Time vanished? It's a Mystery

I t's been a super crazy busy weekend - and I didn't go anywhere (!)

First of all I woke up late on Friday - I had an extra large tim Hortons (potent coffee) on thursday nite and was ZIIIIIIIIING BOINGGGGGGGG WIRED and didn't get to sleep until like 9am Friday AM .. woke up to Reg home from work at 3:30 - and it was one thing after another until later that nite.

After Kyle left with his dad, we went out to supper at Vang's for Thai food .. **slurp**, and then a stop at Fabricland :D :D :D They were having a pretty nice sale going on .. 50% discontinued fabrics, 33% off others, some notions were 50% - so I reconnoitered my battlefield and plotted my strategy .. I wanted to get some purples for the "All in the Family Colour Mystery that I and 4 other ladies were test driving for Carmen .. well that didn't work out to well there, but I did get some colours that I've not really used before .. This up coming year I really want to "force" myself to use colours other than my favourites .. each of these cuts is a metre and the bottom three on the left could actually be used for a quilt with the yellow as sashings or what not .. i honestly didn't even look for that! The solid red and black will be used for my discharge dyeing (when I can revisit that!)

After that it was back home and to the cutting table .. I found clue 1 in my inbox when I got home, so the race was on :) Since I didn't have full yardage for all 4 colours, I was using small cuts and scraps .. and as you all know, cutting the smaller pieces into 3" squares takes TIME! I think it was like 4 or 5am when I got done cutting and wasn't even about to start on the mystery.

I gets up Saturday (late due to stupid bed time) and got kidnapped for a '2 hour shopping trip" .. we booked out the house around 3 and didn't get back til 8 - i should soooo know better LOL .. but that's okay, we always manage to have fun together :) Get back and like a good detective, I start at clue 1. I worked all the clues until clue 7 when my brain just went pfft It just didn't want to think anymore - so I gave in .. off to bed I went and of course, it's like 5am or later again.

Before I started Carmen's mystery, I finished up the last cut Ohio Star block - knowing me I would have lost the pieces and would NOT have been a happy camper at all! I just have to cut two more blocks and then I start to piece the sections!!!!

Between the clues for Carmen's mystery I did the leaders n enders to get all the way to clue 4 for gran's quilt (QT summer mystery) I'm maybe 1/3 of the way thru that clue .. so this quilt will be done in no time with using this method .. the next project to get done with this will be my lady bug court wallhangings that I designed a million years ago ..

I did get the rest of the mystery tested and we had an absolute blast .. I just have to put borders on it - sorry no pictures until after we start the mystery on the group and only then it will be the current clue solutions - but I can show you my fabric choices as she's already uploaded that part to the group. I'm going to do the next one in blues .. I forgot my aunt had given me some fabric and there's blues in there - so blues the next one will be :)

Poor puppy has fleas again and gave them to the cats, so part of Sunday was spent giving her another bath, giving the cats flea 'shots' defleaing our house, sweeping, vacuuming, washing everything NOT nailed down .. now wasn't THAT fun pfft! and of course we'll be doing this at least twice a week (the house defleaing part - not medicating the animals)

I have a list of things that I want to get done this week

1. last 2 Ohio Star blocks


2. piece 1800 sections


3. September abstract challenge


4. catch up on mail / ppls blogs


5. gran's quilt


6. put this wc together - have some great ideas for the quilt part


7. fix my 97 swap quilt


8. quit n baste projects that are missing me

I'm sure that there are more, but these are the ones that I screamng to me right now .. I'm sure with just plodding along and doing what I do, it'll be done in no time :)

I hope you all had a great long weekend ..

Chasing my tail .. what to do???

W ell I wanted fru fru .. I got fru fru :D :D .. I hopped on my bike (almost 6 miles one way :O) and rode to Walmart to take advantage of the 50% off sale. I went by myself so I wouldn't feel pressured about keeping ppl waiting .. I ended up leaving around 1:15pm or so and got home at 4pm .. just like I told Kyle .. hehe .. I locked him out of the house so he would be OUTSIDE .. what is it with kids nowadays .. they allergic to fresh air??!?!! esh!!

I ended up getting 13.84 yards of various ribbon, sequins, beads, shiny stuff, (fru fru) for $13.61 - not to bad me thinks .. granted some of the pieces are just ¼ yard cuts, but those were also regular $5 or so .. I also grabbed another 3 yards of tulle ... granted this is red, but at 89¢ how can you beat that?? I also picked up a yard of this fabric too .. Judi had asked if they had purple and a few other things - well they did have this one purple, so I grabbed it on the off chance she would want some .. this purple almost was the background on my kitty quilt . but I wanted a softer more muted purple as the kitties are the stars of that quilt.

While there I also grabbed 2 boxes of 24 count Crayola crayons .. I got 2 boxes because they were 82¢ a box .. that's $1.00 off .. you can't beat that! I checked out their craft section and there wasn't any really neat sales going on .. altho they did have embroidery floss on sale there.. but it wasn't much off .. hind-sight says I should have grabbed some metallic ones .. oh well .. next time if there is any left.

Today was wayyy cool for me .. my dad went to the PO Box and there was a package from Mary containing 10 pieces of pre-cut 4x6" peltex for fabric postcards! Thank you Mary! I've not found it yet here, so that would be a Detroit trip for me.

I've another idea for my impressionist abstract .. Near here we have Point Pelee National park and the southwest beach has little dunes with long grass growing on it .. I'm thinking of taking that image in my head and seeing what I can do with it .. I didn't see any green lame today (and i was looking for just this reason) for the grass blades, but I can use some green fabric or even do some crayon work .. and do the beach (I have some brown that would be really perfect for this) and maybe the same blue that I used for the sky for the water .. we'll have to see .. as it's really blue and it's more blue green on Lake Erie here ..

So I chasing my tail here .. I want to do a postcard, I want to do some crayon work, I want to finish the first abstract, I want to get started on the second abstract .. EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK oh and tomorrow AM the Nickel Mystery starts .. Good thing my fabric was cut last week! :)

Okay .. I'm off to chase my tail some more and see what I decide to do ... prolly some crayon work .. that would be the quickest I think .. heh .. famous last words LMAO!!!!!!

Fabric n Fleas

A nice quilty & fabric loaded day - and some running around too .. but that's part of the good thing today!!

After doing the discharge dyeing and just thinking about my results - a solution for my abstract challenge quiltlet hit my brain - it sucker punched me out of nowhere .. I can't even remember where it came from to tell you the truth - altho this painting by Van Gogh might have inspired me.

Initially, I was going to do a sunset scene from up at the cottage, but have 8" to work with .. well that won't work .. so I started to think on other things and kept running into my own tail. This month's concept is impressionist art or artists .. oh geeze louize! Talk about your broad-side of the barn .. I LOVE impressionist work, so this was sort of like drugs for an addict.

Impressionist art is a style in which the artist captures the image of an object as someone would see it if they just caught a glimpse of it. They paint the pictures with a lot of color and most of their pictures are outdoor scenes. Their pictures are very bright and vibrant. The artists like to capture their images without detail but with bold colors. Some of the greatest impressionist artists were Edouard Manet, Camille Pissaro, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot and Pierre Auguste Renoir.

This artform is soooooo expansive .. okay .. there were no restrictions placed on us - as a matter of fact the exact opposite .. drat .. just tripped over my own tail this time .. so I started to think about other parts of the yard up at the cottage .. I thought of the dock and a tree, and the way the sun reflected off the water .. hmmm .. let me twist that a bit as I have no red or orange or any fru fru type stuff that could make that work .. hmmmm .. moon and moonlight .. perfect! And I have just the stuff in my stash that will work very nice for what I have in mind .. cottons, corduroys, velveteens, rayon, sheer cotton type stuff ... design is all drawn up and I'm ready to go .. I think that I might start cutting my abstract out .. I really do like this .. if I want to I do have ribbons and buttons etc .. but not sure exactly how those will fit .. to do added texture to mimic the short brush strokes, I'm going to fray the fabric on the tree to make it look like leaves and maybe the moon as well - so it might look like it's glowing .. I have all the ideas in place for the layout, doing etc .. but the final finishing is still not set yet .. I'm sure that something will occurr to me ..

Poor Orion still has fleas .. so I went online to see if I could give her more of the Hartz OneShot .. well the horror stories about this stuff is unreal .. they aren't even supposed to be selling it (!) .. needless to say, she didn't suffer convulsions, seizures, lack of balance etc .. nor open sores .. just the bloody fleas (!) I called my vet and she said that they have had numerous clients who have lost their pets to this product .. well that killed that idea .. I was half thinking about getting Frontline from the vet, and I love my dog to pieces - but no, but we would have to bring her in to get examined ($31) because it's 'medicine' and then the 'script' is $75. Sargents has a competitive product out, but we were worried that the sargents oneshot version would have the same issues, even tho I only saw one of those when I googled that product. Nope .. let's try flea baths and collars. Well we went out shopping to see what we could get for her (and the cats - they are flealess so far ... ) and had to go to 4 stores before we could find flea shampoo AND collars for the cats .. guess there's an outbreak right now ..

The cats already have their collars on; Pix just purred and well Shadow is still deciding if she's going to talk to me .. She was fine until I cut off the excess on the collar and then the **snip** right behind her ear sent her off my lap like a rocket .. Tomorrow I get the bathe the dog and put her collar on .. why do I always get to do the grunt stuff for the animals .. **sigh** ah well

We hit walmart while we were out and this store is renovating and clearing out their fabric department .. the other store will have it still, but not this one . the good news .. fabric 50% off :D I ended up with 5¼ yards of fabric for $19.76 - that would have gotten me only 2 yards at regular price .. so a nice fabric full day :)

Discharge Dyeing

Click on images to see enlarged version in a new window

Finally I got a chance to play with discharging fabrics - I've been seriously itching to do this and read a few sources (Quilting Arts Magazine & Fabric Art Workshop) as well as asking a ton of questions on Abstract Challenge Group and to my Dad.

Discharge dyeing is the method were you remove dye (colour) from fabric with bleach (or other various chemicals) - this can be done on several types of materials - but silk has it's own process to follow as bleach will eat away and ruin the silk. I opted to do simple bleach bath discharging.

In the June / July issue there was an article by Rose Hughes on how to do this, she recommended using a 1:5 solution of bleach to water - as well as 2 water baths for rinsing the bleach. In the magazine article she showed folding and pleating the fabric then wrapping it with string to prepare for it's bleach bath. In Fabric Art Workshop, the author showed another way to wrap up the fabric (altho this was for resistance painting) that I wanted to try as well. This method involved laying a string on dampened fabric diagonally, then folding it over; you then spun it around (remember snapping your friends with wet towels??) and pushed the twisted fabric to the middle and then tied the string together - this resembled a scrunchie when it was finished. So I took 3 pieces of fabric and had 2 different methods for binding up my little fabric rolls.

I found Quilting Arts to be over my head a bit when I first picked up the issue - and I still feel this way. What the author said was to put the fabric into your bleach solution and then to watch for colour change .. what she didn't mention is that the colour change would happen UNDER the strings (!?!) ... So here I am waiting for colour change that I couldn't see **groan**. One piece I pulled out in under 4 minutes or so because it looked like it was white - well it wasn't - I was seeing the backside of the fabric. So the one piece was underdeveloped as it were - and the rest were a bit overdeveloped. I got some unexpected and very cool results.

This piece here was done with the diagonal scrunchie method. This fabric was dampened first. You can see that this is one of the over developed pieces, but the results are very cool looking .. I still have some very usable parts on this - the larger white area was where the string had been directly touching the material. The other splotched areas are the inside parts of the scrunchie .. there was no colour change showing on this on the outside parts that were easily seen .. it wasn't until I pulled the fabric away that I saw the colour change ..

This is the other half of the same fabric - this was the fold and pleat method that turned this into a sausage shape .. for this one tho I started my folding and pleating in the corner and went diagonally instead of straight across .. you can see where the colour discharged under the strings .. again I saw no change on this until after I moved the strings. This material was not dampened before rolling.

This was the second piece of fabric. I wish I had taken a picture of the FQ before I rolled this one - this was the second piece that I did the scrunchie method on and the first one I pulled out under 4 minutes in. You can see that the purple really faded in spots, while it turned reddish in others .. this was a really deep dark purple piece. Again, dampened before folding. I'm not sure I like this at all .. got rather different results with the same method - I'm thnking that solid colours would be best, but thought this would be really neat looking with the pattern.

This was another fold n pleat method - you can see where the fabric is the really dark deep purple as I mentioned above .. but still more red than it was .. this was to long in the bath as well as the 2 blue ones were - I sort of like it, but am not sure on it - I didn't really want a blue piece :S I am rather disappointed in this one .. it was to long in the bath and I didn't get the results I was hoping for.

This one was the most disappointing of all .. there is no change what so ever in this fabric .. I'm not entirely sure why .. I'm suspecting that this material wasn't washed, but am thinking that bleach should have done "something" to it .. even it it lightened it a bit .. but no change at all .. another unexpected result - and this one was left in the longest.

I'm not entirely sure of the amount of time that these were floating around, but it was under 15 minutes .. when I do this next, I'll be sure to time it amd check UNDER the strings at 4 minute intervals me thinks

I did have fun with this and as usual I learned a LOT ... I'm glad that I didn't end up using the light pink I was thinking of - that would have ended up pure white ... I am disappointed in my purple, I was rather hoping for more dramatic results as it started out as such a deep colour .. but again, they floated to long ..

So word to new people wanting to try this .. look UNDER the bloody strings :S

I might sew again some day ...

What a busy few days!! Seems all I've been doing is running here and running there or being on the phone .. my sewing room misses me - the most I've done quilt-wise in the past 2 days is print off a greyscale version of my wc pic :S

We were finally able to pick up a cheap car so we now have transportation again - and I've been non-stop since then ... running here - running there .. doing a reverse daddy invasion with the dog :D - gotta love revenge ;) oh and course we got her all riled up like he does here :) It is NICE to have a car again .. VERY NICE!!!

I noticed that Orion had been snipping at her back end the past day, and mentioned it to reg and asked him to please check her out for fleas .. she's funny on who she lets do what to her ... his eyesight is also better than mine, so I'd like him find the itty bitty bugs on our black lab :) well he found them so off to petsmart to get the drops for the cats and the dog .. well they had the flea drops for the dog, but not the cats .. GRRRR .. the cats are all over the furniture - DRAT. So we'll keep an eye on the cats over the next few days and then maybe head to Walmart to buy the drops there for them .. When Reg got shadow (yes she used to be his cat), he got the flea stuff there. So nothing major, just a poor critter that's a wee bit out of sorts right now.

With all the heat we've been having I've been hard pressed to keep my cucumbers and tomatoes in the planter boxes properly wet .. they were either drowning or drying out .. so reg dug up the backyard for me this AM (before we went out), and I transplanted all my tomato and cucumber plants. I'm pretty sure that all my tomato plants will be fine. I've already lost one cuke plant, and another is questionable .. 2 I might be able to save .. let's see how they adjust to actually being in a garden with oodles of room to stretch their roots.

QUILT RELATED ALERT!
While reg was showing me where he worked (never been there as it's a 30 min drive away) I saw a yard sale where a lady had quilts hung up .. I said "I see QUILTS .. we gotta stop!!" heh .. I always hope for cutter quilts or tops or whatnot .. these were neither, but quilts she had made for sale .. but while I was talking quilting to her, reg found FABRIC!!! I got these two pieces here for 50¢!! The one on the left is 2 yards, 60" wide and has a sheen of sorts to it . .I'm thinking that this is home dec stuff .. but it's still cool looking. The one on the right is 2½ yards, 45" wide - nice little treasures me thinks :) I was hoping to find some fru fru stuff for the art quilts I'm hoping to make .. and figure a yard sale would be the best place to start.

I just realized that I spouted off bout a greyscale image and didn't go anywhere with it :S I was having difficulty with my wc and I figured out why (I hope), I was working from colours and not values .. so I'll be going back over this by picking out values .. I'm just not 'there' to do this by eye, so greyscale image here I come :)

I'm hoping that tomorrow can be more quilt related - after I pull weeds, do the lawn, the dishes, laundry .. esh .. or not quilt related ... **sigh**

Do You Believe in the Fabric Fairy??

This was a full long day. Full of good things (surprises) and frustrating things (previous post) - but it was a busy day :) .. Can't complain about days that are full of 'life'.

I had been taking breaks while sewing up the set of the sisters blocks and was checking email .. I suddenly hear this sound scrap swishy (?!?) I'm like what the devil is that .. I looked under my cutting table in case Shadow was into something again - (She was keeping me company today and had been checking out all sorts of things), but saw her looking under the dresser where I put my fabric .. I sit here and just watch her taking swipes at the cutting mat that I put under there to keep it out of the way .. You'd think it was a critter than she had never seen before and kept taking swipes at it LOL - I was actually surprised she didn't hiss at .. I would have totally lost it then - She has the the sweetest most delicate little hiss . I call her Princess Hiss .. Poor Baby .. (this was actually an action shot of her swiping it). Needless to say .. she did NOT like it one bit and after 5 minutes of taking swipes at it she got bored and walked away .. tail flicking like mad LOL

My dad stopped by as well today .. he and Kyle went to my aunt's while they were galavanting across the creek in Detroit yesterday and she sent a care package of fabric for me .. I was just saying something about the fabric fairy and voila! FABRIC :D .. It's some really nice stuff too .. and there's even a reproduction print in there - yeah me!! Also on one of my lists, another lady had some flannel that she wasn't going to use at all and gave up on selling it .. well she posted to the list that she had this and all we had to pay for was the postage .. again the fabric fairy heard me :D .. I was just saying that I'm getting to the point where I need to do something about finding some flannel for my 1800s quilt as I'm going to use that for batting. And here it is .. this is the only way I could get this flannel too .. The fabric fairy DOES exist!!

Later I opted to not cut the pieces out for the last 8 sisters blocks .. on another list I'm on, there is a summer mystery that starts on August 9^th and I hadn't picked out my fabric yet. So I spent this afternoon doing that and later on I cut out all the 5" squares that are needed for this. This is going to be my first mystery and I'm pretty excited about it .. August 9^th is still ohhh so very far away! But the fabrics are cut out, put in baggies to keep my velvet paw (shown above) from wandering off with my squares. Oh speaking of the velvet paw .. she's back and peering under the dresser again LMAO!!!!

So this was a busy and very good day! Kyle found my missing box of goodies; the fabric fairy blessed me twice; I got the tricky set of Sisters blocks done; picked out my fabric and cut it for the mystery; and got the basement cleaned up

Welp it's late (not as late as normal for me), and I've been up since 5am and it's almost 2am .. I'm whacked and heading to bed :)

Tomorrow .. the other 8 sisters and maybe the Ohio Star blocks :D wow this is getting close - *kittyhappydance*

Changes again ...

For some reason this time I wasn't able to look at fabrics tossed willy nilly on the table and pick them out for my blocks - (which should have been my first clue) .. so here i was scanning all my fabrics in to do them in photoshop .. well i started with one colour, then decided to do the rest as I KNEW that I would just have to add more ..

Long and short of it - found some fabrics that really worked out well, but then it dawns on me .. this isn't going to be scrappy; this was gonna look crappy!! Not enough of this or to much of that and the colours that I have just weren't working together .. I really want to have the underground railroad in this quilt as it really shows motion and was a popular block at the time - but i'm still not sure of it .. I suppose I could use Crocket Cabin (slightly earlier period) or jacob's ladder - there's also buffalo ridge too .. this layout might not stay at this point either .. It could just be because i've used the default colours for the blocks and not used other's that are closer to what i have available .. that green for the ohio star .. blech!! At any rate ..

I do like this one better .. I have cut down the number of railroad blocks that i'm using and that will mean that I can likely use an FQ for each section .. that's not set in stone yet .. heh .. i have to do my math all over again :S .. **SIGH** But I trust my math now, and it'll be a snap to get it going .. altho I do have rather have to start from scratch with block meaurements etc ..

The basket blocks just seemed to make it to busy to me as well .. plus i figure i'm going to have enough qst and hst with the other blocks .. I used simpler blocks - more simplex star, added the double X to replace the basket block (and used them so they look like an Amish Star ;)) - Kept the one block that reg loved and picked out for the quilt .. the one block he picks - I guess I had better keep it, and used more ohio stars .. that i think is a nice compliment to the center block being an Ohio star block ..

Okay i've been fussing with this since 11pm or so and it's now 3:50 am .. I'm off to bed .. where did the bloody time go!?!?!?!?!

Director of Security / Squishy Days; Machine update added

Squishy Days are here :) .. My director of security informed me that someone was / had been on our porch. So a few minutes later I go to check the mail .. I saw a squishy!! Just what was needed to uplift my spirits as I was definitely out of sorts from yesterday. I knew that this was coming and had totally forgotten about it as US Postal service tend to load up snails for the mail run to Canada.

But here it is .. Inside the adorable quilt top that Joy had made for me .. it's even more adorable in person, a needle case (purrfectly cute!!) (these items were expected), and the purple that she had used to make this quilt along with other leftovers from the assembly - these fabrics were NOT expected.

I've been thinking about how to quilt this and I'm sure that something will come to me, loud and clear - I usually try to listen to the quilt, i can do birds, butterflies, flowers, cats, sea critters .. all sorts of things .. the TOT that she used is more gorgeous in person and the pics do NOT do this quilttop justice .. not be a long shot. With the discussion that joy and I have been having lately, i'm leaning more towards sea critters, the blues and greens rather lend itself to this too.

I ripped out the row I did on my kitty quilt as I've changed my mind yet again .. shock surprise LOL .. I do have 2 rows sewn up and as I now have house to myself right now, I might actually get something done before Kyle comes home ..

Machine Update

Sick 248 / Mum's Touch n Swear
I contacted singer today and had a wonderful chat with the lady on the other end of the phone .. Turns out she does garment construction and has a few machines herself LOL

What it boils down to is timing or my bobbin case .. I explained all that it did and she says it's not my gears as they are on the top of the machine near the cams ..

It was really great as she was looking at the exploded parts of my machine while I was talking to her and i was telling her all that i had done and the noises i had heard etc - I really hope it's not the timing as I talked to my repair shop today and that will be a hefty bill if they have to redo the timing .. If it's just a wee bit out of whack and needs a slight adjustment / no parts - then it's only about $10.

I wanted to get the bday's for this machine and my mum's touch n sew .. Couldn't get either as the number stamped in the bottom of my machine does not follow the numbering sequence for machines made after 1900 .. Meaning it doesn't have 2 letters starting it .. It's just a bunch of digits .. That came back to me as I was talking to her .. This machine was made for only 2 years tho, 1980 - 1981. Now my mum's machine - production started on the in may of 1960 in St. John's - the records for this time period are missing.. Now I know she had this machine from when I was a little girl .. This might even have been the machine she made her wedding dress on - i can vaguely recall "something" about that .. If so, 1960 is about right .. So I struck out with dating, but had a wonderful chat with a fellow enthusiast and got a better line on what's possibly wrong with my machine ..

Mum's Stuff

Well this AM I went with my dad to take care of cleaning out his lazy susan from the mouse problem and fritter through my mum’s stuff. Mum didn’t quilt, so a lot of her stuff I really can’t use as I don’t make my own clothes anymore .. to bloody expensive with the cost of fabric now a days. There was a box of sweat suit type stuff (velour) and ribbing that I left as I knew I couldn’t use, but did grab a box of various tweeds, and linens with the odd cotton in there .. I need to do window treatments so these will come in handy. There is an old steamer trunk in the basement that my dad says has fabric in it .. i’m like .. esh .. another day. Then he remembered that there was the cedar chest upstairs - he wasn’t sure what was in it and thought it was locked. Actually all he had to do was push the button and it opened. Silly man ..

In our forays I found 2 sugar sacks!! I had never seen them before and remembered how ladies on the lists would talk about them .. stupid me forgot them there - ARRRG, but I am wanting to get them here and use them ..they have a NICE heft to them!

Found my mum’s wedding dress in there that she made .. a comforter that my grandmother brought from Russia and a woven bedspread (tapestry like) also from Russia .. at that point, I couldn’t handle going through stuff like that .. so went on the search for her serger and her singer .. found those .. her serger is a juki and i didn’t find a manual for it - I’ll have to check on line to see if there is one there .. never used a serger in my life and mum got this after I had moved out of the house .. worse case scenario, I can ask my grandmother (Dad’s dad) as she sews and could help me I’m sure .. I think that she advised mum on this one (??) .. found a mess of notions and all the parts for her singer .. all the discs and the manual and the original box with the seam guide, screwdriver ..

There was also a craft table still in it’s boxes that i can have .. I needed to measure it tho .. it’s 72 x 40 when opened .. it’s a batwing type table on wheels and is at least 6“ higher than the table I currently use .. I’ll have to rearrange my sewing room .. move the computer out of the corner it’s in and further up the wall and put the table against the far wall - but it will fit .. 70” of work space :O .. can you IMAGINE!!! i could actually baste on this thing .. no more crawling on the floor to baste now .. that always kills my back for a good day! which reminds me .. I need to baste reg’s quilt .. ouch I’ve always said that this table is to low .. i bend over to cut and pin and my back hurts .. this table of my mum’s is a good 6“ higher! YIPPEEEE ... I’m not a tall person .. not by a LONG shot .. i’m only 5’3” .. but these short tables are murder!

Mum’s singer - now this machine hates me .. always has .. i look at this thing and it jams! It’s a slant shank so it makes my life a wee bit difficult as all my singers are short shank .. i’m still hoping to find a walking foot .. If that’s the case, I’ll oil this one up and give it a whirl while firmly holding my temper in check! I was really hoping that I would find one, but didn’t expect to .. My singer (the one I use for quilting) is making some really odd noises .. you know like a car that won’t start .. the err err err err and the wheel’s not moving .. I can sew for short bursts (maybe 4“) then it does this - then give the wheel a hand and off it goes again .. I can’t quilt on my FW as the motor just won’t tolerate the stress of all those layers. I do have the 15-91, but it’s noisy and I’ve only used it once .. nice stitch on it tho! The 99 needs to have the brushes replaced so that one’s out.

Kitty Quilt - Now a reality

Instead of being something percolating in the back of my mind for the past 10 years .. it’s reality .. or at least getting there .. got the fabric; pressed it, tossed almost all my kitty fabrics onto the table; started sifting through the patterns that I picked for this to print, rethink, etc ..

I’m excited, I’m finally getting to do this :D Reg made sure we were able to grab my fabric for this; prolly because I never think of myself first and haven’t made a quilt for ME yet; ever .. I don’t count the nap quilt I did for a swap .. poor thing is falling apart now ..

Most of the patterns are from the book “Cat’s meow” , some are from the net and other books .. I’ve picked my focal pattern - have now decided upon the kitty fabrics for these two cats .. heh .. I’d better cut them before I change my mind .. but not likely to with this .. This whole quilt is going to be on that fabric no other background even for the borders and the kitties will be made with just kitty fabric .. no other kind

This is going to be GREAT!!!

Tomorrow I am going to my dad’s to sift through my mum’s fabric, take her two sewing machines (regular machine and serger), look at a sewing center table that she had purchased that is still in the box and help my dad clear out the lazy susan from the eeeker (mouse) damage .. he’s finally realized that he needs to get another cat .. he’s got mice .. poor dad ..

It’ll be hard for me to go through my mum’s things, but as my aunt says “Better that it’s being used that sitting there rotting” If mum had a walking foot on her machine I would consider trying it for my machine quilting as the one I use has been put away due to odd sounds it’s making while I sew right now .. then again .. mum’s machine jams as soon as I look it :S .. that thing hates me and always has LOL. At any rate, my dad assures me that my mum has some home dec stuff in there, sheers and the like which means I’ll finally be able to put up curtains .. none of our existing curtains fit the windows here, and I not taking down the tree until I have at least sheers up .. otherwise we are in a goldfish bowl - granted our street is quiet .. but that’s not the point!

Fabric's been traded - Thank you!

These fabrics have all gone to their new homes .. thank you for looking :)

During the liberation of my fabrics from their imprisonment in boxes, I've come across fabric that I purchase for Kyle. Needless to say these prints are no longer age appropriate. What I would like to do is trade fabric for them. I'm looking for more masculine / sports type fabrics. Plaids would be good as well. I've various yardages all are 100% cotton and 45" wide.











This is a smoke-free home, but does have pets - cats and a dog. Would be more than willing to rewash fabric and package up right afterwards. I would like to get same size pieces if at all possible. I do apologize for the quality of the scans, but i had to blur them a bit in order to tone down the grain showing up in the scans.

Kyle's quilt

This was a quilt I started for Kyle oh back in 98 :|. I was actually 'test driving' a pattern for a fellow quilter and for whatever reason; school, illness etc, I was unable to finish it. What kills me is that the top was just about done. I mean all I have to do is piece the blocks together and voila, top ready for sandwich and quilting. I'm such a twit sometimes. Back in 98 Kyle would have been 3 years old, now he's 12 1/2 :O (Where does the bloody time go) and the fabrics themselves are almost too young for him, but still borderline .. there are trucks (cartoonish), and fabric with dots, green fabric with yellow pooh bear type honey bees and just a yellow streaked one. I tried to import the fabric but quiltpro is being a pita about it so I approximated. Here's the best I could do.

The next issue is the size. Kyle recently moved up to a double sized bed due to the fact that his room is large enough for now. Now I have enough of the blue and red to do wide borders to increase the size as well as add another border on. OR I could do one more row of blocks and use 1 less border. It's all going to have to come down to math. What ever I have the fabric for, he gets. I'm thinking that the wider quilt (blocks are 14/5" unfinished) so that should more than compensate for it not fitting his bed.

The fabric isn't all that bad .. granted the trucks and the honeybees could be worse, but it's not as babyish as i feared. He has actually said, i don't care mum .. i think that he just wants another quilt by mum .. been a while since he's gotten one.

Quilt Quandry - what to do first?!?!?!?

For various reasons, i've not been able to quilt for roughly 5 - 6 years. for 4 - 5 of that time, my beloved fabric and sewing machines have been packed away in boxes. With the new house I gots a room that is shared with the computer (but of course ;)) that's for MY QUILTING :D :D :D>

As i'm unpacking my fabric, i'm getting all excited - it was like i was getting together with long lost friends. All my kitty fabrics, reproductions, watercolour fabrics, UFOs that are now WIPs ;) (amazing how not having something stare at you in the face for several years changes it's status!) ... then the quandry sets in - what to do first.

Kyle needs a new quilt since he's moved up to a double bed in the new house (but i've one in the works from a few years ago that might be big enough). Other quandry on this, the prints are almost to young for him; trucks and honey bees (pooh bear type honey bees), the other two fabrics should be fine.

Lap quilt for reg - his will be with his favourite sports teams logos on it and sports related blocks.

my kitty quilt - only been plotting this one for about 10 years - still plotting

sunny stars swap i did a few years ago

2 quilts for our bed; one winter one summer

finish quilting a charity quilt for sunshine i that is 1 hour from being finished note to self - find out where to send it

so essentially; 3 bed quilts (2 king and 1 double), 2 lap quilts, 1 charity quilt and other various WIPs (hand quilted kitty wall hanging, doll quilt (selling this item), Charity Attic Windows, kyle's bed quilt from a few years ago, sunny star swap blocks .. i think that i have them all ..