A Work in Progress

Move along, there's nothing (much) to see here.  Stitching went by the wayside this month as during the first half I was preparing to move my son and during the second half I was racing around getting ready to go back to work.  Some of that was fun as it included lunch with friends and a fabric shopping trip in Lancaster County.  And then there was the part that was actual work--interviewing for a new therapist in our department, attending a conference on billing and doing an evaluation.  My district has four days of teacher inservice this week and the kids start on Tuesday.  I'm already bringing work home in an effort to keep up!  Funny thing is, though, that I find I actually stitch more when I'm on a schedule.  Hopefully, I'll have more to show in September, but for now, this is all you get.  Some progress on Quaker Christmas I picked up Elizabeth Rush again on my birthday.  Those over-one letters have been stitched, frogged and re-s...

Here's Block #3 in the Fat Quarter Shop's 2009 Designer Mystery.  I tell you, I have totally amazed myself with being able to piece these blocks.  I think this is the most complicated block I have done to date.  Only some minor re-sewing was involved this time as I had to switch the "wings" on the top and bottom flying geese.  That's because I took this block to piece at my guild's UFO workshop on Saturday and didn't pay attention to the directions.  I did have lots of fun talking to friends on either side of me which is also why it took me nearly half the day to get this block done.  And speaking of those "amazing" piecing skills--well, not so much with my Thimbleberries block of the month.  The top went together like a dream.  So did the first strip of half square triangles for the border.  The second strip of triangles needed some adjustments in the seam to make it fit, but that was really no big deal.  I got the top and bottom...

I completed Block 2 in the Fat Quarter Shop 2009 Mystery BOM.  I love the colors!  I'm getting better at doing the layout correctly the first time, but there was still some re-sewing involved in this block.  Still, these are fun and I'm looking forward to the next one.  The last three weeks have been hectic here as my son got accepted into graduate school on his birthday (exactly three weeks ago) and started his graduate assistantship today.  My husband and I accompanied him on the 21 hour drive to his new home near the Mississippi last week.  His Honda Civic was stuffed with an amazing number of his things.  I reminded my son more than once that I am a genius at packing and got rewarded with an eye roll each time.  Seriously, if there was an Olympic medal for packing, I would win gold hands down. Of course, there wasn't too much room in the back seat and for awhile, I doubted that I would ever be able to walk normally agai...

Here's my BOM Rehab for this week, a day late.  This is from the Fat Quarter Shop's 2009 Designer Mystery Block of the Month.  I think I bought this in 2010 as I received all of the blocks at once.  I was pretty new to quilting in 2009-10 so I didn't tackle this one right away.  My piecing skills have improved and I felt ready for the challenge.  Just wish my layout skills had also improved so I wouldn't have had to rip out half-square triangles that were turned the wrong way  (not just one of them, either). I was definitely in a "Christmas in July" frame of mind last month as, at home,  I worked exclusively on Quaker Christmas, bought fabric for another Christmas quilt and pulled this out of my stash.  I also made a baby quilt for a little girl who will make her appearance in September and took that to the quilter.  The five-hour drive up to Newport, Rhode Island at the end of July turned into an eight-hour drive and ...