I'm still pluggin' away...

Geez, it's been a long time since I blogged!  It's been a busy summer.  And the heat and humidity just suck the life out of me.  During one of the heatwaves the temperatures finally dropped.  I didn't realize how cooped up I felt until I went for a walk and actually thought I'd been given freedom from jail!  I guess it's the same as cabin fever in the winter.

I've finished my postcards for Round 15 of Postmark'dArt.  I signed up for a 'no theme' hoping I would find a theme that would invigorate me.  I hadn't been in the sewing room for a while and followed my own advice of 'Just get in there.'  It doesn't matter if you sit and stare at the walls, just get in that studio.  Maybe tidy up a bit, put a few things here and another thing there, finding a 'I've been looking for that' type of thing and before you know it you're picking up something you want to do something with. 

I just decided to start pulling some fabric and get going on the postcards.  At first I tried not to look at a color theme, but eventually I couldn't help myself.  I picked a bit from my big bowl of cheap poly threads and experimented.  It would have been really easy to just cut the plate into straight rectangles but I'm just a lopsided kind of girl...  The top two are only straight because I decided I couldn't use that big blue twist of yarns and threads and there wasn't enough room to cut them crooked.

And I got a binding done.  The request was to match the binding to the 1/2" inner border.

It looks cool!

More bindings...

Minky is hard to see where your stitches go!

Binding Quilts

A woman generously donated a huge amount of quilting fabric,kits, notions and some UFO's that belonged to her deceased Mother.

Some little UFO's only had a little left to do so Doris and I took them home to finish up and then they can be sold at the MQ Small Quilt Auction next summer.

I added the binding to the little appliqued heart and the Christmas table runner.

 All the items belonged to her Mother, Eleanor Eggan.



Christmas table runner, 44" long



Inside corners

I'm doing another binding for someone.  It has inside corners, how's it look?

Hell froze over

The quilt sits like this in my sewing machine so that when I have time, I pick up right where I left off.


IF in the future I comment that my job can get monotonous I do not want you to remind me of what I am about to say:  I can hardly stand waiting until everything at work is settled and working smoothly!  I thought all would feel a bit more like getting into a routine after we FINALLY got internet and phone working Friday the 21st.  (I guess it's been a while since I've said "Comcast Sucks!", so Comcast had to remind me). 


Doris ran out of ink on her printer.  And not that I monitor that, but I do need to pay attention to how many extras she has and at least order some when she's on the last one.  But it's my fault that our shared printer is out of toner...that darn "you're almost out of toner" warning starts so early that I kind of get used to seeing it and therefore ignore it.  Kind of like when a bill comes so early that you want to wait to pay it and after a while it just becomes a piece of furniture and you don't notice it anymore. 
And I never take the cartridge out before it's actually empty...I'm using it until every last drop, or in this case, every last granual of powder is out.  Of course, if intelligence reigned, I'd have ordered the new cartridge when the warning came on.  But no such luck. 
This is where I spill the beans on a well kept secret... "I went to Open School".


But the real crux of the matter, the nitty-gritty, the meat and potatoes of the situation is that there is no heat in the building that the office is in!  The person who runs it doesn't want to turn it on and gives a different excuse for doing so any day you ask him.  This said building is a religious institution, run by religious people, so in my heart there is a little extra twist of the knife associated with the casual deceit in excuses.


It's 60 degrees in the office and with the body heat of Doris and I and a space heater, after about 4 hours it's 63 degrees.  Yahoo.
We both wear our coats the entire day.  And at 60 degrees, if I'm typing or using the mouse I wear gloves!
Both Doris and I percolate a little hotter than most people and we both prefer a cool room.  I would say that I'm getting a little education in how the cold people feel, but you know when it gets hot in there again I'll go right back to complaining and be void of sympathy. 
There are laws in the State of Minnesota for a workplace that would reverse this situation, but they don't apply to religious institutions.
And that probably explains why there is no smoke detector or sprinkler system in my office.


If I get fired for this verbal observation made public to the 3 people that read my blog I'll have lots of time to finish that binding.

Another binding done!

I was hired to do another binding on a wallhanging.

And it's done!  Hurray!

I would have gotten it done 2 days ago, but 2 days this week I came home from work and I didn't have enough mental energy to pet the cat!

I usually hand stitch that corner miter fold closed on both sides.  I've noticed that you can really tell when I sew it down because the thread alters that nice fold line.  So this one I didn't stitch the front, only the back.

Maybe I need to start collecting silk thread for stitching the miters.

Quilt Binding Complete

Another one binds the quilt,
Another one binds the quilt,
And another one bound and another one bound,
Another one binds the quilt!
Hey, I'm gonna bind you too!  Another one binds the quilt!

Yeah, I know, I need more sleep...

Binding I put on Theresa's Quilt

I put binding on the 2nd of Theresa's quilts.

She made the quilt.  And it really is a lot straighter than it looks, clinging to my design wall...my sewing room isn't big enough to set up a tripod so I can get up the ladder and straighten it out.

Finished binding a quilt for Theresa!

Theresa Halvorson and I are bartering my quilt binding services for her knitting socks services.

This is her quilt up on my design wall, it's almost too big for me to take a picture of!

And below shows the binding on the back.