Inventory & Our Health

It’s been beautiful weather. We opened the windows yesterday to air the house out after Reg gave the dog another bath .. she was getting a certain skunky air about her again. The first time she was sprayed she was lucky that a wooden fence took most of the hit – not this time.. it got her full bore in the neck .. phewwww – stinky dog .. but it was nice to get some fresh air in the house. We are all still sick .. well reg and I – Kyle feels better today – which is a good thing! Reg is a good patient .. Thank God!!

I did manage to get some inventory done, altho looking at it now, you can tell I’m not feeling good when I’m doing this. I did 2 mats and a basket yesterday. I wanted to do a binding around the edge of one, but i should have made the strips wider .. I did ³/4″ – next time I’ll do an inch .. it doesn’t stand out like i want it to, seems a lot smaller. I did variegated thread on the one with the border and yellow thread on the rectangular one. Heh, I’m running out of motifs that i want to use for quilting these, there are only so many hearts, butterflies, and flowers that a body and can :S

Here’s one of the many baskets that I did, this is the first one that I modified back to a 9 patch block. It turned out pretty good, but I can see mistakes in my my quilting that I may go back and fix, or I could save this one for a display model. I still have to tack the sides down. For the insides I used a hand-dyed pink that I did many years ago .. I still really want to find my dyes, I miss doing that! You get the neatest results from it!

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a wee bit quilty; basketball

Well reg’s team didn’t win tonite, they lost by 20 .. but these boys gave it there all didn’t stop fighting .. I’m so proud of them and so is reg. His team was playing a team that is older (19 year olds) and larger .. Reg’s team consists mostly of 16 year olds that are in their first year of senior basketball .. these kids will be unstoppable in 2 years and bloody hard to beat next year.

I’m still feeling like crap and have a headache like 10 men. I did manage to get a basket done tonite and I’ve got some fabrics picked out for the rest of the fan mats. I really wanted to get everything ready so I just had to quilt it all up tomorrow, but right now i just lack the energy.

Tomorrow is a new day and I’ll be busy working on it then!

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Challenge, Inventory, health n stuff

Please click on the images to view larger versions in a new window 😉

It’s been a nutty week – with Reg’s basketball team season winding down, my challenge and getting sick.

Reg’s team won their quarter final game on Wednesday by 15 I think .. it was a game that the ref’s were absolutely HORRID and Herman led by at least 5 the whole game. It was good to see it! I had a splitting headache, was sicker n a dog, but enjoyed it. The semi’s are tonite and I’ll be going to this game as well. If they lose, they are out, so I want to be there to support the team.

I spent 2 days being sick and almost missed getting my candle mat in for the challenge. As it was i sent it up just before midnite and the email at midnite :\. This is the candle mat that I entered. I did the birthing method for quilting this. Made it quick to put together – I’m likely going to do this method for all the smaller items that I can; while I wish it had that pretty defining binding as a frame, i can always add an extra ¹/4″ to the outside for the appearance of a border. I used green thread for the quilting and did flowers and ditch stitching.

This is the candle mat that I wished was ready. While the colours are striking in the other one, this one just speaks more to me. I used a variegated thread for the quilting and did different flowers, butterflies and ditch stitching on it.

I used mum’s machine on for the decorative / applque stitches for these mats. It only jammed on me one other time and that was right at the beginning just after I did the bobbin. This machine has such a tetchy petal!! It only has one speed – SONIC – so speed control was a huge issue for me .. but all in all, no serious problems while doing it – it was just nerve wracking is all .. thank you all for the prayers, naked moonlight dancing and burning feathers 😉

This is a finished basket; I say finished like that as I still have to tack down the flaps on the inside. This was very easy to make, altho I did have to man-handle this while I was sewing down the flaps to make the basket .. I’m just so glad that my machine was able to do this :D. For this I just did ditch stitching for the sides and meandered along the bottom for stability.

I’m still not feeling 100%, maybe 55% right now .. have another headache, and am still suffering from this cold – but i’m better today than I was yesterday and specifically the day before – Thank God!

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Catching up; baskets, candle mats

It’s been in interesting few days. I’ve been going a wee bit nuts trying to figure out exactly what I’m going to do for the show coming up. I had a whack of ideas; but felt like a one-eyed cat watching 10 mouseholes. 😉 I think it was just a case of nerves and just needing to settle on what items I was going to start on first.

I did find some really neat patterns and ideas on Freepatterns.com – it was just a matter of settling on what to do first. I found a really neat quilted basket there called Mexican Star Basket. It’s the neatest thing – it’s basically a 9 patch style 12″ block that is folded and tucked at the sides to create a basket. I found a neat pattern called fancy flowers that is a traditional block so i am free to use it according to her terms and conditions. I cut out enough pieces for 5 blocks and rather outsmarted myself as I was going to cut them all out at once .. I made notes in the margin and ended up cutting wayyy more than I needed .. ah well .. I gots lots of pieces now :S I put the first one together and it looked really great.. so I started on the second one … I realized that this was a 5 patch block – bloody hell! Well I had them cut, I was going to piece them .. i had all the sections of one block ready to put together and then I took a look and wondered how would this look without the sashings??? – welp i put it together and it looked great .. and what do you know .. i got my 9 patch block back 😀 😀 😀 I have 4 others like this but in different colourways waiting to be basted and quilted.

I decided to get going on my candle mats and pot holders to meet a challenge that one of my lists is holding. I need to have my mats done by Thursday at midnite. Well since my machine is still sick, I needed to use mum’s. I’ve asked my friends to pray for me with this. I didn’t care of they prayed, danced naked in the moonlight, or waved burning feathers .. I needed all the help I could get .. well I cleaned and oiled it this AM. heh .. only jammed once and broke a needle. I’m off to a GREAT start!!! I let it sit for the rest of the day so I could finish piecing the blocks for the baskets. I pulled it out and needed to make a bobbin .. heh .. you got it .. jammed on me again .. *Hellasigh Well I redid the bobbin again, double-checked to be sure that it was all in good working order and tried again .. so far so good .. i managed to piece 6 fans and it didn’t jam again. I need to use this machine for the applique part of these fans. It’s going to be a pain to have to swap machines around, but I don’t have a walking foot for this machine and the speed is a wee bit tetchy for me to be wanting to quilt on it.

My house isn’t as odorous, but Reg is sick and managed to get me sick as well .. oh well .. I started to hack and cough this am. I’ve got the itchy inside of the ear and the raw-ish throat. I’m hoping he and I start to feel better soon .. it’s hard to concentrate and my temper gets frazzled more quickly right now.

But starting was the key – i’m not feeling so overwhelmed right now – matter of fact I can’t wait to get a few things to the point where I can quilt them so I can see actually how they will work out. I’ll be quilting stuff tomorrow .. it’ll be busy for me tomorrow .. I have to go pay for my table at the show, reg’s quarter finals for his bball team are tomorrow nite so I’m going – not been all year – would be nice if the coaches wife showed up .. I went to a lot of games last winter. Then that will leave me tomorrow nite and Thursday to get the candle mats done 😀 .. I can’t wait to see how they’ll turn out

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Blasted Bloody Dog!!!!

That stupid stupid dog!!! With the rain that we had overnite and today, our backyard has turned into Lake Lambie again .. it’s a mudpatch, swamp, bog, marsh .. a MESS. So the dog hadn’t been out in a bit and since it was like 10pm, I figured I could bring her out front. With her being in heat, she’s not come out front in over a week. I knew that any other male dog around here wasn’t going to be out – so safe enough right .. WRONG.

At the same time, we both see a polecat across the street, I’m like Orion don’t you dare .. NO NO NO NO NO .. GET BACK HERE .. yes I was shouting by the end and my voice had been raising. While she didn’t run headlong over there, she sure wasn’t listening to me. She wanted to say hello – Bloody twit! DAMN DOG!!!! Needless to say, she got sprayed – and this isn’t the first time. She was sprayed last july or around there – you’d think she’d learn?? What i’m more burned about than anything is that she not only didn’t listen to me, she went across the road (!)

I had my last dog for almost 20 years; we took her to the mountains, state parks etc .. not once did she get sprayed, bit, porcupined, pinched (crabs) nothing .. and what’s this twit do??? (@@)

Here I am manhandling this 70lb dog in the tub – she wasn’t happy and i sure wasn’t going to let her win .. i scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed. 30 to 45 mins later, out we come .. Reg is beside himself all ticked off at her .. he wanted to toss her outside .. I’m like are you kidding me, I JUST gave her a bath .. there is NO way you are putting her in the back yard NOW!

She doesn’t smell right now .. the house STUNK / stinks tho. I had to wash all the towels, rugs, clothes i was wearing (winter coat included) – i burned 2 candles half the nite, put whole cloves and cinnamon on the stove to boil and ‘fume’. Every time i moved my head, I smelt skunk .. even in the shower I smelt skunk. Pix just looks at me sideways if I got to pet him .. It would have been nice if it was so blasted cold out so we could open the windows and air the place out. Heh .. i just might do a bit of that tomorrow. Needless to say, she’s not going on any of the furniture for a bit. She’s already off the couch until she’s out of heat. I set up a towel / padding arrangement on the swivel rocker for her, but she’s not allowed on that at the moment. we have tv trays, laundry baskets and boxes blocking the furniture when we aren’t on it.

Last time she got sprayed, we got her in the tub immediately and got lucky-ish. She had a certain air about her for a few weeks, but it was livable. I’m guessing it’s due to her type of coat. Full of natural oils that just repels this stuff .. i wish she wasn’t so bloody curious!!!

Heh .. maybe we’ll do fish again for pets instead.

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Life is funny & sort of scarey too

Wow does life take a few odd turns on ya! I’ve been thinking about selling my quilts, and it’s been on my mind more and more. We got our weekly pennysaver and I was looking in it for the retired sewing machine repair tech to come look at my 248 – he does adjustments for $12.50 .. i got 2 other machines he can adjust 😀 (featherweight and 15-91), when I saw this ad for Vendors Wanted. Bake and Craft sale at one of the local clubs. Well the price for the table seemed reasonable to me; $25 for 6ft, and $30 for 8 ft. So I started to think. I called the lady and talked to her, she said that she really didn’t remember any quilters from last year but they had a lot of other things – so after talking to reg, my dad, and a few other friends, I’ve made the decision to sell my stuff.

What’s great about this fair is that it’s the first one after all the wedding shows in january and it’s before the first huge one that is normally held in Forest Glade here .. will have to check out the show too 😀 So there will be a lot of people there.

I’m not going to do bed quilts for the show, but will sell them off my site – and lap quilts too, as I don’t think that they will sell, but smaller items such as trivets, pot holders, table toppers, runners, smaller wall hangings, maybe some of those appliquilt blocks that are swimming around in the back of my head .. Pin cushions (not many – just a few in case) .. Coasters with a spring easter theme .. I think I’ll get Michigan Left ready to sell) .. IF I get my kitty quilt done, I’ll bring that for display, maybe reg’s quilt – but we’ll see on that .. don’t really want a law suit LOL

Since I have no experience in this, have no clue about the market, I’m more like shooting fish in a barrel or throwing a LOT of spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Worse case senario – I break even or make no money and learn a LOT 😀 .. $25 – $30 for the learning experience is acceptable .. For one day ..

Judy is hunting links and send them to me (Thank you Thank you Thak you)

Oh geeze all I have to do; Price tags, figure out a display, get my inventory built up – I think I’m a wee bit overwhelmed right now, but know that if I take it one step at a time, I’ll be okay .. finding and deciding what to make to sell will be the hardest .. oh geeze I HATE not knowing the market .. with me being an advertising / marketing grad this just goes against my grain and training LOL – I have to do business cards, do my site – I’ll advertise on kijiji.com and point that towards my website for local sales .. heck even not local .. have postage 😀

OH geeze .. make business cards, update my site (no graphic change, just content), take photos of my done quilts and put them in a photo album, bags for sold items, bags for the quilts?? and there is NO such thing as a cheap pillow case (!), do i have a big enough stash!??! EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKK

** Grace has just started to run around the room screaming and shouting .. we return you to to your regularly scheduled programming – she’ll be fine ;)**

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