This project calls for a real design wall!



This project was inspired by this post at the Patchery Menagerie. I got my copy of Word Play Quilts as soon as it came out, and have the perfect quote picked out for my dream quilt, but I haven't managed to work up the confidence to cut into my stash of yellow and orange fabric.

A two color sampler doesn't sound quite so intimidating. And I love black and white alphabet samplers, like this cross stitched one I did a few years ago.

Lynne is doing her sampler in alphabetical order. I haven't done many pieced letters, so I'm following the order they're explained in the book. Not the best idea -- I finished most of the easy ones last night and now I'm a bit overwhelmed by the idea of the more complex ones.

Some of these letters definitely need to be redone, but I'm happy with the "A" and "K" that I did Sunday night. Those are keepers!

For more design walls to drool over, visit Patchwork Times.

I forgot

I can't tell you how long it's been since I quilted something. Definitely before my knee surgery on May 16, and I'm thinking it might have been a couple of weeks or months before that. When I sat down to finally start on the little Drunkard's Path, I had to remind myself to drop the feed dogs.



I forgot how good it feels just to sit and meander. So good that not even a partially assembled piece of another quilt that got quilted to the bottom of my baby quilt upset me too much.

And I forgot how much better things look once they're quilted. What else have I got to quilt around here?


Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 36 yards
Added this Week: 5 yards
Added Year to Date: 692 yards
Net Added for 2011: 656 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6240 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 13375 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7135 yards

quilting!

This quilt is the sister of the one I used for the Two Color Quilt video I did for AccuQuilt a while back. It's been pin-basted and migrating around my sewing corner for the past four months, getting steadily more and more rumpled.

And I really could get it quilted in an hour or so, if I just sat down to do it.

So I'm doing it.

pencils and graph paper

So what does a quilter who doesn't have any quilting software, or much other fancy software for that matter, do when she's got an idea in her head that she needs to show someone else?



I bought myself some colored pencils and graph paper and so far it's working. I know exactly what I want to do, so I don't need to try different settings or layouts, just get the thing onto paper.

I don't exactly love my color selection, but I suppose that's what I get for buying the cheapest pencil set I could find. A good decision, since I've already rescued them from the boys (who have their own pencils and crayons) more than once.

There has to be a slightly better way to do this. For most of my scrap quilts, I just start piecing and see what happens. One variation leads to another quickly with the baby quilts. Now and then, there's one that doesn't thrill me, but I've had that happen when I was following a published pattern and I thought I knew what I was making.

What about you? Do you plan carefully or leap before you look?

My Floppy Hat

(there is supposed to be a picture to go with this post, but it's on my daughter's camera and she can't find her cord -- I'll add it later!)

Last summer, I bought myself a hat. It wasn't terribly expensive, but it wasn't dirt cheap either. I'm not sure what made me decide that I needed to put that hat in the shopping cart with our groceries. (That's one of the things about grocery shopping at WalMart -- anything can and sometimes does find its way in with the groceries. It happens at Costco, too, but not quite as much.)

I kept my hat in the car and wore it every time we went down to the river.

I LOVE that hat!

It keeps the sun off of my face, which means I don't have to use suntan lotion, which always gets in my eyes at some point during the day. I don't get as overheated, so I'm not nearly as miserable by the end of a day at the park with the kids. And I'm much less likely to get a headache. (Why is it that kids are apparently immune to the heat?)

It's finally warmed up enough to go play in the water, so my hat is back in the car. This poor thing has been dunked more times than I can count and is still going strong -- I had no idea how useful that little splurge would be!


(for more great tips and hints, check out Works for Me Wednesday over at We Are THAT Family)

it's raining

The weather we're having is just weird. It was supposed to be hot today, so I made plans to meet another mom and her kids down at the river. This is the third time we've rescheduled -- twice because the weather didn't cooperate. And the forecast has switched from hot and sunny to warm and rainy.

I'm fine staying home and quilting, but the kids aren't going to be happy.

The little weather trick that has me annoyed is what it apparently did Saturday in Sisters. It didn't get hot. The coolest temperatures since I started going and the one year I volunteer to stay home, it didn't get hot.

Honestly, I chickened out because I wasn't sure how my knee would take the drive and walking. It would've been just me and the kids this year and I had visions of one of my little guys throwing a tantrum at the far end of town from our parking spot when I'm not able to carry them anymore.

And I figured I could drool over other people's pictures later.

Look at all of the antique goodness Bonnie took pictures of. Especially those string stars!

More quilt show pictures --

With Heart and Hands
Amy's Creative Side
Paris Bebe Fabrics

And I'm sure I'll find more once the Internet cooperates.

The one!

I'm still sorting through the UFOs, trying to figure out where I left off and where I want to go next. I should finish that quilt for our bed...or start it. Didn't I have more than two blocks done the last time I posted about this thing?



Instructions for making the blocks are here.

No progress on this one or anything else today because we went grocery shopping and I am exhausted. It was worth it, since I've got dinners planned for the next week and a kitchen full of snacks.

7-11 was celebrating its birthday today and giving away free Slurpees. I had to double check with my husband that the convenience store in town actually is a 7-11 and was halfway afraid that we'd get there after they ran out of cups, but the kids got their sugar. And I gave them mine because Slurpees just aren't as good as I remember...either that or Alienade just isn't as good as the other flavors.

Weekly Stash Report

No fabric or yarn used this week, at least not in finished projects. I'm working on that big two color quilt I posted about yesterday, which will add quite a few yards to my totals once it's done. And spent a couple of hours knitting a shawl that I think I'm going to have to rip out.

I ordered some clearance fabric along with my thread, and picked up two yards of cheap Halloween prints while I was picking up my diet Coke at the convenience store on the way to the park today. But I didn't go to Sisters, so I've decided the fabric is more than justified by the gas money I saved.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 36 yards
Added this Week: 6 1/2 yards
Added Year to Date: 687 1/2 yards
Net Added for 2011: 651 1/2 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6240 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 13375 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7135 yards

To see how everyone else is doing, click over to Patchwork Times

Thread is on sale!

I've been waiting what seems like forever for Connecting Threads to put their thread on sale....then the cost of cotton went up and they raised the prices and I was hoping for a sale that would bring it back down to what used to be full price...and at some point I ran out of the neutral color I use for piecing and did order more, but I've still been waiting for a sale so I could stock up again.

I was down to my last spool of neutral and had mooched another one from my mother to keep me going until I could place an order. Then I had my knee surgery and went a whole month without using any thread at all..

AND NOW IT'S FINALLY ON SALE!

IT'S ON SALE FOR LESS THAN THE OLD PRICES!

I'm such a happy quilter. I've got enough neutrals coming to last me for a long time. And a few colors just because they're pretty.

Essentials is really my favorite thread. I've done the math and compared the cost per yard to thread from WalMart and sale prices at Joann's and even at the new regular price and paying for shipping, it's a lot less expensive. (I don't do quilt shop thread. I've tried the thread from the sewing machine store, I've sat through the long interesting lecture on why I should think it's better than the inexpensive stuff, and I'm still perfectly happy with my cheap stuff!)

I've got scraps. I've got sheets for backing. I've got thread on its way. I've even got some yardage.

Now what I need is a really incredible sale on batting!

lovin' the curves

I am so glad I didn't put back the bolt of red fabric I'm using for this quilt! When I was standing there in the fabric store deciding whether or not to buy it, I didn't have any real idea what I was going to use ten yards of this red floral for (other than the usual options of backing, binding, sashing), or realize how close it was to the fabric I fell in love with when I used for Strawberry Fields.... I definitely wasn't thinking of using it for a two color quilt.

I'm slowly working my way through the piecing. The finished quilt will be big enough for a twin bed and have twenty big blocks. I've got nine of them done so far and have been trying to do three a day...on days when I find time to sew.

I need to start making time.

Drama in the Hive

As if we didn't have enough stress around here lately already, our queen died this weekend. We found her during a hive inspection, breathing (do bees breathe?) her last. And without a queen to lay eggs, the clock is ticking as far as the rest of the hive is concerned. They hadn't made another queen of their own, and of course if something like this is going to happen it's going to happen on the holiday weekend because that's how life works...

We got lucky and found a new queen to buy yesterday and while we were installing her, I learned something new about our expensive bugs.

They will warn you before stinging.

While I was holding things for my husband, a bee whacked into my arm, hard. It felt deliberate, so I asked him about it later since he's the one who's read all of the bee books. That thwack was a warning to back off.

I haven't been stung by one of our own bees yet, but now that we've got a hive in the yard I'm expecting it to happen sooner or later. There are worse things in life than a bee sting.

What do you do for bee stings?

The last time I got stung, which was a couple of years ago, I couldn't find the baking soda, we don't use meat tenderizer, and I didn't want to go to the car for the bee sting stuff in the first aid kit. So I tried pressing a penny against it. Everything I can find about pennies and bee stings on the web today says it's an urban legend, but it made me feel better at the time.

The bee books say to take a couple of Benadryl.

Honestly, I'm hoping that I don't have an opportunity to test any of these suggestions anytime soon.

Mid Year Report

Halfway through 2011 and , except for knitting baby hats, I'm nowhere near my goals!
I've finished thirteen little charity quilts, knit 88 newborn hats (most of them in January and February when I was trying to finish up that box for Mercy House), 5 pairs of booties, a dead fish hat for my kids, three pairs of worsted weight lace socks, and one little lace scarf...and I'm not going to mention the UFOs...

I've only used 4 spools of thread -- by this time last year, I'd used up a dozen.

I keep telling myself that life will settle down and I'll be back to the quilting I had planned, but so far it hasn't worked out that way. I'm hoping the second half of 2011 will go better!


Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 1/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 36 yards
Added this Week: 5 yards
Added Year to Date: 681 yards
Net Added for 2011: 645 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 6240 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 13375 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7135 yards

To see how everyone else is doing, click over to Patchwork Times.

re-cutting fabric

A few weeks ago, I was given a big bag of 3" squares. I use 2 1/2" squares for most of the baby and lap quilts, so I've been cutting them down with my AccuQuilt. I've been burned in the past by assuming that sets of squares from thrift store bags would be accurately cut. This way I know they're close to perfect, and it also gets rid of the frayed edges.

While I had the cutter out, I also cut a couple of birds to see if the project that leapt into my head at two am will work by the light of day.



Here's a short video I put together showing how fast it is to retrim squares with your AccuQuilt. I've done it before with my rotary cutter and ruler -- it's much easier to just lay the fabric on a die!

...somewhere...

Before life fell apart for the umpteenth time this year, I had lots of projects going. Now I've got to figure out what they were...and where they are. The kids are still asleep, I'm up and about, and it's time to get started.

Cabbage Roses (doesn't that sound much better than "the two color drunkard's path quilt?") is still on the sewing machine.

The Hobo Quilt is packed away in a project box. Except for the last couple of blocks that I finished. Those are ...somewhere... I need to either check the book out from the library again, or go buy my own copy.

The big Circles in Squares quilt is on the ironing board. I've got lots of the dark squares cut and lights picked out to cut for the background.

Texas Braids is ready to go. I need more light strips, which will come from those same fabrics I've got laid out for Circles in Squares.

Scrap Vomit is ...somewhere... I didn't have much of the piecing done, but I do need to find the squares of solid red and black that I cut for it. Now that I've got the die to cut 2 1/2" squares, this one would be easy to finish. If I could find it.

10 minute blocks...were on the sewing machine before I did my pre-surgery cleanup.

And I've got two little quilts ready to finish, the pink drunkard's path baby quilt and the purple 2 color lap quilt.

That's not counting the UFOs I started the year with. I've decided that there's just too much non-quilty stuff to stress about to mess with UFO guilt right now.

I was up for three hours before my boys staggered out of bed, so I spent some of that time reading blogs and enjoying the quiet house. No sense in doing things I knew would wake them up! There's plenty of fun inspiration to be found this morning --

Look at these embroidered dresses on Diary of a Bizarre Quilter.

I'm swooning over Vintage table linens at gen X quilters.

And look at these animal totes! Not totes shaped like animals, these have applique animals on them -- wouldn't they make great library totes for the boys?

And a clock made from a Little Golden Book! This one's got extra squeee! value because I actually had that book as a kid.

Weeky Stash Report

I stil have not touched my sewing machine (hubby has been home on vacation for the past ten days and we've been having fun on short little day trips) but I did make five baby hats. Next week, I'm going to sew -- it's been amost a month and a half and enough is enough!

There's a whole stack of new UFOs that I've completely lose track of, and I've got a bunch of new ideas and the weather is actually getting nice enough that I can kick the kids outside....

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 10 yards
Added Year to Date: 676 yards
Net Added for 2011: 640.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 250 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5840 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 13375 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7535 yards

This week's new fabric consists of two fat quarters that I got for fifty cents each at the convenience store, a few big pieces of blue cotton that might've been drapes that I got for a quarter at a yard sale, and three black cotton sheets I bought for $2.50 each at Ikea for a new quilt I've got in mind for the boys.

To see how everyone else did, go visit Patchwork Times.

How do you bind a crazy quilt?

I found this gorgeous little bit of crazy quilt today at an estate sale. Now I'm trying to figure out how to finish it. I don't want to add a backing and cover up the evidence of all that hand-stitching, but I want to finish the raw edges.



I'd love to know if this is left over from assembling a larger top, or if these four blocks are all there was.



How did they finish those old Victorian crazy quilts? I've been Googling with no luck.

another machine followed me home

It's been a long time since I participated in Show and Tell Friday, but this is too fun not to share. A couple of Sunday Stash Reports ago, I mentioned that I'd brought home another treadle sewing machine. Here she is!



The cabinet is beyond rough and is missing a drawer, but it's got a mechanism that raises and lowers the machine when you open it up. And look at those decals! Yup, I decided to buy her for her pretty decals -- then I was told that she still sews.

sigh

Anyone know where I can get a replacement for the original belt that she still had on?

She's got her bobbins, and different feet, and an owner's manual so old and brittle I'm afraid to touch it because it might crumble to dust.



I love how the throat plate has a chart of which needles to use with which threads. The plate behind that has patent information and restrictions on its sale and use...would love to know what that means!

And I love the ruler painted along the wood in front of the machine. Wouldn't that be handy for quilting?




After carefully loading her into the van, my husband announced that my sewing machines now outnumber his trucks, which means I have too many of them. I insist that my daughter's three machines don't count -- they were all given directly to her and were never mine. We might be tied if we only count the parts rigs, but I think I get to count the two other trucks and the two boats...

I've only got six machines -- the Janome, my other treadle, Great Gradma's vintage machine, my featherweight, and the paperweight. That's not too many, is it?

Weekly Stash Report

Not much to report this week. I knit a baby hat, and found eight skeins of soft acrylic in nice colors at the thrift store. And Grandma brought down some scraps that had been given to her to pass along to me....

It's been a month since I climbed the sewing room stairs. I loved all of the suggestions to scoot up there on my butt -- don't think I hadn't already considered it! But those steps are so filthy and splintery I never got quite that desperate yet.

I think I could make an occasional trip up there on my feet now, as long as I go slowly and use the tricks the physical therapist showed me. But I haven't tried it yet.


Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 10 yards
Added Year to Date: 666 yards
Net Added for 2011: 630.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 50 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5590 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 1200 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 13375 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7785 yards

To see how everyone else is dong, click over to Patchwork Times.

we went for a walk

Actually, we went for a drive in the woods, then parked and walked about fifty feet from the car, cause Mommy can't keep up with real walks yet... Distance isn't what matters, though.

We found two full sets of tracks from what dh is guessing was a bobcat. And then another set that we think was a raccoon.

And we found pools full of newts by the stream. I know we've got newts here, as close to home as the pond in my own backyard, but it's always neat to actually see them. And to see my six and five year olds see them... I could kick myself for leaving the camera up in the car. This post really needed pictures.

Weekly Stash Report

Four weeks in a row without adding any new fabric or yarn. Sounds like I'm doing good, doesn't it? You can have the same great results -- just have surgery with complications that keep you from driving for almost a month.... Trust me, it'd be more fun, and much cheaper, to buy some yarn and fabric.

I did buy a sewing machine, a gorgeous treadle in an ugly case that I'll be posting about as soon as Bill gets it out of the van and into the house. Because I'm sure I needed a seond treadle machine.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 656 yards
Net Added for 2011: 620.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 200 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5540 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 12175 yards
Net Added for 2011: 6635 yards

To see how everyone else is doing, check out this week's links on Patchwork Times.

the creature from the black lagoon is not a swamp monster

Or so Quinn tells me. Leif insists he's a swamp monster, but Quinn says that he's from a lagoon and swamp monsters only come from swamps... Have I mentioned that those two can disagree about absolutely ANYTHING?

I was going to post about the creature debate even before I stumbled across the Monsterama fat quarters giveaway over at Fabric Worm. I could make my boys something seriously neat with that fabric!

Look at these prints of women and the sea they're giving away over on Poppytalk -- they've really captured my imagination. I love how the bathing suit reminds me of the one the original Barbie dolls wore.

I'm still spending more time drooling over other people's ideas than working on my own, but I'm getting steadily more motivated. Three new Go! dies are on their way to me and I'm making lists and lists of what I plan to do with them.

The Orthopedist says I can drive! I'm not going far from home, not until I know how well my knee is going to put up with braking, but I can go get my own milk and bread and cinnamon bears and that's a wonderful feeling.

I forgot to ask him about the stairs to the sewing room.

trying to be patient

Tomorrow we see the orthopedist and hopefully get some idea when I'll be up and about and driving and doing the things I need to do. I'm getting around the house okay now, but I'm desperate to get back to normal, or at least to where I was before the surgery.

While I'm waiting, I'm trying to make the transition from being hopeless (meant to type "helpless," but hopeless is what came out and really is how I've felt) to getting dinners made and laundry done and pulling my own weight around here. Without overdoing it.

I've cut a bunch more pieces for the drunkard's path quilt. Still not as many as I'm going to need for the whole thing, but enough to keep me pinning and sewing for quite a few hours. I don't really feel like doing either, but knowing that I could if I wanted to is an improvement.

Mostly, I'm drooling over other people's projects.

I'm very happy with my AccuQuilt Go. I do not want/need/covet a Studio. (Translation -- I don't have unlimited quilting funds!) But this morning I stumbled across Bunny Rose & Co and 52 Weeks of AccuQuilt. I love her fan quilt. Wouldn't that be a fun way to use up scraps? And I can do a pincushion with the dies I've got for my Go! Except my embroidery floss is all up the unclimbable stairs...

I do not garden. I do not have a metal letter stamping set. Neither of which stops me from wanting these. They sell the stamping sets at Harbor Freight....d they're on sale.... Have I mentioned how desperate I am to drive again?

Spring Frills Scarf I don't crochet, but there's a tutorial.

Get Dressed There's something about dresses on dress forms that makes my heart go pitty pat.

And look at this! I rarely wear makeup, but maybe I would if I had something like this to keep it organized.

pinning and pinning

I spent yesterday afternoon sitting with my leg up, pinning drunkard's path units while watching season two of Drop Dead Diva on the Lifetime website. These little things are fiddly and take a zillion pins, but I love them. The really great part is that once they're pinned and ready to go, they take no time at all to actually sew. I can get a whole stack done in the twenty minutes I'm allowed to actually sit at the sewing machine.



If I can cut more pieces, I might actually get this top done.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 656 yards
Net Added for 2011: 620.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 200 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5340 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 12175 yards
Net Added for 2011: 6835 yards

No new fabric or yarn in for the third week in a row -- not that I can claim any actual willpower!

Hooray!

Remember getting warned as a little kid about all of those shots in the stomach you'd have to get if a rabid animal bit you? They should warn bigger kids about all of the shots in the stomach you have to get if you develop blood clots after surgery. Ten days and ten shots later, I'm finally DONE! (Six more months of rat poison pills, still can't drive, still limping around on crutches, but at least that daily 40 mile round trip to the hospital is over with.)

Knitting has started to lose its thrill again. How many days can you spend with needles in your hand every waking hour before it starts to get boring? If you're not working on anything exciting...if I had better projects, I'm sure my motivation would've lasted longer.

I finished a pair of clunky lace socks for a friend. She doesn't knit yet, but has that deep appreciation for wool that you find in Elizabeth Zimmermann's books. The one that I personally don't share unless I'm knitting lace or something to be felted. Or socks. Because most of the pretty sock yarn is wool.



I'm dying to get my hands on some fabric!

Dead Fish

This is one of the projects that developed from what was in reach of the recliner. I'd bought a skein of Red Heart Super Saver Tweed (fifty cents at the thrift store), intending to make Quinn a green hat. Because with that boy, all things must be green.

I had a pattern in mind, but it's no longer available online and I can't go rummage to find my printout, so I went looking for another pattern. I found a couple of options, but nothing that felt like I could do it now. Then the dead fish hat turned up in my Ravelry searches.

Lots and lots of stockinette. Some make-it-up-as-you-go-along colorwork using another skein of Super Saver that shouldn't have been in with the baby hat yarn, but thank goodness it was! Quinn wanted it to have teeth like the shark hat, but I'm not feeling that ambitious quite yet. This was the perfect almost-mindless knitting project to get me through the beginning of last week.

The pattern has its own website. I printed it from Knitty and found out the hard way that the tail as written in the published pattern doesn't match the tail in the pattern photos. Why do they do things like that to poor, unsuspecting knitters? (The version from the pictures is at deadfishhat.com, so I guess I can do it that way if I knit Leif the blue one he wants.)

Weekly Stash Report

No new fabric or yarn. No quilting. I am knitting. Next time it stops raining and dries out a bit, I want to limp outside with my crutches (gotta be up moving around every 20 minutes anyway) and get some good pictures of the things I finished this week.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 656 yards
Net Added for 2011: 620.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 925 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 5140 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 12175 yards
Net Added for 2011: 7035 yards

still in my recliner

What's your favorite online time sink -- Ravelry, Netflix, Webkinz, just exploring random blogs? I'm honestly looking for suggestions here, because its been seven days and I am bored out of my mind!

No new stash this week -- kind of hard to add any fabric when you aren't even mobile enough to play with what you've got. I am using up some yarn, but I'm limited by what's within grabbing distance of the recliner.

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 656 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 620.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 515 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 4215 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 12175 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7960 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, visit Patchwork Times.

I made a hat

I dropped stitches...I dropped more stitches....I had an awful time picking the stitches back up (to the point where I'm still not sure I got them all)....I broke the yarn when I was threading it through the stitches at the top....

I like the Wager Hat pattern. It would be a perfect mindless knit under other circumstances and with different yarn and circular needles instead of double points.

I made it through the surgery and have been in the recliner since we got home from the hospital Monday morning. Which is a little less fun than it sounds. I've got four more days to go, then hopefully I can get this dressing off and actually stand up to take a shower.

Weekly Stash Report #20

Three bolts of fabric. (I had birthday money to spend at the Joann's clearance sales and they gave a great discount if you bought what was left on the bolt.) The red one and the one behind it will be two color quilts. The one in the back might or might not be the backing for the quilt I'm planning for my bed.

Fabric Used this Week: 1/2 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 30 yards
Added Year to Date: 656 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 620.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3700 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 1000 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 12175 yards
Net Used for 2011: -8475 yards

To see how everyone else is doing, head over to Patchwork Times.

possibilities

I bought this sticker at the Dollar Tree a few months back, carefully tucked it under the maps we keep in the van so it wouldn't get squished on the way home, then forgot I had it. It surfaced a few times, usually at the beginning of a long day of errands.

Yesterday, I decided that I should get it up on the wall while I'm still capable of climbing up onto chairs.



When I bought it, I liked the saying but thought it was a pale imitation of the one I really want but haven't been able to find.

Be a Joyful Mother of Children

That's the one I want! I saw it as a vinyl wall decal in a craft mall on one of our first trips down to Utah, sort of knew I wanted it, but didn't grasp how much I wanted it until later. I've been playing with this idea for years now and could just find and order one online, but there's not really a good place in our house to put it (too much panelling and wallpaper that I have no plans of removing, not ever.) I've got white walls in the sewing room, but I think they've got too much spiky fake plaster texture on them....

What I really need to do is make myself a Word Play quilt with that quote on it! Not this week, though. This week I really am dwelling in possibilities, wavering between the optimistic (in a couple of months maybe Alex and I will finally get to use that frisbee we bought last summer, right before the stupid accident.... I'll stop hurting for the first time in a year... ) and the downright morbid (I really am getting my affairs in order and won't wake up from the anesthesia...)

Why is it that they could cut me open and rummage around in my insides to get a baby out while I was awake, but they have to put me completely under to do knee surgery?

I've got a day and half left, then my sewing room is off limits until I-don't-know-when. Ugh. I'm still trying to guess at what I might want to use down here before I'm able to climb stairs again. I'm guessing I'll be sewing (still with the left foot) long before I'm climbing.

I've got a bunch of pieces cut for my Circles in Squares quilt...a bunch of pieces cut for my Texas Braid...two quilts pinned and ready to quilt, but no real urge to work on either...and something new!



I've been wanting to make a Drunkard's Path forever. This particular Drunkard's Path since I bought this book of classic quilt patterns. The block in the pattern is the exact size the smaller AccuQuilt die makes, so I don't even have to do any adjusting...

And then there's the fabric. I bought an eight or nine yard bolt of it on clearance his week, thinking it might make a good backing for my Texas Braid. Of the three bolts I bought, it was the one I almost put back because it wasn't quite as exciting as the other two I had in my arms.

I'm not sure if the idea of using it for a two color quilt hit me in the store or later, but I got to thinking how it would work with some tea dyed muslin ....and I would've sworn, at until I just double checked, that the fabric in the pattern was a green floral...

What I didn't realize until I was piecing my test block last night is how similar this fabric is to the red floral I used for the setting blocks of Strawberry Fields, the stuff I wished I had more of.

I'd usually cut fabric for a project like this as I needed it to piece the blocks, just in case I lose interest halfway through, but I'll hopefully be cutting the rest tonight. And maybe the rest of the pieces I'll need for that Texas Braid.

Right now, I'm resting my knee and drooling over Quilt Festival posts.

So far, my absolute favorite is the phenomenal quilting on this quilt at Tamarack Shack. I'm not a huge batik fan, but I love the way they look in this quilt. And the texture that quilting adds -- it makes me think of pressed tin ceilings.

And take a look at Mother of Pearl -- that center block is paper pieced with 165 pieces of fabric!

And I've been following links from those links, getting all inspired by things like
Soup Bowl Wall Storage Nooks. These wold be great in the boys' room for little toys, but I just know they'd use them as handholds for climbing the walls. And I've thrown out enough shattered plastic bowls already. But I may try it for Alex's closet, or my sewing room.

A mini book shelf quilt. just because I've been wanting a big one for years and this one is soooo cute.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

This is the quilt I'm going to make.

Obviously, I've already made it, but I'm going to make it again and next time it's going to be bed size. I've already gushed about this quilt once this week, but it's been a while since I finished a big quilt -- the last one was my entry in the previous Blogger's Quilt Festival.

I thought about taking the top for this one apart so that I could use the blocks in the big quilt, but I talked myself out of it. This one was meant for something else and it would bug me to know there were bits of another quilt hiding in the one on my bed.

The pattern for this quilt evolved from the baby quilts I was making last year. Directions for the block are here.

Thanks for stopping by my blog, and have fun checking out all of the other great quilt festival entries!

385 pieces

Three hundred and eighty-five pieces in a quilt that's only a little larger than a fat quarter....It's probably a good thing that I did that bit of math after the quilt was done.

crossing things off the list

Still trying to get my ducks in a row before next week. I'm through everything that has to be done and working on the things I'd like to have done before I'm chasing four kids around on crutches.

One of my big to-dos was to finish a UFO for the Stashbusters challenge. Strawberry Fields seemed manageable enough -- just quilt it and bind it and I'm done.



Why has this finished top been sitting on my ironing board for a year?

Partly because I wanted to quilt it with straight lines like Lori did hers and I broke my walking foot and lost my masking tape and then just got intimidated by the whole thing.

Partly because I got busy working on other projects.

I never posted a picture of the finished top because I always thought I'd have it quilted in a day or two. I'm not posting a full picture now because I hope to have the binding done tonight.



We checked on the bees this afternoon, so my clothes are full of smoke. If this is the right picture, you can see some larvae in the cells. If it's the wrong picture, those vague shapes in the open cells look an awful lot like the shapes in the other picture that are larvae.

This might be the one!

Now and then, we get into a discussion about why there isn't a quilt on our bed. What it comes down to is that I like making smaller quilts, and making a quilt for the bed just seems like a huge commitment, something I'll be stuck with forever.

But that's silly. I know darn well how to make quilts, even big bed size ones, disappear.

And I think I've found the quilt I want for our bed --



Bigger, and scrappier. This one was cut from the contents of one scrap bag, which makes me suspect that someone else had deliberately put the colors together for a project. Or just liked these colors. For the one I'm keeping, I'm going to add more varied lights and darks.

Now I should probably do some math. How big is a queen size quilt? Or do I want to make it king size, in case we get that bigger bed we've been talking about?

But what's going to happen is that I'll cut a bunch of pieces and use it as a leaders/enders project while I make up my mind. And I might make the bed size quilt I'm planning, or a throw, or more lap quilts...

If you want the measurements for the block, it's 2 1/2" squares around an 8 1/2" square that was pieced from four 4 1/2" squares, with a 5" appliqued circle. Just the next step from all of those framed squares baby quilts I was playing with last year. I've made another video that shows how to put it together.

Weekly Stash Report #18

Fabric Used this Week: 3/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 35 1/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 626 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 590.75 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3700 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 11175 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7475 yards

No fabric or yarn came home with me this week, a little got used quilting and binding a lap quilt, and I finished two new videos. Not too bad, I guess.

And I think I pulled at least twelve yards of really exciting old polyester to get rid of. It doesn't count until it's out of the house, but trust me, there's no danger of this stuff finding its way back into my stash. Not even for cat beds.

To see the rest of this week's stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times

Wedged Circles

It's not like there aren't enough different Drunkard's Path layouts to keep me occupied for the next few years, but I was daydreaming about my die and trying to figure out what else I could do with it, which led to lying awake at night and wondering if my idea would actually work...

It did.



To make your own circle with wedges, start with two half square triangles. Because I want to keep things totally random, I cut 7" squares of scrap fabric, then cut them on the diagonal and matched them up for each block.



Lay your square on the die so that the diagonal line goes through the right angle. Trust me, that part is important. Don't layer your good fabric until you're sure you have it right.



If I wanted to make sure my wedges were perfectly even, I'd draw a diagonal line on the die to line up the pieced square with. Eyeballing it has worked for me.



Once you've got the wedges cut, it goes together just like a regular Drunkard's Path block.



As much as I love my wedges, they're not right for the quilt I had in mind, so I'll be trying something else soon. And I'll post pictures of that one, too, if it works the way I hope it will.

a new toy

We went to a couple of estate sales on Saturday. And found this --


My first thought, the thought that left my mind as soon as I saw that those are actual gas burners, was that it was a toy.

Second thought was that we could remove the gas lines, clean it up, and have the perfect toy kitchen for that little girl I don't have. Or for me.



Then came the question whether it actually worked, or could be made to work, and if we could use it for camping instead of that pricey Coleman camp oven we were looking at a few months back.



I'm not sure what we'll actually do with it, but for two bucks, it had to come home. As far as I can tell, it came from a vintage Siesta travel trailer. I've found two pictures, one from 1960, and one that looks more like mine from 1957.

those bees make my clothes smell

Years ago, I'd come home from certain friends' houses and immediately jump into the shower to get rid of the cigarette smell. It's one of those things I hadn't thought about forever. Now and then, usually when we're travelling, we'll walk past someone smoking and I'll remember that the world (or at least a lot more of it) used to smell like that. These days it's hard to believe that as a kid I spent a long plane flight stuck next to a creepy chain smoking guy.

But now we've got bees. And I've got smoke scented hair and clothes. Although, to be fair to the bees, it's more of a campfire smell than a stinky bar smell.

We've seen the queen! She's alive and well, which is a great relief. If that one little bug dies before she starts laying eggs, they all die and we're done until next year. So seeing her in there was a huge relief.

Now my plan is to get a big white shirt to wear when we're smoking the bees. Because I hear they don't like dark colors. And we want to have happy bees -- especially when I'm standing right next to them.

Stash Report #17

Not a lot to report this week. I used a little fabric making the Grecian Square quilt, bought a blue sheet and some muslin for quilts I've got planned, and didn't finish a single Hobo Quilt block.

Fabric Used this Week: 3/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 34 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 7 yards
Added Year to Date: 626 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 591.5 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3700 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 175 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 11175 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7475 yards

To see the more successful reports, visit Patchwork Times

Grecian Squares

Remember that old quilt I fell in love with last winter?



I finally got around to making my own version. It's smaller and has a different layout than the original, because I didn't love all of that sashing. It was the shape of the blocks that appealed to me in the first place. This was a great way to use some bits and pieces of the fabric Grandma's been finding lately -- I've got a small quilt for the sewing room wall with built in sentimental value! That fabric is going to wind up scattered through dozens of different quilts, but now I've got twelve of the different prints together.

This time I even used my own sewing corner for the video.

Weekly Stash Report #17

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 33 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 30 yards
Added Year to Date: 619 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 585.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3700 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 11000 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7300 yards

Grandma found me some fabric, which I put away before I weighed it, so I'm guessing a little more wildly than usual this week.

6 more

I've decided that this quilt, even if I don't make any more blocks, completely justifies my shirt stash. And my scraps. I'm including some fabrics in this quilt that I would've sworn I'd never want to use for anything.





Look at this fantastic magnetic bakery over at Ikat Bag! Never mind that I don't have a little enough girl, I kinda want one of these for me.

There's not much time left to enter, but Jennifer is giving away Go! Baby and three dies.

I spent yesterday beating myself up because I'd lost my camera. I knew I had it in my pocket Sunday afternoon while I was getting the kids ready to go to the park. I knew I'd decided to take it out of my pocket before it fell out. And I knew it left my pocket before we left the house.

What I didn't know was if it had fallen out somewhere, or if I'd taken it out and set it in a safe place. There was also the chance that one my little guys had picked it up and made off with it.

So I sulked for a while. I needed to have that camera tomorrow, and if I couldn't find it, there wasn't any point in finishing the rest of the things I needed for tomorrow.

As soon as I stopped pouting and actually got to work, I found the camera in the box of fabric it had dropped into. If I'd just worked on my project to begin with, I would've found it before lunch and saved myself a lot of worry.

Now that I've got my act together, my plans for tomorrow have been cancelled anyway. I can't blog about why, but trust me, it's a hell of a story.

Far more exciting than what we did here this afternoon, which was opening up the hive to refill their feeder with sugar water. Ten thousand bees are much more intimidating when they're flying around.

I may want my own bee suit for mother's day.

More new-to-me fabric this week, with an explanation that I posted yesterday. A little knitting, no new yarn and no fabric use to report because I've spent all of my sewing time on the hobo blocks.

Weekly Stash Report #16

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 33 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 184 yards
Added Year to Date: 589 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 555.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 100 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3700 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 11000 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7300 yards

See how everyone else is doing over at Patchwork Times

Because I'm stressed enough about the knee surgery I've got scheduled next month, I've decided to stick with the sewing/knitting/whatever that keeps me distracted and not worry too much about how much fabric and yarn goes in and out each week.

I'm having a real love/hate relationship with the Hobo Quilt. The fabric selection stresses me more than anything. I definitely need more drab blacks.

I actually did more blocks than I thought yesterday --



And here's the quilt so far --

explanations

My weekly stash reports almost always claim that there's an explanation for the amount of fabric that keeps following me home. This time, I thought I'd actually explain.



There was an ad on Craig's List:

100 pounds of fabric scraps from quilter's collection, $60 obo

The real ad was slightly more detailed, but not by much. There were no pictures. The only way to contact the seller was by text message. And I'm apparently the only one on the planet who still doesn't know how to text, but I kept thinking about that ad and eventually got motivated enough to figure it out. Got the address, which was a few blocks away from our old house. (The house where I had to check for gang members drinking in the street before going out to buy groceries.) Found another responsible adult to go with me.

I didn't really have high hopes, since one of the text messages said there was no yardage and I was envisioning a hundred pounds of strings and crumbs. But different quilters have different ideas of what a scrap is, and a hundred pounds would be something like four hundred yards...

Do you see that pile of yardage behind my Go Cutter? I can understand that some quilters wouldn't see half yard cuts or fat quarters as yardage, but three and four yard cuts of fabric? Nice, recently manufactured fabric. Even the scraps are big -- lots of wide strips that I was able to run through the cutter with my 2 1/2" square die.

I spent a couple of hours last night, watching a stupid movie on Netflix and sorting through scraps to cut into squares or circles.

There wasn't a hundred pounds, I could tell that just by picking up the boxes myself. One good thing about this weekly stash report is that I'm getting better at looking at a bag or box of fabric and guessing how much is there. I wound up with fifty pounds of fabric, about 200 yards, for $45. Twenty-two cents a yard.

Did I mention that every last bit of it was good 100% cotton?



My goal for last night was to finish five more blocks of the Hobo Quilt. By the time I got through the first two, I was ready to throw in the towel. Many of the online reviews I've read have said that there are problems with measurements for three of the blocks. Nothing I can find actually names those three blocks.

Easy Mark is one that I had trouble with last night. If my math is right, one of those red checked blocks should be 4" long.

My blocks aren't coming out quite right, but I'll adjust it all when I get to the sashing.

I'm not sure if I'm having fun or not at this point -- but I keep making more blocks!

bees!

See that box? The one right next to my husband's hand?



There are 10,000 Italian honey bees in that box. The supplier suggests bringing them home in the trunk of your car, but the mini van doesn't have a trunk. And putting it in the back, directly behind a pair of fascinated little boys, seemed like a worse idea than having it ride home between the grownups.

It's our first year with bees... my first ride in the car with a buzzing box inches from my thigh and arm....

And then when you get them home, you shake them into the box, and bang on the box, hard, to get the stragglers out and into the hive...



I wound up much closer to those bees than I planned to get, without benefit of a nifty while suit and veil. No one was stung, which seems like a minor miracle, but makes me feel a lot kinder towards our new pets.

Today's inspiration:

I'm loving This lace shoulder shawl knit from Caron Simply Soft. Wish the pattern was charted instead of written out, but

I'm also intrigued by the Peekaboo Sweater. And look at the Papel Picado crochet chart! I've wanted to learn filet crochet -- this skull might push me over the edge. If, like me, you don't know what Papel Picadois, it's perforated paper, the same as those flags and banners I'm always drooling over when we travel to New Mexico.

I can absolutely see my daughter making a plan betta, or me making one for her.

hobo blocks

After I posted about Hobo Quilts Monday night, I had a flash of inspiration. All of those odd bits of shirts that were annoying me becaue they're too small to cut five inch squares for the 10 Minute blocks?

They're perfect for this quilt. Combine them with some really drab ugly cotton prints that I haven't known what to do with, and I think I can pull this off!

Hobo Quilts

I've got a thing for sampler quilts. Not the ones with a handful of twelve inch blocks, the impossible ones with lots of itty bitty blocks. Not that I've started my own yet, I'm just collecting the books. I've got Dear Jane, and the Civil War Diary Quilt, and the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt -- which I would've started right away if the measurements were in the actual book and not on a stupid disk that I lack the enthusiasm to mess with!

Hobo Quilts jumped off the library shelf at me a couple of weeks ago. It was the block on the spine with the appliqued loaf of bread. How could I not want to applique a loaf of bread?



The book sat in our library bag with a bunch of picture books, unopened until last night when I got an email from the library reminding me that it would be due soon. So I cuddled up with the book, reading through the first person narratives and looking at the pictures. And looking at the blocks, thinking "That wouldn't be too hard, would it?"

But I couldn't picture a quilt made with those blocks, not until I got to page 154.



I want this quilt!

weekly stash report #15

Fabric Used this Week: 1 3/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 33 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 100 yards
Added Year to Date: 405 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 371.25 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3600 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 11000 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7400 yards

More fabric. Again. I'm starting to see why Judy loses so many participants because, although I'm thrilled with the fabric that's been following me home, I hate to think what it looks like week after week. (And I feel like I need to add the usual "I hardly bought any of it it myself" bit -- this week, I bought ten yards of quilt shop quality neutrals for $20.)

A lot of the new fabric is estate sale sheets that Grandma picked up for ten cents each. There are some great solids and prints, and a couple that will probably be foundation for string blocks. Some is the old calico prints I love, found dirt cheap on Craig's List.

And, although it doesn't fit in the weekly report, I went through my existing stash and threw out thirty yards of fabric that was never going to be a quilt, or a cat quilt, or anything else I want to make.

To see what everyone else is up to, click over to Patchwork Times.

what?

I haven't been able to figure out what to work on today. There's my birthday quilt, which I started a couple of days before my birthday. And there are my 10 Minute Blocks. There's the jelly roll lap quilt, which I want to lengthen with a few more strips. There's the new Accuquilt die that came this week, the one I've been dying for. And it's probably warm enough to go up and start digging through the sewing room.

What I wound up working on was the purple and white lap quilt I started cutting for the Accuquilt video. The top is together, and I've got a striped purple sheet that will work great for the backing -- leaving more of the solid purple for another two color something or other.

And I suppose I've got a list to start working my way through tomorrow.

I'm drooling over the lace jewelry at Whiteowl: found. I love the delicate combination of lace and beads and chain, and I love the way they've photographed the pieces against battered old books.

If I knew how to use power tools...

I'd make myself a clock.

But I don't have the nerve to touch those things, and even if I did, they're my husband's and I don't mess with his expensive toys without permission. Permission would require explanations. And explanations would lead to questions and it's probably just better if I stick with my own fun toys.

Our kitchen is on hold again, but I'm still browsing for 1920s kitchen decor. Today, I found The Dilletante Proprietor. Wow! I think this is going to be one of those blogs that I read from first post to last.

red and white

This is the quilt I thought I added to the Red and White Quilt Show -- sorry I don't seem to have any pictures of it actually quilted.



The disappearing four patch was the first quilt that came to mind, the one I went looking for a picture of. It didn't hit me until the middle of the night several days later that I'd found and blogged about the wrong little red and white quilt.

Not that it makes any difference, but I'd love to know what was going on in my head that day. How do you look at one quilt and write accurately about it and still be convinced it's a completely different quilt?

There's an absolutely fantastic set of photos from Infinite Variety: Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts on Flickr. I would love to see those quilts in real life, but I'm sure I'm better able to appreciate them as quilts by looking one at a time on my computer screen over a span of days. (And that iPad app is one of the few things that makes me envy the quilters with more technology than I've got!)

Imagine what a quilter could do with a few yards of red and white yardage or some red and white sheets....

dumbing down?

I've been reading post after post about the dumbing down of quilting.

Are triangles really so scary? I swear, I'm missing something here. What is so daunting about just cutting triangles and sewing them together? Measuring that 7/8" isn't my favorite thing ever, but the bias just doesn't seem like that big a deal.

My very first quilt had triangles because I apparently didn't know they were supposed to be intimidating.



What bugs me isn't when quilters choose not to do a technique because they have no interest in it, or after they've tried it and decided it's not for them. It's when quilters want to try something and other quilters discourage them.

My mother has wanted to learn paper piecing for years, but early on a quilting friend told her never to bother because it was way too hard and not worth the trouble. My twelve year old has learned to paper piece from another quilting friend, but I don't know what it will take for Mom to work up the nerve to give it a try.

My best friend, who had only made three very basic quilts at the time, was looking through a pattern book and absolutely fell in love with the improved nine patch pattern. (similar pattern here, but my friend's didn't have the straight edges to make it easier) She wanted to make it for her husband. Her quilting friend told her that even experienced quilters didn't do curved piecing anymore.

My friend did make her quilt, which is an absolute heirloom. Apparently, I taught her to piece the curves by reading directions to her over the phone and cutting out some pieces and trying it myself to convince her that they'd fit together. Did I mention that I didn't know how to piece curves either at the time?

I wonder how much of this dumbing down comes from quilters telling other quilters that certain things are too hard, or too much hassle.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 1 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 32 yards
Added this Week: 28 yards
Added Year to Date: 327 yards
Net Used for 2011: - 295 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3600 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 11000 yards
Net Used for 2011: -7400 yards

Head over to Patchwork Times to see how everyone else is doing.

I've had Accuquilt on the brain all day. I've been talking to Mom about it, making plans to cut a bunch of circles so we can try Jo's Bubbly Quilt. I've been on the phone to Grandma, telling her to watch for the dies I'm having sent to her house so that the local mail thieves won't walk off with them if they come here.

Now that I've saved up enough Swagbucks (there's an explanation of that here) for the Amazon gift certificates, I'm waiting impatiently for my Triangles in Square die to get here.

And while I was looking at something on the Accuquilt site I saw that the two new dies that were sold out when I tried to order them on my birthday are back in stock.

Yippee!

I finally made a video!

I've written before about how quickly the Go! cutter can turn a couple of thrifted cotton sheets into pieces for a two color quilt, and now I've made a video to show you how it works. Tear the sheets into strips, run them through the cutter, and you're ready to start piecing a quilt.

If you've read my blog before, you can probably tell that that's not my sewing room in the video. It's my mother's. She was nice enough to let me use her room (and her sewing machine) and hold my camera. And my father was nice enough to keep the boys downstairs with him.