Crisis Center Quilt Top #1

Here’s the first finished quilt top for the Crisis Centers my dad and mom work with. I will layer it with batting and backing tomorrow, pin it, and then start quilting it all together. It's an easy pattern (Take Five Gets the Point) but I had fits with it when I was arranging the blocks.... completely pilot error, I'm sure. I’m not entirely happy with it, but it has the colorful and scrappy look I was going for, and I think I’ll like it MUCH better when it’s quilted and has the binding on it. I'm giving thought to trying some quilting patterns with my embroidery machine around the sides.... but I may get over that in an effort to get going on quilt top #2.
















I have enough scraps left over (and this was donated fabric from sweet Ms. Ellen to start with!) to make several Sunbonnet Sue blocks and I hope to do this with scraps from each quilt I make, thereby gaining a whole ‘nuther quilt at the end of this project, with bits and scraps from each quilt along the way.

The Little People took the opportunity to test the quilt top for softness and check it out as a wrestling surface.






























Tuffboy goes for the throat!
















And Kimi retaliates with an assault on his leg! That’s my girl!

I made Chicken Piccata from Pioneer Woman's website for dinner and DH said it was was great. In fact he suggested I write to her and mention that so far, every dinner and dessert I've made from her recipes has been a "keeper". (Last night there may have been some funnel cakes made using a recipe from her Tasty Kitchen site, that made us think it was August and time for the Orange County Fair!)

Good night!

February BOMs Done

I had no idea it had been this long since I blogged here. Sheesh.

Anyway, a little bit of sewing has been going on. Here are my BOM February blocks from the ongoing Saturday Sampler at Orange Quilt Bee:

And here is my block from our Sampler group.....

Hey, Jenny, Karene, Jacque and Ellen? If you send me a picture of your block for February - I will make a slideshow and post it here so we can see each other's blocks!

Tomorrow I hope to zip over to M&L's for some fabrics for a few Take Five's I want to cut out for our Crisis Center Quilt project.... And I hope to work on my May "Home Is Where the Heart Is" wallhanging. And my embroidery for my "Do What You Love"...... and, and..... Sew many projects, Sew little time! :)

Two "Home Is" Wallhangings Are Done!

I spent some time working in the yard today and then rewarded myself with time in the sewing room! Tiger was hanging out with me, because she was missing her Karen.




















She spent the majority of the evening on my left foot. This was interrupted occasionally by crawling to the other side of me and giving me the Woebegone Sad Face, propped on my right knee.
















Eventually, her Karen came home from her class and I was deserted. Without a backward glance.

In the meantime, I put three quilt hangers from Ackfeld on the wall over the sofa in the den. (Michael gave them to me on our anniversary in November!) I grabbed a block from my stack of "Home Is Where The Heart Is" blocks, and sandwiched it with batting and backing, minimally quilted it in the ditch and a few strategic midpoint areas, and then bound it. I made two tabs and used buttons to hold them....















Voila! April is hanging! (Click to embiggen)

Yes, I know it's only January. I meant to grab March, so that I could work toward getting January, February and March on the wall. Figured if I ran into my usual good (?) luck, I would surely be able to finish February and March, by the beginning of March. However, it went quickly. So quickly that I had time to do another one. That's when I figured out I had my months screwed up. Oh well! I grabbed the Real March block and finished it too!
















I think it's going to look nice. Me Likee!

















My goal eventually is to have the current month in the center, and the next month on the right, the previous month on the left. Each month I'll bring out a new block and put one away, and there will always be three displayed. Yay!!

Tomorrow, back to my "Do What You Love" project. I have some hand embroidery waiting for me - ugh. I'm not real fond of hand embroidery, mostly because it makes my hands hurt.... but I am determined to get this small amount done, and then get to quilting that wall hanging!

The year of the UFO is shaping up nicely!!

Wrong Dance!

Okay, I got careless. That much is obvious! A bright whitish orb showed up in the sky and I saw a rainbow and....

I did the Happy Dance.

I could swear it was the Happy Dance!

And the downpour returned.

I obviously screwed up and did a Rain Dance. I'm sorry!

I'm going to go take a nap now.

That's safer!

Here comes storm #2

Don't forget your umbrellas!!

StormWatch!

Every time it even gets misty around here, it seems like the media goes crazy and suddenly, we're on Storm Watch on the televisions.... It's normal around here not to have rain from spring until fall.... and to have pretty much clear weather punctuated with brief monsoons (just kidding) during the late fall, winter and very early spring. You can pretty much plan on an outdoor event around here and not even make backup plans in the event of rain. What rain?

Well, then something like this week's forecast comes along, and we're kind of pooh-poohing it and thinking, "yeah.... right."

Here's what the news predicted for the week, when I read the on-line headlines yesterday afternoon....

The National Weather Service has issued a new and disturbing forecast for this week’s series of storms, saying Orange County could receive “potentially epic” rains, with as much as 20” of precipitation in the Santa Ana Mountains and 4” to 8” along the coast.

Santa Ana averages less than 3” of rain for the entire month of January.

“We’re giving a lot of advance warning so property owners and emergency planners can take action ahead of this,” says Rob Balfour, a weather service forecaster.

The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said today the upcoming storms “finally show El Nino traipsing in” to Southern California. El Nino can greatly enhance rainfall. Forecasters said the upcoming storms could rival the damaging El Nino rains that hit Orange County in January 1995.

Balfour said the polar jet stream “is extremely strong; it already extends from off Asia to Hawaii and up higher.” The storms will tap some of that sub-tropical moisture, strengthening the storms.

The first storm will arrive late Sunday night or early Monday and will drop 1.5” or more of rain. The surges coming Tuesday and Thursday/Friday will be stronger. By the end of the week, hillsides will be soaked, raising the prospect of mudslides. Ski resorts in the San Bernardino Mountains are expected to get 4 feet of snow.

I decided to stick a precise (not!) rain gauge outside at 4 p.m. yesterday, when the first droplets appeared. The rains came. And came, and came, and came. Then at 4 p.m. today, the clouds scurried away, and the blue sky laughed at us as we walked around the backyard in this.

And here's my "precise rain gauge".....

2.75" in 24 hours. Hmmm. Maybe they're actually on to something this time! If that's the case, the rest of the week could get interesting!

And here's how Michael warmed up today after he got home, soggy and cold, from the Land of Lost Packages..... he asked for help from his personal space heaters!

Sewing Saturday!

I took some time this weekend to join our dear Ellen and Jenny for a Sewing Saturday! We're working on a sampler project together and the three of us wanted to do our block together. There are five of us doing it: Ellen, Jenny, Karene, and I here in So Cal, and my sister Jacque in South Carolina!! Karene and Jacque had already done their block for this month. We tried, tried, tried to twist Yvette's arm into joining us, but she managed to escape without us enabling her into another project for this year. She has promised to come and join us sometimes when we are working on this sampler, and work on her own UFOs at the same time! Sounds like a plan to me!

Here's a view of each of the five blocks (name of quilter is under each block - click on pix to embiggen!):
















Karene's block

















Jenny's block


















Ellen's block


















Jacque's block


















and Joy's block.

We "done good!!" Thank you Ellen, for letting us sew at your house. I can't wait for next month's block! We will sure know a lot about half-square triangles when we finish the next one!

:)

Saturday Sampler Month One is Done

Got the third 5-inch square one tonight.... Here are the three together:

This one gave me fits for some reason.... some creative cursing and un-sewing took place. But, I won! Now I am looking forward to working on "Do What You Love" for the rest of the week when I get time, and Saturday, I will join Ellen and Jenny to make block one of the Web Sampler!

Thank heavens, a new post!

It was brought to my attention by one of my many five readers that it has been quite a while since I posted. The Happy Holidays (which were neither) have ended, thankfully.... and life at Chez Bury has been rather tame and quiet. But here's a little Quilty Stuff that I've been up to!

I'm continuing to work on my "Do What You Love, With All Your Heart".





















I used my embroidery machine to make the signs, top and bottom, because my hands just don't handle huge amounts of embroidery too well any more. I like how it turned out! I have to finish blanket stitching around the signs at the top and bottom, the fabric on the sewing machine, the teacup, and various little things like pins on pincushions and threads dangling from spools....































and then put hearts in all four corners of the border, and VOILA! It will be time to sandwich it and quilt it and bind it! Yay!

Also, Saturday Sampler started last Saturday at Orange Quilt Bee! Here is my first ten inch block.........
















And here are two (of the three) five inch blocks I must make this month. These little guys are small! Many little pieces (though not as many as Yvette's Insane Block!) scattered all over everywhere.....

















And this appears to be one of the easier five inch blocks!


















I have one more 5 inch block to piece tomorrow and I'm done for January!

Then I will hopefully organize my UFO list, and get it on my sidebar to keep me on target, and start busting UFO's!!

I Be Tired.

In fact, I think all of us are tired, here at Chez Bury.

The Great Cookie Adventure of 2009 is done. Michael will deliver the cookies to our clients tomorrow, and then have a long winter's nap.

I personally may start my nap the moment his car leaves the drive.

That was a lotta cookies.

However, there has been other stuff going on here. I just have been the usual absent bad blogger.

Quilting get-togethers took place, and November and December blocks for our BOM (Home Is Where The Heart Is) were done. We're finished!

I had pictures of the last get-together, and I can't find them.

*sigh*

Anyhoo. The gaping hole in our respective calendars from having completed this BOM meant that we of course signed right up to do another one! We'll be doing the Web Sampler next year! At this point, I think each of us has picked a different "finish", but the blocks will be the same patterns.

I'm also planning to do the Saturday Sampler at Orange Quilt Bee (sooooo delicious!). I know. I'm crazy. 2010 will be a fun year if I pull off even HALF of what I want to do!

Next year, however, is now to be known as The Year of the UFO. Several of us..... ahem.... Most of us, have more projects than we know what to do with, sitting around categorized as UFOs. This year - we will finish ALL some of them!

Later when I have more time than I know what to do with, I will be updating my sidebar to reflect the projects I hope to finish next year. I even made a banner to keep my elderly brain on track.

















And here's one of the UFOs..... I went upstairs Saturday night and completed one of the blocks for a UFO I have that is called Safe Haven (a "vintage" Thimbleberries quilt I am going to enjoy completing!)


















That's it. I'm pooped. .... G'night!

Back to regularly scheduled programming

The yard is done, as you can see from the previous entry.... What a feeling of accomplishment. We worked with George Martinez Landscaping and I can tell you that in our years as homeowners (30+), we have NEVER had a better experience with a contractor. George Martinez is a gentleman, an extremely detail-oriented and meticulous businessman, and a pleasure to work with! He's already gotten a few additional bids in our neighborhood based on the great job he did for us (not to mention our glowing recomendations) and we have already told him we will be calling him back next year to resurrect our back yard.

But now, a more normal pace can resume. There might even be quilting stuff on this blog again.... And the occasional family celebration....

Speaking of which, we had a Second Saturday gathering this month and celebrated (a bit late) the birthdays of Laurie and Patrick.

Lasagna (for the carnivores), tofu-spinach stuffed shells (for the vegetarians), a fantastic salad provided by TiJae, and birthday cake....

Candles were lit....

and blown out after singing took place!

and cake was appropriately consumed!

Games were played on the Wii. (And we had fun making new characters!)

Leftovers were divvied up and sent home with the kids..... And it was over... :(

But hey, there's always next month!

And as for quilting.... I'm happy to report I actually got the October block for "Home is Where the Heart Is" assembled (though not embroidered) before the end of the month! I'm not entirely happy with how the witch is lost in the fantastic dark spooky sky fabric we found, but still, quite cute! The witch, cat, ghost and pumpkin still need faces embroidered and then I must sash it and add the strip of pumpkins, but Progress Was Made.

And this week, I'm trying something new. I'm endeavoring to get my household chores, and all my work done, before the weekend.

Even if it kills me

Even if it leaves me too tired to sew

Even if the house still looks like crap, I'm going to have my own Personal Sewing Retreat this weekend. If my work is done, I'm getting up Saturday and Sunday and spending minimal time at computer managing the biz, and then I'm heading upstairs.

Michael has been advised that Proper Protocol for the husband of a wife who is "retreating" is to regularly refill coffee cups, take care of all five dogs, feed himself and/or bring home dinner, field phone calls, and don't forget to pry her out of the chair at 9 pm to go to bed. He took notes!! I'll let you know how it goes - I am SO looking forward to just sewing and listening to music....

:)