EUREKA

IT'S FINISHED!!! After a marathon effort, which included an additional trip to Yuba City and the local quilt store, lots of late night and so many puncture wounds I've lost count, the quilt is finished. It's in the dryer now, trying to get rid of all the loose threads. I finished it a new way, for me. The seam allowances are all exposed and snipped so they fray a bit when washed. It's cool, but a little messy with random threads. I may have to send it through the wash and dryer again.

It doesn't matter at this point, though because it's finished. I'm quite impressed with myself. I got it done ahead of schedule! I need it by Sunday. It is done Friday night. This is a true Christmas miracle.

(Never mind that I still have a dress to make for myself....that's completely beside the point).

I am a perpetual procrastinator. I tell the story on myself that, when going through some old school papers of mine, I ran across one of my kindergarten report cards. It said something to the effect that "Lori is a hard worker, if she just didn't leave everything to the last minute." I have been fighting my natural procrastination tendencies for 30 years.

Back to the dress I mentioned before. At this reception on Sunday, all the girls in our assembly are all wearing the same fabric. I have held off on sewing mine and have used all my sewing time on the quilt. Now, I can use my sewing time for my dress. I've got tonight and tomorrow night. Hubby just left to go to Pittsburg for the weekend, so I won't feel guilty about staying up until all hours of the morning sewing. Piece of cake. (Yeah, right).

I hope to get some good pictures of the quilt tomorrow as well. If not, I will get some at the reception on Sunday, after it has been given to our special girl. I'm quite proud of myself. And quite relieved. Whew.

Silent, but busy

I just realized how long it has been since I've posted anything new. I've been working my fingers to the bone, with several puncture wounds to prove it, on my mystery quilt. It is down to the wire now. I have a little over a week to get it finished. The good news is that I've farmed out several quilt squares, so I didn't have to do them all. I have done my fair share, don't get me wrong. I will count up the total tomorrow when I wash and iron them all in preparation for final assembly. I have purchased (what I think it) all the fabric and am now ready to begin putting this darn thing together. I'm a little anxious as I'm trying a technique that is new to me. It should go together much more quickly than a traditional quilt. I am not doing a separate front and back, then quilting them together. I am sewing everything together all at the same time, with the seams exposed (and fringed) on one side. As I have said before, I will post some pictures once the intended recipient has received it, and it is no longer a surprise.

I have to say I'm quite impressed with the improvement in my embroidery skills over the course of this project. Upon its completion, this quilt will be the first one I've done in several years. I learned to sew in 4-H as a child, from my mother. She is a fabulous seamstress, from HER childhood. I didn't like it so much. I think this is due, in part, to my perfectionism. If I can't do something right away well, I get very frustrated. (Gee, and I wonder where The Girl gets that from). Sewing is something that takes time. I have come back to the joy of sewing through quilting, when The Little Man was little. ;) Once The Girl was born, time just kind of evaporated. I also got more into crochet and now knitting. My sewing/cross stitch days have become non-existent with the new love of all things yarn. I'm not a good one for balance in my crafting, apparently. Maybe that can be a resolution for next year. I still owe my soon-to-be five year old nephew a Christmas stocking. maybe this year, after the quilt. No promises though.

Okay, now enough stalling, back to cleaning. 'Tis the season for hosting parties at Chez Rodrigues. Tonight is the first of just two this year. (It's a slow year for us). Hopefully, the next post will be pics of The Quilt, whose appearance date is Dec. 19. Wish me luck!

SUCCESS!!!!!

Finally! It's DONE! I stayed up until 11:30 last night, sewing up seams and sewing on pockets. I have a new kink in my neck labeled "The Girl's CPH". The pockets are a bit wonky, but The Girl loves it and wore it to school today! THAT, my friends, is true success. I will try to get her to stand still long enough to post some pics tomorrow. Woo! Now, onto my quilt squares......

What? What's that you say? You hear that beautiful teal knit jersey fabric calling you as well?? I suppose I could fit sew that up into a quick formal before our Masonic event this Saturday. But shhhh.....don't tell the quilt squares!

Grrrrr.....

I was so close....really, just a couple more rows to go, when I did a count and realized I had too many stitches on my needle. Grr. I missed a decrease along the way. So......I had to rip back a good 20 rows or more. Luckily, it's getting smaller as I go. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a day of rest for my back and my knitting. This darn thing. It is the perfect weather around here for The Girl to be wearing it too.

I really need to finish this up so I can start on my quilt squares. Those won't embroider themselves, you know!

Goal for tomorrow: FINISH THIS DANG SWEATER!!!!!

Alllllllmost there

I am so close, I can taste it. The Girl's sweater is almost done. I'm to the sleeve cap on the second sleeve. Then it's just a matter of sewing it together....again, and adding on the pockets. Just in time for the rain. I didn't work on it quite as much as I had planned during The Little Man's hospital stay. He decided to give me a little scare the first day. He's fine, but his heart rate dropped to about 60 and his respirations were around 5-7 a minute. Just a little too relaxed for my taste. Also, the first day, I was no good to anyone, due to the lack of sleep. The night before surgery, it was a case of.....go to sleep for a bit, *wake up in a panic thinking I've over slept, hitting Hubby to ask the time (the clock was on his side), go back to sleep*, repeat from * until clock reads 4:30 a.m. I spent the rest of the day in a haze. I did work on it down there though. Last night, thanks to my lovely friend, Insomnia, I got to the bottom of the sleeve cap. Now to finish the rest off, which will take longer than I expect, of course.

As for what's coming up next, I have NO idea. Actually, come to think of it, I do. I've got some quilt squares to work on. I won't say m

ore on that due to the surprise factor. (I highly doubt the intended recipient of this quilt even knows about this blog, let alone reads it, but I don't want to tempt the Craft Gods). Only a couple of months and I'll post some pictures.

In the meantime, here is a pic of my last sleeve.

Not a very good one, but progress none-the-less. Don't mind the hair, I still haven't quite got my act together this morning. I'm trying to get excited about helping in The Girl's class this afternoon for the Halloween celebration. I'll get there. I'm also needing to get some more quilt squares cut for tomorrow. I have an all-day Rainbow Girl event that some of my helpers will be at. I'm hoping to off-load some of my quilt-square burden onto them. That it, IF I have quilt squares to give out. :)

Okay, enough delaying. Time to get this day started, even though all I really want to do is build a fire, put in a movie and knit. Did I mention it's raining? Perfect day for crafting. Alas, it was not meant to be. Maybe next week. :)

My weekend

Crafting is still hit and miss with me. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things, getting something done every day. It's been hard. My back is still (figuratively) broken. I go for an x-ray tomorrow, with an MRI in my near future. Hopefully some successful treatment will come of all this.

I'm still working on The Girl's sweater sleeves. The first is almost done, and I think it will fit. My goal is to finish it in the next couple of days so I can try it on Her before the weekend. I will have plenty of time to finish the other this weekend as my Little Man is going in for surgery on Friday and will be in the hospital at least until Sunday. This means, plenty of crafting time for me by his bedside. This surgery, his 8th by my count, is a planned one. He has a pump implanted in his belly, with a catheter running under his skin into his spinal column. It delivers a constant flow of Baclofen, (a muscle relaxer) to help ease his Cerebral Palsy symptoms. My Boy tends to be stiff as a board. The pump has made a HUGE difference in his life. It's hard to believe we've had it now for six years. The window for replacement of the battery on these pumps is anywhere from five to seven years. At his flow rate, we felt six years was a great time to replace it. Barring any unforeseen complications, we should be home Sunday or Monday.

It has been four years since The Little Man has been admitted to the hospital. Quite an accomplishment. In the early years, we were there every few months. It was hard to imagine any other life. Now, it's amazing the life we have without hospitalizations. We actually HAVE a life. We have outside activities that all the members of the house are involved in. This surgery also marks the first time The Girl will experience him being hospitalized in her recollection. She was 3 the last time he was in and doesn't remember it. She's understandably worried, being such a caring soul. We are, by nature and experience, rather non-challant about it and trying to be as casual and non-worried as we can, to help ease her mind. There is always that little "what-if" monster that lives in a shack in the back corner of my mind. He peeks his head out every now and again, throws a few barbs, then retreats. I tend not to listen, except every so often, and usually only very late at night.

Anyway, back to crafting.....I'm sure I'll pack something else in my craft bag, besides The Sweater! Maybe my own! I should block it before I take it though, to make sewing the seams easier. I might leave that for a home project though. Maybe some more hanger covers or dish clothes for the craft faire. We'll see. I'll think about it tomorrow.

Back issues

The reason for the recent blog silence is physical injury. A couple weeks ago, I headed out to Eureka with the fam to attend a workshop by Franklin Habit. On the way home from said vacation, I threw my back out. Since then, I have spent 90% of my time in bed, since sitting and standing really make me hurt. Today, I'm sitting long enough to check my email and Facebook before heading back to bed. The doc told me to double up my meds and see if that helps. If not, it's looking like x-ray/MRI time again. (I had a similar problem back in '07). Nothing much besides exercise (gasp) will help, unfortunately.

As far as crafting goes, last week, I didn't do anything! Ugh. So much for crafting everyday. I think the extenuating circumstances allow for that slip. I have felt up to crafting this week. I am working on a second sock for my Little Man, who is healing quite well from his buckle fracture of two weeks ago. I've got to rip out the sleeves of The Girl's sweater and re-knit them bigger. Ugh. Hopefully, they should work back up pretty quickly, since they are girl sized and not my sized. The unfortunate thing is that I got the sweater all sewn together before I realized the sleeves were too small. :( I won't make that mistake on MY sweater. I plan on pinning the sleeves up and trying them on before I get that far.

Anyways, that's that. My weekend in Eureka was really great! I loved the shop and Franklin. He was very nice and I learned a lot. Enough to want to tackle a lace project, as soon as I get some better needles for that.

Okay, enough sitting for now. Time to take it easy and rip out the second sleeve. The weather's turning and The Girl needs her new duds. Until I can sit again..........