Quilting Outside the Box

My parents left Sunday and took both kids with them. They are in Louisiana now with my brother and then will travel on to New York this Sunday. My kids will be home around the 17th or so. It has been very quiet but I am trying to enjoy every minute! I have even made a "play date" for hubby to go do something next weekend so it will be just me and the dogs. Wow! They only want to be fed twice a day, given water when they run out and let in and out for bathroom and other duties. There is the occassional scratching and cuddling required. I can handle that!

So after my parents left I went to my friends house to sit and sew. Originally I was only planning to drop off my 12 Days quilt to be quilted but was invited to sew as well. I like the quilt I just cannot fully develop my quilting plan. I have plenty of ideas for some blocks just not all of them. I turned the quilt and my ideas over to her and she is going to see what sort of plan she can hatch. She and I are also in a Round Robin swap together. She had one ready for me when I arrived and completed her step on a second. So now I have advance time to work on these RR's.

Now to the topic of my post. While I was quilting my 7 Sisters my friend was prepping her square in a square quilt for her long arm. She was having issues with the backing and found she had cut it too small. I tried to help her hold it to see if it was just turned wrongly. No such luck. I started thinking what my solution would be. Cut off and piece the backing so it is wide enough or piece another backing. While these thoughts were running through my mind I heard a rip and looked to see what she was doing. This quilt has no borders and she decided to just tear a row off. I told her in a million years I would not have thought to do that. She admitted to running through the same ideas I had and arrived at this one.

I admire her and others that can "think outside the box". I would go so far as to say that I am usually intimidated by these folks that can work like this. I don't feel dumb but I do feel that I wish I were smarter. We sometimes get so stuck in what we are supposed to do and can't see other options. I do tend to follow directions to a "T" but I am learning to be more flexible in that area as well. My hat's off to you forward thinkers! I admire you all.

Personal Challenge If you remember my personal challenge to work only on my 7 Sisters until I am in the top 10 of the UFO Challenge on Stashbuster I want to update you. As of yesterday all the side setting triangles are quilted, my borders are mended and I am now quilting the borders. I am 14th on the list. It is taking forever to move above me! I do have a fast finish ready to be completed once I reach the top 10. I hope I am there next weekend while hubby is away. :D

Golfing

Here is a little video of us golfing.

Mom and Dad

Vacationing and Quilting

Still enjoying time with my parents here. We have eaten a lot both in and out. My hubby used to be the grill master but I had to try it out since he has a hard time walking in the yard due to his knee. I made some T-bones and they turned out great! I cooked nachos for Dad. He really likes them and was disappointed at the ones he got at the restaurant we went to.

My parents, son and I enjoyed a round of golf at the local par 3 course. I have not played in such a long time. I managed to step in a hole, twist my ankle and fall. Hurt for a good part of the day but by night I was fine. We are going out tomorrow for another round. I will watch out for those holes!

Can't think of much else of note. Just spending time together!

LOOK! I sewed 9 more stitches! Well, a few more than that. I updated the 7 Sisters progress box on the left side of my blog. I finished the side setting triangles on the third side and decided to go around to the fourth side and finish those triangles as well. Only 5 left to go. Maybe I will be done with them before the folks leave.

I will try to post some pics tomorrow of our golf outing.

I asked Mother to send some photos from when I was a baby

The Parents are coming, the Parents are coming!!!

Yes I knew this was coming. They left their house today and will be in Louisiana tomorrow to drop my nephew off at my brother's place. Then Saturday they will be up and on the road to come see me. I can't wait to see them! I can wait for them to see my house. So I am taking tomorrow off to get some cleaning and decluttering in. I am going to focus on the living areas and then if I have extra time I will attend to the sewing room overflow in the foyer. Ah well Mom and Dad...love me....love my mess.

So this means once I leave work today I will be on vacation and returning the 28th. I just hope I get some relaxation in. I hope work doesn't call me. I hope I get to sew my little brains out when my parents are snoozing!!

Lordy, lordy look who's 50??

Happy Birthday Mark! My hubby. Sort of snuck up on you huh? Hope you have a wonderful day.

I am Here! Lot's going on. I am sorry to be so quiet.

I am sewing away on my 7 Sisters. My friend teased that when you hand quilt the updates are rather boring...."Look I sewed 9 more stitches!" Yes, I get it! :p I am finishing up the second side. If I push I can get it done by tomorrow. Then on to the third side. I will be forced to do some repairs.

I will try to take some pics and post them soon. Please take a minute to say hello.

Rotating Projects If you read back on May 29th you will see that I set a challenge for myself. I said I would only work on my 7 Sisters UFO until I was either 10th on the UFO challenge list or I finished the 7 Sisters quilt.

I am 32nd and I am not done yet. I was putting every spare minute into that quilt to the point of burnout. I stopped a little over a week ago to work on round robins. Now that I have gotten the three that I had here out of the way I picked the 7 Sisters back up.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was refreshed and ready to get back into this quilt. I have the side setting triangles done on the next side so will be working on the 2 borders the rest of this week. I should be able to get that done this week then will move around the corner to the next side.

Let's see if I can get this quilt done this month!