Archive for October, 2007

I had to try another postcard before bed but I don’t know that this second one is any better. The first one is on top (in the envelope ready for mailing). I’m still not crazy about the zigzag edge. I haven’t been fusing the top and back to the Peltex – maybe that would keep things from shifting on me.

I don’t know if these bins are going to function any better but for now they’re neater – remember the mess blocking my ironing board? Today, I went out and bought these open bins , sorted my strings by color, and stacked them in the corner.

I still have to figure out what to do with the bins on the ironing board. Some are project *leftovers* that I’m hesitant to toss in the new bins because I can get another project out of them – I just don’t know if I can keep them sitting around until I get back to them unless I find some other spot for them to free up the ironing board. I really miss the space I had in Marietta!

There was ONE thing I wanted to mark off my list today and that was this top. Before stopping to make dinner I had it together except for the top and bottom borders and I just now sewed those on and tossed it up on the design wall for a photo. My clock says it’s 12:15 but since I had to clean up dog vomit and retake the photos I know it was done before midnight!

The sashing looks black in this photo but it’s actually a deep purple. For those interested, you can find instructions for this Uneven Chinese Coins quilt at MaryQuilts.com .

I realized today why I should always work on these Chinese Coins quits here at home. I use a lot of pins when sewing these vertical rows together and it is SO much easier to stretch them along my longarm table than to crawl around on the floor like I was doing at Mom’s. This top is together except for the top and bottom border – yeah!

I took my new Janome Jem Platinum machine out of it’s box and decided to make sure it worked before packing it up for my HeartStrings sew-in on Saturday. One of the features I didn’t think I would use is the start/stop button you see in the photo below. This machine can be run without a foot pedal – believe or not it was pretty easy and I kind of like it!

I think I’m going to love this little machine!

I’m not very artistic but here’s my interpretation of the birch trees we saw this weekend on the North Shore. Maybe I should have studied this photo first and made a pieced background. This is my first attempt and I’ll probably give it another shot but not until I get some *real* work done.

With the upcoming Sew-in for HeartStrings coming up on Saturday, I went out and bought a *portable* sewing machine to take along. I’ve been debating buying a small machine for a while and finally decided to just do it.

I’ve heard lots of positive things about the Janome Jem machines and bought the Platinum 720. It has needle down and a blanket stitch (I don’t like machine applique but I occasionally do some) so I chose it over the Jem Gold even though it was a bit more expensive. The dealer told me that my Elna was made by Janome and I found the machine had some similar features. I was particularly happy to find that the 1/4 inch edge foot is the same as mine.

After reading a post on Deb’s blog yesterday I had a feeling someone had made some kind of nasty comment so I wrote and asked her about it.

I couldn’t believe when she wrote me back that she’d had an anonymous comment that said “sisters who don’t get along, should not play together in public and annoy others with their rivalry”.

I try to be nice but people like this really piss me off. If I don’t like how a blog is written, I don’t bother reading it – how hard is that?

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I also had a question from Pam about what I’d charge to quilt a king size quilt. Sorry Pam I don’t do any quilting for hire. I have more than enough to keep up with with my HeartStrings quilting and the quilts I do for family. Deb, Judy, and Bonnie all quilt for hire just to name a few.

My oldest son turns 24 today (yes, I was just a baby when I gave birth)! Hope you have a wonderful day Chris.

You can see photos of Chris from his wedding last year. He will also celebrate his first anniversary this month.

We had a great time this weekend driving up to Duluth and the North Shore. Hopefully, this week I’ll get back to work!

I should be too embarrassed to show you this photo but this is why I’ve had to clean today. I’m looking for a solution for storing my strings since the bins are taking over in this corner of the room but I’ve got so much stuff piled up you can’t see the bins! I don’t have a lot of room between the sewing table and the ironing board but I know if I find something that uses the space going UP then I should be able to have my strings and scraps more organized.

The rest of the apartment is messy too so I’ve been cleaning and doing laundry but still have plenty to do. Tomorrow, Keith and I are going to take off and head to Duluth for a couple days. No plans – we’re just going to let the GPS guide us around. I’m excited about seeing one of the Great Lakes for the first time!