Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

Well, DH went fishing yesterday and will be home tonight. Yesterday was wonderful because I had the whole day to quilt and not worry if he needed attention. I worked on the quilt from Patchworks Times in between washing clothes and treating myself to dinner from a local restaurant.

This morning I felt guilty about neglecting the house and decided to clean before continuing my quiltathon. After all, DH did call last night and asked me what I had done during the day. I told him I did a little sewing and things around the house so the house being clean will reinforce my story.

I posted pictures of my clean living room because it is not always like this. The quilt on the chair was made with Thimbleberries fabric. Are you getting the idea that I have a thing about Thimbleberries. Anyway, this was my first attempt at using my 1630 stitches on a quilt. I ran into trouble because the quilt was already sandwiched and the stitches caused puckering. Has anyone done this and been successful? I like the look and am wondering that maybe I will have to use stitches only on the top piece and then quilt it. Would love some advice if anyone out there has done this.

DH will be home tonight and my mini vacation will be over. You know I kind of miss him.

Well, all I have left to do is wash the kitchen floor and I am free to sew!!!

Operator Error

I have not posted about my progress on the Patchworks Times Quiltathon but have been working on it. I am just slower than most. All my pieces were cut and ready to go. I have never used my rec rulers before so I looked carefully at the instructions on Patchworks site. I cut my strips for the stars and proceeded to piece them. It was not working. After several log on's to the tutorial, I proceeded again. It was not working. Saturday night I could not sleep and kept going over and over why it was not working. After several hours, I finally fell asleep. My one dream was not about the rec rulers. I dreamt that Jay Lo and Mark Anthony asked me to babysit for their children. I was torn because I would not have time to quilt never mind figuring out these rec rulers. I also wondered how much they would pay. I think I decided to not babysit.

Back to the rec rulers. The following day I looked at the pieces again. Aha, no wonder it did not work! I cut one of the strips too big. Figures, operator error!! Don 't get old! The mind does not compute like it used to.

I hope to have these stars done soon, that is if I am not busy watching Jay Lo's children!!

Early start

Well I started planting flowers at 7 am this morning. Since I had all this energy, I did some work on the back. I want to share some pictures of my backyard and covered patio. The wicker furniture still needs to painted and the patio given a good cleaning. There is pollen everywhere. I have to confess that I fell asleep on the corner wicker chair. It was so comfy and I was so tired, so an afternoon nap felt good.

Maybe some quilting this evening.

And then there were two!

Just thought I would share what I have been going through since the end of April. I purchased a Zen V plus mp3 player about 8 months ago and was in love. I was able to download books from the library and listen to books while I quilted, cleaned or drove to my daughter's to babysit. Then all of a sudden it died. Of course, the warranty for free labor was only for 90 days so I had to return the mp3 player and pay $25.00 to have them look at it under the remaining warranty.

I was disappointed it only lasted 8 months but sometimes you get a lemon. After a sales person told me the refurbished players were like new, I showed good faith and bought one to have while the other one was being fixed. With tax and shipping, I could have almost bought a new one. Well, it came and guess what; it did not work. Now I was really frustrated. I called and they told me to send it back and a new one would be on its way. Don't think so. Let's see when I called to find out where it was, I was told they had to wait to get refurbished ones. Not true they were still selling them on the internet. After many long distance calls I was told they would send me another one and I would have it in 2 to 3 days. When it did not come they told me an error was made and they credited my account . I had to rebuy another one and they needed my credit card number again. Well, finally one came this past Friday and the other on Monday. Of course, nothing is easy and there was letter stating that if I did not return the original mp3 player in 15 days, they would charge my credit card. They had received it on April 28th! Another long distance call and I was told to disregard the letter. Now I have to keep a close eye on my credit card and hope there will be no more mistakes.

By the way, they both work!

We are home

We went to the Princeton, NJ, area to see our grandson play soccer. Thanks to our son and his wife, we stayed at the Weston Hotel in Forrestal Village. What a beautiful spot. I foolishly did not take any pictures of the village. It was built to house outlets and stores but turned out to be busy only in the summer months. Many of the stores did not survive. Now businesses like architects, banks, etc are coming in. We were able to walk to one of the local restaurants, enjoy dinner with wine and not have to worry about driving back. The weather was beautiful until we drove home this evening. Lots of rain!! Hope the ride for our oldest son and family goes well. Their trip home will take at least 5 1/2 hours.

I asked about quilt shops in the area, but the hotel did not know of any. That was my only disappointment.

My youngest son came to the house several times a day to let out our 2 dogs. Unfortunately, one of the dogs must have been mad at our leaving them behind. There was a small present for us when we came home.

Scraps

I had some leftover scraps from some Aunt Grace type fabrics and made this top. The binding will also be from the same scraps.

I haven't done much quilting these past 2 days because I have been babysitting for my two little munchkins. They are such a joy. Our 16 year old grandson is in a traveling soccer team and will be playing in New Jersey this weekend. DH and I will be going to see him. I hope there will be a quilt shop in Princeton, NJ!

Did cut out the fabric for my block of the month. Hope to have that up for you to see.

sewing room

After seeing Bonnie's (Quiltville) wonderful sewing room, I thought I would share pictures of my sewing room with you. My sewing room is in the dungeon but it is a finished dungeon. I just recently moved my cutting table to the adjoining room to allow me more room and access to my design wall. (My husband says I am slowly taking over the area downstairs.) As you can see, the machine quilting frame takes up a lot of room.

Oops! I duplicated one of the pictures and did not know how to delete it. Anyone out there know how? Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Anyone out there have any to show me? I love looking at other people's sewing rooms!

Finished

My daughter asked me if my grand daughters could sleep over Thursday through Friday. I panicked inside but I love having them so I said yes. This meant I had less time to finish the quilt by Mother's Day. Mother's Day morning I woke up early to try to finish before the brunch at 10:30 at my daughter's home. Needless to say, I had to give it to her with only part of the binding done. She loved it anyway. I took it back home and it is now done. Tomorrow I will bring it to her home for good. I am not one for labels but decided to put a label in this quilt. The pictures are not very clear. A photographer I am not.

Mother's Day

This featheweight was my mother's. I remember watching her sew slipcovers on this little machine on the kitchen table. Prom dresses, clothes, all appeared magically from under the needle. It seemed so easy.

As my mother became older, she often complained of back pain after hours of sewing. There were no adjustable chairs or special sewing tables. Yet, I have all the latest sewing aides, but could not duplicate the work my mother did on this featherweight.

My mother has been gone so many years, but I still miss her. Along with wonderful memories, she left me a part of her with this little machine.

Happy Mother's Day Mom.

Block of the Month

Wednesday evening I went to my quilting group at the library. These are 4 of the blocks we have worked on so far. I have the instructions for the 5th block and will share it with you when I am done. Most of us are using material from our stash. My blocks have a lot of Thimbleberries in them.

Today I went to the block of the month at Pieceful Quilting in Riverhead. We are working on Be Attitudes, all applique by Nancy Holversen. It is an adorable quilt. Hopefully, I will have a block to show you soon.

Quilt for an Hour

Another first for me. I have signed up for Patchwork Times Quilt for an Hour on the internet. See my side bar for favorite blogs to sign up.

Klutz

Well, the quilt is not done. As I was ripping out some stitches, I was able to stab myself really well in the crease of my thumb. Boy, did it hurt to pull out the seam ripper. Needless to say, I will probably not get much done on the quilt today.

Not much accomplished

Well, I had hoped to have a picture of my quilt all finished. I loaded it on my frame and started quilting. It looked awful so I am going to pin it on the frame and take it to my sewing machine and quilt in the ditch. Who knows, maybe I will have a picture ready by late tonight!

Just had to share. I started a diet this morning. By 11:30 am I had eaten a piece of toast, 2 bowls of granola with milk. It was skim milk! :) and I finished leftover chicken stew. Size 5 is very far away at this rate. Who am I kidding! I would settle for a 14!

I am off to the dungeon to work on my quilt.

picture

Thought I would try sharing a first picture on my blog. This is a quilt for my daughter for Mother's Day. Now I have to try to get it finished by this Sunday!! I used a Moda jelly roll and some leftovers of Thimbleberries fabrics. I will have to learn how to use my camera to take better pictures!

This is a first

Well, I bit the bullet and started a blog!!! I hope to have pictures of quits that I have finished or hope to finish. I have been an on and off again quilter since the 80's. Before I retired, I purchased a Grace machine quilting frame and very slowly have tried to teach myself how to use it. I know practice, practice. It's the starting that is hard!!!