Anti-Machine

Well, it would appear that I'm against using my sewing machine right now. For the past 2 or so weeks, I've been exclusively hand piecing even though the blocks I'm working on are easy and could be done quickly by machine. I'm doing them while watching movies so that's mainly why. However, I finally picked out the fabrics needed for my "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler" block and I still don't want to do anything about it yet. I'm doing this out of scraps, so the fact that I finally got into my scrap bag was impressive. *grin* I pulled out a bunch of fabrics and put them into an empty plastic box so that I'd have them available for my other blocks. I currently have 9 of them printed out and waiting to be done.

I'm not sure when I'll get the current block done. I need to press the fabrics, cut them out, and sew them together. Whether I'll do it by machine or by hand I don't know yet. I usually mark my sewing lines on my hand pieced blocks so that takes extra time. Maybe it's just time to learn to eyeball the seam and call it good. The last time I tried that, I was actually pretty close. I'll think about it for future blocks.

I guess you could just say that I'm lazy at the moment. I think I'll set aside the fabrics I chose for this block for another day and go back to my Bible study. *smile* Besides, I don't have good light for cutting during the evening anyway. So yes, waiting until at least tomorrow morning is a grand idea! *grin* Hopefully, I'll have one to share before too long. I wanted to start this quilt ages ago and only have 5 currently done. Oh, well. It will get done eventually, I hope.

Writing in Books

Let me start off by saying that I'm a Christian and proud of it. However, I'm still what I'd consider a "baby Christian." I have a hard time getting into the Word of God and really studying it. So, I bought a book today that's supposed to help me with that. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it recommends purchasing a Bible that you're going to write in. *gasp* Write in a book?! Write in the Holy Bible?! You have got to be kidding! I can barely underline a verse I find relevant to my life today!

I view everything written in a bound book as sacred. A print out is a different story. I'll highlight and make notes in the margins to my heart's content. Those can always be reprinted. No big deal. But a printed and bound book is hard for me to write in.

The book I'm reading now, Living in the Book, says not to worry about writing in the Bible. To see the Bibles you use up doing a personal Bible study as a testament to studying the Holy Word faithfully. Okay, I can see that. Really, I can.

What interests me is that not everyone has that issue with marking in books. As a matter of fact, I accuse my husband of being "highlighter happy." He will highlight anything in a book he owns if it even mildly interests him or strikes him as applicable. Once, as a joke, I bought him a large collection of multi-colored highlighters. He loved those things. LOL

Perhaps, in purchasing a Bible with the full intent of writing all over it from the beginning, then maybe I could actually do it. I will never know unless I try it. *smile* I'll think about it some more while I read more of this book. Perhaps I should attempt to highlight interesting thoughts in this one first... Though I almost want to shudder at the idea.

I'll have to consider this some more before I fully decide. We're talking about having to overcome a serious personality trait here. Perhaps paying extra to just print out my own Bible will have to be the answer. I use E-Sword. It's an electronic Bible that a wonderful programmer put together and offers for free. I run it under Vista and it works just fine. I also ran it under XP before that computer crashed and it was fine there too. I'd definitely recommend that you take a look at it. As of right now, that's the option I like the best. Print outs are my friend. *grin*

Time for a Break!

Well, I took today off of painting. Yesterday, I got all my stuff moved away from my large wall with the window in it and got it painted gray. I also totally taped off my long wall (it stretches from the front door all the way back to my bedroom) and got it ready. Then the other hallway wall got its final coat of paint. I even painted part of the long wall gray. It's actually going to be color washed (it's a faux paint technique) so that's going to take more time. In taking off the tape from the wall with the window, I noticed I messed up in a few areas, but that won't take much to attack with with a paint brush and fix it.

I'm getting there! Unfortunately, a cold front moved in and it's time to get the windows closed for awhile. So I think I get tomorrow off too. Oh, well. It's time to do the grocery shopping anyway and I need new light switch and outlet covers to put on the finished walls. Not to mention having them ready for the other walls for when they're finished.

I'm doing my best to not procrastinate over this. Really, I am! Just because I tend to do that doesn't mean I'll do it this time. Actually, I'm making it a goal to not do that.

Other than that, nothing much is going on around here. I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and pick up my new entertainment center tomorrow or not. I could switch my stuff over now since I need that away from my wall to get it ready to paint anyway. Then I can get the old one out of my house at the same time. I also should check on the area rug I want. It might be out of stock so I might need to backorder it. I'm not in any real hurry to get it in. It would just be nice to get it on sale. *grin*

I did do some hand piecing this evening. Just more work on my Joann BOM from way back when. I wonder when this one was put out anyway. Hmmm... There's a copyright of 2002 on the back of the instructions. Wow. My friend had this sitting in her house awhile before sending it to me. Then it sat around here for another year. *grin* It's been aging. It's good for quilts. *grin* I'd show pictures of my progress, but I'm hand piecing the entire thing. In hand piecing, you don't iron it until it's all finished. While I have 3 blocks finished, and a 4th almost done, I'm also going to hand piece the rest of it. So they look funny at the moment. But I need those seams nice and floppy while I'm working on it. I promise a picture when the top is finished. If it's ever finished. *grin* Another anti-procrastination goal, don't you think?

With that, I'm off to bed! Night!

Redecorating

Well, my quilting hasn't been going anywhere for the past few days. I decided last week to redecorate my living room. It's looked the same, or at least shifted along the same lines, for about 5 years now. I decided that was long enough and now it's all changing.

We live in a relatively small home, but our furniture has never reflected that very well. So along with new paint in the living room and one hallway we have, I'm also stripping out our furniture and replacing it with nicer, smaller, and more functional items.

I have decided to leave behind our color scheme, if there ever was one, and I'm going more towards a monochromatic, contemporary look. I want something that will enable me to change the looks of my living room without all the work I'm going through now.

Previously, the main color in our living room was a rich plum color. It was very pretty, but it meant more 5 years ago when I actually had a reason for it. Over the years, that reason has changed as new furniture has come and gone. As a matter of fact, our living room looked like a color blind tornado had come through it and decorated it for me. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason for any colors or furniture in my living room. With my delicate sense of color, it's amazing that it stayed that way for so long. Maybe it was just finding a way to come up with the money necessary to change it as well as the energy. Or maybe even the desire to battle my 3 boys in keeping the newer stuff nice. Who knows?

Yesterday, I had 2 neighbors come in and help me get rid of my large furniture in the living room. Bye, bye couch and large desk. Then, I ran to Home Depot and bought a small fortune in paint. I now have my white hallway wall needing only one more coat of paint, the long plum wall that went from the front door all the way back to my bedroom door totally primed (it's going to a much lighter color this time), and the wall next to our front door completely done. At least something is done! LOL

I really want to get going on the wall that has our front window in it. However, that's where I have 2 bookcases, my main sewing cabinet, and my cutting table. The amount of work needed to get all of that moved is sort of mind boggling. Especially after doing so much yesterday. I'll get there though as 3 boxes stacked in my living room is my new desk. It replaces the huge desk I had removed and one of those bookcases. It also fits into a corner so takes up so much less space. It also has a more contemporary design. So, the wall with the window has to be done soon. I just need to take a deep breath and tackle that wall. Then again, I might look at it, shudder, and give the hallway its last coat of paint first. *grin* Actually, that's probably the best idea anyway. Then I can call the hallway finished and move on. Then it gives me a good break from painting while moving more stuff around in my living room to get ready to paint that main wall.

It just all takes time. I'm even taking pictures of it. From messy, cluttered beginning to hopefully a lovely and clean finish. *grin* Wish me luck! I'm going to need it!

The Difference between what I SHOULD be doing and what I WANT to do

Okay, as most crafters are aware, we love to change up what we're doing. I have so many quilts going right now that I actually have to keep a list of them! I even created a sheet called a "Quilt Journal" to track my items from start to finish. Well, the newer ones are from start to finish. The old ones just got added when I created the journal in the first place. All I do is print out a page for each quilt and put it into a 3-ring binder. I add information to the quilt's sheet when I work on it. It's also a great way to keep track of all I have around here needing worked on. Not only that, it's fun to read later on, either when the quilt is finished or when I have stalled on it for a long time. *grin*

However, back to what I want to do versus what I should be doing. I volunteered to help make bags for my mom for her craft fair. Lovely little gift bags that her stained glass items will go into when she makes a sale. I also made a whole slew extra for her just to sell on the side if someone wants one. I really need to get to work on those and finish them up. She needs them by Nov. 1. I'll give myself until the end of next week to finish them up. Actually, if I devote an entire day to them, I'll get them all done.

So, there's what I SHOULD be doing. But what do I WANT to do? Of course I'll tell you! *grin*

Last week, I finally "broke down" after 2 months of deliberation and we added a cute little kitten to our household. He is black with silver guard hairs and one white spot on his belly. He's so cute. (I know, at this point, a normal blogger would post a picture. I'm not a normal blogger, so get over it! *grin*) His name is Shadow and we adopted him from our local shelter. Many people don't like black cats because they scare them or they're superstitious and think the worst of the poor things. Well, I think black cats are beautiful. Though I'll tell you, trying to walk down a dark hall and see the kitten before whalloping it can be difficult. LOL

Anyway, yesterday I remembered a lovely project out there for shelter animals. They're called "Snuggles." What you do is create a small quilt and take it to a shelter. (Call first and make sure they accept them!) Then they put those small quilts into the cages with the animals to help comfort them while they're there, not to mention getting them off of those cold floors they're usually on in shelters. We walked our entire shelter before settling on Shadow. We got to see first hand what all those cats (and dogs) are going through in there. Most of the time, the floors are all cement to allow them to be washed easily and quickly. Even our kitty was up in the front office in a metal cage with 2 of his litter mates.

So, back to Snuggles. What you do is you make a small quilt and donate it. They will get washed a lot, so make sure they're very well made and can handle a lot. I personally will be making mine out of 100% cotton all the way through. I'll probably cross-hatch quilt it as that's a very sturdy quilting pattern. That, and if a few threads break, it won't come apart.

Quilt sizes for these little things:
14" X 14" for cats and small animals
24" X 24" for cats and small to medium dogs
36" X 36" for medium to large dogs

Oh, if you do this and talk to your shelter about them before bringing them in, they might not know what "snuggles" are. Just ask if you'd be "allowed" to donate a few small blankets for the animals. There is a directory here that is worldwide and shows if various shelters are already known to accept them. You're looking for a little kitten logo next to the shelter's name and information. That is the "Snuggles" logo. The shelter I will be donating to accepts them. I already know this because I even talked to them last year over the phone. Told you this was an idea that came and went. LOL Only now, it's more personal to me since we got our kitty there.

Just think, while they should be well-made so as not to fall apart on the poor animals, they don't care if you messed up! This is the perfect place for all those blocks you made and then you started thinking, "What in the world was I thinking?!" You can now put all of them to good use. I promise that an animal won't care if you think you made a mistake on it. *smile* I'm also thinking that this is a great way to get through some of my scraps I have. String blocks are fast to make and create such great patterns. I personally enjoy them because I love how they look when they're finished.

So, have fun and feel great when you're finished! Try out those new blocks that you're not sure of. Take your trial blocks that you made for another quilt before cutting into the "good" fabric and turn them into "Snuggles." Hey! We all have batting lying around here that won't work on another quilt but was too large to throw away. Backings are another great use of scraps. Not to mention a great place to put that fabric you're looking at now going, "What the heck is that?!" LOL

When I get a few made, I'll even post a picture or 2. Aren't you lucky? LOL I really do need to get better with my camera and use it more.

So, go forth and make a charity quilt or 2. No matter which charity you choose, it will be worth it when you're finished.