Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's Off to Work I Go!

I'd do the whistling part but you can't hear me anyway...

I have the Road to Spring quilt in the sewing machine! I am quilting it, finally! I just decided to get some stuff done. I cut out the fabric for another block on my quilt as well. I'm thinking about calling it "X Marks the Spot" because it started out as an X when I was drawing it. I'm not rushing to get it done since it's really just one I was playing with. So far I've changed nearly all the colors just to use fabric I had in my stash, and I may end up altering the setup of it a bit to make it bigger. I'm thinking about making it for my bed which means it has to be a lot bigger because I have a queen.

Our quilting guild has Saturday Sewcial tomorrow which I may go to. The plan is charity quilting or something you are currently working on. I have a bunch of fabric to donate for charity quilts that I was given so I at least need to go drop it off. I really enjoy going because it gives me time on the weekend to sew without being interrupted repeatedly by various and sundry incidents where one child 'touched, looked at, breathed on, spoke to' the other child without permission (insert the names of my children here!). Speaking of which, I was thinking about differences between kids and how interesting it is to have one of both. I came up a basic description of the difference between boys and girls, which most of the mothers of both genders have agreed with thus far (the ones I've told about it anway!).

Girls will ask to do something and, when told NO, will argue until they are blue in the face why they should be allowed to do said thing.
Boys will ask to do something and, when told NO, will follow through with what they wanted to do in the first place because it is much more important that you actually ASK than it was to listen to the answer. OR they will avoid asking altogether and race right into it because it never occurs to them that permission would be needed.

Girls will attempt something new, and if they fail, there will be drama and tears for at least a week about how awful they are at it and how they will never try it again. Coercion and much encouragement will have to be used in order to get them to make another attempt.
When boys attempt something new, it never occurs to them that it might not be possible or feasible. They race full force into it without thinking of consequences. If they fall down, they get up thinking, "Well, it's because I should have done it this other way." When they break their arm, they get up and say, "Oh, I really should have done it that other way." When they suffer a concussion, they get up and say, "See, I just missed this one part. I should have done it this way." And so on, and so on.


Just this week the following things have happened which back up my claims:

Little Man (5 year old son):

• stuck the lint brush in his hair and expected me to get it out without it hurting
• got his finger stuck in the top of a bottle and expected me to get it out without it hurting
• found a tick on his arm, and wanted me to get it off (let's all say it together now!) without it hurting (that sounds like something I’ve said before…)
• found a snake in the yard and want to know why it had to die instead of keeping it as a pet
• used a word in front of me that made my mouth fall open, then told me he heard it said by Larry the Cucumber in a Veggie Tales video. From this I figured out that he'd misunderstood the word in the first place (Let’s just say that Larry ACTUALLY used the word ‘bit’; rhymes with _ _ _)

Boo Bear (9 year old daughter)

• argued about everything (‘nuff said)
• whined about everything (ditto)
• took everything that she had done wrong during the week and made it my fault.
• asked what song we were listening to on the iPod and when her dad told her it was an acoustic version of "Amazing Grace," she said, "Well, that's disturbing! Why would you have to go through a maze to get to grace?" (doesn't have anything to do with my description above; I just thought it was funny! We go to a church where they sing more contemporary songs and, unfortunately, I don't think she's ever heard Amazing Grace).

But you know what? I love them both bunches and wouldn't trade 'em for a Bernina! So there!

Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday I got something sweet in the mail.

Thank you Patty!

I also threw everything else I was working on out the window and decided to try my hand at creating the quilt I designed. I still don't have a name for it, but so far I have one block.

I am so unbelievably excited. It looks better than I thought it would. The original colors I put in the design were a gold in place of the green and gray in place of the black and white print. But I went ahead with what I had and just tried it. I'm loving it so far. I may end up playing with the size. My husband was a little disappointed that it was smaller than he thought it would be (I think he thought the final product would go on our bed). I started with 3 inch squares and factored in the loss of size from sewing it into the quilt but not the loss of size from sewing them into HST's. I still love it but will have to remember that when I starte trying to create different sizes. Yahoo!
What are you designing?

WiP Wednesday #6

Not as much done this week as I would have liked but I did meet a goal for the week so that's a plus! Oh, and thanks again to Patty at A Stitch in Time! I won two mini charm packs of Sherbet Pips this weekend in her contest. Hopefully it will be here today; I've been saving my 'oohs' and ahhhs' all week long!


Ongoing Projects:

Top for Random Reflections quilt: DONE! This was one of my goals for the week so I am ecstatic! Now I need to work on the back.

I mentioned it already this week but, my Road to Spring quilt is pinned and ready to be quilted. I was going to go ahead and start on it but it's not really due until July so I keep putting it off for other projects.
Also, I have done no work on finishing the borders on the Charm pack quilt. Sigh... too much to do and not enough time.

No more progress on my string quilt.

I got fabric cut out for my green bag for me, but didn't get very far before figuring out that Teacher Appreciation week was this week. So I had to come up with some gifts quickly.

I used Keyka Lou's cute pattern to create these sweet little wristlets. I figure I'll put a gift card in them as a year end present. One more to go...  Oh, and I took one to Girl Scouts last night to show a friend who also quilts. Another mom loved it so much she wants me to make her one to give the school nurse next week for Nurse's Appreciation Week! Her daugher is diabetic and the nurse has been wonderful with her. She also has me making two purses for other friends.

New Projects:

Okay, I have gone through about three projects in my head for using this fabric. However, I finally made up my mind. I'm going to use it to make something I created. I've created a couple of designs over the past month or so but finally decided to create one to see if it works.

This just shows a little hint of it. And I now have no choice because I've already started cutting the fabric. No turning back now!

Completed Quilts awaiting quilting:

On the Road to Spring quilt: Pinned and ready; just need to start quilting it.

Completed Quilts awaiting binding:

none

On Hold:

Fancy Stripes quilt 

This week's stats: New projects - 1 

Completed projects - 1
Currently in progress – 6

Goals for the week:
1. Get material cut out for MY quilt (need to come up with a name!)
2. Work on back for Random Reflections
3. Finish borders on top of Charm Pack quilt

Don't forget to check out other quilters' progress over at Lee's WiP!

Design Process

I've only created a couple of my own designs and, thus far, none have come to fruition (I just started playing around with designing about a month ago). However, that is about to change! I was at my mom's house for Easter. While sitting out on her back porch in the calming breeze with no invading street noise, I came up with an idea which I'm about to try to create.

I've played with different options for these black and white prints but I think I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and make something I created. The original design called for yellow but I have a lot of this green so I may go ahead and use it. Also, it originally called for a gray solid but I can't decide if it needs it. We'll see.
Hope your design world is creative today!

Teacher Appreciation and Little Man finds a Friend

Well, it's that time again. That time where I frantically come up with little doo-dads for the teachers for appreciation week. Having worked in the schools as a speech therapist, I want to do soemthing they can use. Last year I did these cute little wristlets like the zebra one in my flickr. This year I wanted to do something similar but, since I'm sort of an ADD kind of crafter, I didn't want to do the exact same pattern. So I found this. Keyka Lou has the cutest little wristlet in a different shape. I love the way the straps close it all up.

                            
So here's the first one I did.

I thought it turned out very cute. It's great for a wristlet. It's a bit small for a camera unless you have a really small camera. I'd love one for myself but my camera is too big. Anyway, one down, two more to go!

My 5 year old son, Little Man, came in yesterday to tell us he'd found a new friend in the yard. "There's a snake!" Uh, yeah. Hubbie? Can you take care of that please? I do not like snakes AT ALL. I got that one from my mom. But I braved it for no other reason than to get a picture.

Here's Little Man's friend. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I think), they did not stay friends for long. Hubbie killed it (yeah, he doesn't like snakes either), and Little Man would not leave until it was over. Needless to say, I could leave. I would have gone to another state if it had been a choice...

I won!

I can't believe it. I never win things. But I did. I won. Patty from A Stitch in Time had a sweet little contest to celebrate her 6 month anniversary in the blogging world. The prize (my prize!) is two mini-charm packs of,....wait for it....Sherbet Pips!

Love it! I'm so excited. I don't know what I'll do with them. I already made my daughter a quilt for her bed. I might make a cute bag, like this one. Or a quilt. I am in love with Rachel's new quilt, Smitten, seen here. Or this one, or this one. All very cute. I guess I'll figure it out when it gets here. Goodness knows, I have plenty to keep me busy until then! Have a great day!

Update on WiP Wednesday Resolutions:

At the end of WiP Wednesday this week I kind of came up with some resolutions:

"I think I'm going to have to take a stand. I MUST finish something before next week's WIP. My goals are:

1.    finish random reflections top

2.    quilt road to spring

3.    inhale, exhale, repeat,..."

Well, I have an update! I can cross off number 1! Woohoo! One thing taken off my list already!

Plus, I have my Road to Spring quilt pinned and ready to quilt.

Whew! I love that I have that feeling of progressing toward a goal. A COMPLETION goal, that is. And I guess I've done a lot of number 3 as well, just trying to get finished. Next goal, quilt Road to Spring and make my secret project for me. Oh yeah, and my daughter keeps asking when I'm going to make her bike basket. Sigh... at least I never lack for something to do!