Another Giveaway

I just found another giveaway. It's at Camille's Place and she's celebrating
300,300 visitors. There is still time to enter until June 08. Her blog is a treat for the eyes and very interesting and informative. So please visit Ribbonwiz's blog and leave a comment.

Thimble, Handquilting, and Cell Phones

I had replied to a post on Fabricologist Anonymous and Lissa had just had a little shopping spree, including a silver thimble from www.thimblelady.com
My brother one year for Christmas had gotten me a gold thimble, I think 10K, and the next year got me a silver thimble holder. He loves to go to pawn shops, thrift shops, and garage sales, and often gets some bargains. I thought that I would just share a picture of them. I don't know if they are antiques or anything like that, but they are a couple of my treasures.
That made me think to show my so far only hand quilting start (actually, I do have 2, as I have an Eagle Scout quilt started for my son, who has been out of Scouts for many years, so I guess I should consider finishing it). It is all ready and quilted, will be queen sized when finished, and it is a sampler quilt. Not too much quilting on it, but I worked very hard on it, I thought. I need to sew the blocks together and I will have a UFO finished that I did back about 22 or 23 years ago. It has been to this point since then. The colors are much softer than in the pictures. These were made using Georgia Bonesteel's Lap Quilting technique.


My husband and I are retired now, he has been for about 5 years, and I have been for about 2 years, and since I was the caretaker for my mother, we didn't get out of the house too much. We are hoping to do some traveling, health permitting, and so for our anniversary (which isn't until the end of next month), I got a new phone with GPS. This is my first phone that wasn't black, and wasn't the free giveaway at the time, and I am enjoying playing with it. I will have the internet on it for 2 months, and then when the rebate comes back I will cancel that, but for now I can play all I want.
Unfortunately, all these things sidetrack my OC, but I have got step 5 cut out, and half the blocks stacked up and ready to assembly line sew.

Apology and Explanation

Yesterday, I changed the template on my blog, and I lost the Mystery Quilter and Stashbuster Ring links. I apologize for breaking the circles, and I have emailed the leaders to see how to get it back onto my blog. I'm working on it.

Note: With help from Suzette the Stashbuster web ring link is back on here. From what she told me, I was also able to add back the Mystery Quilters web ring link, so I am no longer the 'weakest link'.

Giveaway

Here's another great site, and a beautiful giveaway. This one unfortunately is only open to US residents. It is from Serena at Embroidery Treasures. Here's a description:

"This delicious fat quarter bundle consisting of 10 fat quarters is from Benartex. Victorian colors of burgundy, olive green and pink are evident in the Aspen collection by Marianne Elizabeth! Perfect for so many projects!"

You have until June 2nd to post a comment and enter.

Orange Crush Step 4 - Etc.

Step 4 of my Orange Crush is finally finished, and I am so excited to finally be sort of caught up, and to be cutting into my orange and blue fabric. The blocks are kind of subdued, but I don't think that the quilt will be when the other two fabrics are added. I think it will be saying, "look at me".

Also, I just wanted to confess that the missing parts to my featherweight were in the box, but at the bottom of about 2 feet of styrofoam peanuts in a baggie. I think that they were probably taped to the outside of the case and came loose. I haven't tried it with thread yet to see if it works and sews. I see from the featherweight group that I just joined that some sellers don't differentiate between the two in their ads. I guess to them works means that the motor turns on and it goes up and down, but it may not actually sew. I guess that I will find out which mine is. It does work, and I hope it sews.

Also, if you have visited my blog, you may have noticed that with the help of

Helz from Blue Shadow Pony (I love her blog and it's name) I went to:

http://www.pyzam.com/bloggertemplates and got a new template for my blog. I like the looks better, but now I need to scour around and try to find my little buttons or widgets, or whatever you call them, for the sides. It may be a day or two though, as I hope to at least do some cutting today on my OC.

Memorial Day

I have a good start to the day, but no plans. I'm not sure what my kids are up to, but my DH and I are having a quiet day. I have got Ham and Split-pea soup cooking in the crockpot, and I plan on continuing my step 4 of the OC. Yesterday, I finished 10 blocks, and have 10 more stacked up ready to assembly line sew as soon as I finish a little housework. Hope you all have a nice holiday for the ones of you who celebrate Memorial Day.
Here's the recipe for the soup, it is excellent, and an easy hearty meal.
HAM AND SPLIT PEA SOUP
1 16-ounce pkg. Publix (or any brand)Green Split Peas, sorted and rinsed - 2 cups diced cooked ham - 3 carrots - 1/2 cup diced onions - 3 ribs celery - 2 cloves minced garlic - 1 bay leave - 12 sprigs parsley - 1 tbsp. seasoned salt - 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper - 6 cups water ( I added 3 diced potatoes after the carrots)Prepare ingredients by dicing carrots etc and layer ingredients in slow cooker in order listed. Do not stir to mix. Pour water gently over layers. Cover and cook on High 4-5 hours or Low 8-10 hours until peas are soft. Remove bay leaf; mash peas to thicken, if desired (I don't), or stir to blend soup. Top with croutons if desired. Makes 10 cups.
Sorry, there is a reflection of my kitchen and dining room lights in the lid.

3 Giveaways to Enter

I have run across 3 giveaways in the past couple of days. One is on Home Sweet Home Jo Jo's site, and she has 2 giveaway's "first prize on offer will be your choice of any 2 of the ‘Bling for Pins’ that appear in the picture on her blog and the second…..well the second is a mystery????". I think I would like the 'Bling for Pins'. The second is Go Doodles N Quilt, which I had mentioned in my post on May 18, and she is giving away an adorable doll from her new business. The third is from Doxies on My Quilt. Rhonda is celebrating her 100th post. She gave a hint of what she's giving. It sure is pretty fabric.

I think there is still time to leave a comment and enter on all three.

Happy Long Weekend.

Featherweight

When the doorbell rang this afternoon, I wasn't expecting anyone, and was surprised when it was the mailman at my door with a big box. (Also, a baby lizard that my husband got with a paper toweled hand and sent back outside.) I only ordered my featherweight a couple of days ago, but there it was. It had to come less than 150 miles, but it was still a surprise.
As you can see, it is a bit scratched up, but I hooked it up, the light worked, and it purred along. I couldn't try any actual stitching, as the bobbin case that was supposed to have come with it wasn't there. I have already emailed the seller, so hopefully it will be coming soon. The part that holds the thread on top was broken, and that was supposed to have been included also, but wasn't. Hopefully, this lady is a reputable person and will make sure that I receive the missing parts.

I have looked on line and found a place that has all kinds of parts including the part that I am missing on the top, and it looked to be reasonable. It does look like a toy, even my Janome Jem looks like a big bully in comparison. I am anxious to see the famous featherweight straight stitch.
I was glad to have a pleasant surprise, as this morning was fairly unpleasant. I tried for hours to order some collage prints online, and finally called the company. She did the best she could, and then checked with the supervisor who told her to check with the technical people. I am waiting on them now, so I guess we'll see how they do. At least, it wasn't me.

ALS ASSOCIATION

I emailed the ALS Association and requested permission to put the image of their stamp, and the calendar that they sell on their site on my blog, and they were kind enough to give it to me. I just wanted to post the information that they have about the artist, Peggy Chun, on their site:

"This beautiful calendar chronicles the vivid work of artist Peggy Chun, whose painting methods have evolved during the past several years since she was diagnosed with ALS in 2002. Peggy began painting with her right hand, then she switched to using her left hand. When Peggy could no longer use her hands, she began painting with her teeth. Eventually, she lost the use of her teeth, and began using an eye response computer system. She then lost the ability to use an eye response computer system, and now uses her nose with the help of an assistant to create her unique paintings."

http://alsaestore.compet.com/product.asp?product_id=272

Orange Crush Step 4 and Moment of Insanity

After all the work, I finally have a block. I am including steps 1 and 2 of the CC in that work. Only 100 more triangle sets to sew together, and 29 more blocks to piece, and I will be done with step 4 of the OC. I can see I need to mix things up a bit more, but I was so excited to put a block together that I guess I didn't really look that hard. As careful as I tried to be, I had to do a little ripping. I had my red where the black should be, and my black where the red should be. Luckily, I only had to undo 3 little seams. As usual, my angle is bad. I don't have a design wall, but I'm thinking that I will make myself a small flannel board so I can at least put up a block or two.

Now for the moment of insanity. I don't need a machine. I have my 18 year old Bernina, and my Janome Jem, and even a little blue Sears machine that I bought for an uninterested granddaughter. So why when I saw conversations about featherweights did I look on Ebay, just out of curiousity? I don't know, but when I did, I got the impulse to put in a bid, and then another bid and another. Finally, I reached my absolute limit, and was waiting in anticipation, half hoping to win, and half hoping to lose. As you have probably surmised, the win half won. I had always liked them, even before I knew what they were. I used to sew with my friend in Massachusetts about 35 years ago, and she had a cute little black machine. I'm not positive, but I would bet that it was a featherweight, and as you can see, it stuck in my mind. Then when I started quilting and learned what they were, I wished that I had one, mostly because they are so cute. According to the information, it is in good condition and works. I am hoping to study up, and get it in really good condition, but I also am wanting just to display it in my sewing room. Again, it's so cute.

Orange Crush - Step 3

A more subdued - Yeah me. Step 3 is done, and it was a snap after steps 1 and 2. The fabric they are laying on is my yardage for step 4. Thanks to Bonnie's needing another week, I think that I will finally catch up. I may even have time to work on step 3 of my CC. I think that on my scrappies many of my lights are too dark, and many of my darks are too light, so I am hoping that the pattern will show up correctly. I am anxious to see how mine and everybody elses OC's turn out. I am just trusting Bonnie, and all the beautiful quilts on her site. I tried to copy her colors, but I can see from the picture that my black shows up more as a gray, so I guess I'll have to wait and see. I'm hoping the blue and the orange (yeah, Gators) (that was for my brother) give it pizazz.

Mother's Collage

I have spent my morning looking through pictures to try to organize a collage for my mother's graveside service next month. I have requested input from my daughter and my niece and my brother since you can have a maximum of 30 photos, but if I don't hear anything back, this will be it. It will be 20 x 30, and I am going to look for a poster frame for it. I thought this would be better than a poster with individual pictures, as I don't know what the weather will be.
It seems odd to say you are looking forward to a memorial service, but I am.


It will be nice to be with everyone, and it will be nice to honor my mother's memory. Also, I haven't been more than about 50 miles from home for almost two years. My Mother was pretty, wasn't she.

Go Doodles N Quilt - Giveaway

Erin at Go Doodles N Quilt is giving away this adorable doll to celebrate her new website HanniesAnnies. Take a look, the blog and the website are excellent. I hope I win.

Orange Crush Step 2 - Finally

Finally, my step 2's are finished. I did 50 last night, and 73 this morning. It is amazing how much faster it goes when you actually work on it, instead of thinking about working on it. I am tempted to skip step 3, and go on to step 4, but I am fighting the temptation, as it goes against my sense of order. It is silly, but that's how I am. Hopefully, I can skip all (or at least most) of the whining and thinking, and go right to the actual cutting and sewing.

Today has been a fairly nice day. The weather has been beautiful, and after I finished step 2, my DH and I met my daughter and my grandson, and her boyfriend and looked at some model homes. It is tempting, but then it seems to make more sense to stay where we are. My daughter would love to buy a new home, as her house is old and not exactly what she would like to live in as it has a lot of old memories from her marriage, which had a lot of unhappy times. There doesn't seem to be a perfect house, not in our price range anyway, and our house has most of what we want.

After that, we met DD and her boyfriend at an Italian restaurant, as we were all starving, and I had my usual baked ziti. Now we are home, and my husband is watching his Red Sox. After that, we are going to go for a walk. We missed 2 days, and I don't want to get back out of the habit of going. I'd like to take some pictures of beautiful flowers to share on my blog, and living in Florida you would think that they would be all over the place. Unfortunately, it has been so dry that you don't see too many yards with flowers. I'm thinking of cheating, and going to a nursery or some such place, and taking flower pictures.

Light Bulb Went Off

I have been trying to get my sewing room efficient, comfortable and attractive, and since it is fairly small, and it also is my extra bedroom, guest room combination, it has been a challenge.
I had it down pretty much for the sewing part, but was feeling like I wished I could also cut and press in here, too. I have been going into the family room, where I have had my little 2'x4' table set up. Today, I thought, just because I have my sewing cabinet with my Bernina centered on the wall doesn't mean it has to be that way. So I measured, and there was enough room to move
it down and add the little table to that wall. If you notice the second picture,
you can see the wooden blocks to raise the table. My brother made those for me and they are very nice and sturdy.
The waste basket came today. I got it off ebay and think that it is very cute it is a Peterboro basket. I am going to go to Home Depot and get a piece of plywood and cover it for an ironing top that I can just remove to cut. I am thinking of removing the doors from the sewing cabinet in the first picture and leaving the sewing machine up, and perhaps getting some baskets for the other half. I don't use that machine very much due to the inconvenience of getting the machine in and out, when it is so convenient to just sew on my Janome Jem. Does anyone have an opinion of how that would work out? I am hoping to do some quilting on my machine, and that would perhaps just be more convenient.
I had mentioned my brother making the leg extenders for me, and he is also working on a small desk to hold my laptop in my sewing room. It will only be about 20"x30" about like a school room desk. I am just enclosing a couple of pictues of tables he has made. The little end table in the third picture he made for my mother, and the dropleaf table in the last picture he made for me. He makes it from just ugly old boards from scratch. I am very proud of the work he has done. He has only been doing it a couple of years, and taught himself.
We kind of feel a kinship, as both quilting and woodworking if you don't do something like that yourself, you cannot normally imagine what is involved in time and expense. I know he was kind of amazed when our niece wanted him to make her new kitchen cabinets, but it wasn't too much of a surprise to me, as most people have no idea what is involved in a quilt. Even my simple ones are an undertaking, and I can't even imagine what is involved in some of the beautiful, intricate quilts that I see on other blogs and groups.
I have had two lazy days and so nothing much to show for my time, except my little moment of enlightenment when the light bulb went off and I was able to fit my table in my sewing room.

Republic of Tea Canisters

On Meredith's blog Like Merchant Ships she had a guest blogger Michelle from Scribbit today who posted about how she hates to throw away McCann's Irish Oatmeal cans. She had a lovely picture of one with an arrangement of tulips, I believe. There were also fourteen suggestions on what to do with them. I feel the same way about the Republic of Tea canisters. Anyone got any good suggestions for using them? I thought about using them for notions on a shelf, but then my mind kind of goes blank.

Collections and New Camera

My new camera came yesterday afternoon, and I now have it charged, and ready to go. It wasn't as easy as it should have been, as I had to redo the strap about 3 times due to getting it backwards, and not looking at the directions first. I say looking, as there was only a picture nothing written. I am very happy with it so far, but I have to try the macro again, as I wasn't too pleased with that, and that is one of the most important things in my opinion.
On Christine's blog Once upon a Quilt.... the other day, she shared her charming collection of honey pots in addition to some of her quilts, and I enjoyed the whole post so much that I thought I would practice with my new camera on some of my collections. I have been married for almost 44 years, so I have had a while to accumulate. The first is my collection of little glass chicken and bunny salt cellars. I love them, to me they look like little jewels. They were mostly all gifts from my mother, and a few from two of my aunts who were dealers at one time. I have quite a few more around the house in various places, even in my bathroom. They brighten my days. The second is most of my small collection of canning jars, which were my mothers and her mothers. My mother had given them to one of my aunts (one of the glass dealers) and she thought I would like to have them, and gave them back to me.
The last is a large part of my stoneware collection, mostly from Rowe Pottery Works, I love their product, and it is a bit expensive so it has taken me about 20 years to collect what I have. I will share some other collections at another time, I'm sure everyone has had enough for now. I enjoy my collections, even though they are dust catchers, but at this point there is no more room, so the acquisition part is finished, and just the dusting and enjoying part is left.

Mother's Day

This is my mother Norma Cole Howland, who passed away April 10, 2008. She is already missed. This picture was taken when I was a small child.

She was gallant until the end.

Happy Mother's Day. I have lots of good memories.

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow.

Janome 6600 Demo and Sewing Room Bed

Today we got up, and they delivered my new sewing room bed first thing. The headboard is a little higher than the one I gave my daughter, and a little darker, and it seems to dominate the room, but I am getting used to it. As you can see, the quilt is a little small for the bed, but I like it anyway. The bedspreads that we had shrunk, so I am using them as bedskirts. They are queen sized, but with the shrinkage I didn't have to do any adjustments.

Next thing we did was go to a local store that was having a demo of the Janome 6600. I don't really need another machine, but I have been wondering about it because of the bigger quilting area, and wondering if I had one if I would do my own quilting instead of sending them off. I went away not too tempted due to the price, and due to they only wanted to give me a $200.00 trade-in for my Bernina 1130. I figure if and when I am ready, I would go maybe with a Juki and a frame instead and keep my Bernina. This is all just dreaming at this point, and if I did have the money I would have to find someplace where they actually had some to try. It's fun to dream, anyway. I don't have room or reason for a longarm, but the shortarm or midarm might be a possibility for the future.

Share a Site on Saturday

I just joined Phyl's SaSSY MeMe and the category this Saturday is bags. Here are some that I haven't made yet, but that I aspire to make sometime.

1. Car Litter Bag

2. Anykine Bag

3. Posh Pick n Mix Bag

4. Tiny Happy Shoulder Bag

5. Ric-Rac: 1 Hour Bag

I'm not sure that these are all exactly what Phyl had in mind, but they all have bag in their names.

Small Things Amuse Small Minds

I finally got all my triangles cut for OC step 2, and made a little test block. It is little, and not perfect, but almost. Now I have to admire it a little, and then I can get sewing.

New Camera

I have ordered a new camera for Mother's Day, it will be from my husband. I was wondering if anyone has one of these models, Kodak Z1012 IS. I have an older Kodak 5 megapixel camera that my brother got me for Christmas a few years ago, and it is great, but now that I'm retired, I hope to take more pictures, and probably do more cropping, so for that reason, and because I would like a longer zoom, I am upgrading. Also, I have a grandson (who by the way was born on my birthday, so is my birthday buddy) who is in the house too much, and I thought I would pass along my old camera to him, as he has an interest in photography. By getting a fairly early start (he is 12) maybe he will develop an interest that will get him out more and give him a creative outlet. I am giving it to him with the stipulation that he delves a bit and learns about photography from the ground up, apertures etc. He is home schooled, so my daughter is going to incorporate it into his lesson plans.

Bits and Pieces

The weather has been beautiful lately, and my husband and I need exercise badly, so yesterday and today we have been taking walks. Yesterday, we went to downtown Clermont, and walked and visited the quilt shop. I didn't buy anything, just looked around a bit. Today we went down to the lake. We need rain, so the water is down, but it still is pretty, and there was a nice breeze most of the time. We were hoping to see a little wildlife, but all we saw was a squirrel or two, some ducks and birds. The bird ab0ve caught a fish while we were watching him. We hope to walk every day.

We worked up an appetite, and I had seen Basil Pesto on someone's blog, I apologize that I couldn't find it again, but I will post who's when I do. (I found it, it is Sophie Junction.) We stopped at the grocery store on the way back and got what we were missing and boy was it quick and easy and delicious. I would recommend it to anyone.

This is the picture from her blog, and here is her recipe:

Pesto Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2/3 cup packed, coarsely chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 clove garlic, peeled
DIRECTIONS In a blender, combine all the ingredients. Makes 4 servings. Toss with cooked pasta–I've become a fan of Barilla Plus angel hair pasta–and save the rest for something yummy later in the week.

My husband and I both liked it a lot. The only thing was my blender wanted to just spin, so I put it in my Magic Bullet. If anyone wonders if those are any good, I can tell you that I sure do like mine. I got it when my mother was still able to eat, and it was great for pureeing her food. I would buy one again in a flash.

Then the mailman just came and brought a package that included the luggage tags for our trip in June, so it has been a pretty good day so far.

I will now try to work on my OC for a while. I have the small squares cut out and the small triangles half done. I just need to finish those and then cut out the large triangles, and I'll be ready to sew step 2.

After that, hopefully, it will have cooled off a bit, and I will mow the front yard and maybe pull some weeds. This weather is great.

Share the Love

Amy on Memoirs of a Mommy has shared the button for her personal challenge of not just reading the same blogs and going on, but leaving comments and also visiting new blogs and leaving comments. She is aiming for 10 a day, but has left it for others to set their own goals even if it is just 1 a day. Being a fairly new blogger, of only 1 month, I thought that I would join in, too.

Google Reader

I had good intentions (isn't there a rather unpleasant road that is paved with those?) of getting busy on my Step 2's for the OC today, but I started off doing a little surfing, and was reading back on MaryQuilts blog and she mentioned that she was surprised more bloggers didn't use something like Google Reader.
Quote:
"The biggest advantage in my opinion is that I don't spend time visiting blogs that haven't updated since my last visit....a disadvantage is that there's a delay between a new post and the update on the reader service."
Anyway, I set up an account, and spent about 5 or 6 hours going through blogs I visit, reading through them and looking at pictures and adding them to Google Reader. I will still use the Mystery Quilter and Stashbuster rings, but will also be a regular visitor of Google reader, as I sometimes get a little frustrated with the rings. Sometimes, I think that people may have joined but taken off the link, so I look and look (either that or I am just missing it) and then have to backtrack.
Anyway, I think that this will save a lot of time, and be a better way to keep up with blogs that I have become interested in.

CowgirlQuilters 300th Post Prize Giveaway

Kristie Layne of CowgirlQuilter blog is celebrating her 300th post with a prize giveaway. Just go to her blog and leave a comment and you will be entered.

Orange Crush Step 1

Yeah me! I have to have my little triumphs when I can, so even though I am still 2 steps behind, Yeah me!

I have them (the step 1 blocks) 25 to a ziploc bag, and they aren't as scrappy as I would like, but they are done. This step made me aware that I am kind of light on lights, so I may need to get a few more for the next 2 steps. I did buy a bundle of fat quarters to use for the scrappies, but now I decided to possibly save them to make another of the Crazy Big Blocks. I am trying to have a woman's and a man's quilt in reserve for things that come up, and maybe a baby quilt, too. The Crazy Big Block that I just made, and sent off to the quilter today was supposed to be my reserve ladies quilt, but it has somewhere to go. Now on to step 2, and the scary triangles. I am the queen of squares and rectangles, so this will be good for me. "When you're green you're growing, and when you're ripe you're rotting." or so my favorite saying goes. It helps me get through things that are outside my comfort zone.

My other favorite saying is Shakespeare I believe. "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." I think that is beautiful, although some days I feel like changing it to trust none.

New Bed

Our old bed still looked okay, but if you just walked by (a slight exaggeration) it squeaked. We have had it for about 42 years, and it has moved from place to place with us, many many moves. This is our new bed. Due to my mother's not being able to be left alone, we bought it sight unseen, except for a picture on the furniture companies web site. I guess it's not too much of a surprise, that due to inflation we paid twice as much just for the bed, as we did for the whole bedroom set 42 years ago. It just so happened that it ended up being delivered on my birthday, so I got my new bed, and we had supper with one of my grandsons and my daughter and her boyfriend, so mostly it was a good day, except my husband has been in a bad mood all day, so that kind of put a damper on things. This was just the bed, we kept the same mattress and boxsprings, but in about a week, I have a headboard, frame, and mattress and boxspring coming for my sewing room. We gave my daughter the one we had when we got my mother's hospital bed. That one is supposed to be delivered the day before Mother's day, so I guess this is the year of the beds.