The Hurrier I Go, The Behinder I Get

 Why yes, I did use a Lewis Carroll quote for my blog post title this week! It seems to wrap up my life into one sentence with admittedly poor grammar. 

My goal in July was to start working on Christmas presents. Technically, I have worked on Christmas presents, but not the ones I was planning on working on, and not one is finished. I have not, however, worked on the projects I had hoped to work on this month. 

At first I thought, it's OK, I can dig into Christmas projects in August. Then my August calendar started filling up. And September is filling up fast too. So far, I've got nothing planned for October...sometimes you just have to laugh it off.

I didn't get anything finished this week, but just so you can see a photo of something, here's what I just put on my design wall.

I know I showed these blocks while I was making them, and it's time to assemble them. I need some empty project boxes and if I get this assembled and the borders sewn on, I'll have an empty project box. I usually get stuck on borders because I haven't cut them out, but these are actually cut out, so once I've got the center together and pressed, borders will be quick. 

So what else have I done this week? Well, I finished piano key borders to go on a different quilt. I sewed two quilt tops into rows. I started tackling one of the king sized quilts I need to make, and sewed the 9" blocks into fours so now I have 18" blocks. I finished FMQ two quilts, and I'll start on another tomorrow. I haven't put binding on any of those yet, so no finishes, but I'm close. I thought about binding tomorrow, but I'm using the same quilting thread on the next quilt, so I'm opting to just go ahead with quilting another before I switch the machine from FMQ to binding. Oh, I also sewed some units into quilt blocks. 

I have a bunch of pressing to do before I can get to the next steps of several of those projects, and it is so hot to be ironing! I'll be FMQ the last quilt I have basted, so I need to get some more quilts basted as well, AND, I have several things that need to be cut out before I can do the next step. I do most of my basting and all of my cutting on my cutting table, and of course right now it's got all kinds of stuff on it because I've been working on so many different things. 

I'd really like to get several of the king sized quilts I need to finish assembled, and then I can set up my two 8 ft folding tables in the living room. When I do that, I tend to take over the living room for about a week, and baste as many quilts as I can in that time. As far as king sized quilts go, one needs borders, the inner border is cut, but I haven't finished piecing the outer border. One is partially assembled, getting no border. Two have all the blocks made, no borders. One has all the blocks made, I need to cut setting triangles and a border. One has all the blocks made but I need to cut big sections of background to go between the pieced strips. I have two other king quilts to do, one has the blocks cut but I haven't sewn a stitch or cut the borders, and the other is just kitted and not started at all. That's a LOT of big quilts in my future. I have all the battings for those, and I'll be glad to have the space when all those battings are used. 

I've been eyeing 118" wide quilt backing fabrics, because I aim for about 108x108 for a king sized quilt. It's always smaller after quilting, so that size works for me. Missouri Star Quilt Company started carrying the wider quilt backings, but they sell them in 118x108" packs. That makes NO sense to me, if I need the 118 width, I likely need it longer than 108, wouldn't you think??? I used to always buy the 118" wide backings from Fabric.com, but since they got bought out that's not an option. I did a bunch of searching, and I found that Keepsake Quilting had 118x118 backing packs, and they were on sale to boot. I went ahead and ordered all the backings for all of those king sized quilts! Yes, I could have pieced together something, but honestly, when I finish assembling a quilt that large, the last thing I want to do it piece a backing for it. I didn't even look at anything else, because all those quilt backings added up to quite a bit, but I know I'll be thankful I have them. The best part is as soon as the tops are assembled I'll be able to baste them! 

I'm not sure what I'll have to show you next week, I start dog-sitting next week, so we'll see! 

Sewing with Grandkids

I've got two of my granddaughters for the week, and it's been fun having them! The hardest thing this week has been trying to keep them excited about their big move coming up, while I'm sad for me that they are moving away. I actually think they are making a good move for them, Missouri will be much easier to homestead in than Arizona. So I am genuinely excited for them, just sad for us because we'll miss them all. I'm sure we'll end up visiting, but not next year because it's already pretty packed. I think 2026 is looking good for a visit, but that's a long time from now. At least they aren't moving back to South Africa, Missouri is much closer than that! 

DD#1 has been sending pics of the area they are moving to. We lived in Missouri for several years, and I loved it. One funny thing is they will be living near the river DH used to canoe in as a kid, when they were camping on the way from Arizona to visit relatives in Indiana. 

The girls and I have been busy with sewing lessons.

They both love cats and this fabric has cats all over it. I got to give them a lesson on directional fabrics when they were cutting out the pattern.

Today the girls are wearing their new skirts for our double sister date. Every week my sister and I go out shopping and out to lunch. This week these sisters are coming with us, so it's a double sister date. I've been stocking a sewing box for the girls, and I need to pick up a couple extra things to go in it. I had extra sewing shears, but I need to buy a small pair of thread snips, a seam ripper, a point turner, and some hand sewing needles. I had already purchased extra bobbins, a bobbin saver, machine oil, a lint brush, some sewing rulers for measuring hems, pins, and such. I ended up ordering a new foot pedal for the machine she's getting. Somehow something was spilled on the cord and plugs and I can't get it off. I'm afraid it would be a fire hazard, and I'd rather spend the money on a new power cord and foot pedal than send her with something that could be a safety issue. 

Next week I should have a good amount of sewing time, before I am dog sitting the week after! 

Sedona and Finish #18

 DH and I were in Sedona, AZ from July 4-8. It was hot, hotter than we thought it would be. We still got to drive around and look at the red rocks, and we also took a day trip to Flagstaff which was much cooler. Most of the Flagstaff hotels were booked solid which is why we didn't go there to begin with. The only hotel rooms remaining were crazy expensive, and we aren't crazy expensive kind of people. In Sedona we stayed at a resort for a fraction of it's normal price because of the heat.

I'm not a great photographer, but those should give you an idea of how pretty Sedona is. 

On our day trip to Flagstaff, we went to a bunch of thrift stores looking for stuff for me to upcycle for Christmas. I didn't find everything I was looking for, but I did find quite a bit, and mostly stuck to my list. The only thing I bought that wasn't on the list was one bag of fabric and a bag of buttons. I'm always joking around with DH that he's blessed to have married a women who much prefers thrift stores to the mall! 

We towed one of DH's scooters to Sedona, and he spent a couple of the days riding while I stayed at the hotel and sewed. 

I got all the units for another Christmas present sewn up, and I started on the units for a quilt.

I've finished the units for the quilt since I've been home, but I still need to snip all the dog ears. The big triangles are from the same jelly roll as the units in the bag, but the background fabrics are actually different. Both navy, but one is a mottled blender fabric, the other a vine tonal fabric. I'm really happy to get two projects from a single jelly roll.

I had started FMQ the last quilt I had basted before we left on vacation, and I've finished it since we've been home. I'm behind my goal for the year, but 18 quilts finished by mid-July is still pretty good. 

I finished sewing the binding on this morning. I've basted two quilts already this week, and I have a third laid out to baste this afternoon. That should keep me busy for a bit, especially since I have little time to sew this month. I get two of my granddaughters starting tomorrow, and I'll have them for a week. They need sewing lessons before they move away in the fall. Next week they'll be doing the sewing, not me! 

A Prayer Request

 This is not a quilty post, and before I get into the prayer request, I want to give you a bit of background.

Before DH was born, his parents had three daughters. When the oldest was three, the second was two and the baby nine months, they had a horrible house fire. The youngest two perished in that house fire. His mom was only able to get the oldest one out. They were living in a single wide mobile home at the time, which were not up to today's safety standards. It was a tragedy that still affects the family today. 

When my children were young, about the ages that DH's sisters were when they passed away, we had not one, not two, but THREE fire scares. All of those happened in Moberly, Missouri, where DH was an Army Recruiter. The first scare was right after we moved there, and some neighbor kids set our garage on fire. I called the fire department, and thankfully they got the fire out before it spread to the house we were renting. 

The second was an electrical fire. The house were were renting had been built in the 1920's, and the electrical system had never been updated. One evening while I was feeding the kids dinner, a shower of sparks came out of the light switch in the dining room, and I watched a black line go up the wall as the fire spread up the wires. I called the fire department again, and got the kids out. My landlord was required to update all the electrical in the house after the fire department evaluated the house for safety. 

The third close call was a gas leak in our oven, that caused the entire oven to fill with a ball of fire, and shoot out the vents on top of the range. We managed to deal with that emergency ourselves, and bought a new stove. 

All of those close calls were made more frightening by the thoughts of the family history. That same family history also made us more thankful, that we didn't have another tragedy. 

Fast forward to this year. On the fourth of July, DH and I were on our way to Sedona for vacation, when his mom calls and tells us his younger sister's house is on fire. Six people live in that house, my BIL and SIL, their oldest son, their youngest daughter with her husband and baby. Also at the house at the time was another of my SIL grandchilden, a toddler. At the time, we had no idea how bad it was, we only knew they got the people out, which given the family history, was especially a relief. 

We got various reports throughout the day, and some information we got originally was incorrect. Even the news got some if it wrong. 

https://www.azfamily.com/video/2024/07/05/home-gutted-5-dogs-missing-after-barbecue-sparks-fire-near-peoria/

The fire was started by a BBQ grill, and it was a malfunction. The propane tank on the grill exploded and accelerated the fire. Not only my BIL was burned, but my SIL was too as they tried to extinguish the fire. My BIL has burns on his arm and hands, my SIL on her arm and face. Thankfully they will be fine. Between the adults there, they got the baby and toddler out of the house and my niece sat in her car with the kids while watching their house burn down.  It was over 100 degrees already, even though the fire occurred in the morning. 

The news article mentioned they had five dogs, and they thought the dogs had gotten out of the house, but unfortunately, they all perished in the fire. 

We are so thankful that the human lives were spared, and we know how devastating it is when they aren't. Of course we all wish the dogs had been spared too. The fire took hold so quickly it's really amazing that the people all survived. 

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-lee-familys-recovery-and-rebuild?qid=5467d16deb15085c68fd74f1e4dd9a36

If you click on the link above, you can see a pic of what the house looks like now, they lost everything. They do have homeowners insurance, but it won't cover all that was lost, and expenses are already racking up. They even had to pay to have fencing put around the burned out shell for safety reasons. If you'd like to donate, thank you, but most of all they can use prayer. 

Even for DH, the sting is more, because he almost lost another sister to fire. His mom almost lost another daughter, a grandaughter, a great granddaughter. The two kids at the house are not far off the ages of DH's sisters when they died. We are so thankful that the people are OK, or at least will be, but the emotional toll is real. 

My BIL and SIL escaped with their lives and the clothes on their backs. My niece and her family were leaving for vacation that day and had already put their suitcases in the car, so at least they have a little, and my nephew was already on vacation so he at least has what was with him. 

We are praying for all of them, and I'd love it of some of you would join us in that. We are so thankful there are not funerals to plan this time, and for that we praise God!

As for me, I'll be working on replacing the quilts that were burned up in the fire. It's not much, but as a quilter, it's what I do. 

Finishes #16 and 17

 I finished the July deadline quilts! I doubt my grandsons read my blog, so here they are!

This is Mr. Z's quilt, he's turning 15! It's hard for me to believe I have grandkids that old! 

This is Mr. J's quilt and he's turning 12. Right now the boys are in twin bunk beds, but I know DD#1 has been debating getting them a larger set of bunk beds, full over full or twin extra long. If you are thinking these quilts are kind of big for a twin you aren't wrong, but since I didn't know what was going to happen with the bed situation, I aimed for full extra long so they'd fit no matter what they've got. Both boys are really into Star Wars so that's what they got. Since they share a room, I used the same gray fabric in both quilts, but I felt like using different patterns for each quilt was a good way to personalize them. One of the boys likes cool colors, and the other warm colors, so I figured a neutral was my best bet for the background. A lot of the fabrics had black or white backgrounds, but only a couple had gray, so I just chose a different shade of gray.

I finished sewing the last of the red/cream log cabin blocks, though they still need a final press. I'm planning to do that tonight. 

I started quilting the last quilt I have basted, and I laid out another quilt for basting. I wish I had a huge stack of basted quilts, but time keeps getting away from me. 

My goal of finishing 40 quilts this year is not likely to happen. I'll have some sewing time in July, but not very much. I had hoped to start making Christmas presents in July, and I am starting to work on some units that will eventually be Christmas presents, but overall, Christmas sewing is going to have to wait until August. Having my Janome in the shop for six weeks really blew my finish numbers, and losing July due to lots of stuff going on this month will really hurt my finish total for the year. 

One week of July there will be sewing going on, but not by me! I'll be teaching two of my granddaughters some sewing. We're starting with elastic waist skirts for them and their dolls, plus some headscarves. If we still have time and they want to do more sewing, I've got a couple options for them. If you have any suggestions for me, feel free to comment. I've already made pillowcases with the older one. The younger one will be getting her first lessons. 

Once the Christmas sewing projects start (hopefully in August now), my cutting table will be used for cutting out those, so any "extra" time I get in July, I'll be trying to baste quilts. I still haven't gotten June's murder mystery block done, and I'm not sure if I'll get it done before next Wednesday when July's block comes out. Life just seems to be busy lately.