Socialization

Some people check into rehab for drug and alchol abuse.  Some people have an interventions for the same.

I need some type of rehab for people absent of social skills with a little bit of hatefullness thrown in.

I think I need to be resocialized.


This brings up images of me being put into some type of camp and brainwashed like a political prisoner of old in some type of regime or maybe in a dystopian society (like is so popular in many YA novels these days).

Don't laugh...it could work!

Quilted

I finished quilting the quilt tonight.  I just wanted to finish it so I didn't bother trying to do anything other than more meander on the outside border.

S wasn't understanding what I meant by binding.  I had to show her.  She kept asking me what fabric I was going to use.  I'm pretty sure that was a hint she wants to pick it out.  I'm going to give her some choices tomorrow.

I'm going to try this tutorial from Flourishing Palms to place the binding.

If I take this quilt in for show and tell, I will get 10% off of my purchase at Wooden Spools.  I used a bit of fabric purchased there in the quilt-- the brown for the owls and one of the greens for the leaves.  I also purchased the batting there--a very nice 80-20 sold from a floor stand roll which I loved because packaged batting is always so squashed and wrinkled.

I could get this finished by the weekend!

It sucks that its only Tuesday and very cold.  I'm taking Friday off, though, because the kids are off so I should stop whining....  Not much doing since I'm broke until next Tuesday.  Paying off my outstanding obligations really sucks, too.  I thought I was broke before....  We'll just stick close to home.  I have the weekend to look forward to because we're supposed to get out of our deep freeze and hit 50s.

M got us passes for the Rec Center this week.  I'm supposed to start walking.  He took the C and Z Monday morning before school to work out.  They all came home tired and sore.  They liked the hot showers there since only one person really gets a hot shower at home.  I guess this is the year we're all going to get moving.

*&%$ Free Motion Quilting

I don't think I'll ever like free motion quilting.  I know I've complained about how bad I am at it before.  I would just like to be able to do it a little better...i.e. not have my quilt look like a drunk quilted it.

I've got the machine speed and movement thing down.  I understand the concept.  I have some tools like gloves and a Supreme Slider for my sewing machine bed to help me maneuver the quilt with more ease.  I could be better and my stitch quality is only okay, but unlike most other things with quilting I'm not demanding perfection on that front.  (I did have a bit of trouble finding a thread that would work and not give me tension issues on the machine I use for quilting.  I ended up using the Auriful that I've been using for piecing.)

I can't figure out the design aspect.  I tried a simple meander on the owl quilt and it doesn't look right.  I get so hyper when I quilt and I forget to slow down and work in small sections.  Before I know it, I've backed myself into a dead end, gone too far, or quilted in circles when I didn't want to.  (**Part of the problem with this quilt, too, was that I used a really light thread and I had trouble seeing the completed quilting.  I used it because it's all that would work in the machine and it was the only color of that thread that I had.  I am wondering if I would have done better having been able to see where I had quilted.  The fact that the quilting was invisible was supposed to be a good thing because my stitch quality wouldn't be so glaring, but I guess it's a trade off.)

I know it's like doodling, but I'm still not good at that.  I can't train my brain to do it.  The only thing left me to do, I guess, is to try to draw on some type of medium that I would attach to the quilt but remove upon completion and quilt around it, through it, or over it.

My other option is to have someone else quilt for me which really isn't an option because I can't afford it.....and would mean I'm a quitter.

I have only the outside border to quilt and then the binding to sew.

I guess the good thing is that S think the quilt looks great, is impatient for me to finish it, and that she doesn't care how it looks---isn't so picky like her mom.

Adventures with Evil Me

The devil in me is alive and well.  I can't leave well enough alone.  I informed on someone recently and they came out smelling like roses.  I totally admit to having an intense dislike for this person for recent events and can't say that my reason for informing was not 99.9% rooted in my desire to get them in trouble or embarrass them.  The other .1% was from my belief that one shouldn't be able to do a tutorial from a pattern that is so detailed that it was almost like a pattern itself with diagrams, pictures, and measurements.

She did have to take the tutorial off her blog, but the kicker is.......

The person was given free products for a giveaway and asked to be a pattern tester.

This person must be truly blessed.  I'm not kidding the pattern company is run by two religious-types and the blogger just happens to be one, too.  I'm not imagining that this had something to do with how this all turned out.  When I first emailed the company, they actually thought I was the blog and tutorial author.  Before they determined that the tutorial was an infringement of their copyright, I got two emails from one the owners absolutely gushing about the blog and the fact that they were of the same religion making life grand.

Me, I'm blessed by the devil.

And, why do I even admit to it here?  Because I want people to think the worst of me, of course.

Aspirations

I want to be here.

QuiltLit

I have no less than six stories running through my head, but I haven't worked on any of them.  They're all stuck in my head.

One of them is even called Quilter's UFO.  Yes, a story about quilting and real UFOs and not the Unfinished Object we quilters are so familiar with.

Great American Quilt Factory CLOSING?!

I got a very sad email today.  The email was sent yesterday, but I didn't open it until this morning.

Great American Quilt Factory is closing in only a few weeks!

I'm stunned.  The store has been one of my favorites for years.  It was the store I shopped more often than others from the very beginning.  Their I Spy quilt was the reason I wanted to learn how to quilt.

I have had some suspicion that something was up for about six months.  I have noticed that the amount of fabric on their shelves has decreased and selection hasn't been as good.  The First Saturday Sampler was only a couple months long instead of its normal length.

I know the amount of purchasing I do has decreased significantly.  The reason given is retirement, but I'm sure business has declined....  I know there have been quite a few closures over the past year of so of shops.

I guess I'm just most surprised by the abruptness.  An email on the 4th to say that the store will be closed from the 5th-9th and then will reopen on the 10th to sell everything off.  I was just in there on Wednesday and had no clue....

Whoooooooo

Don't anyone pass out from shock now.....

Next step?!  The applique hasn't been sewed down.  I am considering if I will blanket stitch it or try a new method where one sews or free motion sews applique in the quilting stage.

Don't Look Now Tutuorial

Yes, the heck with it!  I will be quilting this one myself.  I am eager to start it today while I have the quilting rush going through my body, but I can't talk M into buying the batting I need today.

S wants it.  I was going to donate it.

A word....  if one wants to feel good about quilting again ask a kid.  A and S wouldn't shut up about this quilt.  They were full of compliments.  A helped me pick out the green leaves.

An explanation about the yellow.  This quilt is for an online quilting challenge.  The month's color was yellow.  I fell in love with the border fabric first.  I've liked the pattern for awhile.  I needed to work with fabric that excited me, especially since it had to be yellow, and a simple quilt.  I needed to be able to finish it with all the distractions and issues I have in my life that have made quilting a chore lately.