It's been a while but I'm Still Quilting

Do you remember this quilt? It was so white, not quite what I had in mind.I kept looking at it and thinking, this is going to end up being another UFO, so I took all those blocks apart.
It took FOREVER!! Here are all the pieces. I tried to organize them by color but you know what they say about good intentions.

Finally, after many hours, the top is almost done. I'm still thinking about what I want to do about borders but the worst part is over.

Here's a close up of some of the blocks.

It's been a too busy time at work so I have not done much reading. I feel like I've been trying to read the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo forever, I saw the movie which starts about halfway into the book. The movie was good, but there were scenes in the movie that did not make sense unless you read the book.

I've been slaving away to support my kitties, keeping them in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. LOL

Here is a rare picture of Silas & Snowflake together enjoying the sunshine.

Boy, to have the life of a cat.

ttfn :) Yuki

Beaded bracelets

Well, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my beaded bracelets. They need to be finished off but I just love the mix of colors. Aren't these colors great!

I hosted Stitch and Bitch today. What fun! I prepared a buffet like salad for everyone since it was much too hot to cook. Then ice cream for dessert. Yum

We have been meeting for 20 years. I found some old pictures of one of our early members. She is married now with a family of her own in Florida. I should look her up and give her a ring.

Yesterday, when I took inventory of the frig, which was pretty bare, Simba climbed in. I guess he wanted to get away from the heat.

Not much new here. I did manage to get some polish on my toes. What do you think? I just wanted something a little bit different. I've really gotten some compliments at work.

Kona Bay is having their 6 yard bolt sale. Check them out http://konabaygifts.com/quiltworks-nw-fabric-sale.html I placed an order for 2 pieces, not that I need any more fabric and lo and behold they were on my door step 3 days later. What service! These fabrics are beautiful. I almost wish I had gotten more.

Snowflake approves.

Here is a picture of Lori's quilt. This was a long time UFO. I was very happy to help her with this quilt. This quilt is just beautiful up close. The colors are just wonderful. I can't wait to see it completed.

I recently read 'The Help'. It takes place in Mississippi during the 60's. It centers around the maids and the families for whom they work. It was fascinating reading. I highly recommend it.

I also read 'The Beach Street Kniting Society and Yarn Club'. If you read the 'Friday Night Knitting Club', 'Beach Street' is similar except it takes place in England. Fun reading.

Until Next time,

ttfn :) Yuki

Great Reading

As some of you folks know, I'm an avid reader. I so enjoyed The Collectors by David Balducci, that I bought the remaining 2 books of the Camel Club series, Stone Cold and Divine Justice.

If you are looking for a great read this summer, I'd thoroughly recommend these books. I heard that there is a fifth book in this series coming out this fall.

I just finished reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I thought I had a rather stifled childhood. This book is an autobiographical account of her life growing up, "a searing memoir of growing up poor, hungry and sometimes homeless". It was stunning. It was amazing that someone survived that kind of upbringing and still managed to be a productive member of society. This book also brought to light the existence of people who choose to be homeless through their actions or lack there of. There is an interview of Jeannette Walls online from 2005 if you are interesting in hearing more. It was very interesting to hear her talk about her life. She shows no bitterness towards her mother, who is shown at the end of the interview. Her mother seems excited to be able show the interviewer her paintings.

My friend Valerie came up for a long weekend visit this past weekend. We drove to Pennsylvania to visit a friend. We stayed in Lancaster, not realizing that fabric shops are closed on Sundays. oh well Maybe we can fabric shop next time. We had a makeup day at mall and then it was time for her to go home to Charleston. You know what they say, the road between good friends is never long.

I haven't done much sewing lately but have done a lot of beading. I made a handful of glass bead bracelets. They aren't as colorful as stuff I usually do, mostly blues and greens. Maybe I'm in a blue period. I just bought a blue hand bag. Anyway, I'll try to get some photos up soon.

ttfn :) Yuki

Busy Busy Busy

It's been a while since I last posted. I have been busy! There was a ton of work waiting for me when I got home from my trip. It took me a whole day, just to answer work email. What a PAIN!

It took a few days to get my suitcase unpacked. My suitcase is still sitting in my bedroom waiting to be carried downstairs to be put away. I am a recovering workaholic but I have been getting a little better at maintaining a regular work schedule.

I finished block 7 of my Baltimore Bunnies BOM. I'm getting excited at the prospect of finishing it. My friend Jane is hand piecing her blocks together. I will be sewing mine by machine but I will probably hand quilt it.

I finished my veggie quilt. It was a UFO for a couple years. I machine quilted on my 30+ yr old Kenmore. Nothing fancy, just stitch in a ditch. The fabrics are so busy, I would imagine any fancy quilting would be lost.

I loved these fabrics. Here is a closeup of one of the corners. You can see the veggies a little better. I stuck in a boarder of candy fabrics. I thought they were very cute.

The fabric on the back is full of junk food & beer. I didn't have enough so I had to use some more veggie fabric. I think all in all, that it came out OK,

I used a low loft poly batting that is supposed to be anti-microbial something that I bought from JoAnns. I hate JoAnns but will buy my notions or batting there when they have a sale and/or free shipping. In this case, a whole roll of batting was 50% off, plus free shipping. Couldn't beat that.

I did go to JoAnns a couple weeks ago to buy some heavy duty plastic. I like to keep a nice table cloth on my dining room table. My cats seem to think that it's a nice place to scrap and roll around. They even nap on it! I got tired of constantly uprighting things and washing those huge table cloths. So, I put a nice piece of heavy plastic over the table cloth and the kitties don't find my table so interesting anymore. YAY!

My Stitch and Bitch group was over a few weeks ago. Whomever hosts, usually prepares lunch. We have some folks who are vegetarian and one lady who does not tolerate gluten. What a job it is to come up with something everyone likes. Then there is the chocolate. Gotta have chocolate. Anyway, I made fritatta. One with meat and one without. Then I bought 4 different kinds of ice cream and a bottle of chocolate syrup.

When I have people over for a meal, it's nice to be able to use the dining room. The kitties were not happy that they were not welcome on the table. Simba sat on one of the chairs watching everyone eat, waiting for a handout.

Aside from work & trying to sew more, I did manage to read Knit the Season & Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs and then Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. Knit the Season is the third book in the Friday Night Knitting Club series. It was a pleasant read, not as fun as the first 2 but still good. Shanghai Girls was great. "In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, full of great wealth and glamour, home to millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords." I'm really interested in reading other books by Lisa See. Apparently, there are quite a few. I picked this book up at Costco because I thought the cover interesting. You can go to this website to read the first chapter.

http://www.lisasee.com/shanghaigirls/

I'm currently reading The Collector by David Balducci. It starts out with a murder! That guy gets right to the action.

Check out Bumble Beans, Inc. My friend is in need of quilts, fabric and/or blocks. She does a lot of charity work. A link is also provided on my blog list.

TaTaForNow :) Yuki

I'm Home!

Got home last Friday just in time to have Easter with the family. I'm not really a big holiday person but seems holidays are the only time I see the extended family. It was nice to pull into the driveway and see my daffodils and forsythia in bloom. My azaleas are budding and will be blooming soon.

Went to Charleston to see my pal Valerie. We had planned to go to Atlanta but changed our minds and drove up to Asheville, NC to visit the Biltmore. If you've not been there, it's a sight to see. This house was built around the turn of the century and has gargoyles! This house had a staff of 21 maids & servants. It is supposed to be the first house in the United States that had a heated indoor swimming pool complete with electric lights on the bottom. Can you believe it?

The Vanderbilts lived on the main floor. Beautiful wood carvings and mouldings were everywhere. There is a huge music room complete with pipe organ. It was amazing. Elaborately turned out guest rooms were on the second floor complete with individual bathroom with running water, toilets & bathtubs.

Of course the floor where the maids lived were very sparse. No bathrooms for them, just chamber pots & wash basins. Talk about class distinctions!

The male staff members lived about the stables, so there was no hanky panky. "as if" (That's valley speak for "Yeah Right".) LOL

I had recently read the House at Riverton by Kate Morton. What a great story. It was quite easy to imagine the folks at Riverton living at the Biltmore or being a guest or perhaps one of the characters being a maid.

The Forgotten Garden also by Kate Morton was an excellent story. I read that last year when I was sick with a bug. It made laying around in bed not so terrible.

On my drive down to Charleston, I had to do a conference call with work. Can you believe it? What a way to start a vacation.

I listened to Valerie Bertinelli's book. She talked about her relationship with Eddie Van Halen and her weight issues. She also admitted to having affairs while she was married. I was stunned! I'd be taking that information to the grave.

Anyway, I also listened to David Balducci's, The Camel Club on my drive home. One of the nice ladies who reads my blog recommended it. Also, a great story! I wonder if there is a sequel. These characters are too good to just end.

I picked up these books on CD at the Cracker Barrel. They have a deal where you buy the book but you can return it to any Cracker Barrel and get your money back. They just charge you $3 for each week you have it. What a deal!

This has been a long week of work. I spend most of Monday answering email. Of course, I had to deal with email while I was off. Is that sad or what?

Have you ever had a dream that was too good to be true. I had one this morning. I was getting a massage by that very handsome blond haired guy from Spartucus, Blood & Sand, that show on Starz. We were having a nice time and my roommate's mother comes in talking about coffee. I don't even have a roommate but got rid of the roommate's mother any way to get back to my massage. It's time to turn over and Blondie leans over and rubs his face next to mine and is blowing in my ear. I couldn't figure out what he was trying to say with his whispery breath but it's fun anyway.

Then I open my eyes and it's Simba rubbing his face on mine. It's 8:30 and I'm an hour late getting his breakfast. All the other kitties will let me sleep in but Simba is insistent that he gets his food on time. Breakfast at 7:30 am, dinner at 6pm. Oh well, the dream was nice while it lasted.

Today, I'm back doing house stuff, talking to contractors about the work that needs to be done to repair the damage done during the blizzard and grocery shopping for the Stitch and Bitch group coming tomorrow.

It will be nice to do some sewing and bitching. Wish ya'll could come. LOL

ttfn :) Yuki

Porsche Take Me Away

I'm leaving in a sports car, don't know when I'll be back again. Oh, Babe, I'm glad to go. LOL A little poetic license there. I'm taking a road trip to Charleston to visit a friend and then we are driving to Atlanta. Yay, us. I'll be back next month. Does anyone know any quilty shops in Charleston or Atlanta?

In the meantime, Happy Quilting.

ta ta for now :) Yuki

Susan won the books

Susan from SewManyThingsToSay won the books from this past weeks giveaway. So Susan, send me your snail mail info and I will get those books out asap.

As a follow up on my previous post about misfortunes in shopping, I wanted to thank everyone who emailed and/or commented. I was a very loyal customer of that shop and to be honest my feelings were hurt.

July 1998, I moved from the Washington, DC metro area to San Francisco. I had to come back to DC one week out of every month for business. I made it a point to stop at that store to shop every time. I buy fabric whenever I travel but I really did make a special effort to visit that shop. Anyway, I did that until Jan 2000, when I moved back to the DC area.

I sent my Stitch and Bitch group an email about my experience and one of the members tsk tsk the whole thing and cc'd the store. One of the store owners sent me a very nice email and promised me a gift certificate as well as a new punch card. Well, imagine my surprise when I found a very generous gift certificate and a full punch card in today's mail.

So maybe I'll got back after all.

I have no pictures to post. I've been washing and ironing fabric. Boring!

I'm making those star blocks that are the BOM from the Quilt Show. There are a million half square triangles used to make those stinkin' stars. Now I love star blocks, but good grief, why use so many half square triangles when you can make flying geese blocks. There are so many **** seams, that cross each other that they were driving me nuts. When you have 8 seams crossing at the same point, they do not lie flat for anything. I steamed those blocks to death to get them to lie flat and they won't. Then to add insult to injury, when I measured the finished block, it was a quarter inch short in all directions.

Now, I sew a scant quarter inch. I know because I always check.

So, the next block, I decided that I wasn't going to do all those **** half square triangles. I re-worked the pattern so that they would be as few seams as possible. Smart! huh?!? Well, I still had a couple places where too many seams crossed but not nearly as bad as the first block. I used lots of steam to get this sucker to lie flat and I still was not happy. I measured this block and again, it's a quarter inch short.

I'm getting pretty pissed off and can't figure out what is going on. I make another half square triangle to test. Measure twice cut once. Finger press, measure, everything looks fine. Press again, with lots of steam and measure and it's a hair or 2 shorter. I am using the Kaufman Fusions for these blocks and it's shrinking due to all that steam. Can you believe it?

So, rather than continue on, I washed all that fabric. There are 11 yards of beige, plus another 22 yards of colors. The pattern said to use a half yard of this color and a quarter yard of this color, which is similar but not exact. Anyway, they had like 30 colors. I could only find 22 that I liked and I bought 1 yard pieces. I think this is an awful lot of fabric for a quilt that is supposed to finish 84 inches. Is this insane or what? Anyway, I'm thinking that someone goofed somewhere but I would hate to run out when I am halfway through. At the rate, I am going on BOM's, I won't know until sometime in 2014. Kaufman may not even be making Fusions anymore.

I kept some 2.5 inch strips aside to compare against the washed and pressed fabric and there really is a noticeable difference. But, I still love the way the Fusions look. Even after washing, the colors are still true. From a distance these fabrics seem to glow. I'd thoroughly recommend them.

So that is my rant for the day.

ttfn :) Yuki