A chuckle a day must keep something away!

Directly quoted from the HGTV website...

"When ironing shirts, start with the cuffs and collars inside out. Move on to the yolk or shoulder area of the shirt, then down toward the sleeves. Next do the body and the front panel last. Wrinkling usually is avoided if you iron in this order."

I've ironed hundreds of men's shirts in my lifetime. To my knowledge, not one of them had a yolk!

RFLMAO

North Carolina in bloom

We are still getting used to a very early spring in NC. Things are blooming everywhere, inside and out. Delightful! I took a walk around the house and yard snapping pictures of the beauty.

Rosemary

Even the poinsettias from Christmas are blooming...and apparently setting seed.

Just in time for Valentine's Day we have amaryllis.

With three more sets of blooms still to come!

The (ugh) china berry trees are in full berry.

The Tramp has been cleaning up and cutting stuff up for the woodpile.

Our fire pit. It's piling up since open burning is banned at the moment.

The bird feeders are very busy most days.

The camellia bush next door is in bloom.

And my neighbor cut some blossoms for my window sill. :-)

Daffodils are everywhere!

All sorts of other bulby things are coming up too.

And I discovered we have a camellia too! Just two flowers at the moment though.

I don't know what this is but it's right outside my window. Very pretty.

I think we have irises coming up everywhere too.

Nice.

Happy Day After

This is Fiona, Eldest Daughter's dog. What a great photo!

Finally....

I got around to making a banner. It's not wonderful, but it's there! I need a better background photo. And....I need to learn to use Photoshop Elements properly. :-P

Anyway....this is the finished flimsy of the Bargello Bowl top. It's now on the shelf with the pile of stuff waiting to be quilted.

Take the Quiz here!

It's a purple day

I am here to say....unequivocally....wash your fabrics before you use them. Ask me how I know....sigh. Somewhere in the process of the current project (wall hanging) I missed washing the purple for the borders. OMG!

Finally, this evening, the binding was on (this is a WISP...since November anyway). I was rinsing out the water soluble markings in the powder room sink and the water was turning purple. Oh, oh! I kept on rinsing and ended up with a side of the item hanging over the edge of the counter. This powder room was a dressing room for the photo studio previously here, so it has light beige carpet on the floor. Yep. You guessed it! When I looked down to see if I had stained my clothes, it looked like someone (me) had poured blueberry juice on the carpet. Sigh.

So the wall hanging is in the washing machine with several color catchers and we'll see if we can salvage it. If so, I may post a photo. Right now it isn't one of my favorite items. Grrrrr.....

Oh! It's been a week!

I've been kind of staying away from my computer as I've been having so much neck/shoulder pain. Sitting here seems to make it worse. But since yesterday it's been better, so I'm going to hopefully catch up with blog reading and posting today. I've also been fighting (read: bad language and tears) with my Janome on the quilting frame for several weeks. After taking the machine to be serviced (expensive and useless) I found and joined two Yahoo groups, Gracemachineframe and PfaffHobbyGrandQuilter for consolation and advice. WONDERFUL! Today is a better day!

So let me see.... First I made two yoga mat bags from Amy Butler's Nigella Yoga Bag pattern. They went together easily. Very good for my bruised sewing psyche. I'm sending one off to Eldest Daughter (surprise honey!...yes that's why I asked the color of your yoga mat).

Then my package came from Keepsake Quilting. That always brightens up a day! Quilt shops always seem to know that taking a little bit of trouble with their packaging gives their customers a real boost. :-)

Woooohoooo! 50 fat quarters of 1930s repro fabrics. *rubbing hands together with glee*

Then....as if I had nothing else going on, I also participated in the Bargello Bowl. I finished it last night...well, no borders yet, but I'm loving the colors. It's the first time I've relaxed and used (reasonably) random scraps and it was fun!

Today I'm going back to the quilt frame to see what I can accomplish with it. I've go so much lined up waiting to go on the frame it's scary! Wish me luck.

Has anybod else tried these?

No Pudge! brownies! I'm on a no chocolate kick (at least no chocolate bars, truffles, M&Ms etc.) at the moment and my pants are a tiny bit looser (yay). I've managed not to buy any for over a week!! But I was a sucker for these brownies. Not bad at all either! As a die-hard chocoholic I approve. :-)

Monday stuff

Today I got a few things done...despite the fact it is Monday. The most important was having the heating fixed in the old part of the house! We are waiting for a part but we do have real heat now (as opposed to the pretend heat we had before).

I jumped into the Bargello Bowl with two feet. The strips are all cut. I was having so much fun! But it sure does make one realize just how much fabric is in one's stash. (Who? Me?)
I couldn't stop there. I had to lay them all out and make my four stacks ready to go. It was all I could do to stop myself from sitting right down at the sewing machine!

Instead I finished up my Tazzie Sewing Machine Mat. Cute.

Yesterday I bought some fabric for finishing up my Carolina Crossroads quilt top. I decided I just couldn't use anymore of the screaming pink fabric in the border (to say nothing of the blue or the print). The quilt is so loud already it's going to keep me awake if I try to sleep under it! I shopped my stash but nothing was either large enough or suitable, so I dragged The Tramp to the store to help me find an alternative. So what did I get? Another screaming pink! I have to audition it further but I think the different print is just restful enough. We'll see. It's all a mystery to me....sigh. (Shoot me. I couldn't resist saying that!)

LOL Don'tcha love it? I'm getting ready!!