I Don't Know What It Is.....

...but I know what it can become! I saw this in a thrift store the other day for $5. I have no idea what it really is, the shelves are very strange.

I'm not positive which side is supposed to be up on these shelves, but I think it's the side with the lip, which makes me think maybe it's for something small or something that will roll. Since the shelves slide out, I'm thinking small things.

Now these plastic shelves took up way too much space, and since I had other ideas for this little guy, I had DH cut me some new shelves out of some thin wood.


Here they are on the top shelf of my workbench holding all my Accuquilt dies. I had been looking around for some way to hold all my dies, and I didn't like the Accuquilt storage rack, I think it takes up too much space and holds too few dies. I found a set of shelves meant to hold scrapbook paper which I was considering, but it was over $60. DH said he could probably make me something, but I had no idea when he would have time. When we went to the thrift store and I saw this "whatever it is" the wheels in my mind started turning and I saw the possibilities. It will only hold another one or two dies, but maybe by the time I get those, DH will build me something. For now, it holds the dies I have just fine, and for $5, I couldn't have asked for a better deal.

El Scoot de Tucson Quilt Finished!!!

Here it is, the El Scoot de Tucson quilt done well before the October 3rd deadline. The yellow fabric was misbehaving a bit as I was piecing, but once I got the borders on, it settled down, and quilted just fine.

This is the back of the scooter quilt, which has all but some tiny scraps of the frog scooter fabric on it. Now that that fabric is gone, I can go in a completely different direction for the next scooter quilt, which will be for the spring scooter rally.

While I was sewing binding on, I finished this quilt as well. It was leftover HST's from the Buckeye Beauty quilt, with some scrappy four patches added in. The next quilt in the queue for quilting looks almost identical to this one, but on that one I have the light squares of the four patches following the furrows. I tried quilting the loop d loop pattern on this quilt, (notice I'm not showing another close up of the quilting) and I think I am going to go for more free motion practice before trying it again. But in the interest of "Finished is better than perfect", here it is!

Assembly Line Escape

I've been quilting the El Scoot de Tucson quilt, and I also finished quilting that loop d loop quilt I was struggling with. I did get a little better at loop d loops, but I think I'll leave that design alone until I get more free motion practice. I did a simple meander on the El Scoot quilt, and I finished quilting it this evening. The binding is pinned on both of the newly quilted quilts, and hopefully I'll get that binding sewn on tomorrow.

To give myself a break when I was tired of quilting, I took out a quilt that was all cut out, but I hadn't done any of the sewing. The quilt has 20 identical blocks, so there is a lot of chain piecing, which I find really relaxing. I was going to sew the binding on those two quilts this evening, when I remembered I left everything set up to chain sew the next step on the other quilt. No point in moving all of those quilt pieces multiple times, so tomorrow I will do the chain sewing, change thread, then do the bindings. I machine sew bindings on using a serpentine stitch, and only one of my machines has that stitch, so it has to be the Bernina ;-)

I just ordered some glow in the dark thread for the sea quilt. I want to put an angler fish on it, and it needs glow in the dark thread! Boy, that glowing thread is expensive :-( Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and get what you want though. I've been thinking about having an angler fish in there since the beginning. I have lots of work to do on the sea quilt, and I'm still not exactly sure what it will look like. I have a good idea, but I haven't worked out the specifics.

I was using the chain sewing to give me a break from quilting, and once I have the El Scoot and other quilts bound, the sea quilt becomes my main project. I grabbed one of the quilts that I have pin basted, changed thread on the Juki, and I have it all ready to quilt when I need a
break from working on the sea quilt. I used to work on only one quilt at a time, but now I've found if I work on multiple quilts, I can use the repetitious steps of one quilt to think about what I want to do next on the other quilt. It drives other people crazy to see me working on so many things at once, but as long as quilts are being finished regularly, I don't figure it's much of a problem.

El Scoot de Tucson Quilt Top

I just finished putting the borders on the quilt I'm making for El Scoot de Tucson. It was trying to fall off of the wall while I took the picture, but it is done ;-)


Here is a close up of one of the blocks. This block is one of those blocks known by more than one name. I know it as Churn Dash, but some people call it Monkey Wrench. Of course, some people call the block I know as Snail Trail a Monkey Wrench block too, so who knows what it was known as first?

I am in the middle of quilting a different quilt, and I won't start quilting this one until that one is done. I still have to finish piecing the back anyway. It shouldn't take long to finish piecing the backing for this, I'm finished with the little pieces, so it's really just adding a big border now.

DH, DS the Elder, DS the Younger, and I went to go see the exhibit "Bodies" today. It has real human bodies specially preserved and is an informative and interesting presentation. It was a bit surreal, and it actually didn't seem as if the bodies were real. I am not sure that they couldn't done just as well with models, and I'm not sure that I wouldn't have preferred that. At any rate, it was easy to see that we, as humans, are indeed, "fearfully and wonderfully made".

Turn the picture or your head?

I started sewing on the scooter quilt today and here is the first row hanging on my door. I could have taken it off the door to take the photo, or I could have left the photo vertical and made you turn you head to see it. Obviously, I opted for leaving it on the door, and rotating the photo, easier on everyone I think ;-)

I don't normally assemble as I go like this, and why I decided to do it this time, I have no idea. I usually make all of the blocks, then assemble. There are only nine blocks, this will be a square quilt, so maybe that is part of my untypical assembly. I usually do much more complicated patterns with a lot more blocks. I'm trying for a simple quilt with good contrast. The appliqued scooters are definitely easier to see in person. This is not a good photo, but then, I'm no photographer. The appliqued scooters on this quilt are smaller and a different silhouette than my first scooter quilt.

El Scoot de Tucson on October 3rd (I think the date is right) is the event at which this quilt will be given away. Since it's not even a top yet, you can understand my urgency in getting it finished.

Tonight for dinner, I ended up feeding all the kids, but in shifts, with one kid getting his ravioli and garlic bread to go ;-) Tomorrow night for dinner, I don't have to cook, because DH and I were invited to eat with some friends. Let's hear it for friends! Let's hear it for not having to cook! Huzzah!