Math my Way

This is what I have been working on since last night and most of today. I used the abacus block from the block party blog. For some reason, my blocks weren't even which made for a bit more wonky look, but I like it even better. It is about 30" X 39". I don't plan on adding anything else to it even though I considered adding borders. I think I will quilt it and bind it in the hot pink to add a little extra zing. It is made using stash fabric and Kona Ash and Kona ? (hot pink? - I don't have my color chart here in front of me). The picture could be a little bit clearer. I probably should have used a flash, but I had on all three of my bright lights and it didn't look like it was giving shadows, but I guess it did. Now to decide on what I will be working on this weekend at our Bee Friends Quilt In. I know that I have a lot of UFO's that I could be working on, but which do I want to do? That is the question of the week. One of them needs to jump up and say, "me, me. Finish me!"

Drats!

I took my camera with me last night to the first ever girls night out at the quilting patch in Midland, but didn't even get it out of my purse to take pictures. There were about 11 of us there and everyone with a variety of skills and talents. One lady was making embroidered Christmas ornaments with her new embroidery machine. Another was working on her crazy quilt blocks that she did with her embroidery machine. One lady was just sewing down her binding on a cute monkey quilt she made for her grandson. When I saw her, I thought, I could have brought my quilt and done that. Because you know I had the hardest time trying to decide what to take with me to work on since I had already finished my Paganini schnibble top. I used Sultry by Basic Grey and Kona Chocolate for this top.



Now all I need to do is make a back, sandwich, quilt, bind and label. that's all.

Back to Girl's night out. One lady was working on heart blocks for women who had had a mastectomy. They were shaped like a heart and fit under your arm pit to help give relief and some added pressure. Those were cool. I wished I had copied her pattern. I will have to look on line and see if I can find it. Kathy finished her tree blocks for the row quilt group and worked on her top for our retreat. Which, by the way is scheduled for February 25 - 27, 2011 at Mitre Peak. More information later on that one. I made my heart blocks for our upcoming workshop in December. The name of which has completely left my head just now. oh, well.

Now, I need to make one or two more blocks for our December meeting and I will be totally caught up with our assignments.

It's Friday!

yea! I can't wait. My friend Kathy called the other night and asked if I was busy Friday. Of course I had volleyball, but might be willing to cancel. What did she have going on? The Quilting Patch in Midland was having an all night (well, 6 - 11) quilting fun. I e-mailed and cancelled my volleyball and Kathy signed us up and we are going to go sit elbow to elbow and sew, sew, sew! It will be loads of fun. I will take my camera and take plenty of pics so you can see what everyone worked on while there.

Mr. McCallum

I finally decided on a name for my new baby and it is McCallum. He had to go to the vet this morning. He has this sort of asthma cough thing going on especially when he is running around or eating too quickly. So, I called and they were going to squeeze me in since he is coughing. I had to leave him in the car and go in and register. Then I had to sit out in the car with him until a technician came out to get us. They take this precaution with puppies because they could be very contagious and cause all their other animals to get really sick. So, we watched the other dogs and cats go into see the vet and McCallum chewed on my fingers and shirt buttons and sleeve cuffs and enjoyed the cool morning. Once we got in he was feisty! He wanted to check everything out. He wanted a snack - we were on the cat side and they were cat treats, but the tech gave him a couple anyway. He wasn't' too sure about them once he got them but eventually ate them. I am glad that we got to see my regular vet - you never know when you are a walk-in/squeeze-in who you will get to see. He doesn't have kennel cough! Yea!! However, he does have swollen tonsils and is on an antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drugs, but no fever. She said he is very healthy except for that and looked good. That was a relief.

I have tried and tried to take a good picture of him, but he always moves at the last second and blurs the picture. Maybe soon I can post a better one of him because he really is a cutie pie and I don't think he will have black hair for much longer. As my vet said, "he has great reverse highlights."

Saturday's Sewing

I have been sewing and watching some football today. Here is the layout I decided to use with my fan blocks from the Ogallala Ceta Canyon retreat.



The instructions called for 8 fabrics for controlled blocks and 16 for a more scrappy look. I only intended to make 1 fan block so I grabbed up a stack of fat quarters that I had laying around. I had picked them up at a quilt store on the way to family reunion a couple of years ago for a dollar each. They were a great find. I am usually not a fan of the fan block and machine applique, but I wanted to give it a try. I ended up making 10 blocks. They were fast and easy. My choices at that point were to make some more blocks or stop. Since I was running out of the black fabric. I stopped there. I knew I could just make a 9 block quilt/table topper or use them as the middle of a larger quilt or I could make more blocks later. I decided to make some funky stars since I didn't need a 12 1/2" square of black to make those. I made several 6 inch stars and tried putting them all over and around seeing how I liked it. I didn't. So, I made a 12 inch star. Still didn't like it. You see how my Saturday has been going? I didn't make any blocks today. I just played with the placement. Over and over and over until I came up with this one. Now, I need to decide if I want to add any more. I am thinking not. Not even a black border. I think I will leave it as is and call it done. 36" X 48"

Here is the other thing I have been working on this Saturday, my blocks I made in our Art Quilters Guild back in the spring.



I couldn't decide whether to offset these blocks or mirror them. I am pleased so far with the results. Our past challenge for the Ceta Canyon retreat was black and white and one color. I was going to get this made and add in some dusty rose fabric somewhere. I may still add in the rose color. Or, I may add in some more fusible pattern in the borders. It needs to stay on the wall and grow on me a little bit more.

What have you done this Saturday? Now it's time to take the baby outside again for the 4th or 5th time today. He is getting really good at doing all his business outside. Also, my other two are tolerating him a bit more everyday. Well, they are at least not running off after 1 second. Now they are up to 4 seconds. Baby Steps.

The new addition

OWWWW!!! I backed up in my chair and hit my keyboard drawer when I first sat down and just now, the drawer and my keyboard crashed to the floor. I am glad that my toes weren't down there where they normally would have been. They would have been smushed. Hey, wait. If my toes were smushed, I wouldn't have to go to school tomorrow. Can I get another take on that?

Tonight I went and picked up the newest member of our family. _____________! Drat, I can't decide on his name. I have 4 names in mind and he's not telling me who he is, yet. Here is a pic of all his cuteness.



He is a yorkie. I know, I have shi tzu's, but I really couldn't pass him by. He is too sweet. When I take him out on the back porch, he pees and then follows me around everywhere. Irish was so excited when he first got here and wanted me to put him down immediately. Then outside he was smelling him and touching his nose. Taegan, on the other hand, doesn't want to have anything to do with him. He would stick his head out the doggy door and just look at him until he realized I was watching him and then he would go back inside. He is just too funny.

When I got Irish, I got in the car, my friend was driving, and I held him up to my face and boom! His name, Neill's Irish Sterling, popped into my head so that is his official name. (always knew my black baby was going to turn gray) With Taegan, I kept seeing this sign in Midland and I thought it said Tagan. So, that is how I came up with his name, with a twist on the spelling. Come to find out, the sign really said, Tazar. Oh, well. I saw Tagan. His official name is Neill's Taegan James. Now for this one . . . what will it be. Hopefully you and I will know soon. Gotta go - sounds like Taegan is climbing on stuff trying to find food!

Cooking again

Okay, it hasn't been as long as I thought it had been since I last posted. I know, tomorrow will be a week, but I really had thought it had been much longer than that. Yes, life and school are both a little hectic, but not near as bad as a couple of weeks ago. However, it's starting to heat up again. The good thing is that the kitchen is starting to come together. There are a few things I need to work on getting, a few phone calls I need to make and an upcoming luncheon that I need to really sit down with the recipes and plan out. Figure out what I can order from my food supplier, what I need to pick up (can pick up) at HEB or Sam's.

Today, my students got back into the labs and made snacky items for the Principal's meeting after school. Things turned out really well. I am pleased how much better they did this time. However, there is a WHOLE lot of learning they have to do before I think they are up to where they need to be. Believe it or not, I had a student ask me today, "now what does the little "c" stand for?" People, that is what I am working with here. She was even a student that was in a foods class all of last year! It is so frustrating. They paid better attention to what they were doing - for the most part - and didn't seem as frazzled as they did the first time. They even got all their dishes washed (by hand) before the end of the period! Baby steps, people, baby steps. We may have to make something else, before the luncheon to get them back in the kitchen.