Archive for August, 2007

Thanks for the comments and emails about my post on COMMENTS. Not that I was complaining since I’m in the same boat – I try to keep up with other blogs and tend to read more than I comment also. Feel free to read without commenting or to introduce yourself – whatever makes you happy!
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Happiness for me is working on a HeartStrings quilt
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Despite sleeping very late this morning after staying up all night I still got a good day’s work done. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to walk downtown and mail off my Aunt’s quilt and get the HeartStrings Coins quilt done but thanks to Kinko’s being open 24 hours, I quilted first and then walked downtown to ship Nancy’s quilt to her. I was SO happy to send that one off.

I used a new pantograph on the HeartStrings Chinese Coins - I haven’t trimmed it yet so I’ll have to share a photo tomorrow but the pantograph is called Leap Frog by Norma Sharp. It has a strong vertical component which is great for this quilt.

Keith’s out of town tonight so I’ll be working late again. I need to piece a back and load a quilt that’s a gift for a family member. I would like to get it quilted tomorrow so I can bind it when I get back from San Diego on Wednesday.

By the way, I forgot to mention what a pleasure it was to use my ironing board with the new cover. Next time I won’t wait so long.

Couldn’t sleep so I got up about 1am and decided to work a while. I did a bunch of 4 patches for my July QFAH quilt – I seem to be stretching this quilt out – I’ve got to cut more beige strips for the last group of 4 patch blocks but I’m ready to get this one together. I also loaded a quilt so it’s ready for quilting tomorrow….no make that today.

After that I spent some time cruising blogs including some that I don’t always get to. I’ve noticed some comments over the last few weeks or so in blogland about the number of comments being left (or not left) on blogs. It’s funny because I don’t really notice how many comments a particular post brings in – probably because I post so frequently there’s a continuous trickle of comments. I’m also guilty of doing more reading myself than commenting at times but I do keep an eye on the number of visitors I get.

However, I would never have any idea how many people visit my blog if it weren’t for the sitemeter stats. I certainly don’t get this many comments! On one hand it’s kind of sobering to think 400 people could stop by and not comment but on the other hand they keep coming back so they must have some interest in my quilting.

By the way, this isn’t a complaint about people not commenting, while I’m always happy to hear from people who stop by I get enough interaction to keep me happy.

Another day spent on quilty things without acutally sewing. I’ve got another quilt ready for the longarm, spent some time sorting through quilt photos and taking some additional pictures of quilts and of course time on the computer visiting quilty sites.

I’m sure you’ve all seen a quilt and had it trigger an idea. I was reading a post on Stashbuster and came across this link to Quiltmaker and for some reason – those center blocks seemed to be creating a boxy type frame. So since I already had EQ6 open I had to play some.

I didn’t like my first few attempts but came across this version when I started randomly trying different colors in the blocks. It’s doubtful whether I’ll ever make this quilt but it was fun playing. Just in case you can’t *see* the block in the quilt – here it is.

Thanks for the comments – I appreciate the encouragement from everyone!

Diane asked about the pattern. Some of you may remember that I quilted one of these for my Mom last year (I must not have done too bad a job since my Aunt decided SHE needed one too after seeing Mom’s)

The pattern is from the book Great American Quilts book nine.

I’m so glad this quilt is finished – off the machine and trimmed even. The quilting is not as bad as I feared and I’ll be glad to ship it off to my Aunt. I had problems with thread breakage as I started the 3rd border – almost threw me over the edge but I stayed with it and now it’s DONE!

Did I mention that I love to quilt leaves? (Almost as much as I hate to echo quilt!)

1. Pack and label all the things I need to ship tomorrow
2. Take photo’s of HeartStrings tops and quilts
3. Change the ironing board cover (looks much better doesn’t it?)
4. Finish quilting my Aunt’s quilt
5. Make more 4 patches for my QFAH top

Cathi emailed a link trying to help me solve my software woes – it didn’t solve my problem but it reminded me to check a couple more options and guess what I found? Microsoft has a PDF add-in for Office 2007 that can be downloaded (free) that I had no idea they had. Boy am I glad I found out BEFORE I decided to purchase the software from Adobe for $299! Thanks Cathi!

So you can now if you want the new label you can go to the HeartStrings site and save or print the PDF file which has 4 labels on the page. (I use the Printed Treasures or EQ Printables for my labels these days and the EQ ones are my new favorites!)

I love the new computer, Windows Vista, and Office 2007 BUT I haven’t been able to install my Adobe Elements program that I use to create PDF files.

I tried the online PDF creator on a trial basis from Adobe Online but it doesn’t support the font I wanted to use last night AND it’s $9.99 a month. I could buy Acrobat Standard but that’s $299.

Here’s the HeartStrings Label I created last night in Office 2007 and here’s the version I was able to create with Elements on my Desktop. It’s fine for me – I can print the cuter version from the laptop but I had to post the plainer version online. (I know this is a little blurred but that’s because it’s a photo of the label I printed out – poor photography NOT poor printing). I’m sure there’s a way to get around this – just haven’t figured it out yet.

In the meantime, you can get the PDF file with 4 labels per page on the HeartStrings website.