San Diego

Last week my husband attended an SAE convention in San Diego and my son and I tagged along for a mini vacation. We lined up the suitcases in the living room before loading them into the car for the drive to the airport.  Guess who ended up with the smallest bag!?   How did that happen???!  No wonder I didn't have room for my regular size sewing kit!

Since the hotel we stayed at was convenient to public transportation we opted to ride bus and trolley to our destinations rather then renting a car and driving. We discovered San Diego is very "green".  Their buses run on natural gas and the trolleys are electric.

This is one of the natural gas powered buses.  This one is a double length bus.  That center gray accordion area allows the bus to "bend" in the middle to turn city street corners.  It is strange to be sitting inside and watching the seats in the accordion area turn

Through some hydraulic wizardry these buses also kneel down low to the curb and open up a folding ramp to allow wheel chairs and other handicap equipment to roll on.  They are also equipped with bike racks on the front of the bus for riders who bike to the bus stops.

The electric trolleys were mostly red, but occasionally one like this would roll by.  I think this one was advertising a bar-b-que place.

 

 

We visited Balboa Park where multiple gardens and museums were located. 
The science museum was a big hit with all the "hands on" exhibits.

The tiles in the garden fountains show designs that would make beautiful quilts!

 

And I enjoyed the sculptured facades on many of the buildings.

 There was a bird rescue group set up with several different birds available for adoption to the right family. This little guy climbed up and helped himself to a free lunch while the girl was talking about the birds.  She was totally clueless, so I asked her what that furry tailed bird was.  She looked puzzled, turned around and said... Oh my!  LOL!

The flowers located in the gardens were awesome.  I especially loved the orchids in the tropical garden area.

We spent one day exploring the San Diego Zoo.   We started with the guided tour bus to see the different areas of this 120 acre zoo and decide where we wanted to spend our time.  We walked through some of the front areas and then took the sky rail to the back to see the polar bears, pandas and African section. 

One of the park guides mentioned that on his first day working at the zoo a complete set of whale bones was found while excavating for a new section of the park.  Several of the plaques near the live animals displayed information about extinct relatives.  The fake bones interested Matthew so the next day we went back to Balboa Park and the Natural History Museum to see and learn more about bones and ancient animals.

Mammoth

Mountain Lion

There were many displays with different sized skulls... and this one showed skulls from different animals with the same parts.

It was a busy, fun filled four days and we are now home and back to work.  Hubby says next year's conference is in Jacksonville, FL.... I hope we can tag along on that trip and do more exploring!

Needle & Thread last update

In response to Bonnie's challenge to spend an hour each day sewing by hand in recognition of National Sewing Month I did pick up needle and thread and completed work on 8 tablerunners, blanket stitching on 4 basket/flower blocks for a wall hanging and the binding on two jelly roll quilts that I had made for upcoming shows. (about 20 hours)

 

Amelia Jelly Roll by Moda

Twirl Jelly Roll by Moda

I am also working on a quilting project with my son's class.  The students have chosen simple shapes like flowers, butterfly, elephant, dragon and have fused them onto a square.  Then another parent and I are sitting with each individual student to help them blanket stitch down their shape.  (about 9 hours)


The parents and teachers will also be making blocks and when they are all done I am to embroider names on each block and stitch them all together into a quilt to hang in the church hall...so I have lot's more planned hours of handstitching for the next several months.  I'll get pictures and post about this later.

I am still working on Bonnie's BowTie challenge from last year... she challenged us to make BowTie blocks as leader enders, but I was heading out of town at the time the challenge started and I decided to sew them by hand instead. To date, I have 81 blocks made and stitched into rows of 9.  I am now working on stitching the rows to complete the first quarter of my quilt.  I have cut and kitted up cheddar and colored fabric to make the next 81 blocks.   I had planned on lots of hand-sewing when I went to San Diego last week with my husband and son... I'll do a separate post on that trip later. I kitted up some of my bowtie parts to take with me, I used 2 small containers due to  limited space in my carry-on suitcase, and unfortunately, the container with the cheddar and the needles remained home... on my dining room table... while the container with my airplane approved scissor, thread and the colored squares came with me. (sigh)  It's difficult to sew bowties without the cheddar background or needles!  I don't know how I managed to separate them and not pack both, but I did. (0 hours)

On the positive side... I did catch up on a lot of reading with my Kindle.... thank you Bonnie for all the book suggestions you post.

In summary, while I didn't sew for an hour each day, I did manage approximately 29 hours of hand sewing during the month...so it averaged out to almost an hour each day.   Even though National Sewing Month is over, I will continue working on my hand-sewing projects and will add a line to my monthly totals posts for hours of hand-sewing to keep you updated on my projects. When the bowtie and class projects are done, I will pull out some of the applique UFOs that have been hanging around for more than a few years and get them done too!

Needle & Thread Update #2

I didn't have a lot of sit-down-and-stitch time at home this 2nd week of the challenge as my daughter and grandson were here most nights.  I did squeeze in some time several nights after they left and before my eyelids got too heavy to see through and finished 3 more tablerunners.

I attended the FCE Regional Meeting in Manchester, TN.  My Improv Quilt was entered in the cultural arts competition and although I didn't win a ribbon, I was told that it was in close competion for 3rd place with the embroidery stitched dresden plate that won. 

I brought along a jelly roll quilt that needed the binding stitched down and  finished about 2/3 of that while listening to reports and presentations and during waiting times between judged events.

That said, I squeezed in about 5-6 hours of handstitching time during week 2.

Week three is almost done (today is Friday already!) and I haven't sewed a stitch.    I have been rushing to meet a variety deadlines this week, both work and personal.  It hasn't helped that I broke my glasses on Sunday and have had to resort to using an old pair to get by until the new ones arrive... in 10 days!  aaack!  This, unfortunately, has resulted in some nasty headaches and blurred vision making hand-work impossible.

 I promise to do much more sewing in the next week to make up for it.

update:09/24/12....

Check out Bonnies update blog on the challenge plus updates from those who are participating here: quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-hour-of-simply-needle-thread-92412.html

unfortunately I will not be doing any sewing (hand or machine) again this week... I am travelling and I kitted up my bowtie blocks into 2 small plastic containers and slipped them into my suitcase.   when i arrived, I discovered that somehow only one of the containers ended up packed!  I have the color squares for the bowties and thread...but none of the cheddar or needles!!!!  sigh...it is going to be a long sew-free week
  : < {

May We Never Forget

Needle & Thread Challenge ... update 1

In honor of National Sewing Month Bonnie Hunter challenged us to work on our hand stitching for one hour each day to see what we could accomplish this month.

The first  hand sewing project I was able to work on this week was to stitch down the ends of the table runners I was making.  I completed 4 of the 8 I need to do.

The second hand sewing project was to blanket stitch the applique on these basket blocks.  I completed 3 and started on the fourth.

I was able to find only 5 hours this week to sit with needle and thread and sew... but I am happy with what I accomplished so far.

Here is a picture of my well-used chair... next to it is my hand-quilting-in-progress (Rosewood Cottage) quilt and hoop.  I didn't get to work on this project as I can't find my hand quilting thread!  It will have to wait until next week when I'll have time to get to town and find some.

Here are just a couple pictures of some of the quilting I have done on it in the past.  Mostly outline stitching and cross hatching.  I got braver as I went along and on the pinwheel block I did a heart shaped kind of thing.

That's it for last week... I'll report back next week on this week's tasks.

Hope Academy

A local Methodist church hosts Hope Academy on Wednesdays during the school year.  It is a safe and supervised environment for 20-somethings with disabilities to socialize, exercise and play games, and take outings around town.

As last year's school session ended everyone agreed that they would like to make a quilt block and I would make it into a quilt/wall hanging to display in the church hall.  We talked about colors and shapes and how it would go together.  Over the summer I came up with some simple shapes that they could fuse and then stitch down. 

We spent our first class tracing shapes onto the fusible

Our second class was spent pressing to colored fabric and cutting

In advance of our third class I prepared some simple heart shaped blocks for practice and gave each of the adults a quick lesson on the buttonhole or blanket stitch.  Adults and students paired up, but after some frustrating attempts most decided to switch to the easier running stitch.    The blocks came out great!

Top:  Trey & Carole

Row 2:  Suzie& Janey, Blake & Brenda

Row 3:  Matthew & Bob, Ashley & Julie

 Due to frustration levels, teachers decided to not have the students sew their individual shape blocks.  I'll be busy the next few months stitching them down and making the quilt.

Needle and Thread Project

Bonnie Hunter is back from Bali and setting up a new challenges for us.

First, I believe it was before she left for Bali, she challenged us to make Spool Blocks as leader/enders.   I won't be participating that challenge any time soon as I'm still working on last year's Cheddar Challenge.

Her newest challenge is inspired by her desire to finish hand quilting her pink/brown Dear Jane quilt (using just needle and thread) and she has invited us to sew along with her for one hour each day.  She set up her comfy chair with all the necessities so there is no excuse not to work.  Here is her post:   http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/09/september-is-national-sewing-month.html

My days are filled with church activities and customer quilts so I will have to do my stitching at night.  That said, I will not be able to stitch every night as I often have my grandson.  He is known to spontaneously jump up into my lap and I don't want that to happen when I have a needle and thread in my hand!  But, I will sew as often as possible.


I have a couple little hand projects I want to finish first so they don't remain in the UFO pile for years.

I am going to work on blanket stitching down the fused flowers on this little wall hanging I started in class on Friday.

I also have some hand stitching to complete on 8 holiday table runners I have made for upcoming shows.... those triangular ends need to be stitched down.

On Fridays league bowling has started again and I will be working on my Cheddar Bow Ties.  They were Bonnie's leader/ender challenge last year, but I chose to do them by hand as I was heading out of town at that time and needed something to work on.  I have 81 bow tie blocks made and am working on sewing row 8 together.  I felt I had to frog and restitch several of the pinkish wavy blocks (see that extra one sticking out on the end of row 8) the waves were turned in all different directions and looked funky to me.  Once all these rows are stitched together, then I make another 81 blocks for the 2nd quarter of the quilt. 

I do have a quilt top I started for me in January 2006 that has never been completed.  The top was pieced and done in 6 months and then just laid there... it was too hot for me to sit and hand quilt with this on my lap.  When the cold weather arrived  I pulled it out again and did a light basting on my quilter.    It is a sampler quilt called Rosewood Cottage.  I did some quilting on it that winter... the first three rows of the center of the quilt... and then I showed it to someone in guild who told me I need to do a lot more quilting in each block.  That kind of discouraged me and I ended up putting it away.  So I have two more rows of the center, the applique'd border and the final border to work on... and I have decided not to listen to the quilt police and just quilt it how I like. If I want to add more quilting later I can.  I think it is definitely time to work on this and get it done!  I just need to find my hand quilting thread.   If you want to see close ups of the stitching I've done so far let me know and I'll do another post later.

What will you be working on?

A day of Sewing

My friend Becky was hosting a piecing class in her newly opened quilt barn.  
See her blog here: http://beckysbarn.blogspot.com/

This is the planned project for the day, but some will be making quilts or wall hangings.

 We start with a string swap... We each brought a quantity of 1.5inch strips then took turns walking around the table make 16 piles of assorted strips.   This gave each of us a nice assortment to work with.

 Then the sewing began.  I didn't get pictures of individuals sewing... I was busy sewing myself!  But I did take this picture to remind me how to line up the pieces so I don't cut off the points on my basket base.

Becky's husband, Rick, prepared a nice lunch for all of us.... salad, corn muffins, cooked vegetables and beef and gravy.  YUM!

Here are just some of the blocks completed by mid afternoon.  Some were made with dark backgrounds...

 This one was made with some pieced strips!  See.. there in the middle the one strip is part gold and part blue batik... and to the right of that is a pink/green pieced strip.

Some blocks on the design wall showing alternative layouts.  

 Here are my blocks laid out.

It was a fun day and plans were made for another gathering next month.... maybe an overnight stay!

As I was loading my gear back in the car I noticed this beautiful butterfly garden!  I tried to get a picture with the wings wide open... they were beautiful... but fast!

Mom & Me

There is an event called Mom&Me Spa Night that is a fundraiser for the local children's museum.  They rent vendor tables for a donation to the museum and I thought  mom and I could enjoy a fun evening together.  I spent several days making mini-cellphone purses (44 of them!) in a variety of fabrics that I thought kids would enjoy, grabbed Mom and set up a table to sell and watch the show.

We saw little ones dressed ready for a Toddlers&Tiara competition or Sunday services or a romp on the playground at the local park. Mom's were similarly dressed. Girls from 4-14 wandered from table to table with Mom in tow.... the local high school vocational class students did hair braiding, nail painting, face-painting or full make-up, painted strands of hair or tied strips of glitter/ribbon to sections of hair.  Girls could decorate a small container and fill it with sugar scrub to wash with at home or make a friendship bracelet with beads and floss or make a hair bow using decorator duct tape!   They could have a memory picture taken after being "dolled" up. A kareoke machine was set up on stage for those who wanted to show off their talents and a local dance studio teacher and students did a demonstration and taugh a group of about 20 interested girls a short dance routine.  There were vendors selling jewelry, bags, pampered chef and more.  There was even an area set up with bean bags where the girls donned a terry robe and laid down with cucumbers on their eyes to de-stress!

It was an interesting evening and a fun distraction.... and all for a good cause!