A Saturday Work Day

• Several hours were spent this morning backing up the desktop computer, the external hard drive and the laptop. Hours. I should not have left it so long. I also copied all the PDF documents and PDF books onto the laptop so I can read them. What a concept. I tried reading them on the Kindle but it was so frustrating because I had to enlarge the font and then scroll to the right to finish the sentence and then back to the left and down for the next sentence was downright maddening.
• I was running low on laundry detergent so I made up a batch of this homemade version per Elaine's recommendation. You can't beat the price. I had an empty 5 gallon paint bucket that is now for laundry soap, it is a bit of overkill is you make a single batch, but if you make a double batch, believe me, you will need one.
• With the new, deeper mattress I have some cotton sheets that no longer fit and I am considering using them for the backs of quilts. Has anyone done this?
• Speaking of bedding, the quilt pictured at the top of this post is one I made Auntie in 1988. When she went into assisted living I regained ownership. This was the first queen sized quilt that I made and I made a sampler quilt because I wanted to try all these different blocks. I kept running out of reds and in the 1980's, 100% cotton was not readily available so this quilt has a lot of blends. It is interesting to note that the 100% cottons that ARE there have faded a lot. Each over-sized block (finished at 16.5") was separately lap-quilted ala Georgia Bonesteel. This is the first time I realized the value of a striped fabric: it makes it look pieced when it really isn't. The hand quilting has hearts and cables through a polyester batt.
• This weekend's sewing is to put together a Messenger Bag. I bought a kit for this at the Denver Quilt Festival last year from Sew Batik and I thought it was time to make it. Everything but the bag fastenings are in the kit, I just need to do it.

Wordless Wednesday - Red

Randomness

1. 04-jan, 2. 02-feb, 3. 03-mar,
4. 04-apr, 5. 05-may, 6. 06-jun,
7. 07-jul, 8. 08-aug, 9. 09-sep,
10. 10-oct, 11. 11-Nov, 12. 12-dec

• Now that Joey's quilt (Double 4-Patch Emergence) is done, I've been working once again on this quilt. What you see here are the completed 12 blocks. All the prep work completed for the rest of the applique pieces. Progress reports will be forthcoming. It has been good to get back to the handwork.

• On the knitting front, what I thought was going to be a sweater turns out to be a coat!!! The clue was in the name of the pattern: Autumn Coat by Oat Couture. Some yarn, Superwash Bulky by Brown Sheep in a colorway called Purple Haze, picked up at a fiber related garage sale several years ago is turning this pattern into a warm coat. For you knitters out there, this is a no-twist yarn and is a dream to work with.

• Dealing with governmental agencies has tied my stomach into knots. 

• Spring is springing 'cause the flickers are back. Photo is lifted from the American Birding Association site. These birds have cost us a lot of money by drilling holes in two different sides of the garage. On one side, they got into the wall and pulled out the insulation. There were pink tufts of insulation all over the yard. Let me tell you how hard that was to pick up. The problem was solved by installing fiber cement siding. Bet their beaks got bent at the first rat-a-tat-tat. But now they have started on the house. Ugh.

Fabric Purchases

Do you remember this post about the three gift certificates I had? Well, two of them have been used. Yes, indeedy, I went shopping. Wanna know what I got? Well, fabric of course!

My friend, MagicLady, and I went on a Saturday afternoon to two different shops in two different towns. The first shop was a new one and I ran amuck. These fabrics came home with me.

Isn't that yummy? The top two are batiks. All but $6.00 of the gift card was used up. At the second shop, I found two portions of a panel by Moda (Red, White & Bold by Sandy Gervais) on the clearance table. I thought they would make good pillowcases/presentation cases for QOV.

These portions were actually the top and bottom sections of a panel like this one:

I need to double check on the required size of the cases. It would be nice if 2 cases could be made from these but if not, then there will be one really nice one with scraps. I did not have a gift card for these. *shrug*.

The next stop was online at Connecting Threads. By adding some money to the gift coupon this kit jumped into the virtual shopping cart.

I significantly added to the stash in the last several weeks. There is still one more certificate to go and that will get used next week when the shop is having their anniversary sale.

Wordless Wednesday - Stanley's Eyebrows

2011 Wool-Aid Knitting

I have been doing things, knitting things. I am de-stashing the yarn by knitting for Wool-Aid. Items are being blocked as I type and will soon be boxed up and shipped out.

Wordless Wednesday - Tulips

First Finish of 2011

"I'm so pumped thank you thank you!!" "Its totally awesome!!!!!" These are the two text messages I received from the recipient of this quilt. Isn't it nice to have a quilt really appreciated?

This is a double 4-patch and I have called the quilt "Emergence". Why Emergence? Because the secondary design created by the color emerges when you take a second look. The quilt measures 90x108" and made totally from scrap, including the batting. This was quilted on my domestic sewing machine in sections and then joined. The backing was the last of a bolt of fabric purchased at a church rummage sale.

Wordless Wednesday - Chaos