Little Changes

Last week we had to say "goodbye" to the rug that's been in my house/s for about eight years. It was a wonderful dining room rug in my previous place - but it struggled to work in our living room. Between the constant traffic creating rug-fur-bunnies of epic proportions and the additional dangers of spills and stains, it was already struggling to keep up with our needs. And over the weekend, things happened to the rug that cannot be undone, despite our attempts.

We're all fine. There was a little issue with 'do not leave candles unattended.' Apparently, sometimes reading a book three feet away needs to count as 'unattended.' So, negligence led to a great deal of bright red wax ending up in the rug - and absolutely nothing we tried would get it out without bringing pieces of the backing and rug fibers along for the ride. 

Although we had figured this loss would mean living with the horrid old green carpet underfoot for a few weeks while we searched Craigslist for a more suitable replacement, there was actually another rug sitting in my parents' garage just looking for a home.

It's not a pattern I would have chosen out of all the choices in the world - but it was the right price, the right colors for our orange chairs and yellow/pine-ish entertainment center, and oh my is it nice on the bare feet. It is about half the size of the old rug, so instead of resting under the coffee table and rug area, we're concentrating on using it between the entertainment center and the coffee table - so covering the greatest expanse of green carpet anywhere in the house and giving us all somewhere comfortable to sit when there aren't enough chairs in the living room.

Momo spent the first three hours rolling all over it. I think that's a good sign.

I finally finished up a bag I started months ago.

Nothing fancy - but lined (with one interior pocket - to coordinate with the three exterior 'windmill' pockets) and usable. And already taken to the library and shopping.

The other changes around here are less noticeable. Two weeks ago we rearranged some of the wall hangings - and although we knew it happened and thought the changes were better, it took our weekly guests two weeks to notice. Three days ago, I hung a new piece of 'art' (a page from a torn up book) in the hallway.

No one - including the other person who lives here - has noticed yet. I think perhaps we have too much on the walls...

The chalk board message and drawing are also mine. Greg not only has better drawing skills, he has much better handwriting. The chalkboard usually holds 'to do' lists and 'I love you' messages. We're pretty sappy sometimes. 

Most of our other changes really aren't worth talking about - mostly boring cleaning or getting ready for cooler weather kinds of changes. I'm still wishing winter weren't coming soon, but we're attempting to get ready for it. Next change to come? Caulking the window where the cold air leaks in all winter!

Partially Cut

I spent several hours last night trimming the precut fabrics to be the ideal size for my plan...

After all the cutting, I got really nervous that I had made another mistake in my math and over cut. I did a partial test layout to map the size, and it turns out that I'm still okay. Whew!

After all the proper cutting - I have a few tiny scraps left. So, in my down time (the days between cutting and realizing I'm actually still okay) I started piecing them together.

This project has been fighting me all along - from math to silly mistakes. Next time I have an hour free, I'll be starting to cut the solid sash fabric -- and I really hope I can work on this step without being haunted by mistakes and math issues.

Assuming the next cutting session goes well, it will be time to start putting things together. Even with my very busy schedule right now, I'm looking forward to that. These blocks should - for once - be something I can work on in little steps that I can pick up just about any time. I'm looking forward to something like that. It'll be a nice break from everything else, which feels like I need 2 hours of dedicated time to make it worth getting out.

Seriously though, so incredibly relieved to have escaped the cutting fiasco I thought I had on my hands!

The Haul...

Recently my stash of quilting, sewing, and crafting supplies has been growing in unexpected ways. This summer has seen my lace and trimmings stash pick up from nearly nothing to something worth talking about:

Some of the oldest and most interesting pieces

And the piles of vintage sheets, table clothes, and other linens have been growing even more quickly:

There are also a few buttons:

And some vintage handkerchiefs:

All of which have started to take up residence in the house...

In all honesty, while they are all beautiful to me, I'm not sure I can use them. I have a few ideas for some of the pieces... but I'm wondering if there are other people out there who would be able to put them to use more quickly than I can. I'd love to hang on to them, but my house is barely big enough for the things I have plans for - I'm not sure I can justify holding on to all these pieces indefinitely...

Pinterest Challenge: Buffalo Lime Chicken

Inspiration Recipe: Buffalo Lime Chicken from PlainChicken.com (one of my favorite places for yummy recipes)

I worked with the chicken I had on hand, which meant scaling things down a little, and I only let it marinade for about 7 hours... but... I just couldn't stand to wait overnight before I tried it!

As usual, it might not look like much (especially in comparison to the inspiration pictures), but it was delicious. Both of us tend to be a little iffy on citrus flavors, but the combination of lime and buffalo was surprisingly delicious. Best of all? It was so easy to make - and for once, I really did have all the ingredients on hand despite this recipe not being in the plan when I went grocery shopping.

Let's just say that this is definitely going to be in the plans in the future!

To Go With the Math

I've made a couple mentions of the amount of math I've been working on recently - as well as showing off a couple of test blocks to go with that math. Well, I probably should double check it again before sharing this, but I think I've got the entire plan worked out... Probably...

Because I was very heavily inspired by a quilt with an available pattern, I don't feel right sharing the details of the equations I attempted to make my inspiration work with the fabrics I have on hand. (I'm limited by working with layer cakes as my largest pieces, rather than larger pieces that would work with the available pattern.) After several days of failures and re-trying my math, I'm finally at a point where multiple tests assure me that what I've worked out (with help from an engineer and a math teacher before I got it right), and I finally feel like I can share a rough Paint draft version of what I'm hoping to accomplish.

My goal is to use a fairly simple pattern (now that I've got the math worked out), the collection of Reunion pre-cuts I have in hand, and some dark grey solid to make our bed two matching approximately single-person-sized quilts. We're utterly unable to share a blanket - Greg calls me 'burrito woman' and I think he's just as bad! - and I'd like to have blankets that coordinate a bit more than what we've been using for the last few months years.

The largest pieces will be the same on each (though the layout may not be the same), but I can't promise the mid size and smallest pieces will be the same. I should have enough pre-cut fabric to make two quilts, each with 35 blocks (as shown above), plus a border of the dark grey at each edge (ideally, the blocks would be centered left to right, but with more grey at the top than the bottom - something I haven't quite finished the math on, but you can kind of see above as well).

I also should have enough scraps left over to make a couple coordinating pillow cases. I'm thinking something like this:

Although the actual piece will use a greater variety of scraps than this illustrates. I'm still trying to figure out if I should stick with the simple 'bag' like version or go for an envelope close or something a little more polished looking.

So, that's kind of the plan at this point. I'm hesitating on doing any cutting, probably because I'm still afraid I'll be wrong on the math and at this point I'm not sure there's any fixing it if I make a mistake and run out of Reunion fabric...

At some point, I'll have to figure out the binding (which I haven't made any kind of plan for yet, though I'm thinking a coordinating solid green or solid navy) as well as something for the backs, which I'm planning to be very different. I think at least one of them will need a thicker fabric panel between the 'knee height' and the bottom edge, the place most likely to wear out.

Wonky Runner??

I mentioned a while back that I basically got a charm pack of free fabric on my birthday (thanks to a coupon, I am not cool enough to just have free fabric arrive on my birthday). Well... it didn't take me long to begin to question my choice of fabrics - especially since the theme (Halloween) isn't really something we do around here...

On the other hand, the colors and cute/spooky prints are something we totally do around here.

When I caught a glimpse (thanks Pinterest) of these adorable wonky blocks using the same fabric, I knew I wanted to do something very similar.

I took out the word prints, leaving me with some monsters, spiders, dots, stripes, and other fun, slightly spooky, but not specifically Halloween-y prints - and got to work making some kind of wonky blocks.

I cut all my charms even smaller - into 2.5 inch squares.

And pieced them together mostly randomly:

And auditioned them with the leftover fabric from last winter's major project.

Then I got around to the actual process of making my wonky blocks - which turned out a little something like this:

And then came the point of figuring out what to do with my blocks... After rejecting the idea of some very little quilts (I could have made 3 cot size quilts with very little additional effort)

I ultimately decided to make a runner for our bed.

Okay, yes. I did just say a runner for our bed. That's exactly the kind of thing I think quilters make when they've run out of things to make. And... yeah... it's true. My 'give a quilt as a baby present' stash is way overflowing, and I really don't need another sofa quilt (at least not until I have somewhere to store the ones we aren't using at the time instead of piling them all on the floor near the sofa). But I also kind of need a runner for the bed. After utterly giving up on duvet covers (for now), we've been folding up the king size comforter and leaving it at the foot of the bed - which means it's turned into Momo's latest bed. Which is fine... but furry. So, I have managed to convince myself that I should make some runners to sit on top of the comforter and keep the cat hair off. Or possibly make runner sized duvet covers that holds a folded comforter. Or some other excuse.... 

And so, at the moment, we're looking at a little top something like this:

I didn't quite use every little block I made - I held out a couple to do something else with (or so I think right now). But now I'm facing another problem: I'm not sure how to finish it!

Ideally, I'd like to come up with a 'reversible' option for the other side, so this is useful during times of the year we're less interested in purple/orange/green/black... but I haven't had any luck yet and I'm beginning to feel like I'm running out of time if I want to use this runner on the bed this season.

I guess I'm off to search Pinterest and my quilting books for more inspiration - wish me luck!

Progress

Monkey Blocks - DONE!

Yet to Do: quilt, buy/find fabric for binding, make binding, bind, wash

Happy Go Lucky Quilt

Yet to Do: square up, buy fabric and make binding, bind, wash??

Chocolate Covered Cherry (on Top) / Disappearing 9 patch on point - DONE! 

Yet to do: Add border/complete top, make back, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Semi-Sampler (small) Quilt-to-be?

Progress: add additional border?, make a back, baste, quilt, bind, wash?  

Pansy Patch Project

No recent progress.
Yet to Do: finish piecing tops together, make back, baste, quilt, bind

Waiting to Start:

• The one to go with the math (a.k.a. quilts for our bedroom)
• Mini quilt with boo crew fabric
• Update chair cover
• Spiderweb mini?? 

Wow...

The sun is currently shining here - the most of it we've seen in about five days - and my home is looking damp and bedraggled, but I'm counting myself lucky.

I can drive out of my driveway (though not in my two wheel drive, low clearance car), and maybe even make it to the edges of the nearest towns. And I'm counting myself lucky.

I had to cancel three jobs for today, and am on stand-by to jump in the car the moment the highway is open so I can get started on those, but I'm counting myself lucky.

I'm very hopeful that the clouds will continue to move out and we'll get some sun instead of three more days of rain. For once, we don't need more rain.

I'm going to go wander the mud puddles and enjoy the sunshine, and hope very much that things around us aren't as bad as they look on tv.

Pinterest Challenge: Roasted Corn Caesar Salad

Inspiration Link: Roasted Corn Caesar Salad from How Sweet It Is, found via Pinterest.

Full disclosure: I was way too lazy to try making my own dressing this time - even though I want to try that some time. I just used the bottle I had in the fridge...

Roasting my ears of corn in the oven was difficult. I didn't get much blackening, and the ears really rolled around in the oven. Perhaps I'm missing the trick and it's not quite as simple as brush ears of corn with olive oil and place in oven. The flavor was good, but the coloring didn't happen - nor was I able to cut them off the cob in large strips (as I always have in the past). Instead, I wound up with kernels. Which wasn't an issue for taste, but presentation-wise was a bit of a disappointment.

So the images of my roasted corn Caesar salad probably won't be sending anyone off to make salad, but it tasted amazing. I had no idea that corn would go so well with Caesar salad.

Ultimate Response: Would absolutely do again - though I'll be working on figuring out a better way of roasting corn!

My 18th Quilt: Chocolate Covered Cherries

The "Chocolate Covered Cherries" disappearing nine patch on point quilt: 

It's bound, washed, and ready to go. Where? I don't know yet. I guess to the next baby shower I'm invited to.

I've said before that I feel I struggle to make backs, but I have to admit, this one looks pretty good to me.

It's neither too matchy nor too at odds with the front. I think using some fabrics from the front on the back (the three squares, as well as all the brown) as well as a fairly similar fabric theme/color scheme (pinks, cherries, cupcakes) helped keep it all feeling coordinated. And I'm fairly happy with the layout and construction too. Turns out starting a Pinterest Board for things that could be quilt backs has been helpful already!

There's not a huge difference between the pre-wash and post-wash on this one, probably because the quilting is so close together, but I do think it looks a bit softer. It certainly feels a bit more ready to snuggle with too.

Detail of quilting, post-wash

While my goal with this one was to use up some of the pinks and reds in my stash, my favorite parts are the brown border and the brown binding fabrics. They tied in well with the browns in the Cherry On Top charm pack, as well as the few pieces of textured fabric I used, and really just feels like the perfect finish to such a bright center.

Yes, I think all that chocolate was the perfect finish. Seriously though, people, I need invited to a baby shower or two. This quilt wants to be used.

Frosting? Sprinkles? Final Touch!

Chocolate Covered Cherries Quilt just got the final touch - a delicious binding! And yes, the final touches actually came from my stash. Which is unusual - but certainly a goal!

Two fabrics left over from my very beginning of buying fabrics added up to be just enough.

This plaid style print was the initial pick. I just love how the blue stripes really help the blue sprinkles and blue fabrics pop just a bit more. With so much pink and red, it's great to see some of the other colors stepping up just a bit.

The secondary choice of this floral and owl print works surprisingly well also - the floral print seems to work well with some of the fabrics in the top, and it doesn't hurt to have just a little more red and aqua/blue going on to top the piece off.

This gives you an idea how it's finished off - but I'll do my best to get some better angles once it's out of the dry cycle!

Books Mini

Alright, in my process of grudgingly releasing 'summer' into 'autumn' I am very slowly moving from summery items around the house to ones that are slightly more autumnal - though anything to do with harvest or leaves is going to have to wait a bit longer. This week, I'm embracing sort of a 'back to school' feel (though school is not currently a part of life around here) by inviting some more books into the house -- and as I went to display them, I realized I don't think I ever shared them here!

I'm sure if you've spent any time on Pinterest, or looking at very many sewing or quilting blogs, that you've seen some of the cool bookshelf looking quilts that so many people have been making. Well, in early 2013, I wanted to try my hand at making something similar. Since then, I've lost the link I followed as a tutorial, and I'll admit (but not show you) that the first attempt didn't work at all (they were more like magazines than books, and rather wonky in a stretched fabric kind of way). Although I'm still not sure what I did wrong, I did try again and that time I wound up with something I'm willing to share!

I took a few rectangular scraps from my stash, and a few interesting pieces of selvage I had laying around, and wound up with an adorable bookshelf's worth of quilted books!

My binding job is a little awkward. I really should have removed it after the first issue and re-bound, but instead I ran around and stitched the binding down three or four times until I was fairly determined it wasn't going anywhere.

I absolutely adore these books. I've been very careful all spring and summer to keep any interesting selvage print, and to guard my larger rectangle scraps so that sometime in the future I can do a larger version on this idea.

Chocolate Covered Cherries - Quilted

At last!

It's as difficult to see as ever, but I have finally finished the quilting. And since it was too dark to take photos by that point, I even took the time to trim the quilt (and square it up a little bit).

The quilting really disappears against the busy prints of the back - which is exactly what I was hoping for.

The bright red cherry print was added after the quilt was basted - when I realized the back was a few inches too small (whoops) instead of a few inches too big. It didn't quite turn out how I'd hoped - I really ought to have flipped the quilt over during quilting and been very intentional about putting at least part of a squiggly line down the seam - but I think if I didn't point it out as an unplanned addition, no one else would really know.

So, now I'm down to binding. It ought to go quickly if I can find fabric that works for that final finishing touch. I'm going to search through the stash once more to see if I have anything that could possibly work, but I'm not holding my breath.

Feedback (Flexible Menu Planning)

Whoops! I thought I posted this a couple weeks ago! So, this is kind of old news, but since I don't really have anything else ready to share tonight and I'm about to crawl into bed, here you are anyway! 

It's week two  FIVE! of using the flexible menu plan boxes and I'm back with a report.

The short: This is a win. It's easier. It's faster. And yes, it's fun. Really.

Picking a box to work out of was much faster and easier than looking at the entire fridge, entire freezer, and entire pantry. Even without explicit instructions being written on the boxes, it was easy enough to know what each box needed - possibly because we went with familiar meals for the first shot. It also helped to know that instead of trying to look at ingredients and make something out of them, all we had to do was pick a box that already had a plan.

So what about the fun part?

I was actually excited about 'refilling' the boxes. So, not only was I planning menus - I was actually excited to go grocery shopping.

So we're starting out week two  five of the box plan - and we're even more ready to go than last week: chicken stirfry, Mediterranean hummus dip, soup, pasta, roast beef crescent rolls with sweet potato puffs, egg salad, sandwiches with potato salad, chicken Caesar wraps with broccoli, buffalo chicken pizza with broccoli, and at least one more that's slipping my mind at the moment! This week we're looking at pasta with rosemary asiago and broccoli, hummus dip, soup, buffalo quesodillas, roasted corn Caesar salad, stirfry with pot stickers, meat loaf, hard boiled eggs or egg salad, and English muffin pizzas.

Going into month two of this and it's working well. We're also using it as an excuse not to go shopping specifically for our Saturday movie night dinners. Instead of putting in extra cost, we're just going with whatever box we have ready - assuming it feeds the right number of people! So, yes, I basically love this. And that's saying something.

September Goals

September Goals

Read 5+ books
Read 1+ non-fiction book
Attend High School Reunion
Finish Chocolate Covered Cherries Quilt
Decorate for autumn
Try one new recipe
Practice piano or clarinet twice a week


In the 48 hours since I wrote this list, about six things have already gone back and forth as to whether they have to be goals (with serious deadlines) or whether they won't happen at all - and all out of my control. The control freak part of me is struggling with this much, repeated, major upset to the month's plans.

And, like I said, work is still looking like it's going to take up most of September. At this point, my next chance at having two days off in a week (much less in a row) will be sometime in October! So, I may be a little quieter around here this month, at least until I get a few things worked out for work and that possible photo shoot... I have a few things queued from progress I made in August -- and one that's been waiting for a 'post' since July!! -- so it won't be completely quiet around here, but my hour a day of blogging/pinterest/tumblr/facebook/feedly is probably going to be cut to 15 minutes over breakfast and 5 minutes while brushing my teeth at night.

Oh, I had my first pumpkin flavored something of the season, so now that I'm done trying to force August to be summer (it sure is summer in my book, I don't know why everyone insists on making half of it autumn) I'm ready to embrace autumn - and hope for slightly cooler weather!

August Wrap Up

August Goals:

Read 5+ Books 

• "Kill Me Softly" Sarah Cross
• "Wolf-Speaker" Tamora Pierce
• "Grave Mercy" Robin LaFevers
• "Dark Triumph" Robin LaFevers
• "Firebrand" Gillian Philip
• "Where the Heart Leads" Stephanie Laurens

(Including 1+ nonfiction) - Nope. I tried to read a cat psychology kind of book and didn't make it through the introductory chapter. I need 'how to live with a cat for dummies' apparently... 
Go on a bike ride
Practice piano and clarinet twice a week - Not even close. 
Try a new recipe  Key Lime cupcake things 
Attend the quilt expo
Social outing with friend/s
Plan trip to visit the C family - planned yes, I think. Accomplished, not yet. 
Start planning for Christmas shopping - This is another still in progress, but I've started the process. 
Start working on the quilts that accompany all that math  - I haven't had a chance to talk about this yet, but I have started. Kind of. More on this soon - though not too soon... I'll explain later. 
Set up meetings with permit/building depts. - Well, this plan fell through. So it's looking like it'll be winter before we make any progress on this front. 
Sell the old car
Make time for doing fun stuff - Ha. This was not a good month for putting this on the do to list. This month I actually turned in payable hours at about full time all month. But for every day of payable work, I was also putting in 4+ hours of additional work (networking, marketing, drive time, etc.). I was lucky to make time to do laundry and cook - things like practicing my instruments or spending time on fun things was not happening. And in all honesty, September is already looking like it could be equally busy. 
Plan at least one week of menus and groceries - Huzzah! I took a jump with meal boxes and they have worked wonders around here. I seriously look forward to coming up with new ideas for the boxes - which means I'm looking forward to meal planning and grocery shopping. Two things I never thought I'd like! 


So, ultimately, August was really a month of putting in lots of long, hard days at work and not much else. We did set aside a little time for a few fun things - like a visit to my favorite 'local' quilting shop when the quilt expo proved not to be to my liking this year and some sneaky shopping for later in the year. It's a little difficult to complain - because we are working hard to grow the family business and being this busy feels like steps toward success in that regard - but at the same time, it's hard to be putting in so many hours for work and doing so little for ourselves. I'm hopeful we'll be able to work on finding a balance soon, but right now it feels like we'll be running ragged for the next little bit in fear that oncoming winter will see our usual slow down. Again, I'm hopeful we won't have so much slow in the winter as we have in the past, and that we can work toward finding a balance of work hours per day vs. other hours per day. Guess the only way to know what the future holds is to live through it!