IHAN - 30 Days of Giveaways Anniversary

I Had A Notion is having The 30 Days of Giveaways Anniversary Celebration . Go Check it out. The AccuQuilt Go is just one of the prises. Boy would I love to have that!

Blog Link:: http/www.ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/

Website Link : http://www.blogger.com/Ihavea-notion.com

Friday Fill Ins

I found this "Fill In" at Tonya's Sewing Room .
Tonya found it at Not So Plain Jane, where Rachel does a new one every Friday.
Fill in the blanks when you can't think of anything to say!

1. In 1992, I was a lot younger and thinner.
2. Love, laughter and smiles.
3. Do what you will, with what you have, where you are.
4. Peaceful and content is where I'd like to be.
5. The trees and flowers are telling me sow seeds and reap vegetables.
6. Happiness that just keeps going on.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to reading a book, tomorrow my plans include quilting and Sunday, I want to sew!

April 6th is National Tartan Day

April 6th is National Tartan Day. I think of sewing with Homespun Tartan Plaids.

A group I formerly quilted with every Wednesday, back in TN, swapped 2" x 6" plaids from our stashes. I printed and passed out the "Brick Walk" pattern for every one to use. Several members went right home, put their pieces together and had tops by the next week. Several of us added our bags of pieces to our UFO shelves, there probably should have been "BUP shelf" - Bags of Unstarted Projects. Every year on National Tartan Day I think of the bag of pieces and of the past friendships. One of these days I will dig the bag of plaids out, sew them together and think of all the good times our group had together. Our "Secret Santa Swap", trips down to Mary Jo's, quilting retreats at Buffalo Mountain Methodist Camp, trips to quilt shows and state quilt guild meeting. We had a lot of great times!

Scraps and Life

When life gives you scraps, as quilters we make quilts.

Other times in life we are given scraps and sometimes need to admit that the scraps we have been given are tooo rotten to work with.

My motto has always been:

Use it up,

Wear it out,

Make it do,

or Do without.

Several of my non-quilting commitments have gotten to be "NOT Enjoyable!" I am not getting paid enough for all this, OH YES, I am not getting paid for any of this!

The bad thing these commitments have cost me "Valued Quilting Time", over the last year - especially and a few for several years. I am dealing with very difficult people, that are draining the energy out of me! I am now dealing with back biting, controlling, rude, expectant people. They are now draining me of motivation, to steal 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there to sew a few stitches. I am haunted by them in my sleep, when I can actually fall asleep.

Over the years I seem to always end up being friends with, or befriending, the difficult people of groups I encounter. In school I was what I refer to as a "Geek Collector". I was, also, friends with the other stereotypical groups. Most of the geeks were actually very nice people that were true loyal and friends.

Some talk show, years ago, talked about these type of people. The "expert", said to: "Never steal someones joy/happiness and never ever be guilty of being someone that does this, either."

It is sometimes difficult to say enough is enough, which is what I am struggling to do now. l have never been a quitter.

Thank, God, I have never been on a sinking ship, I would have gone down with it - bailing like crazy!

Thanks, for letting me have my whine - boy - I sure would love some wine about now!

National Quilt Day

I hope everyone had a great day quilting today!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Here is a link to this cute little St Patrick's quilt.
Moonlight Quilts has it as a free pattern on their website.

Happy St Patrick's Day!

John Flynn Class

Wow, it has been a week, since I took John Flynn's, Storm at Sea class. It was a great class!
He and I have the same opinion on cutting and sewing seams. I have always tried to instill in my former students, that if they cut accurate and sew accurate, they will not have to rip out or re cut. We tested the width of our machines by sewing 3 - 2 inch squares together. The center square was supposed to measure exactly 1 1/2 inches.

All machines are not created equal! Needless to say there was a lot of ripping and resewing in the class.




A few days later at an informal group I occassionally meet with, one of the members said: "I didn't take the class and buy the templates, because I can just rotary cut squares and rectangles". "Right!"
That may be true if the light is right, the moon is in the right phase, she had a good protein breakfast and no coffee!

OK OK, so I had my laptop and pulled up the photos I had taken in the class, and showed her the potential problem areas. True, there is a big Square with in a Square block and a little Square with in a Square block. Those aren't a problem to rotary cut and sew accurately. But the two rectangular blocks can be difficult, if they stretch they will end up "wonky". Sewing the four sections together and getting those little midpoint seams to align perfect on all four sections can be a challenge. John's templates have the dog ears cut off to help you line up the pieces up.















Then we get to pressing the seams. If you get into the habit of always twirling your seams in the same direction on every quilt it will eliminate lumps and belly buttons on your quilt. When you press, left points back or toward you and right goes forward or away.


Any one who says they have been quilting and sewing for years and there is nothing to new to learn, is delusional! There is always a chance of hearing something new or trying a new technique.
I heard several years ago, after sewing over 40 years, if you were having trouble threading a needle, if you turned the eye around the thread would more than likely slide right through. The eye in a needle is punched, when it is made. There are tiny burrs on one side, that you can't see or feel; but the thread can.