Tuesday's looking up!

If Monday is a bully, Tuesday is the smart, mean tag-along right behind the bully; less physically overwhelming, but sneaky & manipulative.

In my world, Tuesday is staff meeting day.  It starts early, everyone's in the office at once, I provide breakfast, we review all the jobs, bids, changes, problems, scheduling.

So it's way too early, way too many people, plus shopping, & cooking....  Blech!!!

Also, for some guys, it's the only time all week they come into the office.  So receipts, time cards, change orders, questions, packing slips, ordering, tool repairs, ALL THE THINGS come at me right after the meeting.  It's totally nuts & they are all eager to get back to the job site.

Did I mention that

??

Usually the guys clear out of here & order is restored by 9:30 or 10.  Ah - quiet at last, but that's when Tuesday gets all devious.  

All those pieces of paper, bits of information, & requests - they are floating around me demanding  ATTENTION!    ACTION!    RESOLUTION!    ANSWERS!!

Yeah - Tuesdays are rough.

You know what helps turn my Tuesday around?
     {Tylenol & Dr Pepper?}
Well yeah, normally.  But even better than that?
     {Better than Dr Pepper?  Blasphemy!}
How about an early visit from the mailman?
     {I'm listening}
With a package.
     {Keep talking}
THIS PACKAGE

                   {Oh YEAH!}

Always exciting to get something from Craftsy but this is a surprise.  Well - I ordered it.  But I don't remember really what it is - so right now, it's a surprise.




Wanna see?





Oh cool!  That was quick!  It's the Cotton & Steel Yellow Mystery Fat Quarter Box!  

Craftsy!

They put these on clearance & I managed to get one before they sold out! I LOVE yellow!!!

So let's check this out!!

Ta Da!

Hmmm - 
So that isn't what I was expecting. 
If you had to label this mix of fabrics, would you go with "yellow"?  
Yeah.  Me neither.

Guess it's even more of a surprise than I knew.

I'm still glad to have the Cotton & Steel pieces.  

Look at these prints - really cool images & such interesting colors.



And the hand of this fabric - the way it feels & drapes - it's really beautiful.

It's still Tuesday.  I'm not gonna skip my dose of Dr Pepper. But some soft colorful quilting fabric can make any day a little lighter & brighter, doncha think?

xo
sash

For other Cotton & Steel fabrics, check out Connecting Threads.  Their quilter's candy fabrics are great solids & blenders.  They show up in all my projects.  Their thread is also a really good, standard cotton thread.  I use it for piecing & for hand sewing.

One stash becomes two!

     A Lovely Year of Finishes        T-Shirt Quilts 

    T-shirt yarn (but for heaven's sake use a rotary cutter!!) 

       Woot!                   POUF(except I'll knit one)

Happy cutting & quilting & knitting!!!

sash

Road Trip!!!

I'm SUPER excited to be heading "home" to Montana at the end of this week.  The trip will be part solo, part old-home week, & I'm looking forward to miles upon miles of Harry Potter on audiobooks and handiwork in my lap.

I'm going here:

To watch this:     Missoula Marathon!!  

And wade in this:

And, in general, be out of pocket, offline, & on vacation for a full WEEK!!!

I have some paper piecing I'm going to work on but mostly I'm going to work on my knitting.  

Yeah.  I said knitting.  Yep - I'm learning to knit!  

I've finished one little piece (except for the blocking - it's too HOT to turn on the iron).  

 I've played with some other yarns.  Now I'm ready to tackle this scarf:

(I think)

The nice people over at Ravelry.com said it was a beginner piece & I understood all the markings on the instructions.  We'll see if my powers of concentration can last through an entire scarf & make an actual,recognizable pattern appear.





And that will be my project for A Lovely Year of Finishes for July.  We'll see how it goes with a non-quilting finish.  Fingers crossed that it will look just like the photo (except in some festive bright color).

Now 4 more days until I hit the road.  WoooHOO!!

xoxo
sash

Going Modern

Mondays seem so much better if there is a little bit of sunshine & the mailman brings NEW FABRIC!!!

Check out this BEAUTIFUL bundle of solids from Kaffe Fassett.

The texture is so rich and deep.  LOVE this fabric.  This is the dark fat quarter set - 34 different colors!  There is also a light set.  What a great line.

Anyway, I will be taking this bundle to Fabric Depot to pick out a coordinating white (gotta hunt for something with a weight and texture to match the shot cloth).  Then the fabric is destined for this quilt: Solid - Wedge - Star. 

Full disclosure here - I'm not going to use the technique in the video.  I adore Jenny from Missouri Star, but her assembly on this one really misses the boat.  Oh - we'll match up through the HST's, but then she uses a layer cake and wedge template to make the white parts.  So cutting around the template, ironing in 1/2, line up, sew, trim.  And you get 2 little angle bits from a 10x10" square?  That's too complex & pretty high waste ratio to me.

I'll try to remember to take pictures as I go but, basically, I'll be using 4" strips of white.  I'll iron the HST triangle to get my sewing line, use the diagonal of my HST to line up the strip.  After trimming the 1/4" seam allowance (with my add-a-quarter ruler and a piece of cardboard), the rest of the white strip gets flipped around onto the next square.  (Seriously - watch that video about 3:30 in.)

I know.  Show you the pictures.  OK.  Drawings and pictures in a future post - I promise.

Another fun thing?  I put this into EQ7 - to figure out overall dimensions and yardage for the borders.  As I flipped the sub blocks around to make the stars, there were several other cool patterns you can make from the same technique.  In particular, a cool check mark effect that would be neat as a monochromatic.

I'm glad I've committed to finishing the quilt for KT by the end of January.  Otherwise I'm pretty sure this fabric would be on the cutting block tonight!!

- sash

Such a productive weekend!

My newly designed work station is a dream.  My sweetie did a great job and the queen-of-folding-&-organization made it a warm, cozy, functional space.

This weekend, I finished ALL the quilting on the man-child's girlfriend's quilt top.  I finished the piecing in time for her graduation in June but, as often happens, stalled out on the finish.  But NOW I've got all the quilting done, the basting tacks removed, and the binding cut and pressed.  I just need to square it up, add the binding & tags, and pass it on.  Phew.

Hmmm - I guess I should add "Take Pictures" to that list.

The other big progress was on the Craftsy Candy Squares Quilt. I'd cut most the pieces and started assembling the blocks, but by last night all fifty of the 9-patches were complete, pressed, and attached to an alternate block.  Next step - figure out the arrangement of those sub blocks and stitch it all together!

I also played with making little snap bags.  The sample turned out pretty well (I know, where's the picture?) and I think these will be fun to make for the holiday craft sale as well as for little gifts.

So a great weekend quilting and enough progress to have me itching to hit the sewing room tonight.

Keep your feet on the ground!

- Auntie Sash