Doing the Happy Dance!

Happy dance! Eastern Lights has been:

1. Pieced
2. Assembled
3. Bordered
4. Quilted
5. Bound
6. Labeled

I win! Tiny's turning fourteen in two weeks. She knows this quilt is hers, but I think she can wait until then to receive it. Happy day!

1. 

A Journey Begins with but One Small Step

...or something like that. I have to keep repeating that quote to myself as I work on moving my projects forward with the little goals I set. This is the progress made on the "Red Thread" project going at it 15 minutes a day.

However....
I did set aside my goals for a day and worked solely on cross backs for the quilting ministry. We like to have a cross of some sort on the back of each quilt. As the Scrap Queen, I want to use up some of those scraps filling four bins in my studio, so I scrapped the crosses! Here's the back (and the front) of a quilt we named "Tic Tac Taffy." Lynda did the front--the pattern's called "Barbara's Antiques." Yeah, I don't get it either.
There's a little more room in the scrap bins, now!

Detail of cross back

And look what little goals do: only a few inches left on this binding. And I came up with a name: "Eastern Lights."

Laundry Day

...and I've been a busy girl! I got some more work done on the Oriental Lantern quilt. Only got about 5' left on the binding so, at 1'/day.... well, you do the math. Then I've got to come up with a fabulous name, make a label, and sew it on.
I'm off to do the rest of my daily goal, kids. Wish me luck. Oh, and for those who like zombies, here's a little fun: zombie poll.

Goal Ghoul

Time to re-evaluate my daily goals:

1. Basketweave Dress: 4 rows/day (more is fine) That's working out well--I'm often above 4 rows and now have 142 rows to go--that makes 32 days!
   
2. Girl Scout Vest: 4 patches/day Done!
   
3. Fiction: read 10 pages/day (more is fine) Finished the book club selection, Mercy, this way. I think I'll keep it up but add in non-fiction as well.
   
4. Exercise: 30 minutes/day (more is fine) Ultimately I should go for 60 minutes
   
5. Bible: read a day's worth from the Victory Bible Reading Plan every day. Still working on it, but I am getting through this best-seller!
   
6. One housewifely chore a day. (more is fine, but puh-leeze!) (sigh)
   
7. Binding Oriental Quilt: 1'/day (I made that up just now; we'll see how it works out.) Haven't been doing very well here; must redouble effort.

You can see the dress is moving right along!

So, the new goal list looks like this:

1. Basketweave Dress: 4 rows/day (more is fine)
   
2. Fiction/Non-fiction: read 10 pages/day (more is fine)
   
3. Exercise: 30-60 minutes/day (more is fine)
   
4. Bible: read a day's worth from the Victory Bible Reading Plan every day.
   
5. One housewifely chore a day.
   
6. Binding Oriental Quilt: 1'/day
   
7. And a new one: 15 minutes of cross-stitch on something I already started
   

Just Under the Wire!

It's 10:37 pm, June 30, and I just finished my June installment of the Red Thread Stitch-Along. Phew! I did almost the whole thing today, which included accidentally stitching the trailer in red and pulling it back out again. I didn't like the charted color of the car, so I changed it to yellow. Does it look too much like a school bus to you?

Tiny (formerly known as DD) got her braces off today; talk about a happy camper! What a pretty smile.

Really Amazing Theatre

Okay, there's a joke in the title of this post, but you'll have to see the show to get it.

This afternoon I went to the theatre with some of the girls from my knitting group. The show was called "The Male Intellect: the Second Coming." A one-man-show, it was hilarious! Here's a link to what he does: Robert Dubac. Who knew cigarettes were so useful? We had a grand old time.

Thank Heavens for Little Goals

Get the Maurice Chevalier reference? Anyway, I've been making progress on long-term projects by setting little goals:

1. Basketweave Dress: 4 rows/day (more is fine)
2. Girl Scout Vest: 4 patches/day
3. Fiction: read 10 pages/day (more is fine)
4. Exercise: 30 minutes/day (more is fine)
5. Bible: read a day's worth from the Victory Bible Reading Plan every day.
6. One housewifely chore a day. (more is fine, but puh-leeze!)
7. Binding Oriental Quilt: 1'/day (I made that up just now; we'll see how it works out.)

See! The basketweave dress is moving right along!

And I have amnesty. I refuse to chastise myself for forgetting or not getting around to it. That may work for some people, but I've never been a fan of negative reinforcement.

There should be a cross-stitch goal, but it can wait until the vest is done. Only one or two more days on that.

Progress so far on the vest Patches left to sew on

Showers of Blessings!

A dear friend sent me this link from a church somewhere. I guess I'm a little emotional: it made me cry, but in a good way.

Stashbuster alert: at PQM yesterday, a woman named Jan--that's the third Jan associated with quilting for me!-- stopped by and brought us THIRTEEN BAGS of good quality quilting fabric. And it wasn't scraps--it was YARDAGE! We have backs galore! Much of it was coordinating fabric, like small dog fabric, big dog fabric, and dog bones. I immediately put those together for kits. What a generous gift. We could make 100 quilts from this!
Here's the fabric that got my immediate attention: I just love big cities, and this beauty has a little of each! So looking forward to playing!

A Fair Start

Basketweave Dress, side 2

I went to the San Diego County Fair yesterday with DD, who was dancing. She wanted to spend time on the midway with friends, so I just found places to hang out and knit. I watched Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees and a hypnotist (okay, I didn't knit there--I napped) and spent time in the garden area. I got about 20 rows done!

Oh, and DD was terrific! She kept a big smile going and shared the fun with the audience.

Knitter's Paradise

So I've been knitting a lot lately. I finished the back of the basketweave dress for DD and began the front. Of course, it's exactly the same pattern, so maybe I finished the front. Hmm...
Also, I finally cast on the second sock in my Multicolored Sock project. See it there on the right? When I was working on it, another knitter--Gillian--was surprised by the tiny size 0 needles I'm using. They're just a little bigger than wooden toothpicks. She asked, "Do they actually sell those?"

I replied, "Oh, they give them away in restaurants after every meal!"

My new plaything: Ravelry. It's an online site that connects knitters and crocheters, patterns, and their "stashes." I went through most of my yarn, photographed it, and catalogued it. Also, I have a listing of my books and magazines. From this site, I can click any pattern I own or want to own and see how other knitters did with it. Very cool.