Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I turn another year older and another day wiser - I think wisdom probably comes a bit slower than age does! 

Aren't birthdays wonderful opportunities for looking back, as well as looking forward?  

The other day I was looking through some envelopes and folders on a shelf and came across two very old photos.  

This one was taken when I was somewhere in my 20's, not sure exactly when though.  Check out that bush hair-do!

This one was taken on my 30th birthday. 

I remember it was Superbowl Sunday and Tessie, my best friend at the time, invited me over for dinner.  She made me a cake and I was touched because it was the first time EVER that I'd had a birthday cake!

I had a cousin (Delt McKenzie) who played for the Philadelphia Eagles.  And even though they made it to the Superbowl that year, I had no interest at all in the game - never have, probably never will!

But best of all I have the precious Birthday Dollar to look at and remember all the good times I had with my two sisters who passed away since we started exchanging it.  You can read about the full history of the Birthday Dollar on this post.

We had a little scare this time though:  Michelle mailed it from the Post Office on Wednesday, January 17 - I should have received it no later than Friday the 19th but I didn't!  It finally came on the 23rd, we don't know what held it up but we were both crossing our fingers!  When I send it on to Shell next month, I'm sending it registered mail - this birthday tradition is way too precious to stop now.  The Birthday Dollar can never be replaced.

Have a great Thursday, find something to celebrate today, sew forth and sew on ...

Showing and sharing

We had our first guild meeting of 2018 on Saturday, a very interesting meeting!  In a workshop on organizing your sewing space, Rose shared some wonderful tips and tricks, such as placing dividers in a simple file box for storing extra needles, pins and other small items.  And how about placing seam rippers, small scissors, and rotary cutters in a divided pencil cup from the office supply section of Target?  Or keeping all your tool and gadget instruction sheets in one baggie or all your sewing machine manuals in a 3-ring binder?  Lots of great tips!

Here are three quilts that were shared:

Donette's memory quilt for a grandson

Angela's scrap quilt - scraps, gotta love em!!

Juanita's African Queen quilt

 

I just had my first medical visit of 2018, with the eye doctor.

Have you ever seen these multi-colored signs at your eye doctor?  Ever wondered what they mean??  Inquiring minds want to know, so I asked one of the technicians and she solved the mystery.

If the red is sticking out - the doctor is in the room with a patient
Yellow extended - a technician is prepping the patient for the doctor
Blue extended - the patient's eyes have been dilated
Red and yellow together - the patient is next in line to see the doctor
Red, yellow and green - the patient is second in line

So the mystery is solved! 

According to this picture, a technician is working with a patient in the room on the left, the doctor is with a patient next door.  I didn't think to photograph more signs, but you get the idea.

That's it for now, have a great Monday.  Sew forth and sew on...

Silent Sunday

ahhh, Spring...

The third week of the New Year

... in which Ringo Lake seems to have frozen over.  Aw heck.

Wondering how many ways I can say "I finished more blocks" and showing the same blocks - without becoming a bore!  I'll keep sewing together the pieces and parts I need to make the units, then join those wherever they need to go to make the magic happen.

You'll probably not hear any more about the On Ringo Lake mystery til you see the finished top laid out, possibly mid- to late-summer.

Or maybe you will ...

I've also done a few more of my little churn dash blocks, love em!  These do keep me interested because I never really know exactly how a block will look til it's sewn together, and that's part of the fun/mystery in making these little blocks.

I really like using black on white fabrics for the background, and even though I have a pretty good variety of those fabrics, I still find myself looking at them whenever I go fabric shopping (which isn't often, thank goodness).

Making a "potato chip bag" from some very pretty Alexander Henry fabric I found in my stash.  The pieces are all cut out with fusible added on the back, the strap is made, I just need to sew the bag together.

Because my bee doesn't meet in December, we always have our Christmas gift exchange at the January meeting.  This year we're each making one gift, wrapped, to be chosen by a fellow member by drawing a number from a bag.  It's
always fun seeing all the gifts and wondering what you'll get - just like Christmas!

That's it for now, today is our first Guild meeting of the year; it's supposed to be a nice day for it.  It'll be nice to see everyone again, after a whole month!  Sew forth and sew on til later ...

The second week of the New Year

... in which Linda is still wading into Ringo Lake!

Among other things.

I can't believe how long it's taken me to get set up with my Verizon Fios tv, for pete's sake!  Sunday they installed my boxes - and let me pause here to say the tech arrived a full 45 minutes BEFORE the promised time, history in the making!  Monday I discovered I didn't get the DVR feature as I was sure I ordered, but maybe there was a communication breakdown.  Tuesday I took one of my boxes to the Verizon store and traded for a DVR box, then discovered I'm not satisfied with the package I ordered.  Having to upgrade from "Custom" to "Preferred".  At this point I'm still waiting for the upgrade to kick in *sigh.*

Whatever.

Oh yes, sailing On Ringo Lake.

I'm still putting together the units I need to make the blocks.

At this point I haven't started on the last step, which I think is making the sashing units.

Managed to make six blocks so far though, these is them!

Still cutting the shapes I need from 3-1/2" strips, using my Easy Angle ruler.

I love the coral/peachy fabrics I have but I look forward to putting them aside, I'll add lots of scraps to my abundance. 

I like this pokie-dottie piece though!

Meanwhile, I've been neglecting my wee churn dash blocks, waah!  I'll be glad to get back to them, I'm so close to finishing all the blocks I need.

But I want to finish sailing on Ringo Lake first, lest it become a *whispering* UFO. 

That's it for now, I hope you enjoy reading my post, I got up at 0 dark :30 to make it - that's 6:30 for normal, unretired people!  Sew forth and sew on til later ...

The first week of the New Year

... in which Linda takes a break from marathon sewing!

It was fun diligently pecking along with the On Ringo Lake mystery, but when the clues started coming fast and furious - and when the final quilt was unveiled - I realized I'd been under a big ole sewing crunch!  You know the kind, where your shoulders hunch up to your ears and you sew sitting on the edge of your seat with your teeth gritted ... well, not really, but you get the idea!

I decided to give myself a wee break, but not before I sewed one of the blocks together.  Looking good!

Most of the pieces and parts for this step of the mystery-that's-not-a-mystery-anymore are waiting on the sidelines, to be picked up again in a coupla days.  However, you can check out what everybody else has done on the ORL Mystery Monday linky.

Meanwhile I've been doing real life things, including digging through my scraps to find pieces for these paper-pieced flying geese that I've been sewing, off and on, for a few years.  They're wonky, designed in EQ, and will finish at 1-3/4 or 2 inches by 3 inches, same width but different heights. Eventually I'll probably use them as a border treatment, but right now it's just in the sewing stage, using up some of the many small scraps I've latched onto!

I also changed carriers for my TV service from DirectTV to Verizon, which also carries my phone and internet.  Year before last I bought an Amazon Fire Stick; at some point this month DirectTV will no longer support YouTube on my TV, and since that's one of the main reasons I bought the Fire Stick - well, they gotta go!

It's probably all for the best anyway, since now I'll have everything bundled and save $$!

My new Verizon Fios boxes that came Friday night are scheduled to be installed today "between 12 and 2,"  Regardless, DirectTV will disconnect me at midnight - work with me please, gotta have my TV!

Can you hear me now??

Sew forth and sew on

Just a short post

Here's to a very healthy, happy and quilty New Year to everyone!

I wanted to "sew the New Year in" last night, sewing the ORL mystery units, as I watched the celebrations on TV.  Part of my evening started out like this:

nice and slow, combining the units...

then there was a virtual log jam of pieces and parts!

Only part of what I accomplished - there's a lot more than 50 of the flying geese units done...

What a way to start the New Year!  Sew forth and sew on