Well, when I say I like to 'ramble', I mean it! I have a hard time staying focused on any one thing for very long. This time, I'm starting to focus on learning Spanish. I'm having a humdinger of a time with it! To begin with, the program I really want to use is also really out of my price range. It's Rosetta Stone. I've had the fortune (or is that misfortune?) of playing with it a little bit and I loved it. I loved the intuitive way it taught and how easy it was to remember what I was taught. Now, I'm off to the "old school" way of trying to learn Spanish. Out of books and listening to tapes and trying to figure out what in the universe is going on. At least in using books and tapes to learn a language, you can usually just get that free from the library and find tons of stuff online, also for free.
I think my main problem right now is that I won't just settle down on any one method. If I could just focus and dive in, I think I'd probably learn a lot more. I have fallen into a "trap" of constantly researching without using a single thing I've picked up. Okay, I know... That's stupid. However, sometimes I just have to sit and write about it, like I'm doing right now, before I realize how silly I'm being.
Fine! Be that way! LOL Make me figure out what I'm doing that's so wrong. I will now go and settle down with the main program that I picked up from the library recently and really work through it. I mean, it has 40 lessons in it, but I haven't even made it through 1 of them. Duh. I even went and bought myself a tape player at a thrift store (stores don't actually sell them new anymore) to listen to the tapes. The library also had a CD version, but that one was checked out and had a long waiting list on it. How nice for me that I'm willing to go backwards in technology. *grin*
Okay. I will make a goal for myself. Today is what? Tuesday? My goal is to go through at least a lesson a day. That means, that by the end of this week, I will have at least done 4 lessons. That will be further than I am now. That is my goal. I'd like to do the whole thing and see what it gets me... But I will start out reasonable. Goodness knows my attention span isn't very long. *sigh*
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Thursday, May 1, 2008
1001 Books you should read before you die
I am an avid reader. If I'm not quilting or knitting, I'm usually reading a book. It usually depends on if I feel like watching TV or not in the evenings. Anyway, I came across this list of books that are basically recommended reading. As I look over this list, I'm slowly becoming annoyed with it. For some authors, almost every book they ever wrote is on the list. Then there are great authors that are not represented or only have 1 book listed. Some authors that are on there many, many times are Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, J.M. Coetzee, and others. You see, it's disguised how many times a specific author is mentioned. At least it was in the list I read. It would appear that the books were placed in the list by publication date. I started to redo the list so I could have the authors in alphabetical order. Then it became really obvious how many times each author appeared. At least that could save me valuable reading time if I don't like a specific author's writing style. *smile*
However, thanks to this list, I have read 2 new authors that have written classics that I've never read before. One is Ernest Hemingway (he's depressing to read) and Edith Wharton. I need to check out more of her books. I adored "The Age of Innocence."
In grabbing a few books from the newer end of the list (it was divided by centuries), I've decided that I'd rather read the older books. I just attempted to read "The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood. It was starting to bother me to no end. I didn't make it past chapter 6 before I put it down. For some reason, one of her characters liked to reverse words. I mean, actually put the whole word backwards. i.e. sdrawkcab. It was driving me nuts! As that was the main character who she focused on, I couldn't go on any further. I also checked out "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood. I'll attempt to read it as well. If that one also flops in my opinion, then I'll just strike her from the list and call it quits. There are at least 300 other authors there to try.
It's just interesting to see that most of the books they say you should read mainly come from the 1900s. A lot of them from the late 1900s. So many great books were written before then that it's sad how many didn't make it on the list. That and a lot of great children's books never made it either. I personally think everyone should read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. They're incredible. I also love "Anne of Green Gables", "The Secret Garden", and the Little House on the Prairie series. Also, who could ever forget "A Wrinkle in Time"? All are considered children's books and none of those are on the list. I've seen maybe 4 books on the list that are children's books. Well, maybe a few more. Jules Verne ended up on the list a few times. It's just a personal pet peeve of mine, don't mind me too much. I just adore children's books. I actually own "The Secret Garden" in hardback because I was reading my paperback to pieces. I need to replace my copy of "A Wrinkle in Time" also. It needs to be updated to a hardback edition too. *grin*
Well, like I said. I'm a bibliophile. I absolutely adore books. I actually don't really like audiobooks. I much prefer to hold real books in my hands. I also can't read them very well on the computer screen. My eyes won't stay focused on the words that long. I just love the feel of paper and turning of the pages. It's such a wonderful feeling. *smile*
All of that being said, you should check this out if you're a fellow bibliophile:
(psst... if you use this link, please state me as the referrer... sldrsprincess at gmail dot com. Thanks!)
That right there is a link to the greatest thing ever! For every paperback (or hardback) book you send out to another member, you get a credit for a free book. Each person sending out the book pays shipping. However, when you order a book, you don't have to pay. Isn't that great! It's a terrific way to clear off your bookshelves of books you don't want anymore and bring in other books you want to read. I actually managed to get my hands on out of print Paula Volsky books that way. I now have an entire set of her works. I'm absolutely thrilled as she's one of my all-time favorite authors.
With that... it's late and I should be heading on out. Have a great evening and don't forget to read! It helps to keep your mind alive and active.
However, thanks to this list, I have read 2 new authors that have written classics that I've never read before. One is Ernest Hemingway (he's depressing to read) and Edith Wharton. I need to check out more of her books. I adored "The Age of Innocence."
In grabbing a few books from the newer end of the list (it was divided by centuries), I've decided that I'd rather read the older books. I just attempted to read "The Robber Bride" by Margaret Atwood. It was starting to bother me to no end. I didn't make it past chapter 6 before I put it down. For some reason, one of her characters liked to reverse words. I mean, actually put the whole word backwards. i.e. sdrawkcab. It was driving me nuts! As that was the main character who she focused on, I couldn't go on any further. I also checked out "The Blind Assassin" by Margaret Atwood. I'll attempt to read it as well. If that one also flops in my opinion, then I'll just strike her from the list and call it quits. There are at least 300 other authors there to try.
It's just interesting to see that most of the books they say you should read mainly come from the 1900s. A lot of them from the late 1900s. So many great books were written before then that it's sad how many didn't make it on the list. That and a lot of great children's books never made it either. I personally think everyone should read the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. They're incredible. I also love "Anne of Green Gables", "The Secret Garden", and the Little House on the Prairie series. Also, who could ever forget "A Wrinkle in Time"? All are considered children's books and none of those are on the list. I've seen maybe 4 books on the list that are children's books. Well, maybe a few more. Jules Verne ended up on the list a few times. It's just a personal pet peeve of mine, don't mind me too much. I just adore children's books. I actually own "The Secret Garden" in hardback because I was reading my paperback to pieces. I need to replace my copy of "A Wrinkle in Time" also. It needs to be updated to a hardback edition too. *grin*
Well, like I said. I'm a bibliophile. I absolutely adore books. I actually don't really like audiobooks. I much prefer to hold real books in my hands. I also can't read them very well on the computer screen. My eyes won't stay focused on the words that long. I just love the feel of paper and turning of the pages. It's such a wonderful feeling. *smile*
All of that being said, you should check this out if you're a fellow bibliophile:
(psst... if you use this link, please state me as the referrer... sldrsprincess at gmail dot com. Thanks!)
That right there is a link to the greatest thing ever! For every paperback (or hardback) book you send out to another member, you get a credit for a free book. Each person sending out the book pays shipping. However, when you order a book, you don't have to pay. Isn't that great! It's a terrific way to clear off your bookshelves of books you don't want anymore and bring in other books you want to read. I actually managed to get my hands on out of print Paula Volsky books that way. I now have an entire set of her works. I'm absolutely thrilled as she's one of my all-time favorite authors.
With that... it's late and I should be heading on out. Have a great evening and don't forget to read! It helps to keep your mind alive and active.
Knitting and Irritation
Okay, all. I know this is a quilting blog, but I do knit sometimes. In the summer, I knit. When it's cold, I quilt. It's just how it's turned out over the years. Besides, I don't care too much if my yarn gets dirty, but I pitch a fit if my fabric does before I can wash it again. *grin* That makes my knitting projects much easier to drag outside or to baseball as the case may be.
Now, off to my irritation. Every year, my mom joins a craft fair and will lovingly take some of my crafty stuff in to sell alongside hers. She does stained glass so it's not a conflict of crafts here. This year, I'm leaning towards knitted stuff instead of quilted. I find that I don't mind knitting for money, but detest quilting or sewing for money. I'm odd like that. This year, I thought gifts with a good use for them would be a good thing. I discovered that these "old" dish cloths are incredible! I made several for myself and I love them a lot more than my store bought ones. So, I decided to start making a few to sell. I currently have 2 ready to sell and 1 ready to go into my own drawer. The one that's for me is a "scrap" cloth. I made it out of left over yarn. I don't care, I just like how they work. *smile* THEN, I got this marvelous idea to make 2 dish cloths using this pattern with a coordinated dish towel. Great idea, right? Well, I'm finding out that it was a lot easier to find a pattern for dish cloths than it is for dish towels. I found one that was pretty, but then discovered that the pattern that was stated did NOT work for the pictured dish towel. I'm not an advanced enough knitter to figure it out for myself. If it was a quilt pattern, I could probably figure it out. Oh, well! I finally just pulled out my knit stitches book (hubby bought it for me for a buck at Barnes and Noble awhile back) and started flipping. My main problem now is that it can't be too fancy as that takes too long, not to mention the fact that my yarn is variegated. I'm finding out that you can't do anything too fancy because it just gets "eaten" by the color changes in the yarn. Great.
I started to do my dish towels with a simple weave pattern. Nope. With the yarn I'm using (the colors are fairly bright) the pattern looked horrible! So I pulled out all 13 rows I'd done and started looking again. There is a pattern in my book called "flame" that might work. Again, it will probably get "swallowed up" by the color changes, but the idea of a 'flame' would work a lot better with these colors than the weave did. Hopefully I'll get a chance to find out soon.
Well, it's late and I think it's time to call it quits. Maybe I'll get this whole dish towel thing worked out. If not? Well, that cotton yarn makes great dish cloths. LOL
Now, off to my irritation. Every year, my mom joins a craft fair and will lovingly take some of my crafty stuff in to sell alongside hers. She does stained glass so it's not a conflict of crafts here. This year, I'm leaning towards knitted stuff instead of quilted. I find that I don't mind knitting for money, but detest quilting or sewing for money. I'm odd like that. This year, I thought gifts with a good use for them would be a good thing. I discovered that these "old" dish cloths are incredible! I made several for myself and I love them a lot more than my store bought ones. So, I decided to start making a few to sell. I currently have 2 ready to sell and 1 ready to go into my own drawer. The one that's for me is a "scrap" cloth. I made it out of left over yarn. I don't care, I just like how they work. *smile* THEN, I got this marvelous idea to make 2 dish cloths using this pattern with a coordinated dish towel. Great idea, right? Well, I'm finding out that it was a lot easier to find a pattern for dish cloths than it is for dish towels. I found one that was pretty, but then discovered that the pattern that was stated did NOT work for the pictured dish towel. I'm not an advanced enough knitter to figure it out for myself. If it was a quilt pattern, I could probably figure it out. Oh, well! I finally just pulled out my knit stitches book (hubby bought it for me for a buck at Barnes and Noble awhile back) and started flipping. My main problem now is that it can't be too fancy as that takes too long, not to mention the fact that my yarn is variegated. I'm finding out that you can't do anything too fancy because it just gets "eaten" by the color changes in the yarn. Great.
I started to do my dish towels with a simple weave pattern. Nope. With the yarn I'm using (the colors are fairly bright) the pattern looked horrible! So I pulled out all 13 rows I'd done and started looking again. There is a pattern in my book called "flame" that might work. Again, it will probably get "swallowed up" by the color changes, but the idea of a 'flame' would work a lot better with these colors than the weave did. Hopefully I'll get a chance to find out soon.
Well, it's late and I think it's time to call it quits. Maybe I'll get this whole dish towel thing worked out. If not? Well, that cotton yarn makes great dish cloths. LOL
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
A Seasonal Quilter
I've been thinking about this for the past week and I've decided that it's weird. *grin* I absolutely adore quilting. I love quilting. I love sewing fabric together, I love picking it out and cutting it up. I detest ironing (or pressing), but will spend however long it takes to get that new fabric pressed and ready to be put in my stash. I also love watching new color combinations come together to make a beautiful quilt. So, here comes the weird part.
I've decided that I'm a seasonal quilter. I prefer quilting during the fall and the winter. Oddly enough, in the spring and summer, I prefer knitting. Oh, on cooler days, I do drag out my quilting again and move a little further on whatever I was working on before the heat hit, but I usually just knit. I don't know. Maybe it's a female internal thing. One year during the summer, I knitted all of my children and the neighbor's children new scarves for the winter. Last year, I tackled slippers for the boys and myself. I haven't quite figured out how to do more 'difficult' things. I consider myself a "hobby knitter" and a "serious quilter." Therefore, all my 'snazzy' skills are in quilting, not knitting. *smile*
I will admit that my knitting and quilting will mix and match for awhile. I'll knit until I drop and then switch back to quilting for awhile. I'll quilt for a week or two and then switch back to knitting again. All I do know is that I love to keep my hands busy. If I'm just sitting there, whether it be at one of my sons' practices or watching TV, I hate the wasted time if my hands aren't busy. However, if I'm quilting (hand work usually) or knitting, then I feel like the time has been productive. That and it also helps keep me from biting my nails. *grin*
I prefer taking knitting with me outside. We can have the most horrendous winds around here, especially in the spring. Mind you, I don't think you can do anything in 30 mph winds, but even in the lighter breezes you can't really piece or applique very well. Yarn holds up much better to that than does thread.
So! What am I going to make this year during the summer? Well. I have discovered that I dislike sewing or quilting for sale. I don't like to sell my quilts or anything of that nature. However, I did just discover that I don't mind knitting for money. *grin* Just small stuff that I can finish easily. I probably don't mind the idea of selling my knitting because I have NO clue what to do with any of the small things I make. LOL It then leads to indecision because I don't know what I'm even going to make. Now, my acrylic yarn is going to make little squares for wounded soldier afghans. Yesterday, I just bought a lot of pure 100% cotton yarn (I adore cotton. Must be the quilter in me. *grin*) to create kitchen sets to sell at a craft sale closer to Christmas. I'm not sure how many I'll get made, but I'm hoping for a minimum of 3 sets. I know, I know. That doesn't seem like a whole lot. However, we are moving in late August to mid September. I'm just trying to keep my goals reasonable. Besides, each kitchen 'set' includes a dish towel and 2 dishcloths. All the extra cotton I have left over from creating the sets will then be used to make extra dishcloths.
With that, I'm going to head on out. Instead of knitting or quilting, I bought some little pots and seeds yesterday. The boys and I are going to go plant them soon and watch them grow. I just hope I can convince the boys to just look at them and not pick the little plants as they come up. *grin*
Have a great day!
I've decided that I'm a seasonal quilter. I prefer quilting during the fall and the winter. Oddly enough, in the spring and summer, I prefer knitting. Oh, on cooler days, I do drag out my quilting again and move a little further on whatever I was working on before the heat hit, but I usually just knit. I don't know. Maybe it's a female internal thing. One year during the summer, I knitted all of my children and the neighbor's children new scarves for the winter. Last year, I tackled slippers for the boys and myself. I haven't quite figured out how to do more 'difficult' things. I consider myself a "hobby knitter" and a "serious quilter." Therefore, all my 'snazzy' skills are in quilting, not knitting. *smile*
I will admit that my knitting and quilting will mix and match for awhile. I'll knit until I drop and then switch back to quilting for awhile. I'll quilt for a week or two and then switch back to knitting again. All I do know is that I love to keep my hands busy. If I'm just sitting there, whether it be at one of my sons' practices or watching TV, I hate the wasted time if my hands aren't busy. However, if I'm quilting (hand work usually) or knitting, then I feel like the time has been productive. That and it also helps keep me from biting my nails. *grin*
I prefer taking knitting with me outside. We can have the most horrendous winds around here, especially in the spring. Mind you, I don't think you can do anything in 30 mph winds, but even in the lighter breezes you can't really piece or applique very well. Yarn holds up much better to that than does thread.
So! What am I going to make this year during the summer? Well. I have discovered that I dislike sewing or quilting for sale. I don't like to sell my quilts or anything of that nature. However, I did just discover that I don't mind knitting for money. *grin* Just small stuff that I can finish easily. I probably don't mind the idea of selling my knitting because I have NO clue what to do with any of the small things I make. LOL It then leads to indecision because I don't know what I'm even going to make. Now, my acrylic yarn is going to make little squares for wounded soldier afghans. Yesterday, I just bought a lot of pure 100% cotton yarn (I adore cotton. Must be the quilter in me. *grin*) to create kitchen sets to sell at a craft sale closer to Christmas. I'm not sure how many I'll get made, but I'm hoping for a minimum of 3 sets. I know, I know. That doesn't seem like a whole lot. However, we are moving in late August to mid September. I'm just trying to keep my goals reasonable. Besides, each kitchen 'set' includes a dish towel and 2 dishcloths. All the extra cotton I have left over from creating the sets will then be used to make extra dishcloths.
With that, I'm going to head on out. Instead of knitting or quilting, I bought some little pots and seeds yesterday. The boys and I are going to go plant them soon and watch them grow. I just hope I can convince the boys to just look at them and not pick the little plants as they come up. *grin*
Have a great day!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Hand Piecing
There are still many quilters out there who hand piece. Many of us find it very relaxing and enjoyable. Others use it to get precise points and edges on blocks that would be very difficult to piece by machine. I sort of fall into both categories. I also hand piece for convenience, oddly enough. As a mother with 3 boys, time in the sewing room is a precious commodity. I sometimes don't even get to go in there for any amount of time for days. That can put a serious crimp in piecing quilts and quilting them.
Currently, my main sewing machine is set up for free motion quilting. That makes it difficult to switch easily from quilting to piecing mode. I also want to keep it set up until my current quilt being quilted is complete. It has 48 blocks in it, each needing extra quilting to hold the batting in place. It's slow going, but it's turning out beautiful.
Back to hand piecing. I currently have a total of 3 quilts and 1 block in hand piecing mode. I've never been too good at staying with a single quilt until it was finished. *smile* The current one I'm working on, and have been for several days now, is one that could actually be pieced by machine easily enough. So I guess that begs the question of, "why are you hand piecing it?" Well, it's simple really. When I started it, I was deep in 'hand piecing mode.' When I got sick and tired of one hand piecing project (it's still not finished), I started looking around for something else to work on. My son's quilt was finally all cut out and ready to start piecing. It was available and easy to grab when I went looking. It's an I-Spy quilt using the Hexagon Star pattern. I started thinking that it was never going to get done last night. So I sat down, counted out how many hexagons I still had to do, multiplied that by 2 because that's what the sewing machine instructions say to do, put 2 triangles on opposite sides before sewing them all together. In hand piecing, it works differently, but the counting idea works the same. *smile*
So, I sat counting out hexagons. I can't believe how many I cut out! My kids are going to get completely overwhelmed by this quilt. I still found it a lot of fun looking at the patterns I'd picked though. *smile* Okay... I have 80 hexagons left to sew in. See, a lot of them. Multiply that by 2 and you end up with 160. Wow. You know what? I don't have that many triangles ready to sew. I tend to only make a few at a time. It gets boring drawing them and cutting them out. Anyway!! That gives me 240 total pieces left for this top to be finished (we'll just ignore how the edge gets finished for now). I'm not sure how many are already in there because I didn't feel like counting those ones. LOL So, here's my goal. With 240 pieces left, if I did at least 3 pieces a day, then I should have a finished quilt top in 80 days.
You know. When I hand piece, I do it in a circular pattern. Take the hexagon. I started on one side, put on a triangle, then continued around the edge of the hexagon until all the triangles were in place. Then, I went around all the triangles putting in the next 'round' of hexagons. And so on and so forth. What this does is allow you to keep a longer sewing thread going. Less cutting and tying off. If I remember correctly, it also makes it stronger because the thread is spread out among more pieces so it takes the stress off of one single section.
Hmm... I guess I should count the triangles I have and then start making more of them. I'd hate to come to a screeching halt again just because I ran out of triangles! That's what happened to me last time. That was very annoying. Oh, the idea of holding up a finished quilt top in about 80 days that I actually hand pieced is an incredible idea!
Umm... I think I'll just ignore the fact that I don't know how to quilt it yet. I really don't relish the idea of hand quilting it even though it would be really weird machine quilting it after taking all that time to hand piece it. LOL Oh, well. It's my quilt, I can do what I want... So there!
Currently, my main sewing machine is set up for free motion quilting. That makes it difficult to switch easily from quilting to piecing mode. I also want to keep it set up until my current quilt being quilted is complete. It has 48 blocks in it, each needing extra quilting to hold the batting in place. It's slow going, but it's turning out beautiful.
Back to hand piecing. I currently have a total of 3 quilts and 1 block in hand piecing mode. I've never been too good at staying with a single quilt until it was finished. *smile* The current one I'm working on, and have been for several days now, is one that could actually be pieced by machine easily enough. So I guess that begs the question of, "why are you hand piecing it?" Well, it's simple really. When I started it, I was deep in 'hand piecing mode.' When I got sick and tired of one hand piecing project (it's still not finished), I started looking around for something else to work on. My son's quilt was finally all cut out and ready to start piecing. It was available and easy to grab when I went looking. It's an I-Spy quilt using the Hexagon Star pattern. I started thinking that it was never going to get done last night. So I sat down, counted out how many hexagons I still had to do, multiplied that by 2 because that's what the sewing machine instructions say to do, put 2 triangles on opposite sides before sewing them all together. In hand piecing, it works differently, but the counting idea works the same. *smile*
So, I sat counting out hexagons. I can't believe how many I cut out! My kids are going to get completely overwhelmed by this quilt. I still found it a lot of fun looking at the patterns I'd picked though. *smile* Okay... I have 80 hexagons left to sew in. See, a lot of them. Multiply that by 2 and you end up with 160. Wow. You know what? I don't have that many triangles ready to sew. I tend to only make a few at a time. It gets boring drawing them and cutting them out. Anyway!! That gives me 240 total pieces left for this top to be finished (we'll just ignore how the edge gets finished for now). I'm not sure how many are already in there because I didn't feel like counting those ones. LOL So, here's my goal. With 240 pieces left, if I did at least 3 pieces a day, then I should have a finished quilt top in 80 days.
You know. When I hand piece, I do it in a circular pattern. Take the hexagon. I started on one side, put on a triangle, then continued around the edge of the hexagon until all the triangles were in place. Then, I went around all the triangles putting in the next 'round' of hexagons. And so on and so forth. What this does is allow you to keep a longer sewing thread going. Less cutting and tying off. If I remember correctly, it also makes it stronger because the thread is spread out among more pieces so it takes the stress off of one single section.
Hmm... I guess I should count the triangles I have and then start making more of them. I'd hate to come to a screeching halt again just because I ran out of triangles! That's what happened to me last time. That was very annoying. Oh, the idea of holding up a finished quilt top in about 80 days that I actually hand pieced is an incredible idea!
Umm... I think I'll just ignore the fact that I don't know how to quilt it yet. I really don't relish the idea of hand quilting it even though it would be really weird machine quilting it after taking all that time to hand piece it. LOL Oh, well. It's my quilt, I can do what I want... So there!
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