August 11, 2008
Nourishment


Last week Steve was away on a trip and lucky me, while he was away my quilting friend Donna was here for her Reserve duty at Tyndall. She came over after her long days at work and we filled ourselves with chili, chocolate chip cookies and chick flicks. On the days when she got off of work early we went to the local quilt and fabric shops to feed our fabric addictions. Donna convinced me to buy a copy of her all time favorite quick and easy quilt pattern, Turning Twenty Again by Tricia Cribbs. I tried to resist since I already have several projects in progress, but I saw an example made up in the quilt shop using Batik fabric and I caved. The pattern requires 20 fat quarters (18 x 22 cuts of fabric). I have never worked with Batiks before, but as I was picking out my fat quarters I fell in love and started seeing multiple Batik projects in my future. I pushed all of my other projects aside and started working on this quilt over the weekend. It really is a quick and easy quilt pattern and I already have all of the blocks finished. Now I just need to join them and get that baby quilted. The days seem to be flying by lately filled with wonderful textures, colors, threads and the sounds of my machine as it glides along piecing me back together. I feel so fulfilled since I started sewing again.


August 12, 2008
Introducing Ted

This is our new friend Ted, he lives under our shed.





Ted's place.August 13, 2008
Never Question the Engineers Judgement



We have three cats, Mickey, Chip and Dale, each with very unique little personalities. Mickey is a snuggler and likes to burrow under blankets and quilts. Dale is my shadow and follows me everywhere. And Chip we like to call the Engineer. He has always been very curious about how things work. Not one to sit at the window chattering at birds, Chip is usually more interested in whatever projects someone may be working on around the house. He likes to inspect any tools that are being used, get in for a close up look (sometimes is the way) and he looks like he is trying to learn and understand exactly how everything works. Lucky for us he does not have opposable thumbs or we could come home one day to find all of our appliances taken apart and lying in pieces on the floor. If he could fix them though, that would be great because the dishwasher and the stove have not been working properly. I'm starting to think the house we bought may be a money pit, but that's a story for another day.

Since we moved into this house two months ago Chip has been having problems with the water heater. It’s positioned in an odd place, right inside the doorway to the laundry room and just outside of the kitchen. It was ugly, in the way, noisy and had no drip pan underneath which could mean trouble if the water heater went bad. At first we thought maybe Chip was afraid of the noise it was making because he always seemed to be really nervous when he had to walk by it to get to his litter box which is in the laundry room. So, we decided that it would best if we eventually had it moved out to the garage. Last week Chip started becoming more and more concerned about the water heater. He would sit for hours and stare at it and cry. Sometimes he would come to me crying and when I would try to console him he would run and lead me to the water heater. We would go look at it and he kept crying and looking back at me and then at the water heater. So, we decided this past Saturday to buy a new water heater since this one is 14 years old and looking a little rough. It was delivered on Monday and on Monday evening when Chip once again led me over to inspect the water heater I noticed water dripping from a valve. Steve had planned on installing the new water heater this coming weekend, but then last night the drip became a steady stream and we turned it off to avoid a disaster. So, as of today the new water heater is safely installed in the garage where we will never have to worry about it flooding in the house and finally Chip can get some rest. What a cool cat huh? We should have named him Lassie.


August 16, 2008
One Down



I am happy to say that I have completely finished one of the quilts I have been working on. This was my first quilt coming back into sewing after a long break. I started with a simple strip piece pattern called Strip Search by G.E. Designs. I actually saw this quilt in these very same fabrics on display at my local quilt shop. I loved the fabrics and thought it was an easy way to get back into quilting. All the decisions already made for me just sit down and sew. No imagination required. I started with a bundle of precut 1/2 yard pieces beautifully tied up and it was so pretty I almost didn’t want to untie and separate the fabrics. I decided to add just a few more patterns of polka dots and some tone on tone prints, so I also purchased a few fat quarters to work into the pattern.
It went together very quickly and easily since there were no seams to match up. I wanted to free motion quilt a meandering pattern on this quilt and I practiced for about 20 minutes on a scrap piece of fabric and that was pretty easy, but then getting a whole quilt under the foot of the machine and maneuvering all of that bulk around is a whole different story. But as usual I don’t have the patience to spend a lot of time practicing. I prefer to just dive in and learn as I go along. I don’t think it came out too bad. Some of my stitches are a little longer than others, but I had the tension set well so I’m not going to worry about a few stitches that don’t match the others exactly. Now onto the next quilt! I have 3 tops pieced and waiting to be quilted. By the time I finish those I should be a pro at free motion quilting. Ha!

August 20, 2008
Another quilt finished!



Last night I finished the Turning Twenty Again quilt that I started last week. I just LOVE it!! I think it came out so pretty. Great pattern! It was so quick and easy to make. I used bamboo batting in this quilt and it was easy to quilt through and drapes nicely. The batik fabrics are so rich and beautiful I'm ready to make another. I took a nap today with this quilt and it works great.

August 22, 2008
She’s Here



Tropical Storm Fay just arrived here in Panama City. It has been raining very lightly the past couple of hours and the wind is picking up. Since we only moved to this neighborhood 2 months ago we really have no idea what to expect as far as flooding. I have a lot of nervous energy right now and so far I have made enchiladas and chocolate chip cookies in between pacing from window to window looking out at the storm. Just before it got dark out there was an erie kind of yellow cast when I looked out the window. I went to get my camera and stepped out the front door and then everything sort of had a pink cast to it. It’s gonna be a long night.
August 23, 2008
So far so good



Last night was not too bad with Tropical Storm Fay. We are in the eye of the storm now and it's calm out with just a little wind. We are expecting a lot more rain later today. I know we are lucky this is not a full force hurricane coming at us, but it is a very slow moving storm that is dumping a lot of rain. This morning I was reading an article about a man in Melbourne who said he hadn't been able to leave his house since Tuesday due to the flooding. While he was being interviewed he was boiling water for coffee on his gas grill outside. That reminded me of our time after Hurricane Hugo in Charleston, SC. We were without power for 3 weeks after Hugo and we did all of our cooking on the gas grill. Then I started remembering all of the things we couldn't do during that time without power. When you are preparing for a hurricane you make sure you have water and food, flashlights, batteries, your car is gassed up, windows are boarded. Sand bags and plastic are ready. But you don’t think about how much you will miss the little things that you are use to. I have been very busy this morning making sure all of the laundry is done, vacuuming the carpet, and I'm going take a hot shower and blow dry my hair. Just in case.August 24, 2008
Lucky Day



We lucked out and Fay turned to the north just before the worst of the storm reached Panama City. We only had a few spots of rain and a bit of wind. It was a beautiful day today and Steve and I decided to go out for a walk on the beach this afternoon. It was bright and sunny as we made our way down the boardwalk, but as soon as we got out on the beach the skies to the west began to darken. We thought we had a little time so we walked for a few minutes and then decided to turn back before the rain started. Only we were too late. As soon as we began to head back the skies opened up and it poured. The hardest rain we had all weekend and we were right out walking through it. We were soaked by the time we got back to the car. I didn’t carry anything out but my camera and I tried to hold it under my shirt to keep it dry, but it really didn’t help much once my shirt was soaked through. We didn’t even have a towel in the car to dry off with. Pretty funny driving home soaking wet but we were thankful that it was only our clothes that got wet and that our home was spared the flooding rains of Tropical Storm Fay.



I took this photo while holding the camera under my shirt. It's a little hard to see, but that rain was really coming down hard.August 26, 2008
Quilt Gallery
I've been working on getting a photo gallery set up of the quilts that I have made in the past as well as my recent projects. Most of the quilts were made before we had digital cameras so I have to find the photos and scan them and try to make them look somewhat decent. Some of the quilts have been given away or sold at craft fairs and I am unable to take new photographs for the site. So, the old scans will have to do.
Click here to see the quilt gallery.




Click on the journal link to read prior entries.