Sunday, April 13, 2008

Sew There!

I spent all of Friday and Saturday night sewing, and it was very much fun.

Unfortunately, since all of it was for my M&Ms swap, I can’t show you “real” pictures.

You see, our swap started when I was in California. We all “turned in” the first row of a quilt that we will get back at the end of the year. Carol diligently figured out the rotation for who gets whose quilt when. From that meeting on, we won’t see our own quilt again until the final meeting of the year in early December, when everyone will receive a finished quilt top.

I got Carol’s row first. She sent me her fabric early (remember my soggy mailbox saga?), but I got totally slammed with work and couldn’t get anything done before I left. Of course, the second switch was the Monday I got home from the super-long work trip from hell. I was at my house for a grand total of 48 hours between when I saw everyone in LA and when they swapped rows, so they knew I’d miss that swap.

When I was in LA, I got the background fabric for Lisa’s quilt (the second one I’d get), which turned out to have been a really good idea :) That's what let me get so much done this weekend

So I made up my mind that the weekend would be spent in front of the sewing machine. I already knew what my block was going to be for Carol’s row, then I picked the block and fabric for Lisa’s row. Since I had the fabric in my stash, I was able to go to the “closer” quilt shop rather than the “nicer” quilt shop … the only reason I needed an outing at all is because Carol’s row completely wiped out my stash of 3” finished Thangles. God, I love Thangles! They’re wonderful!

The best news is that I actually had a good experience at the closer quilt shop ... for the first time. Yay! There's hope!

First up was Carol’s row. She had a border print she fell in love with way back when and is having us all do blocks with a cream print background with colors that will match the border print. I sewed the bulk of it on Friday night, then finished it off on Saturday night. Here’s my row, sewn to her row and all ready to go to the Post Office tomorrow


Then it was onward to Lisa’s quilt. Lisa had a little too much time on her hands preparing for the start of this swap (ahem!) so she did the Lisa thing and went a little overboard (that’s why we love her!).

Lisa’s theme is M&Ms, the candy! Black background, the one color of fabric to be used should be picked because it matches the color of a traditional M&M candy. Block is to be five of the same, 12” finished size. Name must include “Star.” I think I did, OK, don’t you?


I used almost every inch of that green making the blocks. In fact, I had to “fudge” one larger piece to make it work … that half-yard of fabric had some appliqué-sized chunks taken out of it which is why I was so close to the edge on that fabric choice.

I finished Lisa’s row last night (Saturday night) while watching one of my very favorite movies and the row is sitting on my quilting table waiting for Lisa’s row and Carol’s row to arrive from California. I'll sew my row onto that, then it’s right back into the hands of the USPS to go back to California for the April 21 swap.

Nothing like cutting it close, eh?

In other news, I did do some knitting today. I’d guess I’m about 60% through the vest and actually attached the second skein of Riata today. I’m the tiniest bit annoyed … I was on the edge between knitting the medium and the large and chose the medium because the large called for three skeins and I only had two. Judging by where I joined the second ball, I would have had enough yarn to knit the large.

Oh well. It should still be fine.

I also wound the yarn for my next Cat Bordhi pair of socks. It’ll be my eighth and final architecture. Wow! Then it’ll be my RSC Leafling socks with some sweater knitting thrown in. And I really do miss sewing. And I neeeeeeeed a wall hanging for the “landing” on my entryway stairs and found a pattern at the quilt shop on Friday, so it’s a good excuse.

OK. Off to watch some playoff hockey on Versus (doesn’t hurt that they’re pulling the Hockey Night in Canada CBC feed right now!) and knit a little more before bedtime. Hope you had a great weekend!

4 comments:

Sarah said...

I think that green is a PERFECT match! (And it looks like it would go very well with the latest STR, too!)

Anonymous said...

Beauteous! Wish I could see the whole thing. I haven't thought of Thangles in years!!

Jess said...

Now I want MnMs. mmmm. That green could not get any more m&m if you ask me.
Ps- your shoes look comfy. :)
And I got that fabric at Joann's actually. It made me think of you!

mehitabel said...

Looks like you had a good productive weekend! I thought of you often, since my granddaughter from CT is visiting and she wanted to watch all the college softball games, including a UCLA one. We told her she needs to work on getting a softball scholarship to UCLA!