To Do Tuesday & Weekly Update: 4-15-2014

Happy Tuesday!!

I’ve been quiet on the blog lately, save for these Tuesday posts.  I have a couple of pretty big deadlines headed my way, and I have been spending a lot of my time preparing for them.   We have a daughter graduating from high school in about 40 days and I have been busy making her present.  We’ve been preparing a new-to-us truck for being towed behind the coach (with our motorcycles in the truckbed) for our summer plans. The towing base plates have been installed, and we’ve figured out that we actually can fit the two Magna’s in the back of the pickup bed.  Right now we’re just waiting for the drive-shaft disconnect we’ve ordered to arrive and then we’ll install that on the truck.

Mister’s and my 3rd wedding anniversary is coming up shortly, and he is a huge fan of special handmade gifts.  He is the sentimental/romantical sort.  So I’ve decided to make a special gift for Mister, using a craft I’ve never done before.  In a short time frame.  BECAUSE THAT’S HOW I ROLL.  Seriously.  That’s how I learned to embroider… making a gift for him.  That’s why I learned to quilt… to make a gift for my daughter. So why wouldn’t I choose to learn another craft I’ve never done before and give myself a short window to do it in?  Doesn’t everyone do things that way?  I mean, how else do you learn new hobbies? In my world this is the ONLY way to learn something new. Under pressure. And a lot of it.

Having said that, I probably won’t be posting much save for these To-Do Tuesday posts and updates from the previous week’s post.  I am either at the sewing machine or helping Mister with auto work during the day and doing hand/needle work all evening.  If you’re on Instagram, I post a lot on there and that’s pretty much my “bloggy” platform when I don’t have time to type.  So if you’d like to see what I’m up to go check out my IG feed.  Except for Mister. Stay away… there are spoilers there!

I managed to get almost everything done on last week’s list.  I was able to get the Vintage Quilt Revival top put together quickly.  I LOVE it!  It ended up being 88″ x 71″ and the kids had a difficult time holding it up for a picture. I had to set it aside, and I have not had time to design a back for it yet.  I’ll end up using my leftover scraps and FQ’s for the back and I have a vague idea of what I want that to look like.

I got the April InstaBee block sewn and mailed it off today. I also completed a block for myself, for my “souvenier” InstaBee quilt.

I finished embroidering the blocks for the secret quilt several days ago.  However when I started to put them together with the print fabrics to make giant 9-patch blocks, I realized that the pre-cuts I embroidered on were not 10″ square.  Since the edges were pinked, I did not want to try and fudge the blocks in.  My remedy was to find a fabric that matched the color in the embroidered quote, cut the blocks down to 9″ and put a .5″ border around the block. They look SO much better that way! Doing that put me a bit behind on my work, and I just managed to finish the huge 9-patch blocks for the secret quilt today. I’ll be cutting them tomorrow and assembling the top. Can’t wait to show you all what that will look like finished!

This weeks list:

• Cut 9-patch blocks and assemble secret quilt top
• Design and make backing for secret quilt
• Order more batting
• Baste quilt & start quilting
• Do at least 3 hours of hand needlework per day

To-Do as time allows:

• Make the Go-Go Bag for Callie before she leaves for summer vacation
• Make the Skillbuilder Scrap Jar & Pincushion blocks
• Design VQR Quilt back
• Get the May, June, & July InstaBee blocks done and mailed before May 20th
• Continue working on the How-To/Tips page for the Brother PQ-1500S
• Make the April Sugar Block Club block
• Make February Bag of the Month
• Make March Bag of the Month
• Make April Bag of the Month

Now it’s your turn! Write up your post and link up using InLinkz linky below.

Rules:

1. Link up your To-Do Tuesday blog post using the InLinkz linky (below). The link up is open all week!
2. Try to visit at least one or two other blogs and leave a nice comment!
3. Please feel free to grab the blog button to show that you’re participating in To-Do Tuesday!

That’s it! Now let’s get sewing… or whatever there is to do on your list!