A truffle kind of weekend....

This has been an interesting weekend.  We sold one of our cars yesterday morning to a pleasant gentleman who wasn't really the buyer.  (long story)  The short version of the story is that the car will be shipped overseas.  Good luck to them.  The rest of the story is that we spent a good portion of yesterday afternoon climbing in and out of used minivans of various makes with differing levels of uncomfortable seating.  Sigh.  The heat and humidity made the whole process somewhat more unpleasant than usual.  Especially when the cars had been sitting for a while getting musty....to say nothing of the dirty ones.  Ewwwwww.  Mom and Dad were real troopers to come along with us and test out the back seats.  :-)  We've got a lead on a wagon/crossover type vehicle we can go and see tomorrow.  It sounds like a good possibility, but you never know!

Today was much less stressful.  A workout at the gym and pool, a load delivered to the thrift shop (always a plus!) and I finished blocks two and three of the little sew along quilt.  So cute.

This block is my second try.  I'm still feeling my way with these Civil War/Thimbleberries/repro type fabrics.  

I really shouldn't show this one.  This is the first try for the one above.  Have you ever seen anything so ugly!  *shudder*  :-)

I'm looking forward to block #4 on Friday.

This is the purse I made a week or so ago.  The fabric had been purchased and waiting for over a year.  And now the bag is done I really don't like that pink.  So poor me will just have to go shopping for some new fabric. Oh dear!  How can I bear it???  lol

This badly taken photo shows the little star blocks peeking on the left and my bag of extra dark Lindor Truffles hiding behind the bag on the right.  Of course you know after piecing those tiny blocks chocolate was necessary.  Heh.

Enough fun for now.  I'd better get back to t-shirt quilts!

One down!

Block #1 of the Summer Star Sew-Along.  :-)

A sweet 4.5" square.....after I figured out I'd cut one of the pieces 1/4" too large.  Sigh.  For goodness sake, how difficult can I make it for myself???  Let me count the ways......

Atrophy

While I have been building my body muscles at the pool I've been neglecting my quilting muscles for far too long.  No mojo.  At all.  I figured they were well and truly atrophied.  On Wednesday I decided to flex those quilting muscles a bit and warmed up with a charity quilt which Mom pieced.   Pretty cute!

I have a whole stack of flimsies that need quilting.  I think I wore out my quilting muscles making the big quilt last year, so I just kept throwing stuff on the pile.  After the charity quilt came out ok I moved on to the little Twelve Days of Christmas mystery quilt I put together months ago, from the Temecula Quilt Company's weblog.

 I used up a pile of 7" squares from a class I ended up not attending several years ago.  It means the border and binding have lots of extra seams but if you don't look too close it's just fine.

I'm quite taken with the end result!  I was inspired to try working on a smaller scale, by some exquisite tiny scale quilting I saw at the Raleigh Sewing and Quilt Expo last month.  It's mostly just line dancing and loops but I'm pretty darned pleased with how it came out.  No one is more surprised than me!  Especially after such a long hiatus.

Somewhat wonky, but hey.  It's way better than I imagined.  :-)  I'm starting Temecula's latest little mystery, the Summer Star Sew-Along.  I even (gasp!) went out and bought some Civil War repro prints for it.  Not my style, but I'm looking forward to seeing if I can put them together nicely.  It's a challenge!

Speaking of cute, isn't she sweet wrapped up in all her hand-knitted woolies?  I could just gobble her up.

Excuse me.....

But I am too darned lazy to fix the order of these photos.  And anyway.....who's gonna know besides me?  :-)

Poyla posted this picture of Stardust on Facebook.  The caption reads, "The moment the concept of the slide clicks."  Cute!

Last Thursday we joined friends at the Raleigh Amphitheater for a concert.  The sky was threatening but because we came well armed with ponchos, there was only a short sprinkle.  It's a "downtown" venue, across from the Raleigh Convention Center.  We sat on the grass up against the fence with the busy street behind us, music in front of us, busy railroad tracks over to the left and sounds of the city all around.  Pretty neat.

First up was Cracker.  Nice.

Next up was Big Head Todd and the Monsters.  Very enjoyable.

As it was getting dark, it was Blues Traveler.

And last was the main attraction, Barenaked Ladies.  There was lots of fancy lighting with stage smoke/mist, and enjoyable patter about Raleigh, Cary and the local area between songs.  In particular they sang a short ode to the Shimmer Wall on the convention center behind us, much to the delight of the crowd.  :-)

Dad has been missing his recliner, so just over  a week ago we took Mom and Dad on a furniture shopping trip.  He is delighted with his new cranberry red leather "electric chair!"  Why struggle opening and closing a manual recliner when you can get a power one!  I think The Tramp likes it too.  :-)

Mom decided she wanted to display all her ribbons again.  They are for quilts, beading and baskets.

I'm impressed!

And the ribbon for this quilt went on the quilt since it is hanging right there.  It's one of four Maggie Walker quilts Mom has painstakingly hand appliqued.

The REALLY BIG NEWS last week was the birth of Grand #5, whom The Tramp has dubbed Magenta.  Big brother looks pleased.

Awwwwww.

What a priceless photo of snoozing dad and wide-awake daughter.  :-)

Another t-shirt quilt rolled out the door.

And I took some time for a project of my own.  Mom and I signed up for a BOM at Whistle Stop in Cary, a wool applique design by Karen Poetzinger.  The first month is the blocks in the four corners.

I also bought some brightly colored fleece and cut myself a couple of capelets to wear while Charlie is on my shoulder.  It saves my shoulder from his claws and my clothes from you-know-what.  The big question is.....why didn't I do this sooner?  Talk about a Simple Solution.  Sheesh.

This handsome quilt was commissioned by Fleet Feet in Raleigh and will be hanging in the store.  :-)

And this is one side of a two-sided custom t-shirt quilt.  There are 39 shirts there!  I've got the blocks sorted on the design wall and will start on the sashing and cornerstones tomorrow.

I also made myself another new purse from fabric I bought for the purpose over a year ago!  I'm trying really hard to get some of my own stuff sewn and done.  Goodness knows.....there's enough to last me for years!  :-)

Nesting

It was all about curtain rods.  Well....The Tramp says so.  But in the end it was about building me a sewing "nest."  :-)

Table construction continued with the addition of the platform for the machine.  Lots of sawing, drilling, screwing, and sawdust.  Oh my the sawdust!

A test drive to see if the machine fits.

And it does!

The structure is really solid.  All I did was add a layer of cardboard to raise the machine just a bit.  After all the measuring and combining and converting back and forth from metric to imperial and back again (many times) it worked out just as planned.  Too high would have been a pain, but a tiny bit too low was easily corrected.  It is just about the best gift The Tramp could give me.  :-D

All plugged in and ready for action.

So here is my "nest."  The sewing machines are finally comfortably arranged, the side table is perfect, the storage is great and when all is said and done we actually have more floor space.  Lovely!

Even my african violets and Mr. Fish have a place.

Room for storage underneath too.  Ngaire has claimed that spot.  The poor dogs were so put out by the whole thing.  Extremely out of sorts.  I think they are glad to see the tools put away.

The ironing station is now in a more comfortable place too.  Lighting fixtures have been added or moved to suit the new arrangement.  That yellow "light bulb" light is from my childhood.  Something I've been hanging onto for almost 50 years!  I'm so glad to be able to use it again.  Also notice the curtains.  The rods are finally installed!  Woot!  We put up traverse rods....a new experience for me.  And I converted some rod-pocket curtains to pinch pleated...also a new-to-me process.  Not perfect but they're UP!  First job done on the Bernina in the new table.  And how did the table perform??  What adjective shall I choose?   How about......tremendous, stupendous, prodigious, phenomenal, remarkable, exceptional, astounding, amazing, fantastic, breathtaking, staggering, unthinkable, unimaginable, incredible, unbelievable, unheard of, untold, undreamed of, beyond my wildest dreams, mind-boggling, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping.  In other words......yessssss!

The other side of the room is much neater too.  (I won't show you my desk though.  Yikes.)  All our music DVDs and movies are now accessible (in those black zipper cases) and I have much more room around the cutting table.  It's fabulous.  I don't have words to say how fabulous!  (see above)  ;-)

Lastly, just a few grandmother brag photos.  I just have to chuckle every time I see this pic of Stardust in her iPood shirt.  Priceless!

Awwwww.

And a great pic of ED on the 4th of July.  I wish I was there to pat the belly (Grand #6)!

Evil Step-daughter is now 5 days overdue with Grand #5.  She reports that all is well and the mid-wife is happy with everything.  So we wait.