What happened to March?

A quick catchup before the big post:

I'm exhausted just thinking about all the happenings around here in the last few months. It is April 14th and my brain is screaming that it must be at least June!

Three weeks ago we made another trip to Arizona, our second one this year. The purpose of the last trip was to get my brother-and-sister-in-law's home ready to sell so they can relocate here. The little town of Ajo is quaint and quiet, but it is also a two hour drive to get medical care other than the GP variety. With advancing age and some pretty serious health problems the timing seemed to be right. I spent a week prepping the house to be put on the market. Thanks to the wonderful ladies of SIL's church it was ready to have a "FOR SALE" sign placed in the yard. I will freely admit that I was running on empty by the time we boarded the plane and headed for home on the seventh day.

(Yes, that is a cat on my blog. Sam lives in AZ and is the only cat in the entire world that I would allow here. She is a cranky 14-year-old cat whose sedentary life was turned to chaos when I stepped in the door and started dismantling her home. I also slept on her bed and wouldn't let her in, even at 4 am as she cried at the door. By the end of the week we had made peace and actually shared some nice kitty moments.)

My poor suitcases didn't even get put back in the closet. Our long-awaited trip to Washington DC with Athena and Eris and the gang was only five days away! Mike and the girls had been working on this educational experience for months. Reservations for hotels, tours, cars and shuttles were set. We had been holding regular planning meetings for months and Eris had prepared us with a 90 minute history of the United States. It seemed like a dream when all eleven of us boarded that airplane and headed east for what turned out to be the best trip EVER! We returned home three days ago and each one of us is still working through the exhilaration and exhaustion.

My goal is to have another post and photos up in the next few days.

Quilt report: finished one! That's right! Bound and ready for auction at a church dinner this coming Saturday! It felt so good that I might just do another one.

Dimple report: Have been off medication for four weeks. The unpleasant side effects are now gone, which means that I am sleeping at night. Surgery is scheduled for the first week of May, a procedure that hopefully will be simple and easy. It's done as an outpatient but requires an entire day at the hospital. I'll just be glad when it's over because that means summer is here and it's time to play, slathered in sunscreen of course!

New wheels: I now have a new-t0-me mountain bike! Trail riding is much harder than on pavement, also muddier! Doubtful that I'll ever be a true mountain biker but so far I have really enjoyed coming home with mud up my back!

Coinage was counted before our DC trip. Unfortunately, the total for the last eight months was a paltry $84. Bicycling has really taken a toll on the numismatizing.

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(Apologies for the random spacing. I'm out of practice at blogging!)

White Satin

One time I tried to count them and came up with somewhere around a dozen. Athena and Eris, three nieces, two cousins and a number of friends all wore gowns with my "Made by Numi" tag sewn inside. Styles change dramatically and brides are unique in their shapes and desires. Some brides are easy to work with, others deserve the moniker Bridezilla.

Each dress was a challenge. The lair had to be sanitized and guests were banished. Food is forbidden within 20 feet of white satin. With each gown new techniques were learned. Handbeading, boning, hooping slips, bustles, poofing, all were different.


Last night I finished one of the scariest yet. My nephew's fiance is a darling, petite girl who needed her purchased gown shortened by 80 mm. The gown is exquisite with pleating, beading, pearls and a long flowing train. As many times as I have cut into yards and yards of white bridal satin or alencon lace this one terrified me. Perhaps it was because there was no starting over if I messed up. (Yes, that happened once.) It wasn't a simple hem job, no, this one required disassembling the lower half of the gown (all four layers), removing portions of lace, configuring angles and trying to not get Cadbury Egg fingerprints on it. I thought about the process for three weeks, studied the construction, which by itself was something of an engineering marvel, and then finally took a deep breath and started.


Taking the seams apart and peeking inside was easy. But making that first cut into the hem was terrifying. There was no going back. Kind of like induced labor. Reconstruction is now complete. The gown is hanging in it's protective bag waiting for the big day in two months. Diet Coke is now allowed in the lair again. And I can breathe.

Sorry, no photo of the entire gown. That will come later. My nephew hasn't seen it, although he has carried the bag out to my car.

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The Guest Room Quilt

I grew up sitting at a sewing machine. Barbie doll clothes and personal clothing was my specialty. The first quilting attempt was while waiting for Athena's arrival. Over the next 20 years I made the occasional quilt, mostly squares and usually tied. About 15 years ago I got serious about it and took a few classes. I quickly learned that the art of quilting is much more than sewing squares together and fastening them with square knots. Constructing a half-square triangle involved using math skills and precise 1/4 inch seams. Pressing correctly could make or break whether or not your block went together effortlessly or ended up lumpy. For twelve years I completed countless quilts and gave them away.

My first "real" quilt is still on the bed in our guest room. It is certainly not my best work. Seams don't always match, the hand quilted stitches are much longer than desired and there is one block that is assembled incorrectly. Over the years my skills improved and a few years ago I even had the guts to have a few appraised. These are the "heirloom" quilts that will go to my grandchildren some day in the future.

The same evolution of skills has taken place in my photography. Today I had the unpleasant experience of seeing an image that I took over two years ago. Oh my, it was awful. Well, the image itself was not particularly awful but the post-processing was mind numbingly hideous. As soon as I got home I searched through my archives where (luckily) the original files were found. Reprocessing has been done. New prints will be made tomorrow and hopefully hung in that hallway. The old 8x10 will be brought here to my lair where it will hang in front of my monitor as a reminder that there is so much more to be learned.

The frightening part of this experience is knowing that in 2012 I will most likely look at images from 2010 and want do-overs on every single one of them. Again. Ugh.

01-15-10 Note: Replacement prints were made today and are now hanging in place of the old ones. I feel sooo much better about them. Remind me in two years to do another comparison. On second thought, don't.

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Corned beef, cabbage and other lucky stuff

Yesterday my calendar was blank so I finally wandered down to the lair. The repaired lamp was reinstalled on the wall so it was time to get back to work. The laptop was moved back down to the lair as well. I am now surrounded here by all of my favorite toys, except for Zeus who remains upstairs.

Thanks to two ladies who have commented on my blog, Sharyn and Becky, I was inspired to get my Bernina humming along again. (Thanks, ladies!) That closet of beautiful fabrics are not going to get cut and sewn unless I do it. So, I spent the morning finishing the pajama quilt top, including borders. Cleaning and decluttering kept me busy for most of the afternoon. Then last night while watching Big Bang Theory - love it - I actually got another baby quilt top put together, a simple Snowball and 9-patch. I was in this room most of the day and it felt really wonderful.

With warmer weather approaching (had to shed the outerwear while running this morning) the lair becomes the coolest place in our house. In fact, I keep a sweatjacket in the room to put on whenever I come down. I love this room. My lair.

shiny new shoes next to old ones

I hope that you all have had a lucky St. Patrick's Day. The corned beef and cabbage is in the crockpot and I'm going to get new running shoes this afternoon. How lucky can one girl get?

$2.41 and one car-wash token

Update on Zeus: The spa treatments seemed to have worked their magic! The numbers that have steadily climbed for the last six years have gone from over 12 to .002. That is everything we were hoping for, and then some! Gotta love medical science. And a special thanks to all of you for your good vibes and wishes!

Ohhhh, that felt goooooood!

I have spent the greater part of the last two days in my lair. It's been a long time since I've retreated down here and I had almost forgotten how nice it can be. Zeus has been upstairs catching up on his studies and outside the snow has fallen off and on so it's really quiet.

For the last three years I have been making little quilts for our hospital's neonatal ICU in memory of a special little baby. They are tiny, just 16 inches square, usually in soft, pastel flannels. Sometimes they are bound, but most often my sister crochets dainty little edgings on them. I was able to piece together ten of these quilts today. Hopefully when they are finished each one will bring comfort to families with babies in the NICU.

We are thrilled to be expecting a gaggle of babies this year so I also am working on regular quilts. The last time we needed one to give away I realized that my stash was getting pretty low. Tops are now ready to be quilted and bound. That step requires moving furniture around in my lair so I try to get a pile of tops done and then set up for the quilting process, doing a bunch all at once. I think the next baby is due to arrive in May so I have a little time.


It's good to be back working again.

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Bubba time

I had some fun with Bubba last Wednesday. I've been bugging him for weeks to set up a time to get some pictures taken but either uncooperative weather or his busy 15 1/2 year old's schedule always seemed to get in the way.

Our city has a wonderful old train station that is filled with places to take photos, both inside and out. Just last year I noticed that all of those squares on the upper level are patterns of quilt blocks made out of tiles. Bubba was a good sport, but I think I wore him out.

We also went to the old American Can Company building to get some images to go along with Jubee's that were taken in December. Each time I get near this old building my memory is flooded with the sounds and smells of large machinery. Many times my Dad left for work without his lunch and we would have to drive the three miles to take it to him. It was a loud, scary place for a little girl but I always loved to see him there.

But back to Bubba. He was very cooperative, although that cell phone kept mysteriously creeping out of his low-slung pants pocket. I finally gave in and told him to let me get some shots with it. For more photos go to the Shooting Blog.

Thanks, Bubba!

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Update on Zeus: He is recovering well, although this time it is a slower process. Lots of wet snowfall today so we are stuck in the house anyway. Now if the electricity would just quit going off.. I've had to start this post three times.

UFO report!

Finally some stashbusting progress has been made. This quilt top is finished. The back is seamed and ready to go as well. As a bonus there were six blocks and some extra border fabric left so a baby quilt is also ready to be finished.

These tops will go into the UFO cabinet waiting for the holidays to be over and a snowy day to hit. In the meantime I will wander over to the closet and pick out something else to get working on.

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Passions

Last weekend I posted about attending the scrapbooking festival in the Big City to the south. I got my inspiration and then came home to get my books updated.

Two days ago I met my sister Paula downtown where we went to the annual quilt show of the Utah Quilt Guild. Motivation struck and the Bernina is now humming along again. We also wandered through the vendors mall where I fondled some fabric and checked out the newest gadgets that I don't need. I found a piece of lacrosse fabric that I have been searching for over a year. Two yards came home with me. In the spirit of stashbusting I mailed a package to Kara with over two yards of strips and some yardage. She has also been in a lull with her quilting so there is a cross-country challenge going on to see who can get a top done first. They are the same simple pattern, although I am working on a twin size (20 blocks) while she will work on a baby size (4 blocks). Considering that she is also working up to 70 hours per week I probably still have the advantage. Okay Kara, on your mark, get set, GO!

Yesterday I did the 5k run. Another hobby, this time with resulting sore muscles. (You don't want to see a photo of my gross shoes, trust me.)

The next indulgence was photography. Two tickets for a private Nikon showing were given to me by the local camera store. They know I have been salivating over the recently introduced D90 so I was a prime target. Zeus and I drove to Park City where I walked into a room filled with every Nikon on the market, as well as any lens you could imagine, all just waiting for me to pick them up and do a little camera caressing and experimenting. I could take any of them out for a test drive just by leaving ID and a credit card. Whoaaa! Well, I left Zeus instead (he had my driver's license) and took the D90 and a couple of lenses outside for some test shots. Again, whoaaa. Came back in for some little techie talk with the Nikon guys and then walked out the door. The camera is now available in stores. Zeus doesn't understand why I'm waiting, and frankly, neither do I. Requests for family portraits are coming in so I'll probably take a deep breath and go get it soon.

It's been a good week with only one thing missing. Does anyone know where they are demonstrating candy making? I just found out that Paula is not doing her yummy hand-dipped chocolates this season. How dare she? The holidays just won't be the same.

$12.99 (I love finding paper!)

Quilter's block

The scrapbook stuff is all put away. Now it is time to twist away from the computer and get some sewing done. A few weeks ago, or was it a few months ago, I spent some time cutting fabric into strips. Mostly these were primary color that would play nicely with some larger pieces of focus fabrics that are waiting patiently to be assembled into quilts. The photo doesn't look like much, but I figured that it totaled about eight yards of over 120 different fabrics cut into 2.5 inch and 3 inch strips, each measuring 21 inches long. Writers suffer from Writer's Block where they can't seem to compose a complete sentence. Quilters suffer from Quilter's Block. The fabrics are ready to go but the desire to get them finished is not. Probably part of my problem is burnout after getting all of my UFOs finished last year. I have managed to get a few projects done this year but certainly not enough to make a dent in the fabric stash, which by quilting standards is very modest. Before starting on my next sewing project I need to make the simple little curtains for the Little and Littlest Ms. The poor girls have been sleeping without anything covering their window for three months. These will be started, and hopefully finished this morning. My schedule is clear today with the exception of a lunch date with Zeus. No excuses. No excuses.

I will post this now and keep updates on my progress.
To self: Take a deep breath and step away from the computer.....

10:50 AM: Curtains are finished! Two hours. That's all it took. Now to pick out some of those strips, start sewing them together and cutting them apart again, sewing, cutting, etc. Crazy?

$3.04

The haul

For the past five or six years I have been a member of an online group called Stashbuster. The purpose of this group is to reduce the amount of stash (fabric) that quilters accumulate. For some reason quilters get great pleasure out of ogling and fondling fabric. There is a name for this: Fabricaholic.

Last year I participated in a group challenge with the Stashbusters to finish UFOs (UnFinished Objects). I began the year with 48 unfinished quilt tops. By September I had finished 41, given 5 away and had two in the hand-quilting stages. For each "finish" I was awarded one or two points, depending on the size of the quilt.

Okay, so last Saturday night after returning home from JoAnn's where I had bought some mostly unneeded fabric (and suffering buyer's remorse) I got on the computer to find an email informing me that I had won the yearly draw for the UFO Challenge. The package arrived yesterday. Sixty-four fat quarters (18 x 22) of nice quality fabric. That is almost 16 yards of fabric, enough for two queen size quilts, at least.

I need help. Please feel free to visit Finley Functionality and see what she has been doing for the last two weeks. She is the one I am counting on to help me out of this mess!

$1.02

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