Ohio Star, revisited

Last September, I took a beginning quilting class at The Quilt Crossing. If you don't remember it, you can read all about it here. Well, I was supposed to sew together the 6 blocks and sign up for the second series of the class before October 23. With our super-humanitarian-project-Saturday, that I was in charge of and needed to make 10 pair of pjs bottoms for, I didn't get around to it until 6 days before the class was to start. Not enough people signed up for it, so they cancelled it the day before I called! Talk about being sorry for being a procrastinator (no matter what the excuse is). The store didn't offer any more Tuesday night classes until now. As soon as I found out the dates, I called to sign up. I didn't want me to be the reason of a class cancelled again.

At class 4 (having done classes 1-3 in September), we learned how to attach the sashing and borders. I decided to have cornerstones in my sashing and I really like how it turned out. Before I had the borders sewn on, I had it hanging on the wall in the kitchen with straight pins, so people coming over could comment on it (and they did!). After finishing sewing on the borders, I took the completed quilt top to my bedroom and hung it on the wall with masking tape, so I could see what it will look like when I'm all finished. (I was a little worried that the turquoise of the quilt and the blue of my bedroom wall would clash.)


At class 5, we learned how to do the actual quilting. We took in two 12" squares of fabric so that we could practice on something before puting it on our quilts. The walking foot and darning foot are REALLY neat to sew with. Learning about these two feet alone have made this class totally worth it. I've decided to "stitch in the ditch" on the blocks of the quilt, do a puzzle quilting technique on the sashing and cornerstones and then go to Stacy's fancy embroidery machine to put on a pattern. I'm thinking about a braid right now.



Class 6 is next week, where we'll learn how to bind the quilt. Once again using the 12" "quilt" from week 5.

Lifelong learning!

2 Minutes with...

Hyrum!

Today I followed Hyrum around with the video camera. With no prodding from me, he did almost all of his tricks.

Roman Shades

Before and After

We've lived in this house for almost 3 years. The only backyard neighbors we have are rabbits, quail, hawks and an occasional owl. It hasn't been a high priority to get shades for these windows in our "Great Room". Standard curtains were out because we all enjoy the view from these windows and since the windows have decorative moldings around them I wasn't sure how to hang a curtain rod, anyways. I don't like vertical shades. At all. I thought horizontal shades would look odd. That left me with roman shades. Since these windows aren't a standard size, any pre-made shade would have to be special ordered at a great expense. After doing a Google search on home-made roman shades, I found make-roman-shades.com where they walk you through the whole process. I bought some unbleached muslin at Joann Fabric (at a killer price of 50 cents a yard) and purchased 2 kits (one for each window) from make-roman-shades.com. The kits came with liner fabric, and all the hardware for making the shades (everything was pre-cut, so I just had to sew and install).
I am really pleased with how these turned out!

Peek-a-Boo

I have been trying for months to get a picture of Hyrum playing peek-a-boo with us. But everytime he sees me with the camera, he just gets all smiles. And now today, as I was making dinner, he was playing with me and I got it! I love how he uses the palms of his hands to cover his eyes compeltely. Usually he mumbles a bit as well. I should get it on film. He is so cute.

Can you see me now?

Last October, Sabrina came home from school complaining that her teacher wrote blurry. Happily that was before insurance registration, so we were able to add her to our vision insurance effective 1-1-08. (Interesting note: The day after I called to schedule an appointment for her, the school nurse called and told me that Sabrina had failed the vision test at school.)

At her vision appointment, we learned that Sabrina is near-sighted and should wear glasses all the time, so she picked out a pair, with a little help from Mom. And now after 10 days of excruciating waiting, Sabrina has new glasses and is SO excited to see the world clearly.

The Proper Way...

Roderic had a friend over yesterday and they both decided that this is the most comfortable way to watch TV.