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Done but not finished

We finished the quilt on the longarm! It looks pretty. It is swirly and curvy but you don't get to see it now until I bind it. Rules ya know. I thought I'd show a photo of Ms. CCCat doing her portion. She was stitching down the edge in this photo. It seems she did this 12 different times as I counted 12 passes of the panto. I'd have taken pictures of her threading the needle but I'd have run out of space on my camera!!! She is the fastest needle threader on the Gulf Coast!! LOL!!! Going to her house to quilt is like a visit to the petting zoo. She has a menagerie of cats and dogs...all beautifully groomed and delightful (You may know how I feel about cats but hers are just fluffy and pretty and quite honestly, I like them. Shhhh....you'll ruin my reputation) . I visited with a cow, caught a glimpse of a woodpecker, a red tailed hawk, a badillion cardinals, a blue bunting and a painted bunting. I listened to THE LOUDEST frogs. There were any number of mating bugs, yes you've read correctly,bugs mating everywhere! I chatted with the "red dog" (I can never remember the type....) I even became quite friendly with the loud but somewhat skittish Siberian Husky when it began to thunder. She joined me in the longarm room...where she was not supposed to be I might add. A fun few days for sure! One of us needs to get busy sewing so that we can do this again!

Da' code in by does is not any better....in fact, it is worse. I don't feel bad...just can't breathe....a minor detail!

Find the napkin

Thought you might enjoy a photo of my napkins. It's amazing when you figure out how to use a piece of equipment....and it works! I've had my serger for AT LEAST 3 years. Just figured out how to do a rolled hem and am thrilled....making napkins out of everything! I made napkins from my leftover matzo fabric. My girlfriend asked "Why do you have a piece of matzo on each plate?" In the background you can catch a glimpse of the other napkins I made. I'll try to photograph those later. .....Maybe....I have a code in by does and by head feels tuffy!

Quilting????

The beginning! We were so excited. This is Mrs. S's anniversary quilt....a few months late but being quilted. We have the perfect panto, the perfect thread....we are off!!!




We are half way throught the quilt. Still optomistic. A bit disgruntled but not too bad. This little 92X92" quilt was supposed to take us two long days of quilting to finish........Thread tension, loops on the backside, thread breakage.....day two is over and we are half way........



Day three.....I worked (at my real job) in the morning and in the afternoon we had 2 passes of the panto left and disaster......the laser light was out of line and suddenly we were busy ripping.....not too much ripping but enough that the proclomation of "the next thing to go wrong and I quit" was heard loud and clear!


WE WERE NEARLY THERE!!! MORE LOOPS....MORE POKE THROUGHS ON THE BACK! AND A FINAL THREAD BREAK! As you can see, the leader is showing......we cut our loses and quit for the day......
To be honest, Ms. CCCat had the hardest job. I quilted, she counted loops and poke throughs. She crawled around on the floor under the frame and did alot of grunt work. She cut threads and threaded the needle and threaded the needle and threaded the needle. (did I mention I CUT the quilt when I was trimming a thread!!!) This was supposed to be easy and she was supposed to be refinishing furniture in the next room.....Not to be, not to be. We never did figure out why we had so many loops ect. Thread the same as before, tension..same as before. Added a bobbin genie...better but not great. Manual on, manual off. Cruise control on, cruise control off. Stitich regulator on, stitch regulator off. Tension up, tension down....Last week everything was fine. This week WOW! .HOW DO YOU GIRLS DO THIS FOR A LIVING!!!???? And alone. We work well as a team. I can't imagine doing all of this alone. Don't get the wrong impression. Like fishing, a bad day of quilting is better than a great day at work but it can get frustrating. BUt like a bad habit.....I can't wait to do it again. This time though, CCCat quilts and I do the grunt work. I'd better learn to thread the needle, change the tension.........thread the needle, change the tension......

Once Again...There ARE great Business owners

A while back I wrote here how much I loved the log cabin (scroll down to see) ruler by Marti Michell. Well, the post was read by Marti's Husband and I wrote about how nice I thought they were. In December Marti Michell offered a free corner trimming template though the Quiltmaker magazine. I sent away and promptly forgot about it. When I got it I was ho hum because having forgotten that I'd sent away for it, I went out and bought the Fons & Porter corner trimmer set. In all fairness, I hadn't used it. When I received the MM corner trimmer I couldn't imagine why I would need it in addition to the one I bought! Was I ever wrong! I read the directions and discovered that this little thing could help me to trim my binding before joining! Plus, the very best thing of all, the thing I was singing and dancing about is that it helped me to figure out and correctly cut angles to join the two ends of the binding strips to make your binding contimuous as you are attaching it to your quilt! No fold overs, no tuck this inside of that, no straight line seams....just beautiful angled seams! YES!

So why the heading "There are great business owners" ......I lost the directions to this little beauty. I wrote the company and they said sure they'd send me a new set.....I received them yesterday. Along with another corner trimmer! How nice was that!!!!! I don't know if this little template is for sale or not but every single one of us should write to MM and tell her to market it. It is great!

Workin' on things

This is turning out to be a most productive week. I finished the matzo aprons, made napkins and am nearly finished with 6 grocery bags. However, last night I worked on NOTHING! No exercise, no sewing, only TV and me. I had a "thing" removed from the inside of my lip and it was swollen and numb for hours. Plus it kinda hurt. The doctor told me to keep Vaseline on it and naturally some migrates to the outside of my lips. I wear that all day lipstick that doesn't wear off . So add the Vaseline on top and my lips look all shiny and pretty .......but swollen like a collagen injection that went bad!! I have nice plump lips, ON ONE SIDE!! It's a lovely look! I thought when I woke up today the swelling would be down but NO! Just a misshapen mouth. Oh and may I add .....drinking hot coffee with half a mouth is an interesting experiment in keeping my shirt clean. NO, no, ...NO photos of the lovely new look. You'll just need to use your imagination.

Glass Etching

Thanks to Karlie, I have a new fun thing to do! Glass etching. I have to say my first attempt was pitiful. It looked like a 6th grader did it! The etched area was....childlike! I used the diecut machine to cut letters but didn't realize until I got home that the letters were cut backwards and would not transfer correctly. So, had to use hearts. Next, I didn't coat it well enough. Next I tried to fix it by brushing some more etching material on....that just made it splotchy! Then the hearts themselves looked.....hokey! All and all not a good effort. I gave it to Mrs. S instead. Because I bought a two set package of pans, I tried again. Ms. A keeps Kosher....her style, not perfect but pretty good. One thing is that she doesn't mix milk and meat products. She also wants to begin to keep separate dishes. I had this pan so viola' instant marking! Not near as awful as my first project but I think I need to do a few more to get the thickness down pat. Thanks Karlie!

Charity Quilts

AWWW CRUD! I HIT PUBLISH BY MISTAKE AND THE WRONG PICTURE WILL SHOW UP NOW ON BLOGLINES ECT.! PHOOOEY!

These are pictures of the charity quilts we've done. I use the word we quite loosely as Ms CCCat basically did all of the work. We worked together to begin the strip sets....she finished them and then quilted. I (dutdududaaaa) did the binding! Poorly I may add! No you haven't gone crazy. The quilts are so similar that even I can't seem to keep them straight!

When I left CCCat's house and began the trek down her driveway, I stopped my car in disbelief! Cows! Cows I tell you! In her front yard!!!

(now in all fainess her front yard ended with a small grove of trees and this was just the front of their property but still!!!) Not only cows but calf. See that little black lump in the middle. It's a wee little calf. TOO cute! (while you are at it, look at the sky in these pictures. The day was gorgeous and the sky proves it!)

Soooo...as long as I had my camera out....I took pictures of the nasty road construction that is filling the air, and my furniture, with lovely dust! The big trucks and wind kick it up and it swirls down the road with dead aim at my house! Luckily, they are doing this on one side of our house (about .2 of a mile away) and the same thing on the other side of the house (about 2 miles away). Dust, not love, is in the air!

This is a picture of what I see as I turn off of my road each day. The end of our street is the staging area for all the various pipes, trucks, big machines and general dust churners! Enough! I have loads more to say....finished things actually...but will wait! Too much fun this blogging! Too much fun!

A finish....of sorts

I have been wanting to make these for a while....there is no time like the present....especially since the holiday is Sat. I have one done and given to a dear friend. The other two I made to give to my girls but then realized...they don't cook! The boys cook but I don't exactly see them wearing these....I may just be wild and crazy and keep them for myself. One for school, one for home! Like my silly pose??!! A far cry from Saturday night wouldn'tcha say!!!!

Stashbusting

I finally have something to add to the minus column. I finished the little cowboy quilt. I bound 2 of 4 quilts BUT only one of them will count towards my totals. The others are charity quilts we have finished. Hopefully I will have more pictures in the finished column by mid week. My total "out the door" fabric is 30 yards. I'm not telling what my purchases are.....let's just say I fail miserably at BUSTING stash and am in the plus column in net usage! I think I'll need to sew 42 hours/day to get caught up!!! I don't think I qualify for the stashbusting report any longer.....I'm definately not the poster child!!!

Me & the little black dress

OK OK! Me and the LARGE black dress! Our school fundraiser was last night. I wore this dress....totally something I'd never, ever worn before....so much skin! So much airflow across the neck and arms... Why do we feel that if we are not pencil thin that we do not deserve to show our arms...neck,ect.... Are we any less beautiful/worthy than our thinner sisters? NO NO I SAY! (ok, I'm talking to myself as much as talking to you!) I felt like a million bucks. So what that I've gained a little weight. So what that profile wasn't quite what I'd wish for. I busted out of my boring, humdrum, mammalook, box so far that the box may not be fixable!!!!!! YEAH!!! I've been wanting to get rid of that boring box for years! Wish I hadn't waited until the downhill side of my 40's to figure it out!!!!!

On the down side of last night....we had a dismal night of raising money. The little quilt in the previous post took in $50. It makes me sad and yet glad at the same time. The girl that won it can just barely afford a few extras in her life and since noone outbid her, she won. I am so glad. I had already decided that if anyone had outbid her I would have outbid them and given it to her.

Ok, I may have felt like a million bucks last night and hurt foot or not, exercise must be on the agenda for today. I wish that all these little obstacles would quit popping up in my exercise regime. I'm off...look for a stashbusting report later.......

Another off the list!

We finished this cowboy quilt just in the nick of time!!! This little quilt consists of blocks leftover from the main quilt I made (as of yet just a top!). These 9 blocks are leftovers and I had put them together for a little wallhanging. Our charity group meets at the JCC where I work and we decided to border the wallhanging and donate it to the JCC for their annual fundraiser. I'm

as nervous as a mama about people liking it and wanting to actually spend money to take it home. All I see on it is the thread nests on the back where we had a bit of trouble with quilting, the fact that I hadn't squared anything up (it was just leftovers for me!) and so the borders are not perfectly flat and the fact that there are two darks next to one another. I know I'm being critical but I can't help it. If I were keeping it for myself I wouldn't be near this critical. I've also decided that if it doesn't receive the bid I want it to get, I'll buy it back myself. We'll see tonight if I bring the quilt back home that I considered

1.leftovers

2. had put in the corner of my "to do" list

3. have not only bought the fabric, backing and batting but will have spent money to buy it back!!!

Thanks

Thanks all. I wasn't sure how the moderated comments would work but if you just bear with me for a while, I'll need to do just that. I am going to moderate for a bit and hopefully this PIMA will go away. Wonder what good it does this person other than getting their jollies???????

HELP Me Please

How do I block this person??? I've already reported the site as SPAM but get comments. DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN MY COMMENTS SECTION!!! Can anyone help me???

Sneak Peek

I won't show an unfinished quilt but I will show an unfinished back! Here are the results of our quilting yesterday. If you look close you can see the cowboy hats and boots.You'll probably need to click on the picture to enlarge it. It is a fun and relatively quick panto called....OH PHOO! I lost the name just as I went to write it....I'l l get back on that. We made this quilt to donate to my school auction. You WILL see a picture before Friday as I have to have it finished by tomorrow!!! TTFN

The State of our Backsides

AHHH! Did ya think I'd forgotten or given up on this??? Nah! I've just taken some time off to not exercise regularly, put on weight and feel crappy!! LOL!!! IT IS okay though because I've managed to nip it before it got out of control. Here is a big incentive for me. Mrs. S. looks great!!!! She now weighs 3 lbs. less than me and that is unacceptable! We are both determined to lose 20 lbs ( in my case re-lose some of that!) by the time we go to Las Vegas. I know we will do it because ....well, because she doesn't want me to weigh less then her and I don't want her to weigh less than me! (mixed up those pesky then and than's so that I will only annoy you with ONE mistake!!!!)

DH helped me to create this spreadsheet complete with formulas that add and subtract and do everything but exercise for me. My goal is to 1. exercise for a total of 300 minutes/week 2. burn 2000 calories/week 3. walk or exercise the equivalent of 10 miles/week (more on this in a minute). These are last weeks totals. I don't remember where I got the time and calories totals. I do believe it was some maniacal, muscle pumping site because it is killing me! I don't think that I have attained my goal even once in the past 4 weeks! Well, I was in Ohio for nearly two of those weeks but still! I'm not discouraged because anything is better than nothing.

My sisters' gym has a 120 mile challenge going. I told her that I thought it sounded like fun and I wanted to do it. Well we have a family blog and the idea snowballed. We have a family-120 mile challenge going. We are getting really competitive about it!! LOL!! Not only do actual miles count, but we gave equivalencies to exercise classes. Even my 10 yo. niece has joined in the fun. There are 7 family members trying to get in shape before summer. (I realize my total under the miles column doesn't add correctly. It's a continuation of the previous entry.) Because I'm being challenged on so many levels, you can count on, or dread, weekly "backside reports" at least until the end of June. Right now I'm ready to collapse because I walked "around the block." My block is 4 miles long! I haven't done this walk in quite a while and it was a push. My legs, back and toes, yes, toes, are very tired and groaning.

Soo00, jump on the bandwagon to get healthy! Join us in our effort to get off our duffs and move! Drop me a line about your progress! I need all the encouragement, support and commiseration I can get!

Stashbusting efforts

I didn't use a ton of fabric, but ...... I didn't buy any either! WhooHOO! Since the time I last checked in on the stashbusting report, I've bought one little fat quarter. However.....I did buy 3 pantographs, thread, thread, thread and a few patterns. No fabric but buying nonetheless.

THis tote bag is a combination of patterns. The actual cut out bag is from a Butterick "for dummies" pattern. However, I added a lining and pockets. I used DecorBond and fusible fleece on both the lining and outer cover. Yes, I wanted a very sturdy bag. This thing stands up all on it's own! I use whatever I have on hand for the bottom. I seem to have an abundance of foam core so that is what you see there. I also used that fusible Velcro. I can't wait to find out how it holds up.

Ms. A is a deaf interpretter and is the envy of all she works with when she shows up with her purse. I figure the purse and the tote bag together will put her over the top! I think I'm done with this fabric for a while....In order to have variety in the fingerspelling, I had to take apart and reassemble the little squares. I got tired of it and started sewing 1/4" betweem rows. It's annoying that there are two letters side by side but sewing all those squares together was too much work for a silly tote bag!! I was thrilled when I figured out that my King Tut thread matched perfectly!

a Quick gift

I've wanted to make this silly little coasters for the longest time. I've had a similar pattern for at least 2 years. I needed a quick gift yesterday and in less than an hour made these. I think they came out cute. They are definately on my "to do" list. (well, after I finish my lousy stinkin' gottado list)

Goals for April

Although I am a bit slow to the gate, I still have many goals that are not merely "wannabes" this month. Most of my goals are "haveto's" Sometimes the haveto's are waaayyy harder to achieve then that wannados. Here we go. Maybe if I see this in print it will spur me on....

QUILTING

1. Bind 3 charity quilts
2. Bind ME quilt
3. Veronica bag for DD's
4. make grocery bags from old ugly fabrics
5. make apron for a dear friend
6. make napkins for Passover

HOME

7. get my flower beds weeded and mulched
8. feed and fertilize
9. ready house for Passover

Last but certainly not least...the most important....the one I dread because it involves my checkbook...

10. DO MY TAXES! I've not even started!

Gosh I am tired just looking at the list. However, because they are havetos, I'm signing off and getting started.....but not with the taxes!

A PICTURE!

Remember the post I wrote about my dads wallhanging? It's the one that commemorates all the times we went out for ice cream. Well, as long as I was in Ohio visiting, I decided to get a picture of this little wall hanging. He keeps it in a spot of honor....in the basement! Seriously, he has it where he can enjoy it. I just think it's funny that it's in the basement.

Another antecdote.....In this post, I briefly told how I took my niece to lunch and the resturaunt happened to be a bar. Well, we teased and teased each other about what her teacher would say when she went back to school and was told Aunt M came to town and Cheergirl went to a bar. Well....we went to dinner while I was in Ohio......where you ask?????? In a bar. We had a great dinner complete with Diet Coke and Iced Tea BUT we ate in a bar! What does Cheergirl say? "Wow! {giggle, giggle, giggle} I can't wait to tell my teacher that Aunt M is here again and we are in a bar!" I'm sure the teacher will be hoping that I WON"T visit during the summer!