Saturday, August 23, 2008

Booty, Loot, and Stuff, for ME!

Saturday was promising to be a good day. Weather lovely, no big jobs to do - everyone happy. I had cleared out my sewing room enough to open up the back of my sewing table, in preparation for machine quilting. Then, Fons and Porter/Love of Quilting was on the TV, not a re-run, and (ta-ta-ta!) I was in charge of both the remote control AND the Lazy Boy.

Around noonish I put gas in my car, and was pleased the price/gallon had dropped a few cents more. Nice day, feeling good, zipped through the Dairy Queen for a 'feel-good' ice cream cone. Happiness and life is often made up of small pleasurable bits, isn't it?

When I arrived home, this mail what was waiting for me ... The box is from Patti of Quilting is my Passion for being the 50th person to comment to her post of July 14. And look at all this good stuff! A darling little Mary Engelbright tin sewing box, LOTS of fabric and a whole package of beautiful fallish FQs, a table-runner pattern, a bag of really sinfully sexy chocolates - which is not shown because I asked DH to hide it and dole them out to me one at a time. I am weak, I admit. Oh Patti, this is just too wonderful - thank you so much.

But wait, there's more. I also received my DVD from the Pajama Quilter but have not been able to watch it, because I've been busy looking for that bag of sinfully sexy chocolates.

I'm making preparations to machine quilt my first Kaleidoscope - the one that is pretty wild. It's larger than the last one posted. Pushing, mashing, pulling a quilt through the harp in my machine, even though it's a generous 10 inches, is still tedious and not simple, so this time I decided to experiment. After sandwiching, spraying and pinning the quilt, I loaded water soluble thread on top and bobbin and ran huge basting stitches (dogs down) on the quilt, from side to side. Maybe this is pointless, but I WAS able to get the pins out and didn't have to worry about hitting them, and I feel the quilt is more stable with the basting. The spool of dissolving thread is only 300 yards, and was $6.95, and I had leftover thread.

One issue I am having is that my quilting thread is light in some areas, looking a lot like the basting thread, so I really have to concentrate - it's easy to lose my way with machine quilting this method, when my eyes are so close to the stitches. You can see the vertical stitches which are the soluble thread. It simply melts when doused with water. And, as I said, it's an experiment. Also, my machine quilting thread is different than the last very nice one and does not 'lay in the fabric' as nicely.

And lastly, one of the frequent visitors to our deck, looking lovely and fine, with stunning colored plumage.

10 comments:

  1. Congrats on your win. Pssst! Look for the chocolates in an area that he thinks you don't look often or in a place high up. LOL Or at least that's where my DH would hide them. I'm interested to know how you like the dissolving thread.

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  2. I've never used the water soluble thread either so I'll be interested to hear how you like it. Luck you with those nice gifts.

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  3. So...you spray AND pin? I'm using that spray stuff for the first time and was hoping I could skip the pins or the thread basting. Now I'm thinking maybe I should add some of that disolvable stuff. Oh my, I just hate that basting step!

    Hubby would eat all the chocolate and tell me he forgot where he hid it.

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  4. You are going to love the PJ Quilter! It is so inspiring!

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  5. Your goodies look like lots of fun, and a great addition to a wonderful start of the day. I love both your Kaleidoscope's. I like the #1, and am anxious to see it quilted, #2 looks awesome to me.
    What is the exact name of your bird friends species. I know what I call them, but my husband says I am wrong.
    I still hope to do a Kaleidoscope, but I need to start working more, and computer dreaming less.

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  6. How fun everything in this post is! I love the bird, such a beautiful gray. And your package - wow.

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  7. Cracking up here about you having hubby "dole" out the chocolate!!! That's exactly how it is here! DH has to hide chocolates in his basement lair to protect me from myself. And--yes--I, too, have spent some time digging down there to try to find the treasure. Darn, he's a good hider!!! Congrats on your win. Looks like some wonderful stuff.

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  8. Beautiful treasure there!
    Oh, your kaleidoscopes...how so I love thee....I know you have told me they are easy, i shall have to get out there!!!
    You aren't the only one who reviews their blog and projects, i use it as a diary!
    Tracey

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  9. The Pajama Quilter uses chocolate to reward herself. So you are going to need more chocolate. I hand basted a quilt with the water soluble thread once. It worked well except while threading the needle I kept forgetting and would lick the thread. I wasted more thread that way.

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  10. What a wonderful goodie package! I could never hide the chocolate. It would be gone before I would even think of hiding it!

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