Mission Accomplished

Something amazing happened this weekend. I received a Mother's Day card, my first...ever. Since I have no children this came as a huge surprise. Step-daughter Jane (actually DH's stepdaughter from a previous marriage), sent the card to me. I am so thrilled I hardly know what to say; except that IF I had a daughter, Jane would be the one I would want.

About DH, there is another issue. For some unexplained reason he objects to being identified as "Dear Hubby" or DH as most blog readers will recognize. What I am instructed to use as his label is HRH - His Royal Husband-ness." Don't hold your breath...

FINISHED finally: my last great idea that took forever. The Sun-glass Cases deemed for my female family relatives for our summer sojourns. In order of creation are:

Step ONE: reach into the basket and start pulling out scraps and arrange in any position, stitching into a 'crazy' block.



Step Two:
Keep adding and stitching until you have a cloth big enough to cut a sizeable square.







Step Three: adds the batt and backing cloth, top stitching in any direction, any pattern and any density UNTIL you have a sufficiently quilted cloth to make a glass case cover. The purpose of quilting three layers is that the final product should handle, feel and act like a single, integral layer.





Step Four: After trimming to exact size and backing with a lining fabric, the top binding is first machine stitched in place, then folded over and hand sewn to complete the top edge. The next step in the process is to fold over and top stitch the bottom and side to secure the case.



As the last touch a snap is sewn inside the top of each case to prevent the glasses from falling out. This is a two step process (two-sides to the snap) and can only be done by hand.



Finally, all finished and photographed. These are just some of the selection of eighteen. Some have already been selected for the West Coast gals, the rest head to the Midwest with sister Jan to the family reunion in June.

Simple, no? Well maybe not hard science, but the time consumption was longer than I had planned and it may be a while before I assign myself such a detailed project again.
Listen to me. . .like I have that kind of discipline, not. bb

NO MORE LEAKY FAUCETS

Can anything feel better than having the plumber leave, knowing that all the faucets and flushing valves in the toilets work better than ever? First the kitchen wand-faucet began to drip, then the toilets were running much too long and then a problem with the outdoor bar sink on the deck. The latter was a good idea at the time but has proven to be more of a nuisance than a convenience. The plumber left a few minutes ago and since I have not yet seen the invoice I feel really good; that may change when the bill arrives.

Meanwhile I have been stitching furiously to get much work completed before Friday (tomorrow) when my precious Bernina (now going on five years old), gets delivered to the fix-it-shop. What will I do for a week without a sewing machine? Besides going into withdrawal?

The Sun Glass Case Project is proceeding according to plan. Beginning with a large basket of fabric 'crumbs' cut off from years of various quilt endeavors, hundreds if not thousands of scraps were sew into eighteen crazy-patch blocks. I like to think my color and print editing was the real talent applied to this project after years of visual arts practice. Weeks of fitting scraps together, trimming and squaring each block before making up the pattern and determining the procedural details.
This is a labor intensive job that requires trimming to EXACT size of the pattern. The accuracy here will save much frustration later as I have already proven to myself. No point in doing it twice! Unless the two-sides meet each other exactly when the case is top stitched it will look lop-sided and sloppy; not my kind of work.


Second, stitch to the lining fabric(with top fold-over-lip already applied), closing three of the four sides. Turn inside-out and press the corners square.


See the wrong side of the lip fabric (bias cut) waiting to be sewn. Here is where the project stands now: machine stitching on all eighteen finished and much handwork remains to be done.
The top-red lip will fold over and be secured along the top edge (consistent fabric to all), and a snap will be sewn inside the top outside corner. The hand work will be slow but without my 'function' machine this will keep me busy for a week if not longer.

Don't you love the D-ring attached on the top of each case (see below) to snap on your car keys? Toss the bright, colorful, scrappy case into your beach bag and you will never have to hunt for keys or glasses again.

When all is complete the case will look like the four pictured below. Waiting for the top stitching along the bottom and side, these cases will be my 'gift' to all the family females in our upcoming summer celebrations. What a fashion statement we will all make at the family picnic. Or at least we will find our sun glasses!

Much of this photography is now being done in Photoshop Creative Suite 4 (CS4). This upgrade accomplished just in the past few days after mentioning casually to DH that I needed to upgrade from CS2 to CS4. This notion from my Photoshop class at Duke Gardens in January as suggested by the instructor. At first DH argued that it would not work, it was too pricey $$$ blah blah blah... until yesterday.

I came home from the gym after an early morning workout - he was off to "The World Today" class in Durham - and there it was. A note on my monitor ready "Cannot use computer until CS4 finishes downloading." Who knew? bbf

FRIDAY AGAIN?

Can anything in the world be faster than Friday arriving too soon? Of course Spring cannot arrive too early. Today we hit the near 60 degree mark with more sunshine on the way.

First news of the day: Jacob L. Bledsoe, son of my nephew Tyler and Rebecca, arrived last night about 10:30 p.m., in St. Joseph, MO making me a great-aunt, again. Weighing in at a 9 pounds and 9 ounces, he measures 21.5 inches long (tall?). The first Bledsoe male of Mother's great-grandson generation, he follows two sisters (Madison and Emily), and little Lola Sunshine the daughter of my nephew J. Zale. Back to making baby bibs.

After an intense Monday and bad weather on Tuesday, we ate at Red Lotus in Chapel Hill Wednesday, bringing home leftover and fortune cookies. My fortune reads "A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon." I just know what they mean:
The Rockettes have lowered the height requirement and raised the age limit. I may be called soon for an audition, no?
Or maybe,
You will be the best looking lady at the high school reunion, yeah right?
Or
The new Sony-Cyber Camera in my mobile phone will let you take fabulous pictures that will outdo everyone in the Digital Scrapbooking class, not even!

What does please me this week is the progress made on some scrappy quilting gifts for the ladies of the family. Come Summer we will be in Missouri for Mother's 90th birthday and I have planned to have some hand-outs for each of the girls (10 in all), plus some for DH's family on the west coast.
To date I have spent two weeks 'scrappy patching,' lot of 'crumb' scraps to make 9 x 9 inch blocks. Those blocks get pressed and the process continues by layering batt-scraps and a lightweight backing behind the blocks and top stitching a simple pattern, in a show-off thread color. I really play with this as the purpose is to provide fabric integrity and stiffness, letting the thread color show is just a bonus.


Of the eighteen blocks cut, ten are now quilted and two have the inner lining attached to three sides.



The fold-over top binding is not yet finished, nor the side seams or snaps sewn inside the top-right corner.






The finished example made a couple of years ago is outline-stitched print fabric, shown. I like the case but felt making the scrappy-patches would be more summer-y and colorful for the bright days of sunshine. I think the gals will all be surprised unless they read this first. Back to work, the trimming, stitching, pinning, stitching, pressing and much hand-sewing is ahead - I haven't a minute to waste.

The first day of Spring is just days away, bbf