Don't you just love questionnaires?

I found this one on http://why-knot-kwilt.blogspot.com/ Do you remember loving doing magazine questionnaires? The one you took took to find out "if he loves you". Very popular in teen magazines, womens magazines and the infamous "Cosmopolitan". That was a fairly shocking magazine late in the sixties, early seventies. Now I would rather answer questions to get to know people not to decide is someone loves me.
Copy and paste, and then answer the questions, and tell me you did so I can learn about you, too!

1. Sweet or Savoury?

2. Dresses or Jeans?

3. House or Apartment?

4. Shop Online or Offline?

5. DVDs or Downloads?

6. Cocktails or Juice?

7. Chocolate or Strawberry?

8. Laptop or PC?

9. Magazines or Newspapers?

10. Facebook or Twitter?

11. CDs or MP3s?

12. Kids or Pets?

13. Cookies or Cupcakes?

14. Walk or Run?

15. Breakfast in Bed or Breakfast Out?

16. Market or Supermarket?

17. Sourdough or Grainy?

18. Heels or Flats?

19. Late nights or Not?

20. Coffee or Tea?

My answers

1. Sweet or Savoury? Savory, unless there is chocolate involved

2. Dresses or Jeans? Jeans, sweats, shorts...seldom dresses
3. House or Apartment? House! But as I get older a condo appeals, if they didn't have a limit on pets.

4. Shop Online or Offline? I love to visit quilt stores and fabric shops but otherwise, let me buy online!

5. DVDs or Downloads? DVD's

6. Cocktails or Juice? Juice! I'm loving that they now have lower cal' orange juice and cranberry juice.

7. Chocolate or Strawberry? Chocolate!  Do you know how many people are allergic to strawberries? I don't want to take the chance.

8. Laptop or PC? Well, I have a PC but would love to have a laptop. It's a "want" or "need" situation.

9. Magazines or Newspapers? Quilting Mags and On line news

10. Facebook or Twitter? Facebook...more so in the beginning not so much now.

11. CDs or MP3s? MP3's, what can I say, I love my IPOD(s)

12. Kids or Pets? Heck!  Kids are great but they grow up and leave you. Pets need you until they die :-(

13. Cookies or Cupcakes? Cookies and more cookies! They are better than potato chips but like potato chips I can't manage to eat just one. (Wait a minute! Does this just contradict the answer to question #1?)

14. Walk or Run? How middle of the road can I be? I would rather run than walk. Running makes me feel like a kid again but I find that I (in my sixties) have to interject alot of walking into the running.

15. Breakfast in Bed or Breakfast Out? Breakfast out...but only if I can have a sandwich. I'm not a big breakfast food kind of person.

16. Market or Supermarket? hmmm, tough question. Market for grocery shopping, supermarket for one stop shopping.
17. Sourdough or Grainy? Grainy!

18. Heels or Flats? My favorite shoes have always been a pair of red high heels...but now I would rather wear red tennis shoes. Hey! A fashion statement. They still get attention, just a different sort of attention!
19. Late nights or Not? If I can have a day time nap...late nights! But I still get up early, 5:30 or earlier.

20. Coffee or Tea? Cocoa...not hot chocolate, Cocoa!

I hope you had fun!  I did!

Hugs & Kisses, Red & Aqua

Okay!  Both the top and the back are pieced and ready for basting and then quilting. I don't know where this top falls in the "queue". I'm pretty sure it won't be this month~My machine is going back to the shop on Monday.

Now off to bind the Christmas Table runner.
Enjoy!
Toni

Sunday Stash Report

Judy over at PatchworkTimes,http://www.patchworktimes.com, does a weekly stash report. I loved the idea so I did my own version. This was the first week:

WEEK of Aug 31

FABRIC ADDED THIS WEEK 0
FABRIC ADDED YTD 0
FABRIC USED THIS WEEK 0
ON THE WALL Sq in a Sq-Dark
PIECING Sq in a Sq-Dark
CUTTING Scraps
QUILTING None
MINI MADE None
UNFINISHED QUILTS (OTHER THAN FLIMSYS)
TBA
FLIMSYS TO QUILT
TBA

And while I think this would be very interesting, it was "TMI" and labor intensive. I'd rather spend the time on quilts.  I've simplified my tracking somewhat. Now I basically track fabric in and fabric out.  For fabric used I track when the quilt top was finished, name of quilt, size of quilt and amount of fabric used. Backing fabric is adjusted out when I've cut to size and/or pieced to size and folded with the quilt top for later quilting or, if not previously accounted for, I subtract when the quilt is basted.  This is my new plan. My fiscal year will be October 1 to September 30.  So far...I'm doing well! Meaning that at least I have used more than I've purchased.  Net result, as of today is I'm down 2 1/2 yards. Not much but at least the operative term is "down".   Happy Quilting! Toni

Same Ol', Same Ol'!

I had better start some new projects! You are going to get tired of hearing about the same things over and over again.  Red and Aqua top will be finished today!  My goal for this weekend is to also piece the back for this. A larger goal is that from now on I am going to get the back ready at the same time I do the top! Hopefully this will lead to fewer UFO's.

I also finished a table runner that I want to get the binding on this weekend. And I am going to get the bowtie blocks off the design wall. I DIDN'T say I was going to sew them together. I want to make it a larger quilt. Originally I was just thinking wall hanging but I think they are so darn cute that I should at least make a baby size quilt from them.  Which means I have to make more blocks. I've been cutting 2 1/2" squares from scraps from other fabric as I go along .... it's just getting back into the mode of doing those

Then I have to take my machine back in!  Dang!  I told them the tension was fine and I'd been machine quilting on it quite successfully but they adjusted the tension anyway and now I am having HUGE, intermittant problems with the bobbin tension.

More in a day or so! Including pictures!

Enjoy!  Toni

Pictures of Red and Aqua

Here is the straight cross arrangement, boring.

A little more interesting set on point

Getting closer with the addition of the yellow. This is not the final arrangement. I have lots more blocks but I do think the yellow makes it more interesting. You should know, the colors in the photo's are not "true". They really look better together than this. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Red & Aqua Progress

For many months I have been planning on making an orange, aqua and gray quilt. I had some of each of the colors and planned on collecting a few more before actually beginning the quilt. But then....on Flickr there have been so many gorgeous red, aqua and white quilts that I decided to change my color scheme. It always seems like I have a lot of red scraps, and I had some old aqua, plus some newer so this meant I didn't have to collect any more fat quarters.

I did not have a particular pattern in mind but I have been attracted to crosses lately so I started out with that premise. I was going to make a cross quilt. I did 50 some odd squares, not enough for a complete quilt but at least I could get them on the design wall and get a feel for it. Guess what? I found it boring! Blah, yuck, yawn! How can red and aqua be boring? But it is. I then decided that if I turned them, making them "x's" rather than crosses and aligned them diagonally that I might like them better. I did but still not what I was looking for. So now I'm working on yellow "O" blocks. Quite frankly I would rather put this quilt in it's plastic storage box and store it in the closet. I don't think I am ever going to love it but after making a UFO list (partial! I was afraid what the whole list would look like) for the UFO challenge I decided I could not afford to put this one away.

I'll keep you posted...love it or not, my goal is to have the top done by the end of the month.

Enjoy the "nasty" weather. Perfect for quilting!

p.s. I would be sharing photo's but after being away from blogging for so long I have to retrain myself on how to insert them. Soon!

This will touch you

I found this through another quilting website. Sometimes we need to remember how fortunate we are. Especially this time of year when we are remembering things to be thankful for.

http://allthingshendrick.blogspot.com/2010/10/reality-is-weighty-thing.html

Tomorrow...I am going to sew and I promise to share some photo's and happier thoughts.

Toni

Machine Repair

Having to have your favorite machine in the repair shop really makes you appreciate what you have. I've only been without it since Wednesday but it seems like forever. Don't get me wrong! My old machine gets the job done but I have to work harder at it. It just doesn't move as smoothly. I have to pay more attention to make certain I maintain my 1/4" seam allowance and it's amazing how warm the light bulb gets! But of course I would have a real problem not sewing every day. I'm grateful that I have a backup.

I've decided I would finish one quilt top on my old machine and as I've been wanting to do something with aqua, red and white, that is what I am doing. I was inspired by the Crossed Paths Quilt you can see at www:redpepperquilts.com.

It is raining lightly here so I think I will go into my room and enjoy some guilt free sewing.

Enjoy your day!
Toni

p.s. You will notice I've been playing around with blogger. I still have a long way to go on getting it to do things I want it to do!

Oh My Goodness!

I'm really into the quilting world again. Thanks to all the wonderful blogs out there! I'll give specific credit in another post. I've been productive but have not been taking care of older quilt tops, not yet quilts. I'm now involved in a UFO Challenge, beginning in January, which forced me to go through my UFO's (too many to list!) and chose ten to finish this next year. Wish me luck! The fun part is the moderator will, each month, give you a random number from 1 to 10 and that is the quilt you will (with good intent!) finish that month. Obviously you have to assign numbers, 1-10, to each of your unfinished projects. I also found there are 3 tops from the '80ies that I will not bother finishing. Freeing up more room for finished quilts or more quilt tops.

Annnnd, I have joined two virtual quilting bees for 2011. Those will be fun!

It's amazing how our tastes change! I have several (is several 3-5?)tops that are reproduction, '30ies style fabric that I will finish but I am pretty much done with '30ies. Give me bright, lots of white now! Of course I expect next year to bring other changes in taste!

My newer sewing machine (10 years old) is going into the shop tomorrow. Just when I got really enthused about machine quilting! So today I'm back to using my back up machine...now about 35 years old. It certainly is noisier, slower and doesn't have as many options (no needle down? what?) but at least it will allow me to indulge my sewing addiction, until I get my favorite, Tamara is her name, a play on the word "tomorroa', back.

I hope your "addiction" brings you as much pleasure as mine does.

Toni