2020 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - Day Four - Favorite Tools

Favorite tools (and other notions)....this could be a very long list! But, I will try to just pick my top few!

I love the Apliquick tools. I have the turning rods, the medium sized three hole scissors and some of the glue. The glue I find a bit expensive so I have switched to using Elmer's School Glue Sticks - the one that goes on purple but dries clear. I have some of the Apliquick fusible too. I want to get the box to hold the tools that I saw on Kathy McNeil's store - maybe Santa will bring that for me!

Thread stand. This is just one of those things that makes my life so much easier when I am sewing on Jenny Lind. I think it was one of my earliest quilting related purchases.

Superior MonoPoly. I use this for a lot of quilting, both machine and by hand (its' a little trickier by hand - but I have worked out the kinks and it does quite well.)

InvisiFil thread - for applique, I use this stuff or Superior's Kimono silk...but mostly this because a friend and I bought all the collection boxes one year between the two of us and she spooled out half of hers for me on bobbins and half of mine for her so we have the full gamut of colors.

Martelli ergo rotary cutter - when I first got this, I didn't like it much and almost gave it away. But then I practiced with it and I almost can't use other cutters anymore - well, at least they feel more awkward!

InkTense pencils and Tsukineko inks - I love color and I love that both of these are colorfast. The pencils are a bit more portable, but I do like both. I have used other products like the PaintStiks but the overwhelming odor on those is too much to bear!

I LOVE clips! First I just had just the Clover ones but they are too expensive...so I buy the inexpensive kind by the bagful and don't worry if I loose one here and there...Only had one break so they are pretty useful.

And...I cannot do applique without this thimble! Comfort Thimble....it's getting harder and harder to find this thimble - I hope I never loose all of the ones I have! Only place I have found it lately is on the maker's website -  ComfortThimbles.com - they are a wee company in Oregon. There is another thimble with the same name that is put out by Dritz... but it's nowhere near as good as this one. Most plastic thimbles make my finger sweat and then the thimble falls off. This one does not.. I have a large collection of failed thimbles!

Link to the Muppin Blog Writing Challenge

2020 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - Day Three - My Machine!

Well now...that a silly prompt if you think I only have ONE machine!! 

I have my main machine - Jenny Lind (because she is a Singer!) - a 9020 which is not a common Singer machine. My Parents got her at a special sale - I have not ever seen another one like her, except my Sister's - but then my Parents got one for her too at the same time! My Parents got buyer's remorse after they bought the two machines, wondering it they would turn out to be duds...but I have been using mine since I started quilting in 2001. And relatively easy to service (I do most of my own servicing)

She is a good basic workhorse of a machine - only thing I dislike on her is the reverse button - it's hard to hold in. If they had only kept the lever idea from the earlier machines!

Next up is my Treadle machine that I restored - Aurora - A Red-eye Singer. I was happy as a clam doing the restoration work. The guy I got her from said his mother used her as a plant stand (!) and that the treadle belt had been broken since he was a young boy. EEP!!! Somewhere in Aurora's history she was exposed to smoke - she is not quite old enough for it to be oil lamps so probably at least one person smoked. The amount of grime that came off during cleaning...not only on the machine head, but on the cabinet as well.

And her little sister - Alis (Borealis) - a Singer 99 - alternately, and mistakenly called a Featherweight - but its not a real Singer Featherweight (I want one of those too!) At 22 pounds, she is NOT light to carry. I restored her too. Looks like she might be due for a bit more polishing on the bobbin winder!

Then there is the serger - O Brother - and not surprisingly, he is a Brother 1034D. He kinda scares me, so he mostly stays in his tote bag.

Rockette - a Singer 500a 'Rocketeer' with the #42 cabinet - it needs refinishing and the top hinges on the machine are sadly busted. This was given to me for my wedding by my maternal Grandmother. Someday I hope to find a stool like in this picture - I think Grandma HAD the stool, but might have forgotten to give it to me when we went to pick up the machine. My Mom has one that might work but I think it might be a bit wider than the official stool. My cabinet is a bit darker than this photo - oak finish, I think.

And Goldie - a Singer Golden Touch and Sew 630 which has the dratted plastic camstack so it keeps going out of timing. I hold on to her because I really LIKE some of her features and I keep hoping someday I can either get a set of metal cams, or I could turn her into a felting machine. The most peculiar thing on this machine is the normal foot - it's got rubber pads under it that interface with the feed dogs - and the rubber disintegrates, sigh. But, I love the 'wind the bobbin in the bobbin case' feature.

Elvie - the Singer 15 that my Grandfather bought brand new for my Grandmother, passed down to my Dad and then leant to my maternal Grandmother who made quilts for the poor with her Dorcas group. She kept a stable of machines in her mobile home for the Dorcas ladies to use. When she passed away, my Dad asked me if I wanted it - silly question! OF COURSE I wanted it! (Seen here piled high with my pincushion collection) You might be able to make out some of the writing on the case - my Dad wrote how to thread the needle and some other handy tips for the Dorcas ladies in red pen. My Dad recalls his first sewing task was making sails for their sailboat in the 40's. My Grandfather also used the machine - I have several puppets that he made the clothes for with this lovely old lady. 

La Donna - a 431G machine that my friend bought to make baby clothes with when her hubby was stationed in Germany. I just was blessed enough to obtain the 'unicorn' throat plate for this machine - I might need a different bobbin case but supposedly, I should be able to make her chainstitch - I've been meaning to try it out!

And just for fun - a music box treadle given to me by my Daughter and a Lego sewing machine that I got as a door prize at the Retreat I go to annually!

You can just see the bag that covers La Donna under Aurora's cabinet behind the Lego machine. As we learned yesterday, I have TOO MUCH STUFF! 

Link to the Muppin Blog Writing Challenge

2020 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - Day Two - My Sewing Space

My sewing space is pretty cramped. I most definitely have more 'stuff' than space!

My main space used to be my son's bedroom when he was living at home. I also have stuff in my daughter's old bedroom which does double duty as my office for work.

The main room houses a drafting table that I have had since my early college days that serves as my cutting board. There is a filing cabinet that belongs to G, on top of which is the storage for my excess wall hangings. A desk that used to belong to my son that has the household internet connection devices. A short bookcase that is piled high with my button collection. A rolling cabinet that has a printer on it. Two steel shelving units that hold books, batting, ribbons, an old fashioned sewing machine case that I probably should get rid of since no one in their right mind would want to haul a sewing machine in that case when they have a perfectly good rolling case stored under the drafting table. The pressing surface - my old ironing board with a wood Big Board that my Dad made several years ago, is snuggled up to the drafting board. My display wall - it originally was going to be my design wall, but its too hard to reach so I pin stuff to the flannel. And...an old computer table with the keyboard dropdown that my main sewing machine lives on. Sometimes I have to turn sideways to get into parts of the room!

In my daughter's old room, I have my extra sewing machines- we'll learn more about them tomorrow! And some projects on the bottom bunk of her old bunk bed.

Sorry its way tooooooo messy to photograph! I need to do a thorough cleaning but may not get to that until Christmas break. 

This is a project that was on my Big Board (with the edge of the drafting table)....it shows a wee bit of my sewing room!

Link to the Muppin Blog Writing Challenge

2020 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge - Introduction

 Heh...I decided to try the blog writing challenge from Cheryl Sleboda of Muppin.com . Let's see if I can keep it up - every day for the entire month. Probably more posts than the whole rest of the year!

The first prompt is Introduction. OK -  Hang on to your hats and glasses - we are in for a wild ride!

I had gone to a Craft Show with a few of my friends. I was not a quilter - yet. We went to a demo of the Jodi Barrows 'Square in a Square' ruler because my quilter friend noticed the class was about getting Perfect Points. 

The lady demo-ing this ruler was so fun. She did the demo and then asked "Why would someone cut up perfectly good fabric into tiny squares, just to sew it back together again?" The answer she said was "Why, to make it more beautiful"...that made perfect sense to me. So when she asked if anyone in the audience thought they could use this ruler - you set it down on the block by lining it up on the seams and whack off what sticks out, I kind of said under my breath "I think I could do that", my friends all turned towards me, like I had grown a new head or something and were totally amazed. 

We trooped over to the vendor booth right after the demo and all three of my friends bought the ruler. I was still a bit on the fence - but my friends said we could share the ruler at a Craft Day - we periodically would meet at one or the other's houses to indulge in Crafting. 

One friend had a sewing room that all of us could meet in. I went to Walmart, Husband G helped me pick out three fabrics, I took my hither-too unused sewing machine down to her big sewing room and they taught me how to use the rotary cutter and how to use my machine and how to chain piece. 

I got a good bit done at that first meeting - went home, co-op'ed the kitchen table, worked like a dog and had the quilt quilted by the next weekend when a couple of us got together to go Christmas Shopping - I was the first one of the group done. And that is how I became a quilter!

My Mom bought me my own Square in a Square ruler for Christmas that year.

It's a neat ruler...those points are Pointy! and Perfect!

I still use this quilt. It's had to have the binding replaced and some of the quilting has popped, but it is a favorite. There is so much that I still had to learn about how to start and stop quilting and about burying thread tails. And how to measure borders -  I just laid the fabric up against the center - hence the kind of 'friendly' waves in the outer border. I did the most difficult quilting for a beginner to try - stitch in the ditch. I dived right in!

I backed it with fleece so it is very cuddly. The original pattern on the ruler had the star points alternating colors, but I decided to make them match. And the size for the original pattern was just a wall hanging but I knew if I didn't make something I could use, I would not want to continue quilting, so I figured out how much extra fabric I needed to make it couch quilt sized - and bought extra just in case! (Turned out I needed the extra red for the replacement binding)

Link to the Muppin Blog Writing Challenge

Quilter's Run 2019

Ah...the Quilter's Run...

We Did It Again!

It was a blast as usual...we ended up in Norco at Quilted Together and they had this cute photo station set up. The theme for their shop had something to do with cooking so they made cute aprons and we had mixing bowls and rolling pins and spatulas as props. I forget what the whole theme of the Run was.

This year the theme will be Parties...if they even HAVE it this year and if we decide to go, if they do have it. With the Quarantine/Stay at home requests, I don't know if its a good idea to even plan for it.

I do love going on our journey though...the four of us have done it every year but one since we started. And we get our I DID IT bars for our pin collections (The husbands claim those are IDIOT bars). Sometimes its pretty close to the closing time for that last couple of stores and we hold our breath but somehow we have managed it...with careful planning, timed visits to the stores (we usually plan 20 minutes per store with a couple of our favorites getting a bit more and a few of our non-favorites getting a bit less), using the GPS in several devices, and praying that the traffic will not mess us up.

Road To California - Party Time

This year was a bit skimpy for the classes...I thought about going for some of the lectures but just did not have more than the Monday and Thursday reserved for Road - we have been super busy at work and since I hadn't paid any money for them, I decided to just skip them.

I did go to Party Time...that is always a blast and we came away with a bunch of goodies.

I met my friend Sabrina in the afternoon - she had gone to the preview night they always have on Wednesday night before the full show opens, so she had already seen the quilts. I went about an hour or so earlier than we were meeting and looked at the quilts until she got there - she was taking a class on Dresden Plates. We went thru the vendor mall, I bough a couple of things, she bought a couple of things. We went over to line up for Party Time as soon as they closed the show for the evening...and that was not quite soon enough to get into the very front of the line, though we were closer than we have ever been. Sabrina's hubby went and got us food from Wendy's and we ate it in line. We were hoping to meet up with some other friends that come to the show from Las Vegas, but one of them had a medical emergency in the family so they all stayed home.

So we played games, we won prizes, we laughed, we ate tasty snacks...it was a fun night!

Road To California - Day One

This year I took a class from Rosa Rojas, the inventor of the Appliquick Tools. I used the tools for the 'For Ann' piece that I started the prior Road and wanted to learn if Rosa had more tricks that would be useful. Indeed she did have more tricks and I got done with prepping this piece that Rosa called 'Little Boy' and learned a lot. Those wee little buttons...you turn them with the tools and amazingly, they come out perfect. I have the pattern for her even SMALLER figures ice skating...there they are on the bottom picture!

An 'Exciting' Night

I wrote this on October 15th....

I had an 'exciting' night last night...I was down at my parents. We ate dinner and then it was time for me to go home - we put my Mom in bed and my Dad was in the bathroom..my Sis walked out with me to my car - she wanted to see the Moon since it was still close to being the full Hunter's Moon...I kinda turned around a bit and o.m.g...I saw smoke  and an eerie  red glow and it was CLOSE... both my Sis and I were instantly terrified...we kinda ran down the sidewalk and the passageway between the next door neighbor and his next neighbor was on FIRE!!!! Flames were shooting up over the top of the building - its two story...so my Sis called 9-1-1 and I went up and banged really loudly on the screen door and shouted at the top of my lungs...THERE IS FIRE IN YOUR HOUSE!!! The flames were roaring and I could feel the heat...I scurried back to the sidewalk as both houses the residents came out (saving me from having to bang on the other neighbor's door - he came out to see what the racket was!)...Sis called out to the next door neighbor's kid to get a hose...they started hoses from both houses...and we found out a bit later that the neighbor behind them also had a hose going full bore...about this time 4 or 5 police cars came roaring up...and started to take charge of the situation.. a minute or two later 4 large firetrucks and the fire captain showed up - actually a bit late to the party as the hoses had reduced the fire to just embers...meanwhile...I moved my car from the street into my parents driveway to get out of the way of the firetrucks...there was no leaving that street at that point!....all the neighbors were out in the street...and so many were in front of the houses that had the fire that the firemen bellowed 'GET OFF THE SIDEWALK! My parents have lived in that house since 1975 and I think this was the first time we meet all those neighbors!! Dad and Mom are both profoundly deaf...but my Mom could see all the flashing lights and sent my Dad out to see what was going on..we were so scared that we were going to have to evacuate them...but..all's well that ends well...someone said it was a couch between the houses that was on fire..how?..that is one for the mystery books.

My Sis says the next order of business is to clear out THEIR passageway!! it has some overgrowth...

My poor knuckles are bruised purple...but we got to see hunky firemen in their uniforms!

The House Hippo

One of the Facebook groups I belong to has this thing about House Hippos. The notion of a House Hippo comes from a Canadian PSA. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBfi8OEz0rA

So everyone in that group is constantly looking for their very own House Hippo.

My granny lived in a mobile home park called the Fountain of Youth Spa in Niland, near the Salton Sea for many years, She had a friend, Glenn, who carved many wooden items as a hobby. I found the hippo in a container of things that he carved and gave to my granny. I have a couple of his birds - a goose and a quail - with flappy wings hanging from my planters in the living room. 

So my very own House Hippo came to live with me. I named him Henry.

Do you have your own House Hippo?

Fruits and Vegetables

This is a hexie piece that I worked on most of the spring and summer in 2019. In October, I started putting it together. It will be a table runner when it gets done. The main body is done, but it needs...something...

I thought about appliqueing it to a couple of yellow linen placemats. May still do that. It is waiting to be finished.

I started out glue basting the pieces, but ran out of glue when I was staying at my parents. I remembered on of the gals from Retreat uses a thread basting technique where you leave the basting in when you take the paper hexie pieces out... so I tried that and discovered I like that method much better than the glue. 

The hexies were put together using the 'flat back' stitch. Nothing shows on the right side of the seam so it looks very elegant. 

The 'fruits' part of the fabrics were from one of the Quilter's Runs in the last few years. I got a packet of 2.5 inch squares stuff with these yummy fruit fabrics. The oranges are the centers of the flowers. The other fruits, apples, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries are the petals on the hexie flowers. The leaves are veggie prints I have collected over the years. I used three different greens.

In October I went to Texas for work. It was interesting to meet team members who were mostly just voices up to that point. We stayed in a very nice hotel and my boss, who has club privileges, let me join her for dinner and breakfast..and the food was very tasty! We had dinner one night at an Indian food place. I got 'gajar halwa' which is a very tasty carrot pudding...YUM!

The Attack of the Micro Mini Ants

I loathe red ants... big ones, small ones and especially these almost microscopic red ants that infested us in August of 2019. You would not believe how big the welts were from something that small. It's that wee brown spot to the left of the dime. I put my arm down at the kitchen sink and man, those wee beasties were all over my arm in nothing flat. 

It was time to Amdro the house again. Not quite sure why it works or how it works, but it is a barrier bait that ants that turn up their noses (antlers? feelers?) at normal ant poison will happily ingest. Which gets rid of the colonies for at least 3 months. Best stuff on the market.

A Long Time, No Posts..

Has it really been over a year since last I blogged?

During that time Blogger changed! Working thru what changed is interesting.

Many things have happened over this last year. I probably won't remember all of them, but I have found having a record is very useful.

I will try to catch up.  And...not be so bad about posting!

May of last year...we went to a little town in Nevada for a mini vacation. Pahrump. Means 'Water Rock'. This was taken at a very nice lake. We stayed over night in an RV. That was an experience. It was a nice RV, albeit shaky. Not sure, but we probably won't be buying one anytime soon! The drive out to Pahrump is pretty lonely once you get past Baker. We did see a couple of donkeys grazing on the sparse vegetation but other than that, only a few cars. We rented a Chrysler 300 so we went in style.

The Hills are Alive.....with Mustard!

Driving home I had to stop and snap a picture or two of the mustard covered hills..this is just a shot from my mobile..the yellow was way more intense than this shows. So beautiful!

MaryJane, the Pirate Gecko

So..Mr Gecko arrived at my house in due time...I made six sandy colored fabric squares for the background...but Mr Gecko has undergone a sex change (suggestion by one of the ladies from Retreat)  and is now going to be referred to as MaryJane, the Pirate Gecko!

Notice the wee pirates in her lower hind foot...that and of course her belly explains the name...

She will have purple outlining...and purple borders...with a sandy striped fabric for the binding...
And I may even give her a eye patch...

QuiitMama Class at Retreat

Our speaker again this year is a gal who is known as 'QuiltMama' - Jessica Dickenson...She gave her second half of her trunk show (we had the first part last year!) and wowzers...she has some unique ways of creating quilts! Can't show any of those pictures here...but if you get a chance to go to her trunk show, its wonderful!

A bunch of us took her class on Silhouettes and Circles....you 'make' fabric, either for the background or the foreground figures...and trace a shape (or shapes!) onto Heat N Bond Lite...

For mine, I did butterflies....

I opted for making the fabric for the butterflies and applying them to my blue FQ....
Others did black silhouettes on made fabric..but I really don't care much for that style...

I have blanket stitched the outlines...but that is as far as I have gotten...hope to get it done before next year's Retreat.

One of the gals at my table did a gecko..she got home and decided she didn't care much for the Heat N Bond technique (she much prefers back-basted needle turn applique)...so she sent him to me...

Mr Gecko peeled off the black background (he wasn't all the way fused)...so I just had her send me Mr Gecko...going to try my hand at making fabric for his background...maybe in light pink, light orange, light beige....sand colors.. Have to audition some fabrics! If lights don't work...will go with darks!

AZ Retreat 2019 Sewing

This year at the Arizona Retreat we made charity quilts.....
A whole bunch of charity quilts!

Here are a few that I was involved with:

I added the borders to a Froggie panel and birthed the quilt....LeeAnn quilted it after Retreat.
The back was a cute piece of fabric that I had for years...Frogs on Scooters....It will make some kid happy!

I made a whole bunch of receiving blankets too....

I think I made at least 6 or 7.....

and I made a Quilt As You Go lap quilt with a couple of layer cakes - one was a layer cake of  white Cuddle fabric that I got from Party Time at Road To CA last year and the other was one of an Oriental fabric medly - it will keep someone warm but that is about the best that can be said for it! I don't think anyone even got a picture of it...(Ya can't win them all!)

Post Kyphoplasties...and Other Stuff

A couple of weeks ago, I had two kyphoplasties...on T12 and L1...
I had NO pain from the actual surgery sites...and they have healed up very nicely! Very happy I had them done....
I,  however,  have had unrelenting pain from what the ER doc said was Sciatica...but which I really think is the nerve that runs down the thigh muscle...technically known as the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve...I am taking heavy-duty muscle relaxers...This condition was probably caused by being flat on my tummy on the operating table for the kyphoplasties...sigh...if I have any more of them, will ask them to put a pillow under my hips!!

Thank goodness I can sleep!

I am working on a sweatshirt conversion....I bought this lovely mint colored sweatshirt right before Christmas and hadn't worn it yet...came back from Retreat with a chunk of Laurel Burch fabric and lo and behold, it has that same mint green so OF COURSE, I had to design a way to use the scrap of fabric on my sweatshirt...

I wanted to convert it to a zip up...with pockets...and I just happened to have a separating zipper in blue! And..it will have a collar made of the bottom banding....

I still have some work to do on the zipper....needs the stops at the top of the neck...that is the next thing I am working on.

It will have cuffs and a bottom border (just draped for effect!)...and the pockets are made of the focus fabric lined with the cuffs banding

Oh..and see my latest sewing machine acquisition...isn't it cute? Was my door prize at Retreat....

Will leave you with some pictures of the snow in So Cal this Feb...its been an incredible year for rain, rain, rain - or as we call it - Liquid Sunshine (cuz you know 'It Never Rains in California'!!) These are our three big mountains....

Mt Baldy

Idyllwild

Big Bear from Lamb's Canyon

Butterfly Quiltlet Done

I finished off stitching the butterfly and its background during the week. My foot for FM is not as good as the one on the Bernina that I was using at Road, but I made do...Cut out the butterfly from the background and soaked off the Solvy and the interfacing..Soaked off the Solvy on the background piece too.

Here is what they looked like before I got to work on them yesterday:

 Now...if I were making something that looked like the teachers - this is where I would have started quilting. For reference...this is Nancy's butterfly:

But...I am ornery and thought that the thread sketching should have color and so..I got out my Inktense pencils and colored away! Here's what it looked like when I was done coloring - before quilting:

I added wool batting..probably should have picked a thinner batting..but I wanted the puff in the flower and leaves - it almost is like trapunto.. Was going to bring the green backing to the front but...that just did not want to work..so I cut the green off and it was just long enough to make a binding. My poor hopping foot got stuck when I was stitching the butterfly to the base and partially cracked - it probably can be repaired with plastic glue...but for now..its out of commission...sigh...

Here is the finished piece:

I like it!