OMG!

While I was trying to watch the commercials during the Super Bowl, hubby decided to rip out the shower in the guest bathroom/laundry room. There was lots of noise and dust coming from there! It went from this

 to this

and ended with this.

Yesterday evening we headed to Lowe's and got a new shower stall so once I have finished cleaning up the mess, we can start the rebuild. 

I finished up the last of the hats for the order of 5 last night.  

Yes, I know there are 7 hats in the picture. I made an extra to make sure I have the right sizes and had one on hand already. I hope to get them in the mail today. Over the weekend I got the other one crocheted and this evening I will get it put together and deliver it at craft night. 


I didn't get to work on the frog quilts on Sunday so I will need to get moving on those before I get going on more hats. 


Yesterday I made my first block for the Relay for Life Quilt and one for its twin. This is Hermoine's Time Turner.

I hope to get at least one more design done today and hopefully one more tree pruned and the clippings picked up since the rain is supposed to be back tomorrow. That means that work outside just won't be happening but I can spend the day in the sewing room! WooHoo!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

It is Super Sunday at my house and it has nothing to do with football OR commercials! Today the new medicine cabinet went up in the bathroom. 

One step closer to finishing the bathroom remodel. You can't see the boo-boo in this picture but the frames for the mirrors have to be redone. At least we can use the cabinet until they are done, though! We can now take our showers and brush our teeth, comb our hair, etc. in one bathroom. The next step is the light fixture above the cabinet which will be worked on when hubby isn't working on replacing the shower in the other bathroom.

The other change in the house today is that the Ironrite moved into the house. 

One of our customers gave this to hubby this past year. It does work but I haven't actually tested it for ironing. Now that it is in the house I might have to see how it goes.

Things Happening

I am finally feeling like I might get some things finished! And also get some new things started.

I got the 4th frog quilt quilted and the binding is waiting for the hand sewing. I decided to go with the polka dot eyes or at least I made enough for one quilt and I will put them on and see what I think. If I need to I will take them off and try something else. I am hoping I will like these so I can get these done! My plan is to work on those quilts between commercials tomorrow, you know, while those crazy men are running around the field and knocking each other down.

I have an order for 5 owl hats and another for one so I am working on those when I am not feeling like sewing. I should have those done this next week. I am working on so many and need so many different colors of yarn I had to step up to a bigger basket.

I am having fun with new color combinations! I want to have a bunch done for the quilt show on March 10th and even more done for Relay on June 1-2.


My Relay for Life quilt this year is going to be a Harry Potter themed quilt. There are tons of paper-piecing patterns online and I am really looking forward to this project. My plan is to make two quilts - one for Relay and one for me to give as a gift or sell or whatever. 


Yesterday and today I got my first three blocks done for the star block round robin. I have had one of them since Halloween and the others for probably 2 months. I was inspired to get these done and out of my sewing room because I brought 4 packets to my niece from my sister's house and she is the person I come after! I am sure the person after me will be much happier to get these three now instead of all 7 at once! I had fun making them and it is so frustrating not being able to post pictures of them until the reveal sometime later this year.

Dilemma

Last week my sister commented that I was slacking and not posting much on Facebook or this blog. Keep in mind she said this while sitting across her living room from me! I spent a week across the state hanging out with my kids, grandkids and finally my sister as she recuperated from foot surgery. I didn't do much posting but I was busy!

I got back home on Saturday and since then I have been busy finishing the data entry so our business taxes can be taken care of. I am officially done as of about 3 this afternoon! Now I can get back to sewing, crocheting and other important work!

The first projects that need to be finished are the frog quilts. I have 3 quilted and the bindings done and I will probably quilt the 4th one tomorrow and get that binding done. This evening at craft night my plan was to work on making the yo-yo eyes for the quilts. I found some white with black polka dot fabric that I thought would be perfect but now I am not so sure. What do you think?

Do you like the white with black polka dot or does that gold frog look a little crazed? I am not a huge fan of the solid black though either. Any thoughts? I don't want to make 160 yo-yos only to decide I don't like them and need to come up with something else!

Surprising Request

Last Saturday I received a call from the quilt guild president. She said she missed me at the last meeting - I wasn't able to make it because we were looking at houses with my niece who wants to buy her first home. She also asked if I would be interested in being the next guild president as she thought I would do a good job. I was a little flabbergasted, to say the least, as I am a pretty new member and haven't really been that involved. I briefly considered but declined explaining that I didn't think it was fair to take on a commitment like that when I so often miss the meetings because of church or family obligations which will always come first. It was very flattering to be asked and if I thought I could be at every meeting I would consider it. I think it would be fun and rewarding. 

In case you didn't hear, we have had a nasty patch of weather here in the Pacific Northwest. At our house we got about 6 inches of snow but luckily our power only flickered a couple of times. Others have not been so lucky with snow totals ranging from 4" to close to 2 feet! The snow in many areas was followed by rain which froze when it landed causing an ice layer. This caused trees to fall which knocked out power all over the area. The temperatures have risen and the rains have come (along with some wind which has resulted in more power issues) and the snow is slowly melting which will bring the new issue of flooding! Just can't win for losing as my dad would say.


I chose to just stay in the house all week which resulted in the completion of those two owl hats but also meant they did not get in the mail or delivered! That should happen this week. I also got orders for 5 more hats so I have started working on those.


Taking advantage of the time indoors, I finally got to work on getting all the business information into the computer so we can get our taxes taken care of. As of last night I have finished through July - not bad for one week of work! Why do I always leave it to January to get busy with this?


Yesterday I went into the sewing room and got the third frog quilt quilted and got bindings on #2 and #3. I am feeling like I might actually finish these!


I am heading out tomorrow to visit family across the state so I will bring the quilts and hats and their respective supplies with me to work on while visiting.

Sales, Orders and Progress

Well, those 6 kids hats turned into a total of 8 hats for one person! And I got another order for a hat so I need to get two hats finished so I can work on other things. One will be dark brown and the other will be black with lime green eyes. 


Meanwhile, I got the binding onto the first frog quilt and did the machine quilting on the second one. When I get the two frog hats done I will get to work on the hand-sewing of the bindings and the yo-yo eyes. 


I also need to add in getting the business books ready for our accountant so we can get the taxes done. As you can see I have a lot on my plate right now so I guess I should get off the computer and get busy!

Keeping My Hands Busy!

As you can see here, 

I have been busy crocheting! These are the latest owl hats that I finished up in the last couple of days. I have orders for 6 kids hats for one person and an adult hat for another person. I also need to get several done for sale at the quilt show in March. Luckily, they are very simple and can easily be worked on while watching TV or riding in a car. In fact, on Sunday I worked on a couple while riding in a bus down to Portland, OR to watch the Trailblazers play the Cleveland Cavaliers. I am not much of a sports fan but the grandson of some friends of mine is a Cleveland Cavalier so we had a busload of folks that went down to watch him play. There were about 70 us amidst all the Blazer fans rooting for the Cavaliers. A little intimidating to say the least. It was fun to watch him play and even more fun to watch the proud grandparents!


Last week I got 4 of the frog quilts basted and yesterday I did the main quilting on one of them. So far I have stitched in the ditch around each frog. Not sure if I will do more by machine or if I will just add some 'fly' ties along with the eyes. Today I hope to get the binding on the first one so I can take it to quilt guild tonight to do the hand-sewing. I might even get the second one quilted.


We had our kick-off meeting for Relay for Life on Monday which means it is time to get going with the fund-raising. One of our team's main fund-raisers is the quilt show which will be March 10. That means I have got to get busy with the drawing quilt! Because the theme this year is "The Magic of Relay" I plan to do a Harry Potter themed quilt. We will see how that goes! By the way, if you are interested in helping me with my fund-raising you can go here or buy an owl hat from me - I am selling them for $10 and all of the money goes to Relay for Life to fight cancer!