Feeling Better

 

I am glad to say that I am feeling better today, and thank you to all the get well wishes from all of you.  I was not able to get in to see the doctor until Friday morning, and she gave me a whole new regiment of new medications, Mucinex-D, antibiotic, and Nasonex.

Do you know that Nasonex even with my insurance cost $35.00.  The doctor said that there is a new strain of pollen this year, and even if I never had this type of allergies that since we did not have a good cold/snowy winter the air was not clean so if you have allergies they will be wears this year.  My throat is still a little sore, but not as bad as it was.

I was to have a Doll Class with Sandra (http://sistahstitchalot.blogspot.com)  and some other friends at her house today, put since I was not up to it I did not go.  I had a church meeting that I did go to, and then took my mother to the store.  I did take a ride with my girlfriend Charlene to her sisters place in Upper Marlboro were they were having a Bake Sale. 

I hopping to get back to sewing this week, I have almost left all my UFO’s to the side and need to badly catch up with things.  So until tomorrow and after church let me see what I can complete.

See You Soon

The Slow Quilter

Still Feeling Bad

It is 10:00 at night, and I had not planned to blog.  I am still feeling bad; I just don’t know what is up with me.  I plan to call the doctor tomorrow and if I have to sit in her office until she can see me I will.  I came straight home from work and crawled into bed.  You know how you sleep with the t.v. on and you can hear what is going on, well American Idol was on and in my hazy sleep I could hear the performers.  This year’s contestants are singing their hearts out this year.

I will be tele-working from home tomorrow, so some were between working and hoping like hell I can get to see the doctor tomorrow, I hope I will be able to finish something.  Well Missing with Ashley Judd is about to come on, put I am taping it and do not want to watch it until I see the first two shows.

My daughter is home tonight and a plate of food just arrived, she must have went to Popes.

The Slow Quilter.

Falling Behind–NYB

I am falling behind in doing by NYB blocks.  Being sick the last two weeks, has but me behind in a lot of my sewing projects.  I seem to have more fabric in my bed room then down in my sewing room.  On the floor, in bags, on the bed.

I have been trying to pull fabrics together for both blocks and started cutting, put not sure if I like it or not.  I’m not sure if I will be able to get this finished be for the next block.

Then as you know I have this little one running around and it is time for him to go to bed.  I hopping that I will have time to get this one and last weeks block completed, then I will have to complete other projects that will be due before you know it.  I wish I could take my sewing machine to work.

 

Well off I go to see if I can put this 1 block together then go to bed.

Falling Behind

The Slow Quilter.

No Sew Sunday

 

Well this is a no sew Sunday for me.  Would you believe that Friday night after I posted my blog that I feel sick again.  Yes, even though I was taken the antibiotics the doctor gave me, I should have also been take a decongestion.  My throat was sore and I had a slight fever, but I went to my Wee Bee Quilt meeting on Saturday anyway.

I had called a couple of my quilting friends requesting for novelty fabric for my BINGO blocks and received a lot.  I will go through them this week to get my blocks together.  I also had help with cutting my sweat-shirt to start on that.

 

After taken a Zyrtec after the meeting I just crawled into bed since I did not sleep well the other night.  I did make it to church today, and I was glad because it lifted my spirit.  The Children Choir had tears in my eyes, and the Spirit of the Lord in my soul, and I think I needed this today.

Since I have not been eating well during my on/off again illness, I had a taste for mac & cheese hand came home from church to make some.  Boy was it cheesy and good.  My Netflix move came in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.  I have not read the Stephanie Meyer’s books, but I have been following the movies and enjoying them.  But this near the end last movie has gotten me wanting to read this last book.  I’ll have to check to see if anyone has it.

I am watching Once Upon a Time while Harry’s Law is taping, and I must get my clothes together for work tomorrow.  With the changing weather you never know what to put on.  Here in D.C. all last week we had weather up in the 70’s and this weekend is cloudy and rainy.  Since we have not had a cold winter, I think a lot of us will be sick more often thin usual since we did not have the cold weather and snow that would clean the earth.

So keep well my quilting friends – Until tomorrow

The Slow Quilter.

TGIF

Yes, TGIF, and it has been a long week for me.  After getting out of the sick bed, I was back at work trying to catch up.  Coming home in the evening and dealing with my grandson, cooking, and still looking through fabrics for my next NYB and fabric for my BINGO card quilt.  Where do I find the time for all this.  I am already too tired to even think about all I need to finish in the next two months, and my daughter still has not moved out and might not fully movie until the end of the school year in June.

I finished the second book in the Hunger Game series this evening when I got home.  The movie came out today and I hope to see it by next week.  The final book is Mocking Jay, I will have to check with one of my girl friends to see if they have it, or wait until next month to borough it from the Kindle library.  (Saving money for fabric).

This is the fabric I chose for my next NYB block.  I know that is is not popping colors as the last two blocks, put I like to dots.  Who knows, buy the time it get to cut it out, I might just change it.

 

 

These are the fabrics for by BINGO blocks, B is Blue; I is yellow; N is red; G is green; and O is purple.  As you can see I only have 2 of each for B, I and O.  Still looking for other shapes a colors, might have to see what I can get from my Wee Bee Quilters group tomorrow.

 

Spring is here and we all know what that means, spring cleaning inside and out.  Now I am not the gardening type so my front/back yards are a mass.

Where does all the weeds come from, I know I had grass at one time, down it seems everything is weeds and crabgrass.  Since I do not have a law mower, and I do not think the weed whacker is going to do anything for that back yard, I will have to wait until one of the guys come around and ask do you want your grass cut, what do you think.  Since I do not have any down time to do it myself (lack of equipment) then I will have to wait.  I also thought if it rains, I could go out with a pick axe and dig up the ground a reseed it, but that is a wish and a pray.  Not the rain, the digging.

I wont even take a picture of the front porch that needs a lot of work and I am hopping to get that done this summer, so I should not try to reseed the front yard yet until I have the front porch done anyway.

I hope to have lots of picture from show and tell tomorrow from my Quilt Meeting.  I know we will have food and since the weather might be a little rainy tomorrow, I do not plan to take my sewing machine, I think find something that I need to cut out or fuse.

So until tomorrow my dear quilting friends

The Slow Quilter.

Feeling Better

I am feeling much better and will be back to work tomorrow.  The weather here in D.C. has been in the 70’s and every one is coming out of their winter wear.  I am not sure I am ready for short sleeves or no sleeve tops yet with me getting over this cold, but do not want to be over heated either, so I will have to look through my closet to see if I have anything in between.  My summer wear is packed up, and I just do not feel up to pulling anything out yet.

During the time I was sick, I could look out my window and see the lovely tree across the street with its pink and white blossoms, even the cats like to jump into the window, this is Ms. Jay my stepsons cat who is always in the window.  The cat on the bed is Louie, he has been keeping me  company during my illness.  This is the first picture of Louie that I did not get his eyes shining.

Louie was never that affectionate like he is now, but since my girl Marci pasted in November, he is always around me looking for his rub.  Marci use to lick him all the time or should I say groom him.  Jay is not a groomer and I don’t think he likes her.

 

Now that I am feeling better it is time for the next NYB block and I have to look through my fabric to see what I want to use now.  As you have seen I have used some popping colors, so I might tone it down.  I said I might, we will see when I get home from work tomorrow and take the time to look through all my fabric.

I did get out today to finally buy food for the house, I also got my eyebrows arched.  If the weather is warm tomorrow I might get a pedicure.  It was taco night and everyone likes tacos around here.  I also made spinach dip to  take to work.  I do not plan to cook tomorrow they are on their own including the baby. 

So off I go to shower and find something to wear tomorrow to work and maybe I might even do a little reading tonight.  I started Catching Fire but  while I was sick, could not get into reading.  I need something to put me to sleep early.

So until tomorrow my dear friends.

The Slow Quilter

Blame It on the Drugs (NYB Disaster)

As you know I was home sick last week with a high fever. Although I was feeling just little bit better, I was still having head congestion and lack of sleep. I went back to work and by Thursday, I was back at home from another fever and sore throat. This was the time to call in the Dr. and get some better drugs. Even then I still tried to sew when I was still using decongestions that make you drossy. I was working on my second New York Beauty Block.

I must say, this block kicked my ass. Like I said, I will have to blame this on the fever and drugs. Because the block was a lot of work and fabric waste. I do understand that in paper piecing that you do have some fabric waste, but since I am not a scrappy quilter yet, after this one I will have to be.  Hey Linda, (Eat. Sleep, Quilt) do you want my scraps?  Let me know.

I was tired of lying in the bed, I  could not concentrate on reading any books or looking at t.v. I cut out my pieces for each quarter block, no big deal there, I picked out the fabric I wanted to use (sorry no picture, did not feel like looking for the camera). I did get the first quarter of the block together two days later.

My first mistake (if it is a mistake) my outer arch, I did not cut two as the instructions indicated, I did it like the first block I cut it on the fold making it one instead of two pieces (would that have matter? Not sure). Second mistake, I needed to use more pins (do not like using pins, but in this block the more the better). I still used my curve foot, but not like what you saw in my earlier video, it kept my ¼” seam on the curve. Third mistake, in sewing I had some tucks and pleats some I straighten out, some I did not. Fourth mistake, I did not follow the ironing instruction for each section, I seem to iron where the seam want to go and last but not least of my mistakes is that on the bottom arch, pie piece, I changed the order of the colors instead of put the same colors in the right places.  This was also a drug induced haziness of my brain function of not really wanting to do anything, but went on and did it anyway.  Why do we do these things to ourselves.  Stop, go back to bed it will be there when you get up and feel better, but NOOOO just kept on going.

So here is the competed block. Looks great, I love the colors, but there is one thing wrong. You cannot see it in the photo to well, put it puckers in the middle, it does not lay flat. I have iron the seams open, I have even steam the blood hell out of it, but it still does not lay flat. So I will not let this Beauty beat me. I AM QUILTER HERE ME ROAR. I WILL SURVIVE. OK, OK, got a little carried away, but this is a learning experience, and I learned mine. Pay more attention to instruction, take your time, and do not drink or use drug inhibiters while in the sewing chair. Does it not say on the back of the package to “Not operate heavy equipment” (some of our sewing machines are heavy).

DON’T DO DRUGS AND SEW

The Slow Quilter

Books, Movies, TV etc..

Since I do not have time to quilt tonight, I thought I talk about some of my favorite things.  Dinner is ready for the kids and in a hour I will be off to Home Depot and picking up my son in Laurel.

Books & Movies:  As you know I finished the Hunger Games and the movie will be out this week March 23rd.  Looking at the previews it looks like they might follow the book, but you know how that can be, miss pages in a movie, that is why I like to read the book first before seeing the movie.  I have already got the next book Catching Fire on my kindle.  For those of you who have one, you know you can borough the book from the kindle lending library for free.  Sheila  from Sew Cook and Travel (http:/sewcookandtravel.blogspot.com/) is on a waiting list at the public library.  Hey Sheila have you thought about going to the thrift store, you might find a copy there. 

Also out this week is “Infamous” the 3rd book in the Nick series of Sherilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series.  If you have not read her books you are really missing some good reads, so stop pass her web sit and take a look around.  It would be nice have her books turn into movies.  She is up there with Twilight, Secret Circle, Vampire Diaries and even Supernatural.

 

 

TV:  The winter season is about over on the t.v. shows and all new ones are coming in for the summer.  Have any one of you caught the new show on ABC called GCB (formerly titled Good Christian Bitches the Good Christian Belles) about housewives in the Bible Belt?  Well I love it, but I do not think it will last long since all the Good American Christians are up in arms.  I think this show comes on Sundays, check it out.

I am looking forward to Ashley Judd’s new t.v. series coming this Thursday on ABC called Missing, and Kiefer Sutherland is back on Fox5 with a new series called Touch.  I saw the first episode, and it looks like Kiefer is running around town trying to help people.  Does that sound familiar from is last t.v. series 24 – Jack Bower, that was a fast past show, and Jack Bower always seemed to come back for more.

Then you have your cable channels.  I’m looking forward to seeing the comeback of The Closer, Southland and Rosalie & Neal's (spelling wrong) on TNT, and shows on USA (Covert Affairs, In Plain Sight, and Psych).  On HBO waiting for True Blood, Kings of Thorns, and Starz Spartacus: Vengeance.

There are other show that I watch, all the NCSI, Ringer, Person of Interest, Once Upon a Time, Harry’s Law, Lost Girl and more and more.

Now people what has happen to all the quilt and craft shows?  I have to get up at 5:00 in the morning just to catch the few public channels WHUT and they are not worth the effort since they are repeats.  To get any good quilt show you have to watch them on your computer and even then you might have to join the site for a small fee to watch.  I am a member of QNN  (Quilters News Network) and Quilters TV, but even they don’t have much going on.  When I got cable I just had to have DYI, now I don’t even watch it, I am not interested in fix up the house, when all I want to do is quilt.  That is why I work to pay someone else to do that kind of work for me.

So this is the end of my review of Books, Movies, T.V. etc.  Hope you enjoyed it.  What are you watching?

The Slow Quilter.

What's Going On

Well, Monday I went back to work no problem.  Got home, set up my work station in my room to start on my NYB Block for this week, then it happened, my grandsons came home, it was down hill from there.  The youngest one (2yrs) was just being a cry baby and into everything, so it was hard for me to get my sewing done.  I was able after getting him to bed to just cut up my fabric for all four blocks, but when will I get time to sew it?
When I got home today, I realized that since I was sick last week, we really did not have any food in the house. I even cleaned out the refrigerator and only thing I could find to feed the baby was beacon and a sweet potato, which he was happy to have, so I went to the Safeway.  Well by the time I got back home put up the food and out undressed it was already after 10:00 and I do not fell like sewing tonight.
Tomorrow does not look any better.  I know when I get home I will have to final cook a real dinner, even I am getting hungry for real food.  I do know I have to take my son to a dress rehearsal way out in Laurel, MD and sit out there for almost 2 hours since it is just to far to comeback home.  I am very proud of my son Darnell, he is a graduate of Boston Conservatory which he majored in vocal performance.  Since being home he has been in several operas and performed in other singing performances.  He also have self improved is appearance.  He has always been a heavy child, during college. 
Here he is at his gradation.




Here he is now, slim and trim.

Here is also a YouTube video of him singing when he was at college, hope you enjoy it.  As you can see he was pretty heavy then too.

Well that is what is going on.  I have to go to his performance on Thursday, so I might get back to sewing by the weekend after my Guild meeting.
Forever Busy
The Slow Quilter

Recovering from the Cold

 

I am recovering from my cold, thanks to all the good well wishes I have received from my followers. I thought to get out of the bed before it sucks up my strength and look through the blogs. I have joined the May for Me Celebration with Marcia from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing and friends. They will be celebrating May with a BINGO game. You can click on the button on the side bar to read more about it. I am hoping to go through some fabric later this week to start on my BINGO card quilt.

Well I am hoping to feeling up to getting myself back to working health. Since I will not be attending church tomorrow, I will take the time to spend some time reading the lesson that was assigned last Sunday in Bible Class. Then I will get my clothes together for work, do something to my hair, and pull out my secret sewing project to work on some more. I have not been downstairs in the house since I got sick, so I might have the brave a look tomorrow and see what the family has done. Hopefully they have cleaned it up.

So until tomorrow

The Slow Quilter

Out With A Cold

 

Yes my quilting friends, I have a cold.  Is it not amazing that just the other day I was finishing by NYB, block, went to bed and woke up the next day and felt a little bad, but went to work anyway.  By afternoon, I was calling Tom to come pick me up from work because I just could not catch the bus.  I was sooooo cold that I set in front of a heater, that is when I knew I was coming down with something bad.  By the time he came to get me, I got home and fell into bed, took what every drugs I could find.  The fever broke by late that night.  Now I just have the stuffy nose and sore throat.   So no quilting for me, I need to go back to bed.  So hopefully I will catch up with you all later the week.

The Sick Slow Quilter

NYB Completed

Before I get into the completion of my BOM New York Beauty, I like to show you my set up.  When I come home from work, I usually come in the door and go straight to the kitchen and start dinner (that is, at least, if I plan to feed any one around here).  I always make sure that I have something for my grandson to eat since he is only 2 yrs. old, the other grown folks around here can fix there own.  Since my daughter (who will be moving soon, YAH) usually does not fix anything before she goes to work.  Then I head up stairs to my bedroom, where I might not ever leave until the next morning.  So I brought up one of my sewing machines so if I felt like sewing I did not have to go to my sewing room and be interrupted my the foot traffic downstairs.

I have the sewing machine, makeshift ironing station, my computer to watch sewing videos and do my blog when I have finished sewing and download my photos.  I have the TV to catch up on my taped shows and my bed to fall into when I finish and the bathroom right next door.  I have a easy clean up, since trying to keep my bedroom clean, it makes me put my sewing things away.

I also have this great puzzle mat that I can put together or just use one mat to cut my fabric.  This is a great thing to carry on retreats and classes because it comes with its own carrying case and it is compact.  You can look on line for puzzle mat, I got mines from Amazon.

 

Now for the NYB completion.  I like to give my thanks to Robin (Livin Blue Quilter), Sarah (Under the Presser Foot) and Jean (Jean Creates) for sending their suggestion for my background fabric chose.   Last night after my blogging, I decided to not stress about the background and use the lime green for the center and the multi-colored fabric for the arc.

I am not a pinner, I only pin when I have seams that need to be matched up and I use as few as possible.  To attached my curve blocks, I used my handy dandy Curve Master Foot.  If you don’t know about this foot or you have never heard of it, or you seen it put did not buy it, then you do not know what you are missing. 

This foot makes putting in curve piece a snap.  You get a perfect 1/4” seam with out the guess work going around the curve.  No Pins Are Needed.  If you would like to know more about it check out this web site www.curvemater.biz or see the video on YouTube.

You start with a few stiches to start off, then hold that curve up and follow it around still holding it up and it falls right in place with out pinning.  I could not hold the camera and sew at the same time.

Here is the YouTube video on using this curve foot.

Curve Maters

  What I did do is tap down the seams so they would not flip as I sewed.  This was a great help in keeping my seams in the right direction.

 

 

 

So Now I present you with my completed NYB Block.

  I could not get a good picture of this, put on to flicker it will go.  I must say that this block was easy to do once you get started.  I think I might make it again soon.  I have not picked out a color palate for these Beauties yet, I am just going with the flow of the fabrics that I have.

 

I have now completed 2 BOM projects, I am prod that I an trying to keep up.  Now back to finishing UFOs and making more flimsies until the next BOM comes (that will be the NYB on March 12th)  I will be ready.  I am still working on my secret quilt for June and Mother’s Day quilt for a girl friend and working to finish the exchange block quilt that I was working on earlier.  So I have a lot to do.

It is still early, just 9:14 p.m., I think I can fit in something before I have to go to bed.  It is payday week for me, I think I can buy a book to put on my Kindle.  So I will blog with you later.

The Slow Quilter

March Madness

I guess you thought I was not going to blog again since I was so hot and heavy on it for the last two months, but I needed to take a break and take a rest.  Working and trying to come home to cook and sew took a lot out of me.  So I am back on the sewing machine and computer.

As you know I am doing the BOM Craftsy (http://www.craftsy.com/) which gave me the motivation to get started again.  the two block this month was String Block and the Broken Spider Web which are both foundation pieced with strips. 

So I look through my stash of fabrics and found that I had some strips form one of my UFOs that I have not finished put is on my list.  Since I am doing my BOM in batiks this was great to use, so after church Sunday I pulled every thing together to put my blocks together.

 

This is the string block and the other is the broken spider web.

Here is a little tip for those of you are are doing the BOM.  On the Broken Spider Web block I found that even if you use different strip widths that they should be the same on both side.  If you start off with a 2.5” block on one side do so on the others, then it does not make a difference on the others.  It make the star in the center look even.  That is just my opinion.

Next months block is English Paper piecing, which I am not looking forward to.  I have never done it before, put I do not think I will like it, but since I am trying new things this year, I will at least try it.

I also started this month a BOM The New York Beauty and that Started today.  The first block is on Kim’s blog (http://gogokim.blogspot.com/) which is this scrappy beauty below.

This is also foundation piecing, and yes I am doing this on copy paper.  I am using smaller stitches and folding the paper on the stitches making it easy for the paper to come off.

 

 

Well I must say that I never had so much problems put this thing together.  As you can see the example block is scrappy.  I am using multi-colored fabric with lime green.

So my first mistake was putting the same color strip on top of each other.  This would not matter if I was doing a scrappy because the same strips would not be put together like below.  This is not the look I was looking for.

So I pulled that piece apart and add the green to make is look right.  I have one more arc to make and two sides to redo.  Since this will take a little more time, I will not be able to show you the finish block until tomorrow night.  I also have to decided my background fabric on this, should it be black or white or some other color.  I might need your help on that.

Good news for March, my daughter is moving out. YAH!!!  She gotten an apartment way across town.  She has been leaving with me for 10 years, with two grandchildren.  I think I will like my grandchildren more once they are not in my house.  I can be a great grandmother, having them come to visit, taken them out. Doing all the grandma things.  With them leaving with me, they just get on my last nerve, rounding around the house, built-in baby sitter, having to feed them.  All the things I had to do with my own kids.  I really will miss them, but I will miss her rent more.  I might have to change my name again to THE POOR QUILTER.  I want have that extra money to buy fabric, put I guess I will find it somewhere.  I still have a son at home, maybe I can get some funds out of him.

March Madness

The Slow Quilter