Snow Day = Sew Day

 More snow expected to fall here in Ohio.  Snow Day = Sew Day for me.  My desk area is a hot mess:

The trash is overflowing... The big pieces need to be cut into basket bottoms for my Charm Basket quilt.  The little pieces need to be run through the Accuquilt dies to add them to the scrap user's storage system.

Today is a great day to do it.  100 percent chance of snow!!!  He was mighty proud of his giant icicle yesterday.  Oh, you can see that my husband has a long-term WIP in the garage.  It's my 1992 Z71 frame with a new body on it.  It runs.  The bed is in the pole barn.  He moved a cab and motor from a vehicle his friend gave me that was totaled because of frame damage to my frame which was still very nice someone here in the Ohio winter salt.  It just needs finished and painted.  (It's kind of like a quilt top that just needs quilted and a binding.  LOL)

Done blogging for now.  I need to get S E W I N G!!!  Woohoo!

Charm Baskets -- Slow Sunday Stitching

Twelve baskets were completed and trimmed this week!

My baskets are going to outgrow their little bin soon.  I'll have to get stitching on the Bonnie Hunter mystery, Old Town, to free up a larger bin.  All my units for that is complete.  I'm in the process of putting together blocks.

36 baskets of 202 needed for the quilt are now complete.  My baskets are trimmed to 4.25" vs. the recommended 4.5" unfinished block due to wonkiness.  52.5" x 64.5" finished is the quilt pattern size.  I'll most likely go with those numbers--give or take.

The quilt pattern is called Charm Basket by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It is an Edyta Sitar design. 

I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching here.

Speaking of crafting...  Here's our son in the garage assembling some sort of Kinnex-type project.  I think he's building a race track.  He found the magnified light head gear thing at the bin store for $1.

Baskets Galore

 I'm having so much fun making basket handles that I need to start sewing them at the sewing machine so that they don't lose the other pieces to them.

This is the tool that I use when I make basket handles.  I sew the bias strip right sides together and slip the purple part of the tool (the tube) into the casing.  I push the edge of the fabric down into the tube.  Shove it through and TA DA!  I won this notion at a quilt guild event as a door prize.  At the time I never thought I'd use it.  But look at me now!

Matched sets ready to sew!  The bottoms of the baskets need made.

Hopefully I'll have some pretty baskets to show off for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Basket Handle Emergency

If you told me ten years ago I would have an applique emergency because I'm stitching them too quickly I would have laughed and laughed.  But that really was the case yesterday morning.

I quickly found some multi-colored fabrics in the scrap bin.  I cut them on the bias, turned and pressed.

I sewed four more basket handles in the "beach" room.

I partially sewed one handle while waiting on my bowler to be done with practice.  The quilt pattern is called Charm Basket by Laundry Basket Quilts.  It is an Edyta Sitar design.   I have no idea how many baskets I will need because I don't know what size quilt I will make.  I do know that I am totally enjoying this process way more than I ever thought I would!  I'm also happy that they are starting to look more uniform.  Practice, practice, practice.  Someday I'll be making something as fancy as Gretchen at Gretchen's Little Corner.  I just love her applique project she calls Blueberry Pie!

Here's a photo of our driveway.  The snow is very pretty.  We don't usually plow the driveway when the snow is this deep.  If we do, it melts and freezes on the hill.  Then the hill becomes all ice.  We drive four-wheel drive vehicles.  Most of our guests have four-wheel drive as well.  The Amazon van seems to be able to make it up the hill ok.  

I changed my substitute schedule to jobs that are all elementary level for this week and next.  I'm sooooo glad that I did.  Yesterday our son's bus was 19 minutes late.  That means he would have been standing at the end of the drive at about 20 degrees F during that time.  With my elementary schedule I can sit with him at the end of the driveway until the bus comes.  He also has to take a bowling ball and a backpack to school.  That's a lot in the snow.

Here's another photo of the snow in the woods.  Quite boring, but very peaceful.  Our son does beat me home of non-bowling days.  It's not that bad for him to walk up the drive with his backpack.  If he doesn't stop to throw rocks and sticks into the creek, he's inside within three minutes.

Clue #9 Units Are Complete

 I'm still plugging away at the Bonnie Hunter Mystery, Old Town.  I finished sewing the Clue #9 units.  Now all the exciting stuff starts to happen -- block assembly.  I love it when I have the variety of scraps like I do to build the blocks.  Each time I build a block my brain says, "Now that's a pretty block... that block is prettier than the last... BEAUTIFUL!... I remember that fabric and where I got that..."  Let the good times roll!

You might be able to tell by the shadow that I sewed until later in the evening.  I'm so excited that this part  is complete.  I'm proud of myself for keeping up with it during the snowy days.  I have my piecing mojo back.  Can't wait to see what all of the blocks look like together.

Sewing Basket Handles "On The Beach" in a Snowstorm?

 Monday (yesterday) was an interresting day.  Most of our area schools were closed due to incliment weather.  The district where I work was open.  Only 50 percent of the kids were there in the morning.  Many of them filtered in.  Classes were combined to be more productive in groups.  I had an extra planning period.  Is stitched four basket handles during my planning period.

It's 26 degrees F outside here in Ohio.  But the teacher I subbed for has her room decorated with a beach theme.  There are little cabanas where students can silent read.  There are fake palm trees, fish, and hibiscus decorations.  It's fun for kids.

Once I was home it didn't take Teenager long to come in for a snack, a cuddle, and a nap.

Clue 8 Old Town Mystery (Bonnie Hunter) Complete

 Clue 8 is now complete.  I'm excited to start the last part for the Bonnie Hunter Old Town Mystery.

This part of the process had an interresting work area.  I took the bin to the muffler shop and trimmed pieces with scissors while waiting.

It made 160 little pieces of the neutral corners.

The corners were run through my smallest Accuquilt die to make neutral HSTs.  There was just enough to fit the dies with minimal scraps.  After carefully placing the pieces on the die I would run 24 pieces through at a time.  This is what was left from one run through.

The little pieces cut will come in handy for the final clue!  I don't have to cut ANY because of my scrap user system.  Woohoo!

Snow day!  Our son is excited.

I chose to go to work today.  But he'll be busy playing his