Tattle Tale

I am a terrible wife but I still can't resist!

You may have remembered I wrote one entire post about "how to get the furnace going, at the end of summer, or when the pilot light blows out" ... thinking ahead, that one day I may actually have to do that dreaded, most detestable, but very important job. "Dreaded, most detestable job" are the words my DH would use. Frankly, I never DID the job but thought I ought to be educated in case of emergency. In western Nebraska, there ARE mornings when it's 30 below zero, unfortunately!

Well, we had the emergency the other morning. Our nights have been frosty, and about 4:00 am I woke to a very cold nose. Oh my, please, let that NOT be the problem ...well, OK, the pilot light had indeed gone out and now we/I was going to have to face this dreaded job. "Dreaded" is the term from DH mouth, not mine. A lot of OTHER terms spew from his mouth when this happens and I WAS not looking forward to hearing them. I gently and lovingly (uh hemmmm) woke 'the man.'

OK, being the devoted and dutiful wife and partner, I'll try first, as I shuffle downstairs, push open the utility room door, get a chair (MUCH easier than crawling on the floor), put a rug down on the floor (bare feet), open front of furnace, stick head in boiler while butt is on chair(yep, pilot light is out) light match, hold the red button in and whoooosh - it lit. That's all. No swearing, no major problems, no hollering - this "dreaded" job took all of 4 minutes, from start to finish.

So gals, .... what am I missing here? It was almost a letdown to find the job was totally 'do-able' ... a piece of cake ... OK you women with psychology background, what's the deal? There's a lesson here and I'm not sure what it is, nor how to bring the subject up with uhhhh, 'you know who' who was still upstairs, trying to become awake.

Out of my element

I am stepping waaaay out my element (namely quilts) to try something of an 'arty' nature. First, I will make it very clear -- I KNOW nothing about art, except I enjoy looking, thinking, watching etc. Occasionally I am struck with an idea, or have a glimmer of a thought, or am tempted by a tingling of an idea. Another guild member and I suggested the idea of an Art Group to the Guild, and it was approved to have an "Ardis Wannabe" group (artist want-to-be). We (Joan and I) put words into a basket and at each meeting, one word is drawn. The project is based on that word. All those who care to participate will produce a finished art piece in ONE month. Yes, ONE month. This is to get our brains flowing, and not stagnated by too many concepts, ideas, possibilities. It has to be DONE the next month. Of course, small is expected, but DONE is best. The only rule was that it had to contain fiber - we didn't say how much. No other rules.

My own project was a lot more clever in my head than the end result. I am being very brave showing my pitiful effort, hoping that in time, I'll get better. I started and restarted about 7 times, changing background, colors, concepte, etc. Whew, getting frustrated is the hardest part and then, it is even MORE difficult to FORCE oneself to try again. I had words printed on fabric for this project, sewn on, but later removed them (so much for my expensive fabric sheets at $3.00 each! I had planned to fuse bright flowers here and there but that was entirely too cutesy.

And no matter how I worked, it ended up looking like a quilted wall hanging, which is totally NOT what I wanted!

This word is "Friends" .. I had some vague idea of layers in each friend's personality, friends in a busy world (background) that larger greyish thing is a manipulated photo (Paintshop Pro) of me (the same as in on my blog profile)with Friends surrounding me, and I also put one of my DH behind me, also manipulated (watch it! LOL) Yes, I am thinking THAT 'manipulated' part was planned! Vertical layout was much better than horizontal.

And it appears I left a black thread on my photo! Well, it IS finished, and I'll try again next month.

So Easy a Caveman Can Do It, and a book

Sometimes the easiest of blocks are NOT! My own fault - I said, "Easy, Peasy, don't read directions!" The end result is as pictured, but my seams are in the wrong place. No big deal -- Someone will love winning the BOMs - hope it's not me -- I have a supply waiting for me!








I'm not a great reader these days (because I'm trying to be a great sewist!) - but this is one amazing book! It was on the Best Seller list. I couldn't put it down, and neither can my DH, who usually only reads political stuff. It's about ordinary people living in Afghanistan, living their daily lives, starting in about 1975, up to invasion by Taliban. We know so little about this culture.

Geraniums and an early quilt

This is almost the limit of my garden this year. It happens to remain shaded much of the day, and practically ignored. Maybe that is the key?

I didn't really want to make this quilt (below), but definitely wanted to take a class, any class at a retreat, about 8 years ago. My tastes were different then but anyway ... the teacher insisted on the quick corner method but I decided to save all the cutoffs. It's scrappy, kinda 'regular', but the quilting??? just wait.... Judy Woodworth quilted this, and I was amazed and immensely impressed. Now SHE has moved UP in the quilt art world, and her wait list it LONG, so again, I'm glad I have this machine quilting treasure.
I've studied this quilt many times, from the back.

FOLLOWERS - When in doubt, READ the instructions

The above title is a reminder to ME -- LOL!

This is what I learned about "Followers". Go to Dashboard, and SCROLL to the bottom of the page, and READ instructions.

Being a practical person who does not like to 'fiddle' with things that work, I fail to see the advantage. Being sceptical by nature, I also wonder why we have to change from Bloglines, or other 'readers'.

I know who reads my blog (via your comments) and I can tell a LOT of people visit who do not leave comments. That's OK too. Guess time will make it more clear.

What is/are "Followers" of blogs?

I plead ignorance - what are/is "Followers", (i.e.,Follow this blog) that I am beginning to see on blogs. And how does it differ from "Feeds" that lead to Bloglines (or something probably similar)?

Is is just another version of signing up for Bloglines/Feeds?

sighhhhh --- My "toDo' list is so long today, I cannot face it all, so I'm doing my best at "PROCRASTINATION!"