MAGIC TOES

When the local yarn shop was closing and everything was reduced in price I bought a couple of little balls of pink angora because it was just so soft and pretty. Then , last week, I got this book

LAST MINUTE KNITTED GIFTS out of the library . And right there in it was a pattern for angora booties. Now I have no need for booties, but what else can I do with two little balls of angora? I cast on a bootie.. so far the directions are strange. Cast on 24, knit one slip one as if to purl until the piece measures 2 ". I do that and then after reading the directions several times, I understand that I am to take 2 dpns and put the stitches from the one needle and transfer them to two needles alternating stitches. When I finally figured out how to do that Viola' a little foot pocket was formed! It is inside out, with the knitted side on the inside. These were toe-up construction which I have shied away from until this point. I don't know if this is how regular toe up socks are started. But this old chick was pretty astonished. Then I worked my way up to the top, knitted a rib stitch cuff.. and there you go. They look like little pink clouds. Even after I found the little bootie with dog slobber and the remainder of the ball pulled out all over my couch. Not to worry.. I saved it, and the dog, whichever one it was (Lily) lived to tell about it.

TO GO KIT

No more trying to get together everything that I might need to take to a workshop (few and far between) and to my monthly sewing with friends. I have put together everything that I think I can use in one small box

I still have to gather a few more small supplies, but here is the list that I have right now. Hopefully, it will also help give you some ideas for your to go kit.

1. Rotary cutter and extra blades
2. disposable pencils
3. extra bobbins
4. pink eraser
5. Highlighter
6. Screwdrivers, a regular and a philips (I found small one's that would fit in my case)
7. blue washout marker
8. white fabric marker
9. Extra sewing machine needles
10. Needle threader
11. Hand sewing needles
12. thimble
13. Thread snips
14. Herra marker
15. wooden iron
16. Hemostat
17. That Purple Thang - small purple "thing" that has many uses.
18. Fabric Scissors
19. Applique Scissors
20. Paper Scissors
21. Tweezers
22. Stiletto
23. plastic measuring tape
24. reducing glass
25. Seam ripper
26. Glue stick
27. Glue baste (either Roxannes, or Elmer's school glue with tip adapters
28. glass head pins
29. Magnetic Pin holder (the new holder made by Clover is great. It has a cover)
30. 1/2" pins for applique
31. flower head pins
32. fork pins
33. graph paper
34. small notebook
35. small cube of post it notes
36. Reducing Glass
37. Magnified reading glasses
38. Pigma Pen - black
39. Tide To Go Stick
40. several small rulers
41. add-a-quarter ruler

I also have a duffle bag with a zippered bottom That comes with me

The zippered bottom holds a small ironing board, and my folded travel iron. I usually only travel with this one ruler, and the little fold up container is my table top trash can. I toss all of my threads etc into it and after I empty it at the end of a class, it folds flat.
This duffle has pockets around the inside and outside. I put my threads- grey, black and beige in the outside pockets.

The sewing machine case
Actually, I have a Pfaff that I only use for classes that I keep in my pull along machine case. In this case I keep

1. Machine instruction book
2. Heavy duty 30 foot extension cord (this has a 3 way end)
3. power strip
4. cast iron thread spool stand.

I'm sure that I will think of other things that would be nice to tote along. But the nicest thing is I don't get to my workshop and not have what I need. I don't have to pack because I am always packed.

I hope that my obcessive nature helps you in some way! Have a good weekend!

SCHOOLS OUT!

About a month ago, I put a photo of Amish Children swinging in this school yard. As you can see, school is out. Instead of children, this time there was a horse taking advantage of the long grass.

Sorry that I haven't posted for so long. I have had this neck spasm for almost 2 weeks now. I even broke down and went to a chiropractor. I got 3 half hour massages that concentrated on my neck and shoulders. It was far from relaxing, but really helped. I don't think I will return to the chiropractor for several reasons. While I can still feel tightness in the muscle in my neck, it isn't close to being as bad as it was. I am going to work on strengthening my muscles in this area, and maybe it will help prevent this from happening again. I went days without coming down to my studio and turning on the computer.

Tomorrow I will post a photo of the to-go kit that I have put together to take with me to workshops or to sew with friends. I have been gathering what I need, and went to a sale at JoAnns today and bought the perfect case. It was great, Everything I bought was 40-50% off. I bought a bunch of stuff, a couple of books, and using my gift cards from mother's day, and my 10% AQS discount card, I ended up only spending $11.00. Not bad at all.

Have a great weekend!

ACTUAL QUILTING CONTENT

Hi everyone, I actually got some quilting things done. My mini group made a quilt together. I brought the diamonds home and put in the setting blocks. Of course, I finished it the evening before I was due to take it to a friend who is going to put on the borders. Since it was 11pm and I had to get up for work a few hours later, this is the professional shot I took of my part of the finished top. After working on miniatures, this was a fabric wielding task for me. But the setting blocks went in with no problems, and I enjoyed the process, and learned a lot. Next comes the 1 1/2" setting blocks for my mini... we will see how much I will enjoy the process after that one.
A couple of years ago, I found a quilt kit at a vendor and I loved the fabric. I only bought the kit because I liked the fabric which is taupe, I guess. It's kind of brown, kind of grey with a touch of blue. So I had several fat quarters and larger cuts of the 'taupe' and 2 1/2" strips of assorted creams. What to do? Believe it or not, this color is odd enough that it was difficult finding other fabrics that I could add to the collection. I even went to THE DOORMOUSE and I only found 3 fabrics. One of them is the fabric the blocks are on, that I am going to use as setting blocks, and the darker fabric that I'm going to use for the border. So I decided to do a couple of small quilts with the fabric. The blocks are 3" Ohio Star blocks. I think I will make monkey wrenches with the rest.

When in Paducah, I saw a ruler block at a vendor. It was 6 1/2" square. perfect for holding the small rulers by my sewing machine. I asked my husband to make one for me. When he brought me 2 of the big one's, I started to think that I made a mistake asking him, and I should have just paid the ten dollars and bought the small one that I wanted to start with. But, he finally understood what I wanted and did a small one. Turns out, the bigger ones are perfect. the wider one is great for my longer rulers, and the other one is good for my medium rulers. Right now they are perfect on my temporary cutting area on the end of my ironing station. My cutting table has a stack of stuff sitting on it.

Finally, I am putting this picture in because that way I can delete it from my blog photo file. When I was a teenager, I volunteered as a candystriper in the hospital that I now work at.When I look back, I'm amazed at what we did for nothing. We fed patients (always grossed me out for some reason) made beds, ran errands for the staff. Anyway, I put in nearly 1000 hours before I graduated high school and went to college. It is our hospital's 100th anniversary, and they have a display cabinet set up. I donated the pins I was awarded for service. One is a "Teenage Hospital Volunteer" pin, and the other is the "Nightingale Lamp Award". It looks like a little oil lamp with little candy stripes. I didn't figure that my kids would care one way or the other about these items, so they will be on display at the hospital where I have spent a large portion of my life. We don't have candystripers anymore. The only volunteers we have are older people that are very helpful to us. Kids just don't work for nothing anymore. It's a shame. I got a lot out of it.

Have a great day everyone!! Get lots of quilting done!

SUNDAY

Yesterday was pretty much a waste. I barely made it off of the couch. It was cold and rainy all day and I pretty much puttered around the house. It was nice not not have to do anything if I didn't want to. I didn't even turn on the computer. Today was better It was a little warmer and the sun was shining. We went to see IRONMAN Which turned out to be a decent movie. Considering how bad the movies have been for the past several months, it was nice to see one that was worth going to the theatre to view.I also managed to put this little lone star together. I started this in a Jan Krentz workshop. Right now it measures around 11 inches. That flower isn't stuck on, it is just lightly put there to see if I want to do some fusible applique on it. I'm not sure. I will have to play around with some other ideas before I commit. I think that I actually meant to do a black background, but since the red was lying on the table by my sewing machine, I just started cutting it. I have had the pieced diamonds laying on my table since the workshop in February. It was a kind of a spur of the moment decision to put it together. I have bigger and smaller lone stars to work on, and I wanted to make sure that I understood how to do the setting blocks. It wasn't as hard to figure out as I thought it would be. I shouldn't have put it off for so long.
Other than that, not much going on here. I am back to work in the morning. And if I have any sense at all, I will hit the sack early tonight because getting up so early for work really takes it out of me lately. I hope that all of you have a good week!!

EVEN MORE

I ran across this tote in a vendors booth. I have this thing for bags, and I thought this would be the perfect thing to tote things in for work. They allowed me to take a picture of their sample bag. I have tons of batiks here, but I have decided that this may be the project that I can finally utilize this fabric:
It is one yard of silkscreened, hand painted and hand stamped cotton fabric that I have been unable to bring myself to cut up. It is the Hoffman fabric that they use for batiks.. that texture. I'm not sure what I will use for contrast. Maybe a black batik print. I would like to find someone to do my initials on their fancy embroidery machine because that is one thing I have never given in and bought. I'm sure I can find someone in my guild that would do it for me.

This is one of several panels I discharged and overdyed a few years ago.. another fabric I haven't used because I don't want to cut it up. I am going to have to think of something to do with them, because they turned out very well.

My weekend is finally here. I have so much sewing to do!