Quilting Each Day Keeps the Psychiatrist Away

I truly believe that quilting is medicine for the soul. It is addictive, but also something that soothes the savage beast. When I was twelve, I copied my sister's shorts pattern onto newspaper and then cut them out and sewed the seams by hand. I was off and running in the world of sewing. My first sewing machine was an old Singer Treadle that my hubby bought for me for $10.00. The tension was terrible, but it sewed! When I was pregnant with the first child, he bought me a Brothers machine and I happily made my maternity clothes.
I made plenty of little girl's clothes and little boy's shirts for a nephew for about twenty-five cents. I just sewed and sewed. My sister-in-law got a Singer Golden Touch and Sew in the seventies and I had to have one like it. I sold the Brothers to the woman across the street and moved on up to my Singer. It saw me through grade school clothes, prom dresses, a leather coat for my youngest (which she outgrew in about six months) and even a wedding dress for a friend's daughter. Once my hubby was earning better money, I asked for a Pfaff and gave the Singer to my daughter-in-law. The quilting bug had bitten by the time the kids were out of the house and even though I was happy with the Pfaff, I coveted a Bernina Artista. The husband was spending too much money on raising quarter-horses at the time, so he didn't complain when I spent over $3000.00 for the Bernina. I love that machine like it was one of my kids. The Pfaff is my back-up machine, but it is living at my oldest daughter's house, because her old White quit working and I had given her quilting fever somewhere along the line.
The little critter on the right is part
of an embroidery card that I finally started using on the Bernina and I put together a baby quilt for an unknown baby boy. It is ready to be quilted and the backing is pieced and the binding is ready. Someone just needs to have a baby!

I can't seem to get myself down to the actual quilting, when there are so many fabrics calling my name and so many wonderful patterns to challenge my ability. I need to learn to finish what I start before going on to the next project.
I take some of the really big quilts out to a professional long arm quilter after piecing them. I save my quilting fingers for the ones where you can show off the tiny little stitches required to call myself a quilter. The needles are so tiny (size ten or twelve Betweens) that they make holes in your fingertips. Ouch!
This quilt is called a charm quilt,
because the pieces are all different fabrics. It is a king size and I made four pillow shams to match. I have a queen size just like it--- it wasn't big enough for our king and I am stocking up on quilts for my grandkids, so I just did a repeat. The dust ruffle has dragon flies all over it and I sewed the ruffle right onto the box spring cording. It sure helps keep from tucking the skirt in with the sheets when you make the bed.
I saw this pattern in a quilter's magazine and had to give it a try. For someone who didn't do too well in Geometry classes, I have learned to figure out how quilt pieces work. This one is a standard bed size and is mostly Batik fabrics, which I really love. I found a pattern recently and have to start collecting half yard Batiks again. Sigh! I can't wait to go to Bettsville, Ohio to The Door Mouse Quilt Shop --- they have so many fabrics that I could stay all day just correlating things.
Now we come to the quilt that shames me. I bought the fabric to make a quilt for my older brother. It is huge --- big enough to be a bedspread for a king size bed. I managed to get the blocks pieced and put together. I began hand quilting with a hoop and really enjoyed quilting the open blocks. Then I did "stitch in the ditch" around the colored pieces in the odd blocks. I was slow--- I admit it. My brother died six years ago! And --- the quilt is still not done. There is a huge amount of quilting needed on the pieced border and since he died --- I have not felt like getting it done. I could finish it and give it to his widow, but she has been remarried for almost two years. Like I started out to say, quilting will keep the psychiatrist away,but procrastinating will drive you nuts!

The Deer at Dusk

About three minutes before eight, right after a fierce rainstorm, there were four deer ambling about on the golf course right outside our deck. I had hardly any battery in the camera and couldn't find the zoom button without my glasses, so the pictures are lousy. But, you can see two of them dead center of the picture across the fifth fairway. Double left click on the picture and you can almost see them. One was eating bird seed out of a neighbor's feeder. I guess having to come home to Ohio early from Florida has it's perks. The next thing will be the Forsythia and Flowering Plum trees. Spring is bursting out all over! Welcome!

Blogger Gone Crazy!

I'm ready to throw my computer out the window! My blogspot.com will not let me have comments on my posts, so I miss my wandering blog friends! This is a test, by the way.

Dratted Nose!

Sunday, our church celebrated it's One Hundredth Year in existence. We have gone from a little hole in the wall with thirty worshippers to a multimillion dollar complex serving about twenty-five hundred Christians every day of the week. We are a member of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. The board brought back four former pastors and we had a wonderful day. On Sunday evening, there was a potluck for seven hundred members with the church furnishing the meat and drinks. (Think coffee and punch) I thought about an old dessert that my kids liked at a local restaurant when they were little. It is a huge bowl of angel-food cake cubes, chocolate pudding, whipped cream, bananas, walnuts and chocolate chips. Saturday night, I cooked up three boxes of Jello Chocolate Pudding and then came home on Sunday after church to put this majestic thing together. (Believe me--- it is not cheap!) After piling my masterpiece into a cut-glass bowl, I made a little one for my honey and me. Yuck! It tasted funny! The milk I had made the pudding with was outdated! This would not happen to ordinary people, but I have lost most of my sense of smell --- so I have to depend on my husband to tell me if things smell funny. From now on, I will check the dates or taste things before investing ten bucks in ingredients for the disposal. Once the lovely chocolaty goodness was lost to the potluck, I threw a pot of baked beans in the oven and called it a day, but the dessert was pretty, wasn't it?

This has nothing to do with my lovely dessert, but rather with my blog. Does anyone know why my comments disappeared? I went to the comments section and made sure that they were allowed, but nothing helps! Oh, Dear!

Manic Monday --- "Thousand"

I saw a Meme going around over at Empress Bee's site and in a rash moment, I clicked and then realized that I knew squat about Mr. Linky or much of anything about computer workings. Today, the theme is One Thousand and the first thing I thought of was music and one of my favorites from when my kids were babies.


" The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" --- by Bobby Vee.

They say that you're a runaround lover,

Though you say it isn't so,

But if you put me down for another,

I'll know, believe me, I'll know.

Cause the night has a THOUSAND EYES,

And a THOUSAND EYES can't help but see,

If you are true to me,

So remember when you tell those little white lies,


That the night has a THOUSAND EYES!