Class, class.... please may have your attention....

Okay.... don't worry! This whole homeschooling thing hasn't really gone to my head!

But I do have a couple of things that I wanted to 'teach' you all today....

Firstly, I so appreciate the comments that readers leave for me and I try to answer each and every one of those comments, especially when I am asked a question.

But sometimes, I can't reply to a comment/question because I receive a "no-reply-comment"..... which means that the reader has their blogger profile set so that I can't see their email address. I certainly respect a reader's privacy but I bet many readers are not even aware that they have their profile set like this.

So....if you are so inclined, let me 'teach' you how to change that setting....

First, you need to locate your Blogger Dashboard.....

Mine looks like this....

Then, in the left upper corner (mine is near my icon/avatar/picture),  you will click on 'Edit Profile.'

When you get to "Edit User Profile"..... click on the box that says, "Show my email address"

and at the bottom of that page, click on save settings!

So now, when you ask me a question, I can answer you personally!!!!

And talking about questions.... I had several questions on how I made my quilted circles on my waverunner quilt and so now I will 'teach' you how.

Class...

....you will need some sort of marking pencil or pen that fades or erases and some kind of circle stencil with circles of various sizes (I picked my stencil up at Staples)...

I start off with smaller circle and then move to a larger circle and without making complete circles, sketch out a spiral so that I have some idea how to start....

 Not sure that makes sense but there is a photo to help (okay... so I am not the best teacher you have ever had!!!)

I, then, set up my machine for free motion quilting with my quilting/darning foot, feed dogs down, adjust my tension and pull up the bobbin thread to the top.


After I do a few stitches in place to start, I begin to roughly follow the spiral that I sketched out...


like so.....

It is by no means rocket science (I don't teach that!)....

I spiral around several rounds before...

I stop my needle down (in the fabric), change my quilting foot to my walking foot, engage my feed dogs again, make sure my tension is okay.....

I then begin moving my walking foot around in circles, using the side of the foot against the previous line (or circle, as the case may be!) of stitching...

For my waverunner quilt, I made my circles overlap and used different colors of threads ...

Questions?????

Okay.... Class dismissed!!!!

Time is flying by.... (or trying to keep my head above water!)

Where does the time go????

It has been a busy week and all of a sudden, it is Thursday and I have not blogged!!!!

Recap....

many, many leaves were raked....



Sugarbaby, Nature Boy, and I went on a field trip to a nearby creamery (really learned a lot!) ...



and got a close look at the calves (about 3 months old) too....



saw a lot of wonderful old houses along the way....



enjoyed some nice fall weather (okay, you may not think 46 degrees is warm but in November in upstate NY, 46 degrees feels good in the evening!) ....



but wait a minute!!!!

Didn't I say it was fall????!!!

Tuesday night (that is, November 10), I spotted someone hanging the Christmas lights at a building (what???) ...



and a house nearby has had these decorations up and bloated for about a week (and I haven't even started making my holiday gifts... yikes!!!)!



Seems I may have lost track of time!!!

So...... after the landlording, homeschooling, mothering, wife-ing, I found some time in the sewing room and worked on this Quacker Quilt....



thanks to LauraJ who inspired me with her wonderful quilt and gave me some info on the Duck, Duck, Goose panel.



(Hope to have it done in time for yet another fundraiser coming up. )

I whipped (well, okay.. dyed) up a half yard of this luscious version of midnight blue (needed some for a binding) ...



...to use on this... my Waverunner Quilt... which is now done!!!!!



I am really happy that I ripped out the original quilting and went with my initial idea of concentric circles...



The bottom of the sleeve has to be tacked down....



but there are only so many hours of good lighting (it is fall, you know!) ...



Trying to get on to my next quilt-a-long project soon!

And what a mother won't do for her child....



Yes, I truly am...


(Back soon! Before winter!)

Spin 'Round!

I am all spun around!

Bet you young 'uns didn't know that more than 20 years before Flo Rida, there was Dead or Alive! I am getting old!

And you know you are getting old when you go to the Google home page today and you find a couple of Big Bird feet to celebrate Sesame Street's 40th anniversary (yup... I remember when they started on television!)

So this morning, very early this morning (Hey! I gotta find some time to quilt!!! so quilting time happens before the gym and before starting my day with the kids), after settling down with my cup of coffee, I stared awhile up at my ongoing Quilt-A-Long project....

....and I decided that I did not like my quilting AT ALL!!!

I figured that I wouldn't be able to look at this piece hanging on our family room wall without it bugging me!

So... now I am all spun 'round!

I am running in circles now! OY!

I guess I have some ripping out in the near future!

Yup, that's me...

Dealing with the unexpected...

Everyday is a new adventure, and yesterday, was no exception!

The kids were all ready for Halloween....



And even though the clouds just hovered about most of that warm fall day...



we were not expecting the wind to pick up and the rain to fall (heavily at times) in the late afternoon! Yuck! Who wants to trick-or-treat in that kind of weather???!!!

Luckily, it was only drizzling on occasion by nighttime.

Well, the 'U' kids got all set in their costumes, and Nature Boy and his friend took off into the night leaving an unhappy Sugarbaby at home.

And so....I left the dinner dishes to take her out trick-or-treating.

Off we went... barely down the driveway.... into the night.... when we encountered a huge gust of wind which blew off Sugarbaby's hippy afro wig into a large puddle! UGH!!!

So.. back up the driveway and into the house for a costume change (goodness knows how many costume possibilities we have!) and headed out again....which by then was close to 7 PM!!! Being a Saturday night, many neighbors were not at home and after 45 minutes we headed home.

Not the large stash of candy she expected...



but she seemed happy enough!

Thanks to everyone who submitted their input to my survey and posted comments on how to quilt my waverunner quilt top...



After ripping out some trial runs (4 times!!!), I unexpectedly decided to adapt a suggestion by Mathea....



and this is how it looks so far...



Every so often, I am tempted to rip it out a 5th time but I am plugging along!

I am also planning to join Kellie's Quilt-a-long too and so have got to draft my pattern soon!

Have a good week! Not sure what to expect....

With a little help from my friends!!!

Yes.... I need your help, friends!!!

My waverunner quilt top is done!!!!



But I am not sure how to quilt this piece!

So... here is where I need your help!!!

Choice #1...Skewed straight line quilting...



Choice #2...Straight line grid quilting....




Choice #3...Wonky grid quilting...



Choice #4...Connector quilting...

Or, Choice #5...Concentric circle quilting...

...which is kinda risky since I haven't done circles before (the above example is from a doll quilt I received).

Sooo... now I need your input...I have a survey posted in the top left hand corner of my blog page. Help me out, please, by taking my survey!

Thanks!

And no... I didn't forget my second giveaway announcement!

Hey Barb! You won!!!

The Three R's...

Reviewing.....



(I am having to dig down deep to remember my days studying these subjects... some come easier than others... and some don't come at all- especially US History which I am only learning now that I live south of the border!)

Running....




(even though I don't have to get Sugarbaby off early to the bus, Mr. U and I still rise at about the same early time each day and I head off to the gym!)

Refining...



(I wasn't crazy about how my quilt-a-long piece looked, so I flipped it on its side and added one more strip of wavy goodies!)

See you soon!



PS I will announce the winner of my second giveaway on Friday!

Here's the scoop...

...things are going swimmingly here!

This weekend, I spent some time in the kitchen trying out some new recipes that were well received...



Mr. U enjoyed some hiking...



..while Sugarbaby, a friend and I went to the movies on a rainy Saturday afternoon (note to self... stay home and watch movies with the lights on and needlework in my hands or else....)

I really enjoyed working on Victoria's Quilt-a-Long...



... I have some ideas for the finish but not sure if I will be able to easily execute the idea buried in my brain!

In the meantime, as I promised...



...today is the day I announce the winner of my wonky haunted house...



So.....



Marit... congratulations! Give me a holler with your snail mail and I will get this off to you right away!

Friday I will announce the winner of the coneflower basket hanging!

Until then, I will continue scooping away!!!