Saved a Horse

I can't  believe I never posted pictures of this finish!  I sent this off to Alishia in July, but didn't post then because she didn't know I'd sent it...then forgot to post!  (Or at least forgot to post with correct tagging...)

Anyway, here's the final outcome of Alishia's Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy quilt:

To make the label, I cut a piece of the binding material and turned it backwards.  Maybe I need to make an "inside out" quilt...hmm...

For now, I'll stick with traditional.  First block, done.  Not too shabby, huh?  :-) Since the sashing will be some variant of weathered maroon, I'm calling this one "Colonial Home".

Breath of Life

Last night, I finally got to revive my sewing machine and get some work done!!  I even finished a quilt!

Quilts for Kids number...what, 6?  It's called "Half Pipe Dreams".

Here it is in the box with the other finish...I have one more to go, and I actually need to wash HPD anyway, so it's not ready to be sent...just close.

I also got some quilting done on Ride a Cowboy last night.  I stitched in the ditch down the blue lines, with variegated blue on the top and light blue on the bottom.  Tonight I'll do down the brown lines with reddish brown on the top and tan on the bottom.  I'm thinking I'll do something down the centers after that, for good measure - probably freemotion, but we'll see.

Here's the current setup.  The door stays closed, so no critters allowed in this space.  Kini might be allowed in later, if she can learn to stay in her spot.  We'll see.

And last but not least, the design wall!!!  This is Mai's quilt, so far.  It's smaller than it looks in the picture, but the effect is there.  I need to sew the strips together, then do some hacking and slashing (and praying) to get it to its final look.  I hope it turns out like I'm thinking, but I'm not sure...I suppose we'll see.

I'm so excited to be able to join this month's Friday Night Sew In!  MOTU will be heading on his boys' trip that weekend, so I'll have the house to myself...ish.  The kitties will have to sit outside the door and Kini will just have to be good for a few hours. 

Good to be back!!

Design Coverup Monday

GASP!!!!

I've resurfaced!  Sorry for the long delay, all 3 of you who so kindly kept checking back (from multiple computers, even, to make me think there were more!).  It's been a couple of crazy crazy weeks.

Anyways, enough about that.  This weekend I got a LOT done.  Sadly, all the pictures I took are on my camera, which is at home.  For now, you'll have to deal with phone pictures:

Here are the first couple of strips of Mai's quilt sewn together.

And here are all of them.  I sewed the whole thing into a loop, then cut them into 3.5 inch strips, perpendicularly.  I'm now undoing the stitching and not having to resew onto the other end to make this thing work.  I'll show pictures later of what I'm actually trying to do with it, rather than attempting to explain it now.

I also got Alishia's quilt basted, finally.  Now I can start quilting that, quilting the QFK that's been collecting dust for a month, and hopefully quilting Mai's soon...she graduates in 2 weeks, so I've got a bit of a time crunch there.  Wish me luck.

And of course, the obligatory cute puppy pic:

"What's that stupid Netbook got that I don't have, huh?"

Kat's Draggin' In...

Lordy lordy what a week.  We started training this week for the new company, which has been unrelentingly fast paced and difficult to absorb.  It's also a pilot training course, which means the materials are in far from perfect shape, which adds to the difficulty.  So with bleary eyes and barely functioning brain cells, here's this week's fave five:

1. My number 1 cheerleader.  On top of all this training stuff, I'm trying desperately not to stress eat (fail) and to get to the gym more often (sort of fail).  Yesterday, I got my ever-expanding booty out of bed at (groan) 5 am.  MOTU, of course, kept right on sleeping.  However, as I was about to head out the door, from the bedroom I hear him sleepily yell, "You rock and I love you!" to keep my spirits up (which were also half asleep at that point).  He's too cute.  Every day this week I've come home mentally exhausted, physically drained, and nearly unable to function enough to even make dinner.  Every day he's told me how smart and beautiful and awesome I am.  He's my number 1 cheerleader, and I'm so glad I get to spend the rest of my life cheering him on too.  :-)

2. Getting it. This training is rough.   Everyone is struggling with it in a major way. I'm not going to claim that I'm not struggling, but I'm definitely getting it.  Wednesday I even felt *good* when I walked out of here.

3. Future families. Last weekend, MOTU and I went up to VT to book vendors and figure out wedding details. We had dinner with his extended family, and I realized at some point during that meal what I'm walking into...his family, while quirky like any other family, is amazing.  They are so supportive and happy and eager to help.  They make some sarcastic comments to each other, but overall they're never mean or snippy to each other.  They respect each other and care for each other...the amount of effort that goes into taking care of MOTU's grandmother, for example, is humbling.  Every one of her children (4) were there on Mother's Day, and they went out of their way to take lots of pictures with her and her sister (Aunt Margaret, who helped raise MOTU).  It was very sweet...even sweeter that they pulled me into the pictures like I was already family.  They're good people, and I'm really happy to be joining their ranks.  Having family like them so close (but just far enough that visiting is still special) makes MOTU leaving not so lonely.  It also makes me less stressed about the idea of someday having kids...there is so much support and love that I'm not afraid. 

4. Wedding stuff coming together like woah. Here's the latest, as of last night:

• We have the following vendors booked, with deposits either cashed or in their hands: 
• Reception - Snow Farm Winery
• Ceremony - Immaculate Conception Cathedral
• Photographer - Margaret Michael
• DJ - Digital DJ
• Photo Booth Rental - VT Photo booth company
• Paper for the invitations is on my doorstep, from paperandmore.com
• We have the following vendors tentatively lined up, with contracts/deposits pending: 
• Pie people - Allenholm Farm
• Cake maker - Cosmic Bakery, St. Albans (no website yet)
• Caterer - Chow Bella

I've decided not to get a florist, since the flowers I've made have worked out pretty well: 

It's slightly more filled out than yesterday, and the pieces are actually glued together.

I think I've also decided that, in addition to the bouquets that the bridesmaids will obviously get to keep, I'm going to make them all some kind of carrying case that can double as a purse. I'll need to figure something out for Jimmy. 

5. Training is almost over.  For this week. Honestly folks, my brain is completely fried.  I haven't absorbed anything since about 2 pm. We have another week of this next week (keep in mind that by "a week of this" I mean "start the day by driving in to Cambridge from Nashua".  Google maps that.  It ain't pretty.) but you know what?  I'm getting it.  For the most part, I'm actually understanding this stuff at least to a point.  After next week, I'll have ANOTHER week of training in June, which will be really interesting...because that training (actually it's only 3 days, not 5) is the stuff that I'm going to be in charge of rewriting.  It feels really good to have a solid direction, and even better to know how much responsibility I'm going to have.  I am the sole writer for this product, and it's the second biggest product the company has.  Yowzah. 

Anyways, that's my week.  Tonight, I'm going to hole up with my honey in our favorite local beer joint, have some yummy food and beer, go for a run (not in that order), and rock my jammies until I fall asleep.  Tomorrow, hopefully I'll get some work done on Mai's quilt...maybe even Alishia's if I can commandeer some floor space someplace.

I wish I could claim lack of sobriety...

...but the fact of the matter is, I came up with this while I was driving:

(this is in the copy/paste format of facebook updates, for those of you who aren't friends on there.  Yeah, I publish this crap publicly and my momma's proud (or at least tolerant) of it.)

"just realized how awesome my wedding date is. It's the square of two consecutive primes. That only happens three times a year, and at most one of those dates falls on a Saturday (ie, a usable wedding date). On our 38th anniversary, the date will be the square of three consecutive primes (9/25/49 -> 3/5/07). So in conclusion, I don't just get a wedding anniversary, I get a square root anniversary every year. :-D"

Then today:
"WOAH. I just realized that we both got engaged on and are getting married on perfect square dates (4/16 and 9/25). And if you set them up month/month/day/day, the square roots of the whole thing are 2/3/4/5. WOAH. Just WOAH. I also have deep mathematical insights into my mom and dad's birthdays if anyone's interested. On that note, good night."

And on Mom's wall:
"Was thinking about this while I drove today. Did you know the odds of having a birthday mathematically similar to yours in a given year are 8 in 73? You have fractional birthdays occuring on 3/10 and 6/20. You share that mathematical phenomenon with only 39 other birthdays. Dad has a fractional birthday on 3/2. He shares that mathematical phenomenon with only 89 other birthdays a year. HOWEVER, the fact that his half birthday is a date consisting of two prime number is significantly less common...that only happens 24 times a year. The Boy and I don't have fractional birthdays because either a) one of the numbers is a prime (mine) or b) there's no common denominator (both). So you and Dad have pretty awesome birthdays. The Boy and I have the
whole counting up thing going for us though (11/12 and 8/9) so that rocks too. Only happens 12 times a year, so the odds of having 2 kids like that are...well, they're something. "

Yup, that's what I think about when I'm driving.  Also what I think about when I'm swimming (which I haven't done in almost a year).  I think in fractions.  Is that weird?  I know the answer to that, hush.

Anyways.  Paddington is as done as it's gonna get before I ship it off to Mom to finish.  Unfortunately, I finished it the morning before she sent me an email about a charity that sends dresses to little girls in Africa, which she's really excited about.  Damn. Oh well, maybe I'll send a couple pillow case dresses along too. 

Wrapped in Hope is coming along.  I've got an assembly line thing going with that and I've got the top and bottom pieces in place on all the center pieces.  Trust me, it'll make more sense when I have pictures to go with the rambling.  Alishia's quilt remains in the pile, and I think there's one more I'm forgetting...maybe a QFK?  Crap.  It's been a busy/mildly hellish week.  My company got acquired officially on Wednesday and while the new parent company is super excited about the whole thing, the first thing they did with us is lay off all our favorite manager types and give us new bosses we don't know or love like the old ones.  I've been there less than a month and I can vouch for the quality that they let slip between their fingers.  Sucks, but I guess that's life, right?  Anyways.  Between that and lining folks up to interview when we go up to VT (where the wedding is) and lining up all the paperwork to get married Catholic-style, it's been a crazy crazy week.  I think I also put together a registry, our wedding website, and our Save the Dates in there too.  Templated the invites as well.  Oh, and tentatively booked the photographer who I've been playing phone tag with.  Check him out and tell me what you think: www.erichauserphotography.com

Anyways, it's late and I've had a nontrivial amount of wine.  Time for bed.  Night all!!

Quick quilt update: 

Got Paddington and QFK skaters basted.  Ride A Cowboy is still waiting, since I haven't had the space available to lay it out yet.  Fencing Matilda is in an envelope, but not in the mail.  Sigh. 

I've been taking Kini out for her morning walks every day, about half a mile in total.  She doesn't really like crossing the main road out of our development, so we're kind of stuck with a quarter mile out and back.  Hopefully soon she'll be able to handle either traffic or car rides so we can hit the trails.

Here are a couple new pics:

Kini and Shelby share space...sort of. 

 How stinking cute is this dog??

 She likes noming onMOTU 's bed head.  He doesn't like it but I think it's hilarious.

 The standoff.

 All tucked in.

When she gets off the couch by herself, she likes to stretch, but that usually means her legs get stuck  between the cushions.  Comedy ensues.

She likes stretching in general.  She also likes licking.  Hence I end up in awkward positions.  MOTU graciously gave me a pillow.

There are a lot more, but they're scattered in a variety of albums so I'll need to consolidate at some point. You can still go here for the most pictures (there are updates, promise).

In any case, that's part of what's been keeping me away from my blogging duties lately.This weekend is going to be busy as well,

Night!

Design Pile Monday

Oh, I am just dreaming of the day that title says "wall" again.  Wendy, I might do as you suggested eventually, but for right now the space is still too cramped and the main purpose of this room *is* still sleeping.  Also, there's a much bigger open wall on the other side of the room I plan to repurpose for my own quilting needs.

Anyways.

Here's the pile:

Left -> Right -> Bottom:
Gabby the Gremlin, who we all know and love. Orange/yellow fat quarters for this flower project, and the first flower. Quilts for kids. On bottom, a finished one, on top a finished top.  The backing for the top is the same as the 1 inch border.  Next, Paddington.  Still haven't done anything with him. Next, Ride a Cowboy.  Haven't had space or time to get that basted.  On the bottom, a finish!  Fencing Matilda is done and will be shipped today.  I'll have a close up of that in just a second.

My goal for today is to get Paddington, the skater QFK, and Ride a Cowboy basted.  If I can do that, it will be a successful quilting day. Oh, and Fencing Matilda, gotta get that mailed.  Anyone out there have a good source for boxes?  I'm finding that the Flat Rate thing isn't as good a deal for shipping quilts as it is for shipping, say, bowling balls.

So some close ups.

I don't think I was supposed to see this.  She's usually very secretive, but I *have* been up at all hours of the night lately, so I think she just didn't expect me.

Of course, once she knew I knew, I had to ask her to take a picture with her masterpiece.  She obliged, but hid her face. 

A little bit better of a close up of the flower.  I originally tried this with a smaller button and stitching the pedals through the middle then the bottom.  Going through the top corners then the bottom corners worked like a charm.  I like the pearled button too. I haven't figured out exactly how many of these I'm going to make, but it's entirely possible there might be 50+ by the end of it.  If you have orange/yellow fat quarters you don't want anymore, feel free to donate.  It's not a good cause (hopefully I can tell you exactly what the cause is in a couple of posts...I know what it is, but it's secret for now), but your fabrics will be well-loved if you need a new home for them.

And of course, the reason I've been up at all hours:

She's so smart!  We had a puppy play n learn on Saturday, and she just went NUTS!  She's super good at sitting though, and is getting the hang of sitting and being calm for her food too.  Not so much at sitting at the open door, but most of the time that's probably because she really has to pee.  I think she's also figured out that if she squats like she's peeing, even if she doesn't actually pee, she gets praise.  We've been setting alarms to take her out proactively, but in the end she still ends up crying to be let out at some unholy hour anyways. Thank God for my evolutionary womanhood, I can hear her before she pees in her crate.  Doesn't always register, but I can hear her anyways.  We'll get there.

So that's that.  I'm hoping to have 3 quilts basted tonight and the same 3 quilts quilted by the end of the week.

I've also decided to go a different direction with Mai's quilt...something simpler since I just don't have the tools or the time to do the hunter's star the way it should be done.  I'll post pictures when it's ready to be shown.  :-)

And, of course, once I get all 4 of those settled (Mai's might get pushed back since I still have until June to finish hers), I need to get cracking on both the Wrapped in Hope quilt (due in like 2 weeks) and Arman's play mat.  I may never sleep again.

Save a Horse

Last night was a good night.  I left work at 5:15, was at the gym on the last available elliptical by 5:45.  Maybe I'll need a different gym time.  After that, we went home, showered, went to La Carreta (our go-to spot when there's a reason to celebrate/mourn/eat), went to Lowe's for more mud, B&N for puppy books, then Walmart for puppy/kitty gear.  And THEN I came home and put the borders on the front and back of "Ride a Cowboy"! PHEW!  I LOVE this commute!!!

Work was good.  I think I'm really going to like it here.  Well, I do really like it here.  The sodas are free (thank God for small favors...and they carry Coke products...Pepsi might've been a deal breaker) and the people are just great.  The products are still thoroughly confusing, but the software (the stuff I'll use to write the doc) seems simple enough.  Overall, I feel really good about the whole thing.  Even the fact that when I got there, there was no water (water main break) and we had to use the other buildings if we wanted to use the bathrooms was pretty entertaining.  Seeing how the people dealt with a "crisis" like that was very telling...people were griping a little, but in a funny and non-whiny way.  It was refreshing, really.  I'm happy with my choice.  :-)

In any case, you didn't come here for that, you came for the pictures:

 I got the borders put on the front and the back of Ride a Cowboy (previously referred to as Alishia's Quilt).  I couldn't stop giggling the whole time I was putting the border on the back.  MOTU wouldn't look directly at the fabric (mostly because he was too busy rolling his eyes at me...)  Alishia is going to flip when she sees it.

 Once I got those done, I realized I have a small problem...currently I'm sitting on three finished tops with three corresponding backings ready to baste.  If only I had a) the space to lay them out properly and b) the batting to put in them.  I'm making a trip home today to get more batting and some shelves to alleviate some of the clutter in the kitchen/dining/laundry/sewing/computer/dresser room.  I basted Fencing Matilda this morning.  I think I'm going to stitch in the ditch along the blocks, then do some free motion in pink along the pink and white fences.

 Of course, my QE (Quality Engineer) couldn't pass up the chance to test this top for quality.

 Inspecting every little seam.

Then he retired to his office to type up a report.

In all seriousness, I had no idea he was there...I was chucking dryer sheets over my shoulder for like an hour, then he started purring out of nowhere and I realized I'd be just layering him with soft-scented goodness.  He'd be creepy if he were human, but he's not so he's cute.  :-)

Design (Surface) Monday

Once again, it's not so much a design "wall" as it is a design "anywhere I can get the fabrics to lay flat for a while until my cat sits on them".  As such, I'm kind of sparse on the pictures today, but here's a gem y'all should enjoy:

God bless the women at Joann's.  I almost bought more teal/brown stuff for the back of Alishia's quilt, then the lady at the cutting counter pointed me to this stuff.  I still can't look at it without giggling.  That's going to be the back of her quilt, which is now called "Ride a Cowboy" (soon to be the sister quilt of Jimmy's which will be called "Save a Horse").  Long story cut exceptionally short (I'll expand later, I gotta go to work soon), the three of us have history with that song.  Nothing dirty, just a really funny incident at a night club a while back.  It's also a fun song.

In any case, I gotta jet.  First day at the new company...already it's a completely different vibe.  I hope this was the right choice...I'm pretty sure it was, but I'm still nervous.  Send happy thoughts my way!

Deep Breath...

Wow, what a weekend.  It just flew by, as the ones between important dates are wont to do I suppose.  I started and finished a quilt (a QFK, don't be so impressed), we found the puppy we're adopting (a 2 month old pit girl...not the same one as before, but better lol), the room is getting more finished (no thanks to me), and I bought grownup clothes (ie, they don't have hoods attached).  What a weekend.

First up, the cute pics:

This is Blueberry.  We came pretty close to adopting her, but she was jumpy and wasn't allowed out on walks today, so we couldn't really meet her.

This is the pile of cuteness.  That middle one looking at the camera, that's Daisy (soon to be Zucchini), who we absolutely fell in love with and will be taking home the Tuesday after Easter.  She's 2 months old, but she's already pretty big.  She's smart and walks well on a leash (ok, not really...but she's 2 months old, it's still cute.  :-)) We giggled and squealed like little girls all the way home.  MOTU too.  :-) 

 That's us!  We adopted her!!

 This was the pile o' cuteness before we took Daisy Zucchini out for a walk.  I think the one looking at us here is Dandelion.

 MOTU NEVER smiles this big for pictures.  She never sat still long enough for my poor phone camera to get a good shot, but you get the point.  This was as we were heading out for her walk.

 And now, for the less cute but still fun pictures:

First up, the back of the QFK I started/finished this weekend.  I'm calling it "The Places You'll Go" since it has a whole bunch of different modes of transportation on it.

 The best of the quilting...I did all this by machine!  I freemotioned!  Successfully!  The back looks good too!  I'm so proud of myself!

 Here's the whole thing.  Cute, huh?  The red/yellow blocks made me think of McD's.

 And the label, of course.

This week starts a new life, a new job, a new routine.  I'm going to start getting my big ol' butt to the gym every morning before work.  Soon enough, I'll be taking Kini out for morning walks, so it'll be good practice for then.  I'm hoping to be able to train her to run with me...any tips?

I'm going to put some more time in on our quilt, this time being more careful to measure the squares first.  Maybe that'll help.  The awful block I'm going to turn into a throw pillow.

I need to quilt Fencing Matilda and Paddington as well.  They're sitting on my ironing board (which is directly over the cutting board) waiting to get finished.  I also need to put the borders on Alishia's quilt.  Actually, that's going to be on my design wall tomorrow...the backing for it anyways.  It makes me giggle but I won't tell why until tomorrow.

Sleep tight everyone!