Learning Curves

I don't know what the learning curve would be to becoming good on a long arm machine but I do know I'm not there yet! :) It's kinda hard when you don't own the machine you are trying to learn to use and it cost you money to rent one to practice on. Learning takes time....mistakes take more time....and time is money. Yesterday I went to quilt this beautiful top that was made for me by a friend (also named Cindy) in a swap I did last year. I decided to try an pantograph design with curves since I'm the worst at doing that. You can see the design I was following below:

The first half of each row looks the worst (my curves are flat topped) but by the end of the pass I do pretty good. See....this looks good, right?

But yesterday was not a good day for me and machine quilting. I stitched an entire pass before I noticed my bobbin thread had run out....so had to go back and do it over.....learning I better look up once in a while! My learning curve on that was non-existent cuz 2 passes later I find that the top thread had broke and I had to do another pass all over again. Jeepers, Cindy! The kicker was at the end when I noticed my backing fabric was too short! What? I'm always so careful....what the heck?.....where was my brain? Look....only 3 inches!!!! Another mistake that costs time.

I was so mad at myself! Sigh. I will have to go back next week (after I sew a strip to the back to make it the correct length) and finish. More money. At this rate I could have paid someone to do it for cheaper than it's gonna cost me.

If only I had my own long arm............if........! :)

ABC Wednesday

U is for uh......?

I've been dreading the end of the alphabet. So far, I've been able to highlight hobbies that we do or dabble in or at the very least have a friend who does. But I've pretty much run out of ideas. ;)

I had to ask around to even come up with some possibilities for "U".

UFO's?

Unicycles?

Underwater caving?

How 'bout you? Any "U" hobbies you come up with?

For more ABC Wednesday posts, go here.

Small Things

I haven't gotten back in the swing of things, quilt-wise, since coming back from the cruise....but have done a couple of small things. First are these really fun blocks made for a monthly swap I'm in (I've blogged about this before. You can click on swaps in my categories section to the right to see other blocks I've made for gals in the group). The block is called "Magic Circle" and is from Sally Schneider's book, "Scrap Frenzy". I don't have this book and I think its out of print....probably can still find it via Amazon or eBay. I love the illusion of circles you get with all straight piecing.

And today I did some of my applique while visiting with my friend, Tink. I have a really long ways to go with this quilt! Baby steps, right? :)

Feet Friday

Napping together on the cruise!

ABC Wednesday

T is for Theatre

Hubby and I met in high school via the speech team. I followed him around like a love sick puppy! And since he was in the drama club I had to join that too! My only drama background...if you can even call it that....was playing Lucy in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" in the third grade. Nonetheless, love is fearless, so I followed him into drama. Our first play together was called "The Imaginary Invalid"...in which I just played a servant girl who had to walk on stage carrying a tray of drinks and stand there...absolutely NO lines....but I was terrified anyway. Hubby is the exact opposite. He loved acting and did it till we had kids. Drama club did mean one other fun thing --- a senior trip to New York City where my love of musicals was born. My favorite one we saw? A Chorus Line!

I actually got to see it again a few years ago and it was interesting how differently I saw the show as a woman in her 40's than I did at 17.

We have maintained our love of theatre and once our kids were grown we got season tickets to Seattle's 5th Avenue Theatre. The last show we saw was Grease. Now we wait for a new season to open in the fall.

This is another hobby I expect we'll keep doing for quite a while.

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Cruising

We are back from our first cruise. I -- we -- loved it! It's definitely something we would do again.

Here we are on board as we are leaving Seattle....already getting our first taste of free food and relaxation! It was a gorgeous day in the Northwest....but it would be the last of clear blue skies until we returned.

The porthole view from our room:

Glaciers were the theme to our sight seeing. We visited 3 of them. First (on the left) was Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau. It rained like crazy that day but it was still beautiful. Second (middle) was Davidson Glacier on our day in Skagway.....via a great excursion that I'll tell ya about in a minute. Last (right) was Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay National Park. This glacier is humongous! The picture just doesn't do it justice. It makes the other two look itty-bitty. I think they said it is 250 feet high with another 100 feet under water. We got to see lots of pieces break off and fall...including that big "tower" on the top right (if you click to enlarge). Spectacular!


This is us in all our gear on the excursion to Davidson Glacier. We left Skagway via a catamaran....rode about 45 minutes to Glacier Point. Then it was a bus ride through the woods to camp where we suited up in rain gear. Then a hike through the woods to a river where we got in canoes. Then we canoed to the lake to see the Glacier. It never did rain but it was a good thing we were in gear cuz we were in the front of the boat and it was windy....waves, wind.....yeah....we got wet! The tour guides really made this a great day!

We had our best weather the day we were in Glacier Bay. This was the most blue sky we saw. The water was like glass, though, so I was able to get some gorgeous reflection shots.

And, what quilter doesn't look for and shop at quilt stores where ever she is!!! Skagway had a shop, but this one is Silver Thimbles in Ketchikan. I helped keep the quilt store economy in good shape! LOL!

And the best part about cruising?

Relaxation (lots of reading & napping), way too much food and nummy cocktails any time of day!

Love, love, loved it!

ABC Wednesday

S is for Stamp Collecting

Years ago hubby's grandma gave us all her stamp collecting stuff. It consisted of several old albums and a box of loose stamps that she hadn't done anything with yet. She actually had some fun old stamps...like these from 1940.

As much as thought it was cool and loved looking at them, we also never did anything with them. We collected our own from letters and even bought some commemorative sets. One year our son took a bunch of the Christmas stamps and made a wall hanging for the holidays. We still hang it up each Christmas....makes us smile.
Maybe the next person to inherit the collection will actually do something with it! :)

Find other ABC blogs to read here.

Sailing Away

This is the ship that will take us away for a week of relaxation, site seeing and I'm sure too much eating! We are off to Alaska on our very first cruise. I'm so excited. Everyone I talk to has loved their Alaska cruise...I've not heard one negative comment. We set sail around 4pm today...so if you see us sail by, wave!

Feet Friday

Fun new sandals for summer! I love new shoes! Now I just need a fun pedicure to go with the fun flowers.....and lots of sunshine to wear them in! :)

Happy Birthday, Bonnie!

The ole' gal is 12 today! Bonnie was our 6th try at having a dog. First there was Sonya...and adult dog we got for free...only to find out why....she dug incessantly. With two small kids, I just couldn't handle it! Then there was the replacement puppy, Frank...dumb move....kids are still young and I'm too lazy. Then came Roger. He was a sweety. But in his third year, he was hit by a car and had to be put down. Then came Cassie. A wonderful lab mix from the Humane Shelter. She was *my* dog. But alas, in her third year, she got sick and had to be put down. Next came a replacement puppy, Norman....who came with parvo and didn't make it. Sigh. Then came 6 months of quarantine until we could try again. Bonnie was an "Albertsons" dog...you know...the can't resist puppies in boxes that folks have right by the dang door! I grabbed the only female in the box and hurried home. We worried about whether she would ever make it past her third birthday......we really hadn't had much luck with dogs. She has beaten the odds. Thank goodness.

Here's Miss Bonnie as a puppy. Fat belly girl and forever playful friend:

And here she is now. She loves the outdoors no matter what the weather. If we are out, she is out.

And ever so patient with weird human behavior!
We love you, Miss Bonnie.

ABC Wednesday

R is for Reading

This is my favorite hobby!   I've been an avid reader my whole life.   I read so much, in fact, that I don't even think of it as a hobby....and I'm always surprised when I find out someone doesn't read at all!  What?  How can that be?   It's just as natural a part of my life as eating is.  My current favorite book is "The Book Thief"...if you haven't read it yet, add it to your to-do list.   

R is also for Rock collecting

We are not serious rock collectors.  Mostly it's just this bowl full of rocks we take from places we've visited.  Have you ever seen the Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz movie "The Long Long Trailer"?  In it Tacy (Lucille Ball plays her) collects rocks from places they go and they are huge!  Makes for funny funny movie scenes.  Anyhoo...we don't take big ones...just little ones that fit in our pockets.  And we don't label them or anything.   I just know that this bowl holds rock-memories from beach walks with the kids, from Scotland, from our honeymoon location, etc.  

Be sure to check out other ABC blogs for fun "R" topics.

Solo Adventure

Our grandson had his first solo adventure to our house this weekend. While he was excited to come over he made sure I understood that he loved his Mommy, Daddy & brother and that he missed them already...this being said the minute he took my hand when Jenn dropped him off....oh and the cat too! I picked him up on his side of the ferry and this is him waving goodbye to Mommy and David, his brother.

Enjoying a treat with Grandpa, while the dog looks on hoping the little human will drop something!

Liam likes to shovel (Grandpa bought him a kid sized one) and when Grandpa pulled his shirt off declaring he was too hot, Liam had to do the same....with the same declaration of being too hot!


Shovel dropped....time to play king of the mountain!


And he doesn't just imitate Grandpa.....he still loves to pretend to be a dog just like Bonnie!

It was a successful solo visit and I hope we have many more!

Feet Friday

This is what I should be doing right now!  

Should.

Should.

Should.

But not!!!!!!    :)

ABC Wednesday

Q is for Quilting

So this hobby is a duh coming from me!  Besides a few baby quilts, most of the quilts I make are lap size and up. However for this post I thought I’d share some pics of smaller ones I’ve made. First though is this miniature a friend made for me. It’s only 13 inches square. Perfect piecing for such little blocks (the blocks are only 3 inches) and the embroidery is adorable.

This is a little quilt I made that is the size of a piece of paper. It was the result of a challenge another friend gave me. I had fun interpreting her challenge and giving myself the additional challenge of making that curved unit of flying geese. I even hand quilted this one…easy when its only 8.5x11 inches!!!

And these 4 are the size of postcards! I made all but the autumn leaf one. Fabric postcards are quite popular and yes, they are actually mailed.


What’s fun about smaller quilts to me is that my investment in them is not long. So I’m more willing to challenge my skills or try some new techniques.


Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more blogs!

Charm Bracelets

A while ago us Yaya's started talking about making/gathering charms that would represent parts of our friendship...both the serious and the funny. M & Y came up with the idea of making bracelets to showcase our charms. Coolio! We've collected a few charms and a few were made (thanks to M & Y). And last Friday we set to work on the bracelets. Here we are with our supplies ready to go:

Lots of laughter, of course!

This is my bracelet in progress. All of us chose the same design of three strands of beads. The differences are in which beads we chose and where we put our charms.

M & I have finished! Woo hoo.

Here's my finished product! I love it! There are still charms to be added that we haven't made yet. But they are easy to incorporate later.

Such a fun project loaded with memories!

Card Making

I needed to make a few home made gifts for some friends of mine and didn't want to sew anything. I wanted to do something new. I headed to the local rubber stamping store to get supplies to make cards. It was a bit overwhelming with all the choices. I imagine that's what others feel like the first time they walk into a quilt store to buy fabric for a quilt! I ended up seeing a couple cards made up that I liked and asked the owner, "to get me all the stuff to make those", and she kindly did....and she let me take pictures of the cards so I could remember what they looked like once I got home. Here's my goodies:

I made them assembly line style...just like I do my quilting.

And here is a sampling of what I made:


And these are my little gift packets:

It was so much fun. If ya want to come over and make some.....call me....I've got lots of supplies left! :)

ABC Wednesday

P is for Pottery

Our dabbling in the hobby of pottery is probably similar to everyone out there with kids. Whether its at school or summer camp kids make us something with clay! I am the proud owner of the two mugs below. My hubby has always wanted to learn to work with clay....maybe someday I'll buy him classes for his birthday!

P is also for Painting

I'm including painting not because my family has dabbled in this hobby too, but because I have a close friend who does. Below is a painting she made for me several years ago. I just love it. So, this is a shout out to you, M! Thanks again.

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Feet Friday

Bare feet in the sunshine....can you say "ahhhhh!"?