Convergence Class at SHQ

Michael and I left home at 9 AM on Thursday (3/30) to pick up Dolly and head off to quilting (he needed the car for golfing).  We had an outside teacher come in to teach us how to make a convergence quilt.  It was a wonderful but LONG class.  I decided to just listen during the class, so I took a bunch of fabric leftover from long arm projects and ripped out stitches while checking out how to make the quilt.  Corinne had some beautiful fabric for sale (at $5.00 per yard!):

And many, many beautiful finished Convergence quilts to give us ideas:

Almost every member participated:   

getting set up

Mary Ann gave me a ride home and I put together cookies as soon as I got in the door (the butter had already been softening on the counter for a couple of days!)  Linda stopped by to drop off a large brown envelope to help me accomplish one of my tasks.  I found a picture of Earl when he was about 3 – 4 years old.  I thought that Sandy (his sister) might like to have it….but it has been sitting on my basement steps for probably over a year now!!  Linda brought me an envelope and 2 pieces of stiffer paper…now all I have to do is write a short note to Sandy and get it in the mail…..THANKS Linda  :~).  After that I read my book until Michael got home from golf and we talked for a bit.  I finally headed downstairs to sew and I am now 70% done in sewing my quilt blocks into rows….YAY!

another bread class

So, as I sit here every morning….staring at a blank screen most times….trying to recreate what I did the day before…sometimes I miss the BEST things!  (Because basically my brain is a seive!!)  And so it was with Tuesday….the best thing that happened that day was SKYPING for about an hour with Mary Jo….AND…..AND….she talked about coming for a visit too :~).  So…now that you’re all caught up…..

Wednesday morning (3/29) was SKYPING with Janice, then getting set up for bread class while Michael took Cookie for a walk.  My hand kneading students arrived at NOON and we proceeded to put together our Oatmeal/Honey bread:  

Joan & Diane

June & Patti

As always, class was wonderful and we got to talk and talk and talk!!!  When we broke to let our dough rise (and all of the students leave for an hour) I headed out to the porch to talk with Michael for a bit….he said “you guys sound like you are having WAY too much fun out there….you’re always laughing and talking A LOT!”  I think all classes should be that way…no?  Anyway, after they got their loaves shaped 

Diane

Patti & Joan

June

and headed out, Michael also left to buy his new golf driver and get it fitted.  I was beat, so after cleaning up the kitchen a bit, I plopped on a chair and read for quite awhile.  I finally roused myself at 6:30 PM and headed downstairs to get my newest quilt basted…well….that was the plan anyway.  But, I forgot that I needed to send out some publicity for the playhouse, so I sent out a write-up on our latest venture to everyone on our distribution list.  That was over a thousand names (I had to send out in groupings), but apparently AOL didn’t like that even though I broke it up and I got a notice that they noticed suspicious activity on my account and shut it down!!!  They told me I needed to change my password….but when I tried, they wouldn’t let me change it.  They gave me a number to call, but when I called I spoke to 2 TOTALLY UNHELPFUL support people who were incapable of saying anything except the script in front of them….it was SO frustrating!!!  After walking away from it for 10 minutes, I tried something else and BG once again saved my b_tt by getting a code on her cell phone and giving it to me (that’s not the first time by any means she has done that :~).  Anyway, by the time everything was straightened out, it was 8 PM and I was beat, so I headed upstairs to relax with my honey.

quilt, cleaning

Michael was up super early on Tuesday (3/28) to make his early morning appointment at the eye doctor’s, while I reveled in the fact that I didn’t have to leave the house ALL DAY…WHOO HOO!!!  First up?  Cleaning all of the bits and pieces from our bed quilt off of my cutting tables, so that I could finally trim the Diamond Dash quilt:  

Here’s the down side of doing your own quilt versus someone else’s….when it’s someone else’s, you don’t have to bind it or label it.  Plus, trimming a quilt generates a bunch of “leftover” fabric (from the backing sides and top and bottom) 

that you have to re-claim (rip out stitches to separate the batting from the backing) and figure out how you’re going to cut it all up for future projects.  That’s another nice thing about doing quilts for other people….THEY have to figure out what to do with that fabric…not you!  And there’s also other good news bad news on this quilt….the bad news is: 

it now starts the dreaded pile of “quilts that need to be bound”, the good news?  I walked over to my closet door…and binding has already been made….YAY!  Next up was several hours of cleaning.  I have beautiful storage shelves in my sewing closet that I don’t use because they are filled with CA_RAP!   

I don’t even know what the CA_RAP is…..so I tackled 2 of the shelves…and voila:  

A lot of projects that have been cluttering up my studio are now neatly arranged in the closet.  The bad news?  This clean up generated a pile of leftover fleece:  

that I need to turn into dog/cat beds for the shelter.  I sewed on our bed quilt for a bit after that, starting to sew the blocks into rows, and after dinner (a PAPA MURPHY’s pizza….oh yum!) Michael picked up Larry and headed off to see LIFE at the movies, and I got the backing pinned and a quilt laid out on Miss Scarlett (this is the quilt I finished this year in Connecticut):

Martini Night!

Michael left on Monday (3/27) for golf at Fort Mill, while I sewed for just a bit in the morning before leaving for a meeting.  I have agreed to be on an interim committee for our community to figure out whether or not we need a year round committee to talk about our lifestyle (and what that word means to people) here in SCCL.  The meeting took 1-1/2 hours, after which I headed off to the chiro.  I have been battling plantar fasciitis for about 12 years now…..sometimes it’s better and sometimes it gets worse.  This is one of those worse times.  It is mostly concentrated in one spot on my left heel and whenever I walk or stand it feels like someone is jabbing me with a sharp fork in that one spot.  I have had 3 cortisone shots (at separate times) in the past, and have been reluctant to get another.  For one thing, they don’t always work (one of mine didn’t).  For another, I don’t know what those shots will do to the surrounding tissue over time.  I have been making an anti-inflammatory drink and trying to drink some every day.  I’ve also been eliminating some anti-inflammatory foods from my diet.  This has definitely had a positive effect on the rest of my body, plus it brought the pain in my foot down from a 10 out of 10 to about a 4 or 5….but now my healing seems to have stalled.  The chiropractor said he could work on it…so off I went.  When I came out of his office, Jan was there….so after her treatment we headed off for a quick trip to WALMART and then both headed home.  I was home around 2 and after unpacking the groceries, I headed back to my 8 new blocks.  By dinnertime I was where I thought I was on Sunday….I have ONE HUNDRED completed blocks….YAY!  I just had 1/2 an hour to get cleaned up and head out to martini club (lucky I decided to take my shower in the morning because I certainly didn't have time to do it after sewing :~).  What a fun time we had, with lots of good food (and martini's) 

waiting to be filled

apple/whisky martini's

Patti, Joyce (in back), Alice, Kathi, Jane

and a hysterical game called “25 words or less”.  Actually I was pleased and flattered when they said they had the best time playing “salad bowl” at my house  :~).  I got home after 10:30 and my honey was already in bed, so I joined him.

our bed quilt goes on and on and on....

My honey made me a smurfy eggs/potato breakfast on Sunday (3/26) (with wonderful free range eggs given to me by my friend Robin):

so that I could jump right back into sewing.  By early afternoon I had this:  

I continued to work all afternoon and a little bit after dinner.  Did I get all of my blocks finished?  Yes and no.  I got all of the blocks finished that I had cut muslin squares for…but remember me telling you I was working on 100 blocks?  When I got to the end (I laid out as many of the squares as would fit and as I suspected, the entire quilt is too big for my design wall):  

it gave me a chance to count, and I only had 92 squares….NINETY-TWO!!!!!  So, first I gave a big sigh…..then I went upstairs to measure the bed to see if I could go with 90 squares….then I decided due to the pattern that that would drive me crazy (the last row wouldn't be a complete diamond, it would just be the top part)….so I cut 8 more muslin bases and will sew on those this week  ~sigh~.  Well, as Michael said, I have less than 10% of the quilt top to go.  I thought I should tell you about the fabric I have been using in this queen sized quilt.  Most quilters I know have a stash…..a yard or 2 or 3 (or more!!!) of various fabrics that we hope to make into quilts someday....and I certainly have that!  And then we also have scraps….for me scraps are 1/4 yard, or most of a fat quarter…..or any amount of fabric that is less than a yard, but still a sizeable piece.  And THEN there are the fabrics that I made this entire quilt with.  The center strip in each block was definitely cut from my “yardage” of fabric (I have a bolt of this that so far I have used in 2 other quilts).  But all of the rest of it did not come even from my scraps…it came from a strip here and a strip there….small bits I had leftover from other projects.  I have some of the tulip fabric in it from the butterfly/tulip quilt I just finished….but I also had ONE 1-1/2 inch strip of batik from the story I told you the other day….the stuff it took me 5 years to cut into after Paducah…and is in a wall hanging in our bedroom.  That stuff is over 20 years old.  Every time I was sewing on the blocks and getting low on fabric…I would again dig through my project drawers and find a bit more to keep me going.  And I'm not kidding about the word "bit".  For example, this 1-1/2 inch by 3 inch strip of gorgeous fabric I just couldn't bear to throw out:

Perfectly finished one corner of a block:

and I had several different 1-1/4 inch high by 2 inch wide triangles:

that filled in very nicely to finish some blocks:

This is pretty much all I have left:

I hope it will cover the 8 remaining blocks that I need.  I’ve already cut the center strips from re-claimed side fabric off of the long arm.

When you finish sewing on a block, you need to trim it to the size of the muslin.  This is one before trimming:

And here's a partial pile of trimmings so far:

And don't kid yourself....when I get down to the tips of these 8 final blocks....I'll probably be digging through this pile to see if there are triangles I can use  :~)....it is just too beautiful not to use each little piece.

In other news, I got artisan bread dough put together Saturday night when we got home from the playhouse, so dinner on Sunday was our first loaf of artisan bread in FOREVER:  

and Elephant Chicken Soup.  It has still been a bit too cold during the night to plant outside….but I’m trying to keep my mini-garden in the kichen going:

I'm really hoping to get my basil seeds planted in the next day or 2.  I figured for the moment I will keep the pot on the patio, and if it is going to get too cold, I can drag it into the basement and put it on newspapers overnight.  I really did not process enough basil last year to keep me in pesto all winter and I am determined not to let that happen again.

bed quilt blocks getting done, Cookie & Elsie, Elephant Chicken Soup

Michael was up at 7 AM for golf on Saturday (3/25) and I followed shortly afterwards, anxious to get in a good bit of sewing!  I laid out the blocks I finished on Friday: 

and continued sewing until 11 AM: 

which was a good breaking point, so I headed upstairs to finally make my Elephant Chicken soup (which I won't be serving until Sunday when it is supposed to be an overcast, chilly day).  Of course this was going on:  

And while I was making the soup of course they shifted positions:  

The soup took over an hour and I portioned it out into some for us for dinner on Sunday, some for Anne & Bryce (which I delivered while it was still warm) and some individual portions to take to quilting when I need a lunch:

I headed back to the studio to continue sewing and by dinnertime I had this (my design wall won't be big enough for the entire quilt):  

Michael and I had Chinese leftovers, then left to head to Fort Mill Theatre to work concessions with Corinne & Dennis.  We had a good time and sat and read for 1-1/2 hours after we got home at 10.