Wednesday What's Up?

I'm still plugging along on trimming up the scraps my aunt passed along to me this past summer. It's quite tedious at times and slow going as there were so many scraps, and I have to break from it to fit in household chores and tend to other necessary duties.

I sure hope some of them fit the color scheme for this year's Quiltville mystery quilt, though like last year, I may only follow along.

The greens have been the focus over the last too many days, interrupted by a couple days of "sofa rest" as my back decided it was anything but happy - much better now though! Here's a shot of just a few of those greens or mostly greens. 

Funny, through the camera these are more blue than green - contrary to how my eyes view them here, and granted these could be in either group since there is teal, and blue. Maybe I'll switch them to the blue bin. I suppose it's a matter of personal choice. That lime green is definitely green though!

I'm cutting mostly into 1.5", 2", 2.5", 3", and 3.5" strips or squares, and anything less is a string or a chunk. Some of the scraps were already triangles so I'm just trimming off all loose threads and storing each fabric with all it's pieces into individual zippered bags before putting them into their respective bins. My bins are nearly full, so I really need to get my quilting mojo back.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Marty's had a dress shirt hanging on the coat rack in the master bedroom for ages. I don't recall if he ever told me it was missing a button or not. I finally looked at it and realized that was what was needed so thought I'd tend to it. I really dislike mending and sewing on buttons.

There's an empty spot up there next to the pocket.

 I quickly discovered I didn't know where the missing button was. I did a quick glance on his desk and on his dresser and nightstand but didn't see it and suspected it was truly lost. Did you notice the button is rather a lavender-blue color? I looked for the spare button usually sewn inside the seam, uh, not one there, only the much smaller one used in the placket of the sleeve. I was thinking maybe I could steal one from the cuff thinking it wouldn't be noticed but I'm pretty sure he uses the outer button of the two on the cuff, so yes it would be noticeable. 

Then I checked my trays of spare buttons. Nothing in this color, not even close. I could have used a white one, but the position for this button is right on the chest so far too obvious. So I posted on my social media account that first picture up above with the comment that I'd rather buy him a new shirt than remove all the buttons and replace them so that they all matched.

Back side of the missing button.

 When he got home from work, he brought me the missing button! He still had it! I was amazed! It is shown in the above photo, though when I was taking pictures I didn't realize that was the back. When turned over, it does look like the others on the shirt, but my first thought was 'oh great, it had been replaced before' and no I wasn't going to use it. So turning it over made me realize it was the right button.

needles & old blue thread...hope the thread holds up ;)

 Next, I had to see if I had any lavender-blue thread because of course, all the buttons were not sewn on using white. The first spool I pulled out, and the only bluish one in my thread drawer, was too light and bright a blue. Then I remembered I'd brought back a bag of old threads from an aunt a few years ago [yeah, still not dealt with] and there was a duller blue which wasn't too far off, so I used it.

Nick had to thread the needle for me - darned eye was so very tiny and my eyes just weren't getting that thread into it.

DONE!

Do you notice that the thread is criss-crossed on that button? That is not how I learned to sew on buttons, and it annoys me. I conceded to do it that way because all the other buttons were done that way, again so that it all matched.  So the missing button is back where it belongs, and now the shirt is headed to the laundry before getting a ride back to Marty's closet.

There's also a pair of jeans in need of a patch on the front of the thigh area where Marty caught it on something sharp, probably barbed wire going through someone's fencing on one of his photographing outings. I used an iron-on patch some time ago, but it came off after just a couple washings, so will have to use needle and thread...eventually...or not.

Blog Ads

I know this is slightly off-topic for my quilt/needle-work-only blog, but I'm feeling a bit grumbly this morning so am going to explain what is causing me to grumble, and it has to do with other quilting blogs.

For many, many years I've followed a couple of bloggers, well-known ladies in the quilt world, and at some point, both added/allowed advertising on their blogs. They've given their explanations, and I don't begrudge them at all. Hey, they earn whatever income they can get from their blogs - they're consistent and always interesting and as all of us bloggers (full-time or occasional) know, it takes effort to compose a blog and post pictures.

The issue I have of late is with the ads themselves, or maybe it's how they function within the blog network that does it, I really don't know which. When looking at these blogs and scrolling, there is of course the banner ad that pops up at the top of the page which can be deleted by clicking on the "x", though I've noticed it comes back now after a certain amount of time. Also, the ads that pop up at the bottom of photos. I use to be able to locate a small grayed "x" and delete those too so that I could see the full picture. Not any more! I usually cannot find an "x" at all, or if there is one, I'm not able to click on it to get it to go away. Scrolling away from the image doesn't get rid of it either. I can close the page, return and briefly see the full image before the annoyance returns.

Am I the only one bothered by this? I love these two particular blogs, but sometimes this annoyance factor keeps me from tuning in. Both authors have in the past made posts/remarks about having the ads on their blogs to where I don't want to address it with them.  I wonder too if the revenue made from having ads is really sufficient if it means you start losing your readers whose ad-tolerance level has peaked.

Scraps, Scraps, and More Scraps

I'm thinking I just may have enough scraps to last until the next century arrives! Of course, I won't live that long, but if I don't get busy, whomever inherits this stash, will have a lot of fun, or frustration.

While I was up north during July and August - I was gone for four full weeks - I was gifted two plastic trash bags of scraps by my aunt. I went through them one night while still there and stacked the pieces flat and orderly - had to see what was in that treasure trove, right? - and with doing that was able to condense them into one brown, handled, paper bag, and a smaller paper bag. 

Once home and after unpacking my suitcases, catching up on cleaning up after Marty's and Nick's four weeks of life without a feminine presence [read as maid, cook, housekeeper, etc.] I was able to tackle the sorting process.  I did that while my sister was visiting. She came for a week, and wanted me to help her make potholders from a block that we saw demonstrated while I was up north.

bagged scraps hanging out at my machine

Above and below are photos of the sorted scraps.

a full box of bagged scraps

And more sorted scraps....these below are just some of the pinks.

in the pink ready to trim

In the small bin are more of the pinks; along with pinks that I already had, and a box with reds.

ready to store

 Since I didn't go to the trouble of prewashing any of the scraps she gave me, I'm putting them all into zippered bags before storing.  I'll decide when I go to use any of them if I want to "prewash", and if I do, it'll probably be just a quick swish in the sink kind of thing. 

Before storing, I'm trimming down into the various size strips and blocks, a la Quiltville's Bonnie Hunter's method...mostly, but I'm not consistent.  I've tossed out a few that by using the burn test, were not cotton.

I'm hoping at least some of these scraps will be used in the annual mystery quilt. Also hoping I have the motivation to do it this year, as I did not do last year's and have not finished the one from 2016.

cottoncuts monthly gift

And these I wrote about back in May, ahem, my most recent post here at Webs of Thread prior to today. They are a gift from my sweet daughter.  She originally subscribed for three months for me, but with my birthday having been in July, decided to renew the gift for another three months, so there are now five, with one more due the middle of next month.

My Mother's Day Gift

On Mother's Day I had a call from my daughter. We don't talk often on the phone, but we do chat a lot via social media.  She told me I'd be getting a surprise in the mail once a month for the next three months.  

The first box showed up last week.  While I have heard of the Quilty Box program, I was unaware of the similar Cottoncuts program.  In my mailbox was this small pink box:

cottoncuts box

It cleverly has this cautionary statement:

CAUTION!

While that didn't happen (at least not for now), I'm hoping it will by fall.  Further opening the box revealed the contents: 

The back of the top card has a pattern you can color in and then post to their site for a chance to win 2 yards of fabric.

Aurifil thread, 2 pencils and 3, 1-yard cuts of fabric

I see my camera isn't focusing very well...I suppose I've grown accustomed to the sharpness of cell phone images.

And this is why I'm still not getting to the quilting.  Stacks and stacks of folders and papers as I overhaul my genealogy files and get them organized.

A portion of the genealogy files to be re-organized and cleaned up!

I'm looking forward to seeing what the boxes for the next two months hold.  I wonder if they'll be from the same collection or from a different one.  One of the cards states I get my choice of a pattern too but I have to go online to download that. And there were two pencils in my box though the card indicated only one. 

This was a nice surprise and a change from the usual floral delivery.  I love the flowers but this will last longer.

Blogland Catch Up

Whoa!!! Over four months? How'd that happen?  I'll tell you. I haven't worked on a single fabric-related project since last December; all genealogy research, paperwork, and data entry, so nothing to post.

In fact, this is how things look around my sewing machine....

This area has become a dumping ground, but wait, a project is showing at the bottom of the pile.  I think that's En Provence.

 And on my cutting table.....

This at least looks somewhat tidy; stacks of sorted genealogy papers & files.  I won't show how my desk looks, nor my ironing board.

Oh sigh, what's a girl to do when she has two favorite hobbies and she can't clone herself? And when that second hobby has taken precedence over the first hobby, which was actually taken up after the second hobby, so it's really the second hobby, and the second hobby is really the first, but in priority, they switch places a lot, and right now I'm still working on the first hobby (genealogy).

I have summer plans to head to Oregon again but haven't nailed down the dates.  I'm thinking of going to the quilt camp I've gone to in the past and not take any quilting except perhaps the all-by-hand project I started many years ago (the one I call the rooster quilt), or any of several embroidery projects I've started and would like to finish.

In other general news, my husband again switched jobs on 5 March so is back to commuting over an hour each way.  My son began college in February taking automotive, music theory & English comp classes, and also began working part-time a few weeks ago after being without a job while he finished high school last year and then "took time off from everything". This gives me two days a week of having the house entirely to myself for most of the day.  Some of us need that space!

Today, I am going out for a late lunch with my friend Panda.  She's been getting a lot of piecing done and sending her quilts out to be quilted. 

One other thing before I go.  I've noticed lately that I've received a few comments from what/who I believe are spammers.  I have deleted them but am wondering how to stop them and/or block the spammees.  They all pretty much started out the same way with something of "I love your blog, first time here", yada-yada and then list any number of links with titles unrelated to anything in my post.  Do you get those? Do you just ignore, just delete, have a way of blocking? or reporting? I don't & won't click on their links - I know full well those would probably harbor malware or viruses. 

Such a Day

Overall, the last few days have been really low energy days.  I think the vertigo that returned a week ago after a five or six month absence is zapping my energy...it takes effort to focus you know, so that you don't swirl right onto the floor. 

A large portion of SoCal has been burning up, and it's taken energy to watch the wall-to-wall coverage.  One of the fires was in our general area, but the wind took it away from us so we didn't get even the smoke from it.  Still, with the high winds that were relentless, and can be unpredictable, tensions have been high all week.  Humidity drops into the single digits and all of this combined just grates on me.

For the last couple days, I've been feeling an inner nudge to get back to work on En Provence.  I last worked on it on April 10th.

Well, this evening I received a message from an old friend in another state clear across the country, and she deeply explained some very sad and disturbing situations going on in her family, and it breaks my heart.  It's the kind of situation that just drops you to your knees to plead with the Lord to bring change, peace, comfort and support on their behalf.

With this on my heart and mind, I felt the need to focus on something else while I could pray, and process the trials she's going through, and there was En Provence, waiting patiently. 

First of the blocks to get back under the needle.

When I left off back in April, I had been working on putting the blocks together.  The blocks are a set of smaller blocks sewn into rows, and those rows sewn into one large block.  I knew I had pinned together many, if not most, of the final two sections of those blocks, but really could not remember where I was within the directions.  I began by going ahead and sewing the seam of those that were pinned, then I pressed those seams before looking at the instructions.  All was good, but I'm sure I probably pressed some in the wrong direction.

The stack of pinned block components.

Once those were done, I had all but four finished; for some reason they weren't with the ones I finished, though I found them and they are pinned.

The required number of a border blocks are done, but then there's another border block for the outside of that which is only in the primary block sections.  I'm thinking I have a whole lot of time yet to spend on this project....it may get set aside again.

On Monday, I'm planning to go with my friend Panda, to the nearest quilt shop to see if I can find a satisfactory black for the Bow Ties quilt borders.  I might check Joann's, it's across from our Walmart and I need to do some shopping there too...should have done it today as I don't generally like to go there on the weekend.