Summer update

I finally had time to just sit and read through all of my favorite blogs.  It has been quite awhile since I have had that big of a block of time.  Of course, having my dogs wake me up at 5 in the morning has really helped make that time.  It is just a little past 7 now and no, I haven't been reading blogs for 2 hours.  I am considering going back to bed for a couple of hours since tonight may be a late night.  I have finished my two weeks of working for the Barn Door - half way through my externship - and have moved on to the first week of summer volleyball league.  Last night was quite hectic.  The first couple of hours was spent getting everyone organized and where they should be.  First night with the junior league parents who are venturing out into the world of volleyball and summer league is always hectic.

I haven't been in the sewing room much lately, just to busy.  I have added a stitch or two here and there, but nothing is completed or even close to being completed.  I got a lovely little batik square from Helen in New York and some great batik scraps from Ellen in California to go into my pieced fabric challenge blocks from 15 minutes play. (no pictures of these)  There have already been two more blocks posted on 15 minutes play that I need to catch up on sometime in the near future, possibly tomorrow since I don't have to work anywhere for the first time all summer.  Okay, I don't work on Sundays either, but it will be the first middle of the week non work day since Spring Break.  I am getting my hair permed later that afternoon and I do need to call about my phone and see if anyone can come and fix it that morning, but other than that I don't have any plans for Wednesday other than sewing.  Next posting I will hopefully have a few pictures to add to the post.

What's New?

Even though I am not getting to sew and quilt as much as I would like this summer, I am plodding along and doing a bit here and there in my spare time.  I have an idea in my head about a future quilt, so I drew it up, traced it, cut it out and put it together to see if I would like it.  It's not totally what I wanted, but it looked good so instead of tossing it, I made it into a little wallhanging.  I had fun adding the nose, eyes and eye lashes through my quilting.  I learned alot making this little quilt. First of all, make sure you add the iron on adhesive to the wrong side of the fabric.  Both the eyes (both pieces of both eyes) and the face itself are the backside of the fabrics, because I wasn't paying attention.  After ironing the wonder-under to the right side of the purple fabric that was to become the face, I kept telling myself to not make that mistake again.  I cut out 4 pieces of fabric to make the eyes and I ironed my adhesive to the right side of every single one of them!!  argggg!!!  I used them anyway.  I think that maybe the eyebrows, which I had left out of my original drawing, are from some of that same fabrics.  The tongue was also not on my original drawing.  It just needed something else and that open diamond looked like an open mouth and therefore needed a tongue.  Like I said, not perfect, but it works and has actually quilted and bound with hanging triangles so the future owner can hang it on their wall. 

I saw a quilt on Basket Full of Scraps and fell in love.  My favorite all time block is the Monkey Wrench, aka hole in the barn door aka churn dash.  I love this block.  I once made my sister a quilt using this block and lots of plaids.  It is still one of my most favorite quilts I have made, even though the quilt is probably long gone.  So, when I saw that quilt on Basket Full of Scraps I knew I had to make it.  I recently took a liberated basket class with Gwen Marston and this quilt was the perfect combination for me to make.  So, I got started by making my fabric for the basket.

Then I began making my little churn dashes.  I made the two on top first.  They are on the small side.  So I made the three on the left a little bit larger.  Even though I thought the two on top were too small for this quilt, I may enlarge them with a few strips of fabric and use them.  We'll see what happens next.  I am liking the direction this is going, but it is not jumping up and down with excitement and letting me know that I am on the right track.  As a result, I will plod along and make a few more blocks to see what direction this will lead me. 



Summer Job

It's going to be a very busy and hot summer.  I can tell that I am not going to be sitting in my nice air conditioned home much the next couple of months.  That means that I may not be sewing much either.  I am hoping to get in to the studio at least once a week, but you never know.  For those of you who don't know, I am doing an externship with a local restaurant.  When I signed up, I was told I would work about 30 hours a week for 4 weeks.  I have already worked about 18 hours and that may not seem like a lot now that I have written it down, but I have had the privilege of being cut two nights so I was scheduled to work 6 more hours - the bad thing for me is that I still have three more days to go!!  I am only half way through my work week!!  I AM EXHAUSTED!!   Already.  It is hot, hot, hot in the kitchen and when you are moving all the time, I bet I have sweated off at least a pound or two!  that is the good thing.  The bad thing is that I haven't been cooking yet and I know it will be much hotter around the stoves.  I think they have fans running on those people.  I have been working where there are no fans.  I try and move to the coolest spot when I get a chance.

Tonight I think the manager felt sorry for me and he cut me 2 hours early and bought me dinner!  I worked 7 hours today!  (yea, it was supposed to be 9)  I am not used to this!  Restaurant business is hard, hard work!  I knew that, but I had only seen it as a cashier or waitress.  I am getting to see it from all sides in the next few weeks.  I am almost looking forward to working summer volleyball where I basically sit for 8 hours at a time.  As long as the air conditioner is working in the gym, it's relatively cool.  Well, I am off to the showers, and hitting the hay.  It's back to work tomorrow morning  to assist in hosting for a few hours and then split shifting at night.  busy, busy, busy!! 

So, if you don't see quilting stuff up here for awhile, you know what I am doing.