WHERE IS IT?!?

Does this ever happen to you? You have a specific tool you buy for a project, use it, put it away, and cannot find it the next time you want to use it?

That’s what happened to me when I was working on this:

 

 

I did not want to use my big iron for such small pieces and remembered this:

 

A bit antiquated, but it worked fine.

 

I am on my last row of the Experience.  Hopefully I will have all the rows put together this week. I am thinking of just meandering to quilt them because I just want to get this ‘FINISHED’!

The best part of this whole experience was getting most of the patterns with my grandchildren, even though Daddles was in agony having to go from quilt shop to quilt shop.

I canned corn this week. I do not have a deep freezer so I have to can everything. 

 

I was surprised how easy the corn was to can! Sorry I do not remember the site I got this from:

1. After husking and cleaning corn, cut off kernels.
2. Place corn kernels in clean, hot jars.
3. Add salt. (I added ¼ tsp.)
4. Fill jar with boiling water, leaving 1” headspace.
5. ‘Poke’ out air bubbles.
6. Screw on cap.
7. Process for 55 minutes.

I listened to a 90 minutes webinar by Renea of http://richmombusiness.com

The subject was ‘Pinterest’ and so intense she had me stressed out by the time it was over! She gave such great information. Now all I have to do is decide  which 'path' to start down. Should it be glass or jewelry? I would like to try jewelry but there are so, so many sites out there selling their jewelry wares.

 

I create all sorts of jewelry pieces and I can make bracelets to size. I know some wrists are not the normal and I can make them to fit you!
 

 

 
Or should I do glass fusing?
 
This bowl was made by using the bride's flowers from her wedding bouquet.
 

 
Then there are the totally 'customized' fused pieces:
 

 

Do you have any suggestions?

 

 

 

While I was fusing the tiny pieces of fabric in place:

 

to keep from burning my fingertips I put these on my fingers:

I was able to hold the pieces in place to keep them from moving while ironing and I did not burn my fingers. These are actually finger ‘cots/grippies’ to help move the fabric while quilting but they  work great to keep your fingers safe while ironing.

I got mine at JoAnn’s with a coupon. (Of course.)

Have a great week.

D.G. L

Put Me In Coach

I went back to work Monday (last day of the pay period)…for 2¾  hours….REALLY?  The last day I worked was May 1st.  I have been off for 2 months and my first day back I get put on the schedule for how long?!?  

At first I thought  ‘Will I be able to handle working that long?’, then I thought ‘What did I do before I left to tick off the bosses?’…

Not too much has happened this week.  I am still working on my RBRs.

I did go to the Muncy Historical Society’s quilt show yesterday. I hope you enjoy the little bit of the show.

 

This quilt was a full size quilt and totally hand embroidered with all the tree leaves in our area. In the late 1800's into the early 1900's Williamsport was the 'Lumber Capital of the World'.

 

I liked the way they displayed this:

 

 

 

 

The quilter quilted an owl, sun, moon and a flower in this medallion and found it a very interesting quilting choice.

.

On this description it states her husband made a quilt frame suspended from the ceiling.

 

 

I am working on a doubled wedding ring quilt and am collecting quilting ideas.
If you have any please send them my way.

 

This tip is one I love and began to use after I made this patriotic flag quilt:

 

Notice the white looking piece of fabric in the middle of the border? I would never have used it, it is the first place my eye goes to every time I look at it.

 

Now I take a picture of the layout first and make sure it is the way I want to sew the quilt together. Also, instead of trying to remember how to sew it together you can see how to sew it together.

 

When I saw this quilt at the Muncy show yesterday I noticed one block that looked as if it was 'floating'.

 

 



Maybe it was the intent of the quilter, maybe not...

 

Have a great week.

D.G. L



 

Back to Reality

All the fun and games are over. What a two weeks! First week to enjoy the 4^th with my family in TN.  

This past week was spent with my BS friends for a sewing retreat.

Yeah! Starting to set up!

We all made the same quilt pattern. I am not finished with mine yet so I will have to show you pictures later.

This is what happens when you skim read the directions!

Look close, you will see drawn lines from corner connecting with block point.

The block on the right the lines are not drawn correctly. Of course I did not notice it until I was finished drawing all 86 blocks! Thankfully I used Frixion to mark with so all I had to do was iron all the lines out and remark them.

Bless Athena’s heart; she cut them all wrong so her blocks ended up being an inch smaller than they were supposed to be. She had to make extra blocks to get the size, set the quilt blocks up on the design wall, took each row down one at a time and sewed the blocks into rows Thursday night. Friday morning she began to set up her rows to sew them together and she had turned every block sideways. Can you say Jack is your friend! (Jack the ripper)

 

We ate wonderful meals like this one brought by Ellen.

 

Mel, Greg, Athena, Ellen

I added this photo (what was left of dinner) to show you one of the pans of blueberries Greg picked in their back yard for Mel to make some pies.

 



 

My first finished RBR Experience (RBR) was from Lana's,  a shop by the Red Clay State Park in TN. In this park is a big pond that is called ‘The Blue Hole’.

 

Red Clay is where the soldiers ‘encamped’ the Cherokee Indians before the Indians had to WALK  the 'Trail of Tears' from TN to OK back in the 1800’s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

 

I made 3 more zippy bags for me…(until I give them away).

 

As I was sewing the bags I kept commenting on how dull my needle was. I wanted to finish up the bags and then put a new needle in for the next sewing project. Well, that needle thought differently!:

 

The needle hit the zipper and just folded over!

The next RBR looked to be an easy one. Just cut and sew, how hard could that be?
 I opened the instruction packet from Chattanooga Quilts and started reading. Simple, until I saw WHAT I HAD TO CUT!

(Of course the other girls think I’m already crazy for doing this RBR so they started laughing while I was reading the cutting directions.) When I got to the line that said  cut (60) 1 ½” squares I asked for this:

 

My third finished RBR is my favorite so far from Hyder Hangout. I used to live near the Ocoee River which is what this row symbolizes.

 

The 1996 Olympic water sports were on the Ocoee and I was told the river scene from ‘Deliverance’ was filmed on the river.  www.ocoee-river.net

 

Boo Hoo, time to go…..

 NEVER throw your no good, damaged needles in the garbage!

Make a needle keeper.

Take an old pill container and remove the lid. Wrap a piece of muslin over the top held in place by a rubber band.

 

Poke a hole big enough to put needles into.

 

 

 

 When full, put the whole container in a baggie, close it, and THEN throw the whole container in the garbage.

***For Demo purposes I am showing you the inside of the container. DO NOT TAKE THE MUSLIN OFF THE CONTAINER!

I put the muslin back on the container and will put the whole container in a baggie to throw away.

Have a great week.

D.G. L

Consistently Continuing Recap

We went down to TN to see my son and his family for the 4^th. I was thrilled to see them since it had been such a long time. 

 

 

Doodles has a job at O’Charlies. We ate dinner there. 

 

 Lar ordered a beer. Is this a beer or what?

 

Doodle's, Daddle's and I went to a bunch of quilt shops (they have a whole lot more quilt shops in the Cleveland/Chattanooga area then they have up by where I live) for the RBR Experience. My son Ranny already picked up the one from Maddie at Spool.



Still do not know how the person finished this so fast!



 



Of course we had to stop at the Krispy Kreme in the middle of a torrential downpour. The manager came out from the doughnut making area with a ‘baby doughnut’ in his hand. He went on  to explain the of making doughnuts. You know we had to leave with a dozen doughnuts and some doughnut holes.

 

 

 

After the afternoon of shop hopping, much to my grandson’s delight, we were finally able to stop at the Fireworks store! Notice his face now?

 

This is the loot!

We bought a ‘big boy’, I mean ‘man’ bedroom suit for Daddles. Thank goodness the store had a sale AND Tax Free weekend. The suit was a great bargain and it also helped to know the owner.

 

 

Ranny made super and Doodle's made the dessert.

 

I hope everyone had a Happy Fourth! Thank you to our brave service people!

A sample of what Daddle's shot off!

 The night before we left Doodle’s did my nails.

I really liked the watermelon idea.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.  AE

 

Have a great week.

D.G. L