Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Yet another quilt and more ramblings

Magazines

Once upon a time, was it only last year?, I vowed to myself that I would never subscribe to all those magazines again. They kept piling up, and I never had time to read them.  Most of them were free and I thought I could use them to make collages, or learn something new, and then donate them to the local charity, which even picks up the stuff.   How quickly we forget.

Remember the Italy and the England trip?  Well, I managed to get some frequent flyer miles, and they are expiring.  Do I have enough to go anywhere else, maybe even across the state? No, I have just enough to pick up some magazines. Lots of magazines.  I hate to lose out on all my points, but I am not going to jump through any hoops to keep them active, or to figure out what the hoops are, so I will be supporting the USPS this year with tons of magazines.  I'm sorry and you're welcome.

To get ready, I went through (some of) my current magazine collection (current as in they were from 2010, but I hadn't gotten around to reading them yet) and donated the whole lot (except the quilting magazines, of course, cause they weren't free, and 'cause I can never get done looking at them.)  The charity thrift shop and its magazine buyers will be happy, I'm sure, especially if I can speed up the cycle and send not too outdated magazines.

I'm going to have to keep a box handy and create a system to fill the box as soon as these magazines start coming.


Quilt

I've started yet another quilt.  Yes, another one. The Small Quilt newsgroup headed by Kathleen Tracy (Prairie Children and their Quilts, Remembering Adelia, etc.) has a challenge where they make one small quilt a month. I like small quilts, because they have a quick finish, and I want to make more.  It's funny, when I showed my friend the other ones I made this year, she didn't understand their purpose.  She suggested sewing them up together, and adding an extra layer of batting so they would be really useful, of course.  Maybe I've been hanging around quilters too much (online) since I now think that thin quilts and small quilts are normal. Every person I know who isn't familiar with quilts thinks of quilts as bed size comforters.

In the photo, I am auditioning the background and border fabrics.  I am sewing on the binding now.  This one turned out to be much bigger than my other small quilts.  I thought about using fewer "coins" but instead I added an inner border, so it is even bigger than the pattern.  Oh well, the quilt wall will need a variety of sizes, and this one will fill up the wall much faster.  Of course, I still need to get a nice wall for the quilts.

Daughter

My daughter is coming back, not soon enough, but after a year in England, the plane ticket has been bought.  I am doing my belated spring cleaning, now that I finally have the time, and it feels like I am getting ready for her to come to a fresh clean house.   I'll have to think of something else special for her return.

HubPages

I have joined the Apprentice Program on HubPages.  They teach you how to properly write articles that will generate traffic and revenue.  The first month, they give you a list of 8 articles to write, and after that you learn to choose your own topics and titles.  I am planning on writing 24 this month instead of the minimum of 8.  So far this month, I have written two:

How to Finish a Quilt Back is one of the ones that was chosen for me. It is about choosing a backing fabric. I asked Barb from Fun with Barb if I could use some of her photos, and she said yes. Thank you so much Barb. Your pictures provided great support to the hub.   She always has such interesting backs on her quilts, that as soon as I saw the assignment, I thought of her.  We can only provide two links to each hub to any one site, so I tried to limit myself to just two of her pictures, because I wanted to link them to particular blog posts.  I wound up using three, and just skipped the link on one of them.

Avoid the 9 Most Commonly Broken Driving Laws is one I chose for myself. These are based on actual statistics from the state of Florida.

I am going to let you know all of the hubs I write during this program so that you can keep track of my progress.



2 comments:

Nancy said...

Boy, do I hear you on the magazine issue. I, too, turned air miles in to magazines. After I've read them, I take them to the local hospital for the waiting rooms, the place were my car is serviced, and the local library where they have an area to leave unwanted magazines for others to take. Each place appreciates the magazines, my house is not overwhelmed with paper, and they stay out of the recycle bin for a while.

Barb said...

I'm a page ripper when it comes to magazines. I just rip and then recycle.
Your new little quilt looks fun -
I know you are going to enjoy having your daughter home! how nice