Back to Quilting- Baby quilt

I figured out what I want to do for my step-daughter, Amber's, first child. I found this GREAT fish print (already in blocks) for a baby quilt. In watching my grandson, Kai play with a wallhanging that was down from the wall, it hit me the type of quilt I'll put together. This is the wallhanging...and he was playing with the 3-D pinwheels. They are just folded squares, made into prairie points, and sewn into the seam of the '4-patch'. I used leftover prairie points in the middle border. Very simple. I'll try it with a few of the 'fish blocks and see how it comes out. If it works I'll post a tutorial ...

WE WON!!!

I must digress from the usual quilting for a moment to congratulate my dear, sweet husband who has spent months (since Nov!) cutting, carving, sanding, polishing, painting, etc. his toy (oh, did I say 'tweaking, too?") his pinewood derby car, so he could win the district race in CT (put on by the Toyota dealers in the NY district). AND HE DID!!! There were 30 other derby cars of various styles and they ran three heats on a three lane track, so your car ran in each of the lanes, then took the average time as your speed/time. (See the post further below this one, for a nice picture of the two cars....) As you can see, Lee came in first!! He also got BEST IN SHOW! (for this, the prize was a diecast Nascar Camry Race car) The 1st prize winner of this district (#4), gets to go to NJ to race in the Regionals, (is there a National??) and also won a digital camcorder. The funny thing is, ours wasn't even the fastest car in the room. The fastest one was the second car Lee made ("The Penny Racer") that was in his bag!! Since he could only race one of the cars, and the Lynch car was his original car (and it was decorated nicely), he chose that one to race. We did a test race on a wood track at home (yes, he brought home this honkin' big 8' board) and built a track to test these two cars on and the Penny racer was faster. (He even had them do a test run of his 'winner' and the Penny Racer after the race ended, and the Penny Racer "FLEW off the track" into the wall. It came in at 3.01 seconds! We think it got injured because the second run only had it at 3.04 (although they did say each lane ran different, which was why they took the average of the three runs. At home, we 'tweaked' the Lynch car to take over the other car, but we knew when push came to shove, the Penny Racer could out race the Lynch. No matter, we won!!!!Top to bottom, 1st (us!), 2nd, and 3rd!

Working on a UFO

This is the hardest UFO I make myself work on.... It's the biggest one I've ever done (have learned not to EVER do one this big), and the heaviest, but it's for my favorite guy... and I'll stick with it. (I think he figures I'll get it done in time to put in his casket!). Truth be known, if he dies and I have it finished before he's in the ground, I'll need it to keep me warm at night. (Sorry, honey.... you don't get to 'take it with you'). And I do love you...

One more day.....and Derby cars race.

Hopefully, this afternoon, I will be able to play in the sewing room(!) This is an important thing. It's my resting area, my thinking space, my unwinding place, my peaceful room. Unless it's a mess and I can't find the things I need to work on the next project (hey, what did you want me to do, be philosophical??) All I know is that after a week and a day of going to 3 funerals/wakes, I need my quilting to center me. And it works! I also, can't wait until Wed when my husband will be racing his first pinewood derby car for his company, Lynch Toyota. (They started out as a block of wood with a hollow space underneath......yeah, ...I know!) This one is his favorite since he had the service manager willing to have the lettering put on it for him.... the "company car'. The Toyota company is sponsoring this race for all their technicians across the country (I think) and he is sooo getting into it. We meet at a conference room in a local hotel for appetizers, dinner and to race the 'local' technicians. then (when) he wins to goes to NYC for the regionals (they are already planning his hotel/dinner reservations--I get to go too!), then on to the 'nationals. Too exciting if we win!! And as I told him, 'If we lose, we're losing with STYLE!" This one is the 'Penny Racer'. From what he tells me, longer wheelbase, better power, although we tested it yesterday (my goodness, grown men certainly get serious about their toys, don't they?...) and on a 'low angle' the Penny Racer whipped the other Lynch car. But angle that board up to 3' and they are soooo close to call! I'll let you'll know how we make out.

Working on my UFO #1

Okay, so I have a few others in stages that I pick up and put down... but this one was a class I took with my friend "C", I think 2006, called "Learning Shashiko" with Pat Grant. I had the purple panel done, just added the corners the other night and am doing a 'rolled binding'. the last photo shows the shashiko (Japanese quilting) where the stitches are rather large, compared to quilting stitches (they're supposed to be, that's what Shashiko is!) I should be able to machine stitch it, or maybe I'll take it to work and hand bind it. I guess I'll have to label it along the binding edge. How do others label a table runner? (It has to be labeled to be 'done,done')

Sewing - YEA!

I finally got some sewing in!! Yes!

I finished 4 log cabin blocks to complete a top, using leftover blocks from a swap I dropped out of long ago.

Now we have enough to put together for a top... though I'm not sure which layout...?

I'll have to have the ladies at our church quilting group check these layouts and decided which one they like. Any preference?

I even got a lot done with my local quilt guild's newsletter! http://www.ghqg.org/

Should have it ready to go to the printers by the end of the week.

Very non-quilting Sad news...

Gosh I wish I could get into quilting soon! (Maybe tomorrow). Yesterday was The Day From HELL Between not reading our refinancing documents to realize they needed to be sent back by the 14th - two days from now- --- Actually, I DID read them, it's just that the cover letter stated the two different dates for the documents to be sent back to them by---(try and read 1/2" thick financial documents, understand them, get them signed and notarized - on a Sat??, when your other 'signer' is at work for the day??- and sent off UPS-Next Day Air, AND you're figuring this out at 7am Sat morning?????! When you thought you had until the 25th of the month to get this done???!!!!) Did I say STRESS!!!! Thank God for friends like Bruce P, who understands these kind of documents and was willing to spend 3 hrs with me, to my other half and his boss for letting him meet me at the UPS store-which had a Notary (and a witness there) and to my mom who watched the grandson that I was babysitting that day, while I ran across town to do this!!! I love you all!! ps. It didn't help that I got a call relayed from a dear friend who just got back from a week's vacation in FL on Friday, and was told her son died while she was gone and no one found him for two days.... Maybe from a heart condition that also took his dad at a young age (44), but her son was just shy of 33. My prayers are for you and your family, Andrea....

New Year's Resolutions...month by month

I've decided that since we don't always stick with our yearly resolutions for the whole year, I'm going to try a month by month resolve.

January

I'm going to try to get 4 hours a week to myself to sew/quilt. EVERY WEEK.

I also will park at the farthest parking spot and power walk to the store whenever possible. (Hey, if it's pouring/lightning/hurricanes, I'm skipping that part!- no, I didn't say skipping to the store...)

....Good luck to me.

Malakai's Stocking-- Found!!

Well, it's amazing what you find when you stop everything else in your life and organize! I figured out how it got lost as soon as I found it. Okay, let me back up... the day that I thought I'd put out the Christmas stockings, I really had to look for them. Now, usually, they are in a box labeled "stockings" in a closet that is solely designated for Christmas items. Well, the box wasn't there and I could NOT find it at all. Anywhere! The last resort was my sewing room, as I thought I'd seen MY stocking in there possibly for a repair- mine has jinglebells on it. It was my dad's as a child. Yea! I did find them, almost all of them... My grandson, Malakai's wasn't in the group. Now I know I made his special last year (his first Christmas). Having done our genealogy since 1983, and having grandparents that were born in Nova Scotia, I chose the fabrics carefully, using Nova Scotia's 'official' fabric - blue plaid- and using a soft cream fabric to evoke the lightly mixed race that he is. I even wrote his name and birthday on it. But I couldn't find it... Will I have to make another one? No, I knew it's been chaotic during my busy season at work (Aug-Dec) and things are usally here, ... somewhere..., but darned if I could find it. I did find the ones you see in the photo, but there is a space where Kai's is missing. Miraculously, one of my co-workers (our driver) came in with some 'crocheted' stockings that he got from someone on his route (gas station owner's mom). At least I had one to put up for Christmas eve (the red one on the far right), but I knew I was gonna have to look for it, eventually. Well, I DID get to clear out the sewing room (which became Santa's workshop) and the only reason I found it, was because part of my New Year's resolution is to keep better track of my UFOs (unfinished objects), WIPs and WHIMMs (work held in my mind). In the clearing process, I grabbed a pile from the floor, since on the top was a lap quilt that I needed to add to my list and in going through that pile, I found Kai's Stocking!!! YIPPEE!!!!!

I realized how it got to where it ended up...My oldest came home from out of state for Thanksgiving (with her beau) and not knowing which bed they would have, I moved some items from the den/computer room thinking they'd use that room. I moved a pile of quilts and some 'projects' that I knew wouldn't get to before they left. They ended up sleeping in the living room, but I hadn't had a chance to retrieve any of the items that got moved. They are now in a box, on the shelf, in the Christmas closet. Amen!