A lovely day at the beach

It started out cold here in sunny Florida, but warmed up enough to go to the beach. We went to Lover's Key State Park near Ft. Myers.


We had a lovely time playing on the beach.


The Small Man really digs the beach!


He's also quite the ham:


And also gets Dad in on the action:


The Mid-Kid played in the sand for a long time:


Until he got bored:


The Lovely Daughter sunned herself:


And hung out with Uncle J.:


We had a great blue heron come out and pose on the beach:


Kids watching the heron before it flew off:


Small Man and I returning from a short walk on the beach:


And we left as the sun set.

Ginormous bag

Working on a Secret Santa gift: NEEDS to get done soon!

The divider for the middle - Kona cotton on Peltex.


Piecing a star:


Hmmm. It looks like a pocket!


Off to work on some quilting of the sides.

EEK. Almost four months without posting.
I got DH to hide FreeCell today, so hopefully will get more done!

The first order of business is to thank my online friend Donnely at BlueRose Goddess Arts - I won a giveaway from her blog *quite* a while ago, and never posted a thank-you.

Look: A box stuffed FULL!


Inside the box, a whole lotta goodies: pretty mug and mug rug, tea wallet with some yummy-sounding teas, raspberry brownie mix, and FABRIC. Yum.


Thanks, Donnely - it made a dark phase a little brighter.

Isn't this the coolest insect on the planet?

This is the first one I saw, on the gate to our garden.


This guy (girl?) was hanging out in the asparagus.


We have a bunch of mantids in our garden every year - this year they seemed to expand to other parts of the yard, but all the photos I took were in the vegetable garden.

It's a Darwinian garden. Every year we start out with hundreds of little itty bitty baby mantids, and by the end of the summer, we're down to about 6 or 7 territories. Somehow, I think we'll have babies next year as well.

Stash report week 35

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 60.85 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 57.8 yards
Net Used for 2011: 3.05 yards

I have some hope of reporting more used soon - I finished a top for TMOTH, and have two tiny journal quilts that should be done soon.

Damage in our yard from Hurricane Irene

Lid off the trash can:


Small limbs off the trees:


This is the biggest limb TMOTH could find in the driveway:


Pine needles on the road in front of the house:


All in all, we were very lucky.

I need a kick in the butt

Or at least a nudge.

I have this small top for a haiku quilt:


My problem: I really like it, and I'm worried that I will screw it up when I quilt it. This hasn't been a big problem for me in the past, so I'm not sure what my issue is right now.

Any suggestions, either specific to quilting, or just how to get over this block?

Vacation fun

We're at my mom and brother's house in Florida, leaving tomorrow.

The Lovely Daughter and I went thrift shopping one day, and she found lots of clothes (of course!) and I even found a few - some nice jeans, new shorts, a shirt, and a couple of dresses. I found a big lot of paintbrushes for $1.98; turns out there were 36 brushes and two palette knives (and one pathetic yellow pencil). All but one or two of them are really nice paintbrushes. I found a new-in-box Scrabble game from the 70s; it's not clear if I can sell it on Ebay for more than that or not! The boys joined us for a while and found some games - a Lord of the Rings Risk game and a travel Etch-a-Sketch. Four quilting books for less than a dollar each; one was one of Carol Doak's paper piecing pattern books WITH the CD. Maybe it's a nudge from the Universe to try paper piecing.

We celebrated the Karate Kid's 13th birthday; now there are TWO teenagers in my house.


Since there are deserted roads, The Lovely Daughter has been practicing driving. I took her out in the van once, and my brother took her out in his little truck.


We went to the beach on Friday. We got there fairly in the morning, and had the beach pretty much to ourselves for a while.


I love the beach, and I DID use sunscreen, but wound up with a burned back anyway :(


Lots of nature - bunches of conchs in the sand, most alive.


And at one point, a small pod of manatees off the beach! You don't actually see any part of the manatees, just the people watching them. As soon as I would give up and put the camera away, they'd stick up a head or a tail!


And just for gratuitous cuteness, Toffee, who is away at puppy camp for the week.

Stash report week 34

Used this Week: 0 yards (on vacation!)
Used year to Date: 60.85 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 57.8 yards
Net Used for 2011: 3.05 yards

I did *look* at a couple of antique quilts while antiqueing with Mom and TMOTH yesterday. And I bought some bobbins and feet and buttons at the antique stores. And Mom gave me a Seminole jacket she's had for years (since the 80s, I think, so not an actual antique).

Stash report week 33

THUMP. I fell off the wagon again, pretty heavily this time. I was looking for asphalt fabric for a challenge quilt. One trip to Pins and Needles in Frederick: One fat quarter (mottled black, although The Lovely Daughter swears that it's blue) and 2 yards of blue that may work as borders for The Lovely Daughter's Quilt. One trip to G street: One fat quarter (mottled black) and a scrap bag (1.4 yards). One trip to Hancock's: One yard of grey Kona cotton (I was thinking of painting it to look like asphalt at this point) and another two yards of blue to audition for borders. Finally, one trip to JoAnn's: A half yard of material that looks like ASPHALT. The top is pieced (and painted), but not quilted.

Used this Week: 0 yards (sigh. I have worked on TMOTH's quilt this weekend.)
Used year to Date: 60.85 yards
Added this Week: 7.4 yards
Added Year to Date: 57.8 yards
Net Used for 2011: 3.05 yards

Clearly, I need to get busy :)

Stash report week 32

Another boring week this week :)

Used this Week: 0 yards
Used year to Date: 60.85 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 50.4 yards
Net Used for 2011: 10.45 yards

I've been working on my two "sewing areas" - the playroom and the dining room. Most of my stash resides in the playroom, and I mostly sew on the dining room table. BUT, the playroom's really gotten out of hand, and I need to get in there and get the floor cleared off (mostly my junk, not TMOTH's or the kids) so we can move the TV from the living room to the playroom, since I finally let TMOTH buy a flatscreen. AND I now apparently need to shift priority to the dining room - which has EVERYBODY's stuff in it - because TMOTH will need access to the wall that has the pipes in in so he can replumb the downstairs bathroom and kitchen. Whew.

Great deal on a birthday present!

Unfortunately, it's for The Lovely Daughter, whose birthday is in November, and not for the Karate Kid, whose birthday is coming up in a little more than a week.



"Regular" price at Michael's is $199.99 - but this week sets were on sale at 50% off. SO down to $99.99. That's better...but wait! Michael's sends me a coupon for 20% off my entire purchase, EVEN SALE ITEMS. Now it's $79.99! YAY! So I buy the set, and then remember that one of the online sites I was checking prices on (Blick - I LOVE Blick) had a note about a $10 rebate. SO I went to the Prismacolor website, downloaded the rebate form, and have it ready to go in the mail. WOOHOO!

This will duplicate some of the colors she already has, but most of "her" pencils are actually the family set of 48 that we scored at the Blick outlet for $10 a couple of years ago, so the bonus is that the family set moves out of her room!

Stash report week 31

Nothing to report until this week, when I fell off the wagon with a flourish.

First, there was the 20% off entire purchase coupon for Joann's...so I bought fleece to make a Totoro stuffie, and a couple of blue fabrics to audition for borders for The Lovely Daughter's quilt - which still needs some cats appliqued onto it. Plus a couple of queen-size cotton batts.

Then, today, an unexpected bonus - the Karate Kid forgot all of his fishing tackle at Boy Scout camp and somebody had to go get it. An hour and a half drive - BUT - for only 20 minutes more driving I was in Hershey for Quilt Odyssey!! A yard of blue, four fat quarters, a bag of scraps I'm estimating at 2 yards, 5 spools of thread, a packet of needles and a beautiful Singer 301-A later, I came home, stopping by the camp to pick up the tackle.

Used this Week: .5 yards (the Small Man wanted to make pillows)
Used year to Date: 60.85 yards
Added this Week: 10.5 yards
Added Year to Date: 50.4 yards
Net Used for 2011: 10.45 yards

Yikes! That net used number is going in the wrong direction!!!!!!

Long time between posts

Lots going on around here.

Toffee is growing (and occasionally sleeping):


He really likes this laundry basket - but at some point he won't fit in it AT ALL.


The Small Man is losing teeth - three in one week!


We went to Austin on vacation, for the Karate Kid to be in a karate tournament there. We had great fun - watched the bats fly out from the bridge right next to our hotel. We stopped in New Orleans on the way out there, and in Athens for Quilt National on the way back. We're going to Florida in a couple of weeks so my brother can teach The Lovely Daughter how to drive.

(un)balanced

This is the haiku and challenge piece for the July haiku challenge.

Balance - yin and yang
Competing priorities
Pushing and pulling



This may be my favorite piece so far. It is "8.5 x 11" like my other pieces, but is not square - the quilting distorted the dimensions and so I left it that way.

Stash report weeks 24-25

Wellllll...I went to a "quilters yard sale" on Friday evening. One of our guild members is planning a move to Florida in the not-so-distant future and is downsizing in advance of trying to sell her house. My "added" is a gross estimate - I bought a 6-yard piece (backing!) and a 1.5-yard piece (green and white!) and the rest are all FQ or less (mostly less). Probably another 7.5 yards, just based on volume. Some are already taking their place in TMOTH's string quilt.

Just think of it as helping a friend move and not mindless stash accumulation.

I've estimated the yardage for the Halloween scarecrow at about 2 yards, and the challenge piece at about 0.25 yards.

Used this Week: 2.25 yards
Used year to Date: 60.35 yards
Added this Week: 15 yards
Added Year to Date: 39.9 yards
Net Used for 2011: 20.45 yards

Quilts finished

I finished a UFO!


I started this before Halloween last year, but never finished it - it needed some timtex around the head to keep it from being all floppy, and a couple of pockets and a dowel to make it hang straight. AND a little finishing quilting, BUT it's all done!



I also finished my May hiaku/fiber piece, "Soft"


June's piece is nearly done, and I've been working on the string quilt for TMOTH.

Catching up

Yay! My IT guy (TMOTH)fixed the netbook, so I'm all connected again.

Toffee is doing great and growing like a weed.






And a happy Fathers' Day to TMOTH:

A trip to Lowe's later in the day for a firepit for a present!

More posts on quilty stuff to come.

Stash Report Week 23

Used this Week: 1 yards
Used year to Date: 58.1 yards
Added this Week: 2.75 yards
Added Year to Date: 24.9 yards
Net Used for 2011: 33.2 yards

IN: Margaret brought a bunch of "sorta" FQ free for the taking to the Nimble Fingers meeting on Wednesday. I was almost good - nearly all of the ones that came home with me have a specific use in mind.

OUT: I made a tote bag! My netbook toasted itself last week, so no photo uploads - you'll just have to take my word about how cute it is. I used three upholstery sample panels that came home from my MIL's house.

Victory over "The Man"

Another reason for less productivity - my "quilting" machine, a bottom-of-the-line Brother CS6000i, decided to stop sewing a couple of weeks ago.

Now, I mostly have "old" machines. As in, older than I am. These machines were made for the owners to do regular maintenance on them. Not so the newer machines.

Since this "new" machine was over a year old, so out of warranty anyway, I decided to go ahead and hack into it. To compare: My featherweight has a single thumbscrew on the bottom plate which allows you to access 90% of what needs to be done. All the screws are accessible. The Brother: Five or screws later, I can crack the back of the machine open maybe an inch. I jam my checkbook box into the opening so I can work in there. MAN, was it full of fluff. Including one big bunch of fluff which was snagging up the gears. So I clean out all the fluff and clean off the gears.

This necessitates another adventure: Hardware stores to get lubricant for the [plastic] gears. The Home Depot guys treat me like a "girl" and clearly have no idea what I'm talking about when I tell them I want silicone grease. Don't have it. Strosnider's Hardware didn't have it either, but at least the guy there knew what I was talking about. I found PTFE lube at the local hobby shop on the way home from work and greased up the gears.

Taking off the stitch plate was another adventure, requiring an offset screwdriver (!). More fluff pulled out, then everything put back together.

AND IT WORKS!!

Still, I think what I really need is a Singer 301 or 201 for quilting.

Stash Report Week 22

Lots went out, but in a donation bag for the Vietnam Vets.

Used this Week: 10 yards
Used year to Date: 57.1 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 22.15 yards
Net Used for 2011: 34.95 yards

Why there has been no productivity here

Join me in welcoming Toffee to the family!








He's a male golden retriever, a couple of months old. Like all babies, he sleeps a lot.


This is good, because otherwise keeping up with him would kill us.


Puppy-proofing is obviously incomplete, but I can see progress.