Birthday Minions and Sewing, Sewing, Sewing!

Sometime around the middle of January, it occurred to me that the Minion quilt I'd put together for Brady at the summer retreat was still pin-basted.  Back then, I thought it would be a good goal to get it done by Halloween but that got away from me.  I managed to carve out some time to quilt it (simply) and then I secretly worked on the binding for the rest of the week while carefully concealing the surprise from him. 

He really likes it and it is the first quilt he has ever slept under.  He likes relaxing with quilts and building tents but he is a minimalist with the bedding.  I have the circles quilt I made for him a couple of years folded on the end of his bed but he has always said it is too hot.  Somehow the Minions and our coldest AZ weather yet have collided and now I sneak into his room every so often to see how content he is to sleep under it.

Since January usually means race day, I also pulled some fabrics for a jelly roll quilt.  I used up lots of odds and ends to make what will become a spring couch quilt for the desert.  The photo looks more yellow than beige but it is mostly greens, blue greens, beiges and grays.  I sewed the strips together then immediately started racing.  That was a long stretch in the sewing chair (close to 3 hours).  I don't recommend that plan.  I am happy with the way it turned out.  These days, anything that lowers the blood pressure is welcome in our house.

Also in the last few weeks, I pulled out last year's Quiltville mystery quilt and was pleasantly surprised to see how much progress I made last year at this time. You know, back when I thought I'd have nothing to do but sew because my sparse and spotless house was on the market?    I am using the same color scheme prescribed by the direction because it fits our home accessories.  I am hoping it may even end up on our bed.  Would you believe none of our beds have quilts on them?  I have about half of the blocks together so far.


So that I don't get confused with the mystery blocks, I am using the piano keys I cut a couple of retreats ago as sew-offs.  The piano keys will be the border for a vintage Friendship top (red and yellow improve 9 patches).


I've also managed to get all of the strips cut for the Midnight Flight that I started in a workshop in early January.


My exercise instructor was injured just before the holidays so I had to find a new weekly routine.  Also, Mike and Brady have been really immersed in Rock Band so both of those changes have helped me get back into a pretty significant sewing routine.  This time, I think it is going to stick.

Some progress ...

I got a Me day to sew for several hours on Sunday while the boys were at baseball camp.  It was practically disorienting.  I am hoping that gets me on track again sewing-wise.  I needed some alone time to finish Brady's minion quilt in time for his birthday on Saturday.  Of course, when I laid it down to measure for binding Sherman had to get in on the action. Sigh.

Once the boys got home, I was still inspired so I made four of those strippy charity quilts using the WOF novelty fabric cuts that I still have stockpiled.  I'll turn them in to the guild and the charity team will pair them up with batting, backings, and binding fabric.  I might keep one of the girly creations.  It is just so cute.  I have no idea what I'll do with it but ...  I actually see a real dent out of my novelty drawer!  That never happens.

I only had one cut of the cowboys and cowgirls but I think it turned out really cute with the twinkle twinkle stripe.  The stripe was on clearance years ago.  It was loosely woven and printed somewhat off kilter but that's ok.

I'm still working on my sewing room.  One side of the closet was a weird dimension so it took me a while to find shelves that would maximize the space. I needed the space to contain my finished quilts that previously lived in an armoire.  Here's the before and after.

I also hung two design walls to maximize the one unused wall.  I used one 4x8 sheet plus a scrap to fill in the open space.  The top in the photo is about 42x55 so that gives you a sense of scale.  Yes, I will need a ladder if I ever use it to lay out a bed sized quilt but that's ok. If I never end up using the high space, I could also put inspiration stuff up there.  We will see.

The doors are on the cabinets but they still have the blue protective wrap while waiting for handles to be installed.

Next, I need to organize a small cabinet and deal with a couple of smaller storage containers of miscellaneous items.  I have to say that it has been a lot easier finding things now that I have packed, unpacked, organized and labeled nearly everything within those four walls. That whole process has given me more ideas on ways to move different projects along or move them out.  I'm getting there.

Travel Log - September

I am going to try to back up and blog a bit about things going on here in September. It's been a while but it is good to have these things written down in one place so I can remember what I did years from now.


Things have been busy here with Brady currently in basketball, baseball, flag football, running club and Lego club.  I don't know where the time goes or how parents with more than one child deal with all of the shuttling around. 


Back in September, we had two trips to California back to back weekends, with a visit at our house from my mom and my brother squeezed in between.

The first weekend almost didn't happen.  We had been discussing with my brother in LA for months that we planned to go the ELO concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  It was one of two tour spots and it has been years and years since Jeff Lynne had toured.  It's been on Mike's lifetime concert lists to see him in person.  We knew we wouldn't buy tickets until the last minute since that seems to be Mike's best chance of success for good tickets.  The idea was that my brother and/or my mom would babysit Brady while went to the concert--since she would likely be visiting just prior to my nephew's wedding the following week.  Pretty close to the concert date, we found out that my brother and my mom had plans to go dancing the night of the concert so we didn't have a babysitter.  We were concerned that Brady wouldn't be into the concert and it would spoil the evening for all three of us.  We debated all week what to do and finally decided to buy tickets and drive to LA about 12 hours before we'd need to be en route.  It meant Brady had to miss a day of school which is something we hoped to avoid but, you can't have it all.  We stayed outside of LA the first night at an uber modern Aloft hotel.  It was pretty cool and Brady loved all of the modern décor.  In the end, it was a good choice and we all enjoyed the show and the trip.  We got to have breakfast with my brother, nephew, and my mom.  Just like a birder, Brady got to see some of his "lifetime" cars in the few spare hours we had to sightsee around LA.  He also got to pose in some fast cars on Hollywood Boulevard.  Sure, it was worth $10.

The following weekend, we flew to San Francisco to attend my nephew's wedding.  Since both California trips involved overnight stays, I had researched kennels for Sherman.  Apparently, kennels are not really a positive "thing" here, especially after a tragic incident a few years ago where many dogs died due to neglect at a kennel.  Nearly all of our neighbors use in home pet sitters.  I didn't think Sherman would do well with a 3x/day visit format.  He is a people dog.  I ended up using dogvacay.com to find someone who could watch him in their home--someone with kids and dogs of their own.  The first stay went well.  A second stay was planned for the wedding trip.  A few hours before we'd pick up Brady at school and head for the airport, I went to the sitter's house to drop Sherman off.  At her front door, I handed her the leash.  Sherman saw me take two steps towards my car and slipped out of his collar, trying to get away from the sitter.  He proceeded to run through the sitter's neighborhood, ignoring all of my calls.  This was not good.  I tried not to chase him but he kept getting further away and I didn't know this neighborhood.  Finally, I saw a landscaper going into someone's backyard.  Everyone has walls with gates but the gate was open.  Sherman was sniffing nearby.  I called him and ran into the stranger's backyard.   Thankfully, he followed me and ran past further into the backyard.  By now, all of the gardeners back there were looking at me like I was crazy but I had time to grab him.  Geez!  Luckily, it was fairly uneventful getting to San Francisco and San Jose after that.  The bride and groom had 15 attendants on each side, two flower girls, two ring bearers and multiple other attendants and parents. I believe the cast for the rehearsal was over 40 people.  It was ... a lot.  They had more personalized things that I'd ever seen and they had basically created a brand for the wedding.  Their wedding cake was a Stanley Cup and Sharkey (the San Jose Sharks mascot) showed up at the reception.  When the bride and groom made their entrance, all of the attendants lined up with hockey sticks then the bride and groom had a face off at the end.  A lot of planning went into this wedding.

 My brother, Keith, showing my mom his dance moves.

After the wedding we had a two week breather before Brady's fall break started.  He was off from 9/30-10/18 so we wanted to get away for at least part of the time off.  We picked him up from school on the Friday before break and headed east for Albuquerque.  We wanted to get there Friday night so we could be at the Balloon Fiesta the following morning at 4 a.m.  It was a long and tiring drive through the extremely dark and desolate desert between the Phoenix east valley and our hotel in New Mexico.  We had no radio signal for the latter part of the drive and everyone was getting antsy.  I found a cached NPR podcast with Meryl Streep that we could listen to.  I don't think Brady was impressed but it helped pass the time.


We managed to get up early see the pre-dawn activities and the weather cooperated for an uneventful launch for all.  If you haven't already seen this event, put it on your bucket list because it was amazing.  On the drive home, we stopped at the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.  We were on a fairly tight schedule because we wanted to get back through the Arizona mountains before dark.  We managed to see lots of amazing sights and made a few well-considered gift shop purchases.  The photos just don't do it justice, as with many natural wonders.

 I know what Dianne and Judy are thinking ... :-)

 Raffle quilt at the fairgrounds

 Petroglyphs

The colors are amazing.

That takes us through September.  Maybe the next post will cover our October adventures.

Bonnie Hunter Workshop with the Nimble Thimbles

At the very last minute, I was notified that spot had opened for me in our guild’s Bonnie Hunter workshop!  I was so happy because I enjoy her patterns and it had been quite a long time since I’d done a class.  Our workshop project was Midnight Flight.  It is the backdrop for this photo.

There are basically three units to the block:  four patches, HST, and parallelograms.

We did a quick seam check to make sure our four patches were coming out at the proper size.  This is especially important with these since there are fairly small (cut strips at 1.5”).  Bonnie stresses in all of her tutorials to make sure you cut with the line of the ruler on the fabric.  Although I think I usually do this, I paid more attention when cutting the strips for the workshop.  It must have been that careful attention plus Murphy’s Law that made my neutrals come out slightly narrow (what the heck?!?).  I tried to compensate by staying true to my colored strip widths.  Bonnie stressed feeding pairs into the machine so that the top seam creates resistance to the one below.  She also spins the last seam so that the blocks can be more easily joined to each other.

Once we had made a few four patches, we moved on to the HSTs.  Until recently, Bonnie’s preferred tool for these was the Easy Angle.  I tried to use the Easy Angle on last year’s Quiltville mystery and I had a lot of trouble.  My pieces were coming out small and slightly rectangular no matter how scant I made my seam allowance.  Although, I am normally a triangle paper person, I was determined to conquer my Easy Angle issues in this workshop.  Even if I then decided not to use that tool for HSTs, I was stymied by the fact that I just couldn’t get good units before.  Considering that all of Bonnie’s quilts are very scrappy plus the value of her Scrap User’s System, I understand why something like this technique would be best for a project like Midnight Flight.  Bonnie recently released the Essential Triangle Tool which can be used to make HST and QST.  The tool also comes with a bonus ruler which I’ll talk about later.

In the workshop, I had a cutting station set up at a little table that was near my sewing area.  The table was about 2 feet high and barely bigger than a small cutting mat.  Since space was at a premium and I’m vertically challenged, I was using that space. I should have gotten a photo because it was definitely the quintessential kid’s table.  Bonnie stopped by to check on progress and I told her that I’d had issues with the Easy Angle before but I was committed to working them out that day because I am a believer in using the teacher’s ideas in class then deciding what works for me going forward.   Sure enough, the first units I made were spot on.  I told her that the units were too afraid to act up in her presence.  Later units started to drift back to the old issues from before.  I think my issue is pressing.  Even though I followed Bonnie’s suggestions to only use the tip of the iron on the seam rather than ironing any of the outer corners, I’m still getting some distortion.  I need to focus more on that. I am going to try to use the Easy Angle and/or her tool to make this quilt then decide what I think of it.  So far, I like the Essential Triangle Tool better than the Easy Angle for two reasons.  The EA flips and the ETT pivots.  I don’t like that when you flip the EA, the heavy printed lines on the ruler make it easier to slip and slide.  Also, it just isn’t as intuitive to me to flip the ruler.  I know to do it and I understand why but it requires thought each time.  Also, the ETT, has multiple functions and I really dislike single use items.  In addition to also doing QST, it can replace the companion ruler when making things like flying geese.

Lastly, we made the rectangles with connector corners.  Bonnie stressed the need to sew just next to the drawn line so that you get the full triangle when flipping.  One of my tablemates had an Angler taped to her machine bed.  I’ve been using my Angler lately too.  Bonnie uses a drawn line on her connector corners for two reasons.  First, there is a line to sew next to rather than on.  More importantly, though, she draws two lines and sews two seams per connector so she can trim in the stitching channel to produce bonus triangles.  Maybe if she was friends with Kathy, she’d be more likely to just trim those triangles and collect them in a baggie …  I had also tried this technique on last year’s mystery and quickly abandoned it because I felt like it slowed me down.  Also, I didn’t have a need for those triangles so I decided to skip it.  Since I was in workshop mode, I gave it a try.  Also, Bonnie did some pretty compelling math (36 blocks would produce 16 bonus triangles each which would be a grand total of 576 2” HSTs—in this case scrappy blacks with scrappy neutrals, something that would be useable on a variety of things). It does take extra time but I can see that it is a good habit to develop.

I managed to make one quarter block in the workshop but also lots of subunits.  Bonnie said she is an assembly line sewer and I am definitely wired that way, too.  I think I’ll focus on cutting and kitting so I can take this project with me to Amishland in March.  I realized in the workshop that I like all of the black and white (not cream) backgrounds that she uses so I’ll build more of those into my pile to cut. That will be a bonus anyway since I recently shifted my black and whites from one drawer to two because I had so many white with black prints.

I left the workshop missing all of my Divas even more than usual and wishing I could debrief with all of you after attending something like this together. I was also grateful to realize once again how lucky we have all been to learn from a series of bold and smart teachers such as Mary Ellen Hopkins and Mary Huey.  Many of the habits and design ideas taught this week are already part of my process based on their teachings.  For example, several of the students were struggling to make things scrappy.  The idea of using a wide variety of fabrics was stressful for them, as it was for me when we made those MEH hearts and Mary Ellen was adamant that we use “all of the reds”.  I also remember what an “aha” it was to see that the weird crane fabric made her log cabin great and that you could also use a lot of not so pretty fabric in a Mississippi Mud quilt and it made a stunning quilt that was greater than the sum of its parts.  Most people have to learn those lessons by doing … and all of that “doing“ is embedded in the way I do things because of great teachers.

Technology is not always our friend

Earlier this week, I proclaimed that I was going to stop blogging.  That was after spending three weeks trying get the last post to publish.  I wrote the text quickly but then struggled and struggled to add photos.  I think the last straw was when Brady watched me spend an hour posting four photos (and, in the process, messing up other parts of the post).  Even he said it was outrageously tedious and buggy, and that kid could spend hours doing anything electronic.
Ever since I switched from the iPhone to the Nexus, I have had nothing but problems.  The Blogger app won't successfully post any photos so I am forced to use the fat-client via a browser.  The size of the image button is literally the size of a pinhead so I have to zoom in but then the dialog box doesn't like that so, before I click Add Selected, I have to zoom out again or else it doesn't work, etc. I was tolerating all of this for months while grumbling but, for some reason, when Brady basically said that the pinhead sized button was insanity, it put me over the edge. It must be subject to Kathy's Rule ... the idea that people can tolerate things until someone points it out--aloud.
Unfortunately, instead of feeling better, I was just more frustrated because the blog is a lifeline of communication so I know I won't be happy giving it up.  It needs to be easier, much easier. 
Mike has volunteered to look at a few options since one of my frustrations is that I don't have the time for experimentation and false starts.  I need something fairly efficient and reliable, even if that means republishing to a new hosting platform.  Once all of that is figured out, maybe I can get back in the habit of publishing more frequently.


Happy Fall!

Wild Kingdom

Mike finished creating his home theater, complete with a blackout curtain and window blind.  Part of the setup included a speaker he bought on Ebay.  Brady wanted to watch one of the Harry Potter movies as our inaugural viewing.  We got all set up to watch and Mike started the movie. The volume was too low so he turned it up.  There was a very loud bang and a sizeable flash of light as the speaker and amp blew out.  It made quite an impression on the three of us.  He ordered replacement equipment and we are back in business. Most of the components (including theater chairs) came from Craig's List, Ebay, or other resale sites so he is happy with what he was able to cobble together at a reasonable cost.


Baseball season has started so that is a nice distraction.  Brady is enjoying it and we like the coaches.  You may have seen on Facebook that one of the parents told me that the practice field retaining walls are "infested" with scorpions.  I've only been to one practice since that news and I haven't seen any yet.  I am curious to spot one so I know what to look out for.

I took a class at the gym.  It is called PiYo (a combo of pilates and yoga).  Aside from not being able to walk for two days after the first class, I am enjoying it.  The bonus, though, is that I have met quite a nice group of ladies there ... including, "my Judy".  I really clicked with "Judy", a woman who moved to the neighborhood in January from California.  She is also a member of the neighborhood social committee, though, and she was trying pretty hard to recruit me.  I'll need to keep dodging that bullet!

The latest guild meeting was interesting. The charity quilt show and tell from just that night's meeting included 22 quilts, with at least 2/3 of those being finished pieces.  Pretty amazing.  I took two home to bind.  Some of the snowbirds were back so that may have accounted for the huge pile of completed items.  I was disappointed to learn that the Bonnie Hunter workshop is full so I am on the waiting list.  The limit is 30 and I am number 38.  Those odds aren't in my favor.  Sigh.
There have been lots of animal sightings since my last post.  We have a bird who perches on our porch late at night.  He just sits as I watch him while I'm keeping an eye on Sherman in the dark.  The bird did not like it, though, when I waved my arms wildly because an enormous bug had landed on my arm.  I am curious what he is doing out there, though.  He looks pretty content and I am happy to see a bird that is not a mourning dove (they are everywhere)

The PiYo instructor encountered a spider in one of the workout rooms.  Here are her photos.  She later learned that it is a ... spider which apparently like to eat scorpions (a good trait, of course).

Neighbors keep finding frogs, including a type of tree frog.

They have named this guy Billy, son of Bob, but I don't believe it is related to Bob.  I think it is a tree frog.  He's about the size of a quarter.
Unfortunately, Sherman had his first toad encounter a couple of days ago.  I was out supervising him and he was "pecking" at something then trying to pick it up.  I went over and saw this.

I took Sherman in the house and tried to flush his mouth with the kitchen sprayer.  He wasn't happy about that, to say the least. After a lot of thrashing, I went back outside and checked on the frog. It was as hard as a rock--dehydrated to the extreme.  Sherman never showed any symptoms of poisoning so, hopefully, any toxic secretions were long dried up.  Odd, since I am sure the toad wasn't there the previous day.
This week's forecast shows all of the highs are only ## rather than ### and we have one low temp that begins with a 6 (69!).We had the coolest night since we've been here over the weekend. Apparently, the cooler nights bring out the snakes so now the neighbor photos look more like this.  This neighbor contained the snake using their pooper scooper.  Pretty impressive I'd say!  He was on his way to being relocated soon after this photo was taken.
The neighbor found her snake the same week as this story was published.

The cows have been busy too, with three calves getting stranded on the wrong side of the fence one night.  One neighbor used to be a vet tech and she plus two other guys managed to get them to the right side of the fence.  Based on her description, that was entertaining to watch. This photo was taken earlier in the day, when they were still on the ranch side.  They seem to enjoy this spot. It is a high traffic area for walkers and kids on the their way to/from school.

Sherman will be disappointed to learn that monsoon season is over.  He loves to go outside during the dust storms.  I don't know if he likes all of the new smells or why else he just wants to be outside.  Here's a ridiculous picture of him enjoying the beginning of a recent one.

I'm getting closer to finishing my sewing room. I finally had a block of time to work on it this weekend.  Each guild meeting has a give away table so I'm sure a few things will be going there in the near future ... Now that I am sorting notions, I have found a few duplicates.I made a design wall according to Melody's instructions but I still need to attach it to the wall.
I am very close to finishing the batik quilt that I layered at the retreat. I have about half of the binding left to do.  First finish in a long time!  If memory serves me correctly, I finished the top around 1999-2000.

Lay of the Land

I just returned from the annual August Diva retreat. After the dust storm settled, this was the mountain view.

A few of the Divas were asking questions about the neighborhood we live in so I thought I'd try to give some context.

Our house is the odd-sized larger lot on the corner by the arrow.  As you can see, we are one street away from the western and southern edges of the development.  Today, I took a walk to the gray path that runs from east to west along the bottom of this map.  The map shows a cut through from Hazeltine to a dirt path behind the last row of houses.  If you look to the west, there is a fence between the neighborhood and the cattle ranch.

I don't know how many animals they have at the ranch.  I've only ever seen about 6-8 steer at any given time.

The reservation lies to the south and, along the pathway, you can see the signs that this area floods pretty intensely when we get a heavy rain.  Neighbors in this stretch have posted dramatic videos of temporary, fast-moving rivers in this area.

If you walk towards the east, you get a view of the San Tan Mountains.  These pictures were taken in the cooler morning hours but the mountains look most dramatic in the late afternoon when the shadows show their character.

The map also shows the neighborhood school where Brady catches the bus in the morning.  He and Mike ride their bikes along the western perimeter path (gray line) in the mornings and afternoons.  Across the street from the school is the community pool, park, and gym.  All of the areas not colored in yet are either open dirt lots or under construction.  The empty areas have some entertaining animal watching with little herds of quail and their youngsters or desert hares chasing each other while kicking up clouds of dust.  The blog banner photo was taken at the school, facing west.  There's a canal and more cattle roaming area in that section so the sunset photo opps are usually the best from that spot.








Sherman is happy that I'm home and that he can continue to stare at me all day in hopes that I'll play with him or take him for a walk.