Twelve Hours in May-- Part ONE

    It’s been a good seven months since I was able to dedicate an entire day to sewing. Everyone was out of the house on this day for the first time in a long time as well, so it was a good chance to finish up some of the 99% done projects that have been hanging around my neck for a few months, mostly Sew Sampler projects. I'm gonna have to break this post into two parts-- I made amazing progress! Not only that, I received two boxes in the mail AND survived a horrific weather event. Whew, what a day! 

Here’s the List:

1. Chatterbox-- finish top and piece backing
2. Emmeline-- piece backing 
3. Hats -- piece backing
4. Christmas presents-- piece borders and backing
5. Pressed flowers-- piece
6. Maple leaves--finish border
7. Moonbeams-May Blocks
8. Tilda Jolly Holiday--gingerbread houses
9. Bobbin blooms--Start
10. Cupid box-Start

And let's begin!

6am--Handstitching. Up and at at em! It’s amazing how I can jump out of bed in the morning when a day of pleasure is at hand. I started today like any other day with a hand stitch, not on my list. It's too early to sit behind a machine.

    In a moment of itchy fingers last fall, I clicked BUY IT NOW quite a while ago to add this Moonbeams cross stitch to my Moonbeams quilt kit. (Remind me never to take a gun safety class.  With my trigger finger, I'd have the whole range shot up in a matter of seconds.) I honestly had every expectation my cross stitch kit would end up in a drawer, but the lure of the NEW got me right on it when it came in. My inability to a get more Lori Holt Prairie Meadow blocks prepped for my morning hand stitch has meant this project is sailing along... I’m ahead of schedule on ONE thing! Fat Quarter shop already showed what the finish looks like, and you can see that releases 4 and 5 are the same as 2 and 3. So I’m zooming ahead. I have even now purchased the cute mounting board to finish it-- I’m hoping for a glorious wall of assorted cross stitch in my new studio. Just one more corner to finish!

7-8 Time to sew! First up, Chatterbox. I'm tired of talking about it. This is March’s Sew Sampler box and I’m already over my four week allotment. It’s been a ton of sewing and matching points. I have all the rows just about together and just need to join them. 

     These are small 6” finished blocks, so I was forced into pressing seams open and it is super time consuming to iron them that way. It’s bulky anyway--- here’s’ a a good look at the back-- 8 seams come together in the middle. A half round pressing stick helps. 

     I’m not paying too much attention to the layout in terms of color placement-- I did a good job of mixing things up initially and want this finished. It takes a full hour to press and assemble the last row.

8-9 Chicken Duty and Breakfast  Some quilters chase squirrels- I have chickens! By 8am every morning, I try to get out to do my farm chores. Mostly this involves feeding and changing water for my 12 hens-- we do have four new babies now. Each day, I have to carry them from their “bed”-- a small brooding box, to the outside back coop area, where the bigger hens can't terrorize them.

    This new batch of girls has been extremely skittish-- they SCREAM like seagulls when I catch and and carry them out. Then the rooster gets upset-- I’m pleased he at least seems protective of them, but then he attacks me when I go in to change the water in the big coop. Last week, I brought out a grape for him as a peace offering-- he preferred a chunk of my thumb.

    Back inside. When everyone is out of the house, it’s time for some unhealthy  nice food-- I then made myself a waffle (Oops! accidentally mixed up two waffles) with lots and lots of our own homemade maple syrup. Let the energy boost begin!

9am Assemble Rows. Why should any part of Chatterbox start moving fast? Each row has 25 points to match and I pin everyone of them. Sometimes I use the timer on my phone to get a handle on how long a job will take. It takes 10 minutes to pin, 5 to sew, 5 to fix the “flipped seams” that are always such a problem with open seams,  and another five minutes to iron. That's almost a half hour per seam!

    I have a really slow and methodical way of doing everything-- things get done nicely, but not fast, and I just have to accept this about myself. There are seven seams to sew, so looks like I’ll be on this until 12!! I don’t mind-- I LOVE THIS PROJECT and it’s super happy moment to finally finish my top ahead of schedule at about 11:30. Woohoo! That moment when you layout a hard won, finished quilt is one of life's main joys.

11:30am  The Great Backing Search! Final step-- stitch together the backing I bought for Chatterbox. It is nowhere to be found. Everything in my sewing space had to be moved downstairs to sheetrock and finish the space. I have no access to most of my supplies-- 80% of it has been in an attic for the past year and a half, and the other 20% is all over the rest of the house. (I try to keep my blog posts to 49% whining-- this cuts down the hours of whining my family has to deal with to 51%-- thank you for listening and the percentages will now end. :-)  

    The search party (me) takes up a half hour of my valuable day--  I finally tag it in a box of randomness next to my embroidery machine. All my storage boxes are pretty random these days-- it does make for some nice surprises when opening. This is my set up right now-- I’m sure my mom is tolling in her grave over the use of her beautiful, mahogany side board over in the corner there. Sorry, mom. This is what I’m dealing with until my new space is ready. And obviously there is NO PROGRESS today on the spackling job still awaiting me upstairs, in my studio, today. Here is the backing fabric-- it's part of the same Sweetwater "Vintage" collection.

   More than one finish these days is just awaiting and assembled backing, if you read my list. Most of the Sew Sampler finishes are at an inconvenient size for backings-- 40-45” wide. If you send your projects to a long armer, they usually want 4” all around--that puts you a tad over the 42” width of most fabrics, so you have to buy twice the length of your quilt, cut it half and resew the halves back together along the other dimension, plus end up with a ridiculous amount of excess. Does anyone out there enjoy measuring and cutting 3 or 4 yd pieces of fabric and then sewing 4-5’ long seams? If so, come on over. I’ve looked at those 108” backings, but they are way too big for this size quilt. I did notice some fabrics are starting to come out in a 60” width. Until I get smart enough to plan for this, I'm stuck.

12:00pm-- Sew Backing Together.   An hour of sewing and the Chatterbox binding is behind me. All ready to go out the door! Only one thing crossed off the list so far, but the next three are pretty much backings, backings.

1:00-- Lunch. More favorite eats that I would never consider making for Mr. SFO-- he worked at a hot dog stand every year at a state fair during our high school years. Whenever he see me eating one, he describes how the flies would land and sizzle in the hot grease, and the sight of a hot dog makes him physically ill! I assure you, no flies were harmed in the cooking of this meal. Why would I stop making hot dogs out, just because the Board of Health didn’t shut him down?

     You can see I also have a dessert planned-- and my beloved Coke Zero. I stopped drinking diet soda before Christmas. Then, I need just something tasty to encourage myself while spackling, so I started drinking REAL soda which is not better for you. So I'm allowing myself of case of Coke Zeros just to get me through the next couple of weeks or so.

1:30pm -- Another Backing. My Dulce backing gets cross off the list. This one is a gift for a new little lady-- it's the December Sew Sampler box. It stitched up in no time, except for this last step took me five months. I am getting smarter in one way-- backing fabric from Marden's at $5.99/yd. Isn't it just perfect?

2:30pm-- And another!  Haberdashery backing. I tried to get a 60" wide print of Lori Holt's Mercantile fabric to match, but it was sold out, so I picked this print a couple of months ago. $11.99/yd and tons of waste. You can see it below. So I'm only shopping Marden's for backings now. It is really fun to sort through their shelves and you will absolutely find the perfect one. 

Three all ready for long arming.   Then...

3:00pm Microburst. I knew we were going to have thunderstorms today-- I love a storm! Awesome--no feeling guilty for not being outside today. So I noticed the sky started looking really weird. I’ve been photographing the whole day, so my phone is right at hand and I snap a shot and send it to my sister in Florida-- she also enjoys a good storm. I didn't notice till later, but it appears the devil's horns are in the middle of that picture-- do you see them, just to the right of our pump house? I still cannot figure out what that is.

     Oh, I know... it's a  cliffhanger! Will we be in OZ in a few minutes? Is it the END for my twelve hours of sewing day? STAY TUNED!

xox

Carol