Self Preservation

Photo from iStockPhoto

CarGuy's hearing isn't optimal because of a former job in a steel mill. So the volume on the teevee is kept on LOUD. This in turn hurts my ears because of the extreme sensitivity of my hearing: I can hear the the mosquito ring tones, can you? So we have been at an impasse on the teevee situation.

Until last evening.

For months I have been stalking this product. But it is really expensive, for me anyhow. And so I have been saving every penny. Suddenly, yesterday, I noticed this item on sale at $100 less. YES!! We went to the brick and mortar store and bought it.

Once at home, set up commenced. Easy peasy, until I had to make the remote from the satellite learn how to adjust the volume on the soundbar without adjusting the volume on the teevee. I taught it how but it didn't take until this morning. Ah, relief. The sound is much mellower than that of the internal teevee speakers.

Next step is to figure out how to turn off the internal speakers in the teevee.

UPDATE: the internal speakers are now off. Yipee! My jaw is also relaxed. I did not realize how much I was clenching my jaw because of that sound.

Signature Quilt

In 2007, I joined a signature block swap. I finally got the blocks set and quilted. This was a fun swap in which to participate and I now have friends from all over the world. The block we used was a variation of a classic signature/album block.

This small quilt is just the perfect size to cover the window in my basement sewing room and it is fun to look up at it to rest my eyes from close-up work by focusing on something further away. 

I hope you have experienced the fun of a swap.

Dry Discourse

Several years ago, a study by the Lotion Industry stated that the northern Colorado/southern Wyoming area was the itchiest place in the US. I believe it because of the amount of body lotion used in this household.

But that is not what I came to talk to you about. I came to discuss laundry. That mundane task that happens every week or so, or a least it should.

About 2 or 3 years ago, I switched to plain white vinegar from fabric softener because of the chemicals, dye and scents. I like the vinegar because it not only softens my clothes but it cleaned the gunk (technical term) from the dryer drum. Maybe too well.

Lately, I've noticed static, lots and lots of static. Static when I get out of the car and zap myself on the car door when I close it. Static when I touch the furnace thermostat at work, which, fortunately is not digital. I have had to start discharging my static electricity on metal (like file cabinets) before I sit down at the computer. I even zap CarGuy when we kiss. But the turning point was when I took freshly washed cotton quilting fabric from the dryer and all the raveled ends stood straight out from the fabric!

I went searching for an anti-static something, anything. My criteria included no spray, no chemicals, no scent. I found this product from Seventh Generation and this product from Method. I started with the Seventh Generation product and I think I'm in love. So far everything that I've pulled from the dryer is STATIC FREE!! Woot! Woot! When this box of dryer sheets is gone, I'll start on the ones from Method.

Sidebar: the bagger at Whole Foods Market asked me if I was having a dryer sheet emergency, which I found extremely funny. I told him my story in "four part harmony" and we both were laughing so hard we had others laughing just because we were laughing.

Update later the same day: I just finished doing a burn test on some of that "cotton quilting fabric" and it was just as I suspected -- there were some poly/cottons in the batch of free fabric.

National Quilting Day *AND* a Retreat

What could be better than going on a quilting retreat the weekend of National Quilting Day? How about being "forced" to stay inside because of this?

It didn't snow a lot in Cheyenne Wyoming but if you know anything about Wyoming it is that the wind blows. A. LOT. This storm was moving in on Friday so a lot of the ladies attending the retreat opted to go a day early, including me. Even though there was no snow on Thursday, there was a strong wind, the kind of wind that had the semi trucks pulled over onto the edge of the highway. This quilter persevered, though, because you cannot keep a quilter from retreat! It was a good thing that I took more projects than normal because with that extra day I was able to get more done. You will see those in upcoming posts.

There were 38 of us in one of the fancy conference rooms at the hotel and all of the ironing and cutting boards were set up in a smaller adjacent room. We even had a guild member who is a masseuse come and give massages. Divine!

I'll leave you with one of the very creative member's WIP. This quilt will be gifted to a daughter who is graduating from college as a music major. The black batik used in this has musical instruments and symbols all over it. Wonderful, wonderful quilt.

Geeky Girl

Did you notice? There is a subtle change to The Quilter's blog. I'm using the new "Blogger In Draft Template Designer" and I absolutely love, love, love it! Makes designing templates a lot easier. Too geeky for you?

One of My Five Applique UFOs

I have been quilting lately -- a lot. The Father Christmas triptych has been renamed The Gift Bringer because it is now one block not three and has a pieced border. Don't ask about the other two blocks, okay? I tried for some snow drifts in the lower portion of this wall hanging, but the snow morphed into shells. *shrug* The upper portion is quilted in a swirl that occasionally goes into a five pointed star. The color is terrible in this photo but I was working in bright sun with a north wind and was lucky to get it to lay flat.


This is actually my first real finish of the year. It's bound (remember the last post?) and labeled. Onward!

Practice, Practice

JudyL's (Patchwork Times) method of machine stitching binding onto a quilt has fascinated me. BUT. I don't ever, ever sew over pins with my Bernina 'cause if you hit one the results are not nice. What to do? I uncovered and dusted off (literally!) the old Singer treadle sewing machine.

I love this machine. It makes such a perfect, beautiful straight stitch. And if I sew over and accidentally hit a pin, the workings of the machine are simple and easy to get to so even I can fix it. There are a few rules of engagement, though, when working with a treadle.

1. Use a straight legged chair. No office chairs with rollers. That is, unless you just want to roll around and not really sew *smile*.
2. Wear shoes. Preferably athletic shoes, because the sole sticks just a bit to the treadle.

So here I was, treadling away on the bindings of two different small quilts. On the first one, I put the pins too far apart and pinned from the top side. Not good. I found out that pinning closer together is a key point in this technique, so on the second quilt I pinned about every inch. I also found that if I pinned from the back side the whole thing laid flatter on the machine bed. On the first quilt, there were a lot of places where I veered off the binding on the back which resulted in having to go back in and hand stitch it down in places. On the second quilt, the closer pinning worked and there were fewer 'skips'. But there are still issues with the second quilt.

This is just going to be a matter of practice. Lots of practice.

(Preliminary) Quilting

I wanted to see what Dwirling would look like on this Strip Twist pattern from Bonnie Hunter. This is one of three tops for Quilt of Valor that need to be quilted. I knew I needed to keep the quilting simple because the quilt top is so busy.

Here's the geeky girl way: I opened the photo in Adobe Photoshop Elements and added a layer above the quilt layer. With the smallest brush point and my old Wacom Graphire Tablet I started to draw my dwirling. I like it!

I found a deep enough scratch on the top of my tablet (how did that happen?) that might force me to buy a newer one since my pen keeps getting caught in the scratch. Do you know about the stuff that takes scratches out of the plastic headlamps on cars? I wonder if it would on my tablet? CarGuy has some... it might be time for a honey-do, doncha think?

I love it when a plan comes together.

Using up Wool Yarn

The vest shown is a before dyeing and after dyeing with blue kool-aid.

In the sewing room shake up, a lot of forgotten wool yarn was exposed. A lot. I've been knitting away on items for Wool-aid.  Here is their mission statement:  

Wool-Aid is a community of knitters and crocheters who create warm woolen garments for children who live in the coldest climates and have the least access to resources.

Our mission is to provide the very neediest children with wool socks, sweaters, vests, mittens, and hats, as well as wool baby blankets for newborns.

We work with organizations that have a focus on helping children and that are not religion-based. These organizations distribute the warm woolen garments handcrafted by Wool-Aid volunteers to children who would otherwise suffer from extreme cold

Because the request is for THICK woolen items I have been doubling the yarn. Boy, Howdy! is this a great stash buster. To date I have finished:

• 4 vests 
• 3 pairs of socks 
• 4 pairs of mittens 
• 6 hats 
• 1 baby blanket

Now to box them up and ship them out.

Being Green

March is Craft Month, did you know that? I think I did know that, but forgot. I do know that March is National Quilting Month and National Quilting Day is March 20. And before I forget again, you may want to watch the CandT Publishing Blog for crafty type items this month.

Anyway. I have actually done a bit of crafty type sewing recently inspired by Susan Being Snippy. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here so I suggest you go to her blog and look at her tutorial if you want to make this table covering. Her post made me hop up and go measure my round antique oak table that is used every day. And then I wondered if the rectangular flannel backed tablecloth I bought to use as a design wall many moons ago added to the miles and miles of elastic accumulating in the sewing room would work for this. Yes it would and here is the result made from just things that were around the house. I love it when a plan comes together.

Blogger Pages

You've probably heard the buzz about blogger pages. Well I decided to use it. See the tabs up there under my header? 'Home' and 'Freebies' is all I have right now, but I thought I'd put one up for the various tutorials that I have done too.

This and That

Using Bonnie Hunter's method of Leaders and Enders has resulted in lots and lots of 4-patches, some with white squares and some with off-white squares. I thought it was time to use some of them so I searched some downloaded patterns and came up with this one. It is a Mystery Quilt from Judy Hopkins called Golden Oldie that uses the Buckeye Beauty block. It is a perfect project for this and will result in a 45" x 60" donation quilt.

The weather here has improved so much and we are looking at a week of warm temps that has the melting snow turning the dirt road into a muddy mess.  There are streams of water running down the road and cutting ruts into it. I guess when everything dries out, it will be time to hire a road grader to come in and smooth it down.

The sewing room is still being modified. Do you know those plastic milk crates like this one? I had three of them under the fabric shelves just packed with yarn. Now there are none. Yahoo! Where did the yarn go? Wool-aid; I'll be blogging more about that later.

CarGuy and I sold our pop-up camper that fits into the bed of the pickup. We bought a sweet little 18 foot fully contained camping trailer. The only thing I don't like about the new one is the southwestern vinyl graphics on the outside. Lizards and spirals and suns -- O My! Those will be removed with patience and a heat gun. After a thorough cleaning inside and out I will try my hand at pin striping. No caffeine for this girl when she has a tiny little paint brush in hand. No siree!