 2013, and
                            given to Number 1 Chef-Son in honor of his moving out to his first home.
                                                                  ( 'sniff/tear/sniff' )

 

(Machine quilting by Mary at Quilt Hollow )

DaGMT Progress
                                                                 Monday, Day 11

 On my list of UFO's that will get done~ "Bear Tracks". The binding is machine stitched on. The hand stitching begins tonight!

                 I think I'll make a stop at a RedBox and find a good movie to watch while stitching.
                                                                     Any suggestions?

Five, Six ~ Pick Up Sticks... and Picks... and Socks

DaGMT Progress
                                                                   Tuesday, Day 5
 In a previous post I briefly mentioned that Jacie is working on re-arranging and painting her bedroom. As we make our way around the room, which I thought I had thoroughly swept and de-cluttered before moving anything, I have been amazed at how many drumsticks, guitar picks and socks have appeared. I'm constantly finding picks in the dryer, too, so it just makes me wonder: just what have these kids been using on their instruments--and feet!-- all this time? Maybe they are like hangers, where you get a couple in a dark, dusty corner and voooom! Inanimate object reproduction! But I did sneak in work on my quilt group/test blocks. I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing before I started on anyone else's.

 Oh, please meet Wallie, my new design wall. It took a little re-arranging of the space but he's made and hanging. He is one third of DH's Christmas present to me. The second third is a new cutting surface that is still in progress. The last third is his letting me do this to our bedroom. I made Wallie from a pre-stretched canvas from A.C. Moore (on sale + 10.00 coupon= about 13.00 bucks) and about 2 yards of flannel, on sale at JoAnn's for 2.50 py. I had the hooks lying around. Times like these are why it's good to be a pack rat.

 

 

W/T/F,  Day 6, 7 and 8

 

More vomituous progress on the scrap vomit as I assembled a bunch of block centers and made more strips. I had been doing this block by block but I am anxious to get this monster together so I'm trying to speed it up using an assembly line system. Sewed a bunch one day,  pressed 'em the next, sewed some more. (Did you ever notice that, after Tuesday, even the calendar says "WTF"?)

 

 

Saturday,  Day 9

 Cutting day~~ cut lots of triangles and strips for the group project. It's a thrift store work day as I start in earnest to costume the spring show. And I made manicotti. I. Cooked. Something.

                                                                    Sunday, Day 10
 Sewing day off.  The kids had 'hang out with friends time' after church, and DH didn't have any collateral duties, so he and I had a nice lunch at a favorite bagel shop and hit some more thrift stores until it was time to pick up the kids. Lovely day with my church family and my love!

 

 

 

 

 

Three, four, shut the door! It's freezing in here!

DaGMT progress Day 3
  None, unless you count digging out a few FQs for a potential need. But it wasn't for lack of trying; it was for lack of electricity. See, I have an old house. Creaky old. It's almost one hundred and some parts really show it, particularly the electricity. Some of the house, like the upstairs overhead lights and a few outlets, are very old wiring and connected to each other. Some of the house is newer because the VA wouldn't approve the loan to buy this "starter house" some 27 years ago until the electricity was upgraded some. So, to sum it up, this place is wired weirdly. Now understand that the furnace was also replaced in that first year and, just before Christmas, it died. Replacing the system isn't an option right now, so we're getting by these chilly (aka "freezing") days with strategically placed space heaters. It's a little challenging because simply turning on a light can cause a breaker to flip and shut off odd parts of the house at a time, both upstairs and down. But it's okay because I have two teenagers at home and it's very easy to send one of them into the cold to flip the breaker back on and life goes on. :) One outlet in the hall popped several days ago, taking out a couple of lights we can live without.  But Saturday night was different-- Jacie has been painting her bedroom and in the moving of furniture something got hit that blew one of the outlets in her room. Along with that outlet, out went all the overheads upstairs and outlets in each bedroom and the only bathroom in the house. The only thing that worked upstairs was the outlet in her room we had added last summer for her air conditioner-now-heater. Suffice it to say, Saturday night was cold upstairs! Sunday afternoon
-- usually called "sewing time"-- gave way to a trip to the hardware store for new plugs and some contorting on the floor as I replaced the broken one in J's room and the one in the hall that turned out to be not broken after all. So we got back most of the power upstairs but by then it was time to make dinner and fall asleep in my favorite chair. I woke in time to see the second half of the Superbowl through sleepy eyes. When the power went out in the stadium I told my husband they could call an electrician. I was NOT going to New Orleans to replace their broken outlet. And I went back to sleep with my wonderful heater humming warmly.

Day 4

 Spent a good 2 hours working on a quilt pattern testing project--- no pictures! But it's a fun project and I'm looking forward to sharing it later on!  No UFO progress but sewing nonetheless!

...and they're off!

  Yesterday was February first, the official start day of Drop and Give Me Twenty 2013. I made my 30 minute quota easily since I had to finish a few blocks for an online block swap. The pattern required was "Card Tricks" and they might be the most challenging block I've ever done. It's not particularly hard to put together-- it's all straight sewing-- but I had a dickens of a time with 'flipping' triangles. At least once each block I sewed one of those suckers to the wrong side even though I had them all laid out in their proper place! You'd think after the first couple I'd have an assembly line-style, foolproof method to keep 'em straight but I still managed to do some ripping each block. Ah, well, we'll just call them "patience practice".  I had to make 4 blocks, each with it's own colorway for each of two partners, so 8 blocks total.  Here's one of the two identical groups:

 

February 2, 2013

Although this one isn't due until the middle of the month, I wanted to clear my swappin' schedule so I can focus on UFOs and a pattern test I'm helping with. I made my first "Crazy Patch" from a large stash of satins, silks and velvets I've been hoarding for just this kind of quilt. This one goes to a swap partner. I made one for myself to keep, but a little smaller.

 

How are doing with your goals?