Another no-sewing week. Too many crazy hours at work.
Added this week: 0 yds
Used this week: 0 yds
Added YTD: 24.53 yds
Used YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds OUT
Check out what everyone else is up to at Patchwork Times.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Dance the afternoon away....
At last month's Nationals, we took a workshop with Garry Gekhman, one of the judges for the competition. "Every Man's Dream" was a workshop on leading and following. In that one-hour group lesson, we learned SO MUCH basic information. It resulted in a fundamental change in our dancing. Since Garry is located only 2 hours from us, we asked if it would be possible to get a coaching/lesson with him. That was what we did today - a 2 1/4 hr dance lesson with Garry Gekhman. What a wonderful experience! Exhilarating and humbling all at once. It was only AFTER the lesson that I thought about the fact that I'd spent a significant part of the lesson time dancing with a World Vice Champion dancer. OMGosh!
Another round of fundamental change in my dance frame, which is going to take quite a while to replace what is already in muscle memory. And I found out that I've been dancing the spin turn wrong - no wonder it was so hard for us to get around....But I think I understand, at least intellectually, what he was asking me to do, so practice will tell.
Changes to dance frame and hold, head position, natural turn, spin turn, promenade link in Tango, chase, turning lock, chasse to the right, oh, just about everything we tried. And that was just dancing waltz and tango. We learned a trick to get to promenade position when you get interrupted - cool. The one positive thing was that we tend to use heels and toes properly....
Well, we've got a lot of practicing to do before we schedule another lesson. But not tonight - my feet are going to rebel if I put them back into high heels tonight, LOL.
will be dreaming of dancing tonight....
Another round of fundamental change in my dance frame, which is going to take quite a while to replace what is already in muscle memory. And I found out that I've been dancing the spin turn wrong - no wonder it was so hard for us to get around....But I think I understand, at least intellectually, what he was asking me to do, so practice will tell.
Changes to dance frame and hold, head position, natural turn, spin turn, promenade link in Tango, chase, turning lock, chasse to the right, oh, just about everything we tried. And that was just dancing waltz and tango. We learned a trick to get to promenade position when you get interrupted - cool. The one positive thing was that we tend to use heels and toes properly....
Well, we've got a lot of practicing to do before we schedule another lesson. But not tonight - my feet are going to rebel if I put them back into high heels tonight, LOL.
will be dreaming of dancing tonight....
Stash report - week 21, 22 May 2011
Nothing quilty happening here this week. My numbers stay the same as last week:
In this week: 0 yds
Used this week: 0 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Used YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds used
Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.
In this week: 0 yds
Used this week: 0 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Used YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds used
Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Stash report - week 20, 15 May 2011
Another busy week. I have done some quilting/sewing this weekend, but most was on already-counted fabric. I spent yesterday afternoon working on the quilting for my #4 UFO - the Mexican Cross. I am at the point that I need to put the extended plate on the machine so I can do continuous curve quilting in the 9-patch sections of the blocks, then get out the seam ripper to fix the feather sections with poor tension. Also still need to so the borders. Those now look rippled because the batting is fluffy and the center of the quilt is quilted. I should have done the stay - stitching on the very edges first on all the sides, but I just stay-stitched the inside of the border.
Today, I made a dance shoe bag for DH. I even monogrammed it with a "dance shoes" alphabet - the letters have footprints and directions, like the Arthur Murray instructions. That's my total fabric use for the week.
Numbers:
In this week: 0 yds
Out this week: 0.43 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Out YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds stash used.
Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Today, I made a dance shoe bag for DH. I even monogrammed it with a "dance shoes" alphabet - the letters have footprints and directions, like the Arthur Murray instructions. That's my total fabric use for the week.
Numbers:
In this week: 0 yds
Out this week: 0.43 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Out YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds stash used.
Check with Judy at Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Stash report - week 19, 8 May 2011
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, and to my mother, in particular.
Not much yardage used this week. I finished the hand stitching on the binding for my UFO #1 yesterday, so that's now done and on my bed. But all the fabric was counted for that already.
This morning, I made a snappy bag for my mom for Mother's day, so that's a yard out of the stash. No fabric shopping trips this week, so I'm back to heading in the right direction.
In this week: 0 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Out this week: 1 yd
Out YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds OUT
Check with Judy to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Not much yardage used this week. I finished the hand stitching on the binding for my UFO #1 yesterday, so that's now done and on my bed. But all the fabric was counted for that already.
This morning, I made a snappy bag for my mom for Mother's day, so that's a yard out of the stash. No fabric shopping trips this week, so I'm back to heading in the right direction.
In this week: 0 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Out this week: 1 yd
Out YTD: 31.95 yds
Net for 2011: 7.42 yds OUT
Check with Judy to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
UFO for May
Judy pulled the number for May's UFO - #9. Checking my list, my #9 is the Quilt Bug mystery - and it's already finished! So I'll focus on finishing #1 and #4 - I'm behind in those.
This evening, I've been hand stitching the binding on my #1 UFO - and have gotten half-way done. So I should be able to finish that this week while we watch TV.
My #4 is currently on the quilting machine (Mexican Cross). It's about 1/3 way there. I need to tear out part of the stitching that's on there now because of poor tension, but I'll wield the seam ripper after I finish the rest of the quilting. I worked on that a bit today before we went out to eat.
This evening, I've been hand stitching the binding on my #1 UFO - and have gotten half-way done. So I should be able to finish that this week while we watch TV.
My #4 is currently on the quilting machine (Mexican Cross). It's about 1/3 way there. I need to tear out part of the stitching that's on there now because of poor tension, but I'll wield the seam ripper after I finish the rest of the quilting. I worked on that a bit today before we went out to eat.
Stash report - week 18, 1 May 2011
It's been a busy week this week. Dance lessons three nights takes up a lot of the available evening time. But I took Friday as a vacation day and went to two quilting workshops at the local quilt shop. Debbie Brown is a fun teacher. The first workshop was on feathers - how to design them into your quilting. We learned ideas for making feather borders, feathers in squares and triangles, in sashings, and in those really large setting squares you get with lone star-type quilts. Debbie had lots of sample quilts to pass around - all really pretty. The second workshop was a "how should I quilt this" lesson. We each brought quilt tops that we hung up and talked about what designs to use for quilting. Debbie used quilters preview paper to draw out ideas for spaces on the quilt. I took two tops - my Mexican Cross, and my SVQG inspiration round robin. I came home with plans for quilting both of those. Watching and talking about what to put on each quilt that was hung helped with how to look at a quilt to decide what to put on it. If I have a chance, I'll take more workshops from Debbie.
Yesterday, I put the Mexican Cross on the frame and got started quilting. I'm using So Fine thread, because I didn't want the heavy thread look of the King Tut. I put in a new needle, and checked the tension on both the bobbin and the top, and started quilting. It was going OK, but I was breaking thread more than I wanted to. I decided I needed to check the timing, since I had gone down in needle size. So I retimed, then I saw the next page of the manual, and thought I might need to replace my tension spring, so I did that. Got everything going again, and had awful tension problems - lots of birds nests underneath unless I hand the top tension cranked as high as it would go, then I'd still occasionally get an eyelash underneath. So I retimed again, and took out and redid the check spring a couple of times. I've finally got the machine stitching nicely with good tension again, so I'm making better progress now. It's taking a long time - first because I'm using 3 different threads - I'll stitch a few passes with one color, then roll back up and stitch that area with the second color, then go on to the third. I also spent a lot of time taking out bad stitching. I still have a few sets of feathers in setting triangles to tear back out, but I'll get to them after I finish with the rest of the quilting.
While I was at the LQS yesterday buying thread and batting, I picked up yardage for the backing to the round robin, so that's my fabric in this week. Out was a little more pink and brown for the borders for the Mexican Cross, plus the wide backing for Mexican Cross.
In this week: 4 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Out this week: 3.76 yds
Out YTD: 30.95 yds
Net for 2011: 6.42 yds OUT
Check with Judy to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Yesterday, I put the Mexican Cross on the frame and got started quilting. I'm using So Fine thread, because I didn't want the heavy thread look of the King Tut. I put in a new needle, and checked the tension on both the bobbin and the top, and started quilting. It was going OK, but I was breaking thread more than I wanted to. I decided I needed to check the timing, since I had gone down in needle size. So I retimed, then I saw the next page of the manual, and thought I might need to replace my tension spring, so I did that. Got everything going again, and had awful tension problems - lots of birds nests underneath unless I hand the top tension cranked as high as it would go, then I'd still occasionally get an eyelash underneath. So I retimed again, and took out and redid the check spring a couple of times. I've finally got the machine stitching nicely with good tension again, so I'm making better progress now. It's taking a long time - first because I'm using 3 different threads - I'll stitch a few passes with one color, then roll back up and stitch that area with the second color, then go on to the third. I also spent a lot of time taking out bad stitching. I still have a few sets of feathers in setting triangles to tear back out, but I'll get to them after I finish with the rest of the quilting.
While I was at the LQS yesterday buying thread and batting, I picked up yardage for the backing to the round robin, so that's my fabric in this week. Out was a little more pink and brown for the borders for the Mexican Cross, plus the wide backing for Mexican Cross.
In this week: 4 yds
In YTD: 24.53 yds
Out this week: 3.76 yds
Out YTD: 30.95 yds
Net for 2011: 6.42 yds OUT
Check with Judy to see how everyone else is doing this week.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)