Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
15 Minute Challenge - June 5th
This week figuring out the summer schedule starts in earnest. Swim practice moves from after school to early mornings. This year the older kids also have swim practice 3 afternoons a week. Drama Teen will be clear across town from where we work and the indoor practice pool, so we've been working on plans to get her to practice at least one afternoon a week. Next week her fiction writing workshop starts up, so we'll have to find out where that fits into the schedule. I thought we'd have less to do with school out, at the moment it's not looking that way. Even so, the evening activities should be a lot less, so it should be easier to find those 15 minutes to sew every night. (I'm hoping those don't become the famous last words of the summer!)
On the sewing front, last week was a good one. Having no one home expecting dinner or needing to be run somewhere was really productive in terms of making it to my sewing room. Having two days off last week didn't hurt either. I don't think I spent less than an hour in my sewing room any evening last week.
It's been a while since I managed to spend seven out of seven days in the sewing room. It did make a difference, lots got done last week. It's nice to have busy design walls. This week probably won't be as good as I already know we have an after Colorado Trip party this week to look at all the pictures the kids took. That's OK, after all the work last week, I feel like a bit of a break is needed this week.
So how are your crafty endeavors going? Are you outdoors playing in the dirt or indoors playing with fabric? Link up and share where your "me" time is going these days.
On the sewing front, last week was a good one. Having no one home expecting dinner or needing to be run somewhere was really productive in terms of making it to my sewing room. Having two days off last week didn't hurt either. I don't think I spent less than an hour in my sewing room any evening last week.
It's been a while since I managed to spend seven out of seven days in the sewing room. It did make a difference, lots got done last week. It's nice to have busy design walls. This week probably won't be as good as I already know we have an after Colorado Trip party this week to look at all the pictures the kids took. That's OK, after all the work last week, I feel like a bit of a break is needed this week.
So how are your crafty endeavors going? Are you outdoors playing in the dirt or indoors playing with fabric? Link up and share where your "me" time is going these days.
| 1. June @ QuiltQuest 2. Amanda, Seabreeze Quilts | 3. Thea 4. Kate | 5. libbyQ |
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Monday, June 4, 2012
Design Wall Monday - June 4th
Is it really Monday already? Even though I had a 3 day weekend, it still doesn't seem like I had enough time to get all the things that needed to get done, done. I took Friday off to run errands (getting car tags is not a fast process in this town). I did sneak in some sewing on Friday, as well as on Saturday and Sunday as well. So there has been some progress on the design wall projects. I'm juggling 3 projects at the moment.
As of Saturday, the Coffee Cup project was caught up. All the blocks up to this month's purple blocks have been completed.
The fabrics for the purple blocks have been selected and the fabric for the purple "F" has been cut. It just needs to be stitched together. That should be done in time for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge post next Saturday.
Visible progress was finally made on the May/June UFO challenge quilt. In May all I managed to do was cut some of the fabric, but this weekend I finally made a second block. A third block is partially assembled. This blocks is tough, you really have to pay attention to assembly order. I've had to do some unsewing on both the second and third blocks.
This project started as part of a technique class to make the eight pointed stars, there was no quilt plan. I probably need to work out a layout and decide how many blocks are needed before this project goes much farther.
Finally, progress was also made on Sweet Treats.
Twenty blocks of the thirty needed are complete. These blocks are so easy and fun to make. I'm going to miss this project when it's finished.
That's it for my design wall this week. Check out all the other design walls over at Judy's Patchwork Times.
As of Saturday, the Coffee Cup project was caught up. All the blocks up to this month's purple blocks have been completed.
 |
| Cup block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll publised in Block Magic and Block Magic Too by Nancy Johnson-Srebro |
The fabrics for the purple blocks have been selected and the fabric for the purple "F" has been cut. It just needs to be stitched together. That should be done in time for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge post next Saturday.
Visible progress was finally made on the May/June UFO challenge quilt. In May all I managed to do was cut some of the fabric, but this weekend I finally made a second block. A third block is partially assembled. This blocks is tough, you really have to pay attention to assembly order. I've had to do some unsewing on both the second and third blocks.
This project started as part of a technique class to make the eight pointed stars, there was no quilt plan. I probably need to work out a layout and decide how many blocks are needed before this project goes much farther.
Finally, progress was also made on Sweet Treats.
 |
| Designed by Judy Laquidara (pattern available here) |
Twenty blocks of the thirty needed are complete. These blocks are so easy and fun to make. I'm going to miss this project when it's finished.
That's it for my design wall this week. Check out all the other design walls over at Judy's Patchwork Times.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Stash Report - June 3rd
My family is back home safe and sound after their trip to Colorado with Drama Teen's school. Both were happy, but tired. Not sure what's on the agenda for today, other than DT asked to be allowed to sleep until she woke up on her own. I'm sure photo viewing will be part of today. They both came home with full SD cards.
A lot of sewing happened while they were gone, but it's not really reflected in the stash report. I think because I'm working on smaller blocks and two of the projects have blocks with a lot of pieces, so progress is a bit slow.
Used last week: 0.68 yards
Added last week: 0 yards
Used for 2012: 18.54 yards
Added for 2012: 161 yards
Net stashed for 2012: 142.46 yards
A little out, nothing in. Not a bad week. Fat Quarter Stars still needs the backing cut and sewn together. If I get that done this week, next week's report will look much better.
I'm still working on getting my stash organized. Shelves were installed in the stash closet back in April and all the fabric was moved out of the plastic totes onto the shelves. Then I started ironing all the newly washed fabric and folding it to a consistent size to go on the shelves. In mid April there were two totes completely full of fabric that needed to be pressed and folded (on the left below). I've been pressing at least one piece of yardage before I start sewing for the day. It's made a dent.
As of yesterday, the "to be ironed pile" is down to one tote which is about one third full (on the right above). So not bad progress. It's been nice to get all the fabric pressed, folded, sorted and onto the shelves. Now I can see what's in the stash without pawing through all those totes. There is still a lot of organizing to do. It's been a slow process, but it's getting there.
That's it for my stash report this week. I'm linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times this week.
A lot of sewing happened while they were gone, but it's not really reflected in the stash report. I think because I'm working on smaller blocks and two of the projects have blocks with a lot of pieces, so progress is a bit slow.
Used last week: 0.68 yards
Added last week: 0 yards
Used for 2012: 18.54 yards
Added for 2012: 161 yards
Net stashed for 2012: 142.46 yards
A little out, nothing in. Not a bad week. Fat Quarter Stars still needs the backing cut and sewn together. If I get that done this week, next week's report will look much better.
I'm still working on getting my stash organized. Shelves were installed in the stash closet back in April and all the fabric was moved out of the plastic totes onto the shelves. Then I started ironing all the newly washed fabric and folding it to a consistent size to go on the shelves. In mid April there were two totes completely full of fabric that needed to be pressed and folded (on the left below). I've been pressing at least one piece of yardage before I start sewing for the day. It's made a dent.
As of yesterday, the "to be ironed pile" is down to one tote which is about one third full (on the right above). So not bad progress. It's been nice to get all the fabric pressed, folded, sorted and onto the shelves. Now I can see what's in the stash without pawing through all those totes. There is still a lot of organizing to do. It's been a slow process, but it's getting there.
That's it for my stash report this week. I'm linking up with Judy over at Patchwork Times this week.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Foto Finish Substitute - The First Digital
Foto Finish is on a travel break for the month of June as Cat Patches is headed to Ireland. That leaves me with a hole to fill on the Saturday blog post. After a bit of contemplation, I've decided to use June to look back at my history with digital photography and pull out a few of those old Cd's to see what's on them and share a few of those early images.
My first digital camera was a point and shoot that showed up under the Christmas tree in 2001.
A Canon Power Shot G2 with 4.0 mega pixels. My newest point and shoot has about 4 times the number of mega pixels. This old friend is heavy, I was surprised when I pulled it out of the closet at how much heft it had. I carted this around until it's replacement arrived on Mother's Day 2006.
So what were the first digital images?
I'm a parent, so of course the first image has to be of the Kiddo (aka Drama Teen). She was 2, sitting in Grandpa's chair watching TV. This is probably the last picture where you will see her in pink, it's not one of her favorite colors.
Of course I had to go buy some flowers at the grocery store to see how well it worked in macro mode in low light.
To be honest it didn't work great, this image had to be adjusted in Photoshop. However, as I have to do that often now, it's not all the camera's fault.
One of the issues I still struggle with when using a digital point and shoot is getting it to auto focus on the right part of the subject. The stems look great, the roses are a little fuzzy. Still I like this image.
The G2 was a fun little camera. It was amazing to be able to take a photograph and not have to wait till you got the film developed to see your pictures. You can check if you got the shot and reshoot if necessary (a great thing with a 2 year old). Though I think with the digital point and shoots it's way to easy to do just that; point and shoot before you engage your brain. It's easy to overlook composition issues. I did that this morning when I took the picture of the G2, I focused on how the light hit the camera and had taken about 3 shots before I realized the "Canon" on the lens cap was upside down.
I get my family back tonight, they should be loading up and hitting the road for the long drive home. No laundry for today, but I'll loads tomorrow. Time to get in a bit sewing before that. Have a great weekend.
My first digital camera was a point and shoot that showed up under the Christmas tree in 2001.
A Canon Power Shot G2 with 4.0 mega pixels. My newest point and shoot has about 4 times the number of mega pixels. This old friend is heavy, I was surprised when I pulled it out of the closet at how much heft it had. I carted this around until it's replacement arrived on Mother's Day 2006.
So what were the first digital images?
I'm a parent, so of course the first image has to be of the Kiddo (aka Drama Teen). She was 2, sitting in Grandpa's chair watching TV. This is probably the last picture where you will see her in pink, it's not one of her favorite colors.
Of course I had to go buy some flowers at the grocery store to see how well it worked in macro mode in low light.
To be honest it didn't work great, this image had to be adjusted in Photoshop. However, as I have to do that often now, it's not all the camera's fault.
One of the issues I still struggle with when using a digital point and shoot is getting it to auto focus on the right part of the subject. The stems look great, the roses are a little fuzzy. Still I like this image.
The G2 was a fun little camera. It was amazing to be able to take a photograph and not have to wait till you got the film developed to see your pictures. You can check if you got the shot and reshoot if necessary (a great thing with a 2 year old). Though I think with the digital point and shoots it's way to easy to do just that; point and shoot before you engage your brain. It's easy to overlook composition issues. I did that this morning when I took the picture of the G2, I focused on how the light hit the camera and had taken about 3 shots before I realized the "Canon" on the lens cap was upside down.
I get my family back tonight, they should be loading up and hitting the road for the long drive home. No laundry for today, but I'll loads tomorrow. Time to get in a bit sewing before that. Have a great weekend.
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