August Monthly Report

Wow, it seems like we just started the month and now it's almost September! Where has this year gone?!?! I actually spent a lot of time in the sewing room this month, but most of that was during the weekends when hubby works.

Although I have listed several goals for September, I will be happy with any sewing I can squeeze in. Three of the four weekends I have other commitments. One weekend we're going to the Madison Quilt Show and to the Dells the next day so hubby can run a half marathon, then there is the 2-day Sheboygan dog show, and the following weekend I have to work at the 2-day races in Chilton. Long days and not much sleep.

Accomplishments in August:

• Spent 46 hours in the sewing room
• Completed Links quilt
• Finished piecing Tilt-A-Whirl
• Finished piecing Midnight Mischief
• Started piecing QOV mystery

My goals for September are:

• Quilt Midnight Mischief
• Quilt Snow Wonderland
• Piece Harvest Welcome
• Piece at least one Patchwork Party block
• Go to Madison Quilt Show (1st time)
• Go to Sheboygan Quilt Show

Stash Report - 8/31

This week a missing fabric order (18 yards) finally arrived. A lot of these are brights to use for kids quilts to send to Victory Junction Gang Camp. Although I'm a little shocked at my "in" fabric, I'm not really sweating it because the majority of the fabric added has been sale fabric at $4.00/yd which you can't beat that. I may have more to add after next week too. I'm planning on going to the quilt shop that is closing in early October. Everything is 40% now!!!

I can report 4 yards used though for finishing the Midnight Mischief top. I also started the Patchwork Party summer blocks. The first block Evening Star is done. I think I'm going to treat this like a BOM and work on it over a period of time though rather than straight through.

This week I want to start on the Harvest Welcome wallhanging. I also need to get going on quilting some of my tops but September will be a very busy month so any progress will be great.

My numbers this week:

• Fabric Added This Week - 18 yards
• Fabric Added as of Apr. '08 - 183.75 yards
• Fabric Used This Week - 4 yards
• Fabric Used Year to Date - 55-3/4 yards

Goals for this Coming Week:

• Piece backing for Midnight Mischief
• Load Midnight Mischief or Snow Wonderland on quilting frame
• Start Harvest Welcome

Fair Time & Racing

Yesterday we went to the Sheboygan County Fair. Of course our first stop was the poultry barn. Look at the hair on these roosters. The first one reminds me of Phyllis Diller and the second looks like the abominable snowman or sheepdog, just the beak was peeking out. Of course you can't go to the fair without eating fair food. Hubby had to get his favorite cow pie and you can't go to the fair and not get cheese. Hubby got fried jalapeno cheddar curds. Not liking spicy food, I just had a couple bites. Tomorrow we'll probably go back.




















Here are the quilts. Unfortunately they don't have the room to display the entire quilts. There were several that I would have liked to have seen fully displayed.










Last night hubby raced at Manitowoc. The first picture is my great aunt who, with her daughter, goes to the races every week to see my hubby and our neighbor race. They're both lovingly dubbed "the Super Fans". You would never know she's 82 years old. She acts like she's in her 30s.










Then we have the group picture. Front row (left to right) is me, Jim (FIL), Alma, Ellen, Jason, and his fiancee Amy. The back row is Sandy (Alma's daughter), Gary, Chad (DH), and Bruce. I was hesitant to put this picture up and I look terrible, but with my allergies in high gear yesterday, I wasn't too worried about how I looked when I went to the track.

New Temptation

I just found out today that there is a quilt shoppe opening soon near where I live. I'm really excited as it's a new opportunity for learning new skills and meeting new quilters. Plus it'll make up for the quilt shop that I love to physically go to which is closing in mid-October. Now I just need to find the willpower to not always buy when I go there.

Today the county fair starts. We're planning on going on Saturday morning. I can't wait!

Midnight Mischief

Today was a good day, the pollen count was down and I felt like normal. I think it's also helping that the dogs aren't allowed in the bedroom since I washed all the bedding.

Tonight I finished the Midnight Mischief top. Remember I wrote the other day that I don't always follow the directions so closely. Yep, happened here. I sewed some of the pieced borders yesterday and when I finished tonight I went to put it on and it was too long. I'm like what the heck, how could I be so far off? I pulled out the picture, um, I didn't put the second border on. After I put that on, the pieced border was the right size. At first I had thought about putting it up in my cube at work but it's a little bigger than I was picturing...so after I finish it, I'm going to put it on the wall in front of my sewing machine. First I need to look through my stash Halloween fabric and find something for the backing. I'm not sure how I'll quilt it yet either.

Things will be getting busy around here after tomorrow so I'm not sure how much more sewing I'll get to do. There is only really one weekend in September that we don't have something going on. I don't like having such a busy schedule either, but we'll muddle through.

BTW, I actually got to drive the new car to work today. Don't tell hubby but I got a bunch of grass in the car. He had mowed in the dog kennel yesterday and it was wet and stuck to my shoes when I put the dogs away today. I did take the mat out and brush it off so he'll never know....unless one of you rat me out. ;0)

Tilt-A-Whirl Top Complete

It's not a very good picture, but here is the completed Tilt-A-Whirl top. The sun was already starting to set....I hate the shorter days. I'm just not ready for it yet. (But I am ready for a deep frost to kill those dang weeds.)

I also sewed the first border onto the Midnight Mischief panel. I'll work on this more tomorrow after work.

Stash Report - 8/24

I had my own little sewing marathon this weekend. Tilt-A-Whirl top is done, except the top and bottom borders, so I am counting the yardage for the top in this report. When DH is available, I will get a quick picture of it.

I did not add any fabric this week, but I did add three pantos, Ebb & Flow, Bloomin Hearts, and Windy Day (which will be used on Snow Wonderland).

My numbers this week:

• Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
• Fabric Added as of Apr. '08 - 165.75 yards
• Fabric Used This Week - 6 yards
• Fabric Used Year to Date - 51-3/4 yards

Goals for this Coming Week:

• Start piecing Midnight Mischief
• Load Snow Wonderland on quilting frame
• Find backing for Tilt-A-Whirl
• Order backing for Midnight Mischief

Saturday Progress Update

You shouldn't stop when you're on a roll! I made lots of progress on Tilt-A-Whirl early this morning and then took a break. That's when it all went downhill. First, a confession...I don't always follow the rules or do everything in the sequence it's suppose to be done, sometimes I like to jump ahead. That said, I started putting the Unit 1 pieces together for the last couple blocks I need. I wasn't paying attention and I sewed the next sequence wrong on all of them. I'd only done a "couple" up to this point. That's what I get for not focusing.

After frog stitching it all, I went back and sewed them the correct way. All of the quarter squares are pieced, they just need to be squared up and sewn together to make the finished block. Since I couldn't wait, I also started on the rows.....4 done and 4 more to go. ;0) I'll work on it more again later. Now I'm gonna grab something to eat and finish watching a movie.

My hope is to get the top finished by tomorrow, and then I'm going to work on Midnight Mischief which should work up pretty fast.

ZOOM ZOOM

Ta-da, here is Zippy!!! She's not a Corvette, just your basic car but she'll be much better on gas mileage than the truck!!!

So far today has been pretty productive. I've picked up a little in the bedroom and sewing room and made several more green and purple blocks for Tilt-A-Whirl. I now have 19 blocks of each done, so 5 more of each. I need to make another strip set of each which will give me more than what I need so I'm thinking I may make either a table runner or wallhanging with what's left over.

What's Happening?!?!

First, I apologize (to the few of you who actually read my blog...giggle) for not posting sooner. I meant to post on Tuesday but then ran out of time, then I meant to post yesterday but allergies wiped me out. So here it all is, in one post.

Tuesday, the Fonz was in Milwaukee, along with the rest of the cast from Happy Days (except Ron Howard who is producing a movie). Henry Winkler was in Milwaukee for the unveiling of The Fonz' statue on the River Walk. Then they went to the Brewers game where "Potsy" (Anson Williams) sang the National Anthem and Henry Winkler threw out the first pitch. That would have been an awesome game to have gone to (even though the Brewers lost). I loved watching Happy Days "in the old days". (Photos are from JSonline.com)




Wednesday nothing much to report, except we went to the Manitowoc County Fair for the races. We went early so we could get some fair food before the races, but they wanted $10 to get into the fair (after we paid $25 to get into the pits), um they better have steak and lobster (for free) if I'm gonna spend another $10 to get into the fair. We went after the races and most of the stands were closing up. I had a combo platter with fries, cheese curds, mozzarella sticks and chicken strips which weren't that great, but at 11:30 at night what did I expect?!?! Hopefully the Sheboygan County Fair will be better! ;0)

Yesterday I took vacation and we went to pick up the new car. ZOOM-ZOOM I thought we'd never get through all the paperwork but eventually we did and off we went. We had to stop at Qdoba to re-energize after signing our names a gazillion times. I let DH drive her home since he's not allowed to drive her to work (too much debris in the air). I did take a picture but haven't downloaded it yet. It's very peppy!!! I got to take it to work today and actually didn't speed!! It has a HUGE trunk toofor hiding fabric.

Tomorrow and Sunday I am planning on working on more blocks for Tilt-A-Whirl, along with starting to load Snow Wonderland on the frame so when the panto I ordered gets here, I can start on it. I also noticed that the sewing room and bedroom are starting to get a little messy so I'll work on getting stuff picked up when I'm not sewing. That's all dependent on how I'm feeling. The allergies are draining my energy, plus I'm not sleeping well at night. I'm lucky though, my allergies are only usually for two months. I can't imagine having them year-round.

So that's what has been happening in my world. I hope to report a bunch of progress after the weekend. I'll try to be a better blogger and post more often.

Stash Report - 8/17

Nothing has changed on my stash report from last week, but I've made some progress on Tilt-A-Whirl (previously known as Garden Inspirations). I have 1/3 of the blocks done.

My numbers this week:

• Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
• Fabric Added as of Apr. '08 - 165.75 yards
• Fabric Used This Week - 0 yards
• Fabric Used Year to Date - 45-3/4 yards

Goals for this Coming Week:

• Continue piecing Tilt-A-Whirl
• Order panto for Snow Wonderland

As for the car shopping, after reading the Consumer Reports and talking to people about their cars, we have decided on the Mazda3. We'll get more bang for our buck. Now we just need to find the best price and dealer. So, yesterday we squeezed in a trip to Fond du Lac and test drove one with all the options we want. The salesman was very nice and didn't pressure us. They have silver, grey and copper red version, all with black interior. Blue still would be my first choice, but the grey is nice too. We found out the blue version only comes with the beige interior, which I thought I wanted since we DO have white dogs (even though they won't be allowed in this car), there are always stray hairs, just like threads. But the beige will also show stains better. Thursday I'm taking vacation (since it's DH's day off) and we're going to Green Bay to check their cars out. They have a blue one. ;0)

Eye Candy Friday - Harvest Welcome

Isn't he the cutest? I was looking at the Oct/Nov 2008 Quilt magazine and turned to this guy and thought he was the cutest scarecrow I've ever seen!!

He is designed by Pearl Louise Designs at Thimble Cottage. You can buy the fabric kit (top, backing and binding) at Thimble Cottage, but it does not include the pattern. The pattern is only available in the Quilt magazine.

Go get your copy today!!!

Tilt-A-Whirl Blocks

My current project has a new name....Tilt-A-Whirl in the spirit of the county fair that's coming up in a couple of weeks. DH had to help the neighbor so I got lots of sewing time tonight. I finished 4 green blocks and numerous 1/4 units which I need to square up. I will not get to sew tomorrow because I have to work at job #1 and #2.

Test

Slow day at the office. I wanted to see if I could add a signature at the bottom of my posts. I am wishing I were home sewing and being productive.

It just stopped pouring here...where did that come from? The weatherman didn't say anything about rain today! My allergies are starting to kick in now and I really wish I could just take a nap.

Block Update

Between yesterday and today, I made quite a bit of progress on the Garden Inspirations blocks. Today I put together three of the purple blocks. I don't know what it is, but I can't cut all of the pieces until I at least make a couple blocks to see what they'll look like.....like I couldn't figure it out by the picture on the pattern? After I satisfied my curiosity, I made a huge stack of the Unit 1 parts. Since the county fair will be coming here soon, I'm thinking of giving the top a name of a ride at the fair...like Tilt A Whirl, Zipper or Scrambler. What do ya think?

Test Driving

My brain has turned to mush from doing all this research on the Chevy Cobalt and Mazda3. I've looked at so many dealer websites, Edmunds, KBB, Consumer Reports, etc. everything is starting to blur together.

I left work early yesterday since it was slow and DH had off since he worked the weekend. So we test drove a Cobalt LT and Mazda 3 s Sport. The Cobalt had all the features that we are looking for in a car...and it was BLUE, my favorite color. The Mazda dealer only had one Mazda3 in stock and it was missing some of the options we want. Both cars have their pros and cons and we're still weighing them.

One thing I can see with the Mazda is that it may be quite costly for me....as in speeding tickets. I found myself going 80 on the highway (in a 65 mph). It definitely did not feel like we were going that fast. The ZOOM ZOOM certainly fits. There are two dealers about an hour away that have several of the i Touring models so we may check them out this weekend.

As for sewing, I did get a little bit done tonight after work. I have about 12 quarter squares sewn and ready to be made into the block. I'll take a picture after I have a few more made. I'm thinking that my purple and green are going to blend together and not make enough contrast....but we'll see when I get some blocks made.

Sunday Stash Report - 8/10

This was a fairly productive week for me. I finished the Links quilt (1/2 yd binding), my round for the QOV Round Robin (1 yd), and finished cutting strips for the Garden Inspirations top.

Now for the bad.... I received an email from Quilters Roundup saying they were having a storewide sale because they needed money NOW...well I felt I had to help out, so I *had* to place an order. Some of the order came in this week...12 yards worth. I'm planning on using these fabrics in quilts for the Victory Junction Gang Camp. I also had a coupon for the Fat Quarter Shop so I placed an order there too. I got the B&W FQ tower (4.5 yds), Boy Oh Boy FQ bundle (5.25 yds) and A Haunting We Will Go kit (3 yds..guesstimate).

My numbers this week:

• Fabric Added This Week - 24.75 yards
• Fabric Added as of Apr. '08 - 165.75 yards
• Fabric Used This Week - 1.5 yards
• Fabric Used Year to Date - 45-3/4 yards

Goals for this Coming Week:

• Continue piecing QA QOV Mystery
• Continue piecing Gardin Inspiration

These are the pattern and fabrics I'm using for the Garden Inspiration (I need to think of a better name for this...any suggestions?) top I'm working on. The fabrics are Moda Garden Inspirations and the pattern is Chocolate Covered Cherries.

A little side note, my fabric in numbers "should" be going down since DH and I have decided this week to buy a new car. Our older one died (again) this week and we just don't want to invest anymore into it so we're looking for a new one. There won't be much $$$ left for fabric after paying the monthly car payments.

QOV Round Robin & Shopping

One of my online groups is doing a QOV Round Robin. My friend Peg made the center with the appliqued eagle. Didn't she do an AWESOME job!?!?!? I got it next and this is what I added for my round.

It tried kicking my butt, but I perserved. Here's what happened: I figured out how big to make the HSTs, BUT I didn't take into consideration the first strip of blue that I had put on first. DUH!!!! (Can you tell I don't like math?!?!?) I went back and cut the blue strip in half to make it work. Ahhhh, that feels good to have that done.

Now on to the shopping part.....NO I'm not talking FABRIC shopping. I'm talking CAR shopping. Ick. Over the last year we've had problems with our Sunbird not wanting to start (usually when we're AWAY from home). After several trips to the mechanic, it happened again on Thursday. DH and I both said that's it. It's lived a good life....14 years and close to 192,000 miles. After looking at the cost of used cars, we decided we're going to buy a brand spanking new car. So we will get the lovely task of dealing with car salespersons. :0( Over the past couple of days I've been researching information about cars. It'll primarily be used for me to go to work (rather than the truck) and to go on longer road trips (not that we take many). So nothing too fancy. Currently we're looking at the Chevy Cobalt (haven't decided on the coupe or sedan) and Mazda3. If anyone has one of these, let me know how you like it.

Links Quilt

Here is a picture of Links. (I know not a very creative name, but I had a mental block the day I named it.) Of course the dogs had to check it out, but they were being shy and all you see are their tails.



Here is a picture of the flowers my co-worker/friend gave me for helping her with some projects last week. The mums are actualy blue and purple. Aren't they gorgeous???

Finish #10

The Links quilt is DONE!!! DH decided to rent a movie which is perfect for binding. I'll post a picture tomorrow.

I have one more quilt to finish to reach my goal of 11 finishes this year. Hopefully I can get that finish this month and then everything else will be icing on the cake!!!

I'm debating what should go on the frame next....Snow Wonderland, Spring Mystery, or 30s Pinwheel Stars. I'll think about it over the next couple of days.

Mid-Week Update & Quiltathon

I've been busy binding, binding, binding. I have one more side to go and Links will be done!!! I'm not sure if I'll get more done tonight, my eyes are bugging out. But tomorrow it should be a done deal. I may even take it to work so I can bind during lunch...to make sure it gets done tomorrow. ;0)

Heads Up: Judy L's Quiltathon is this weekend! Since DH will be working, I'll definitely be joining her. I hope you join us! Remember to post all of your progress.

Soggy Boys

I tried posting this yesterday but Blogger wouldn't let me. Here is what the sky looked like Sunday evening. Shortly after the sky opened up and it poured out. Then it stormed again at 2 a.m. until around 6 a.m. Great, it stopped just in time for me to go to work.

Unfortunately, it started again before I got home. And the boys didn't have enough sense to stay out of the rain. :0( Riley tried to lick Sonny dry. LOL

Knoxville Nationals

Normally this week we would be on vacation, on our way to Knoxville (Iowa) for the Knoxville Nationals to see the best of the best sprint car races. For several reasons, we decided not to go this year and now I wish we were. I could stand to get away for a while. Plus there are some cool quilt shops in the area that I like to visit when we're there. ;0)

The first year we (me, hubby and brother) went we had to idea what to expect. The trip didn't start out very good. We ended up stopping at a travel center along I-80 for potty breaks and the car wouldn't start up again (fuel pump I think). After several hours we were towed to Iowa City. We had to spend the night, but thankfully the garage was able to work on it the very next morning and we were back on our way.

All of the hotels were booked by the time we decided to go, so we decided to camp at the Red Rock State Park....in a TENT! What were we thinking?!?!? We ended up at a site with a Snoopy tree that could barely provide shade for my big toe. It was HOT....mid to high 90s every day and no escape from the heat. We even tried to hunt down a movie theater in Des Moines to get out of the heat. The races were great though. On the way home the exhaust started falling off. It was a long vacation.

I think we took a year off and decided to give it another try. It went better, we stayed in my brother's motor home (which also had some trouble). We've gone several years since then. The way the pattern is going, next year we'll probably go again. LOL

Since we won't be there this year, I wish all of the drivers, pit crews, and spectators a wonderful, safe time. I'll be there in spirit!!!!

Calling All Janiacs!!!

Teresa at Stitchin' Friends is giving away 25 Dear Jane blocks. She'll select the winner on August 15.

My progress for the day: The Links top is about 3/4ths quilted. Should be able to finish the quilting tomorrow. Update: I decided to get off my duff and finish quilting the Links top. It's squared up and binding is cut. Tomorrow I'll get the binding machine sewn to the front.

Sunday Stash Report - 8/3

Another week has flown by. It was a pretty good stashbusting week. No fabric was added this week. (Yeah me!!!)

I finished the Snow Wonderland top (5 yards), made 3 blocks for the QA QOV mystery, and pieced the backing for the Links top (4-1/2 yards). I started loading Links on the frame. Hopefully I can get it quilted this week.

My numbers this week:

• Fabric Added This Week - 0 yards
• Fabric Added as of Apr. '08 - 161 yards
• Fabric Used This Week - 9-1/2 yards
• Fabric Used Year to Date - 44-1/4 yards

Goals for this Coming Week:

• Quilt Links top
• Continue piecing QA QOV Mystery
• Work on QOV Round Robin

July Monthly Report

Where did July go? I spent most of the month focused on Quilting Gone Wild and Snow Wonderland. Now that I'm working five days instead of four 10s, the days just whiz by.

I have signed up for an online group's UFO challenge for August. I'd like to get 3 finishes but realistically am thinking 2 finishes. All of my UFOs are twin size or larger.

Accomplishments in July:

• Spent 32-1/2 hours in the sewing room
• Finished Quilting Gone Wild
• Snow Wonderland flimsie is done and ready to quilt
• Spent way too much on fabric. :0(

My goals for August are:

• Quilt Links flimsie
• Quilt Snow Wonderland
• Quilt 30s Pinwheel Stars
• Continue piecing QA QOV mystery
• Complete my QOV round robin
• Continue piecing Garden Inspiration blocks

I'm Here

I'm a little behind in my July report. Thursday I ended up working 14 hours and yesterday was just as crazy. Before that I was in shock at how awful the Brewers played against the Cubs.

I've spent my morning so far catching up on reading blogs. I have to get off this computer, or I'll get nothing done today. Tonight we're going to the World of Outlaws race!!! So I will post my July report tomorrow with the stash report.

Have a wonderful Saturday!!!