Powerless or Powerful???

What do you do when your power's off for 6 hours and you're all alone???? That was the question I faced Wednesday. SCE sent a notice out saying the power would be shut off from 9am-4pm for some maintanence work. I was hoping it wouldn't happen. Afterall it was forecasted to be the hottest day of the week... upper 90's... uuuggghhhh! I couldn't get on the computer  :(  ... or sew (the horror!)... or watch tv  :(  ... or vaccuum (I could do without that) or do laundry (another thing I wouldn't miss!). I considered going back to bed and sleeping all day.... naaaaa.... can't do that! So what did I do??? I cut... and cut... and cut... and pinned... and cut some more. My rotary cutter was rotary afterall!  :)  I used the light of the sun... listen to the radio on my cell phone... and cut... I actually got a lot done! I didn't really take pictures of the cutting (I don't know why) but I did take them before the cutting and after the cutting. I'd like to share my progress with you now.


PROJECT 1:  Happy Quilting Stars Quilt-A-Long Quilt...

Tuesday was the 'getting the quilt top together day'. I layed my striped backing fabric on the floor and then figured out the layout for the quilt top. I had made 36 stars but ended up only using 24 for the quilt. I will use the other 12 for a future project or projects. Here's the layout I came up with...

Then I took them to the table and cut them all down to a wonky 12-1/2" before sewing them all together. Here's the completed top without the borders...

Wednesday (no power day) I cut the two borders for the quilt top. I used part of the striped backing sheet for the first 1" wide border. Then the batik for the larger border. When the power was restored around 3 (an hour early... yeah!) I sewed the borders on... made dinner... ate... then finished the quilt top! This is actually my first real quilt. All I've made before this are runners, pot holders and a couple of mug rugs. Here it is!  :)

Here's a close up so you can see the borders better. I'm going to use one of the purple prints, from the stars, for the binding. I think it will really set it off.

PROJECT 2:  Fat Quarter Stars Quilt-A-Long...

This Quilt-A-Long started on Tuesday, September 27. There will only be one new star every other Tuesday... very easy to handle! Here are the fabrics I'll be using...

The large brown floral print fabric at the bottom of the above picture is another vintage sheet I found. I'll be using it for the backing and maybe a border. On Wednesday (no power day)... I cut the fabric for the 1st star block. Thursday I managed to get it pieced together. I'm on time with this one... yeah! It was both frustrating and fun to work with those tiny inside star pieces.  :)

PROJECT 3:  Birdie's Stitches Block of the Month...

I came across the Block of the Month way late (it began in January), but I just have to do it! It's too cute! If you don't know what I'm talking about you really need to go and check it out here. I picked out my fabrics last week and ordered them. I choose Moda's new Sophie line by Chez Moi. The charm packs arrived last week and the yardage arrived Tuesday. It's so yummy!!!! I loved it online and love it even more in person! It's so rich! I love the pink, red and aqua, plus the other colors aren't too bad either! ;) 

Here are the fabrics I'm using... from left to right...

• Backing... Pink Sorbet Paisley Floral
• Binding... Tomato Soup Simple Flower
• Border... Blue Fiesta Leafy Swirl
• Sashing... Moda Bella Broadcloth in Betty's Pink
• Border around Center Squares... Sophie charm packs
• Center Squares... Moda Bella Broadcloth in Ivory

I spent a lot of time cutting these on Wednesday (no power day). I almost hated to cut into the fabric. It's so pretty! I cut 280, 2-1/2" squares out of the charm packs. I actually only needed 240 but I messed up. I decided to go with the flow and cut two extra of the 8-1/2" center squares, so 14 in total. The quilt only uses 12 so I'll have two extra to use for something else later.  :)  When I was done cutting it all I started pinning them together so I'd be ready when the power came on.  :)

I actually didn't work on this again until Thursday because I wanted to finish the Happy Quilting's Stars Quilt-A-Long quilt top first.  :)   On Thursday I started sewing all those little squares together. I worked on them most of the day. Before dinner I had them all sewn together into groups of 4 and 6. They are now ready to sew onto the center square. Hopefully I'll work on that on Friday. After I get them done I'll pick out my embroidery floss and begin stitching.  :)

I did layout one of the squares so I could see how it would look. I like it!  :)

I actually accomplished quite a bit the last few days. I guess the power outage wasn't so bad afterall. I still have those two aprons (for me!) all cut out and ready to sew, but I didn't get to them this week. Oh well... maybe next week.  :)  I have so many things I want to make right now. It's really hard staying focused.

For me sewing & quilting has given me a new purpose and renewed energy in life. It's just what I needed. Thank you for inspiring me, visiting me and checking out what I have going on. I really appreciate it and you!

Have a Fabulous Friday!

Until next time...
Cherise  :)