Never a Dull Moment

It's been a crazy day at the Thompson residence.  I should have known it was going to be an eventful Monday when I got all the way through the grocery line before realizing I had forgotten my wallet.  I have to say that's a first for me, and I'm hoping there's not a second time. 

We were having someone over for dinner, so I was running around trying to get the house clean and all that jazz.  I had a meeting for church, and then I took a couple of minutes to finish up my Bookshelf Block (based on Elizabeth's tutorial here):

My do. Good Stitches quilting circle is making a quilt in conjunction with an effort to make a quilt for each of the families of the victims of the shooting in CT.  We are assigned to the family of the principal that was killed.  We thought it would be fitting to make a Bookshelf Quilt for the family since she was an educator.  I'm really excited to see this quilt come all together.

That part of the day was ok, but then this afternoon Little Man's aide came upstairs and said, "Um, I thought you might want to know there's water flooding your basement."  Say what?!!  It turns out our washer was leaking, and all the water was traveling down the heating vent that's right in front of the washer.  The water formed a T-shaped waterfall in our basement off the heating ducts.  Luckily, because of Brooke we caught it early.  We shut off the water and started moving things right away.  The loss was minimal, but the annoying part was that all of the hoses were still completely hooked up to the washer and the front door wasn't the leaking part, so it's got to be something underneath.  It's only 2 years old and is still under warranty, but they told us they can't come to look at it until March 7th!  I love that they say they come in cases of emergency, but even with a flooding home they can't make it out until March.  Sigh.  Looks like I'll be washing clothes at my friends' homes until then.  I'm so grateful though that it was my last load of laundry when it started leaking.  At least we have clean clothes for now.  I feel a little like white trash though, because we have stuff lining our front rooms to dry out, and we have tons of towels hanging in the backyard in freezing weather.  Good times.

Linkin' up to BOMs Away.

Another Skill Builder

I pieced together the other Skill Builder block last night: The Mood -

I actually pieced the wrong rectangle triangles together for the bottom right corner, so they're inverted.  I was going to sew the other triangles together to fix it and then I remembered that it's a sampler quilt, and it's not matching anything or anyone else's block, so it was a silly perfectionist extra step that I didn't need to do.  The block looks fine as is.  It's definitely a very different design than what I normally do.  I kinda like it. 

Musical Love

We're a bit behind the times, but Joel and I finally saw the movie version of Les Miserables.  It reminded me why it's my favorite musical of all-time.  I was very impressed with the acting, and liked the perspective the movie brought.  It made Fantine's fall more poignant and the life of the poor in France more vivid.  It also made the reality and danger of the barricade more realistic.  When it's on stage it is left more to the imagination, and the music is foremost in your mind. 

I know it's nigh unto treason to love anyone but Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean, but I confess my favorite version of "Bring Him Home" was sung by Alfie Boe at the 25th Anniversary Concert.  This version is him singing at the Christmas special with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir this past December.  His delivery is breathtaking:

February Stitches

This month's block for do.Good Stitches was an adapted version of Road to Tennessee.  It typically has 4 rows, but we made the color blocks bigger and made it 3 rows using blues and greens with a gray background.

Next up is an extra block we're making for a special quilt.  We're making a library books block.  It should be a lot of fun.  Linkin' up to BOMs Away.

A Block a Day Keeps the Crankiness Away

I finished the last 3 blocks for the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee.  These 3 were very similar in their requests with just slight variations:

Requested: Yellow, Teal, Gray w/ Off-white Background

Requested: Yellow, Teal, Gray w/ Kona Snow Background

Requested: Teal, Gray, Orange w/ White Background

Week in Progress

This week included a finish:

 Some BOMs:

 And 2 of 5 Bee Blocks:

You'll notice I made the middle section of the second block an inch thinner, and I think I like it a lot better.  I have 3 more to make this week.

Other projects
do.Good Stitches- need to do February blocks & Library block
Quiet Book - Ugh.  No progress.
Christmas quilt - on hold until it feels like it's close enough to Christmas to start working on it again.

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 1
WIP- 6

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.  

Bee Block Beginnings

The deadline to mail my 5 blocks for 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee is rapidly approaching.  I decided for this round that I would make a modified version of the Crossed Quilt Block.  The original is 10" unfinished and I need mine to be 12.5."   I made the first block (requested colors were pink, turquoise & gray with a Kona Snow background).  This is what it ended up looking like:

I like the wonkiness of the block, but I think for the 2nd block I'm going to make the center a little less wide and extend the sides.  This is a fun block to make I must say.

Baby Briana Quilt

My niece is making her debut into the world early Spring, and I finished up her quilt today.  The bright sun hindered the pictures, but you get the idea.  I went with the classic pink and brown combo, but not using typical baby prints:

This quilt was part of a bunch of quilting I've been doing this week (see here).  I really wanted to put a flower on this quilt, so I quilted a Sunflower with a long stem and leaves. The rest of it is loopy lines spaced out quite a bit to keep it comfy for a baby.

Linkin' up to TGIFF and FMQ Friday.

Quilting Along

This week I've mostly just worked on the Skill Builder Quilt Along.  I pieced the two January blocks  and then yesterday I quilted them.
#1- Wiggly Woven Lines:

View from the back

#2- Topographic Map:

View from the back

Other projects
Baby Briana Quilt - need to layer and quilt
Sister's Modern BOM- need to make February blocks
do.Good Stitches- need to do February block & Library block
Quiet Book - Ugh.  No progress.
Christmas quilt - on hold until it feels like it's close enough to Christmas to start working on it again.

Stats for the Week:
New projects - 1
Completed projects - 0
WIP- 6

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.  

A Boring Block

My 2nd block for Skill Builder turned out rather boring.  When a block is supposed to be wonky I prefer it to be pretty wonky.  Sadly, I didn't notice the angle wasn't sharp enough for my liking until the very end.  It pretty much looks like it should be straight, but it's not.  Bleh.  Oh well.  It happens.

#2- Magnum Block:

I like the first one better: (these ones are actually supposed to be straight)

Linking up to BOMs Away.

Saying Good Bye to Grandma

Last weekend was my Grandma Leona's funeral in Fresno, California.  I have to say that if you're going to go to a funeral this is the type of one you want to attend.  It was a tearful celebration of a beautiful life lived.  I was really moved by how many people my Grandma touched.  The funeral ended up being pretty long because people were able to come up and share memories about her.  All of her children, a lot of her grandchildren, and people she worked with continued coming up to speak.  I loved listening to everyone's stories about her. 

More than one person mentioned being her "favorite" grandchild.  What makes my Grandma so special is that she had 27 grandchildren and she made every single one of us feel like we were her favorite.  We found out that she had kept a file for every child and grandchild.  I was surprised to find all the letters I had written to her during my mission, and some of my first piano recital programs from the 80s.  She even had my research abstract from grad school in my file. 

Singing at a funeral is never an easy task, but singing at a funeral for someone you deeply care about is beyond difficult.  I managed to at least keep it together until the end of the song.  It wasn't until I sat down that I burst into tears, so that's about as good as it gets under the conditions. 

 It was wonderful to see everyone.  My entire immediate family was able to be there for the funeral, and it was a lot of fun to be together.  It sounds funny to say you enjoyed a funeral, but I loved seeing all of my cousins and aunts and uncles.  It's a little sad that it takes a funeral to get us all together, but we literally live all over the world.

The Hales Family

 The flowers were beautiful.  My Grandma's favorite color was purple and her favorite flower was tulips, so that's where a lot of the inspiration for the flowers came from.

After the services the entire extended family went out for Mexican food (a request made by my dad since you can't get real Mexican food in Upstate New York), and then we headed over to my Aunt Shirley & Uncle Ron's home for dessert.  Here's a picture of the six Hales siblings that are still alive (Clyde died at 9 months of Leukemia):

Ron, Diane, Cindy, Mom, Karen, Doug

The Commencement of Skill Building

I gave in and decided to join Alyssa's Skill Builder BOM.  It's 2 blocks a month with the corresponding quilting as you go for each block.  I'm a little behind because of all the craziness around here.  It always seems to take me a couple of days to get back in the groove after leaving town.

I got the first block pieced together last night while Joel was working:  #1- Sound Waves

This quilt is for a guy, so I'm going to be using all blues and greens from my stash with a little pop of red.  I was thrilled when I went through my stuff and found that I have more than enough fabric without needing to buy anything.  This block was done completely from scraps, so that was an even added bonus.