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Sunday, November 27, 2011

So much stuff

You ever have so much stuff in your head that it drives you crazy, and then you sit down to make a blog post?All gone.  All of it.  I need to start taking a notebook with me when I leave the house, since I usually think of things to write when I am out walking. (Although, I am pretty sure nothing of profound gravity will escape the vaporous confines of my cranium in any case.)

Oh yeah.  Walking.  Thursday morning I went for a run/walk.  Then I could barely walk the rest of the day.  Seems whatever is going on with my left foot gets WAY worse when I run/walk. WAY, way worse.  Like crawl to the bathroom if you have to go kind of worse. Friday I went swimming.  Yesterday (probably today too) I rested. I see the doctor Friday.
I put the pedal to the metal to get this lap quilt done for my MIL. Nothing fancy. I used my walking foot on all the quilting and quit when I finished the 4th bobbin. I finished the blue linen binding at 4:00 a.m.

I like the way it came out.  Simple though it is.
Joey likes it too.
Good for rolling about.
Until Kitten shows up.
Don't work to hard this week. Next Saturday I am going to a workshop with Pat Wys.  I have no idea what fabric I will use, but I intend to start the Scrappy Nines from the cover of her book.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Sunday Slow Time

And spent some time working on this quilt until my Joey fell asleep on it which made me have to change thread so I could zig-zag more karate belts together.
Kitten slept on the already-stitched belts.  I am still not sure what the belts will end up being, so I will put them away for now. 

Today is swimming and shopping day.  I may sneak off to church too. 

Friday, November 11, 2011

Other things going on

Mom took a class from Karen K. Stone some 6 or 7 years ago. Paper piecing was not Mom's idea of fun (even with Robyn Pandolph fabric), so she put the project away.  I never saw it until last year when Mom was cleaning out her studio.

The light was not quite right, and the whole quilt photo was not good.  I will try again soon. 
I strongly suggested we finish Rattlesnake, so we commenced working on it whenever I was able to fly up to visit her.  Last visit it had come back from the quilter and Mom had a binding choice picked out.  I suggested another binding that she already had cut and was the same fabric as the inner border.  Finally, she let me bring it to my house to finish up the binding.
I am liking this quilt (that sounds ridiculous; I totally love this quilt).  It is the only one Mom and I have worked on together.  I wish, wish, wish I lived closer to her so we could work on more projects together.
Meanwhile, at my house, the karate belts got a good washing and hung up to dry; then I started zig-zagging them together until I ran out of thread.
On my run to the store for more thread, I stopped by the thrift shop. It was my lucky day.  I was getting into the check out line to purchase a novel when I spied a colorful jacket.
Oh dear, five dollars worth of heaven on a hanger!  
Ellis Island is the novel I picked up, and then I stopped at the library to pick up a reserve they had waiting for me. I am reading The Warmth of Other Suns first, since it has to go back to the library.  I may not be doing any sewing this weekend.  You absolutely cannot put "Suns" down once you start it.  I am not going to say more about it except this: Get the book.  Read it.
And thank God for all the blessings in your life.
Amen.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Good Sunday

I bought this vintage gem of a New Home machine at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago.  When I got home and plugged it in it ran, but would not stop.  A friend in the HVAC department at work thought he could fix it, but we needed to work out a time for him to come get it with his truck.  This morning I decided it must be able to come out of the cabinet, so, armed with a screwdriver, I set to work getting it out of the cabinet.  Long story short; the motor now works with the knee bar!  Yeah me!  Now I have the challenge of finding a bobbin case for it.  
I had made some last minute purchases at the Georgia Quilt Show when it was here.  I couldn't let Primitive Gatherings and Auntie Ju's booths leave Atlanta without buying something.
Okay, let me explain this picture.  Remember I was cleaning out that storage unit?  I found a box of old karate belts that I'd collected from the karate school where I used to work in the 90s.  I'd made a pillow case from karate belts back then, and I'd wanted to make something else too, but never got around to it.  Last night I washed all the belts and hung them (all over the place) to dry.  What am I going to do with them?  Huh. I still don't know, but pictures will record whatever happens to them.
Kitten is just glad her favorite quilt is back from hanging in the shows.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Good Trade

I gave Dad his airplane quilt. He gave me a gooseberry pie. Good trade in my book.
Mom is doing well.  She looks wonderful.  I am concerned she is not doing enough exercising that new knee; she is also supposed to be checking her blood sugar, but that is not something she is interested in at all. I motivate students all day long at work, but I am at a loss how to motivate my mother. Actually, I don't motivate anyone.  I take the little sparks of effort a student makes and fan them to flames. Students do all the work.  I guess I am somewhat of a bellows?
While I was in Missouri I spent some time in the sewing studio adding binding to the Rattlesnake quilt.  I heard tap, tap, tapping outdoors, so I went to investigate and found a companion. This little woodpecker was busy enlarging the "door" of the birdhouse.
My great-grandmother, Stella Mae Irvin, who, with her husband Frank, lived on a farm in central Missouri near Versailles, made this baby quilt when my mother was pregnant with me.  I love this little quilt.  None of the knots are buried.  It represents my great grandmother's fearlessness and determination in quilt making, and, most of all, her blind, steadfast love for her family.  
It is the most beautiful quilt in my life.