WIP Wed: More Kindle covers, and a Valentine's Day Project

Now that our vacation is over, I'm eager to get more inventory made up for my Etsy shop.  I have several Kindle covers all cut out, partially sewn together and ready to bind and attach Velcro.  I'll be sewing these up for a while before I tackle much else.

I did however do a bit of sewing with one of my friends, whom we spent time with over the New Year's holiday.  She's also a quilter and sewer, and had a Valentine's Day project all picked out and ready for us both to sew up.  Together we made 2 small (1 foot by 2 feet) wall hangings.  We didn't quite finish them, but she let me pick several bits of fabric from her large heart fabric collection to take home with me to finish up.  FUN!  I also brought a wallet pattern to make for her, which I got done, but failed to take a picture of...

I'm trying really hard not to start a new quilt until I get at least a few more tops sewn into quilts.  This is the next one on deck!

It's Wednesday, so I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced WIP Wed.  Come join us!

WIP Wed: Postcards and Binding (and Kindle Covers)

It's Wednesday, so I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced, WIP Wed.  Come join us!

Lately, I've been busy making postcards for my October swap, and trying to make up more Kindle Covers for my Etsy shop. 

The Kindle covers take a lot of binding, so I've been making more for those, as well as binding for a few quilts I'm trying to finish up.

I don't want to spoil the surprise for the October swap, but did get my final postcard for the September swap ("Wind, How it Blows").  This is what I sent off:

Here's what I got back!  Aren't they fantastic?

I also thought I'd share a postcard that I made for my Bengal-fan, Brother-in-law's Birthday!

 Get it?  LOL  He loved it!  So what are you working on?

WIP Wed and Rodeo

Here's what's on my sewing table today... the beginnings of my next postcard swap cards... I'm glad I made an extra set for me, because these are going to be cute!

I also have been wanting to join in with Kate's of "Swim Bike Quilt"'s blog's 100 quilts for kids campaign.  A recent story in the local paper about the local Linus project was what finally got me motivated.  I also realized that I have a few UFO's that I either lost interest in, or that are too small for anything other than baby quilts that would make a great quilt for this.  Here's one of them:

 I've been trying to make more Kindle covers for my Etsy shop as well.

Here's one I just finished that I love!

The tomato situation around here has almost gotten out of control.  I've canned or frozen 3-4 dozen pints now, and picked another 20-ish pounds just this morning :-O.  But I'm not complaining.  I keep reminding myself how wonderful they'll be in January!!

Finally, it's rodeo week here in Pendleton, and our little town has once again been transformed.  My boys have had all week off school, so I've done some running around with them.  Here's our Main Street:

Here's the Rodeo grounds (first of 4 "shows" started today):

There's a lot of fun people watching to be done.

There's also tons of merchants and artists to peruse...

Of course it's Wednesday, so I'll be linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wed, and The Needle and Thread Network's WIP link up!  Come join us!

Paper piecing, Summer Sampler Series, and a Surprise!

First of all, I got such a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday!  The above picture was taken at this year's Sisters Quilt Show in Sisters Oregon., and mailed to me!!  It's from last year's winner of their quilt block contest.  The rules have changed this year, but last year, one winner was best of show, and 24 others were picked as "teacher's choice" awards, and the top winner got all of those blacks to make a quilt from, as well as $50.  The rest of the blocks were sent to randomly chosen contest participants.  Long story short, the winner, Ruth Newell, of Michigan, sent me a wonderful handmade pin as a thank you gift (so generous, and totally unexpected).  Imagine my surprise when I got this picture of hers of her finished quilt that she entered into the Sisters show of all of our blocks in a finished quilt!!  WOW!  Great job Ruth!!

Here's the block I entered last year:

e

This year, they picked the top 6 and all of the blocks were divided up and sent to them.  I did not make the cut, but got to see the winners (on the Internet), and WOW what a wonderful job they all did!

Next, I was able to catch up on my blog reading today, and was stopped in my tracks by the lovely Minnesota block that Lee of Freshly Pieced Blog had on there today.  One of my favorite parts of the quilt blog-o-sphere is the quilt alongs, but I've resisted joining in this summer because I just don't have the time with my kids home 24/7.  This block, though, caught my attention since it's so pretty and since it uses paper piecing, a technique I've been really wanting to learn / try for some time now.  Lee's directions are clear as a bell, even her computer direction...  I decided that I want to make it.

But the clincher was visiting with Marlene at Kissed Quilts, who lives about 45 minutes away from me.  I had some rare summer kid-free time, and headed over there for a trip to some fabric stores and to see Marlene's studio (she has a long arm quilting and pattern business).  She just happened to have some paper piecing templates laying around, and helped me in person understand how to do it!  Thanks Marlene!  I'm not superstitious, but if this isn't a "sign", then I don't know what is LOL!!  With Lee's computer help, I just now  printed out the templates, and hope to get a block made soon!

Finally, I have a stack of Kindle covers for my Etsy shop all ready to sew up.  I hope you all have a productive week-end as well!!

Hexie and Etsy

I spent yesterday putting the binding on my Kindle covers for Etsy, and found that I had just enough scrap to make my hexie into a little pot holder or mug rug.  I didn't want to change my machine around to do free motion, so I may (or may not) add quilting later.  As with so many other things in life, once I got one hexie under my belt, I'm eager to do another!!  I've heard that these are addicting.  I can now understand that!  Hmmm maybe a hexie postcard is in order.... :-)

Here's my stack of Kindle covers all done, but this morning we got such a dark storm come through, that the light is going to have to improve a bit before I can get some decent pictures for the shop.  Luckily it's already starting to lighten up as I write.

I hope all of you have a great Memorial Day week-end!

My first "guest post",, and a wonderful week-end

First of all, I am a guest poster today over at Sylvie's blog, "Quilters, Fabric Art, Creative Sewing!"  She's an amazing fiber artist and quilter who travels the world in their yacht, which is powered by the sun.  I met her on Etsy, and just love her personal blog as well, "Adventures at Sea".  WOW!  Head over to either one of these blogs for some amazing inspiration and virtual travel!

Next, I just want to thank everyone for all of the wonderful comments left here.  I really do appreciate and read every one of them.  I try to respond, but sometimes I have a hard time finding the time!  But they really do mean a lot to me!!!

With Spring here, I've been finding more and more to distract me from blogging and sewing.  Here's where we spent the week-end...

It was very close to the Grande Ronde River, near La Grande, Oregon.  Such a sweet place!!

We got to see lots of flowers, and even found a huge patch of morel mushrooms!!

 

I've been having a fun time working on Kindle covers and fabric postcards for my swap (you'll have to visit my guest post to see the progress on these).  I'm so glad my friend Monika introduced me to the fabric postcards, as they will be a perfect summer quilting and sewing "media" when the weather turns hot and the last thing I want to do is work on a warm quilt :-). 

With only a dozen-ish days left of school for the boys, a beautiful garden and berry patch that my husband has been working hard on, I won't be blogging as much as I have.  I'll try really hard to do better than last summer though, which shouldn't be hard at all LOL.  I hope you all are making fun summer plans and enjoying the warm weather.  With so many horrific weather events occurring "back East", including my birthplace of Baton Rouge, I feel very fortunate here in Eastern Oregon.  I hope all of you are safe as well!!

Glow-in-the-dark thread

I've been wanting to try out glow in the dark thread for a while now.  It isn't in any of our local shops though, so I had to first find some.  With my budding free motion quilting skills, I thought I'd give it a try.  I used it to embellish a daisy on one of the kindle ebook covers that I'm selling in my Etsy store.  Not only am I making the covers, but I'm quilting each one too, so I have been getting lots of practice!

I also needed to figure out how to get the "glow" on a picture.  This involved actually reading the instructions that came with my digital camera!!  I found out how to prolong the exposure, but my camera only will go up to a 15 second exposure.  That also involved finding a tri-pod, which we have, and luckily I knew where it was (high up on top of a pantry shelf).  I also had to play around with the image on my computer, as it was very faint with only a 15 second exposure.  But this is what I came up with!!  Cool huh?  I never really knew how many things I'd learn when I started blogging!

Here's a picture of the case.  The daisy is the top one on the top flap.  Yeah, I know, when I sewed the Velcro on, my stitches ended up there...

The first thing I noticed about the glow in the dark thread is that it frays incredibly easily.  You literally have to cut the thread right in front of the needle seconds before threading it.  It's 100% polyester, and costs about 4-5 bucks for only 100 yards.  Because of this, I decided to use regular white thread for the bobbin.  It wasn't the best match.  My machine didn't like the combination very well, but it worked!  My kids are now really eager to have me make something for them that glows.  Music to my heart!

So how about you?  Have you ever used it?  What bobbin thread do you use with it?  Any project ideas for 2 tween boys?

Ready, set, SEW!

I'm afraid that not only have I been under the weather the last few days, but our internet provider has been having some serious problems as well.  After much trouble shooting and pulling of hair, DH finally called them last night, and they told us of the problems.  Sure would be nice if they sent us an email, 'ya know...  The main problems is uploads, so I shrunk all of my pictures WAY down.  So far, so good!

I spent much of last week making up some Kindle covers to try to sell on Etsy.  Here's one of my favorites.  I also finally figured out how to put buttons on my blog (yippee!).  The Etsy button on my blog is a link to my Etsy shop, and right below it is the "Fabric Tuesday" button that links to Quilt Story's blog that features a "link party" with all sorts of neat fabric items every Tuesday.  I'm hoping to redo my blog once the internet issues are resolved.

I also started sewing together my fun-a-day quilt, and suddenly realized that it's going to involve a LOT of hand sewing.  I'm not too crazy about that.  I'm kind of a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants person, and only skimmed through the quilt as you go methods before I started.  But, I think it really is the best method for this quilt, so I'll be on the couch recovering and hand sewing for the next few days.

Here's the back of the first row after I sewed it all together.

Finally, I just am mesmerized by all of the different forms of ice.  When we lived in Northern Michigan, it was snow, snow, and more snow.  We got tons of it, almost daily.  Here it's very cold, but also very dry.  The arid climate makes things freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw.  The sun plays a much bigger role, unlike in Michigan, where we'd rarely see it for months.  I took this picture of ice crystals on our deck railing this morning.  Amazing!!!

Fun-a-day 29: Trichomonas

(Oh no she DIDN'T!).  Yes I did!  I debated on whether or not to include this STD / parasite, but I'm afraid it's just another one of those things that are really neat to see under a microscope, even if they're not so much fun if it's your sample that it's found in!  Tricomonas vaginalis is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases.  It's caused by a single celled protozoa (much like Giardia), and is also considered a parasite.

In the lab, we'd see it in wet preps from OB and ER, or sometimes we'd also see it in a urine sample.  The organism looks similar to a white blood cell, but once you see it moving, or motile, there's no mistaking what it is.  I found this video of it on youtube if you want to see it in action (hope it works).  Luckily it's a curable (and preventable) disease!

I also spent the last few days getting more kindle covers onto my Etsy shop.  I tried for a long time to get a "button" on my blog here.  I think I might have FINALLY figured it out!!  I'm afraid the computer is much more of a challenge to me than any sewing endeavor!  I can't believe that tomorrow will be my last quilt block!  I plan to spend Monday getting it all sewn together!  Wish me luck!

Fun-a-day 22: Spinal Tap and Meningitis

For today's block, I decided to try to "draw" what we'd see on a "hemocytometer" when we look at spinal fluid in a patient with meningitis.  A hemocytometer is used when we want exact counts of cells in a specific amount of liquid.  When we fill the very precise chamber with fluid, using a tiny pipette, only a certain amount of fluid covers the grid lines on the special calibrated glass slide.  It has grid lines that we can use to count and calculate the number we see.  Yes, lots of math!  We not only count spinal fluid cells this way, but also body fluids like pleural or peritoneal.  We also use the hemocytometer to count sperm in the sperm count.

A normal spinal fluid sample would have almost nothing in it.  It's a crystal clear fluid that surrounds the spinal cord and brain.  A spinal tap is very invasive, so we treat the samples in the lab with great care and urgency.  We usually run many tests on it, from cell counts, types, cultures, chemistry, and some are even done at the bedside.  If we do see a significant number of cells, we'll do a differential, letting the doctor know what type they are.  This is important, because once again, if it's a virus, the cells will mostly be lymphocytes.  If it's bacterial meningitis, we'll see mostly neutrophils.  Bacterial meningitis is an incredibly serious illness, and is also contagious.  Thank goodness that we now have some vaccines to help prevent some of the bacterial meningitis, as it's one of the most devastating illnesses we can see in a young child or a young adult.

Once again, this is a "wet prep", so no pretty colors.  Since my husband grew up in Chicago,['; I decided to use some orange thread to go with the blue background (Go Bears!)!!  I also tried using 2 top threads instead of 1.  The little round circles are supposed to be white blood cells.  I'm not too thrilled with the result, or the whole block in general, but I can say I tried something new today!!

Speaking of something new, here's a new ebook cover that I put in my Etsy shop today!  I LOVE this fabric!! Fun!