Evening Edition, Free Kindle Book!

I love plays on words, so when I came across this one, it sounded funny enough for me to want to delve into it. I am in a mood for FUNNY and light hearted right now….

I’ll get this out here quick because my to-do list is long and time is getting short for me to do it all – I’ve squeezed every spare minute out of this 2 weeks home….and tomorrow is LOAD THE CAR day – because I’m headed to Ohio on Sunday!

So here we go:

Silenced by the Yams by Karen Cantwell is free in the Amazon Kindle Store.

((Play on Silence of the Lambs, get it? HA!))

Genre: Mystery/Humor

Book Description:

What’s more chaotic than a house with a canary, two hungry cats, and a yappy poodle with elimination issues? Answer: Barbara Marr on a murder investigation. That’s right, when Barb attends her first movie review screening, film director Kurt Baugh dies within twenty minutes of meeting her.

If that isn’t bad enough, her friend, ex-Mafioso, Frankie Romano, is arrested for the murder. In usual Barbara Marr fashion, a whole load of trouble ensues when she seeks to vindicate Frankie of the crime. More laughs, more fun, more Barbara Marr!

This third book in the popular Barbara Marr Murder Mystery Series brings Barb out of the suburbs and into the slimy, urban world of bright lights, nightly news, and drive-by shootings. Luckily, she never loses her sense of humor or her ability to befriend some decidedly quirky characters.

It sounds very fun. Much more fun than packing up a trunk show and getting Shamu loaded! I’ve also dowloaded a bunch of mp3 books from my library to my mp3 player, so that will be ready for car listening.

I don’t know how long it will be free, so please double check before clicking that it still is for you.

And OH! Look what came today?!?

The quilts from String Fling are home! I’ll be taking a few of these on the road with me this week ---I just wish I had the books to go with them, but I hope to whet some appetites!

I spent a good part of today working on a top from those leader/ender 4 patches --- Still haven’t made near big enough of a dent in that huge bag of them….but I’m making a go of it!

Can you tell that Sadie was wishing I’d stop sewing and pay HER some attention?

Awww, poor neglected girl!

Have a super evening everyone – it’s officially THE WEEKEND!! Whoowhooo!

They’re At It Again!

I got so busy with other things I forgot to mention what I found when I went IN to the Chiropractor’s office yesterday --

See, they are closed from noon til 2pm – and if I am there early, which I often am, I enjoy sitting on the bench on the wrap around porch while I wait for them to come back from lunch.

The office is in a converted house from the early 1900s ---that’s where the pictures of the cone flowers and other garden beds came from in yesterday’s post.

So I had hit SEND on that post from the comfy relaxing bench on the porch – and then they opened the front door to start letting clients in.

I go to the desk to sign in and what do I see?

YAY!! It’s another “GUESS THE NUMBER OF :::Fill in the blank::” for Father’s Day!

((No donuts this time – good thing, I don’t need them!))

This time it’s GUESS THE NUMBER OF NAILS.

Hmmmm..that jar doesn’t look like it could hold THAT many, does it? But nails can be tricky because they are long and narrow. Anyone want to venture a guess? I guessed something like 472 but we’ll have to wait until the contest is over to find out. I think I over guessed.

And no, the winner doesn’t just win a jar full of NAILS…

It’s a BBQ extravaganza!

Okay, so I really liked my winnings from Easter with the garden tote full of goodies AND the super humongo jar of jelly beans --- but this is some cool stuff too.

Let the guessing begin!

Welcoming Ken Home!

Okay, I’m almost ALMOST embarrassed to admit this!

But I bet you were guessing it anyway ---

I can’t help myself!

It’s almost as bad as the other night when we were driving home from Michael & Harriet’s house after dinner ---There was a kitten in the middle of the intersection!

I only saw it because of the headlights of a passing car.

I made DH pull over and I went out to get it…it came right to me, just mewing up a storm.

It was well fed. It smelled “clean”. It had a full belly. I thought it might live somewhere close ---- I don’t think it had been dumped.

But DH said “No WAY!” and all we could do was drive to the next house away from the intersection in the direction we think it came from and let it out on the side of the road. And it tore my heart out! But he was right, it was late at night, and I could not bring it home.

And for Lynda who commented so harshly -- here is my reply:

I could NOT bring it home late at night -- I have two other cats and a dog and family to think of who were against it. I did all I could in that situation and it broke my heart to have to do it. I am an animal lover also, but I have a FULL HOUSE.

So, this story goes like this:

Sherry and I walk into the Antique Mall and greet the old guy at the counter. He asks if we are looking for anything in particular that he could help us with. I tell him “Why yes, we are looking for old sewing machines!” And he scratches his head, thinks a bit and says “I honestly don’t think we have any ---“ and I feel like I have dodged a possible bullet, and we go on our merry way to inspect the quilts we saw hanging over the bannisters.

I had no more than walked about 12 feet --- and there on top of a dresser ---was KEN!

My biggest concern was if he would run or not – things were pretty tight in his movements ---but we carried him to the counter and asked if we could plug him in.

He ran. Barely – grindingly ---and BOY was he dirty!

But he came home --- for a whopping $40.00.

I paid $30.00 for my pedicure – plus the price of lunch ---when you think of things in terms of what other things cost, it doesn’t seem so bad does it?

Ken had been stored a long time --- you can see it on his foot – little rust flecks – and his undercarriage was COVERED in grime and spiderwebs. I set about to cleaning him up. Upon opening his feed dog cover – OY!! What a MESS! Out came the Q-tips and machine oil! I worked and worked and worked on him, inside and out….

He’s a 1950s singer clone basically, sold under the name KENMORE. What I love is the RED in his decals!

Pretty flashy, eh? And you can see he really cleaned up nice!

The one thing I needed for him though, was a base…..and I found myself cannibalizing the base for one of my Singer handcranks…in fact, this has me wondering if Barbie would fit in here too? The hand crank was in a bent wood case, but the base is a standard full size.

Oh Ken, you are looking smashing!

And you guys can laugh all you want at my pink Ikea light --- but a girl has got to have a bit of pink in her life, and this way I know no one else in this household will be caught dead stealing a pink lamp from me!

I put my Sew Adjustable table around two sides giving me the perfect L workspace. If I’m sewing with a regular machine, like my Bernina, I can put the back section on, but find it easiest just to have the two sections when working with vintage machines.

Ken and I got very busy yesterday, digging into that pile of leader/ender 4 patches! I can’t show you what it’s going to be – it’s for the next book in the pipeline, but never fear ---you WILL love this one! And of course, I’m sewing leader/ender cheddar bowties at the end of my rows –Win/Win!

I also just met the NICEST lady via her ad on Craigslist. I’ve been looking for 2 featherweight cases. I have 3 featherweights, only one has a case. She had an ad for one for $35.00 Turns out she is a machine hoarder lover too, and is down-sizing! OH NO!! This could be VERY BAD!! But we had a very enjoyable chat on the phone this morning talking about this machine, that machine, and we will be meeting up tomorrow for me to pick up the featherweight case. Isn’t it fun when other quilters/sewists cross our paths and we find we have much in common?

And that’s it for my confession. It’s a load off my chest!

But this machine insanity just has to STOP at some point, doesn’t it? :cD

A Pain in the Necchi ((Neck!))

I’ve been searching high and low for a walking foot that will fit my Necchi Supernova Ultra, Sophia. So far, no avail.

I hate having to return parts that I’ve ordered online – they usually have such things as “re-stocking” fees, even though the website states it WILL fit your model of machine. SIGH --- not so!!

This is the foot I was so looking for…..

It was specifically recommended on THIS PAGE that “The professional high shank walking foot will fit the needle stroke of the Supernova without modification. “

It doesn’t.

I emailed the company, and they said that it fit on “their” Supernova, so I went over to check their video and see that their set up looked like.

It definitely fits THEIR Supernova, so why doesn’t it fit MINE?!

Let’s take a look:

My nekkid needle bar minus any foot.

My push-button needle release sits at front…my thread threads from left to right…that post on the right hand side of the needle clamp? TOO WIDE! It won’t let the fork fit over it. And that extra oil? That came from tipping the machine back to get it out of its case to put it into my Janome table – more on that below!

Here I am struggling to get the foot on, and getting the fork over the screw thingy… ((which doesn’t have a screw, because the needle release is push-button in front.

It DOES fit if the fork is in the down position…so it’s not the height of the shank…that part is a good fit.

It just ain’t gonna go over that bar, folks!

I’m writing this post mostly for the benefit of the yahoo necchi group ---I wanted to be able to direct them to this post to see what I was dealing with – pictures are worth a thousand words, right? I hope someone has an answer for me on what to do.

I am afraid to bend the fork….I need to be able to return it in its "original condition" if need be. What I want to know is if there is a different needle clamp assembly that has a regular needle screw. That might solve the problem.

Oh, and for those on the Necchi group who wondered about a low shank walking foot with a low-to-high shank adapter added -- that doesn't work either. Putting the adapter on a low shank walking foot meant that the fork was in NO WAY going to reach over that needle bar that high up either. Rats.

And another thing ---I’ve wanted a table for this machine, but Necchis are a lot longer-bodied than any standard Singer size…so it wouldn’t fit my Singer cabinets. I turned around and looked at my empty Janome table just sitting there and wondered --- what if…..

Aha!!!!

I had to put a 3/4” thick board across the brackets on the underside of the table to lift the machine flush with the table top. And that gap to the right? Not a problem!

A basket covers the hole and becomes a great place for keeping – well---more STUFF!!

I find a machine that threads from the side NEEDS a good old-fashioned needle threader for me to be able to thread the dang things….bending around the side of a machine like a pretzel to thread a needle just isn’t working for me. I could KISS the engineer who finally got machines to thread from the FRONT!

I also pulled out my old not-very-often-used Sidewinder --- I can’t get the bobbins to fit the bobbin winder on this machine, nor can figure out the right way to wind them, even WITH studying the manual. I need to keep it simple. Often!

And that’s the story of Sophia, the Walking Foot Cunundrum, and how she came to live in my Janome 6500 table!

I’ll deal with where to put the Janome when I get her home, but she is just going to have to learn to SHARE!

iPhone-o-Gram! Afternoon Chiro Edition!

The one thing about the iPhone app for blogger that I don't like is that you can't space the text between the photos or put the photos in any given order, so bear with these! It's all I can do but a fun way to share.

I looked at the clock and saw that I was going to be late-

Where are my flip flops?? Buried under the pile of leader ender 4 patches I'm designing with!! Lol!! I had to un-bury part of them to show you---much morning fun in the basement.

And man that is a load of 4 patches built between-the-lines of chain piecing over the past couple years!

The flower beds at the chiro are in full summer bloom. I just had to share their colorful beauty with you too.

I especially love the cone flowers!

The shot from yesterday has me achy and sore--steroids flush my face and give me a queasy tummy and make it hard to sleep at night but I'm hoping to be on the mend!

Quiltmaker Block Party Update!!

I’ve heard from many of you who are in my classes in August in Williamsburg! I’m so excited for this event ---Quiltmaker Magazine – in my corner of the country! They really have a great line up of teachers for the fun weekend and it’s going to be exciting and wonderful.

And yes, my fingers are crossed that String Fling will be in my hands by then --- but I remain a bit cautiously skeptical on that. I'm not sure what the actual print or ship dates are scheduled to be yet.

But please consider coming to this event! It's going to be wonderful, String Fling or Not!

Click HERE for the full PDF Brochure!

Details are coming together and I got the whole itinerary in my inbox this morning:

WEDNEDSDAY:

• MEET & GREET

Plan to join us at the Meet and Greet on Wednesday August 1, 2012 from 7:00 – 8:30 pm. After our attendees check in and pick up their registration packet they will come into the Meet & Greet where they will be able to mingle with each teacher, ask general quilting or class questions. This gives the attendee the opportunity to get to know each instructor and will be a great way for you to meet people who will be in your classes throughout the week.

THURSDAY

• FIRST DAY OF CLASS

Classes will begin on Thursday morning at 9:00 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. If you are shipping any items to the hotel, please take a minute to make sure that your boxes have arrived at the hotel and that you have everything you need for class.

• DINNER & KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Please join us for dinner and a keynote presentation by Bonnie Hunter, dinner and presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.

FRIDAY

• SECOND DAY OF CLASS

Classes begin at 9:00 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m.

• DINNER & KEYNOTE PRESENTATION

Please join us for dinner and a keynote presentation by Jennifer Chiaverini. Dinner and presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.

SATURDAY

• LAST DAY OF CLASS

Classes begin at 9:00 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m.

My classes ARE sold out – but there are so many more great ones available --- seats for my presentation are still available –won’t you still think about coming?!

Click HERE for the full PDF Brochure!

Check the class lists – find something you want to do, come join the fun!

Love those Antique Beauties!

I love haunting the corridors of antique malls all across the country and seeing what things are "local" to where I am.

If I'm in Tennessee I'm looking for things FROM Tennessee...if I'm in Ohio, I want to see things that have a history and connectin to Ohio.

Quilts are household items, so it's hard to tell if one as "local"origins or not. People tended to bring their quilts with them when they moved from place to place.

I do have my favorites that tug at my heart strings though-

These quirky ones! The TRUE scrap-baggers, where a quilter was forced to work strictly from what was in that humbe scrap bag ----look closely at this section…there is lots of “substitution” going on in several of the blocks…ran out of this blue? no problem, we’ll throw in a red and a peach instead! And aren’t those fans wonderful?

Floor space was limited, but we did what we could to lay it out. We determined that these top and bottom borders were actually “whisker guard” casings over the inner border and binding. Tops and bottoms of quilts are usually the first to wear out, and often times a “whisker guard” was stitched in place to keep the oils from grandpa’s beard and the tugging of hands pulling the quilt up in the night from doing more damage to the quilt.

In this case, the quilt dates to about 1900-1920. The whisker guard fabric looks almost like a bark cloth, late 1940s-1950s. This was a family quilt with many generations sleeping beneath its warmth.

There was a bit of a churn dash theme going on too….we found another one, so adorable!

What a difference a few changes makes! Smaller blocks, though still quite scrappy ---on a field of pink with 4-patches as cornerstones…and a gently curved binding. DARLING!

Here’s a better close up --- lots of fun 1950s fabrics in this one.

Loved the display of old luggage sitting here, but what really caught my eye was the luggage tag on the middle case with the CLT marking ---

Piedmont Airlines!

Piedmont Airlines were very busy here between 1948-1989 when they became part of USAir.

So how long has this tag been hanging on this piece of luggage? I wonder where they had traveled to?!

Which reminds me of how we had to LUG suitcases without wheels in the “olden days”. I’m sure glad I don’t have to do that now! Well, in a way I do --- all the quilt bags. But that’s what the little rental carts are for and I don’t hesitate to pay my 4 to 5 bucks and wheel them in!

Sherry spied a very nice trip around the world, also in 1950s fabrics! I love the leaning of the strips and how the rows of color go. There is something to be learned when making a trip around the world. You can’t just go light/dark/light/dark/light or you get something that looks like a checkerboard! But see the center where you have more intense color up against color? That’s where your eye will be drawn.

LOVED the orange up against the black! I think it’s that tartain plaid up against solid green that makes this look kind of Christmassy, but other than that, it really didn’t.

ALWAYS STRINGS!

This is a String Snow Ball, the strings are pieced and then quarter circles, much like with a Drunkard’s Path are pieced to the string pieced units to fill in the corners. Really fun old fabrics in this one…but it’s pretty hammered in the wear department!

I just loved the displays hanging over the railing!

Log cabin, Grandmother’s Flower garden and a great double-framed 9 patch on a field of blue.

This one! I wanted this one! But I think I’ll make one instead. I’ve already drawn it out in my mind……oh this one will be fun!

I love that there are borders only at the top and bottom…Did you notice?

A very busy and cool many trips around the world postage stamp, and a pair of double wedding rings on either side of a woven coverlet.

A wonderfully hand quilted dresden plate with bubble gum pink sashings. This one was really sweet and in great condition!

Can you resist a red and white double 9 patch? This one was shredding pretty badly in places, but look at the texture of that quilting!

I love a double Irish chain in blue and white! And the diamond border..NICE!

Such a variety of indigoes in this one…and the quilting was very fine.

This one was interesting --- it was an older top that someone had machine quilted --- a LONG TIME AGO.

It has very basic loops and figure 8s in the quilting. Longarm quilting machines have been around for decades, the upholstery industry had used them forever for doing quilted bedspreads, etc, so there is no way in knowing how long ago this was quilted. It was not recent. This quilt has been used and loved and washed and used and loved and :::rinse & repeat::: It’s in very good condition.

I love finding machine quilting on antique quilts!

So what came home with me? I’m not ready to divulge that bit of info yet! You’ll have to wait for that reveal in an up and coming post!

The hip feels “okay” this morning, but I haven’t really done much moving around yet. So we’ll see, but I’m hopeful. Ive got a repeat visit with the chiropractor this afternoon….and then I’m heading over to Barrister’s Block for the next 2 installments of Randy’s Sow-A-Long that came out yesterday! I wanna sew!

Happy Thursday, Everyone!

Return to Sender!

I am HOWLING with laughter….

There is an inbox in Facebook where you get “email” messages from your friends, and if messages come that are “NOT” from the safety of your known and friended friends, they go into this folder called “Other.”

That's it right there -- the one with the 12 by it.

I always forget to CHECK Other ----and lots of times there are things in there I need to reply to about book questions, about teaching dates in various cities, and website/pattern stuff, etc – most of the time it’s all legit.

But I am dying laughing at this one…..Sometimes you just GOT to “Read it before you delete it”, you know?

Hi, How are you doing?I hope you are doing great?

I want to use this opportunity to inform you that I sincerely appreciate your looks!

I believe you don't mind us knowing each other.My Name is Steven,I am from Austin,Texas.Am a 9years widower,I live with my pet dogs Wamma and Sandy.

I am Man with sense of humor,I am passionate and romantic,I have the fear of God in me, I have respect for my fellow human being,Till when we get to understand each other more, you learn everything about me!

For me distance does not matter, Am ready to relocate and come for you. Age difference is not a problem, what matters most is the Heart of loving! It will be wonderful of you to send me a feedback if you want us to get along,I promise to make you happy!Thanks.

OH BOY!!

((I am imagining this said with a Russian accent, whether he is from Austin, or not! LOL!))

And he BETTER have the fear of GOD in him…..

My looks? I’m past 50, dude! And my profile says “MARRIED!”

But what’s even funnier --

I must have SUCH a ONE TRACK MIND ----

I read the second line and actually thought he was saying that he “sincerely appreciates my BOOKS!”

Guffaw.

I’m way too old for these kinds of shenanigans.

Especially since the last picture of “me” posted on my facebook page was of Sherry’s & my FEET from yesterday's pedicure! ((oh, now that's a scary thought!))

Thanks for the chuckle guy, wherever you are really from!

I need to warn you, I carry a rotary cutter and I’m not afraid to use it!

Evening Edition! Free Kindle Book!

I’m leaving this for you to download while the Hubster and I go have a very special birthday dinner with Baby Michelle, who is getting to be a VERY BIG GIRL!

I can’t believe she is one already. And sadly, it may be our last dinner together, as Michelle and her parents, Michael & Harriet, are moving to Texas where Michael has a new job. It will be so sad to see them go. I’ve really enjoyed having them close.

There are not enough little girls in my life, and I’m going to miss this one especially!

I’ve been laying on the couch on an ice pack, with my kindle fire at my side. This freebie came across my radar, and I know several of you love civil war stories as well as civil war era quilts, and thought you might enjoy this one. It was still free when I downloaded it a bit ago.

Noble Cause by Jessica James is free in the Amazon Kindle store.

Genre: Historical Drama.

Book Description:

This is the tale of Colonel Alexander Hunter, a dauntless and daring Confederate cavalry officer, who, with his band of intrepid outcasts, becomes a legend in the rolling hills of northern Virginia.

Inspired by love of country and guided by a sense of duty and honor, Hunter must make a desperate choice when he discovers the woman he promised his dying brother he would protect is the Union spy he vowed to his men he would destroy.

Readers will discover the fine line between friends and enemies when the paths of these two tenacious foes cross by the fates of war and their destinies become entwined forever.

Noble Cause is the recipient of the coveted John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction and captured the title for Regional Fiction in the 2011 Next Generation Indie Award contest. It was also a Finalist in the USA "Best Books 2011" Awards for Historical Fiction.

In April 2012, it was named a Finalist in Foreword Magazine's BOOK OF THE YEAR contest in the Romance category. Winners to be announced in June.
Often compared to Gone with the Wind, Midwest Book Review called Noble Cause "a riveting piece of historical fiction."

There may be more couch time for me when we get back ---but it should be a nice and fun low-key evening – and who can resist Kenyan food for dinner? It’s not something I get every day!