Quilter's Shorthand Acronyms

In the olden days, pre-computer, texting, and short-speak, the only Acronyms we might meet in a day would probably be in the newspaper; NATO, USPS, or USA and USSR...but the internet has spawned a whole host of short-write. The following are often seen when quilters are doing the writing. I'm quite sure fishermen and dog handlers and any other speciality group have an equally long list.

BOM Block Of the Month
DSM Domestic Sewing Machine as in home sewing machine, not longarm
EQ Electric Quilt, marvelous software (also seen as EQ5 or EQ6)
FART Fabric Acquisition Road Trip
FLIMSY Finished top, not quilted
LA LongArmer, professional machine quilter
LQS Local Quilt Shop
PIG Project In a Grocery Sack
SABLE Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy
SEX Stash Enhancing eXperience
STASH Special Treasure, All Secretly Hidden
TGIF Thank Goodness It’s Finished
UFO UnFinished Object
WHIMM Work Hidden In My Mind
WIP Work In Progress
WOMBAT Waste Of Material, Batting, And Time

HST Half-Square Triangle
QST Quarter Square Triangle
DWR Double Wedding Ring (quilt pattern)
GFG--Grandmother's Flower Garden
MAM Mile-A-Minute, modern version of crazy quilt block
SBS--Sunbonnet Sue

The following are general short-write seen everywhere, plus the ones that start with D, as in DH dear husband, DD dear daughter, and so on.
HTH Hope That Helps
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IMO In My Opinion
LOL Lots Of Laughter, Laugh Out Loud
OTOH On The Other Hand
ROFL Rolling On the Floor Laughing
ROFLOL Roll On the Floor Laughing Out Loud
TY Thank You

Friday Gratitudes:
Little Lost Dogs, will work for food
Once again, the kindness of strangers
My Rob, and his kindness and generousity

Small Space Quilting ~ A Begining

We have a 38 foot 5th Wheel parked at my in-laws, for those days or weeks I need to be there to assist them. My father-in-law is 90, mother-in-law is 87 and I kid them about the RV being parked there so they can take care of me... for the most part they are very active, he still maintains a fully functioning farm, she walks 2-7 miles most days. That is where my chickens are who have now started laying little pullet sized eggs. My F-I-L and I are arguing the point about garlic. I say my giving garlic cloves to the ladies is why they started laying, he says garlic cloves will make the eggs taste like garlic. :-) Anyway, the ladies loved it!

Knowing there will eventually be times when I am there at length I've been working out a system for accommodating my passion for quilts and quilting. The first hurdle was making a space for machine sewing. I slung one of the easy chairs to the donation center and currently have a Featherweight table set up in that corner with lots of natural light and a nice view. I use the starch and press method of appliqué preparation and this is where a lot of the handles for my Kudzu quilt were prepared. I'm on the lookout now for a student type desk that I can convert into a drop in sewing machine table for my Janome MC9000 which I want to move up there.

This weekend I'm going to put my working wall ideas into action...Stay tuned. That one is tricky in a small space where everything is designed for utility.

Mixed Blessings:
Christopher Columbus
Halloween Candy
Internet shopping

Note the little footstool under the table...I looked all over, new and old for a reasonable footstool and came up empty handed. So I bought a 12 pack of cheap sale soda, covered it with batt and fabric and there is sits in splendor. Nice and heavy, a perfect solution.

Kudzu Basket Progress

I'm out to working on the border ideas, have tried and discarded at least 8 different options so far. The usual story with me and the working wall and then the right combination hits and things fly together. I keep looking at the viney stripe and it keeps reminding me of the plague on the South, Kudzu. I certainly had no plan of putting something that strong into this quilt when I was appliquéing all those basket blocks, and here it is in the end practically the focus fabric. So I've rechristened this Kudzu Quilt. I'm close enough to the end to be thinking on what kind of pieced back I might put on this.

I'm also thinking about using this batt made from recycled plastic bottles. One queen batt is 20 bottles not in a landfill. That has to be a good thing!

Friday Joys:
Gorgeous crisp fall weather
Butternut and Pumpkins awaiting harvest
The dog's bark was not much worse than it's bite

Useless Gadget or Cool New Tool?

Other than to replace a ruler, mat, or rotary blade I don't think I've bought a tool, useless or otherwise in seven years. (Thank you FlyLady). But my small Rowenta Latitude iron is now residing in our 5th wheel and as I've been making the quilt behind this little jewel I've missed it terribly. It is also the iron I use for my starch and press method of appliqué.

So...there I was standing in front of the iron display at Fabric Depot (danger danger) and here were these little bitty things. Humm, what to do what to do. Spend $40+ dollars on the proven tool or spend $15.00 on the Bohin? I absolutely love Bohin appliqué needles. I'm about to find out if this little slice of memory from my childhood gets hot enough to do the job I want it to do. Looks just like my toy iron from this Christmas...

Midweek Gratitudes:
Nice memories
Perspective
FlyLady

edited after use: Ok if it is the only iron you have, perhaps traveling. It has a smooth plate, no steam holes to catch the end of a piece and wrinkle it, and it does get warm enough to press a seam and dry the starch on appliqué pieces. But, the cord is the major problem, Way too short, it was the loser in the overall design. The handle folds flat so the cord can't come out the end, it comes out the left hand side and combined with it's shortness it is Always in the way. I'll box it up, take it back and fork over the $$ for the Latitude...the only Rowenta on the planet that doesn't leak.

Traveling with nice machines

That's an exciting title...so is the photo, almost up to par with the exciting foot pedal holder below! I was trying to explain what I use when I transport my sewing machine and decided a photo was worth a 1000 words, as always.

I appreciate how lovely the Tutto case is but I have no desire to spend my $$ on that when fabric calls my name! This is a $20.00 luggage carrier I've used for 20 years or more. I cut a board 19.5 inch X 10 inch. drilled 2 holes in it over each bottom support and used plastic zip ties to lash it to the bottom of the carrier securely. The bungees are already part of the carrier, it has a second shelf and I can load an incredible amount of stuff on top of my machine and get in and out of any building I've been to easily. Just a thought for a cost effective solution to traveling with our machines.

Monday Blessings:
Seeing old friends at Fran's Memorial Service
Pickle and Cheese Samiches
Stewart Kaplan, President of US Games Systems

Tweak Tweak

I've been using my quilt room for 19 years this September and it's had a lot of tweaking over those years. But sometimes you just have to wonder "why didn't I think of this sooner?". I've been machine sewing since I was 14, and have been chasing my power foot around the floor for all those years. Gulp, nearly half a century... The other day I saw a FOURTEEN DOLLAR widget to hold the foot stationary. Ding! Well duh, in less than 5 minutes I had my own power foot holder creation.

In this incredibly bland photo you see before you a freebie Glad sandwich meat holder with one side trimmed out and two nails holding it to the floor. Hokey Smokes it works great!
What will I wake up and notice on the morrow?

Daily Gratitudes:
The little doe fawn that seems to live in our goat paddock
Fresh ground coffee
Lint rollers

Hung, Redux

Numismatically Speaking said: Do you always keep a quilt hanging from the loft banister?I do complicated quilts so am amazed when someone says they finished 10 quilts this week or whatever :). If I were in a hurry Wal-Mart has blankets for $10.00...
I have quilts hanging all over. Most of my smallish wall quilts were exercises in learning or refining a technique. These are the quilts on display on the loft rail currently (badly combined into one image). The two on the ends are a folded technique involving a base plus 2-5 additional layers. The one in the center is out of ladies hankies with a folded technique much like the paper things we used to put on our fingers that opened and closed with our fortune.

Blessings:
Books*Electricity*Fresh air

Hung

I'm on two yahoo quilt lists with very busy quilters. As opposed to the lists with quilters who aren't busy, except for reading lists... Anyway one thing I've noticed in the many wonderful project photos is the problem of where to hang a quilt for photography? So I thought I'd show you my system, it might trigger some ideas for you. I've mentioned before that we live in an A-Frame which creates a lot of decor problems, but for this idea it was perfect. We have an open loft in the upstairs which overlooks the living/dining area. In photo one I'm in the living room looking up at the loft overhang. Photo 2 is also from the living room looking up and back at the overhang. I bought long length of clothes closet wooden rod and cut it to 8.5 foot, figuring 102" is more than enough width to hang any quilt I might make. It just sits up there quietly minding it's own business until needed and has made quilt photography a very easy task. No more hands, feet, and foreheads holding up a sagging piece of art.

I know not too many people have a hidey-hole like mine but a nice drapery rod could achieve the same purpose, or like Pat here, who has used one of those wood clamp hanger on a kitchen wall. Great place for ever changing wall quilts, and then just pop in the one you need a photo of, easy peasy. Something to think about...

Monday Gratitudes: Hope*Love*Kindness

Gigolo

Progress... I've got to stop and make a wad more 9 patch feet now. Great forward movement today and another design refinement. Normally I use all mixed neutrals, and I did with the basket handle backgrounds, but I had this big length of neutral I was going to use for sashing, and then I had to double the sashing amounts in order to incorporate the 9 patches for basket feet. Errm...I haven't got enough of the sashing neutral to do the whole queen size quilt so I'm going for the size of the mattress top and then I'll use something else for the four drop areas.

Designing by the seat of my pants always lands me in these situations, but my quilts always end up all the more interesting...or peculiar...considering everything comes from stash.

Edited Sunday...A name for this top came to me this morning when I was telling Rob all the different design changes I've had to come up with to make this quilt. Gigolo: Because it just lays there and lets me do all the work. That will change when it is on the bed~ so no more 1800's Repro Thingie Quilt. I christen thee Gigolo.

Saturday Gratitude's:

Flags in the wind

How computer heal themselves; would that we could reboot ever couple of days

The richness yoga has brought to my life this year

Jessie James and Ike Clanton

We've had Jessie and Ike for about 14 years I think, we got them when they were just six weeks old, so it seems like these 2 brothers have been with us forever. Siamese are a unique breed as far as their behavior and habits go. I often worry that they are much smarter than I. But like all cats, they love to be in the middle of quilting projects. Regardless of the size as you can see below them in the first photo. That little quilt was some leftover pieces from an experiment to see what Flat Biscuits would look like in a Cathedral Window sorta technique. Obviously I didn't think much of the idea, this ended up in the bottom of their cat carrier.
All I have to do is leave the room for a few minutes and they'll take over whatever project I'm working on. This was 6-7 years ago.
The photo below was just a few days ago. The quilt they are on in these two photos is a utility twinish sized quilt that is on its third top. The bottom is getting pretty thin so it's next stop will probably be in the doggy basket.
This is Jessie in the hoop when I was quilting my Dear Jane reversible quilt Two Sides of Jane.
Jessie and Ike are a lot of fun and excellent company, but some days I wonder what it would be like to not have cat hair in my quilts. Probably not nearly as nice...

Wednesday gratitudes:
Strike benefits and no one getting hurt so far
Healthy clients so I can play in my jammies today
Sunshine through the window warming cat belly's

Sack Sacks~

I had 4 narrow lengths of vintage tablecloth left over from my grocery sack project, so I used one to make a holder for plastic grocery sacks that still come into the house and get recycled as garbage bags, and one for the veggie/bread type bags that I use for liners in the garbage bags.

These are dead simple. Took me about 2 hours, but I had to stop and give a friend a haircut in the middle of the project. I got the basic pattern here (thank you Annie!) except mine are a different size which was determined by the length I had left, and for the hanger-upper I pulled two old celluloid or bone rings from one of my button jars. They are probably the same age or a little older than the tablecloth was, seemed fitting to me. In the 50's and further back many people had roller shades under their curtains and those roller shades always had pull rings, which most needleworkers promptly dressed up, some gorgeous samples here.

Will you keep your vintage linens in a deep dark closet, or will you let them out to play once again?

Monday Appreciations:
Google
Printers
Chimes

Harry Potter Hogwarts Quilt

I saw the greatest site today, this lady is putting up paper-pieced blocks for a quilt based on the Harry Potter series, way too cute to be legal. I won't be making one but I know quilters would will!

We used the tablecloth grocery bags yesterday, (see post below) for us I'd give it a 10 and I got compliments from everyone in line. While we were waiting for out turn though I got to observe the checker dealing with the bags other people had brought in... not a pretty sight. We were at Fred Meyers, I'll watch now and see how the other stores in the area are handling the problem. Everyone seems to have different types of bags, all with different styles and configurations of handles and fabrics. This check-stand doesn't have any way of coping with that so the checkers must hold the bag open with one hand, while scanning and filling with the other. It is quite awkward for them and Really slows the process down.

When I got up there for my turn I talked to her about it and asked if Fred's (now owned by Kroger's) had any plans in the tube for setting them up better, as most consumers figure before too long the stores will stop offering bags. She said all they checkers are sending in opinions and ideas but for now it really is a nuisance because it slows down the line so bad. A different view of using reusable grocery bags I'd not considered. One way we could help is to have our bags completely unfolded and lying flat over the end of the cart. They certainly shouldn't have to unsnap, untie, unfold...which is what I saw happening yesterday.

On the other hand I had a real brain fart on what to do with my little bit of left over tablecloth fabric. Stay tuned~

Weekend gratitudes:
A Tempur-Pedic mattress...Bliss times 100
Friends who care
Sunflower seeds and the creatures who enjoy them

Blood Sweat and Tears

A group of friends have been discussing carry along reusable grocery sacks this week and I said I wouldn't be making any unless I could make them both useful and beautiful. A day or so later a light bulb went off and I pulled out some of my larger vintage tablecloths. I've not used these for at least 25 years because I no longer have a big long dining table, I have a small round one.

I looked at a lot of pattern ideas on-line plus deconstructed both plastic and paper bags. I ended up using the handle and attaching idea from Morsbags, French seamed the sides and used the pleating method in Safeway's plastic grocery bags for the bottom.

This tablecloth is a heavy cotton, almost jeans weight, if I were using one of my blouse weight cotton tablecloths I would probably make the handles wrap the whole bag or line it. All in all a fun project and extra glad to be enjoying this beautiful table cloth in a new way. I can get 4 or 5 more out of this tablecloth and I think I will tea dye them for common-sense sake.

Next will be beautiful veggie bags from some old sheer curtain fabric I have left over from my Spirit of the Mesa quilt where I used it for headpiece and feathers.

Midweek thankfulness:
My little Pom is recovered from her bacterial infection.
Autumn leaf colors
I've lost 20 pounds in the last year and a half.

Blogger needs a band-aid

I haven't a clue why this blog isn't showing properly. My setting are still as they should be, current months posts, everything else archived, instead every post I've made is showing and my widgets which should start in the first viewing area are clear down past the last post.

If there is a way to contact blogger I don't know what it is, the help section is mostly full of unanswered questions and girly spam.
As Fred Flintstone would say, "rackafratz".

edited on 9/20 to add zero response from Google. If it doesn't correct when the month rolls over I'll move to another service. After putting up with Ebay Glitchville for 7 years I swore I'd never do it elsewhere...way too many other options.

On the other hand, today's blessings:
A favorite client is coming by today.
We can find and order what we need online, phooey on local shops who could care less about their customers.
All my furry friends are feisty and frisky.

Oddball thread storage No. 2

As noted below, we live in an A-frame so we have had to be creative about wall decor and storage. This is my answer for my 40 weight embroidery thread. You can see the angle of the big beam. So we made a three sided normal frame and one side is the angle of the beam.

We drilled the shelves and put in dowels to hold the thread and used just one nail on each end of the shelves so they can be tipped a little bit. I need to stand on a stool to reach the top two shelves but this is very practical storage, as again I can see what I have and what I need at a glance. These also have thread wraps for dust protection but glass doors would work great too if the skill and time were available to make them. We used the same oak strips as in the cotton thread storage below.

Saturday blessings:
Pine cones
Sunflowers
Corn on the cob

A funny little project for those upholstery samples

Oh those glorious upholstery and drapery sample books, what quilter worth his or her name hasn't glommed on to a pile of them, a very heavy pile I might add. And then they get shoved in the back of the beyond because they don't really have much fabric in them and the prettiest ones have stock information on heavy paper glued to the top and the bottom and it just seems too much work to clean them up. Yes. I see you. Blushing and slinking off. Because we are all cut from the same cloth. I pitched mine years ago, beautiful as the fabrics were. Took up too much space and became a millstone about my neck.

But... I did do a few projects with the tapestry type ones. Three foot stools, and this little switch plate cover in my quilt room. Dead simple to make and probably didn't take 15 minutes. Try it...with any of your deluxe fabric, then fling or donate those heavy books, lighten your load! The heavier fabrics you can just pull tight and use glue gun or tacky glue, thinner quilting fabrics you can do the same or decoupage for a shinier effect.

Blessings for today:
Jan Karon's Mitford books
A birthday approaching and I welcome it
Stunningly gorgeous autumn day

I am woman hear me roar vs. Suzie Homemaker

I've been working for pay since I was 7 years old. Started with pulling ferns for a penny for my dad, then peeling cascara bark, picking berries, babysitting for neighbors. I've done a lot of different things since then, including the pleasurable job of being married for 38.5 years. In there somewhere is the me that makes money and roars, and the me that enjoys homemaking.

Sometimes over the years the twain has not met, other times it seems to mesh fairly seamlessly. I was thinking about these sides of my woman's nature yesterday as the setting sunrays came in the kitchen window and fell across my newly canned dill green beans. Squatty jars from the 50's, rings from the 70's, beans from September 7, 2008.

Mostly I really do know who I am.
Sometimes I'm rather confused.
FlyLady helped immeasurably.
Accountability has its importance.
Commonsense is key...for me anyway.

Monday Boons:
Photos and particularly digital cameras
On-line Dictionary and Thesaurus
The magnitude of free hours strangers put into websites that I pass though. Thank you.

CyberFriendships

I've met a lot of my quilt related on-line friends over the years and today I'm still grinnin' like a fool over the most recent, which took place last week in Seattle. Pictured are Pam from Alexandra Australia, myself, Ruth from Sedro Woolley Washington, and Judy from Williamsburg Virginia. The day before Judy and I met with Ann from Winlock Washington and had a two hour trunk show of her quilts. It has been a really big week and I'm so thankful for these friends, we've been together a long time and really are the wind beneath my wings. ((hugs)) to you all, all over the world~

Sunday Gratitudes:
Fresh garden goodness
An amazing husband
A tiny dog that made me so proud this week

Candlewicking Update

I'm having a lot of fun with my candlewicking project. A friend sent me a loaf of bread sized marigold floss (thanks Judy!) cone so I'm using that for the flowers and a slightly yellowish green for the leaves. I'm going to use a little lighter green for the stems, and there is a row of leaves around the entire block which will be one of the greens.

Doing all those knots using the Colonial Knot stitch is a treat, much nicer than French Knots stitch.

Today's Blessings:
My back is better
Small lamps
Scissors

Thread storage in an A-Frame

I live in a A-Frame house. I love it because it is different and that suits me, but think about the shape of the walls for a minute... All of the outer walls are angled like / or \. The walls that form the inside structure at the center of the house are straight, but we have a lot of bookcases and it didn't take long to run out of wall space.

In my quilt room storage space was of particular concern because sewists have a lot of small bits that need to be handy. Something that is tucked away in the back of a closet might as well still be at the store for all the use we will get out of it. So here is my solution for my 100% cotton thread.

We literally framed it with varnished oak strips 1-3/4" deep by 3/4" thick in a narrow area between the two closets. I think thread is beautiful and I enjoy seeing all the colors there and it's never a problem knowing what thread might need to be restocked, I can see at a glance. If you were really handy you could put a glass front or door on it for dust; what I did was get an 1/8 of a yard of the light plastic that is sold on big rolls at fabric stores. I cut it down into strips and wrapped each spool. Those cling strips are expensive at the quilt stores, dirt cheap if you make your own and it really doesn't take any time at all.

If you have sheet rock walls you can actually cut out the sheet rock between two 2x4's (beware of wiring and stay from knee to eyeball height so you don't interfere with wires running across the top or bottom of the space) and make inset shelves. I did that when we put in my office. I'll show my 'hanging out' system next.

Today's Blessings:
Fog in the firs
Bananas
Woodpeckers and their funny flight patterns

Last Baskets I Promise~

Ok, I'm done thinking and am now assembling sections. I think if you scroll down the page to some of my first ideas you'll find this setting is a vast improvement!

I've used my handy-dandy seam ripper numerous times, for the sashing neutral I'm using the back side of the fabric and I keep forgetting, and I told myself I wasn't going to worry about which way the vines were going, but then I couldn't stand it so resewed the ones that weren't heading NE or NW. I do love the little circle effect in the nine-patch basket feet.

If my calculations are correct I still need 67 more basket blocks... so it will be awhile until you see this quilt again.

Sunday Gratefulness:

Surprise mail treats this week
Good progress on the below mentioned candlewicking project
3 day weekend to look forward to

Spoolville

Once upon a time I thought I'd have children so I always saved my empty thread spools for them to play with. One day after about 30 years of this I looked at all those spools and realized I was never going to have children, and no ones kids would even be interested in such an old fashion slow fashion concept anyway. I sorted out over 200 empty plastic spools and filed them in the round bin outside, but I couldn't bear to just pitch all the wooden ones I'd emptied over the years. So here they sit, waiting for a second life. I doubt they find one with me, I don't like doing small projects like bags and table runners so something that involved spools would probably bore me to death. Yet they stay...waiting patiently to be repurposed. And each time I drop an empty spool in the trash basket I think of these lonely ones.

I think today's thread manufacturers are missing a good marketing tool by using such boring white plastic spools. Surely they can do better than that? Although the snap lock caps are a good thing...

Weekend blessings:
Beans, cucumbers, summer squash
Good health
Good friends
Anticipatory Pleasures

I Think I'm Getting Closer

What would I do without a working wall? It is the major player in my think tank. Not too sure about the square in the center of the blocks that now make up the feet of the baskets, that space looks weird when I pull them off. This setting looks far better than any of those posted previously though.

I made my working wall out of the entire west wall in my quilt room. I bought acoustical tiles (those white tiles you see on the ceiling of every classroom and café) and glued them to the wall which makes it a pinable surface and then covered the tiles with flannel. I love it and it has certainly improved the visual quality of my work. Oddly enough, I am not able to find any of these tiles in the home improvement stores any longer, I've been looking for some to make the same type of working wall in our RV.

Midweek blessings:
Light bulbs
Thread
Feathers

Snippets Anyone?

Anyone care to guess the size of this piece?
It is is late afternoon in an adobe courtyard. To me it was a throw-away item of little value; I was really just experimenting with my hand dyes. I gave it to my friend Elle and she had it framed and what a difference it made.

I had her take a picture of it awhile back to help me remember that until a piece if finished we shouldn't judge it. It might just be spectacular, or it might be a spectacular failure but if we invest the time in something we owe it to ourselves to finish what we started, otherwise our time has no value at all.

If you have a complicated scene you'd like to turn into a quilt but don't want to piece it I'd highly recommend this technique; it's way fun and it's fast, how can you beat that?

Sunday Gratitudes:
My in-laws
Two flat tires, both right at destination rather than on the freeway
A cool breeze

Colonial Knot Stitch or How Not To Be A Klutz

Remember back a week or so ago I was looking for colored Candlewicking thread? That seems a doomed quest so I've been experimenting today with embroidery floss. My first lesson learned is my stamped work is stamped too close together to do the blooming technique I wanted, as I need to be able to snip between each dot and let the thread bloom in the wash.

So I'm going with my second choice, a Colonial Knot. I looked at a couple of explanation sites with diagrams and my mind just would not grasp the instructions; further Googling found this wonderful place Needle'nThread ~ What a delightful resource, she has a complete video library of embroidery stitches that you can play over and over (ahem) until you get it. What an amazing tool our computers are. Twenty years ago I felt so disconnected from other quilters, today in my inbox is a treasure trove of mail from quilters all over the world I could ask for help or share a discovery with. Like this one... And I have several dozen perfect colonial knots on my sample piece to prove it.

Midweek Blessings:
Digital Cameras
Vacuums
Energy Star Washing Machines

Frog Stitching

It comes to all of us; if we sew, eventually we must unsew. I have two seam rippers, probably a record of some sort, because most stitchers have multiple rippers. The aqua handled one I've had since ?1965? as a guess. It was on the supply list for my first machine sewing class. How it's managed to not get lost is a mystery to me. It has been relegated to special duty, I use it to take buttons off of worn out clothes.

My real workhorse seam ripper is a palm size 4" X 1.5" Wahl battery operated trimmer I picked up years ago at Sally Beauty Supply. They were $11.00 then. if they still carry them who knows what the price is now, but I expect any small trimmer will work. If you've got one of those torture devices marketed as Epi Lady try it, it might work fine. Separate the two pieces of fabric so you can see the first thread in the seam and then just lightly lay the running clipper blades on the seam thread. Don't Push, let the clipper do the work, you can unsew a mile of stitches in zip time. Added benefit is one side of the fabric will have one long thread you can pull away, the loops on the other side are nearly non-existent.

Gratitudes for the day:

My bone china Under Gardener coffee mug

My new sewing machine fits in the table recess where the old machine was (that is more along the lines of a miracle...)

On-line friends of long standing

The Pain Of It All

Yes I did. Buy a new machine at the Seattle show that is, the Janome 6600P with the industrial/professional grade body and huge harp area. Great show price, $1200.00. What I didn't do was take my MemoryCraft 9000 to trade in. I got to thinking in the hours before we left that I'd be bananas to sell that machine, it is absolute perfection except for machine quilting big quilts. So I made the decision to sell my two featherweights instead.

I got the celery one out this morning and photographed it...uuummmm, the special smell when you open a sweet clean featherweight case, who could describe it? I'll bring the black one home from the farm this weekend and do the same with it. It will be a wrench to let them go, but hey, I'm a FlyLady graduate and what purpose is served by owning something I don't use? They will go a long way toward replacing the funds spent on the new one and in a year or so I won't even sob out loud when I think of the poor gone babies...

In the mean time I'm requiring myself to weed the entire garden before I pull the 6600P out of the box. How's that for I am woman hear me roar will power? I love to have things to look forward too...

Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks.

I've just been to the big APNQ Pacific Northwest bi-annual quilt show in Seattle. Where I saw nary a sewing tattoo. I think there were nearly 1000 quilts, that's not a typo...1000 quilts and believe it or not I didn't take one picture, too busy gawking! Having been quilting steadily since 1970 (I'm not ancient, I started young *G*) sometimes I fall into the trap of thinking I've tried everything and I sort of tune out of the quilting world. I always return refreshed and renewed and shortly there-after find something I haven't tried yet which improves my work.

Back to the quilt show. In a big juried show we are treated to the best of the best, but even in the best there are better and not so better quilts. It's usually the detail that is the downfall and often that detail is bindings. The outer edges wobble a bit or the corners aren't sharp, or the inner binding seams make an occasional rogue jump. If you are on dial up this won't help much, but bookmark Sharon Schamber's YouTube. I don't know the woman from Adam, I have no vested interest in what she does, but she's got a great technique for doing binding. I thought mine were perfect until I watched all three 'binding the angel' tapes and I can see at least 4 different ways I can now do it better. These aren't fancy-smanchy videos, there is one camera and Sharon, but the beauty is in the details. And there are currently 59 videos she's done. Wonder what I'll learn tomorrow?

Sunday Gratitudes:

old friends and new friends
(((my computer))) what a tool for learning!
Smilies that make me laugh

Tats anyone?

Last night when I was combing Google images trying to find some pictures of my old long gone sewing machines I ran across this machine tattoo.

Later I was reading some information on Karen McTavish the long arm quilter and unearthed this beautiful feather motif. She's got one on both arms.




So this morning I Goggled some more, and found this temporary tattoo 'Born To Quilt' at Block Party

Here is a Prim one for the folky quilters
From graphics by Sheryl's Originals


Don't Quit Your Day Job offers this bird spool and needle...






Who knew? I don't want a tattoo, I've seen what they look like 30 years down the road on fat old women...but it sure is a fun subject to explore!

Friday Blessings:
Going to the APNQ show this weekend
Kindling for the winter fires is nearly finished
A good night's sleep, quite a rarity

Sewing Machines and Memory Lane

I'm thinking about a new sewing machine, have been for most of this year. Today I got to thinking about the sewing machines I've had and all the pleasure they've given. My very first machine work was done in high school Home Economics, I think they were Singer, probably so in the 1965-69 era. They were all in cabinets and rather than a foot pedal they had a knee operated lever.

In 1967 a neighbor sold me her mechanical New Home portable for $25.00. I immediately began making most of my school clothes and things for my little sister. I used that machine steadily until the early 80's. I got a $400.00 bonus at work and treated myself to a new New Home. Hokey Smokes it even had a zig zag stitch! I literally wore that machine out, it got to the point where sewing was just a swear fest and not much more. At the time there was an ad on TV where someone was so mad they started throwing their furniture out the window. I envisioned doing that with my poor worn out machine so many times...

I started paying attention to the televised sewing shows. They all had a different sewing machine so I made a list of every single feature I liked, and started saving my moolah. Once a month when I went to Portland for supplies for my salon I'd spend an hour or more at Montavilla Sewing Center and poor luckless Brent would walk me through another brand of sewing machine. I test drove every top of the line machine there is I think. I'd take my own fabric scraps to sew on and test techniques on...ever notice all the shops offer you stiff fabric to run under the presser foot? Of course it shows the stitches off to perfection but I don't sew with stiff fabric, hence my own samples.

And so it went for about 6 months. I'd pretty much decided on the Janome (they bought out the New Home brand) MemoryCraft 9000 by then but I was still saving my pennies. One day during a terrible wind storm I came as close as you can to being crushed by a falling fir tree and live to tell the tale. I was kind of shocky for a couple of days, and I decided life is short and then you die and I went to Portland and bought my machine.

Oh the bliss. I must have sewed a million miles on my MC9000 by now, it has been good and faithful, but the day has come when it doesn't do what I need a sewing machine to do. It has a very small harp area (the space between the needle works and the post on the right) which makes machine quilting very laborious. So I'm once again in the market for a new machine. Will it be a Janome/New Home? Probably...

Oddly enough I also got both my black and celery Featherweights at Montavilla, very reasonably. They'd been traded in...someone, like me, looking to upgrade. And back to that knee operated lever in home ec, when the sewing machine world was all agog about the invention of the knee lever needle lift mechanism I found old habits die hard. My MC9000 came with one, and try as I might I could not retrain my mind to knee lever=needle lift. My brain said knee lever=go faster. And nothing would happen. I finally decided it was a pat head/rub tummy thing and just put it away for good.

Big blessings this week!
The kindness of strangers and the Marriott
Our new well filter is $75.00 rather than the $1500.00 we expected
Fun progress on my September secret
A mistake in my checking account math in my favor, goodie goodie gum drops~

Baby, It's Hot Outside~

Thanks for the suggestions about the baskets settings below, I've gotten some great insight both here and in my email in-box. In a few weeks I'll see what you all think about new choices.

The first week of August is typically the hottest week of the year here. Over 100 degrees isn't that common in the Pacific Northwest USA but we do get them. The current record for the first week of August is 107. So today's 90 degrees isn't worth fussing about except I'm too warm to sit under a quilt. But I love working with fabric and my quilt room is such a sanctuary for me...so this is what I did today.

I'm working up a quilting alcove in our 5th Wheel RV we have parked up at our farm. I use the starch and press method of preparing appliqué and if I don't put down a piece of scrap muslin pretty soon my ironing board looks like to top of the photo. So I dug around in my stash pile inherited from a friend (so she can be quilting with me) and cut a piece of fabric about 3" bigger than the board, flipped the board over on it and ran a big basting stitch around the fabric edges, cinched it up, and eureka, Houston we have lift-off. A lovely fresh ironing board cover. You could staple the fabric down also, but you need the strength of Samson...

This is done in Rustic Meadows from RJR Fabrics. It looks like the morning sun coming through the trees outside the window of my quilt room. A great pick me up, some stash busted and enjoyed, and it will look great in the RV. This particular ironing board is one of those pressboard ones, made to be set up in small places. I cut the angled part off, leaving it about 12"X14". Treat yourself to a fresh cover, you are worth it. If you click on the blog photos they come up in a new page much larger.

Today's Blessings:
Snagging an emergency opening at the doctor's for one of my clients.
Lunch with my Rob
Really good news TWO days in a row!
Life is good as my friend Val says...

Basketing part 3

5 more setting ideas. I do like one of these~
Note the in-progress baskets at top of 8 :-)
edited to add that those baskets do NOT go with this quilt, they are part of the Eleanor Burns Grandmothers Flower Garden pattern with dimensional flowers. Sorry to confuse some of you!

Back Basketing

Ok, five different layouts for my five inch baskets from 1800's reproduction fabrics.

#1 is on point with side triangles of mixed neutrals, this was my original thought. The basket handle backgrounds are also mixed neutrals.




#2. Baskets on square, nothing between












#3. Baskets on point, nothing between. While there is light and dark play, to me the point of the baskets are lost, it is just fabric squares alternated with squares with an interesting squiggly effect. Every one of the appliqué handle squares takes about 1-1/2 hours. That's too much time invested for 'just a squiggly' effect.









#4. Baskets on square with 1 inch cornerstones and sashing. If I use these waste cornerstones they will actually end up being 1/2 inch corners and sashing. Pretty narrow, but surely not something you'd see every day...








#5. Same as above, only on-point setting. I like on-point blocks but in the case of these baskets they are only marginally more interesting as the basket handles look the same in either setting.
Suggestions?

Sunday blessings:
My working wall
Roses
A leisurely cuppa coffee
Not a blessing: trying to get multiple pictures on blogger plus words, and not look like an idiot. What a PITA. This looks great in draft form, like carpola published.

Here A Chick Redux

The girls are growing! They are at 8-ish weeks now, losing all their baby feathers and starting to take on their adult colors. They get to go out to the orchard in the evenings and peck for bugs and grit and greens and generally exercise their independence. Last night I went down to tell them goodnight and found them huddled out under the rabbit hutch. Doing a little Dick Tracy work I found a giant cat with a tail as wide as a tree trunk lurking nearby, visions of drumsticks dancing in his head. I sent him on his way with a warning and a lecture, and a promise of a steep price to pay if I ever smelled chicken feathers on his breath. He flipped his tail at me when he got over to the other side of the fence so who knows if the lecture will stick.

I get a lot of this look now, I can see some old biddies in the making, I'll have to hop sharp to keep from getting a clucking to.

Gratitudes:
Fresh raspberries, all I can stuff in and then some
Hummingbirds and juncos
Lowered fuel prices