Thief!

Look who's stealing the cat's food outta the garage!  He lands on the broom handle, then onto the table saw, then onto the basket of scrap wood, then to the bowl where he grabs a chunk and flies off to share with the wifey waiting patiently in the plumeria tree.

Meanwhile, the cat just watches knowing that there's more food in the house.  Lazy darn cat!

Japanese Jigsaw Puzzle

I finished the Japanese Jigsaw Puzzle tonight.  It will be a gift for a coworker who is retiring in a couple of weeks.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt, I probably would have liked it better if I had chosen different fabrics.  The first border was WAY to busy so I cut most of it off and added the green.  I think it turned out better.  I hope she likes it!

(P.S.  I gave to her this morning -- She loved it!)

Happy Mother's Day!

I received this in the mail the day before yesterday from my stepmom, Marge, in Great Falls.  She found it in a silent auction at a quilt show in Great Falls, Montana, and thought of me.  Bless her heart!

Isn't it great?  Happy Mother's Day, Marge!  Love you, too.

Letty's Bag

I thought I'd try something different.  I attended Sandy's other class -- the Letty's Bag.

I ride the bus every day and regularly use an oversized bag for the necessities like a sweater when the bus is too cold, an umbrella in case it rains, a book or two, and the new iPad2 I'm having fun learning to use.  (The iPad really came in handy last night.  Our normal 40-minute commute was stretched to 3 hours due an accident causing multiple lane closures.  So my friend and I passed time by watching a movie that I had loaded on the iPad.)

Back to the bag....

Somewhere in a very safe place is a pretty black button that is supposed to be attached to that blue flap on the outer pocket.  I know I'll find it someday.

Attaching the grommets was interesting.  In a perfect world, they are supposed to fit together like a Tupperware lid.  The first five went together as designed.  However, the last three would not stay together no matter what we tried.  So I corrected that problem when I got home and SuperGlue'd them together.  Worked like a charm!

Japanese Jigsaw Puzzle

Sandy Corbin is a quilter and teacher from Southern California who comes over here to "vacation" several times a year.  However, we are always prevailing on her to teach a class or two during her visits.  And we always have great fun with her.  This time, it was the Japanese Jigsaw Puzzle.

None of us were able to finish the top during the class, so Sarah offered to host us at her home later in the week.  We all met on Thursday evening ready to finish our projects.  In addition to 4 children, they have 3 dogs of varying sizes, two birds, and a potbellied pig, all who had free rein in the house!  Interesting household but so much fun.

As we were packing up at the end of the evening, the power went down and it was pitch black.  The funniest part was that all of us immediately reached for our cellphones and downloaded free flashlight applications so we could finish gathering our stuff and finding our way to our cars.  Seems someone hit a power pole two blocks away and the entire neighborhood was in the dark.

Back to the quilt.  I really enjoyed the jigsaw part, but I'm not too fond of the borders.  Maybe they'll grow on me, but I'm going to look for a bigger print on the outer border....

One Block Wonder Finished!

It's done!  This one was fun to put together, trying to decide where to put the blocks, and matching all those seams.  But nearly every step of the way, it tested my patience.  From my earlier posts, the tradewinds played havoc with my design wall.  Then the problems with my sewing machine!!!

Two of my favorite blocks:

Now on to the Japanese Jigsaw puzzle.....

Quilting Frustration

I got my blue One Block Wonder on the frame a couple of weeks ago.  I managed to quilt a couple of rows and then things went to heck in a handbasket!  The top thread started shredding and breaking every 12 inches or so.

Since then, I have rethreaded that sewing machine until I can do it blindfolded.  I've cleaned and recleaned it, oiled it, taken it apart and put it back together.  I've tried a myriad of tension settings until I found one that worked.  I changed out the needle 4 times!  Thinking I got a bad spool of thread, I ordered a new one only to find out that the new spool shredded as badly as the original!  Every time I tried something and it didn't work, I'd have to walk away for awhile, do some more research, and then try something else.  This kind of frustration I do NOT handle well.

What was really confusing was that the sewing machine would work perfectly when I took it off the frame and tested it on a table (and I tried that several times).  It just didn't make sense!  And then last night, I thought of something else.  It dawned on me that after trying 4 Janome-brand needles without success, I wondered another brand would work.  Somewhere on the internet, I'd read that the Janome could also use Schmetz needles.  In my Bernina attachments, I found I had several packages of Schmetz QUILTING needles, size 100/14.

I put one on the Janome this morning and the darn thing worked! Yippee!  I finished quilting that miserable quilt this afternoon.  All this "trial and tribulation" was either a test or makes me think if OBW's are not for me!

But now I can look forward to taking the Japanese Jigzaw quilt class next weekend.