Day 2 "It's All About Me" Blog Hop

Now I am just up and barely at it, trying to get my eyes past half mast.  Some mornings there is not enough coffee in the world, know what I mean?   BUT after yesterday's cool interpretation of the Amy Bradley pattern I cannot wait to see more!

Here is the schedule if you want to hop along


Wednesday, February 20

Buzzing and Bumbling
Cherries Prairie Primitives
Kwilty Pleasures
Sew On And So Forth
Sew. Darn. Quilt.
A Stitch In Time
Doodling In My Mind
Moosestash Quilting
Susie's World

And on another unrelated subject---I imported all the older archived material BACK into this original blog area.  Since I discovered that I was using far less of my available photo storage space, there was no need to keep maintaining two sites.  Danged blogger sometimes.  However it did occur to me that I can download some of the "lost in a computer crash pictures" in the old stuff. , LOL  maybe I should be happy they DO keep pictures in an odd way!

Tuesday this and that

 There is not a whole lot of productivity going on around here but that is partially because my main project is hand work.

Actually I feel more curling up and taking a nap like Skyler.  Once the winter moisture condensation settles down on the window frame DJ and I will displacing Skyler from his favorite perch to scrap and paint the window sill and get this thing re-seated properly.  The velcro band that holds it in place is half on and half off with the sheer from him jumping from the bed to the perch.    Recently we had to make him get off of there as the thing was hanging at a wonky angle and we were afraid he would soon find himself on the floor!   We got the supplies needed on a store run today.

Not to give too much away of the "Stitch Me Up" blog hop that will run from March 20-29th this is the project I chose from the group of 8 patterns.  Oh there were other choices but this one just appealed to me more and may go with some other collected patterns in the long run.  There is lots and lots of stitching to be done!  I am a little further along than when I took this picture on Sunday but it  WILL take some time.  Jane, Aline and I plan to go to our guild sew-in on Saturday rather than all three days and I know this is what I will be working on.  Not only will it prevent having to lug the sewing machine and attendant supplies but this needs to be moved along.

I did a bit of knitting last night after laying off for about a week or so.  I had started this same hat once before with the needles called for and thought it looked huge for supposedly age 8 to 12 head.  I dropped down to 10's from the 11's and I still think it looks a little big.   I've done enough rows (11) to establish the pattern and am about half way to the crown shaping.  TV viewing time project.

I am off to see what the participants have done for the current blog hop "It's All About Me".  I hope that you will join me!  Some may have giveaways but to me the best part is seeing the eye candy!!

Here is today's list of participants-----

Tuesday, February 19


Just Let Me Quilt
Sunshine Quilting
Karen at That Other Blog
Grammie Q
Gracie Oliver Arts
Marjorie's Busy Corner
SnippetsNScraps
Sowing Stitches
Pigtales and Quilts
Stitchin'ByTheLake

Have fun!

"It's All about Me" Blog Hop, Feb. 19-Feb. 28

It is about to start! I have been talking about it off and on for weeks. My piece is done but waiting to be shown on the final day of the Blog Hop, under the guidance of  Madame Samm at Sew We Quilt and Marlene our head cheerleader at Stitchin'ByTheLake. Thanks ladies for all you do on our behalf!

The hop runs from February 19 to February 28 so I hope you will bookmark the schedule list and then stop by to see how others have interpreted this cute, "designed especially for the hop" Amy Bradley design. Big shout out to Amy Bradley as well!

So here is the full schedule ---

Tuesday, February 19

Just Let Me Quilt
Sunshine Quilting
Karen at That Other Blog
Grammie Q
Gracie Oliver Arts
Marjorie's Busy Corner
SnippetsNScraps
Sowing Stitches
Pigtales and Quilts
Stitchin'ByTheLake


Wednesday, February 20

Buzzing and Bumbling
Cherries Prairie Primitives
Kwilty Pleasures
Sew On And So Forth
Sew. Darn. Quilt.
A Stitch In Time
Doodling In My Mind
Moosestash Quilting
A Patchwork Life
Vickie at That Other Blog
Susie's World

Thursday, February 21

Kris Loves Fabric
The Quilting Alleycat
Cat Patches
Bumbleberry Stitches
Chickadee's Country Cottage Crafts
 In Stitches and Seams
Why-Knot-Kwilt
Quilting Unleashed
Rosemary at That Other Blog
Thimblemouse & Spouse
Sew Many Yarns

Friday, February 22

A Little Bit of Lorene
Life In The Scrapatch
Boston Bits
I Love Wool
Patchouli Moon Studio
As Sweet As Peaches
Just Quilt It
Grandmama's Stories
The Slow Quilter
Robin at That Other Blog
Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

**You get the weekend off to rest up or catch up--whatever the case may be!!  LOL**

Monday, February 25

Quilting Lines
Mountain Delights
Jane's Fabrics and Quilts
The Fuzzy Hat Quilter
Ramblings of an Empty Nester
NautiStitcher
Quilt Doodle Designs
Living Life
Freemotion By The River
The German Mom
Spoilt Dog Quilts

Tuesday, February 26

Pat Sloan's Blog
To Love Handmade
Feathered Nest Studio
Selina Quilts
Gypsy Dreamer Quilts
Sheila's Quilt World
Meadowbrook
13 Woodhouse Road
Zellerwear
Stitches of Love
Janice at That Other Blog
In the Sewing Basket

Wednesday, February 27

The Passions of Cliodana
Quilt Mamas
Marathon Quilter
Marla's Crafts
Fiber Babble
Simple Sew
Sewn Seabees
Charlotte at That Other Blog
Nini's Patchwork
Charlotte's Creations
Ipiece2-Mary
My Spoolish Art


The last day Thursday, February 28

Cherry Blossoms
Hill Valley Quilter
Dachsies With Moxie
I Like To Quilt
Quilt Smiles
More Stars in Comanche
Tea Time Creations
Shedding the Wolf
Life, Quilts and a Cat Too  --- YOU ARE HERE!
Judy at That Other Blog
Madame Samm

Stay tuned!!

Checking in

It has been a fairly uneventful morning and day of it so far.  We got the laundry done, ran out for a biscuit and coffee mid-morning.  I was working on a scheduled post for the blog hop next week, making sure that the links would be active.  I finished up the embellishments I wanted to do on MY entry.   I cannot show it to you yet and my assigned day is not until the final day, the  28th.   Now what? 

Oh, I can think of a couple things I could start working on as there is another blog hop next month, a stitchery one, that I will need to make something to show.  The Friendship Quilters fabric sample challenge will need to be done as well though I have till April. I could button hole applique the Halloween Button Up while I have the correct machine out but somehow I think not.  That "deadline" is too far off, not a priority.  I could do the kites for the "Seasons in a Row"  for the row of the month though required by March 9th. 

 I could/should type up the LAST meeting's minutes, come to think of it.   I was also going to send out an email to Bama Belles with a couple ideas I had for future meetings if they want to join along.  AND I am getting a "to be quilted" stack again but I know I will wait on this till I am off activity restrictions as I need to move machines and tables and all that good stuff around to be able to take care of any of these.  

Oh, one other thing to add to my list----I had recently gotten a used copy of Patti R. Anderson's EQ Pieced Drawing.   I have never made it all the way through the EQ6 User manual and its lessons.  Even though I have used EQ for years there is always something changed between versions and I could be more proficient in it.  The Anderson book builds on the lessons in the manual so I was going to start there first.  You can teach an old dog new tricks.  Don't have to do it today of course but maybe plan a couple hours each week to play.

Here at home:
We were down to the low 30's this morning though we have a couple nights of 20's and a high of only 40 some coming up.  Today it was up close to 60 so DJ got his tree cutting tools out and went out to deal with a couple more trunks of that awful Chinese Privet.  The piece he is working on is actually two that almost fused but the last branch standing.  He was down to three last week so there has been some progress.  The burn pile is heaped up so there is no place to put the more recent cuttings. 

Those trunks are thick!  He said a hand ax just bounces off the trunk and the chain saw is not working.  At some point he will ask the across the lane neighbor to get his Kubota tractor/endloader back here and yank this thing out.  Where you see the bare spot in around the trunks is the surface area this thing took up.  He needs it gone so he can get around between the kudzu bank and the yard to mow the extra lot of our property. 

Here is what I mean by kudzu bank.  It is dormant now but it won't be come late spring.  I don't know how much you can see about the relationship to the hill and the road down below but they cut through the hill on both sides to make the road.  The lane that our house is on USED to be the main road years ago.    We look out the back yard and are level with the two houses across the road.

 And here is Skyler sunbathing in the bedroom window, catching that afternoon sun.

The next thing I know it will be time to fix dinner.  I have gotten off kind of easy on the cooking deal this week.  The freezer provided a couple of meals, I had quilt group, we were out to Cracker Barrel for lunch on Valentine's Day.  What we would have had for lunch ordinarily became supper.  No such luck tonight though.  I'm thinking Seafood Creole maybe or go Asian with a shrimp stir fry.

And so it goes-----

organizing, or trying to

Bev had a cute little snapware stackable portable storage organizer for some of her supplies  yesterday.   Since I was making a Hobby Lobby run and had a 40% off coupon, I looked to see if I could find one.  Well, I found two.  I told Bev on Facebook that she had influenced me but it was leading to serial cleaning.  Should I blame her or thank her??

Once home, I re-organized some things that sit on the sewing room cutting and pressing table.  Move one thing and you end up doing more than you first planned.   On the left are the two units filled and stacked.  The art type supplies are now corralled from three different locations in their own container.    The neutral threads fit in the other along with a few other little quilting doo dads.     A few other items were shifted around but I may look into getting another one or two of these down the line.  Live with this arrangement for a time.

Because this container used to contain the neutral thread, I was able to combine all five of my machines bobbins and extra feet (in some cases) back in it.  It now lives where the embroidery floss used to be on the book shelves with the additional threads. 

The embroidery floss went on the TV stand shelf.  The new TV set up only requires a small, small box.  My old DVD player was not working so it was removed from the unit---whadya know?  Shelf space is open.  There is one more floss box, maybe another that is committed to a specific project.  I would love to have something similar to a office in/out files thing to shelve them all but I am not sure where it would "live"  if I had one.  This will do for now.

And because the desk needed attention after shifting some of the art supplies etc, the 3 ancient broken baskets were replaced after a run to the dollar store.  Stuff was tossed, papers sent through the shredder and I can actually see the bottom of the pull out drawer....usually I just open the drawer and stuff something in and it gets lost in a dark hole, LOL till I can't stand it anymore..  

The lower larger desk drawer was dealt with as well.  I still need to address the 2 drawer file but I cannot fully open the drawer with the sewing machine table sitting where it currently is.  I hate to ask DJ to move it especially since I still need the machine that is sitting in it.  Two days ago I had to have him come in and move three machines all around the room.  I don't want to repeat that if I can avoid it.  Yes, he would help me if I asked especially since he wants me to behave and have a good surgical result too.  It can wait.  I need to finish my blog hop entry anyway.

DJ and I will be going out for lunch tomorrow.  Yeah, I know it is Valentine's Day and maybe he is expected to do so but we just had an anniversary a few weeks ago so we tend to celebrate it rather than a made for the card companies and florists holiday.  He sort of surprised me when he mentioned his plans when I got home from quilting yesterday.  Fine with me though as we rarely eat out.

I made him some peanut butter blossom cookies today with Hershey's kisses (get it?) but he had to help me with the oven detail.  He was helping me put the chocolates into the hot from the oven cookies.  It is rare to have any assistance in the kitchen but again, he will help if I ask and give specific instructions as to what I want done. Most of the time, we would just be getting in each other's way. 

I'll get back to the machine cover tomorrow----three sides are together but the back needs to be added to the mix and the binding applied to the bottom edge.  Close!  After that I need to be turning my attention to get started on a blog hop that follows in late March called "Stitch Me Up"  The current hop is "Hugs and Kisses February 11-15th so they are three days in!  I haven't had a chance to go visit any of the participants--- yet.  See Sew WE Quilt for all the information. 

Meeting day

Bama Belles met yesterday with a good turnout in spite of the weather! It was clear for a bit at arrival time but the rains came back just in time for lunch and departure time for some of the group. I think there were 12 or 13 of us, including a guest.

Teresa and her sister Judy were working on Teresa's Accu-quilt Go Baby cutting some charm squares Judy needs for her next project. Judy is presently hand quilting her first quilt! Teresa is working on cutting big yo yo's for a bedrunner project right now. Julie and Bev were working on binding. Julie had hoped to her project to be on a guest room bed since company is coming---soon! You'll see the quilt in a minute. Aline was doing hand work as was our guest, Valera. Donna was helping at the pinning table along with Beverly, Lois, Jane and me with others stepping in to help. Janet may have been the only one sewing and was putting borders on a lovely small quilt. Pat and Ada were keeping us all company. Rosa was busy at the ironing board but I didn't see what exactly she was working on. I spotted her with some fabric that looked like swiss cheese though---maybe applique???

So let's see what the gang was up to.   Beverly's Tons of Black Challenge piece was turned in and Jane flipped the corner so you could see the fun backing fabric she used.  Brenda had donated some yardage and it went to good use here.

This rag quilt bunny is adorable, isn't it?    Bev made it and embellished it in a fun way with the heart and the purple fluffy stuff at the paw area.  She did something fun on the face as well but I don't think the picture will show it very well.  I think might be a Simplicity pattern but don't quote me.  Teresa had a commercially purchased pattern that had a bear, turtle and maybe a dinosaur???  all done in rag quilt sectioning like this one.  She hopes to make one of them for her grandson

 Here is the sweet little quilt that Janet was bordering.  I forgot exactly what she called this one but the block is a simple three patch that forms a rectangle.  You then rotate the blocks but she said you have to be sure to not reverse the strip pieced sectioning.    Apparently she had on a previous version and did not catch it till the top was done.

Bev also made this quilt.  I am not sure about the pattern source but I think it should be called "Flower Power".  She used a jelly roll to make it.  Wouldn't this be a terrific pro bono quilt idea?

Next up a top in my beloved 30's prints that Linda C mailed to Lois along with a box of quilting materials.  We pinned it up and I'll quilt it when I get around to my ever growing stack.

Here is Julie's quilt---Pat Speth was the lecturer at the Lick Skillet Quilt guild this past summer.  Julie took the workshop and made her version of  "Heritage Trail"  featured in the book Amazing Nickel Quilts.  Julie did get the last binding edge done and I caught her for a picture just before she had to leave.

Here was her fun backing!   Great way to stretch your yardage, right?  It was professionally quilted by an area long arm quilter.

I took my knitting with me but basically did not do a thing with it---too busy pinning and yakking, LOL.   I had two quilts to pin but I think both of them are going to Friendship Quilters as we are all required to make a pro bono quilt now, rather than let this worthwhile task fall to just a few people.  I may be able to designate that mine go to Wrap Them in Love anyway as most of mine have since the fall of 1999.   I didn't even pull my hand quilting out of the tote which is even less than the knitting---at least that ball of yarn was out where I could get at it, LOL.

Since I was already most of the way out to Hobby Lobby, I ran out there once I locked up primarily looking for some embellishments for my blog hop piece.  A couple more things followed me home but I'll tell you about that in another post.   I had hoped to be working on the binding at the base of the sewing machine cover but I still have the back piece to add to the 3 sides of the piece.   The satellite TV guy had a cancellation and they called to see if he could come out Monday afternoon.  We said "yes" but it did put a kabosh on my sewing for a couple of hours.  I needed to have DJ move the Christmas fabric tub under the sewing machine table to get it out of his way so try to get at the sewing machine pedal around something that measures about 22 x 16 x 16, LOL.  Didn't happen today either----yet, LOL.

Stay tuned for post two!

fooling around/check in

Yesterday was Friendship Quilter's guild day.  Jane drove and we had 5 of us from the north end of the county make the trip.  Aline had a quilt to pick up from a member who long arm quilts.  Several of us are doing the row quilt.  I got to be there to take minutes though I did not get the memo about there being a board meeting prior to the meeting but someone filled in for me on that score.

Since I had not heard from the sewing machine guy or his wife about my machine, I figured he was just going to deliver them BACK to the meeting place.  I was right.   A couple of gears needed to be replaced that control the feed dogs.  He said that another set of gears in there looked "brand new" so it is possible that Lois' mom had had that work done on it.   Also a situation with the zig zag needed adjustment too.  For 45 bucks I am up and running and the cams will work now.  Woohoo!

We went out for a quick bite to eat before we came home.  One of the guild members and her little guest came in after we did and asked if they could join us. Caitlyn is 11 and her aunt lives next to Carole.  She must have expressed an interest in learning to sew and the aunt said, "I know someone who might be able to help you".  The young girl got a brand new Brother for Christmas and showed a cute pillow she had made at guild.  Carole said they are working on a table runner and another project now.  Even cooler?   She will be coming to the next sew-in on the Saturday date later in the month.  Caitlyn will be joined by two granddaughters of guild members who are about the same age.  The long arm quilter's granddaughter (Mallory) is already an honorary member and the other girl, Brooklyn has been helping her nana at the raffle table the last two months.  I think the girls will have a wonderful time together!  The program gal was going to come up with something special for the girls to work on.  Gotta keep quilting going, right???

We made one other stop at the Pink's Variety Store before we left.  I have never known if it is called that because it is their family name or the fact that the building is painted a Pepto Bismol pink.  One may have influenced the other---who knows??  Anyway, it is a hardware and other good stuff/junk store.  My door stop that sometimes shows up in quilt pictures in my living room came from there.  I found these scoop measures with built in measuring spoons at the end there along with a whisk that won't mar the finish of my new bargain pans that I told you about back in December.  (25 bucks for a full set when the neighbor probably sold me her Christmas present but original cost 200 list)  Aline didn't find the drawer pulls she hoped to find but DJ and I found ours there in the past---bathroom and kitchen.

Once I got home, DJ and I took off for one of the grocery errands.  With the lifting and bending restrictions he is not off the hook yet for some of that.   I needed him to lug the sewing machine in from the car as well and put the one that was in place elsewhere as I knew I wanted to "play" today, testing out the repairs.

First review the book.  Lois' mom had lots of notes along side the fashion and flexi stitch cams.  When I had tried to do this before I had gotten myself a bit confused about what was what  but I think I finally had something click.

The black ones are fashion discs and actually there are two more with the machine parts that may have come from another machine as they are not mentioned in the manual.  They control the side to side movement of the needle.  The white  "flexi-stitch" cams  are equipped with 4 different stitches depending on where you set the pattern selectors---and guess what I missed before?  Color coded with another dial.   (You have to sew with something in the space whether you actually use it or not. )  The flexi-stitch ones control side to side movement of the needles along with the back and forth movement of the feed.  You can see why my last attempts to use them came to naught with feed gears blown out.


Some of stitching attempts were a little more successfully undertaken than others.  Mostly I would need to adjust the stitch length or stitch width a hair more though I did produce a decent enough blind hem and feather stitch.  Those two really are the ones I was most interested in anyway.

Next I thought I would try quilting and try to remember which of the two walking feet in the Singer-Kenmore accessories container I had tried before.  One has a guide and one does not.  One maybe goes in with my Jem but which one?  The other is a generic one I got years ago hoping it might work with my Viking but I am still using the original one though it squeaks and looks just a hair whackerjawed.   Both seemed to work--would quilt though I think I had more clearance under the foot with one more than the other.

I moved on to trying a couple types of thread including a monofilament that I normally use for the pro-bono quilts.  Remember, I usually stitch in the ditch, I don't free motion and I don't want to see the thread, least you think I shouldn't use it or it wouldn't be YOUR first choice.  Anyway, I thought some of the YLI machine quilting thread called "Rio de Janerio" that one of the Belles gave me when she moved might work on my blog hop project so I gave it a trial run.  I also tried it with just a plain milk chocolate thread.  I gotta say I like the bright variegated thread better.  Some places it is bold, like the fabric and other spots, more subtle.


You might be able to see the two choices a little bit better in this other photo.

Just as a tip:  I always keep a little quilt sandwich by the machine when I am quilting to re-test my tension and get the bobbin thread pulled to the top when I put a new one in.  I guess I just made me a new one to play with.

Well, it looks like I made some decisions about how to proceed my sewing machine cover for the blog hop but I'm done sewing for the day.  Plenty of time to work on it tomorrow as I have few errands to run or home tasks to tend to.  It would be nice to be able to work on the binding part at Bama Belles on Tuesday.  I finished up hat #32 last night and want to try out a new pattern for the next one that I found HERE on "knitting on the net".   " Downton Abbey"  will be on soon and knitting will be just the ticket!

I hope you have had a good weekend, perhaps in spite of the weather patterns around the lower 48??  I saw somebody on Facebook griping about the weather down here and saying they wanted to "kill that lying ground hog"  while another stated it was all a Democratic plot.  Say what???  That almost got a snarky reply from me but I decided you cannot reason with idiots.  He would not be interested in my version of the truth anyway.  He could have just thought he was being funny or ironic anyway.  (He failed, miserably)

till next time---------