It's April!

 It's only the third day of April and I can say that we have already had our share of April Showers.  The days have been dreary, sleepy days............

It's good to stay close to those you love when the weather is so dreary.

There was a big sewing room finish already this month.............

The Show and Tell quilt is a FINISH!!!!  (yes, it's probably time to update the UFO list again..........maybe in the next post)  I just love this quilt.  It was so much fun to make and I already want to do it again and change up the quilts.  It's just so stinkin' adorable!  I am thinking about writing up something telling about each of the animals (of course, they'll need names) and their quilts.  They are like my sewing room friends.  (Esme takes great umbridge with this notion, SHE is the best sewing room friend and is actually alive!)

Speaking of notions...........

I finally tried out those new letter labels when I cut the pieces for this quilt.  Can you guess what it will be?  Stay tuned for this one.

I seem to be moving at a snails pace on some things (or maybe just getting side tracked by other things.....stay tuned).  The Snailin' Around Town quilt is laid out on the floor (well, it has been somewhat rearranged since this photo by various four-legged sewing room assistants), just waiting to be sewn together.  I'm anxious to get to it since I love the border fabric I purchased at Marshall Dry Goods.

I also made some updates to my t-shirt from the big track meet in Arkansas...........

I will wear it proudly!  The outdoor season is underway now.

Well, you can see how the morning is progressing here.  

Happy Easter weekend everyone.  Maybe the bunny will bring us some sunshine!

Christi

Goodbye

Cici died yesterday.  She had been throwing up all day and when I called the vet, they first available appointment they had was at 8 am this morning which turned out to be too late.  I will say that Cici would have hated a trip to the vet, so maybe it was a blessing that she went quickly.  She was 10 years old.

There was never a basket that she didn't try to fit herself into............

She loved hanging out in the cat tower and looking outside or hanging out in the window seat.  

Or on the kitchen table............I mean, there was a quilt laying there, so she should obviously be there too.

She also spent some time in the sewing room.  She was great help at unthreading the machines and doing her own quilt layouts when I put blocks out on the floor.   She will be missed.

Christi

It's a Wrap!

 Can you believe it's the last day of March?  My hubster has all the manure and anhydrous spread, so is now at the seed place trying to see if they will deliver his seed!  Cuz tomorrow is April 1st and that's when you can start putting seed in the ground according to the crop insurance.

I was in a little bit of a sewing funk, so decided to turn my attention to cleaning out and organizing a few things.  I went through all of the rulers and templates that were hanging by my work station and put some of the lesser used (or never used) ones in a basket to store in the cabinet.

Then I went through the 3 drawers and really cleaned out some stuff.  And I also cleaned up the stuff that was sitting on the top of the cutting counter.

Doesn't that just warm your heart to see drawers so neatly organized?????

I also got these stickers that I had ordered.  They are letters and numbers that I can put on my little clips to mark pieces as I cut them.  These will be especially helpful in working with Elizabeth Hartman patterns.  I previously had a set of pins, but they only went up to N, and if you've every done an Elizabeth Hartman pattern, double letters are sometimes called for.  These go to ZZ and have numbers as well, and I got myself 2 sets (I mean, why not when it didn't change the shipping charge!).  

And speaking of Elizabeth Hartman, I made 4 more foxes.  It was not without some (lots) of ripping and even cutting some new replacement pieces, but 4 more are done, so that puts me at 2/3 of the blocks done.  Only 8 more to go.

And I took the Round Tuit at the last guild meeting.  I'm so happy that all 80 of these blocks are complete!  That's what I got around to doing.  So I will take my happy stack of blocks to share at the meeting.

Well, that's a wrap on March!

Christi

Graceland

We did an early Monday morning tour of Graceland.  We spent aver 3 hours there including the mansion, planes, and several museums.  Can I just say that it was a little overwhelming.  Most of my photos were taken in the mansion.  

This is the living room to the left as you enter the front door and the custom made fifteen foot couch.

The staircase to the second floor which wasn't part of the tour.

The dining room to the right as you enter the front door.

The kitchen..........the most normal looking part of the house.

What would now be known as the media room........in bright yellow.

The billiard room.........with fabric on the walls and ceiling.

The jungle room

David noted that President Trump visited Graceland after we were there.  We were so thankful to have missed that!  He was photographed sitting in the jungle room.  I said perhaps he was getting decorating ideas for his new ballroom.

We saw so much more, but it was overwhelming.  Below is one wall of Elvis' jumpsuits.  There were so many more.

And we got to see his airplanes and all of the cars.  

It's one of those things that I can say I've seen and was glad I did it, but I don't ever need to do it again.

Christi

 

Sewing room catch up

Let's take a break in the trip recaps and catch up on the sewing room.  First, I had to put everything away that I purchased at Marshall Dry Goods.  I didn't take a picture, but I did manage to get all the bolts on my shelf (fortunately one bolt is going to my mom because it wouldn't have fit).  Esme found a place to stay out of the way, but where she could still watch everything.  For the first 3 days we were back, she barely left my side, and did get tired of being stepped on, so hanging out on the sewing machine seemed like a safe bet.

Of course, all the sorting and putting stuff away can wear a girl out.  She's looking forward to seeing what happens with all that fabric!

I also managed to get a baby quilt quilted for a young couple at church (who's baby came early, it was announced on Sunday).  It was passed off to someone else to bind and gift.  Next, I added the black border to the red chalet quilt top.  I bought a bolt of this fabric and it will also be used as a backing for a quilt that is cut, but doesn't have anything sewn yet.  This was a block lotto from guild that I won in December.

Then I worked on the block lotto blocks that are due at the April meeting.  I think these flowers are pretty cute and would not be unhappy to win them.

Next up was to make a backing for the chalet quilt.  I used 2.5 yards of the grey picnic fabric that I bought at MDG last summer for backing for my sister's big quilt.  I didn't want to cut two widths and have a random seam across the bottom with a lot of excess fabric, so I turned on the math brain and did the diagonal seam method to not waste so much fabric.  There is a nice cheat sheet online and I did all the math to figure I needed about 2.5 yards.  I pressed it diagonally, cut on the press line and then laid it on the floor in Sarah's room.

Mabel was on her bed, supposedly supervising, but you can see she was slacking on the job.

Then I started shifting the pieces to get it to 58" wide.

A little more shift - my yard stick is actually 48" and the square ruler is a 10" square ruler.

Then lay the top on it to test it and it worked!

I pinned the diagonal seam and sewed it and then had to trim off the triangle pieces.

I quilted it yesterday (instead of cleaning the kitchen floor) and still need to take it off the longarm.

I also did my Tuit project.  You can see the Round Tuit in the photo.  There are 2 of these that float around the guild and if you take it, you have to show something you got around to doing at the next meeting.  I finally finished the blocks for the O Christmas Tree quilt.  80 blocks that seemed to take forever.  Yeah!

Harry Potter and Mabel were unimpressed with my efforts.  

Friday I took my cousins to St. Louis.  Sarah and Pam went to an anniversary organ recital and reception and Susie and I went to an estate sale, Main Street St. Charles for lunch at the Lewis and Clark, the mall, and then to this little Italian place for an afternoon dessert that we love...............lemoncello!

At first the waiter told us they were out, so we ordered brownie sundaes instead.  Then he came back to our table and said that they had just gotten them back in, so YEAH!

And in other really weird things.............

Do we marvel at Mabel's ability to balance on the edge of the window seat like that or the fact that those 3 cats are hanging out that close together which is surely a warning sign of the apocalypse?

Christi