Wednesday, September 14, 2011
It rained! It really, ....
really rained! I don't know the totals, and there wasn't much by way of hard rain, but it kept going long enough to make the world feel different this morning! Yeah RAIN!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
When it rains, it pours....
Unless you live in central Arizona, in which case rain may simply mean the sky spitting on your windshield. We're hoping for more than that this afternoon, but we're not holding our breath.
When it comes to this blog, well, see the post title, above. A drought of posts, and then two or three in a day.
Over the weekend, the bug to finish old projects bit, but in a different direction from the quilt. Back when my youngest was in elementary school, probably about 3rd grade, I'd found the fabrics for my bedroom. The main bed cover got finished a while back (see older posts) but nothing more than that. As the picture from the pattern showed, this project was to include the bed cover, window treatments, bed skirt, table cover and a lot of pillows.
As part of getting ready to re-enter the full-time workforce, I have been getting my closet and dressing area cleaned up. That is an ugly story in itself, but for now...the dressing table. When we first bought this house, I was determined to use the previous owner's color schemes as much as possible, so that I could avoid painting for as many years as possible. The master bedroom was a decent shade of strong peach, so I coped. I had added some seafoam green and mauve, through prints that contained all three colors and was fine with that. But those pieces: comforter, dressing table skirt got old and rather worn, so I let them go away. That left me with pretty much nothing but odds and ends. We haven't had a decent window treatment in years, and my dressing table has been completely naked! Oh-no!
I had hoped that once the main bedcover was finished, the rest would follow right along, but that has not been the case. Just too many other things going on, I guess. But during the big clean-up, I decided that I'd have enough of the bare wood table top under glass, and the naked iron hairpin legs. The table top is semi-kidney-bean-shaped, much like one that I had as a child. I snuck the glass out from under all of the stuff and headed for the studio. I'm about 1/2 way through assembling the skirt - no pattern, just the top plus some rectangles to gather in for the sides. It will have 4 full widths of fabric in the skirt portion. Three are seamed together and cover the side fronts, sides and back. The 4th panel will be hemmed and separate from the others, filling in the center front, but making for easy access to the storage beneath the table - a 3-drawer unit from which I am constantly pulling hair accessories and such.
Probably an hour or so of pinning the gathered panels to the top and adjusting the gathers all around, before it all gets sewn together, and that seam finished. Then a hem and it will be done.
I really have to wonder sometimes, why do I wait so long to tackle these things when they turn out to take so little time to get done?
Pictures will follow, ASAP!
When it comes to this blog, well, see the post title, above. A drought of posts, and then two or three in a day.
Over the weekend, the bug to finish old projects bit, but in a different direction from the quilt. Back when my youngest was in elementary school, probably about 3rd grade, I'd found the fabrics for my bedroom. The main bed cover got finished a while back (see older posts) but nothing more than that. As the picture from the pattern showed, this project was to include the bed cover, window treatments, bed skirt, table cover and a lot of pillows.
As part of getting ready to re-enter the full-time workforce, I have been getting my closet and dressing area cleaned up. That is an ugly story in itself, but for now...the dressing table. When we first bought this house, I was determined to use the previous owner's color schemes as much as possible, so that I could avoid painting for as many years as possible. The master bedroom was a decent shade of strong peach, so I coped. I had added some seafoam green and mauve, through prints that contained all three colors and was fine with that. But those pieces: comforter, dressing table skirt got old and rather worn, so I let them go away. That left me with pretty much nothing but odds and ends. We haven't had a decent window treatment in years, and my dressing table has been completely naked! Oh-no!
I had hoped that once the main bedcover was finished, the rest would follow right along, but that has not been the case. Just too many other things going on, I guess. But during the big clean-up, I decided that I'd have enough of the bare wood table top under glass, and the naked iron hairpin legs. The table top is semi-kidney-bean-shaped, much like one that I had as a child. I snuck the glass out from under all of the stuff and headed for the studio. I'm about 1/2 way through assembling the skirt - no pattern, just the top plus some rectangles to gather in for the sides. It will have 4 full widths of fabric in the skirt portion. Three are seamed together and cover the side fronts, sides and back. The 4th panel will be hemmed and separate from the others, filling in the center front, but making for easy access to the storage beneath the table - a 3-drawer unit from which I am constantly pulling hair accessories and such.
Probably an hour or so of pinning the gathered panels to the top and adjusting the gathers all around, before it all gets sewn together, and that seam finished. Then a hem and it will be done.
I really have to wonder sometimes, why do I wait so long to tackle these things when they turn out to take so little time to get done?
Pictures will follow, ASAP!
The next long, dry spell...but it ended in a big way!
Well, summer is not my strong suit, and my blog is sure evidence of that! Between not working, and being home with kids all day, every day, I don't cope well. I get frustrated and cranky and so very unproductive.
I should NOT ALLOW summer to do that to me! It is up to me, yet I just have not found my way to a healthy, productive summer attitude. I guess the positive thing is that I'll get to try again next year! Of course, the boys are getting older fast, so in another summer or two, summers won't bother me so much.
The other BIG fix for my summer problem would be for me to be working full-time, year 'round, and that's on the agenda. We've just gotten to a point where me being off all summer is not good for the budget. Since the boys are old enough, it's time for Mom to re-enter the full-time workforce.
Sadly, I do live in an area where there's not much that I can do in my field, and with my BFA in Fashion Design. I'm going to have to rely on the office skills that I've developed or kept honed during the 17 years that I've been teaching and making costumes, to snag myself an office job and a hopefully decent paycheck.
Well, that's a long ways off from the intent of my blog in general, or the post that I thought I was going to write!
I did finish a REALLY OLD PROJECT! We're talking about something that I started in California, between '87 and '91. Hehehehehe.
I had signed up for a quilt-making class, my first ever. I was young, well, not exactly 'young' but much younger than I am now, and young enough to think that everything that I knew would be enough to cover every situation! Silly me!
I knew about fabric grain and tearing fabric as part of getting fabric on grain. When the instructor (poor woman) said no, no tearing of the fabric to get an accurate grainline on each piece, Idiot Me got all upset at the idea of ignoring the grainline and left the class! I sure have had some moronic moments in my past!
I had spent about $125 on the fabrics for this quilt...to sort of match the master bedroom in the house that we owned in CA. I didn't finish the class, and we left CA. There isn't a color in those fabrics that goes anywhere in my house here!
But once we got settle in here, sometime around 93-96, I decided that I'd better do something with that fabric. I'd fallen in love with the Quillow concept, and with Eleanor Burns' Trip-Around-The-World, in her Quilt-in-a-Day series. I had gotten through some other fabric-piecing class, in the years between the grainline issue, and the moment that I got back to this fabric, so I was actually ready. I had enough fabric to easily cut strips for 3 quillow-sized, Trip/World tops and that's what I did. Got them all cut, the strips joined, re-cut into pieced strips, and assembled into 3 quilt tops.
Then I got distracted by babies and teaching and life, and just had to let them sit for a while. But it wasn't too long. I was ready to finish them as quillows, but with the couple of years that had passed, my perspective had changed. I laid two of the tops on the floor together and had an A-HA moment! By removing just one row from one top, I could join the two, and get what I call my DOUBLE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD quilt...which is probably about a queen size! And it's GORGEOUS!
I loved it so much that I got it assembled fast, then found someone to quilt it professionally, a husband-wife time with a business called Turkey Tracks. She was reasonable and she certainly did a nice job on it. I didn't want to pay her to hand stitch the binding, so I got it back from her.....and there it sat for possibly 10 years! All it needed was the binding!
Well, heck...last winter I knew I had to get it finished, so one weekend afternoon, I bit the bullet and took it to the machine with some plain old, wide, double-fold bias, the packaged stuff. Got it sewn on to the right side and wanted to do the rest by hand. Took it up to my bedroom, along with thread, needles & scissors, and set myself up to work on it in bits and pieces, where I had a good TV and movie access, so I could get it done. Had 3 sides finished before the weather just got too warm to bother. All summer it's been sitting there waiting for the 4 side to get done....TODAY.
The weather isn't all that much cooler, some but not like it was when last I touched the silly thing. But I worked on it last night, until someone came in and turned out the overhead lighting...guess he didn't want to sleep with the lights on. Figured if I didn't want a repeat of that tonight, then I should grab some time this afternoon and go for it. Took two episodes of SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER, plus 2/3 of an episode of Dr. Oz, including time to take notes from his nutrition section.
IT IS DONE!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!
It doesn't go with any of my color schemes, but it's done. Now I'm debating whether to list it on Etsy, or store it until one of my boys is ready for it, like say after he's married. Hmmmm....
Well, it's hard to photograph around here, without getting background stuff, but there you have it - a finished, Double Trip-Around-The-World quilt, only 20+ years in the making.
Now what I'm I going to do with that third piece? hehehe
I should NOT ALLOW summer to do that to me! It is up to me, yet I just have not found my way to a healthy, productive summer attitude. I guess the positive thing is that I'll get to try again next year! Of course, the boys are getting older fast, so in another summer or two, summers won't bother me so much.
The other BIG fix for my summer problem would be for me to be working full-time, year 'round, and that's on the agenda. We've just gotten to a point where me being off all summer is not good for the budget. Since the boys are old enough, it's time for Mom to re-enter the full-time workforce.
Sadly, I do live in an area where there's not much that I can do in my field, and with my BFA in Fashion Design. I'm going to have to rely on the office skills that I've developed or kept honed during the 17 years that I've been teaching and making costumes, to snag myself an office job and a hopefully decent paycheck.
Well, that's a long ways off from the intent of my blog in general, or the post that I thought I was going to write!
I did finish a REALLY OLD PROJECT! We're talking about something that I started in California, between '87 and '91. Hehehehehe.
I had signed up for a quilt-making class, my first ever. I was young, well, not exactly 'young' but much younger than I am now, and young enough to think that everything that I knew would be enough to cover every situation! Silly me!
I knew about fabric grain and tearing fabric as part of getting fabric on grain. When the instructor (poor woman) said no, no tearing of the fabric to get an accurate grainline on each piece, Idiot Me got all upset at the idea of ignoring the grainline and left the class! I sure have had some moronic moments in my past!
I had spent about $125 on the fabrics for this quilt...to sort of match the master bedroom in the house that we owned in CA. I didn't finish the class, and we left CA. There isn't a color in those fabrics that goes anywhere in my house here!
But once we got settle in here, sometime around 93-96, I decided that I'd better do something with that fabric. I'd fallen in love with the Quillow concept, and with Eleanor Burns' Trip-Around-The-World, in her Quilt-in-a-Day series. I had gotten through some other fabric-piecing class, in the years between the grainline issue, and the moment that I got back to this fabric, so I was actually ready. I had enough fabric to easily cut strips for 3 quillow-sized, Trip/World tops and that's what I did. Got them all cut, the strips joined, re-cut into pieced strips, and assembled into 3 quilt tops.
Then I got distracted by babies and teaching and life, and just had to let them sit for a while. But it wasn't too long. I was ready to finish them as quillows, but with the couple of years that had passed, my perspective had changed. I laid two of the tops on the floor together and had an A-HA moment! By removing just one row from one top, I could join the two, and get what I call my DOUBLE TRIP AROUND THE WORLD quilt...which is probably about a queen size! And it's GORGEOUS!
I loved it so much that I got it assembled fast, then found someone to quilt it professionally, a husband-wife time with a business called Turkey Tracks. She was reasonable and she certainly did a nice job on it. I didn't want to pay her to hand stitch the binding, so I got it back from her.....and there it sat for possibly 10 years! All it needed was the binding!
Well, heck...last winter I knew I had to get it finished, so one weekend afternoon, I bit the bullet and took it to the machine with some plain old, wide, double-fold bias, the packaged stuff. Got it sewn on to the right side and wanted to do the rest by hand. Took it up to my bedroom, along with thread, needles & scissors, and set myself up to work on it in bits and pieces, where I had a good TV and movie access, so I could get it done. Had 3 sides finished before the weather just got too warm to bother. All summer it's been sitting there waiting for the 4 side to get done....TODAY.
The weather isn't all that much cooler, some but not like it was when last I touched the silly thing. But I worked on it last night, until someone came in and turned out the overhead lighting...guess he didn't want to sleep with the lights on. Figured if I didn't want a repeat of that tonight, then I should grab some time this afternoon and go for it. Took two episodes of SMARTER THAN A 5th GRADER, plus 2/3 of an episode of Dr. Oz, including time to take notes from his nutrition section.
IT IS DONE!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!
It doesn't go with any of my color schemes, but it's done. Now I'm debating whether to list it on Etsy, or store it until one of my boys is ready for it, like say after he's married. Hmmmm....
Now what I'm I going to do with that third piece? hehehe
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