A little bit crazy.......

........piecing, that is.   I did a little bit of crazy-piecing today, using just the fabrics found in my scrap tub.  These are all leftovers from the last year's quilties.  It was fun.   I pieced borders for my latest little project, but I don't want to show it until it is finished.  I need to re-purchase some interfacing for it, as I bought too small a piece.  I thought that the interfacing was probably 44 inches wide or so, but after buying a half yard, which should have been sufficient to cover the 16 12 inch by 24 1/2 inch piece that I want to back, I discovered that the interfacing was only 18 inches wide to start with !   And it's 4.97 per yard, so I just wasted that 2.50.

I Can Only Imagine

Our dear Goldie passed away today at a little bit after 2 p.m.

She was a dear, sweet friend.

 May she be at peace with our LORD.

Re-surfacing........

I'm making an appearance to let friends know that I'm doing fine.   Still no news on the court situation, and I guess that's why I'm not inspired to do much sewing.

We had an unexpected trip (well, I guess they ALL are) to the emergency room today.  Hubby was cleaning a pocket-knife, and cut his fingers badly when he tried to close the blade while holding the knife in his weaker hand.  There was so much blood that I couldn't tell how deeply he was cut, and when the nurse cleaned it up, there was a wedge missing from the middle fingerpad, and the ring finger was slit all the way around to the fingernail !  (I'll spare you the photo that I sent to our daughter.)

 The doctor actually had me hold the fingers while he stitched them up.  He wanted to know if the sight of such a cut made me queasy.  I said "no, I'm a seamstress, and I just find this fascinating to watch you use this curved needle and tie off these stitches !"  Hubby is doing fine tonight, and I think he's glad that I won't have an excuse to 'nag' him to use his weaker hand for a couple of weeks.

Lovely pastime........

.......I was reading someone else's blog post the other day, and it mentioned learning to knit socks.  Thinking along the lines of what a pleasant pastime sock-knitting used to be for me, I dug around a little bit and brought out my stashed knitting supplies.   Pulling out this long-hoarded skein of superwash wool, I decided that there was no point in a FORMER knitter holding onto it, so I should find out if I even had the skills to use it anymore. 

Believe you, me, it was looking doubtful for awhile !   But I've gotten back into somewhat of a groove, and am even playing around with altering a pattern that I had used before.  I don't have much to show at this point, and I've already groused about my photo issues, so I'll just share this one poorly lit shot.

My mind is staying occupied while it is too cold to do much else, and for that I am thankful. 

No news yet on the trial situation, but on the 'Goldie front', I feel good in having spoken to her on the phone today.  She sounded like her old self, just a little tired.  We laughed together, having regrets that I couldn't visit in person, as hubby is taking his first cold of the season or something.   We had concerns over low blood pressure issues with him last night, but I think that he had just become a bit dehydrated.  That's doing some better now. 

My email was hacked

I apologize to anyone who received a strange email from me last night.......I didn't send it.  My daughter says that it means that my email was hacked.  I got notice of some addresses to which it failed to deliver, and I couldn't make out the message that had been sent.  I have changed my password and hope that it won't happen again.

I'm assuming that the title of the email was "no subject".  I've gotten those before and when I opened them, they sent me to sites selling Viagra and such.  I no longer open any email with that title.

Trial postponed or better........

My heartfelt gratitude goes out to dear friends, family, and other loved ones who have kept us lifted in prayer this week.

Instead of the jury selection and trial beginning this past Wednesday, a motion for dismissal was filed on Tuesday .  This caused everything to PAUSE .  Now we await a decision to dismiss or reschedule.

Praise God for his mercy, love and compassion, not to mention the strength he gives us, his GRACE actually, to bear all things.

All things work to the good for those who love the LORD, and are called according to his purpose.  Romans 8:28

Prayers are being raised for my family friend,Goldie.  She had a rough couple of weeks, and was finally hospitalized on Tuesday.  She is very weak, but having refused chemotherapy, they are just trying to make her as comfortable as possible.  She is still eating a little, a pureed diet, and is able to talk to people a bit.  Peace and love, Goldie.

Star finished

I finally got a couple of pictures resized.  This is the finished star quiltie.

The color is a little more orange-looking here than is true.

It's dimensions are 22 1/2 inches in width and height.   I machine-quilted it with the new walking foot, and had a slow time keeping the stitches in the ditch where I wanted.  I hope to purchase a guide to go with the next foot that I buy, for doing echo-quilting like I did all around the star points here.

I pieced a back using stripes cut from a fat quarte gifted to me by JodieAnn, and some blue fabric from Fabric.com.  This quiltie now hangs in  my kitchen/dining room, and I moved my little Orange Peel to my living room wall.

I'm a little bit bummed.......

.......when I tried to start my computer this morning, it would not boot up.  After trying several things, I eventually had to use system recovery, thereby losing all the personal stuff I had saved on this computer over a 6-7 year period.    It seems that I've been hearing of this alot lately, just among the blogs that I read !
Charter internet had a man out working on the cables on top of the pole near our house this past weekend.........hubby suspects a conspiracy !!!!!!!!!!!!!  LOL !

You'd think that I'd be most upset over photo loss, but I have sources to replace some of those, atleast the most familial ones.  I do hate losing the folder of inspiring quilt ideas.  I really do go back to it every now and then to choose one to finally do.     That's how my "Blushing Bloomers" came about.

But the most aggravating thing right now seems to be the loss of my photo editing program.  I had HP's Image Zone and it was WONDERFUL.  It let me correct lighting and other problems, crop, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, resize the photos for use on my blog and in emails !   I downloaded the newest version of ImageZone, but it no longer lets you resize !

BooHoo.......I'll keep looking and find something.

On a brighter note, though, I got a lovely card from JodieAnn today, blessing me for her quilt-top that I pieced, and telling me that she had knee surgery.   I'm thinking of you tonight, Jodie, and knowing that there'll be no stopping you now, with that bionic replacement !  Heal quickly, and be blessed........you are an angel on earth.

And congratulations to my persistent son-in-love, Tim, who finally got his promotion to staff sargeant !   Way to hang in there, Tim.  God bless you every moment !

Update:
Oh, now that I've resized THIS photo online, I'll share my basting of the Morning Star quilty.  I have finished machine-quilting it, but still need to get it bound.  I'll keep looking for a program that lets me do all in one, editing, resizing, cropping, etc.

What does a quilter do with a snow day?

Why, this of course !

22 1/2 inches square

I woke up to our second little snow covering of this winter,....

so I sat down to organize my leftover strips that I accumulated while making the "Scrappy Tripalong" top.  I ran across these pink triangles that were left from a baby quilt that I made last year.  Stars came into my eyes..........well, one star anyway, and I spent the remainder of the day putting together this one little ol' 22 1/2 inch wallhanging top !

But I like it, and it entertained me for the day, and it didn't cost me anything in fabric purchases........so it's all good, right?

And back to the snow.........most of it melted today, which is probably why I was able to get a small load of laundry dry on the clothesline in the back yard.  Although.........the pockets of a pair of jeans were FROZEN when I brought them in around 4 p.m.  !