More Scrapping

Before I get to more scrapping news, I wanted to say how excited I am that we have reached 20 followers and over 500 hits for this blog!  Thank you – you are all appreciated!  Plus it’s nice to know that these words are not sitting uselessly out in cyberspace but instead are being read and shared.  That’s what makes this the most fun of all.  I guess in a way you are all part of our Monkey Tribe now.  Welcome aboard!

I see that Blanche of the Organized Stash has commented on the last scrapping post with her instructions on how she has organized things and I wanted to be sure that everyone was able to see it.  After all you may be sitting on a gazillion scraps, like me, and be on the hunt for a way to better organize them.

Now for Words of Wisdom from Blanche!  “Wow, Opal, it sounds like you are really getting things organized! I’ve found that having things organized allows me to work more efficiently when I get to quilting. Since I’ve been referred to as the “over-the-top” organizer (just ask Opal to tell you about my pin cushion sometime), I will tell you all about my fabric organization.

Before any fabric makes it to my stash, I wash and iron each one and fold it selvage to selvage. Then I wrap my yardage around a 6″ ruler so it is a uniform width, and then in half so each fabric is ~6″ wide by 12″ long…these stack on top of each other nicely. If I were to start over, I would use an 8″ ruler instead, because the larger yardage would fold flatter. I use this for anything from 1/2 to 4 yards – anything larger than 4 yards does not get folded in half – these pieces sit flat at the back of the smaller pieces. Pieces that are fat 1/8 to 1/2 yards are simply folded into 6″ by 9″ and stacked on separate shelves above the larger yardage. All of my fabric is separated by color, and then by light to dark within the color…and there are special categories for batiks, Christmas, cats, food, multicolor (can’t determine what color predominates), and flannel.

Anything smaller than a fat 1/8 goes to the scrap box, and when it is full enough, I try to spend some time cutting it down . I cut all my scraps into squares in sizes 1.5″, 2″, 2.5″, 3″, 3.5″, 4″, 4.5″. 5″, 6″, and the largest 6.5″…these are sorted into boxes and stored at the bottom of my shelving. I tend to have the most squares in the smaller sizes up to 3″. I do not sort these by color – they are just all piled into the correct box, just waiting for that charity scrap quilt or any other purpose I need.

Now, I started this system when my stash was relatively small (maybe 2 – 30″ wide bookcases), and have tried to maintain it…it would be a very daunting task to start to organize a large stash by this manner. And so far I haven’t tried to organize my threads or rulers by any system…hmmm, maybe that is the next step…hmmm…”

As you can see, Blanche does deserve to be Blanche of the Organized Stash.  As for her pin cushion, it really deserves its own picture.  Unfortunately, I thought I had one but after searching through my archives I found that I do not have one!  Instead I will have to leave you with a picture of Blanche’s chicken quilt.  She would bring it to retreat after retreat to work on.  I have to admit that I was fascinated with that quilt.  So, here is the chicken quilt.  I believe it was some sort of challenge.  I know it doesn’t make up for the lack of a photo of her organized pin cushion, but I promise to snag one at the next retreat.

As far as the big to pre-wash or not pre-wash debate.  Well, that’s up to you and none of us will judge you.  However, I know for fact that Blanche has two laundry hampers in her quilting closet where she can sort by light and dark so she can wash as she has a load rather than coming home from the fabric store and wash.  It gets sorted into one of the hampers and waits until there is a load or half of a load.  At least that’s what I remember her explaining providing she hasn’t changed her methods.  Hopefully I haven’t mis-remembered what she had said…

If you are looking for still other methods for organizing your scraps or patterns for which to use your scraps, let me suggest Bonnie Hunter.  You can find her website here.  Bonnie is a very very generous quilter.  She shares lots and lots of patterns on her website and if you look carefully, you will find a link to her post about organizing and cutting your scrap stash.  If you are having trouble, you can find it here.

I think there are numerous ways to organize your scrap stash, but it can be an overwhelming task to start.  Especially if you are like me and have 2 Rubbermaid tubs of scraps to take care of.  Of course after reading Blanche and Bonnie I’ll probably have to go back to my large squares and cut them down into more manageable sizes.    Just when I thought I had really made some progress.  Of course I could save that until the end.  After all, it’s not like you would really know…although I would probably tell you….

I happy to share that I did somewhat finish a project from the scrap bins.  Right now it seems to be all the rage to make these jelly roll quilts.  Maybe you know the one I’m talking about, where you sew the ends of the strips together to make one long strip and then sew the long edges together?  If not, you can find an example here.  I don’t have any jelly rolls.  However, as I was clearing out my fabric scraps I put all my 2 1/2″ strips together thinking I would use them for something.  The good news is that I did!  I put together one of those easy jelly roll quilts!  I didn’t quite follow the directions from that link.  I kinda just winged it from what I heard other quilters talking about.  Anyway, I’m pretty happy with my result and the only thing left to do is find a border for it.  Curious?  Well, of course I have a picture to share!  The best part is that now they are a mostly assembled project and not strips waiting to be sub-cut for the scrap bin.

  Once I decide on a border I’ll have to decide if I want to jazz it up with applique.  I may not though.  I may just leave it as a neo-modern strip quilt and just practice some different quilting ideas on it.  We’ll have to see how long it takes me to find a border.  In case you were wondering, I did not count how many strips I had.  I know a jelly roll has a certain number of strips and that is part of how this pattern works.  I just had a stack of strips and some of those were assorted lengths as they came from other projects.  I think it all worked out fine.  I did put the strips in a bag and pulled them out randomly to sew them together.  I only allowed myself to put it back if it was attaching two of the same fabric.

If you would like to share your scrap organization methods please feel free to do so!  You never know who you might inspire!

What a Week.

This entry is going to be a little personal.  So, if you would rather skip it until the next installment of Monkey Madness I will completely understand.  At least you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

This past week has been a particularly awful week.  In fact, it felt like watching the end of an era.  I should probably mention that we are pet owners and yes, this will be about our recent pet losses.  If you aren’t a pet lover you may not understand, but chances are that if you are a quilter there is a good probability that you own a cat or two.  Up until last week we had 3.  As they were all aging (18, 17, and 9) we figured that the time would come before too long that their health would fail and they would leave us.  We just never counted on all of them deciding to go at once.

After sharing your life with another living being for almost 2 decades it’s a bit disconcerting to not hear their footsteps in the house or see the signs of their routines.  I’ve never really had a pet that was mine before I had The Meko.  For some of you that makes sense, but I’ll try to explain.  I’ve had dogs and raised rabbits (yes, its true) but this was a pet that had bonded to me.  In fact, it was one of those “at first sight” incidents at our local shelter.  I knew I wouldn’t be leaving without her and she was good to go with me.  I had her before I got married and it took her years to accept my husband.  It was to the point where any time he would get up from a chair or out of bed that she would move to take his spot as if to make sure he knew that she was there first and was not about to be replaced.  She slept with me at least a portion of every night.  I was her person. Her only person.  No one else could handle her like I could.  Otherwise they risked a bite or “the look”.  We had lots of adventures in those 18 years and I won’t bore you with them.  It is enough to know that her personality was such that she warrants a The with a capital “T”.  We called her Meko, but her name was Komeko which is a Japanese name meaning born of the tortoise.  Fitting for a tortoiseshell cat.  There is a Japanese myth or folk tale regarding the tortoise as a sign of longevity.  When naming her I had hoped that she would live up to her name.  I think she did it in spades.  Eighteen years is a long time for a cat and I didn’t want her to suffer but I also didn’t really want her to go.  She was the last one to leave us this past weekend and the one I’ll miss the most.

  Komeko aka “The Meko”

The first one to leave us was Simon.  He was a stray we found in our back yard and ultimately we discovered that he was FIV positive.  Not to be confused with Feline Leukemia.  FIV is like AIDS for cats – it compromises the immune system and is transferred through blood.  However, cats can live for years with this and can also live with other cats without passing along the virus.  I know this because we agonized over whether or not to keep him once he had been vetted and we had done some homework regarding what to do.  The only catch was that if he showed any signs of infection or illness he would require a trip to the vet for immediate antibiotics.  He was healthy up until the end and we’re not exactly sure what happened as he was found curled up in his favorite sleeping position.  He had one horrible habit that we were at our wits end with, but he was so good with our son  and also took over the mousing responsibilities that we could almost overlook it.  He did grow into a beautiful cat.  Much different from the scrawny short-haired waif we found in our back yard.

  Simon.

The second one to go was our champion mouser.  I don’t know that I’ll ever see another mouser with her talent again.  We live in an old house and mice get in.  It happens.  Owly arrived a year after Komeko and shortly after she did we never saw a mouse alive.  We have seen her in action, however rarely, and to watch her was amazing.  We believe that she taught Simon what she knew and moved into a semi-retired state but she more than earned her place in the house.  To look at her you wouldn’t think that she would be terribly graceful. She was larger and chubby and normally moved fairly slow.  Unless she was on the prowl.  Then she was patient and focused and in charge.  I’ll never forget the one time I really saw her in action.  She was running down the mouse in the middle of the afternoon and it darted under the closet door.  She chased after it and then walked away.  I thought I should step in and open the door so she could get the mouse, but when she turned back to me, she already had it in her teeth.  I couldn’t believe she had grabbed it either right before or right as it started underneath the door.  She never really did bond to us, but she did her job and was a mild-mannered well-behaved cat to which there was no real complaint.

  Here are the three of them together.  Owly is the one in the middle.  This was in the days when I would try take pictures of them for Christmas cards.  I know, I’m not always quite right in the head….

As I said, it’s hard after sharing almost 2 decades with another living being it’s strange to not hear the pitter-patter of their feet or kitty crazy hour in the middle of the night or various other signs of their passing.  However had that has been, it has been infinitely more difficult to explain to an almost 4-year-old why his kitties are not coming back.  I don’t feel comfortable in lying about that – there will be no stories about going to the farm or running away here.  We’ll continue to deal with it as it comes for him.

Okay, my personal crusade is finished, but if you have kitties give them a scratch from the small blonde because he’s missing his furry playmates.

Next time, I promise we’ll be back to quilting.

Holy Crap.

Yeah, I said it. Holy Crap. You are probably wondering where in the hell I have been.  I would love to tell you that I have the earth shattering excuse.  I really don’t.  Instead, I’ll just say I’m very sorry for my prolonged and unexplained absence.  Please, please forgive me?  Okay?  Thanks, you guys are the best!

Let’s get back to some more quilting stuff.  When last I left you I was talking about scraps and the lovely hours it takes to get them all sorts of ready to use.  However, I’ll save that for later because Blanche chimed in and made a comment about her pin cushion.  I know I have a picture of that somewhere and I really want to show it to you. It’s quite the pin cushion!!  Just wait, it will be worth it.  I promise.

Instead let’s talk about some other things!  Fun things.  Quilty things.

Believe it or not, we are gearing ourselves up to return to retreat.  I know you may be thinking that we were just there.  Believe me, that is far from the truth!  Unfortunately, Inez won’t be able to join us this time…or maybe she will in her form of a blow up doll (Wonder Twin powers activate!).  It seems like the rest of us should be all ready and geared up to hit camp in early October.  I know, October is a little ways away from us and we are getting excited already.  Why?  Because we have to mail off our registrations!  After all we certainly don’t want to miss out on the potential fun of retreat simply because we didn’t get our registration mailed off in time.  That would be a catastrophe!

In other news, I haven’t gotten much quilting done.  Seems like motivation has momentarily left me.  Or maybe it has permanently moved out.  I’m not sure and it did not leave a forwarding address.  Currently I am fighting upstream to get a birthday quilt designed for my little man as he will be moving into a full-sized bed and will need all the bedding that goes along with that.  Right now I am envisioning a Star Wars quilt since Camelot fabrics has come out with a new line of Star Wars fabrics.  You can see them here.  However, I am starting to second guess myself as an interest in dinosaurs has come to the forefront.  Seriously, he can tell you what an omnivore, carnivore, and herbivore are at 3.  Maybe he’s a budding paleontologist?  I’m sure that will bring him a big paycheck?  Right?  Anyone?  (I know, it’s waaaaayyy too early to tell what he’ll grow up to be, but it sure is fun to imagine!!)

At any rate, I find myself between a rock and a hard place in trying to determine whether or not to continue my Star Wars design or if I should try to develop a Dinosaur quilt.  Then I will be on the hunt for dinosaur sheets.  It is far easier to find the Star Wars stuff right now…and that’s where I’m leaning.  We’ll see how I feel tomorrow after some internet searching tonight on how difficult it is to find dinosaur sheets for a full-sized bed.  I can’t really put it off for too much longer or he will have outgrown them.  Although, I do have a pattern for a dragon quilt….maybe that would work?   We’ll see.

What do you do when your motivation has left you?  Do you push through until it miraculously makes its grand entrance?  I would love to entice motivation to stay for a while, but I have not had much luck with that.  Maybe it will send me it’s forwarding address so I can at least keep in contact with it for a little while.  Goodness knows, I’m sure in need of it!

Until next time, and I promise I won’t stray for very long this time.  Only long enough for my dear husband to decipher the cords in the cord drawer so I can get back to my trusty hard drive that I’m sure has Blanche’s pin cushion pictures hiding in the depths of its memory.

Scrap-Tastic!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been letting my scraps build up for a while.  Like years.  Now I have a gazillion scraps that I need to cut into usable sizes, otherwise they will sit for more years never getting used.  I really don’t mind cutting them up, what bothers me is how long it seems to take.  I don’t know if you have ever sat down with a gazillion scraps to cut them into more usable sizes, but it takes a really long time.  Plus you can cut for hours and not really see any noticeable difference in the pile that you have cut or the pile you have cut from.  I’m not exactly sure how that works.  I think there is some sort of fabric division similar to that of cell division going on so that the pile to be cut never gets any smaller.  If you have any insights into this fabric phenomenon, please let me know.

I’m sure you are probably wondering why I’m cutting years worth of fabric now as well as how much a gazillion really is.  Well, I have been steadily working on getting my craft room organized and realized that I have 2 Rubbermaid tubs full of scraps.  Yep, two Rubbermaid tubs full of scraps = a gazillion.  I figured that I could get them cleared out and then there would be two less things taking up space on my floor.  However, it hasn’t really worked out that way.  So far I have spent 3 days pressing them so they can be cut.  Yep, you read that right – 3 days.  Thankfully my ironing board will work for a sitting position so I didn’t have to stand the whole time.  The nice thing was that I did find some squares that had already but cut so they could just be put away.  Unfortunately, I didn’t find enough of those.  Even more unfortunately I found some scraps that became projects.    More projects, just what I needed.

Now I have 1 Rubbermaid tub and 1 small-ish box of scraps to cut.  Now that they are all pressed and sorted, I realized that i have more flannel than I will ever really use.  I just don’t work in flannel.  So, that is a tub that will hopefully find a home with my quilting friends that do use flannel.

  Here are the two tubs I started with.  The one that doesn’t have fabrics peeking out over top is the one with the flannels in it.

  Here is my smallish box of scraps.  You can see that it is pretty full.  I don’t even want to guess how many hours it will take me to do just this much.

  Here is the inside of my cotton scrap tub. I know what you are thinking – those look like pretty darn big scraps!  Well, they are, but most of these are cuts off of borders and backings and so they are larger (and longer) but still not wide enough to make up a fat quarter so in the scrap basket it went.  At least it is now nicely pressed and folded.  Sorry I don’t have a true before picture for you of the heaping mess of tangled unpressed scraps that it was.  I’m sure you can imagine though.  You’re good like that.

I don’t know if you are a scrap quilter (or scrap saver) or not.  There are some folks out there who are not stash gatherers.  Instead they just purchase what they need for whatever project they are currently working on and that’s it.  I’m not sure what they do with their leftovers.  I have a feeling that they end up in the wastebasket. I am not so much of a scrap quilter.  However, I don’t want to waste the left overs of those fabrics I have lovingly purchased so I am a scrap saver.    So, I dumped them in the black hole of Rubbermaid tubs where they have waited years to again see the light of day.  I am taking a page from Blanche’s stash organization.  If you don’t remember, see here.  See how everything is so nicely organized?  Sorted by color?  I don’t know if you can tell by the photo, but it is also uniformly folded too.  Vera and I were completely in awe of how she has things organized.  If you look closely you can see some white storage boxes under the shelving.  This is where Blanche keeps her scrap stash.  She brought some to retreat once because the box was full and that meant it was time to do something with them.  I don’t have those type of storage units though (although I’m sure I’ll be storming Ikea at some point or placing an online order with Vera) to get some of those type of containers for my scraps.

What was funny to me was that I didn’t know Vera was also working on taming her scraps.  We are both part of a sit-and-sew group and at my first gathering I brought my small-ish box of scraps to cut so I could visit and not worry about getting a lot finished.  Vera also brought her scraps.  Then we started talking about Blanche’s stash and how she stores them.  I’m not sure what Vera’s plans are for her storage, and I’m not sure that I described what I was currently using overly well.  So, Vera these are for you!

 Pics of where my cut up scrap stash is hanging out.  Ignore the plastic shoe boxes – those aren’t scraps.  At least not yet.  Those are projects and I’m sure they will donate their leftovers to the scrap bin.  This is one section of the little storage boxes I have.  I believe the brown ones are all 5″ squares (I have a lot of those).  The smaller black ones above are 2″ – 4 1/2″.  Yes, I know that is a little nutty to cut them into whole and half sizes.  I was just trying to get the most out of the scrap as I could.

  Here are the other drawers.  They hold 5 1/2″ – 9″.  Mainly because 9″ was the biggest I could fit in the drawer without folding them.

Now I’m faced with the task of finding patterns to work with assorted sizes of squares.  I’m sure something will come to mind soon.  I know where I’m going to start looking though – Bonnie Hunter the scrap queen.  You can check out her website here.  She gives lots of tips and patterns on her site.  It’s a nice site to visit.  Yep, I’m sure that’s where I’ll start.  Maybe you will find some inspiration for your scrap bins too.

More Sewing – This time in a non-quilting way.

Well, I think it has happened to all of us.  You are typing along and you save and it’s all going well.  Then you go back a few days later to make some revisions and while making those revisions the whole thing disappears.  Yep, you guessed it.  I was working on another entry and when I went to insert some pictures it just up and disappeared.  You can bet that next time I’ll be making doubly sure that things are saved, probably in a couple of different places.

Now I’ll quit whining and get on to the sewing part.

I have to confess that I haven’t really sewn since retreat.  I know, I can hear you gasping all the way over here.  I would love to claim that I find time to sew every day (I wish!) the truth is that I don’t.  I won’t start whining about not being able to sew more because this is just where my life is at this point.  Most of my day is spent helping my small blonde boy learn new things and have fun and cleaning (probably my least favorite part – and please don’t think that  I’m keeping an immaculate house over here.  It is more of an attempt to unbury the house).  However, keeping in line with my previous admission of needing an embroidery machine I have started to sew said small blonde boy some pajamas.  I found what I hoped was a simple pattern and gave Inez a call that I was in need of learning how to use her serger as well as how to construct said pajamas.  I would have inflicted Hattie with my need for lessons in serging and clothing construction if she lived just a little closer to me.  I believe that she is thanking her lucky stars that she was able to bypass that.  As it stands to date I haven’t done too badly.  I started with one pair of pajamas and then (of course) it turned into 5.   This is pretty par for the course for me.  I have a tendency to jump in with both feet and without looking.

Back to the pajamas.  Of course I had to pick directional prints so I needed to buy extra.  I even had enough extra that I could not only make the shirt and shorts but also long pants.  It has been interesting for to learn this go around.  Of course this is not the first time that I have attempted clothing construction.  I would like to say that previous attempts went well, but that isn’t exactly true.  I made my dear husband a pair of sleeping shorts and it didn’t dawn on me until after they were complete that the palm trees are upside down.  Being the dear he is, he tells me that when he is wearing them he can look down and see them right side up.  I also put in too much elastic so they are not a terribly good fit.  I also attempted to make pullovers using fleece.  Somehow I made a mistake and they ended up being too small.  You can’t haven on anything other than a light weight t-shirt for these pullovers.  I have to say one of the best things about this go around (aside from how much better these seem to be going) is that my small person is so excited to try on those shirts and pants/shorts.  I felt bad that they weren’t finished enough to let him go on wearing them.

Here you can see the fabrics I’m working with.

  Fun aren’t they?  I know you are now counting them and only seeing four and this is where I tell you that there is another dinosaur one that for some reason didn’t make it into the photo.  I probably should admit that I have picked up a 6th fabric, something in Star Wars, especially since the others aren’t complete yet.

Anyway, I also learned how to do a blind hem and use one of those special feet for my machine!    See, I even have proof!  There I am working on a blind hem.  If you are looking for some good instructions on how to do the same, check here.  There are some great pictures and a nice step by step guide to help you along.  She does a great job of making it really easy (or maybe I’m just ready to move on to learning this stuff that it all makes sense).

  Here are some of the shirts as I was putting the ribbing in them.  (Pssst….you can also see that other dinosaur fabric that didn’t make it into the other picture).  I will confess that putting the ribbing in did not go as well as I had hoped.  I think Inez is going to have to give me another lesson in how to finish these collars.

In the meantime I’m going to have to make another trip for more elastic so I can actually finish the pants and shorts.  For now he is just running around in the shirts and that makes my heart happy because he is so excited by them.  I will confess that it has been about 3 weeks since I started them but I do have everything hemmed and 3 of the shirts are usable.  I really just need to do the elastic casings and get more elastic.  Maybe this weekend.  At least that is what I’m hoping for.

Do I really?

This is where I will admit my insanity.  It’s not like I don’t have enough to do and of course I would like to add more to my ever-expanding to-do list.  I know you are thinking, what now? And what really do you have going on since you haven’t been writing entertaining posts for us to enjoy?  Well, I’ll be happy to tell you.

I need an embroidery machine.  Yep, and I just made fun of Inez for thinking this very same thought not quite a year ago.  After all her pile of things to do runs very close to mine.

Let me take a moment to share a little more about myself.  I live in an old home that needs a gazillion things done plus my husband and I are (unfortunately) pack rats.  I may have mentioned that a time or two before.  I recently became a stay-at-home mom for our small blonde son (who is 3) and have tried very hard to be on a kick to get rid of our clutter.  We have made numerous trips to Goodwill to donate and yet it still seems like there is more and more stuff that we don’t need.  I have a friend who is a Garage Sale Queen and has graciously allowed me to bring some of my excess there to make a little cash on.  Which has really been nice.  Now I am stock piling everything I’m finding so I can slap a price tag on it and drag it back to her house in another month for her next sale.  The most glorious thing is that she will have 2 more sales and after her last one, everything else will be heading over to Goodwill.  That should make a serious dent in our pack rat ways.  I am also a Disney-aholic.  Certified.  Bona-fide.  Much to my husband’s chagrin small blonde is following along in my footsteps regarding Disney.

While perusing my favorite online community for ideas to make our next trip even more fun I hit on a group of sewers who were doing some amazing things.  I mean, stuff I would never even dream of trying to do, only now I am.  I haven even gone so far as to convince Inez to show me how to use her serger so I can start making clothes for the small blonde.  I bought patterns at Joann‘s and some fabric and I am raring to go!  Inez might not be as raring as I am, but I think I’m ready to take this step in my sewing education.

As far as my lovely quilting projects go, I have totally run out of steam.  At the beginning of this year I was getting so much done and I was so motivated to get so much more done and now, eh.  I did work some more on that gorgeous fused applique flower from Quilt Poetry.  However, I am a total genius when it comes to this fusible stuff and I kept the iron too hot and on some parts too long and it evaporated the glue on a good portion of some of the pieces.  So, now instead of fusing the rest of it down I am going to have to start sewing it down and I haven’t even picked out the thread to match the fabrics yet.  I’m a bit disappointed with myself and have kinda put it off to the side but I can’t leave it there terribly long as all the rest of the pieces are good to go and I don’t want the paper to start peeling off the glue/fabric since that is where everything is labeled and numbered.  If that happened I would be totally out of luck and would have to start this whole project over and that would be a real waste of batiks.  I’m a better quilter than that.  So, it will now be a really arduous journey for me to get the leaf sections sewed down before I can lay out the flower top.  I just have to put on my big girl pants and get it done.

So, if any of you are addicted to your embroidery machine  and would care to share your recommendations here, I am all ears!

Happy Sewing!

The last of the retreat fun!

But first I wanted to share with you the latest thing that I have learned.  Part of my days have been spent doing loads of de-cluttering and I also started to lay some stick-on adhesive floor in one of the alcoves in the attic.  Of course I am an independent woman (which for me translates to stubbornly tries to do everything herself before asking for help.    Please note that “independent” does not translate this way for every woman) and figured I could do it all myself.  So, I laid the first piece.  I should probably mention that our bedroom is in the attic and I’m turning this alcove into a reading nook. After putting down the first piece I remembered that I would have to cut subsequent pieces not only to fit but also so that they would be staggered and have a more natural look (well, as natural as it can been when it is a wood looking vinyl stick on floor).  That is when the lightbulb went off in my head.  I have a rotary cutter down stairs and really, that acts very similar to an exacto-knife plus I have a small mat and ruler that I could use to make sure my lines were straight.  How much of a genius am I?  I did manage to lay just over 30 square feet in under 2 hours which did amaze my husband but he was not as impressed with  my ingenuity as I was anticipating.  That was a little disappointing.  I’m sharing here in a blatant attempt to soothe my ego.  Enough about me, on to the rest of the retreat hilarity!

Hattie brought her demented dulcimer to retreat again (per our popular request) and we harangued her until she got it out to practice.    Inez, upon seeing Hattie preparing to practice, announced that she looked like a leprechaun on vacation in Hawaii.

Pardon me as I backtrack a little bit to the quilt show we visited.  I almost forgot to mention that Sandra Dee was acting as a wingman (wingwoman?) for Hattie although we were quick to mention that many of the men we would be seeing there were probably married but Sandra Dee carried out her task as best she could even to the point of preparing to ask the one man we saw at the show whether he had a brother.

Back at the building M was subjected, once again, to teaching Sandra Dee and Hazel the finer points of paper piecing.    Please notice the camera and note pad that Hazel has with her.  They were both trying really hard to get it right.  After all they both bought those paper pieced patterns on our first shopping trip.  Here you can see Sandra Dee with her finished product.  It was a huge success!

We alway s like to give Hattie a hard time because she naps a lot and isn’t as productive as say, Blanche.  This retreat she totally out-did herself.  She cut the arm off of a sweater (wool, I believe) and sewed one end closed to make a sleeve for her Kindle.  Here she is showing it off at show-and-tell.  Considering Hattie brings her dulcimer, spinning wheel, sewing machine table and fabric, Blanche felt the need to ask her why do you bring so much stuff with you don’t do anything?  Now that I think about it, we never did get an answer. In case you were wondering if she really brought a spinning wheel, I do have photographic evidence.  Here it is in all it’s glory.  I think we are all secretly jealous that she has one and can spin her own yard and yet at the same time have no idea when we would even fit in the time to learn the craft.

Hazel and Sandra Dee left us early and we were a bit emptier without them.  However, Hazel did manage to get a great start on one of her projects.  All together they spell, “Give Thanks” or something like that .  You can find the project in on of the Art to Heart books by Nancy Halvorsen.  She has some of the cutest stuff.  Be sure to check her out if you haven’t seen her work before.

Inez had a rather large project ahead of her.  Her husband’s nice was graduating from seminary and it is tradition that a banner is made and incorporates elements from their home church and the verse the class selected to represent them.  It is rather unlike Inez to work only on one project while at retreat and I think it was driving her a little stir crazy.    Here is a peek at the beginnings of the project.  Inez opted to also do a lot with the quilting to help pull some elements together like quilting in the pipes from their church’s pipe organ in brown border.  However the best part were the grapes.   Here are the ever so lovely grapes in their “pincushion” stage.  Inez was doing this with the machine applique method.   Here they are nicely pressed down and we weren’t sure that we got them in “exactly” the same order they were in during the pincushion stage.   Here is Inez saying she doesn’t want any more of those stinkin’ grapes.  Or maybe she was telling me not to take her picture.  Let’s go with no more stinkin’ grapes.

Grease night was almost a bust this time around because we couldn’t figure out how to work the television and dvd player.  I know that doesn’t sound like something that should stump 20-some quilters, but it did.  You would think that they would leave some instructions (since we’ve asked for them) or replace the remote for the dvd player (since we’ve asked for that too) but no such luck for us and we are left to fend for ourselves and we almost lost the battle.  Every retreat we say we should figure out the tv on the first day and every time we leave it until the last-minute.  We don’t really do much tv watching out there even though we  bring lots of movies (okay, I bring lots of movies just in case).  This time I think we had 4 or 5 people working on trying to get it to work and it took a man, namely my husband when he came out to visit with the small blonde, to get it all figured out.  I’m hoping that we can replicate it in the fall.

I think that almost wraps up our retreat fun from this time.  However, I will leave you with a comment that was heard from the other room, “I’m not going to poo in it to see what happens”.  I should leave you some context as well.  S in the other room was drafting a cloth diaper pattern and making samples of said cloth diapers.  Hopefully she was able to get it all worked out.

Yikes that a lot of time

In between posts. What is going on with those monkeys? Well, I’ll tell you.  It’s been so stinkin’ busy!  Spring is here.  Well, it’s kind of here.  It keeps teasing us with some sunny days and then some really chilly days and some dry days and some rainy days.  My dear husband is on a kick that we need a big garden which entails us traveling to his mom’s where there is a good-sized plot to more than feed our two families.  However, we had trees to pull and dirt to till and we’re running late on getting potatoes and peas and onions in the ground.  Plus the sows are having their litters which means his mom has been really busy taking care of that too.  Today my plan is to dig up and split some perennials because I had this “brilliant” idea to turn my small front yard into a flower garden.  Please notice the quotes around brilliant.  Here we are about 5 years later and I am finally admitting that I bit off more than I could chew.  I like to garden, but I don’t like to spend all week or every weekend weeding it.  So, it is getting seriously pared down this spring and the plants are finding some new homes and I will have one less thing to worry about so I can get back to quilting!

I know, that all doesn’t sound like enough to keep me away from WordPress, but I do like to sleep at night too.  Well, I also like to sleep in the morning.  Until around 10.  Unfortunately I don’t have that luxury either as my small blonde boy gets up before I do and is anxious to be busy all day.  Today he’ll be my helper to dig in the flower beds.  I’m sure it will be enlightening for both of us.

In the meantime, I’m not really getting any quilting done for myself.  Inez and I have a business where we do long arm quilting and now that it is spring everyone is excited to get out of the house and get their projects done.  To me this is great because then I can find some inspiration in their pattern or fabric choices and that gets me all excited to go home and get some of my projects done.  Only I have all that dirt to move and plants to plant.   I guess I’ll just have to hold on to all that inspiration for another week or two while I get the stuff outside settled down enough so I can have some fun time inside.  Of course I’m only speaking for me.  I think the other monkeys have been just as busy too.

Sandra Dee retired earlier this spring and she hasn’t been busier.  Blanche has also been busy with the wedding and family stuff and has been looking forward to a girls sewing weekend with <gasp!> sewing friends other than the monkeys.  🙂  Inez is off to babysit her grandkids for a week (and may need a week to recover after she returns).  I’m not sure what the others have been up to, but crazy work schedules and family obligations have a tendency to creep up on us when we least expect it.

Don’t worry though – I’m getting the rest of our retreat happenings prepped and ready for your reading enjoyment.  I really just wanted to say that I haven’t forgotten about you and that we’re still here.

Oh, I also thought that maybe we could do something a little fun.  However I have to do some homework on that first and then I’ll spill the details.  In the meantime, put your Creativity Caps on.  They will be required for the fun.

More Retreat Fun

It’s amazing how much we can cram into our time at retreat. Ruby came by to visit us at retreat and arrived there shortly after we returned from the quilt show.  It was so nice that she was coming out to see us, although we were really wishing that she was there for the entire retreat…  Anyway, I have another friend, D, who has a family photo “tradition” where they eat heads.  For some reason I always find the resulting photos funny.  I asked Ruby if she would comply with “eating” Sandra Dee‘s head.  Here they are.

  You can’t tell from the photos, but Sandra Dee is sewing on her machine and not really paying attention to what we are doing.  That’s not terribly surprising.    That night we got to play with the fabric fairy as a couple of our members had to leave retreat early.

Here are our fabric fairies.  Please notice Blanche and Hattie in the thick of things.    These are also our fearless retreat leaders and they do their darndest to keep us all in line, which as you have seen is not an easy job.    A couple of retreats ago they did something pretty cool for our fabric fairy gift.  I suppose I’ve neglected to really define what that is and should do so now.  There is another tradition at retreat where our fearless leaders spend incredible amounts of time trying to find the best item to commemorate retreat.  There have been a wide variety of things over the years from assorted fat quarters to small rulers to pin cushions. Our current crew of leaders has been fairly creative and a few retreats ago asked for some donations of items that we weren’t using anymore.  So, they pilfered their own crafting areas and fabric stashes and then created “quilter’s money” where we could “purchase” and/or trade wrapped and marked items.  It was an absolute hoot and a huge hit.  So, in a similar reprisal the leadership crew decked themselves out for St. Patrick’s Day complete with light-up shamrock glasses and necklaces.  They passed out golden coins that had our lucky number on them. That just determined what order we would get to choose from individually wrapped items.  Here are some monkeys waiting for the rules to be read and for their turn to pick items.    You can see the anticipation in their faces.  They are so excited!  Don’t worry, we didn’t have to wait long.

Here is Sandra Dee preparing to dive in to the prizes.  

And here is Vera running away with her choice.  

Here we are pouring over our prizes.  Hazel, Inez and Sandra Dee checking out what new treasurers they have.

Sandra Dee is always ready to pose for the camera with Vera.

You can’t really tell from these photos, but Inez’s hair is a little tousled.  There was a message therapist at the other building and everyone has an opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity.  However, Inez was gone for quite a while and she came back a little disheveled which made us wonder what really did go on up there…..

For this post, I will leave you with this story.  As Sandra Dee was preparing for retreat she was talking with another friend about how excited she was about retreat and was trying to convey to this friend what it is we really do. Apparently some things got lost in translation because her friend tried to explain to one of her friends that we go out to a cabin in the middle of the woods where we have no alcohol and we just sew and we have to cook our own meals.  Her friend’s response was, you’re kidding right?  We laughed and laughed when Sandra Dee related that to us mainly because they had so much disbelief about it.  Nope, that’s pretty much what it is, but also it is so much more.

The Monkeys go to a quilt show.

So on our second day of retreat we had the opportunity to do a little more shopping at a quilt show all because Inez volunteered to work.  Hattie, Hazel, Sandra Dee, Inez and myself piled into Hazel’s car and headed for the show.  The nice thing about Hazel’s car is that it will fit all of us and there seems like a slight incline so that whoever is sitting in the way-back seat feels like they are sitting higher than everyone else in the car.  I think this makes up for not having seat warmers like the second and first rows do.  Lucky for me I got to sit in the Queen Seat.  I almost felt like I was in the Rose Bowl Parade with my attendants before me.  Ha ha!  Hazel has GPS in her car.  However, we all think we’re smarter than the GPS and are not necessarily following it exactly (don’t worry, we didn’t get lost) and when we would not follow its directions it would give us a cautionary message (and this is where my memory fails me…) that we were leaving a recognized area or some similar language.  This, for some reason, made us hysterical as we envisioned the car with cones  and warning lights on top alerting all other drivers that we were lost by GPS standards.    Of course it happened many times on our way to the quilt show and each time we would add more things that should be on top of the car to indicate our ineptitude for following GPS instructions.  It was a fairly silly ride, but to be expected with the group in the car.

The show was nice – lots of variety of quilts to see and vendors to shop and one thing that was a bit unique was that the final row of quilts at the show were quilts and photos of guild members that had passed.  It was a nice memorial.

The other really cool thing was the trash to treasure booth.  You may be familiar with it under another name like snobby seconds or something similar.  Basically members of the guild donate patterns and fabric and notions and magazines and whatever else is circulating in their sewing/crafting areas that they aren’t using any more and the guild sells them to help raise money for their purposes.  This trash to treasure booth was pretty cool because they packaged things up.  There were coffee mugs with coordinated fabrics in them and baskets filled with all kinds of notions and gizmos and patterns packaged together so there was some mystery as to what you were actually getting.  It was fabulous.  Normally things are just kind of laid out on tables and that’s what made this set up so much much more interesting.  I would like to add that they did really well to boot!

Oh, did I mention that we got boas?  We did and green ones to boot and of course some of us wore them to the quilt show.  Hazel took a moment while we were lunching to pose with each of us and her boa.

 Here is Hazel with Inez.

  Hazel with Sandra Dee.

 Hazel with Hattie.

 Hazel with me.  Of course I had to do something kooky.

I think though, that as much as we laughed on our way to the show the ride home was far more entertaining.  At this point I should admit that I am a Disney-aholic.  Earlier in the month I had read a blog (go figure) and it was about Disney and the upcoming Star Wars Weekend and the new merchandise available.  If you are familiar with Disney you may also be familiar with Duffy Bear.  Duffy Bear has a new outfit for Star Wars Weekend where he is a Jedi Knight complete with a light up light saber.  If you are curious, you can find a picture here.  Of course I thought my son would love that and wanted to order, but had to email Disney customer service in merchandising to find when it would be available for purchase.  On our way back to retreat I was checking my email on my phone and saw that I had a response that they were available and that I should order quickly as they tend to sell out fast.  Of course I had to call.  Of course I am in a car full of monkeys and lots of good-natured ribbing ensued.  It doesn’t help that while I was on hold waiting for the next available representative they were playing the Figment song and I had to sing along.  I then had to explain to the lovely Disney Cast Member that I was riding in a car full of monkeys on our way to quilt retreat after being at a quilt show and she was nice enough to play along.  As I was explaining to the monkeys in the car what I was ordering and placing the order, one of the monkeys pipes up and asks if I could order one for her.  So I have to further explain to the lovely Disney cast member that now not only are the teasing me, but now want to order one as well.  She laughed and as she was increasing my order another monkey spoke up that she would like one too.  Then came the tricky part, paying with my credit card.  Hilarity ensued as some of the monkeys thought they could write my number down and some how tattoo it on their leg so they could just flop their leg up on a counter to pay.  I’m not exactly sure how they are going to make that work.  I’m a little surprised that I didn’t end up ordering one for everyone in the car.

I think I mentioned that Blanche is working on a beautiful wedding gown.  Sandra Dee indicated that she had a veil that she could pass on and had asked her husband to bring it out.  Of course he called while we were shopping at the quilt show so she wasn’t there to meet him.   She did explain where we were sitting and who Blanche was so that he knew to whom to give the veil.  When we returned to retreat, we asked Blanche if Mr. Sandra Dee made it with the veil.  She said yes and that he came it carrying it in two hands (no bag) as though he was holding a giant carton of eggs and kept saying, “Wow, this is really something”.  I don’t think that people really understand how retreat really is until they set foot in the building.  Anyway, he was being supportive of her and even packed her car and a cooler for her.  In the cooler were three beers (which we couldn’t drink because we are at a church camp) and he also packed a basket of laundry because it was there with all of her stuff.  We thought it was funny (and sweet) but mostly we just wanted to be able to drink the beer.  Sandra Dee was kind enough to pose while wearing the veil.  Now you can really see one of the Pretty People in action.

Isn’t she lovely folks?  Of course she is, Sandra Dee could be nothing less.

Since I’ve gotten so wordy, I’ll leave you with one final thing and that was Sandra Dee’s new nickname – Tight Butt (or TB for short).  She claims its because she wears panty hose everyday. So, if it works for Sandra Dee aka TB it might work for you too!