Week 2- Go Go Go

Hi De Ho!!! Well it’s been quite a week!!! It seems like I have been on the non-stop go, go, go or do do do, since DH went back to South Africa. I have, it seems to me, neglected housework for so long that I will never get it caught up and done. Don’t get me wrong- I am not Suzy Homemaker first and everything else after. But I do like my house to at least appear neat and clean and that there is not so much pet hair floating about that you are seriously concerned about eating at my house. I also like it neat enough that if someone were to drop in it’s ok. So I have made myself stay home that last few days and get a handle on it. I am making progress slowly.

Last week, on Sunday, I hacked down 3 very large and overgrowing Forsythia bushes. I hack at them every year, sometimes twice a year, trying to keep them from becoming so unsightly. Well now they are down to 3 feet tall and thinned, I hope!!! I filled 7 ‘paper’ yard bags with debris and made 4 tied up bundles of branches… for the yard waste pickup. I only have one more set of bushes to trim… and if I don’t get them done now, there will be plenty of time in the spring. We are supposed to get some rain…. But even so, the temps are cooling outside. The lawn guys came too and I think it was the last mowing of the season.

I have also been working on the ‘Replicated Chickens’ which I must say is going back to the drawing board. I am not happy with it. So the red and white blocks that I was going to put with them, will be refashioned into a baby quilt. I also put the border on the wreath top. I think I’m liking it. Pondering the quilting design… So if you have an idea… let me know either by email or in a comment- either way is good.

Also if you are interested in looking at one of the pictures closer, just click on it for a better view.









I had a guild meeting last week and took a Workshop as well. I had volunteered to cover the

assistant librarian job for a friend at the meeting, so I went early and stayed late. The best part was I had the chance to check out the hottest items… because I was there!!! Not sure I would like to do it every meeting… but it was a fun change. I encourage everyone to participate in their guild in some capacity, not just as a member!!! Last year I assisted with our Guilds ‘Gathering’. Less than a full blown quilt show, but more than just a meeting; on 3 committees- 2 of which I chaired. It was fun and I got to meet lots of my guild members in a different capacity!!!


The Workshop was fine. I don’t think it was anything I didn’t already know in the sewing / stitching area. My sewing machine was having a fit… and I still don’t know why, unless it is because we were sitting low (banquet tables and folding chairs low) and I might have been putting some drag on my project. I am a short person. Nowhere near the 5’6”/ 5’7” average for women so when we have such crappy accommodations for sewing I really suffer and you know it’s bad when a person that is average has as much discomfort as I did. So is my project done? NO. I have done a bit more stitching on it… because of the tension issues, it is warping a little which is discouraging, however it is a stitched photograph, and I will most likely gallery wrap it for a finish, so I can stretch the crap out it and it will lie flat with the liberal use of staples!!! Not something we can do all the time with our quilts, although it’s something we’d all like to do to get the wavy edge to lie flat. If you want to see … what we were doing… the instructors put us on the blog… Altered Photo Artistry

On Thursday, 2 friends and I went on a Chicago ‘alternative’ Fabric Stores field trip. Alternative -in that they carry a huge stock of ‘Fashion’ fabrics rather than quilt shop stock of 100% cottons. One of the stores was a warehouse, and it was about a block long and had 3 floors of fabrics- dress through upholstery weights!!! Not to mention the trims, laces, zippers and buttons to go on them. This was my favorite store, because when I was young my mother would take us with her to San Francisco… to these same types of warehouse fabric places. We didn’t buy much, because this was an exploratory day!!! The next shop was a well organized store, but we decided to have lunch first. So off to Manny’s a Jewish Cafeteria-style Deli, but just as we arrived, a bus load of seniors was off loading so we went to shop #3- Vogue Fabrics. They have several stores, and this was not the flagship store. They often vend at many of the BIG quilt shows. It was fairly well organized, and I bought some Dupioni Silk, (Thai like, in that it was the 2 color silk). We next went to the Deli, where we had a fantastic lunch! Then back to store #2, which was also very well organized and immaculate!!! No dust and very well arranged. While it was nice for looking, it was not quite as adventuresome as the first place. We also stopped in a bead shop, but that was it, a stop. There wasn’t anything good for textile embellishing.

So that brings me to now… I spent the last couple of days doing housework and I still have more to do. Hopefully I will get all the big jobs done and I can then keep up, by doing a bit every couple of days…. and spend more time in the sewing room.

Thats all for now- More Later!