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Summer is flying by here...August already! Anyone else thinking about Christmas yet? Might as well, 'cause you know how fast it'll be here! I'm still trying to find a balance between grandkids, volunteering, and creating. Seems every time I start on one I get pulled in another direction. I think I have adult onset ADD, which has been brought on by these kids and grandkids! So, about 'working' at The Discovery Shop. No, we don't get first crack at 'the good stuff'. Believe me, I expected to, but The Three Hour Rule is posted prominently in the break room. An item must be tagged and put on the sales floor for three hours before you, a volunteer, can go buy it. Yeah, I thought it was a sucky rule too, but this shop has 100 volunteers, so if we all went cherry-picking before putting stuff out on the floor, what would there be exciting to find for the customers? I was straightening racks there the other day and came across a skirt which was made from a fabric that just made me giddy. It was a size 14, above the knee, and all the way around was one inch pleats. Still had the store tags on it. (ya' think?) I immediately saw it's potential for use in a 'stack n whack' quilt. I've never made one but I know the concept from when my mom jumped on the bandwagon (along with most every other quilter) a few years back. I paid $8 for the skirt (and let the counter ladies think what they liked--didn't share my plans) and ran home to start ripping out all those seamed pleats. I kid you not; I ended up with eleven running feet of fabric. What designer could've thought eleven feet of pleated fabric would look good around a size 14 bottom? sheesh. After a short lesson via google, I started stacking and cutting and ended up with what will be 15 blocks in sizes 10, 16, and 20 inches.

Loving it so far!

I asked my mom not long ago how you get better and faster at paper piecing and she said (duh) "Plenty of practice". Well, I've made 24 blocks for the abc quilt that Marie Claire Idees inspired me to do and I have to say; I got pretty good AND fast! It's really quite enjoyable once you start building your confidence. Here's a look-see at what's waiting to be put together.

Have I told you lately that I am in LOVE with the blanket stitch on my Bernina?

I really really am.

All these projects going on...now you know why I've never shown full-on pics of the studio. It's always too busy to straighten and pretty for picture taking! Know that I love it, tho. That John Duncan sure went the extra mile to gain nightly control of the tv remote, huh?

Oh. Speaking of my Bernina. I went to a group sewing gig (monthly volunteer thing through the guild for community quilts) and what a job hauling that thing in and out of the car! One lady had brought the super cute Hello Kitty 3/4 size machine by Janome. Said she'd bought it for her granddaughter who doesn't seem interested in using it so thought she'd give it a whirl. She sewed straight all day just like the rest of us! So, yeah; you guessed it. I had to go buy a 'travel' machine.

Before I got the desk in the studio for jewelry making I had this travel case on wheels stuffed with all my bead boxes and all sorts of miscellany. I was almost sad to not have a use for it anymore, and now YAY! the travel machine is a perfect fit. Can't wait til the next social sewing (I think it's at Scottie Dog, Brenda. So don't laugh at me and my I Can Sew machine!)

Well, I hate to end after all those pretty pictures with this next one but it's my current reality

Yep, garage sale time...once again! (I always hear that in the voice of Woody in Toy Story. YAAARRDD SAAAAALE!) We've been paying $65/mo storage for three years now just so we didn't have to deal with it but I caught John on a good day last week (or just off-guard) and he borrowed the U-Haul from his office and two loads later the storage garage was empty and we were parking out side and I'm planning the sale. Sad thing is, I haven't even brought anything out from the house. Who needs all this stuff? It's really ridiculous.

OH. I almost forgot. Last week when I signed off and John was going to get my computer fixed? All he did was take the cover off the hard drive and vacuum LOTS of dust out of the fans. OH it was so dirty in there. Put the cover back on, plugged it in, and the darned thing's so quiet now you wouldn't even know it's plugged in. Cool! These things apparently aren't rocket science. Pass it on! :-)

Monday morning

A quick post here before John takes my hard drive to the doctor. It WHIRRRS and groans all the time...I hope it just needs a new fan!

I finally got left alone to sit and sew for most all of yesterday. I'm having fun making 24 single blocks for the quilt shown in the last post. It took most of three hours to do this one seven inch block.

Crazy, huh? It probably took so long because it was my first time doing a pineapple block, but even with practice I can't imagine shaving off more than an hour. It reminded me of this pineapple blocks baby quilt my mother made a few months ago. (pardon the lousy photos)

Pretty fabulous, huh? This adorable quilt is a good reminder of why people don't normally sell quilts. Who wants to work for five cents an hour? Better to give them to someone you love.

So; sweet Caleb, who is such a big boy now that he is heading to camp with the church for the rest of this week, just woke up and picked the number 6. I see that after Dawn and Doe said they already have or are getting their own copy, Nanette was the sixth commenter. I'll be sending the mag this week Nanette. Anyone who hasn't already been there really should go visit Nanette's blog. She maintains it with several of her grown daughters, all of whom are crafty and quilty. Every post is a pleasure to see and read.

Okay. Time to unplug this puppy. Hopefully not for too long!

Marie Claire Idees

Have most of us heard of this magazine?

I saw photos on various blogs four times a year when the magazine came out. Always groovy or cute or inspiring. At almost $11 per issue (and a fat wait time from France), PLUS the fact that I can't read a word of it, well; I refrained from ordering it for a very long time. I think it was Monica who posted something back in April that made me bite the bullet and order it. And wait.... I got the current issue a couple of weeks ago and have loved leafing through it. Honestly, either due to the colors or the composition, even the ads are inspiring! And when you can't read the words you find yourself really looking at the pictures. I see a lot of people have posted pics of the pages over at Flickr. Just search Marie Claire Idees and you'll get over 500 photos. One project that I started last night is a direct result of seeing this in the mag:

Mine's not looking nearly that traditional...much brighter and more paper pieced blocks. Anyway, I woke up today thinking I should pass the mag on to someone else who hasn't seen it but would like to. Leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a name Monday morning and send to the winner.

In my ongoing efforts to fashion myself a *real* life, you know; the kind of life where people will notice if you died and then come to your funeral,  I started volunteering yesterday at The Discovery Shop, which is the 'thrift' store for the American Cancer Society. I worked the cash register in the afternoon and it is incredible how much money people spend on rummage! Even more amazing is that backroom where they sort all the donations. Every day of the week they have to plow through a mountain of clothes.  That's where I'll be working today. My fellow Americans; we have serious overbuying issues! I'm just sayin'....

Off I go. Later!

Mid July check in

Busy busy busy around here, but not much exciting to report. Gave my mother a ride home during 4th of July weekend. Central CA with temps above 100. BOY was I glad to come home to 60 degrees!  I did join a cupcake themed swap over at Sharon's blog. I mostly bought stuff for it but thought I'd post the one thing I made.

I'd been wanting to do some applique like this. I didn't have a specific idea of what to apply it to, so just made it into a 12x16" wallhanging.  I bought a coloring book, scanned an image, enlarged it to the size I wanted, made 3 copies and cut each element separately. If I'd have used a backing fabric or liner the zigzag stitching wouldn't have puckered like that...hopefully my partner will think it's cute anyway.

I am embarrassed at how dusty I let me etsy shop get! Sweet scrappyjessi bought the pink necklace this weekend and it reminded me that I should list the others I had already made! So I just finished listing some cherry pillows, button bouquets, necklaces and aprons, all at SUMMER CLEARANCE prices. Oh. And these mannequins that I've been hanging on to for a while now.

I hope you'll take a moment to wander over there and see if maybe there's something you just can't live without!

Happy Birthday America

                    Be safe and have fun!