some progress

Shortly after I posted on Thursday, my friend Nancy came by to pick up the borders and binding I had cut for her Civil war quilt. Her friend Shawnee was with her. I had met her recently at one of our quilt meetings last month so it was fine to have unexpected guest. For the 2nd time this week, someone wanted to see my quilts, particularly the 30's ones! My friend Teresa was over on Tuesday and wanted to see my stuff too. I obliged---on both counts, LOL.

I knew Nancy was a real animal lover so I pulled out my Amy Bradley Kitty City quilt and her Dazzling Dog blocks that haven't made it into a quilt --yet. Also, like me, they both do "redwork" so I showed them my Bird Brain Santa's too but I forgot about the calendar cat top in the closet. They might have been on quilt overload by that point anyway. Even I was! Of course, not all my quilts were made by ME personally. My mom is responsible for a few of them too.

I don't know how well you can see it in the picture above but I did get most of the Overall Bill button hole applique done yesterday. Just the fish still needs to be stitched down along with a few accent buttons. I'll use some black perle cotton and hand embroider the fishing pole and black floss for the line and hook.

BUT, and you knew there was a "but" with me, one of the things on my quilting "to do" list was to pre-wash the most recent patriotic fabric acquistions. It evolved and I ended up just washing the whole lot of it-- crammed in a 20 qt tote's worth. My mom had given a good bit of this stuff some time back and she probably DID pre-wash and press it. Me, anymore I don't. This is red and blue though and notorious for bleeding so an exception had to be made.

Shown to the right is the pile of fats and such that I washed and pressed yesterday till my back was begging me to "sit down, will ya??" I take that back, that pile of lighter blue stars that I am not sure where it came from is cut into approximately 16 inch squares. While the Cardinals and Cubs played ball last night, I pressed all that blue stuff and the smaller pieces I had washed in an lingerie bag--- while seated, LOL. (Cards won, thanks to good starting pitching from our new to us starter Edwin Jackson and Albert Pujols got his 1999 and 2000 hit, both doubles.)

Here is the pile I had to press this morning. 1 yard and longer pieces. Two fans blowing, the thermostat reads 81 in the hallway and I am standing over a stinkin' steam iron. HOT, HOT, HOT! I have been growing my hair out for about a year now and thank goodness, the top and sides are long enough to yank up and out of my face now, just sayin'!

And, here we are---I've been up since 615 so that job is done and packed up for now. (Yes, the lid does close. ) I want to cut some of this for my birthday party project, the red for knots on QOV bowties but just not today. Button hole applique needs done first. On the list, finish the Overall Bill above, do the other one and their hand embroidery, then it is "Summer" and the July Button Up--last seen HERE waiting for the last two weeks.

I did do a bit of the embroidery on "Biscuits and Honey" basket block as I planned but detoured slightly when I swapped out the July wall hangings for August's. This was the only one that I did not fix the tabs on when I did the other 11. Now they all can be snapped on and off the closed hanger rather than sewing them on! I finally wised up, LOL. (shown, Nancy Halvorsen's July "Be Attitudes" quiltlet)

Have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by!

WIP???

I have been busy with things on the home front but not much in the sewing related department. Such is life sometimes. It is so blamed hot and humid (read: summer! so what do you expect?) that you honestly feel like expending the least amount of energy possible. The sun is so intense that just going out to the mailbox can reduce you to a puddle of sweat. I know that I am far from alone in this predicament. Much of the country is still roasty-toasty judging from the weather maps.

The quilt group met on Tuesday as planned. The fill-in spot is maybe about 2 miles from my house and I was not in charge of the key so I didn't have to leave the house till about an hour later than I normally would. Some of the group was missing but seldom is everyone there to start with. We had a couple of special guests instead.

Aline was on grandma duty so we all got to meet her first great-grand Lily who is just three months old. Grandpa was standing by at home just in case she got too fussy or it bothered the ladies. Good as gold!

I was happy too that my guest Teresa could come join us. We met thru my blog and chat on Facebook a bit but did not meet in person till the Pell City group meeting earlier this month. I helped Teresa with some foundation piecing on the Friendship Quilter's name tag thing---well, enough that she could finish up at home. I ended up sewing a bit on 3-D bowtie blocks using the Belles scrap challenge project materials. Nancy and Linda had there machines revved up and a couple quilts got pinned as well.

Nancy asked me to cut the borders for her Buzz Saw quilt made from Civil War reproduction fabrics. Being left handed, cutting has always been an issue for her. Accu-quilt has helped with some of that but she was afraid she would ruin the yardage by a miscut. She also needed some help in cutting the stripe she had selected for bias binding. I could have probably done it at the meeting---they have such a nice island unit in the kitchen at the church---but I would have had to run home for my large mat and my own rulers. I took care of that yesterday. I should have taken a picture of the top so far when I had it spread out to measure it but Skyler was making things difficult by laying on it and then trying to bite me when I tried to make him move. He is also quite attracted to the bag she sent home with me. My guess is that he smells either her kitties or dachsunds on it.

The wrinkle in the deal was she wants to do a double border and mitered corners. If I understood her correctly, Nancy wanted me to sew them. I don't do them but was a little familar with the process---or at least sorta knew what to do. She has put so much time and effort into her quilt that I felt she should finish it. I would do what I could to help her thought. I found a good video on the Fons and Porter/Quilter's Club of America site presented by Jodi Davis HERE that may help Nancy with the piecing along with some tutorials online. Jaybird Quilts had a good tutorial as well. I also checked my home quilt book library and found a section in the Rodale Quilting Library's Sensational Sets & Borders that may also be a help. LOL, I still don't want to fuss like that on my own quilts but I am pretty sure that I could pull it off if I had to. Just like a giant attic window block.

Today was laundry day so that took up a chunk of the morning along with a quick run to the bank for the Belles. I also had a few things to prep ahead in the kitchen for our supper and threw a couple burgers on the grill for our lunch. Next thing I knew it was 1 p..m. Day is half over without half trying.

I should get started on some of that button hole applique----and I might. I may, just for today, do a little embroidery on the honey and biscuits block from Bee Tree Designs' Flickr page. There is a ton of stitching on these things but I love them!

I hope that you are having a good day!

What a day!

A little fruit basket upset around here yesterday. Definitely no sewing was happening!

It being Monday, I had some errands to run. This time, it included a run over the church where we ordinarily meet to get our batting and other pinning supplies we will need for the meeting today at another location. (The fellowship hall has been in use for almost two months now for the ARC camps but we will go back in August.) Since another stop was at the office supply store, I picked up a new key board. WAHOO!! I'm a happy girl till the paint wears off anyway. (Why are they all black now???)

While I was gone, DJ had been on errands of his own! He had been saving up his change for a new HD tv. He has been watching the sales flyers for months now and spotted one he liked at a price he was willing to pay. That's it, above, settled in its new home, much much later in this narrative. "I need you to help me carry the box in from the car once we move my old one" he says. This was about 1030 in the morning and the excitement began!

The old set is big, bulky with that huge picture tube thing and heavy! The question was, would it even fit in the spot I needed to clear for it? Yes, but the curved front stuck out a wee bit. I can live with it. I would not be able to use the cheapo DVD player but I seldom used it in here anyway. We tried every which way from Sunday to hook things up. We moved it in and out of the spot at least 3 times and it was still not working. Did I mention just how big and heavy this thing is?? He was getting upset and ready to call in reinforcements. All that tangled up mess of wires and cords to deal with--what goes to what, "no that's backwards" and stuff that didn't want to screw in when threaded with a left hand.

I finally pulled out the Dish guide that came with the receivers to see what we were doing wrong. Finally I figured out that I no longer needed to use the RF modulator in the set up if I wasn't using any other add on's. One wire WAS reversed and plug in the 3 pronged wires from the receiver and it finally came on. Power button won't work on the dish remote and I am not sure that anything is controlling the volume at this point but the TV works. DJ said
"I would have given up long before you did." Fortunately that last idea took!

The question then became, what do I do with all that stuff that was in and around the set?? Cleaning and purging ensued. DJ has a combo DVD/VCR player but I still didn't need to keep a good many of the VCR tapes. I ditched the no longer wanted ones along with the storage case they were housed in and was able to clear a spot on the entertainment center for them. Old turntable set up was in that space above the drawer---out along with the speakers. Books moved down. CDS moved into a different spot. Cleaning ensued but it needed to be done anyway.

The box was hauled in but I pretty much told him that he was on his own for figuring out how to hook it up. I was not convinced that he still needed to have a RF modulator in the mix with a new TV but he did have the DISH DVR receiver to contend with along with his own DVD/VCR thing. I already had had my ONE good idea for the day, LOL. He read, he tried and then he finally ended up calling tech support. A pleasant, helpful young man in Puerto Rico got him up and running. Turned out he had it set up correctly but still needed some help with the process. Other than thinking we need to elevate the set up about 5 inches to help hide all those wires, he is happy.

So what to do with this stuff? I think the TV gets tossed. Power on button is sunk back in the set so who would want it? Turntable and speakers should go to the thrift store tomorrow, I'm thinking, when I have time and am not hauling extra quilting supplies around. That stuff cannot sit there forever but laundry shouldn't need to be done till Thursday.

I was still cleaning at about 730 last night. DJ said "aren't you ever going to give up?" Believe me, I was ready to but the bathroom needed some attention. My reasoning was that at least the a/c was running at that hour of the day, in theory anyway. I knew for a fact that come Tuesday morning, he wouldn't turn it on till it hit 81 or 82 in the house. (yeah, I know---nuts!)

So, move one thing and look what happens!!! I am ready for a fun day with my quilting buds. Maybe sew a bit---3-D bowties or that triple rail?? Either is part of the Belles scrappy challenge.

Hope you have a great day in whatever you chose to do. Thanks for stopping by--------

still no sewing..........

so what have I been doing with myself?? Still messing with those recipes from the stacked up mags until about 30 minutes ago. BUT 3080 recipes later and files backed up, I think I am officially done. It got a little faster once I figured out taste of home's system for labeling the files in their url. I didn't have to search for it first but is/was still time consuming to download and transfer. Thank heavens for recipe fox in a Firefox browser for grabbing the whole shootin' match along with the picture!

I thought I was done on Friday morning but found another stack of about a dozen to transfer over to the cooking software. I still have some taste of home magazines on the shelf but those may be covered with the books they put out at years end that contain the whole year's mags. If that is the case, then those puppies are out of there too.

In between, I seemed to be having problems with the replacement keyboard. Not long ago the one I had used for a long time was acting up but in my efforts to clean it up I buggered up the space bar. I dug out an old one from under the bed and everything seemed to be going okay till the space key, delete and one of ctrl keys were sticking. I popped off all the keys off this one individually and cleaned it thoroughly. Not so many strings, crumbs and fuzz, etc in this one but it still needed attention. It worked well enough to get the job done on the recipe project but still is intermittently acting up. I told DJ if he was looking for birthday ideas for me next month, he a new one. We did look a few on a recent walmart run just to price them. My conclusion is: as usual, you can pay about anything you want for something as there is a big range. (I also pointed out the 4 in 1 grill I am panting over, LOL but I think he will probably give me the money and tell ME to go shop. )

All that button hole applique is still waiting. To be honest I didn't feel much like sewing this week anyway. So, I didn't. What's another day or two? Since I have a bit of the day ahead of me and I already fixed our supper meal(a cold chicken salad) this morning, I might just do a bit on my basket embroidery block. Pick up and put down work sounds like "just the ticket".

See what came in the mail yesterday?? A friend of my mom's had purchased all this lovely flannel to make a specific quilt. She then decided that she did not want to proceed with it and gave it to my mom, knowing that she does a lot of donation quilts. Mom did not feel too inclined to work with the flannel and asked me if I wanted it. She knows how chilly DJ gets in the living room on all those blood thinners come winter time. I obviously told her to send it on, LOL. A sales receipt in the box said the buyer spent about $110 bucks for all that fabric. I prefer cotton myself but I don't want this stuff to go to waste either.

This what the lady had in mind to make. I just scanned the page of the magazine which was in the January/February 2004 Fons and Porter's "Love of Quilting" . The quilt was designed by Judy Martin and pieced and quilted by Jean Nolte. The pattern was originally published in The Creative Pattern Book by Judy in 2000 and used by permission in the magazine. Judy called the pattern "Texas Chain" and this quilt featured in the book was called "Cabin Cozy Flannel". If you would like to see other quilts made from this same pattern, go to

http://www.judymartin.com/Viewer-Photos.cfm

Scroll down to Creative Pattern Book (or ctrl plus F and type it in) and click on any of the Texas Chain photos that have been submitted by readers. LOL, one uses 30 repros and you know how I love those! (Mom, see the one by Pam Mineart that is a QOV like one.)

Dang! Those same three keys are sticking and/or not typing again. I may be getting an early bday present yet! He did offer when I was griping about it the other day.

This week's household "disaster" for the week seemed to be that another blind broke at the header bar, near where the cord constantly pulls. LOL, DJ was gone so I left the whole thing on the table with a note that said "help me". He pointed out why it had fallen when he got home. He found the right sized, right colored one in the utility shed but come to find out, it had broken on the bottom! Sheesh! We could not find one at WM in the right width or color nor did he want to go look at the two other Walmarts in our area. Anyway, he ended up taking the bottom bar off the one that had fallen and putting it on the replacement one, saving us a whopping 5 bucks had we found one to purchase. Where there is a will there is a way, right?

The only other "disaster" was purely culinary in nature. Last night I was trying to make crepes with seafood. I have made them before, long time ago using a recipe I had clipped from the paper from Nathalie Dupree. A look at her website shows that it was printed in her "Everday Meals from a Well-Stocked Pantry". Exactly, I had everything on hand to make it. I even have an ancient electric crepe maker but unfortunately lost the directions/recipe book. In retrospect, I should have just made them a skillet as I had one royal mess with crepes sticking or starting to cook when I was dipping the hot utensil down in to the batter. What a mess! And after all that, DJ hated them. It might have helped if I had put some of the sauce over the top of them like you would do with enchiladas. Actually I sort of wished that I had made a half batch of the filling for Seafood Cancun Enchiladas instead. Now, that would have been GOOD as well as DJ approved. I told him I didn't know what we were going to do for lunch today when I tossed it all out. (He picked a coupon for money off a large pizza and paid for/picked it up. )

Guess that is it for now. I'm going to use my fingers for something other than typing.

off on another tangent

I am off on another tangent that has absolutely nothing to do with quilting. The cooking magazines are piling up and I am downloading the recipes from the taste of home website to my cooking software. Then the mags can go off to the Friends of the Library. Based on what I got done yesterday, another day or so should take care of this particular publication. Meanwhile I am getting a few new ideas to work into the menu planning. That can't be a bad thing---other than the list is starting for a return trip to the store, LOL. Well, that is inevitable anyway.

Shown at left, Skyler is play mode. We had already played "where's the kitty?" in attempting to make the bed. He is not much help in the bed making department, trust me but it is part of our play. He got all enthralled with his sock ball and I just skipped the top quilt for now. Note his exit strategy from the room. Rather than just walk over to the blanket chest and down to the floor he would rather leap over to the quilt rack and then leap out into the hall. He was preparing to leap when I took the photo but not before he tagged me on the way out the door.

And here we have DJ's Cosmo patch. We got a free package of seeds in the mail and DJ decided to plant them just to see what would come up. Only problem was, it was starting to rain and the old red dirt soil is hard to dig so he was not too inclined to dig up what the packaging suggested. So he more or less, just dumped the whole pkg. in one spot and we now have a cosmo clump. Man, who knew these things would be so leggy?? I sure didn't expect them to be shooting past the window ledge but now they are approaching the top of the window. The whispy stems sort of remind me an asparagus plant.

So back to surf, copy/paste and import for me. And I still might fall back to an old standard for fixing that salmon tonight, LOL.

today's output

It took me a good chunk of yesterday but I met my goal to get this pile of 48 blocks cut from the giant 4 patch down to the nine patch components.

And here was today's goal-----I do not believe that the giftee reads my blog and will see the frienship blocks. I cut the background block oversized so they can be trimmed down by the assemblers. They still need to be button hole appliqued and then some embroidered elements and a small button on the suspenders. Suspender Sam/Overall Bill on the right is stylishly dressed in Williamsburg Inn except for his shoes. Sam/Bill on the left looks like he has a 30's Hawaiian shirt on with hula girls. Old blues for the overalls and hat. The other? Dig around in the scrap basket till you find something you like.

I used the Eleanor Burns turned interface version for most of this mainly because the others involved in the group project will as well. I knew from past experience on a previous friendship quilt to just use fusible product on the kite and fish as it is too hard to turn those bits. (I like regular or light steam a seam.)

I am also not entirely convinced that it is the way to go on small pieces like the arm/hand combo. The body section was fine and the hats turned easier than I remembered. The stitching line shows a bit through the very light color of the hand. The other objection was the interfacing would not really lay down flat enough with my attempts to smooth it out. The interfacing was so torn up that I ended up having to baste the slit I had made closed to yank things back up in the proper position enough to stick them down. It might have been easier to just do the templar-starch method like you would on circles, leaves---and the one black shoe. Once I had the one on the right laid out I realized I needed something with a little more contrast and had already but up the machine so I used the alternate method to prep it. I'll save the extra shoe I had already sewn for another Sam/Bill down the line.


Since I now have 3 projects that need to be button hole applique, you know what I will be doing for a few days, dontcha?

Hope you had an enjoyable day in whatever you chose to do----------

today's goals

I have doing well in making do-able short term daily goals. Most of what I had my list yesterday got done until Mother Nature decided to get serious about that thunder and lightning around here.
I didn't get fabric pulled for the friendship blocks after all but I know where to start looking for it--which color groupings and/or theme. I DID get all but 4 of the giant 4 patches done last night. I tried but I am not going to risk zapping out the mother board on my machine. I always make sure the machine is unplugged over night since I had to replace one on my Viking. Or if storms are approaching, stop and unplug.

I finished up the blocks this morning. So today, I am going to get giant 4 patches cut for the next step. I am going to have to put this away for a few days so I want the blocks laid out ready to sew so the pizza box will work just fine for stacking them up as they should be picked up and sewn.

Problem was, I had no empty pizza boxes. I emptied out one that I would not be needing for a bit though the emptied out "class sampler" will have to go back in there at some point. Space is finite and I would have no place to stack more pizza boxes if I were to go buy a few more from the restaurant. Looks like I need to sew some of these contents so they can be recycled instead.

What I have learned from this project:

• My large table mat is too big for turning to make the 4 cuts. This is one project where one of those revolving mat things MIGHT work but I wouldn't want to spend the money on something I would rarely need.
• My 12 x 18 mat is a bit too small too for cutting that last little bit cut. I may to get down the between sized Fiskar mat that I don't like so much.
• My beloved Big Mama ruler is just a hair too short. Here, I just told Teresa in chat that I seldom use my 12 1/2 inch square ruler but here is the perfect spot for it.

Once that's done I'll focus on the friendship block requirements. I'll soon be swapping out machines to do a pile of button hole applique and hopefully quilt a bit. I'll see how far I get with today's goals------

~~~~~~~~~~~
ED. NOTE: The block won't all stay together when you try to make the 4 cuts so don't even try to keep it all lined up. Everything is cut 1 1/2 inch (in my case anyway) from the center so it doesn't have to. Plus I can go back to my in between mat and fav ruler, LOL.