Moving On

The past few years I have been working on improving my free motion quilting. It has been a journey and one I have not finished yet. I will know I have “arrived” as a free motion quilter when I can do feathers.

What are feathers? they are the utmost in elegance when machine quilting. I practice and practice so that one day I can make them myself. Here are a two samples I found on the web about feathers. There are plenty of pics out there, I even made a board for them on my Pinterest account.

But the thing is, they take practice and practice before perfecting.

One of the things I learned when working on my machine quilting was to make sure you have control of what you are sewing on. When I was using my little Magnolia Janome, that meant putting a table behind the sewing machine and a tv tray beside it to support the quilt. But, I just did not “get it” yet and would end up with sharp points and jagged lines where I had lost control and the quilt would pull out of whack. I was moving the quilt beyond what I could handle. Beyond my grasp one would say.

It got so bad, that one time I sewed the sleeve of my shirt onto my quilt. I just did not want to turn loose of the quilt and adjust my grip on it so I had my arm fully extended through the throat of the machine. It was kind of shocking to sit there and watch that needle go through my sleeve. Then, I was kind of stuck. I could not take the shirt off, I could not remove my arm from the sleeve and so I sat until I realized that no one was going to come and rescue me. I had to use my left hand, did I mention it was my right arm that was stuck in the sewn sleeve? Anyway, I had to use my left hand to try and cut the sleeve loose. Choosing between cutting the sleeve and the quilt, of course I chose the sleeve. It was a worn out shirt anyway. I got free, but learned about loose garments and the sewing machine.

My skills have improved now, and I don’t feel the desperate need to hold on the quilt until I could not move it another inch. I’ve learned to just try and control a little bit of the quilt at a time and I get much better results.

Isn’t life a little like that. If we desperately try to control every little thing we end up loosing control and things get damaged or destroyed in the process. It takes maturity and a little trust to let people and situations work themselves out without us trying to control every little part of it. I had to learn how to trust my needle to go up and down and do its thing and just worry about the piece of the quilt that was under it at the time. I could not control the whole quilt, I had to just concentrate on just that part of it that needed my attention.

In my life, I have had to learn how to just let some things go and not worry about them. That does not mean that I wash my hands of the situation, or that I remove myself, it just means that I should just enjoy myself and let others do their job and handle their own responsibilities.

Of course, I am still learning how to let go. It probably is one of those things that we all will struggle with for our entire lives. Once in a while I just need to step back and give myself a talking to about it.

Life, sewing and crafts stuff, Uncategorized

It happens about every other year that I need to purchase a new tube of toothpaste. One of those huge tubes will last for quite a long time. A dentist once took his time to explain to me how I should be brushing my teeth – little bitty brush and just a dab of toothpaste. That way you get everything and the toothpaste is not cushioning your teeth from the effects of the brush. So it takes about two years for me to use up a tube of toothpaste.

So, last week I shop the toothpaste aisle at Wally World and find there are about ten kinds of toothpaste for each brand. Lets see, do I want whitening? do I want tartar control? how about some of the super foaming stuff that will work its way into the cracks and crevices? Oh, my look there are different flavors as well! It can be a bit overwhelming. Why can’t they just put out a tube that says, “This, one is for you Nancy.”

So I opt for the citrus flavor cause it is cheaper than the others. Gotta watch those pennies, ya know. I saved about fifteen cents (why can’t I find the cent symbol anywhere?)

The first morning I used it I discovered why it was cheaper that all the rest. They had to get rid of it before everybody found out it is not the color you want to see in the morning before you are fully awake. Actually, it is not the color you wanna put on your toothbrush even when you are fully awake! Then when you get it into your mouth (closing your eyes helps) you wanna spit it right back out again. The idea of a sweet toothpaste just kinda sours the mind on toothpaste if you know what I mean.

So, I gotta put up with this for at least a year – by then I won’t feel bad throwing away a half used tube of toothpaste. Though, perhaps I might be able to pawn it off on one of the daughters. Though if I want them to continue to talk to me and not put me out of their lives, I had better come clean with why I don’t want it.

Here is a photo of it, I want everyone to know and beware. Amazon is selling them in a six pack. They have found out and are trying to get rid of them as fast as they can before the word gets out.

Life

How does one start blogging again when there has been a long hiatus?

Do you start off by apologizing?

Do you make lots and lots of excuses?

Do you just jump in like nothing has happened?

Hmmm. . . how about all of the above?

The trend of my blog was slowing moving towards my sewing and quilting and less of my digital scrapbooking stuff and it became a little hard to figure out how to continue. Do I create a new blog? The answer to that was NO. I have had too much history in this blog to want to abandon it so I will just continue on each post with what ever comes up for the day/time I am writing.

A little update on me: Grandson is thriving and doing great, daughters are doing great, hubby is doing great. (Any details are theirs to share not mine.)

So lets move on

Family, Life

I have not mentioned the new sewing machine I got – -it is a super, super machine. Actually it is an embroidery machine as well as sewing machine and I have fallen in love with it.

BUT, it takes a different type of feet than all my other sewing machines that I have ever had. AND today I could not find the one that is going to be my main man. I looked high and low for it. You can probably guess where this is going. Yep, I had to go out to the street to dig in the trash to see if it was there. Of course, all the neighbors chose that time to drive by. There had not been a car on the street until I stuck my head into that trash can. Thank goodness there was not much garbage in the trash can or I would still be there digging in it. But, I found the foot after just a few minutes. The foot is expensive so I just did not want to blow it off and get another one.

But this makes me think. How many people in our lives have we mislaid or inadvertently tossed away? Do we just keep the ones who are expensive or hard to replace? Or do we make an effort even when there is nothing in it for us? What about those people who “cost” us time and much energy to keep in our lives? the ones who seem to be so needy? We all know somebody like that – who is needy. They need support and attention or they get real out of shape. They might need constant verification that they are important to use and that we approve of them. Or what about those people who are so busy in their lives but want to be friends. They are hard to be friends with because it has to be on their schedule and their time line. Do we forget to make an effort to be friends with people like these or do we inadvertently toss them in the garbage and move on? Just a thought. As for me, guess I will just have to keep the name of trash digger as I liketo go back and get those people out of the trash that I inadvertently tossed away.

Oh here is the foot that was so much trouble to me today – You can see part of the quilt that I am just finishing up.

Life, sewing and crafts stuff

**Why is it that when I drive five miles over the speed limit people still get mad at me for being in the left lane, even though there are people driving five miles under the speed limit in the right lane?

**Why is it that no matter how careful I am I cannot sew a straight seam? Yet I am a profession seamstress?

**Why is it that when I need more than five squares of TP, there are only four squares left on the roll?

**Why is it that when I want to cuddle with my cats they want nothing to do with me, but when they want to cuddle they will not take no for an answer?

**Why is it when I wish I had lots of time for sewing, there was not much for me to sew, but now that hubby is home full time and I don’t have as much time, I have dozens of projects calling for attention?

**Why is it when the house is clean and the sewing room is clean no one comes over, but when all is at the messiest, people just can’t stay away?

**Why is it when my closet is clean I can’t find anything to wear, but when it was all disorganized and a mess, I had no problem finding something?

**Why is it the Postman always rings the bell twice? (He does for our house at least.)

**Why is it Texas is in drought and we are hurting for rain, but the Mississippi is in flood, many homes have been destroyed and many states are facing emergency issue with too much water?

**Why is it only the stink bugs want to come inside and not the ones the cats would have fun with?

**Why is it that now hubby wants to run the roads but would not leave the house when the girls were little and I really could have used some “road” time? (Now I am the one that does not want to leave the house.)

**Why is it I have 50 spools of thread but none of them are the color I need?

**Why is it now that I have pretty colors on my walls, hubby does not want me to finish up the decorating and put stuff up on the walls?

**Why is it that with all these complaints, I still feel pretty happy and content with my life and really enjoy what the days bring?

Life

It is supposed to be in the teens tonight! EEEEEK Central Texas is not a very snowy place and we really don’t get but one or two days or nights of such cold every year. But, when it happens I think of the triple digit weather we get in the summer and wonder what gives. You just get it all here for sure.

We finally got our fireplace working. The chimney dude came out and put a top on the chimney and hubby found a chimney cap with the help of yours truly. It was right there on the shelf but he could not see it cause the picture on the box was turned towards the back. I know he can read, he does very well at reading, but he just missed this box the five other times he was looking for it.I had photos of Ink E. enjoying the fire but they got erased off my camera – I was trying to figure out how to use the storage part of it and apparently the photos taken by the camera in the phone are stored in the same place.

This weekend after my Saturday class I started on a project for the store – I make samples for them in return for merchandise. I really like how this one came out. It is made from a fabric that starts dark at one selvage and fades to almost white at the other side. The shop has about ten bolts of this fabric, but is has not been selling so the idea was that I would make a sample of something made from it to show it off. The fabric is called Batik Cascade by Avlyn. It is only 37″x 25″ inches but it took me seven hours to make it. (That includes the free motion quilting and binding.) With all those tiny squares, it took about as much work as a full size quilt. But, I would love to make a full size quilt like this. It was so easy to do.

+

Batik Cascade sample piece

Life, quilting

It’s hard to decide which is the biggest news to start with! so without any order here it all is:

I am now at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking – a major big store and I am thrilled.I have about 15 products uploaded so far and will be working on getting more in the store in the weeks to come.

I got a brand new computer! It has 8 GB of memory and a 580 GB hard drive. Walmart had it for soooo cheap, I could not resist. Though I did wait for about a month to be sure I was really wanting it.

I finally broke down and purchased that software that was eating at me – it cost more than the computer! After waiting since last Fall, I just could not see putting the old Adobe software on my brand new computer.

We got a baby crib for the grandson for when he visits – so much nicer for him, his mama and the rest of us. I first redid that guest room to make it look nice and inviting and then added the crib. It did not cost anymore than the taxes on the software I got from Adobe, so I figured why not.

Grandson is growing and can now roll over from stomach to back. Not so fun for his mama as he can’t yet get back to his tummy again and won’t sleep on his back. They were just here for a few days and it was great to see both of them. He is not one to be rocked to sleep, but is such a wiggle worm! But, when it is time for bed, his mama just has to lay him down and out he goes. I just don’t remember it being that easy for my two babies.

So there you have it, my news! all of it is very exciting to me, perhaps you will rejoice a little with me? I hope to get better again at this blog stuff, so be looking for some freebies and all in the days ahead.

Family, Life, Scrapping Journal

I declared today casual day here. That means I don’t have to feel guilty about not getting dressed and wearing my mu-mu and robe all day long. I feel very lazy today and just want to get to work instead of doing all that dressing thing and combing the hair. Though, I did brush my teeth out of respect for the cats.

Hubby is out of town and DD and grandson left yesterday so we are all alone and loving the freedom.

We got some rain today–a bunch and boy we sure can use it. but now at mid day it seems to have stopped. The NOAH site says we should get some more. I hope so. It really is so dry and brown out there even with the rain we have had this week. The burn ban was lifted temporarily so the local farmers and ranchers could burn what they had piled up, but we still cannot have fires in the fire circle where we would love to cook hot dogs and sit around on the weekends.

MOVING ON

We finally got our taxes done. It took two trips and two returns to do it. I felt so stupid that I had not got all the stuff together but actually thought it was covered. See, I had this large brown envelope on my desk that I had been stuffing all tax stuff and it should have just be a matter of grabbing that envelope and going. But, it turned out that there were things that did not make it into that envelope. While at H & R Block questions arose that there were no papers to answer.

When we got home, I discovered several more 1099′s and so hubby had to go back the next day. Meanwhile, I spent the remainder of the day sorting, trashing and getting all the papers I could out of my office. Hubby then burned them all in a trash barrel when he got home. It took the better part of two hours to burn all those papers, that is how much there was. My filing cabinet drawer was stuffed, front to back when I started and now it is only half full. I found things from 30 years ago! But, it is all cleaned out now.

I remember going through my mother’s filing cabinet when she was moving one time and finding things like that. Now that she is in an assisted living home, my sister has had to go through all her papers and things and I just don’t want my daughters to have to weed through all my junk sometime in the future. So, now they won’t have to.

THE FREEBIE

Today’s freebie is a bow for you to recolor. The files include a ribbon too so you can match the bow up to a ribbon. Please note, there is only one bow, I just wanted to show it in different colors so you could see how well it takes the colors.

Freebies, Life

I’ve looked up April Fool’s day on Google and have come up with several different versions of why it came into existence. Snopes has several of them listed.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/aprilfools/origins.asp

I did find that supposedly in Scotland, April Fool’s day is celebrated for two days and that the second day is devoted to tricks associated to the rear end. Hmmm….like sticking a sticky note on a chair that sticks to someone’s rear end and it says,”kick me”! Anyone from Scotland wanna comment on this?

Some quotes I thought appropriate for this day:

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.” Ralhp Waldo Emerson

“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.” Bob Basso

“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” Dale Carnegie

“He who does not get fun and enjoyment out of every day needs to reorganize his life.” George Matthew Adams

To help you celebrate the day, I have made some balloons! (please not daughter, that I made the preview color co-ordinated!) There are three of them, but you can duplicate and recolor them to make a whole herd of balloons.

Blog Balloons

Freebies, Life

I hate it, but they had to go. For years I have always had acrylic nails and found them to be most satisfactory. But, living out here in the boonies it started to become too much of a hassle. When the week began to be scheduled around the trip to town to get the nails done then I realized that I was being too vain. Plus there was the fact that hubby insisted on coming in with me and he had to wait around for the hour or more that it took to get them done.

But, gosh they look UGLY! I know part of it is because of the damage done to them from the acrylic overlays. But, I also know they don’t really look much better without all that damage. My nails are very thin and very flexible even when no damage has been done to them and they peel and break down to the quick. This was always my rationale for getting those fake things.

I have consoled myself that I will get manicures at least every two weeks for a while until the worst grows out. But, of course that is defeating the purpose of getting the acrylics off. Plus, just how much can one do to these poor things before they start complaining. They already are sore from being broken down to the quick.

Oh, well, I am sure this is all exciting to you-LOL

I’ve been the little miss Susie home maker lately and have really discovered the joy of cooking, or perhaps I should say baking. Yesterday I made some pumpernickel bread and really loved how easy it was to do with my Kitchen Aid mixer and dough hook. Since last Fall, I have been picking up pumpernickel bread at the grocery store when I can find it. It has such rich taste and is more than just bread. So, I decided that I must be able to make my own since it is not always available at the store. But, looking through the online stores and at the recipes for pumpernickel bread I realized that it would be an expensive project due to the special flours and ingredients in the stuff. Then, I realized that I could get the mixes instead. So I searched online and found a store that sold bread mixes that also can be used without a bread maker. And voila! I got my pumpernickel bread mix.

Here is all that is left this morning. I sent half of the loaf home with the brother in law so we really were not that piggy.

pumpernickel bread

It is smelling better today, the second day that it did yesterday when I took it out of the oven!

So today to make up for not posting for a while, I have a freebie for you. It is an overlay that I made out of some images I had in my vault. It’s Commercial Use OK.

Freebies, Life