Pinewood Derby

The Pinewood Derby for Parker's Pack was this afternoon. Parker won first place in his Den and third place Overall. He is very proud!

Mystery Quilt Progress

My husband and son went skiing today so I have been busy sewing. I've got all the block sections together and pieced borders on the top and bottom. I thought it wouldn't need a pieced border on the sides, but once I put it on the bed I realized it does. Oh well! I'm pretty pleased with it and it's worth the extra effort. But I am ready for this project to be over and have mentally already moved on.

Icicles

These photos were taken yesterday afternoon of icicles hanging from the roof outside my sewing room window. Both shots are of the same icicles, just from different angles.

Snow

This photo was taken after last weeks snow. Parker doesn't have much opportunity to be buried in sand, so we have to make do!

It has been snowing lightly since about 10 am. We got between 1 and 2 inches of snow last night in addition to whatever we have gotten today. It shows no signs of letting up. We'll see how much I have to shovel tomorrow morning.

Since I've no place to go, let is snow, let it snow, let it snow ...

I got the fourth and final section of my king size mystery quilt together today. And I'm done sanding the laundry room walls. I may be able to prime the walls tomorrow - if it's not a snow day - and then paint this weekend. After I paint I'm going to go shopping for new flooring, probably just vinyl. Still have to figure out what to do about the ceiling.

Parker's Nose

Both Monday and Tuesday mornings this week began in tears. On Monday, Parker hadn't even got out of bed yet and he was crying about homework. I don't think he was fully awake yet. But seriously, his homework is usually read his AR books and study spelling words. On Thursdays he also has to find something to take for Show and Tell. What ya' crying about?!

Yesterday morning he tripped and fell on his way to the bus stop and scraped his nose. We didn't even make it to the corner (half a block) before this happened. I didn't want to put him on the bus crying so we went back home. I checked his knees and nose out, cleaned him up and drove him to school. Luckily he was wearing mittens so his hands didn't get hurt. The photo was taken after school yesterday.

Today is my "go to work" day. So far, things are going better in my classes than last semester. I think I did a much better job describing what the course was going to be like on the first day than I did last semester. I hope the upward trend continues!

I did manage to get the third (and smallest) section of the king size mystery quilt assembled this morning before 9 am. One section left then borders, assemble the sections and piece the backing. I have decided to get this one professionally quilted by long arm quilter.

Mario

Parker did this picture recently. He is in to Mario Brothers and his new DS right now. I thought the picture was really cute and fairly accurate too.

I have started putting the blocks together for my king size mystery quilt. I am using the first photo layout from yesterdays blog entry. I like to put my tops together in sections instead of rows. I have two out of four sections together and the third is up on the design wall waiting to be assembled. I haven't started cutting out the border yet. I need to get the sections together so that I can move the stacks of fabrics from the cutting table back to the ironing table. Then I can cut out the border. I've already spend quite a bit on fabric for this quilt so I am planning to do a pieced backing using up the left over fabrics from the front.

Deciding

FINALLY, I have all the blocks completed for the mystery quilt which will become our new bed quilt. I cleaned the floor upstairs yesterday so that I could lay out my blocks today. I think I like the first layout best, but I did a second one just to be sure. In the second the diagonal four patch blocks are turned 90 degrees. I liked this layout (the second photo) better for the original design of the mystery quilt. But I had to add blocks to make mine bigger. In the second layout the design seems to "fall off" the quilt. The diagonal four patches lead the eye off the quilt while in the first layout they seem the contain the design. So I think I'll be sewing them together using the first photo as a guide.

I'm still working on the borders. I plan to add some four patches and browns to continue the diagonal four patch lines. Then I'll put a skinny brown border and finish it off with a wider border out of my focus fabric - the centers of the star blocks.