How to block a quilt

Good morning, everyone. I have been up this morning for about an hour, I have done my morning devotions. I put meatballs in the crock pot for our Prime Timers lunch. The recipe is so easy.

Crock Pot Meatballs
1 bag of frozen meatballs, any variety you prefer
1 jar of grape jelly
1 jar of chili sauce
Mix the grape jelly and chili sauce together, pour over the meatballs in the crock pot and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
It is that simple and really good.

Yesterday, I got good news and bad news about my sewing machine, Lilly. She will be repaired for free because she is still under warranty, but she has to be shipped back to the company for the repairs. So I will be without her for several weeks I am thinking. Linda, at Domestic Sewing Center, Warren, Ohio, called and said that she was going to ask them to put a rush on it but I still think that it will be several weeks. Linda is such a great dealer of Janome brand machines, if you are ever in the market for a new machine and you are in the area of her shop you need to check her out. The service is fantastic.

On to a project report: I have my large oriental piece quilted. I think I will go back and add a little more detail to a couple of places, but for today I need to get it washed, to get out the markings and then spread it out on the carpet in the guest suite and block it. If you don't know what blocking is, it is done after the quilt is completed and the binding is on. You wash the quilt in cold water, spin out as much of the water as possible, and depending on the size of the quilt you can do the blocking part on a bed or table or floor, the area has to be large enough for the quilt to lie completely flat. It helps to have something soft but firm to pin into, such as carpet. You lay the quilt down and stretch it out to square it up and pat it down in areas that want to puff up. Pin all around the edges into the carpet, T pins are good for this, and then you let it dry. I place a fan blowing over it to accelerate the drying time. Depending on how large it is and the weather conditions it can take from several hours to several days to get completely dry. Do not disturb the quilt until it is absolutely dry. My piece is approximately 45" square so it shouldn't take too long with the fan blowing on it. I am going to go do the washing as soon as I am finished here.

My next quilted piece will be a vintage table cloth I bought last weekend. I got some peach fairy frost fabric to go underneath the cutwork cloth and also for the backing. I started the marking process last weekend but some of the marks have faded so much already that I will have to remark some areas before I get to the quilting. This is another piece I would like to have done by Saturday. It shouldn't be a problem as I have several days. I also have to finish up my t-shirts for the craft sale. I have 3 done, and I have about 9 more to go, I might take them with me and make a demo of the technique at the show. I can take special orders and customize the shirts. Well that is where I am today. I still have some other small things I would like to make but if they don't get done it is not a big deal.

Weekend busyness

This weekend has been a busy and challenging weekend. I have been working on finishing up projects for the craft sale at our church this upcoming weekend. It didn't help that my main sewing machine had some problems and I had to take her (her name is Lilly), to the dealer for repairs. So I am using my second machine which I usually have set up to do my regular piecing and sewing on. I don't use it for my free motion quilting usually. So that was my Saturday trip, out into the wild chaos of shoppers. I did stop at the local shopping mall and visited the antique store that is there on my way home. I am always on the look out for great vintage linens to make quilted items out of. Yesterday was Sunday school, church, lunch out, we picked up some take out also and swung by my brothers apartment and dropped that off to him, he has been sick the last week. Home then and a short nap. Up and quilting on an oriental piece that I want to have done for Saturday's sale. DH came in late and I watched the 2nd half of the Steelers game with him and then went to bed. The sad news from the weekend is that our sweet little Abby, a 5 yr. old beagle, died this weekend. She was found in the yard. She was so sweet, I will miss her. Our other beagle, Georgie, is sad too. I think she knows because she doesn't want to go outside by herself.

Today, I plan on working on laundry while I am quilting on these last minute projects. I also have to run out and get a door prize and snacks for tomorrows Prime Timers get together. It is a get together of those 55 and older from the community that meets at our church for fellowship, entertainment and good food. Tomorrows meal is pot luck so I also have to get a dish of some sort together to share. Lots to get done today so I am off to get started. Have a great day and I hope you do something to share the love of Christ today.

Black Friday

Black Friday shopping. How did it go for you? I started out this morning shopping with my friend and her daughter. We where at Joann Fabrics at 5:30 AM, we where the 3rd -5th people in line. I spent a whole $1.05 there. I got some picture hangers that I needed to hang my cork/bulletin board. I wanted to get a bolt of their 50% cotton/50%bamboo blend fabric but they didn't have any. So they didn't get too much of my money. Then we headed to Dunhams, I picked up a Christmas present for DH. Spent $9.99 there. At K-Mart I did part with a little more of my money. I got a new mattress pad cover and new sheets for the office/guest bedroom. I also picked up a shirt for DH. Next we went to Big Lots. Saw some really nice electric fireplaces there but didn't buy a thing. We went to breakfast after that and met up with some other friends of Tina's there. They were quite busy. It took quite some time to get to order but most of all the coffee that we all so desperately needed. After we filled our tummies, we headed on up to Wal-Mart. I bought 2 boxes of tea, for me, the check out clerk asked me if I braved all the crazy crowds just to get 2 boxes of tea!?! I said that was all I needed. I got the most of my shopping done at Salvation Army Thrift Store, otherwise known as "The Boutique". I have been looking for a pair of jeans and a white long sleeved button down front shirt for me. I got both, a pair of shoes, 2 outfits for Brianne,and 1 for Avery. I also got a black plaid wool jacket with suede collar all for $14.06. Not too bad. On the way home I stopped at Time and Again Antique Shop and got a cute cutwork tablecloth for $12.00. I spent just $100.00 today. Not bad. I might go out tomorrow and shop small business sales but I don't know for sure. We will see what tomorrow brings. It was a great day. Hope you had a great one too and didn't run into any rude shoppers.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I pray that you all have a wonderful day. Don't forgive to thank those people that you take for granted all year long. Think about it for a while and you will know who they are.

Love, thanksgiving, sharing?

Love, thanksgiving, sharing. What do these have in common? Do we exhibit these qualities frequently? Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, the day that traditionally we get together and share a meal. How often in the busyness of cleaning the house, preparing the perfect meal, getting everything just right do we forget to be thankful for the opportunity to host or share in this celebration? Are we thankful that we have all these members of the family to feed? Are we thankful that we have a home in which to serve up this feast? Do we prepare everything with love? Do we greet our family and friends with love? I read a great post this morning from Biblical Homemaking about love and sacrifice.
It reminded me of showing love and mercy while serving. While sacrificing time, energy, provisions, our gifts and talents, do we do it to earn others admiration or do we do it out of love? This Thanksgiving, ask yourself am I doing this out of love? Or am I too caught up in proving something to someone that I forget the whole purpose of Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving is a celebration based on thanking God for providing food, shelter and friends that helped the first settlers, the Pilgrims, make it through their first winter and year here in America. The new beginnings for them and the great harvest that they had thanks to the new friends that helped them to adjust to their new homeland. We all need friends to help us survive the cold hard realities of life. Are we thankful for them everyday? Do we share what we have everyday along the way, as we have the ability? Do we love our neighbor as ourselves? Do we love ourselves enough to be able to love our neighbors? Do we offer our thanks giving to an awesome God continually? This world needs LOVE, that is acheived by being thankful for what we have, sharing what we have and giving of ourselves, showing mercy and forgiveness when we are done wrong. Love is a seed that when planted in the hearts of man will grow an abundant harvest of love. The seeds that we plant in the ground will grow that fruit, so it only makes sense that if we plant love, love will grow. What does your Thanksgiving look like? May God bless your celebration table with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. These are the fruits of love. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

It has been a slow morning. My brain hasn't begun to function yet. This post might be a short one. Let's begin with what I got accomplished yesterday. I mailed off a birthday present for a sweet little girl who will be turning 2 on the 27th. This sweet little thing.

When I talked to her on the phone the other day she just shattered away with such expression, you could tell she was telling you something very important but I couldn't understand any of it. She is such a sweetheart. Happy Birthday, sweetie. I also got a lot done from my list I made in an earlier post. I got 7 casserole carriers done. I have an 8th one almost done. I need two more metal rings to add to it to make it functional but the rest is done. I also finished up the last 2 backpack/tote bags. They turned out really cute. So I now have 4 of those. Then I made one of the two chenille scarves. I will do the second one today most likely. I am making all of these things for the annual craft sale that we have at our church. It is Dec. 3 rd. Oh, I forgot I also made 2 pillows that are decorated with colorful zippers. Really cute. I got a lot done yesterday. Now for today, what are my plans. I plan to finish that last chenille scarf. I have 2 pieces that would make a great journal cover. I should go get the notebooks that will go inside so that I get the dimensions just right. I have one wallhanging that I also need to finish quilting so that I can have it to take to the sale. I have a customer that loves oriental pieces and buys something each year from me that is oriental. I need to get that done. Well that is what I have planned but we will see what the day holds as anything can happen to change those plans. (If I get all this done, I might just surprise a little lady by showing up at her birthday party.) Have a great day and remember to be thankful for all your many blessings.

Thanksgiving week

Here we are. It is Thanksgiving week. How has this year gone by so fast? I remember as a kid it seemed to take forever to get from one Christmas to the next, or through one school year to the summer. The days are flying by so fast that I think we forget to take a moment each day, not just on Thanksgiving day, and give thanks for all we have. This morning I have thinking about all the things I am thankful for. I am not going to list them here since I already did in my journal. The point is not for you to read what I am thankful for but to think about what it is that YOU are thankful for. Especially all those little annoying things, like a messy house because it means that real people live there, that annoying alarm clock that goes off to get you up to go to the job you have, not wanting to get out of bed on a cold morning because you have a nice warm comfortable bed. These are just a few things. Can you think of something to be grateful for when you are gritting your teeth due to some annoyance in your life? Here is a photo of something I am very grateful for.

My family. I hope that you all have a very thankful Thanksgiving and may God bless you abundantly.