I catch you up on SNOWMAGGEDON in the US South, my week away for work, my work on Scrapitude with a vague tease about a pending funny story about it, and a lot of talk about food because I was pretty hungry when I recorded this. Join us this weekend on twitter for the Sportsball Sew-In!
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As you know, I am a connoisseur of Sportsball. At least, I married a person who knows it well, and together we made a person who knows it pretty good, too. So what better way to celebrate than by getting the hell out of their way when there’s a big game on! I am pleased to once again tie together a Sportsball Sew-In (#SBSI) on twitter this weekend!
There is nothing worse than feeling left out of large social and cultural events. I mean, sure, sports are hard and who can keep track of all those nit-picky facts like runs and side-outs and points. The only points we care about are those on a Disappearing Pinwheel or Scrapitude, amiright ladies?
So, shed those tacky polyester jerseys, slap on some soft pants and join me for the SportsBall Sew-In this weekend!
To celebrate I’m giving away an Official Carl the Sheep Wide-Mouth Zipper Pouch. This is the Noodlehead medium size - about 11 1/2″ x 7″ with a 4″ wide base. I use this size to hold my EPP and another one to hold my crochet project, so it can fit quite a bit. You can click either picture to go to Flickr to enbiggen the picture and scrutinize my doodling prowess.
You can read about the history of Carl the Sheep in last year’s giveaway (short story: printing error leads to hilarious sheep doodles!). This year Carl is joined by his new friend, the Redrum Rooster. For those not in the know, the Redrum Rooster lives behind my house and crows like it’s being strangled. At all hours of the day. There are also farts, a light saber, and party hats among the other doodles.
Yes, I can draw a fart. My kids are in awe of my (f)artistic abilities.
The Rafflecopter giveaway will be open until midnight Sunday night (US Eastern time) so all you non-US folks can enter to win. I’ll ship it anywhere!
S
o this happened in Atlanta. 2-3 inches of accumulation in a town not equipped to handle it means incredible traffic jams as all schools and employers sent everyone home all at the same time. Most of my friends and family are safe if not quite home yet, but I’m hopeful they might all make it home by tonight.
Since I work from home, I don’t have the luxury of a snow day, yet my kids and husband are home with me today. I did manage to get the center put together for my parents’ quilt Monday, and I’m also working on the Scrapitude center, which I hope to have done before I go to bed tonight, with a plan for what to use on the back.
Well, I survived my week away from home at a training event for work. Things went well, I met lots of new people that I’ll be working with, and I didn’t gain any weight from all the catering. Huzzah!
I did miss my daughter’s birthday and my wedding anniversary, but I did eat an awesome Steak Ranch Salad with bacon on it. I recommend it at the Paradiso 37 restaurant in Downtown Disney in Orlando. And the house lager there. I can also recommend the Blonde ale at BJ’s Brewhouse - deeeeeelicious.
The only time I got a chance to do any sewing while traveling was some EPP at airports or on planes. I’ve probably got enough units done to piece together a full row of my Tula Pink quilt, so that will be happening sometime soon.
Yesterday I got a chance to sit down at my machine and finished up the latest step in Scrapitude. I know Sandy said she didn’t want pictures of a finished top posted out of courtesy for those quilters that want to wait for the “official” instructions, so I’m just posting the finished units here. I’ve figured out the layout and will get started piecing my top together since I’m under deadline to get it done for a charity auction.
So having said alllll that, I didn’t finish anything this week. Except a lot of beer.
See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!
I’m sitting in a conference room in a hotel in Florida this week, but I did manage to eek out the primary blocks for Scrapitude before I left home. I’ve got my crochet project with me, as well as my EPP project, but working on them is scattered since I have to go be sociable and junk with all my new co-workers when we’re not sitting in conference rooms.
Also: beer.
In other news, Happy 14th Anniversary to me and my husband!
Steady progress on my parents’ quilt this week as I’ve finished 11 out of 16 blocks. In terms of “finished” projects, I whipped up three pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer using some fabric from a friend’s de-stash. I also made myself a new zipper pouch to hold my crochet project while I travel this week.
More importantly, we just finished my daughter’s 1st Official Birthday Party Sleepover. There was only two other girls, but that was enough to remind me why we stopped with two children ourselves, and why I generally enjoy the company of boys. They are very nice girls, but there was a lot of trading of stuffed animals and I had to put the brakes on a couple leaving our house since they were originally mine, much to the consternation of one of the girls. Tough noogies, kid.
Anyway, rather than a bag of numerous tiny bits as party favors, my daughter and I decided to make the other girls each one of those mailboxes like I made my daughter for Valentine’s Day. They picked out their fabrics and I made them last night while the girls’ played. And of course I forgot to take pictures of mine, but the picture here is of the one from the tutorial.
See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!
After a disappointing lack of dramatic flounces over the whole continental vs throwing style of knitting, I talk about EPP, progress on my parents’ quilt, and a yummy tortellini and sausage recipe.
Here’s my before/after picture on my weight loss - the after picture was taken last night.
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I’ve started piecing the blocks for my parents’ quilt, and have finished…. let’s see… I’ve got to count… ONE. I’ve finished ONE block. Out of sixteen. It’s been a busy week at work wrapping up a bazillion things before I move to my new one.
I’ve got a sew-in tomorrow night for my guild and will work on piecing the remaining 15. Right now the units are laid out on a card table and not terribly portable, so I’m working on webbing the blocks together (chain piecing the rows together) and then do the finishing seams at the sew-in.
I’ve been using the QoV HSTs as leaders and enders, and think that’ll be my plan for this year - to use charity quilt pieces as leaders and enders for my “main” projects. Since the new job officially starts TOMORROW (wheeeeee!), I’m hoping that will help me keep up charitable sewing if demands on my time change significantly.
In other news, cats are weird.
It’s that time again! Time for quarterly Finish-Along-Goals, and this year it’s hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle.
I first made my list up at the very beginning of the year, and it included Celtic Solstice and Royal Gardens and then I went and finished those within the first week of the year. So, time for an updated list!
Dresden Garden - Need to stitch down center applique, piece, quilt, and bind. It will probably take me all quarter!
Scrapitude - Caught up on units. Waiting on next step, and hoping to finish soon since I need to send it to Quota International for their auction in honor of my aunt.
All About Me - Challenge quilt for the East Cobb Quilters Guild. Some blocks pieced. This one is more than just piecing since it’s supposed to be a quilt that reflects me and includes lime green and polka dots.
My Parents’ Quilt - Units done, piecing blocks. Need to piece top, quilt, and bind.
Scrappy QoV - Currently piecing a donation quilt for Quilts of Valor. I’m using a pattern from my ScrapTherapy Cut the Scraps! book which pulls 3 1/2″ squares and a TON of 2″ squares for the border. Here’s some of the bits already cut up. They are going to be used for leaders & enders for other projects.
No big finishes this week, but I did try out a pattern recommended to me by Judi (hi Judi!) for baby quilts. It starts with 1 yard of 3 different fabrics, two cuts each, and poof! Pieces for 3 baby quilts. So far I’ve got 2 quilted, and the 3rd waiting in the wings.
Just as well I logged some usage since the final part of my Christmas present arrived! It’s a fat quarter assortment of the Catnap line from Lizzy House. At least I think that’s what it’s called. So yes, I got cat fabric. It’s rare for me to pick cat fabric out for myself since it’s rather cliched!
See more stash reports at Patchwork Times!