Last Minute: Overtime

Okay, so I didn't finish the quilt in time for Christmas. I realized on Wednesday night that I wouldn't be able to finish it, so I got the top assembled and left it at that.

I took this photo in my roommate's room. He sure has a lot of stuff here for someone who moved out!

I didn't have the energy to design a quilt top, so I just stuck with stars, which Stephani told me she liked a long time ago. It's interesting that this quilt is sort of a combo of "nothing fancy" and "a lot of small parts" to me.

These colors aren't my favorite either, but I like the overall look. Stephani just requested that I try and finish it before her birthday (which is in April), so I think I can manage that.

I would work more on it now, but since I'm teaching a class at Chemeketa winter term I've been spending time preparing. I've never taught a class before so it's been fun to put together all the materials and decide which topics I want to cover.

Fritz is, as always, right where I don't want him. This time it's licking himself on my class notes.

It's too bad I don't have more time right now, because I got an awesome Christmas present!

Now I want the light set too.

It's somewhere around one hundred fat quarters, and 25 yards of fabric. Good job on the present dad! And of course, when Fritz saw me take a photo of the box, he had to all up in my business.

I will never stop posting pictures of my cat

Last Minute: Wednesday

Monday: Buy Fabric and cut all pieces

Tuesday: Assemble flying geese units (I can't stop making flying geese!)

Wednesday: Get farther on the quilt top

Thursday: Finish quilt top, baste, quilt, invent time machine

Friday: Bind

Maybe it was a little ambitious to think that I could finish the quilt top and baste it in one day.

I gave it a pretty good effort though. I may be giving my dad's girlfriend an unbound quilt with the promise of a speedy finish, but I think that's okay.

Why did I choose such a labor intensive block?!

Fritz would not leave the ironing board alone tonight. I'd throw him off, and he'd jump right back on over and over again. He'd eventually get the picture, and then sit beside the ironing board until I was done so he could hop back on.

I finally got him to quit by dumping him in a grocery bag. He loves it for some reason, and stayed in there for at least an hour.

Last Minute: Tuesday

Monday: Buy Fabric and cut all pieces

Tuesday: Assemble flying geese units (I can't stop making flying geese!)

Wednesday: Assemble top and baste

Thursday: Quilt 

Friday: Bind

It was a slog, but I did manage to get all the geese assembled today. Tomorrow I'll have to go to Ikea (darn) and get a sheet for the backing so I can hopefully fully assemble and baste the top.

 

It wasn't so bad, there are only 140 of them

Today was also the day of the Christmas staff party for the summer camp I worked at. It's always a lot of fun, and it's great to get together with all the people I spent so much time with over the summer. 

This pizza was so good, we didn't even wait for plates. I mean, we all have plates here, but initally we just ate the slices off of napkins. Other members of our group waited for plates like polite people should.

I made my friend Bullph take the above photo, and he was sort of grumpy that he wasn't in the group shot so I took solo shot of him so he wouldn't feel left out.

He was obviously thrilled.

I really like this next photo, because everyone looks like they are having a good time. Hanging out with camp people is usually about laughing a lot.

And finally, another installment of "Places I Wish Fritz Wasn't".

I wish he wasn't in the sink

I wish he wasn't on the ironing board. And honestly, he hasn't slept on the ironing board in ages, but he was all into it today just because I was using it. He's like a three year old.

Last Minute: Monday

Recently, my dad e-mailed me some suggestions for Christmas gifts for himself and his girlfriend.

It's okay if you can't read it.

Let's take a closer look at one of those suggestions.

I know what that means. They want a quilt. I saw my dad on Sunday to confirm and feel out his girlfriend for her favorite colors. It's such a short time frame, so I've got too get  move on!

I'm thinking I can get it done if I stick to a strict schedule, and I don't get called into work. The whole thing is going to be (relatively) simple, with all star blocks.

Here's the plan.

Monday: Buy Fabric and cut all pieces

Tuesday: Assemble flying geese units (I can't stop making flying geese!)

Wednesday: Assemble top and baste

Thursday: Quilt 

Friday: Bind

I've got Monday's work done, and everything is cut and waiting to be put together.

I got into an interesting conversation with the woman cutting my fabric at Fabric Depot. She took a look at all the colors, and mentioned that the color in the lower left corner was the only one without any green in it. She asked me if that's really what I wanted to do.

I was a little taken aback, because I thought they all looked nice together. It was want a wanted to do! I took a quick look anyway to see if I could find another teal I liked, and didn't have any luck. I tried to joke that it didn't matter that it didn't have any green because the quilt wasn't for me.

She then told me that it should matter even more that everything matched well because it was a gift.

We were silent for awhile, and then she told me that in many places it was a tradition during the holidays to take in a stranger for the holiday meal. She said that she didn't think people should be excluded because they were down on their luck, and that it was a shame that we didn't follow that tradition here. She said people didn't trust other people enough to bring them into their homes, but didn't realize the amount of trust we put in others to provide a safe food supply, and services like firefighting and police.

We were silent for again for awhile. 

Then she told me that she was part of a few different groups, one of which had the motto to leave places better than when they found it, and another that didn't have that motto. She said that the group that didn't have that motto often left their meeting place a mess, so she wrote an article in their newsletter saying that people should leave places better than they found them. After she wrote the article she said that everyone agreed that they had always felt that way, and they didn't have any more problems with messes.

She finished cutting the fabric, and I wished her a happy holiday season. It was one of the stranger fabric cutting experiences I've had.

In other news, Fritz is still places I don't want him to be.

It's alright, I didn't want that delicious bread anyway.

OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN

A while back, I entered a potato contest at the fair. I entered a potato side dish. The recipe was one I made myself, and it was basically just the insides of a vegetable samosa.

I won second place, and a $75 dollar gift card to Safeway.

When they announced my name, I couldn't stop smiling. My face hurt from smiling so hard.

I felt that way today, when I got an e-mail that said my quilt had been picked as a winner for the first Project Modern Challenge.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I think that the picture is funny though, because I can't quite understand how all those hands are there. If you look at the right side, there are three hands, and one on the left. What's up with that?

My sewing machine is keeping an eye on things

 My roommates friends helped me take the photo, so it's some combo of these guys holding it up. They didn't even mind that I interupted their board game.

As for the quilt itself, I did some things I said I would never do. I ripped quilting out after I started. I told myself I'd never bother with that, but it was just too dense for me. It was only in the blue sections, but I felt a lot better after I'd done it.

All this seam ripping took a marathon session of Cake Boss season 1 and 2 on Netflix

There were a lot of great quilts for this challenge, it seems like it would be impossible to pick a winner. I'm feeling pretty lucky that it was me!

CATS

Do you ever wonder what the last place you'd like to find your cat is?

I don't. I already know.