SewSewSewSewSew, hmmmmmmmmmmm

Do you hear the humming of the machine going full speed? I have been working it overtime lately. Probably because I am more or less done purging up there, and just need to move the stuff out that doesn't need to be up there. Plus I have so many projects going, I am just keeping them all moving forward so none of them end up in the huge UFO pile. I am slowly pecking away at that too. Main reason is I don't want to lose any pieces if and wen I have to pack up the sewing studio, so I am trying to sew them all together, quickly.

Let's see what I have been up to.

My pink n orange mystery one with Kylie, step 4 was out when I got home from work on Monday, so whipped that step out within an hour.

Then I woke up hour and half early today (Tuesday) (Hershey's fault as usual) so I decided to sew instead of fighting with the alarm clock an hour and a half from now. I stitched, cut, pressed all 100 HST's for the Ugly Fabric quilt challenge. I also cut out all the strips needed for these blocks, and the center squares too. . Then after work I finished the rest of all the flying geese for this quilt too. Now they are ready to be put into blocks, wow this quilt is flying along. (no pun intended). So now I have all the pieces except the corners cut.

This is the first block laid out, ready for sewing ( well, after I trim the geese).

The blocks share the geese as sashing......this should be together in no time. Well except for I hate trimming little bits off, and when I printed the instructions for the geese, they were the wrongs ones, so now all the geese need to be trimmed, urgh.

Then I was ready to go to bed, because I was tired when I came home from it being a nice and gorgeous rainy day. But didn't want to go to bed that early. Then I was trying to figure out what day it was.....Oh yeah, it is Tuesday, Tetris Tuesday to be exact.............OH< OH< OH.....Tetris Tuesday. Off I go to get the instructions for Step 1 for the Tetris quilt a long

and off I went back to the sewing room, and Ta-Da, 30 some minutes later I have step 1 done.

This quilt is going to look so cool when it is done. :D

Wow all this in just two days. Think how much I could get done if i didn't work 50+ hours a week too!!!

Well I think I will go to bed now, before I start purging and packing something. Morning comes a bit early, too early for me lately. What have you been sewing on lately???

3rd qtr pre linky post

For the Finish A Long, this is my 3rd quarter pre linky post. As I didn't finish anything last quarter that was on my list, here goes this months list. First off, lets see what was on last month.........

So I haven't finished my yellow one yet, still need the binding on it.

I haven't even touched the Turtle Bay one.

The snowman one still is sitting in the chair where it was a month ago.

You can see those three in last qtr's post HERE!

I received in the mail this week the quilt kit for the Quilt for Kids foundation ( go there then click the volunteer button on the bottom left). I HAVE to finish that one and mail it back, so this may be the only thing on this whole list I finish. But it is the most important too. These are the fabrics they sent some 6.5" sq, 3.5" strips to sew together and subcut the sew into 4-patches, an inner border, and outer border and backing fabric too. I have to provide batting, and I should have backing fabric leftover for binding it. Bright colors for sure, right up my alley.

I am adding to the list my Ugly Fabric Quilt challenge that I am still sewing flying geese for, lots and lots of geese. Then I have to start making the other blocks to go in it as well.

I am starting a Tetris QAL, so I hope to have it finished by the end of this quarter. Just got all my charm swap squares back in the mail.

I am also doing a QAL on FB with Kylie, I hope to have that one finished by the end of the quarter too. Clue 4 goes out this weekend. I don't know how many clues there are. This is a pic of clue 3 in waiting.

I am cruising along with the Orca Bay, I doubt I will have it done, but I am putting it on my list anyway. Haven't started the bigger string blocks yet, and I am still pressing all those small hour glass blacks, urgh.

Oh and I am going to start the Great Granny Square QAL too. Hadn't even cut the fabrics yet, we will see. Trying to decide which set of fabrics I want to use, or both. I am a glutton for punishment.

I sure do seem to think I am going to get a lot done don't I??? Probably none of it since hubby goes back to day shift in 2 weeks, and we will be working on the other house every evening after work to get it done. That does have it's priority, but I will still have to have MY sewing time to keep my sanity.

C S P S P S P P P P Repeat

Wow, I have been off work now for more than 2 weeks. Even though I know I have done a lot of stuff during that time frame, it hasn't really felt like it until these past few days.

My schedule consists of, waking before dear hubby and heading to my sewing room, when he gets up, then we head over to the other house and work on that until he has to start getting ready for work around 1pm. Then I go back to my sewing room, and then it is Cut, Sew, Press, Sew, Press, Sew, Press, Purge, Purge, Purge, Repeat...........Whew. I think I have gotten more sewing done in the past few days than I have the past few months around here. Feels GREAT too!

My major projects:

1. Kylie's mystery she put the next step out today instead of waiting till Sunday the 1st, I am all done with that.

2. My Ugly Fabric challenge, look how many more geese I have done.

I have these sitting there waiting to be sewn together.

 I am using the no waste method. I will more than likely need more off white squares, I just cut a bunch and keep going till they are gone. If I have extras no biggie, I will put them in my sorting system. Which I have been working on that too, cutting squares to add to my jars. All different sizes.

3. Orca Bay. I have these hour glasses awaiting pressing.....

These are awaiting to be sewn then pressed.

And then the bigger string blocks are in waiting. Papers all cut, all scraps pressed, now cutting into strings or squares. The pile on the left still needs cutting, when that is done, then I will start sewing the string blocks.

By then I should be done with the hourglasses, and maybe the geese from number 2.

I finished the practice quilt I had on the long arm today, after I spent 30 minutes putting in a new needle from when I broke it some 6-8 maybe 12 weeks ago. I found me a good coverage pace to run the bobbin out of thread at the end, reload and run out on the other end again. Makes it nice. Forward the quilt and reload the bobbin at the same time. :D I thought I used up a lot of bobbins on the domestic machine, NOT! My oh My. I might have to invest in a bobbin winder or get the two machines closer together.

I purged 4 big bags of trash out of the kids stuff they have had stashed on the 3rd floor today. Boxed up another box to give away, and another one to sell. Woo Hoo, I actually made it to the corner. Found a chair I had been looking for, for quite some time now. I can do this, I can do this. Wow and it wasn't even 9pm yet.

4th load of laundry in too. But I am not washing the dishes today. My back is killing me after all this, and I didn't even drag all the little tree limbs to the curb yet either. Too hot outside for me. No wonder the Dr. said I was Vitamin D deficient, I never see the sun during the summertime. I live in Florida and I am white as a ghost. Been too hot to even ride the motorcycle too. Plus when you stay as busy as I am, your too tired to chance it.

Have I ever told you that my sewing room is on the 3rd floor of the house, laundry and the dog in dog out door is on the first floor. I do a LOT of stair climbing, I mean a LOT too!!! My legs hurt today like I have been doing squats or something. I just want to veg in front of the TV and catch up on the shows that are on the DVR, but nope.....TV is broke. I am letting dear hubby buy a new one this weekend for his Birthday, even though I told him we were not getting a new one till we got to Utah. He will be a very happy camper come Sunday!!! Maybe I will go read today...........I haven't done that in ages either.

What have you been up to lately? Doing any sewing?? Let me know, I like to hear of others adventures in life too. Seems a lot of people are moving right now, which I know what they are going through, and I am taking notes to make my move as pleasant as possible. Night night y'all.

Cat scan

Got me a cat scan today........all went well even if you can't tell head or tail in the scan it is all good.

Usually Merlin sleeps on top of the scanner/printer. I guess I left it open yesterday, and he likes this better cuz it is flat and doesn't put a big bump in his side when he is trying to sleep. LOL

Ever have one of those times where it seems the universe is out to get you. I am there, and have been for the past 2 weeks, But I am moving forward with everything that I can. I am not a quitter so pftttt! Let's see, the water heater went out, a few days before everyone arrived for the wedding. Then the day everyone left a tree fell on the house, left minimal damage but did smash dear hubbies BBQ grill to pieces and ruined the patio set too. We got it all off the house, and hired someone to remove the rest of it today. Will clean up the rest of the mess tomorrow. The Big TV broke. All of this in one week. Oh well. Life goes on. I have been handed a week of lemons, so I am having a lemonade party, and everyone is invited!!! We have been getting some stuff done with the renovation, even if all this other stuff keeps setting us behind. Two steps forward, one step backwards.......urgh. Since I am still on vacation till the end of the week, the past 2 days I have found time to go to my sewing room to unwind, since there isn't anything I can do my myself for the renovation at this point. So off to the sewing room I have gone.

First up, I have gotten caught up with Kylie Kenny's mystery quilt she is doing on Facebook.

Then my fabric came in for the charm square swap, and I got them all cut up, now I just have to get to the Post Office, I am on vacation, so I really don't want to go till I have to and I can get paid. So it is sitting on my desk waiting.

Then I have been purging in between sewing and pressing and cutting, gives the body a break. I just need trash pickup more than once a week at this point. Or more than one HUGE can per week. Looks like I am going to have to start hauling stuff to the other house and using that trash can too. I have been doing so good at purging. While trying to clean stuff out, I got sick of the one cutting table in my studio that has been really full of fabric since November when Bonnie Hunter started her Orca Bay mystery. I did the little string blocks and hadn't touched it since. Well, I went on a cutting marathon yesterday for that one. Got most of the table cleaned off. What didn't get cut up for that quilt, I cut it into squares of all sizes and put into the sort buckets I have going right now, so nothing went back into the scrap bins.

First up after I cut all these black and pink squares, I sewed them together, here is the mess of them. This pile is huge.

 Then when I cut them and press them, I get these (sorry the flash washed it out)

 Then when I sew two of those together, using different ones, I get this little 2.5 inch beauty. I think I need something like 224 of these. Tomorrow.............I am done for the day.

 I also cut all these stacks........each stack is about 3 inches tall.

Oh I didn't stop there either. More purging in between of course, it kinda acts like permission to keep going. I am doing the ugly quilt challenge. So I cut all my fabrics up in this stack in the back along with bunches of others. and then some off white in the front *flash too bright again*

 I am making LOTS of these..........:D  Something over 600 if I remember.

 Then the scraps got cut into binding strips, that will all get sewn together in one looonnnggggg piece, and what ever is leftover, I will put it in a pile with the left over red scrappy binding I have. For a future project. I think I cut up something like 20-30 fat quarters total for all this blue, well what was left of them.

 This little cubby used to hold quilt magazines. double stacked side by side. I have flipped through every last one of them and saved what I wanted and the rest went into a bag. Very heavy bag. That will be going to the quilt guild meeting so they can take what they want, and I will see what to do with the rest of them. (Oh that reminds me, I need to go pickup the newsletter and get them put together so I can get them mailed too) I can't remember if there are 20 or 24 cubbies in this shelf unit. One cleared out. I don't know if I can empty any more or not.

I also managed to put together some quilt tops with the backs that I have found to put in the "needs to be quilted" pile, and emptied a chair. Well two chairs got combined. But the chair is empty, that has to count for something, right? I also managed to get all the laundry done today, and got all the bills paid too. The dishes can wait till tomorrow, I am not doing them tonight. Nope, nope, nope. Not gonna happen tonight.

Calling all Moda fans..........

Ok you Moda junkies...........help me out. Which line of fabric did this piece come from???? I need to see if I can find some.

It is all different shades of tan and brown with a washed out turquoise blue.

Oh yeah, remember I am doing the In The Bag UGLY fabric swap. Well I got my fabrics, they aren't all that UGLY. Now to figure out what to do with them.

We have a multi blue with planets and gold glitter, then a black/blue with silver glitter, a brighter blue with sun stars and moons and silver glitter, black and gray skyline print w/touch of blue and more silver glitter, then a black/brown/gray print, navy blue with red very busy design, and then a multi purple fabric. Ok where is my rainbow..............this bunch needs some COLOR. They look VERY dark in person, but look pretty bright in this picture.