Happy Mother's Day

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and a wonderful Mother's Day.

I spent some of my time cleaning, but decided to devote the rest of the weekend to quilting.

You see, last weekend, when I told my blog readers that I worked on six quilts at a time, they were not impressed.

Mrs. Goodneedle said: Only six?
Barb said: Six projects? is that all

It's a tough crowd, but I aim to please, so this weekend, I am trying to see if I can top my six projects. I am going to have to be careful though to not add too many, because I have a feeling the same crowd will turn on me and call the men in the white coats, and being quilters, will know to ask that the padded cell is not padded with fabric.

There was an easy addition, the leaders and enders rail fence quilt. The next addition is also easy, it is the quilt on my header. It uses the right color thread, and the blocks have been complaining about feeling used. And the third will be a Jane Stickle block.

Will I be able to do it? Tune in tomorrow, or whenever I write my next post.

Ants!

When I asked my mother to make some low-salt, wheat-free frozen dinners for me to pack for lunch, it came with free delivery. She has the keys to my house, so she will put the food in my freezer or refrigerator. While she is here, she also washes the dishes and cleans the sink. One day she said she noticed ants outside my house. She put some ant traps outside that I think is food that kills the queen. Lately, she has been cleaning out my kitchen cabinets, and taking out food that has expired. She even found a can from 2006! I don't know how that could have happened. No wonder I was running out of room in my cabinets. Anyway, my kitchen is cleaner now than it has been in a while.

So imagine my surprise when I came downstairs for breakfast and found an ant on my kitchen counter. I killed it, thinking everything was fine, but there was another one, and another one. And another one. Then I saw the millions that were in the sink. Aargh! It's an invasion! I was afraid to go into my kitchen this morning, but I think I've taken care of the problem.

The photo was taken by my nephew during our walk on Easter. The one I took was too blurry to use.

Spiderweb

Have you seen Helen's prayer flag challenge? It looks and sounds fabulous, and I am going to do it. After all, when you are working on 6 quilts, what's one more. It is small, and it will be 1/7th of what I'm working on. Each additional quilt is proportionately easier.

I made a sample of my optical illusion quilt. I made the rows the same size, because it would take up less fabric and I didn't want to take up valuable time figuring out what size to make each row. I probably should have practiced so I could figure out how I wanted to do it. I made the angles 60 degrees instead of 6 degrees, because I thought all of my rulers had that marking. Turns out that only one of them did, and it was a small one. I am pretty sure I have a bigger ruler with a 60 degree marking, but I decided I would rather not waste time looking for it, so I had to finagle the small ruler on the big ruler, and I kept having to relearn how to turn the ruler so that the angle mark was at the right place for me to cut the angle right. Hopefully that practice will make it easier on the real thing. I didn't add seam allowance, but I found out that I didn't have to.

I pressed all the rows at the end when I made the sample, and I think I will fingerpress first, or maybe I will press each row as I sew it, because it is hard to make everything turn the right way when they are such tiny pieces. Or maybe I should use a smaller iron. I didn't pin the pieces together and found out that I really didn't need to. I probably will pin once in a while just to keep the pieces straight, but I definitely won't be piecing each seam like I was originally planning.

Oh yeah, and it turns out that my sample illusion quilt looks exactly like a spider web quilt. I knew there was a word I was thinking off when I was trying to describe it, saying that it was like a bargello or trip around the world, only with trapezoids. I am going to finish off this sample and make a small wall hanging out of it. And when I am finished with it and the optical illusion quilt, I will be able to check off "make spiderweb quilt" off my to-do list, even though when I thought of a spiderweb quilt, I was thinking of making it scrappy.

Quilting Retreat

I decided to work on just in time inventory at work. I need to prepare packets for the supervisors, but if I work fast enough, I will be able to stay a step ahead of the supervisors, and have each packet ready when they are ready for it. This means I will be really busy tomorrow. It will be extra stress, because I am not used to cutting it that close. I hope my allergies give me a break.

But it also means that I can take the weekend off!

I didn't plan any of it, but it turned out to be a nice quilting retreat weekend. It rained, so I couldn't mow the lawn. And my mother has been providing regular meals, so I don't have to prepare lunches either!

I sat at the sewing machine, and sewed the rows together for the last Quilts for Kids. Since the iron is upstairs, I decided to set it aside, and figure out what else needed sewn. I added the two inner border sides on the other Quilts for Kids quilt. And then the same thing to the next one. Set those aside for pressing.

Then I started sewing strips for the sample of the optical illusion quilt. Maybe if I work it in, in between all the other quilts, the Quilt Police won't notice that I started yet another quilt. Set that aside for pressing.

I then worked on adding the revised borders for the Moldy Cheese and Crackers quilt. It isn't easy to do that one, since I already have that one sandwiched and part of it quilted, but I had already done the unsewing, so I just needed to add the borders. Each quilt wound up being a leader and ender. Is it possible to just sew assembly line? Yes it is, if you work on five quilts at a time.

I thought about making a Dear Jane block, but I thought you would have thought I have really gone off the deep end. That, and the fabric needs to be washed, and if I wash that, I would have to do the laundry!

It was good timing for the Cheese and Crackers quilt though, because it turns out that Lori is starting another quilt.

As I was pressing my parts and pieces, I also pressed the fabric for the Optical Illusion quilt. That makes 6 quilts I was working on, but I won't tell anyone if you won't.

Quilting Update

It's Friday, so I am supposed to be showing you what I've sewed this week for Sew and Tell. Stay awhile, and when you're done reading my blog, be sure to go to Amy's blog to see what other, more productive, people have been sewing.

Sorry there isn't anything finished to show you. Progress has been slow here on the High Road. I am making four Quilts for Kids. The first one is a completed top, pressed and ready for sandwiching and quilting. Two of them have the blocks all together, and are waiting for pressing and borders. The last one has the blocks done, and is waiting to be put together into a top.


Plans and ideas have been completed for the optical illusion quilt. I am going to draw this out on a large sheet of paper so I can properly determine the size of all of the rows. I could try to do it math-wise, but I am a more visual person. Then I was thinking of making a small sample, using 60 degree angles, and just a few rows, to see if there is anything else I am supposed to be thinking of that I haven't.

Book Review: Rhyming Pretzels

I decided to try a different publisher for my book reviews. Dorrance Publishing sells a larger variety of books, mostly from new authors. The book I chose was Rhyming Pretzels, The Word-Play Game with a Comical Twist by D. R. Curtis.

The concept is pretty simple, you make a paragraph or story, around 5 sentences long, using as many words as you can that rhyme. The word pretzel is supposed to have a comical, surprise, thoughtful or insightful twist. There are lots of pages, with lots of space for you to add your pretzel. On each page, she provides you with lists of words that rhyme to get you started.

It is an interesting concept, and she does say that we have to use our mind actively and be positive in creating these pretzels. Personally I find it pretty intimidating to create my own comical twists. And I think it would have been useful to have bought a rhyming dictionary instead of having them provided in this format.

I think it would be great for people who work with words, or who are witty, or enjoy playing word games and want to try something different.

I received a complimentary copy of Rhyming Pretzels as a member of the Dorrance Publishing Book Review Team. Visit dorrancebookstore.com to learn how you can become a member of the Book Review Team.

Meat and Potatoes

Having used up all of the electrical impulses in my brain, and having nothing interesting to say, I still want to impart the following tidbit of trivia.

My co-workers are not used to seeing meat and potatoes in the same dish. Since I made food in batches, I tend to take the same thing frequently to work, and everyone I have eaten with, cannot identify and is surprised to see potatoes cooked together with ground beef. Yep, I like to save dishes. The more stuff I can throw in one pot - meat and vegetables, the fewer dishes to cook, the fewer dishes to store in the refrigerator, the fewer dishes to reheat, and the fewer dishes to wash.