Sunday Ramblings

I'm pictureless again. (sigh) The camera is working fine -although those rechargable batteries sure don't last long before they have to be recharged. It's the HP Photosmart Premier program. It doesn't recognize me any longer. But I'm not surprised by that. I'm kinda getting used to being ignored! LOL

So today mental pictures will have to suffice. Where do I start?

Went into the office today. But before I drove to the office, I stopped by Ginger's. I mean, after all, it was almost on the way to the office! Really! I picked up a few FQs for my loggy neutrals. I really want to get back to making those. I was hungry on the way there, but I had to stop at the ATM machine first. Oops, the ATM machine was past Sonic Burger, and you can't go back the other way in traffic very easily at that point. Oh, well, I'll get something more nutritious on the way to the office.

Well, when I get to Ginger's, I always head straight to the fridge for something cold to drink, and they always have snacks out on the counter. So two cookies later, I'm not hungry any more. Oh, and I'm feeling a bit righteous about not eating a big burger and fries. I mean, two cookies are a whole lot better for me than all that food, right?

Three or four hours later, I'm heading home from the office and stopped by my friendly neighborhood Albertson's. I just needed bread that I forgot to get last weekend to go with all those deli cuts. (Geez, I hope they did okay in the freezer.) And I had to pick up some more of those neat Ziploc Big Bags. The XL ones I got last weekend are really too big, so I picked up a box of L's to see if those will work better. Oh, and since I'm in there anyway, I grabbed a box of those 2.5 gallon Hefty zip bags. Turns out those are a good size for applique projects. And since I'm still there, a couple of quilty magazines found their way into my shopping cart. $90.37 cents later I headed home with my bread. Might this explain how my stash got so big?

So I'm home to my messy house which I totally avoided cleaning this weekend. Wait, I take that back. I turned on the dishwasher before I left the house today because I would need a clean coffee cup in the morning. That thing is so loud that I only turn it on when I'm leaving. And I did put a set of sheets to wash. Because those have been sitting there needing to be washed for a week, and now I need to change the set on my bed again. I refuse to have more than two sets of sheets. (Okay, I have three sets but one is so raggedy I don't admit to owning them.) This stems from my mother having three linen closets stuffed with brand-new sets of sheets still in the wrappers. She went nuts every time one of the department stores had a white sale. When she died, my brother and I spent almost a whole day boxing up those things. Neither one of us could use them because they were all double bed size. They went to Goodwill still packaged. Honestly, there must have been 100 of them. Excuse me while I go get those in the dryer. BRB.

Okay. I'm back. Phew, housework is SO hard!

On the quilty front, I got the pumpkin block appliqued this weekend. Just need to do a little embroidery on it. I have a picture that I'll post as soon as I become a known entity again with the HP software. But fair warning, it's a pumpkin on steroids! As a matter of fact, it's a pumpkin on steriods with serious alignment issues. I honest to Pete had that thing basted down just right. I don't know how the center piece of the pumpkin got so wonky. I'm debating whether to unstitch it and straighten it up. Maybe I'll just let bloggers vote on it. In my defense here, the stem on the pumpkin is supposed to be slightly off center. I think that's what threw my eye off. Well, that sounds like a good excuse anyway. But, hey, it's folk art! Maybe it needs to stay wonky!

I'm heading over there right now to start prepping All Things Christmas Block 2! I have fallen totally in love with this quilt. And I'm going to stick to my resolution to do the block each month. So far so good. One down ......... lol

I had the TV on the Lifetime Channel all day yesterday while I was stitching the pumpkin. Hours and hours on end. I really wasn't paying it much attention -- until it dawned on me how depressing all those sad stories were. No wonder I was feeling grumpy last night.

Oh, and dinner tonight? A piece of fried chicken from the deli. I was still hungry, so I ate a banana. And I was still hungry, so I ate an orange. Might this explain how my stash got so big?

Gratitudes:

~ No eyes rolling from blogger friends about my long post with no pictures. At least not yet!
~ Packages - nuf said.
~ Decision made that next Sunday the borders are going on the giterdun.

Appliqueing this Weekend!

I'm going to applique this weekend. I'm going to sit by Daisy on the sofa and stitch and watch movies. Or maybe tune into the cooking channel. I hardly turn on the TV any more, so I really don't know what all's on there. I did downgrade my cable service six or eight months ago from 70 million channels - to just HBO and the standard 10 million channels that come with the cheapskate package. I looked at my auto bill pay one month and it was over $100!! One phone call to the cable company took care of that! I mean, all that stash money for something I never even turned on! Sheesh ...........

I finally prepped a pumpkin block. I need to move things around a bit before I start stitching. I was eager to start it last night so I appliqued down one of the blue stars. Yikes, my points are horrible. Maybe I shouldn't have had those 2.1 sips of wine before I started. (I'm such a cheap date!!)

And block two of All Things Christmas has arrived from The Fat Quarter Shop! Thank you, Kimberly, for such a dynamite BOM! http://tinyurl.com/24bt48 This month's package included the embellishment kit for the entire quilt! I'm so excited! This is going to be a fabulous quilt when it's all quilted and embellished. In fact, I like it so much that I'm actually working on the blocks as they come in - instead of stockpiling them to work on 84 years from now in The Home! LOL

I couldn't sleep last night, so I took out an applique project that I thought I could do without knowing how to applique, or even quilt for that matter. (Started this one six years ago.) Uh oh! The first block is so bad. I sat in the middle of my bed at 2:00 this morning and started taking out stitches. The first to go were the tiny berries -- at least, I had sense enough to stop after four of them! Then I started unstitching a flagpole and the flags. I didn't know I was supposed to layer the flag -- again, I won't detail the horrible-ness of the whole thing. But I decided that I'm going to keep the leaves and vines as they lay on it. Okay, so it won't look anything like the pattern. Another learning block -- and it'll be fun to see the difference, and hopefully improvement, on the second one. I'll blog this one after I redo the flag and berries. I really need to also show you what it's supposed to look like! AFTER I get a hold harmless clause signed from all my blogging buddies just in case they die laughing!

I'm going to have to go into the office tomorrow for a few hours. I figure Sunday the 15th ought to be more productive than Friday was!

So that's it from hot hot hot hot SoCal. Except for the awful exterior colors they're painting the condos - I cringe when I round the corner into my circle. Oh, wait, I need to get those signatures on the release of liability documents before I can blog this!

Gratitudes:

~ Saturday the 14th!

~ For my friend -- HAPPY DANCING!

~ Sweet old Daisy

~ Blogging buddies who turn a dreary lunch break into smiles!

The Swap

I'm doing a swap with two wonderful friends. We have no deadlines. We have no pressure to get these done. But I was at loose ends yesterday, so decided to pull out the swap container and make my next block. We're doing the Lori Smith pattern, Quilt Block Sampler.

Since there are three of us, our names were put in alphabetical order and we were assigned every third block in the quilt. Then we make three of those blocks using Civil War fabrics in the general colorways on the pattern picture.

I've run across this a time or two or three in my lifetime, but having a name that starts with a "V" isn't always fun. (If I were still in the South, the "sucking hind tit" analogy would be applied!) Really, I'm just joking. As I looked at each block last night, there are no easy ones in this pattern. Really no hard ones either, just all tedious ones. Because I know someone will ask, these are, I think, 8" blocks.

It would be great if my stash room and my sewing room with good light were on the same floor in my condo. Now don't you all start telling me that running up and down the stairs is good exercise! LOL. I've got two humongous wire baskets filled with Civil War fabrics. They're too heavy to lug downstairs. In fact, they're so heavy that I broke a nail yesterday trying to get them out of the runners and down on the floor where I could dig through them. I love those fabrics, though, and have enjoyed going through them for this project.

But about Civil War fabrics, a little goes a long way! Most of the projects I've done were itsy bitsy blocks. Heck, a fat quarter is way too much fabric for them. There is only one store about an hour or two from here that sells Civil War fabrics, and I don't get there often. If I see a particular fabric or color online that I need/want, there's usually a half yard or yard minimum order. Absolutely too much, although I have done that and regretted it. My solution is the Road to California quilt show in each January.

I hit the Schoolhouse Quilts booth first, chat with Judie and Bob Rothermel a bit, and then dive in picking and choosing what I think I will need through the year. Bob is a hoot! If any of you ever get to a quilt show they're attending, you've got to stop in and say hi to them. Their booth is always packed, so I usually run straight there when the doors open and before it fills up with quilters. Several years ago I took a four-day Robyn Pandolph workshop at R2CA. On Thursday and Friday during the day while classes were going on, and before the weekend crowd got there, it was fun to sneak down to Schoolhouse Quilts at odd times during the day. I spent so much time and money in their booth, and I think I touched everything in there at least twice. In fact, Bob said he was going to put me on their Christmas card list (or claim me as a dependent)! Since then, though, I just head over there, ask Bob what's new, and focus on just the new things.

This year I'm going to focus on red and green, mainly green. I've got oodles of blue, brown and shirtings, and a fair amount of the other colorways. Greens are sadly lacking in my CW stash. I've tried a couple of times doing fabric swaps with online friends on CWs, but I always end up getting what I don't need or already have.

Anyway, this block swap has been fun. We've got a long ways to go on it, but it really doesn't matter. I guess it just needs to be finished before we get to The Home. Or we could just get adjoining rooms! We could sit out on the veranda in our rockers, sipping mint juleps, and stitching! Wait, I don't think they serve alcohol to nursing home residents, do they? LOL

The picture shows the blocks we've swapped so far, and the three I made yesterday. I really think the best part of doing a swap with close friends is that I think of them the whole time I'm working on the block. That's a huge smile factor in itself! But it's especially nice when one of them calls, like what happened yesterday, just as you're thinking of her!

Gratitudes:

~ My friendship cup runneth over! What a blessing!

~ The joy of returning to a project that you love for a bit, and then putting it away to be enjoyed another day!

~ Last day of the long holiday break -- manicure is definitely on the agenda today!

~ Sleeping in until 6:30 this morning! I'm such a slug!

Whew! Just in Time!

And its a good thing because the next block is on its way to me. I'm just loving this project!

The angel doesn't have a face yet as I thought I'd wait and do all the embroidery after the blocks are finished. And there are embellishments to go on after it's quilted. But, boy, this has really got me in the Christmas spirit!

One glitch when cutting the first background, but it won't be noticeable when it's quilted.

Day four of holiday break! I was up at 5:00 this morning finishing this up. What to do next? LOL. I'm going to go digging in the BOMs and find another one to start. Or I may get some blocks done on my swap with D & M. Yeah, that's what I'll work on!

Gratitudes:

~ Day four of holiday break! LOL
~ McDonald's for breakfast. No cooking for me this weekend!
~ Resisting all meggings this week but one!

Giterdun Progress!

The body is together. Hooray! Just need to think about borders for this puppy. The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!

I spent all day yesterday at Ginger's spread out on tables getting this thing assembled. It was nice to be able to just leave everything there overnight and go back this morning. I met Ginger at 7:00 for breakfast, and then off to the quilt shop. I finished assembling the body about 1:30 today.

It's so hot here. Well, I guess it's not as hot as other places, but it's 100, real muggy, smoggy, and nasty. I'm in, I think, until Monday when I go to work. I got notice that they're going to power wash my condo tomorrow to ready it for painting next week, so I have to get things off the patio. I'll do that in the morning while it's cool.

And I'm going to work on the first block of All Things Christmas that I talked about a couple of weeks ago. It's going to be a great Christmas quilt. I'm about 80% done on the applique and have to make a couple of pieced blocks for it. The second block is winging its way to me - and I'm determined not to get behind on this one!

Gratitudes:

~ The new central air conditioner.

~ A wonderful quilt shop that welcomes quilters to sit around and work on projects, or just sit around and visit!

~ A good talk with my brother yesterday.

~ Thoroughly enjoying my vacation at home!

WOW!!!

You MUST go read Judy's blog! (Her July 2, 2007 post!) I'm so excited!!!!

Thank you, Judy!!

http://judylaquidara.blogspot.com/

That darn Kimberly!

There's a new BOM beginning soon that's on her site under Quilt Kits at http://fatquartershop.com/. Debbie's Shangri-la Garden. I love the appliqued and pieced blocks, and the colors really sing to me. (I think she picked one with blue borders on purpose just to tease me!) Gosh, it's gorgeous!

I'm going to have to get going on these BOMs or get a 15 bedroom house to store them all. I love every single one I have. Decided that I'm going to devote a month to just getting started on a bunch of them - then I'll have a choice of what I want to work on at all times. ROFLOL. Like we don't all have that already! These are just the ones stored in the chest that's my coffee table!

Yesterday Jane and I had a fun day. We ran by Ginger's to visit for a bit. Ginger's is my favorite local quilt shop - everyone is so nice in there, most of the time there are groups of friendly women sitting around sewing and chatting, always goodies in the kitchen to snack on, cold drinks in the fridge, and there are hugs aplenty when you leave. It just feels like home!

And I had to drive her by a house I passed on the way to my haircut earlier. I came to a screeching halt in front of the house at 7:45 a.m. Displayed in the front window was a gigantic wooden carrousel horse! It was the most gorgeous wood, not painted. It screamed "Folk art! Take me home with you!" My goodness, it's a good thing I had an appointment in a few minutes; otherwise I would have been banging on their door with checkbook in hand! I think I'm going to drop a letter in the mail to them - just in case they ever want to sell that thing! I haven't quit thinking about it!

And for all you stitchery divas, I have some questions on the Leanne's House patterns. Hanne, you're stitching with batting behind your block. Why? I've been through all of my stitchery books and I don't see that mentioned anywhere. And do you all use DMC thread, or is there something else I need to start collecting -- uh, trying out? One more question. Is there a be-all and end-all stitchery how-to book that you would recommend? I want to do these beautiful patterns up right, and it's been decades since I've done embroidery. Thanks!

Off to finish cleaning house and getting laundry started. Next week I sew!