It's Time To Move On

Today has been a day of reflection...serious reflection.

Now that my sister's funeral is behind me I can direct my attention to a self-centered bride and an overly critical, likely to be ex-, husband. God give me strength. (Though, it's likely I'm going to have a pack of Marlboro's in my purse before the week is out...and I will blame my family for that, regardless of who it is that lights the matches).

Before I left for Ohio I had asked my husband to pick up some FoamCor so I could come back and make the block carrier from Elly Sienkiewicz's Baltimore Elegance book. Clearly he didn't hear me, lost the note with the sizes, didn't think it was worth the effort, so that's on hold until I can get over to Michaels to pick up what I need, myself--which is what I should have done to begin with. (Really, by now I should know better....if you want something done, do it yourself.)

My daughter's in a snit because I told her it was too late to send out 'Save the Date' magnets (not yet ordered, and if they were, they'd be mailing the week before the invitations). Of course the hubs is being pissy because I'm stressing the daughter by 'throwing a roadblock' at her plans. He thinks we should just roll up and set fire to a couple of Benjamins and f--k wedding etiquette so as not to stress the bride. (Hel-lo....does he consider the level of stress he's causing the MOB? This is why he's going to be apartment hunting on October 9th.)

Come back tomorrow and I'll have something sewn to show you. I NEED to sew something  (because I shudder to think what I might do otherwise).

And most importantly, thanks for the thoughtful comments regarding my sister. I truly appreciated the comfort of friends. Especially in the absence of family. Love you all.

Drive By Posting

(She's back!!! Lots going on...we'll get to it..for now, suffice it to say that I've been neglecting the house, myself, the hubs, the wedding plans, so I'm trying to play catch up and the quilting has taken a hit.)


One of the projects I'm currently working on turned out to be way more tedious than I could have imagined. This would be the New Twist on Drunkards Path project, which I am going to rename The Twisted Drives Me To Drink project.

I shall  not bore you with how many times I had to go back for fabric and redo blocks for one reason or another. This project is most definitely my top pick for 'not as easy as it appears' in the videos and handouts. 16 blocks had to be done with the stitch pattern. Now we move on to cutting them out as well as cutting out all the other fabrics. But before we can do that, we've got to remove the 'tear away' (are they serious? on what planet and in what atmosphere does this stabilizer actually 'tear' away) from the above-mentioned 16 blocks, and this requires a raft of different scissors and lots of breath holding so I don't accidentally snip the fabric while cutting away the tear away. (sigh)

On a lighter note....How about a no-sew pin cushion?  Get yourself a nice block of wrapped (very important, lest you desire having little soap crumbles all over your worktable) scented soap and poke quilting pins into it. Bonus is that the soap acts as a wax on the pins, making them glide through the fabric. Cool!

I'm finally catching up with my to-do list and was tackling a little mending tonight and thought I'd share my mending thread source. This cool item is a little braided 'scarf' of threads. You can get it at JoAnn. There's a bunch of strands in each color and you just grab one and pull it out of the hank of thread and off you go. I went my whole life not knowing about this cool product and just found out about it from a teacher in a class I was taking a couple years ago. A worthy tip for passing on.

As of this evening, my house is clean, my laundry is done. The eye is still screwed up, but I'm told it may take 12 weeks for it to clear itself up, and I'll be revisiting the retinal specialist next month, so I'm just trying to not dwell on it and ignore the 'smudge' in my vision.

I've got so many projects started in the studio that I've been neglecting that I'm looking forward to getting started on. If I had more than small scrap pieces of FoamCor in the house, I'd have made myself a sweet applique block carrier out of Elly Sienkiewicz's Baltimore Elegance book today. And yes, I could have got up this morning, at the crack of dawn, finished the cleaning and run over to Michaels for the FoamCor, but the path of least resistance was to sleep until 10, give the hubs a note with the sizes I needed cut, and ask if he could pick them up for me tomorrow from his office and it will wait until next weekend..

What little time I did have in the studio today was spent packing up some handwork that will occupy me on the 5-1/2 hour drive (each way) to Athens, OH tomorrow (my oldest sister, who has been ill for quite some time, died this past Thursday).

I hope to settle back into the studio once I get back from Ohio, so stay tuned for show and tell. (And fingers crossed the hubs and the dogs manage to keep the house clean while I'm away).

Enjoy your week. Stay cool!

Accuquilt GOI! Bust My Stash Photo Challenge

Have you stared at your fabric stash and wished that you had the time and energy to cut up your fabric for future projects? AccuQuilt has the answer! Click on the following link to participate: http://on.fb.me/qtyUoq or go to AccuQuilt’s Facebook page and click “Like”. Then go to the ‘Bust My Stash’ tab under their profile picture and upload a picture of your fabric stash. Submit your photo by Friday, July 22nd and you’ll be eligible to win a GO! Mix & Match 12” Starter Set. The photo with the most votes by July 31st wins! Photos will be voted on by viewers and fans of the AccuQuilt Facebook page using the following criteria: relevance, creativity, and originality. Share with your friends during the voting period to increase your odds of winning!

Good Luck!