Besides "Red Sky Red Sky", the quilt-in-progress shown below, I'm also working on a new quilt that is blue and yellow (yeah I know what a surprise) and today we took official photos of the quilt my Mother and I made. Amazing what a little flurry of activity can get ya. (totally jazzed to do more is what it really gets ya!) All I know is that all my clothes are covered with bits of thread.
What an exciting week. First off, the days off and spending them with my friends from East Side Quilters was very exciting and rejeuvenating. I got so much done - much of it tedious. As I told a few people, the quilts I'm currently doing can only be described as "My Life, an inch and a half at a time" What WAS I thinking?
Anyway my Mom worked very hard on our mother-daughter quilt, finishing the binding, the sleeve and finishing off all the threads she could find. When I got home, I finished the last bits of quilting and the resulting threads and except for the label, it's done. Definitely ready for official photos. I also finished one of the tops I was working on over the weekend.
It is SUCH a joy to see something come together - so very energizing all on its own. And let me tell you I am so mesmerized by what I'm working on, sometimes I hate to go to my day job and leave the quilt-in-progress at home.
Since I'm done with that one, I have a lot of ironing of seams to do on my other big project aka "Red Sky Red Sky" - many many seams.
I'm currently reading "The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For Life" by Twyla Tharp. All I can say is totally WOW. Read it no matter your creative interest. I'll be re-reading it for a long time.
I've updated my page about using iSight to include info about the Griffin Technology SightLight, the little light that goes on the iSight camera. Pretty cool stuff. Totally frivolous toy, but still cool.
Some People Have No Pride Whatsoever... Do click image below...
Oh yeah, that "push my buttons" imix? yeah, that would be mine..... (requires iTunes)
Shameless self-promotion MODE ON: As part of an experiment about how iMixes get onto the top 100, if you have no pride either, how about giving my iMix a high vote? Go on - you know you like it. MODE OFF
One of the best voices in radio, Susan Arbetter from WAMC, got married this weekend AND it ended up in the NYTimes -- who knew she could pull off a viking helmet? Go here to see for yourself. You know you want to. Congrats Susan and Daniel.
Here's a little taste of what I've been up to the last few weeks. Just a quick grab shot, but I think you'll get the idea. Click the small photo for a larger view.
Found on the way to somewhere else, I was reminded of this lovely hymn
I Vow to Thee, My Country Words: Cecil A. Spring-Rice, 1918. Music: “Thaxted,” Gustav T. Holst, 1921
I vow to thee, my country—all earthly things above— Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love; The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test, That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best; The love that never falters, the love that pays the price, The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago— Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know; We may not count her armies, we may not see her King; Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering; And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase, And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.
When you're glad you're making a big quilt, for the sheer pleasure that quilting the outer borders gives you
When the thrill of being in the flow is tempered with a little fear of running out of thread
when you know exactly where you are on the quilt and how it relates to your starting point
when you fear running out of top thread (it's more than a little fear)
when you're quilting along and realize you're thinking about the next quilt and the quilt after that
When you're thinking about what thread you'll use to quilt those quilts
when you finish the quilting, you quickly change machine feet and top thread and sew all the way around the edge 1/8 inch from the edge so it's all ready to start putting the binding on - tomorrow
when you finish that last line of quilting (one that doesn't show at all but is very helpful in putting the binding on) and you give a little whoop, jump up and do a little happy dance before turning off the sewing machine and calling it a night.
It's done. 29 bobbins worth of bobbin thread, which is two large spools and some. It's done. Until tomorrow night, when the next part begins.
First off, a heartfelt hip hip hooray for good old Blogger -- the fine bloggerites just launched a new interface that's very user friendly, well organized and apparently without much in the way of hitches. Applause Applause! If you're using Blogger, I encourage you to send your applause to them directly. I sent them a note via the only email route I could find on a short bit of time and got back a truly appreciative note. It's easy to throw bricks when things are going not-so-well, so please remember to send along the compliments as well.
Second, making progress in a number of things. Found and arranged for trash pick up. Up there with the lawn mower minor miracle. Made an appointment for my sewing machine to go in for maintenance. Slow but sure going through the list.
When I came home tonight the new trash receptacle and recycling bin were at my driveway as promised. whooooooooo. Hey, I don't get out as much as I probably should.
Finally - despite some glimmers of entertainment found in the season finales on TV, I'm making progress in the quilting. My carrot at the moment -- I have my next project hung where I can see it -- just finish this and you can get down to business on that. Go Go Go!
It's a minor miracle, but I managed to start up the lawn mower tonight. Long story, but I'm short and have NEVER been very good at things like this. So I guess the neighbors will have to wait awhile before running me out of town, LOL.
In other news, I am all done with the feathers in the border and am just filling in the edges. Looking good.
Just to keep you up to date, I did make my template for the wavy border quilting -- just the curvy line and corner heart. I traced it onto all four sides with a light pencil line and I started quilting it. The feathers will originate in the corners and terminate at a circle medallion in the middle of the sides.
I have a small brag to make. First off, my two iMixes are cross referenced. So if you look at some of the individual tunes I list, under the album it shows one of my iMixes under "Top-rated iMixes." Now the top-rated part is a load o'bunk, but it's exactly right marketing to cross reference the iMixes by song/album. When I worked in the dot-com world, that sort of thing was the holy grail - viral marketing. whooo hooo.
Second, my stinking little page, listing all my co-workers' iMixes turns up as number 3 out of 174,000 hits for "great mixes" on Google. Now this page is only a couple days old. It's one lousy little page with a few non-web-based pages, a few meta tags and apparently JUST the right page title. I mentioned it ONCE here on this blog. Yes folks, that's THIRD out of one hundred and seventy four THOUSAND returns. I rest on my laurels now.
One thing about machine quilting -- it's very committing. Once you've started down a particular road, it's rather hard to change directions. So you want to be reasonably certain you're going in the right direction.
Tonight I needed to decide what to do with the border of the quilt I'm working on. It has nice big areas to quilt and it needs something out in the border, so of course I'm thinking feathers, but how to make it look right. Above is my tracing paper version, after a few tries at other designs. Here's a closer view of some of the blocks and one block I made.
OK, it doesn't get much better than this outside of sweet corn season.
Tonight I feasted on pan sauted chicken breast finished with a bit of vidalia onion and chopped fresh tomato. That was sort of the side dish to a whopping helping of the very popular "charred broccoli". Unfortunate name for something that has everyone I know licking their lips (and not admitting to licking the pan). Thanks Deb for this whisker-licking good dish. I think I hear seconds calling to me.
