I'm Baaaaccckkk! (Tetris QAL week 5)

Hello, all!  I have been taking a bit of an unplanned hiatus.  I have worked a ton of hours the past two weeks and we canned and froze stuff both weekends.  Part of this was precipitated by a failing freezer.  I currently have about 5 gallons of peppers waiting to be processed and a ton of tomatoes but I am burnt out.

Tonight is my quilt club.  So, I am trying to play catch up in the sewing room - where I have NOT been for three weeks!  First up was my Tetris QAL.  I did not get Week 4 done until about 15 minutes ago.  Here is is.

Too late to enter in the weekly drawing but still done.  I forced myself not to skip ahead.  They go super fast. I was just in a funk after all the physical work and couldn't bring myself to sew.

I did week 5 simultaneously with week 4.  I did finish it in time to enter this week's drawing!  Yay, me!!

This is all five weeks laid out on my "design floor".  As you can see, I am carrying over from one week to the next.  I am some how short one red tile.  I looked in my sewing room but it seems to have been taken hostage in an unknown location.  Probably by one of the other WIPs I have in there!  I do have more of that fabric, so I can just cut another tile.

I am enjoying this project and I love how it looks in real life.  Thanks, Melissa, for letting me play along!

Going to sign off, grab a shower, run to the PO and then back to the sweat shop to sew more.

I have to go to the PO this morn because my son (29 years old) once again left from his visit and left things behind. I wonder if that boy thinks I won't let him back in if he doesn't have something here.  He and his wife both have keys to the house!  He needs part of what he left before the weekend.  So, Mama is going to go ship it to him.  I try to do my part to keep the PO in business locally!

As Tigger says, TTFN!

Hope to be back posting more later today.

Keep stitchin'!

Mary

p.s.  Forgot to say I am linking up with Melissa for Week 5 of the Tetris QAL.

Tetris QAL: Week 3

I posted on Monday about getting caught up on my Tetris QAL.  I was so excited.  Even though I was to work nights on Tuesday, I was like a kid at Christmas and got up at 6:00 to get the blocks for this week......They weren't there.  I went back to bed for a couple of hours and when I got up again there they were!

So, I made this week's block and then things went nuts around here.  I couldn't stay connected to the internet.  The power went off several times.  Things blew and rumbled and it seemed like we would have rain but we did not.  Since the first of May we have had less than a quarter of an inch here at the farm.  What that storm DID give me was a massive migraine.  I can't remember yesterday at all.  I HATE that.  But, when I looked at my camera I found I had finished my blocks and taken pictures!  Apparently the past two days weren't a total bust.

They did laugh at me at work.  I managed to work but I am a little brain damaged from the meds.  So, I had post-it notes stuck every where to remind me what I was doing there and what I needed to do.  Ever see Grey's Anatomy?  Remember when Derrick removed Izzy's brain tumor and she had no short term memory?  It reset every 10 seconds or so?  That is what the past couple of days have been like for me!

Back to the block.

I love how these are turning out.  I decided to make this one fit beside week 1.  I really wish I had let some of the tiles of weeks 1 & 2 stick out to the side.  Live and learn.

Here are the three weeks together.

(I have no idea why there are rubber gloves laying on the floor in my sewing room.  They are new but I am not sure why they are there.) I really like how it is coming together.  I am playing the game and letting the tiles go where they fit without fussing about the color.

I think this would be fun to do with Christmas prints and my do it again like that.  I think I would use smaller blocks so that it is a wall hanging or table topper size.

Can't wait for next week's but I won't be able to sew them until the following Friday!!!

Linking up with Happy Quilting Week 3.

Keep Stitchin'!

Mary

Tetris QAL Catch Up: Week 1 & 2

Hello, all!

Last week I posted about joining Melissa's Tetris QAL.  (It is the previous post)  I had great intentions but night shift so kicked my butt last weekend.  Then may kids all decided to come home.  You get the picture.  I didn't do anything!

I was supposed to work this past weekend but took Saturday off to be with the kids.  We have some temporary summer help and she wanted the hours.  So, it was  a win- win.  I will just say that between 9:00 p.m. Friday night and 9:00 p.m.  Saturday my dishwasher was ran FIVE times.  I did a lot of cooking but no sewing.

I am off today and back on nights again tomorrow.  I made these blocks my priority.  Did I mention I had not cut the fabric yet??  I was trying to decide on a size.  I debated and calculated and mulled... Finally, I got out the Tetris game and looked at it.  I can be a little anal wrapped up in the details at times.  I wanted room to have a block or two "falling" when the quilt was done.  I decided to cut my fabric at 4" and make the six blocks in the quilt along and then two more on top with whatever sticks up and one falling, I hope.

After cutting wrong twice, here are my fabrics.

 The bottom right IS purple. I was having a hard time getting it to show true today and then the camera battery died.  I don't know why.  I charged it before I went to Texas.......in March!

Being a week late I noticed folks were taking pictures of their grid.  So, I did, too. Coloring has never been a strong point for me.

Melissa's directions called for white as the filler but I wanted black like the game.  I wish the detail on the fabric showed up better.  All of them are prints of some sort.  The orange has a little diamond design in it.  I now wish I had not used that pink batik. It is flimsy and it stretches too much.

This is Week 1

Here is Week 2.  See the orange and red in the first row are carry over from Week 1.

Tomorrow she publishes the tiles for week 3.  Hopefully I can get it done before I go to work tomorrow and be caught up!.

Thanks for looking.

Going to do another post today about other quilty things.

Keep Stitchin'!!
Mary

p.s.  I didn't want to rethread another machine or move anything.  So, I am just doing these on the Janome 6600.  I do love that machine but it is kind of noisy right now.  I need a new bobbin case after a broken needle.  Don't ask.  It was ugly.  Brought my husband up the stairs to laugh at me as I muttered and cursed.

Tetris Quilt Along

Hi, all!  Back on nights again.  One more and I am done with them for a week.  I found a quilt along I am going to do.  I will be a week behind but I think I can catch up on my days off. It is a Tetris quilt along over at Happy Quilting.  I have looked at several of this week's blocks and I laughed at myself.  Everyone kept saying, "I have never played Tetris."

Boy, I have!  That is the one video game I could kick my boys' butts at. When they were in elementary school they played chess competitively.  Just as soon as the kids went in for a match we mothers picked up the Gameboys to play Tetris.  I just couldn't resist this QAL even though I have more irons than I do fire right now.

I did go to my sewing room and sew a strip on the wrong side of 10 blocks.  I was very upset until I set down to take them off and realized the tension was messed up.  The stitching came out easily.  I will have to fix the issue and try again.  I want these blocks done before my kids come home this weekend.  This quilt is for my DIL and I want her to help decide the layout.  Then I can work on my tetris quilt blocks.  Kind of excited about that!

Hopefully I will have some pictures to post tomorrow.  It isn't too late to join in.  Hop on over the Melissa's and check it out!

Keep stitchin'!

Mary

Little Finishes For Friday

I was busy this week.  Seems that I spent a lot of time ripping stuff out on the Orion's Star.  Finally figure out what I had done wrong. I really shouldn't work on something like that when I am having a migraine.   It is on its way again and there are no pictures of the glaring mistakes.  So, only you and I know!  I have 9 blocks completely done and the all of the centers for the other sixteen are finally correct.

I posted last Saturday about making pillow case dresses.  I made a couple more this week.

The trim on the bottom is white cotton lace that I threaded some 1/8" ribbon I won in a giveaway at Craft Nurse Quilts. It is a piece of teal and a piece of purple.  I then had to tack that ribbon in place every 6" to keep it from sliding.  Sometimes my lack of forethought is astounding.

One of the others I had made was too small.  So, back to the scrap heap.

That little button says, "Cute as a Button" and she surely is.  I can't wait to see her in it.  I used the hot dog pillowcase technique to add the bottom accent.  If you google it you can find several references if you have never seen it.  I have done it for years and just didn't know what it was called.

Okay....what else did I finish.  Hmmm....on Sunday I did a bag for Meghan's Birthday.  It turned out cute and I hope you check it out.  I also finished my BOM blocks that evening.

 I love this block.  Those larger blocks are actually red.  It is such  a cute block but I am sick to death of the yellow in this quilt.  At our meeting on Monday she tried to get us to sign up for next year's Civil War BOM and I said no.  Then I went back yesterday and signed up (after she offered to change one of the fabrics for me)!

I also went to the fair and looked around.  Next year I am entering some things in the fair.

Today the UPS man came.  He brought me this.

I know.  She looks a lot like Ida.  She is the same model but she really needs a face lift.  So.... We are going to paint her RED!  She will look so smoking hot!  I can't wait.  I hope she is done for the next time I go to retreat.  I may actually do some work on decorating my sewing room if I have her around to look at.  I am going to name her Barb after my Aunt Barb.

Aunt Barb was a lot of fun and wilder than a March hare.  She got married at 15 at the business end of a shotgun.  Rumor has it that gun was pointed at her!  She pierced her own ears in the bathroom one evening and when she asked if they were even her husband passed out.  Aunt Barb had three sons, too and her favorite color was red.  She would approve I am sure.

I am going to link up was Sarah over at Confessions of  Fabric Addict.  She is having a great giveaway.  Whoop, Whoop!!!  Be sure to hop on over and enter.  Say something nice on some of the blogs.  We all love comments! Also linking up with Richard and Tanya.

Keep Stitchin'!

Mary

Mary Had a Little Lamb...

....three times over.  And, apparently, one of the lambs grew up (actually all did) and is having a little lamb of his own.  First grandchild is due in December.

Happy Birthday, Meghan

Today there was a family dinner for my husband's niece, Meghan.  Tomorrow she will be eighteen.  We didn't decide to go until this morning.  So, I had no gift.  I have to go to "town" tomorrow. Figured I would pick something up then.

Not wanting to go empty handed, I made this this morning.

I would change a few things on the next one but I thought it was cute. I wish I had taken more pictures but I forgot in my rush.  I have since added buttons on both sides in the center of the yellow.  They are pink flowers with yellow centers.  The zipper doesn't show up well but it is lavender/purple and I had a heart charm I put on the pull tab.  It is lined in green.  I know the picture gives no perspective but those are 2" squares and a 12" zipper.

I think it turned out kind of cute and she seemed happy.  I also made her card since I didn't have one!  For some reason she really liked it.  So, it was a good day.  Even better is I spent no money.  Everything I used was from my stash AND all of this had been bought on sale!

Now I really need to work on the blocks for my BOM meeting tomorrow night.  Nothing like procrastination!

Keep Stitchin'!

Mary