The week after...

So the Christmas holiday slipped on by.  When you last heard from me, we visited Uncle Don and Marjan, who had an open house.  We saw a few other rellies there, too, but went for the big visit with them on Boxing Day.  We spent the day there, exchanging gifts, eating turkey, and getting told to shove it...ah, happy memories!  The week following was spent kicking back, going to the movies, and working on some projects.

I don't really make resolutions anymore.  I usually break them within two days, so I make general guidelines for what I'd like to do this year.  My thought this year (not exactly a resolution) is to walk more and use more "whole" foods, especially for lunches.  I don't really like the little frozen meals, so I think I'll see if I can come up with a bunch of lunch recipes--fruit salads, chicken & feta salad, low-cal but filling sandwiches, etc.  More fruit and veggies, less crap.

On the business end of things, I got the new part for my long arm, a "roller encoder", part of the stitch regulator system, which was covered by the warranty (which I had to renew) but would have otherwise cost me...



...TWO HUNDRED FOURTEEN DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS!  For a piece of plastic!  I was concerned because it's smaller and a different shape than the old one, but I was happy to see that it fits and works great!


To celebrate, or perhaps just to make sure it worked, I put this quilt on the frame and quilted it up.  This needs a binding on it and it's ready to pass on to its new owner, a young boy who isn't even hatched yet...whose name, according to rumor, is Malcolm.  "Mac."  I think I'll have to give him a nickname better than Mac.  Like Micky MacMaster.  My brother's name is Mike.  His wife's maiden name is Master.  Makes sense to me.

Here's the coat I finished a couple days ago.  It needs some button closures, and I need someone to help me fix the hem (the lining is longer than the outer part of the coat), but otherwise it's ready to wear!  I am happy with the pattern pieces, although I think I've proven that I need to adjust the length, so I'll have to put the muslin pattern back together again and have someone mark the length for me.

Today, Cammie and I went to a Geocache that I had visited once before.  We admired the frosty cobwebs on the greenery on the way.  She brought some swaps to trade for goodies in the bucket.  She chose a small kitty toy and left a yarn zombie behind.  There weren't many swaps in there.  Maybe next time I'll bring extra swaps to leave behind.

Two of the kids go back to school tomorrow--the older one doesn't go back until Monday--so after I drop them off, weather permitting, I'll see if I can find a couple more Geocaches.  I had gone to look before, but my GPS was so poor, it got me within 20 feet of it...not quite close enough to narrow it down.  I did find, however, if I enter the GPS coordinates into Googlemaps, it'll pinpoint it exactly on the map.  Or at least, I think so.  Tomorrow will be the test to see how close it really is!

Making Merry!

If a seam a day keeps the blues away, then I'm positively giddy!

Better photo of Laura's quilt--this was made by Lauri as a gift to her live-in MIL.  The nice thing about the flannel design wall is that even something as heavy as this quilt can be put up with just a couple of pins and smoothed out to lay nice and flat for photographing.  I'll be delivering this back up to Lauri in a couple weeks when I go up to the next guild meeting.  Laura has been living with them off and on for the last couple of years.  She's a great lady and is an amazing help to the family as both "kids" work; she's there to help with laundry, cooking, cleaning and watching her grandson when he comes home from school.  It's hard to believe that just a couple generations ago, extended families living together was not the anomaly as it is now.

Here's a better photo of Kathy's sampler quilt.  She's the mother of my best friend from high school, who lived next door.  Kathy has been quilting for decades longer than I, having done quite a bit of professional quilting herself back in the day, but has started hiring out her quilting to longarmers.  I believe that this was a sample from a class that she taught a couple years ago.  I hope she's not going to mind that I used a different backing fabric--I couldn't find the one she gave me (initially), so I substituted a lovely tan floral with some green overtones that go well with the darker green on this top.

I was on such a roll, I put another quilt top on the frame and started quilting this one as well.  This is one of two quilts that will be given as baby gifts.  The pattern is called "Arrowhead" and can be made using two squares of fabric cut in particular ways and re-assembled.  Unfortunately, this technique creates bias edges on the blocks, which I wasn't keen on, so I redrafted it to use squares and strips and it leaves straight-of-grain on the edges.  It quilted up very quickly and I know that I will be able to do the other baby quilt just as quickly, although the deadline for the second one is a few months off.

You may be able to see a peek at the next quilt to go on the frame--yes, it's upside down--which is a top made by my MIL, presumably for Nate, my nephew.  It's got penguins on it!  The backing fabric is loaded up...just waiting for batting and to pin on the top.  After that one, I have two more in line, besides the second baby quilt, and I will be all caught up with hired projects...at least for the moment.  These things always arrive in waves, don't they?

Yesterday I made another 20 blocks for the 9-patch project.  I'm getting down to the bottom of this pile of squares and the variety of lights is declining sharply, so I spent a bit of time today cutting up some light colored fabrics from the scrap bin. I know I have another baggie of them...probably within a few feet of where I'm sitting, but I need to unearth them.  Gimmie 10 minutes and I'll probably find them, making all the cutting and sorting today completely unnecessary.  (Searches for several minutes.)  No results.  Found some 5" squares but not 3 1/2".  Ah well.

Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day--have to buy some supplies for the Girl Scout meeting, will be racing around picking up and dropping off, orthodontist appointments, and, if I have the enthusiasm, an SCA meeting in the evening.  I really should encourage the Baronial folks to sign up for the Ithra that's happening in a couple weeks.  We're nearing the break-even numbers...if we triple the numbers who have signed up.  Sigh.