Hair Today

For an April's Fool joke on my husband, I got my hair cut. (Never mind that it took me a month to get the after photo!) Here's the before:

I have no memory of those curls and waves! One of the biggest reason for cutting my hair was to encourage more curls.


This is the shortest my hair has been, since I was four or five. And no, my hair's never been dyed, I am freshly out of the shower in the second picture.

I opted for a layered style, and it was important to me that I could be able to tuck my hair behind my ears if I wanted to. Took me about a month to adjust to it. I can squeeze it into a high pony tail for the gym, but buns and twists don't work out so well. I probably won't have it that short again, but good to know what it's like. :)


Our plans to tour our new apartment tomorrow got bumped... because they're installing new carpet and flooring. Yippee! So we'll swing by on Tuesday. And we're still moving in 8 days. Yikes!

Still haven't done that much packing yet. I did make another run to the thrift store to donate a small bookcase, a bag of clothes and a bag of fabric that didn't get taken by the quilt guild ladies. Crunch time now. :)

Leah

It's official!

Every thing's been confirmed and signed... we're moving! It's a mixture of excitement and panic. I have officially 13 days left to pack!

No sewing for me in the next few weeks. See the gray bin? I've overflowed two of those with fabric that I'll be giving away at the quilt guild meeting next week. Then this morning I got my guild's newsletter and the next two meetings are about scrap management and scrap busting quilts. Then there's a workshop in the middle of the month that strongly encourages you to delve into your pile of scraps to make the quilt they will teach.

Me? I'm taking the easy way out and letting my unloved scraps and fabric become somebody else's problem!! :D It's worth it to me, especially if it means that I take away the guilt of feeling like I need to put the fabric to use somehow, someday.

Next Friday we'll get a chance to tour our future home, and I certainly intend to have the camera with me. ;)

Leah

Blessings

We've been getting some good news this week! But first I want to show off my garden. ;)

The first box is the edibles - sunflowers, sweet pea and corn are all growing nicely. I'm using some EarthBoxes that my grandfather gave me last summer. My plants are doing much better!!


The second box is my herb box. I bought the rosemary and oregano late summer last year and they survived the winter. My basil in the right top corner didn't.

Then from seed this year, I have cilantro, chives (good luck seeing those!) and parsley. I hope to replace the basil sooner or later - I did make pesto several times.


Some other good news is that my husband received his contract for the next school year!! This is a huge deal to us because usually they make us wait until the middle or end of May. The other reason is because they HAD to let two people go. One was transferred to the science department, and the other is depending whether or not they pass some testing? I'm not too clear... all I know it's not my husband!!!! :)

Now we just need confirmation that the apartment is ours, and we're set. We'll be checking again tomorrow.

Leah

Slow Doings

It's been a week of little results, but that's ok. I did manage to get the borders on my Ann's Mystery quilt.

I even managed to cut some backing fabric. Still need to sew the two pieces together.


I've been doing a ton of baking and cooking! Our checking account has been depleted (due to buying a planned-for TV) and we have $6 left in our food budget. If you want something, you gotta make it or do without. :)

My husband was craving sweets, so I made Peanut Butter Finger Cookies from The Roux We Do cookbook. They're supposed to be dipped in chocolate... but I don't have any! Chocolate's not the first "drug" of my choice. ;)


We also have a tentative apartment. There's still some legal paperwork to be taken care of by the previous tenant, but since she moved to Ohio, there's a pretty good chance she's not coming back. :) Hopefully we'll get an official confirmation next week. We won't actually move until May 15th. I wish I could start feeling some panic or something to have motivation to start packing... but it hasn't happened yet! And I'm going to be on my own for half of the move. The last school week is the worst for my husband and he's unable to help me much.


Somebody send me some decluttering magic, please! :P

Leah

Just one Honey Bun

How far can you stretch one Honey Bun roll? Into a nice nap sized quilt, I say! ;)

It measures 50x74. I was able to get eight 5" bars from each strip. A total of 320 bars, split into five rows of 64 bars each.

I'm leaning for an orange thread for the quilting, but I'm just not sure. I think red would be too bright against the background fabric. Maybe it just needs to age a little first. ;)

It sure feels good to be sewing after my overwhelming week!

Leah

FQ winner

The winner is Kimberly!

I'd take it, too. I'm too broke to afford any fabric.

Sounds like she really could use some more fabric. :)

Leah

Goodies and giveaway

It's been very windy lately. I had my sewing room window open, and somehow my iron blew over and all the water fell out and was sewing my sewing table. Talk about a heart attack moment! Thankfully, I have proof below that my machine still works just fine. ;)

The butterfly block is for my quilt guild's blotto. Maybe I'll win! I'll find out tomorrow.


A couple weeks ago I won $100 from the Superior Threads blog. Yeah! That place with lots and lots of cool thread. :)

Admittedly... $100 doesn't go very far. The two big cones of thread were $25 each. Then the 5 King Tut spools on the left was another $25. Just a few clicks, I had already spent $75! I think the best investment is the black cone stand. It has great heft to it and will last me probably the rest of my life.


I also order several L size bobbins... uh oh.

The top is my normal Bernina bobbin, the bottom is one of their SuperBobs. I don't think it's gonna fit. Does this mean I have M style bobbins? I'm really confused now.


Last week I was asking for some help in finding some more Sweet by Urban Chicks fabric - with decent shipping to boot. Bingo Bonnie pointed me to an esty member, and it was pretty much what I had in mind! They even threw in an extra fat quarter for free and my whole total was less than $11.

The FQ is a Mary Engelbreit fabric by Moda... and frankly, I don't like it. :P It's too red for me. So! If you want it, just leave a comment and I'll draw a name on Thursday or so.

Good luck!
Leah

Fabric source?

Wow, it's been an overwhelming week. Thankfully things are back on an upward swing and calming down.


Today was my quilting get together, and I figured I'd start cutting into this Honey Bun that I won from Shadywood Quilts several weeks ago. I'm going to do a Chinese Coin, with the off-white fabric for the plain rows.

I managed to cut up all the fabric while at my friend's house. On the way home I decided to swing by a quilt shop to pick up another yard of Moda's "Sweet" from Urban Chicks for the binding. I was in for a bit of surprise! The shop had seriously downsized, and largely carried Thimbleberries. Ok, off to the other quilt shop in my little town. Much bigger place, should have better luck, right? Nope! They didn't carry "Sweet" either.

And I'm really, really, really sure Walmart wouldn't have it either. ;) Now I'm out of quilt shops to check - the next closest one is about 80 miles away - it'd be $20 in gas for one yard! Which would make it like $30/yard. Yeouch!

So, can somebody direct me to an online shop with the cheapest shipping for 1 yard of fabric? Fat Quarter Shop wants $5 for shipping... is there anything cheaper out there? I would really think that one could ship a yard of fabric for less than $2 First Class.

Now I just have to find my sewing machine before I can start piecing. I did say something about the past week being overwhelming, right? :P

Leah

Ruthless

Not much quilting going on recently. Instead, I've started the packing process.

All the fabric on the wire shelves are crammed into rubbermaid bins. I'm pretty sure I won't find time to use it all up before May. :) There's another bin waiting for the hand dyes to fill it up.

I'm also being pretty ruthless in my non-quilty packing, in small bites. I think I've gotten rid of as much stuff as I've packed. A towering pile of stuff to the thrift store, several bags trashed and gone.

And surprisingly, I've let go a lot of books recently. Enough to earn me over $90 in store credit at the local entertainment store. The rest went off to my library's bookstore.

Still have lots to go, but I've got a very happy husband cheering me on. :)

Leah

Slogging through

I've seem to hit a bit of a hump in my quilting these days. Don't know why, usually the fix is quite simple. Like a new rotary blade or such. Oh yeah, there's some work being done on our internet and that's kept me offline quite a bit! Don't like it... but the kitchen is sure clean. ;)


Bear's Paw for Judy's Quilt Along. Yes, I'm being a tease and not showing the other paw colors.

I did have a last minute change on my pink pair. I felt that I selected too dark of a pink/red and found some replacements to help it blend better with the rest of the quilt.


In other news, my mom finally got my parents plumbing company set up!

It's a pretty big deal because they've registered the domain over 5 years ago, site address is plastered onto their trucks, but they never created anything until now.

Good job Mom! It's better than anything I churned up for my HTML class back in my college days. :)

Leah

Apartment hunting

After feeling discouraged about my husband's school problems, I lost the desire to work on finding us a cheaper place for a few weeks. But this week I found a renewed kick, and stopped by 10 apartments asking for their rates and floor plans.

The 9th apartment I stopped by was the one that really caught my husband's eye. I completely missed it in my weary state, but all utilities are paid! And their 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom is 100 square feet bigger than our current apartment, but would save us around $150-$200/month.

So we set up an appointment for a tour, and I'm quite pleased with the interior. Like, there's a kitchen window - I never had a kitchen window in any of my apartments.

They also offer gas stove (and water heater), which put my husband into big grins. Cooking with electric is a pain, and we go all crazy at my parents house with their 5-burner gas stove. They don't mind, it's kinda like having a chef for a few weeks. ;)


Something worth doing back flips over: a pantry!

I absolutely need a pantry. Currently I've turned our second bathroom into a storage room. It's very inefficient, but yay, don't have to clean that toilet. :P


The living room is nice and large, connects to a patio/balcony. If we were to get a 1 bedroom unit, my quilting would go into the living room.

We'd also wedge in our dining table, right about where I was standing in that picture.


And here's the really big bedroom! Full size closet (we have half size for our clothes right now), plenty of room for a bed and my husband's computer set up.

There's also a full sized bathroom and a linen closet. I don't have a linen closet right now, it just get stuffed into the bottom of our closet.

But... we're seriously considering getting a 2 bedroom apartment. Even with the extra cost, we'd still save $40-90/month to what we're currently paying. Plus, a 2 bedroom unit is more likely to become available than a 1 bedroom. And we can set the AC to any temp we want. We HAVE to do 82 here, or else our electric bill will be over $200. Oh yeah, the 2 bedroom is 300 more square feet than what we have right now.

There was some concern about the neighborhood, but after asking around a bit and talking to a few people, it sounds just as safe as where I am now. Probably helps that it's less than a mile away from the town's police station. ;)

That's what I've been up to! The move won't happen until late May or so... but the packing begins NOW! :)

Leah

It's a HST!

It's elementary, my dear Watson... it's a half-square triangle for Judy's Quilt Along project!

Uh yeah, it's also a single HST, and Judy called for 192 of them. But she said she wouldn't count them!! ;) Actually, I just can't stand the idea of slaving in front of the iron any more. It got to over 80 degrees here, and we had to throw out our filtered water pitcher because it got a crack in the bottom. So I'm hot and dehydrated, but trying to fix both by drinking icy water.


It hasn't been a great day. A couple of my husband's identity numbers have been compromised. We got introduced to the world of credit freeze and replacing driver's license. Gotta keep my husband's credit score in good shape so we can buy a house someday.

Top of it all, my husband's grandmother was found passed out and in convulsions yesterday. Given that it got to over 90 degrees in her town, I'm willing to bet she's severely dehydrated. You can't live on alcohol alone, no matter how hard she tries!!

Well, this week can only get better from here. :)

Leah

Don't try this at home!

I had a moment of insanity. I figured, since I was already planning on the sewing machine going into the shop, I could at least satisfy one curiosity I've always had.

Here's what my sewing machine looks like when I take the bobbin case out.

Usually after every bobbin of thread used, I'll dab a q-tip around to pick up any obvious lint and fluff hanging around.


Every two bobbins, I try to open up the area and give it a real good cleaning. The little tab on the left of the wide silver "U" in the above picture opens up the hook removal.

Now you can see the spot of my deep curiosity. What's beyond that silver screw in the center? I envisioned gears and springs and a whole lot of lint. And hey, if I'm gonna be taking my machine into the shop anyhow, why not take a peek?


But before I actually unscrewed it, I decided I better take pictures of my needle positions, cuz this stuff isn't covered in the owner's manual! :D

Little do I know, this picture is what saved me a lot of trouble.


Undid the screw... and hey, I was right about the gears. But no springs or other loose stuff back there.

In fact, not even a lot of lint. No pools of oil either, so I haven't been over-oiling my machine.


Here's the back of the piece I unscrewed out. Just a simple gear to match the bar of teeth above.

Curiosity satisfied! Now to put my machine back together. That's when I had a second of panic - how do I know which gear teeth match up?! I tried to eyeball it, but I was one gear off. Referred to the picture of the needle all the way down, and was able to get it back in place. Phew. ;)

The crazy thing? My free-motion tension is ok now. I tested it long and hard. No more tear-inducing tension problems. I'm not sure if I need to take it to the shop now. Gonna have to sew for a few days to get a better idea. Cuz I'd rather not spend that kind of money if I can help it.

Just don't hold me responsible if you try this yourself! :)

Leah

Something in the air?

I've seen a lot of irritation and sensitivity going around lately. Winter blahs? Nah, plenty of sun here. Cabin fever? Doubt it, it's been hitting high 70s. Sewing machine problems? Check!

It's probably my fault. I ran out of bobbin thread a couple nights ago and called it quits for the night. Tension was just fine. The next morning I load a new bobbin in, and the thread gets caught or jammed somehow. I strongly suspect that I pulled it the wrong way trying to unjam it, and made things even worse. I can not get a balanced tension for the life in me. It starts off ok... then wham! It's really skewed.

ARGH!!!

It's no fun. I don't know how to fix it. I know that I can't fix it, cuz it's a mirror image to the problem that I had last year. At least I've been down this road before, and I didn't let this problem drive me to tears and slamming doors trying to fix it this time.

The good news is that it seems to be able to piece just fine, and I had enough sense to buy a back up machine. Not gonna go bonkers this time. :)

Lastly, I'm so grateful that this didn't happen while I was dealing with my Christmas crunch and free-motioning my dad's and brother's quilt in the nick of time. I'll be sorry that I can't finish the charm quilt before the last cold spell... but I'm not dealing with any deadlines either.

Leah

Charming Monster

It took me a few days to gird myself up with enough courage to tackle quilting the charm squares after I pinned it. No question at all, it's the biggest quilt I've ever done.

I started off with thoroughly cleaning out my machine. Get lint out of the bobbin area, oil it, new needle, wind up 8 bobbins. Hope I have enough thread!


If I haven't free-motioned in a while, I'll go for a little test run on a quilted scrap that I've had for at least a year. Just get some fabric you don't love, slap it together with some batting and jump start your free-motioning.

The tension was spot on this time, but you can see where I had some serious fights with my tension in the past. Naughty machine! :)


Here's the plan for the quilting. Broken up into 4 sections, meandering all throughout.

At the very most, I would be cramming 49 inches of quilt into the throat space of my machine. Sounds doable!


I did mention that I have a throat space of 7.75 inches, right?

I'd say it's crammed pretty good there. The batting was so fluffy and fully of air before it was quilted. I know some people suggest using clips to help hold the roll, but I haven't had much luck with the ones I bought from JoAnn's.


Before I start quilting, I try to remember to check the backing fabric. Too many times I didn't take a few seconds to make sure it was flat, and then much later I would discover that it folded over and I would have to get real friendly with my seam ripper.

The start is looking good. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it.


I marked the center of the quilt with a pin at the intersection, so I would know how far down I needed to quilt the quadrant I was working on.

Each quadrant takes 4.5 bobbins! So I expect 18 or 19 bobbins just for the quilting. Also, each section takes three hours to quilt. I found out that my butt can only handle 1.5 hours of sitting at a time. :)


The first quarter done! I couldn't believe how the quilting squished the batting into thinness.

I was also tickled pink that I didn't get any puckers!! Doesn't matter, if there was a pucker, it'd be there to stay.

I'm really not friendly with straight pins or seam rippers! ;)

Leah