What I did while my blog was on vacation

Posted on February 6, 2009 by Suzanne

1. Spent way too much time checking to see if my blog and e-mail and other websites were BACK from vacation.

2. Played Pathwords on Facebook.

3. Tried to quilt a finish quilting a quilt that I’m having trouble with (choosing a design, the fabric is super-busy and I don’t know what to do. Didn’t know what to do. I figured it out, but now I have to execute).

4. Cut out the pieces for two quilts and started piecing one of them. Almost finished piecing the one, actually. I squishy-heart-love checkerboards and churn dash blocks. Pictures later…

5. Spent way too much time checking to see if my blog and e-mail and other websites were BACK from vacation.

6. Ate way too many Hershey kisses while checking to see…

7. Did a radio interview. More about my 10 minutes of fame later…

8. Started reading my new books.

9. Spent way too much time checking to see if my blog and e-mail and other websites were BACK from vacation.

10. Tried to teach Joe how to crochet. He decided he preferred knitting. Maybe because he enjoyed reading Franklin Habit‘s book so much:

11. Spent way too much time checking to see if my blog and e-mail and other websites were BACK from vacation.

Looking for the giveaway quilt? There’s still time to sign up and spread the word, scroll down or click here. I’m extending the deadline until Monday, since it was kinda hard for people to sign up when the site was down.

TTFN-

Suzanne

Today was Monday, right?

Posted on January 19, 2009 by Suzanne

Between multiple days off school (unplanned) and various other things going on, I sometimes lose track of what day it is. I do know that today was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so I guess that means it was, in fact, Monday.

I had seen the idea in a number of places: spend the day in service, and as a quilter, I knew where my time would be spent. I wanted to work on something for the Quilt of Valor efforts of Alycia. I took a pass through my various in-process projects and realized that none would suit the purpose.

Naturally, that meant I needed to start something new.

I started with the brightly colored fabric you can see in the back, and pulled brights to go with it. I had decided to make a Strip Twist quilt, and had this great idea that if I was cutting for one lap size quilt, I might as well cut for two. Which meant going back to the drawing board for the background fabric, but the result is going to make for better quilts. I cut and actually sewed for quite awhile last night.

And then did as much sewing as I could today. I was hoping to get further, but the shop was busier than I was expecting it to be.

I discovered this evening that I can’t count. I was sure I had enough parts for all 24 blocks, but when I got it everything sewn together, I only had 23 blocks. I did some more cutting, sewed it all together and now have 24, enough for 2 quilts. I hope to get them set together and bordered and quilted yet this week.

Alycia needs all the quilts she can get to make her goal this spring. I hope that if you are a quilter, you’ll consider helping out, either with her goal of 400 (or more!) this spring, or through the Quilt of Valor foundation directly.

I mentioned earlier in the month that we had started doing a nightly reading about USAmerican History with the boys. I’m happy to say that we started week 3 tonight, and it’s going really well. We only missed one night, and one night I actually took the book with us when we went shopping, and we read it at McDonald’s. LOL

Quite a few of the readings have been about slavery or the horrible things early settlers inflicted on the Native Americans. And I’m not sure I ever really realized how much of our nation’s beginnings are owed to tobacco.

Now that we’ve gotten that habit started, I got to thinking I wanted to pick up something else that I have been meaning to try to do, and that’s learn more about how to read and think critically about books. I read a lot, but purely for pleasure and sometimes i read so fast, that I’m mostly just skimming.

So, I’m coming out, Internet, and telling y’all that I’m getting ready to read some weighty stuff:

I’ll let you know how it goes.

I would actually love to find a reading partner, so if anyone wants to read Don Quixote with me, and then try to work some other Serious Books, send me an e-mail!

In the meantime, though, I’m headed for bed.

TTFN-

Suzanne

List number 1 — Random things about reading (and movies)

Posted on March 1, 2008 by Suzanne

I’ve been tagged by a number of people to do the 7 random/weird things meme that makes it way around every so often. I have resisted doing it, because I’m not really sure what else to say that I don’t already talk about here. Some of my best brainstorming happens when I’m avoiding climbing out of bed, though, and this morning was no different, so let’s see how this turns out:

1. I have to have something to read when I’m eating breakfast.

2. I’ll even resort to re-reading something if I’m really desperate.

3. I read so quickly, and so many books, that I sometimes don’t remember if I’ve read a book or not. The other day I was at the library and found a book by an author (Katie Fforde) that I didn’t think I had read. Well, it turns out I had, but I couldn’t remember exactly what happened, so I went ahead and finished reading it just to refresh my memory. Luckily, it was worth the reread, although I won’t make it a habit of rereading her books.

4. I do have a couple of authors that I reread, and will continue to reread for a very long time. Lois McMaster Bujold, most notably. I get something different from her writing every time I read. And there are some passages that I will reread several times in one go.

5. I also rewatch favorite movies and TV shows on DVD. I’ve been through Stargate SG-1 twice now, I’m on my third go at Battlestar Galactica, and there are various others that I’ve watched and rewatched. I can’t even count how many times I’ve rewatched The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I should probably go through and add links to those shows and stuff, but I’m just not in the mood. Sorry.

6. When I say “watch” I really mean “listen” and sort of watch. Because no, I don’t sit around and just watch TV all the time. I have a TV in my studio and a set of wireless headphones. I love my wireless headphones. I love them so much that they are falling apart — the plastic coating on the ear part is peeling off. They were a gift from my husband several years ago.

7. I think he likes that I use them because it gives him the opportunity to sneak up on me and scare the crap out of me when he starts talking and I don’t realize he is there.

My list is marked List number 1, because I’m going to try to make March the month of lists thanks to the theme at NaBloPoMo. You remember in November when I posted every day for a month? Well, they are sort of doing this all year long now, with themes each month. I thought it mght be fun to try this theme, so we’ll see how that goes. Or not.

If you haven’t been tagged, and want to do the random/weird thing tag, be my guest. Pretty much everyone I know has already been tagged….

Later gators -

Suzanne

Stray Threads #47

Posted on July 24, 2007 by Suzanne

This could also be know as a Junk Drawer post:

1. Why is it when I say “more tomorrow” at the end of a post, I frequently never make it back to post the following day?

2. Harry Potter: I wasn’t going to do it, but I stayed up until the wee hours and finished it the other night. Yes, I read very fast, and yes, I will be rereading, much more slowly the 2nd time through. I just HAD to know how it ended, and I refuse to flip to the end to find out….It is a little sad to have it come to an end, but overall, I thought it was a satisfying way to wrap things up. I did think it was overly long in the middle…

3. Have any of you seen the TV show Age of Love? I watched 2 consecutive episodes last night. Well, listened to them in the background while I sewed. It’s like a train wreck: I didn’t want to watch, but I couldn’t pull myself away. The premise: a 30 year old bachelor and a bevy of women who want to win his heart. Half of the women are in their 20s and half are in their 40s — and everyone is waiting to find out if his needs will be met by someone younger or someone older. Personally, I find the whole idea of this sort of a reality show pretty ludicrous — especially when the women are making comments about not liking to date a man who is dating other women at the same time. Hello? Did you not know what you were getting into when you signed up for this? They all seem to be beautiful, successful women, and I find myself feeling sad for them that they have to stoop to something like this.

4. I wanted to again thank the quilters of the Great Lakes Professional Machine Quilter’s Association that spent time with me over the weekend in various parts of Wisconsin. We had a lot of fun, and I hope that they learned a lot. I expect to see pictures from them as they go home and start putting what they learned into practice. If you are a machine quilter and are interested in joining a group like GLPMQA, you might want to check out this page to see if there is already a group near you. This is not a comprehensive list, but a place to start. Just like regular quilt guilds, longarm guilds are a great way to learn more about quilting.

5. Welcome to those of you that have found me via the latest Quiltmaker Magazine! I hope you enjoy your stay and will consider commenting! It seems that lately my blog has been more about the distractions from quilting (or the Other Adventures referred to in the title…), but I think that things will be settling back down now for awhile, so maybe some more quilting and art content will be showing up. Maybe. First, I have to clean my office and studio….

6. Speaking of quilts and quilting: last night, after a busy day helping to set up a new quilting machine, I spent several hours sewing on the scrap quilt that I posted a picture of a few days ago. The blocks are all done, and several rows are sewn together. I have to go cut a bunch more sashing before I can finish, though…it doesn’t look any different than it did the other day, so no new pictures yet.

Somebody’s making a funny banging noise, so I’d better go investigate.

Hope you have a fabulous day filled with lots of things you love to do!

Suzanne

Harry Potter

Posted on July 22, 2007 by Suzanne

I’m home from a great weekend of teaching in Wisconsin — and am deep into the newest Harry Potter. I have to get up early-ish, so I’m probably going to have to close the book up soon and finish reading tomorrow….

More tomorrow!

TTFN-

Suzanne