Where am I? And why am I not quilting?

I got my brand new embroidery module with the newest software yesterday (after trading in the 'old' one that was mistakenly delivered with my new machine). Rather than quilt last night, I decided to give a first read to the manual in case I was feeling bold enough to whip out the embroidery Saturday. Most likely I won't. I've signed up for a Bernina Embroidery Guide Class on 11/21 so I just may wait until then.

In the meantime, I've got a workshop this weekend with Debbie (Open a Can of Worms) Caffrey, and I badly need to cut about a million 2.5" strips before then. (But not tonight because I've already had half a very dirty martini).

So, instead, I'm going to actually tackle some housecleaning tonight (while listening to Ricky Tims new Christmas CD, which I have been listening to on replay for the past 4 hours...it's interesting, and I'll review it another day....not your traditional Christmas CD).

I'm beginning to think that all of the floors in my house must scream out in pain if someone OTHER THAN ME attempts to wash or vacuum them.....well, except for the dogs, who, I have to admit,  really do a marvelous job of gentle tongue-washing that seems to do a world of good between the old mop and Pine Sol routine (NOT!).

The kitchen tile really needed a good clean (as did the whole kitchen), especially after the plumber cut this gaping hole in the ceiling this afternoon.

So right now, you walk into my kitchen and you see:

the lovely polished granite countertop with polished cabinets, and then your eye wanders upwards and you

wonder what the heck animal is going to fall out of that hole in the ceiling on you.

We've had a bit of a leak problem for a couple of weeks, so today it took a $95 plumber to cut  my ceiling open to determine that my leaking problem was caused by the 'not so-handyman' who installed our shower 2 years ago and used the wrong grout and never sealed it---so now when the water hits the shower wall, it's Victoria Falls in the kitchen. Nothing three quarters of a thousand dollars won't fix next week. :)

Lesson learned....NEVER hire a friend/relative/guy in your softball league to do any kind of home repair/remodeling job. You will live to regret it.

Okay, enough mindless non-creative chit chat. I'm craving more olives, and the family room

is screaming for the vacuum.

Not to mention my little 4-legged furry floor-washers are becoming quite impatient as it's now solid 45 minutes past their dinner time--the horror!. (Brats!)

Tomorrow.

An organized start on the 2nd quilt from one jelly roll, as I careen out of control in all other tasks

Don't you love these blocks? I decided to skip the 9 patch and just cut triangles so I could make these blocks from the remaining strip sets. I had enough to put together 18 blocks, and I squared them up as 7.25 inches (I know, weird number, but does it really matter?)

I'm going to cut 18 blocks from my parchment colored cotton and either set these on point or stagger them checkerboard style, Then I'll add a wide border and I'll have another throw to gift.  Tomorrow I'll cut the parchment blocks. Tonight I've got a stack of magazines on the nightstand I'd like to dive into before I feel the need to recycle them unread because they're out of date.  I bought two magazines today at the grocery store that weren't quilt magazines....imagine that!

At some point I need to do some housecleaning, change out my closet, assess the Christmas decorating plan, work on a gift list and do a whole mess of household paperwork, but I'm just not feeling it. There's way too many fun things to be doing in my off time. I seem to have lost all resolve....I'm ignoring housework, starting and not finishing craft projects, not watching my diet, haven't made any doctor/dentist appointments that are due, I'm avoiding a major home repair task.....somewhere along the line, I've fallen off the runaway train that is my life. Must find a way to get back on, as I'm headed nowhere fast right now and this will not do with the upcoming holidays.

Hopefully I can turn things around by the weekend, it is, after all, only Tuesday. (phew!)

Sunday's progress

The triangle in the center is what we are working with. The one on the left will be used in another project, and that is going to create my favorite block, which I think I'm going to make a lot of. You'll see this in the next top. The remaining 3-strip piece on the right will become 9 patch blocks.

I cut 4 triangles from each strip set. I then laid out pairs, being careful to match each pair together having different patterned small triangles at the top (because we cut half with the ruler in one direction and flipped the ruler for the other two, we've got 2 iterations of each triangle).

Then I sewed the pairs together to make a big triangle and carefully pressed...this project has been one big experiment in careful pressing, and it looks it.

And then I sewed the pairs of pairs together to make big squares...

which I sewed  together to make a top (which is sideways here, unless the man behind the quilts is lying down on the job)

Finally I added a border, and unhappy  with how it was sizing up, I sewed a bunch of charm squares together to make another border and am debating adding one more final solid color border to finish it off.

Busy bee yesterday. It's cute. No work of art by any means, certainly not my style, but I'm sure someone will like their gift when it's done. And I got to experience Quilt in a Day and using triangles to cut. And I got to use Mary Engelbreit fabric (The Caroler), so it was a bunch of firsts which equate to a good overall learning experience.

Now I need to finish up using the rest of the strips and charm squares so I can move on to using my Moda Woodland Blossoms and make something a little less cutesy for my SIL's beach house for Christmas.

Waiting on a new embroidery module for the 440 (the one that came with it had very old software--2 versions back from what is current--don't ask... apparently Bernina doesn't quite understand the concept of qualtiy control), so the dealer is just going to call Bernina and have them send a whole new package--module, carry bag, software...which is certainly what I would expect for what I paid for this.

In the meantime, I've got ants in my pants to embroider, and I'm also anxiously awaiting my SewSteady table to arrive so I can commence to quilting using my SewSlip mat and Quilt Halo. (It's murder having new toys and not being able to play with them). I suppose I could be online looking for what I want in a netbook to run this software on, but I'm hoping to put the hubs on that for me (and unfortunately he gets to things in his own time, unlike me who would have had it ordered and delivered by now--seriously, you're watching the Redskins when you could be on the HP site building me a notebook?).

Check back tomorrow and see what I accomplish tonight from the Eleanor Burns mess (as soon as I get my desk cleared off). Though I have in hand two 'Mastering Your Bernina' workbooks and may opt to sharpen a couple of  No. 2s and play student for the rest of the night.