SHQ show & tell

Michael was up at 6 AM on Thursday (8/30) for an early tee time and I followed shortly afterwards.  I got my blog out and my cream strips cut (for my Thursday project) before heading upstairs to get laundry in.  I left for quilting after a quick stop at the grocery store for some goodies….today is our charity day and I figured whoever showed up to work on stuff deserved some treats!  I wanted to bake something….but could find NO butter in my freezer  :~( …..so Harris Teeter it was  :~).  We worked mostly on pocket prayer quilts and got quite a few done:  

Loree

And we had our regular show and tell:  

made from old rotary cutter blade, soda can tabs & buttons!!!!

I stopped at the library on the way home, and then read for just over an hour before leaving to pick up Pat at the airport.  She’s been in Chicago for 2 weeks and it was so terrific to talk and talk all the way home.  Sje did get a tiny bit of sewing/embroidery done while she was up there:

We settled into her sun room and talked until around 8:30 when I headed home to snuggle with my honey until bedtime.

beginning of kitty quilt, Half Log Cabin corrected

I had a 7:30 AM meeting with the hearing aid specialist on Tuesday morning (8/29), but was home in time to SKYPE with Janice at 9.  My honey made me a smurfy egg/cheese/spinach/toast breakfast after that 

and I finally got to start sewing by 11:30.  Today was pretty much all about getting the inside of the Half Log Cabin totally together, and starting to make the blocks for the kitty quilt.  By dinnertime the patriotic inside was done, and I had made a good start on the kitty quilt:  

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I headed upstairs to feed the kids after Michael left for rehearsal and ended up reading my book for a couple of hours.  Paula stopped by to drop off a check and visit, so we had a good time talking until Michael came home from rehearsal.  He said the evening had gone VERY well, so he was feeling much better about the play opening next week!

OK, back to the conundrum of the Half Log Cabin quilt.  If you draw a line from north to south right down the middle of the quilt, each side should be a mirror image of the other side:

So with that hint, take a minute to look at this again to see if you can find the discrepancy.

Now look at the lower LEFT side (sorry about the gap when putting up that last row.)  If you start at the left side of the bottom row, after the solid blue block you get the bottom of a square, and in the row just above, the second block in makes that into a 3/4 square....so you see that?  But if you look at the bottom right, again, on the last row you have a solid blue square, and then the bottom of a block....but where's the 3rd block to make 3/4 of a square?  It might be easier to see in the pictures of me correcting it.

Here I've ripped off the 2 end blocks and have a space where the original wrong block was (second in from the right on the next to the last row):

BUT, when I put it back on the wall....I screwed up the first block on the right of the next to the last row!!:

AY YI YI!!!  I had to rip and re-sew this so many times that I was afriad the fabric would disintegrate, but eventually it was all corrected:

Now I just need borders and this top will finally be done!  I am so glad I have a design wall....not sure I would have ever gotten this sewn together correctly without it  :~).

And your dose of cuteness for today....more pictures of AJ:

lots of Ethel, customer quilt done

Michael left before 9 AM for a variety of stops: routine doctor’s visit, Triple A (about our trip next year), CVS, WALMART (where he called to say he was having fun walking around!) and the car wash.   I headed downstairs, determined to make progress on the latest customer quilt.  Now, I’ve done 2 quilts with excellent tension…but this one was wonky right off the bat.  So, I had an extended ripping session, then worked on my tension, did a couple more samples and kicked it off again and this time everything worked.  I had company…and just like her predecessor, Ethel is sleeping on the softest surface she can find….the 2 newest quilts:  

I continued to sew on the Half Log Cabin while the quilt was stitching out…and by dinnertime the quilting was done: 

and I had all of the patriotic blocks sewn into rows:

Well, I’m glad I put the rows back up on the design wall before sewing them together because I definitely have a mistake!  Can you see it?  It’s in the bottom right hand quadrant….I’ll give you till tomorrow to find it  :~).  So, as you might imagine, once Michael left for the movies, I did a bit of ripping, then re-sewing.

baby quilt on bound pile, Jane's martini night

Michael was up and out for golfing before 7:30 AM on Monday (8/27), while I had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the studio.  I spent quite a bit of time on the computer, buying songs for my IPOD.  After that I synced it up and plugged it in and spent the day groovin’ and sewing  :~).  

First up was getting the 2 baby quilts cleaned up (bobbin ends woven in, basting ripped out, trimmed) and on the to-be-bound pile:  

Mariann stopped by in the morning to pick up her convergence quilt:  

Next up was kicking off my embroidery machine for labels for the 2 baby quilts:  

While those were stitching out, I basted the next customer quilt:  

And I made a start on sewing the latest patriotic (called a Half Log Cabin) blocks into rows.  I really am much more productive when I listen to music than when I try to watch TV :~).  I had sleeping company for most of the day:

Michael came home from golfing at Ballentyne (and after a great stop at Big Daddy’s Burgers) and went over his lines before leaving for rehearsal just after 5 PM.  

I got cleaned up and headed over to Jane’s for martini night.  Only seven of us could make it: 

Jane (our hostess) and Alice

Bonnie & Barb

Joyce & Andie

but what a fun evening it was.  Jane had an Asian theme going for dinner and it was terrific:  

fried wontons

egg rolls

won ton soup

shrimp & broccoli

beef & chicken

schzuan chicken

After that we played HUMM-ble with kazoos….WHAT a SCREAM!!!  My stomach hurt SO BAD from the laughing…..it was a hoot!  We paused for dessert, rice pudding AND tiramisu: 

and continued playing until after 10 PM when we finally all headed home.  It was a delightful evening.