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I finally managed to lock myself in the studio long enough to get caught up with my bee blocks.
Ahhhh ...
That's me breathing a sigh of relief. One commitment down, only a gazillion to go.
I was thinking that I might rip apart Big T's closet to make it more of an office. Here's my inspiration picture:
Here's what I'm working with:
Yep, it's going to be quite a feat! First order of business is buying primer & paint and finishing his God-forsaken walls. Those have been khaki and yellow for longer than I care to admit. The hubster managed to prime the trim forever ago (think about how long ago he was laid off and you're somewhere in the ballpark of that time). We haven't done anything else to them since ... yikes!
His closet is actually roomy, so I don't for-see having a problem getting this sort of design to work. Now, if I could just get him to keep it organized, we'd be in business!
So, first order of business is painting the walls, taking down the closet doors, uninstalling the closet system, and THEN building his new computer area. Little does he know he's getting a laptop for Christmas (I can say that here because he's NEVER visited my blog - it's too girly for him). And by laptop, I mean one that we've had and don't use anymore. His grandpa is going to fix it up for him (clean out the hard drive & make it faster). But, it's new to Big T, so that's what really matters.
I'll be sure to chronicle the progress, so stay tuned!
And I haven't forgotten that I mentioned having a giveaway ... I'm still looking around for goodies to include!
As of today (8/18) I have 7 days left of school before I can proudly call myself a full specialist! Of course, 4 of those days are me busting my hump to get my services in before I can sit for finals on the other 3 days ... ouch. I still need about 20 services (mostly acrylic nails and fills).
So, for the last 3 months, my house has suffered, my kids have sacrificed, my husband has become slightly disgruntled over my lack of house cleaning ... BUT it will soon be over.
I've had 2 interviews, dropped off my resume at a few places, and talked to a few salon owners. The prospects for finding work right out of school are amazing! And I am so excited!
I hope that you'll continue to bear with me through these final 2 weeks. I promise to get back to my more crafty side then and I'll celebrate with a small giveaway!
Until then ....
Okay, so I started working. That's why I've been pretty MIA in blogland lately. I'm still trying to figure out this whole "juggling-of-the-schedule" thing, but I think I'm finally starting to grasp it a little bit.
If you've been wondering where I am, that's it in a nutshell.
We also sent the oldest (Big T) to camp this week. He left on Saturday and doesn't get back until Aug. 7th. The house is peaceful, and quiet, but in an eerie sort of way. There's definitely much less chaos in the house whenever you are able to get rid of your kids for a little bit ... or at least that's the way it is around here.
And in other news, Little M started preschool when I started working. He's adjusted well, which surprised the heck out of me, but I'm glad just the same.
What's nice is that I'm working part-time hours, and my boss is the hubster. Doesn't get much easier than that! What's not so nice is that I feel like a mad-woman Monday through Wednesday because I work AND go to school those days, and by the time Thursday rolls around all I can do is catch up on housework and laundry. Ugh ... however, I think that Friday I'm blocking out my afternoon for sewing ... I'll let you know how it goes.
Toodles.
I'm still here ... I'm still alive. I'll update later, when life takes a bit of a breather ... maybe sometime next week perhaps.
Today hasn't been one of those "hit it out of the ball park" days as far as sewing goes ...
First, I was trying to follow a tutorial for one of the requested bee blocks for Mary, and let's just say I was losing my mind trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. After a lot of cursing (thank the man upstairs that the kids weren't in the room), I decided that it would be best to send Mary her stuff back, as is, and let her finish the blocks. I'm sad to say that she's getting a bunch of fabric scraps randomly sewn together and nothing looks remotely close to a log cabin block.
Then, I was trying to finish up the circles block for Lori - and as I was cutting the circles out, the rotary cutter got away from me and made three tiny slits into her background fabric, making it useless to me. Ugh. So, she's also getting her block back, unfinished ... sheesh.
Finally, I thought I would try to redeem myself by tackling a Henrietta turtle pin cushion, compliments of the Heather Bailey pattern I bought forever ago. My Henrietta looks incredibly bloated. In fact, her feet don't touch the ground. I won't be posting a picture, don't ask.
It's been one of those days, full of sewing, but little accomplished.
I did manage to get this finished though:
And I hope that my partner for the Scrappy Pincushion Swap on Flickr enjoys it. It was the only good thing to come out of my studio this morning.
Make sure you hug Dad and tell him that he's still cool.
Between school, and the projects I've got going on here at home, there's not much time for quilting, but I am slowly (ever so slowly) working on sewing projects too.
I'm still participating in a couple of bees. One of them is soon to be finished, and then I'll just be in 2 bees. Whew ...
I'm also participating in a couple of swaps. One of which (the Pillow Talk Swap), I've already completed the work for that one ... my partner got her pillow and loved it! Here's what I sent:
I'm also participating in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap, but I'm still brainstorming as to what I'll make for my partner there. Unfortunately, there's no Flickr mosaic for inspiration, so I'm sort of winging it here.
And, on top of those things, I'm working on 3 quilts. We're trying to start a tradition of movie night at our house. At first, I thought this might be a once a week thing, but with the pressure of school, summer camp (for big T), work for the hubster ... anyway, movie night has turned into a "when there's a spare moment" thing. It's harder in the summer to get us all in one place to watch a movie. Not to mention that as soon as the lights go down, so do my husband's eyelids. I think he's probably seen 1 or 2 movies in his life, the rest were just opportunities for him to take a nap.
Because of that, I thought it might be nice for each of us to have our own movie night quilt. Something that reflected our personalities or what not, or just pretty. So, I'm working on 3 quilts at random. Luckily, 2 of those quilts have had a lot of help from the 2 bees that I'm in. But the third quilt (for Big T), I think I'm going to do all on my own, sampler style.
I love sampler quilts, and when I saw that Amy was doing a quilt-along, I couldn't pass it up. Here's a button to her blog with all the info you'll need if you decide to join along! I think I'm going to use scraps for this ...
I don't know why I'm sharing this news, because really, if you all signed up that hurts my chances of winning ... BUT, Amy is having an amazing giveaway where you have a chance to win a Go! Cutter!
Don't know what that is? Head on over to her blog and check it out - the details and how to enter are there too.
Don't say I didn't ever do anything nice ...
I sent out the fabric yesterday for "Bee Addicted", since I'm now taking over June. My idea was to have the girls do blocks for me based on Rita's block (pictured here). However, what I failed to realize is that I suck at quilting math.
You might think that there's no difference, but oh yes there is!
I can add, subtract, multiply and divide about as good as the rest of you, but when it comes to seam allowances and things of that nature, I'm all of the sudden stupid.
You see, I sent out jelly roll strips of printed fabrics for the block, since they're already cut 2.5" wide. I also sent out a 5" strip of Kona Bone for the solid. What I didn't think of is that when you actually make the hst's (that's half-square triangles for you non-quilting peeps), your little square is no longer 2.5".
DOH!
What I am lucky for, is that someone in our group caught my little mistake before the fabric even got to anyone. She's also a killer quilting math person! (Hi Debbie!) So, Debbie was able to make proper cutting measurements for all of us and this is the result:
A thing of beauty isn't it?
What it boils down to is that you're going to cut a total of 16 solid squares at 2" and 16 printed squares, also at 2". Then, you'll cut a total of 16 solid squares at 2.5" and again, 16 printed squares at 2.5".
To begin, take your 2.5" squares (16 solid, 16 printed) and make your hst blocks. I like to follow Rachel's instructions here. What I did differently is press open my seams rather than to one side. I figured that since there were going to be so many seams close together, it might help with the bulk. When you've sewn, cut, and pressed your hst's, cut them down to 2". Now they're the same size as the rest of your fabrics.
Once that's done, constructing the block is a breeze. See ...
And here's the finished back:
What you end up with is a block that measures 12.5" unfinished, rather than the 16.5" unfinished block that Rita made.
So, there it is, a mini-tutorial compliments of Debbie and her fine quilting math skills!
In one of my quilting bees, it's my month in June. I had thought about doing this block back in January, and time got away from me with everything that was going on in our little corner of the world. So ... I was moved to October, but then the June person couldn't stay in the bee, so now I'm working the June month. Cool, huh? Did I lose anyone?
Anyway, I'm going to have the girls working on this block:
Rita, from Red Pepper Quilts is where I first saw this block. Now I'm seeing everyone on Flickr accomplishing it, but I contacted Rita anyway and asked if it would be okay to make a quick tutorial on this block on my blog for the girls in my bee. She graciously gave me permission to do so. Rita is awesome! If you've never been to her blog, I highly suggest that you do so, and also check out her Flickr photostream. You can be "oohing" and "ahhhing" for hours on end.
So, for all of my bee peeps, and the other followers I have here in blog land, you're in for a treat real soon, as I'll be posting a quick little tutorial on how to cut, piece, and make this beautiful block!
Check back soon - I hope to have this posted by Monday!
