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Monday, March 24, 2008

A Use For "Iffy" Fabrics!

I have found a place where I will dare to use a poly/cotton blend fabric!

And before you gasp......

It's the HANGING SLEEVE! I had a sweet sweet lady donate some "shirt" type fabrics to me when she found I was working with recycled fabrics. She sent me YARDS of this great grey/white stripe oxford cloth. I love the look of oxford cloth, but it is rare to find it in 100% cotton, and when I ironed this...yep...poly in it. You can just SMELL poly when you iron it, can't you?

*LOL* It reminds me of the "Child Catcher" in Chitty Chitty Bang-Bang! Instead of "Children! I smell Children!" It's "POLY!! I SMELL POLY!!" and I kind of make that face too when I iron it :c)

But what's worse? Poly blends ending up in a landfill? Or poly blends being used in appropriate places and having a purpose? Think green...use the poly blends for foundations in string piecing, or use them as I did...as the hanging sleeve on the back of a quilt! It will suit the purpose just fine. And I have the memory of this sweet little lady who gave so much so generously.

I'll send a pic when I finish stitching it down!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Its a Collage!


First off, Happy Easter to everyone....and Happy Passover too....and okay...happy EVERYTHING! Let's get it all out there!

Oh,funny joke I heard today, you've probably heard it.

A teacher was asking her 2nd graders all about the holidays and what they were for...they covered Christmas, 4th of July, Thanksgiving (this is the short version, you get the idea) and then she asked one shy boy what Easter was. He replied most seriously...

"Oh Easter! That's when Jesus comes out of the tomb....and if he sees his shadow we have winter for 6 more weeks!!!!"

I thought this was SO FUNNY. But then I have been going on lack of sleep!

I got the coolest thing in my email! The guild photographer from Durham Orange Quilters Guild (where I was last Monday night...was it only LAST Monday night?)sent me a pdf file of a collage she made of my presentation! It is SO cool! Because it is a pdf, I can't just upload it open, but you can click HERE to view it.

The only thing I'm not happy to see is my belly...*LOL* The more I travel, the more I eat out, the more I don't have time to WORK OUT...the bigger I get..pffffttt! Oh well....guess I better get working on that!

Actually, ONE MILE up the road is a little women's circuit training thing similar to "Curves" and I'm thinking of joining. The prospect being..I can WALK there....do my 30 minute circuit training....and WALK home. I think I'll check it out tomorrow. I stopped in the other day and they are waiving the $99 start up fee this month...and it is only $30 a month to join. It's just my kind of thing. I'm not big on huge aerobics classes, and I don't want to work out with big guys pumping iron, or little 20-somethings in skimpy tight shorts strutting around in their perfect bodies while I huff and puff.

Yep. I gotta do this. I think it will help me with my pent up lack of energy too....


I rented "Atonement" at Blockbuster.....that's on tap for tonight while I bind my Bargain Basement quilt :cD

Bonnie

Saturday, March 22, 2008

The Next Mystery Quilt - - -Orange Crush!



Can you guess what I've been working on today?!

I'll give you a hint...it isn't laundry, or painting my unwallpapered ugly walls or working in my yard!

I'm working on our next mystery quilt!

We have a name...and we have yardage amounts!

The name of the quilt is ORANGE CRUSH. And for those of you who don't like orange, never fear, you can swap your orange out for something else.


You can read all about it here!


At the top of that page is also a link to a printer-friendly .pdf file! So many have requested pdfs that I decided it was time to splurge on some software. In time I hope to be changing all my printer friendly pages to pdf files, but this is a start anyway.

Gather your fabrics, get ready to sew! The Orange Crush Mystery begins April 1st!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I Sewed!!

I had the most WONDERFUL morning!

I met with Mrs Goodneedle and her church's quilt ministry and SEWED for two hours! Two hours might not sound like a lot, and in fact it goes by way too quickly for my liking, but it was just the medicine I needed to get me out of the slump I've been feeling since Saturday night.

I have been feeling SO DRAGGY. I asked Yankee Quilter if she felt this way after her big move too, and she told me her mother called it "Acquired Tiredness Syndrome" Because I couldn't pinpoint what would make me feel so blah and lethargic, I figure she must be right. I had A.T.S!

Since the charity quilt thing was only 2 hours this morning, it didn't wear me out! Two weeks ago, the last time I went, I picked up a little pre-cut kit of 5" squares to make into a top. Today I finished putting it together, and got the borders on. It turned out really cute, but I neglected to get a pic of it. :c(

I felt energized when I left, like I had the whole day in front of me, and I ran errands all the way home. I stopped and got a haircut. (Ran out of time to do that the other day)and then....

I stopped and got some drawer pulls for my kitchen drawers. This house was built in 1978 and has a serious case of "golden oak overload!" (G.O.O.??)Even the handles for the golden oak drawers and cupboards in the kitchen are brass with little golden oak inserts on them. Blech.

I can't afford to totally re-do the kitchen at this point, so I am scrubbing everything down, re-oiling the wood, and putting on more "rustic" looking hardware.

















I'm looking for cabinet handles, but I found the drawer pulls I want at Target! One problemo, tho...the screws are too short. So on my little jaunt, I stopped at Lowes and got bigger screws. Uno Mas Problemo!! Now the screw heads are too small and pull right through the screw holes! Ayie Carumba! So tonight..on the way back from Maundy Thursday stuff, (choir singing) I'm going to stop for WASHERS. Do you think I'll eventually get these things IN the drawers?

And sheesh..for such a little kitchen...I need ....10 drawer pulls and 29 (29!!!!!!!!!) cabinet handles! So you can see what I mean about G.O.O.! (Golden Oak Overload). It's also the same in the master bath, where the cabinets have the same brass/oak handles, and the previous owners went so far as to have
Two oak towel racks
one oak circle hanging hand towel rack
oak hooks for robes, etc
2 oak medicine cabinets
and an OAK TP holder!

Oh the joys of setting up a new household in an older house. I sometimes feel like this place could be on one of those makeover shows on HGTV (Maybe they could call it OAK BUSTERS?!)

Buddy got a checkup for his broken leg, and a new cast yesterday. Bad Doggie has been pulling on his cast, and licking at it, so to stop that I put an old knee hi sock over it, and then sprayed it with that bitter apple stuff. He isn't licking NOW!(And I know why, because I didn't wash my hands after spraying, and when I wiped my mouth, blehh!)