Busy Busy Busy

Holy crap, I've been so friggin' busy!  Good busy, but still...busy.

The instructions and photos/illustrations for my fat quarter quilt had to be in by Monday, but since I'm going to be busy with family stuff for the next few days, I had to get done early.  This is no easy feat for me, lemme tell ya!  I'm usually the one who's scrambling at the last minute.  In this case, however, there were other deadlines to deal with so I had to set that one up to be earlier.  Got it done and turned in on Friday-I sure hope that the technical editor who's working on it isn't going to hate me!  I decided to call the quilt "Retrolicious!" by the way.

B's cousin and his wife are visiting from San Antonio, TX and B's niece and her family are here from Norway.  We had a big family reunion BBQ at my sister-in-laws' house yesterday and it was one awesome day.  But before we left, we had to get started on housework, because cousin Kennedy and his wife (Paula) will be hanging out with us from Mon-Wed.  I doubt I can avoid having them actually enter my house! Those of you who are not like me (aka, clean freaks) just do not understand this having to pick up the house and figure out what to do with all the clutter.  I had this discussion with a like-minded family member (you know who you are!) at the BBQ yesterday.  We are totally clueless on how this business of "a place for everything and everything in it's place" works.  It's like there's a data chip missing in our brain; what is so natural to most completely stymies us messy-chaos-clutter types.  As much as it pains me to admit it, it is who I am.  I hate it.  I've always felt so inadequate and like a lazy bum, but seriously-you see everything you have to do and your brain explodes.  Sure, I could do a little every day, but that doesn't work because whatever little thing you do is quickly undone.  So it turns into a great big cleaning production.  I always vow to stay on top of it and somehow it still gets away from me.  We all have our "projects" going on and they eventually take over the living/dining room.  To make matters worse, I don't have a separate room for my sewing so it's in a corner of the dining room.  Even when it's all "straightened up", it probably looks messy to others.  Frustrating.  So once I've posted this (avoidance maybe??) I'm back to it until it's time for us to see the Rat City Roller Girls this afternoon. 

Tomorrow B, Maddy and I are driving up to Bellingham with Kennedy and Paula and boarding a boat to cruise the San Juan Islands for the day.  I hope to see some Orca whales!  I'll try and post photos.

Have a great day!  ~C

Promised photo

It's a really busy day, no time for a long post but I did promise a photo of the fat quarter quilt I finished this weekend.  I'm trying to come up with a great name for it, so if you think of anything...let me know! 

 And here's a detail shot.

Cheers!

Cornelia

A Quilt Finish-YAY!!

And now a bit of quiltiness...
I finished one, woohoo!!   It will eventually appear in a Martingale & Co.book.  I'll post photos tomorrow.  
It came together pretty easily except for the part where I thought I was done and found that there was a piece sewn incorrectly!  GRR.  I powered through and finished and boy howdy, what a relief!  Now I "just" have to write the instructions for it, make a backing, have it quilted, wash it and bind it!
More on this quilt in a later post!  Every quilt I make teaches me something and my plan is to share that with my reader (s).   Here's my tip from this quilt:  Fons & Porter Glue Marker.  It's great stuff!  It goes on blue, but dries clear, and washes out with water and is skinnier than a conventional glue stick, so you have more control.  For me, at least, it works way better than pinning for getting those seam intersections to match up.  I can't seem to pin without distorting the fabric but everything stays nice and flat if you glue it.  For some reason, my sewing machine will twist some of the fabric at the beginning and end of each long seam which creates distortion. So, I glued each end of my rows and border strips.  As near as I can tell, things came out pretty square.  We'll see what my machine quilter says after she loads it onto the longarm.  Thanks to my buddy, Regina for turning me on to this great tool!
My one and only reader had a question about the recipe I posted the other day.   She wanted to know why there was no salt or seasoning listed.  Excellent question!!  First of all, the tomatoes have italian-style seasonings in them already.  Great if you have Add and have no idea how old the spices in your cupboard are (LOL)!  Better than Bullion has lots more flavor than regular beef-broth-in-a-can-or-box, too.  I use the chicken and the beef varieties instead of salt in lots of dishes.  Try it!  It seems expensive, but it really is cheaper than boxed broths.
Photo and family in tomorrow's post.  Off to the bestie's house for BBQ, yum!  Have a wonderful and safe 4th.  

Cornelia