Stack 'n Whack

What a great Stack 'n Whack.

I love the empty spaces this pattern leaves for quilting.  I took one of my IQ designs and wiggled it a bit to fit into those background spaces.

Mmm.  Yum.

Tuesday night was spent with one of my favorite musicians.  Do you ever play the game of "If I was going to be stranded on a desert island and could only listen to ONE artist, who would I take?"  For years and years my answer was always the Beatles.  Some days now, I think maybe... maybe k.d.lang?

Sampler Quilts and Cookin' in the Kitchen

I love Sampler quilts. I especially love the fancy border on this one.

This one has a great setting, with the log cabin blocks. And I love the colours.

Very fancy freezer container, no? DH makes me laugh.  Every time he sees something packaged like this, in a milk bag, he visibly shudders.  It reminds him too much of 'home', when he was a kid.  But the bags are free if you buy milk (ok.  that's a joke.  did you see me wink?)  and they are heavy, and masking tape to seal them up is very, very cheap.  As am I.  So we get along well.  heh, heh, heh.

My favorite cookbook, ever! (which is where the above recipe came from, although the recipe is actually called Aunt Chilada's Veg & Bean.... something).
Notice all the stickies along the edge?  All recipes I've made and love.  The Looneyspoons Collection was a gift from my longarm buddies back in January as part of my get well basket.  Next to the wine, this was the best part of the basket.  And it has lasted MUCH longer.  :-)

Fruit Fly Remedy
Are they driving you crazy???  Take a small dish, like this fruit nappy, put in a bit of cider vinegar and a couple drops of liquid dish soap.  Swirl it around until it's mixed.  The fruit flies dive in for a drink of the sweet liquid and are done in by the soap.  I collected these buggers overnight. As you may know, I really love my evening glass of wine.  So do the fruit flies.  I have enough experience now to know, by taste, when there is one in my glass.  Grrr.  What do they do - poop in there???  Ick.  So I have NO PROBLEM murdering the little bastards.

Broken Star Quilt & Jane Sassaman

Mmm, what a beautiful quilt.  AND it was flat, and square.

Feather background quilting and a motif in all of the star points.

There are two smaller stars in the pillowtuck area.

Last Sunday was a day I've been looking forward to for months.  A day spent with Jane Sassaman, who is one of my long time idols.

This was a design class, not a sewing class, so we were working with paper, scissors, pencils and colour.  Just like being in kindergarten again.

I bought a half-yard bundle of her fabrics (as DH said:  "well of COURSE you did!!") and they were making me insane, sitting on my work table all week, staring at me.  By Thursday it got to the point where if I didn't sew them up into something I was going to explode.  Only another quilter would understand that feeling.






I left them in pretty big pieces - partly time crunch, partly lazy, partly just love the fabric and hated to cut it up.  It will make a wonderful throw or tablecloth, finished at 65" x 75" - I used 100% cotton batting so it's nice and thin.  I really like the pattern I quilted on it - Jesters Hat. Now I just need to finish the binding...

Train Quilt & Stash Report

In the midst of all the water nonsense going on around here, I have also been working.  I had so much fun doing this hobo quilt with train cars.

Each of the cars has a representational figure that (supposedly) the hobos would use to decide if the train was safe to hitch a ride on, or not.

I had to ask my neighbour, who is a train freak (and I mean that in the nicest way) which was the caboose and which was the engine.  Because what I know about trains would fit in a thimble.

Interesting back.

Sadie was barking up a storm in the backyard so I went out to see what had her knickers in a twist.  She was just ordering from the waiter:  squirrel pie for supper.  That dumb squirrel hung up there from 10:30 am until 6:00 pm, even though I brought Sadie in the house for most of the day.

I haven't done a stash report in a while, and I was kinda, um, BAD in August when I went to New England Quilt Supply.
August Stash Report
Used this month  0 (uh oh)
Used YTD        28.25 m
Added this month +53 m (big uh oh)
Added YTD         +72.25 m
Net 2012              +44 m  oh dear - must get sewing!!!!

Compound Math

compound math:
yesterday's $8322.32 plus $135.46 + $807.77 + $127.38 = $9392.93.  I may have to give up shoe shopping for the next little while.  If the bills don't kill me, THAT will.

Ouch

OK, let's practice our math. $1648.67 + $5987.76 + $59.88 + $626.01 = $8322.32.
How was YOUR day???

Here's how it all went down. 8 am start to dig.

10 am - big hole dug.  That's a gal down in the hole.  She drives a dump truck in the summer and plows snow in the winter.  Definitely a non-traditional-career kind of woman.

10:50 am - cistern getting dropped in the hole.  5500 gallons, in case you were wondering.

11:10 am - putting a lid on it.

12:20 - let's cover it up and pretend we weren't here at all.

DH called the neighbour to come over after work to help him fish plumbing stuff (??) through multiple orifices in water-related things.  That is as technical as I can get tonight.  Tomorrow DH will be scrubbing out the cistern to remove all the concrete dust and whatever else, and get started on plumbing in the new pump and stuff.  yup.  very technical.

Tree of Life Quilt, Paperwork, Appliances

Tree of Life quilt - beautifully pieced and incredibly flat.

The quiltmaker pressed the seams open on this beauty.  Although that makes it a bit more challenging to do s.i.d. (because there IS no ditch) it certainly helps keep the bulk down.

The trees got a c/c treatment and the alternate blocks were quilted with a motif that matches the border.

Ooh, love the apple green back.

This year I totally fell off the wagon when it came to keeping up with the bookkeeping.  I blamed it on too much party time on the yacht my broken arm, but if I'm going to be honest with myself that was just an excuse.  I hate bookkeeping.  Easily as much as I hate cleaning toilets.  But it's gotta be done.  So... I've been trying to catch this shit paperwork up for several weeks now, working on it for an hour here and an hour there, moving the shoe box (what else? ) back and forth. By yesterday I had exhausted all areas of the house where I might find the last bunch of errant receipts and said ... well, never mind what I said.  Bad words.  I am just going to live without those missing receipts and hope they turn up some time before I have to work on the taxes next year.  Note to self - it is much easier to reconcile the accounts monthly, in a timely manner.  Duh.

This week's little home improvement project is the CISTERN.  Yay!!!  The hole should get dug on Thursday and the big concrete cistern will hopefully get dropped in the hole at the same time.  We might have clean running water by _________ (insert likely date.  have no idea.  DH will say "I don't know" so don't bother asking him.  Maybe next week???).  I broke down yesterday and went to the laundromat so I could have some clean knickers and tea towels, both rather important items in my little world.

So.  APPLIANCES.  Now that we will be paying for water, we will probably not continue repairing our 20 year old washing machine that I bought used, from a friend, for $150.00, eighteen years ago.  Honestly, that baby does not owe us a penny.  DH has always been able to fix it, talented guy that he is, and that machine has been through hell in this house.  The front load washing machines use much less water, so maybe that's the way to go, but I know several people who complain about theirs - dirty clothes, horrid smell, hard to access, etc, etc.  If you have a front loader that you LOVE, please tell me about it.