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~