Sunday, May 26, 2013

Poking Buttons

I figured if I can't sew right now, I might as well poke some buttons!

Market pictures were reviewed and there were one or two things that caught my eye.  Just one or two.  Yes, I do have a fever now, so maybe that will change, but for now I'm being a good girl.  I haven't been doing much window shopping lately, so some of these might have been shown before Market, but they're new to me.

The first thing that caught my eye, and took my breath away, was Moda Collections for a Cause Clamshell kit.  Wow!  I saw an antique clamshell many years ago, and it has always been in the back of my mind.  I'm definitely going to make this one, and maybe enlarge it to fit my bed.  I think it will be heavy but that's okay since there are usually two quilts on my bed in the wintertime.  Not sure I like the border on it, so might see how it looks without the border.  Isn't it wonderful?!!

The next one is this Primrose & Poppies pattern by It's Sew Emma.  I think I'm going to stash dive for this one.  '30s?  Thimble Blossom brights?  The possibilities are endless.  I belong to the It's Sew Emma pattern club, so I didn't have to poke this button.  Another It's Sew Emma pattern I love is William's Crossing.  It's simple and would also be a good stash buster, but I love that fabric there.  Uh oh, I feel another poke coming on!

And, of course, no button-poking diva would be true to herself without ordering the Bunnyhill Design BOM, A Woodland Christmas.  Another beauty by Anne Sutton.  I have so many of her BOMs in various stages.  Need to pick one and finish it!  They're irresistible to me!

Of course, some things are just sitting out there teasing me:

Minick & Simpson's new line, Midwinter Reds
Bunny Hill 's new line, Celebration
French General's new line, Josephine
Bonnie & Camille's new line, Scrumptious

I guess no packages will be arriving since almost everything is in "Coming Soon."  (sigh)  That, however, may be a good thing!!

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Nothing Going On

There is absolutely nothing going on in the LA Quilter household.  Seriously, nothing!

You know it's pretty bad when the only thing you have to take a picture of is the stupid crock pot.



I have a tri tip roast in there and it sure is smelling good.  A couple of more hours to go.  Penny keeps going in the kitchen and looking at the stove with her nose twitching. 

I've taken to organizing small projects.  A couple of days ago it was a drawer in my bedroom.  This morning it was the drawer in the kitchen that has the Ziploc bags, etc.  Tomorrow will be filing paperwork and making some new files.  A task a day will eventually get the job done.

The Kindle has gotten quite the work-out this week.  Four books.  Admittedly a couple of them were little more than long short stories, but it feels good to be reading again after months of not being able to do so.  I can read for about an hour and then my neck starts hurting.  So I take an hour or so break and go back to it.  TV is totally boring.  I mean, there is hardly anything on worth watching other than the History Channel and the Cooking Channel, etc.  I've watched every DVD I have - and there's a lot of them - sometimes more than once.  Time to go DVD shopping again!

This morning I was looking through some pictures that I downloaded off my camera back in February.  We had a really hard hail storm one day.  The next morning when I took Penny out, the hail was still stuck in the flower beds where the sun doesn't shine very much.  This picture was taken on 2/8/13.  It looks like snow.  A really unusual sight seeings as how I live in basically an irrigated desert.



Penny started to walk on it and then quickly crawfished back onto the sidewalk.  What a weenie!  It was funny, though, because she had never seen anything icy on the ground.

I've kind of been watching the Spring Markets reports from Portland, but not as avidly as I usually do.  I've seen a few patterns that I'd like to have, and a couple of Moda lines that look interesting.  I must have the blahs .......

That's it from here.  Thought I'd best post something because friends are emailing and calling to check up on me.

Friday, May 10, 2013

An Errand a Day

My new mantra, "An errand a day keeps boredom away."  Well, it works for me.

Yesterday was my day to mail packages.  Sorry to all of you who have been waiting, but I had to wait until Thursday so the maid service could help me get them in the car.  I went to a mailing place that I knew would unload them for me.  So they're off.  Marilyn, yours is still here because I ran out of boxes.  I bought a box and I hope to get those off to you this weekend.

I stopped by a preview opening of a new quilt shop here.  The shop is adorable.  It kind of reminds me of the layout at Temecula Quilt Company except there are no Civil War fabrics in there, or at least none that I could see.  It's bright and open.  I hope she does well.

Going through the scraps was quite the experience.  I couldn't imagine why in the world I had some of those scraps, but then I would remember this or that quilt. 

You know how quilters say their scraps seem to multiply?  I figured it out.

All of those scraps were compressed into this folding laundry bag that had been sitting next to my cutting table for years.  I set it next to the 750 for perspective.


Well, the scraps in that bag filled up two and a half plastic tubs like that picture in my last post.  I laughed out loud because I remembered when I was a  youngster, Daddy telling me about digging a hole and filling it back up, and how the stage of the moon affects how much of that dirt will fit back into the hole.  We actually did some experiments on this.  That was such fun for a six- or seven-year-old.

But I digress.

I've solved the scrap riddle.  It's fluffing them up that makes it seem like more!  Quite scientific, right?!!!!!  I'm sure that explains the dirt thing, too!

Anyway, those scraps are gone.  All that's left in the bottom of the scrap bag are a few plastic Ziplocs with scraps I want to keep.  I've made a couple of quilts for children, and I hesitate to toss the larger scrap pieces.  You know, repairs and such.  Might forward those on to their mamas to hang onto.  Yeah, that's what I'll do!

The 750 problem is solved. I ordered a new table that would accommodate her.  It'll be about a month before it arrives.  Horn is located somewhere in Canada, and they're in the process of moving their factory to Kansas.  So production will be delayed a bit.  That's okay.  This weekend I'm going to unbox the 350 and get it set up on my SewEzi table.  I remembered to order the new insert for that, so I'm good to go.  I have a quilt needing a binding.  It might take me a while to get it machined on, though, as I can't sit for very long, but I want to do some hand stitching so I can see how weak my left thumb is to discuss with the doctor on my next visit.  I tried applique a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't get a grip on it.  I'm thinking maybe a binding won't be so hard to hold because of the help from the binding clips.  More experiments here.

I lead SUCH an exciting life these days!

Sunday, May 05, 2013

De-Scrapping

Is there such a word?

Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning off my sewing table.  It was all clean, but then I stuck some stuff up there that I took from other places until they can be put away.  And you can't even see my cutting table right now!  All of the quilt tops that were on my sewing table awaiting a final border or a backing were moved there for the moment.  I hope to have it all spic and span by the end of this week.

No, I'm not just moving mass like I usually do.  I have filled up two large garbage bags and dumped those in the big can.  I've emptied the little trash can in my sewing room at least fifteen times.  Lordy, I have accumulated some stuff.  The sewing room got really out of hand during those two years when I wasn't sewing much because of work.  Then the back surgery.  But now it's going to get clean and stay clean!!

The next task, after cleaning off the cutting table, is going to be to clean out the Horn cabinet drawers.  They are totally full.  One drawer is just thread, mostly Aurifil.  Another drawer is full of rulers, all the ones I had to have and have never used.  I was carefully watching Thelma's blogs about her tool and ruler reviews, and found that I had a lot of those she reviewed and will now use them.  The top drawer has a lot of Bernina feet, etc.  Those will be organized back into their cases and put with the correct machine.

But to the scraps - wow!  I have one of those big laundry type bags, you know the kind that collapses, next to my cutting table.  It's been sitting there for eight years, eight years I've been dropping scraps in it.  Well, it's way too heavy for me to lift, so I scooped out about a fourth of the scraps into this tub.


It's a big tub.  For perspective, there's Penny standing to the left side of it.  I shoved it with my foot into the living room, put a garbage can next to it, and I'm going to spend the day watching TV and de-scrapping the scraps.  It might take me all week to do this.  All of small pieces are going in the garbage.  These are so varied that I think only a true scrap quilter could use them.  

Edit:  The scraps were claimed.  Hooray!!

I found Ziploc bags with scraps of coordinated lines in them.  I'll hang onto those for a while, especially the Minick & Simpson and Fig Tree.  Their lines seem to all go together.

A lot of memories have surfaced! 

On the health front, I now have the bone stimulator.  Trust me, it's a real love/hate relationship with this thing.  It beeps at me if one of the electrodes starts detaching itself from my skin.  It beeps at me during the night and I have to sit up to reattach things.  The electrodes are attached to a battery pack about the size of a cell phone.  There are wires running from my neck to that pack.  If I put the wires under my shirt, they get hung up on undergarments.  If I let them hang down the front of my shirt, I snag them on drawer pulls.  Penny even unplugged me once, and then hightailed it when the beeping started.  I had to laugh because she was peeking at me from behind the coffee table.  She's such a weenie!   

These scraps will keep me from being so bored for a few days ........... and that's a very good thing!

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

I'm SO Bored!

Seriously!  I have a haircut today, and hope I have enough steam left to stop at the UPS store to get out packages, but that's it on my agenda for the whole day.  I don't know why I thought being able to stay home would be nice.

I did get to the market on Monday, finally, and filled up the pantry and freezer.  I couldn't resist the catfish fillets as I don't often see them at that market.  I decided to have a good old Southern catfish fry.  I should have cooked only one fillet and not both of them as this was way too much food for me.  I need to air the house out today.  Now I know why Daddy used to fry fish outside!



I would have been "Chopped" with this presentation!  LOL.  I had some beautiful tomatoes and made a really nice salad.  In hindsight, the salad would have been plenty for supper!  It was really good, though.

I'm going to organize an applique block that a sweet friend sent to me. She had prepped everything.  I just need to place it on the background and get it basted in place.  I can't wait to be able to stitch on it! 

Penny is still sleeping.  I tried to get her to go for her walk a few minutes ago, and she just looked up at me and then buried her nose again.  What a weenie! 

I'm off to do nothing.  Another day in paradise!