Heading to the Carolinas...

Tomorrow.
To camp for 3 nights.
I'll be on duty with my students for 24 hrs for 4 days.
I am NOT an outdoorsy gal.
It's pretty look at and all, but I don't want to sleep in it. My skin is already a mess without mold allergies factored in.
I have chosen to live in major cities for most of my adult life.
My knees don't like hiking.
Again, I'm NOT an outdoorsy gal.
Blarg.
So...I'll be offline til Fri. I'll miss y'all.
I'm hoping some luscious packages come in my absence.

My poor kitty's bald spots on her feet bottoms are getting bigger.
:(
Poor itchy girl.

How am I going to sleep without animals and the Pirate smooshing me?!

And no sewing for 4 days. I may go nutso.

I still have to finish the handsewn block for the school bee quilt...it's due next week.
I think I'll be doing a LOT of sewing this weekend.
What with having to finish the backs for the Across the Sea QAL x2 and that block.
Plus dad's quilt.

Blarg.

thinking about family...

I spent part of today thinking about my family.
See, 10 years ago...my parents were flying to visit family abroad. My brother was flying across country to meet them.
And I was headed out to the camping trip with my kids.

I didn't know what had happened til I got there.

And then I didn't know where any of my family were...or if they were safe.
Thankfully, someone else took over for my class...and another teacher (the one who teaches next door whose daughter I've danced with and loved as she's grown up...the one who is now really good friends with the Pirate) stayed with me until I could get a hold of someone.

That took several hours. And that someone turned out to be my mom.
They were on the tarmac when the planes hit and all the flights got grounded.
But they were all ok.

I didn't get back to home until Friday, when the trip ended. It took me until Saturday to track down all my friends in NYC. (I lived there for several years.)

Anyway, I thought about my family today.
And it seemed like a good day to work on my dad's Xmas present.
So I sewed.
Here's what I've got so far:


It's a disappearing 9 patch (my go-to favorite lap quilt).
He likes reds and purples. The colors make me feel like fall.
It's going to have a black border and back.
(I still have to get some more fabric.)
I'm going to do a mixed batik binding. If I have enough batik left, I'm going to do a strip of blocks (like stacked coins) on the back.

Rolling along...

and trying not to itch.
See...coughing and sometimes just being sick...trigger hives.
Yup. I'm an itchy itchy girl.

I've gotten some things done the last two days.

My New Bee on the Block for Sept.:


This is actually my second version. I had a 6th book but it just looked wrong, so I took it off and added some more grey.

I cut up dad's quilt fabric. I'm going to have trouble giving this one up.
I'll try to post a progress pic up later.

I got some fabulous gifties in the mail.
I won some Storyboek. Just petting it feels great.

I also won a HUGE bag of charms from thimble + bobbin.
Out of print Heather Ross fabrics. I literally oooooohed and aaaaaahed as I opened up the bag.
I'm going to have to come up something super special for these.

Sooooo not into this upcoming camping trip with the cold and hives.
Meh.

I've got a cold in my nose...

and hopefully continuously fixed AC.
The repair guy came out today (forcing me to get a sub at work) to replaced the broken drain pan in the AC unit.
It appears to not be leaking now. (PLEASE, UNIVERSE, LET IT STAY FIXED.)

I accomplished little...other than grading and planning for the camping trip.
I had intended to sew, especially after I thought my dance rehearsal was cancelled.
I got ONE block done...for something I can't post about yet.

I was going to cut up dad's quilt fabric.
Then I got the confirmation that rehearsal was still on.

While I had a blast with the ladies, I kind of wish I had been able to just sew.

WIP:
Monkey Quilt (rows still need to be sewn together)
a Prayer Flag charm pack quilt for me (blocks sitting in a baggie)
2 Across the Sea QALs (which are caught up)
Skill Builder blocks (caught up)
Sew Bee Blissful blocks (waiting for fabric to arrive)
New Bee Block (hopefully designing tonight, as I need to sew and mail it off this weekend)
Billboard QAL (designed once, needs to be redesigned, currently sitting on back burner)
Dad's quilt (fabric selected, not cut yet)
Mom's quilt (IN NEED OF A LONG ARM QUILTER'S SERVICES...or I need to suck it up and hand quilt it)
School Bee block (I think I have 3 out of 11 circles sewn on...why oh why is it hand-sewing circles...circles that are supposed to be unraw...and sewing that has to be invisible?!)
The Scrap Bag Challenge at PingsandNeedles (pattern, check!, still waiting for bag of scraps to arrive)

I really really want to sign up for more swaps. Yes, I know I'm crazy.
I have signed up for the Hoopla at Misfit Quilters. I can take something for that with me on the camping trip, I think. Which will only work if I know and can stalk my partner by Mon. Hrm.
Anyway, I have a really cool (at least I think it is) swap of my own in the works...I'm just waiting til the camping trip is over to announce it.

It's Wed!, WIP 09/07/11

I got some sewing today.

It was a mixed bag kind of day.

I have to say how much I love and appreciate The Pirate.
Warning for the squeamish....skip ahead to the ****
I thought I saw a cat hit/dead by the side of the road yesterday. I wasn't sure if it was a cat or a possum.
I passed it (it was across a 4 lane highway) on the way to school, and I wondered if it would still be there when I went home.
It was.
And I wanted to cry.
Because I wondered if it had tags and if it's owner knew it was dead.
So, The Pirate humored me...and we went with my phone (to call the potential owner), trash bags and gloves to retrieve the body. Well, I carried the phone and held the bags, but he did the actual retrieval. No tags.
So, no one to call. We removed the cat anyway.
And, I was at least glad I had tried. Because if it was my kitty, I would have wanted to know.
And The Pirate (who hates dead things) tried to help me.
Anyway, it was kind of gross, but I went home and could sew without worrying about the cat owner.


****Here's what I sewed today:
Monkey Quilt

The rows are sewn, but still need to be sewn together.

I've cut pieces for a doll quilt and will be designing a book block for a bee tonight. Hopefully both will be sewn tomorrow.

I finished the second top for the Across the Sea QAL:



I still have to clean up the threadies and press it (and the boy version).
I'm not sure I'll be able to get the next step done in time as I have the school camping trip next week. *dread*
I'm just not an outdoorsy type of gal.
I'm clumsy.
I have wicked allergies.
Bugs like to eat me.
I won't be able to eat normally for 4 days bc of my food allergies and cafeteria food.
The last time I lived off of cereal for breakfast, rolls (whenever I could get them) and carrots and chickpeas or eggs at lunch and dinner.
Argh.

I got some things done today.

Despite flinching and waiting for the power to go out, what with storms and tornado watches most of the day.

I'm super stuffy.

Here's what I did:

3 blocks for my first ever block lotto entry

I love love love batiks, so I'm kind of hoping to win this month.

I think I picked a layout for the girl version of the Across the Sea QAL:

I haven't sewn it yet. Just sewing the boy version (after squaring up all the blocks and having to cut borders and more edging bits) took longer than I estimated.

Here's the finished top for the boy version. (It is still in need of pressing.)
with Kraken:

sans Kraken:


It's a really cute quilt. I'm praying I don't mess it up with the quilting.

I picked 2 (because I apparently have to do everything twice) palettes for the Dead Simple QAL:
Palette#1:

It's WAY out of my comfort zone with colors...YELLOW, ORANGE, AND PINK.
I'm trying to come to terms with them....plus, I think it will be nice to have bright colors going into cooler weather.
Palette #2:

I'm thinking of making just a lap quilt out of these.

I'm making another disappearing 9 patch kid quilt...I've decided this is my meditative action. It's easy. I get a result quickly...I have lots of people that could take it. I'm coveting the monkeys and birds on this one. I bought batiks this weekend to make one for my dad. I haven't cut into them yet.
Here's the layout of the monkey quilt:


I'm still trying to decide what to do with Mom's quilt. I contacted one pro-quilter for long arming, but she wasn't local and she hasn't responded. I'm ok with mailing one off. Does anyone have someone to recommend?

Blarg.

I decidedly have a cold.
I started to feel crappy Fri but chalked it up to the whole AC stress. (Which is still not working right....it's still leaking but purportedly a new drain pain will fix it, which will be ordered on Tues when the office is open again. In the meantime, The Pirate has to shop vac it at least twice a day. As a result, my dermatitis flared from the stress and I'm a blotchy/itchy/peely mess. He tells me he still loves me...and that I apparently snore as well.)

Nope..not allergies. Not just being tired.
It's a full fledged cold.
I shall look like Rudolph by Tues. Well, Rudolph with some sort of pox thanks to the peely patches. Ugh.

As a result, most of the plans for the weekend have been shelved.
Yesterday, we were going to go to the big Dragon*Con parade downtown. I love Dragon*Con. We went one year when we were doing the back and forth long distance thing. It's a hoot. But exhausting.
And rather expensive. I'm kind of glad we didn't splurge on weekend passes for the 25th anniversary and wind up with me drooping the entire time. That said, I'm sad I don't have ridiculously geeky/sci fi-y pictures to post. (To give you an idea, the parade has, among other things, a section of Harry Potter fans, a Star Wars section, a Star Trek section, Xmen and other comic characters, a Stargate section, and an anime section....a rocking Steampunk section... I'm leaving tons out. Instead, I slept (and apparently snored) until after noon.
Then around 3, I went to Joann's in search of some batiks for a quilt for my dad and to stock up on some fat quarter bundles I plan to use for some kid quilts.

Anywho....today we were going to go to the Decatur Book Festival. It's awesome and free, but I just don't have the attention span to focus long enough to enjoy it.

I *still* haven't finished my Skill Builder block from 2 weeks ago. I started it last night (late) and realized I didn't cut all the pieces out.
I also sewed up the blocks for the second quilt from the Across the Sea QAL. I still have to press them.
And I still have to square them all up. I'm terrified of cutting them wrong. How do you keep all the seams lining up?
Anyway...I'm also thinking of entering into the Block Lotto for this month, since I love batiks.
Here's what I did yesterday:
2nd Across the Sea QAL block batch

3x6 angel block (done a while ago, just photographed before mailing)

I also did one of three Block Lotto blocks, but I am waiting to take a picture until they are all done.
Why does this feel like a puny amount of work for one day?!
I think it's because I had grand plans and just lacked the get up and go.
Ditto for today.

Soooo....we may or may not be going to get thread and head to mini-golf....maybe stopping for Suno (an icey Asian dessert type treat).