Been busy!

I haven’t posted in what seems like forever. Just as the weather was turning nice enough to open the windows (and therefore not die of heat exhaustion in my sewing room), we found out we were pregnant! Needless to say, the fatigue of the first trimester put an abrupt halt on any potential crafting. I’m hoping there’s still someone here to read! 😀

Now I’m almost to the third trimester (Kiarda Nicole is due July 11!), and I’ve been busy making stuff for the nursery as well as stash-busting. My sister is pregnant as well, and due about 5 weeks before me. I made a few things for my soon-to-be-here niece, Eva.

Brace yourself, lots of pictures!

First, the nursery fabric I picked out for Kiarda.

I’m glad I bought extra, because it doesn’t exist anymore. This was the Makower challenge fabric, and they told me that it has been discontinued. I can’t find it ANYwhere now. I love it! The walls will be the light aqua color, with an accent wall of the medium blue.

Here is the wallhanging for Kiarda’s nursery, which matches the one I made for my sister’s baby in design. The paisley looks odd from a distance, and the colors didn’t turn out quite right in the picture. The lighting in my sewing room isn’t the best for picture-taking!

Close-up:

Backing fabric and binding – it’s hard to tell but the design on the binding coordinates perfectly with the blue cupcake wrapper!

This is the one I made for my sister. The print fabric is what she’s using in her nursery.

Close-up:

I have been trying to do some stash-busting. As I started pulling out coordinating fabrics, I ended with enough for two tops of similar colors. I didn’t realize I had so much pink, turquoise, and lime green LOL.

A Snapshots by Atkinson Designs top. This will probably end up being a floor quilt/tummy time quilt for Kiarda. The dark pink border actually coordinates with one of the fabrics, but you can’t tell from a distance, or really, the close-up I took, oops! It will also be used for the binding. I couldn’t get the color to come out quite right – there is a pretty dark, royal purple and a chocolate brown with skinny black swirls on it. This entire quilt, backing included, is 100% stash!

Fabric close-up (see the flamingos?). The colors of the dots are pink, blue, brown, and green – so perfect for this top!

Backing for this top:

A Turning 20 top in progress (blocks), also by Atkinson Designs. I just finished piecing the top (sans border – need to get some black fabric) but took this picture once I got the blocks up on the design wall. The binding will be turquoise, which I have also already made.

Fabric close-up:

Backing fabric – LOVE these cute frogs!

2009 Summer Nationals, Day 4

Div2 Women’s Epee went well for me, overall! I was seeded 40th (out of 113) initially, the last of the “C” rated fencers in the event, as I had the oldest C (a C05). My C will expire at the end of July, and turn into a D09. *sniff* I earned it right before I started my grad program at Texas State, so I didn’t compete for 2+ years. Ah well.

I went 4-and-2/+6 in pools, which put me seeded at 34th. Top 80% after pools went up to the DE round, so 39 people got byes into the round of 64. It took FOREVER for DEs to start; I think it was over two hours between my pool ending and when I got to fence my first DE bout. I won my bout in the round of 64 easily, and then lost 15-11 in the round of 32 to the #2 seed. I didn’t think her fencing was all that special – she was a “one-trick pony” her her circle-6-fleche-to-the-body – but I couldn’t move my feet fast enough to deal with it. Did I mention she’s half my age? Yeah… oh well. She lost in the next round to a fellow Texas fencer who had been in my pool.

I got a little revenge, too – remember when I lost at sectionals 15-14 to a beginner, and therefore didn’t qualify for Div1-A? She was in my pool. She lost 5-1. /snark off

One of my online quilting friends came up to see me and DH fence on Saturday! I was really surprised that she wanted to drive that far (about an hour) to come watch. It was really nice of her. My HS French teacher and her husband also came, and stayed for the entire tournament. I can only think of a handful of tournaments that I had a personal cheering squad. 😀

DH fenced Div3 Men’s Epee. He did AWESOME in pools – won all six bouts and was seeded 3rd after pools. He won his first DE but lost the second one in the round of 32. He was a little annoyed, as both fencers he fenced were weird and erratic, which is hard to fence against.

2009 Summer Nationals, Day3

I’ve been taking pictures, but I don’t have my cable to hook the camera up to the computer. So, those will have to wait until we get home.

Yesterday was Div III Women’s Sabre and Div II Men’s Foil, so DH and I both fenced. We got to see a little of each other’s bouts, but not all as the events were scheduled for roughly the same time. My goals were pretty simple: not to get blanked in pools (i.e., not to lose any bouts 5-0) and to make the cut to get into the DE round. I went 2-and-4 in pools, with a -4 indicator, which wasn’t too shabby considering I’m not a sabre fencer and the competition was tough! The two bouts I won went 5-1 and 5-2, and I got at least a touch on each other person in the pool.

I came out seeded 55th (of 75), and had to fence the #10 seed. I basically didn’t move my feet at all in the first period, and was down 8-1 at the break. I finally woke up for the second period to make a comeback, but still lost 15-8. If I had fenced like that in the first period, the score would have been much closer! The girl I lost to ultimately ended up 8th place, so at least I didn’t lose to a scrub fencer. 😀

DH did okay in pools. He won his first DE handily, and then lost in the round of 64. The referee seemed to have it out for him because he asked for clarification on two calls – not arguing them, just asking what the referee saw – and the ref carded him, saying he didn’t have the right to argue. Uh…that’s not a card… Later in the bout, the other fencer elbowed DH across the mask really hard, causing DH to land on his rear end. The ref SHOULD have carded the other fencer for corps-a-corps (body contact), if not a red card for jostling, but instead he said that because DH was “rushing forward” it was his fault. He then said that he should card both of them, but because it would be a red card for DH he’d let it go – as if he were doing DH a favor for not carding the opponent! There were also a couple of right-of-way calls that were uh…questionable.

I got to watch some of the women’s epee teams, which was some great fencing! Two Texas teams made top 8, one of which was in the round of 4 when we left.

Tomorrow is Div II Women’s Epee (my main event) and DH has Div III Men’s Epee (his secondary weapon). We both stand a good chance of doing well, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Summer Nationals

DH and I are leaving in the morning, headed for Grapevine, TX, for Summer Nationals. We’re going to the venue Monday afternoon to shop, get equipment checked, and I’ll have to drop off my (newly-bought-at-that-time) knickers to have my name put on them overnight. I bought my sabre lame and had my name put on it at a NAC less than a month before DH propposed, so it has my maiden name on it. USFA rules require that you have your name on your jacket (epee), lame, or rear knickers leg – my jacket has my married name, but that would be covered by the sabre lame. My old knickers have a USA “splash” on the rear leg, so I can’t even use those for my name. I could buy a lame patch and have the name put on that, but I think the patches look kind of tacky. 😦 Besides, my knickers are snug as they’re almost ten years old at this point, and well, your body changes…

Wish us luck! I’ll try to remember to post here after our events. DH is fencing Div III Men’s Foil on Tuesday. Thursday he is fencing Div II Men’s Foil, and I’ll be doing Div III Women’s Sabre. Saturday, he’s fencing Div III Men’s Epee, and I’ll be doing Div II Women’s Epee (my main weapon), to give you an idea of what is when…

Christmas swap top completed!

I finally made a decision about the borders after much deliberation and several inputs – thanks everyone! I opted for a narrow inner border in cream, with the green holly fabric as a larger outer border. I’m pleased with how it turned out. I’ll probably bind it in either cream or red – or maybe mix it up like a candy cane? That might be too much. We’ll see. I’m glad I finally got this done – I’ve had the borders cut and sitting on my ironing board for a month. It’s about time!

It turned out much larger than I had thought it would be in my head, oh well! I’m holding it up as high as I can, and I’m 5’8″ – DH couldn’t even get it all in the picture. Sorry the color is a bit off, but you can get the idea.

Divisionals

Success!

I came in second today, so I qualified for Div II! Whee! I went 3-1 in pools with a +7 indicator (I should have won the last bout, *sigh*, AND not have given up so many touches!), and was seeded third after pools. I fenced a good friend in the first round and won 15-8, then fenced a girl from San Antonio who was solid but youg and beat her 15-10 (I was ahead 13-8 at the second break and just doubled out) and then lost in the finals 15-8 to a 16 year old who was tougher than expected. I barely missed SO many touches, by like half an inch! Aaargh! It was a fun bout anyways.

DH also qualified for both Divs II/III in both foil and epee. (I’m not eligible for DivI III because I have a “C” rating, even though it’ll drop to a “D” at the end of this season, as Div III is only “D” and under at the time of qualification.) He took second in the foil and third in epee, so yay for him too. Good weekend of fencing at the Ray household…

Miniature Booty Swap Quiltlet

I got my quiltlet done tonight for the Miniature Booty Swap. I’m running a bit behind (today was the mail date), but it’ll go out tomorrow so it should be A-OK. This swap was a kitchen quilt swap – and in addition to the quiltlet, we had to come up with a dishtowel to coordinate. I made a little crocheted one with variegated red/white yarn, to be used as a dishcloth for washing dishes rather than drying them. The yarn started out making kind of a cool pattern, but then it changed. I tried to square it up when done, but alas, no luck. It also has bits of pink where the colors transition…I hope it’s okay!

My partner said she has retro red, white, and yellow in her kitchen, so when I saw the little bee fabric (a 30’s repro I actually LIKE) I knew it was perfect! I like vertical layouts on quilts, but don’t usually make them, so I decided to do it here. I left the inner columns (note: I *hate* that quilting instructions call them “vertical rows”!) shorter on purpose, to draw attention to the vertical aspect. It is just quilted in the ditch, and backing fabric is the WoW of the front, which has little line hearts on it.

Yorick Open

I fenced today in two events of a small tournament. I did okay in the mixed (men and women) epee, but I had to fence my DH in the first round of DE’s! AAARGH. Not cool.

The women’s event was after that. I won all but one bout in pools (there were 7 of us, total), and the last bout I hit the girl but my light didn’t go off. I asked to have my weapon tested, and it was found to not be working so her last (and final) touch was annulled. We go again, and I just missed. DOH! That was the only bout I lost all day in that event, though, as I ended up winning the tournament. I fenced well, but not the best ever; I also didn’t have to work that hard to do well at this particular tournament, which was also a nice feeling.

How was your Sunday?

Another top done!

I started this top about a year ago with the intent of giving it to my friend’s daughter Leah on her first birthday, which is tomorrow (as is the party). You may remember I made this pattern in the same colors, but reversed, awhile back for older sister Shannon’s first birthday. I’ve been so swamped, I knew I wasn’t going to finish in time. Thankfully, Molly (the mom) understands. 😀 I did get the top done tonight, though, so that’s something! I have some fun flamingo fabric for the back (sort of like I did for Shannon’s quilt!) that I’ll take pictures of when the whole thing is complete.

Fabrics close-up:

Sectionals, Day 1

Day one of the tournament…in short, I got “beginnered” in my direct elimination bout in my “main” weapon. I lost 15-14 to a brand new fencer who basically got me on beginner’s luck. It’s so frustrating, because it wasn’t like I lost because of something I did(n’t) do during the bout or got outfenced by someone better. I didn’t qualify for summer nationals this weekend in epee, but I have one more chance in two weeks. The tourney in two weeks isn’t going to be as good though, as I can only qualify for Division II and not Division I-A AND DivII. I’m actually really, really upset about this because a) I didn’t fence poorly today (rather well overall, actually), b) I “kept my head” better at this tournament than I have in a long time, and c) I’ve been working my @$% off all year with weekly private lessons, intensity at practice, etc. for this tournament and fell short. *sigh*

EDIT: I forgot to mention that if I had won that bout, I would have qualified for both Div I-A and II for epee. *groan*

Knocking out UFOs

I got a lot done this weekend with Toni visiting me! First and foremost, I went stash digging and have enough SETS of fabrics for about eight new projects – to be started later, but after some more UFOs get done. She brought a little project for us to do together that was really cute…chicken pincushions! I used the wrong size square so mine is a little bigger and er…dumpier than hers but he’s still cute. 😀 Mine is on the left – of course, if you know either of us, the lime is a “Toni” color and the turquoise is definitely a “me” color!

I also got the top for Cherry Cordial done. I can’t decide if I want to make a wall hanging out of it or use it as a baby quilt. I found some leftover binding from my neutral Jacob’s Ladder quilt and there’s plenty for binding this little quilt. I still need to square up the top – I had to do the corner triangles a little differently, so they’re a little too big…

I made a penguin pillowcase for DH. We have those ergonomic pillows, and they slide out of traditional pillowcases. This one is an envelope style. I left it on the bed to surprise him.

I’ve had this UFO for over a year. I had the blue and red batiks that I thought were so cool. This was originally going to be a baby quilt, but then the gal that it was for quit (we worked together). I didn’t finish it because there wasn’t enough fabric even following the pattern. Fortunately, Toni has this one at her shop AND I found the other one while digging in my stash. 😀 The top is as close to being done as can be at this moment. Toni – the one from the stash will get only the little square missing on the bottom right..

Needleturn Class

I’m taking a needleturn applique class tomorrow with a Deana, yay! I also already had fabrics that were coordinated in my stash that I can use. We’re doing the quiltlet on the bottom right-hand corner of this book:

I am using these fabrics:

I plan on using the cream in the same place as noted in the picture. I don’t want to do the second border of churn dash blocks; I think it overpowers the center and is off-balance. I’ll use the print where the book shows the pink setting triangles, and use the red/orange for the little triangles on the medallion. I think it’ll look good when it’s all said and done. Will post pictures and update tomorrow after class!

Fencing tournament this weekend

DH took some pictures for me. He wasn’t sure what all to take pictures of so keep that in mind. 😀

Here’s all of our gear, before being (mostly) taken out of the bags. The bags are about the same size as a golf bag, to give you an idea of scale. Mine is the bright yellow and grey one, DH’s is the black one.

This is me at the end of getting dressed – the glove is always the last part! I always wear a hat backwards when I fence – it catches sweat, keeps my hair out of my face, and keeps my mask from jiggling around.

I just picked up my epees and was about to head to the floor when DH snapped this picture.

A picture of the venue. This was between events, so there’s not a lot of activity at the moment. The silver things are called strips (also called pistes, the French name) – the “in zone” if you will for the fencing bout. They are 14 meters long by 1 1/2 to 2 meters wide. Two meters at each end are a warning zone – if you can push your opponent all the way off the back end of his side of the strip, you earn a point.

Some members of my club (and me in my fencing gear on the right). The man in the middle wearing a suit is my coach, Paul.

Getting ready to put my mask on. At this point, my weapon has been checked by the referee and the bout is about to begin. DH didn’t get a picture of the next part, which I had specifically asked him to take. 🙄 You must salute your opponent (and if you’re courteous, also the referee, your coach, and the audience) before and after the bout. You also salute if the score becomes tied at match point (4-4 in pool bouts, 14-14 in direct elimination [DE] bouts), called la belle touche (“la belle” for short), or “the beautiful touch.” You also shake your opponent’s hand at the end of the bout.

The bout has begun, but barely so. I just came off of my “on guarde” line. And DH managed to get a picture of me in good form. Most fencers cringe when they see pictures of themselves in action, especially video. This was taken during the DE I won against Karen (also a good fencing friend).

A pirate dummy wearing top of the line fencing gear, made by one of the vendors, Scott. Scott and his wife are good friends of ours. Picture taken for Toni. 😀

Finalists for Senior Women’s Epee. You’re considered a finalist in any tournament if you finish in the top 8. I didn’t have a chance to get my shoes back on before being called up to get my medal, oops! The woman that beat me tied for third – she’s the tall one in the grey sweater. The lady in green (Suzanne) and the one in the navy blue and white jacket, fourth from the left (BJ), are good friends within the fencing community. I had to fence BJ in pools – it was a good bout that went 5-4, to her.

And we saw this great sunset on the way back into Austin!

AAQG Show

The Austin Area Quilt Guild biennial show was this weekend. There were lots of great quilts, including many made by friends and fellow bee-members. I did some volunteer work, including check-out at the end which was crazy hectic. My mom came down on Saturday from Dallas for the show. She behaved herself well overall, but some things are just never going to change…

I found multicolored variegated embroidery floss, which made me very happy! I also got three more mini wholecloth pre-printed quilt tops, a Halloween embroidery pattern, and a needleworked scissor case handmade by a guild member and sold in the boutique (all proceeds go to the guild). I’ll put pictures up tomorrow, as the camera is currently dead and I need to look for the extra batteries.

Here are a few of the quilts. I didn’t get pictures of all of them (there were more than 400!), but I got quite a few and put them up in a Photobucket album.

Here was the Best In Show. It also won Excellence in Design and 1st place in the Art Quilt Category. It was made by Bill Horne, who works at The Quilt Store here in Austin. He’s the first male quilter to win a BIS in Texas!

Here are my two quilts! I met my goal of not getting reamed by the judges. I have a few minor things to work on but overall I got good comments. I even got a “lovely hand stitching” from a judge who is known to have a critical eye for handquilting! Whee!

(My little one blended into the grey curtain, bah.) Not a good picture – can’t see the wholecloth design! Oh well.

Here are my favorite two – the picture came out small on one of them, though:

Here’s a close-up:

This Hawaiian quilt got Excellence in Hand Quilting and 1st in the large applique cateogory. This is my long-term quilting goal – to make a Hawaiian quilt. I can only hope it will be as intricate and beautiful as this one:

Whee!

Three noteworthy things from the weekend:

I got Jöran back! He’s all spiffed up and ready to go now. *cheers* I haven’t had a chance to see how he’s running, but I will tomorrow. I’m glad to have him back. While I love Jenny, my seams are waaaaay more accurate on Jöran.

I finished quilting Cookies & Cream! I am going to block it and get the binding made and sewn on the front tomorrow. It’s almost done, and there is still three and half weeks until the show. Yay!

Only five more blocks to embroider for a siggy swap I’m doing. They’re coming along quickly!

Fun stuff!

I’m not at home this weekend, but I wanted to put up a quick post about fun quilty stuff from this week! I’ll post pictures in a few days, maybe Sunday night.

I need to check my mail more often – I got a surprise package from Toni! She had been collecting lots of cute flamingo things, and packaged them up just for me! Thank you thank you! I have no idea how long they were in my mailbox, as I’m bad about going to get the snail mail unless I know something is coming. 😀

I went to my sewing bee last night. There was a lady who was a dear friend of one of my bee-mates who recently passed away, and the lady’s daughter asked Mary to clear out the woman’s quilting room. Mary said there was TONS and TONS of fabric, and she brought a boatload of it to bee last night. We picked out the red, white, and blue fabrics for some Quilts of Valor, as well as some cute juvenile fabrics for baby bundles. After that, it turned free for all. I got probably twenty yards of fabric…free!

I took Jöran in today for his tune-up and bath. 😀 While I was there, Amber, the girl who sold me my machine, said, “Oh my gosh! I was thinking about you just two days ago, and your group of young quilters that you get together with. Rafaelle here is learning to quilt, and would probably be interested.” Raff and I hit it off instantly, and she’s super excited about coming to Squad. She’s working on her first quilt, a Stack-n-Whack, and is also interested in dyeing fabric. We exchanged information, so I’m going to do my part to keep in touch! Yay for new quilty friends. 😀

The time has come…

…that is, taking Jöran (my Viking Sapphire sewing machine) in to be serviced this weekend. 😦 They said it could take up to two weeks, and is contingent upon not needing new parts (it shouldn’t, it’s less than a year old!), and it’s on a first-come, first-serve basis. I won’t need it over the weekend, as the DH and I will be at a weekend-long LAN party (furkiddos will be kenneled). But man, I feel like I’m checking my right arm into the hospital or something. 🙄 At least I have Jenny, my trusty ’51 Singer, so I can do some piecing while Jöran is away.

I need to start two new projects – both are bright colors, whee!! I’m going cross-eyed looking at the browns and creams. I am halfway done with the quilting on the borders of Color-Blind Coffee, and then it will be ready for blocking and binding! Yay! The show is in about a month and a half, so I’m on schedule.

Need to make birthday blocks tonight.

I signed for Another Little Quilt Swap (ALQS) – read about it here! I’m hoping to meet some new folks in quiltblog land, and maybe get some traffic on this journal besides my two faithful readers. 😉 I love swaps, and I can’t wait to see what my partner wants. I enjoy the challenges with swaps.