A note about the picture below.

Many years ago, maybe ten, I bought an applique pattern for an amaryllis. After I opened it I quickly realized it was going to be a bit harder than I thought for a beginner appliquer. At that point in my quilting career I should have stuck with patterns with five or fewer pieces.

I chose the pattern in the first place because the amaryllis flower is so regal and beautiful. They are quite easy to grow, but tricky to get to bloom again after the first year. My mom grows a lot of them, so the quilt was to be for her. The quilt pattern is regal, too. It is large, finishing at about 30" tall. But, over the years I pretty much resigned to the fact I wasn't really going to do this pattern. I really prefer straight lines of pieced patterns instead.

Then, sometime in the past year we had a speaker at our quilt guild who designs applique patterns. I thought applique is not for me, I should just go home. She talked about her design process and how she uses fusible web and sewing machine in her pieces instead of turning under the raw edge of fabric by hand for each piece of the pattern to sew it down.

I was sold. Debra Gable's method saved me, I didn't need to feel guilty about the amaryllis anymore, because I knew I could finish it. Debra has a whole line of patterns depicting cities in the form of postage stamps. Very cool. I bought the one of Baltimore. Maybe I'll finish that one, too. But in the mean time, I'm about more than halfway done with the flower, and am very excited with my progress.




 

Therapy

I woke up from a nap on Saturday afternoon to a husband who had just seen an episode of Hoarders on A&E. "You're not as bad as those people, but still!" Sheesh. I wake up and suddenly I'm in the wrong. Well, OK, I already had been in the wrong, but now I was in the spotlight for it. And right after a good nap, too.

I can't really complain about my husband because he's right, I have too much stuff, but I'm more of a pack-rat than a hoarder. I have to work up to being able to let something go. It's easier to just keep it than go through separation anxiety. I can usually let it go in the end, I just can't get rid of it without a bit of grieving first. I have to have a mini-therapy session and counsel myself "...it's OK... I haven't used it in years... I can buy another if I really need it... it doesn't bring me joy...."

Sometimes the "I-still-want-to-use-that-one-day" feelings surface when I find something I don't need but still want. Self-counseling is trickier in those cases.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were productive. My sewing room got a kick in the pants and I was able to get a lot done. I cleaned out a box of general crafty supplies without any heartache. I finished all my Girl Scout badge sewing jobs, ALL! Then I started to clean up one of my work tables and found another GS vest that needed work. Sheesh, I wonder how long it had been there? It wasn't with the others and the mom never called to check on its status. Oh well, it got done, too. I even got my sewing table cleaned off to the point where I was able to actually quilt for the first time in six months. I had Dan take this of me to prove it:

I'm trying out those blue quilting gloves for the first time. They have little grippy nubbins on the palms so you can control the quilt without having to grip the fabric to death. I can't believe how much easier they make machine quilting! Why did it take me so long to listen to my fellow quilters about them? I should show my progress to my quilt bee tonight, however:

My ceramics instructor called me on Friday to encourage me to sign up for another class session. Evidently, they want to get enough students in each section so they don't have to cancel any classes. I talked to Dan about me taking one more class and which night of the week is best. Monday night is the winner, so I'll be back to the studio tonight.

For this session my goal will be to get everything finished by the end, perfect or not, so I don't have any unfinished work and I can make a clean break from ceramics. Ha ha, that's funny: clean break from clay! OK, never mind. The problem is the mandatory lab fee is for a package of 25 pounds of clay. Do you know how hard it is to go through that much clay when you're still struggling to make decent pieces? I go into each class with the mindset of "practice" and not worry about perfection, but more than half of my pieces end up as a crucible-sized vessel or in complete ruin: a mangled lump showing no signs it was ever almost a coffee mug or bowl. When that happens I can re-wedge the clay and try again. However, I'm not using up the 25 pounds very fast that way. This session will be different, just practice.... This session will be different, just practice.... This session will be different, just practice....


And now I will finish this post with a complete nonsequitur: who came first (without the help of IMDB!) Wayne & Garth or Bill & Ted?

The Puzzle is Together.

There are three missing pieces. I hate that. I was so careful, checking my elbows and everything.


 

Holes

When you give Anne an adjustable ball latch she'll want to install it.

Well, no one actually gave Anne an adjustable ball latch, she went out and bought two for the french doors in the bathroom so the doors will stay closed, but that little fact doesn't have the same literary ring, does it?

If she wants to install it, she'll have to take out the old one first.

When she takes out the old one she'll realize the new one is a bigger size and won't fit in the old hole.

When she needs to drill a larger hole she'll need a 13/16" drill bit.

13/16"? Are you kidding? 7/8" maybe, but who's got a 13/16" bit?

When she can't find her large diameter drill bits she'll ask her neighbor if he has that size. (Who does because he has a huge workshop in his garage.)

When she starts to drill the new hole she'll forget the drill was set to remove the old screws and wonder why the hole isn't getting any deeper.

When she changes the direction of the drill she'll drill too deep in the hollow door and drill through the top.

When she drills through the top of the door she'll make a mental note not to drop anything in the hole because it'll be lost forever.

When she tries the new catch in the new hole she'll realize she'll need to recess the strike plate so the door will close.

When she realizes she needs to recess the strike plate so the door will close she'll know she needs a chisel to increase the cutout from the old catch.

When she searches for a chisel, even though she doesn't think she has one, she finds her large diameter drill bits (1/2" and 1" so they wouldn't have helped at all).

When she goes to the hardware store to buy a chisel she will also buy two 4-drawer basket sets to hold her newly sorted and folded quilting fabric.



When she gets the two large boxes into the back of the compact car she'll make her son sit in the front seat and hold the cake which she'll need to drop off at church for the Halloween party.

When her son holds the cake he'll pokes holes in it and will get sticky.

When her son pokes holes in the cake Anne will stop at the grocery store on the way to the church to buy a can of frosting to cover the holes and will dig past the chisel in her purse to find money to pay for the frosting.

When she covers the holes in the cake she will get sticky.

When the holes are covered she will take her sticky self and her sticky son home in her sticky car.

When she gets home she will wash her hands and her son will unload the drawer kit boxes.

When the boxes are unloaded she will help her son put together the first unit together.

When the first unit is together she will set it in place and will fill it with fabric, blues and purples on the bottom, greens and yellows in the middle and pinks, oranges and reds above that.

When the drawers are full, she will sit down to work on the wedding quilt.

After she quilts for a while she will remember she should check her phone for messages.

When she reaches in her purse for her phone, she will see the chisel and will take it up to the bathroom to work on the door.

When she tries to see where to chisel she won't be able to so she'll go in search of reading glasses.

When she finds reading glasses next to her sudoku puzzle she'll try to place a couple numbers and gets stuck.

not really, but the diversion sounded good here

Now that she could see what she was doing, she'll remember she doesn't actually know how to chisel out a recessed area on a door.

But that won't stop her, she'll get it to work well enough to get the latch in and the door closed.

And after that, she will get the second drawer kit put together and the center part of her quilt done and she will sleep very well.

Let there be light

How many 7th graders does it take to put in a light bulb?

Apparently, more than one, the one being my daughter.

Her ceiling fan has two bulbs burnt out. Been burnt out for a while now. It's not a matter of reaching them, there's a step stool in her room she uses to climb into bed. Her bed is higher than a regular bed but lower than a loft. It's about boob-high when I walk up to it. We got the bed at Ikea, you can make bunks with it or put the bed at the top for a loft, in the middle or at the bottom and hang curtains on the top rails for a princess-style look. Ikea doesn't sell it anymore because kids were getting hurt hanging from the top rail. Stoopid kids. Now her bed is in the middle position and I got her a wooden step stool so she could climb into bed. So I know she can use the stool to reach the ceiling fan.

The other day she asked me if I'd change them for her. Huh? OK, maybe I did forget to teach her how to change a light bulb. Still.

---

A couple years ago I bought a cool ceiling light fixture for my closet. It has three bendable arms so you can point the light anywhere. It's kinda like this one. I thought it'd be good for a closet because I could shine the arms on different racks of clothes. I installed it and it worked out great. That is, until I realized the bulbs burned out quickly. It was a pain because I had to go back to Ikea to get more to change them. But I could, I knew how. I never researched if I could get bulbs from the hardware store. Oh well.

Then, recently I discovered compact fluorescent bulbs with the equivalent lumens as a 100 watt bulb. I like a bright light, but could not use them often because the lamps would often have a safety rating of 75 watts or less. However the wattage used by a 100 watt-equivalent compact fluorescent bulb is about 24 watts. And a light went on over my head, I can use these.

The other day another bulb burned out in my closet light. This event corresponded with cloudy gray weather so it was pretty dark in my closet and I decided I'd switch light fixtures and use a 24 watt CFL. Except it was dark and I couldn't see to do the work. Let me explain about my closet. It's large and strangely shaped, the builder put it in the front of the house under the eaves, it has a window that faces the street, and when it's empty you could put a bed in there, but it's never empty. About fifty-thousand legos call the floor home, along with a tool box and many shoes. Kevin likes to dump the legos on the floor in there, and when I pick them up, well you know what happens. The legos are very happy on my closet floor.

I wait until a sunny day. I live life on the edge, I don't flip the breaker, I just turn off the light at the wall and start taking down the fixture. I drop a bolt and I don't hear it fall. Then, of course, I have to go somewhere and have to leave everything hanging for a day. When I get back to the project I start by looking for the dropped bolt. Since I didn't hear it fall I shake out all the clothes under the light hoping to hear or see it drop. Nothing. The legos aren't talking, they don't reveal the bolt's location no matter how many I move around or how many are crushed by my knees. I give up and see how far I can get without it before I look into getting a new one. I finish disconnecting the old lamp one wire at a time and immediately connecting the correct wire on the new one. Just as I'm reaching for the last wire, lo and behold, the dropped bolt is sitting in the old lamp I'm taking down. The rest of the job went smoothly and I now have 100 watts of light at the price of 24 and can actually see what I'm wearing. And where the legos are on the floor.

Still running low on ideas

Tuesday night I finished pair #9 of the flurry of socks I've been knitting over the past two months. And now I'm taking a break from socks and I've picked back up on the green sweater I'd started in early September. All the socks are pinned up over the fireplace for display, but I'm just going to leave them there for a while. I'll know where they are and they won't get messed up or dirty there.

Ta Daaah

notice the pattern is reversed on the other foot.

I finished! I had about a foot of binding left to sew down on a quilt I've had forEVER and I finally got it done last night. The quilt is an Irish Chain quilt made from blocks from an exchange online probably 8 or 10 years ago. I made two tops, one in green and one in blue. The blue one is for my son so I made the border and backing of train and truck fabric. It's machine quilted. The green one is for Fern. I'm hand quilting it and it'll be another 5 years to complete....

The blue one needs more quilting in the blank squares between the chains, but the binding is done and I can add more quilting whenever I'm moved to do so.


This is a picture I found of the blue chain in progress.