Scaredy Cat Ready to Go!

I finished the Scaredy Cat Tote with 3 hours 'til October--In the words of Perry Como, hoop tee-do! I really knuckled down and worked hard.

To keep me entertained, I picked up season 1 of the series, "Lost." Good show. Sorry I missed it.

Now I suppose I should get back to the New Zealand quilt. I'm thinking of calling it "Kiwi Twist!" I've got to do some frogging on it because I used the wrong black in the borders--arggh! (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, frogging or frog stitch means to take out sewing, so-called because you "rip-it, rip-it, rip-it!"

Scaredy Cat

Interrupting your regularly scheduled projects to present the current obsession: The Scaredy Cat Tote! I just adore the Beverly Cleary 1950's feel to the illustrations. It's a charm pack from Moda. Make me feel like a kid--can't you just taste candy corn? The colors are vintage-y, too. It seems I only need 1-1/4 yard of coordinating fabric--not like the directions, calling for, um, more. However, the charm pack only had 33 charms, while the pattern calls for 38. I just cut more from the coordinating fabric, but I only have one kind. So the inside pockets may look a little boring, if not odd. What's Hallowe'en without a little weirdness, anyway?

I know I'll only be able to carry this tote for the month of October, so I figure I'd better get it done in a big hurry. I started it this afternoon and, as we had guests for dinner, that took away a fair amount of working time. (Totally worth it: company always makes the food taste better!) If I work tomorrow, I can get it done in time for October 1st!

The Perfect Portable Project

I'm sitting there during open house, listening to teachers tell about their upcoming projects and what are my hands doing while the ears are doing their job? The perfect portable project:

Socks that only need one stitch, thousands of times. Knit, knit, knit, knit.... Bonjour, Madame French Teacher. Knit, knit... Howdy, Mr. Associated Student Body....Knit, knit... Good morrow, Mistress English, I like Midsummer Night's Dream, too.... Knit, knit, dodge ball, knit.... Yes, Coach, her P.E. Clothes will get washed... Knit, knit.... Algebra homework counts for how much?... Knit, knit, knit... Hey, Professor Science, did your wife put a flyer for her dental services on my car while I've been stuck in here listening to you? (sigh)

In other news, I finished another tote (that makes a total of 3!) and am working another. Here are the fabrics: I seem to be getting the technique down. I really like putting in the magnetic snap--it makes the bag look so professional!

Giddyap!

Horsey, Horsey, on your way
We've been together for many a day
So let your tail go swish
As the wheels go round
Giddyap! We're homeward bound! (Girl Scout song)

Yes, I did the horse today. The pattern calls for a brown horse, but my favorite coloring is buckskin! So why not personalize? This one's for me!



Yesterday was a bad day for thinking but a good day for goofy patchwork (i.e. stashbusting!), so that's what I did all day long! Now I have 36 of these blocks--enough for a lap quilt! I think the black I laid it out on would be good for sashing...or maybe a cream? Black would be more masculine and probably sharper, I think. What do you think?

On the cooking front: usually I don't really enjoy cooking, but tonight I got to sous chef for my DH and we made a divine lasagne. He asked, "Would you like this to be your last meal?" I responded, "I want this to be my first meal in heaven!" What a welcome, huh? Just inside the pearly gates are tables set up with all your pals and the most wonderful aroma...

New Zealand Major Milepost!

This morning I knew that I could not attend my daughter's soccer game (where she plays killer defense) because the sun was shining. No, I'm not a vampire, but sometimes I'm sensitive to sunlight. (Yeah, sure, tell me another one.) So I set myself a goal: get all the blocks set in the monotonous New Zealand quilt. I say monotonous because the sewing looks like this: one after the next after the next...

Stashbusting Alert! So, to keep myself sane, I pieced these from my strip box and my crumbs. If you look close, you can find where I used an actual 1" square of fabric. I'm very pleased with these little 6 1/2" blocks. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I still like 'em! I'm especially pleased because I worked with colors I'm not normally fond of: russets.


And so, after all that trouble........ Ta-da! Yes! The New Zealand Quilt top medallion is finished! (In Desirean, that means all the blocks are together but no borders have been added.)
And now I'm pooped. But I gotta make dinner. If I had smileys, I'd put a frownie face here. Chicken cooked with shallots and bacon and something...maybe biscuits, ratatouille, braising greens, vegetable soup... Sounds good.

Tiny Blue Heaven

This is a 6" version of Quilter's Cache Blue Heaven. (Their's is 12".) It's for Stashbuster's charity block roundup. I thought I'd give it a try and see if I liked it. They said ANY two fabrics and, I swear, the blue-orange-purple is only ONE fabric. I received it in a fabric swap... so it was an "Obnoxious Fabric" swap, but I think it works here. Still, I'm kinda glad it's used up!

Done! (Almost)

Ew! Scary inside-out tote!




The Vibrant Tote is nearly finished. It just needs two large buttons sewn to the outside pockets. There's a method to my madness: I don't want to finish it until I can get credit on Stashbusters.... and since it doesn't need to be finished until Christmas, I'm okay!

I've started on another tote, too! But the recipient reads this blog and is smart.

Vibrant Progress

I've worked a little more on the vibrant tote. Today I decided to try out one of the fancy stitches on my Elna to quilt the handle. I figured if I hated it I could just toss it. Well, it's not getting tossed!

In other news, I've joined the UFO challenge at Stashbuster. You join the group by sending 2 fat quarters and a list of your quilting Unfinished Fabric Objects (within their guidelines, of course!) In a very intense way, you will be encouraged to finish projects. I have a list of 17, which appears quite paltry in comparison to others!

How to Look Busy

I finished these stitchery projects quite some time ago and rediscovered them a couple of weeks ago. I signed and dated them--this year, seeing as that was part of the stitching (shameless justification, I know!)--and took 'em to the framers. I LOVE how they came out. Nothing like rice paper and velvet to va-va-voom it up!

The girl was so cute: she told me they were trying to figure how how to tell me the pink and green Sweetheart Tree one was lost so they could take it home!

The Amazing Six-Hour Quilt

Presenting the amazing... Six-Hour Quilt! This baby was cut and sewn in only six hours: one quilting session. I swear, I think the Holy Spirit got into my sewing machine yesterday! I call it Ballerina blocks. It has 48 6" blocks, only because that's how much fabric I had. The inner burgundy border had 1/2" of leftover fabric (eep!) and the outer border had about 8" by 4" left. (Enough to please Bethie as a little gift!)





I'm not the only creative one in the household, though. My daughter and her bud volunteered to make the banner for their soccer team, The Cherry Bombs. Teamwork made it fly: 3 1/2 hours and done! (And that includes shopping!)



Sad news: I had to spend plenty of time frogging the bottom of Jingle Bell. Boo. That sad little pile of threads in the corner are all that's left of 200 stitches or so. (sniffle)