Welcome to Wedding Wars

We've gone to visit two venues so far. There's another scheduled for tomorrow evening and one for Wednesday afternoon. Dear daughter and I aren't seeing eye to eye on a few things (like the day, the time, the venue) but I'm sure we'll work that out. At the moment dear daughter is doing her best to be impulsive (which is what she does best), and mother of the bride is doing her best to be negative (which is what she does best). We've got until next Thursday to come together in a Vulcan Mind Meld, so hopefully we'll make some progress this week.

Life is still a bit scattered. I've not had proper time to correspond with my newly connected Jr. High School friend, Debbie, so I've not corresponded at all (shame on me!). I think I'll fix that after this post and at least shoot her a short message...a short message is better than no message at all, don't you think?

The heat fixer guys come again tomorrow, and from their last call, it sounds like they may have come up with an ingenious way to blame the problem on the possibility of mice in the wallschewing the wiring that goes from the thermostat in the dining room to the heat pump outside.  (I don't think it matters that we haven't seen a mouse, let alone any evidence of a mouse in the house since the 1st year the house was built and it was still all woods around us...we've been mouseless for at least 20 years.) Obviously they're stretching to find something outside the warranty. Honestly?  I'll tell you this, when he brings those wires in to me tomorrow, he better have sufficiently chewed them and I'd better not see any plastic coating in his teeth.

My boss gave his notice last Friday, and I've got until Wednesday to decide if I want to apply for his job. This is a tough one for me, for many reasons, and at the moment, I can't believe I'm saying this, I don't think I want his job. It would mean no more telecommuting days. The hubs says I need to figure out how much of a raise it would have to be for me to give that up. There's a lot to be said about rolling out of bed, grabbing a cup of joe and starting your workday in your PJs two days a week. Decisions....decisions.....

I've been looking at the Winding Ways blocks on the design wall for a week now and they just haven't inspired me to sew them. I think there's a reason for that, and that would be....

Yay!!!!!! The Stitch in the Ditch sole plate for my walking foot finally arrived. See the metal piece in the middle of it?  (look at the bottom). Well, that sits in your seam as you stitch....invisible in the ditch stitching, every time.  For you Bernina users, it's like having a #10 walking foot. It's been a long time coming. It was ordered back in March and it took more than month for it to get here.

I think I'm going to throw caution to the Winding Ways and I'm going to thread up the Bernina and finish off the Mexican Star. All that's left on this is to ditch stitch the vertical and horizontal bars, and I've been holding off waiting for this soleplate to arrive...no excuses anymore.

Saturday was one of those crazy, rainy days and the hubs needed to go shopping up in Frederick, so I volunteered to go along as long as he would stop at JoAnn Fabrics for the last day of the Daffodil Dash sale. Now, mind you, there's really nothing I want from JoAnn except some thread, some batting, some rulers, books...and I had seen this really cute bird print home dec fabric in their flyer that I thought would make a great chair cushion and sewing machine cover for the studio.

The bird  print I had my eye out for wound up being way too large for what I had in mind, so I wandered back to their quilting department. This is a JoAnn superstore, and I gotta tell you, as I'm walking down this 'special purchase' fabric row that was 30% off,  I was experiencing a little quilt shop deja vu.

I don't know about you, but I can spot an Alexander Henry fabric in a JoAnn like Sara Jessica Parker can spot a pair of Louboutins in Payless. And it's not that easy because in JoAnn, the Alexander Henry fabrics aren't on gold foiled bolts. I don't ask why they have them (for $7.99 and 8.99 a yard, no less---on sale for 30% off that), I just buy them.

As it turns out, I've already got the Day of the Dead print on the left, so you'll see that again in an upcoming giveaway.

With the hubs beginning to whine about how long he'd been in the store, and how he thought I was just running in for one thing, whaaa, whaaa, whaaa....I was somehow miraculously able to maintain brain function and remember that I needed to see if they had wool on sale....bingo! I was able to pick up a yard of lovely cream wool for 50% off to use on one of my upcoming wool applique projects. It's so much easier to throw it in a hot water wash when you only paid $13 a yard for it. :)

So, life is almost back to normal. And now I'm off to test drive the walking foot.

Don't forget to post your comments for a chance to win the April giveaway!

About Last Night and Onward and Upward Into Saturday

So last night, after setting aside the Diet Coke in favor of a far more civilized dirty martini, I popped the CD that came with my sewing machine into the laptop and started the tour. Not bad. I learned that my Aurora will actually sew on a button (we shall not fail to note how lucky it was that the clothing I was wearing at the time was devoid of buttons), there's a stitch that looks exactly like a hand-sewn blanket stitch, which I frequently HAND SEW on wonky little applique projects, like the woolfelt Easter Eggs that have now been packed back up for next year--not a single egg completed this year), and --star of the car-- when using a walking foot you should move your needle all the way to the right and line the inner edge of the right toe along the seam line for perfectly placed stitch in the ditch. (Who knew!).

Absolutely perfectly aligned, and barely even visible. How have I not known this for the almost 2 years I've been a quilter?

A learning experience and I'm only half-way through the CD. Haven't gotten to the embroidery or accessory sections yet. It was also chock full of various fun projects, with pdf patterns to print out. Good thing I was bored. I never watch the CDs that come with printers/computers/cameras. Wonder what all I've missed over the years just assuming (a definite case for 'make an ass out of u and me') they'd be a waste of time.

Onward to today's ambitious project:

The poor kitchen table is in serious need of a table quilt. So Vera's Garden came out of the cubbies in the closet for today's self-entertainment challenge. Wracked the brain with a tape measure on the round table trying to figure out what size square quilt to make (have I mentioned that I don't do math?). The hubs stepped in to assist, but he just wasn't getting through the calculations fast enough for me, so I whipped the coffee table quilt off the coffee table and tossed it over the kitchen table. We then proceeded to fold it up a bit here and a bit there to figure out what would be a good size and then measured that. I decided to settle on a 40" square (it's a 40" round table....is that a big 'DUH' or what?)

Next I need to peruse some books for some type of pattern or combination of patterns that suits my fancy, that I can adapt in some way to create said 40" square table quilt. Nothing too simple, nothing too common, something that will work with Vera's Garden prints, which are kind of busy and kind of large.

Once I've settled on something I need to start figuring out how to cut the fabric, not to mention checking to see that I have enough. Draw, add, redraw, add, subtract. My head is spinning. Of course, once I settle on how to adapt the pattern to work for 40",  the original idea for a center medallion matching the borders quickly fizzles as I realize that I don't have quite enough fabric to do that without having to do some serious piecing together of the borders....which is something I do not want to do. So now I need a change of plan for the center medallion.

Maybe I can cobble together some HSTs and squares from what's left from the border cutting, add in a solid color fabric that I happen to have on hand that just about match one of the colors in the prints and make a center star. Or maybe I can see what kind of fabric I have left over after making the bricks I'm going to use that outline the center square and make a 9-, 12- or 16-patch center and not use the solid fabric. Sigh....what to do.

Okay, Susan get a grip....it's a table quilt. You're going to use it to hide a scuffy wood kitchen table. You'll most likely put hot dishes on it, drop food on it, basically use it as a huge placemat. WhatEVer! Just do SOMETHING! It's not going to hang in Houston, you aren't going to take it to show and tell at the guild meeting, this is utility, not art. Put on that old pioneer girl bonnet and get this show on the road.

And most importantly, remember your mantra......

FINISHED IS WAY BETTER THAN PERFECT!

(Make it work!)