Year of Schnibbles January Madeline finished

 I finally got the binding sewn on to my Madeline. I ended up going with grey binding. The red I had was a light red, and it just made the border and everything look washed out. If it had been dark I would have gone with it.

This is one of the few times where I think I liked it better before I washed it. But it doesn't matter because I still love it.
I can't wait for February's Schnibble.

 I'm off to work on the applique for Le Jardin's Block Two.

Oh what a day

Can I both whine and boast in one post? Or is that rude? Or do I care as it's my blog?

 I did something really dumb today. I managed to sew through my own finger. Yeah, seriously the needle of my machine went through my index finger, stopped there too as the needle was in the down position when you take your foot off the pedal. Luckily it was across more then down, so no bone/nerve/muscle (maybe muscle) seems to have been affected. Don't ask how. I'm not 100% sure. Something along the lines of not paying attention, having a pin in backwards, and no sleep the night before. All I can say is lucky me.

 Wanna know what else happened today? My breaks decided to stop working, or so the lights on the dash said. While I was driving. With Little Bit in the car. I was taking her too turoring, after waiting for 35 minutes in the frickin freezing cold for her bus, when these lights I'd never seen show up.
Uh-oh.
Pull into nearst parking lot. Thumb through the manual, can't find the symbols.
My dad calls, and is standing next to my brother. A conversation ensues. It is decided I can drive on. Nothing smells, no smoke, nothing feels different, breaks worked fine. On I go.
 About 2 minutes later, brother calls.
Pull over NOW.
Ok.
Apparently he ran it by one of the mechanics, its the breaks ( the round symbol with waves inside and brackets on either side). OK. Crap. I'm in a bus lane.
It is again decided it would be safer for me to go on to the next parking lot. OK well that would be Fabricland (now that would have been fun), but the next parking lot after that is tutoring so I go onto there. A tow truck is sent, I call mom to pick us up seeing as I have DH's Jeep keys. Since she was taking Little Bit anyways, reasons to come, it was no problem. She just came over after work and bought a new pair of shoes while Little Bit was in tutoring. Any excuse right?
So van, mostly likely dead, as it is not worth anything and fixing it is getting stupid.

 So onto the bragging part, though the needle could be brag worthy as really, how many people manage that?

I got to go to the Darius Rucker/Rascel Flatts concert!! It was awesome. Darius Rucker especially, top 5 concerts ever. DH actually danced with me to our song "God Bless the Broken Road" which was our wedding song. That was very cool dancing to it live.
 I forgot the camera, not that I can get good pictures with all the lights etc.

 Block 2 came from FQS for Le Jardin. Tomorrow you know I'm cracking into it. Know what else came today? My very large 20"x20yds of Jenny Haskins Tearaway Stablizer, my favorite thing to use for applique. I'd ordered it for my late Christmas present, now its a belated birthday present. YAY!
 So now I'm sooooo tired I'm heading to bed. Night all.

Some actual sewing!

Lol I finally for some sewing done tonight. I basted and quilted Madeline. I've got one line of trim and am going tomorrow to pick up enough for the second line. My problem now is deciding on binding. I have both the dark grey paisley, and some red as well. Or should it be black?

 I do think the second line adds a nice balance. So what do you think for binding?

These are gloves for arthritis. They work as a compress, and are called Thermoskin. They are also awesome for quilting.

See all the little grips? Nothing holds like these. They do get a bit warm, but that is part of the point. I managed to do all of Madeline without my hands hurting much at all. Very awesome : )

 Thank you for all the well wishes, and commiseration about men in general, DH's in particular.  I will take everyone's advice and be very clear next year, and every year, about what I expect. Even if we can't afford gifts, a card and him cooking dinner is expected.

Happy Birthday to me

Happy Birthday to me. lol. See my pretty's? Both of my parents got me flowers, which always make me happy, but especially in winter. And seeing as today is statistically the most depressing day of the year, Blue Monday as it's called, and it was raining, then snowing, then crazy windy today, the flowers definitely made me cheery today.
These are from mom, Little Bit helped pick them out this weekend.

And dad's.

He always sends roses. My grandmother loves roses so I think it's in his head that that is what you send. Though he doesn't go for the old fashion style, which she prefers. My grandmother can make a dozen roses last for weeks. I'll see how I do, especially as I have no natural light in my apartment.

  DH forgot to get me a card, nor did he think to make dinner or something. I know I told him no gifts, we just can't afford anything really, and I don't need anything. Mom is getting me a walking foot for my machine so there really isn't anything else.
Am I being unfair being a little annoyed? Not super-annoyed, just-why-didn't-you-pick-one-up-at-some-point-before-the-day-so-you-can't-forget-annoyed.
Oh well.

 Little Bit's getting her IEP, I went to the school today. It should be started soon. The school is going to put her name on the waiting list for the psych-educational assessment, hopefully it means she'll be seen either by the end of this school year or early in grade 2.

Hopefully I get some sewing done tomorrow. I'm going through withdrawal from a lack of quilting, and since the lidocain infusion has worn off so I'm getting cranky as the pain comes back full force.
I hope your week started off well!

And we almost had a problem

 I logged onto blogger and it showed none of the blogs I follow. I wasn't too worried, hit the refresh button, then became worried when still it said I wasn't following any blogs.
All my daily source of quilting goodness, commroderie, amusement, and all the other good things you get from following some of the very talented, wonderful bloggers out there, was gone. The being that I have more then a little experience with tech problems I went away and then came back and lo and behold they were all there! YAY! That was a close one.

 I don't have anything new to show. This weekend has been busy. Yesterday was a combined birthday dinner at my mom's and Little Bit had Little Gym so no sewing time for me.
Tomorrow I'm having lunch with my father and I also have a meeting with Little Bit's school to get her IEP (independent education plan) set up. She received the severe language delay classification from the school board speech pathologist on Thursday so now we have to figure out what to do about helping her learn. The school is fighting having the Psych-Educational assessment done until she is in grade 3, so that may end up having to be done privately because knowing she has language barriers, and knowing why, and having some level of compass to help her out, are completely different things. Though maybe the neurologist will be able to help there. Maybe. And we go back to him in March.

Oh so many things to think about. And really I just want to get a few quilts done, or at least moving forward.

Oops

So I was thinking that Madeline needed some more black. A girl can never have too much black. Unless I'm the one applying it apparently. Exhibit A:

I somehow managed to both stretch and shrink my flimsy.

But in the interest of experiments what do you think of the second line of trim?

Looks good, minus the issues. Don't you think? Honest answers please.

A close-up.

I'm going to have to pull off the trim and try to re-apply.  : (
Which means I'm going to have to try and actually find my nice Clover seam ripper which seems to have run away. I think it decided it was overworked.

Year of Schnibbles January

 I have my flimsy finished for January's Schnibble, Madeline. In Rouenneries, of course. LOL.

  I have to confess that this one gave me problems. Trimming down the blocks after adding the "setting triangles" to each block just didn't work well for me. To get the right size I had to go very close to the points, which meant I lost some when they were sewn into rows. As I trimmed and measure each center star, and checked my seam allowance, I'm not quite sure how I ended up a bit off but I guess in the end it doesn't matter. Especially when you look at it from this angle.

 I'm thinking of trying to find some sort of black trim to sew between the blocks and the inner border. I'm now wishing I'd thought of it before borders were put onbut I think I may be able to find something. Since I had extra light/medium non reds I did a scrappy inner border instead of a solid.
Hmmm what about adding big setting triangles and making this a medallion quilt? I will ponder on it.

 I also got these in the mail!

The gorgeous Blush! Most likely I will use these for next month's Schnibble, though it does depend on the pattern that is chosen.

And an even more, or at least equally, gorgeous pattern from Cath's Pennies Designs!

Heheheh sheep...
I can't wait to get this together...maybe for this Valentine's Day? Probably not, but goals are good and all that. You have to go check out her blog. Cath does amazing things with wool. And she has several patterns for sale, and occasionally a completed wool mat. Pretty, pretty.
Hehehe sheep...I have a funny story about sheep, DH, and Scotland. Tell me if you're interested. 

 While I was sewing down the Fleur-de-Lis on Chateaux Duma, on Saturday morning

I watched this.

 I've seen it before, but oh so pretty. The costumes are great, and it's an interesting look at a brief period of Catherine the Great's reign. This was one amazing woman, ruthless and brutal, but amazing. If you enjoy reading etc about Elizabeth I, you will probably be fascinated by Catherine. A German noblewoman who became Czarina of All the Russias, ruling in her own right.

 I have another infusion tomorrow/today (Wednesday) so I'm hoping to be pain free for a day or two (longer would be good :) ), and getting some good sleep!

Friday Night Sew-In

 My post a day streak ended at 13, 14 if you count the one I posted after midnight. I just haven't been feeling great, so no sewing etc going on.
 But tonight I was determined to get something done. The border fabric for Tumbling Dino's came yesterday so I got that out to add the borders.

   First I added the yellow ric rac, and then the blue containment border...so far this is very blue.

The the dinosaurs.

I had wanted to make the the outer border larger but my backing fabrics, which right now is going to be either a navy blue fleece, or a light green cuddly, are only a bit over 60".
Here's the final flimsy.

It's about 57x73, though I think I should measure again because it looks bigger then in picture. I also got the binding cut but not ironed.

I didn't get Mini Verna finished but I did get a few rows done. I'm always surprised by how much longer it takes to make mini's then even larger versions. I still have 5 rows of the focus squares to get on. I have two or three more rows of the sashing done.

I enjoyed the anticipation of knowing I was going to sew on a certain day. I found I thought about it more, and waffled around about what to work on etc.
I'm also looking forward to checking out what everyone else got done tomorrow (Saturday). I'll be joining in for sure next time.

No sewing today...but mail!

 So today did not go as planned so there was no sewing. But after I went to get Little Bit from the bus we stopped to get the "e-mail" that is not e-mail. She doesn't quite get that they are called different things. All mail is e-mail apparently, even when in the mail slot.

YAY it was...

 

Madeline!! It was mailed the day after I bought it, so Jan. 2, and came today. Not too bad for cross border shipping. I'm pleased, both because they got it out so quickly but because customs didn't hold up my letter forever.

  I have half the cutting done, but I promise I won't sew it until the Verna mini is done. 

 I went out tonight with my dad, his girlfriend, and my "aunt", a woman I've known my whole life and was my matron of honour. We went and saw "Camelot". The acting was great but the script, especially the first act, was not so great. It was so over the top and exagerated that it missed being funny several times. I just wanted to slap the characters. And it was looooooong. The first act was an hour and a half. I was really hurting after sitting more or less still for that long in an uncomfortable chair. I was glad for the intermission. I enjoyed the second act though, much better.
 Dad walked me to my van, and we had a bit of a chat. It was interesting. I rarely speak with my dad for any length of time, and for many, many reason's I have had a contentious and sometimes just ambiguous relationship with him. I'll say one thing though, he is a far better, and more interested, grandpa then he ever was dad.
 I hope to have some progress in Verna to show tomorrow but I'm off to bed for now!

New fabric!

 No Rouenneries today. I got out my Moda Sampler Box and really wanted to do something with one of those super adorable mini charms.
  So I thought. And thought some more....no worries I didn't hurt myself.
I didn't want to do a traditional charm pattern, and I didn't want to open more then one pack....this really kinda dwindled my options. But I had an idea....

And chose to use Verna, with some purple for sashing, and some white too, both from my stash.

And only got this far.

This line is nice and springy. It has an odd, in between but great look. Not Amy Butler, but not April Cornell or Fig Tree either. LOL good thing I don't write descriptions.

    Little Bit decided to be a royal pain in the you-know-where today. She was pretty good this morning, though she had the attention span of a gnat. We played, coloured, painted, play-d'ohed (that's a word right? lol).
After lunch it was chore time. She fought this. How much?
It took her 5 hours to clean her room, it should have taken 15-20 minutes. She got to the point she was arguing that she wasn't arguing.

I'm so tired from arguing with her I think after I wrestle her down and brush and braid her hair after her bath I won't be doing anything but vegging out for a little while. Preferably with a large Bailey's/Amorula on the rocks.

A sort of finish

 I finished the block from Le Jardin BOM.

I only stretched the blocks a tiny bit. I don't think you can really tell. It measures just a hair off the 16 1/2" it should so goodness.

I hand embroidered the ribbony thing on the bunny. I oopsied the the ribbon a bit but I think I fixed it enough. The ribbon was supposed to be higher on the bunny and hit the neck straight on...I don't know if that makes sense but it looks ok to me and that's all that matters, right?
 I'm not the biggest fan of the red and white side fabric but the overall quilt looks so cool I don't care.

I wasn't going to finish it today but I kept looking over and seeing this.

 Who could resist?
I couldn't find the pattern for Duma today but I knew I needed a bunch of berries so I grabbed the scraps of my Magic Fuse and made these.

I used a 5/8 punch for scrapbooking to do the "berries" for Chateau Duma. Much easier then trying to cut out a gazillion of them with scissors.

 It is super cold here. Little Bit wasn't happy about having to stay inside but this is 20 minute frost bite weather. We played lots of Wii and "Scooby-Doo Ball" which is just hall soccer with a rubber ball. Hopefully it warms up a bit soon. My puppies may have me arrested for cruelty if they have to do their business outside much longer. Oh, and the looks I get. Both adorable and funny.
Did you know a dog can say all sorts of things with their eyes? Like eat sh**? Or I'm going to bite you in your sleep? Along with the required I love you and come on...you know you want to give me that food you have. Don't let those cute faces fool you.

But then there is a reason we call them fur-babies.

  I'm waiting for a several things in the mail...a few ordered back mid December. I'm starting to get annoyed. LOL and I'm sure you'd all like to see something besides Rouenneries.

YAY for results! Roll Tide

 So the Tide took the National Championship last night in a really good game. DH was happy as a clam. Hootin and hollering. I had to remind him Little Bit was sleeping. DH had his friend come over and watch most of the game so it was nice for everyone.

 I got all the pieces to Block one prepped and laid out. I know have to decide what thread to sew down with. I have this clear stuff but I can't even remember what brand etc. I'm worried that it will eventually become brittle but matching the fabrics to cotton/silk thread would be quite hard, but I'd only need about 4 colours for the whole quilt. What do you all think? or y'all as DH would say.

This is the monofilament or whatever thread.

  And this is what I can look out and see.

Lots and lots of snow. We got another 4 or 5 inches last night. I'm high enough up, 4th floor, that when I look out I see over the parking lot, but not so high that I'm over the trees. So it really is a nice view most of the time. 

 As happy as DH was last night he is unhappy this morning. We think he may have gotten food poisoning from the KFC he picked up last night as a special treat for everyone but me, I'm celiac. Apparently he called in at 4 am to tell work he wasn't going to be in. SO hopefully he gets better soon, because he is one pitiful baby bear when he's sick.

No more no-reply

If you are not getting answers to your comments, especially if you NEVER get one, it probably means your settings have your comments come in with a no-reply@blogger.com address.
 To change this go to your "Dashboard"
Click on "edit profile" beside your picture.
Under Privacy click/check the "show my e-mail address" box
Click "save profile" at the bottom of the page.
All done!
Easy peasy, rice an cheesy lol A silly saying from Little Bit. This will show me your address when the comment is e-mailed to me, but not anywhere else. So don't worry about it being posted next to your comment or on your blog or anything.
 I'd love to be able to respond to your comments but can't if you don't have this setting. Half the time I have a reply typed out before I even notice that I can't send it lol.

Go Bama! Roll Tide!

Tonight is the BCS National Championship and DH's Crimson Tide are playing the Texas Longhorns. I could care less to be honest but he's so dang excited it's infectious, lol and the idea that football is getting closer and closer to being over for a few months.

I'm pretty woozy from the lidocain infusion but feeling nicer then I did before I had it so hopefully it'll be better each time.

  I've got the rest of the leaves for Chateau Duma prepped. I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for the circles.
 And I got half of block one done for Le Jardin.

The parts of the block are completed. And half the applique is prepped and waiting for me to finish the other pieces so I can get it sewn down. The stuff in the plastic baggie is waiting to be glue basted down.
 I don't want to sew the block together until I finish the applique just in case I stretch it when I'm sewing them down. It's easier to cut down a single piece of fabric then unsew and then trim.

 I have to say this about Fatquarter shop. They always include way more fabric then you'll need. You have oops room. I super appreciate this because I'm more relaxed when cutting, which for me means less mistakes. I'm putting all my scraps, and they're definatly big enough to be scraps and not cuttings, into another baggie. I'm hoping by the end I'll have enough to try and make  a mini antique-looking Canadian flag.

 Which I really want now, seeing as the US beat us in the World Junior Finals. In overtime! The ended Canada's 5 year run of gold. As DH (an American) crowed all yesterday "silver's not bad eh?"
Hopefully the big boys do as well or better in the Olympics. Another Torino will get a hell of a lot more response then Harper proroguing Parliament again has so far.

 I try to avoid politics here but this I have to say to my fellow Canadians. Our Parliament, the only part of our governement that really answers to the people, is under attack and few seem to care. This is an attack on our democracy, and freedom to be ruled by people chosen by us. I don't care what your leanings. You should be very worried and upset by this. Many important bill, some even put forth by the C's, are dying on the floor because of this, and several VITAL inquiries are being shut down in hopes people will forget. This is bypassing the whole point of having a body to hold accountable the ruling government. Opposition is as vital to our way of government as those ruling. Get informed. Please. This will matter even more if this becomes a regular thing, which Harper is saying he may do. Do not give more power to the PMO.

Productivity

 I can't believe it but I have posted every day for over a week! WOW. Considering I stopped for many, many months for no real reason this is very impressive.

I must have just gone through a dry spell. I feel like I have accomplished, and learned, more lately then I ever have previously. And this is in part due to a person who is no longer a friend. Crystal and I became best friends in a counseling class. We stayed good friends, the doing everything kind, for about a year. I taught her to quilt, which got me back quilting. Then she disappeared. The reappeared. Then disappeared. This both confused and hurt me. Until I started thinking about it and then it made perfect sense. Crystal had a very hard childhood. The write a book kinda bad. She has been on her own since she was 17 and has more or less flitted from one person to another, getting what she needs and then moving on. She doesn't do it consciously or intentionally but it is what happens, and she is too nice to end relationships so she just lets them lapse. Ok I can deal with this. It is her problem or whatever, not mine. But thing is she has a BUNCH of my quilting things, including a sewing machine, and my 6x24" Olfa ruler, travel cutting board/iron that was a present from DH. I am not happy about this. But she has moved, and I no longer has her cell number so there isn't much I can do about it.

  Something about me is I don't make friends easily. In fact I'm fairly bad at it. I have millions of acquaintances, people who you talk to wherever etc but outside their "area" I don't do well. I have so little self esteem sometimes that I can't shake the feeling that people are only being "nice" or polite and don't really want me around. This is a left over from childhood. I know this intellectually but can't shake the feeling. The whole episode with Crystal hasn't helped this obviously.  She abandoned me when things got bad health wise, and only showed up again when she needed something. And I really thought she was a forever kind of friend. Those kind you just click with instantly and seem to just get each other. I'd never really had that before so this was odd and great.
Anyway, I don't really know why I'm sharing that now. Maybe just knowing I owe my re-entry into the quilting world, and the blogosphere, to her strikes me as ironic. And the blogosphere is where I find more companionship then anywhere.
Which leads me to the generosity of bloggers. Nancy offered her gorgeous self-designed pattern "Chateau Duma" on her blog because we asked. Isn't that great? I couldn't wait to start and have already got to here. My base turned out 17" square, instead of 16 but it hasn't mattered so far.

I still have 10 or 11 leaves to finish prepping and all the berries/circles but I think it's looking good. I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to arrange all the leaves etc but pretty much I think I'm assured of a good result.

The fluer-de-lis, a traditional symbol of the French, and in Canada Quebec, got me thinking about how this line could be used to make an antique looking Canadian flag. Which would be historically inaccurate as the Canadian flag only became official in 1965, though the emblem has been used in various ways since the 1890s. Still I think it would look cool. I just don't know how I can justify more Rouenneries.

  

Especially since this came today.

Literally as I was finishing there was a knock on the door.  And the mail lady handed me my block one of the Le Jardin BOM from Fatquarter Shop! YAY!! You know I have to cut into this right away. Or at least read the instructions and pet the fabrics. I should put this away until I finish Duma, and perhaps if Madeline gets here too. But I doubt it will happen. ;)

A better day

   Thank you to all you made kind comments yesterday. I am feeling better. Occasionally I get a bit out of sorts, and the filter on the honesty gets out of place but all is better today. I did manage to slice my thumb cutting a tomato but other then that it has generally been a better day.

  I finished the binding on Picnic yesterday and it is finally finished!

The prairie points decided to go the wrong way after going through the dryer...

But a good ironing and everything is fine again.

If it wasn't going to a baby I'd put buttons on the points to keep them down but that is not safe so should I just leave them? Or sew a tack stitch to keep them down?
 Doesn't the backing look so cuddly? It was a b**** to quilt and bind because of it but it is so worth it, or it will be when I see the baby wrapped up in it.

Oh and I forgot the label. That will have to go on too. But all the hard parts (the quilting, and binding) that terrify me are done. The binding even had mostly square corners! And the miters worked. So YAY for progress.

  I ordered 2 yards of the red dinosaur and a yard of the blue "dinosaur skin" for the borders of Tumbling Dinos. I'm going with a narrow blue containment border, which will have the ric rac sewn between it and the tumblers, and a wide red border. I'm hoping to use the blue as binding as well. Or maybe it will be red because I may not have enough blue, all depends on if my math worked or not

 

Funny how they look so different depending on the angle. I can't believe how many fabrics/colours ended up touching, but it doesn't look bad I think. Besides a kid won't notice, and hopefully by the time Landon is old enough to notice he'll love it too much to notice.