Cold Rainy Friday = Time for a Latte

After a long week; a very dreary, cold, gray, rainy day; and a Friday full of meetings, it was time to hit Starbucks for a cup full o' pick-me-up!


 Yes that is FOUR shots of espresso in that grande cup.



Told you I needed a pick me up....  

I came home and was ready to sew sew sew!!!!!!

I whipped out that last three blocks from the 2010 Jelly Roll Sampler by the Quilt Room. 

Zoooooooom! 

And started working on sewing the rows together.  I hope to get this top finished tomorrow and get the backing and binding pieced.

In other news:  After only looking through two bins, I also found my  February UFO challenge project.  As nicely packaged today as it was when I bought it...



.... in 2004!!!!!

I hope to either get working on this or finish up January's project this weekend.

I may need another latte...

UFO Containment Plan: January Report

Well I have to confess that I did not finish my UFO project this month for Judy's UFO Challenge. And I'm even late with my confession because I had to work late last night.  Oh my this is not starting well.  I did work on it though and will continue to get it finished (during this shortest of months...).

The project for February is #10 on the list.  Oh no!  I am so doomed.  I don't even know (exactly) where this project is!!!  Somewhere in the depths of my project bins. Oh my!

SCORE:  UFOs 1    Me 0

Le Petite Project: Mon Ami & CW block 5

Here is my Le Petite Project for this month "Mon Ami" Schnibble pattern.  The charm squares are "Nantucket" by Minik & Simpson for Moda. 

 I decided not to add the plain border because I like this finished size for a wallhanging. 

If I get this quilted, I'll be all set for the 4th of July this summer.    

 Not much else done on the sewing front this weekend.  I didn't feel well so I saw the sofa more than the sewing machine.  I did make the Civil War block for this week called "Kansas Troubles" 
Hopefully I'll have a less busy week this week and I'll get caught up on some things. 

Have you any wool?

This past weekend, I was digging in my fabric lair dungeon  avalanche  space and the old nursery rhyme "Baa baa black sheep, Have you any wool?" came to mind.

I updated the next lyrics to say:
"Yes, ma'am I do
 One bulging box full!"

My first inclination was to save it....
because....

you know....

they may never make any more again....

and then...

what if I needed some later????

But I really need to get o-v-e-r this kind of thinking because I am not going to end up on "Hoarders"!
Let's say this again--I am not going to end up on "Hoarders."

So yes, I cut up some of that wool. And then I found this little bundle of Fig Tree joy
from....

oh several lines ago....

maybe one of the first..... (ok I checked and it is one of Joanna's first lines from 2005)

why am I saving this?

Because it's so cutely wrapped up in a little bundle and it's Fig Tree and I may have had a certain project in mind at some point????
Probably.

OK let's be ruthless and use both the wool and untie and use this Fig Tree goodness.

Oh my. That's a lot for one afternoon.

But I did it.

And voila!  Here is block #1 of Bunny Hill's block of the month.


There, that was painless wasn't it?

January Blahs

Oh I haven't posted in awhile.  Last week was just one of those annoying hectic weeks at work filled with a million aggravating things and this weekend I seemed to have a case of the January blahs.  I don't know about you, but I always get blah in the winter, even in the South where there is more sunlight. After all the excitement with Snowmaggedon, it seemed last week that it had been January forever...at least 2 Januarys long.

So while January blahs do not make for good company (gray, cold, wet, wool blankets come to mind), I was productive over the weekend, keeping to myself and my sewing machine.

 I finished up block 3 for the Civil War Quilts Block of the Week.  My needleturn applique skills were a little rusty so the stars are kind of wonky.  This block is called Seven Sisters.

Let's just say it has a Folk Art element instead of crisp pointy points shall we?

 This is block 4 called Texas Tears. I am having so much fun with this block of the week project.  Every Saturday I grab my big box of Civil War reproduction fabrics and dig through, cutting little bits of this and little bits of that.


I bet I have eleventy-million weeks worth of Civil War fabrics in there if I keep using bits and pieces.

I also realized I better get cracking on my January UFO project for Judy's challenge or else!  I definitely don't want to fail on the challenge the first month so I put aside my Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt and worked on blocks for my Clara Barton quilt. 

One of my favorites is this block with the purple and cream fabric.

0.807954 miles of thread...and more to go

Well I've used up one spool of Aurifil thread (1422 yards or 0.807954 miles of thread) and am working on the second for the Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt.  I am working like crazy on this quilt and am still piecing blocks. I have no idea how some bloggy friends (Michelle, Karin & Kristie) have already finished their tops.

the never-ending quilt project

I'm also slowly getting back into the swing of things from Atlanta's 10-day weekend otherwise known as Snow-pocalypse. There are just a few patchy snow spots left after all that drama.  It was very strange going to work on Tuesday (Monday was MLK, Jr., holiday). It was weird being out of the house and in real clothes instead of sweats/pjs.  It was weird being around people or as my boss asked "did everyone lose whatever social skills they had?" LOL!  Tuesday was a very looooooong day (what no movies, snacks, quilting, catnaps, cats?????).  An amazing amount of work piled up while everyone was stuck at home (how does that happen?).  I'm not sure if the cats were happy about getting back to their usual schedule or if they missed having their people around all day. 

Snow-pocalypse Days 3-5

Greetings from Hoth-lanta!  Yes this is Day 5 of most of the metro area being under ice.  You need a Tauntaun to get around this city.

I don't have a Tauntaun so I've been at home all week.






Why can't people in Atlanta get out of their house when it snows? 

This photo says it all!

Not to mention we had freezing rain on top of the 4-6" inches of snow around the city.

The ice is the worst because we don't have enough sand, salt, or gravel to spread on all interstates let alone the major streets and secondary roads.  Small streets, subdivisions, and everyone else are on their own. Seriously, I saw a postal worker sprinkling salt from her truck yesterday.  It appeared to be coarse salt that one would use for cooking.  Poor Atlanta....

"creme brulee snow" an icy crust on top of snow

In case we needed to get out sometime. I went out yesterday to shovel the driveway....







with my garden shovel

For future reference, garden shovels are not every snow-efficient. 

The sun shining on the ice

 What else was going on these past few days?  Very little.  I read a Stephen King book, Full Dark No Stars (a really great book to read on cold winter nights and one of his better books of late in my opinion.)

We watched a lot of local news, always entertaining to see 15 mile backups on closed interstates, cars sliding around on ice, and reports of empty grocery store shelves.

I worked on work stuff from home.



I worked on the endless Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt.

The cats stayed warm by sleeping on heat vents. 


 





I wished I had some sled dogs.

I just have erstwhile sled cats....

Instead of sleeping curled up in the snow like sled dogs, "sled cats" sleep curled up in quilts. Go figure...