Monday, August 23, 2010

Lots Happening

My birthday was on August 20th and it was well celebrated.  My son came up from Moraga CA - SF area - and brought his two children with him.  As if that wasn't fun enough with Gab and Brad meeting the chickens and kitties, my daughters found a nice hotel that was having an outdoor concert on the back lawn overlooking the inlet.  We all went including Chubaca, the dog... had a glass of wine, danced and listened to old-timey tunes.  It was very classy and fun.

On my actual birthday, the next day, we had lunch at my dd's, then went to the pool where my son was staying and the kids swam and played while the adults sipped drinks and talked... at least the ones who weren't in the pool/spa did.  Then we attended ladies night at the casino... good dj music and some interesting dancing styles... not my usual evening entertainment and I didn't dance although my dd's did.  I had a great time.

To keep this entry somewhat quilt related, I brought back from my CA visit the quilt I made for my son in 2006 because it had been washed so many times that some of the triangles had come unstitched.  I want to repair them and now I'm wondering if I still have some of that same fabric left in my stash so I'll be hunting through the piles to find close matches if not the originals.  Doesn't that sound like fun?
As you can see, it's going to take a lot of clipping and hand-sewing to either replace the block or the half-square triangle.








Probably not so much fun for me.  I have a 1940's quilt that was given to me years ago because it needed repairs and I've yet to do anything to fix it.  Every time I pull it out, the repairs look insurmountable and back it goes into the closet. 

Maybe working to fix blocks on one of my own quilts will inspire me to work on the other one also.  haha  I can dream, can't I?

Monday, August 16, 2010

Too Hot to Quilt

The pacific northwest is having a heat wave and it's been going on for almost a week now.  Yesterday, I tried doing some machine quilting to finish a quilt I started before I left for CA but couldn't even get it basted without the heat getting to me.  So... no quilting for a while for me, although I am considering making some nine-patches just in case I find a use for them in the baby quilt I have to make before October.

Looks like I'll be designing my own pattern for a baby quilt because I haven't found a design I like... don't want teddy bears but maybe a small design of monkeys, whales or giraffes.  I'm only going to make it crib size for the baby's first quilt from grandma so it should make up quickly.  And I'm thinking pink because we know she's having a girl.  And there have been no suggestions as what color the first-time mama likes so it's going to be a guessing game.  Mama likes designer clothing and handbags so methinks she's going to prefer Ralph Lauren to grandma's quilts anyway.... but I'm still going to send my new little granddaughter a quilt and hope that mama likes it enough to keep it around.

The trip to bring my dd back from CA ran into a few problems... the Jeep broke down on Friday in Redding CA with my dd's possessions (sewing machine etc.)... and it wasn't worth fixing.  So, we left it there signing the pink slip over to the garage owner and went back to SF to find a new vehicle.  My son was nice enough to drive for 4 hours to retrieve us, but not all of the Jeep's contents.  Next day, he found me a Eurovan and we started off again on Sunday morning, repacked the boxes from the Jeep to the Eurovan and we drove until 11:30pm to arrive on the island.  My daughter wanted to sleep in her own bed after 2 months away and I wanted her dream to come true after all the drama with the car breakdown.


So..... I'm back.  To chickens.  To slip and slide parties with my grandsons and water balloon fights  in dd's backyard.  It's been lovely and hot.  Nice for summer .... bad for quilting.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

A short trip

Tomorrow afternoon, I fly off to San Francisco so I can drive back here with my daughter and her doggie, probably on Friday.  It's about a 14-hour drive so with two drivers we should be back here by Friday evening.  I found a good one way fare - $89/$99 w/tax - online.  Because my dd has a car load of her things coming back, I will take only a change of clothes, a toothbrush and pj's.

The vintage sewing machine forum I joined gave me links so I could date my cabinet model Singer; it's from 1938.  I had no idea it was that old.  It's in relatively good shape and it sews well.  But, before I sew with it, I want to give it some tender loving care to be sure all it's joints are oiled and that the motor is lubricated.  Oh, it needs a new belt also so that will have to be ordered before I do anything of any consequence on it... but I think I've already decided that I'm going to sew the blocks for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler on my featherweight anyway.

So, tomorrow at this time, I will be sitting in SeaTac airport waiting for my 8pm flight... and reading the book I can't put down, Andersonville by McKinlay Kantor.  It's an excellent civil war era story about the hated confederate prison in Georgia.

Ta ta.  Hopefully, I will update again this weekend.