Stories from the Sewing Room

I have finished my #Trending quilt top. I was planning a weekend of selfish sewing, finishing the last two blocks. Instead, I did tons of paperwork, weeded the gardens with the family, and did general housekeeping chores. I did not even go downstairs at all. That left me scrambling and pushing hard, despite how I was physically feeling, to finish these. But they are done!

Here is the second to last block, the cheetah. This came out a bit wonky, but you won't notice once it's quilted.

And the final block, a llama. The odd angles in this block were difficult and I just did my best to get it done last evening.

Here is the bulk of the top. I will add the borders today. I have purchased backing fabric, so depending on how I'm feeling, I may assemble that as well. I have a quilting design picked out, so as soon as my machine has a free moment, this will get quilted.

Here are the quilts I worked on over the past week.

Haley's pillow front, quilted with A Fishy Tail (to match I quilt I did earlier this year).

Deb's, quilted with Opal. 

I don't usually crawl under the machine, but maybe I should more often. Doesn't this look cool? You can also see what a fantastic job she does with her piecing.

Annie's Deco quilt, quilted with Behold in a larger scale.

A round robin quilt some of my fellow guild mates made, quilted with Cassava. This one will go to one of the two local organizations whose fundraising we support each year.

And the beginnings of Jeri's quilt, quilted with Capri. This is one intense design. It has tons of backtracking and is really detailed. I am running my machine super slow to help maintain accuracy. Each 5.5" row of pattern takes about half an hour to stitch. I'm hoping I can finish today, but fully expecting it to run into tomorrow.

Moving over to my garden, I replanted my AeroGarden a week and a half ago, and after only five days my lettuce had sprouted! It may have been before that, but that is when I first checked.

I'm not sure who I am--I found another unit on eBay and won that for a very reasonable price (less than half of retail!!), especially since it's new in the box and includes the seed starting tray too. I'm planning to grow herbs for the chickens over the winter and then start some seeds for our outdoor garden when the time comes. Never dreamed I'd be growing plants to feed chickens!!

Here are our not-so-little-anymore chickens this week. Their soft little bird noises are starting to turn into louder clucks. 

We gave them part of a watermelon rind last week for the first time. It took a while for them to not be scared of it. Once one was brave enough to grab a piece of it, they all started chasing her, trying to steal it, instead of getting their own pieces. My husband gave them another chunk each of the next two days. Based on the condition of the coop, I think we need to give it to them a little less frequently. 😳

They are pretty scared of most noises and people, but they always come running when they see my daughter approaching them. This is her shoulder on the bottom right of the photo.

They are also putting themselves to bed each night now. Remember how they pecked foam insulation from inside their coop? They figured out how to reach the foam that was up high in the coop. LOL. All of it has now been replaced or reinstalled with covers. It's been pretty cold at night now, so hopefully they leave the stuff alone so that they can stay warm in there. This continues to be such a learning experience.

Speaking of learning experiences, one of my paperwork tasks was to list out how much my daughter's college tuition costs. She attended one and a half years of community college, until she had exhausted her course options. She will have 2.5 years at a state university. She lives at home to save money since both institutions are in town. I was totally shocked to see that tuition only (no books, living expenses, etc.) will total about $40,000! All but $1000 (thanks to NF Midwest for that award) of that will be paid by our family through either direct payment or student loans. We do not qualify for need-based aid. 

As if that wasn't sobering enough, my husband and I looked up how much each of our colleges cost now. His was around $53,000/year now (don't know what it cost when he went). Mine now costs around $50,000/year. When I attended, it was about $13,000/year, including room and board. My college was known for its teaching program. I cannot even imagine leaving college, owing $200,000, to be a teacher who makes maybe $45,000 a year. How would you ever pay that off? My parents were both teachers and we did not qualify for financial aid back then either. The system is broken.

I truly do not know what we will do when it's my son's turn for school. He's considering a college that is too far away to commute, which means the cost will double. Yep, room and board costs the same as tuition for a state university. So at least $80,000 if he goes away all four years. And the financial aid system says I can pay that and more out of pocket. On what planet do they reside? 

I think I'm gonna go have Tylenol for breakfast. 😬 And then go count my blessings. I'm okay, really. It's just shocking to think of that amount of money. I actually need the Tylenol because I overdid the exercising yesterday and then had to have an MRI that put everything out of whack and gave me a headache due to the awkward position they had me in. I need the headache to dull a little more so I can work today.

I'll be back next week with a list of my projects and my choice for October's OMG. Also--how is it almost October already!!!???  If you read all the way to the end, thanks! You rock!

Linking with My Quilt Infatuation.

I have a finish! And I can't share it yet! I can share that I used all my trimmings to make a quilt backing for it. I was also able to use the remaining cutoffs from my Gemstones quilt backing to finish making this backing. And bonus, I had a batting remnant that was the exact size I needed. And I used a bunch of a random binding I found in my scrap bins. {Though I keep wondering what this binding was for. Did I have it set aside for a project? 🤔 Too late now!} Here is the back. I quilted it with Paradoxical.

I still haven't gotten to start on my blocks for September's OMG. I have nine more days to try to pull it off. Wow, this month has flown by.

By the way, I call this photo quilting in middle age. ha. I'm excited that my flexible magnifier can clamp onto my cutting table.

I have completed plenty of quilts for others. Here they are.

First, I finished Amber's quilt that I had started last week.

Next is Barbara's cute Heather Ross quilt, quilted with Loop the Loop.

Next is Keetah's, quilted with Winterfest.

Then I quilted Carol's quilt with Basic Swirl.

Then Sara's, quilted with Stipple. Stipple has been so popular this year!

And Haley's, quilted with Good Vibrations.

That is a lot of quilts! Way more than I thought. I didn't even work at all on Saturday or Sunday. 

If you need something quilted, my wait time right now is the shortest it's been all year, at just a few weeks.

I'm still trying to get used to the camera on my new phone. My son has shown me a few things, but I'm sure I have plenty more to learn. I also don't have a case yet since the case Amazon sent as my replacement was the wrong case. 🙄 I ordered one directly from the company and it is taking forever to arrive. Maybe by the end of the week? It's still in California. Boo.

Oh, something exciting is my husband was able to switch out the slider in the basement. No picture because it isn't that exciting. It still needs to be trimmed on the inside, but that is one of the last major indoor projects we have left. The other is putting custom closet organizers into our master closet using IKEA pieces as a base, but part of what we need has been out of stock since April, when we first started planning this project.

I have not worked in the garden at all, though I did harvest and dry the remaining herbs from the Aerogarden. I then did a deep clean on it and planted my own lettuce seeds. Hopefully they will sprout. This is the first time I've tried growing my own seeds in it; both the other crops were grown using their pre-planted growing pods.

The chickens continue to grow and entertain us.  This shows all five chicks. I think they are eight or nine weeks old now?