Cheer Up Sleepy Jean

Turn your speakers on, we're playing tribute to Davy Jones. It's a sad day--one that reminds us how young and carefree we once were. I will always remember the Monkees,  Davy Jones was my favorite...he graced the cover of many a dog-eared Sixteen  and Tiger Beat magazine, and was the subject of THE go-to kissable poster in numerous pre-teen bedrooms (mine included).

Davy Jones and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum...and NO 'Ducky' does not come to mind when we mention his name)....

(You know, in 1967, you wouldn't have given this picture a second thought--not even a giggle)

Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger.....all so worthy of a 13-year old girl renouncing her citizenship and stowing away on the QEII for a chance encounter--and the hope to become a child bride.   Okay, at least until that 13 year old became a 14 year old and turned her attention to hitchhiking out to San Francisco, with flowers in her hair, to cavort with the likes of Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane), Jim Morrison, or any one of the Buffalo Springfield.

Nonetheless, Davy Jones died far too young, and will always have a place in my heart.

RIP Davy, and thanks for everything. You will forever be my Daydream Believer.

Aurifil Designer Block Finished

Today I indulged in a little embroidery fun using my favorite Aurifil threads. 12 wt cotton made this project fun and totally painless. I don't think I'll ever use DMC floss again. I breezed through all those French Knots and I don't even embroider!

Wouldn't it be great if there were a Mega Thread lottery every week? The jackpot would be a spool of every color and every weight thread made by Aurifil. Heck with Powerball....I'd be first in line for that. Or how about Aurifil Clearinghouse Sweepstakes? The Prize Patrol knocks on your door and presents you with suitcases full of thread. Sigh! (A girl can dream, can't she?)

Back to reality.... I'm pleased as it gives me another February finish. And I'm grateful that there's one more day in the month so I can make binding and finish the Drunkard's.

The deadlines are closing in.  Class with Mimi Dietrich is Sunday, and the only progress I've made is to scrap my designs for two of the blocks (and believe me, Mimi is such a sweetie, she'd say that was good work for the past month--I did something decisive ). The applications for what I'm hanging in the guild show are due Monday, along with a barn block for next year's Guild raffle quilt, so those are on the short list. I think I'm safe on the challenge quilt, for a minute, as I don't have to submit a photo or measurements on Monday, just an indication that I'll be turning in a challenge piece--so that can move back to the procrastination back burner for a bit.

The consequence of having so many projects in mind is that they require prioritizing (a task which we seem to suck at lately--for some reason the more I have to do, the harder it is for me to stay on track and carry it out--just ask my boss about that, ha ha----I tend to attribute the recent lack of motivation to  'Sucks to get old".). Decisions, decisions......

Well, I hope your Wednesday is lacking in pressure, or the need to prioritize anything. I'm off to bed, most likely to dream about thread (which is way better than dreaming about deadlines).

Keep Calm and Carry On!

Finally!!!!

See all that thread....it's the quilting thread on the Drunkard's. While the majority of the beige thread is snip offs, the majority of the brown is rip out. I spent 2 hours yesterday afternoon quilting, followed by another 2 hours ripping out everything I did. Went through a bit more of the same today, and finally settled on a tiny meander and set to work finishing.  Done! All that's left is binding, a label, and a hanging sleeve for the show.

The Bella Solids color card arrived on Saturday. Not only is it huge.....

But it's an actual fold-over of each fabric, which is great. You can slip another fabric under it for matching. Very nice.

And this also arrived this weekend:

A jelly roll of Cosmo Cricket Salt Air, and two yards of a coordinating Bella solid (mint). Can you say new summer quilt? If only I could finish all my other projects so I could start on this one. I am loving the fabrics in this line. And the colors...salt water taffy comes to mind. Yum!

Tomorrow's plan is to bind the Drunkard's. Gotta have an OPAM for February. I'd love to complete the Aurifil Designers BOM for February, which might be possible...not the best use of my time, especially since I've got a class next Sunday and nothing to show. The Aurifil block is an easy prep, so maybe I'll give that a shot.

What's on your list to be completed?

3 Martini Limit

We started out with good intentions....re-pinned the Twisted Drunkard's Path, which we renamed 'Broken Records' this afternoon at lunchtime.

But then the thread package arrived in the mail--which was totally amazing that it took only 2 days to get here from the west-mid-west--and we had to spend quite a bit of time oohing and aahing over the Aurifil Color Card and the 13 or so spools of 12 wt Aurifil cotton that I snagged at $3.60 per spool (even the hubs wanted to know why I just didn't buy every single color she had at that price).

And I finally dug out the electric juicer from the basement and juiced the Blood oranges I picked up at the Korean market a few weeks ago, which resulted in 3 batches of Blood Orange Martinis (so much for going out to dinner tonight).  And by the second martini we were snuggled on the couch watching the 3 episodes of 'Revenge' that we had dvr'd.

Okay, so bottom line....we're caught up on Revenge, and we're feeling no pain...and it's way too late to participate in Friday Night Sew In.  Whatever...it was a good night nonetheless.

Tomorrow promises to be a great day, beginning with a trip to 'Creative Saturday' at Needles and Pins quilt shop in Frederick, culminating with a definite start on quilting Broken Records. I've already changed my plan for how to quilt it a few times since it's been up on the design wall.

In the meantime, here's a little photo essay for you...

This is what we're looking at on the design wall. Clearly, the pinwheels (whatever) are the dominant design. Do we keep that, or do we try to de-emphasize that in our quilting:  (Note how much different this looks on the wall, from a distance, than it looked on the table last night.)

 And this is a demo of my absolute favorite tool of the moment.....Pinmoors.   Forget about safety pins. It is so quick, and so easy to use long straight pins anchored by the Pinmoors to sandwich a quilt.

Poke the pin into the sandwich, and secure the end with the plastic foam Pinmoor.

Quick, easy, and equally easy to remove when you've got this on the machine for quilting.

If you haven't tried them yet, invest in a small pack and give them a shot. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and looking for a place to dump all those safety pins you've been collecting.

Well, it's Friday night and I'm off to bed. Yeah, I know, it's not 2 a.m. yet, but I'm a little weird about starting my weekends. While I'll stay up anywhere from 2 a.m. until 3:30 a.m. on worknights, I really like to get a bunch of sleep on Friday night. I want to start my weekend well rested. There's always so much to do on the weekends, and I like to have a fresh start. Weird, eh?

Happy weekend. Hope you have marvelous winter weather, and I'd love to hear what you have planned for your 3-day weekend.

ISO Quilting Ideas

Alrighty then...the Twisted Drunkard's Path has been pinned and now it's time to decide how to quilt it. I'm stumped and would appreciate some ideas. The overall quilt is 48"x48". Without having seen it recently, I purchased some 40 wt Champagne-colored Sulky Viscose thread. My initial thought was just to meander all through the quilt, and the thread is lustrous enough that it should be somewhat reflective when stitched on the brown, and not in your face contrast.

Now, a lot of time was sent laying down those 7 arcs of decorative stitching on each block, so I'm not so sure I want to stitch across them when quilting, in which case, maybe I'd rather go for a tight stipple on the prints and browns.

Decisions, decisions. Of course, maybe I want to be  adventurous and quilt an all over pattern...in which case, what would that be?

What would you do? I've got to start it for Friday Night Sew In (see sidebar for a link to details), so that it's finito by Monday's challenge to tackle the challenge. All ideas would be greatly appreciated.

The past couple of days have been Christmas in February (which has not gone unnoticed by the hubs, by the way).

Look what came today!

My Frixion pen set that I have been anxiously awaiting. Let's set up the Consumer Test Lab, shall we?

(And no, get your mind out of the gutter, that is not a vibrator. It's a heat gun used on embossing powders and cellophane packaging.)

Using a scrap of the same fabric I'm using in the Baltimore Album quilts, I did a little scribbling with the pens.

 And then I hit it with the heat gun.

 Can you say "Gone in (way less than) 60 Seconds"?

 The only way you're going to see that ink again is if the temperature drops to 14 degrees in the house, or I store this quilt  in the freezer, in which case it will magically reappear.

Isn't science wonderful?  No worries if you don't have a heat gun...you can iron it away, or put your fabric in the dryer, or (as someone in my class did), leave it in your car, with the windows up, in the middle of July. :)

I can't wait to start using these pens on the Baltimore blocks. No more trying to get pencil out that didn't get covered by the applique.

If you'd like some of these pens, hustle on down to your office supply store. They have them at Staples (and that's the best price you'll find in a store), or you can order a set of 8 on Amazon for just under $14.00.

Speaking of ordering.....this also came today:

I'm planning on doing the Aurifil Designers Block a Month (you can get the details on that on Pat Sloan's blog). Looks simple enough, just waiting for the 12 wt thread to get started  (shh....don't tell the husband there's still another package (or two) to arrive).

I had a little trouble picking a Bella solids color off the computer to go with that layer cake. Every web site seemed to display the same color differently. So I sucked it up and invested in.......

.....color cards. Kona Cotton and Bella Solids are pretty long term stable, so I ordered cards for both lines. These two fabric lines can be purchased on line for significantly less than you can pick them up in your local quilt shop (I paid just over $5 a yard for Bella the other day), so having a sample of each color made will be extremely helpful when ordering solids to coordinate with the prints I'm using. I can just pop on line and know I'll be ordering the right color.

If you're interested in color cards, the cheapest source for the Kaufman Kona Solids card is Pink Chalk Fabrics, and if you want the Moda Bella Solids card you'll need to pre-order at Hancock's of Paducah (they're currently out of stock, but are expected back in.

I'm anxiously awaiting your ideas for quilting tomorrow night. Happy Friday!

Valentine Surprises -- No Quilting Today

The hugs did good....and he created a monster. Yep, that's a Pandora bracelet and charm. Actually, it's a pretty smart move on his part. Birthday....charm.  Mothers Day...charm. Christmas...charm. He's set for years. Who knows, he may have bought enough charms to get him through a few years and hidden them in his sock drawer (I should look).

He also brought home a bunch of flowers, which are currently looking happy in the nice, clean kitchen.

Normally, after dinner, I come up to the studio and hang out. Tonight, I hung out with the hubs catching up on DVRd Revenge episodes. When I did come up I found this on my sewing table.

Aww. He took this cute little pottery frog vase we got at a craft show in Florida last month and did a little arrangement and left it in front of the sewing machine, where I couldn't miss it. Too sweet.

Guess my festive nail polish job from yesterday put him in a romantic gifty mood. 

No time to sew, and anyway, I'm still blocked on the Bloomin' Challenge piece and think it wouldn't be a great idea to start on something else as I may never get back to the Challenge (no wonder they call this a challenge). I've set a goal to come up with a concept and to complete it on Monday (work holiday--woo hoo).

So on this wintry February night I'll leave you with what's 'bloomin' ' in my studio (sheesh! you'd think I wouldn't have a problem with a 'Bloomin' Challenge').

Poinsettia won as an office door prize back in mid-December. Two months and it's still full of blooms. There's something to be said about poinsettias from a garden center greenhouse.

More garden center plants. The cyclamen have been in bloom since I bought them the first week of December. The Christmas cactus was a purchase last year, and it did bloom this year...for Christmas (seriously!)

I added a couple stems from the flowers downstairs. I love this vase and am looking forward to using it with flowers from the garden this summer. It's just a flat pottery disc that has a hole that's the diameter of a half dollar, and in that is a small frog (pins) in which to stand the stems. It probably holds a quarter cup of water. Very Zen.

Tomorrow night we'll do something quilty. It's hard to not be creative with all these cheerful blooms watching.

Happy Wednesday! 



A Trip To the Laundromat

The hubs was tired of his new quilt covering him with thread, so he suggested we make a trip to the laundromat this morning to wash it. (For those of you unfamiliar with rag quilts, it is suggested that you wash it the very first time in a commercial washing machine, unless you have a machine with a lint trap you can clean...or you're married to the Maytag Repairman).

Now, I can't remember the last time I was in a laundromat. An apartment laundry room...maybe 30 or so years ago, an actual laundromat....probably 1975 in the Virgin Islands (and then it was only to drop off my laundry to be washed, dried, and folded while I was at work...it must have been ridiculously cheap because we didn't make much money). I digress....

We have two laundromats in our immediate area. One has been there for quite a few years, and one just opened about 6 months ago. The only reason I know of this is because they happen to be in shopping centers I go to...the newest one is next to Hancock Fabrics. Of course that one was the laundromat of choice. While the hubs babysat the quilt, I could browse the fabric store. Perfect. Well, not so perfect as Hancock doesn't open until Noon on Sunday. (Seriously?)

We arrived just after 10 a.m. and the place was rockin' like Karaoke Night at the Holiday Inn bar on a Saturday night. (Don't people go to church anymore?). The walls were mirrored, the machines new and stainless steel, and above them, every 6 or so feet, were wall-mounted 70" flat screen TVs tuned to various soccer games. Salsa music competed with the noise from the spinning front-load machines, and the vending machines dispensed Coconut Water in cans, plantain chips, and candy bars with names we couldn't pronounce.

We had grabbed a handful of quarters from the ashtray in my car on our way in. Totally unnecessary.  You had to feed paper money into the wall where it turned it into a plastic debit card that could be swiped by the washers and dryers. The card cost a dollar. The washer cost $4.99. That's right....$4.99. One load of clothes washed for $4.99. Or in my case, one flannel throw quilt washed for....$4.99.  I have no idea how much it costs to dry anything, as I didn't plan on sticking around to find out, as once our load was done I hustled it back into the plastic bag I carried it over in and we left without venturing to the dryer side of the place.

Tossed it in the dryer at home, and wah-la:

It's frayed. In fact, it frayed so darn good that I had to spend 2 episodes of Chopped this afternoon mending the seams that opened because I clipped the fringe too close to the seam lines (this was my first rag quilt...lesson learned). While I'd like to say that this is my last rag quilt, I've got the flannel to make one more just like it, so we're going to hang on to that reloadable laundromat card for a while.

Now it's time to move on to one of the challenges for the Guild quilt show.  The name of the challenge is 'Orange Blossoms'. Quilt or wall hanging measuring no more than 160" around it's perimeter or a wearable. Must contain the 3 print fabrics shown below in a recognizable amount:

I stared at this for a bit this afternoon. Came up and looked at it again after dinner, and it's been laid out in front of me
for the past hour. It's not speaking to me yet. Orange Blossoms isn't coming from this (and anyway, orange blossoms are white). I don't know where to go with a wall hanging, and what would I do with a 40" square quilt? I was thinking apron. Now I'm thinking tote bag....or not.

What I do know is that it's taking time away from the Baltimore Album blocks, which is not good. Tomorrow we'll look at it some more and toss in some white and see if that makes us view this challenge any differently.

What do you see?

Last night the hubs' flannel rag quilt came off the snipping station. While it still needs to be washed to fray it (which is a trip to a commercial laundromat), I let him use it last night. Oh, and it also needs a label (as do about a half dozen recent quilts I've done).

This is the back. Good intentions were to not have any of the same blocks touch, but it didn't work out that way, and once I realized I had a couple that did, it wasn't possible to rearrange the front rows to correct that. (Breathe Susan....repeat after me....'finished is way better than perfect....finished is way better than perfect...')



I don't recall exactly what I was looking for on eBay the other day, but I accidentally stumbled on these vintage Sewing Susan needle kits. Of course I had to buy them. I think there's at least one more version....they apparently updated the ladies' hair and clothing to fit the time period. My plan is to frame them as studio wall art. And clearly I'm going to need a larger studio as I'm running out of wall space.



The fabric seminar I went to Saturday morning was very informative. First they gave us all a fat quarter, and when the talk turned to the traditional Stonehenge line we were all handed a fat quarter of that. And at the end of the presentation they drew for about a dozen door prizes, and I won a 5-fat quarter bundle. Yippee!

After a delicious (and healthy) lunch, I went downstairs and promptly bought a pattern and fabric to make this Magnolia Art Glass wall hanging, which happened to be one of the pieces in the trunk show. This was so popular that they ran out of patterns and some of the fabric, as it seems that just about everyone in the seminar wanted to make this. Fortunately, I hightailed it down to the shop early and was able to walk out with everything I needed. Piecing, paper piecing and a little applique. Can't wait to start on it, but I've got a few things to finish before I can start something new. (ha ha ha)

On Sunday, as I'm leaving my class with Mimi, I hear the 'last call for the fat quarter madness' announcement. Now, silly me had not read my email from this quilt shop last week, so I had no clue what this meant. Not wanting to miss out on something I asked the shop owner.  Turns out that all fat quarters were 99 cents, and they'd been 99 cents for the past 3 days.  You snooze, you lose. Not wanting to be the biggest loser, I was able to snag 18. The golf balls and softballs I'll use for something for the hubs, a couple of randoms to fill in current collections, and a bunch of Michael Miller stripes to mix with either my polka dots or solids in a quilt. Stripes and dots are my new fat quarters to collect.

And now that the flannel quilt is off the design wall, the Baltimore album blocks are up. You probably can't see but those 5 blank blocks have patterns pencilled on them. And, since it's been on the wall, I've already decided to scrap two of the designs. This is why it's on the wall now, design scrutiny and fabric selection. I need to 'kit' another couple blocks so I've got stitching ready to grab and go. Hopefully I'll have a few of these block designs nailed down and kitted for the weekend.

And the winner of the pin cushion and the scissor bling was Janet, who I believe is from somewhere in snowy Canada. I sent her an email and I'll be posting her prize as soon as I hear back. Sorry if you didn't win, but we'll have another giveaway soon, so stay tuned.

I've got two immediate projects to turn my attention to now....the Twisted Drunkard's Path needs to be quilted for my upcoming Guild show, and I've got a challenge piece to work on.  Time's a wastin'.  Hope you aren't as rushed as I feel and can enjoy some leisurely sewing time this week. Enjoy the upcoming weekend....it can't get her soon enough!

PINCUSHION GIVEAWAY ENDS AT MIDNIGHT

Last minute reminder, if you want a chance to win the pincushion, be sure you comment on  the  original giveaway post below, before midnight EST tonight.

Good luck!

Good Day/Bad Day

Let's start with the good.....my sister came over today for a little demo on how to set up her machine for her machine quilting class on Saturday (my Christmas gift to her). She brought me a couple of goodies that she found in her inherited sewing stash.

First up was this cool silverplated needle case. It was black when we started, but I gave it a once over with the silver polish. It's a modern case (because it's got a screw on cap).

She suggested I add the bling to it. I like it. A lot. It's got a bit of heft to it, and it will slip right into one of the pockets on my applique organizer bag.

Next up is this ivory and velvet screw on pincushion.  Check out the intricate carving. See the people in the garden?

It clamps on to your machine table. I don't know if it's antique or modern, ivory or bone. Old or new. Whatever, it's pretty neat.

On to the bad.....

I haven't mentioned it, but Bailey, our beagle has leukemia (among other problems). We found this out last week, and have pretty much come to terms with it and are doing our best to make him comfortable and give him lots of treats and love.

Now, my baby Paco (the chihuahua) has suddenly taken ill tonight. Not sure what's up.  He was fine when I left for merchandising and when I got home he's taken to his bed and the hubs says he's been not acting well since he got home from work. Poor little thing seems to have some issue with his neck or his throat, or something. I'm hoping he'll be fine in the morning and his tail will be back to wagging.  Last months' vet bill was crazy...almost as crazy as the vet suggesting another $1000 worth of chemo for Bailey (who is 12 years old). Fingers crossed Paco's back to normal tomorrow.



Okay, so what happened in the Safeway parking lot on Wednesday night?

I've just pulled into a parking spot and I'm going to run in and do my last merchandising job of the day. Knowing the Powerball jackpot was up there, I'm digging in my purse for some cash to put in my pocket. There's a teenage kid sitting in the car parked next to me, so I don't want to be too obvious that I'm leaving my purse in the car, so I'm taking my time.

The driver of the car next to me arrives, so I'm waiting until they pull out to exit. As she's pulling out WHAM! I'm jostled out of my seat and I hear the SCRAAAPPPE as her car's front bumper gouges down my rear quarter panel.

I jump out of the car, take a quick look to assure that indeed she has left a nasty scratch on my car and as I walk toward her car she drives off. I'm waving my arms and yelling, 'What the Hell? You just hit my car, where are you going', as I run alongside her and the kid in the passenger seat looks at me and laughs.

At this point I look at her tag, thankful that can still read it without my glasses, and knowing that I have no short term memory (Woodstock generation) , I start repeating the tag numbers over and over as I go back to my car to grab a pen and a paper to write it down. It doesn't occur to me to see what state her tag is from, or what kind of car she's driving. I'm lucky I've got the tag number.

 "911, what's your emergency" (as if I'm not aware I've dialed 911...like I was trying to call 922 and misdialed). "I'm sorry, I'm not sure it's an emergency, but while I was sitting in my car someone hit me and drove off laughing as I tried to stop them".

The police car arrives. I'm slightly embarrassed because it's not like my car is totalled or anything, it's just an ugly 18" scratch on my previously unscratched, undinged car that I usually park at the back of parking lots to avoid inconsiderate people with no manners or conscience opening their doors on me. (The hubs thinks I'm nuts)

While we are speaking this MONSTER tow truck...the kind that you would call to pull your 18-wheeler out of a ditch, is trying to maneuver himself into the Safeway parking lot, down my lane and I get the feeling that he's not there for milk. Clearly he's got a police scanner and he's heard 'hit and run' so he's trolling for the tow.  Disappointed in not finding a mangled, undriveable mess, he gave up trying to get to our lane and nonchalantly headed for the other exit.

Having stood outside my car for 15 minutes, while all of the Safeway customers are walking by wondering what the heck I've done that there's a police car idling behind my vehicle doing paperwork and talking on the radio, and blocking two prime front parking places, the policeman backs his car into the space next to me and hands me a sheet of memo paper. He has obtained the name of the person who hit me and their insurance information. (Go figure). He tells me he can't really file a police report because it's only my side of the story,  maybe the person didn't realize they hit me,  I can't identify make and model of the car, or the state on the license plate, so it's not enough info for a report. I should call their insurance company, and if they don't cooperate, I'll need to call mine. Gee, thanks.

I'm sure he saw the 'What the Hell' look on my face, because he concluded by telling me that since the car came back as living just behind the shopping center, he was going to swing by there on his way out and just see if there was any damage to it and if the owner was home, ask them what was up. Okay, I felt better.

I went into the Safeway to do my job, resigned myself to the fact that it wasn't likely going to be easy to get ESURANCE (the person who hit me's insurance company) to deal with this, and headed home--after buying Powerball tickets--figuring just how unlucky could I possibly be in one night? (Answer....no luckier)

On the way home the cell rings, and it's the policeman. He's been to the driver's house to speak with her, and as he suspected, she denied hitting me. Vehemently. Of course, he had checked out her car and the damage on her car was consistent with the damage on my car, so he knew that she had, yet still she denied it. I think the real problem for her was when the kid in the car told the police officer that yes, she did hit me. (Yeah, I'm wondering about that kid)

He charged her with hit and run and something else and was sorry to say that now I would likely have to go to court as a witness for the State. (Great!....let me take a day (or two) off of work now). But the good news is that now there's a police report number for ESURANCE. (Can you tell I'm thrilled.)  He'll give me the number...but "are you in a moving vehicle ma'am?". "Yes I am, but I'm hands free" (it's illegal to talk on your cell phone and drive in Maryland) "I can tell, Ma'am." (Great, now my suspicion that the car's Bluetooth makes me sound like I'm laying in a bathtub in a mineshaft has been confirmed. Jeez, I hope I've never called in sick to work--'Uggh, I can't even get out of  bed'--while driving to a quilt show).

So this morning I call ESURANCE. (Note to self, and all of you....do not get your car insurance from ESURANCE. Really, it's okay to get your insurance from a Gecko, but stay away from companies that talk through cartoons).

After recording my call and asking me more questions than were asked at Nixon's impeachment....

 "Okay, since the driver isn't going to admit to hitting you, this is going to take a lot longer to clear up. And I'm going on vacation next week...."

( Seriously? )

"Do you have the police report?"

 "Um, no"

 "Not a problem, we can get a copy, but it usually takes us 7-10 days to do so. If you could just pop into the police station and pick up a copy and then fax it to us, it will go much faster."

"EXCUSE ME?!!!  You want me to do your job for you so that you can pay me to fix my car that the crazy woman you insured hit and run?"

The hubs said that when the guy started talking about me getting the police report to speed things up, and him going on vacation that I should have said:

"Not a problem, take your time, but I should tell you that my neck is really starting to hurt"

Let's hope tomorrow is a better day for all of us.

Another reminder....your luck is bound to be better than mine, so be sure you enter the pincushion giveaway by commenting on Tuesday's blog post.

Thinking About Applique

Or is it procrastinating rather than starting a project? Hmmm....what do you think?

Today was another70 degree day in the Nation's Capital, and again, I spent it wistfully staring out the window of my third floor attic office. Tomorrow begins the 3 day telework run (I don't have to go back to the office until next Tuesday), and while the dogs are happy campers (no crates!), the weather is slipping back to winter and the 70s are gone. Figures.

To compensate, I've scheduled a rather entertaining weekend. We begin with Champagne and Crepes (or as my iPhone insists on entering in my calendar....'Champagne and Creeps') for the ladies' Friday Night Happy Hour. One of the ladies' mother is visiting from Sweden (or Denmark, or something like that), and her specialty is crepes, (I keep picturing the Sesame Street Chef when I think of this). My assignment for the night is to bring a bottle of Prosecco. Can it get any easier than that? Actually, I'm thinking of adding Chocolate to the mix...though I'm sure Susie will have that covered.

No bubbly hangovers for me, as I must behave (now I'm channeling Austin Powers) because I've got to be up in Frederick Saturday morning before 10 for an 'Honorary Quilt Buyer For a Day' seminar. A Northcott fabric rep will be presenting a trunk show, sneak peak of upcoming lines, Stonehenge designs, and a lesson on how fabric is made over a 4-hour session that includes not only lunch, but a 20% discount on Northcott fabrics. Oh, and did I mention that the seminar costs $5, and at the end you'll get a $5 credit on any Northcott purchases? Sweet. How could you not attend this?

Back to the applique world I've been living and breathing in for the past 4 weeks.

Which thread would you use for applique? The one on the left or the one on the right?

On the left is DMC Broder Cotton 50 wt. Single ply. Nice. On the right  is 100 wt. Superior Kimono Silk. The thread on the right is my thread of choice. It just disappears into my applique cottons.

Uh oh....looks like someone is out of Sz 11 applique needles. Time to try the new Clover Black Gold needles. And as it works out, I'll just happen to pass the JoAnn Fabric SUPERSTORE on Saturday on my way back from the seminar. And what a coincidence....needles are 50% off. Detour!

Shh.....pretend you didn't see all those.

Check back tomorrow to share in the Creeps and Champagne ....er Crepes and Champagne fun. I'll also tell you why I spent a good part of this evening in the Safeway parking lot leaning up against my car with an idling police car blocking me in. (Before you panic...think....I'm typing this now, so I 'm not in jail :) ).

And, most importantly, if you haven't entered the pincushion giveaway, be sure to comment on Tuesday's post for your chance.