Vacation

After our Abex reunion, since we were already more than half-way there, we planned to head for the Jersey Shore for a mini-vacation.  Back when I worked in the Mahwah plant the guys convinced me and another secretary to join them on a blue fishing expedition.  I downed a box of drammamine for the experience but had a great time.  This time I didn't go out on the boat, but the kids and hubby did and had a blast.  The boat.. the Norma K left the dock at 7pm and drove out 20 miles before dropping anchor.  Most on the boat caught 5 fish before the storm blew in and broke off one of the anchors.   My guys came prepared with rain gear and kept fishing until it was time to head in a bit early, but many wore just t-shirts and shorts and got soaked.  There were some queasy stomachs, but all had fun.

on the way out to sea!

A good catch!

The next morning I met up with an online quilting friend and spent the day antiquing and hanging out before a nice seafood dinner.

Seafood dinner with Sharon.... SLOANIE MEET UP

 My gang spent the morning getting their land legs back and stomachs settled before heading to the beach.  The water was still pretty rough and the undertow strong.  They had to be careful not to get knocked down or dragged out.

 Too soon it was time to start back to Tennessee.  But first a stop in Maryland to see my in-laws and their backyard visitors!

Visiting Nanny Goat and mama cat with 10 kittens!

And of course, no visit to Maryland would be complete with out a crab dinner.... and some to take home!

We, of course, ran into some accidents and road construction causing delays!

This jam was  on the beltway... an accident tying up the two left lanes just after the road narrowed down to three lanes!

We passed a few quilt barns along the way.... but hubby was not stopping for pictures saying the ride was long enough!

I managed to capture this one during one of our many traffic delays

We also ran into some much needed rain. 

I was driving so couldn't take pictures of the rain, but this couple on the motorcyle that I took last year when Mom was driving show you the type of rain I was driving in.  UGH!  Glad they had their rain gear on!

Apparently we had rain at home too.  The grass and garden are green again and here are just some of the tomatoes I picked last night.  I'll be busy canning today!.

Changes

My first job was working as a secretary in the legal department of Singer at 30 Rockefeller Plaza on the 63rd floor.  I loved the fast paced city life.  I rode on the train with my Dad for about 18 months before deciding working with lawyers wasn't what I thought... they weren't interested in my becoming the next Della Street!  plus,  I decided I wanted to go back to school.  My second job, closer to home and school,  was working as a secretary in the automotive testing center for  Abex. The original company was American Brake Shoe located in Mahwah, NJ begun in 1901 as a brake block foundry for railroad wheels and brakes.  As the automotive industry developed, the company grew and expanded branching out into many different divisions.  At some point it became part of IC Industries and Pepsi Co.  I worked there about 5 years, going to school at night and earning dual degrees in business and criminal justice.  I met my future husband there. After 5 years, I left Abex and worked several other jobs before marrying and raising a family, but my husband continues to work for the company.  I'm not sure what year the Mahwah plant was closed and property sold off, but there it is no longer there.

In 1989 we were transferred to Winchester, VA.  After living my life less than an hour from the big city (NY) and all its influences, I thought I had died and moved to Mayberry RFD!  Lots of open fields, orchards and farms around.  I think the town's population was somewhere around 15k.  It boasted Shenandoah College, which started out as a seminary in 1875 and became a university in 1991... The Apple Blossom Mall was built in 1982..... and the town and businesses would shut down for a long weekend for the Apple Blossom Festival parade and races in May.  This was still a small town but growing as workers from DC moved out of the city looking for the good life.  Martins, Lowes, Kmart and WalMart, McDonalds all came to town while we were there. I quickly adjusted and it was a nice place to raise our family.

Abex was been bought and sold several more times... for a time we were part of Cooper Industries and now we are a division of Federal Mogul and in 2002 we were transferred to Cookeville TN.  When we moved here 10 years ago I stepped back in time again.... this was Mayberry RFD! LOL!!  There were 32 churches listed in the phone book of this small bible belt town! This was a dry county back then and you could only get a drink by the glass in the chain restaurants that were just beginning to pop up on what is now referred to as restaurant row.  Downtown is closed off each fall for FunFest and a bar-b-que contest.  The Christmas parade is always held on the first Monday in December.  The County Fair is held in August... the week after school starts... creating sleepy kids in the classroom after staying up all night with 4H competitions and pagents.... But that's the way it has always been done so the tradition continues.  Again, this is a college town... It was Dixie College in 1909 then became Tennessee PolyTech in 1915 and is currently know as Tennessee Tech. The college has been ranked as one of the best since 2007 with strong engineering and nursing programs and currently enrolls approximately 12,000 students who help to grow this town and businesses throughout the year.  The last 10 years have seen many changes here.  City population has doubled in size and we are listed as the biggest of the 20 micropolitan areas in TN, and at least 4 liquor stores opened up in January with the passing of new laws.  This town is growing fast with an influx of retirees tired of the Florida hurricanes or the Michigan winters. 

My reason for all this history?  Time is marching on and, unfortunately,  Federal Mogul has now joined the list of companies closing their doors on American soil and American workers and are moving to open a plant in Juarez, Mexico in 2013 for its cheap labor.  The Winchester plant is scheduled to close in January 2013.  I also heard that in the near future they will open a plant in India too, which may also mean the end of the nearby plants in Smithville, TN and/or Glasgow, KY where my husband works.  Lucky for us, after 40+ years with the company, we are close to retirement age, but I feel bad for the younger workers and their families.

The Winchester closing has prompted a reunion and this past weekend we drove north to Winchester and met with 58 of us "old timers" to  review old times and catch up on current happenings. We shared pictures and stories of growing children and grandchildren.  Some, like my husband, transferred to other locations, some retired, some found employment with other companies and some hire out as consultants.  One races cars and another is starting up a new business in the field.  As for the hundreds of laborers from the plant, I can only hope that they have been able to find employment elsewhere.  It was good seeing the old gang and there is talk of a gathering again next year! The Winchester area has grown a lot.  Orchards and farmland are now consumed by homes and town houses.  Mini strip malls of shops, a huge shopping center and a second Walmart cover what was once open fields.  As I looked around I imagine that Cookeville TN will grow to look like this in another 10 years.  By then we will be retired and hopefully moved on to find green pastures once again.

Beaded Bracelet Tutorial

I was asked to do a tutorial on how to make the beaded bracelet from my last post. I will give this a try, but I warn you, I am not a crocheter. Of the ten or so ladies that were taking this class, one gal had the proper spiral look and seemed to really know what she was doing.  Two of us finished our bracelets in our own creative style...unpatterned and bumpy... but complete.  To the best of my memory below are the directions she gave us to make this.  I made a second bracelet and took pictures as I went along, but my camera doesn't want to focus clearly on close shots and I can't hold everything and take pictures so I'm not sure if these directions will be helpful to you or not.  Hopefully you can crochet and make some sense of this and  make your own bracelet. 

First, what you need:

#10 Crochet thread
Size 3 2.1mm crochet hook
3pkgs of glass beads...
.....she told us you always buy 3 pkgs so that you have enough for matching bracelet and at least a necklace
a beading needle
2-3 clasps


1.  For the bracelet we had to string 40-50 inches of beads.. She said we probably wouldn't use all of them, but it is better to string extra as it is difficult to add more later on.

2.  Remove the beading needle and leaving a long tail (about 20 inches) chain 4  then join into a circle.

3.  Stick the hook into the first chain.  Slide two beads up close.    Hook the string and pull a loop through the chain and the loop on the hook pushing the beads to the back keeping as snug as possible.  Repeat four times until you have eight beads on your circle

4.  For the second and all successive rows you will be repeating the same motions... sticking the hook in next to each set of two beads sliding two new beads up close and pulling the loop through, always pushing the beads to the back... until you have the length bracelet you need (mine was 7.5 inches)

If you can figure out how to do this correctly, you should have a little "spiderweb" of string in the center with the beads joining nicely and smoothly on the outside.

Honestly, I have no idea where I was supposed to be sticking the hook most of the time... and I never did see the spiderweb on mine that she formed on hers.  I just stuck the hook between two beads, added two more and pulled the loop through.  In theory, as you add each row you are pulling the previous row of beads tightly into a nice patterned string of beads.  Sometimes mine looked smooth and like I might be doing it right and then it suddenly got "blobby" looking and I had no what I was doing differently.  I would just reach down between two that looked looser to add two beads and pull tight as I could.  In the end, it worked for me and I ended up with my own unique bracelet.

5.  When you have a length bracelet you want (be sure to allow for the added length from the clasp and not make it too long).  Cut yourself about 20 inches of string and thread it through the needle.  Weave the string though the beads pulling the end closed and tight.  Sew on the clasp and weave thread back down through the beads pulling any beads that stick out oddly into the bracelet.  Cut off excess string.  Repeat at the other end using the long tail you started with. 

The Problem with Chain Piecing

I love chain piecing... it is an efficient way creating identical block parts one after another... mindless work that quickly gets the job done.

The problem  is when I do something wrong... like stitching the yellow square on in the wrong direction.
And since I'm chain piecing I do it wrong multiple times  (in this case 72 wrongly sewn blocks).  I sewed.  I pressed.   I should have double checked before cutting off the bonus triangles... but nooooo!

And of course, I have no more of this fabric!  I bought it last year when I was in East Tennessee.  It was one of those sales where there is a pile of assorted scraps and you fill your bag with whatever you want for a few dollars.  I don't have time to spend the day driving back East in hopes of finding more, so I gave my husband a fabric sample as he headed out the door to work and if I didn't find anything in town... as a last ditch effort... I would call him and he would go to the quilt shop near work to look for something for me. (Isn't he the best!)  So I spent way too much time this morning driving around town looking for a replacement... willing the fabrics I saw in front of me to match.  Unfortunately, the local quilt shop is closing soon and is down to bare bones with nothing even close. I found some near misses in  Hobby Lobby, Hancocks or even Wal-Mart... but nothing that spoke to me like the original fabric.  I called my husband at work and he went over on his lunch hour and came home with  a couple possibilities.

Here are the 3 best alternatives

I'm not really loving any one of them so I'll make several blocks with each alternative and that will be that.  They don't look bad, they just aren't as good as the original to me.  (sigh)

FCE Craft Day

This is my bracelet created in a 4 hour class today.

Today we had an FCE craft day an Miriam taught us how to make bracelets!... we can also use the same technique to make a matching necklace.

Miriam demonstrating tying off and adding clasp

UFO Update... Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there.   It's been just a year since we lost my Dad... but we will celebrate with my husband... my children's Dad and I'm sure Pop will be with us in spirit.

POP

Yesterday I was up early and got all the cutting done for my swap blocks before my grandson was up and running.

I stayed busy all day with my grandson... who is a very busy, non-stop three year old. 

Putting some of that energy to good use!

We got out to the garden and picked blueberries and blackberries with a minimum number of dropped berries and stomped plants!  Then came in for some berry topped ice-cream YUMM!

Last evening while he watched Scooby-doo and settled down a bit before bed I drew the lines.  I still haven't figured a more efficient way to do this... If anyone has any ideas, please let me know as I have 144 squares to mark.

This morning... I was up at 5am and while everyone slept (especially and including the grandson) I spent two hours sewing....

chain piecing

Using Orca Bay string blocks as a leader/ender

Chain sewed the squares on each side of the rectangle

Chain sewed each one a second time to make Bonus Blocks... Bonnie would be proud!

Snipped off the Bonus Blocks

First section and Bonus Blocks all pressed neatly

Now to repeat with the second section

But first, since it is Father's Day... after church...   Since both daughter's work evenings we decided to celebrate with a family brunch rather than dinner... and my grandson just had to help with the cooking!

We made vegetable quiche and ham and egg pie... named as such because "real men don't each quiche!" but they do love pie! LOL

I forgot to take the after pictures, but we all enjoyed our short family time together before my youngest daughter headed off to work and the oldest took her son home.  Now I have some time for more sewing as Dad has requested pizza for dinner to be delivered by our youngest daughter later this evening! 

Hope you are all enjoying your Father's Day celebration!

UFO Weekend

This weekend Pat Sloan is hosting a UFO Busting Challenge.  You can read all about it here:

http://blog.patsloan.com/2012/06/pat-sloan-a-little-ufo-busting.html

I planned on making 9 blocks needed for the Quiltmaker Party block swap in Williamsburg, VA that I will be attending in August.   Here is my first block laid out....

Quiltmaker 100 Blocks Vol. 2  Block #174 Birthday Girl by Bonnie Hunter

I spent spare minutes all week long cutting fabric...

9 blocks... 52 pieces each... that's a lot of cutting!

But as life goes, I have my grandson for the weekend again, so there will not be as much sewing time as I had hoped.  So I got up early this morning (5am!) and managed to assemble two blocks before he needed my attention.

So now while we watch Scooby-doo and eat our cereal I am drawing lots of lines!

Let's see... thats 144 lines for the purple/yellow block.  Then more lines for the orange/yellow hsts!

I am sure there must be an easier/quicker way to streamline this, but I can't think how right now.

Hope you all enjoy your day.

Nana Duty

Nana is on duty again this weekend.  Picked him up from daycare yesterday and we had a great evening together.    Apple, 1/2 banana, cherries, strawberries for snack... He didn't want to walk Toby tonight... maybe tomorrow.  Chicken nuggets with ketchup! and coleslaw for dinner and a chocolate chip cookie with milk for dessert!    He helped me "cook"  putting the sliced cabbage into the dressing and stirring the coleslaw.  We watched Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, had a nice bubble bath and he "read"  four stories to monkey and me... Llama Llama, Little Pony, Corduroy Bear and The Very Noisy Night!.... and the Llama Llama one more time for good measure.   He wouldn't sleep in his "pretty bed" last night... even with the night light it was too dark!??  Oh well, we hauled the crib mattress into my room and he slept on the floor next to me.  Unfortunately he did a lot of tossing and turning in his sleep so I didn't sleep well.... and then he was up at 5AM!!! UUGGHH!

He ate his cheerios and milk... with a few more cherries! while I ate my eggs.  Then big boy went to his room and got dressed by himself!  He chose well... denim shorts and a black t-shirt... and everything was on right-side out and facing front! LOL.  His mom says they are working on tying shoes.. you know... criss-cross apple sauce... make two bunny ears and tie them tight! .... but he wanted nothing to do with that this morning and left it for me to do... glad he's not too grown up yet!

We grabbed a "juice to go" (a capri sun packet) and his monkey and his car and off to "Miss Diana's House" (daycare) by 6:30am!  I stopped to do the grocery shopping on the way home, unloaded and put everything away, a load of laundry started, dinner in the crock-pot, kitchen dishes cleaned up, beds made and now I'm heading out for 3 miles with Toby....

I think I'll take a nap when I get home!

Quilt-A-Long

Ok, my lack of techno savvy is showing... I can't figure out how to add the logo so here is the big long link for a quilt-a-long by Pat Sloan over at the Quilting Gallery.  Let's hope you can just click on it to get there.  If not copy and paste and that should work...I think. (sigh)


 http://quiltinggallery.com/learning-center/beginners-quilt-along/


Each week directions for a new block will be posted and by mid September you should have a completed quilt.    Now I'm off in search of fabrics and start sewing!


Oh, and here is my half square triangle top all pieced and  waiting in line to be quilted.





One more UFO to finish this month and I'm back to working on Orca Bay designed by Bonnie Hunter.   I'll be starting three new quilts designed by her during classes in August at the QuiltMaker Party in Williamsburg!  Check it out here...
http://www.quiltmaker.com/events/quilt-along-with-quiltmaker.html

UFO listing

Here is an updated listing of my UFOs ... just as a reminder to myself of what I have accomplished so far this year and what I have left to do.  I completed one and moved four up to wait on quilting... now I must schedule some quilter time between customer work for me to get them done!

I should be able to move the first two almost done's up by month end and then I want to get farther along on Orca Bay before starting on the three new classes in August.


COMPLETED IN 2012
Improv Block Quilt (february)

WAITING TO BE QUILTED
Christmas Swap Blocks (moved up in march 2012)

Baltimore Album Quilt (moved up in april 2012)
Scotts Squares (moved up in may 2012)

Thangles Quilt (moved up in june 2012)

Rosewood Cottage - 1/2 hand quilted (waiting since 2006)
Lucky Charms (waiting since 2010)
Basket Sampler Quilt (waiting since 2011)
Birthday Star (waiting since 2008)
Monkey Wrench BOM (waiting since 2007)
Set of 4 placemats (waiting since 2011)


ALMOST DONE

Basic Class Wall Hanging - need to finish hand applique on 4th block then assemble
Pillow Cover - assemble parts
Sunbonnet Sue - needs 3 prairie point borders to be a flimsy

UPCOMING CLASSES
   Collecting and pre-cutting fabris for these three classes in August

Winston Ways
Turkey Tracks
Midnight Flight


STARTED AND STOPPED
2012 Orca Bay - some of steps 1 and 2 complete
2012 Cheddar Bowties - 81 blocks complete,  8 of 9 rows completed for first 1/4 of quilt
2010 Vicksburg BOM - 3 to hand applique..I may just assemble the completed blocks into a flimsy and quit
2011 Happiness Key - background prepared
2011 Dear Jane/Hot Momma Rose - 3 blocks complete
2010 Swartz Creek Quilt - unfinished class project
2009 1950s Santa - applique - working on block 2 of 12


2006 Barn Blocks - 5 more applique blocks, then log cabin blocks to assemble
Jamestown Landing BOM
Green/Pink BOM
Black White & Red
Orphan Fan Blocks
Heart Blocks
Pumpkin wall hanging
4th July Wall Hanging - paper pieced
Recycle Quilt Teddy Bears

KITS NOT YET STARTED
Pastel stars
Pink Baby Quilt
5-Star Tablerunner
Parisian 20
Cardinal Wall Hanging
Quilt Diva
Colonial Christmas
Golden Stars tablerunner
CJ's Care Bears
Iris Table Runner
2 Americana Dolls

I also have several boxes with quilt-of-the-month kits stored in the closet...but I'll leave them for another day to inventory and decide what to do.

Waiting to be Quilted

Recently I took a break from customer work and decided to spend some time moving another one of my UFOs  to join the other projects patiently waiting to be quilted.

Baltimore Album Quilt started in 2011

I just needed to make the time to assemble the rows and add the borders.  I really like the way it has turned out.

Snowball quilt made with Civil War Reproduction fabrics in 2011

There are two wall hangings designed by Pat Sloan....  I'm debating adding borders to each of them so that they better fit my wall space.

Sampler Basket started in a class with Pat in 2011

Lucky Charms started in 2010.  Pattern can now be found in her newest book "Focus on the Center"

I have made many new online friends thanks to Pat's Quilt Mashup forum.  You can join us here:

 http://quiltmashup.com

Last year we did an Improv Block Swap...  making and sending blocks to the swap leader (who happened to be me) who then repackaged and returned one block from each participant.  We all had lots of  fun and I completed this quilt in January with some blocks remaining for another project.

Improve Block Swap started 2011

We had so much fun we decided to do it again.  This time, because several of us did not own a Christmas quilt to decorate with (shocking to realize that I was one of them!) we chose a simple Ohio Star block pattern to be made with Kona White and red and green Christmas fabrics.  I found this lovely Christmas "doll" fabric to symbolize all my new friends and completed this flimsy back in February.

Christmas Ohio Star Block Swap started 2012

Here is "Scott's Squares", a design I came up with for my nephew using men's shirts. He'll get this for a Christmas present this year.

Scott's Squares started 2011

It won't be long and my half-square triangle (Thangles) project will be ready to quilt also.  I've started assembling the rows and cutting borders.  Here are some of the rows laid out ready to sew.

Half-Square triangle project started 2010

 

 

 

I have many more UFO's in various stages of completion that will all eventually end up on this list.  Hopefully this list will get smaller before I add too many more!

Daily Walks

I try to walk the neighborhood at least 4 days a week.... about 1.5 miles per lap... 2 laps per day.   This week is more challenging than most because not only do I have Toby (my Blue Lacey)  I am dog sitting Baby Girl... my daughter's dog,  while my she is off fishing with her brother and father in Canada this week.  She is  wary of me and tends to pull as far away as the leash will allow... and of course in the opposite direction from Toby .  I am really lucky that Toby is so well behaved.  Baby Girl and I are still getting used to each other and she is warming up to me as we spend time together each day.

It's a beautiful sunny morning and we're walking along, and a new challenge presented itself.... an escapee convention at the back of the neighborhood.  Two yapping poodles and a barking wolf hound escaped their confines and decided to play with another neighborhood escapee this morning...  then we came walking along.  I'm sure if someone had taken a picture it would have looked quite comical to see me trying to to stay upright as dogs ran circles around me barking and trying to sniff each other all the while trying to keep from tangling in the two leashes.  I was about to let go of the leashes or go down, when, thank goodness, the owner of the three came by and called them off.  The other loose one ran off with them and we went on our merry way.

A little farther down the road is a cat convention!  Five cats lined up at the end of the driveway just sitting there daring the dogs to mess with them!   I wish I had a camera to show you how they lined up... first a white one then a white/brown then a white/brown black,  then a solid brown and lastly a solid black.  I found it amazing that they would line up in color order like that. What was more amazing to me was that they didn't move a muscle as we went by with the dogs pulling and whimpering to go investigate.

Another obstacle was the neighborhood AARF volunteer (with four foster dogs and two of her own)  I don't know how she could stand her ground and hold on to 6 dogs who wanted to come investigate us.

We passed by two more neighborhood escapees walking through the empty lot area.  Toby and Baby Girl whimpered to go check them out but  I managed to keep them moving along.

The scariest encounter was when a neighbors doberman came sneaking up behind us.  He is so quiet and before you know it he is just a couple feet away.  Both dogs noticed him a millisecond after I did ... just enough time for me to plant my feet and keep from being pulled into a barking chase as he took off running as soon as my guys started barking.  I think he startled Toby and Baby Girl too.  I am told he is a very friendly dog, but I don't like the way he sneaks up close and it's just plain scary to suddenly see this mean-looking dog so close and staring at me. 

The morning's adventure is done and I'm ready to spend some quality quilting time before my grandson arrives this afternoon.  He will keep me busy over the next several days.   I can't wait to see what will happen on our walk tomorrow with him added to the mix.... NOT!

Give a boy a ball....

 .... and there is no stopping him... especially when he has just turned 3!

Give him three balls and the fun never stops!

Add a Scooby-doo singing, candle flickering card...

He is trying to blow out the candles!

and birthday cake with candles......

I have 1... 2... 3! candles... I'm 3!

Happy Birthday to my grandson!

Bell Buckle, TN

I recently went on a day trip with a group of ladies from church to Bell Buckle, TN.  It's an historic town that has organized itself and downtown into a tourist attraction of antique shops and crafts.
For more info go here:  http://www.bellbucklechamber.com


We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the Bell Buckle Cafe. Then just enjoyed the antiques at the Bluebird Antiques & Miss Jeanne's Ice Cream Parlor.  The homemade waffle cones and hand dipped ice cream were tempting, but our meal was more than enough to eat today!

Here are some pictures of a fun day.   I've uploaded the remaining pictures (quilts and sewing machines I saw) on my Flickr page as I am having a difficult time working with blogger since they changed a week or two ago.
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/37794595@N06/sets/72157629571214950/