My very own Miranda!

I've been wanting to make a Miranda bag from Lazy Girl Designs for me and finally have done it. I made one for a very good friend's birthday which I showed here. I also walked my sister through the process of making one for her. Now I have one of my very own and I love it!

Carla

Orange Crush Mystery

Finally got Step 1 completed for the Orange Crush mystery from Bonnie at Quiltville. I had to have 150 4 patches and I went overboard a bit and ended up with 190. If I don't use the extras in a future step for this quilt, I know that I can use them in something else. It was wonderful to be able to open a box labeled "2" strips" and have enough dark strips already cut and just had to cut neutral ones. When I first found Bonnie's website and read about her Scrap User System, I spent a couple of days cutting leftover fabric from projects in the sizes she suggested and put them in boxes. I never touched them again till now but what a great feeling that was to have them there at my fingertips. She has great quilts on her site all made with her system. I'm sold now!

I also decided on the yardage fabric to use. Although I'll be using an orange, it'll be my accent color. It looks more yellow than orange in this picture.

Stashbusting report for the week:
In: I bought 1 1/8 yards for backing a wall hanging that I need to quilt for a silent auction fundraiser. It's for the special ed classes at my school. It'll be gone by next weekend.

Out: Enough fabric to make 190 3 1/2" (unfinished) 4 patches, whatever that may be.

Carla

What's your least favorite decade?

Today is my second son's birthday and I can't believe that he's 32! As far as I'm concerned, he's one of two good things that came out of the 1970's for me...he and my oldest son. I really didn't like the 70's much. Not the music, culture, TV, my first marriage...you get my drift.

Still bogged down with coursework but it will be over one month from today. I turn in my last assignments May 5 and have never been so happy to see a date approaching. I've still got a ton of work to do but the end is in sight. School (where I work) will be out May 22and then I'm off until the first of August. Boy, am I going to be loving this summer. My 25th wedding anniversary is in June and my husband and are are planning a trip to Baja Mexico where we honeymooned all those years ago.

As far as my stashbusting report, I'm participating in a UFO challenge with an online group (the Prolific Quilters) and I was able to squeeze in some sewing time to finish my March UFO. It's from a class I took last June from Darlene Zimmerman and her pattern is called "Sunny Days". I started March with 19 hourglass blocks and needed a total of 31 plus I needed 32 Double X blocks and the scrappy border. These are the before and after pictures:

I'm not a very "prolific quilter" but they are a great group of women and I really have enjoyed being a part of the fun.

No fabric bought for the entire month of March!!!

Carla

A New Plan

When I started this blog last fall, I had decided that I would only write about sewing/quilting related things such as projects that I'm working on. Well, due to what's happening in my life these days, I haven't been able to sew much and therefore seldom write a post. That doesn't mean that I don't read other's blogs as I most certainly do. In fact, I do that a lot and usually to avoid doing what I really need to be doing. So, naturally what generally happens is that nothing much gets accomplished and I feel stressed and just a bit guilty. That's not good, is it?

I was thinking about that this morning and realized that I really enjoy reading about people's lives on their blogs. Not just about the quilts they're making but the day to day happenings in their lives. So, I thought that I'd make better use of my blog. I plan to share my life more and hopefully it'll help me manage my time better if I write things down rather than think and worry about them.

The thing that I'm most concerned with right now is this class I'm taking. For the past almost 2 years, I've been going to graduate school at night and during the summer to get a degree in School Psychology. I've been a speech pathologist for the past 27 years and wanted to be able to do something different until I retire. So, since I really like the evaluation aspect of my job, I thought that working as a school psychologist would be a great as I would be able to primarily test children. So, now I'm in my last class and I just can't seem to get my act together. I've got so much work to do and I just can't seem to get motivated to do it. For instance, this week I've been off from work for spring break. I have 2 reports to write that are due Monday night for my class. Have I written them? No. Have I thought about them? Absolutely. Have I been doing something else fun and exciting? Fraid not. I have spent some time in the sewing room but haven't really enjoyed it because I know what I should be doing and that kind of spoils it for me. I had the best intentions of getting my schoolwork done early so that I'd have the rest of the week to sew and clean house and read a novel but it didn't work out that way. I had said that I would make a schedule but I didn't. So, each day has been an aimless journey to pretty much nowhere.

Lest I sound completely down and hopeless, let me assure you that I'm not. I would just be a lot better off if I'd gone with the schedule plan. This blog can help me do that, I think. Other people put lists of what they want to accomplish; so can I. So, today being Saturday, I will put my schedule for the day:

Morning: Work on papers. At least get the background information written on both "clients".
Afternoon: My grandson will be here. Play with him.
Evening: Write more on my papers. Interpret results of testing.

It doesn't look like much of a plan but just putting it in writing for the whole world to see may help. Well, probably not the whole world but maybe a few people who might happen to read my blog. So, now I'm off to read some from this book
and write some on my reports. Hopefully next time I'll have some goals that I've accomplished to write about.



Carla

Introducing....Miranda!

Introducing my very first Miranda bag from Lazy Girl Designs! I've wanted to make one for several months now and finally just decided to let everything go and just do it. It's made from batiks and is for a friend. The directions are clear and easy to do as long as you follow the steps. I have one all cut out for me and I can't wait to make it.

<------Here she is cinched

and uncinched ------->

and the insides-10 pockets!

I'm no longer a Miranda wannabe!

Carla

An escape game

This looked like fun and it put off vacuuming the living room

Answer every one with a word with a word which starts with the letter of your first name:

What is your name - Carla

A 4 letter word - crud

A vehicle - Camry

A city - Chino

A boy's name - Christopher

A girl's name - Cynthia

Non alcoholic drink - chocolate milk

Occupation - carpenter

Something you wear - chemise

A celebrity - Charo

A food - carrots

Something found in a bathroom - Clorox

Reason for being late - caught in traffic

Something you shout - Cut it out!

An animal - chipmunk

A body part - calf

Word to describe yourself - cheery

That went way to fast. Now back to dreaded housework!

Carla

So little time, so little done

I had hoped to be able to work on quilting projects after the costume production but life has been getting in the way. I've been very busy at work and I have something going on most nights like my grad class, dinner with my dad, choir practice, and Thursdays are generally a guild meeting or stitch group (where I seldom stitch). Last weekend my son and grandson started staying at our house from Friday night till Monday morning and that'll continue until their house is finished being built in May. My son gave up his apartment when the lease was up at the end of February and stays with his girlfriend during the week and now with us on the weekend when he has his son. So, that means that I played with my grandson for most of the weekend and can see that this will be what we'll do for a few months. So, between all that, who has time to sew? I tend to visit the sewing room for a few minutes before I go to work and hate to leave it. The only things that I've sewn are 2 blocks...one for the Block in the Box swap for my stitch group (see where I talked about it before here) and a gift block for someone. That's it. So sad.

The Block in the Box block was supposed to be a Halloween themed block, any size as long as it was in multiples of 2 inches finished. She didn't want the colors bright but more mellow, fall colors. So, I found this online and thought that it would be good. It was actually a wallhanging and I just cut out some of it. It measure 8" by 16" finished. I love candy corn...do you?

Hopefully I can work on my March UFO this weekend. Maybe I should spend lees time on the computer and more sewing...but I want it all!!!! (said with an irritating whine)

Carla