Sunday, October 23, 2011

Day 235 of 365

I have the entire week off from work and I'm ready to go. The flu is gone and I need to get myself moving. I need some goals for the week and I've got a good list started.

I have a mixture of household tasks and sewing tasks to be accomplished. This week I will:
  • Quilt all my unfinished quilt tops.
  • Do a tutorial for Stockings for Soldiers. On how to make the stockings, of course.
  • Call to get roofing quotes. Yuck.
  • Write up directions for the strip quilt for my school's Project Linus blankets.
  • Put the electric blanket on the bed.
  • Dust, dust, dust.
  • Put new curtains up in the bedroom. Finally.
  • Rake leaves. Rake leaves. Rake leaves.
  • Take the casino bus for the day. Free food, $50 in free play. Yay!
  • Make final payments on all the medical bills that have been dragging on for ages - physical therapy, MRI, and ultrasounds.
  • If the hard freeze comes this week as predicted - pull up the pepper plants and pick the remaining pumpkins and watermelon.

One of the items has already been started. I finished up the quilt top I made yesterday. I added a fleece backing and tied it with some excess candlewicking thread I had. Unfortunately, the only matching piece of fleece I had was a bit smaller than it should be, so the quilt isn't perfect. (At least by my standards.) They'll be no picture taking of it, but I'll make another one (need the practice, ya know) with the correct size fleece.

A better picture was found outside today anyway. If that hard freeze shows up, these roses won't look nearly as pretty. But they sure are pretty right now.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Day 234 of 365

Nine. I have a backlog of nine.

These last couple weeks I've been slowly working away on putting together kids quilts for Operation Kid Comfort and Quilts for Kids. Yesterday evening when I still wasn't feeling so hot I went into the sewing room to clean up some scraps. And counted. Counted the quilt tops finished that need to be quilted.

I came up with eight. I don't know how that happened. Usually I might have two or three, but somehow with being busy with work and my daughter being here and me not feeling so great this week, I wound up with quite a pile. I've never had that many at once ready to be quilted. This is the time where I wish I knew someone who liked doing the quilting part.

Yet this afternoon I made another quilt top for yet another charity project.

The school counselor where I work is putting something together for Project Linus. Project Linus is another kids quilt/blanket donation/charity organization. I'll give more details later on the school's specific project, but I was asked to design a quilt easy enough for even non-sewers to make. 

So I did. And that makes nine.

My own version of a simple strip quilt. Straight seams, no need to match corners. Easy and quick. I'm working on putting together yardage requirements and clear and concise directions. (Guess my writing skills will be coming in handy yet again). This one will be backed with fleece, something new for me.

Maybe I'll tackle that learning experience tomorrow.