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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Aftermath

My family fared very well when hurricane Sandy hit NYC. They never lost power. One tree came down in front of their building. DH sent the picture.
I can't imagine that all of those parking spaces were unoccupied (I've never seen open spaces in front of their building), but DH didn't mention that any cars had sustained damage. They are definitely among the most blessed of any who were in the path of the hurricane. They kept power, had no damage and no flooding. DH is not scheduled to fly out of NYC until Sunday, Nov. 4, a full week after he was originally scheduled to leave. LaGuardia is still flooded.

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, October 29, 2012

Anticipating Sandy

If you know that I live in KY, why am I anticipating Sandy? DH has been in NYC for a week visiting our new grandson. I can't go until Christmas because I am working. Anyway, he was supposed to return on Sunday night, but his flight was cancelled. He is presently booked to come home on Wednesday night. So...the cat and I are holding down the fort.

Daughter has requested more baby hats. Apparently one that I knitted for him is now the only one that fits.
For the life of me, I can't remember what size I made. So, this weekend I knitted a couple for her to try for size. I also found a darling pattern here. I made one out of 100% cotton knit. When she tells me how it fits, I will make more.

Meanwhile, I haven't done any other sewing this week. On the Go is pin basted and ready to quilt. I just haven't started it yet.
That's it for me this week. I am keeping my fingers crossed for the NYC branch of the family and hope to be reunited with DH on Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by.


Sunday, October 21, 2012

On the Go!

The house quilt is off to the long armer. I am so nervous about this. After carefully making sure that all of those seams (ALL of those seams) were pressed down neatly, I had to fold the quilt top up and put it in a box. I know those seams will be a mess again when it comes out of the box. Will someone re-press those seams? Probably not. There is so much bulk from seams that I am worried there will be a problem with the quilting. I'll try not to think about that now because there is nothing I can do about it.

Next project: quilt for newborn grandson. I chose On the Go! by Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting. I just fell in love with this quilt when I saw it. I have followed her fabric choices exactly. I have no imagination. The top went together pretty quickly.
I did have a problem with the border, though. The fabric strips were too short to complete the side sashing. Fortunately, I had two charm squares in the border fabric left over so I was able to save the project. I know that I make mistakes, but I have reread and reread that pattern and I know that the width of fabric strips were just not long enough for this quilt. It was off by about 4.5 inches. Even I don't make cutting errors that are that big. Anyway, problem solved. Baby won't care if the sashing was pieced.

I think the back of this quilt is as cute as the front. I just love the main fabric with all the trucks, etc.
I have completed the applique, but I still have to zigzag around the edges. I am glad I remembered that before I attached the applique strip to the biggest part of the backing. As it is, I had already sewn the smaller section on so I will have to deal with a little bulk as I work my way around the appliques.

Thanks for stopping by.


Saturday, October 13, 2012

Houses Ready to Quilt!

I decided to add only a simple black border. I had some other ideas early on, but with all the color going on in this quilt, I ultimately decided to keep it simple.
Now I am trying to decide if I will quilt this myself, with all those seam allowances and my 'just a beginner' skills, or if I should send it out to a long arm quilter. What would you do?

Friday, October 12, 2012

It is Together!

I knew it wouldn't take me very long to get this housing subdivision done once I could just spend some time sewing.
It feels great to see it in one piece. Now I am thinking about a border. I have solid black, but I am wondering about the width of the border. Is there a formula to follow that will be best, or is this something every quilter has to decide every time? I am kind of thinking I will want the black border to be wider than each small house block, but I am not sure.

Darn! Now that I am looking at the picture I have realized that I still have to add the sashing and cornerstones on the bottom border. Shoot. I'll do it in the morning. Sigh.

Monday, October 1, 2012

October Rabbit, Rabbit

Rabbit, rabbit! It's October. Another month gone. It is moving way too fast, especially with all my responsibilities at work. When I get past Oct. 15 I should be able to get back to my sewing. Can't wait. I am posting about my progress on Fresh Sewing Day on Lynn's blog. (See the button on the right side of my site).

Progress on the houses...pretty slow. Just haven't had machine time.
Here it is. All the rows are sewn and I am assembling the rows in to big sections. If I actually had a day to sew I could have this done in no time.
The last two single rows are laying on the table, partially pinned, and waiting to join the rest of the bunch. Sigh.

On Saturday, Sept. 29 I went to a Bonnie Hunter class in Shepherdsville, KY. I couldn't get into the classes when she was in Lexington. That would have been much closer to where I live, but I also would have had to clear a whole day's schedule at work. It is actually a good thing that I didn't try to do that. So DH packed the car and drove me to Shepherdsville, unpacked the car, set up my stuff in the class, and spent the day looking for something to do. How sweet is that?
Taken from Quiltville.blogspot.com
Taken from Quiltville.blogspot.com


The class was great. I learned a couple really good tips that I will use in my sewing from now on. Turns out some of my obsessive compulsive behaviors actually end up wasting time. I have to form some new habits.
Here are all of my precut strips, and 2.5" squares, and my 4.5" blocks for my Blazing Stars quilt. I completed one 8.5" block just so I could say that I completed a block. I think I really got a lot of sewing done in that class.

DH took the picture when I was talking, not when I was smiling. Oh well.

The best part, other than meeting Bonnie, was having 6 hours of sewing machine time with no guilt. If I had been at home, I would have been working on my big project for work; I would have felt too guilty to sit at the machine. I got 90+ 4.5" blocks done. Four of these will go into a larger block. I will need 99 of these larger blocks for the quilt. All of my cutting is done. So, I have another UFO, but it is like a kit that is ready to go.

Oh yes, and the best thing that happened in September. Jordan Andrew made an early appearance on September 24. Here he is with Mr. Precious.
As a rule, I don't put identifiable pictures of kids on my blog. I broke the rule this time.