Another Flimsy

As promised, I've continued to work on the quilt of greens. Nine-and-a-half months after buying the fabric, and with my sewing room looking like a small explosion has erupted, the quilt top is finished. Cutting the various widths and lengths of fabric into strips to make up the blocks wasn't fun, but having seen this pattern on other quilters' blogs, I knew it was one I wanted to make. Once. And what possessed me to piece this complicated friendship braid border is beyond me. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at the piecing. So I advise you not to click and enlarge the photo. Please. Control yourself. You'll be sorry if you ignore my plea.

I've got some busy days coming up, so it may be a while before I get to the batting and backing stage. And, news flash: I'm keeping this quilt for myself!

Just Like I Was Told... Sort of

I intended to go to the Dollar Store to get a (cheap) gift bag for wrapping my recently-made apron. My friend, Sarah, of Red Gingham fame, suggested instead that I wrap it in leftover fabric and tie a bow around it. Well, I took that idea a step further and made a reusable tote bag. I didn't have enough of the floral fabric to line the bag with, but I found some other fabric in my stash that would work, so here it is... all ready for gift-giving tomorrow.

Git 'Er Done

As usual, a date for a bridal shower was creeping up on me, and I needed to get a gift ready. I chose the same apron pattern that I used here, but instead of the straight trim pieces, I made it with scallops. When I first saw the green plaid fabric from Phillip and Lystra, I immediately thought, "Apron." Even though I used part of the fabric for this bag, I was pretty sure there would still be plenty for the apron. I found the --ah -- inexpensive, shall we say, floral fabric at one of the few remaining Wal-marts that actually have fabric. I like to look at the bride's online gift registry so that I can choose colors that won't clash horribly with her kitchen, and so that I can get an idea of her style. This particular bride has chosen Fiesta Ware for her everyday dishes, so the clear, bright colors of this apron will be perfect.

Here's a close-up of the front.

The apron is fully lined in the floral fabric. I didn't like the way the label turned out for the first apron, so here's what I did this time. It's on the inside of the bib part.Finally, I got smart and made the gift-enclosure card to match.Now all I have to do is go by the Dollar Store and find a suitable (and matching!) gift bag. And I "got 'er done" a whole five days before the shower.

Hello, Friends

Last week I sent a couple of gifts to Karen, creator of The Selvage Blog. I have been enjoying the creative inspiration of her blog for several years now, and she has featured some of my selvage creations there. It was time to say, "Thank you!" for first opening up the idea to me that selvages are usable. My only regret is for the 40-ish years that I cut off selvages and threw them away!

In addition to one of my bookmarks, I sent her a needlework companion book, complete with a selvage cover. The book has dividers and blank pages for making notes about projects, threads, fabrics, etc., and a small zippered pocket in the back for holding swatches or samples. Here's what the front cover looks like.
And here's the back. A few close-ups, including one of the hidden button/elastic closure: Take a close look at the number 6 in the next photo. These color dots are supposed to be a single color, but this one looks like rainbow sherbet!

And the selvage on the orange, dotted fabric is different from most.

Click this link to check out Karen's blog. You just might find me there today.

I'm Still Among the Living

Yes, I'm still here. In addition to my two regular at-home bookkeeping jobs, I'm about to start a third, and there are two more potentially out there. So, I'm staying plenty busy!

We finally had some fall-like weather last week, and it was nice to open the windows and turn on the attic fan. Blinky thought so, too. Remember this little bundle? I've had it for over eight months, and it is gradually becoming a quilt. I promise.The gooseneck lamp in my sewing room is great for keeping strips close by!
Although I'd like to finish it in the next few weeks, don't hold your breath!

Win-Win

I love baseball, especially the Atlanta Braves. I've been following them for roughly forty years, through the dismal 1970s and 80s when they usually were mathematically eliminated from being contenders by the All Star break, into the exciting 1990s when they won a record fourteen-straight championships (most straight by any pro sports team -- not just baseball), and into the new millennium.

I also love to sing, and I've been a part of various choirs for longer than I've been a baseball fan. Currently, I sing in the choir at Midway Presbyterian Church. On Monday, my two loves were combined as my church choir sang the national anthem at the Braves game. We submitted a recording to the Braves about this time last year, and at the start of the season this year, they called to invite us. August 30 just happened to be the date that worked for the majority of choir members.

This is uncharted cyber-territory for me, but hopefully there will be a You Tube link here that will let you see and hear our rendition of The Star Spangled Banner.



Singing at the game itself was not uncharted territory for me. Back in the late 1970s, I sang in a community chorus that was invited twice to sing. That was back in the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, so this was my first time to set foot on the grass of Turner Field. The Braves won the game, 9-3, and a good time was had by all.

Yum, Yum

Emily and the kiddos came over for supper last night, then Alexa spent the night with us. I think Jordanna enjoyed her meal.Emily was smart and stripped her down to just a diaper beforehand. Afterwards, this little critter went directly to the bathtub... ...leaving Grammy to deal with the fallout.

I Spy

I grew up with cats and even though James didn't, we've had many over our thirty-five years of marriage. We've never had more than four at a time (that was too many) but we've rarely had just one. Blinky is just one. It was obvious some time back that Blinky is a dominant feline, and after my beloved Daisy died a couple of years ago at age 17, we didn't think that Blinky would appreciate it if we introduced a new critter to the household. To put it a bit more succinctly, we were afraid she'd kill a kitten! Blinky is also the only cat who has ever been allowed to sleep with us. This was James' idea, not mine. Remark- ably, she parks herself at the foot of the bed, and stays right there all night. Conveniently, it is James' side of the bed. She will attempt a more prestigious spot on the bed, but once she's directed to move to her appointed place, she will.

Last night, I had been lying in bed flipping back and forth between baseball and football on TV. I got up for something or other, and when I returned, here's where I found the cat.
She didn't stay for very long, though.

A First

When you get to be a half-century plus, there aren't a whole lot of firsts left in life. (I think my first time to go snow skiing isn't going to happen now.) Last evening, I got a phone call that was a first. I could tell that it was going to be a recorded message, something I got way too many of during the primary and run-off elections, and expect to get more of come November. But the recording began with, "This is Cobb County 911 Emergency Services." Now that will sort of get a person's attention. It went on to describe a missing girl who was last seen several hours earlier at an intersection a couple of miles from our house. Now I knew that enhanced 911 meant that Emergency Services could pinpoint a location based on caller ID, but I never thought about it working in reverse... them calling us. On second thought, I vaguely remember a request from the county to give them all our contact numbers to make it easier for them to let us know of an emergency situation in our area, but I expected it to be something like telling us to evacuate if there were a wildfire or flood in the area. "Big Brother" is definitely watching us, but I guess I'm OK with it if a missing child is found safe. And in this age of technology, is there really any choice but to acknowledge Big Brother's existence?

Favorite of Favorites

I like just about all the postcards I've made (I found it hard to send out the few that I didn't like), but this one ranks high on my list of personal favorites. It went out yesterday to a friend who just had surgery. Like me, she's been a seamstress for most of her life, but I recently introduced her to (and infected her with) the quilting bug. (Not my computer bug, which could have made her un-friend me.)

Unthinkable

Well, the unthinkable happened, and my computer went down with a virus again. With this rebuild, James loaded a different anti-virus program, and I've installed some additional Internet Explorer security tools. Even though Firefox is supposed to work better against viruses, I sure didn't find that to be the case.

Now I have this backlog of pictures and information. This dates back more than a month, but Emily and her crew, dressed as cows, attended Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a and were rewarded with free food for their efforts. My mom was trying to figure out how to put some of my late step-father's Masonic items into a shadowbox, so rather than explain how I'd do it, I just asked her if I could take the stuff and the box with me. Here's what I did, and she liked it.

Although I haven't done anything major, I've still spent a little time at the sewing machine.I've also been experimenting with bookmarks, from the inspiration of my baby sister. I haven't done a lot of searching yet, but I'd like to find a heavier card stock than what I usually use for the postcards. I also went back and added a little loop of ribbon at the tops of the bookmarks.I need to finish assembling the blocks for a quilt that I've been working on for a while, but I couldn't resist playing around a bit with a new project. No details yet, but here's what I've started.

Creating for a Cause

When we returned from vacation a few weeks ago, there was a note from my mailman requesting that I call him about making a couple more cards for him. I had very little time to create this birthday card for his daughter to give to her grandmother. (Given longer, I'm sure I could have come up with something better!)
It's a good thing I had a little more time on the second card because he wanted something with the breast cancer pink ribbons on it, and I didn't have any fabric like that. Rather than scour my county on foot (actually, I would drive my car), I went on Ebay and found something suitable. Although I had to buy an entire yard, with shipping, it was still just $6 so that was reasonable. Here's the card I made for him to send as an encouragement to a friend who is undergoing chemotherapy.
I'm also trying to remember and support a friend at church who should be nearly finished with her chemotherapy now. I gave her this quilt at the first of the year, and I've continued to send my handmade cards at regular intervals. I decided to use some of the remaining fabric to make a tote bag for her, and this is it.
Now you can see that I only used a small portion of the fabric's design for the mailman's card.

Here's a closer shot of the fabric and handle detail.
I didn't want to use the pink fabric for handles, because I only had enough to go crosswise, which would have looked weird. So I decided to use the green plaid that came in a fun box from Phillip and Lystra for the lining and handles. In order to make it look more like I really meant to use the green for the handles, I embroidered the hot pink flowers.

There is one interior pocket.
Since our mailman comes pretty late in the afternoon, I think I still have time to get this tote packaged up and out in my mailbox. Especially if I get off the computer now!

Not Really My Thing

I don't think I ever showed you the picture of the vase of flowers I arranged a few months ago. Last December, I signed up to provide flowers in our church sanctuary on August 1 for our anniversary. When I began to consider how large the space is up front (the church seats about 1,200), and what it would cost to have a florist make something that large (probably $200), I decided that I would try to arrange some silk flowers myself. I happened to be at JoAnn's (a craft store) a couple of months ago when they were having a 60% off sale on some of their floral items. I grabbed a tall vase and started choosing flower stems to see if I could pull this off successfully. Here is how it turned out. From this first picture of the sanctuary, taken from the balcony, you can see why I wanted a large, tall arrangement. Anything smaller would be lost down there. Here are a couple of more pictures made before the service from the center aisle by my always-prepared-former-Boy-Scout husband.
The 50" height of the arrangement is a bit overwhelming for my smallish house, so I donated it to the church rather than bring it back home. Occasionally there are Sundays when no one has signed up to provide flowers, and so this one can be used again as needed. So, even though floral arranging is not really my calling, I think for about $45 this hits the mark, and I got lots of positive comments.

Quilt Wardrobe is Complete

The shirts were finished a few months ago, and now the pants are, too. You may remember seeing this quilt that I made for my mom from my late step-father's shirts.I also took all of his jeans (maybe eight or nine pairs?) and cut them into strips. The strips then became blocks.I chose this fabric for the back of the quilt.
Here is the finished top stretched out over the backing fabric, ready to be pin-basted. There is no batting because a denim quilt is quite heavy enough by itself.
Once the pins were in place, I used a large, curved needle to tie the quilt front to the back in the center of every other square. (Technically, this means that it isn't really a quilt at all.) Then it was time to sew the binding, which in this case, is the backing fabric turned to the front. This method is Blinky-approved.
Next, I used a seam-ripper to cut several slits in each of the roughly 300 seams! I really don't know how many individual seams there are. The quilt is seventeen by thirteen blocks for a total of 221. Each block doesn't have four unique seams since most of the blocks share three sides with other blocks. This is a math problem for my son-in-law. No doubt he's already figured it out in his head. I also used the seam ripper to punch at least a half-dozen holes in my finger, so I'm very glad that part is finished.

Finally, I took the quilt to the laundromat to wash and dry it in order to fray the seams. On purpose. That's part of the look. The quilt would have fit in my front-loading washing machine, but a commercial machine is recommended because they have lint filters, and a lot of strings are produced with the agitation. Here's the finished quilt (except for needing to trim some long strings that didn't let go.)
And here it is with a corner of the back flipped up.
Here's another reason (besides my sore finger) for being glad the quilt is finished. In addition to the strings left in the washer and dryer, they are all over my house! Here's where I sat to sew on the binding. You can't see a lot of them on the sofa, but trust me, they're there. And all over the floor. Everywhere. Thursday is house-cleaning day, so I'd better be prepared with a new vacuum cleaner bag... although I could get crazy and vacuum them up before then, but I'm not generally known for attacking any housework before its time.

Back in the Land of the Living

Actually, I never left the land of the living, but my computer did. Right about the time we went on vacation (more on that later), my computer caught a virus. A really ugly one. One of the viral symptoms was a corruption of Google, and anything related to Google, i.e. G Mail and Blogger. All sorts of security warnings popped up if I attempted to log in (to create a new post or to comment on other blogs), so I just didn't. I tried to repair the damage myself (unsuccessfully) and then I tried to rebuild the computer myself (unsuccessfully). James ended up having to do it, and I'm just now starting to get everything back the way I want it. Since we have about eight computers in this house (if you must know, I'm married to an I.T. geek), you might think that being without one wouldn't be a problem. However, mine is the one with all the connections for logging in remotely to do my two bookkeeping jobs. Auuggghhhh! I really, really hope the evil people who create malicious computer viruses get the appropriate recompense. Personally, I can't think of any penalty severe enough.

On a happier note, today I have been married for thirty-five years. Here's what we looked like on August 2, 1975.

Happy 5th Birthday!

Happy Birthday America!