Crumbs Saga

We've had birthdays and engagements to celebrate. In between times I have been trying to tackle my crumb blocks. I truly thought I could empty out ALL my scrap bins. Well, I will say I made a big dent. From 3 overflowing containers I whittled it down to one almost-full bin. Right now I have about 100+ regular crumb blocks on hand, a few white ones, black ones, and a decent pile of need-to-be-trimmed yellow crumbs. I'm trying to make some monochrome crumbs for some fun variation in my settings.





This little journey to eradicate my scraps reminded me that I was on an impossible quest. Every once in a while I have to re-test the duplicating skills of scraps and remind myself that I'm not the boss of the scraps. Pretty soon, though, I'll have a few fun crumb quilts to show for my efforts.

Engaged!

 

Recently our son and his girlfriend announced that they are engaged! The wedding will probably happen next summer. We are very happy and excited, as are they! I'm going to have a daughter-in-law!

Happy Birthday, D!

Here's the little guy at his party. Hard to believe he is a whole year old. See how great he looks?








They like the quilt! Hooray!

D's Teddy Bear

My great-nephew's bedroom is decorated with teddy bears, so I made him this teddy bear quilt. He gets it tomorrow at his one-year birthday party! Do you remember him a year ago? He weighed 1 lb. 12 oz. at birth. Now he's robust and doing GREAT!
(P.S. correction: he weighed 2 lb. 12 oz., at that size 1 lb. makes a huge difference!)

The Crumb Factory

mountains of scraps and crumbs......





We're working double shifts here at the factory.

Sewing on my Mind

I wanted to sew, but I didn't want to think. So I made crumb blocks ... lots of them. And I want to keep going and make lots more. I reeaaally want to get my scrap piles depleted. So I'll see how long I can keep going on this mindless project. This is a pile of completed blocks (about 30 of them).



This is a pile, about the same number, of almost-completed blocks. I haven't made a very noticeable dent in my scraps. I'm going to keep going and keep going and going and going..... I hope I can make a dent!



Today's mail brought a couple of fun squishies... these red/white blocks from Caron. Aren't they cool? She said she was inspired by my Love (or anniversary) top to make improvisational blocks. I love them!



And I also got these pretty FQs from Donna, in celebration of my Turning Twenty quilt top. Wasn't that nice of her? I shall have to think of a special project for these.


This is my Turning Twenty top.

Infection!

Apparently I've been bitten by a bug and infected with a disease called Quilt Mania! Symptoms: person is usually covered in threads and mumbles to self about designs and whether to start something new or work on something old. May appear incoherent and glassy eyed and may ignore entire family for hours on end. Requires presence of electrical equipment such as sewing machine, iron, and refrigerator. Consumes vast amounts of chocolate. Beware of flying pieces of fabric, pins, and empty thread spools. Anyone in vicinity of person may be utilized as fabric holder for photographic purposes. Symptoms gradually fade as wee hours ensue. Result: many small fabric pieces sewn together randomly into blanket size. See samples below.











(fabric detail)


Upon onset of Quilt Mania Infection Phase II, the following pieces may be moved into various positions, poked with pins, sewn randomly together, sometimes rippped apart and re-sewn:



There is no known cure for Quilt Mania, but subject enjoys presence of others similarly infected.

Posting from Picasa

 

Experimenting... maybe if I start posting from Picasa instead of from my hard drive, the pictures will publish correctly. This is a picture from a quilt show I went to in 2004.

It's Done and On the Wall!

...and look at this humungous plant! I thought it looked cool, so I snapped a photo.


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Photo Frustrations! (Warning: if you don't want to listen to me complaining, stop reading now.)
Do I have a screwed up system? Is it my software? My computer? Or is it Blogger? Do any of you go through this annoying photo-uploading process? Look at what I went through to get those above two photos posted correctly. I had to try many times and got these results before they finally came out right.



If I correctly understand how this all works, I'm getting screwed out of a zillion photo postings. I think these all go into some server somewhere, and they are "counted" toward my quota.



I know this happens, because a couple years ago I hit my limit and had to start paying for blogger space. Admittedly, it's not much money, and the next limit they gave me is HUGE. In two years, I have used up only 12% of my allotted space.



But if I have to upload photos ten+ times to get it posted correctly once (and that happens VERY frequently) I'll be using up my server space way faster than I should have to worry about.



Please tell me I'm not the only one with this weird and frustrating problem!?? I used to think these problem uploads were only on pictures that I "photo-shopped," but these two were not, other than a little cropping.



Each of these takes several seconds to upload... too much time when I have multiple photos. But the time is unpredictable, too... and sometimes a picture uploads 100 rotten versions of itself, and then all the rest come up correctly on the first try. It's very weird.



Thanks for listening to my witchy complaints!!! Now that I got that off my chest. I'm feeling better already!!

Blocks Pouring In

Today I got blocks from Jessie C! Wow, my mail is such fun these days. I love getting all these squishies.

I'm sending another packet of blocks to Clare soon... 22 red and white blocks!

Ann's Blocks

I got EIGHT quilts in the mail today. I'll be taking them with me to Rosebud Reservation. Unfortunately Blogger was uncooperative in my attempts to upload them, so you don't get to see them. Maybe tomorrow Blogger will be in a better mood. All you get to see is Ann's red/white blocks. She made 9 sets! Wow! Thanks, Ann. I can probably make another red/white quilt top pretty soon.

A Perfect Day.. and 2 quilt questions

What a gorgeous day it was today! Weather was PERFECT. I attended a picnic at my friend's beautiful home on a lake. Everyone stayed way longer than expected, because the day was so great to just sit outside enjoying the sunshine and breezes. (Well, the friendly chatter was good, too.) This was one more heavenly day in my Most Fabulous Summer experience.









How's THIS for a beautiful view from a kitchen window?






She showed me these two quilts she owns. They are both gorgeous! This first one won a prize of some kind in West Virginia back in ??? Can anyone tell me how old you think this quilt is? The fabrics look like 50's & 60's to me, but dating quilts is something I'm not so good at. It's in good shape except for one block that is worn thin and raveled. She wonders about repair. That's another question I can't answer well. What's your advice on repairing vintage quilts.. is it worth doing? Does it make the quilt less valuable? More valuable? I've heard it would no longer be considered "vintage" with modern fabrics used in a repair. What might you advise her to do in this case? (They use the quilt - it's not on a wall or anything.)