Saturday, October 29, 2011

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.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Bought fabric for the binding on the quilt without bringing the quilt...
now I have to go buy more fabric for the binding.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Cave Women Quilting Group

Ok, let's just drop the 'Cave' part and call us what we obviously are: WILD Women.
Tonight's meeting of "____Women" was absolutely hilarious!
Yesterday Wanda turned 60, today Teresa turned 59, and Saturday Edith turns 70.
It was time to celebrate.  Or maybe this little morsel of life should be called "Par-Taaay"
Hey Teresa, this is the last year of your 50's for the rest of your life!  You'll never be in your 50's again!  Unless you start adding fractions...59 and 13/12ths.

Over half of them were gypsy's.  Skirts, scarves, bead necklaces every where! 
Scarves around their heads or scarves around their necks or scarves around their waists or scarves around their hips.  Edith was wearing a Dolly Parton wig!  And most of them ended up getting tattooed.  (This is an inner city quilt group, it can get rough)
When Sharon (who was swishing her skirt and showing off her socks) was asked if she had her tie-dye underwear on and she wouldn't tell us, Wanda said that just proves that Sharon wasn't wearing any underwear because Sharon always shows off her underwear.  I didn't bring up the "Betty" thing, but I'm sure Sharon dyed hers rainbow colored.


Now wait just one cotton-pickin' minute, just what kind of 'quilting group' is this?


We were told to bring 'fortunes' written on little pieces of paper.
First Peg passed around a box of fortune cookies and after those started getting opened and read all the fortunes had to have "in bed." added to the ends.
Then our individual fortunes were read and when they were written I don't think anybody had the ending "in bed" in mind.  Some were written specifically for the birthday girls.


Teresa went to a fortune teller and asked what her future would be.
The fortune teller said she had bad news.  Teresa would become a widow because her husband would soon die a horrible death.
Teresa looked shocked, thought for a moment and then asked the fortune teller:
"Will I be acquitted?"


Ok, so it's not actually a 'fortune', it's just a joke.  Hopefully that won't actually happen or the person who brought the joke would feel horrible.  Who ever they are.
And Show n Tell...if you could get a word in edge-wise you could have shown what you're working on.
Hard to believe there wasn't even wine served tonight.  But they sure drank tea like there was no tomorrow!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Christmas Quilts

This is a Christmas quilt for my cousins, Tom Ouradnik and his wife Ann.
Feels like eons ago that I asked my family to wrap their Christmas gifts in fabric and then I collected the fabrics and drew a name from those who participated and the winner was to get something I made from the fabric.
Even when we were doing it I was years behind on these gifts.  We don't exchange gifts any more, but I still have more quilts to finish!
I'll probably be done with the machine quilting today and then start on the binding.
After I finished one, I would add all the leftover fabric to the fabric from the following year.  I've made a few quilts, a pillow I think, some wall-hangings and a 25' Yo-Yo Garland which only goes around my Aunt Joans tree 2 and a half times!
Two of the quilts I hand quilted, but if Tom and Ann wanted a hand-quilted quilt, they would have to wait another 25 years for it!  I machine quilted it on the Bernina in the picture.  Nothing like spending most of your quilting time punching the quilt through the opening of the machine!  I did that for 3 days at the MCQ quilt retreat at Camp Wapo.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

My "Twin Cities on the Bias" piece is on the Textile Center Gallery Page!

What a fun little thing!  The MCQ "Twin Cities on the Bias" Challenge is still touring and is currently at the Textile Center hanging in the Library Gallery.
My piece is on the webpage where it announces the Library Gallery Exhibits.
Textile Center Gallery Page

Monday, October 10, 2011

As always a creative, relaxing beautiful time on the Quilt Retreat

At a dead stop a mile from the Stillwater Lift Bridge






Perusing a magazine


Managing slippery conditions

Creativity flowing from the mind through the pen





Holding on for dear life


Busy Hands...

The light is on, but nobody is home.









Thursday, October 6, 2011

Camp Wapo, here I come!

Tomorrow after work I'm leaving for Camp Wapo for a fantastic weekend with my fellow Contemporary Quilters.  Hopefully when I come back I'll have new pictures of quilters hands.

Tonight was the first Minnesota Quilters meeting at the new location.  Everyone's first reaction is how great the parking is, but hopefully they go home with more than that! 

Monday, September 5, 2011

Finished another quilt binding for hire.

This one is a huge quilt and took me quite a while.
And I'm very happy that I got my camera fixed, so now I can go back to being bezerk with picture taking.
The cool weather is here and has improved my mood.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

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.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Teach yourself Facebook in 10 minutes.

Sams Teach Yourself Facebook in 10 Minutes (2nd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself -- Minutes)
I've been working on the Facebook Group and Page for Minnesota Quilters.
But what I want to know is how does a 200 page book teach you facebook in 10 minutes?
Guess I'll have to read really fast because it's not a picture book.

Tried Nancy Birgers binding technique

 I don't think this is exactly how it should look if I followed her instructions precisely...which I didn't.
First I prepped the binding with the colors the wrong way.  It would have been an orange binding with a teal-ish piping.
So then I had to do alot of messing around, which included starting to sew it on and the piping part was too big.  So I ripped that out.
I think in the end it's okay.
But I'm going to have to talk to Nancy Birger again.
And you know Nancy Birger hates to talk to anybody.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

I taught Jenna her first driving lesson up at the farm.

Jenna is so happy to drive in circles!


Everyone watching us drive around in circles


Wednesday, August 3, 2011

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...

Monday, August 1, 2011

Back in the sewing room again!

mncontemporaryquilterS.net

The letter S for MCQ, approx 3" x 10", stitched embroidery floss and fiber by hand.
 "And it's about time!"
Minnesota Contemporary Quilters needs a banner.  Kathy Faust has designed a way for 26 of MCQ Members to each make a piece of that banner by creating a unique system that was inspired by the spectacular River Quilt made by the St Cloud Quilters (pictured farther down). 
At the last MCQ meeting Kathy arranged to draw the names of the hopeful participants (so it would be fair) for each person to come up and pick out the letter they wanted, mine included the blue fabric. 
S is for Svedberg.  Of course!
Kathy wants to sew the individual pieces together side by side, so the sides of my piece are actually unsewn and only basted for my picture. 
Easily undone with the pull of a thread.

The lighting in this picture is dreadful.  The 16 Quilters each got a 'pattern' with the width of the piece, the marks for where the river must start on the left side and marks for where it would end on the right side; and the rest of the sheet was blank!  Each quilter decided the height and where the river went within those boundaries. 
The different styles of interpretation were fascinating, the level of skill was impressive, and the variety of technique covered almost everything out there!  Each piece was numbered and had to go back in that order for the river to flow; and yet the cohesiveness was beautiful.
The only constant between them is the river, and even the river was interpreted with different techniques in each piece.
I'll update this post tomorrow with more credit towards the River Quilt.