Fiber Babble

Fiberly Challenged

2012-02-03T17:47:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "The Lincoln Lawyer" by Michael Connelly ♦◊◊◊◊

Okay, I'm still in the drive-by posting mode. I'm doing some fibery stuff, but I'm also working a lot. It's easy to tell myself that I'm 'recovering and recharging' - sounds so much better than 'being a lump in front of the computer or television'.

Last month's book for the

was The Trouble With Spells (Of Witches and Warlocks, #1) by Lacey Weatherford. The book didn't hold my attention and I abandoned it at about the 60% mark. I wrote a review here. The short version of an already short review is that the book seemed a bit too young for me.

This month's (paperback) book is Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews. This is the fourth book in the Kate Daniels series (I've read the previous 3).

Just to fill out the rest of the story, I'm also reading The Soulkeepers by GP Ching (on my Kindle Fire) and The Rock Orchard by Paula Wahl (on CD).

In the pitiful fibery news, I got fired up about making some blocks for a sample at the shop. I brought the fabrics and patterns home, sat down to sew and found that one of the blocks' cutting instructions were painfully inaccurate (after, of course, I'd cut the fabrics) and the second, while the instructions were fine, I hadn't brought enough background fabric. Screech, erch, full stop.

Then I worked on my Bashful Butterflies Shawl. I've been doing a couple of rows at a time (there's lots of stitches on each row!). I got 4 rows from the end of the 3rd chart and found a dropped stitch. Over a column of left- and right-leaning decreases, so it wasn't just a matter of fixing it on the fly. I had to pull out 5 of those loooonnng rows to get to where I can salvage it.

So, yeah. First that was lack o'mojo, then a few errors. I keep plugging along, though. Someday I will have some show-and-tell!

Neener Meh Awww Phew!

2012-01-30T10:43:00.001-08:00

Now I had to make it count. "Cape Storm" by Rachel Caine ♦♦♦♦◊

I'm at the point where I don't have much to show but things are thiiiiiis close, so I think this will be a drive-by...

For Crispy (and my mom, too) - neener neener. This is my kitchen island 20 days after The Big DeClutter. The only thing that's been added is the wooden thing.

My brother-in-law gave that to me, I think, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is. Whatever, I haven't used it in at least 7 years, so I'm thinking it can go away.

Speaking of going away, this is part of what I unearthed from under the island in the challenge from a couple of weeks ago. Except for the wooden thing, all of these things have found new homes, I'm happy to say!

On the reading challenge front, the 'witchy' book that I started reading on my Kindle wasn't a keeper. I've started another book by a familiar-to-me author and so far, so good.

Here's a glamour shot of MoonPie...

And an action shot of her with her favorite toy!

My fabric and yarn mojo is coming back, so hopefully I'll have something new or finished to show you!

More About Books

2012-01-10T22:58:00.000-08:00

And put them in Eve Dallas' name. "Strangers in Death" by J.D. Robb ♦♦♦♦◊

Somewhere in the past few weeks I discovered a couple of new blogs written by book lovers. These blogs contain reviews and descriptions of books that I might enjoy. I had no idea that the land of book bloggers would lead me to new challenges - literally. Much as knitters have knit alongs and quilters have Blocks of the Month, apparently there's a world of reading challenges out there that I'm just beginning to discover. This is just what I need, isn't it? Another thing to attempt to commit to...

But it's books! Reading! Things I like to do!

I wish I'd bookmarked more of the blogs I discovered while surfing around. One of the blogs that I did hold onto is Melissa's Eclectic Bookshelf where, wouldn't you know it, there's a challenge going on!

Now, to many of you it's not much of a surprise that I would be interested in joining a reading challenge that has to do with witches and other things that go bump in the night.

What was a surprise to me was this: when I looked at all of my bookshelves and stacks of books I pulled out all of these books that I could start on right away for the challenge. All of these books have witches as characters or witchcraft as part of the plot.

I looked at my iPod and saw that I had two books already loaded on it that would qualify for the challenge. Then I looked in my Kindle and found five books that would work for the challenge, too (let's not mention my non-resolution to read more paper books, OK?).

So, apparently I am going to read a few witchy books now. I have one started on my Kindle, and then this big ol' stack of "real" books. There are other challenges and many book lists that interest me, so I'll be investigating them, too.

Did anyone just see a white rabbit in a waistcoat run by?

No new news on the fabric or yarn front. I have great intentions, but don't seem to have any get-up-and-go. Someday…

Um, Yeah.

2012-01-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

30 minutes.

The dish for keys, one pair of scissors (the utility knife has been put away), a pack of gum, a container of dry cat food and the box with necessary kitty tools, goodies and meds.

The Charging Station is not built, of course, but the things that need to be charged are there so it's easier to get an idea of what Mr. W. will need to accommodate, plug-wise.

Oh, do you see that fabric on the 'bar'stool? Those are FQ's that I've been meaning to send to a forum friend, PrincessKris. But I've lost her mailing address. Maybe someone from the group can help a poor procrastinator out with an email or private message... ?

52 Week Challenge

2012-01-08T10:17:00.000-08:00

Some of them passed it on. "The Black Unicorn" by Terry Brooks ♦♦♦♦◊

Over on Google+ I found (and joined) a small group of people who have discovered the 52 Weeks To An Organized Home weekly challenges.

Now, before I go any further (and you know I will), let me tell you that I know you might be rolling your eyes or thinking 'here she goes again' or something like that. Because you've met me - you have noticed that over there on my sidebar are no less than FIVE quilt-alongs, BOMs, mystery projects that date from (at the latest) 2010.

So you're probably pretty confident that I'm not going to subject you to weekly before and after pictures and become the latest FlyLady evangelist. *And, no, I have no problems with FlyLady or her evangelists. I'm just not going there.* (Again, You've met me.)

This morning I mentioned to the G+ group that I am tempted to just wait out the weekly challenges until I find the one that will address what I think is my problem (paper organization, de-cluttering work/craft spaces). But that might defeat the purpose.

This week's challenge is Kitchen Organization: Countertops & Sink. One of the first things the challenge has you do is to figure out what you actually use your space for. Our kitchen island sees these activities:

Cooking & food prep

The dreaded Drop Zone

Wrapping packages to mail

Occasional rotary cutting surface

Cooking & food prep - no problem, if there's a cleared-off space to do it, at least. The Cooking part of the equation is the use of a slow cooker, by the way.

Drop Zone - well, that's where change and re-training comes in, doesn't it? There are 12 steps (literally) between the drop zone at the end of the island to the den, where most mail is dealt with. Three steps to my sewing closet (where most of the stuff that comes home from work goes). Other than the fact that there's a trash can at one end of the island, there's really no reason for most un-kitcheny things to land on the bar for any time at all.

Wrapping Packages and Rotary Cutting - maybe once a week we need to wrap a package and the rotary cutting happens maybe once a month. I don't keep my rotary cutting stuff in that area (it's those 3 steps away) but we use tape and scissors and wrapping paper/plastic and mailing envelopes and labels and packing tape there.

So, I'm taking my first step. The kitchen island - which in this picture is surprisingly (for us) uncluttered.

Other than opening the lid to the trash can and sweeping everything into it (Mr. W's suggestion), I came up with A Plan that we can both can get behind.

Here goes:

1. The packing/wrapping stuff can go on a shelf or in a drawer that's just around the corner. That's where the mailing envelopes are kept, and there's a metal bulletin board that I could hang the scissors on if I were to glue a strong magnet to them.

2. That hand lotion? It's been there for years. Nobody uses it. Trash.

3. Cords and things that need to be charged - We have so many things that need to go on chargers! (Yes, it's a First World Problem) There's a little cubby-area right outside the den that has cupboards and a little counter that would be a perfect area to install a power strip (or four) and make into a charging station. Mr. W. has offered to make that happen SOON (maybe today???). I will, in the interim, get out my trusty label maker and label all of the darned wall-warts so I know what charges what!

4. The cupboard above where we're going to make a charging station holds Mr. W.'s prescription meds. He's going to make a place for mine, too, so that they're off the island (heheheh).

5. My small electrics are used infrequently. They usually live behind closed doors. Put 'em back.

6. Eat the donuts. Put the other munchy stuff in the cupboard where it came from.

Or eat it.

7. Hey! Put my camera back into the knitted bag I made for it and stick it back in my purse.

That's not so bad, I don't think. And other than a trip to the big orange home improvement store, it can all be done in less than an hour.

So why haven't we done it before?

eta: What a dork! I hit publish without giving the post a title!
Sorry 'bout that...

Abandonment Issues

2012-01-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral" by Kris Radish ♦♦◊◊◊

The original title for this post (started on December 31st) was "Thoughts for the New and Old", but between the time I came up with the title and the time I sat down to write the post, all of my New Year's thoughts (resolutions and reflections) had escaped me. Yep, that's me: A brain like a steel sieve.

Right now, what's got my attention is books. What I read, what I want to read. You see, the one thing that popped into my mind at the same time I was thinking of New Year's resolutions was that I wanted to read some of the paper books that I own.

I have over a hundred books that are sitting on bookshelves, waiting for me to pick them up and read them. It's not their fault that they're not in audio form (though there are a few of those on the shelf, too).

I have a "wishlist" that I carry with me on my iPod so that when I'm at a bookstore or somewhere else I can get new or used books I know what I'm looking for. Just yesterday I picked up a hardcover book that was in the almost-free bin at Wally World - it had been on my wishlist for two years!

So, I don't have a problem collecting books, I have a problems just sitting and reading books. I've often said that I prefer audio books because I can read them while doing something else - driving, quilting, knitting, ignoring what Mr. W. has on the teevee. If I "just" sit and read a book, I feel absolutely decadent. To not be accomplishing something else while reading? It's just not done!

In the year 2011, I read 72 books. Of those 72, 12 of them landed on the "abandoned" shelf. I looked over the reviews for the abandoned books (I really do review almost all of the books I read) and came up with these "reasons" for the abandonments:

The writer was too good - in the case of J.A. Konrath, the 'bad guy' character was written so well that he creeped me out. Great writing, but I couldn't get through the book because it was too skeery. In other instances, sometimes the writing is beautiful and complicated and it is too good for an audiobook. Those are words and thoughts that I want to savor and ponder and really sink my teeth into. I can't do that with an audiobook. It keeps going and I miss what's next because I'm lost in what was.

Too slow. Or too much exposition. There were a few books that just didn't get to the point soon enough - or, in some cases for me, never really got to the point at all.

Too much reliance on suspension of disbelief. Seriously? I read about vampires and faeries and ghosts (plus other genres). If I put a book down because it's just too difficult to suspend my disbelief, I think that's saying a lot.

Bad readers. I'm not making a judgement about the character of the people chosen to read the audiobooks to me, I'm making a judgement about their skill at reading audiobooks to me. First off, last year I broke my own rule of never, ever, EVER listening to a book if it's read by the author. Writers write. It's a very rare writer who can also read. Other 'professional' (?) readers have problems with breath control. Or timing (usually too slow). And it's a rare reader who can do multiple accents or voices successfully and consistently.

Two pet peeves of mine: Formulaic misunderstandings and what I call "dut-dut-duuuuhhhhh" writing.

The formulaic misunderstanding - She thought he meant this when he really meant that and then he thinks she did this because he saw her going into that place but she was there because of something totally unrelated but where there's smoke there's fire and she loves him and he loves her but she thinks he's in love with someone else.... I have absolutely NO patience for this sort of plotting (this also explains why I'm not a fan of French farce movies). It's probably because I'm so direct - I see absolutely no reason for a misunderstanding (and certainly not one or twenty that lasts for 180 pages) when a three line dialogue will clear everything up.

Dut-dut-duuuhhhh: Yep, cue the dramatic music from black and white TV shows. Easily spotted and abandoned by two or more "If I'd only known [what was to happen in the future], I wouldn't have been so happy/said that thing/slept well." If you'd only known and you weren't a total idiot, you certainly wouldn't have done this or that. But then you also wouldn't have a story to tell, either.

A new-to-me (and irritating) writing 'trend' seems to be making me work for a backstory. I know I've mentioned too much exposition, but there's such a thing as too little, too. From my review of Abandon, by Meg Cabot (which was, indeed, abandoned):

Non-linear exposition in dribs and drabs, it was almost like the author didn't really want you to know what brought the character to where she was. I had to work too darned hard to piece together the traumatic events/experiences.

I guess this might seem like a whole lotta negative-negative but remember I did read, finish and ostensibly enjoy 60 other books last year. I don't know that I'll actually be organized enough to give such a thing as book recommendations, but I hope to have a few more book-related things to say in the near future. As long as I don't wait too long so that what I have to say is either forgotten or moot... !

Catching Up, A Bit

2011-12-17T10:08:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "The Spellman Files" by Lisa Lutz ◊◊◊◊◊

Well, I posted around Thanksgiving time and then just left you hanging - did my pies turn out okay? (Yes) Did I forget to put the fruit salad on the table? (No)

Did the turkey turn out well this year? (Hell yes!)

But I do have a question for you all... do you tie the turkey's "ankles" together for its stay in the oven?

And another one: The wing tips are always just icky. Is it written anywhere that "Thou shalt not cut off the wingtips before baking" ?

My new favorite apron does double duty as a toy for MoonPie...

The earwarmer pattern I tested for Becky, in action. I've actually worn it out in the real world and it's done its job marvelously. It hasn't stretched out much (yay and not so yay), so it's quite snug on my big ol' head.

I'm not sure why I haven't just sat down and whipped out another* - it's just an evening's worth of work and I could be more comfortable wearing one that fits better.

*Oh, yeah. That would require actually sitting down. And not falling asleep right away.

For the friends and family who bore The Drastic Haircut of 2010, my hair is finally growing out.

(The above-the-chin-length haircut was cute and easy to style, but it required too much maintenance. I function much better when I have the option of tieing my hair up in a pony tail when in a hurry.)

And, a new mattress topper for the guest bed. Mom's been a trooper on the "firm" mattress in there, but after Thanksgiving she finally spoke up. We just put the (softer) topper on the existing mattress and boxspring. If she doesn't get a nosebleed up that high, maybe she'll feel like she's in The Princess and the Pea...

This year I made only one Christmas present. I carried it back and forth to the shop (the place I am during daylight hours!) to get a decent picture for you. Um. I didn't. Maybe I'll have to make another one for me - just so I can take a picture for you all, it's not like I want one for myself... :snerk:

And we shall not speak of the chicken.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-23T11:59:00.000-08:00

High Lord Ben Holliday, King of Landover, began the new day rather earlier than expected. "Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold!" by Terry Brooks ♦♦♦♦◊

It's here! It's here!

Okay, so! I got to sleep in a bit, then check my RSS feeds and emails and forum postings and Google+ stream, and Mr. W. made breakfast for the three of us (Mom's here!).

After a quick hop in the shower, I'm starting the feast-ivities by making pumpkin pies, though I've got a lot of the other stuff I need out already.

I'm taking a couple of minutes here and there to keep you up on the exciting goings on here at Casa del Babble during the preparations.

First off, I've decided to soak my pie spices in the half & half. Last time I made pumpkin pies, I must've just thrown it together super fast, because the spices were a little gritty. I have no idea if it will make a difference, but I figure, dried spices+rehydration=no gritty.

Random thought #2: Be sure to get a brand-spanking-new-clean dish rag before starting all this stuff. And put on an apron.

This one is from my friend Gloria in North Dakota. It's my favorite right now, mostly because it's from Gloria and partly because I have quite a few shirts that match those different pinks and pinky reds in the drinks.

Random thought: It's very helpful to be ambidextrous while whisking the hell out of eggs.

Oh. And after the soaking, I put the spices (with half the milk & half the pumpkin through a sieve. Because all the cool kids are doing it, you know. (Now that I went and got that link, I found that the cool kid in question did a lot more than use a sieve, but I'll take baby steps.)

This is what was left after the whole sieving thing (I did only put half the pumpkin puree in - the rest just got mixed into the bowl sans sieving).

I'm wondering if I should have used more spice. It looks like a lot of 'em are not going into the pie, doesn't it? Hmmm.

Oh. Well. The pies are in the oven now. In about an hour, I'll start wrestling with the turkey.

About that pie spice? You'll notice that I didn't bother putting "Pumpkin" on the label. In my house, pretty much any pie will be pumpkin.

Mix together
1 tsp. ground allspice
2 tsp. ground cloves
8 tsp (2Tb +2tsp) ground cinnamon
Store in an airtight container. Use a heaping tablespoon in a 2-pie recipe.

Insert Clever Title Here

2011-11-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "A Kiss of Shadows" by Laurell K Hamilton ♦◊◊◊◊

Hmmm. Well, I went to the doctor and we talked and she gave me a really-really-really low-dose anti-anxiety med. I started taking it right after the second concert this last weekend; I'm told it'll take a couple of weeks to 'kick in'.

Mr. W. & I used to (sorta) joke that if we went to the doctor with our arm cut off and we were waving around a bloody stump, the doctor would say, "Lose weight and stop smoking." It seemed to be the automatic response, no matter what the complaint. (For the record, we've both stopped smoking) Now I'm realizing that the words have changed, but the song is the same. For the past couple of years, when I go to the doctor for anything, the response has been some form of, "It's a symptom of [pre-]menopause."

:sigh:

I test-knit a pattern by missbecky, whom I "know" from Google+ (that's where I'm spending a lot of my online time).

The pattern is a cabled earwarmer, and except for a couple of suggestions that were purely cosmetic, I had no problems with the pattern. Becky has now posted/published the pattern for free on her website and on Ravelry.

I knit the test out of Premiere Yarns Serenity Chunky Weight on size 10 needles. It was just a bit snug on my head (but remember I have a larger and flatter than expected noggin), but the addition of one extra row before and after the cabling will fix that with no problem. The button is from my Great Grandmother's button jar.

I guess it would be a good thing to get an action shot, but I really stink at the whole bathroom-mirror-picture thing and Mr. W. is just not the right person to ask right now.

I'm sure you've surmised that I survived the first two of the bell concerts. I made new and interesting mistakes in both (as many bell players often do). I also missed my "groupie" at the retirement home. I'll need to call & find out if he was away or unwell that day.

The turkey is thawing slowly in the refrigerator, Mom's on her way (or will be soon) and I have a guest room to excavate. I'm going to try to keep the stuff that gets moved into the sewing closet out of the way of the sewing machine, in hopes of conquering that chicken.

A Little Help From My Friends

2011-11-15T22:03:00.000-08:00

And as The Traveler approached them they rose up to heaven, keening and calling to each other. "The Traveler" by John Twelve Hawks ♦♦◊◊◊

Heh. Do you know what a BFINM is? Best Friend I Never Met. I have a few; some I met through blogging, some through organized online groups, some through the two forums in which I am active(ish). These are people with whom I have something in common, whether is a fiber-related passion or a way of looking at life (or both). These are frends who will send me emails like this:

Oh where, oh where has my blogger friend gone,
Oh where, oh where can she be
It's been one long month since I've seen her post
Oh where, oh where can she be.

Heh. Okay.

Pam, my coworker at the shop, had a pretty major surgery that didn't go as smoothly as she expected, so she's been away for at least a month. While we have a couple of wonderful women who can step in and sub for her, I've also been taking on an extra shift or two.

It's heading into the holiday season, so that means bells-bells-bells-bells. I have 5 concerts scheduled between this Saturday and the week before Christmas. I've developed what seems to be bell-related anxiety attacks. Seriously. I've figured out that it's some sort of hold-over from the stress of the quartet's performance. Fortunately the 'attacks' are not debilitating, but I feel queasy-butterfly-ish most times of the day right now and it's also affecting my sleep. I'm actually going to see a doctor about it and hopefully we'll be able to do something. Quitting bells is not an option at this point, or, if I have any control, at any point in the future.

We at the shop just came off of two back-to-back Quilt Shop Hops: Southwest Washington Quilt for a Cure and Lewis & Clark Trail Shop Hop. That meant staying open some additional hours and also being open on Sundays. I had a blast, by the way - but at the end of each day my arse was made of lead and the floor was carpeted in magnets.

I knit a pair of socks for Socktoberfest.

"Charybdis" by Fiona Lucas

and "Toe Up Spring Forward Socks", a Linda Welch pattern adapted by 'Avalonne'.

The yarn was Premier Yarns Serenity Sock Weight in colorway "Indigo". (Wha?) I liked working with the yarn, but it loses its memory fast and the socks stretch out until washed again. Someone told me that was because of the bamboo content. I dunno.

I started a third sock before the end of October, but the print in the yarn and the pattern I chose didn't play well together. At all.

No progress to report on the chicken. I'm hoping to finish it up next week, while I'm off for the Thanksgiving holiday. I will laugh at myself (and admit it to you) if I find that I've been procrastinating for almost two months over something that takes me 10 minutes to finish!

Oh, yes - and it is Thanksgiving next week! My favorite holiday of them all!

A New Adventure

2011-10-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Wedding Belles" by Haywood Smith ♦◊◊◊◊

Dear Old Iron,

I will miss your heft and long cord, and your dependability and silent companionship over the years has been greatly appreciated.

You've served me well for a long time and through the good times and through some difficult situations. Remember the marathons we had, pressing other peoples' quilt blocks into submission? Good times.

I understand that once you get to a certain age, you may - through no fault of your own - experience bouts of mild incontinence. You may also become a bit moody and occasionally steam and sputter when unprovoked.

It is time for me to allow you to retire, dear Iron. You will be sorely missed.

Dear New Iron,

It's difficult for me not to think of you as a whippersnapper. Sorry. You've got a tough act to follow.

But I promise to allow you to prove to me that I can't live without you (though you seem to be a bit of a lightweight and you might not know how to hold your cord up high quite yet). We have a few things to do together in the near future (Christmas is fewer than 3 months away!).

Let's bond.

Still No Chicken

2011-10-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

It's not perfect, but it will be. "Wicked Lovely" by Melissa Marr ♦♦♦♦◊

Soooo, there was a bell concert last week. I was a member of a quartet of ringers that chose to NOT take the summer off from bellringing. The concert was a great source of stress for me - I'd never rung in a quartet before, we weren't quite ready, I had a wardrobe issue.

The wardrobe issue was that we needed to wear a black shirt/top. I bought one (without trying it on) in a style I like. When I had it at home and tried it on, even I was a bit taken aback at how low the crossover in front was. And how, er, abundantly I filled it out. I had some serious doubts, but when I asked Mr. W. he said, "You worry too much. I like it." :snort: Uh, yeah. I imagine you do...

Enter my version of cleave-oflage. (Cleavage+camouflage, for those who don't have the Universal Tracy Translator)

Knit in an evening out of a mystery black acrylic worsted weight yarn dug out of my closet, this little triangle turned out to be just the thing.

The pattern is "Dandy Neckerchief" (ravelry link HERE) by Ariane Caron-Lacoste. I knit up through Chart 1 of the pattern the bound it off for the perfect size. (I've got the pattern in my queue to knit the whole thing eventually)

And seriously, that little lacy triangle really did its job well.

Safety pins kept the cleavoflage in place (ever so elegantly) during the set up, ringing and subsequent socializing with our bell groupies, with nary a wardrobe malfunction in sight.

If only the concert had gone off as well... It wasn't a complete disaster, but early on I realized that, as one of the 'talkers' between numbers, I needed to turn on my semi-comedy act to make sure the audience knew that we were in it for fun - and the mistakes were all part of that fun.

At least, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

And though I'm getting close, there's still no chicken.

Queen of Last-Minute

2011-10-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Cold Flat Junction" by Martha Grimes ♦◊◊◊◊

So, BossLady's birthday was on Sept. 11 (a bit of a bummer sometimes). I decided I was going to make her a Sparkly Chicken. I've had the pattern for quite a while; it's from the Birds of a Feather book by Brenda Kirby & Debra Hassig. I started collecting sparkly fabrics, including begging some off my friend Peggy, and a week before her birthday began by fusing super light interfacing to the stretchy fabrics (which was most of them) so I could cut out all the pieces.

I had all day Monday and Tuesday to work on the chicken. I'm surprised you didn't notice a bit of a shift in the space/time continuum when I was actually working on something before the last minute.

But then.

On Monday before noon I got a call from Marilee to do my Mighty Mouse impression (here I come, to save the daaaaaay!) - the shop was having a killer sale and the volume was more than BossLady and Pam could handle. Of course I swooped in and lent a hand - giving them each the opportunity to breathe a bit. I was happy that I could help and it was fun. But that chicken wasn't sewing itself while I was gone, yanno?

But then it occurred to me: Marilee's birthday was on Friday before BossLady's birthday and I wanted to make something for her.

Drop the chicken, begin work on sewing machine mat. (That's a quilted mat that you put under your machine so it's quieter. And prettier. And a place to put pins and stuff...)

I used some of my "love-it-don't-want-to-cut-it" fabrics. I had pulled these out of the closet and thought, "I love this fabric, but I want to use it for something really special." Then I thought, "Hey! What's more special than making a gift for my friend?" So I narrowly averted hoarding behaviour and boldly cut into the 'special' fabrics.

The little roundy things dangling from the front of the pocket(s)? Fused and fancy-thread painted. Because Marilee likes artsy-fartsy (and I was on a deadline!). Oh. Another thing about the roundy things? There's hook and loop tape on the back of them so they can flip up into the pocket and adhere to the mat to hold the pocket shut. It won't keep little things from falling out, but for some reason I thought I ought to provide the ability to 'close' the pocket a bit.

I found a font I liked, blew it up and used it for the pattern to quilt Marilee's name on the back (I can explain how, if anyone's interested). Yes, it's reversed on the front, but the fabric's so busy - and the machine sits on it - so it's not a noticeable feature. Then I did really simple straight-line walking foot quilting from the back, using the stripes as my guide.

I actually managed to get the mat finished, kinda wrapped (a shoebox with a ribbon) and presented to the birthday girl on her birthday. I think. It was last month, so maybe I was a day or two late but my memory has changed the actual event to a more flattering version.

Those horizontal lines you can see on the back? Those are straight pins. I forgot to take a picture of the mat before I gave it away (surprise!), so had to get an action shot of it after Marilee had started using it!

True Story

2011-09-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Wizard at Large" by Terry Brooks ♦◊◊◊◊

Take-away Chinese dinner last week.

My de-cookie'd fortune, which I shared with Mr. W.:

He gave me a Mona Lisa smile (oy, don't picture that) and handed me his fortune.

True and accurate.

WOW: Yarn, Fabric and Sparkles

2011-09-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

And a man was surely entitled to call his own publishers. "A Mind to Murder" by P.D. James ♦♦♦♦◊

I've realized that a while back when I said I had so many things to show and tell you I really did, but that was so last month that I'll just start afresh today.

First up is a shawl I'm doing as a KAL (Knit-A-Long). This is just past Chart B (of D) on the Google+ Bashful Butterflies KAL. The first ever KAL of its kind in that it's on G+, a fairly new game in town. I've "met" some really nice people during the KAL including the designer, Julia Temisevä. The pattern is (again) Bashful Butterflies (ravelry link), a small-ish lace shawl. You can see a picture of the original at Julia's blog HERE, and another finished one on different blogger's site here: Crafty Girly. You can click to biggify on that blog post and see what an amazing job she's done and look at all the wonderful detail.

You know, I do own yarn in colors other than red. (Yes, that's red again, though on my monitor it looks pretty pink-y) Oh. You're looking at a close-up of the "Butterflies".

Aaaand the I'm-sensing-a-theme-here picture of my very conscientious helper.

I seriously considered knitting the shawl in white so that the cat hair didn't show up so much...

You might remember that I mentioned I volunteered to host a block swap over on one of my forums (the same one that hosted the bookmark swap, now that I think of it)

I got my first block completed - I have all of the backgrounds sewn together and all of the applique pieces cut out, it's just a matter of fusing them together now.

Here's the fabric I chose for the border. It's an In The Beginning fabric, a Christmas print from about 2 years ago. I got it on a pretty killer sale at the shop last month.

The swap sign-ups finally closed with 17 participants from all over the world. We will each make 16 blocks, send them to the host (that would be me) and then I'll mix them up and send 16 different blocks back to all of the participants. Half of the participants have been instructed to lean (their trees) to the left, half to the right.

Yes, I know you can't really do half and half when you have 17 participants. Gimme a break - with this group it truly is like herding cats!

Lastly, I've started working on BossLady's birthday present (her birthday is on Sunday). What you're seeing (aside from the helpful cat) is not going to turn into anything that is remotely questionable in the taste department, but apparently that's what Sparkly Chicken feet look like before they're sewn together.

Belated Bookmarks!

2011-09-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

The helicopter rose, wheeled over the Fear glacier, blue against the blue of the sky and then turned sharply south toward civilisation, away from the Land of the Spirits. "Terminal Freeze" by Lincoln Child ♦♦♦◊◊

First off, as usual I was late finishing & mailing the bookmarks for my swap - but not by the 3 4 weeks it's been since I started this post. I have you all as witnesses that for once I didn't wait until the last minute to start working on them - but (again) as usual, I had to do everything in the most complicated way possible.

First up, we have the ridiculously adorable mini-sock bookmarks, all finished.

Details:
Pattern: Sockology Bookmarks
Yarn: Jo-Ann Sensations Bamboo & Ewe, barely 2 gm per sock
Needles: US 1 (I used both DPN's and circulars)
Because I love it so much, I used Jeny's Stretchy Slipknot Cast On (youtube link).
Modifications: 4 rows ribbing, 12 rows stockinette, heel as described, 6 rows stockinette, then toe as described, but end at last decrease - not with the extra K row before grafting

(Yes! Grafted toes!)

After all the knitting, I tied a 1/8" red grosgrain ribbon to the top of the sock, added a little charm to the top and some sort of jewelry finding to the bottom. I made most of the bookmarks 'paperback' sized, though they were not all the same length...

..because I had help. Here's MoonPie with "her" bookmark. This one came from Linda 2B and I got to use it for about 60 seconds before MoonPie decided it was hers. I don't know what the deal is...

But wait! There's more!

You see, I'd never made a bookmark before I joined this swap. So, me being me, I went a-surfin' for inspiration. Among the zillions of cool things I found was a bookmark that was pretty and 'hugged' your page corner. Of course I had to try that, too!

So I decided to do some cross-stitch. Somewhere along the way the number of hug-gy bookmarks increased from 7 to 9 (can't forget Bob & Laura), but hey! They're just little bitty cross-stitch motifs! Right?

:sigh: Right. Except of course I have to go and get all fancy and try to make each bookmark specific to the recipient (Gloria & Bob, yours were first, before I got that latest bright idea). As if that didn't slow me down - research, you know - then it occurred to me that I got rid of all of my cross-stitch books (and most of the supplies) before I moved last time. So then it's on to the internet and visits to the public librarieS to find these quick (hah!) little motifs to stitch up.

Seriously? I've been stitching almost every evening and day off since I came up with this bright idea.

Finally on Monday (the first day AFTER the last day they were supposed to be mailed) I made bias binding and finished up the huggy bookmarks.

Of course, I didn't get them done until after the post office closed, so they went into the mail on Tuesday, only two days after the mailing deadline the bookmarks were sent on their way. :sigh: (again)

*All bookmarks, even those sent to Tasmania, have been received. Yes, it's been that long since I started writing this post!

Cute, huh?

WOW: Summer Toss

2011-08-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Full of Grace" by Dorothea Benton Frank ♦◊◊◊◊

Okay, it's a little bit of cheating to call the Summer Toss quilt a Work In Progress. The top is actually finished (as of yesterday morning), which is a good thing, since I taught the class last night!

Summer Toss is the latest in my 'Toss' series of quilts done on the Accuquilt die cutter.

The border (and flower) fabric is 'Floralicious' by Michel D'Amore by Benartex. The quilt is about 33" square= (as usual!). The appliques were all cut on the Accuquilt Go! or Baby Go! machines.

OMG! The handle came off of my Baby Go! I attribute it 100% to the inferior (grey) mat that was originally provided with the machine. I had problems from Day One (the mat was too thick, in my opinion). I see that our distributor no longer has the offending mats and now only carry the white translucent ones.

But - OMG! The handle came off! I will definitely be contacting Accuquilt to get a replacement cutter!

Under the heading of I Must Have My Head Examined, I've agreed to host an international block swap. It's fused Christmas Tree blocks. Here are four of my trees, ready to cut out and fuse to the pieced backgrounds (which haven't been pieced yet).

The swap was the brainchild of my best friend in Tasmania, who ran it up the flagpole in our Quilter's Last Resort forum. Apparently I'm not the only one who needs some intervention - the swap was 'full' fewer than 24 hours after it was announced!

I actually have a bit more to show you, dear readers. I was amazed last night when writing in my book at all I'd done already this week!

Tomorrow night is our 'Hop To It' get-together at the shop. That's when people bring their machine & the blocks from Shop Hop (ANY year, ANY hop) and sit and sew together. It's so easy to collect all of these blocks and then just put them in a box or drawer or whatever. I've seen people wander in, red-faced and carrying complete sets from 5 years back! Since I don't 'hop', I'll take advantage of the time to work on something else. I don't know if it will be a shop sample or :gasp!: something of my own, but I will sew something!!

Brief Bookmark Disquiet

2011-07-22T00:49:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Lost City" by Clive Cussler ♦♦♦◊◊

It's late at night and I've just set aside my cross-stitching. I prefer to do this kind of thing early in the day (and not 'wee hours' early), but Mr. W. decided that he needed me to accompany him on a trip into town earlier today and then there was the obligatory nap and well, you know how it is, right?

So, I've just set the stitching aside. I'm in the midst of the sixth of nine bookmarks; so far everything's on one big piece of fabric (sorry, no pictures, it's late and it's dark).

And then I had a thought. A concern, if you will. I've spent hours on these little stitcheries and haven't actually put one together yet.

What if my math is wrong? What if this really clever idea of mine has some sort of unforeseen design flaw?

Well, crud. I think tomorrow I'll sacrifice a rectangle of Aida cloth to actually make a prototype. Flippin' brilliant, that's what I am.

I had some help reading the pattern tonight.

Stinkin' adorable.

By the way, Mr. W. & I passed by a Humane Society event at the mall today. We looked through the window at the kittens. He insisted that we keep moving... and then said, "Oh, isn't that one gorgeous!". Then he said "We have to go. NOW."

Hmmm. Do you think MoonPie might get a playmate? My birthday's in a couple of days (have I mentioned that already? heh) - should I not shake the birthday present too vigorously?

Probably not. But there's a glimmer of - what? Hope? - possibility, at least, right?

And tangentially related: We were at the mall to go to our itty bitty Borders store. It was really sad; the liquidator was in there, talking about what to do tomorrow (later today, now). We're sad because that's our only non-recycled bookstore in the county and just sad at the demise of the chain. Yes, we bought some books and didn't wait to come back tomorrow/today to get them on sale.

WOW: A Departure

2011-07-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

"You bet," I told her, "and who has the trophy coffee mug to prove it." "Birds of Prey" by J.A. Jance ♦♦♦♦◊

So, first off, I actually have sewn something quilt-ish. But it's at the shop and I just keep forgetting to take a picture of it. Right now, though, I'm all about the yarn-y things and stitching for bookmarks.

Here's the latest bookmark stitchery I finished. It's for someone whose name starts with "L" (clever, eh?) and she likes hummingbirds. I even got a little bit fancy with my generic few skeins of embroidery floss and paired a blue with a green to get a little bit of interest there in the 8 or so stitches in the body.

I believe that I have 9 little stitcheries to make and I've done 4. Tomorrow starts an almost full week off work for me so I'll hopefully be able to finish the stitching and turn these into actual bookmarks before my next WIP on Wednesday post (and I'm having a birthday in there, too!).

Oh, and here's the departure: With at most a couple of hours' work left to do on The Socks That Had Surgery, I decided to make a camera cozy. Because when I carry my camera in my purse my keys and cellphone jangle around it. And I don't remember if I ever had a 'real' camera case.

So it's cast on some stitches and knit a garter-stitch edging around a 'body' of moss stitch until it seems to be big enough to sew up into a pocket to put my camera in.

I love the texture on this.

I'm also using this as an excuse to practice my Portuguese-style knitting (YouTube link), where the yarn is actually wrapped around the back of my neck while I'm working with it. This method takes a lot of strain off of my left hand, though I haven't taught myself to switch hands like I do when I knit 'regular' (a variation of Continental style, for those who can translate that) so I can give my right hand a rest, too.

That's about as exciting as it gets this week, I think. I have a couple of things that I really want to show and tell, just need to get my ducks in a row to get pictures and stuff.

WOW: Bookmarks. And FOOD.

2011-07-13T08:45:00.000-07:00

It may seem a frail defence against the horrors of the world but we must hold fast and believe in it, for it is all that we have. "The Private Patient" by P.D. James ♦♦♦♦◊

No more to show on the Socks That Had Surgery. I've worked on them a bit, but they're not to a noticeably different point than last we met.

I have, however, finished knitting itty bitty sox for my bookmark swap. Of course, now that I have the pattern just the way I like it, I'm done - at least done knitting for the swap.

Yesterday I picked up some 1/8" grosgrain ribbon and some sort of jewelry findings to turn the itty socks into bookmarks.

And just because I just love that these socks did not take any shortcuts, I give you turned & gusseted heels and grafted toes.

I wanted to do some cross-stitch bookmarks, too, because I found a really cool idea online somewhere (I'll find the link & give proper credit when they're closer to being finished). Of course, I couldn't make socks for part of my swap group and cross-stitch for the other part, so it looks like almost everyone's getting two.

These motifs are about 15 squares, uh, square. Or about 1 1/16th" inch square.

I COOKED yesterday. In addition to making strawberry-rhubarb-raspberry jam and grating a big ol' block of cheese and gathering the ingredients for Knock You Naked Brownies, I made chicken burritos!

Recipe courtesy of the wonderful Sharon at Craizee Corners. I will definitely be doing this again. It was easy and tasty...

BUT

Next time I'll NOT use the 'hot' flavor of salsa. It was a bit overwhelming. I'm told (now) that flavors sometimes get stronger when you use a slow cooker. Using the 'hot' was not a recipe recommendation - I take full responsibility!

Oh! The cat!

MoonPie's new favorite place to sleep - for hours - is the recliner between Mr. W's legs. Perfect place for a big warm cat to spend her time in the heat of the summer, don't you think?

Last but not least (though maybe least interesting), Amanda sent me an invite to Google+. I'm there as (surprise!) Fiber Babble. I'm just getting my feet wet and this might turn into yet another hour a day at the puter, but I'll give it a try. I am so anti-Facebook (I have not fully explored my reasoning for being so) and Google+ feels a little like I expect Facebook to be, but for some reason I'm okay with it - if it's not Facebook.

Sock Survivor

2011-07-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "The Sanctuary" by Raymond Khoury ♦♦◊◊◊

Soooooo, it was successful.

It wasn't fast by any means, but it was successful. I'm knitting to the toe on one of the socks now. I could have knit a longer tube & not have had to knit so much to get to the toe, but I must've had a good reason for what I did. Or I got bored.

The whole point of making a tube o'sock and then cutting & adding toes and heels later is so that I have the flexibility to add toes and heels when (and where) I want them. But I have to admit it would have been easier to do that snippy thing if I'd had lifelines where the needles needed to go. I'm not perfect (surprise!) at getting all the stitches in a row, especially since I had to navigate a cable or two along the way.

It worked out, of course, but I had to do some fiddling because I'd picked up most stitches from one row and a few from a neighboring row above or below.

It occurs to me as I write this that I need to be doing the same thing on sock #2 as I am on sock #1, so I should be working on them both at once.

Wow, I am just sharp as a marble, aren't I?

I guess I'll be getting sock #2 caught up before going farther on sock #1.

Bright side: I am learning SO much from this experiment!

In other news, I did finish two other pairs of socks this weekend.

I am swapping bookmarks with my peeps over at Quilter's Last Resort so these are going to get a ribbon or cord tied to them to help my friends mark their places and then they'll be sent off around the world. I was going to stop at 4 socks, but I think that everyone needs to have the same thing so no one feels left out (that's the parent in me speaking).

Details: Jo-Ann Sensations Bamboo and Ewe (I really like this stuff), size US #1 needles, Pattern is Sockology Bookmark I by Jackie Ghio.

BUT there's another bookmark that I want to try that is NOT yarn-y. Maybe I'll send everyone TWO bookmarks! Because I have all the spare time in the world!

Oh,and for the record? All of the pictures on this page are of socks made of the same yarn. According to my monitor, the top picture is closest to the actual color and brilliance.

Wish Me Luck

2011-07-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

"Lettie Davenport," she said again. "Wicked Prey" by John Sandford ♦♦♦♦◊

I'm about to snip the yarn between the needles and turn a long tube into two toe-less and heel-less socks.

No guts no glory, right?

A Mysterious WOW

2011-06-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Then he drove back to the office. "Deal Breaker" by Harlan Coben ♦♦♦♦◊

So here's the mystery: I've actually worked on something a little bit. But it's a gift for someone who reads this here blog, so I can't show it right now. It's almost done, though, so I will share all the gory details hopefully next week!

Oh! PLUS I scheduled my fitting with the Men in the White Coats:

I started knitting two new pairs of socks. The thing is, they barely fit over my smallest finger.

Same stuff as the larger socks I'm working on - Bamboo & Ewe yarn. Size US1 needles. The amazing Jeny's Stretchy Slip-Knot Cast-On.

Again, they're for someone who reads the blog, so that's all you'll get until they're done.

So, I survived Shop Hop. Strangely. I'm kinda numb. It started on Thursday (the first day I worked), I wasn't all pumped up and excited to be heading to work. I think that there has been so much build up for soooo long that I'd reached my limit.

Not that it wasn't fun. I got to meet lots of new people and see lots of people I hadn't seen for a long time. I learned that I apparently have a good memory for faces, though the names don't always come. There was a lot of, "Wow! I haven't seen you forever! How have you been?" coming out of me and (fortunately) lots of people telling me what they'd been doing and why I hadn't seen them in so long.

Saturday I arrived at the shop in full regalia - not only in my Diva apron, but the ensemble was completed with a red feather boa and a tiara. I thought the tiara was just to make my entrance, but a funny thing happened:

Remember 'way back when I told you about how my hair curls like Medusa's? Well, the tiara was placed upon damp hair and by the time my hair had dried it had crawled all over the crown and was holding it fast, albeit a little bit tilted to the side.

Mixed blessing, eh?

The crown & one of the stars was made from cotton lame', but I didn't have gold, only bronze... I had to let my attitude do the alchemy.

And I know there are those who will ask, so I'll tell you up front: Yes there was a picture or two taken of me in full get-up, but none of them were taken with my camera. You'll just have to let your imagination run free. Be sure to put a couple of streaks of grey in the imagined coiffure, won't you?

WOW: WIP on... Thursday?

2011-06-23T09:18:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "At Risk" by Patricia Cornwell ♦◊◊◊◊

Well, it's not like you were actually refreshing your browser yesterday, anxiously awaiting the WIPs on Wednesday post, now, were you?

I really was working on something yesterday, though:

It's an apron. Not just any apron, but the apron that is the uniform for our shop for the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop.

Wow, that was a mouthful. Let's start again:

This week is the WWQSH. It's a big hurkin' deal - all (most) quilt shops in Western Washington, from the Canadian border to the Oregon border, are participating. 5 days long. 2,000-4,000 shoppers. We've been prepping for this for months.

All of the females* working this week (as in everyone who's EVER been on the payroll) are making/have made these aprons, using Tamara's Vintage Apron pattern, muslin & the Shop Hop feature fabric. We get to embellish them as we wish, as long as the embellishments feature a duck.

*Adam doesn't have to wear this kind of apron. He has a navy twill apron (but it still has a duck on it). There are limits to what the man will put up with, you know.

So, here's kinda how the apron will look when worn. This is my prototype apron, where I adjusted the fit a bit.

I really like the way the apron fits and I think it's fairly flattering - even though I'm not all that thrilled about the width of the body it's attempting to flatter.

Now, I have no idea why, but at the shop I'm known as The Diva.

(I'll wait a minute while you clean up the tea you just spewed, okay?)

Anyway, I decided to stitch "Diva" on the pockets. My embellishments (which will happen as soon as I leave the puter) will also be appropriately Diva-ish. You see, I have rhinestones.

Maybe on the way in to work today, I'll stop at Michael's & pick up a red feather boa. That ought to be a nice touch. (I considered a tiara, but haven't found one that's quite right...)

Okay, those rhinestones won't set themselves. Wish me luck!

WOW: WiPs on Wednesday

2011-06-15T08:39:00.000-07:00

We clicked our plastic cups, and the glorious night sky above us began to move. "The Bone Vault" by Linda Fairstein ♦♦♦♦◊

In a perfect world this is the beginning of an every-week thing, posting my WiPs (Works in Progress) on Wednesday.

All the cool kids are doing it, you know. Esther started it here, and she even has a cool button:

But I have to be honest with you and admit (like you don't know already) that even though I think it's a great idea, this is me we're talking about. I'm committed to my husband. I'm committed to my job (though sometimes either of those things cause me to want/need to be committed). Committing to a weekly or monthly activity really appeals to me, but usually only for the first couple of weeks/months.

We'll see, right?

First up is "A Box of Sock Monkeys". I'd created a pattern for a sample to show off a panel we have at work (A Box of Chocolates) and the quilt top that came back from our sample-maker was, er, pointless. I'm not sure if my original instructions were unclear or incorrect, but since people inevitably ask for the pattern when we hang a sample on the wall, I knew I needed to get it right.

Fabric was from my stack o'scraps. These were given to me (leftovers from someone else's project). I know I've never purchased sock monkey fabric plus the fabric had been pre-washed and a @^#*-load of fabric softener/dryer sheet 'scent' assailed my face when I ironed it. (I don't believe in using those products before the quilt is completed)

Continuing with the 'Sock' theme, here's a pair of socks that I've been working on. I'm not sure if you can see the line I put in the picture, but that's where I will cut the socks apart (gasp!) and add toes to make this one long tube into two socks.

I'll also cut another part to add Afterthought Heels (first search result I found).

The reasons I'm doing these this way are a)It's portable & I can just knit and knit without charts or shaping until I'm ready to sit and pay attention, b)It's something new that I wanted to try and c)this way I don't fall victim to SSS - Second Sock Syndrome (where one runs out of steam or interest after the first sock is completed).

Sock pattern without all the 'cut for toes and heels' part is Paraphrenalia Socks by Taina Anttila. I found the pattern on Ravelry here. Yarn is Jo-Ann Sensations Bamboo and Ewe. I really like this yarn, by the way.

What are you working on today?

Quilts, Cat, Carpet

2011-06-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

And when that happened, the right words would be found. "Cover Her Face" by P.D. James ♦♦♦♦◊

So, I actually did sew a little bit on one of the (many) projects I took to retreat.

I'd started this Storm At Sea quilt years ago for a class I taught. I admitted in my first retreat post that the quality of work on the UFO was embarrassing. At retreat I spent at least as much time ripping as I did sewing and re-sewing. But at least there's this proof that I sewed on something I brought!

The picture below shows how much further I've gotten since coming home. I hung a rotary cutter on the quilt to give you some sense of scale.

This quilt will contain twenty 18" blocks before I add borders.

I wrote a little about the challenge I'd joined with some Twitter friends and said that I should write about it before it was past tense. Guess what? It's past tense!

It was something called the Naked Bed Challenge - essentially for we quilters who have been making quilts for everyone and everything else, but still haven't made anything for our own beds. (Kinda like the cobbler's children without shoes, isn't it?)

This is as far as I got before the challenge 'expired'. That's okay with me, though. As with so many things, just joining the challenge and talking with others about it was enough to get me going on the quilt again (that really has always been intended for my queen-sized bed). That I didn't finish by the deadline is unimportant to me. That it is currently up on my design wall and the blocks and components are at my sewing machine is a much bigger, more positive, step for me.

The past two months have flown by - what a surprise that it was time for another "Toss" quilt!

This month it is Star Toss, using fabrics called (I think) Liberty Ridge. The class continues to grow and now I'm teaching it twice during the month to accommodate the number of people interested. It's wonderfully simple and beginner-friendly, plus when the class is over the quilt top is DONE!

The group of returning quilters grows each month and it has really begun to feel like a bunch of friends getting together to sew on the same project, rather than a formal class now. I really cannot ask for more, you know?

Gratuitous cat picture #1.

I guess we can stop worrying about the cat being skittish and untrusting now, doncha think?

Same photo shoot, different settings on the camera.

I find it interesting that our cat matches the carpet. She's officially "chocolate" colored (I think - it's been so long since I've researched that), but you know what color she really is? Dust.

I expect that some of you (whether you admit it or not) actually know what color dust is - you know, when you realize you haven't swiped the cloth over the top of the bookcase for :ahem: a while? Well, the color that ends up on the dust rag is the same color as MoonPie's dark patches.

Oh, and here's a cropped close-up of that face. I love it when she's upside down and her ears are all smooshed like that!

The Sparkly Chicken

2011-06-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "The Sunday Philosophy Club" by Alexander McCall Smith ♦♦◊◊◊

Sparkly Chicken - (n) 1. anything that causes a distraction
2. sparkly chickens are only visible to those who are distracted
3. especially useful when concentration is compromised for any reason whatsoever (I was going to do the laundry until the sparkly chicken ran across the room and then I spent the rest of the day playing with fabric.)
definition found online a long time ago, sorry I didn't keep the source.

I suppose I should stop telling you 'Next time I'll tell you about this...' or 'This is Part 1'. That seems to be a guaranteed way to make sure that I'll drop the ball and go off in another direction until weeks later. But there will be attendant guilt about leaving you hanging.

Here. Bare bones. Because if I try to be clever, this will take us both all day:

Our first group project, Laura brought instructions and walked us through making a hexagonal wall-hanging/table topper. It's 3-D-ish. And mine is bright and happy.

I liked the method so much that I actually made one (and finished it) in time to send to Mom for Mother's Day. Of course I forgot to take a picture of hers before I mailed it off!

And here's a shot of everyone's projects! (That's Patchwork Polly posing with the projects)

Be sure to click-to-big: Hopefully you'll be able to see how my very artistic retreat-mates really made each of their projects special.

Another day Joann guided us through a Moda Bake Shop project for a Grocery Bag Dispenser.

Hmmm. I think I need to make it a point to hang that one up - though I'm pretty adamant about bringing my own grocery bags, we still seem to acquire way too many of the plastic ones (ahem, but I still love him). Maybe using the holder thingy - a finite space - will be a way to keep so many of them from accumulating in the house.

A group photo!

Marilee had brought a few Pennie Pocket kits with her and was kind enough to share them with the group.

Marilee's "teaching" style made me laugh. In fact, we all laughed a LOT. I could hear my voice and that of BossLady (Marilee's taken multiple classes from both of us) sometimes, but her instructions for certain technical aspects of the pockets (specifically how to turn them right-side-out) had everyone in the room screaming with laughter.

(Mine is the one with the green ruffle)

I ended up "teaching" everyone how to make a chicken pincushion. I have literally made hundreds of these (and the instructions can be found in many places online for free).

It was a fun time, even though most of our chickens were a bit anorexic.

We had no stuffing*, though clever (and patient) Laura took some discarded batting scraps & shredded them with her rotary cutter to stuff hers.

* So here's the explanation: Pam, Marilee & I kinda didn't plan ahead (and by kinda I mean totally). When Mary Ann handed out some wonderful gifties and Laura and Joann had organized projects (with handouts!) and Carol provided a real tea complete with china place settings and homemade lemon curd (oy!) we were pretty much scrambling to find something to share with the group. Marilee's already come up with at least one idea for a fun project to bring to next year's retreat. I'll come up with something, too, though probably at the last minute.

I'm fairly sure that if we hadn't shared a project no one would have rescinded the invitation for next year, but it was something we wanted to do. And anyway, we would have missed Marilee's Pennie Pockets 'lessons' - and certainly missed out on a whole lotta fun!

I Survived Retreat

2011-05-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

We think alike, my father and I. "The Callender Papers" by Cynthia Voight ♦♦♦◊◊

You know, there are so many stories to tell but I'm afraid that most of them are in the "You had to be there" category.

So, let me just try to hit the highlights, 'k?

I think this will be a 'Part One' post so I don't overwhelm you with 5 days' worth of news/pictures in one post. Don't worry, though: I'm pretty sure there will only be a 'Part Two' and not parts three, four, five and fourteen.

The retreat was in Reardan, Washington, about ½ hour west of Spokane. If we were driving 'straight through' from Longview it should have taken about 5½ hours to get there. But of course, we didn't. We took 'the Gorge route' and went south into Oregon, then east along the Columbia River, then north again for awhile with the river.

Of course we had to stop at a few quilt shops along the way...

ETC-Every Thread Counts in Hood River, OR. VERY friendly staff person. The shop was smallish, but super clean and bright with a good variety of fabrics, patterns and gadgets.

We also came across this great idea - Yep, you're reading that right, Wild Flowers Quilt Shop and Liquor Store (in the booming metropolis of Ritzville, WA)!

Fabric on the right, booze on the left. What more could one ask for? (It was a very nice shop!!)

Upon arriving in Reardan, I was almost immediately accosted by a big black cat. I named the cat 'Lassie' (one of those had-to-be-there things) and during our stay, Lassie made my life kinda interesting.

Yes, Lassie is a bit scary-looking. I read a lot of woo-ee-oo fiction you know, so I may have been a tad freaky that I was singled out for 'adoption' by a glowing-eyed, long-taloned, yowl-y black cat.

As I suspected, I WAY over-packed projects for my time away. In addition to having too much to choose from, I took on the role of Cub Reporter for our forums and spent lots of time taking pictures and uploading them, so I really didn't have time to get a whole lot accomplished.

That's my story and I'm stickin to it.

Of course I did do some sewing, but for the first couple of days at least it seemed that I was ripping out more than I was stitching. I'd brought a UFO that I started many moons ago (but still in this millennium) and was aghast at the poor job I'd done on the blocks - seam allowances all over the place, un-square blocks. Eeww.

Next post will be about the group projects we completed. Maybe even an update on the fate of that embarrassing UFO...

By George

2011-04-26T07:31:00.000-07:00

They would share it for the rest of their lives. "Sizzle and Burn" by Jayne Ann Krentz ♦♦♦◊◊

Dear Blog,

Remember last post when I said I'd lost all kinds of mojo? I've finally taken action. I'm leaving in about ~~an hour~~ 40 minutes for a 5-day quilt retreat in eastern Washington state.

I've packed a truly ridiculous number of projects, from bags to aprons to wallhangings to queen-sized quilts.

I think it's safe to say that there will be some sort of show-and-tell on the blog when I return.

xoxox - FB

Such a great help in the kitchen.

No News is Good News?

2011-04-04T09:16:00.001-07:00

Now I had lost everything. "Dreamfever" by Karen Marie Moning ♦♦♦♦◊

So, here's the deal: I've lost my mojo. Both my Quilting mojo and my Knitting mojo. Oh, yeah - and apparently Blogging mojo, too.

It takes me forever to haul my Self away from the computer or TV & walk the 8 steps into my sewing closet to do something useful. When I'm there, more often than not I'm ripping what I sew (a little sewing humor). This might have to do with a pattern that I purchased that is kicking my backside. I'm about to go to Plan B (stop laughing, Mom) and just do my own thang.

There's lots and lots of stuff I should be doing and lots and lots of stuff that I want to be doing (not always the same). Oh, I bought some batting so that hurdle has been overcome. It's still in the bag, but at least that's not keeping me from working on stuff.

But what I'm doing most is mainly just sitting. And eating white food. And taking naps.

Is it because I'm working more hours than usual? Is it because I'm spending lots more time teaching and developing patterns? Is it because the weather is still schmucky? Is it because I loaded a fairly addictive game on my iPod?

My friend Bev very kindly gave me an award weeks ago. I've thanked her privately, but haven't been all gushy and pay-it-forwardy on this here blog. That draft post is started - well, there's a title and a placeholder for the award graphic.

MoonPie went on her first long trip when we went to Mom's for a couple of days last month. She was a good traveller, but not such a good guest. She stayed under the bed and didn't eat, drink or poo for 24 hours. Hopefully next time she'll treat it as a familiar thing and forget to be a little weirdo.

I'm still involved with my two forum worlds, though less than usual. About the only thing I do regularly to keep in touch with the outside world is hang out on Twitter.

Oh! I joined a challenge posted by some Twitter buds. There's another blog post that I'd like to write before it's past tense.

In my mind, I'm a dynamo. Big plans. Brilliant ideas. In action? I've seen more exciting plates of mashed potatoes.

It's just blah. Not blah-blah-blah, which you're familiar with if you're a regular reader.

Just - blah.

Rolled Right Into a Wall

2011-03-03T07:27:00.000-08:00

"There's no time like the present," Austin said. "The Navigator" by Clive Cussler with Paul Kemprecos ♦♦♦◊◊

I was on a roll! I seem to have had a bit of a burst of productivity of the Finishing Stuff sort.

In my recent post Before and After I already showed you the proof, such as it is, that I've done some invisible finishing on some fusible applique projects.

So, I was in my sewing closet & wondered what else I could do... Oh, yes! I have MORE fusible applique to sew down! So to the UFO shelf (heh, I'll let you think there's only one shelf if you want to) and out comes my Farm Cabin quilt top (Farm animals on Log Cabin blocks. Artistic and brilliant naming at its finest, yes?).

Okay, clever naming aside, it is a pretty neat quilt top. Forever ago (5 years?) I cut up the strips, put them in a ziptop bag & binder-clipped them to magazine with the "pattern" for the log cabin blocks. That's my way of making a kit so that when I'm off to a sew-day away from home I'll have something to grab to work on that's new, interesting and already thunk out.

Many, many of you have heard me say that I love-love-LOVE log cabin blocks. Most have also heard me say that they Bore Me To Tears. I took this 'kit' to one of the Woodland get-togethers (I told you it was a long time ago!) and by the time I got to log two on the first four blocks I was whining and asking when it would all be over!!

Enter the concept of Leaders and Enders. A term/technique commonly attributed to Bonnie Hunter (she wrote a book!), it's essentially a way of sneaking in really, really boring sewing while doing something more interesting. Short version is while sewing a bunch of interesting blocks together, I sew on a 'log' to the boring block at the beginning and end of each step of the interesting blocks.

Working this way I was able to finally get the eight log cabin blocks made (I have also been known to set my bedside clock a few minutes fast to 'trick' myself into getting up earlier than I really want to). I don't remember putting the blocks together into the top, but my guess is that it wasn't as boring as making the blocks was in the first place.

Then I found some cute little farm animals, dropped my feed dogs and started 'drawing' them with red thread. The first red (just plain old red thread) was too thin to show much, so I found some darker red in a heavier weight and went over the designs a couple more times. I also changed my stitch from a straight stitch to a super-narrow zig-zag to make the lines look a little thicker. You know what I found out? A spool of thick (topstitching) thread runs out really fast compared to regular sewing thread!

It took me a while to figure out what to do next, but as often happens, Sindy from FatCat Patterns had designed something that really added some pow to my project. She'd made a series of placemat applique designs and one of them was a bunch of sunflowers.

I found three or four yellow and three or four greens and agonized over the placement of the flowers and petals until I had it the way I liked it.

A side trip here: I have some bittersweet memories of this process. I had to lay out the quilt on our bed and I remember that Puppy-Butt was extremely helpful with the 'random placement' aspect of it, at least until I got the bright idea of holding the shapes in place with a sheet of Press 'N Seal. I must confess that when I pulled the quilt from the shelf I did put my nose into the middle of it to try to get a whiff of puppy. And I got a little teary because I couldn't.

Ahem. So that was over two years ago and almost where my story begins again. I'd fused the sunflowers down and began sewing them (using a straight stitch with a sunny yellow rayon thread) and for some reason I put it away before I was finished sewing down the flowers.

A week or so ago I pulled it from the shelf (See? Full circle!) and sat down to finish the stitching.

It took all of 15 minutes to finish the stitching.

And while I've got Homer in the room? I now have FOUR quilt tops ready to quilt (I finished the mystery wallhanging from my Road Trip, too)! But when the time came to baste any or all of these AFO's (ALMOST Finished Objects!), I found that I am totally and completely out of batting - how can that happen????

It looks as though I have some shopping to do!

An Exceptional Cat

2011-02-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "Labyrinth" by Kate Mosse ♦◊◊◊◊

Remember this scaredy cat? This is the very first picture on the very first day MoonPie came to live with us. At about three months old and a whopping one and a half pounds, this little thing just flat out tilted the life we thought we were going to have right up on its elbow.

It took almost no time for her to wrap Mr. W. around her furry little paw.

Oh, and she went through periods where we could almost literally watch her grow - she's now all the way up to 6.2 pounds!

But then she started growing up. Did you know that Siamese cats go into heat earlier than may other breeds? We do.

Now.

Yep. It was time to take our itty bitty kitty in for a little bit of a surgery.

When we took MoonPie in to the vet, I asked that they observe her a bit if they could because I'd noticed that her front legs were occasionally shaky and even though it is hilarious to watch, she seems to run kinda funny.

We (ahem - Mr. W.) managed to survive the 24 hours with only a little bit of separation anxiety, and when we went to pick her up the vet wanted to talk to us. It seems that MoonPie has a condition (?) called Cerebellar Hypoplasia. Apparently her momma cat either got a virus or was vaccinated with a live virus while pregnant (not as sinister as it sounds) and it caused MoonPie's cerebellum to not fully form. Or something like that. Click the link and read the Wikipedia entry for a more official description if you wish.

(Comfortable post op kitty)

The short version? Her brain sends signals to body parts and the message sometimes goes astray.

She's not in pain. She's not going to get any worse. In fact, she'll probably get 'better', not because the condition changes but because she'll adapt to it. As Mr. W. put it: it's probable that we'll always have a cute but clumsy cat.

I didn't want to (because I was afraid of getting my heart broken, if you must know) but Mr. W. went to YouTube and started looking at cats with CH. He convinced me that I should look and what I found were a a lot of very loving and cute videos of kittens and cats with CH. Also, by watching the videos I could really see similarities in some of MoonPie's movements.

You know what else I learned? MoonPie seems to have a very, very, very mild presentation.

Take two minutes and meet Charley:

At first I really looked at MoonPie differently, trying to find other ways that the CH has affected her. She doesn't jump except when she's playing (cat owners are probably famliar with the term "Pogo Kitty"). She plops - or plays dead. I don't know if the plopping is a CH thing or if she does it just because it's ridiculously cute. Other than those things and the funny run, I can't see anything unusual. And now that I've had a while to process, I don't think 'our cat has CH'. I think 'our cat is pretty goofy sometimes.'

But aren't they all?

And by the way, the vet told us something else: MoonPie has a truly impressive tail. Can you imagine what will happen the first time she gets spooked?

Before and After

2011-02-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

"Right answer, Jones." "White Lies" by Jayne Ann Krentz ♦♦♦♦◊

Well, seriously? I spent a good portion of Sunday at my machine (Waldo), sewing down fusible applique shapes. Not nearly all of the fused shapes that need sewing, but two whole projects.

But what happens when you sew along the edges of appliques with clear or matching thread? You can't see the stitching from more than 12" away. So essentially I spent hours doing something and I don't have anything to show for it!

Oh, woe is me, drama-drama-drama.

There, I feel better.

So even though you probably can't see what I did, here's what I did.

Before

After

I sewed down the gingerbread men on Gingerbread Toss, using brown thread. I used a narrow and long zig-zag.

This is not my picture, I found it on flickr!

Normally I'd use a blanket stitch on applique shapes as large as the gingerbread men. Waldo does a wonderful blanket stitch. Well, at least he used to until I took him in and mistakenly had the service people remove the plain blanket stitch from the electronic library but leave the 'double' blanket stitch. The 'double' is apparently what (internationally known quilter) Ricky Tims uses; as the title suggests, it's twice over everything. Fine if I want it to be a part of the design, not so wonderful if I want something more subtle.

Hey, look! I also sewed down the appliques on Bella Rosa Babies!

This is a new one for you all. I found the pattern at the distributor's warehouse. Bosslady bought up all they had. Pam made a sample, Bosslady taught a class or two and we kitted up the rest of the patterns. (Later I found more patterns & scooped them up, but all but one kit is gone already!)

When Pam made the sample I fell in love with it even more. I always say, "You won't know if you don't ask", so I asked: "Pam, what are you going to do with the sample when it comes off the wall?" "Pam, if you decide to keep the sample, I'd be happy to buy it from you." "Pam, I sure love that sample. Have you decided if you're going to keep it?" Subtlety at it's finest, eh?

Pam, being the gracious, giving and prim quilter that she is, finally said, "Take it." It took me about 30 seconds to get Adam up on that ladder to pull it off the wall and stick it in my bag to come home with me. Again, subtle.

Their heads, hands & feet are all zig-zagged down with fleshy-colored thread. Their dresses & pinafores are sewed ¼" away from the edge so that when they're washed they'll fluff up a bit.

I can't hardly wait to get to the fluffing up part!

Bosslady says she wants it back in the shop for awhile after it's quilted. When if finally does come to my house to live forever, it will go in the guest room. (Sure hope you like it, Mom!)

I'm going to leave you with a recent picture of MoonPie - and a heads-up: Next post will be all about our ever-so-clever and exceptional kitty.

Road Trip!

2011-02-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

"There appear to be some advantages to being a wife, after all." "Second Sight" by Amanda Quick ♦♦♦♦◊

Late last summer I ran across an advertisement for a mystery class with a well-known Art quilter (yes, capital "A"). I dug around and found that this artist did some stuff that was right up my alley artistically - massive threadwork, rich colors. While her subject matter wasn't what I would have chosen I could really get into the technique and end result.

So I sent an email with a link to the mystery class info to Bosslady with a one liner: "Road trip?"

She said yes! Then another friend of ours who is a new quilter but 'into' artsy fartsy quilts signed on. At almost the last minute yet another friend joined us. We were set for an amazing weekend at the coast! Two whole days of sewing - the class was scheduled for 10-5 on BOTH Saturday and Sunday! Woot!

When the time finally came to hit the road, we set off with high spirits and the back of the vehicle loaded with fabrics, tools, sewing machines (and a few clothes).

The afternoon & evening before the class found us stopping at a quilt shop or two along the way, having lunch (and sharing the various swear words we knew in sign language... but that's another story), and grocery shopping for necessities like coffee, chips, cheese and wine. We met up at an amazing condo/timeshare provided by one of the friends, unpacked, freshened up, had some wine, went to dinner and then came back to more wine and a truly staggering (no pun intended) amount of laughter and fun.

Everyone had had a long day and they went to bed surprisingly early. I took advantage of the quiet for a little time to myself. (That's a sock-to-be on the needles)

We missed the exit to get to the venue for the class, so we were about 3 minutes late for the official starting time of 10 a.m. We were concerned that we'd miss the introductions.

But when we arrived the rest of the group were cutting, pressing, sewing... and generally WAY ahead of just a 3 minute delay. Apparently the instructor arrived between 8:30 and 9:00 and there were so many people already there that she decided to go ahead and start the class.

As you can probably guess, I was not amused. We began to catch up by asking our neighbors what/where/how... and it was a neat project... but we did not get a class. Certainly not a class that we each paid a considerable amount of money to attend.

Bosslady catching up, sewing her moon onto the background.

The poor thing was all the way across the room from the rest of us (of course there weren't enough tables next to each other for us all to sit together). She spent most of the time at a chair across the table from me since 80% or more of the technique was cutting, pressing and starching. In fact, after she and I had sewn the moon onto the background we didn't use our machines for the rest of the weekend on this project.

That's not unusual for me. I've already realized that I'm a slooooowww quilter/sewist. What does surprise me is that I continue to lug my machine to classes and set it up as though I'll actually get to use it!

Moe, as usual, was hearing a different beat than most of the rest of the room. Her colors were so different and stunning that the other students kept coming over and taking photos of her progress.

I think that's probably the best thing that can happen to a new quilter/artist - that other, more seasoned quilters openly admire and compliment their work!

My colors, while not exactly typical, were much more mundane. Except the planets, of course. Even though it looked like a moon in the sample, there was no indication of which universe the heavenly bodies were found in*.

Considering our only information for the mystery was to bring "water fabrics", I think we all did quite well with our motley assortment of fat quarters and scraps. Apparently all or most of the other attendees were not strangers to this artist, so they knew to bring batiks, ombres or graduated-color fabrics. It would have been helpful to have that little bit of extra information in the supply list ("Bring at least 10 water fabrics. Batiks or graduated fabrics will work well").

On Saturday evening, we all stayed in, eating chips and cheeses (and a veggie plate, too), drinking wine and working on our projects. There was a lot of cutting and pressing and starching to be done.

We listened to 80's music on the radio, sang along and danced a little while we were working on our projects. We had great conversations (sometimes spurred by memories brought back by a song we were hearing). We laughed a lot. We bonded our butts off. This was truly my very first "girls weekend" with women who were my contemporaries. Now I get it.

The next day we arrived when we damn well pleased (though it was close to 10) and got to work on our projects. Again, every one else had arrived considerably earlier.

There was one dicey moment when the instructor came over to me on Sunday after lunch and mentioned that she didn't have me marked off as having received a pattern (an extra $16 that wasn't included in the original fee, by the way). I told her that I didn't really need one, since my neighbors had already finished using theirs by the time I arrived on Saturday. She said, "Oh, no, let me get that for you." And "Can I get that $16 from you now?" Because I was nominally representing the quilt shop I kept my mouth shut, teeth gritted and handed over the $$. (Bosslady was right there, she is fully aware of what I could have said and very thankful that I didn't.)

Then at about 3:15 the instructor announced that everyone should get their projects pinned up on the wall so we could get pictures and start packing up to go.

Remember the part way at the top that said the class was two whole days, 10-5 ???

No, I'm not going to give the name of the instructor nor the name of the quilt shop that was hosting the class. I expect that our little group was the only one that was less than thrilled with the class :snort: portion of the weekend, because we seemed to be the only ones who weren't "regulars". I also expect that the hosting shop will not be sending out evaluation forms.

But I am taking it a bit personally. It was expensive (class + supplies + travel + accommodations totalled almost $400 each). It was unpaid time off work (for me).

And it was my idea.

Even though I had no control over the quality (or lack thereof) of the "class", I still feel in some way responsible for it not meeting my expectations and letting my friends down.

One sad thing is that I really would have been interested in taking a threadwork class from this artist. But you know, there are other fiber artists out there whose style of teaching may better be suited to my learning style. (How's that for putting a positive spin on it?)

Oh, and even though it was presented as a mystery, I will be posting a picture of my project when it gets finished. If keeping it a secret was part of the "class" instruction, well, we didn't get that information, now, did we?

* Yes, I did it again. Ended a sentence with a preposition. Though I know that it's okay to do that now I still feel vaguely apologetic when I do so. Uh, sorry.

Take Me To Your Leader

2011-02-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

"I thought only of you." "A Death in Vienna" by Daniel Silva ♦♦♦♦◊

You all have heard that I refer to my sewing machine as "Waldo", haven't you? As in, "Where's Waldo?" because every flat surface in my sewing room/closet is piled high with who-knows-what and it's always an adventure locating my machine.

But, look!!

It's Waldo! And my sewing table! (And an icky dust rag, but that's a good thing, really) It's so clean!!

Okay. Back to the real world. Here's all the, er, stuff that I took off of my sewing table.

I lost track of how much time it took to sort and put away and in some cases trash items in this mountain. Pens and gadgets got put away, projects separated, papers culled and filed.

Here's how my sewing table should look when all my 'necessaries' have been (ugh) dusted and properly placed...

But lets get real. Here's how it looks now with not one, not two, but SIX UFOs, three of which are aprons, one is the backing for a finished quilt top, one the project from last weekend's Mystery at the beach and the last a barely-begun bright idea that involves Timtex/Peltex.

So many quilters have made a New Year's resolution to finish their UFO's. I applaud them all. I've been there, done that - last time I officially counted my UFO's they numbered more than 60. That was a few years back. And that doesn't count kits and stacks of fabrics folded up with a pattern. Heaven knows that doesn't count the number of big ideas I have!

As I've shown you today, I don't have to dig through closets or shelves or the floor-mountains to find UFO's, though I would find many of them there. Today, the UFOs just seemed to materialize in front of me.

For some reason I suddenly have a craving for mashed potatoes...

Details, Details

2011-02-01T10:35:00.002-08:00

But between now and then, there was Life; and Bod walked into it with his eyes and his heart wide open. "The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman ♦♦♦♦◊

Oops! Sorry for the weird post! The whole "test" thing wasn't really meant to go out to the whole world... but I seem to have been afflicted with Mad Clicker's Disease there for a moment. (And yes, I deleted the post)

Heh. Well, I wasn't really ready to write a blog post but I think I oughta throw you a little something for being exposed to my idiocy, so here goes:

I finally pulled this block from my design wall - it had been fused since June 2010, I think - and started inking. I gave a couple of "How I Do It" fusible applique classes at the shop and almost all of my samples had inking on them. Since I was 'splaining it anyway, I thought I'd get out my pens and finish up this block.

Mmmm... detail. The white was just blurring together so I grabbed some watercolor pencils and tinted the edges of the petals.

If you click-to-big, the larger version of the picture really shows where the inks were applied. I really enjoy this part of the process. A blah, all-run-together block really can WOW me.

Well, most of the time. This one? Meh.

This is a one-time block, a sample for the shop. I'd blogged a bit about it last May and it is part of a 12-month BOM project. But it's not for me. I can face 120+ pieces in a 13" block but the subject matter of this one isn't really buttering my toast. KnowwhatImean?

Pre-Valentine's Day

2011-01-24T09:28:00.000-08:00

I'd die for him. "Faefever" by Karen Marie Moning ♦♦◊◊◊

I could kinda say that I have "it" so together that my Valentine's Day quilt project is finished. Technically that would be true, but my conscience dictates that I be completely honest with you, dear readers and admit that the only reason this is done before 2 a.m. on February 14 is that I'm teaching this class on February 1st and needed to get a picture for the newsletter (this week)!

I give to you Valentine Toss, the latest in the "Toss" series of quilts/classes/kits for the shop. I can see that the hearts on this one (there are 9 of 'em) will need some contrasting stitching around them; this is an example of the sum not being as great as the parts! I've found an additional dark pink fabric to use for more hearts for the class & kits - but of course I didn't have the time to replace or add them to the sample.

Oh! And what a great Cat Mom I am! A fort for the kitten!

(Oh, and the color of the fabric is truer in this picture than in the finished pic. Bummer.)

Kitten at 6½ months (yesterday), relaxing after a busy session of tissue paper shredding, ball batting and toe attacking.

If There's A Cure For This

2011-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

The blue ones with the bow will do. "Magic Strikes" by Ilona Andrews ♦♦♦♦◊

I'm suffering from a raging case of startitis.

Start-itis n. Med. Condition suffered by handcrafters in which many new projects are begun, but older projects are left to languish unfinished, sometimes indefinitely. Common among knitters, crocheters, and spinners. Cure: no known cure, but startitis can diminish after being allowed to run its course.
- quoted from "Get Your Hook On" 17 Aug 2006

When looking for the 'official' definition of startitis, I found that it is almost exclusively used for activities of the yarnish persuasion. Well my friends I am here to tell you right now that this affliction does not limit itself to just one segment of the creative community. No, no, no. Are you kidding? January is a month of new beginnings! Hace you seen all of the new BOM (Block of the Month) projects that have been offered this month? I'm collecting at least 24 quilting and stitching (embroidery) projects right now - and that's just the FREE ones!

How can I not have the itch to start-start-start when there are so many inspiring and generous designers in the world that just insist upon sharing the exact project I want to start. Right NOW.

Last night I sewed up the sample for my next class, Valentine Toss. It just needs the hearts fused onto it. Yep, another Go! Cutter-friendly quilt. This will be the third in the series. Picture coming soon!

Oh, yeah - and I found an apron pattern that Pam-from-work and I both gravitated toward. Last night I made the pockets and cut out the bodies (it's reversible). I have fabric to make a second apron at the ready, too.

Okay... no pictures this time, but I'll share the list of BOMs I'm collecting:
Birdie Stitches
Give Thanks
Celtic BOM
Pieceful Kwilter
Ode to the Blue and Grey
Fiesta
Little Ladybug's Creations
Flowers of Love (look on the sidebar)
Out of the Box/Dawn Hay
Out of the Box/Pickledish Patch
Home, Sweet Home
12 of Hearts
Whimsical Flowers
Christmas Yet to Come
bdieges Designs
Kitykittykitty
Ashes of Roses
Retro Nine-Patch
Stitch, Stitch, Stitch
2011 - A Year of Wallhangings
Garden Party
My Tweets
Ellie's Quilt Place
The Painted Quilt
Erik Homemade Christmas Mystery 2010 (yes, still!)

Happy surfing!

Everybody sing! If there's a cure for this, I don't want it, don't want it. If there's a remedy, I'll run from it...

The Post That Turned Left

2011-01-18T07:44:00.001-08:00

Abandoned book "The Woods" by Harlan Coben ♦♦◊◊◊

Wouldja look at that. I have actually been sewing!

These are the signature swap blocks for my Quilter's Last Resort group. Make 15, keep one for myself & send the rest on.

No, they're not complicated blocks. They were quite easy to put together. But considering the massive amount of NOT sewing I've done recently, they still feel like a major accomplishment!!

The picture looks kinda like a bunch of Charm Packs, doesn't it?

I also did some more sewing on the 'secret' Thimble appliqué quilt blocks. There are four 9-piece sections for each block and I'm doing 12 blocks. So, before borders, the quilt will have 432 pieces in it. And, aw heck: Let's get even more specific and figure that four is the average number of cuts for each piece of fabric. That gets us to 1,728 cuts just for the piecing, not adding in squaring up the fabric beforehand or the blocks afterward.

That sounds kinda impressive to me. I've heard of some people doing the math on how many stitches they knit into a gift (like a pair of socks) and they give that informatin with the gift so the recipient understands that a handmade gift is not 'taking the easy way out' or 'cheap'. Those of us who do this sort of thing - quilt, knit, crochet, scrapbook, whatever - already know that we don't have "cheap" hobbies. And our time is worth something! Again, many of us don't value our creative time to nearly the amount that it's worth.

Hmmm. I wonder where that little side trip came from?

There's more to come, but let me wrap this one up with a recent picture of MoonPie, who recently turned 6 months old. I was trying to get a picture of the blue-jean color of her eyes. Living room light isn't the best to capture true-true colors, but I'll take the photo-ops when I can get them!

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-14T20:36:00.001-08:00

It was a very good Christmas. "Visions of Sugar Plums" by Janet Evanovich ♦♦♦◊◊

Huh. Well, I kinda made a new year's resolution. I decided I want to sew for at least 15 minutes a day. I didn't break my resolution until... uh... January 1st.

Why procrastinate? I guess I just got the Fail out of the way early. Now I don't have to dread the day when I realize I've not lived up to my own expectation.

2010's resolution (or was it 2009? I forget) was to use up a bunch of my scraps in quilts. Since probably 80% of any sewing I did last year was making samples for the shop, the whole "use up what I've got" thing didn't fly very far. Fail again.

Wow, that's pretty harsh. And I really don't beat myself up about resolutions. They're just the thing one does on New Year's Day.

Okay, I confess: I was just being a Drama Queen. I'm over it now.

But look! I actually have played with fabric today!!

I not only decided upon a pattern, I drafted it, cut up an old phone book for foundation papers, made templates for the funny-shaped pieces AND cut most of the fabrics for the main part of the design (there will be some scrappy action, too, and those aren't cut yet).

So, this is gonna be the base/background to showcase some thimble-shaped appliqués that we swapped over on the Coming Together to Quilt forum. The original pattern (called "Thimbles", of all things) can be found at FatCat Patterns here.

Another confession: I've had a vague plan about what to do with the appliqués since almost the day I received them in the mail. But today one of the other swappers, Quilton, posted pictures of her finished wallhanging. I don't feel competitive, but all of a sudden I got pretty interested in starting my project.

And, that's all I've got on this for now. No hints, no sneak peeks at the final design. Oh, and no promises when we'll see more of this mysterious project.

But wait! There's more! On the other forum I play in, Quilter's Last Resort, a signature block swap had a sudden opening. Do I need another ready-made UFO? Not hardly. But, hey: It's the new year. I can do anything I want to. Clean slate, right? Those UFOs, WIPs, and PIGs (both in the fabric AND yarn areas) are all so last year.

The deal is to make 16 modified rail fence blocks. Scrappy. White or off-white center. Write stuff in the center. Send to the hostess by February 28. Get swapped blocks back after that.

I've got all of the 'rails' cut for the blocks - woo-hoo! Again, now I just need to sit down and start sewing.

There's also a cute shop sample that I made a week or two ago, but of course I forgot to get a decent picture of it before I took it to town. I'll share that one eventually; it'll need to be taken down from the display for me to teach the class on 22 January. Heh. Stay tuned!

Kitten's First Christmas

2010-12-25T09:03:00.000-08:00

What had changed was me. "Bloodfever" by Karen Marie Moning ♦♦♦♦◊

First off, welcome to friends & family who just found out via Christmas card that we have a new addition to our household. As Mr. W. said, you can read the whole story of how MoonPie came to us by clicking here.

Secondly to my regular readers, let me assure you: This isn't turning into a Cat Blog. Remember that everything kitteny is new to us right now and we tend to think that MoonPie is the cutest critter on the planet and exceptionally clever. We'll continue to think that for her entire life but I'll hopefully only inflict evidence upon you occasionally rather than constantly.

We have a small tree that sits upon an end table. I don't know if it was intentional, but Mr. W. put the ornaments in the perfect spot for MoonPie to play with without undue effort.

And he was also smart enough to leave the crystal ornaments in the box & use sparkly paper-based ones.

Ahhh, the wonder of Christmas through a cat's eyes...

Hey! What's this? Something else that sparkles and shines?

Man, being a Christmas Ornament/Garland/Light/Present Inspector just wears me OUT!

It's Finally Christmastime

2010-12-15T11:30:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "Muletrain to Maggody" by Joan Hess ♦◊◊◊◊

Mom & I have this "thing": it's not really the Christmas season until one of us hears Feliz Navidad by José Feliciano on the radio. Okay. Maybe it's just my "thing" but Mom humors me.

Using that indicator, on Sunday the 12th it officially became Christmas for me/us. The good (and fairly surprising) news is that I've got most of my shopping done. Last week we mailed the gifts that needed to be mailed.* I even have most of the 'stay at home' gifts wrapped (I LIKE wrapping presents).

I don't think I'll be wrenching anything out of joint patting myself on the back just yet, though. Just this morning when I was marking things off of my list of things to get I came up with a couple of perfect additions to gifts that are already purchased. In more than one case, these 'perfect' additions involve me actually MAKING something.

The gifts are okay as they are, so if I choose to NOT try to overachieve in the next week they'll still "do". They'd just "do" much better with the additions. We'll see.

But look! A picture of Gingerbread Toss in the same month it was made! What a concept!

This is another of the (Accuquilt) die-cut quilts. It looks like I'll be making one of these about every 2 months. We started with Leaf Toss in October, Gingerbread Toss is now in December. In February we'll do something like Valentine Toss, and there are plans for the rest of next year, too.

The quilt top only takes me about 2½ hours to put together after it's cut. I'm just wondering when I'll have or take the time to finish these quilt tops!

*Today's the day I'm mailing the final gift to my Secret Quilting Sister, so I can't truthfully say I'm completely finished with the mailing quite yet.

Oh, and there are no decorations (or tree) out yet. We're waiting for Mom to arrive to do that. At least, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it

Another Cat Post

2010-12-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

I loved my life. "White Witch, Black Curse" by Kim Harrison ♦♦♦♦◊

This one is of the quilty variety... our shop is doing a monthly BOM of Helene Knott's Garden Patch Cats. You may recall that I shared one cat, Walla Walla Kitty, back when I was publicly comforting myself about my method of appliqué.

Here's the next (and probably the last) Garden Patch Cat block, Yammy Cat.

I certainly don't hate the blocks, and compared to my 'usual' projects they're pretty easy. But I don't plan to make a Garden Patch Cats quilt anytime soon (like, ever) and since BossLady has taken over the samples for the shop I'm probably done.

The blocks finish to about 18" (says she who can't be bothered to walk into the other room & measure). The two don't really "go" together, so I'll want to find something to put them into individually. Any suggestions?

Oh! What about this? What if I had a giveaway? Do you think anyone out there in blogland would be interested in taking these unfinished blocks off my hands?

And just because so many people have asked (not because I'm smitten or anything. Really.), here's a recent MoonPie pic. She's 5 months old now. Sometimes it seems like we can WATCH her grow. She no longer is a little starving kitten; she looks like a small (well-fed!) cat now. I keep threatening to weigh her, but haven't gotten around to it.

I'm afraid that if she grows into her feet and her nose, she's going to be a very large cat. Very large.

It's Almost Cheating, I Tellya

2010-12-06T12:32:00.000-08:00

There will be no services. "Trap Door" by Sarah Graves ♦♦◊◊◊

Hi, me again... breaking another long stretch between posts. The last few weeks have just been go, do, go, do, collapse, go, go, do. Knock wood I've stayed healthy throughout, though I have experienced some stress. You'll pick up on it, I'm sure, as I regale you with blog posts (by the hundreds, I'm sure!) telling of the many things that have kept me from you, dear readers.

A friend of mine asked me a few weeks ago about how I come up with stuff to write about. Well, if I only write once or twice a month it's not that hard, you know? If I were to do it daily? You'd get some interesting stuff interspersed with

"Went to work.
Did math for a quilt design.
Hyperventilated when Adam hung quilt blocks on the wall.
Came home & potato-ed in front of the Netbook & TV while Mr. W. cooked a frozen pizza for dinner.
The end."

But I do have a list of topics and events, small and large, to share with you. By the time I get around to it, the ship may have already sailed (notice a lack of Thanksgiving turkey pictures? Don't fret - I'll get to them eventually!).

Heard in Casa de Babble last month:

Me: Honey, you ordered my Christmas present today!
Mr. W.: I did? How thoughtful of me!
Me: I thought so, too! You rock!
Mr. W.: What did I get you?
Me: I can't tell you, it will ruin the surprise!

This is an Accuquilt Go! Baby fabric cutter. For the non-quilters or scrapbookers out there, it's a nifty tool that uses blades formed into shapes (dies) on which you can precisely cut multiple layers of fabrics. The Go! Baby's big brother, the Go! Cutter, has been all over blogland and Facebook these past few months because Accuquilt has been doing some pretty heavy-duty give-away-ing.

We have and sell Go! Cutters at the shop. We also have the grand-daddy, the Grande Mark, which is the totally not portable Janitor-In-A-Drum-sized version, complete with dozens of dies in all shapes and sizes. This might lead you to deduce that I really have no need to have my very own Go! Baby cutter, since I have such resources at my disposal. You'd be right.

But it is soooooo stinkin' cute!!

It even has an optional little carrying case in hot pink that reminds me of a 'purse-dog purse'. (No, "Mr. W." didn't order that for me, too.)

I put a couple of the dies on my Christmas Wish List so the rest of the family can get in on the surprise. I don't see that this is going to completely change my life with regard to cutting fabrics for quilts, and unlike many bloggers I've seen Go! crazy over the past months I can't see that my scrap pile will magically turn into a half-dozen quilts.

BUT

What I do see is the ability to use it for some non-standard shapes that are more challenging to rotary cut or hand-cut accurately. Like 5- and 6-pointed stars, Drunkard's Path components, various flower or feather shapes. There's a bunch to chose from! This could be the gift that keeps on giving, since it's probable they'll come out with new dies each year that I'll want to add to my collection!

In October (really, I am that far behind in posts) I gave a class at the shop for a quilt I 'designed' based upon a project I saw on the Accuquilt (Go!) website. We named it Leaf Toss and all of the pieces for the quilt were cut on the big cutter at the shop.

Including time spent pointing and laughing at my disorganization, it took about 2½ hours for a roomful of 11 quilters to make the wallhanging/tabletopper. Most people fused a few of the leaves on in class to learn the technique and then took the rest home (it was after 9pm!) to finish up in the morning.

Technical shorthand: 2-5" strips, 5-5" strips, 3 (or 4?) 1½" strips, Maple Leaves, Oak Leaves, Acorns, Stitch Witchery. Finishes approximately 33" square.

We liked it so much and got so many suggestions from the quilters that I've started doing seasonal quilts and classes using the same concept. Tomorrow evening's class is "Gingerbread Toss" with (of course) gingerbread men. We'll do a "Valentine Toss" in February, "Flower Toss" in the spring... well, you get the idea.

And maybe you'll even get to see a picture of Gingerbread Toss before it's time for Valentine Toss.

You Have a WHAT?

2010-11-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Devil Bones" by Kathy Reichs ♦♦◊◊◊

Once upon a time, there was a nice man whose name was Mr. Wonderful. One day he came into his castle and said, "There's a little kitten that I've been seeing roaming around for about a week or so and it looks really skinny and cold. I'm going to go get it, because I can't stand to see it like that."

So Mr. W. intelligently dons a long-sleeved sweatshirt and leather gloves and sets off on his quest to rescue the kitten in distress.

When he returned triumphant from his quest, he had a tiny kitten that was just skin and bones, shivering and crawling with fleas. We put it in a big box, gave it an old towel and a few tablespoons of half and half. While I tried to not spook the little kitten, Mr. W. got on the phone to the Humane Society:

"Hi, I've rescued a kitten that is starving to death and I'd like to know what to do next."
"Oh, really? You can't take it because we don't live in your city but we do have a shelter in our little town? Okay, I'll call them. Thanks for the information."

"Hi, I've rescued a kitten that is starving to death and I'd like to know what to do next."
"What? You can rescue dogs, but you don't have the budget for cats?"
"So what are we supposed to do with this kitten?"

The answer, though given kindly, was essentially "Either release it back outside [to die] or Congratulations, you're a new pet owner."

So we call our vet. They agree to work us in that afternoon. When we arrive:

Vet: "What's the cat's name?"
Mr. W.: "I don't know."
"What kind of cat is it?"
"I don't know."
"How old is the cat?"
"I don't know."
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"I don't know."
(laughing)"Okay, what color is the cat?"
"I think it's - Honey what color is it?" "Maybe cream?" "Cream."

When the vet was able to examine the kitten, we learned that it was a she, she was about 3 months old, she was at least part Siamese, she weighed one and half pounds, she was seriously dehydrated and she was full of fleas.

The vet said they'd keep her overnight, get the fleas off, try to rehydrate her and get some food into her, then we'd see what was what on the following day. If all went well, then, Congratulations, you have a new kitten!

In a bit of a fog, we left the kitten at the clinic and went to McD's for a bite of dinner. Over a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, we decided upon a name: MoonPie.

The we went shopping at Wally World pet department and came home and spent the evening on the internet learning as much as we could about being kitten parents.

The next day we picked up a skinny little scaredy-cat that was still filthy but not flea-ridden (I might have to look up the origins of "flea-ridden" as a phrase). Over the course of the next 2 or 3 weeks, we have been happy to find that MoonPie

knows her name
likes to be combed/brushed
uses her litter box and
purrs like nobody's business

It's been a very gradual process, but she has free run of the main part of the house now. The sewing room, guest room and utility room are still off limits because of the number of places she can squeeze in to (and the expected difficulty in extracting her).

After 2½ weeks, she went back to the vet where she got some shots and we learned that she'd gained a pound. We took the opportunity to asks lots and lots of questions that we didn't know we needed to ask the first time.

Mr. W. is absolutely smitten by this kitten. I have learned (the hard way) not to let him go near a pet department without supervision. He buys her toys. And scratching posts (we're up to three, so far). He feeds her at least 6 times a day (that's a good thing, the vet says). He cleans her litter box after every 'event'. She gets treats for eating, for pooping, for looking at him with those big blue eyes.

He loves to watch her play and stalk and pounce (the dental floss container is no match for his mighty hunter) and I haven't seen him smile this much for at least a couple of years.

We had no intention of getting another furry family member, at least not nearly so soon... but sometimes your choices are made for you.

And she loves me the best.

Today.

The Hallowe'en That Was

2010-11-01T15:28:00.000-07:00

And mankind didn't even know it. "Darkfever" by Karen Marie Moning ♦♦♦♦◊

It's so strange, our neighborhood at Hallowe'en. Sometimes there are 20 kids knocking at our door, sometimes there are 70. Weather doesn't seem to be an issue; when you're born & raised in the Pacific Northwest, rain rarely affects your plans one way or the other - it just goes with the territory. Last night the weather was fine, though chilly. We had 46 kids come to the door.

Mr. W., in his infinite wisdom, decided to get candy that he didn't like so much so that 'we' wouldn't eat it before the little urchins came a-knockin'. This is a direct result of finding it too easy to ~~decimate~~ snack on the mini Hershey bars/M&M mix we'd bought earlier for said urchins... ahem. Where was I? Oh, yes: He chose mini candy bars that weren't at the top of his YUM list. The problem, though, is that the two flavors he chose are at the top of my YUM list.

Oh, the sacrifices I make for that man o'mine.

Our shop got this fabric in, I think it's called "Happy Haunting", and it glows in the dark! As soon as I saw it, I had to make a pillowcase for my friend Brenda's little prince, Gene Paul. He is all about Hallowe'en and I hoped that he would appreciate (or even tolerate!) the random appearance of a pillowcase from someone that his mom knows from the internet.

Brenda said she was thrilled and he was pretty matter-of-fact about it all (including the glow-in-the-dark aspect). This reaction was all and more than I ever hoped for - I'm so glad that GP accepted the gift!

Oh, I used the "sausage method" of making the pillowcase. Other than some inconvenient bulkiness at the seam where the flange meets the side seam, it's pretty amazing. Easy and kinda magical. You can see the YouTube video I followed here:

I joined a Ghosts, Goblins & Ghouls Hallowe'en swap on one of my forums. This is what I came up with for Jessie, my swap partner.

I didn't add a hanging sleeve in case she wanted to use it as a table topper. The little quiltlet is about 20" square.

The fun part? It uses more of the fabric that glows in the dark! (okay, fun for me!)

Laura got my name in the swap and she sent me this great little quiltlet. It's about 25" from point to point.

I've seen a similar style in tablerunners, but since the only time my table is cleaned off enough for a runner to show is when Mom is visiting, I've dubbed this a wallhanging. Currently it's on the wall in the den behind Mr. W.'s chair, so when he's talking to me I'm not facing a bare and boring wall. Not that I would be focused on anything but the numerous pearls of wisdom that routinely fall from his lips. Or anything like that.

Here's a close up of the fabric in the quiltlet that Laura sent to me. I love it!

Jessie's favorite color is Purple. And she likes Orange, too. (a girl after my own heart!) I had some Caron Cozi yarn in the closet that is fuzzy AND purple with a touch of gold and ORANGE, so I just had to use it! She lives in Canada, where (in my silly little mind) it's really, really cold in the winter*, so I knitted up this little shawl for her.

Now, little is an intentionally-used word. From what I can tell, Jessie is a small person. Like the size I was when I was TEN. (that really does say more about my largeness than her smallness, probably) I did a little bit of math and took the shawl to work to find a small person as reference so I wasn't knitting a tarp for the poor woman, but a little something to go over her shoulders in the dead of winter.

I used a pattern called Carol's Clever Little Shawl. Using such bulky yarn and large needles (US 13's), this thing nearly knitted itself. And to be honest, it was quite forgiving of mistakes. Not that I'd make any of those...

In addition to the ease of knitting, the shawl is pretty clever (hence the name I would think) - you knit a tube close each end of the shawl so you can just tuck one end into the tube and voilá, it's closed. No pins, no fighting to keep it on your shoulders.

I'd love to do one of these for myself. Of course, I'll make it more complicated and try to put lace in it or cable it up and get it so involved that I won't ever finish it.

*Latitude-wise, my house is farther north than Montreal, Quebec.
Go figure.

Mom, you're farther north than Buffalo, NY. It's amazing what you learn on the internet, isn't it?

I'm Such a Rebel

2010-10-31T09:23:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Blasphemy" by Douglas Preston ♦♦◊◊◊

So, out here in Blogland, there are many 'events' aimed toward increasing your readership or inspiring bloggers to observe, write and share.

This month it [was] Blogtoberfest. The premise is simple: Write (and publish) a blog post every day in the month of October.

You can probably figure out that I didn't jump on that bandwagon this year, since my last post was September 28, eh?

Nah, I don't have anything against "Blogtoberfest" or any of the other events; some day I might play along. I was just feeling a smidge guilty about being so quiet on the blog (uh-oh...guilty? Time to re-read "Blogging Without Obligation") that I thought I would like to dip my toe back in and give you a clever title and reason for my absence... or something like that.

The short version is that October was a very, very busy and good and bad stressful month, both at the shop and at home. I actually have lots of things to tell you about (and I know you've heard that before here, too). So what I'll do (until a squirrel runs past the window) is sit here today at my puter and write a few posts for you, telling you about some of what's kept me away from my blog for a month. I'll set them to publish a couple/few days apart so you're not faced with a single post the size of The Blah Story (which, according to Wikipedia, contains over 20 times the number of words as the English version of War and Peace, the usual standby when referring to a long, long, long book)(but I digress).

But since this is turning out to be a 'tell you what we're gonna talk about instead of just talking about it' post (one of my real frustrations with some peoples' "teaching" style)(squirrel!), let me leave you with a little peek at one the things that has been taking my attention away from you, dear readers:

A Successful Failure

2010-09-28T01:30:00.000-07:00

"F***stockings," Jones said. "Fool" by Christopher Moore ♦♦♦♦♦

After nearly 18 months, multiple rips, frogs & re-starts and hours and hours of planning, learning and knitting enjoyment, the Royal Arches socks are now officially off the needles.

And in the rubbish bin.

It's not as bigga deal as you might think. The picture isn't the FINAL-final, but one of the incarnations of the toe. I think I was getting artsy-fartsy on the drive down to Mom's a few weeks ago.

Was there a 'straw' that sent these to the bin? Not really. I never found THE toe method I liked (nor the fit). Once I decided to 'make do' with the toe, I still had to pick up and knit the leg of the sock, since I started it at about ankle height.

I did some stockinette on the leg for about 10 rows and realized that the gauge was such that the leg was too loose. So I decided to do a cable rib that could fold down like an anklet. But to make it look right when folded down, I had to knit it inside out. Or some such bother.

I wasn't "mad" at the project and it wasn't really boring me... but I'd abused the soup outta this yarn and I finally admitted that no matter how many (more) alterations I made to it, the poor socks were just NOT going to spring back into any recognizable shape.

Okay. A bit overdramatic. They would have been just fine, if a little thick. They started feeling like FrankenSocks. No harm, no foul, I got plenty of entertainment for my minimal $ investment.

Now I'm ready to move on to another yarn, another color, another new pattern - just because I've been working on this ONE pair for so long doesn't mean I haven't been buying sock yarn and collecting interesting patterns!

It Was Inevitable

2010-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "The Front" by Patricia Cornwell ♦◊◊◊◊

Yep. I made him. As a gift for BossLady's birthday, a ridiculously cute knitted squirrel as both a quasi-store mascot and a not-very-"in" joke.

The movie “Up!” is required watching for employees of our quilt shop. The owner and manager are both so easily distracted, just as Doug/Dug the Dog is in the movie, and we feel it only right to be sure the other employees know what to expect.

If this doesn’t mean anything to you, here’s an 11-second YouTube clip:
Dug Dog

First off, I overstuffed the poor little guy. Didn’t realize it until after the sewing-up had been done, though. Did you know you can remove fiberfill stuffing through the stitches if you use a pair of long-nosed tweezers (like serger tweezers) and a cut-off bit of drinking straw?

The pipecleaner skeleton was pretty wimpy, so I replaced it (after relenting and un-sewing and unstuffing) with doubled pipe cleaners. After lightly restuffing & re-sewing, I find that he’s still not really all that ‘poseable’. Had I not had a deadline, I may well have unsewn yet again and stuffed & sculpted the little guy into more of a gentlemanly pose.

BUT the pattern was written well, it was a quick knit (took much longer to deal with pipecleaners and stuffing than the actual knitting) and he was a major hit and now sits upon a jeweled pedestal for all to see!

Pattern is "Knitted Ultimate Squirrel", designed by Brigitte Read and purchased from Roman Sock (go see some ridiculously cute stuff there!). Yarns are supa-old and wonderfully squishy needlepoint wool by Columbia Minerva and one of the LionBrand Jiffy products.

Football Season

2010-09-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Animosity" by David L. Lindsey ♦◊◊◊◊

The beginning of September heralded the kick off (pun intended) of College Football Season.

I am so fortunate that I'm not a 'football widow' or any other sport-related-'widow', but Mr. W. does like to watch the occasional game (or listen to it on the radio). Being from Middle-Of-Nowhere, MN, he is naturally a Vikings/Twins/Gophers fan.

Funny, he doesn't display masochistic tendencies in any other aspect of his life...

So anyhoo, last year a couple of wonderful people I know from an online group were kind enough to locate, purchase and send to me not one, not two, but THREE different Minnesota Golden Gophers (go, Gophers!) fabrics so that I could make a quilt to comfort my dear husband in his time of distress - or the occasional jubilation.

Put together in pretty much one afternoon, this is a variation (translation: Fussy Cut) of "Patti's Quilt", 9"(-ish) blocks in a 5x5 set.

No, it's not an interesting shape, there really are four corners to it. But since I didn't have A Plan when I started cutting and sewing, it wasn't hard to outgrow the available space on my design wall.

I still need to baste & quilt it and I hope to get on that this week. It would be a shame (though not an earth-shattering surprise) if I didn't get it finished before the conference finals!!

Yep, it's a big "K" so he knows it's all for him. That's the center block.

Because you know he is the center of my world.

Fair Play

2010-09-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

What I need now, he thought, is a drink. "Trouble in Paradise" by Robert B. Parker ♦♦♦♦◊

Sometimes it's difficult to convince myself that I have anything new to say to you, dear Blog Reader. Now, it's not that I want to break new ground every day or to be clever or thought-provoking or funny, but I don't want to bore you with repetition.

Because, uh, I have a terrible memory and I tend to forget what I've already said.

Of course, I can wander back through my blog and check to see if I've shared Tracy's Greatest Hits, Rant #121: What's The Big Deal About Facebook? (I haven't shared this), but that doesn't address the people that I actually talk to or communicate with in other ways.

The point is that I'm sitting here writing a blog post that's not News to many of you. But if you are one of the people who has had an 'in real life' conversation with me, you already expect that I'll be repeating myself - so I won't disappoint you!!

Okay, here it is - the ribbon that has garnered me the (hopefully) loving title of "Domestic Arts Diva".

Yes, ladies and germs, Yours Truly received the Cowlitz County Fair's Domestic Arts Grand Champion honors. Mr. W. nearly hurt himself stifling his laughter when he found out (he found the quilt & ribbons before I did when we went to the fair). His first comment? "Domestic Arts? They've obviously never seen our kitchen floor."

He went on to (ever-so-gently) admit that if they were to take the "S" off of "Art", he'd go with that. Apparently he's okay with the Grand Champion moniker if it's just related to my quilting...

And I do have to admit. June Cleaver I'm not. Heck, sometimes I'm lucky to get to the same level as Peggy Bundy.

But I do enjoy my quilting. And though it's not that often that I have a new Finished Object to show you, I have been practicing for years and years so I'm pretty comfortable with my skills.

(Go ahead and click to biggify, no, Huge-ify)

Oh, and what is the prize at the fair for being chosen Grand Champion? A cool ribbon. A check for $3. And bragging rights. I'll take it.

Does this ribbon clash with my sweater?

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

2010-08-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

Back into the perpetual darkness. "The English Assassin" by Daniel Silva ♦♦♦◊◊

Slow and steady wins the race - I've heard it and said it for most of my life. But I have NO clue what it really means. Is it like the tortoise and the hare thing?

I chose the title because I've realized: I must sew slower than anyone on the planet. Because, although there were some challenges and I did take some breaks, in my mind it shouldn't have taken me until 12:45 a.m. to finish this quilt top.

Is it because I pin everything? There were a lot of points to match... does that take a long time? I was strong and did NOT un-sew blocks that were extra-challenging, I just added an accent strip and moved on.

Well, whatever, here's the finished top - Paisley Duck Third Saturday Sampler in Annabelle colorway. In a little over an hour the quilters who've been participating in the mystery BOM at the shop for the last 9 months willl finally get to see how the blocks they've been making fit together.

..aaaand here's a closeup because I think the colors washed out in the full quilt photo.

That's all, folks! I haven't even had my first sip of coffee this morning yet, so I'm off to prepare face the rest of the day!

Define "Progress".

2010-08-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" by Gregory Maguire ♦◊◊◊◊

Here's Layout 1, according to The Map.

I'm thinking that the designer didn't realize that the same block was given in two different months. I'd guess that originally one was a more complicated block that was simplified for some reason.

And here's what I've decided on as the final layout. Just one block was moved, from the right side to the left side to break up the clump of blue.

BTW, when the blocks are sewn together the top should be around 40x44 before borders.

Okay, here I go... sew one seam and then - POW the first challenge is upon me.

Blocks not the same size. One block has all kinds of extra fabric (aka 'bunny ears' or 'dog ears') sticking out.

Can I "make" it fit?

I don't think so.

Enter ~~filler~~ accent strip #1.

Okay, two of the four blocks needed some help, but the first section is done.

But holy smokes!

I hope that this is as bad as it gets. Only one point had a hope in Hades of staying a point - a couple of them were cut off at the get-go.

This particular block had numerous strikes against it, in addition to the pointlessness of it all. It was sewn with black thread and a long (loose) stitch length. The stripes have been pressed and steamed and pressed so that they're scary wavy. AND (and seriously, I can think of no reason for this) the block was neatly trimmed to 8 and one eighth inches square. Ish.

Dare I hope that the next section will be less of a challenge? One can always dream.

It's 106 miles to Chicago...

2010-08-20T10:15:00.001-07:00

But the only thing behind me was the cake plate, sitting on the bottom step. "Plum Lovin'" by Janet Evanovich ♦♦♦♦◊

Pat yourself on the back if you automatically said or thought the next part of the quote from the title!

Okay, can I write a quick post? Historically the answer has been "no". So here goes:

It's time again to join in another Friday Night Sew-In, hosted by Heidi -

I have an 8:00 a.m. Saturday deadline to put these bits together into a small quilt.

All blocks from a 9-month mystery project at my LQS, these babies need to be sewn together (see the little map peeking out from underneath?) in time to show off at our 9:00 get-together tomorrow morning.

As usual, there will be challenges. First and foremost is that not all of the blocks were sewn by the same person or on the same sewing machine. Hence the extra bolts of fabric - to make little 'accent' strips if necessary to make everything fit together!!

Okay. Time to clean off the design wall and commence ta' sewing!

Challenges

2010-08-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

"Heat lightning." "Heat Lightning" by John Sandford ♦♦♦♦◊
*Yes, I know the last line and the title seem to be a bit, uh, redundant. Feel free to click over to the (fairly unexciting) review for more about that. Or just carry on as usual... your life won't be irreversibly altered one way or the other.

Heh. Challenges could be the title of so many of my posts, don't you agree? That's not always a bad thing, though. Sometimes the act of learning a new skill or increasing my proficiency in something is what qualifies as a challenge. And sometimes just not throttling Mr. W. or someone I know or meet is enough challenge for the day.

But enough navel-gazing, on to the post!

This is a scarf/shawl I'm knitting called, "Time Traveler". It's a MMario pattern (link to Yahoo! group) that I might be testing. I say 'might' because I'm not a very fast* knitter and someone else may post their finished object to the group before I get this baby finished and blocked.

Made from Patons "Grace" 100% Mercerized Cotton in the color called "Cardinal" on size US9 needles. Unblocked, the scarf is about 12" wide. Blocked, I expect it to make it to 16" or more - hence the scarf/shawl designation. Who knows what it will end up to be?

I've got 2 skeins of this yarn, so I figure I'll just knit until they're both gone. If the scarf gets to be "long enough" before I finish the 2 skeins, I'll quit. If it doesn't seem to be long enough at the end of the 2 skeins, I'll get another.

The challenge with this piece is not the pattern (once I figured out the special 'language' of the designer and actually read the chart rather than assuming I knew what it said...) but the need to be fairly neat with my knitting. Using cotton yarn is nice and all but it shows every change in tension and every bit of inattention.

This is my second lace project with cotton yarn. I wonder why I keep doing this to myself? Oh yeah: For the challenge.

I've also been putting in some serious time* on the Royal Arches socks. It took me awhile to get back into the rhythm of the interesting architecture (can I say sockitecture, or is that a term reserved for Cat Bordhi?) combined with the decorative pattern.

I took them to work yesterday and showed them to one of my sock-knitting customers. I surprised myself when I told her (and the room at large, because we're all in each others' business) that I'm not one of those people who can do a sock from memory like so many seem to be able to do. I realized while talking about it that it's because I don't do the same pattern two times in a row - I like the new and interesting ways that clever designers come up with to shape a sock.

But Wait! There's more!

This is what I refer to as my "Peacock Sweater", started at the end of February*. Knit in Naturally Caron.com "Country", a 75% Microdenier (???) Acrylic/25% Merino wool blend. The color (surprise!): Peacock. The yarn's a bit splitty, but a switch to blunt-tipped needles (the Denise interchangeables work well) saves some frustration.

Even more so than the cotton, this yarn shows every burp and wart and change in mood. (And on my monitor, it's showing more blue than the greeny-blue it really is.)

Can you see the subtle stripes in what I have so far? Well, that's because I took advantage of coupons and got just a couple-few skeins at a time. When I finally decided on the actual project, I sat down with my different dyelots (the Knit Police have my mug shot on a poster in most quality yarn shops) and did some complicated figurin' about mixing it up so there weren't huge swaths of obviously different dyelots. I'm only doing 4 or 4½ rows at a time with each of 4 different dyelots, but upon close examination - or a well-lit photograph - it's pretty obvious where one of the skeins is notably lighter than the others. :sigh:

Here's my clever, high-tech way of managing all of those skeins: Four skeins in four sandwich bags closed with four twist-ties and wrapped with four numbered ball bands in one large zip-top bag with holes poked in four far-from-each-other spots. I had a picture, but apparently I got a bit delete-happy and it went bye-bye.

So, what's the deal with this, though? I did six rows of seed stitch to avoid curling and what do I get? A flippy-uppy hem! I am so not gonna rip this thing out. I guess I'll just have to investigate ways to fix it after the fact.

Oh! The pattern is Garnstudios' cleverly named Knitted DROPS Jacket with cables in ”Karisma” with 3/4 or long sleeves. Seriously. That's the name of the pattern. The Ravelry link calls it '115-1 Jacket with cables in ”Karisma” with 3/4 or long sleeves'. Now, I know how hard it is to come up with clever names for stuff, but really? I'll stick with Peacock Sweater.

* Do you think that maybe the reason I'm not a very fast knitter has less to do with the speed of the stitches and more to do with not sticking with one project at a time?

About that Block Challenge adventure: I didn't win. I was a teensy bit disappointed, but also kinda relieved. The guidelines say to enter a 12½" block and I can tell you for sure that all 15 blocks entered were NOT the same size - what would I have done with my 'winnings' ?? I'll tell you what I would have done: I would have gotten out my seam ripper and spent untold hours "fixing" blocks. Then I most likely would have put them in a neat little stack and moved on to something else. THEN in about 6 months or so, in a cleaning frenzy, I would move the stack to the closet to join all of the other stacks, bags and boxes filled with blocks to be put together, quilts that need borders and tops ready for basting.

I'm having second thoughts about entering the next challenge, even though I totally heart the fabrics. Maybe I'll just make my own little quilt from the fabrics and have the pleasure of playing with the fabric and call it Good.

The Birthday Post

2010-07-30T12:03:00.001-07:00

Abandoned book "Black" by Ted Dekker ♦♦◊◊◊

THIS is what my mom got me for my birthday. I am so impressed - it's one of those gifts that I didn't even realize I couldn't live without it until I got it!

This is a "Tunebase" (it probably has a more generic name) - as you can see, it hooks into the cigarette lighter or whatever in my pickup. I can plug in my iPod and listen through the radio as I'm driving along.

Since I listen to audiobooks when I'm driving (and sewing and working and knitting...), I've been listening with only one earbud to stay as legal as I can do. Now I don't have to do that! I use this every single time I get into my vehicle, so it is a very, very good thing.

Thanks again, Mom!

The boss gave me a black cocker spaniel angel ornament (sniff, sniff) and a gift certificate to the shop. I happen to have some insider knowledge that a 30% coupon for one item at the shop will be in next week's County Fair newpaper insert, so I think I might just have to wait and spend my birthday present then. (heh.)

One of our customers at the shop came by last week (on my day off, unfortunately) and left a gift for me - one of those big tubs of Red Licorice Twists. Yum! I actually left it at work because if it came home neither Mr. W. nor I would keep our hands out of it!

I got a birthday gift from my Secret Quilting Sister! It's some wonderful paper goods and an organizer to go in my purse! Now, I don't carry a purse, but occasionally I do use a tote bag - and this fits wonderfully inside. An added benefit is that it helps the bag stand up a little bit if I need it to.

The first email I opened on my birthday was one from Paperback Swap telling me that a book that I've had on my Wish List for almost 2 years was finally available. Woot! Way to start the day! There are still 325 people with that book on their Wish List. I'm kinda sorry that I can't just read it right away and send it on and make someone else's day, but it's Book 3 of a series and I wasn't gonna start the series until I had all three. Bummer, dude.

Then I went shopping at Elann. I really like this place; I can try new yarns without killing my budget. A long, long time ago (it's been years, but I can't remember how many), The Girl got me a gift certificate from Elann for my birthday or Christmas or Mother's Day... I finally 'spent' it on my birthday, ordering a "Fiddlesticks Knitting Lotus Blossom Shawl Yarn Pack in Baby Lace Merino and Silken Kydd" in Ruby and Baked Apple. (Phew! TG for copy/paste!) No specific project has been chosen for the yarns yet (keep reading and you may understand why).

In the category of "Not Officially For My Birthday But I'll Say It Is If You Give Me Any Grief About Shopping", I picked up yarn for a wrap (the Wool-Ease) and a (red) lace project. At this point, the wrap will be either the Santiago Entrelac Wrap or the Panda Silk DK Fan Shawl. The lace project is to be determined: Every time I start searching for the perfect project for a particular yarn, it's a day-long surf-fest and I end up with more projects in my queue and one more day in which I don't actually knit.

And what did Mr. W. do for my birthday?

He started by taking me to dinner. We went to a local seafood place. Everyone who was seated and everyone (else) who walked through the door was either white-haired or bald. Once I noticed, I was not amused! Eyes narrowed, jaw clenched, I asked Mr. W., "What's the deal here? Is it some sort of birthday conspiracy?" After he stopped laughing, he kindly told me, "It's 5:00 in the afternoon. This is the early dining crowd. If we were here an hour or two later, the restaurant would have a completely different clientele."

After our early bird dinner, we went off to the mall, ostensibly to use a Border's Books coupon. While I didn't find anything I wanted (it's a very, very small bookstore in our mall), at the sporting goods store down the way I did find a pair of sandals that I have been looking for for a long, long time. (No pictures. One picture of my feet in a year is probably enough for you lot.)

And then I came home and checked that I had an adequate supply of Miss Clairol.

Early bird, my arse.

The Hurrier I Go

2010-07-30T10:32:00.003-07:00

"Come on in." 'Fiddlers' by Ed McBain ♦♦♦◊◊

Holy smokes, do I have a lot of pictures! This might be a 2-parter, but let's just jump in and see how it goes, okay?

eta: You know what? I've been typing and inserting pictures for two hours now and I'm not done. This puppy's sooooo gonna be broken up into more than one post. My butt's going numb. I've got other stuff to do today!!

First off, eons ago my friend Quilton asked if the shop had bright batiks. The answer is "no". We have earthy batiks (and not very many of them). But we do have these fabrics that might do what you wanted to do; they're "just" quilter's cotton.

:sigh: Sorry it took so long to let you know!

And hey! Here's the bag from the {Make} A Bag Sew Along! This is the one I was telling you about that I really, really tried to follow directions and got all the way to Step 7 before going off on my own. I've been using this almost daily for the last couple of weeks; there's been a lot of totin' going on around here!

How about an inside shot? You gotcha some pockets, some cute lining fabric... So you see the fabric selvage in there? That's not lazy sewing; I'd just put the remaining lining fabric IN the bag before the picture. It's not actually sewn into the bag.

This is the bag that is currently benefiting from having the purse organizer in it - the pens, my camera and memory stick that's been accompanying me to work each day have their own little spot and they don't get clunked around in the bottom when I set the tote down.

(I did take an action shot including the organizer, but it's on my cellphone and the picture stinks.)

And, can you believe it? I've also done the second project in the {Make} A Bag Sew Along - a makeup bag! Okay, it probably won't hold makeup for me, but it's a cute little lined bag with a really nice zipper installation and I like it.

Um. I didn't follow the directions completely on this one, either. Again, the directions are fine. Perfectly fine. NO problems at all and you really should go over and play along. The only thing I did differently was to seam my lining before inserting it so there is no seam allowance inside the little bag, but they're all hidden between lining and outer bag. I don't know for sure what I'll be carrying in the bag, but I remember that in previous little bags something always spilled or shedded or something - there'd be the equivalent of "Purse Belly Button Lint" in the corners in no time. Hence the hidden seams. Easier to clean out.

Here's a block I did for the shop's monthly Block Challenge. 'Way back when, I explained about the challenge - short version is make a block, put your name in the drawing, win everyone else's blocks.

The block is Florida Star from Quilter's Cache. I found that I had to trial and error the printing sizes on the paper foundation piecing patterns. I'm sure it's my printer, but I ended up printing at different percent enlargements, measuring each pattern (there were 2) to make sure they were 4" finished and totally ignoring the "This square should print to 1 inch" box. It never did - at least not at the same time my patterns printed to 4½" unfinished size. BTW - one pattern was enlarged to 101%, the other to 103%. Go figure.

Doncha love technology? But I did learn an important lesson about "assuming" about the sizes on patterns.

I really like this fabric line (12 Days of Christmas, I think from Henry Glass) so for only the 2nd time since I've started working there I'm tossing my name into the hat.

This, however, might be a sign that I shouldn't try to get greedy. It's supposedly the second entry into the challenge drawing. Not happening.

This derned block took over 4 hours of my life yesterday. Templates. Bias. Set-in seams. None of those things are unmanageable but apparently the combination and the alignment of the stars and moon and planets yesterday conspired to make this only an exercise in patience and a reminder that not every endeavour can be successful. The circles show where I just flat out did NOT match points. By the time I realized it wasn't gonna happen, I'd literally been un-sewing longer than I'd been sewing. The starch (oh, you bet I starched the soup outta these pieces at the first sign of impending rippage) was starting to lightly brown from all the ironing/re-ironing I was doing.

It was/is not a pretty sight.

Now that I type this out, I'm realizing that part of my problem (aside from the celestial conspiracy against me) MIGHT have had to do with the % at which I did or didn't change the print size of the pattern. I didn't muck with this one like I did the previous one.

Ahhh, I feel so complete now that I've learned yet another life lesson.

And I'm including this picture just because it made me smile. A lot.

A book I received from a Paperback Swap member. I don't even remember which one or how long ago. The package just made me happy.

Watch This Space

2010-07-24T19:11:00.001-07:00

May God bless us all. "Mistress of the Art of Death" by Ariana Franklin ♦♦♦♦◊

Thank you all for your kind words on the loss of our Puppy Butt. Both Mr. W. and I are touched at the heart each time someone takes the time to click and share their comfort and support during this time of sadness.

We're recovering - that is to say, there were hours and now even a day that goes by without one or both of us being hit with an emotional meltdown. Puppy Butt will always be part of our hearts and memories.

Our lives are going on - and I've been bouncing between baking (cheesecake, pound cake, banana bread [x4] so far) and sewing and quilting.

I'd be knitting, too, but I've run into a mysterious problem with those Royal Arches socks. One row there's 30 stitches on one of the insteps, the next row there are 29. It's not like this is my first time knitting that particular row - I just did it for the first sock (remember I'm doing both at once). I dunno. Maybe I'll count out loud while knitting...

So back to the other stuff. I have pictures!

Just not uploaded yet.

So, like the banner says,
Watch This Space

I need to go into work this afternoon so after I get home (and maybe recovered, depending on what a zoo it is at the shop today) I'll write a proper blog post with pictures and all.

...Oh! And I'll show you all my Birthday Presents, too! (It was Friday the 23rd, because I know you'll ask.) (And want to put it on your calendar for next year.) :snerk:

Good Night, My Sweet

2010-07-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

Scully
January 10, 1995
July 9, 2010
Forever in Our Hearts

My Sweet

2010-07-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

And the world was all around us, new with possibility. "The Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon ♦♦♦◊◊

It hasn't happened yet, but in the next few days, maybe weeks, our sweetest Puppy-Butt will have to leave us.

She's still happy to "see" me when I come home from work and will give a little waggle tail and a kiss, but she's been fading for a few months, now. She hasn't been in pain, but she moves ever more slowly and unsurely, she sleeps most of the time. In the last couple of weeks her appetite has almost disappeared, so she's losing weight.

We had a scare in January. I think she had a stroke, but she rallied and came back for awhile even better than before. She was playing with her toys and prancing around like the squirrely-girl she is.

Scully turned 15 years old on January 10. We expected that she would leave us earlier than this, so we've been thankful for every extra day we've had with our sweet baby dog.

So why am I telling you before it actually happens? I'm sure that many of you already know the answer to that - when it does happen, Mr. W. and I will be so devastated that there's no way I'll be able to put any words together, much less any that will come close to telling you how much she has filled our life with love and laughter.

I love you, sweet dog.

Embracing My Inner 'Fat Lady'

2010-07-07T08:40:00.000-07:00

Abandoned book "The Little Book" by Selden Edwards ♦◊◊◊◊

Still playing ketchup for the 5 weeks I didn't post anything...

Let's see, I "designed" and sewed these remote-control holders (also for the Father's Day theme at the shop), including one "for her" with a pincushion for :shudder: handwork.

By far, though, my main focus during the month of June was on handbells.

The last weekend in June found me at the AGEHR Region X Handbell Conference in Newburg, Oregon at George Fox University.

Prior to the big weekend, however, I was rehearsing with two different bell choirs in Longview in preparation for the conference. The choir that I normally play with was playing one level of music, while the choir that I occasionally substitute in was playing another. That's a lot of bells and music to learn, especially since I wasn't playing the same notes in both choirs. Heck, if someone had to miss practice, I usually filled in for them, so I often wasn't playing the same notes in the same song for two practices in a row!

So, the highlights and lowlights of the conference: The campus was beautiful. But it was a campus, so there was a LOT of walking from dorm (Dorm! For this old bod?? Oy.) to food to rehearsal to classes. And it was, like, a zillion degrees.

I did my best to find places like this when I had a spare moment.

I took classes and really tried to jam a lot of learning in to the weekend. I stretched my skills, and learned some new and exciting (aka complicated) techniques. I saw a wonderful concert by ~~insane~~ very talented ringers, Velocity, and was inspired.

We were very fortunate that the clinician for the weekend, Fred Gramann, while being a gifted composer of handbell music, was also NOT a tyrant. A pleasant man with a sense of humor, Fred had a way of telling 450 bellringers "You stink" in a way that we all laughed - and agreed with him! I heard more than one bell choir director say that they learned much more from attending the rehearsals with him than they did from the "Director" classes.

But, what, you might ask, had the biggest impact on Madame Babble?

I am a diva.

I had no idea - though apparently I'm the last to know. One of the members of Velocity called it fairly quickly, and my directors and co-ringers all nodded their heads knowingly.

I was actually kinda wigged out about it - when you say "Diva" to me, it doesn't have a positive connotation. But I was assured by many people (on my way to a mortification meltdown) that in my case, being a diva is having a big "bell spirit". Having a bit larger personal performance space. Being willing to tackle twice (or more) the number of bells that many players are comfortable with. Possessing an elevated amount of, er, flair.

J2 found a piece of Christmas music that has a Diva part in it. She's decided she'll purchase it for the group. Guess what I'll be practicing for the next few months?

The conference was all that I had hoped for in terms of growth and learning. But there was constant sound, constant movement, constant stimulation from the time we left town Friday morning to my arrival home late Sunday evening. I was/am so grateful that Mr. W. is comfortable with silence, because I barely talked and avoided noise-making activities like tv or radio or audiobook from the time I arrived home until late Monday evening.

Oh! And I freaked out a bit. The last day (remember the zillion degrees part) I didn't do as much walking because rehearsals and classes were fairly close to each other. So there was much more plain ol' standing.

THIS is what I discovered on the ride back home! Holy moley, it's someone else's foot at the end of my leg! Where are my ankles? I was totally traumatized by these piggy feet. I know, I know, there are many of you out there for whom this is a common occurrence, but this is a first for me. I was NOT amused.

3 days and 4 pounds of water-weight later, I could see my ankles. And the place where my foot ends and my toes begin. My feet are two of the few areas on my body that haven't 'fluffed up' as I've grown older (my earlobes are still fairly svelte, too). I'm not ready to completely change my self-image yet.

And, OMG! Talk about traumatization! This was spotted on a 40-something man in public. What sort of job does one hold in the real world that encourages or even allows such hirsute heresy?? (heh. Googled 'hirsute'. The definition I found included this line: "Etymology: Latin hirsutus; akin to Latin horrēre to bristle — more at horror".)

I'm sure he's a very nice man. His partner probably loves it. Some people may not like Mr. W.'s beard either, though I'd be devastated if he ever shaved it off.

'Nuff said.

A Pythonesque Moment

2010-07-05T08:36:00.001-07:00

I will find a way. "Undone" by Rachel Caine ♦♦♦♦◊

For those who aren't as ridiculously familiar as I am with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the line being delivered by the guy being carried (John Young) is "I'm not dead yet."

Holy smokes, it's been a long time since I posted!

Normally someone (frequently with the initials GC) will smack me upside the head and tell me it's been too long since I've written anything. Recently one of my online friends commented that they'd sure appreciate it if bloggers would post some sort of notice when they've moved away from blogging so that she doesn't keep checking those abandoned blogs. (I'm pretty sure she wasn't talking about me specifically, but I got the point.)

I actually have been doing stuff, though not much of it comes with photographic evidence.

So let's play ketchup, shall we?

I've been working on my "Royal Arches" socks occasionally. These are the same socks that I started sometime prior to May 6 - 2009. (This is a really old picture) I've frogged and tinked and re-designed them so many times, I've made enough stitches to knit 6 pair, I'm sure. Pattern is Arch Shaped Socks (pdf link) by Jen Showalter.

Currently I'm working both socks at once (on 2 circular needles) and I've added a stitch pattern to the front of the socks (Wyvern from Marnie MacLean), rather than just stockinette.

I only do three or four rows at a time usually, so no worry about wanting to wear my new finished creations during the heat of the summer. I'm sure that when it's sock-wearing weather again they should be ready. Some year.

But just think of this: I'm using 2 skeins of an acrylic blend yarn (Bernat Sox) that I probably got on sale. The cost per hour of entertainment is almost in the negative numbers! Beats the soup outta $40 for less than 2 hours at the movie (with popcorn)!

I modified and made one of my patterns for a Father's Day project at the shop. Re-sized to a generous lap quilt, Treasure Boxes/Primavera was temporarily re-dubbed "This Spud's For You". Yes, that's fabric with potatoes on it.

I actually took a Saturday off in June to go play with my old Woodland quilting group. I knew it had been a long time since I'd chatted with J (the one listed in my profile as being my best friend, yanno??), but when I actually did pick up the phone and call - instead of just meaning to - we realized it had been six months since we'd talked. Holy smokes.

So anyway I took a day off and joined the quilting group that I helped create. As always, the food was good, the company was grand, and I didn't get as much done as I would have hoped.

I took a new project: I'm trying to play along with the {Make} A Bag Sew Along over at em ay kay ee {make}. Kelly's put together some coordinating projects that make use of a charm pack and some coordinating fabrics. So far she's posted instructions for a tote bag, a toiletries pouch and a mini cosmetics roll.

I'm part way through the tote bag.

Now we all know that I know how to make tote bags. I decided that I was going to try to play nice like the other kids in the park and actually follow someone else's instructions. Oh! Should I have made sure you were sitting down before dropping that bomb on you? (You didn't spew your drink onto the monitor when you read that, did you?) I printed out the instructions. I gathered the supplies I thought I needed (I probably don't need to elaborate on that statement, do I?). I sat down and followed Step 1. And the Step 2. And I was feeling really righteous because I wasn't going off and doing my own thang.

Until Step 7. Now, there is absolutely not ONE THING wrong with Kelly's design or instructions. BUT. The pattern calls for the use of a stiff-ish interfacing in the bag (the sample stands up so pretty and proud!) but I know Me. I don't do stiff-ish bags. My bags get wadded up and shoved in the bottom of other bags. They get folded & jammed into corners in the pickup. They get tossed into the pile with their bag siblings. Anything that is meant to hold its shape will end up looking ratty and wrinkled and as beat up as it really is.

So, yay for me (she says dryly). I followed instructions until Step 7. Then I put the stuff away - because I hadn't read ahead and prepared by bringing batting instead of interfacing - and pulled out those socks to knit on while I chatted with my old friends.

Good, good, good - Good intentionsssssss.....

Sticky Subject

2010-05-26T00:28:00.000-07:00

"Oh, Patrick, I have much to tell you!" "Death in Lacquer Red: A Hilda Johansson Novel" by Jeanne M. Dams ♦♦♦◊◊

Before I start the next scintillating blog post that you've all been eagerly awaiting (are you new here? that was sarcasm. don't mind me.), I just have to tell you about a giveaway from one of my favorite people - Jenny of ELEFANTZ!

Happy Birthday, Blossom!

Jenny is the author of the first stitchery pattern I ever bought (and haven't started yet - but I have the fabric!). This pattern was also my first Etsy purchase. So, even though she's got loads of followers and people who love her, I feel like we have some sort of special bond. :snort:

So, click on over and say "hi" to my dear friend... (but if you don't want to enter the giveaway, that's fine because I really want to get my hands on the latest Christmas pattern she's published). Grab a cuppa, fire up your Etsy account and wander around her blog - it's a wonderful way to spend a relaxed morning!

I suppose you've all pretty much figured out that I'm not a fan of handwork, at least when it comes to quilting. But I like the flexibility and 'picture-ness' of appliqué. So enter appliqué using paper-backed fusible web.

In some part of my self I consider this cheating. After all, I'm sticking the fabric down with an adhesive instead of hand-stitching each little piece. Well, yes, kinda. I know I don't have the patience like my blog friends Ann or Carrie or even Edna (who seems attracted to handwork as strongly as I am repelled by it).

Now, wait a minute. Hand-appliqué doesn't repel me. MY hand-applique repels me. And, just like machine quilting or knitting or embroidery/stitchery, it's just a matter of practice, practice, practice. I just choose to practice, practice, practice my machine quilting and knitting and stitchery rather than applique.

So, back to the "cheating" feeling. Maybe so. But I console myself with the realization that usually I'm not cutting out big ol' squares and circles and glueing them to a quilt top. More often than not, the appliqué I do involves pieces so tiny that I can't hold them in my fingers but need to use long-nosed tweezers to cut and place them. The projects I do frequently have no fewer than 60 pieces in each block. This in itself is an exercise in patience and focus. It's not the traditional handwork, but it's not kindergarten cut and paste, either, yanno?

As promised, then, I'll shed some light on my very first experience with my new (to me) Holly Hobbie Light Up Drawing Desk from my last post. (I crack me up sometimes) It took me HOURS, but I traced the first block from the Four Seasons BOM by Mark Hordyszysnki (you can see a picture at The Cotton Club Quilt Blog here). One hundred twenty something pieces in a 13" block.

Then, while I was feeling the love from my Holly Hobbie Light Up Drawing Desk, I traced all 176 pieces for Step One of Beth Ferrier's newest BOM, Flutterby Fancies. (As an aside? In the last week I've gotten 30+ visits from Beth's blog to check out my finished Be Still My Heart quilt, according to my stat counter. But not ONE comment. I'm trying not to feel like the quilt sucks because I know damned well it doesn't, but the lack of comment - good or bad - is pretty hard to take.)

THEN I traced the relatively simple Yammy Cat, a pattern by Helene Knott (scroll down a bit to see the original). Yammy Cat is a cousin to the one you see here, Walla Walla Kitty, my first Garden Patch Cat.

Another aside? Helene's patterns are pretty darned cool. She goes to the trouble of labelling the pieces so that you know pretty much exactly the order in which you need to attach them to the background. Very relaxing and refreshing (and beginner friendly!).

Both of the Garden Patch Cats are for shop samples, by the way. I'm teaching a "How I Use Paper-Backed Fusible Web" class at the shop this month and the participants will be making Walla Walla Kitty along with me.

After all the tracing was done, then I spent a couple of evenings cutting out the centers of the fusible - I call it 'windowpaning' - so that there is a less than ¼" 'ring' of fusible along the edges of the pattern.

What, you might ask, is my fusible web of choice? It's Heat 'N Bond Lite. Originally recommended by Sindy of Fat Cat Patterns, I buy it by the bolt. And guess what? Here's a little more to add on to my "Shopping" post. When Mom was here we went to IKEA (uhhh... more than once), where I found this lovely in the children's art supplies:

A roller-jobby-doohickey for my fusible web! Of course, I had to create the roll from the bolted stuff (yay for not throwing away Christmas wrap tubes!) but now I am like, totally set, fusible-wise.

Shopping

2010-05-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

On the new ground the Pagan Stone stood, silent in the streaming sun. "The Pagan Stone" by Nora Roberts ♦♦♦♦◊

So. 'way back on the 17th I started this post. I titled it. I inserted the Last Line. I put in the code for the pictures (but no pictures). Then I saved & closed & planned to come back.

Ahem.

I seem to have forgotten what I was going to say.

So let's wander through my camera and see if I can come up with some photos related to "Shopping", shall we?

On the 3rd Saturday of the month, we noticed that our usual early morning attendance of quilters at the shop was a quite a bit sparser than is normal. Around noon, they started trickling in, all with the same story: "I would have been here earlier but there's a huge 'garage' sale over at the high school. Some lady passed away and all of her craft and sewing stuff is up for sale."

The boss immediately hot-footed it over to the high school to see what she could see. Then she calls me from there: "Get your shoes on [does she think I work barefooted normally?] and be ready. I'm on my way back and you need to get over here right away!"

So, at about 2:00 in the afternoon I'm calling Mr. W. telling him that the boss says I have to go to a garage sale so I was gonna get some cash from the machine. Uh huh, he says.

Here's what I was met with when I found the high school auditorium (inexpertly stitched picture):

What you're not seeing is the wall of sewing machines on the left, the wall of fabrics on the right and the wall of books & patterns behind me. What you are seeing is dollmaking, bread-baking, knitting, macrame, weaving, painting, and, well, you name it. If there was a creative endeavour to be done, this lady apparently did it. And did it in a BIG way.

We're talking CASES of pre-wound bobbins (.25 per box!). TWO tables' worth of doll/craft/sewing patterns. Zippers. Beads. Nearly an entire table just full of SCISSORS of all shapes and sizes.

And don't forget, I got there after the sale had been going for at least 6 hours. This is what was LEFT.

I looked at everything. I shopped. I put whatever-the-heck-I-wanted into my shopping bag. Willy, meet Nilly.

I have always wanted a light box, but never wanted to store one. But, hey! There was a perfectly good Holly Hobbie Light Up Drawing Desk right there with a $1 price sticker on it. How could I pass that up??

And here is said Holly Hobbie Light Up Drawing Desk in action, fewer than 12 hours later! The original-looking bulb was still in it and it still worked!! (There's a story to go with what's being traced on my Holly Hobbie Light Up Drawing Desk, but that will have to wait, okay?)

I got some patterns, I got a little bit of fabric, I got some DPN's that are thinner than toothpicks but 8" long. I got a couple of small kitchen-y things that I can never have too many of (bowl scrapers, for the curious).

But here is something that was a total no-brainer:

Big Woo, you say? Yes, indeed, I say. You see, I used to be a dollmaker. Velvet, brocade, silk, maribou, satin foo-foo fancy dancy dolls. And I used to be a bear maker. Handmade, original stuffed bears - some to be dragged around and slept with (usually for children, but not always!) and some to be displayed and kept out of the reach of little hands. And I also used to make "rag" dolls to be loved to pieces or displayed on Gramma's bed.

There was a time when I was neither a quilter or a knitter.

But then one day I made the little blondie doll using this pattern. (Actually I remember very clearly that it was in the evening and I was working on the dining room table and the TV was on in the living room and 'Dracula' with Gary Oldman was on. Not that it stuck with me or anything.) And I thought to myself, "It would be cute to make that matching quilt from the leftover fabric in the dolly's jumper." (It was a Southwest-flavored flannel and she was wearing denim slippers, BTW) So I walked to the condo next door, where I knew my neighbor was a quilter. I later found out she was A Quilter, but at first I didn't know the difference.

I said, "I'd like to make this little quilt. Can you help me?"

She said, "Yes, but before we begin I need to warn you: Quilting is addictive."

I said, "Hahahah. Err, okay."

And the rest is history.

Be Still My Heart

2010-05-03T11:58:00.000-07:00

The rest was just details. "The Hollow" by Nora Roberts ♦♦♦◊◊

(Click all pics to biggify)

Be Still My Heart, indeed! I've finally gotten this lovely all quilted and bound (I did the handwork all by myself!) and hung up at the shop. Of course, I forgot to take pictures before I hung it at the shop, so you'll have to pretend that the lighting's better.

My vision for quilting didn't change when it actually came time to do the work, except that the brilliant idea of quilting on poly instead of cotton/blend was snuffed even after going to town to buy some... I got the wrong size poly so it was Warm 'N White after all - no trips thru the washer for this baby!

I used white rayon thread (the better to shimmer you with, my dear) on the top and white lingerie thread on the back.

I like this a LOT.

Are You Sitting Down?

2010-04-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

On its ground the Pagan Stone stood silent, waiting for their return. "Blood Brothers" by Nora Roberts ♦♦♦◊◊

I finished something!

Okay, I made a flimsie (an unquilted top), but hey - it's something AND I can show it to you!!

"Be Still My Heart", a 3-month BOM from Applewood Farm. The fabrics are all the same line, Rock Candy by Blank - a kinda mottled bunch with a shimmer that is reminiscent of Fairy Frost.

I used fusible applique´ (Heat N Bond Lite); the shapes will be stitched down during quilting.

As for quilting, the quilt told me how it wanted to be quilted before it was even finished. I plan to use poly batting instead of my usual Warm N Natural (or in this case, Warm N White) because I don't plan to wash this quilt. The Warm N Natural shrinks up a bit and makes a quilt all cozy-looking when washed; since I don't want this quilt to be cozy-looking I won't expend the $$.

Except that I actually had Warm N White at home and I had to go to town to purchase some poly batt. And while I was there I had to pick up ~~a couple~~ ~~a few~~ ~~some~~ a bunch of other things. But who's noticing?

Oh - back to the quilting. It might be a bit of a pain, but I think I'll be extending the flowers in the border up and around but with quilting instead of fabric. (The pain part is that I'm not yet seeing a continuous pattern - just individual motifs.) I'll be using white rayon thread.

But wait! There's MORE!

Carrie showed a bee-yoo-tiful quilt on her blog (that's silly - they're ALL bee-yoo-tiful quilts on her blog) a while back. I'd commented how much I liked the particular pattern, so she sent it to me when she was finished with it!! She also snuck in a label, some vintage buttons and some chocolate (not surprisingly, that didn't make it to the photo shoot).

(Oh, and an aside? Carrie, the little box that you put the buttons in thrilled me just as much as the buttons... I looooove itty bitty containers!)

And last but certainly not least - I won a giveaway! While all the fuss of my giveaways was going on, I snuck over to Sevi Designs and entered to win some patterns from Izzy & Ivy Designs - and my entry was chosen! I received my choice of two patterns from the super cuteness that is Izzy & Ivy.

Cleaning Out My Photo Albums

2010-03-30T09:29:00.000-07:00

She hoped they had a nice life. "Survivor in Death" by J.D. Robb ♦♦♦♦◊

Well, here I thought I had a decently interesting 'fill-in' blog post subject to share with you between episodes of life-changing wisdom and awe-inducing handwork. I was going to go through my Photobucket albums and show you some pictures of things I haven't gotten around to writing about yet.

I seem to have been overconfident in this plan. I've already shown you the good stuff.

I actually have gotten back to the sewing machine after a 2+ month hiatus.** I've finished one item and am close to finished on another, both of which are for my Secret Quilting Sister. Of course, that means that I can't "share" with you all. I really am thinking that I ought to still post the pics of what I'm doing, just make it a clickable link... my SQS would actually be able to click over and see what I've done (therefore outing me as her SQS) or she could be strong and NOT peek. We'll see if I actually do that; it's a shame that I don't get to share with you, but I do love having a Big Ol' Secret, too.

Maybe if I'd accomplish something MORE than just Secret Sewing this wouldn't be an issue (thank you for letting me figure that out on my own & not smacking me upside the head).

I'm knitting on something. Of course, it's just 10cm of double moss stitch and stockinette right now so showing a picture would be ridiculous. :sigh:

Oh! I'm working on a sample for the shop! It's about halfway finished! I don't have pictures yet!

** Here's the reason for the hiatus:

I actually removed ONE thing before snapping this picture, a little something to go to my SQS. Did I honestly think that she might see the pic and say to herself, "Hey! I got that in my last months' package!"?

I actually got the nerve to show this picture to a few co-workers & customers at the shop. The near universal response was, "Now I don't feel so bad about my sewing area."

My sewing machine has been unofficially dubbed "Waldo".

Go figure.

Now I am at least able to sew a bit. The floor around the machine table is no less stacked/cluttered (though there is a path or two), but this is working for me for right now.

Talk is Cheap

2010-03-12T10:55:00.000-08:00

Virgil pulled out another blade of grass, chewed for a second getting the sweet out, then said, "Bite me." "Dark of the Moon" by John Sandford ♦♦♦♦◊

I actually started this post for another reason (which will be revealed, don't fret) but since I'm here, let's pull something from the Album of Pictures I've Uploaded But Not Shared...

Oh! How about this?

This is the stitch detail from Duet, a pattern by Linda Wilgus from Knitty Winter 2009. Meant to be a neckwarmer/HAT, using the clever placement of buttons.*

Here it is about halfway finished, showing a nice (though dark) view of the pretty stitch pattern.

The yarn is Lion Brand Microspun in what is known around these parts as "Tracy Blue" or "Knock Your Socks Off Blue". The yarn splitty-ness was quite the pita (and I knew it would be) until I did that :smackhead: thing and switched to really blunt-tipped needles. The problem with my blunt-tipped needles is that the cable is "sticky" - the stitches don't slide back & forth without me gripping the thing between my elbow and my body then manually pulling stitches from one end to the other. This is why I put up with Splitsville so long before switching needles.

So, here it is. 1½ rows from the end of pattern repeat and the extra bind-off row.

See that tail of yarn? It didn't make it through those 2½ rows.

I had to start a whole new skein of yarn to finish* the thing.

:sigh:

* The project is finished... kinda. I sewed the buttons on the way that it's written in the pattern and it looks kinda dorky when I wear it as a neckwarmer. Wearing it in its hat form is even more ridiculous. So, like a relatively huge ('relatively huge' - is that like 'a little bit pregnant'??) number of other items in my Ravelry project page, this one sits at "95% finished" because I just haven't taken that last fifteen minutes or so to figure out what to do to make it work for me.

Now for the original reason for today's post, a little bit of blog business.

I don't think it will be too much of a hardship to most of my readers, but I figured I oughta let you know that I've turned on comment moderation for older posts only. In the last week this blog and two of my other blogs have been slammed with spam-spam-spam, sometimes fifteen comments at a time.

While the comments have not been offensive but just 'lame' - a link, sometimes not even in English and an obviously cut/paste sentence or two - it's a bit of a bother to remove them, hence the comment moderation. Easier to click "reject" on an email notification than to go search through my 250-ish posts to click "comments" then "make this permanent" then "delete comment". (Yeah, those extra 15-20 seconds really put a dent in my day)

Not a big deal to most users, but I just wanted you to know that it wasn't anything you did.

But I do think that today's "Last Lines" entry is particularly appropriate for those spammers.

Another Winner & More Clicking!

2010-03-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

"I can't remember where I put the forks." "Blindsighted" by Karin Slaughter ♦♦♦◊◊

Thanks again to the "True" Random Number Generator (Maybe that wouldn't confuse me if I researched it - is there a "False" RNG out there, causing chaos?)

The winner of the Rise N' Shine Sweet 16 bundle is

Crispy!

And looky here - it was her OWN entry, not one gained by sharing with all her adoring fans!

It is kinda nice, though, to see your ~~minions~~ readers in action, isn't it?

Crispy, you know the drill: Send me your mailing address and I'll get the adorable Fat 16th packet into the mail to you right away!

For the record, seven commenters told me that Crispy sent them to this giveaway and seven (but not necessarily the same seven) to the first giveaway. But Crispy wasn't the only one who got and gave extra credit for sharing the joy - Barb sent two visitors to the first giveaway and three to the second. Thank you!!

Have you made it through yesterday's click-fest? What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, isn't it? Here are a few more blogs to add to your favorite places to visit:

Karen from Quilts... etc.
Cindy from It's a Sew-Sew Day
Candace from Wraggedy Patches
Doina from doina quilt
Debbie from Our Old Homestead
Beth from busy, happy hands
Kayjay from My Fat Quarter
Linda from Living4Quilting (and Tatting and Sometimes Knitting, Too!)

As before, if you commented and I didn't get your blog listed or if - gasp! - I made a mistake, be sure to leave a comment here and I'll update the list!

I'll be back another day with another blog post - because while y'all were focusing on fat quarters and sweet 16's, I was off winning a giveaway my own-self!! More news on that soon...

A Winner & A Cliick-fest

2010-03-07T14:41:00.000-08:00

In her arms he'd found his true gold. "The Perfect Lover" by Stephanie Laurens ♦♦♦◊◊

Thank you everyone who stopped by and left a comment (or didn't!) on my Blogaversary That Wasn't post. I've had a blast meeting new people (Pat, I'm gonna get back to you and talk more about bells!) and looking at all the incredible creativity out there. I've found a few new followers (thank you!) and found some places that I will definitely follow, too!

There are still a few hours left to enter the drawing for Part Two of the giveaway - good luck!

Thanks to the "True" Random Number Generator (?)

The winner of the fat quarter bundle is

Fiesta!

And here's a picture of that FQ bundle...

In case you want to find your own fabs (or order them from me? That'd be cool), here's what's what with the fat quarters, from left to right starting with the almost-solid red:
#53 Shadow Play by Maywood Studio
Zippity Doo Dah by Sandy Gervais for Moda - Confetti Navy 17428-12
Lakehouse Fabrics Microdots in Champagne by Holly Holderman #09023
Zippity Doo Dah by Sandy Gervais for Moda - Jacks Teal #17426-26
Dots by Sandy Gervais for Moda - (I can't find a color number)
and at the bottom,
Zippity Doo Dah by Sandy Gervais for Moda - Large Flower Navy #1742-22

Congratulations, Fiesta (and thank you Barb for telling her about the giveaway)! I'll be sending an email to Fiesta later on today to get her mailing address!

Now, for even more fun, here's a list of my new visitors and old friends - grab a cuppa someething and click over and visit everyone's blogs. You'll see some wonderful quilts, weather, kids, critters... Everyone is so creative! I'm so glad that I'm getting to discover and rediscover some gooooood reading!

Commence ta' clicking:
Brenda from Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe
Crispy from Crispy Quilts
Pat from A Little of This and a Little of Pat
Ann from Ann Champion's Blog
Karen from Log Cabin Quilter
Anita from Margret Mary's Place
Deserae from Des...erae
Donna from Mia's Cottage
Annelise from Sjoko Quilt
Alicia from AQM9 Quiltmom9 Blog
Anna from Quiltmom's Journey
Janet from Mrs Sew n'sew
Cathi from Quilt Obsession
Carrie P. from A Passion for Applique
Anya from Hills Creek Quilter
Joyce from J's Quilting Blog
Happy Cottage Quilter
Jenn from Cre8tive Quilter
Barb from Bejeweled Quilts by Barb
Becky from Sarcastic Quilter
Kim from Pokeytown Kim
Arlette from rincón de arlette
Judie from Quilted Scottie
Shasta from High Road Quilter
Robin from RSIslandCrafts
Fiesta from Quilting Fiesta
Patty from Mom Loves 2 Quilt

Phew! I think I got everyone! If you commented and I didn't get your blog listed or - heaven forbid! - I got it wrong, be sure to leave a comment here and I'll update the list!

The Blogoversary That Wasn't, Part Two

2010-02-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

Hi again, everyone! We've made it to Sunday midnight, so this giveaway is closed. I'm toddling off to bed, but I'll be back tomorrow to draw a winner and add to the CLICK-FEST - Stay tuned!

It was really as simple as that. "Lightning" by Ed McBain ♦♦♦◊◊

Wow! What a fun response already to The Blogoversary That Wasn't, Part One - I'm finding all kinds of new-to-me blogs to explore and rediscovering some that I've haven't visited in a while!

As of this writing, it looks like Crispy is "stuffing the ballot box" - there a number of new visitors that said, "Crispy sent me" (but no Bertha, so far) so that means an entry for the new visitor and an EXTRA entry for Crispy... !

I've started a draft blog post titled "Cleaning Out the Photo Albums". It seems that I take (and upload) pictures but don't always get around to sharing them with you. Whoda thunk, eh?

As promised yesterday, here's a little something I made back in December:

It's a trivet, of all things!

Susie (my boss) gave a little crafty class at the shop in December showing how to make a set of four coasters - but since I have rules about coasters*, I chose put them all together to make a trivet, instead.

We used inks, chalks, acrylic paints, rubber stamps... oh, I don't know, pretty much anything that will leave a mark!

And other than the fact that I put all that color & design on my trivet, what is the big deal about it?

Yep. It's made from dominoes. How much fun is THAT??

Of course, after the fact - after I was done painting & fluffing and then sprayed it with a gloss polyurethane varnish to seal it, I had an awful thought: What if the sealant isn't heat-proof? What if I set a hot pan on the trivet at the table and it sticks to the trivet??? (Of course, now that I've looked it up to link you to the Wikipedia page, I see that I'm right to be concerned!)

So what I have is a very pretty NON-heat resistant trivet. That's okay. I still like it.

*Coaster rules:
1. A coaster must be absorbent so the sweaty iced tea glass does not form a liquid suction layer to said coaster, causing it to 'stick' to the bottom of the glass. Invariably if I leave the coaster 'attached' while drinking from the sweaty glass, the coaster will release, fall to my chest and spew condensation all over me at the same time the lump of fused ice cubes in the glass hits me in the nose. NOT good times.
2. Oh. I guess there is no #2. #1 is reason enough.

While I've been off work this week (nothing to worry about, let's just move on along), I've been reasearching and designing for specific shop-related needs.

We have what's called a "Block Challenge" each month, where we feature a line or combination of fabrics. We make a packet of four 14x11" fabrics plus one 14x22" fabric which our lovely customers purchase, take home and use to make one or two 12½" unfinished quilt blocks in the design/pattern of their choice. They then return the blocks to the shop, we put their name on the back & display the blocks. At the end of the month, we draw a name from the entries and whoever's name gets drawn wins ALL of the blocks. Cool, huh?

The thing is, we always have two to five packets left over at the end of the month (out of 24 or more, so we can't complain). But what to do with the 'leftovers' in such odd sizes? Well, here's what I came up with for our Fig Tree Mill House Inn packet from January:

I give you "Millhouse Spin", a wallhanging or table topper pattern that finishes to about 22" square.

This uses the Block Challenge packet fabrics plus 1/8 yd. of a soft off-white.

Depending on how well it's received here and at the shop, I hope to share this pattern with you as a freebie sometime in the future.

(If you don't see it before school starts in the fall, remind me - I tend to forget things, yanno.)

Okay, you made it through yet another post, so here's what you're probably after:

A Maywood Studios "Rise 'N Shine" Sweet Sixteen collection!

This Sweet Sixteen collection includes (all?) 28 prints in "fat 16ths" (approx. 9x11" each). Here is an I-don't-know-how-long-it-will-be-valid link to Cotton Fields On-Line's listing of this fabric line so you can see how stinkin' cute the fabrics are.

But wait! There's more! Maywood Studios also published a free online pattern to use this Sweet Sixteen packet here: Cool Spools (it's a direct-to-pdf link, sorry!)

Looky at the cute chickens!

Leave a comment on this post before midnight Sunday, March 7 (this part's different than yesterday!) (California-time) for a chance to receive this S16 bundle. I'll do the random-number generator thing on Monday to choose a name from the entries.

The rest of the "rules" for this giveaway are the same as yesterday's rules, so I'm gonna copy them over to here:

For a second entry, blog about the little giveaway Part One then come back and leave me a comment that you did so. A link to your blog post would be handy (but not required)... who knows? Maybe you'll get some new visitors!

(Just a note) Blogger comments accept html code... here's what you need to put in to make a clickable link:
<a href="web address of my blog post.html">Name of my Blog Post</a>

Aw, heck. How about another entry opportunity? Email a friend and tell them to come visit me. When your friend comments and says "Bertha sent me," (though I'd prefer them to include YOUR name)(unless you're Bertha. Then they can say "Bertha sent me.") both you AND your friend will each get an additional entry.

So, you're not in the U.S.? No problem. I don't mind shipping internationally!

That's it. For now.

I am having a blast meeting everyone, thank you ALL for your nice words and good wishes!! ♥

The Blogoversary That Wasn't, Part One

2010-02-27T10:06:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, thanks for visiting! It's Saturday midnight here at Casa de Babble, so the giveaway is closed. I'm going to get a good night's sleep, then get it together to draw a winner tomorrow - Stay tuned!

She said, "Yes, it does." "Chance" by Robert B. Parker ♦♦♦♦◊

Let me get this started off with the important stuff I have to say (okay, I'll wait until you wipe up the coffee/soda/tea that you just snorted onto your keyboard)...

I really like blogging. I've been doing it for FOUR years now and it's really become part of my... what? mindset? lifestyle? (Wow, that sounds pretentious, doesn't it?) I dunno. I know that there are long gaps between posts sometimes and then I get all hyper and post a bunch all at once. It's not that I don't have stuff to share or anything to say (even though I tried to convince you of that very thing in my last post), it's usually because I don't take the time to write it up for you. I haven't yet found a quick* and easy way to say/show/link everything I want to share with you. (*f'r example: Writing this blog post took over 2½ hours. It's hard work to herd all the gerbils in my head.)

Through my blogging adventures, I've 'met' some really nice people. You are a funny (haha, not hmmm) and supportive group. There are the core readers, the feed-reader followers, the Blogger followers -

► I can see my Blogger followers' names, but haven't figured out how to visit their blogs. Not everyone comments.
Thank you for following me - speak up occasionally and tell me who you are or where you post because I'd be thrilled to come visit your blog ◄

- forum friends, and people who wander through from links on other blogs.

I appreciate each and every one of you, whether you just wander through or are an 'old friend'.

I know that oftentimes a blog is pretty self-indulgent and I don't expect that my occasional bouts of babbling are going to change anyone's life (though I notice I have a "These Posts Might Just Change Your Life" category over there in my sidebar... apparently sometimes I'm more humble than other times). Heh. Oops.

Where was I? Oh, of course -

Thank you for visiting my blog. For commenting, for sharing, for just dropping by. You make me happy.

So, yes. I had a Blogoversary. I knew it was gonna happen. I even mentioned it to you last week. Did I do anything? Nope.

Why didn't I, when I had a few 'plans'? Let's see... The Blogoversary was on Monday. The preceding Friday I managed to find/contract/develop some gnarly muscle spasms in my upper back, after just recovering from lower back issues earlier in the week. Joy, eh?

I managed to recover enough by Sunday to be a guest bellringer at a local church. Heh. "Guest" bellringer. That's foo-foo talk for "I subbed for a ringer who was out of town". It was nice to play with a different bell choir - it's always interesting to see how other directors & players 'do it'.

Monday brought a lunch date with a good friend and then some sample sewing for a class at the shop:

Ever since I first 'discovered' this combination of fabrics in the shop I've wanted to do something with it. So when we needed a sweet sample for the class I jumped on the opportunity to "play".

Monday was the actual Blogoversary. As I said, four years. Can you believe it? So here's what's up with the "Part ONE" in the title:

I've gathered a set of fat quarters of the fabrics in the sample quilt PLUS a gorgeous Shadowplay red FQ that goes wonderfully with the ensemble. This is prize ONE to celebrate my Blogoversary.

Yes, there will be a prize TWO. Probably tomorrow.

Leave a comment on this post before midnight Saturday, March 6 (California-time) for a chance to receive this FQ bundle. I'll do the random-number generator thing on Sunday to choose a name from the entries.

For a second entry, blog about the little giveaway Part One then come back and leave me a comment that you did so. A link to your blog post would be handy (but not required)... who knows? Maybe you'll get some new visitors!

(Just a note) Blogger comments accept html code... here's what you need to put in to make a clickable link:
<a href="web address of my blog post.html">Name of my Blog Post</a>

Now I'm going to indulge my own 'contest' entry blogging while I'm here.

I've run across a cooler-than-mine giveaway that I'd like to share with you - both because it's pretty cool and also because I get an extra entry for telling you about it.

First up is an incredible giveaway over at ctpubblog.com, the blog written by the folks at C&T Publishing. The super prize package is all things Jan Krentz - an innovative and just plain clever quilter/designer.

She's such a popular designer and the blog is one of the 'big guns' so I expect I have a snowball's chance of winning the goodies - but I'll still try. It would be way cool to be the winner!

Next up: Part TWO of The Blogoversary That Wasn't, with another giveaway and show and tell from something I forgot to show you back in December!

Nothing To Report (Long)

2010-02-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

"Because you're Dr. Cross, and I'm the murderer." "Cross" by James Patterson ♦♦♦♦◊

So, I'm not intentionally neglecting you, dear blog readers. There just isn't anything much to report these days.

I went to the doctor for the first time in 2 or 3 years and came away with a laundry list of tests that need to be taken, pills that need to be swallowed (short term, thankfully), and vitamins that need to be increased. Nothing major's going on, it's just a LOT of little stuff that needs to be fixed before it turns into something bigger.

Work's been busy. We've expanded the shop to incorporate a new classroom/meeting space that will seat up to 60 people. That's exciting and semi-exhausting for me & the rest of the flock, but really there's not much to report to you that would be terribly interesting.

The last time I played with fabric without being 'on the clock' was Super Bowl Sunday, when I joined a Sew-In at the shop. I cut out the setting blocks for my Bunny Hill 'A Tisket, A Tasket' blocks, cut out some of the pieces for a new Winding Ways quilt top and... uh... something else. I'm not being coy, I literally can't remember what the third thing was!

Oh, but I did make these for the potluck portion of the Sew-In:

It was not as easy as it looks... but that's only because I totally fail when it comes to spreading peanut butter on fruit. The Girl assures me that she did not feel neglected as a child because of the lack of peanut butter-laden fruit, and she also shared this tip (after the fail): Wipe the moisture from the apple before spreading the peanut butter and it'll stick better. Oy. I was dotted in peanut butter top-to-toe. But I must admit, they were the hit of the potluck, at least visually. More than one person actually took photos! :snort:

See? Pretty much nothing to report!

Okay, so that's not quite the whole story. I have a Secret Quilting Sister, you see, and I may or may not have been working on a little thing or two for her. Of course I can't show you any of that because she may or may not read my blog and I don't want to let on who I am... so there will essentially be a year's worth of stealth projects that I can't share with you. I guess there will just be a big post at the end of the year with all the pictures.

BUT!

Tomorrow evening (maybe afternoon, too!) I'm going to participate in another Friday Night Sew-In, hosted by Heidi -

I had told my forum friends that I might work on the Red Delicious BOM or the Tisket BOM or the new Applewood Farm BOM, but it just occurred to me:

No matter what my counter over there --> says, my Blogaversary is coming up in less than a week.

I'd like to put a little something together and have a celebratory giveaway.

We'll see. You know how I am.

Six Down, Six to Go

2010-01-25T00:40:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "A Cat Named Brat" by Lydia Adamson ♦◊◊◊◊

Wow, that's not a really inspiring title. For some reason it gives me that "glass half empty" feeling.

Maybe because this block pretty much kicked my butt.

The color's not very accurate on my monitor (are they still called monitors?), but considering I snapped the picture at nearly midnight, this is as good as it's gonna get for awhile.

So, I'm not thrilled with the leaves - and yes, I did make them in 2 colors after all. It will all work out when everything's put together, I'm sure, but for now this isn't my favorite block.

That's actually pretty weird because I remember when it was first published I had grand ideas about enlarging the block and making a stunning wallhanging from it alone. Apparently that's SO last year.

In other news, my Blogaversary counter over there is wrong, and I can't figure out why. I also haven't done a lot to try to figure out why. I'm pretty sure that my anniversary is coming up fairly soon. There probably should be a giveaway, huh?

Semi-Successful Sew-In

2010-01-23T08:49:00.000-08:00

I squared my shoulders and walked forward to meet my fate, with my destiny solidly at my side. "New Moon" by Stephenie Meyer ♦♦♦◊◊

You know, I really, REALLY like these Red Delicious blocks, but boy can they kick my butt! I was working on one - ONE - block last night and didn't get it finished.

When you say to yourself "It's only 45 pieces", it's time to adjust your thinking.

After 4+ hours of tracing, cutting, choosing, cutting, pressing & cutting I was ready to lay everything out. As I went to print the non-reversed pattern I saw something that I missed - I'd cut the leaves whole in two different fabrics. The pattern says to cut half the leaf in one fabric and half in another.

Well, if the pattern had actually said to 'cut half the leaf in one fabric and half in another', I would have picked up on it. The way the pattern was worded was perfectly clear to everyone but me probably, so I didn't translate whatever it said to, 'cut half the leaf in one fabric and half in another'.

A leaf disaster is no disaster at all and even if I had cut correctly I would have run out of steam (no pun intended) before the block was fused last night. I had to stop at about the 5½ hour mark - 12:30 a.m.

Of course, all of the cutting & choosing etc. was the real time eater. Even though the block isn't finished, I consider that I'm in the home stretch!

Another Friday Sew-In

2010-01-22T15:37:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "Practical Demonkeeping: A Comedy of Horrors" by Christopher Moore ♦♦◊◊◊

This time the Sew-In is attended by the members of the Yahoo! group, Seasons BOM. Last week I actually DID finish all of my Tisket/Tasket 2009 BOM blocks - woot!

Here's the December block. This might well be my favorite!

Now that all of the blocks are finished, I'm going to set them aside for a short while. I have the fabrics to make the setting blocks, so it feels like I'm in the home stretch on that project.

For this week's Sew-In event, I'll work on block 6 (yes, out of 12) for the Red Delicious BOM. I've already seen a number of gorgeous finished quilt tops from this project - when you look at those, it's hard NOT to get inspired!

Hmmm, anything else to share right now? How about a food picture? I haven't done one of those in a long time (though I did make turkeys in 2009 - for once I didn't share pictures of them with you)(but yes, I do have pictures!).

Hot Chocolate on a Stick, from Foodie With Family, was a great hit with the girls at work. I'm not even a chocolate lover, but hoo-ee was this something to behold!

Making my own marshmallows was a hoot, and something I'd like to do again. It was a little scary toward the end, when I put the liquid vanilla into the already-fluffy mixture. It started separating and I thought for sure there was going to be marshmallow goo (no, GLUE) flung all over my kitchen. Fortunately it all worked out, though I did end up with a whole lot more marshmallow than I did fudgy-goodness.

Next time I do this (and there WILL be a next time), I'll remember that I don't actually need to use a kitchen-based container to mold the fudge & marshmallows in. There's no cooking involved (just foil lining and plastic covering), so I can theoretically just use a large box-shaped something to spread this stuff out in. My first attempt here was yummy, but this is some rich stuff, folks, and a little bit goes a looonnngg way.

I'll be back tomorrow or the next day with a picture or two of what I actually get accomplished this evening/weekend. Since I'm still working on 2009 projects, I'm thinking that anything is better than nothing!!

Feels Like December

2010-01-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

He guessed he felt all right. "The Big Bad City" by EdMcBain ♦♦♦◊◊

Last night I managed to complete two more of the Bunny Hill 'A Tisket, A Tasket' BOM blocks. I give you November...

... and October.

Changes to the designs were minimal this time around... the crow in November isn't wearing a hat and is pointing a different way. I moved the wreath-y leaves around on the October block.

I want to thank Edna for unintentionally kicking me in the backside by sharing her enthusiasm for the Sew-In Friday. I'm only one block away - yep, that would be December - from moving on to the next step with this project!

I expect I probably didn't show the blocks immediately preceding last night's efforts:

September

August

Changes were a bit more extreme on these blocks. The rulers on the September block are new, and pretty much the entire August block except for the basket is new. The flowers are inspired by the Sunflower Placement from FatCat Patterns.

And I'm not going to get any more chatty than that. It was a challenging day at work today and I'm tired!

It's a Miracle!

2010-01-15T15:27:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "The Gourmet Detective" by Peter King ♦♦◊◊◊

Two posts in one day? Buckle up, Buttercup!

I was just finishing up my blog surfing when I ran across Edna's post mentioning what she was going to do this evening -

Well, sure and you betcha, I'll play too! Mr. W.'s been working hard today out in the cold and rainy world, so I figure he's just about to hit the wall. Since I planned ahead a bit and made some potato/corn chowder to warm his innards, he's good for the food portion of the evening.

That means that I can wander into my sewing closet and do something. I've been thinking all day about working on last year's Bunny Hill BOM. Maybe I'll get closer to being able to put the blocks all together. Or maybe I'll work on a Secret Quilting Sister gift. The choices are almost limitless!

Oh, and you know what else? As part of the "rules", I need to post tomorrow to show what I accomplished this evening. ANOTHER blog post is in the offing! I told you to buckle up!!

The Belated Christmas Gift

2010-01-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

"It's Thursday," I panted, running to get clear of the airship before it hit the ground, "and I think we've got a situation..." "Thursday Next: First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde ♦♦♦♦♦

Note to self: Just because I'm not writing blog posts doesn't mean that I'm not reading. My list of last lines goes on as far as the eye can see....

Seriously. I have no idea why I'm not writing more often. I mean, yes, I work now and when I'm not working I'm either recovering or jamming in all my 'other' places to go, but still...

Dear Blog Readers and Bloggers Whom I Read: I've been lazy. I read your comments and your posts and think "I'll just mark this and get back to it and say thanks or leave a comment" but never get back to it. I still enjoy spending time with you and I want to change my lazy-arse ways and tell you that. And do it sooner rather than later.

At Christmastime we try to give two gifts to each person in the family. They don't have to be major gifts and we have a small family so it's not a burden or excessive in my opinion. But The Girl is soooo easy to buy for. She's a chip off of the ol' block (that's me, the Ol' Block) in that she's a fiber lover and has that "creative gene". This means that usually each Christmas I end up with a bucketful of things or ideas for her and I'm scrambling to come up with the second gift for her husband and other members of my family.

This year I really held back on Girl gifts. I really, really tried not to over-do it. I was SO successful that when I began wrapping presents I had THREE for Lifesaver and only ONE for The Girl. I seem to have overdone the not overdoing it part.

I discovered this, of course, as I was wrapping gifts to pack & ship to the family. So I dug around in my sewing closet and found a little (and notably lame) unopened something that was craft-ish & wrapped it with a note that said basically what I've just told you about overdoing the not overdoing it. I taped a piece of yarn to the note with the promise of a make-up non-lame gift after Christmas.

I present to you the Christmas Spring Beret. It was a Christmas gift. The pattern is Spring Beret (Ravelry link) by Natalie Larson.

My clever naming skills know no bounds.

Knit from Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, this worked up fairly painlessly. The yarn was a bit splitty so it wasn't a 'no-looking' knit.

I wish I could figure out a 3-stitch decrease (shown here as sl 1, k2 tog, psso - non-knitters this will be short; stick with me) that didn't have that diagonal 'rib'* in the center of it. I'm sure there's a way to make a vertical rib, but it's not coming to mind.

*Actually, it looks more like a spine than a rib to me. Either way it's pointing 'over there' and I'd like it to point 'up there'.

I got sneaky. I trolled The Girl's Ravelry queue and found a pattern that she said she wanted to do.

Her comments on her listing were:
I looove this, but I don’t think I’m skill-ready for it yet. Also, wouldn’t make it with 100% cotton; want it to have some stretch & memory to it. Colors: med blue, winter white…nothing too dark (want pattern to show)

What's a mom to do? Okay, so this mom isn't really all that quick on the uptake with hints usually, so a straightforward "I want this. Made in these colors." is perfect for me!! (Hint to The Girl: This ploy could work again.)

The Beret (okay, slouchy hat) was well received - phew! - and the Twitterverse saw a picture of her wearing it. I included an un-marked-up copy of the pattern when I sent it and just yesterday The Girl tweeted a picture of her OWN version of the Spring Beret - and I do believe that she is skill-ready for the knit. It looked great!

(Yet another Hint to The Girl: If you gave me permission to lift the pictures, I could post them here for the world to see.)

A couple more thoughts to share about this knit: I was inordinately pleased with myself when I figured out how to block the hat after it was finished. 97 cents bought a whole package of balloons - I just got the hat wet (well, blocking wet), blew up the balloon part-way, stuck it inside the hat & continued blowing it up until it "fit" the hat. I'm thinking this wasn't rocket science, but my solution seemed pretty clever to me!

I have found what might be the ultimate cast-on and bind-off techniques (those are links to YouTube videos). Jeny Staiman is the genius who is being credited with 'inventing' these techniques. My hat & sock knitting (what there is of it) have already benefited from these new tricks. They're great, they're amazing, and I'm sure there will be some sort of knitting Nobel heading her way.

My sweet Puppy-Butt had her 15th birthday last Sunday. We celebrated by opening and sharing bites of a summer sausage with her. She's nearing the end of her run and Mr. W. & I are very sad that some day fairly soon she'll be leaving us. But although she's moving much more slowly, she still waggles her butt when I come home from work, she still gives us kisses and snuggles and helps us with the surplus summer sausage situation when it arises. It's not the end yet, and we are appreciating every minute we still have with her.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T09:13:00.000-08:00

However brief the moment, whatever would come, we had peace. "Gale Force" by Rachel Caine ♦♦♦♦◊

Yeah, it's not the most original or inventive title, but it is truly my wish for you. I appreciate my readers, and I love making new friends all over the world through my blog and reading your comments and blog posts.

I've been feeling a bit guilty about not posting more often, even though I know I shouldn't (feel guilty). I'd like to say that I'll start to post regularly again, but I really haven't identified what's keeping me from doing it now - heaven knows it's not because I'm holed-up in my sewing room or concentrating on a challenging yarn-y project.

I've not got a lot to share in the successfully-finished quilt department. It's amazing that when you work at a quilt shop you don't have time to quilt!

I have one yarn-y thing that I can show you, now that Christmas has passed.

The Hemlock Flower Tam that I made for Mom for Christmas; I was hoping that it would keep her head warm and comparatively dry without messing up her hair too much. (She worries about that sort of thing.)

It's a real challenge to get a decent picture of a hat while you're modelling it, I've learned.

I'm not sure how well mom liked it, but as always she was gracious. I ended up adding about ¾" more ribbing so that it fit a bit more snugly around her head; on the first try-on, she was able to pull it down over her ears like a stocking cap!

I have one more yarn-y gift thing to share, but the recipient hasn't received it yet... so there's something to look forward to. [snort]

So, back to New Year's Day, the beginning of a new year, the big Twenty-Ten. I'm thinking I'll still say Two Thousand Ten... Twenty-ten doesn't 'ring' for me.

In the last couple of years I've read blog and forum posts about New Year's Day superstitions. You're supposed to sweep out the old year*, you should eat black-eyed peas, don't cross your threshold until someone else does, nothing goes out**...

*If I sweep, I tend to want to dispose of what I've swept up. How can I do that if **nothing goes out?

That pretty much sums up my view or understanding of these superstitions. Why is it a bad thing to take something OUT of your home? Snopes.com says the year must be begun with something being added to the home before anything is subtracted from it. But if I'm taking stuff out for donation to someone who wants or needs it more than I, or if I'm ridding my home of noxious waste, or if I'm reducing the clutter in the hope of starting afresh, how is this a setting a bad precedent for the remaining year?

See, I tend to over-think at times. I'm not against superstitions (I've got a couple of whoppers in my repertoire), but apparently they have to make sense for me to take them under consideration. To embrace a superstition - or ritual, if you prefer - without an understanding of what lies beneath smacks of Cutting the End Off the Ham.

So, if I want to do laundry or eat poultry or take out the garbage today, I think I'll just go ahead and do it. I've managed to survive all these years on earth without any notable curses related to doing those things, so I'll just coast on luck a bit longer.

I've thought about New Year's Resolutions a bit this week. A few years back I got real and gave up on the whole list thing. But there is one thing I'd like to resolve to do this year:

I want to make sure to look Mr. W. in the eye every single day and tell him how much I love him.

Sure, I tell him daily (I hope!), but a lot of the time it's said in passing, at the end of a telephone call, before we roll over and go to sleep. That's all well and good, but sometimes it feels like habit and sometimes he may think that I take him for granted. I just want to get his full attention for a moment or two - and give him MY full attention - and make sure that he knows how important he is to me.

I may also attempt to lessen my use of parenthetical insertions when I write blog posts. It's either that or back off on the elipses (but certainly not both)...

Gummy and Sticky

2009-12-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

However brief the moment, whatever would come, we had peace. "Gale Force" by Rachel Caine ♦♦♦♦◊

'Way back when I showed you the pincushion I received in a swap in one of "my" forums. I still totally love it and use it almost daily.

This is the pincushion I made to send to my swap-ee, Jennifer.

This is my first foray into using the selvages I've been collecting for awhile. They make me smile!

Yes, the little flower does come out. You might notice that the base is a promo golf tee from some acupuncturist in town. I have no idea how I ended up with it, but it sure came in handy!

See? Clever is as clever does! That little tee sits in your spool of thread when you're hand-sewing in your comfy chair so you can use the center as a mini-pincushion for your needles.

The flower center has some steel wool wrapped in a tiny bit of fiberfill (all shoved into a yo-yo-type gathered circle).

While your little flower is busy helping with the handwork, your pincushion can still do double duty as a pen/pencil holder!

I suppose you could put a seam ripper in there... or my favorite - the Super Stick (okay, just a thin stick that's sharpened on both ends to help at the sewing machine).

Other little tidbits about the pincushion: It's about 3" tall. The center 'holder' is the cap to an ink pen. Yes, I stood in the Dollar Store and "tried on" pen caps to make sure a pencil or stick pen would fit. A rice-filled muslin bag, fiberfill, some dental floss and E-6000 adhesive was also involved in the construction.

The main pincushion is inspired by the Delectable December Doorstopper that Vicki shared as part of the Advent Countdown over at the Gum Tree Designers blog (woo! what a click-fest!).

What? You don't know about Gum Tree Designers? Go! Click like the wind! I'll still be here - but you really ought to check out all of the wonderful designs and fun that these very talented and generous ladies are sharing with the world!

Delicious Events

2009-11-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "Death by Darjeeling" by Laura Childs ♦♦◊◊◊

In the midst of doing swap-sewing and shop sample sewing, I managed to carve out a day to work on my sadly neglected BOM list.

I think this is block #5 from Esther Aliu's Red Delicious BOM. Uh, all the blocks have been posted. The finishing instructions have been posted. (If you want to play and don't have any or all of the blocks, you can get them through Esther's Etsy Store) I'm just approaching the halfway mark... I told you my BOM list has been sadly neglected! (According to my photobucket album, the last BOM I finished was in July. Oy.)

I ran across a new-to-me blog this week, and wouldn'tcha know it, there's a giveaway! LeKaQuilt is a Norwegian quilter (Google translate does quite well, by the way) who had some pretty yummy looking show and tell on her blog.

The current yummy-ness is a giveaway of the latest Piece O'Cake book and the sweetest little purse. You really oughta click on this here button and go check it out!

So, what else is tasty these days? Oh! I'm going to make some bread today - I'll gladly use my favorite recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day... but I'm also going to try out Deb's suggested recipe for Light Brioche Burger Buns. No, I'm not making burgers tonight; if the buns are as good as I think they'll be, there's no use mucking them up with meat and condiments!

All this bread baking is ostensibly in honor of or preparation for Homemade Bread Day, which occurs on Tuesday. Of course, since I get to make up "Manager's Specials" at the shop, I've decided that all fabrics that are bread-colored (brown or tannish) are 20% off. *I kinda like being able to make up random "Manager's Specials". This month, especially, promises to have some pretty inventive ones! I know that one day this month is National Parfait Day. Isn't that a perfect time to put STRIPED fabrics on sale??

Huh. Speaking of BOM's (I was, you know, 'way back when), today's the 15th, when a number of talented and generous designers post the most recent blocks in their series. Before I start making bread, I should oughta download the latest. And officially be even farther behind than I was a few minutes ago...

A Littles Merry Christmas Wish

2009-11-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

But he was gone. "Plum Spooky" by Janet Evanovich ♦♦♦♦◊

A while back I showed you the Christmas Littles stitcheries I did that were generously provided *free* by Cheryl at Willowberry Designs.

It's currently no less wrinkly, by the way.

I have also finished this little cutie, another free pattern - this time from designer extraordinaire Gail Pan (designer of yet another free Christmas project that's on my list of things to stitch).

Finishing at a little larger than 4x8", I used the same colors as in the Littles stitcheries.

Because I have A Plan.

Take one large-ish stitchery, add eight little stitcheries and five* fat quarters and hopefully you'll end up with a cute little(ish) wallhanging for the holiday season.

*Uh, yeah. Did you notice that there is no blue in the fat quarter bundle? Someone didn't think this all the way through. I see a bit o'piping or a flange in my future, I think.

So, there it is. My Littles Merry Christmas wish - to have this put together in time to actually display it at Christmastime.

Or send it to the family member who tells me that they want to hang it on THEIR wall at Christmastime (if any of my family still reads my blog!!).

News from the Ditch

2009-11-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

"Guy must've blocked," Milo said. "A Cold Heart" by Jonathan Kellerman ♦♦♦♦◊

I've always wanted to make a Winding Ways quilt. When we decided to do a class at the shop, I frantically waved my hand in the air to make the sample - a pattern I've always wanted to try, colors that make me happy and precision pieces from the die-cut machine. Woot!

I gotta tell you, this wasn't too difficult. Of course, not having to cut all of those pieces by hand was a real boon. The biggest problems I had were mainly with the black fabric - Kona cotton. It frayed like the dickens, so when I got all Type A and tried to un-sew some of the little center sections, the black literally fell to pieces.

This isn't my first brush with this fabric (oh, how quickly we forget!). I at least knew not to hit it with much of a spray from the water bottle - water + iron makes this fabric all wander-y. The weave gets all wonky (wow, listen to all of those technical terms!) and it's impossible to get back to square AND on-grain.

How's that border fabric? Pretty perfect, methinks. I've had that stuff for YEARS - quite possibly for a DECADE. I guess that's an argument for not getting rid of fabric that you haven't yet found a use for, now isn't it??

The quilting is also a bit of a departure for me: DITCH quilting. ME. Can you believe it? Okay, there's a little bit of echoing in there, and a few extensions out into the border, but nothing fancy at all. I just couldn't consider that anything other than simple would benefit the quilt.

Though still unbound, the quilt's hanging at the shop as an enticement for more people to sign up for the class... but soon it will get to come home with me and be mine, mine, MINE!!

Swappin' Fool

2009-11-08T23:51:00.000-08:00

Abandoned book "The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel" by Michael Chabon ♦♦◊◊◊

Oh, yes, there are MORE swap pictures to share with you!

I really have no idea what got into me. Apparently I didn't have enough to do, so I seem to have been pretty swap-happy in the past few months!

Up next is the Mug Hug & Mug Rug swap, again from the Quilter's Last Resort forum. I was really disappointed that I couldn't join the swap that was hosted by Jenny of Elephantz & Vicki of Tozz's Corner (I had to go on an Alaskan Cruise - oh, the nerve! :snort:), we did a little swap of our own in the forum.

The first Hug 'n Rug I received was from Golo. She and I teamed up for the apron challenge from Quilts and More back in June.

I used this when I'm at work, mostly. Though made to wrap around a tea or coffee cup, the hug fits perfectly around my water bottle. Both the hug and the rug helps with condensation management! I get lots of compliments on it - when my cutting table's cleaned off enough that quilters can see it!!

Isn't this fabric just a hoot?

I wonder why she said that when she found it she knew it was for me???

The second Hug & Rug I received was from Linda. I tend to think of this as my "fancy" set! This one doesn't go to work with me, but it sits on my dining room table to be used when I'm at my leisure.

Isn't it funny how some things just 'tell you' how they want to be used?

I managed to get Hugs & Rugs made for my forum friends (and only sent out one day late... but there's a story -surprise!). As soon as I figure out which Photobucket folder I 'filed' the pictures in, I'll share them with you!

Mini Things to Share

2009-11-06T23:35:00.000-08:00

"Where's my tea?" he said. "Twice Shy" by Dick Francis ♦♦♦♦◊

Long, long ago (in a galaxy...) I showed you pictures of a mini quilt I made for a swap on the Quilter's Last Resort forum. What I didn't show you was the quilt that I got from that swap.

This little jewel was made by Monika in Ontario. It's about 15" wide. I love how precise the piecing is - look at those sharp little points!!

It's in a wonderful, soft purple (I think it's a bit stronger than lilac) and a soft apple green. Have I mentioned how much I love the combination of green & purple?

And check out the incredible quilting! A little meander here, some ditchy-poo there... it's just perfect!

(I think the color's more accurate in this second picture).

I don't know if Monika visits my blog, but if you happen to know her (Deb), be sure to tell her that this little quilt makes me very happy and I want to share my joy with the rest of the world!!