Monotony

Dear nonexistent readers...

Happy Friday (the 13th). I believe I've declared "Happy Friday!" frequently enough already today to earn a few odd looks from my co-workers. There are only a few of us in the office today, the few stragglers who aren't visiting Idaho, Anacortes, working from home, or sick. So the day has been slow and filled with the following:
1. Large women on the bus who settle next to you and proceed to clear their throat every.... forty-five to seventy-five seconds (believe me, I counted!). That kind of throat clearing could keep a girl up a night... or rather prevent one from falling asleep on the bus ride into Seattle.
2. The lurching realization that someone is already gone, left, driving far and away and you won't see them for a good three months and you feel slightly bereft.
3. Co-workers who tell you that you should be billable today because they won't be. The grand plan? You get the honor of doing their project filing! Wahooo. And then they proceed to ask why you aren't excited by this prospect doing that. hmmmm. Then you are conflicted and frustated with yourself.
4. Advertisments playing on the radio whenever you turn it on, revealing the plot of the radio-people to fill your ears with nonsense about clothes at JCPenny, Cars for sale, Freddy's fresh food, and other such monotony rather than music you enjoy. I think the music starts playing as soon as I turn off the radio as I grow tired of hearing about diamond engagement rings from nasal toned advertisers. Some people don't have the voice for radio.
5. Internet providers who change their minds... sorry! No internet tonight. No internet tomorrow. No internet on Sunday. Maaaaaybe we'll provide you with internet on Monday. Maybe. We might change our minds come Monday... so be prepared. I guess this is what you get when you want inexpensive internet. Inexpensive internet is merely internet that does not cost more than $40/mo.
6. Being bored silly. Some people are bored to tears. I get bored silly. Be careful what you say, I will laugh.
7. Left eye twitches. twitch. ... ... twitch.... *places finger on eye to calm it down* *sigh*... *remove finger*....... twitch.... twitch.

So, you can imagine that when you called me and left such a lovely message on my cell phone that it quite cheered me up and reminded me of the sunshine outside and the thoughtfulness of family members, for pizza dinners, for offers to help setup the internet (when it decides to work), for pilates with your sister, for scones and cold, raw cookie dough to eat as I please. :) Happy Friday!

Happy July

The sky is gray, the weather cool. Raindrops gathered on my glasses this morning. Ah, July! How I had hoped for a little sunshine, some warmth! Perhaps, a sliver of summer to give us vitamin-D-deprived people just a smidgen of hope. But no, you are wet and cool, pleasant, if this were spring.

I know that in a month I will say that there has been too much sunshine and the house is hot, my fingers sweaty.

Waiting for the Dryer...

Ah, how wonderful it is to finally be sitting down in the basement, the internet once again working, and music playing on Pandora.

Did you know that if your garbage can is overflowing (i.e. the lid does not shut), that the garbage truck will not collect your trash? Clearly it is an indication that you need to purchase a larger garbage cannister from them and pay the higher fee of having it collect. *sigh* Things you learn when you live on your own.

So, this morning, after a quick search on the internet and a... mildly disgusting job of loading wet garbage bags into my plastic-lined trunk, I set off for the "transfer location" for the local landfill. This not an actual "dump" but a huge gap in the ground that for $17.25 you can "dump" up to 320lbs of garbage into.

On Tuesday, desperate to put some order into my life, I endeavored with my roomie K. to setup

my sewing corner in the basement. This involved re-assembling my desk and organizing the bookshelf that now holds most of my fabric. I am looking forward to the day when there is too much fabric to fit on those few shelves. The lighting down here, I know, is not ideal, but for now it will do. As you can see, I am making gradual progress in putting together the Pemberly Lane quilt for my now-roomie J.

Unfortunately, I once more made a small (can I emphasize small?) mathmatical error, resulting in not having quite enough of the Blossom Lane fabric to complete the squares. So, one of the lovely errands I ran today included stopping by Quiltworks Northwest to purchase just 1/3 of a yard more so I could finish these blocks. I almost panicked when I couldn't find the fabric in its usual location on the shelf. I was greatly relieved to see that someone had just mis-shelved (is this a word) the fabric I was looking for.

And of course I did stop by JoAnne's fabric today. I have determined that every time any sort of holiday weekend approaches, JoAnne's quickly put some item on sale that I am certain to need to purchase. It used to be that the store would offer all of their fat quarters for a dollar. They stopped this wonderful dollar deal last year, however, but the fat quaters were 30 percent off, so I purchased a couple. I also was able to get some Gutterman's thread for $1 per 100 yards, definitely less than it's usual price.

Today has been full of running errands and it wasn't until 5 p.m. that life slowed down enough for me to pop into the shower and wash my clothes. Now I am home, sitting in the basement, listening to the rumble of the dryer as it tosses my new fabric purchases around.

Hopfully, tomorrow will bring many hours of happy quilting before attending the 5 p.m. Easter service at MH Bellevue.

Beep goes the dryer. Time to iron some fabric! Do some cutting, slicing, dicing, stitching.....Maybe the internet will continue to work and I'll be able to post more of my progress tomorrow. :)

Pemberly Lane

I started a new quilt. What a shocker. I took February as a break from actually quilting, although I was guilty of purchasing fabrics and cutting them, preparing for when March would come and I would be back to quilting. This new quilt I am terming "Pemberly Lane".

When my friend picked out the red fabric, she declared that she had no desire to know what it was actually called. From now on, she stated, it would be called Pemberly. The cream fabric, which is a little harder to make out, is from Andover fabrics and comes with different colored blossoms on it. These ones are blue.

This quilt began with a photograph carefully pulled from an old magazine, Town and Country perhaps? The original design was in red and green, like Christmas, and the fabrics were solids, not patterns. After sketching it half a dozen times, I realized that it was a nine-patch variation,  a very similar to what I now know as a single Irish Chain (I realized this a month later). So, not knowing this, I had to write up my own pattern. Unfortunately, this requires math *trembles*.

The red fabric is from a line of Mary Koval's reconstruction fabrics, which are incredibly difficult to find. At least this particular pattern is when I realized I needed more than I purchased (have I mentioned how terrible I am at math?). I even went so far as to email Ms. Koval. However, she only had it in blue. So, we'll end up integrating some other red fabric along the edges. Hopefully one just as fabulous.

I started strip piecing this yesterday, loving the weight of the fabric in my hands and the smoothness of it sliding under the pressure foot.
I'll post more as I progress.

Off to drop my friend off at the car doctor and then to pizza and a movie with a dear dear friend of mine.
Toodles.

February: A Month of Change

This month is proving to be one full of trials, frustrations, and general unease. I know that transitioning is not easy and God never promised me that life would be comfortable. I keep on reminding myself that trials will always come and I am only an exile in this world; it is not my home.

Change has never been simple for me. I have never read the book "Who Moved my Cheese" but I can echo the sentiment in my life when change comes waltzing in the door. Yes. Change likes to dance but it doesn't usually leave me dancing :)

I am struggling through the trial of February. Two of my roommates are moving out (I cannot believe it has been less than a month since they gave their notice) so we've been desperately looking for not one, but two replacements. Solid Christian women who are interested in moving into our home are apparently difficult to come by. We've found one wonderful lady who agreed to move in, but are still one short. Unfortunately, the my two roommates' decision has brought a slew of emotions and um, hurt, and frustrations for those of us who are remaining in the lovely blue house. This, on top of running into some rent issues has brought great stress into our home. So, stress at home has been running high.

Work, unfortunately, has not been a walk in the park. Thankfully, it has calmed down somewhat now that my large project is out the door (finished at the end of January) but certain other aspects of my job has become more stressful. Expectations run high there and I am feeling the pressure.

I came to the realization the other day, that I have been stressed since the beginning of December, whether at work, at the blue house, even going to my parents' house for Christmas proved to be a stressful experience.

I think a great number of my "stress" issues are related to a lack of trust. I know that God promises to be at work in our lives, that He is present and has a plan for each and everyone of use. Plus. He is good, all the time. I need to remember this, cling to this, and bring my requests before my Father, trusting that He loves me and is in control of the situation. I just pray that while I wait for His answer, wait for His direction and guidance, I do not, in my own strength, do anything I will regret.

Sorry this particular post is not full of quilting goodness or happy joyful thoughts, beyond of course the knowledge that God is both Sovereign and Good.

March will come. My world will shift again. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding.

Christmas Gift... already given

I've been hiding in Michigan for three days now. No, I won't tell you where; you cannot find me :) and I am thoroughly enjoying the peace and quiet here. The weather, unfortunately, is very similar to Seattle and currently it is rainy and dreary outside, though colder than it would be if I were home.

This place, with it's red walls and furry creatures, caries a soft serenity with it, enveloping me and coaxing a smile to my face, a happy curving line. I have finished my first Christmas gift and given it to a good friend of mine. As promised, I've included photos. The gift is a sketch book for an artist with a quilted cover and the first few pages completed for her. The lines of perspective were a real bear and as you can tell, I didn't quite get them right (they are bowing a bit) but this was my third try on getting them as accurate as possible. There are green buttons on the plant. And of course, featured in the center of our piece for today are the great, snow covered, curves of The Mountain (Seattlites are well aware of which mountain that would be). The dress is embelmatic of my friend and of course the hats are kinda me... I love hats. I used to wear one every single day. :). I'll post a few detailed pictures of this later.

Hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving.....

Nov. 25, 2009

Thanksgiving is almost here and the rest of the holidays are impending. So little time to finish my projects. I've started various new projects; the most recent is a potholder. I've never actually tried to make a simple potholder. When I first stared quilting, I made a small quilt first and then a twin sized bed quilt, no dawdling with small creations; doing potholders now seems a little backwards. I'll post photos once I've finished a few of them. Two of them are already slated for Christmas gifts. Hopefully I'll get those finished this weekend and then make a couple more for certain friends.
I'm still stuck in the phase of hand stitching all of my applique. I have yet to attempt to machine applique anything. I am hoping to work on this soon, perhaps with my next quilt project (which has to be finished in... January? I might be able to postpone it until March). I probably should get started on that one soon. This will require a trip to a quilt store. A real one. Not a mere fabric and crafts store like I normally frequent for such wonderful items as $1 sales on fat quarters. Maybe next weekend I can swing by Quiltworks Northwest and find some beautiful moda fabrics or Amy Butler. Still trying to decide wether to purchase the pattern online or wing it. I've never really been one for following patterns....

Anyhow, hope to post some pictures of completed work soon.