Playing with Cell Phone

I am learning how to take a photo with the newish cell phone, share it to my computer e-mail, save it on desktop, refile it to appropriate photo gallery file, and retrieve it!  Yeahhhhhh!

"We can DO it!" 

This is a pattern from Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville.com, called Scrappy Bargello.  I'm planning each block the same, with 16 blocks, for a Linus type quilt. Our donation center calls them Hugs and Stitches quilts

My Snoopy characters are kinda sparse on that orange background!  I had the other 5 fabrics in my stash, and plans for making 16 blocks at next All Day Sew, but had NO kids prints.  So today, I made a quick dash to my LQS and bought that last few inches of that orange. 

Some of the quilting gals have never made a quilt using this technique so we'll demo it next meeting.  Only trouble is that it's so easy and so cute, I might have it done before the meeting date!

Hedgehog Pouch

Best one yet!

NQR - Cruise Control works intermittently

My car has under 40,000 miles on it, and in good shape.  However, my Cruise Control was intermittently not working reliably - it just would not turn ON.  Most of my miles are in town, not highway, but occasionally I need the Cruise Control.  Then, it just stopped working - no amount of coaxing would encourage it to behave. 

I Googled, "2012 Chrysler, Cruise Control works intermittently" and found the usual, TMI, but eventually settled on one forum where I learned the part needed was $49.00 and labor would be about $375.00.  Oh Great - another expense.  I read various suggestions, all waaay too technical , and one possible "troll" who suggested smart-alecky-like, "if all else fails you can always honk the horn".  Oh good grief, one of THOSE people who just likes to make trouble and smart remarks to see his name in print.  I put that repair on that back burner until I could research a dealer.  .

Shortly afterwards, I was driving in the country and remembered the smart-aleck who suggested "if all else fails you can always honk the horn."  Yeah right -  just to prove how stupid that suggestion was, I honked the horn, pressed Cruise Control and voila, it came back to life!  Yep, it worked perfectly well after the "honk technique".  Feeling sure it was just a fluke, I relayed my story to a technical friend guy who did not believe me, despite his auto-credentials.  The Cruise Control worked just fine for another 2 months, then started getting "intermittent" again.  This time I used the "honk the horn" technique with assurance, and yes, one honk, it turned on and behaved perfectly well again. 

I would like to apologize to the "smart aleck" for doubting his accurate advice. 

In the back of my mind, I'm remembering my previous Chrysler was traded in because Cruise Control no longer worked - mmmm  I DO wonder ...

Making Pouches with More Success

With my almost-failures of yesterday hopefully behind me, I tackled lined pouches again.  Well, seems I totally FORGOT how I made them yesterday, and had to do a lot of unsewing, but ... the end result is pretty good!

These fully lined pouches are not for the beginner - you need clear directions.  Their construction, to me, is not logically or visually apparent, but with a LOT of unsewing, and watching several tutorials AGAIN, I figured them out.  The little one in front is totally lined, with square corners on the bottom.  I made a little macrame knot affixed to the zipper tab.   The larger one is made the same.  They each have fusible batting on the back of the fronts, making them stiff and cumbersome at the turning area near the ends of the zipper.  Each has the little tabs on the zipper ends, which does help them to turn them more neatly. 

I included the red "apple" pouch in the back because I affixed a little tassle that I made, on the zipper. 

IMHO, I think this was a lot of work.  There are still more methods on Internet I have not tried. 

Tulips, and SEWING Went Wrong!

These are tulips, just peeking thru - early for western Nebraska but still, a moment of spring,  ahhhh, one of these days.

On the sewing front - today was a total disaster!  I am making small, flat zippered pouches.  I did my homework on Internet to find which method was the best, NOT the best plan because I have every method in my head and concentration is off.  DH always changes clocks early on a Saturday morning, which throws me more "off" than usual .  His fault, right?

I  used the lining for outside of the 3 layers, fused the batting on the wrong layer, sewed the zipper on upside down, used wrong color thread on the wrong side of product, forgot to change the foot and left machine in zig-zag and broke a needle, forgot to MQ layers together, forgot about making that little "tab" at the end of the zipper, then didn't leave enough room at the end of the "tab", a few more having to do with MEASURING, and the absolute worst one - cannot believe I did it -- I sewed the pouch 3 sides together and then even zig-zagged the edges and.... yes, I forgot to leave the zipper open!  Lesson ONE, beginner first lesson and I forgot - duhhhhh!   

If I dare, I'm going to try another method, moving the zipper to the front of the pouch, making it easier to turn.  And I'd still like to try one more method with a regular lining.

I DO have a tip - several of the zippers were not sliding easily.  I put a tiny drop of Sewers Aide on the teeth and the tab pull was much improved.  I occasionally use this silicone product on cranky thread when sewing. 

"Box Kites" - DONE

Today is a lovely warm day to celebrate the finish of my "Box Kites."  It ended up about 72" x 88" - I really didn't want it that large, but apparently I am not planning well enough.  This is a Bonnie Hunter inspiration, from one of her books. 

DH held it high, but almost not high enough.  We've had so much snow, mostly melted now, but the result is a lot of MUD!  I had to jump in and hold up the bottom to keep it off the ground.

I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the diagonal lines we see with all the  light "kites".  Each border is MQ'ed differently in light-hearted, happy motifs.