and some cake

 my daughter made a great cake today.  Only 3 candles, but who is counting?  We're off to have dinner in a little bit at BJ's.  I think I will just have the Pazzokie (giant cookie with ice cream.  Who needs real food?

Happy Birthday #17

 My son and I enjoyed our traditional birthday breakfast this morning at IHOP.  We had an extra guest today, which means he is growing up.

This is why I don't make lists

 I sat down this morning and made a long list of things I'd like to accomplish today and this week.  You know, the usual, like cleaning the house, quilting, curing cancer.  And then the day happened.

My friend Jenny, who I taught when she was a 9th grader the first year I started teaching high school 14 years ago and who is all grown up and married now, called to say her car had a flat tire.  She has been taking my little guy with her to dog training.  Her dog has passed the advanced training classes at PetSmart, but she likes to go for socialization and because she doesn't think he listens very well.  So, she was going to take her car in and get the tire fixed quickly and then come pick him up and bring him home.  Well, when she got to Costco, everyone and their brother had the same idea.  I guess they were closed yesterday for the holiday and there was a line a mile long.  So, I offered to pick her up and go with them.

 My To Do list could wait.  What's another day of messy house syndrome?  After an hour of dog lessons, her poor dog was doing worse.  My little guy was just off today and was giving the poor little guy mixed messages.  When we got home, and after having lunch, I figured out why.  A pest guy came to the door to try and get me to switch from the guy we've been having come to our house for over 15 years and my little guy comes up behind me to tell me there is a spider in the upstairs bathroom.  I told the guy at the door I was happy with the guy we had.  He didn't look impressed!

When I got upstairs, my little guy says, there really isn't a spider, I just didn't want to tell you in front of the guy that I got sick.  Poor thing!  So, he takes about a 3 hour nap and is feeling better.  But, then I start feeling queezy!  Nap time for me too.

So much for that list.  I did manage to get 3 bolts of fabric cut and 3 quilts quilted.  Good thing for Rebecca the Robotic machine who does most of the work.  I can cut fabric while she is quilting.  Most of this got done before the day even got started.

Then, my daughter got back from Tahoe and we went to Goodwill for their 50% off sale.  Seems my little guy gets sick every time they have a sale.  What's up with that?

These snuggly flannel quilts will make some other kid cozy once they are finished.  This last one I used a piece of something like flannel knit for the backing.  Not sure exactly what it was, but at first I thought it was flannel, but it was stretchy.  The machine did not like it and the top thread kept breaking.  I had to slow it way down and then it stitched up fine.  Maybe there is hope for the rest of that knit fabric after all.  The backing fabric almost feels like a minky, but isn't so furry and doesn't shed like minky when you cut it.  Whatever it is, it is super soft and has a really nice drape to it.  It was in with all the rest of the flannel out in the shed and was donated a long time ago.  So glad to have finally found a use for it.  Aged to perfection I like to say.

happy 4th

 Last night we had a little sparkler action to celebrate our country's birthday.  My little guy even lit a match by himself.

Just the perfect amount of celebrating.  Some neighbors went all out with loud explosions and fireworks shooting up in the air.  Good thing there weren't any fires started.  It was really windy last night.  There were lots of fires around the area.  I'm such a chicken, I had the hose turned on, just for these sparklers and we were on the street.  Better safe than sorry.

the Great Shed Clean Out 2014

 No reason for this picture, other than he is adorable and didn't want me taking his picture.  Took me three tries to get his face.  Gotta love this guy.  He's been my sanity lately with all the craziness that's been going on around here.  He helped me make pancakes for dinner tonight.  What better way to celebrate our Nation's Birthday?  Chocolate Chip Pancakes and bacon.  yummy!

 Here's a couple of snuggly flannel quilts for some little ones.  This was the impetus for the Great Shed Clean out that started yesterday.  Wish I had taken a Before picture, but I always get in the middle of the project before thinking about such things.

 This one I used my favorite quilt design that I came up with.  It's snails and looks so cute on a little boy quilt.  It stitches out so beautifully.  I need to come up with some more like this.  It just makes me happy when I use it.

 Here's my other friend who has been keeping me company lately.  Lily is so sweet and puts up with my little guy carrying her around the house and is the first one to help me clean the kitchen floor.  She's just as happy to sit next to me on the couch or snuggle in my lap when I'm needing the extra comfort.

 At least the tennis court is getting some use.  Great for staging the buckets of fabric.  I got rid of three buckets of fabric and three buckets of yarn/crochet thread today.  I have a friend who will take whatever I can't use and has a traveling craft bus that goes into schools for art days.  She provides all the supplies and clean up and the kids actually get to do art.  Whatever fabric isn't suitable for quilting goes to her.  I had been saving some great fabrics for at least 4 years.  My last clean out was in 2010.  I wrote the date on some of the buckets.  I guess I just got busy.  Looks like the tennis court needs washing.  Ick.  I don't even want to know what these stains are.  The buckets on the far right are flannel, then 5 buckets of fleece then all the rest are quilting cottons.  I still need to sort those into big and small pieces.

Here in the shed, the top left 6 buckets are knits.  I used to make baby hats out of them and would buy knit fabric for $1 a yard like crazy.  When my little guy was a baby, he had a huge lump on his head and he wore a whole lot of hats.  I made them like crazy and donated them to the hospital.  Not sure why I stopped making them, but I'd guess there's fabric in there for about a zillion hats.  Looks like I either need to make hats again or find someone who wants to take up the cause.  Not sure if I could make backings out of the knit fabric or not.  Worth a try I guess.

The bottom two buckets on the left are Christmas fabrics.  Then, the rest of the stuff needs going through still.  All the stuff in the front is empty buckets.  The ones I emptied today.  I started vacuuming.  The rats got in here a couple years ago and had a nice family.  It's warm and dry in there and well protected from the rain.  I need to work faster and use up the fabric rather than hoarding all of it.

Good thing we have three quilt days this month.  Hopefully we will cut up and use up all the fleece.  That's 5 more buckets gone.  I believe there are some big pieces in those buckets.  I think I have another 5 or 6 bags in the garage as well.  That stuff takes up a lot of room.  I tried cutting it today with the Studio cutter and the rag die.  Cuts like butter!  Now to sew it together again and see how I like it.  No sense cutting it all up if it doesn't sew back together well.  Would be nice to have a single layer blanket for the warm days and much easier to sew together, but not sure what that's going to be like.  Will give it a try.

We will be staying in tonight.  My husband never got into the 4th of July celebration.  His family was pretty dysfunctional and unstable and they never had any family traditions.  It's hard trying to make them when you are fighting against something he feels so strongly about and it was just me trying to drag 4 kids off at night, so I let that one go.  My two middle ones are off with friends today, enjoying the fireworks.  I'm happy they are getting to celebrate.  I'll be celebrating at home, enjoying the freedom and keeping my puppies company.  I'm sure they will appreciate that.

I hope you have a safe and happy 4th.

trying to have a plan

 When I don't have a plan for my day, I don't tend to get much done.  So, when I get up in the morning, I try to plan out what I hope to accomplish before the day ends.  I don't make a list because I'd just lose it.  I also forgive myself if I don't get everything done that I had hoped to achieve.  Life happens and it's ok to be flexible, especially when I'm on vacation.  It's nice to not have to get anything done by the end of the day, but having a plan means the day ends with a little more finished and a few more quilts closer to the hands of kids who need them.  I had hoped to drop off quilts today, but that just didn't happen.  After it took my son almost an hour to get home from work today, I'm actually glad I didn't make the trip out to drop off the quilts.  Tomorrow's a holiday here in the states (the 4th of July) and most people have the day off and are headed off for vacation.  I'm glad I wasn't out there fighting traffic.

A great hiding place

https://www.sue-sews.com/shop/NEEDLES/p/INSPIRA-TITANIUM-134R-1810PK-FOR-188-MACHINE-sku-83296.htm

Do you have great places for keeping things safe?  I sure do.  I ordered new needles back in April and can't for the life of me find where I put them. I found the envelope the needles came in and looked everywhere I can think that would be a logical place to have put the needles.  So, today I gave up and ordered some more needles.  Of course, the ones I ordered last time are out of stock, so I ordered some different ones.  Last time I ordered size 16 and they only have size 18 in stock.  A little bigger needle won't make a difference.  I just hope I don't hide these ones so well.  I know now that I have ordered new ones, I will find the ones I ordered months ago.  Just goes to show how often I change needles.  I ordered in April and here it is July and I'm finally looking for them.  That's 4 months without changing a needle.  Shh, don't tell the quilt police.  That's about 120 quilts I've done with the same needle.  What's the punishment for that?  It's been much longer than that since I've changed the blade on my rotary cutter.  What a bad quilter I am!

my favorite kind of quilts

 These are my favorite kind of quilts, big and scrappy.  Lots of colors to look at and bits and pieces from other quilts that bring back memories.  Things that weren't meant to be much of anything, but all pulling together to make something wonderful.  When we all work together, we can accomplish much.

This one's going to need a couple of appliqued hearts.  One on the edge where the needle got stuck and I had to cut it out and one in the middle where the needle got stuck and I had to cut it out.  There was a hole in the fabric and I didn't notice it until after I hear a terrible screaming sound and then the machine stops.  I guess it didn't like the hole.  I sewed the hole shut and now I have to find where it was.  I put dark blue fabric on the back of both of these so they will be appropriate for a boy or girl and they are both twin size.

I'm working on cutting 4 1/2 inch squares using the 4 1/2 inch strip die.  I've dug out a whole bunch of fat quarters and 1/2 yard pieces of novelty prints and am making quick work of them.  I love knowing that if I can cut them, they will get sewn up super quick into fabulous quilts.  I love having a team of like minded quilters who trust that I will get the finished quilts into the hands of kids needing hugs and I like having summers off!

I would not have picked these colors

 But, I really like how these quilts turned out.  I cut the fabric, and paired up the black/white/red blocks for a quilt.  I gave them to my friend to give to her mom to make a quilt out of them.  She gave them back like this, paired with the pink/green and the blue below.  I would never have thought to put those colors together, but I do like how the quilts turned out.  They look even better in person.  They are both twin size, big enough for a big kid, or even an adult and are perfect for a bed or for cuddling on the couch with.  These quilts take a lot longer to finish up, but will come in handy when the call comes in for a big person who needs a comforting hug.  I like to be ready when that call comes.

I'm trying to cut out at least two quilts a day now that things have settled down around here.  My friend's mom has an industrial sewing machine and she can whip out quilts this size in about an hour.  I just gave her a whole box of the quick strippie quilts that Carla cut a couple weeks ago and before I know it, she will have those back to me.  I'm trying to cut up lots of the fabric that was recently donated so I can have my sewing room back, plus have lots of quilts at the ready when a call comes in.  I need to get some quilts delivered to the Nurse Family Partnership to get a box out of my son's room.  Seems there are always quilts coming and going around here, but never enough time in the day to keep up.  As my mom would say, "That's life."

a better day

Feeling much better today.  Started off the morning cutting fabric and quilting.  Then, there were the errands to run: house payment to be made, checks to deposit and a few groceries to pick up.  Seems there's always something to pick up at the store.

Watching World Cup today and I saw how the players are escorted out by the little kids.  If that doesn't make you want to watch soccer, I don't know what would.  Some of the players were chatting it up with the little kids before their big game.  I'm not sure who was more excited, the big guys or the little guys, but they both looked happy to be holding hands and walking onto the field.

At least I understand the game of soccer.  My daughters played, or at least my oldest daughter played.  My younger daughter walked around and picked flowers and my older son let the ball hit his leg a couple times.  My middle kids never really  got the game or liked running after the ball much.  If they kicked it once or twice a game, they were happy.  My older son had a coach that would tell him, ok, one more time, about 20 times.  He was pretty good at counting, even at age 4 and would come home to tell me that he didn't like it when she lied about 'one more time.' when really she meant 20 more times.  That pretty much turned him off to sports.