UFOs and other things

Posted on June 25, 2007 by Suzanne

First up is the very pretty stained glass angel I got from my family for my birthday. Isn’t she pretty?

On my birthday, and then again today, I spent some time working on various UFOs. One was the flannel/wool applique that I posted about a few days ago.

Another was this:

I pieced the pinwheels several months ago, with the intention of using it as an appliqué background, but the original idea was a large circular wreath. Yesterday, though, I was contemplating the circle and deciding it was actually kind of boring, and it dawned on me that maybe i could use my asymmetrical heart doodle (from the red wholecloth I made a few months ago…) The green vine is partly appliqued on, partly just basted on. Still not sure what I’m doing for motifs to go with it, but this is a step in the right direction.

I also spent today contemplating this crazy UFO. I bought the kit at MQS 2 years ago. It was short some of the background fabric, which I didn’t determine until awhile after I had purchased it. I found some of what I needed at a quilt shop last fall, and just punted. There are supposed to be more blocks with the lightest background fabric, but I just did it this way instead:

I finished sewing the blocks into rows and then the rows together this afternoon. Somebody didn’t do a very good job of piecing the blocks, particularly the hourglass blocks….

It still needs borders, and then there is supposed to be appliqued vines and flowers that reach back into fill up the empty hourglass blocks….

It’s been 2 years since I bought the kit, we’ll see how long it takes me to finish it….

*******************

Thank you so much to everyone that left birthday wishes, I sure appreciate it! I had a nice quiet day. Pork burgers and hashbrowns for dinner, popcorn for supper. No cake — I’m the only one that bakes around here…but my DH scooped up a nice dish of ice cream at dinner time and did a fine job of getting the Snickers Ice Cream bar out of the freezer after popcorn.

And now, it’s way past my bedtime, so I’d best finish up, get things turned off and head for bed….

TTFN-

Suzanne

Happy Birthday To Me

Posted on June 24, 2007 by Suzanne

I guess this is pretty self-indulgent, but hey — that’s what this whole entire blog is, right?

I’m not doing anything I don’t want to do today. I may sew, I may not. I do have to make part of our lunch (the potatoes), but I think Mark is going to cover everything else. And I think he said I have to pop the popcorn for tonight’s popcorn night. Beyond that, though: I’m taking the day off. What a relief!

I spent yesterday in Wisconsin helping a friend/customer with her quilting machine. Thankfully it went well — as much as I like her, I didn’t want to have to end up spending my birthday with her…

On the way home, I stopped at a quilt shop. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, but I couldn’t find a single thing in the entire shop that I needed to buy.

And then I stopped at Kohl’s and looked at purses and wallets, but again, couldn’t find anything I liked. Good thing, too, as I got a surprise today, but I’m not saying anymore until….well, you’ll just have to wait, OK?

I guess that’s all for now. I’m sorry about yet another picture-less post — maybe I’ll blog again later and do it with pictures….

TTFN-

Suzanne

p.s. I got a couple of birthday cards yesterday. The one from my sister-in-law made me laugh. On the outside it says “Happy Birthday Sister-in-law! Despite our great relationship, you and I share a minor problem….” And on the inside it says “But don’t worry — we’ve put up with him for this long, so I uess we can tolerate him for the duration.”

Poor Mark. She disses him with cruel birthday cards on *his* birthday, and now she has started to diss him on MY birthday, too!

p.p.s. In case you are wondering, I’m 35 today. I guess this means that after today I’m officially closer to 40 than I am to 30. Weird. It doesn’t bother me, but it is definitely weird….

Spotted at Barnes & Noble

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Suzanne

I spotted “my” issue of Quiltmaker magazine at Barnes and Noble today. I almost took a picture of it there on the racks with my cellphone but somebody was standing right there and I decided that might be kind of tacky.

My boys were not particularly impressed. They were in too much of a hurry to get to the kids section to look for a book.

Did I mentioned that my sister tried to find it at the Barnes & Noble on Fifth Avenue in New York City? She was dismayed to discover that they didn’t have ANY quilting magazines AT ALL. That would have been a fun picture to have for my scrapbook.

That’s all I’ve got for today…so far…maybe more later….

TTFN-

Suzanne

Oh wait — good news! My new tray arrived, and it works! Yahoo! Thank you HP Tech Support!!!

Load Tray 2 Plain Letter

Posted on June 21, 2007 by Suzanne

My laser printer doesn’t think there is any paper in the paper tray. “Load Tray 2 Plain Letter” it keeps saying. I keep telling it that there is plenty of paper in the tray, but it doesn’t want to listen.

I tried to get help online, but the online tech informed me that my warranty was expired and if I wanted to pay $25 I could. I’m pretty sure it hasn’t been a year yet, but when I questioned him, he didn’t respond. So, I gave up.

Then I got mad.

I got out my receipt (I’m so glad I knew where it was…) and determined that it has not yet been 1 year, and I called the 800 number. I was hot. I was ready to give someone a really hard time.

And then I got the wind knocked out of my sails because both the initial person I spoke to and the actual tech were EXTREMELY helpful and couldn’t have been more wonderful to deal with.

Honestly. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that both were women. And both sounded to be American. I hate to say this, but I’ve had terrible luck any time I’ve had to talk to someone from a call center that is clearly located in a different country.

I do have to e-mail a copy of my sales receipt to prove my purchase date, but they were willing to let me talk to the tech before that took place. And the tech, after asking me a few questions and going away for awhile, is overnighting a new tray to me. Overnighting!

So while I was happy about the response, I’m now frustrated because: the scanner/printer is attached to one of our older computers. This older computer doesn’t want to boot up today. Grr.

We didn’t do any more papier mache today: I suspect that the boys might have gotten over it already. I’m not entirely sure it was as fun as they were expecting. I’m determined to do something with my project, though, and maybe we’ll try again tomorrow.

I’ve got absolutely nothing in the way of quilt or art related content today. Oh wait: I can send you to some places that might have something interesting: one is my friend Carla who has been showing tutorials about eraser carving for the last few days. Not something I’ve ever thought about doing, but after seeing her pictures, I might just have to try it. I’ll put it on the list: I think that makes idea number 1685 that I’ll probably never get to.

The other place you might go is the new blog of Ronda Beyer, a very talented machine quilter. I’ve “known” Ronda from online for awhile, but only met her in person at Machine Quilter’s Showcase in Overland Park, Kansas two weeks ago. Take particular note of her blog header: her quilts are just gorgeous.

I hit a particularly momentous milestone in book sales today, so I’ve informed my husband that we are going out for supper tonight. I’d better go get ready (Ha! Do you think the people at the bowling alley will care? LOL!)

TTFN-

Suzanne

WIP Wednesday

Posted on June 20, 2007 by Suzanne

Sheesh, what happened to Tuesday? And most of Wednesday?

Oh, I know: bookkeeping, baseball, dentist, and more baseball.

And some papier mache thrown in for good measure. The boys have been bugging me for weeks to try it, and I finally had to give in. I couldn’t think of any more excuses not to do it.

It’s a good thing their Dad wasn’t here. He would have hated it. It was very messy. And it was a lot more fun than I expected.

I didn’t get any in progress pictures, my hands were too messy. Maybe tomorrow — we’ll do a second layer in the morning.

I tried to encourage the boys to use a smaller balloon, but they insisted. I hung these outside to dry, when I brought them in , I managed to pop my balloon. I’m trying to make a bowl. I think the boys are both trying to make cannon balls or something like that.

The boys got sealant put on their molars this afternoon. Remarkably, it went well — they can sit still quite well when they have to. I got a little tired of sitting, though. They still want me in the exam room with them, so I got to spend 1 3/4 hours reading a book and providing moral support.

In between dentists and baseball games (double header last night, one game tonight…) and all of the bookkeeping, I’ve tried to spend a few minutes each day doing some applique. The colors in this picture are horrible, the background is actually a mottled black flannel. The applique is all wool. I’m doing a machine blanket stitch with a smoke colored monofilament. Two of these were already done, the other 2 have gotten done this week.

I got it as a kit from Primitive Gatherings Quilt Shop (which was called Back Porch Quilts when I ordered it), it’s called Backyard Gathering . Most of the cutting and fusing is done, just lots of machine stitching left to go. I’m probably cheating by not doing it by hand, but I realized that it would be a 10 or 20 year project if I tried to do hand blanket stitching….

Last, but most definitely not least: I finished the binding on my red/white/blue StarStruck that I showed off a few weeks ago before it got quilted. I presented it to my friend Lynn (who I had the pleasure of spending 2 weeks with at the quilt shows…) but had to keep it to finish it. Not the first time I’ve done that (and probably won’t be the last…). Here’s a detail shot showing the Feather and Curl Meandering Magic quilting: