My Paper and My Patience Block

WhooHoo!! I've finished my 1200 word report! Oh that feels good. It actually ended up being about 1350 words, well that's no surprise. We all know I can carry on and on. Now it is time to work on to my 500 word paper. I can tell you all right now that one will be over 500 words! This next one is to review a foreign film based on the Classic Hollywood format.

And of course I'm still working (off and on) on my Patience block. Today is an on day so here's a picture.

This little red birdie needs to fly over and get sewn down.

I didn't finish everything I wanted to finish in Sept.  But that's why we have an October.  Anything not finished will become October's Goals list. 

We have some home improvement projects going on at home and my yard is such a mess.  I'll take some pictures and post them later.

My quilt from A Few Scraps Quilt - along

Every chance I have I sit down and practice my quilting. I've mostly been quilting on the practice pads.  I really love it.  It's so relaxing.  Here's my project for A Few Scraps Quilt-along. 

The Back Side

The front side:  I knew to start in the center of the quilt.  So why did I start on the ends?  I still have the center to do.

The Whole Thing. 

And then we have Miss Neptune.  (Neptune is kind of a boy dog's name, but my daughter didn't care and named her that anyways.)

Check her out (not my husband's work yard - it's pretty sad.  We have a nice backyard with green grass, just not out this window) she's looking at a lizard.  She loves to chase them. 

Here's a bit of a close up. His underbelly side.  It started creeping me out so tried to get it off the screen but it wouldn't move.  I almost had to touch it to get it going and eventually he did run up the screen and out of site.  Eeek.

Fall-O-Ween Blog Hop

Have you heard about the Fall-O-Ween Quilt Designer Blog Hop?  Well it starts next Monday at Gudrun's World.  And yes I promised myself I would NOT go blogging and work on my paper - but as you can see I failed.  LOL!!  And you can tell I'm really upset about it?  Well, I have until Monday....    Let's see how much I can get written because come Monday I know me I'll be checking out the Quilt Desidner Blog Hop.

Switching from Sewing to Researching

I hate to do this but if I'm ever going to get that 1200 word paper written, (how many pages is 1200 words?) I have to quit spending time reading blogs, looking at quilts and fabric and yes writing on my own blog.  I have to do start doing some research on newspapers.  I had to pick a mass form of communication and I picked newspapers but what about them I really don't know.  (Unless there's a sale ad for fabric then I'll know all about it!  LOL!!)    So I'm thinking I'll write about how newspapers have changed over the years to stay in business.  We'll see if that is enough for my paper. 

But before I go away for a couple days - I sure hope it's only a couple days I'll tell you.  I've been practicing my quilting with the quilt along. And my thread keeps breaking.  The tension was awful with the cotton thread so I switched to silk thread.  Better tension but it continues to break.

And Hubby and I took my daughter and friend to Six Flags Magic Mtn for her birthday.  All those rides and roller coasters! 

Oh not for me.  I stayed firmly planted on the ground at the Valencia shopping market!  Yeah - that's right she rolled and I shopped, and ate and watched a movie with my hubby.  Then Sunday we had not cake but cheese marbled brownie with candles and singing.  We also had lots of balloons and water balloons and lots of fun.

And finally last night I made the Sweet Potato Biscuits from Patchwork Times.  I added a bit too much milk and remembered that I don't usually roll my biscuits but make drop biscuits.  So that extra milk was okay.

Even Serena liked them even though she hates sweet potatoes.  I didn't tell her that there were sweet potatoes in there!  Next time I'm going to try using pumpkin.  I think we would really like that. do you like my goodwill dish.  It even makes these drop biscuits look better.

No - I'm not proud of this. (Another CGQC finish)

I'm not too happy with the t-shirt revamp.  But at least my hair looks better than in the before picture!  LOL!!  And I'm not too upset with it either because it was my first attempt.  I cut off the collar and sleeves, then zigzaged the edges and took tucks at the shoulders. I also took in the sides.  My daughter (miss fashion police) has warned me NOT to wear this outside. I only did for the snap shot.  Now what should I do?  Or is is hopeless because of this huge engine in front, with the words "I got mine at...."

I've been busy trying to stay on top of my reading and homework for my classes. While I'm waiting for the computer to load or save or whatever I work on my Patience Bom.  Just thought you might want to know that.   

CGQC finsh for Sept. Yea! One down...many more to go.

All of the Sewful Sisters promised we would finish piecing our tablecloths for tonight's meeting.  Here's mine! 

This was really quite a challenge to finish up.  I had all the block completed so Saturday meant squaring up those blocks and sewing on sashing.  But we all know it's never that simple.  For one thing these were the fabrics I bought Friday so that I could start sewing early Saturday.  Aren't they so pretty and go so well together?

But that dark didn't do what I wanted. (darn!)  First thing Saturday I needed to go to the fabric store and get ANYTHING that would be lighter.  Only Saturday morning found me helping my wonderful hubby do a little work. (That's not the way this is suppose to go!) Then he wanted to go by the Harley Shop. Okay the motorcycle ride and the donut were good but I ought to be shopping for fabric! 

So off to the fabric store we go and along the way we see a Farmer's Market.  Do you see the way this is going?  After the Farmers Market and a few pounds of fruit, we did make it to the fabric store.  I bought a lovely green from the Origins line.  Arriving home at lunch time our little daughter begged to go to Chick-Fil-A.  Who could say no to that?  We finally get back home around 1 pm and I started squaring up those blocks.  It was a typical "get up and sew first thing Saturday morning" with Saturday morning gone before I knew it. LOL!!!

The sun was shinning right on the fabric - so it's hard to see the blocks clearly.  It certainly brightens up our dinningroom.  I'm so please with it.  Tonight I'll see how the Sewful Sisters plan on quilting it.

Erik's new Christmas Mystery Quilt.

Erik over at ErikHomemade is having a Christmas Mystery Quilt.  I never did to the May one because I was just too busy doing my own thing. I'm not sure if I'll do this one, but I wanted to let everyone know that it is available.  This one will be a wallhanging - so check it out and see if it's something you would like to do.

I'm working on it...

I've been working on that Origins Quilt.  I have all the blocks done and today I bought the sashing and border fabric.

See isn't it pretty! I just love it. Okay, so as you remember, (Notice I think you read and remember what I say?) I was having a horrible time sewing up the blocks and having them turn nice and square. Well, the Sewful Sisters helped me, but obviously it wasn't good enough as it didn't help much. I can sew a 1/4 seam or a scant 1/4 inch seams but not a "smaller" seam. So my blocks are a bit disappointing but I'm going to forge ahead ignoring cut off points and just see this project through to the end. 

And as promised, I've been working on my Patience Block - embroidery takes me so long to do. (Have I said that before?  Oh right, I've said it about 10 times before- Sorry.)  Here's my block so far.

On it's side because we like to do things sideways. 

And I have all my homework done for this week!  Yippe!!  On Tuesday I did about 3 hours of reading and essay writing, and then didn't save my work correctly!  All my work was lost.  All of it!  Oh dear!  So I decided it wasn't worth getting upset over and did it all again on Wednesday.  I thought it would take less time, or be easier or at least better. Nope.  Same 3 hours, same quality.  Oh well.  Guess What?  I make sure I save my essay answers correctly!!

Tonight is back to school. I still go to these even though my daughter is in high School.  It makes her think I'm interested in her school work.  LOL!!  Actually I do like it and I find out about her teachers, what they are like and what they will be expecting.  AND I get to give them my e-mail address so that they let me know how she is doing in class.   

My Charming Girls Quilt Club September Goals

September Projects

Quilts

1. Origins Quilt

2. Quilt- a- long with A Few Scraps

UFOs

3. Brown and Purple Quilt
    

4. Work on: Angela’s Black Quilt by completing Cat Block (the whiskers and tail.)

Just for Fun Projects

5. Design and make needle holder
     Oops! no picture probably because I don't have an idea yet!
6. Scarlett’s Cat Skirt and Blouse
    
7.  Revamp ugly T-Shirt
     I got this t-shirt from the Harley Dealer. They give a free shirt when you buy a Harley from them. Too bad it's a MAN'S shirt and I'm a woman.  I don't know why they don't give women a woman's shirt.  I like the back of the t-shirt with the oil derick and field of crops and mountains behind.  But it is not faltering so it chop, cut, sew time!

8.  And work on Val's BOM - which I'm not even going to picture because I list it every month. Instead I'll post a process picture in a week or so.

Salvation Army Coasters

I was on my way to get some school supplies for my daughter. And seeing the Salvation Army Store I just had to go in. I really don't know why, because NEVER buy anything. I'm really a very poor thrift store shopper.

So I'm just looking around and my husband calls: Where are you?

Me: Salvation Army looking at junk. (Right then I spot some coasters just like my mother used to have.)

These coasters - right here:

So I say:  Hey they have the same coasters Mom used to have when I was a kid.

Hubby :  Buy them.

Me:  You don't even know what they look like!

Hubby: Buy them.

Me:  We don't need coasters.

Hubby:  Buy them.  They must be a good price and they are worth a lot.

Oh! The light bulb goes off - he's already figured out they are antiques because if I was a kid, and I'm, well old, then so are they! 

So I bought them.  And I like them, after all Mom does have good taste. 

Sewful Sister and Sewing Slump

Did you know that I've been having a sewing slump lately?  Maybe you could tell cause I haven't been posting much about my sewing.  Over the weekend I figured out one reason.  It's this Origin Quilt.  The Sewful Sisters decided to do a quilt using charm packs. Okay. Sounds good.  Until I started trying to sew it.  Just look at what a mess this is!  Yuk!   Just look at those sides not meeting up! 

The problem is that the yellow and white squares are cut too small because they were cut from the 5" charm squares to match up with the triangle square.   Well, no wonder I didn't want to work on this! 

So we had a Sewful Sister's meeting last night and guess what?  Other people had sewn their block and they were all even and looking great.  (Yikes the problem really is me!)  So they, being the nice people that quilters are, help me to sew a much smaller seam than 1/4.  And I actually started having fun.  

One more picture - just for the fun of it.

I really can't wait to get home and start sewing! See that sewing slump is gone.

Funny Post..

You all should go check out the Veggie Hunter's Blog today.  She has a funny post about her house there.  And guess what? It's was posted just for ME!  She also has some people (Rider fans) on there you will want to see too! 

And while you are doing that I'll see about getting a post about my Sewful Sisters written.