Opening Night...And More Sewing!

Last night was opening night for Seussical and everything went off pretty well. I did flub one line but luckily my stage "hubby" jumped in and helped. Otherwise it went very well.
I have also gotten a little more sewing done.I have a pile of HST's ready to iron for Carpenter Wheel number 5...

 and yet another gray Granny.

The Cat from Seussical had a great group shot taken. I will try to get it scanned in and post it tomorrow!

Yes, I Have Actually Sewn This Week!

Well, I have! Yesterday I got one more block done for my gray, aqua, and yellow Granny Square quilt done.

Here they all are together so far. Not too many but it's a start.

I also got my August Mystery Round Robin Mini block done and need to send it off today. I love how it turned out.
Another sewing feat came earlier this week when my friend, Laura, who plays Gertrude in Seussical, ripped her costume/dress in the back. So I had to do some last minute fixing on that.

Here she is with her bustle carrying her "one-feather tail"! Isn't she lovely? Oh, to be 25 again!

Giveaways Galore!

Don't forget to go check out all the fabulous goodies and prizes being given away over at the Quilting Gallery! Quilting bloggers from all over have set up links to their giveaway posts so you can come peruse their websites and sign up to win. Don't forget to take a moment to really check out some blogs that maybe you weren't familiar with before.

Click here for the link

Good luck!!!!!

A 2nd Home for a Recent Quilt

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's birthday and she had expressed a lot of interest in my Bottled Rainbows quilt, so......

Yup. It's going to live at her house. No longer on my bed which means I need to get in my sewing room and finish sewing up my Carpenter Wheels quilt for my bed. The Bottled Rainbows was 90x90 and ended up being too short in the width once it was washed so I've got to make sure the Carpenter Wheel quilt is wider.  I was making 24" squares on that one so I've got some calculations to do to make sure it's plenty wide enough for my queen. The biggest issue with my bed is that it's a sleigh bed so there isn't really any drop at the footboard but I need it on the sides to hide the mattress. I'm thinking of doing 4 blocks across with 3" sashing which should put it around 108". That would give me approximately 18 extra inches which should surely be enough to make up for any shrinkage. We shall see! Hopefully I can get back in the sewing room tomorrow. I did make it today but it was only to sew up the places that came loose on the BR quilt before giving it to the MIL. Then, silly me, I took the quilt back so I could send it with a quilt guild member for show and tell Monday night! I can't even go because I have play practice but I wanted to send it because it's the night everyone who did a BR quilt will be bringing them to show!

I Have a Plan...

To get into my sewing room today! I feel like I haven't done anything in weeks. I have made a pillow and a tablet case but there has been no quilting lately and enough is enough. I have several things that need to get done: red and white hexie, Carpenter Wheel quilt, sew the top for my Skill Builder quilt, quilt my jellyroll race quilt. And those are just the ones I can remember! Lots of UFO's that need to get finished. So my plan is to get in there and work on ......something! Anything!
So until I can get some new pictures of old projects, here are some Seussical pictures I took last night of the set so far. I think our director has done a great job free-handing some Suess stuff. The lighting is not fully up yet cause it's just for us to practice.

I love the fish!

Mama's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow! (Well, Saturday!)

I mentioned Saturday that we had  rough start to the school year. But I have to say that Saturday itself ended up A-MA-ZING! My daughter's GS troop went to the Atlanta Zoo and we did a tour. It just so happened it was Free day for Fulton County so they let us in for free as well (even though we don't live in Fulton County!). The tour guide, Mr. Thad, walked us through several of the exhibits and gave the girls a lot of background information on the animals. Then we got to go behind the scenes to the Nutrition Kitchen where they prepare the meals for the animals.

The kids loved hearing about the fishscicles they make for the otters when it's hot, and thoughi it was amazing that in order to make something similar for the elephants (a fruitscicle), they have to put it in a large trashcan...the huge rolling kind they have in school cafeterias! He said it takes 5 days to freeze and 5 seconds for the elephants to demolish!

He also took us through the animal hospital and we had an animal encounter with a red tailed boa constrictor named Shayla and a hedgehog named Gusteau!

Several of us moms who have taken our kids to this zoo remarked on how things really just seemed to come together for this trip. There was not one animal in it's habitat that we did not see. That never happens. Even the lion, who is only ever out on his rock or not seen, was lying right in front of the glass one of the times we came by.

My favorites, however, are the orangutans. And this fellow was just too much.

How can you not love that face?
Then, after 6.5 hours of walking around, my friend and I threw ourselves and our girls into the car for the trip home. We decided to hit Sonic for a Slushie on the way home and just happened to hit it at happy hour so they were half price! Woo hoo!

I'm Alive! I'm Alive!!!!

1. No, I have not fallen off the planet.
2. No, I have not been abducted by aliens.
3. No, it has not been a really good start to the school year for either of my children so far.

We won't get into number 3 but, let's just say, I've been very stressed over the past two weeks.

I have gotten one more project done; a birthday present for my neighbor's youngest. Remember the pink panda pillow? That was for her oldest. Well, her youngest likes purple,....and turtles. So here is her pillow.

I got the idea from a quilt I saw online. My turtle ended up a bit too big but I still like how it turned out.

A Moment for Mack

A friend whose children go to the school where I used to work just called to let me know that Mack lost his battle with leukemia. You all may remember that I made a quilt for a big fundraiser they had for him back in May. If you pray, just take a moment to remember his mother who fought so hard for her son and for their family in their time of grief.

A Cat (in a Hat!), a Purse, Some Laundry and a Case...

So I have been very busy with Seussical but I have actually gotten some things done. My daughter needed a little purse for school so I whipped one up for her. She was excited that she got to "go shopping" in the sewing room (her words!.

It's just a  little cross body purse (no, it's not wonky; I just didn't take the time to straighten it out before taking the picture). I put a little double pocket inside as well so she could put her ice cream money in it.

I also got brave and washed my Bottled Rainbows quilt. Well, sort of brave. I put 4 Shout Color Catchers in with it. Good thing too.

The one on the left is 'before' while the four on the right are 'after'. I also now have a few blocks that will need some touch up sewing. Oh, and it shrunk....more than I thought it would. So I'm back to working on the Carpenter Square quilt to be my bed quilt. And I will know ahead of time that 90x90 is too close to not fitting after being washed so it will have to be bigger than that. I have a sleigh bed so I need enough drop to cover the mattress on the sides.

Today I whipped up a cover for my Nexus 7. I FINALLY used my Georgia fabric! I started off with the Kindle cover tutorial from the Whipstitch blog (kind of cool since they're sort of an LQS for me...if you live near Atlanta, they're all considered an LQS even if it's an hour away!).

I followed the Whipstitch instructions pretty much with a  few exceptions. Pay no mind to my lovely hand reflection on the Nexus screen.

All 8" dimensions were changed to 9". So your big pieces were 12"x9" and your smaller pieces were 6"x8". I had originally cut this fabric out to make a laptop cover so I had already used some iron on fleece on some of it. I used one of these pieces to cut out ONE of the 12x9 inch pieces. I interfaced the other piece. I followed all construction instructions until I got to the part at the end where you have turned it inside out and are about to sew it closed with a topstitch. Just for the heck of it I closed it up at this point to see how I liked it. I didn't. The top was too soft to me so I decided to add some structure to it. I used some really hard cardboard (an old box Christmas cards came in) to cut out a piece about 1/8 to 1/4" shorter than that height of the left side, and about 3/8" shorter than the width between the left edge and the center. I slipped it inside and topstitched the left edge closed. Then I positioned the cardboard piece as far over to the left as I could get it. I stitched a line (you can see it in the picture) as close to the right edge of the cardboard as possible to keep it from shifting. This left me with about 1/2" in the middle; this makes sure the top cover sits flat on the device and isn't tilted.

This picture shows the pocket. Look close and you can see my ear phones tucked under there. The only thing that worried me about this design versus elastic edges around the device was that I can't reach the on/off switch, or the ear phone jack. But I figured out quickly that is wasn't a big deal to just pull one edge back as needed.

I just love it! Can't wait to get some use out of it!

WiP Wednesday: Where Seussical Takes Over!

There once was a cat that appeared in some books
A cat with a hat gets some very odd looks!
The stories about him were loved far and wide,
So an idea was hatched and his words were all eyed!

A musical! That would be totally perfect!
They set out to work, which stories to select.
This one and that one, add music and lyric
A Flibberdiflibert and a blue haired old Wirick!

It all came together and all went quite well,
So well, in fact, oh do let me tell!
People all over the world started singing it,
Some were quite fab and some were just winging it!

Til one day the theater in my town decided
It was time to perform it, so a director presided.
He chose all his characters, surprise and "gaw-lee",
One of the characters chosen was me!

Practices started and singers were singing
Dancers were dancing and springers were springing!
I got so darn busy, things weren't getting done
No sewing, no crafting, but I'm still having fun!

What IS done? Bottled Rainbows and a cover is started
for my new Nexus 7 (cause my hubby's big hearted!).
A border I added to a Mystery Block
That's it. There's no more. So no more small talk.

I'm done. That is it. Nothing here left to say.
So get back to sewing and have a great day!

Back to School and Back to Sewing!

So I had a bit of trouble getting motivated to get back into my sewing room and routine but I have finally gotten going again. The kids are back in school today so it's time to get some things finished! And my Bottled Rainbows is first on that list!!

It is about 90x90 and I did free motion quilting on each block individually before attaching them all together.I will say that this caused a little puckering but you can't really tell when it's on my bed. The blocks were attached to the back with a zigzag stitch that I used only on the seams where the blocks met. Here are some of my favorite pieces that I FMQ'ed. Keep in mind that I have only done a little FMQ but I'm proud of it anyway.

And my favorite is this one. Again, not perfect, but I was really proud of how it all came together.

And here is the back of the quilt.

It doesn't pull up on the left corner. I just moved it and didn't realize it looked like that until I loaded the pictures. It is now resting on my bed (woohoo!). My MIL has already expressed how much she loves it but it will have to live at my house for a while. I am also going to put pictures of each block in my flickr account. I haven't decided whether the pics I took will do or if I need to take ones in better light. We shall see.

Out My Front Window...

I was catching up on emails and happened to notice something out of the corner of my eye.

We have deer show up in our backyard which is kind of odd because we live in a subdivision, but we have some woods right behind our house so they hang out there. They have come up into the backyard before but I haven't seen them in the front before. Luckily he was eating weeds so we were okay with it.

I got some really great close pictures of him while he was hanging around.

Now, back to my sewing room!

There's No Place Like Home...

I am so unbe-stinkin-lievably tired..., but we're home. But no rest for the wicked. I've got to hit the grocery store and I have Seussical rehearsal in 3 hours. You think they'll notice if I'm singing with my eyes closed?