Look, Ma! No pattern!

I've been wanting to make an iPad cover/carrier for a while now. We take our iPad with us EVERYWHERE!!! I did research online and found tutorials for how to make a cover. And I fully intended to use one of those patterns to make my cover. But then I didn't. I just started cutting and sewing, never mind the fact that I've never really made a bag before other than my drawstring backpacks.

The result is a bag that I love, that is big enough to fit the iPad plus a few other things that I may want to carry around with me including the wireless keyboard, but that won't win any awards for design or construction. For example, it didn't occur to me that I had no idea how to add straps until after the rest of the bag was done. Live and learn. Next time I'll use a pattern. But for now...

VOILA!




The yellow fabric is a durable canvas-type material and the inside is soft, cozy flannel. Everything, from the fabric to the button to the elastic loop for the button, was from my stash. It took less than an hour, and I will be using it regularly, I am sure. Well, at least until I make another one where I actually follow a pattern!

Sitting and stitching

Last weekend when I was in Atlanta, I visited my friend, Nancy/Mamanance. (thank goodness I was able to visit her because she rarely gets a chance to update her blog in her super busy retirement! - hint, hint, Nancy!) I have photos because she and her husband are quick to document life through the lens of their cameras. We spent most of the evening after dinner in her sewing room - I love it! Lots of space, great stash, floor to ceiling bookshelves with quite a few quilt fiction titles, and then, of course, Nancy!


How fun to sit and stitch with Nancy while we caught up!


I'll be sitting and stitching for most of this weekend, too, if I have anything to say about it. I'm feeling a bit under the weather, and the weather is a bit cool, so I can think of nothing better than curling up under a quilt that I am working on. And EAT, PRAY, LOVE came in the mail from Netflix. I thought I'd watch it a couple of nights ago until I saw on the cover that the running time is 4 AND A HALF HOURS LONG!!! Are you KIDDING me? Who has that kind of time? That has to be a typo, right? Anyway, I'm tackling it this weekend no matter how long it is.

Have a good one, y'all!

One down, three to go

Travel season has begun, so my blogging is likely to be sporadic until mid-October. I just got back from my first trip - ATLANTA. I love going to Atlanta because I get to stay with friends, one night with Nancy (mamanance), where we talk and quilt and talk and quilt and eat her yummy food and talk and quilt. Then two nights with a girlfriend that I met when I lived in Atlanta 14 years ago, one of those friends where you can be apart for 9 months and when you see each other, the conversation picks up right where you left off.

Quilting-wise, I spent my spare moments working on the August Birdie BOM block, trying to meander quilt my Chicken Soup quilt by hand (confession - I am picking out the machine quilting; I am just not happy with the results), and a stop in a new-to-me quilt shop, Red Hen Fabrics in Marietta, GA where I picked up some chubby eighths for my Let's Bee Together quilt and some Heat Press Batting Together tape. Has anyone ever used this? I am curious to see how it works since I have so many batting scraps that aren't quite big enough for a quilt.

Speaking of my Let's Bee Together quilt, I received another block; isn't it cool?


But here's what is NOT cool: On Friday night, while my kids were enjoying Parents Night Out at karate, I went to a quilt guild meeting and trunk show and then hit the grocery store to pick up food so my family wouldn't go hungry during my absence. I picked the kids up at 10 PM, and had them in bed by 10:30 PM, me, a bit later. On Saturday, I got up, made breakfast, packed, showered, and was on my way to the airport by 9:30 AM. Fast forward to 10:30 PM yesterday (Tuesday), when my flight landed and I went back to my car for the drive home. Guess what I found?

Yup, the groceries from Friday night. 4 days in a closed car in the Virginia heat. I think I know what a corpse smells like. Did you know that packages of Jimmy Dean sausage will explode when left out in the sun? Or that frozen pot pies nearly liquify? I don't even want to know what was growing on the inside of the bread bag, and I am thankful that not ALL of the yogurt containers burst.

I drove to the nearest gas station and pumped gas as a cover for my dumping $98 worth of groceries in their trash recepticles and then scrubbing the back of my car with antibacterial wipes. At 11:00 at night. Before an hour and a half drive home. With all the windows down and the sunroof open in an attempt to get some breathable air.

PLEASE, make me feel like I am not the only bonehead on earth - leave me a comment telling me something boneheaded that you have done. I can't be the only one, right?

Tension Troubles

My mother-in-law came through surgery OK, and now they just have to figure out what to do next. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and positive thoughts. It certainly made ME feel better!

But still, I've been tense this week. I've been chewing up the inside of my mouth. My shoulders are sore from being held so stiffly. I'm not getting enough sleep, and not sleeping very well when I do.

I really want to get this quilt done so I can send it up to her. So after karate and dinner last night, I went down to the sewing room to see what I could do about quilting it. First, I started with some straight lines - BORING! I couldn't make myself do more than 2 lines, which I will be taking out. Time to put on my big girl pants (borrowing from Em) and try Free Motion Quilting. A meander can't be that hard, right? I thought I'd practice on one of my hot pads that I had made this spring, the one I messed up on and left the space between the O and the T, the one I am definitely keeping for myself anyway:

OK, not too bad, I can do this. Of course, the hot pad is only about 8" square...

I got started on the Chicken Soup Quilt and the thread kept breaking. I rethreaded 3 times before I pulled the quilt out and looked at the back. Not only was the thread breaking, but the back had ridiculous loops. Obviously my tension was wrong. Maybe I should read my notes from when I tried free motion quilting once before. Why don't I ever read the instructions FIRST?? I had in my notes what tension works for me, what stitch length, etc. I made the adjustments and switched to new thread (why not? maybe it was the wrong thread and THAT is why it kept breaking), and started again in another place.

It isn't perfect.

The shapes are funny looking and in some places, much more angular than smooth, sometimes crossing over other lines of stitching even though I was trying hard to avoid that.

I am finding it very difficult to maintain the same speed throughout so that I can have the same stitch length throughout.

But I'm doing it!

Unfortunately, I have a bunch of stitching to pull out from the first thread...UGH!

You know, I'm also tense because of the book I'm reading. Someone from work read my blog and offered me her copy of THE HELP so I wouldn't have to wait for the library copies to come available. I'm really enjoying the story, but it is also making me tense. I just KNOW something terrible is going to happen. Despite my knowledge of segregation and discrimination in the US, reading about it still exasperates and angers me. But it is a good story, so I keep reading.

You know what DIDN'T stress me out? On Monday evening, I watched the 1985 version of Anne of Green Gables, all 3.25 hours worth. No wonder it was on TV as a miniseries when I was a kid - it is LONG! But so good! I never even considered not watching the whole thing from start to finish. (I spent the whole time wondering, though, who cast Megan Follows as Anne? She's perfect for the role in temperment, but in the book, Anne is supposedly not pretty, and in my eyes, Megan Follows is gorgeous!) And while watching, I was transported to that magical place (in my mind), Prince Edward Island, and felt myself relaxing. I finished my June Birdie BOM (leaving me just August and September left to do at this point, which I will take on my first work trip this weekend):

and I made some more progress hand quilting my Pick and Choose Quilt. Will I EVER finish that quilt? I am starting to wonder...

Quilting as prayer

My mother-in-law, Wilma, is an amazing woman. She is kind and generous, brave and fierce, gentle and loving, funny and intelligent. I love her dearly. Unfortunately, she has been battling cancer for years now - breast cancer, uterine cancer, colon cancer. But, like I said, she's brave and fierce, and she's been doing an amazing job at keeping cancer at bay and living her life. We found out this weekend that her current threat is not responding to treatment and she's going to have surgery. Today.

I'm thinking positive thoughts. After all, she's fierce and brave, remember? Last night, I just felt like I had to do something, so I went down to the sewing room. At first, I thought flannel, something cozy for her lap while she is convalescing. I started picking out fabrics, but they were all so bright and saccharine. When you are sick, you don't need candy, right? You need chicken soup. I made a pot of homemade chicken soup on Monday. My kids have had the sniffles and coughs for two weeks now, and it was raining, and it just seemed right. So I set out to make a chicken soup quilt for Wilma, nothing fancy, no measuring, made from basic ingredients plus leftovers from other projects, but made with love, made with prayer.

Out came the shirtings and the homespuns and a baggie of HSTs that I got from someone down the line. I put my heart into it and I put her heart into it. I made a ribbon to symbolize her fight against cancer. I left an opening in the border with some HST arrows to show the way for that cancer to get out, out of her body and out of her life.

With every stitch, I thought of all the memories we've made over the last 18 years - the family gatherings, the vacations, the births and birthday parties, the board games, the movies, the sitting up late into the night talking. With every stitch, I sent positive, healing, loving thoughts her way, willing those doctors to fix what is wrong with her once and for all, willing her to have the strength to fight and persevere and triumph. With every stitch, I prayed for 18 more years with her.

Bee Activity

We had our office retreat this week. Longtime followers will remember that we go to a wonderful lodge in the middle of the Virginia countryside, Fort Lewis Lodge, for two days of debriefing and goal-setting and bonding. I absolutely love it there! It is so serene and beautiful (with a quilt on every bed!). I didn't go kayaking this year, but I did go for a walk/run, spent a few minutes in the hot tub, and ate embarrassingly large quantities of their fantastic food. I justify myself by saying, "Well, it is a retrEAT, after all!"

(this photo, lifted from the Fort Lewis Lodge website, is of the outdoor pavilion where we have our meetings and where we hang out in front of the fire after the days work is done. Seriously, if you are ever visiting SW Virginia and looking for a spectacular place to say, I can't recommend this place highly enough)

When I arrived home on Thursday, I received my fabrics for the September Bee Block. I whipped it up yesterday, and will put it in the mail today.

I also received another of my August blocks back. (curious - even though I got my fabrics out to Bee participants early in the last week of July, I've only received 4 blocks back so far in the first week of September - is that normal?) Anyway, this block was worth the wait - it is wonderful!

Plus, she threw in some bonus black and white prints for me - I love the one with the fancy ladies walking their fancy dogs!


My quilting goals for this long weekend are to finish my June Birdie BOM and prep my August and September blocks so I can take them on the road with me (my first trip of the travel season starts a week from today - back to Atlanta), to make some more progress hand-quilting the Pick and Choose quilt, and practice some free motion quilting on some hot pads for my kitchen. My home life goals for this weekend are to enjoy a campout with the kids, complete my online training for cub scout den leader for this year, and clean up this pigsty I call a home.


I understand there are some people out there who actually enjoy cleaning. Are any of you strange creatures reading my blog? If so, do you want to come visit me?

If only I had a 22" waist!

I finished my niece's circle skirt! For some reason, the last row of gathering wasn't so onerous last night.

I made a binding for the bottom hem...

Added an elastic waist and tied a ribbon in the front...

And I swear to you, if my waist were only 22 inches, I would keep this for myself! Wouldn't it be fun to flounce around in this?

Perhaps I need my head examined, but I am seriously considering making an adult-sized one! And I will not lie, I tried to squeeze into this one...it looked mighty cute around my knees!

I hope she likes it - ONE Christmas present done!!!