Still not much.

Please remember to pray for our world.

Wishing Happy Turkey Day!

Wishing

Have a great week!
D.G. L
 

Americans and Everyone!

Remember to thank the veterans this week and every week.
Our country would not be if it wasn't for them!

Have a great week.
D.G. L

Tissues Please....

If you have been following me I have been working on ‘School Bell Has Rung’ by Karen Walker - http://chezstitches.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-school-bell-has-rung-sampler.html

While surfing months ago I saw this:

Because the only free motion design I really know to quilt is ‘Meandering’ I thought with Karen’s help I could learn Feathers.

She has several parts to this project and she shows how to do these techniques:
Magic 8 Method, No Waste Flying Geese Unit, Hourglass Method, and the Triple Triangle Method. (She also has math charts different sizes.)
I could not replace the center section

 

like I thought I could because my Y seams did not match up at all

so I got Jack back out and he helped me  re-rip the middle section out and take what needed to be taken apart.
I remade the center using a different color of fabric as Karen had showed in step 1 and sewed the piece back together.
The real reason I made this piece was because I liked the way Karen quilted the piece. I did every step and…..where is the quilting step???? I waited, and waited, and waited,  finally emailed Karen and she said she was busy working on something else. Will my bell ever ring?
With my tablet by my side and quilting gloves on I started to free motion quilting.  Along with not being able to do precision Y seams I am NOT proficient in free motion quilting.  

Notice uneven, wiggly lines

Thankfully I saw something last week about Golden Threads paper so I got out my roll I bought several years ago.
You can find it here: http://www.goldenthreads.com/shop/category/notions.
I used my Frixion pen to ‘kind of’ copy Karen’s quilting pattern. I like to draw with the Frixion pen because I can erase the lines with my iron that I do not like or correct what needs to be redrawn.

Lar scanned one of my designs in the scanner. Then I copied it onto the tissue paper after I cut and glued the tissue paper to fit an 8.5” x 11” piece of paper so I could run the tissue paper through my printer. I printed as many designs I needed.

I cut and pinned the tissue design to where I wanted the quilt design.

I did learn many things I should have already known.

Choose your fabric wisely, follow the instructions correctly, use a thicker thread when quilting, and most importantly if you don't like it stop BEFORE the next step.

 

Can you hear the bell?

I have used the Panasonic Iron

I bought at Hoover’s the day I bought my new machine many times and have found that I really like it. The best feature of the iron is the ability to iron 360◦ because it is cordless. Nice!

Now can someone please pass me a REALLY BIG box of tissues??

 

I swear I never saw the concrete block around the light post…but I heard it!

 

After quilting the design on the ‘SBHR’ piece and ripping off the paper, there were some itty-bitty pieces of paper stuck in the stitches.

 

I bought this tool years ago and finally used it to carefully scratch out the bits.

The pick is very similar to a nut pick.

 

Have a great week.

D.G. L

 

WAIT!

 

It’s almost Christmas?? I am not ready for Halloween, let alone Christmas!

If we want; which I have no desire to do, we can dress up on Fri. for Boo day. I still do not know what to wear or what to be.

I have been trying all week to finish that little piece from www.chezstitches.com ‘School Bell Has Rung’. I wanted to take it along to the quilt meeting (venting is coming up) Fri. night but my NEW machine is not working correctly. So I started gathering the items I am going to trade in at Hoover’s. I was going to go yesterday and also take my machine in to get fixed. I called to see if Leon was in to fix it and NO he was not! I have to WAIT until Tues. to see if he will be in. NOOOOOO!

Fri. I went to our guild meeting  Susquehanna Valley Quilt Guild. We had a guest speaker Carol Taylor: http://www.caroltaylorquilts.com . Sat. she gave a workshop on her ‘Going In Circles’. It was nice but when I looked at it there was just way too much work for what the end result was for me.

 

(Vent) The guild’s quilt show is in March, the first week of March. That is much less than the 5 months they say we have. By my figuring it is only 4 months, give or take a week. The only TWO categories the committee keeps talking about is the Challenge Quilt (my idea) and the Theme Quilt. Are we supposed to ASSUME there are more categories and if so what are they, what are the rules, is it anything goes??? It would be nice to know don’t you think because when you assume you make an a-- out of you and me.

I did not do too much this week. I went to storage yesterday to get a few items to start the Christmas ornaments and on the way home I remembered I forgot (is this an oxymoron) to grab the glass cutter so now I have to stop back to get it……I also could not find my paints that are buried in the unit somewhere….

I have a pair of jeans that fit me sooo great but when I was wearing them I noticed the seam on the right pant leg was off. Instead of in the middle of the leg, it creased to the left, making it look really bad.

The seam is about 1 1/2" to the left of the crease on the right pant leg.

I decided to embroider something up the side seam to help and draw the eyes away from the miss-creased issue.

 

The result:

 

This was so easy I will have to embroider more clothes, maybe to draw attention away from my fat. WAIT, I would have to be covered from head to toe, that won't work!

 

Someone asked if the tip with the dryer sheet worked. It did work for me.

 

 

This is a great site that answers all kinds of quilting questions:

http://quiltbug.com

This site gives you charts to calculate fabric amount, how much binding is needed, color pallet selection, free patterns,  just gobs and gobs of quilting tips and techniques.

Check it out!

Have a great week.

D.G. L

Two weeks

since we visited. You would think a lot happened in my world but not really.

Is anyone else on this ‘merry’-go-round: Work-Eat-Sleep?

On the sewing front I am still working on ‘School Bell Has Rung’ found on http://chezstitches.com

Well obviously I was NOT proficient at Y seams. To me it seemed like such an easy fix...hahaha. I could never sleep with seams that do not match up and look like this:

So my not so friend Jack was back to visit me. I have fixed that problem and it is back together ready to be quilted. Now on to teach myself free motion feathers. Hopefully next week I will be able to show you my corrected seams.

I harvested the rest of my bounty….

I am thinking of tomato chutney… if I have the ambition.

The big news is I got a new (used) car! Well, Lar wanted a new car to tow our show car…(When it is finished so he can take it to the shows). It was such a great deal I said yes! I really hated that van. Two best things about the new car is it remembers my seat adjustments and it has a keyless starter for those cold snowy mornings!

While at the dealer I saw this:

I will have to have my grandson Daddles make one. Anyone have extra MoPar parts laying around? Maybe I could use parts off my junker Porsche ?????

 

 

 

Pans greasy and icky?

Try this:

Wipe out as best as possible. Set in sink. Put in a dab of dish soap and fill with water. Add a dryer sheet and let soak MORE than one hour, preferably overnight. In the morning rinse out pan, dry, and put away.

Have a great week.

D.G. L

 

 

Problems

I am having major problems with the internet but I wanted to leave you with this thought for the week:

Don't be surprised if you find your destiny on the road you took to avoid it.

Have a great week.
D.G. L

Country vs. City

Where do city people think food comes from???

Last Fri. I had another interruption by having to go pick up apples my neighbor gathered for me. Every year I see these:

 

just thrown away so I got up my nerve and asked him if I could pick up the fallen apples. He said he throws out the ones that fall on the ground and that I could come and pick them up. Lar called, yes while I was sewing, and went to pick up the apples. Thankfully the neighbor had already picked up the apples and so I re-boxed them and brought them home.

 

While I was cleaning up the apples (Sunday) Lar said they looked spoiled….. I said ‘What do you think they put in the cans from the store?’ Really, need I ask?

 

Sunday we went to a car show.

While at the show I got a bowl of Haluski. Do you know the Haluski recipe? I’m sure it is not made with sauerkraut.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/220716/haluski---cabbage-and-noodles/

I see to use cabbage NOT sauerkraut.

 What a disappointment.

 

 

Finally at 2 o’clock  in the afternoon I started making applesauce. By 8:30 I had everything washed up and 29 pints of applesauce!

 

The neighbor also gave me these:

A while back Deby of www.so-sew-easy.com hosted a surprise swap. I could not show you what I sent Sandy but I can now tell you I sent her a pincushion, an ornament and some other goodies. She made me a wonderful bag, sent some fabric, and other goodies. Thankyou Sandy!

 

I want to teach myself quilted feathers and thought this would be a good starter.

 

Does this ever happen to you? You take the time and effort to make something that’s supposed to be fast and easy (which it was.)
'School Bell Has Rung':  www.chezstitches.com
The more I looked at this the more I absolutely HATED the middle fabric choice so I ripped out the center and am working on putting another color in there.
Being facetious here: I LOVE Y seams.

After my practice piece I am planning on quilting feathers in this. I am not sure what to quilt in the stars though. Any thoughts?

*Reminder*: I am still taking guesses on the bobbins in previous post!
(I will be doing so until I trade them in at Hoover's.)

 

When adding up for my binding I hate having to take the time to find a pencil and paper. Because my Frixion pen is always handy I add the side measurements on my ironing board knowing they will disappear the next time I iron.
I find the  total and sew my binding together.

 

Girl Interrupted….

not the crazy/depressed psychotic girl. The girl that kept starting things and had to stop to help others.

The only thing I wanted to do this week was sit and sew at my new machine.

Monday doesn’t count because Lar and I go to dance class and right now we are learning a really great Cha-Cha. to Mark Ronson’s Uptown Funk ft. Bruno Mars.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bruno+mars+uptown+funk&qpvt=bruno+mars+uptown+funk&FORM=VDRE

Wed. these came:

My winnings I mentioned in the last post. Thank you again Marian at:Seams To Be Sew: http://www.seamstobesew.com.

The other box is a facial regimen my daughter-in-law Kim sells. The brand is Arbon and I really like it. I started using it in Aug. and I notice a big difference with my skin. Just let me know if you would like to try a sample (for a nominal fee).

When I was sewing Wed. night and I got a call from Lar to come down to the garage and help him get this out of the garage.

Is this a catbird that he was chasing around for 4 hours? And yes it did make a mess(es)…. You guessed it, that was the end to my sewing for the night.

Thursday I started straightening up my sewing room and gathered some of the accessories to the 730 I traded in at Hoover’s.

Fri. I had to help a friend make 2 pair of earrings. She had a pair of studs in the colored stones and wanted them dangly. After thinking for a while I cut off the posts and added a few crystals to design this.

The other pair she wanted was to make her button pearl studs into dangly earrings as well.

I could tell the first pair we altered was made using a metal alloy and then silver plated. When she showed me the pearl ‘set’ (necklace, bracelet, and earrings) I told her I was going to see what kind of metal was used to make them. After looking at them I told her to put the earrings back in the box because we were NOT going to cut anything on them. They were made with 14k white gold.
I gave her materials to make these fresh water pearl dangly earrings instead.

 

After I got home I finished gathering the accessories and started re-winding the thread off the bobbins I was turning in. Can you guess how many? There will be a give-away to the lucky guesser!

 

Sat. I went down to Hoover’s and Leon wasn’t there so I came home with some of the items I will be returning when Leon is in. I did pick up my Panasonic cordless iron. I will let you know if I like it when I get to use it.  I also picked up feather stencils at Verna’s, pics to follow in a future post.

Just typing this is making me woozy....
Do you have a problem with spiders this year? I do not like spiders and they seem to be everywhere this year.
Here is a simple solution that will help:
http://www.herbsandoilsworld.com/how-to-keep-spiders-out-of-your-home-with-peppermint-oil/

Have a great week.
D.G. L

He's Baaaack!

Jack The Ripper that is!
I know  it's not Halloween but he didn’t have to visit me!
 

 

You can find (I named him Jack) the pattern here:
http://www.fonsandporter.com/articles/Grim_Ripper whimsical mini Halloween quilt

I started this at my spring retreat and pulled it out the other day to work on getting it finished.

One of these things is not like the other one:

This is the pattern picture. Even with the diamond on the wrong side on my quilt which I could have lived with, I added the bottom 2 rows to the side....
(Too tired, having too much fun, or was it

on post 'Back to Reality', 7/12) 

(I'm beginning to think I do more reverse sewing then actual sewing! Not really, how else would I have any finishes?)

I am not a big fan of Halloween but Lar is. To try out my new machine’s embroidery option my friend gave me towel patterns. I thought this would be a nice design for that specific day.

I will have to name him after he's washed and pressed. Any suggestions?
We went to a few car shows yesterday and at one of them you could buy a chance for $50.00 to win one of these:

I sure wanted the car but was not willing to give up the money. That’s like a new presser foot I need or a few yards of fabric!Now if someone gave me one of these I’d take it!

The cars look similar but there is about a $30,000 difference and quite a bit more horsepower! Just think of all the presser feet and fabric I could get with that amount of difference!

 

Speaking of winning, I did win a gift certificate to 'The Fat Quarter Shop' from Marian at:

Seams To Be Sew: http://www.seamstobesew.com   Tell her I said for you to stop by!
I will show you my goodies when they get here.

I canned 2 pints of diced tomatoes and 2 pints of peppers from my big harvest this week.



Last post I showed you my RBR Experience. This row had thin fabric strips that represented the waves of the water.

When I cut the pieces out I thought I would ‘save a step’ and just quilt the waves down. BIG mistake! Do not skip this step!!

 

 
My tip this week is to apply some sort of fusible adhesive such as Heat n Bond Lite, Wonderunder, or whatever your liking to your pieces and set them as per instructions Before you do your quilting.
I had to go back over all the waves and stitch them down.


Have a great week.
D.G. L