Movie Madness!

I’m a movie goer!

I have always loved the feeling of escaping to the darkness of a theater, a big bucket of popcorn in my lap and a huge diet coke in the cup holder of the arm rest by my side.

Last night DH and I headed out to see “We Bought A Zoo!” because I loved what I saw in the trailer ---

Let me tell you that it did NOT disappoint! It is a great family movie….and I have to admit that I sure like the way that Matt Damon has grown up. LOL! Man, that man!

And DH will probably roll his eyes at me if he reads this, but...oh well! Some of us *ahem* DO get better with age, right?!

Here’s a quick peek at the trailer if you haven’t seen it:

What we’ve found when seeing different films, is that the previews for the up and coming movies are kind of tailored to the movie you are sitting there to watch…meaning…if you are in a blow up everything spy thriller, or in a slash-em-gash-em vampire thing, you may miss out on other previews for future movies of a different genre that look REALLY GOOD!

We saw a preview about Chimpanzees that we want to see next year when it comes out, and one about a family of whales being stuck under ice --- true to life stories but lots of drama, and yeah, I love anything with animals in it!

I also saw a preview for the new Snow White that has Julia Roberts playing the wicked queen! It looks Wicked Funny! Gotta add that to the list.

This afternoon we are sneaking off to another matinee to see Tower Heist with Eddie Murphy:

Weekend matinees are my favorite, because they are usually fairly empty, and I feel like I’m playing hooky in the middle of the afternoon and getting away with it!

It’s a good thing to get me out of the basement for a while!

I’ve finished quilting the LAST QUILT for the book…the binding is on…only the hand stitching is left to do! Yeah! Any progress is good progress, right?

Sunday Stuff!

Thank you to everyone who responded to my cry out on the foot cramp in the middle of the night thing. I think a combination of everything is in store for me starting today. I need to make a trip to the store, and I’ll be picking up tonic water,I had heard that before…

But isn’t it amazing all the knowledge of the world that can come through comments? according to several of you, the following can help my situation:

• vitamin D and calcium with magnesium and zinc.
• a magnetic wool underlay, one with strong magnets, works miracles with legs cramps
• calcium, but you also need magnesium & potassium in the mix
• Magnesium, that is what my doctor told me to get rid of them, she said 400mg a day
• have you tried putting a bar of soap at the end of your bed between the top and bottom sheet?

I think I’ll try the calcium, magnesium, potassium ---- I’ve heard people talk about magnets because they do work on the iron in your system, some people put magnets in their shoes, etc. I’m not sure about the soap thing it said anything but ivory! I wonder why that is brand specific? What’s in that that makes it work for foot cramps? But I tell you what, if the minerals and tonic water don’t help --- I’m going to try anything!

I do have orthotics in my shoes, so my arches are supported --- I wear good supportive sensible shoes. Gone are the day of cute flat shoes or daring and trendy high-heels making a fashion statement. Fashion stops BELOW the KNEES for me ---

So what have I been up to? Quilting the LAST quilt for the next book! And writing my brains out to the point where I have to step away from the monitor. Not a lot to show you there!

My adventure with taming the strip bins is still in full swing. I’ve tackled the 2.5” bins, both the color and the neutral. I’m now working on the 2” ones.

A whole drawer of neutral 2” strips was tamed down to THIS…..THIS is all!?

The quilting machine is occupied, so I’ve been ironing them and draping them over the back of a chair. It’s amazing how much you can go through with some netflix on! Some of these fabrics….JEESH! How long have I had these? But you know, I love them…there is so much history in them.

I can just tell you that there will be a whole lot more quilts designed with the purpose to USE this stuff in my future!

And a special thanks goes out to Dianne L of White Rock BC ----

For the darling Christmas card, and a hunka chunka MILLENIUM FABRIC! LOL!! Guess what I get to replace the blacks that we used in the Orca Bay Mystery with? Thank you Dianne!

While I’m pretty much living down here in the basement, I do get visitors to keep me entertained ---

Emmy Lou takes up residence on one chair…((That’s her towel there…the girl LOVES towels! She will plop herself down on any surface that has a towel on it!))

Jeff and Sadie have occupied the other chair and keep me laughing! Good news on the job front for Jeff, looks like he might have found a place of employment at the local pizza/pasta joint. Fingers crossed on this one folks, we really need him to get a J.O.B.!! And I can tuck this in the bottom of this post, because I know he doesn’t bother to read my blog ---Love you so much it hurts son!! Just want to see you pushing forward into your life with some joy and determination! xoxox

Better get back to the machine…..and I’ve got binding to prepare for this quilt when it’s done being quilted….tonight? More binding in the recliner? Hope so!

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Mystery Methods!

As the saying goes, there is more than one way to “skin a cat”! Now, I’ve never personally considered the different ways you can skin a cat, or why you would want to do so….but in this case, those late night foot cramps gave me time to think things through.

For some --- the easiest way to trim those string blocks in Part 4 would be to simply square the blocks to 5-1/8”, slice them on the diagonal and be done with it.

Why use the Companion Angle Ruler at all? I guess it is like my favorite cooking spoon. I have this one slotted spoon that I like to cook with, and if I can’t find that one, I go looking. I just prefer it.

So here is what I thought last night…

Here before you is a 5-1/2” foundation square covered with red scraps. It was easier for me to cut 5-1/2” foundation squares from a flyer that was already 5-1/2” X 8-1/2” than it would be to cut everything at 5-1/8” to begin with. And I knew I wanted a bit extra because it makes for a cleaner trimming down…I don’t fall short on my strip lengths as badly!

We generally don’t like all that excess hanging off the edge of the block, and so I was pre-trimming before sizing down. I don’t know why it has to take leg cramps and an anvil hitting me on my head to see THIS in my mind --- The paper is our guide! Instead of squaring everything up first, just slice from corner to corner on the back side of the messy block!

Then use the companion angle ruler to trim it to size, through paper, rough edges and all. Then remove the paper. Of course, if you want to, you could slice it in half and remove your paper and THEN trim to size.

What matters is that you end up with TWO of these from every block that you do for a total of 128 trimmed triangles.

Don’t you love my Maryland crabs next to my lucky cow fabric? There are cherries with gold glitz in there too..FUN!

So as far as skinning cats goes ----use whatever method gives you the results that you want, with the method that makes the most sense to you and makes you the happiest, knowing that not everyone will choose to do it the same way as you, and that is okay too.

Happy Stringing!

Yard Sale Saturday!

I’m getting another late start this morning….I had one of those nights where you wake up with foot cramps at 3am and the only thing to do is get up and stumble around and walk them out! Does that happen to anyone else?

After that, I lay there thinking of what to do with the Part 4 steps……really…and I have some ideas to streamline things, and I’ll post that in a bit. It will take me making one more block and some more photos! So come back this afternoon for that.

Remember me telling you I wanted to do a Yard Sale Saturday thing? I’m thinking we can use the LINKY and it would be like a neighborhood yard sale!

There will be some ground rules…These items need to be QUILT RELATED. Patterns, Books, Fabric, Notions, Partial UFOs…whatever you want. This is for gently used –white elephant type items, not new-sell-at-retail-stuff or new crafts you have made to sell for Christmas. Understood? Think YARD SALE. When your item has sold, mark it sold on your blog page so people know.

You must link your post back to THIS POST, not the whole blog --- The url to use is http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/yard-sale-saturday.html

You write the post on your blog, you come back here and link it up. It is up to you to decide how you are going to interact with your buyers. I’m going to use paypal, and the selling price does not include the shipping. The shipping price will be figured depending on where the person lives, and the shipping price will be added to the purchase price.

***Notice!! These blocks have SOLD to Miriam! Thanks Miriam!***

So what did I sell today?

How about a set of 16 vintage churn dash blocks! And not just ANY Churn dash block..these are pieced differently than I’ve ever seen!

Block Front Block Back

She’s used SMALL triangles around a center framed square….it’s really unique! Maybe all she had was smaller pieces to work with and this is what she came up with?

This brown one is even more interesting….there are two long bars…and then the corners are added only to one side…Here is the back of the block, I think you can see it better by viewing the seams:

By my closest guess ---these fabrics date from around 1900-1910. There are shirtings, ginghams, plaids, double pinks, polka dots, solids, and lovely mourning prints and burgundy resists. They measure just a bit over 10” on average.

Check out ALL the blocks here:

		1900 churn dash blocks VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There are stains, some yellowing, lots of wonkiness and loads of character. The blocks are big enough that they could be taken apart, and reassembled or used as an addition to your vintage fabric collection.

I was able to sell my blocks within a couple hours of posting them --- isn't this great?!

Do you have something to unload SELL!? Write your blog post, and link it below! We’ll leave the linky running through The weekend, the entries will close on Sunday at 11:59pm. Monday starts our Mystery Monday Link-Up so be sure to come back for that too!

Evening Edition..Free Kindle Book!

It’s on the machine….the last quilt for the next book is on the machine! I am so excited I can barely stand it..I love this quilt..it turned out every bit as terrific as I hoped it would.

AND…I was thrifty…last year I bought a set of King sized flannel sheets on sale because I thought they’d be cozy…well---

DH isn’t crazy about them, says they are TOO HOT…so today, they became BACKING! And I’m happy about that too.

Speaking of DH’s and those of us that have them, and have to deal with them through the Holiday season, dropping hints, or shopping for ourselves, etc…..Here’s a fun freebie from Amazon:

A Married Man's Guide To Christmas, by Robert Henry, is free in the Kindle store.

Book Description

In the great tradition of guy-humor everywhere, here comes humorist Robert Henry’s growling, good-hearted rant about holiday madness, A MARRIED MAN’S GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS.

Henry reveals the truth about Christmas through the eyes of a typical married man. “Remember, it’s not how you celebrate the joyous season. It’s whether you are still alive, married, sleeping indoors, with a healthy prostate, and without a rap sheet on January 4th that counts.”

Husbands will laugh out loud. Dads will slap their knees and keel over (have CPR ready). Wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, female co-workers and sales clerks who dread seeing men mumble and mutter their way through the Christmas section at BIG BOX DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE will nod in recognition at the syndrome best described as “CAN I SURVIVE UNTIL NEW YEAR’S?”

A Married Man’s Guide To Christmas is a must for every guy who wants the women in his life to understand why he’d rather buy them gift certificates than brave the treacherous online world of lingerie catalogs. Why have just a joyous season, when you can have a Christmas filled with laughs that don’t include finding pictures of Uncle Herbert in a teddy?

Irreverent, honest, and biodegradable, Robert Henry has captured the essence of the holiday season for all men in A Married Man’s Guide To Christmas.

So grab it today for all the beleaguered males on your Xmas list and all the long-suffering females who just want the lights strung on the front porch by Christmas Eve, the honey-do list completed before Aunt Sookie arrives with her flatulent Pekinese, and that expensive bottle of Scotch left mostly full until the tinsel is hung, the presents are wrapped, and the home owner’s association has accepted your apology for spelling out a less-than-jolly greeting in solar-powered candy canes on your front lawn.

Sounds good to me! I just downloaded it and it is still free --- but double check before clicking just in case it isn’t any more….

Back to the quilt in the machine!

Mystery Stuff !!

This is one of those reasons why I am home when running mysteries--- QUESTIONS come in!

Please, please believe me in the sizes for step 4....the directions ARE correct. I've gone over this and over this. I’ve already MADE the quilt, I know what I’m doing :c)

Please don't second guess me when you don't know where these triangles are going to go or what they will be added to.

If you cut a 5-1/8" square on the diagonal, it is the SAME shape and size as the triangle cut with the companion angle ruler using the 3.5" markings down the center of the ruler. I laid them on top of each other. They match. They are the same.

You have to trust me ----That said, if you decide to cut some other size, I won’t be responsible for how your quilt turns out – or doesn’t ;c)

I’m TRYING to accommodate everyone here by giving traditional rotary cutting measurements AND the Easy Angle/Companion Angle measurements. I don’t have to do that ---but I take extra time to make sure that things work.

I use these rulers for EVERY MYSTERY we do and will continue to do so. They are standard rulers for me and I use them all the time with terrific results. I have included them in the last book, and will in the next one.

This is why screw-drivers come in so many sizes --- there is no ONE screw driver that will work for every job you have.

I don’t consider myself a “ruler hoarder” But I do want the right one for the job. These rulers are so inexpensive when purchased with a coupon.

A Reader wrote:

I want to get this fixed quick if it is wrong so I sent a note to the quiltville yahoo group but I thought I would send a note directly to you.

This is the piece I am worried about. If you are cutting 3 ½ inches on your companion ruler shouldn’t we be cutting them to 4 ¾ inches for quarter square triangles--

UH-OH!!

Guess what Santa is bringing me for Christmas this year?!

Actually, I hope it shows up a lot sooner than that! I just placed my order ---

This is my extension table for my Bernina machine, and --- ooops! I was reattaching the legs, and I don’t even KNOW how this snapped! But let’s just agree that it is NOT fixable :c/

((I may find myself resorting to some duct tape and some flat paint sticks as a bottom brace until the new one gets here—I’ve got projects to finish!))

This just puts a GRRRR in my day, Ya’ll!

But to get me in a better mood, here’s something I thought I’d share with you…

This is Cathy’s Tree!

Do you see what is ON Cathy’s tree??! Look closely!

Yay to Cathy!! But now she is going to have to wait until after Christmas to take them down and iron these suckers..LOL! Or at least until the next step that builds upon these units is revealed!

Tomorrow is the release of Part 4 of the Orca Bay Mystery! Will you be ready?

JoAnne McKee is! This morning she posted this silly poem to our Quiltville facebook wall!

Dear Bonnie Hunter;

Do you even have a clue?

The wild things you started, with your little strings of blue.

My husband thinks I’m crazy. My friends all think it’s sad

I used to be so normal…Now they think I’m mad!

I’m chopping up the phone books-- I’m slashing up old shirts.

I sew and sew into the night until my body hurts!

I rush into my best friend’s house, start digging through her trash!

She doesn’t care as long as I just stay out of HER stash!

I cut and sew for days and days and finally I am done.

Those little strings all blue and cute-- oh they were such fun!

So everyone is relieved and simply shake their heads,

Until I tell MORE STRINGS TO COME --BUT THIS TIME THEY’LL BE RED.

Hahahahah!! I love love love this! And with this cheerfulness around, how can I be so upset about a little cracked machine extension table?

Now just WHERE is that DUCT TAPE?!