Slight obsession

This is the Crown quilt laid out on the floor.  It will be a rag type quilt.  I am using the black and purple plaid on the back. I think it will work.

  

I have been continuing to work on the yoyos at school times.  This has not been a great week for morning prep.  2x this week one child left his lunch box, the first time I got it to school in time...today not so much.  Another child left his backpack at home, luckily we had enough time between the busses to go home and get it.  It has been a crazy week....too much of too much stuff to do, go to, be at accomplish.  I need to spend a bit more time on me and my projects!  

I have decided, and yes I do know how long it is before I need to make this decision....however I think that the next project after the yoyo quilt at school pick up/ drop  off will be a cathedral window quilt...again hand done.  But I realize I am literally like 18 months to 2 years away from that project!  But I also have at least 3-5 more years of waiting just for busses, not all of the practices and games that I will have for the next 15 years (unless I have college athletes) 

I also have been having no end of trouble with posting pictures again.  Not sure on why but it is what it is.  I'll try to make it better.  What is the thing you are working on for Holiday gift giving?  This may be a commission but it will be for a gift as well.

One more thought...if you read this and would like to I would love to have you "follow" me.  Lets see how many can add!  

lunch and some updates

Landolakes cinnamon butter, with some 2 year old finger holes in it.  We are having some most serious trouble getting this child to not put her fingers into things that you dip and/or share with others!  

Sweet potato filled pirogi...yummy with cinnamon butter.  The 2 year old was not as appreciative as I was.   We had them for lunch as none of the boys in my house like pirogi or sweet potato or regular potato really.

This is the crack in our living room ceiling that has been created as we have temper tantrums with kicking of the floor or jumping from beds to bed or floor up above it.  The biggest issue is that we do not have drywall and it is not straight up plaster either it is this sheet rock compound which is like a thin layer of concrete...not great options for patching (trust me others have tried on that ceiling and it looks awful!) and my husband is not sold on using the anaglipta wall paper that looks like a tin ceiling sort of as an answer.  We can not take the ceiling down and put up drywall, which is what we would both actually prefer in the long run but that is just not feasible right now.

As for my projects today I cut all of the purple and black plaid and much of the off white that will be used as well.  Hopefully during The Next Great Artist  I will be able to cut some of the filling parts.  I got to embroider on Vega's quilt while I sat and waited for the boys at choir.  I also got 4 yoyos made at the bus stop today.  Its a rough life of an artist to get to sneak in that much time when one is not full time at it!   I am pretty lucky, sometimes I need to remind myself of that fact....actually I need to start reminding myself of that more often!  Think about what are the things in your world that you are most lucky about?!  May be let me know...

Few days worth...

I wrote the beginning of the story the lorax (Dr. Seuss) on the border of Becca and Josh's baby's quilt.

Bag of Crown bags.....hmmm how to create something useful and even a bit creative, may be bordering on beautiful.

2 1/2 hours later they were cut apart at the seams.  

The plan is to make a "rag" type quilt with them once I find some flannel that will match.  I am going to Jo Anns tomorrow.  It would be the bigger one further away but I'll start with the smaller closer one.  

This is where I am on this one for the embroidery.  I have put away the Superman quilt until I finish these two projects.  I also have another couple of things going as well.  

As for shots for today I only did 4 1/4, how did I do a quarter shot....well I ran out of yarn on my shuttle (the wooden piece that carries the yarn between the shed) so tomorrow I will, after JoAnns, maybe Target and Meijer and Pat Catan's too for a few things I will sit for about half an hour wrapping the shuttle.  I'll take and post pictures here too.  Have a great night...do something amazing!

Seriously this was a difficult night with blogs!!

Heather this is a thread cutter. Not Dritz but Clover. Also you will need water soluble thread or glue. The glue is either liquid or stick I have used either one and both work.

Blogger has eaten so many things about my blogs. Including not letting me get onto my private blog at all!

We'll see how things go from here.

The pictures are posting weirdly!! I think I have had it for tonight. We'll see how tomorrow goes. The updated quilt is there. Now I have to figure out if I can actually post the link to this on Facebook....keep your fingers crossed!

Crib Sheet

This is the crib sheet that Vega's quilt is designed to match.  it will also be the border fabric.  I already cut it apart.  Tomorrow I will cut it and attach so that I can write The Lorax on it.  Yep I decided it will be The Lorax.  

Sort of what it will look like.  But first with some birds appliqued and also with a story embroidered around it.  Oh and the border will go on all 4 sides.

New round of yoyos, I have been a bit lax on sharing of late.

This is the basket they are going in once I have photoed them.  Yes it is Longenberger.  I think it was called the snapdragon basket, it was one of my "I'm so glad you're not a mom Mother's Day presents" from the days before I wanted to be a mom.

Oh and that is my weaving basket behind it.  I keep the cone of mohair being used on the weft of this piece.  Also my cone holder, which is just a piece of iron twisted for me by a blacksmith I knew once, and the handle for the back bar, oh and the extra heddles that I have.

That is how full the basket is so far.  I don't know how full it will be by the end of the year...we'll see.

I wove for a bit today....I do love that, there is nothing that fills my well quite like how that does.  I needed to be reminded of that recently.  I may not do much at a time, but it adds up quicker then I ever imagined.  The day I cut this piece off will be huge!!

Have a great Friday, big changes are coming! All for the better!

Things to come...

Bear with me friends....things may be changing.  I am thinking of some things I want to do with this blog that may require some changes.  May be a name change, may be even a change of address so that it is easier to find.  We'll see but bear with me as I change these things....and just may be an elephant will return.

AS for today, sorry the camera is downstairs...so another no picture day.

yoyos completed after school-3

shots-5

one pieced square appliqued completely

One pieced square partially appliqued

several words, including here embroidered on the Superman quilt

took boys to choir practice at church

finally watched Sundays episode of Amazing Race

that's today...check back for tomorrow.

Yesterday

4 yoyos
5 shots

3 pieced blocks basted for applique 

(of course water soluble thread)

Ferbots and we're (here) to embroidered on Superman quilt

And 5 miles & 2 grocery stores

Just a few

The beginning of Vega's quilt...

The project that used the sewing machine and staple gun, not done yet but it is coming together.

A dozen handprints from each child...they will be wreaths for my sisters for Christmas.  I have the same done of Barb's girls too.

Fudgy Fingers for school tomorrow.  I have more batter to make more tomorrow and they also need some glaze, that will get done in the morning or later.

Half loaf of bread that is left after dinner.  It was a bread making kind of day, which in my world means putting ingredients into the machine with 3 1/2 hours before dinner.

More of vega's quilt.  


Ok so it is not that I don't piece out of anything other then survival.  I don't like construction....as in clothing or other things that are not flat.  But Project Runway is making me want to do more of that as is Pinterest!  As for piecing, well when ever I bring out the sewing machine my boys want to touch and twist and move things which then make my machine not work very well.  As I have a rather old and temperamental machine....I love it though.  It only goes forward and backward that's it!  Not even any zig zag!  Though I do have another machine (also not so new as it was bought by my grandfather for my grandmother and he died in 1993) 


But this center will have the grids pieced then as one piece they will be appliqued to the back ground piece.  AS soon as I get the package from my sister I will have the border fabric and the bird applique shape.  It is going together fast.

Yoyo how too...

For any of you who wanted to know the complicated process I complete every day, written with a smirk!!

First cut a circle out of fabric, most of mine are cotton but you can use about anything.  Heavier weight needs a much bigger circle though.  Mine are only about 3 inched in diameter, I would suggest bigger.  I had 700 done already this size because, well, I think I am a bit insane sometimes!

Using a simple running stitch, just in and out, all around the circle creating a hem and a finished edge.

Then start to pull the thread tight.  Make sure your gathers are tight and the hole will be small.

Keep pulling until you have that little yoyo like you have seen 50+ times in the past few months.

Yes this is as exciting as my Sunday is.  Hopefully this week will be more productive for me.  How are your weekends for the just ones in your life?  

The Elephant not on the blog....

French breakfast muffins.  At least that is what Family Fun magazine called them.  The kids love them, I don't make them as often as I probably could but today was a good day.  

I mostly did things that I will do again tomorrow, or next Saturday.  That is how my weekends go.  But looking to get to watch a movie tonight and settle into doing some work on either Vega's quilt or the Superman one.

Oh and I am sure you have noticed no more ads.  I broke rules that I can not even get explained to me and have not only had my ads taken away but I can never again have them.  I am really quite annoyed as I can not get a straight answer as to exactly what I did.  The things that I thought they might have been I changed and was told that was not it anyway.  I am being given a blanket answer of invalid clicks, which is defined as me clicking ads....which I never did.  But whatever....on to trying to figure out a different way to make some extra money for me.  I would love to become a pattern tester....anybody have any connections for that!?  

Hope your just ones went better today then mine!

Not just one....just a few...

From the last couple of days.  The purple one was obviously cut wrong when I cut it, but I made it anyway.  I realize I have not given you a measurement on them in a while.  They are each about an inch and a half in diameter.

Weaving incident yesterday, broken threads happen.  They happen more often when your loom sits under the stairs of a house with 4 small people who like to throw things on it, also when the same warp (the threads running front to back on the loom) has been on the loom for nearly a decade, and through 4 moves!

Not done the correct way, exactly but the way I fix threads.  Oh and one must remember when weaving that if you use every single bit of a warp thread in the warp you will not have any to fix broken threads.  Oh well, it becomes an interesting design element....or at least that is what I tell myself!

This is the fabric for the center of the front of Vega's quilt.  The floss will be used to embroider a yet to be determined poem/song/story about a bird or a tree....may be the Giving Tree but I am not sure yet.  This is the very beginning of the first quilt that you all will get to see from start to finish.

Bad picture but this also has the 2 inch squares that I will be using to do some piecing also on the top.  I have some great woven plaid for the birds that will also go on it, but you will have to wait to see that part for now.

Current work on the Superman quilt...it is about halfway done with the Phinedroid and Ferbot part.  Then it will be folded and stored until I get the embroidery done on the Harry Potter version of the same quilt, and the border put on and Fancy Nancy Fancy vocabulary put on the other one.  Then I will begin quilting them all.

At the fabric store today when I had my 2 year old with me she kept saying that she "needed" a specific fabric!  It was the best when someone the next row over heard her and snickered a bit, especially when it was about a really obnoxious purple Hello Kitty fabric that she asked for for another 3 rows.  I may be creating a monster with this one!

I have some new magazines to wander through...Stitch (Winter) and  Quilting Arts gifts.  Plus several Martha Stewart and Food Network Mags that I will have a whole list of new projects and recipes I want to try.  Check in tomorrow, I may just have a list.  Then again it will be a windy cold soccer day so I may decide that I have other things to post about!  

Those are my just a fews for the day....what were yours?

Mud and the Sky

As the playroom conversion continues I am trying to use every bit of space....can you tell! Slowly very slowly I am beginning to see how this will work.  ANd just as slowly I am hoping that I can convince my husband that we should paint as we go, even if it is one wall of this room and then some in another until we can get it all done.

Once I get the house moved, into the living room thank you, then this wall is ready for either paint and then a table, desk and shelves or just those things to be moved.  I majority of the moving I will actually do completely myself.  However the desk will require outside help other then just Tim.  We'll see how that goes.

I also just realized today that I may need to figure out something different with the curtains.  At least they will need new rods.  I think light yellow for this room is what I want.  SOmething sunshiny but light.

3 from yesterday afternoon, 2 from this morning.  I did 2 more this afternoon waiting in the rain and 3 or 4 during soccer practice.

I wasn't kidding the whole back of the Middle School where the soccer fields are is a mess!  And this was after 8 days of no rain, and really it just drizzled today.  They may never be the same again!

But this refilled my well, just a tiny bit.  The drowning suffocating feeling is creeping in....must work to make it go away.

I mean really how can that not fill your soul even just a little bit!  After a day of rain I really needed that!

And this does just as much.

So what else today...no weaving (boo!) no work on the baby quilt (boo again) though that may be what I do this evening.  I did do a bit of embroidery on the Superman quilt.  Too many dishes and way too much work in the playroom along with finishing the laundry.  But I snuck in some moments to be the stay at home artist that I am working on being...I'll let you know how that goes as I learn how to be that person.  instead of the grocery getting, food preparing, lunch making, homework helper, laundry folder, toy picker upper with a tiny bit of artist thrown in.

Seriously!!

So tired!!!  I have a million things I should do, a thousand things I would rather do and all I probably will do is fall asleep!  I am so very tired tonight...I guess 5 am yesterday is coming back to bite me.

These are the fabric yoyos that I made this morning waiting for the bus....every day gets a bit longer.  I did another 3 this afternoon.  I tok the 2 year old int he stroller for a 5 mile walk after the bus waiting.  It looks like this will be the only good day this week for that.  I can hope for better....

Then it was to Aldi's and Wal*Mart.  Grocery shopping for the next week accomplished.  Home for lunch and just long enough to sit for a bit working on the superman quilt.  Then an hour of folding laundry and off to get the boys.  Homework then family dinner...steakhouse shepherd's pie,,,cub scouts and now bed.

Seriously I am going to sleep...yes it is 8:46 pm on a Tuesday!

Nearly 16 hours and counting

Since I got up for the day.  Grocery store at 5 am is so nice and quiet.  I only wish 2 things 1)I did not feel like I had to rush so much so that I could make it home before my husband had to be in the shower and 2) that by the 12-14 hour mark I was not quite so exhausted!

So today I accomplished great things....though no fabric yoyos, no shots of warp either.  So here is the list...grocery at 5 am, lunch and coffee made for my husband before I tried to go back to bed and was thwarted by 2 small boys who woke up before 7 am!  The third was up before 7:15 and Gretchen moments later....oh and no school for them today!  I did some laundry, did some dishes, made beef stew in the crock pot (to be eaten with risotto) I made muffins....chocolate chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, as in muffins made with a Devils Food cake mix, a can of pumpkin puree and mini chocolate chips for breakfast tomorrow.  I'll let you know what we all think.

No really...that is all

This is what it looked like as I mixed it.

Here they are done.

I also made some Halloween brownie bites, just the break and bake kind for kids lunches this week.

I also made a plan for the new studio/study in the old playroom! Go ahead and see just how very OCD I am about these things....

Yep, I actually graph my rooms.  I'll do it with the other rooms that we will be moving around too.  I feel much better about the move now that this part is done....now what I will do with all the other stuff that does not have a place in these things, well I'll get there and trust me you'll see it all!

I did do a tiny bit of embroidery...pos(actually only about half of the s) is all for today.  So see really not much of the daily just ones, but not bad for a day with 4 kids at home!!

Stop back tomorrow to see what I accomplish!