My quilts in use

I receive lots of comments on my classroom. I teach both the L'dor V'dor class, meaning from generation to generation (I teach Jewish customs and holidays) and I am the librarian. I share a room with myself. I have many quilts and wallhangings for decorations. The quilts add softness and warmth to my very square, very hard surroundings. I also have a loft. The kindergarteners recently used the loft to put on a puppet show. Look what they used to create the theater.

(before you ask why I'm letting the kids play with THIS quilt..... I loved this quilt. I used quilt shop fabric and it wasn't an inexpensive one to make. I waited about 2 years to have it quilted. However, I made poor choices....I let her use her batting without asking what type it was. It's very poofy. I chose the wrong panto. In short, my very favorite quilt became my least favorite because of the quilting. Lesson learned. However, it is a great puppet theater backdrop!)


Here the dragon is telling a story.



Here the cat is listening to the dragons story.


In this picture the elephant and fish (that orange blur) make an appearance.



It was such a thrill watching this entire puppet show evolve. Unfortunately, I had to cut it short as they needed to leave, but I'm sure that next week the show will return.(unfortunately you can't see the curtains I added to the bottom of the loft because I removed them for washing.)


" BYE" said the cat.

Minkee Monday

Minkee loves me. .... There is no doubt about it. However, there are times when her "love" gets really irritating. Here she is while I am on the computer. Not once in a while but every time. First, she takes a flying leap, grabs on for dear life, with a big ooooof, and scrambles to the top of my chair. See the claw evidence on the chair? This big fat cat oooof, generally scares me out of my wits. You'd think I'd be expecting it but more often than not, she shocks me. This picture isn't so great but you get the idea. I was taking it over my head.



This is a much better shot of her, once again taken over my head. She usually will sit there, with her motor runnign, for quite a while.




Once her motor gets good and warmed up, she begins her descent....down my chest and arm that is! She thinks I'm her own personal climbing toy! Here she is standing on my shoulder. This is a big girl here that thinks she's a parrot!



Climbing, climbing down....along my arm to reach....


.....the computer! She isn't happy until she is in my way, tail swishing in my face, exploring what I am doing! It's usually about this time that she either clears out on her own or more than likely, I give her "a little help!"

This climbing up and down us is very common for this cat. She usually is on the back of any chair I am in and always ends up in "the descent." She likes being perched on our shoulders. I really think she missed her calling as a parrot.

Design Wall Monday

Well....I know that this isn't strictly a post about my design wall.....However, in a sense, it is.....Because we are on our way to retreat! Whoo hoo! How can I post what is ON my design wall when everything from it is IN the car? This car holds all that is necesary to create a great design wall!! If I have an internet connection once we arrive, I will post an additional entry with a real wall with stuff on it!!!! Ohhhhh ok, to be fair, here is the empty one at home!!LOL!!

This is all the junk three women need to spend 4 days away from home sewing!

View from the back....



View from the front.....



The three amigas! Packed, ready and waiting for morning!


Hope I didn't anger anyone with my unorthodox posting for design wall monday!!

Pop over to Judy's blog for a look at the other entrys that actually have quilts!

Stash Report

It's week 3 and I finally have a stash report with no additions!. Of course, I have no subtractions either but, at least everything stayed the same.

All of my projects are packed for retreat. On the plus side, if I finish half of what I want to finish, I'll be doing good!

My optomistic list of projects
4 pillow cases 2 3/4 yds
wonder wallets 1/4 yd per two
Cavs top a bunch o fabric
Browns top (it's nearly done now) a bunch o fabric
triangle top a massive amount of fabric

I used to count fabric as "used" only after a project is finished. I think I'm going to change that. Once a top is finished, not quilted but to flimsy, that fabric is used. Unless you want to disassemble a flimsy to re-use fabrics, they are out of your stash. So, if next week is productive, I'll have a great stash report. Well, that is if I don't have toooo much fun at It's a Stitch in Houston, and The Quilt Room in Huffman. Just in case,I'll need to be sure to finish projects as a counter balance!!!

Pop over to Judy's blog and see how the other participants are doing on their stashbusting!

Fabric added this week 0 yds
Fabric used this week 0
Total added YTD 39
Total used YTD 0

The Gym and I

I lost alot of weight the year before last and gained most of it back last year. There I admited it and it's no longer the elephant on my shoulder.

I love the gym.......I feel so good when I go. It gives me the incentive to go again and again. Plus, once ya' work so hard you sure don't want to blow it by eating junk.

I hate the gym.......It isn't something that you can let slide for more than a day or two.

I love the gym........I look so good when I go regularly....

I hate the gym........It is unforgiving. It doesn't care if you are cold, hot, tired, cranky...it expects you there.

I love the gym....I ran into someone that I haven't seen in 1 1/2 years

I hate the gym....I ran into someone that I haven't seen in 1 1/2 years....while in my swimsuit and no makeup....

Big sigh....I'm going to the gym today.

Design Wall Monday

Here is my design wall.



Yes, It's dirty and empty. That is because everything I am working was here....



and is now here.



All of those triangles are safely tucked away and ready to go to retreat. It took hours and hours to cut and trim them all. I figure that there was 22 yds of fabric cut to make these puppies. I do not count all 22 yds as there are scraps to be used in another way. After all I didn't use all 22 yds. I will need to figure out the yardage on all of these but I'll wait for another day on that.

Right now, I AM FINISHED CUTTING A GAZZILLION AND ONE triangles. Now I'm off to cut out pillowcases and another quilt......

Another question

You guys never let me down and this is a question that I have a hard time forming. Basically the question is "What settings do I put my camera on so that I get an uploaded picture that is not ENORMOUS!." My camera is a 12 megapixel. It takes these enormous pics that I have to resize. I don't want to resize every single picture I take. I know that I don't understand the pixels and such. I know that I have no business having a hoopty doopty camera with more features than I probably need. BUT as long as I have it I want to use it. Can you help?

Stash Report

I am getting ready for retreat!!!! Really. Really, Really and truly. Now in order to get ready for retreat I am cutting triangles (that's for tomorrows report), and getting projects ready.

Once I finish the triangle quilt (my goal is to have it ready to show for the March guild meeting! Aren't I optimistic!!) I will need a back. A HUGE back. So as long as I am going to have a huge palette, I decided to make the back a solid so I can display mini quilts (aka, the UFO's I poop out on and never quite get big enough to cover my king sized bed) and make some toppers (this is what Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan have graciously dubbed these larger than wall hanging but too small for a bed, quilts). (In all fairness I LOVE the toppers books and the entire idea fits my "eyes bigger than stomach" mentality) Plus I certainly didn't have 10-12 yds of one fabric sitting around. Well a huge solid palette required shopping!

That triangle quilt, as my friend puts it, sucks up alot of fabric. Because it is a scrap quilt, I couldn't have toooooo many of one fabric in it and had already run through all of my homespuns. Some twice! That required more shopping! (when this quilt is finished I will have only scraps left in homespuns and homespun-like materials)

In order to make pillow cases on retreat, I needed to get solids to go in the little flange. Naturally, I didn't have the right colors AND Hancocks had 50% off of Kona Cotton.......It required more shopping!

In all fairness to my buying binge this week, all of the fabrics I bought for the king quilt have been turned into triangles with the leftovers waiting to be turned into proper sized scraps. (another retreat project) The solids are readied for pillowcases and the ENTIRE bolt of Kona Ivory is on alert, waiting for the top to be finished. The only thing I bought and added to the stash was a shirting that I know I will be able to use. I left all of the "prettys" at the store.

Soooo, without further ado, my stash reportFabric added this week 24 yds
Fabric used this week 0
Total added YTD 39
Total used YTD 0

New Algebraic Formula

****In true brainiac form, I posted this and the formula didn't come out right. I fixed it now. Plus I had additional examples I forgot to post.


I have discovered that there is a direct relationship between the lightening of my hair and the number of brain cells I have available for use during quilting. My hair color is never the same twice. Miss Clariol and I have a great relationship! My hairdresser makes my color look fabulous! Unfortunately, she doesn't realize that all of those beautiful colors she adds to my hair, cause damage in the quilting room!

Example 1 -I go to the store to buy dark homespuns; specifically 12 inches, 1/3 yd ,of about 5 different fabrics. 1/3 yd will make a perfect amount of strips. No leftovers. No waste, no additional stash. I get to the cutting table, talking all the way, and ask the woman to "cut 12 inches, NO 1/2 yd., no 1/3 yd., no, 1/2 yd. Yeah that's it! I need 1/3." The woman proceeds to cut my fabrics, one layer at a time as she is cutting plaids. She gets half way through and I, still talking, realize, NO I NEED 1/2 yard! Exasperated, the clerk waits on two other poor souls waiting this entire time, and then cuts my additional 6". Whew I think.! I dodged a bullet there. I'd have been SOOO mad had I gotten home and discovered I was 6" short. Except, I got home and discovered that all that extra agony was for nothing!!! I DIDN'T NEED IT! I SET OUT FOR 1/3 YD AND TALKED MYSELF INTO 1/2 YD! This isn't the biggest deal in the world but I am trying to USE up all of my homespuns NOT add to them!!!

Example 2-I have been cutting fabric like a mad woman. I've decided to add one and perhaps two rows to my triangle quilt. That little addition involves cutting a barnload of triangles. To reduce my boredom, I decided to cut (whaaa?????) a novelty quilt....it will be 8" squares and 4 patches. Now, I'm really in the cutting mode. Cut 6" strips....cut triangle. Cut 6" strips cut triangles. Cut 4" strip, cut squares. Cut 4" strip, cut squares...cut 6"strip, cut triangles......This morning I decided to begin sewing the novelty quilt and I have....I have.....squares! Not looong strips so I can whip this puppy out, but squares! Lots of squares! What the heck????I wanted this thing to be FAST. Now I know that it will still work with squares but good grief!!!!

Example 3 - I use liquid starch. I sprayed all of my homespuns until they were wet, very wet....and my phone...and my iron, and my carpet and my .... There is dried starch EVERYWHERE! I could have just dipped the fabric in starch. But did I? NO!!!!

Example 4 - Cut a 6" strip to make the triangle. Cut a 6" strip to make the triangle. Cut a 6" strip to make the triangle. Cut a 6" strip to make the triangle. Cut a 5 1/2" strip! Cut a 6" strip to make the triangle. Are you kidding me???????

So this morning I came up with the following equation. Unfortunately, it works every time!


work needing finished
relative lightness of hair

X

time alloted to finish a project = the brainiac quotient!

UH!

My unfortunate revelation

I hate borders. Hate, hate HATE! I don't like all the measuring, measuring and measuring only to end up with something less than perfect. I don't like working with such loooonnnng pieces and trying to wrestle everything. I've come to a momentous conclusion.....I have to add borders to my triangle quilt!!! AHHHHH! I DON'T WANNA, I DON'T WANNA, I DON'T WANNA! Now that I've whined.........

The reasoning.

I rarely wash my fabrics. I wasn't thinking when I included a number of flannels in my quilt. I know that they will shrink. I don't want to end up with a quilt that is too short but adding one row may not be enough and two rows too much. Right now the finished top will be 108". I want the quilt to finish closer to 110. One more row at 6" makes 113 and with shrinkage it will be too small (so to speak) So....the only conclusion.....I will add borders to take up the slack of quilting and shrinkage. I say add but I swear I'm going to pay one of my friends to attach the silly things.

Minkee Monday

TV - MINKEE STYLE



DH watches the world on tv. Minkee watches the world from the tv....

Design wall

One row on my triangle quilt. To be honest, I needed to check the math and be sure it was right. Unfortunately, it seems it is.....I was trying to avoid cutting soooo many triangles!!!!



This pic is sideways........

Stashbusting

Well, I don't COUNT my stash as busted until it is finished. It's my method. However, that doesn't prevent me from showing how I'm getting to that busted total. Unfortunately, I managed to buy....ALOT yesterday. I am making a super secret sports quilt for DH at retreat. It will be Cleveland Browns on one side and Cleveland Cavaliers on the other. I had the focus prints but nothing to go with them. While we were there, we found birthday fabric that I've been looking for for months. Plus I added a few pieces of homespuns for my triangle quilt. All except the birthday fabric should be cut before retreat and used and finished by the end of the month....(yeah right!) The homespuns have all been cut already.


I need 750 triangles....I have about 520 cut!

Fabric added 15 yds
Fabric used 0
total +15 yds

Questions

Lots of questions...

1. Do you use a Reader Service? I have both bloglines and Google reader. Can't decide which I like better. Bloglines is more user friendly. Google Reader more effecient. (Bloglines didn't update at all yesterday until late at night)

2. Are there any New Year Challenges out there? I'm looking for something to challenge me for the year. Haven't decided if Judy's Stashbuster Challenge is it or not. In fact, I don't even know if she is doing it this year.

3.Do you comment? I rarely comment anymore as it is soooo time consuming. However, without comments, how does someone know you are reading? (yes I have a ticker) Comments are like an answer in a conversation and an acknowlegement that someone is out there in blog land. Do you care?

I may be math challenged....

BUT! Mary is NOT! Here is here comment.

Okay, assuming 6" is the finished edge of your equilateral triangle, and a width of 108".For each row, you will need 35 triangles (18 with base at the bottom, 17 with base at the top) and 2 half equilateral triangles for each end. This works out to exactly 108" finished.For the height, it is a bit trickier. The Pythagorean theorem kicks in here. The height with a six inch base would be almost 5.2 inches. So twenty rows would be about 104 inches. Using those dimensions, you would need 700 triangles and 40 half equilateral triangles. Is that the way you were thinking? Hope this helps.

WhooooHOOOO! Now if I could get someone to CUT all those triangles!

Math .....HELP!

I am NOT a math genius. For the life of me I cannot figure this out and I know that someone out there will roll their eyes and spit out the answer in 5 seconds. I am making a triangle quilt. The triangles are 60 degrees and finish at 6". I need to figure out how many triangles I need to make a king sized quilt between 105" and 108" with no borders. HELP!!!!! The nearest my feeble brain can figure is I need 9 bazillion triangles! I have 260 cut. Only 8 and some bazillion left.....

Citizen's Police Academy

DH and I participated in our city's Citizen Police Academy. It is simply an outreach of the police department. This class is held once a year and we sort of fell into it. There were 24 that started and 18 that finished. It was utterly fascinating! We learned about every facet of the police department. We had informal lectures with the bomb squad, swat, dive team, homicide, drug enforcement, dog team and on and on. The lectures were very informal, informative and filled with visuals. Example, the bomb squad brought their gazzillion dollar vehicle to show us how it works, we went to the crime lab and were shown how various fingerprints are developed and we had a demo by the drug dogs. We were also briefly trained on the guns that the officers in our city use. We then each shot 20 rounds to test our skills. I stink! The culmination of the class was our "graduation." The chief of police was our speaker and we each received a t-shirt and a pin. The pin is the same one the officers receive when they are finished at the academy. It was a great experience. These pics are from our graduation.


DH and I are showing off our new shirts. It seems we are the first class in years to get shirts. We were the 37th class of the Citizens' Police Academy.


Mrs. S joined us for the "graduation."

Cute Quilt Shop

I needed my quilting fix while I visited family in Ohio. I found this shop in Kent. It was a lovely
little shop that I never knew existed.





She had great samples. I nearly bought six patterns that were ugly in the package but the samples allowed them to sing. Fortunately I came to my senses and remembered my watch what you buy motto. I ended up with a striped homespun I needed to fill in for my retreat quilt.

More old projects

More things I've made for my in-laws.

I still LOVE this humpty dumpty. I made this a looong time ago. I still have the pattern....perhaps there is a humpty dumpty in my future!





I made this basket with the Aunt Phillys toothbrush method. My MIL added a wicker basket to give it some body. I tried the other day to make a rug with the same method and just could not do it. I may need to try again but perhaps it's just that I had more patience about 20 years ago.

Old projects

I was surprised at how many things I've made for my in-laws. I ran around the house snapping pictures.

These were during my ceramics era.....


This gingerbread man is sooo ugly. My MIL insists on putting it out each year.





I am supposing that I made all of these in 1983

Need inspiration...

I don't know why but I've had a harder and harder time getting into the sewing room. Why? Dunno! But it's been progressive....I really think I want to start a new project but I won't allow it until I finish at least one thing I have started. Help! Give me words of wisdom.....visual stimulation......ideas.....It's become a vicious little cycle. Can't start new because must finish old....don't feel like finishing old...........Not finishing the old is NOT an option but I can't seem to make myself do it......Perhaps I just need to whine a bit here?????? Maybe that'll help?????? A swift kick in the backside????

A bit late but...

This was the Novemeber gift to my girls. It is the only month I failed the challenge. I had the turkeys put together but not appliqued.



I had originally thought that this was too big for a placemat but have since re-thought and think they are a great size.

Minkee Monday

DH was folding clothes...,.He had a helper!

Our Weekend of Napkins

A few weekends ago we got together to make napkins. By the end of the weekend, we had made
somewhere around 80 napkins between three of us. How did we make so many napkins in such a short period? This little template we had made. It is worth it's weight as you zip around it with a rotary cutter and within minutes, you have a finished product!






Ms. CCCat and her featherweight.....



Ms.CCCats pile of napkins.



Ms. Irma and her Janome Gem........




Ms. Irma's pile....




Ms. Ruthie and her "other" project! She didn't make napkins....


No pics of me. Just some samples of my finished napkins.

Ride Along conclusion

this is all you get to see of O1..the side of his badge

*Policemen, and I say policemen because I have no contact with policewomen, talk. They talk and talk and talk and talk. They talk to the bad guys, they talk to the good guys, they comfort, cajole, convince, and shout. They also gossip, and chat and chatter. I once again refer to this post. It was very odd, for me, a woman with daughters, who works almost exclusively with women, is friends with mainly women, to spend the evening with so many men. Odd and amusing. As with ethnicity and race, men and women are completely alike. Sometimes we just choose to allow our differences to come between us.
*Our last call wasn't a call at all. We were heading back to the police station. As we turned the corner, O1 said, “Man, that guy is messed up!” Naturally, I was still thinking traffic stops and couldn't’t figure out what the little red car was doing wrong. (because the person was a minor, a victim not a bad guy, I am going to mix up the gender. Some of this may sound awkward because of that it’s the only way I can figure to keep some modicum of privacy.) We rounded the corner, pulled up on the curb of the underpass and he shined the light on the girl. “Oh %^#*%! ” was all O1 said. The girl was beat up. His face was a bit bloody, eye swollen and he had a generally beat up face. She was talking of the phone. O1 spoke to an out of town parent on the other end of the phone for a minute before the battery died. The child was upset, beat up and very, very drunk. He kept stumbling downward towards O1. O1 would calmly push him back to the pillar and tell him to lean against the pillar. After a lot of negotiating and getting the child to sit on the ground, O1 called for an ambulance. O1 walked away to talk on the radio to whomever he needed to talk to and the girl slumped to the ground. She had passed out. That is when the ambulance pulled up. EMS started talking to him, wiggling his foot and wanting to help but he started to get agitated. O1 had to go to his car about the same time that EMS arrived. Suddenly, the EMT is yelling, “Officer, Officer!” and pointing to the child who decided to get away and was standing in the middle of the turnaround lane. O1 and the EMT got to him, and O1 put his hand on the boy’s arm to get him out of the street. This only agitated him further so O1 put his arm around him to help move him. Wrong! This really upset the child and O1 had to link into the kids’ arms and force her to walk on back on the sidewalk. She would not stop trying to get away. The next thing I knew, the child was on the ground and O1 had his knee in her back holding her down, calling for backup. I was amazed at how quickly things deteriorated. I was also amazed at the agility of O1 to put the child to the ground without slamming, dropping or hurting him. Well, remember the whole respond as a team thing from the last post? Well before you could say tiddlywinks, there were more two more sets flashing lights joining the fray! Another Lieutenant this time. They finally got the child on a stretcher, restrained but things continued to deteriorate. She decided to spit on the EMT. Not once, but twice. Bad move. Out came the spit mask. All the while she was struggling and acting up, O1 was trying to tell her to calm down, she was the victim not the criminal. It didn't help. The Lieutenant told O1 that he had to accompany the boy to the ER and find someone to release him to. The child’s phone was dead, he didn’t would’t tell of anyone here……it was a conundrum! Off we go to the trauma hospital. All cities have one. It’s the one where they take the gunshots, stabbings, etc. O1 showed me all the hot spots Friday night because I had never been there before either. I was dying to use the restroom but if you think I was going to lose sight of him in the ER of that hospital, you’re nuts! I followed like a puppy! This poor kid was all kind of upset, struggling, spitting and just making a ruckus! I was right there in the hallway! O1 kept trying to calm him. At one point another officer came out of the room and attempted to clear the hallway. “YOU! Are you with them!? He was pointing at me and another patient. NO, I’M WITH HIM!!! Thank goodness!!! I just tried to stay out of the way. Luckily the out of town dad called the in town mom and she was at the hospital. Problem solved. We went out to talk to her and again I got “WHO”S SHE?” (All night long people were wondering who I was and why I was standing there.) Whew. Time to go home. O1 just looked at me and smiled as we walked out to the car. First he asked if I had fun, then he asked if I wanted to wait around for the gunshot wounds on their way to the hospital. I declined! What a way to end the night! So ya see, when he flashed the lights and sirens (see the last post), I told him that was just gravy!

The thing that impressed me the most about the entire evening was the proactive approach O1 had. He was the kind of officer I would like to help me if, g-d forbid, I should ever need it. We were together for nearly 12 straight hours and the time just flew by! Sometimes I get bored with myself after so long!!!! He made a fatal, fatal mistake though…. He said that I could go out with him again……….