Tuesday, November 29, 2011




My Mundane Monday...

Shew!  I've been parked in the quilting room for two solid days.  I think I needed that.  The past two weeks have been kinda busy and hectic with some stress thrown in. It's nice to have some down time.

Put a couple borders on these two wallhangings- measuring about 38" each.  Tried to keep it simple- my kind of borders.  (I snagged a picture off one of my fellow quilt bloggers for the inspiration for the one with the leaf border- when I finished it and wanted to give the original quilter credit- I couldn't find the blog.  I feel so bad about that!  She posted her wallhanging sometime in October, I think.  It was orange- no doubt that got my attention- sound familiar to anyone?  If I'm plagiarizing your work, feel free to give me a shout-out!  They say imitation is the sincerest for of flattery, right?)



Got this checkerboard border on before bed.  Got me kinda riled up.  If you don't quilt, you can just skip down to the next paragraph 'cause this is gonna get ugly.  I've noticed a trend with quilt patterns, lately.  When it's time to put on borders, there's this gaping black hole in the instructions and it goes something like this:  "Measure across the middle of the quilt and cut the borders to fit.  Sew on borders."  This is my cue to start growling.  I bought a pattern so that I don't have to do the measuring- that's your job as the quilt designer.  You don't think so?  OK, that might work for a solid border.  Now it's time for the pieced border.  The length of the border necessitates the size of the quilt be of the same length.  There's no room for some vague measurement here.  Yeah, I could get out my calculator and figure in the size of each sub-unit in the border, subtracting the seam allowances and come up with the exact measurement that the side of the quilt center needs to be in order for the border to fit... but I DON"T WANT TO!!  That's why I bought a pattern!  Honestly, I can't figure out why a pattern would apply this method when it's time to add a border-  laziness, sloppiness or a lack of calculators in their sewing room.  You can see that I do have a calculator and I do know how to use one.  I'm just irritated that I had to.  There was a third border in the pattern for this quilt- but at this point, I was stubbornly holding my breath- out of sheer orneriness, stamping my foot and refusing to budge one more inch.


Proof positive that fleece jackets and sewing rooms are not compatible!  Well, I've never aspired to be a fashion plate, so I'll continue to collect threads.  After three days of constant high winds and rain, I needed a little extra warmth.  But look!  Something new in the weather!


I think it's finally sinking in...winter is here.  And I like it. 

John doing his grandfather impersonation- fixing things and wearing my reading glasses!  He wasn't too happy about my taking his picture, but it was just soooo Grandfather!

While doing a little decorating, I beaned myself on the head with a hammer.  I set my hammer down on the top to the highest rung on the ladder- climbed down to survey my handiwork, promptly forgot about the precarious position of said hammer and moved the ladder... kerthump!  I saw brown.  Why?  I have no idea- there were no stars or fireworks.  Just brown- along with a lot of echoing, 'cause I must not have a brain to have done something that stupid.  I guess the kids heard the crash of the hammer landing on the floor and the consequent groaning.  Rushing to investigate, John commented on the fact that there's a reason for the caution about placing items on the top of the ladder- printed right there on the ladder!  In two languages.  Split my noggin' open pretty good.  Figure I had it coming.  Left a couple goose-eggs, a crashing headache- no pun intended, and a very small puddle of blood, but all seems to be fine, today. 

Got some fun things planned for my evening to compensate for the scab growing on my head.  Just some more sewing, but it makes my heart go pitty-pat.  Have fun and if you plan to use a ladder for your holiday decorating- do be careful.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Is that you in the stringy fleece jacket? The hair is so straight I had to ask!

Your grumbling about the borders made me remember the two of us on your living room floor trying to fit the borders on my very first quilt! It is amazing I kept quilting after all the drama of that first quilt!!

I was doing my own grumbling yesterday while quilting a customer's quilt. The girl and her friends made this quilt for her wedding in a few weeks. She wants to hang the quilt behind the wedding cake. Let me tell you - it is not the prettiest thing I have ever seen. Anyway - it was not square what so ever and by the time I got to the bottom I had to unpin the top and ease everything in!! It is all trimmed and ready for me to put the binding on it today. Wanna come help??

When are you coming to Alabama?? Miss you and love you!

Sarah

Elaine Adair said...

Regarding appropriate garb for serious sewing? I have a poly/slick blouse I've worn for over 20 years, as the strings, threads slip off. It is so outdated, yet I LOVE it because I'm always sewing before work, after work, and I can even take a nap in it and it doesn't show any wrinkles. The blouse is almost indestructible. I NEVER wear a sweater - I've learned my lesson!