TNT - Hoopsisters

Months 1 through 3 - this is a block of the month from Hoopsisters. It's an embroidery technique where the blocks are quilted in the hoop and embroidered. I cannot believe that I am actually on time with a project! Months 1-3 - done!

BSS 10th Anniversary Celebration

The Brown Sugar Stitchers held their 10th Anniversary Celebration yesterday. Under the leadership of Elisa Woods, the celebration was more than just a coming together of quilters to mark the passage of time. The guild honored several community leaders in Atlanta for their service. The honorees were (l-r) Author Pearl Cleage (What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day), Carrie Steele Pitts Home Executive Director Dr. Evelyn Lavizzo, Congressman and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis, Channel 2 Anchorperson Monica Pearson, and Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale. They are each holding the quilts they received, and you could tell they were all pleased and honored to be acknowledged in such a special way. The program was held at The Pecan in College Park. It was awesome!


Photos of me with John Lewis and my new BFF Monica Pearson (she doesn't know this yet!)



I am adding to my UFO list ( just kidding - it's a Block of the Month, and each block is taking about 4 hours...so I can stay on top of that monthly!) I am taking a class at Atlanta Sewing Center using a new embroidery-applique technique from HoopSisters. Here are the completed blocks from Month 2. Month 1 is in my camera, which I cannot locate at the moment. I know it's around somewhere, because I downloaded the photos from yesterday!






Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
Albert Einstein

You Know You Are a Quilter If...

There's more fabric in the house than food...
"Fat Quarters" are not the heaviest part of your body...
Your ironing board is always set up but you never iron clothes...
You think of your job as an interruption of your quilting time...
You pet (or fondle!) fabric...
People are always picking threads off you...
You can measure a scant 1/4 by eye...
"Featherweight" is not a category of boxer...
Your "UFO's" are not from outer space...
You clean up your sewing room & they think you are leaving...

Aurora Borealis

The colors are feeling so much like "Aurora Borealis" to me. Six down, 18 more to go!



















Begin doing what you want to do now. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake. Marie Beyon Ray

19 is less than 20

Just saying that I had 20 blocks to go was discouraging, so I had to get down to a number with a one in front of it, not a two! This block was soooooo hard. When you look at all those places that have to line up, you can see why. I still see one place where I am going to have to unsew.

As a weekend quilter, days off mean a lot! So I intended to spend today getting the number down to 18, but it wasn't to be. Spent all day working on computer issues.

I know I said that I was going to call this "Not Fast Food," but this is feeling like Aurora Borealis. What do you think?

Now Back to Me

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted. Worse, that's how long it's been since I have done any serious sewing. My day job has been very demanding and I have been trying to have a life in between there, also...like, I went to Cali for Jayme's wedding (GORGEOUS bride and wedding!), but I did sign up for a class (not another UFO - SKILL BUILDING!) using a new technique from Hoopsisters. My 200/730 was acting up in class (I think she is jealous!), so I didn't finish the block in class, but I will work on it next weekend.

So I put all my UFO's in a bag and pulled out - Not Fast Food. This block only took 8 hours! Woo-hoo! And only 20 more to go! (I shouldn't count remaining blocks, should I?)

On June 14th, Jimmy Dean passed away. I've been trying to figure out how to post this complaint call, but I can't. It is hysterical! The language at the end is salty, so don't listen if anything beyond the normal four letter words is offensive!

http://www.entertonement.com/clips/rcvzcwthtz--Jimmy-Dean-Sausage-Complaint-Call

What looks like neat on an ordinary day

I'm here to tell you why I am not neater...because I just finished cleaning up for an hour and a half. And not everything's put away. And I could have completely cut the strips for the bargello quilt and probably sewn a bunch of strips togther in that time. But it's as put away as it's gonna get, and I think I better get pictures up before I revert to my messy ways!

The top thrown over the back of the chair is my just finished project. It's a BQ pattern...goes together very quickly. I am about to return to the Wedding Star and I wanted to get the BQ Quilt out of the plastic bin.

And here's Al's pool room, back to normal, with all my junk out. I donated a bunch of magazines, and books, and kits, and rules, and fabric, and irons, and, and, and....I still have too much stuff, but, it's a start.

It's Oldies but Goodies day on the iPod...I went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Thursday night with my neighbor and a group of her friends. They get together every month and do an activity, and they are a very welcoming group of women, and have invited me to join them. Afterwards we went to the OK Cafe for dinner - I had the Salmon Croquettes, Collard Greens and Cabbage with delicious cornbread muffins...while we were sitting there, "Love Makes Me Do Foolish Things," by Martha and the Vandellas came on. If I had been with a different group of women, we would have fallen out right there and probably all started singing. LOL! You know what I'm talking about! Anyway, I created a Genius playlist that is taking me back to the 60's. Right now listening to "You Better Stop Dogging Me Around," by Jackie Wilson. Brings back memories of Mom and her friends, drinking Bourbon and milk, and smoking.

"Therapy is extremely expensive...popping bubble wrap is radically cheap." Jimmy Buffett

Remembering Lena Horne 1917-2010

I always thought that my mother was named after Lena Horne, but Mom actually was named after another Lena in our family. When we were growing up, Ms. Horne was the standard of beauty, and I'll never forget seeing her 1981 Broadway show - "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music." My favorite line from that play, which I remember to this day, was when she does a slow, sultry dip to the floor and says, "Yeah, I know what you're thinking, can you get back up?" Which she proceeded to do! I'm at least 20 years younger than she was at the time, and I can't do it now and would have had trouble doing it back then. RIP, Lena. You left a legacy!

Photos of Lena Horne Stormy Weather

"You wouldn't be allowed to get on a particular bus, but you'd be asked to sign your autograph." Lena Horne

Inspiration!

I woke up this morning inspired by the SATC2 trailer to make a shoe with all Swarovski crystals! I have gotten so cocky with the metallic thread...scared of me! LOL! I did the outline in silver metallic thread, but I don't like the 5mm crystals - so I ordered some 3mm crystals to use instead. Putting those on should keep me out of trouble for a while!

Raise Your Hand...

...if you believed me when I said that I had moved to acceptance on the fact that I couldn't use metallic thread in my machine and that there was no way I would try metallic thread ever again. OF COURSE I tried it again! Don't be silly! I tried Yenmet thread and Wonderfil and they both sewed out beautifully! So I banged out several more shoes...and here they are:



I have 3 more blocks to do, and I think I might do an all boot quilt, and a year of special occasions...

The gene pool could use a little chlorine...

It's a Guy Thang....

...You wouldn't understand!

Today is Al's birthday. For weeks he has been bugging me about sewing some ...patches on some...military bag. Would you ask Michaelangelo to paint the inside of your house? OK, so Michaelangelo I'm not, so I sucked it up and did his patches. I had no idea how hard it would be. The fabric keep slipping and I couldn't glue the patches down so they would stay in place so they kept slipping...what a pain! It was worth it though when I suprised him with it...I told him I was too busy to work on it, so he didn't know I was putting it together. I think it's the happiest I've seen him in the 20 something years we've been together. Reminds me of how I was knocking myself out making these gourmet meals when we were dating and I made him a turkey sandwich once and he said it was the best meal I had ever made for him. I guess it really is the simple things. For some people!

Superwoman!

Yesterday I kept hearing Alicia Keys singing "Superwoman" in my mind. It wasn't that it was a hard day, just too much going on. I fell asleep last night on the sofa in a good, hard, solid sleep, and I can't remember the last time I did that.

The day started with me getting ready for the cleaning people. I know, poor me. But there was a lot to put away and move around before they got here. I don't clean up for the cleaning people, but you need to put things away and get things organized that the cleaning people can't handle. Then our book club was meeting at 9:00 am instead of 10:00 to discuss "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston. Everybody loved the book, and we had a good discussion.

Then, off to teach my first quilt shop class at KiwiQuilts. I taught a post card class, and the students did a fantastic job. It was only supposed to be a 3-hour class but it ended up being 4.5 hours. Check these out:

This postcard was made by a person who is going on a cruise. You can barely see it in the photo, but it has all the ports of call of their trip. We decided that when she makes the card that she needs a lighter fabric, and should make the ports of call bigger.






How cute are these flip-flops?!












Pretty, colorful card!












This was my favorite card! It was created by a woman who is new to quilting. It started out with her just wanting to learn the technique, so she put a plain piece of purple fabric on the fusible. Way too plain, so we painted it and dried it in the sun. Now we had bling! She had the idea of putting the purple fabric on and then we embellished with buttons. While we had no plan, it turned out to be a gorgeous card.




Good job, Ladies! I was so tired after class! I had dinner from Chili's! And I get a gold star - in keeping with my newly organized self, I put ALL my class supplies away.

"Even when I'm a mess, I still put on a vest with an S on my chest, oh yes, I'm a Superwoman." OK, so it wasn't a Superwoman worthy day, but it was busy...maybe a little "s"?

How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy.

Cooking With Gas!

or Sewing With Electricity might be more appropriate. I got both my machines back yesterday! Woo-hoo! The tech had not called to say my 200/730 needed a new motherboard or some other very expensive, out-of-warranty repair, but just to say "She's ready!"

You know how the definition of insansity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result? WHY would I sit down to the 830 this morning and attempt my shoe with the metallic thread again? Please help me understand why? And when it ate the thread and jammed (again), my first thought was where could I take it to be repaired...because there is no way I could take it in to ASC for a third time with metallic thread stuck in the bobbin! I actually did manage to get all the thread out myself, and really have moved to acceptance that the metallic thread is not, repeat, not going to work. I get it. Really. Seriously. No metallic thread.

This is a funny story from Asilomar about sewing machines...I rented a machine rather than lug one of mine cross country. The machines are all Bernina's - just the basic mechanical model. When I started sewing on the rented machine, I couldn't figure out how to cut the thread. So I mused out loud, "I wonder where the thread cutter is.....?" The woman sitting across from me handed me a pair of scissors and said, "You need to come on back to the real world!" LOL - and Marilyn, who is from Canada and is the funniest person you ever want to meet said, "Honey, the real world sux. You just stay in whatever world you want." It was pretty funny when I realized there was no thread cutter! I thought all machines I had thread cutters!

Worked on restoring order to the sewing room last night and Friday. Leave for NYC tomorrow morning. Judy is coming from California on Friday to help me get organized and said, "Don't get too far ahead!" HA! No danger of that! And you can't even see what's on the other side of the pool table!

But - there's magic happening in the sewing room! Oooooooh - how purty! The challenge will be to keep it this way!

I know I'm in my own little world...but it's okay - they know me here.

Catching Up

So much to catch up on...I haven't written in over a month, I know. One reason is because I haven't been sewing, and not because I don't want to sew, because I do, I really do. To answer my husband's question about why I have 3 sewing machines (actually 7, but I'm not counting the 3 Featherweights and my old Singer in this discussion...kinda like I don't count those Dove candies in my daily Weight Watcher count), because it is entirely possible for two of them to be broken at the same time! Or because I can sew on one while the other is embroidering. Seriously, both my machines are in the shop. The 200/730 had been going to sleep and I would have to turn it on and off to reboot it (it's Windows based), until finally, it just wouldn't wake up anymore...just went to sleep. When I came back from Asilomar last night, there was a message from the tech...this is not good. When I called today, he wasn't in, and I can't talk to him until Saturday. Sigh. And my 830 really doesn't like metallic thread. I was working on my shoe quilt...the heel of the shoe I was making has an overlay of metallic thread...I did everything they recommend when you work with metallic thread (slow the machine down, use a thread net, use a larger-eyed needle) and the machine just ate the thread. And the bobbin case jammed and I couldn't get the bobbin off. Also Not Good. Deep Sigh. So I had to take them both in to the dealer. I still have my first Bernina that I can use - the 180 that I use for classes.

So - I went to NYC for my birthday, came back the next week and went to Tampa to visit Ann and Paul Lee at their beautiful home in Tierra Verde, then left for a week in Asilomar for a class with Judy Niemeyer, brought to you by Empty Spools. Whew! I'm tired thinking about all that travel!

We stayed at the Westin in Times Square - these are photos from our room on the 38th floor. I really didn't think we would make it in, since there were storms that day and flights were being cancelled left and right. But because it was my birthday, the weather gods smiled on me and we landed only half an hour late.

Paul and Ann have a beautiful home, right on the water. We took Paul's boat out on Sunday -

I learned so much in Judy's class at Asilomar...techniques and skills that I can use for any project, not just Judy's. My class members were very focused. They started sewing early in the morning and kept sewing through 10-11 at night. I enjoyed my walks on the beach every morning, my massages in the afternoon, and going in to town for shopping and dinner! I learned a lot but it was also a vacation for me and I enjoyed it.

Finally, just before I left, we finally got started on the work from the flood in September. When we moved here, there was carpet in my sewing room, and I wanted to take that up and put in hardwood or tile, but it was just too expensive. So I put it off. It's just way too hard to keep clean, so while we were having all the repair work done on the house, I took all the stuff out of the sewing room. Here's what it looked like piled up on Al's pool table:

I am so very lucky to have a wonderful husband who enables me in my quilting vice.

There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." Dave Barry