2009- The Year Of The Depressories

My husband found this calendar called, "Depressories" which is my motto for this year.  Each month has pretty good evaluation of the year.  I'm tired of being positive and listening to overachievers.  This is the year of giving up and being anti-inspirational.  Just like this calendar.  

January's theme is:

MISTAKES  

It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to 0thers.  

So..for this month any of my mistakes are just warnings.  I'm not about to worry about my mistakes in quilting and in real life.  If I happen to make a mistake that really deserves you being warned, I'll post it.

Now off to bed because I really don't care about the new year.  Hopefully; my hubby isn't cleaning up toilet water now.  But I doubt it.  He'll just come in tomorrow, dump his wet uniform in the wash and take a shower.

 

 

 

Nancy Chong

I had another "DUH" moment. I've been trying to find thread that matches my Mariner's Compass quilt. I have to order online as there isn't anyplace near to get thread. I can go to Lincoln or Omaha but I've found a lot of places don't carry a lot of thread colors or thread I like. Sigh. I'm sort of a thread snob.

I really like Aurifil thread but it's really pricy. DMC machine embroidery thread is another favorite. I don't hate Superior threads, but there's something about the company that really bugs me. I don't know what it is though.

I've been going back and forth between Redrock threads and Soft Expressions for thread but I don't feel like playing guessing games at 8.95 a spool for Aurifil. DMC thread is really cheap..2.70 a spool, but I really couldn't find the colors I wanted. I don't know why my OCD is so bad, but I want the perfect colors to work with this quilt. I plan on doing some intricate thread work and need the colors to match. I want this quilt perfect.

Then the DUH moment hit me. Nancy Chong!! She sells Aurifil thread in small spools and her site is fabulous! I went to her site and she has actual spools of thread to show the colors. I found the colors I want!!! Now I can go over to Redrockthreads and get the colors I need. Nancy only sells the 220 yard spools or I'd order from her. 

I did find a kit (see the picture) but not sure I want to do it now. Her applique designs are so beautiful and to die for, but I'm not feeling like hand applique or fitting it for machine applique at the moment. If you do like hand applique, her DVD is awesome. It's worth every penny.

Now to work out the quilting designs for the compass points. I know what I want. I'm just not sure how to translate my brain to paper. I wish I had my embroidery machine before I started this project.

Counted Cross Stitch

I hope everyone had a great Christmas.  My kids had a great time and loved their gifts.  They each got an ipod shuffle and have spent the day charging them.  Still figuring out Apple does their software.  It's not hard, just hard finding your way around the web page.

My FIL's wife sent me these:

From Quilted with Love

From Quilted with Love

I knew about the snowman because I fell in love with him while we were at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't expecting the teddy bear. She has more patience than I do and her work is beautiful. I will treasure these forever. I can't even begin to imagine how many hours she's spent doing these for me.

Flowers And Butterflies

I've been busy making some kitchen towels for a friend. I'm still learning about stabilizers and my fear is that the designs will distort over time. However; here they are:

From Quilted with Love

From Quilted with Love

From Quilted with Love

These were a lot of fun to make and I hope she enjoys them.  

Hunkering Down

My mom is wonderful. She works part time at a candy place during the holiday season. I just got a huge box of candy from her. Chocolate covered cherries and blueberries (my favorites). Chocolate covered nuts and plain varieties as well. Yummm. They've come just in time for hunkering down for an ice storm.

I've insulated my pipes, stocked up on salt and food for the weekend. It was just starting to get busy when I left the store earlier. The kids got out early today in preparation for the storm.

I'm just worried about my tree out front. Last year we got 3/4 of an inch of ice. The neighborhood sounded like a war zone with the limbs breaking from the weight every few minutes. We lost several limbs off of our tree which thankfully landed in the yard.

The kids are out for Christmas break now. If the storm hits like they are saying, there won't be any school tomorrow, so I figure Christmas break started today.

My Sister's Clutch Purse

I got my embroidery machine back yesterday and finished up stitching out the rest of the panels for a clutch purse.  The hard part is cutting away the fabric close enough to cover the edges with a satin stitch.  I have yet to master that skill and have bits of fabric between the satin stitching.  It's really frustrating.

I'm still figuring out iphoto as well.  It seems to publish to an online photo album but I can't find how to have the photos come here.  With Picassa you can just upload and put in an online photo right to Google.  

While the photo makes the color look red, it's actually a really pretty orange.  My sister LOVES orange.  I hope she likes it.

Ahh..figured it out!  You can download Picassa for Mac and it works with iphoto.  Cool!

Here's the inside of the bag:

 

From Blogger Pictures

Can you see where the satin stitching didn't work because I couldn't cut the fabric close enough?

Here's the clutch with the flap:

From Blogger Pictures

Here's where I could really use some help. I don't know how to keep the flap shut. Any ideas? The directions said to do it any way I wanted too. I thought of velcro, something in front, and that's it. I would love to do a strap of some kind, but don't know how to do that either.

I'll keep thinking about it.

Floating Blocks

I got my 3D quilt top done today.   I made it a lot smaller as doing inset seams was driving me nuts.  Regardless of how I did it, they weren't coming out square.  It's not the inset seams that are a pain, it's the diagonal seam that is messing me up.

BUT.. my quilt is still square and I got the borders on with ease on the Sapphire machine.  The sewing advisor is almost like having a walking foot and I love it.  I wasn't cursing my way through the borders.  I was even tempted to add another 1/2 inch green border.  Me doing 1/2 inch borders!  I'm going to bind it in green as I don't want to have a seam on the back of the quilt.

I love how this turned out with the blocks floating in the air. Hmm..I think that extra green border might have to go in with another blue one to make it really seem like it's floating.  

I'm still figuring out how iphoto works.  I got the MobileMe gallery up, but I don't know if you can link from that like like I do Picassa.