There was some thunder and lightning going on late last night shortly after I had gone to bed. Oscar was whining in his crate and I was bound and determined he was not getting out of there. Maybe I should have to just soothe him somehow but I can't start reversing the message he has been getting about that. He has been doing much better about that lately. Anyway, between the storm (only got 1/4 inch of rain so sound and fury mostly) and such, I slept for a couple of hours, woke at 3 and stayed awake till 5 or so. Went back to sleep and next thing I knew it was 9:30. YIKES!
I had laid off all last week from walking and trying to get in the swing of thing this week. To be honest, I really didn't feel like going after 10:30 am but did it anyway. Fortunately there was some shade in the park and a little bit of a breeze, not too muggy. Breakfast was at 1130, lunch at 3 and who knows about supper at this rate? Here it is 6 p.m. already! Oscar thinks we should go walk but we just did that at 4. I was hoping to hold him off till about 7 but that high pitched whine may force the issue.
Robert mowed again on Monday and just like last time, the camellia bush was covered in grass clippings. I raked it up and thought I was clean up the worst of the piles in the front yard. I was only out there for an hour and got three heaping wheelbarrows full of grass. Yesterday I raked up another swath alongside the road--approx 75 feet by 6 ft. and another load of grass to dump in the kudzu. Amazingly, I only got one fire ant bite and a little sunburned where my walking shirt did not cover the back of my neck and shoulders. This raking is totally out of character for me though. I am not an outside girl. I can appreciate that there IS an outside but everything I like to do is inside. Nor am I likely to want to do the whole yard anyway. The lot is an acre and all of it didn't look that horrid. I'm thinking it is where the concentric rounds of mowing come together and that's why the stuff mounds up. Sound right?
Customer Service from Electric Quilt emailed me back in response to my note about not being able to install EQ6 on the way to EQ 7 installation. Turns out my EQ7 Upgrade did not need to have 5 or 6 installed after all. I could remove those and/or not install 6 as the disc would install the full featured program I needed. I did not know that! What I needed was the EQ6 license number and password information in order to proceed and an internet connection. It DID mess me up on my authorization/validation thing though as you are only allowed the software to be installed on two computers at a time. I did not think to deactivate the notebook when I re-set it over the weekend. However, that was quickly resolved with a call to EQ. I recognized that I was talking to Penny McMorris who I remember from her early days on TV. EQ has been around for 25 years now! I've been using it since version 4 and 98 when I got my first computer. I was then able to do the two subsequent upgrades from the website as well as download the free monthly fabric files and the monthly project they post.
I have been drawing in EQ a good bit recently. Donna called and needed me to print off the foundation pattern for a Fall Leaf she wanted to make for the upcoming retreat. This one was called "Not Your Mother's Maple Leaf" on the Generations Quilt Patterns site. She couldn't print apparently but needed the sheets. I couldn't see where the link was TO print it off so I found the block in BlockBase #1740 attributed to Aunt Martha publications but this one had an appliqued stem. A little tweaking and I could print off what she needed to complete the block.
Another drawing project was finishing up what I started last week. I had resized Camille Roskelley's Framed design from Simply Retro to possibly use it with charm packs at the center. Okay, that would work but now I wanted the book version to be non-square! I wanted a printout and a better idea of how big the quilt would be once finished. Done and done.
Lastly, I had gotten a Brighten Up!Jolly Bar ( half a layer cake in essence 5 x 10) from the Fat Quarter Shop. The fabric designed by Me and My Sister is so bright and fun I could not pass it up for a great-grand quilt or donation quilt. These always come with a free pattern. The link will show you the one included with the Brighten up for a "Step It Up Quilt". I like it but I like the one that comes with the Garden Gate Quilt kit better! I recognize this as being just a larger version of the Missouri Star Zipper Quilt Tutorial on youtube. However, it is older than that as something quite similar (in the finished product anyway) is in M'liss Rae Hawley's Fat Quarter Quilts and called "Broken Bricks" published by Martingale in '99. Garden Gate just puts them in columns with sashing or borders and possibly treats them as blocks. That's how I would piece it anyway. Judy Martin had one similar on her free Block of the Month August 2003, maybe a bit more elongated.
Anyway I've got it drawn up for my "road map". Early this afternoon I cut out the 5 inch squares and sashing yardage I will need to make my version. I AM going to sew tomorrow even if this was not on my radar at this time last week. I want to play with some fun fabric and sewing something that will not require a lot of thinking or planning. I don't want to work on something I "hafta" do, just something I want to do for a couple days. There is a difference! I spot mopped a bit so the kitchen floor is okay for now. While I was cutting and had the white background fabric out, I cut out one QOV block for the fall retreat from bits off the end of the 5 inch strips mostly and bagged it up. The other bright blue is for binding on the Framed I cut out last week.
Sewing. No vacuuming, no laundry as I did that already--yesterday. I spot mopped a bit so the kitchen floor is okay for now. No meetings, only one outside appointment other than walking. Grocery run can even wait another day or two, I think.
Tuesday evening I took my notebook with me thinking I would finish drawing up the Framed project and left my quilt I am supposed to be binding out in the car "just in case". As it turned out bringing the computer was a good plan. Stacy is working on her chevron quilt and needed a little guidance. There was some question about the layout (the blocks are on point). Do you start with one or two blocks and how many more blocks or rows/ripples did she need to get to the size quilt she was aiming for? I couldn't print off the diagram but I could email her a pdf file to help with the layout, widening it if she wanted to go that route. We also talked about cutting the quarter square setting triangles and why you do it that way instead of half square triangles. The pattern printout that I had given her a few weeks ago from my files Happy Zombie Super Zig gave us the size to cut them though hers were slightly smaller chunks. Can always trim it down once the top is complete! Margarita had not been feeling well last week at Belles and brought me a couple of goodies for my bday---peach preserves and more of her delicious bread and butter pickles! Guess I'm still celebrating a week later.
Wendell called me yesterday with a question about the two quilt tops I had given him to long arm as comfort quilts back in June. His notes had gotten cold. You may recall that this was the Charming Boxes block I had taught the girls at the spring retreat and then I took the resultant blocks, made more for a donation top. He was getting ready to load the quilt yesterday and had a question about the D9P I had finished up for Aline. Jane had invited me to breakfast with the radio club tomorrow as Wendell and Valerie (his wife) will be there. I told him if the quilt was done I could pick it up then. Since they had been out of pocket for a good bit of June and July, I told him that the treadle could wait till later in the month or into next month even so he could get caught up a bit. This all means I will have another one to bind but it is all prepped and ready to go on anyway.
Guess that is about it for this installment. Oscar keeps whining and I am not at all sure what the problem is. He goes out and wants in. He whines by the door but doesn't want out. I don't know if he just wants some attention, doesn't feel good or what, Did the same thing last night. SIGH. Maybe he knows more storms are coming? Who knows? I'll see if some one on one will get him to quit.
This time of year I get really tired, too. This year it is worse because of all the forest fires we have. It puts all that smoke and ash in the air and I am one of those people that gets sick from it. The biggest fire is going to burn until the snow starts to fall in late October.
ReplyDeleteI thought maybe I had dreamed about that rainstorm as I didn't see any water on the ground the next morning. I suppose it all became muggy humidity.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised when I called EQ tech support that I got Penny on the line also. She was great and fixed my problem immediately.