Gave me the giggles

In today's mail there was a notice from our (only) credit card company that they've raised our credit line up another $1,000.

Do you think they're getting nervous about the fact that our current cards expire on the 31st and we haven't activated the new ones yet? :D We're just lazy and haven't gotten around to activating it yet.

Maybe I better make that Connecting Threads order tomorrow, cuz I'm clean out of white thread now. Somehow I'm not motivated enough to consider activating the new card just for some thread, bit o' fabric and Judy L's new book. ;)

Leah

Another one to the list

Looks I have another antibiotic to add to the "allergic" list. :(

Not very itchy, but I'm flaming red, swollen and hot to touch. Hopefully this is the last time I'll get hives - it was about 15 years ago when I discovered that I'm allergic to penicillin. Now bactrim.

So I've been taking it easy and the only quilt-related thing I've done is curl up under them. :)

Leah

Drop out

I'm dropping out of my quilt guild's challenge. It's called "Someday Is Today" and you had to make the quilt that you've been wanting to do "someday". I knew *exactly* what I was gonna do. In July 2006 I cut a bunch of strips for making a Jewel Box quilt.

The sign up for the challenge was in February, but I got distracted by several other quilts to make and finish during that time. So I didn't start to tackle it until August. Then in August it was decided that my parents were gonna come and visit in September, and that my husband and I would visit them for a week in October. So that put me behind. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except I came home with a bad ear infection and took it easy.

So today I emailed the host of the challenge and let her know that I won't be joining. The quilt would need to be quilted, bound and labeled for me to admit it. I'm just cutting it too close and have been working harder at not adding quilting stress to my life! :)

I'm still happy - I finally got started on the quilt! Now just for some borders and I'm even thinking about trying to do feather quilting on it somewhere. But I'm going to enjoy finishing this quilt more at my leisure. Which means it'll likely get done faster... go figure! ;)

Leah

Mystery completed!

I finished Renee's mystery this afternoon. Woven Rings. Can you see the green and yellow circles?

The funny part is that somebody mentioned that it looked like those chairs/furniture with wood woven in small circles. I had to think hard (and back to the 1980s) about what she was referring to. But I had a nice laugh about the unintentional pattern. :)

I'm thinking I might add another "round" of blocks to the bottom and left side, so the green dominates. That will make it from 36" to 42".

Leah

A month of Saturdays

I'm about a month behind in blogging, aren't I? :P

Saturday September 15, my parents were here. Below is a picture of them touring the Tombstone Courthouse.

It was a nice visit, but time flew by way too fast! At least I could rest in the knowledge that I would be seeing them again in 3 weeks.

Saturday September 22, we went to the in-law's house and celebrated my brother-in-law's 24th birthday.

Saturday September 29th was the wedding. I had spend the week helping prepare for the wedding. I put together the favor boxes (and fought to death with the printer!) and help set up the tables and such.


That morning my husband and I had to pick up the cake from the bakery. I had to carry it on my lap for the ride home. Every bump and wiggle made me wince! I didn't want to be responsible for the cake toppling!


Here's a picture of my husband the night before the wedding. Longish hair, beard... all has to go.

I gave him a hair cut Saturday morning and he shaved. Doesn't he clean up nicely? ;)

On the left is the newlyweds, my husband and his parents on the right.

And of course, there was the whole wedding itself! :)

Saturday October 6, I was flying over to my parents house.

Then I spent the whole week either dyeing fabric or preparing the house for my brother's Eagle Scout Court of Honor.

Saturday October 13 my dad wakes me up at 7am and I spent the next 5 hours typing and preparing the program for the Court of Honor. Then there was the whole event itself. Top of it all, I had to pack everything I could that night, cuz we were leaving Sunday morning. Whew. :)

But this Saturday? Mine! All mine! :D Hubby is away on a conference, and there's a mystery quilt on one of my groups. I'll be making the baby sized quilt and so far I think there's snowball blocks in it. With my hand dyed fabrics from last week, of course. ;)

Leah

Fingers again and Ornaments

Oh pooh! I cut another finger this morning. I was trying to trim some fat off of a brisket we BBQ'ed on Friday and I couldn't get a firm grip because I already had one injured finger.

Well, it happened. The knife hit a tough spot, I applied more pressure and before you could blink, it whacked my middle finger. I have a great husband though - he groaned when he saw me crying and rinsing my finger off, but he brought over the bandages and ointment and fixed up my finger for the day. Thankfully the cut isn't as bad or as deep as the rotary one!

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My brother-in-law is getting married next Saturday, and the family pretty much started NOW to prepare for it. BIL has been distracted with moving to his fiancee's (who just bought a house) and fiancee's daughter just started school. So we had no clue about most things. They only decided last month on the date and about 2 weeks before the wedding they settled on the time of the day. Good thing it's gonna be a relatively small and simple wedding!

This afternoon my mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law and I went to Tucson to get some items for the wedding. They wanted me there because I have a Costco membership. ;)

We also swung by Michael's and got candles for the centerpieces and a kit for making favors. I saw these clear U-fill ornaments and picked up one package for myself.

In 2006 I started to save all the dog ears from my half-square triangles. For a couple thousand blocks... it sure doesn't add to that much!

I probably shouldn't have stuffed them so full. But I can't get them out so easily now! Maybe a crochet hook? I won't trouble myself with it now. :)

But that's one way to let the world know at Christmas time that you enjoy quilting. ;)

It'd probably help if we actually bought a tree though! :D

Leah

Does my fabric look fat?

Cuz I think my fabric is overweight! Below is a picture of the outside wall directly beneath my stash.

Yeah... is it just me, or does it look like it's buckling a little bit? I even took a little walk around the complex to see if ANY of the walls looked remotely like mine. 20+ sides of the surrounding buildings later, and none of them resemble what you see.

I'm hoping it's just a cosmetic thing, and not actually the wall/foundation sinking in. But if you must know, not only most of my fabric is against this wall, but also 360 pounds of weights and dumbbells reside directly above those cracks.

Keep in mind we're upstairs, and the pictures is near the ground. Perhaps it's the downstairs neighbors fault! Or it could have been there before we even moved in. I have no clue. I feel like strongly protesting that there's no way a "couple dumbbells" and "a few yards" of fabric could do that kind of damage!

But let's not forget about Bonnie and her dilemma. So yes, it is possible that fabric can weigh down a wall. Yes, hers was along more unsupported walls... but it still gets you wondering...

Is it my fabric, or is it something completely unrelated?

Leah

Finger Update

A little warning, the last picture has a direct shot of my finger and a little blood, not more than a drop's worth. I've made the pictures "small", so you have the *option* to click bigger. :)

Here's my fingers side by side. And if you look really closely, you'll see that my right finger doesn't have a nice round curve. It's lopped. :P


Finally, finally, finally it's stopped throbbing. That was the second worse part.

The worse was when it got stuck to the bandage, despite me using ointment and soaking the whole thing in water for over 30 minutes, trying to get the bandage free.

My husband kept insisting that for it to properly heal, I needed to get it unstuck. I just couldn't bear the thought of pulling at the wound again - the first time was when the paper towel got stuck to it.

So, I'm standing there with the bandage flapping and the thought of pulling it off was making me cry again. I told my husband to pull off the last bit. I squeezed below my finger as tight as I could, squeezed my eyes til I thought I was gonna pass out and waited, trembling for 30 seconds.

Open my eyes... and the bandage is still there.

"Why didn't you pull it?"

"Are you kidding me?!"

"That's exactly how I feel!!" And I'm laughing and crying at the same time. It's way worse than having a bandage pull some hair. :P

About a minute later I yanked it off, squealed and it's been easier since. Except the typing... that's kinda slow still. ;)

I don't think I sliced any nail though. It's slowly scabbing and I'm probably crazy enough to pick up the rotary cutter again today. :D




All said and done... I'm REALLY glad it wasn't my left hand!!!!!!!!!!!

Leah

Klutz Glove needed

I had an accident with the rotary cutter this afternoon.

As I was cutting a HST, my right index finger was just a little too close to the ruler's edge and I cleanly sliced off the tip of my finger.

Gasping, crying, bandages, tylenol, ointment cream and typos is how I'd describe the rest of my day.

By far, this is my worse cut. It still badly stings 9 hours and 4 tylenols later. I've been able to keep it from bleeding all over the place, but I'm so drained from the constant ache!

Hopefully tomorrow will be better... and maybe I can finish cutting my HSTs - one piece is still in mid-slice! :P

Leah

I can close my closet doors!

Whee! I got found my sewing machine. ;) Ok, so it wasn't missing... but certainly unusable among the mess!

Those big stacks of fabric from my last post? All into the closet now. Best of all, I can close my closet doors! ;)

I'm sure I've posted my sewing set up a few times, well, I turned one table 90 degrees and basically made a "triangle" arrangement, like it was recommended in Lois Hallock's Create Your Perfect Quilting Space.

And look! Floor! It's not even hidden with bins. :D Obviously I still have a bit of a mess to deal with, but trust me, it's a thousand times better!! You can come over now. ;)

One highly amusing point about my sewing room; I've managed to lose at least 2 needles, drop countless of pins and safety pins. I'm in that room almost all day, half of the times on my hands and knees and never get jabbed or find my missing needles. My husband stops by (meaning, he actually felt brave enough to step in the room) and in just 5 minutes he finds a pin that I never knew was there. :P

Time to clean the rest of the apartment! My parents come in 15 hours... and I have to sleep during some of them! :P

Leah

Wanna help me clean?

So, can you see my sewing machine? No? Me either...

This is all the fabric I picked up from the FLOOR. Never mind the fabric in the closet or bins!

Yup, I'm cleaning in anticipation of my parents arrival tomorrow. Tomorrow!! :D Eeps. I'm can feel myself getting excited. :)

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Just for kicks, here's something I posted on a forum about busting the stash/not buying so much. I really do feel like I have ENOUGH fabric! I mean, that picture alone is about 175 yards.

One of the things that really helped me feel "full" on fabric is to organize it. Sort it by color, type, theme... whatever YOU like for your fabric. "Re-handling" all your fabric again can really drive home how much you have.

For me, it was when I moved. Oh man, 3, 4, 5, 6, boxes of fabric (keep in mind each box held about 150-250 yards). And it just kinda blew me away with how many yards I have (yes, over a thousand, probably not 2000).

I think it's important to realize that we also need to USE our fabric! There was an estate sale in another state for a quilter - she had 15,000 yards. No kidding!!! They sold it off at $1/yard. While many of us would love to have been at that sale... it's kinda sad. That all that money and time she put into buying all that fabric did nothing for her or her family. It ended up being "pawned off" to strangers. It wasn't lovingly passed onto friends and family members who would treasure and appreciate her efforts. I don't want that to happen to my fabric. I want it to get used.

Another idea is to take 50 yards of fabric - be it 50 one-yard pieces or 10 five-yard pieces. Fold them up all the same way and stack them on top of each other. Wow. It's not looking like very much, is it? Yet 50 yards can make quite a few quilts!

From 50 yards you should get...
12 baby quilts
9 lap quilts
6 twin quilts
3 double/queen quilts
2 king quilts.

(And my figures are being generous... I bet you could take the scraps afterwards and whip up another quilt or two. Yes, I'm counting backings too).

I have been cleaning my apartment - and my quilting room - in anticipation of my parents coming over tomorrow. My room has been messy for a long time - I found stuff from last October! But as I've been cleaning, I've been folding and stacking up fabric. I have about 25 yards of hand dyed fabrics that are neatly stacked. Using that as my "guideline", I'm guessing I picked up 175 yards off of the floor. Yeah! That's either fabric I've bought in the past year, or likely used in quilt. A few pieces were being "auditioned" for possible quilts and I didn't put them back afterwards.

I've already started about 15 quilts this year, and I've completed 7. It's not like I buy fabric just to have more of it, but I'm actually using it up... but I'm not using it up as fast as I buy it!! All in all, I'd wildly guess that I've *used* 100 yards. That's not really a big dent in whole pile of fabric, especially because I'm still buying!

So, I have enough fabric. Time to start using it up. I have some family members who still don't have quilts. And by using it up, I remove the "guilt" over future purchases. And I get to feel good about myself using fabric and giving quilts.

Plus, when I die, I don't want somebody being overwhelmed with my stash! I want them to go through a stack or two and say "ohh! Look at that green piece, she used it in both of my boys quilts." "Mine too! And I think I spotted a bit of that blue in the couch quilt she made. She was very talented with the machine. I'm gonna miss her."

And not... "oh crud... what in the world are we gonna do with all that fabric?! Does the Goodwill take it?"

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Still, if you wanna come over and help me clean... you might get rewarded with some fabric. ;) (No, don't come over, I haven't had a shower in a few days, and I figured I'm gonna sweat some more, so I'll shower tonight!)

Leah

Boys quilt done

First off, my rash is pretty much gone. I spent a good 3 weeks itching myself like crazy, then it started to ease off. I never did find a doctor, but I am completely following the pityriasis rosea rash "time line" and symptoms. If you look closely, you still can see discolored skin spots (like it was sunburned) and in the places that I itched really hard still have a roughness to the skin. But all the pain and discomfort is gone! :)

I finished 2 customer quilts, put the last stitch in on Sunday. Got them washed and was very happy to see that the fabric pens I bought didn't fade at all.

I love the blue in the firetruck quilt, it looks like water or a blue flame. Quilted with loops and stars.

This was my first time sewing on a separate label BEFORE the quilting. I feel better about it too, it's not going to be easy for somebody to just run a seam ripper around the label's edge; they would have to undo some quilting too.

The dinosaur quilt made in checkerboard style. Quilted with a meander.

Both quilts are 36" square, great nap quilts and I hope the boys who will be receiving them love their quilts. :)

Leah

August is Over!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gah. August was such a slump month for me. Between the heat, school starting again and the hit on our wallets, I wasn't very good at putting my best foot forward.

But it's finally September, and while the bumps in the road were real, I know part of my slump was just because it was August. My bad month, if you will. 4th year in a row. :P

My sewing machine is cleaned up again with same day service - no issues were found, and I didn't think there would be any, it was just making a bad sound. The tension was still beautiful, the needle wasn't hitting anything, I hadn't gone over a pin recently. Must have picked up my bad mood about August. ;)

The good news for September is that my parents are coming over for the first time!! Yes, I've been married for over 3 years and there hasn't been time before for them to come over. But lately they've been MAKING the time for little trips and I'm next! I'm looking forward to showing my mom the sewing room... but it needs a serious overhauling in the 12 days I have left to prepare! eek. :D

Pictures in the next post - camera's still working, just haven't been taking the time to grab it lately. :)

Leah

What you do NOT want to hear...

From your sewing-machine-clueless husband, "Leah, I think somethings wrong with your machine."

*insert cuss word of your choice*

Oh boy. I don't know which puts more fear in me, hearing that your car's check engine light is on or hearing that your sewing machine of your dreams is making a funny rattling sound. Heh, probably the car, cuz it's more expensive.

And yes, I did everything I know of - cleaned the lint (maybe I should try vacuuming), oiling it with sewing machine oil, changing the needle, wiping everything spotless. And hubby said that it sounds better... but still "off". So I asked him if I should take it in. He said yes, without hesitations. Yikes, that's a bad sign!

But me without my sewing machine? That's like... not breathing! Lucky me, I'm going to Tucson on Tuesday and I'll drop off my machine at the Bernina Sewing Center. Ugh. My baby! How long will I have to be without my machine?

I hate August. Seems like the most expensive month every single year we've been married. Car troubles, now my sewing machine.

Oh, by the way, we also bought a laptop too. :P

Leah

Done with Harry Potter

I finished the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in about 30 hours. But that'd explain why I disappeared a bit. ;) Good book, a part of me wishes there was a little more romance.

Now for a rash update. Peni suggested that I might have Pityriasis Rosea. Huh? Yeah, a google search turned up some interesting results. But really mattered to me was that I was strongly matching it's given symptoms.

I like to call it The Pity Rash. ;) Picture of my tummy is pretty much at one of it's worse and most itchy points. Thankfully it's a thousand times better and I no longer wake up in the middle of the night scrubbing my skin to death.

Basically this rash is random. It's thought to be a relapse of HHV-7 (Human Herpes Virus 7, common in kids), but there's no proof. Anyhow, it's a little tricky to diagnose at first, but the fact that it takes 2-4 weeks for the rash to develop is one of the clues that it's pityriasis rosea. Then it hangs around from 6-14 weeks. Yeah! I didn't want to hear that. :P

It's not contagious at all. It tends to target younger adults. Only about 3% of the people who get PR relapse and get it again and again and again and again... ouch. It's miserable enough for one time! Heat and active movement can cause the rash to itch more. Why, oh why did I have to get this in the summer when I happen to live in the desert?! :)

There are shots and medicines available to help with the itching, but there's nothing to do about the rash itself, you need to wait it out. Thankfully I seem to be almost done with the spreading of the rash. A few fresh spots on my thighs, but that's pretty much it. The rest of my skin looks splotchy, and only itches when I'm super hot. And even if it's not itching, scratching my skin feels real good. :) And yes, I've scratched so much that my skin has been peeling like a sunburn... except very few people sunburn in the areas I'm peeling in! :P

Hopefully by my birthday in November everything will be cleared up and gone!

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In other news, I got mail goodies from Dannielle's drawing.

There's a quilting book (with some extras like how to make several bags, etc), a Christian Woman's book, colorful crochet dishcloth, purple dangling earrings (sure pretty!), hand made card, her little "business" Bunny card (great bookmarker too) and a little circle of soap. At first I thought the soap was a candle, but nope. It smells fantastic too. :) Thank you Dannielle!!

There was a quilt guild meeting last Wednesday and the speaker was Amy Bright. She really likes using circles in her quilts.

She also enjoys leather work and makes her own thimbles. A piece of colorful leather with a bit of white bandage to prevent the needle from going into your skin. Very comfortable and soft. When you wear out one side, just flip it over and use the other. :)

Last of all, I'm working on the mystery for Cathy~O. It's all sewn into a top now, just need to put on the borders and it'll be officially tested. :)

What I love is how beautifully the seams have been behaving. They nestle and match wonderfully. I can't wait to show you the design - but it'll be until September before I can show off the whole thing. :)

School's starting this Monday! Guess that means I can't be so lazy anymore or expect my husband to cook as much as he has been. :P

Leah