Anita's machine quilting and frugal living

Still following?

2011-09-26T07:42:00.000-05:00

I didn't realize anyone was still following this blog until a couple of days ago. I thought everyone had abandoned me when I moved over to WordPress. Many of my really good posts have not made the move over there. I don't know the reason. I've been working with those posts on here. You may see several of the past posts show up on this blog, a couple at a time, as I change the contents of each post. I'm removing anything that is too much personal information. I learned my lesson about that. These posts are some of the best ones I did over the years. They made a transition back in 2006 or 2007 so I'm guessing eventually they'll be fixed this time as well.

I've had three blogs in the past so I may continue with two blogs. One on WordPress and one on Blogger. Both have features I like but neither have all the features that work best for me. I'll have to make a decision but it doesn't need to be made right this minute.

If you'd like to visit me over at WordPress the link is here..... Anita's other blog.

Ok I will

2011-08-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

I've given it a lot of thought. I've listened to my readers. I've really given my writing a blog a good going over in my mind and my heart. The reason I blog is because I want to be helpful and hopefully build up some angel points.

Another reason I blog is because I know the people of my generation have failed to teach the younger generations ways to live naturally without all the consumer driven economics we see today. If I can reach just one younger person and let them see a new way of living then I've accomplished my goal.

I had already checked into moving over to wordpress several days ago. I found it's much easier to write there but there's still a lot to learn. What I like best is the way readers can interact with each other through comment replies. If someone posts a question as a comment, anyone can reply with an answer. Not just me. Of course I will still be the one to screen the comments to keep out any negative or spam comments.

I decided to go ahead and start a new blog at wordpress. A fresh new start with a fresh new attitude. If anyone would like to join me there just click here Na Na's life and memories. Be sure to bookmark it, or join it, or whatever it is you do, so you can help me make the change. Wouldn't that be something? To have 50+ plus people join a new blog with only one test post? (giggle) Wordpress might wonder what the heck is going on.

Please consider joining me there. I hope to make it much more interactive among all the readers.

About the phone call

2011-08-25T06:22:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you a little history first.

On more than one occasion I've gotten a phone call telling me that my child has passed away. To get one phone call that one child is taken from me was very hard. To get a second call that a child has died is devastating. To get a phone call that a third child has died is like you'll never catch your breath again. Each time it happens it's like your heart is ripped right out of your chest and you don't want to live anymore. Unless you are a very uncaring mother, the death of a child is something you never get over. You learn to live but you never, ever get over it.

Flash forward to last Monday. My daughter calls me while she and Ladybug are going down the road on the expressway. My daughter tells me she is feeling very drowsy from new medication she's on. We don't talk long because she wants to concentrate on her driving. Like any mother would be.... I'm worried. I tell her to call me as soon as she get there so I know she's alright. I say a prayer that both of them will get there safe.

A while later; the next phone call I get I'm expecting my daughter to tell me she and Ladybug arrived just fine. Instead it's someone claiming to be an operator with a collect phone call from my daughter. The woman gives my daughter's name. The woman says my daughter has been in a bad accident and is in the hospital. The woman says that since I don't have long distance on my phone she needs a credit card to accept the charges. My mind is going numb as I start praying..... God, please don't do this again. I can't loose another child. The woman on the phone has other personal information as well and doesn't hesitate telling it to me.

I know something is just not right when the woman asks for a credit card. Yet, I don't want to take the chance that my daughter could be taken from me without a last chance to talk to her. I don't hesitate for a second giving the woman my credit card number. If you were in my circumstances.... would you hesitate? A credit card is only money and it can be replaced. A child can not be replaced.

When I heard the dial tone on the phone I knew I had been had. I call my daughter to verify she and Ladybug are fine. Then, I break down to cry with relief. I say a prayer to God thanking him. Now I'm angry! How dare that woman be so cruel? There is only one place she could have gotten all the information that she had and that's from my blogs. If she took the time to get all that scattered information then she would have known about my deceased children too. That's what she used to get me to give her my credit card number.

I know that the banks are not going to pursue a credit card theft but an individual CAN. I won't go into details about that until after the woman is arrested. I don't want to give her information that could help her in any way to get away with it. There is only one way to stop me from pursuing criminal charges against this woman and I'm sure she will figure it out eventually. Maybe before she is arrested and maybe not.

I've lived a great many years in the ghetto. Life around gangs and prostitution and drugs and gun toting children will teach a person many things. The first thing you learn is that life can take one of two paths. For good or for evil. I choose to live for good. Even among all the bad things that happen around me.

I have hopes of seeing my deceased children again someday when it's my turn to leave this world. I started doing all the good deeds I could to build up what I called "angel points". My blogs were just another way of helping others because I had things to share that would be helpful in these economic times. As the saying goes.... no good deed goes unpunished.

Will I ever blog again? Right now I'm not sure if I will. I've already blogged more additional posts than I intened to. I'm simply answering remaining questions. I made no money from my blogs. It actually cost me quite a lot to keep blogging. I paid for photo storage. I paid for internet. I took time away from quilting to write. I took time away from friends and family to write. It cost me a lot to be helpful.

I can still write my journal for my decendants. I don't have to make it public knowledge through a blog. At different times through the day I find myself thinking..... this would make a great blog article.... then I realize it might bite me in the butt later. I'm keeping my blog for now. I may change my mind later IF I figure out how to make it better. Right now it's a clean slate just like a clean new paper journal. All the posts are gone. An opportunity for starting over. BUT...... do I want to?

A matter of time

2011-08-24T07:39:00.000-05:00

Thank you MJ for adding your voodoo prayers to mine. Some people don't know how powerful a voodoo curse can be.... but it is very powerful. Think about it. People have prayer chains praying to God even though they have never "seen" God. The power of a prayer chain works.

A voodoo prayer chain is just as powerful and works just as well. The local voodoo priest has several of the followers adding prayers as well.

The woman who telephoned me is going to have very bad luck until she does the right thing. She won't recognize it at first. It will be little things that seem to be odd occurrences and will continue to get larger and more frequent over time. I haven't spent nearly a lifetime living in the getto without learning a few things along the way.

Last post

2011-08-22T13:06:00.001-05:00

Once again I've become a victim of identity theft and it is all because of my blogs. This post is a courtesy post to let my readers know I will be removing my blogs from the internet. I had to calm myself down a bit and let my heart stop racing in order to write this post. What happened to me was very frightening and I don't want it to happen again....... EVER!!!!!

** UPDATE:

There is a very cruel sick person reading my blog. You know who you are because you phoned me today. After I posted earlier I decided to visit the Voodoo priest that lives nearby. All I can say right now is that nothing.... NOTHING.... will go right for you until you do the right thing. You may not believe in Voodoo but..... can you be sure? You will have extremely bad luck and those around you will have extremely bad luck. Especially the person in prison who's pulling your puppet strings.

Come on..... send me a comment..... I want to see it. We can add it to the investigation going on about you right this minute. You really don't know that much about me or what official investigators might be close relatives of mine now do ya? But you will.... oh boy will ya. You did the wrong thing when you brought in my family.

Ok for my regular (and ligitimate) readers, I appologize you must see me this way. When it comes to my own family I'm like a rabid dog when it comes to protecting them. A thing against me is one thing but when a person intentionally brings my family into it....... hell has no fury like a woman protecting her young. This cruel person had me believing my daughter and grand daughter were in the hospital seriously hurt. None of which was true. I'm a little upset for being so stupid and falling for it but I'm furious about the cruelty. Furious enough that I won't let this go. I'll be like an alligator with a death grip on a deer. Once I get ahold of it my jaws won't open. She fooled with the wrong person when she messed with this mother and grand mother.

The last time I was a victim of credit card theft I didn't get upset. I simply did what was required to get it straightened out. I let the bank deal with the thief. This time is different. It was just too cruel.

I would like to keep my blog but it will have to be drastically changed. Just what those changes are I'm not sure. I'm letting my relatives advise me about keeping it secure. The same relatives that are going to do an investigation for me. If they believe it best to give up the blog then that's what I will do. I will miss everyone but my family's security comes first. I'm sure you will understand. And.... you can always email me if you want to keep in touch.

Spring cream pie

2011-08-20T16:42:00.001-05:00

I'm what I call a "discount bin cook" which means I like to use items I find in the stores with the pretty red stickers on them. I think it's a great hobby while saving money too. Finding discounted items in the store always reminds me of my Grandmother. I called her Mama but on my blog I call her Grandma Mama so it's not confusing her with my actual Mother. On my last shopping trip I happened to find some quarts of half and half with one of those really pretty red discount stickers on them. Right away I knew what I wanted to make with these.

In the spring and early summer when the cows were making lots of milk, Grandma Mama had to find ways to use it all up. Food was never wasted or thrown out unless it was totally unsafe to eat. Seeing the half and half reminded me of a sweet treat she made in order to use up the bounty of cream she had. Grandma Mama would sometimes make Spring Cream Pie with her extra cream.

For this pie recipe I needed:

one quart of half and half cream
1 /2 cup of cornstarch
2 sticks of butter (or margarine)
3 cups sugar or 1 1/2 cups honey (or a sugar substitute)
2 baked pie shells

I also needed:

ground cinnamon (optional)
ground nutmeg (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla

The first thing I did was bake the pie shell. Hmm..... I know I have 6 pie pans in this house but for the life of me I can't figure out where the heck they are hiding! I can't imagine why I wouldn't have them in the kitchen where I use them all the time? So I used a square cake pan instead of two smaller pie pans.

While that's baking I melt the butter in a sauce pan big enough to hold a quart of cream. I used a low heat setting so the butter doesn't burn.

I add the cornstarch. If you don't have cornstarch then use the same amount of flour.

Mix it together really well.

Add the half and half cream and the sugar.

When you add the coldness of the cream it makes the butter ball up. This is ok. It will get smooth again as you cook it. Now start stirring and cooking until it gets thick. Stir almost constantly so the cream doesn't get scorched on the bottom of the pan.

Keep stirring and cooking over the low heat until it becomes pretty thick. Sort of like a pudding.

Pour into the baked pie shells and top with ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg. Leave setting on the counter to cool. It will get thicker as it cools. Yes, you could put it in the refrigerator to cool but it isn't necessary. My Grandma Mama didn't have electricity so her recipes were not meant to be refrigerated. Many of her recipes were made around the use of a spring house. What's a spring house?

A spring house (also called a cold house or a well house) was a building built over a section of a running stream. Running stream water is cold. You ever put your feet into a stream in the summer to cool them? That's what happens in a spring house. Food is put into containers in the running water to keep them cold. The coolness of the running water also kept the building really cool inside. Almost like being air conditioned. Things that didn't need to be quite as cold could be put on shelves along the walls of the house. A spring house was usually about the size of a walk in fridge we see today.

Now about the virsitility of the recipe. Grandma Mama knew no one wanted the same pie week after week. The recipe is the basic. After the cream was cooked to the right thickness, and taken off the heat, Grandma Mama let it cool down a bit and then would add other things to change the flavor.

Grandma Mama would sometimes add:

stale left over cookies crumbled up
a few pieces of hard candy pounded to tiny bits
various types of nuts chopped small (we had hickory nuts and walnuts on the farm)
fresh wild fruit picked on the farm
fruit from her orchard trees
shredded coconut when she had it
A packet of kool aid (it came in only three flavors back then)

Grandma Mama sometimes left out the sugar and instead made it plain then added items for a different kind of side dish pie:

roasted onions and garlic chopped fine
wild chives
bits of chicken, beef or other left over cooked meat
cooked veggies like sweet potatoes or green beans or corn
cheese of different kinds
ham and beans
boiled or scrambled eggs and bacon

So you see, this is a very versitile recipe. After the cooking is finished you can add just about anything to make it a different flavor. It is always served at room temperature. I guess you could also call this "left over pie" because you can use up all the bits and pieces of left overs. Although your family might not appreciate it as much as calling it Spring Cream Pie. They will think your are just a fantastic cook.

Fair opened

2011-08-19T06:14:00.001-05:00

I went to the Kentucky State Fair yesterday for opening day. I don't really do well in crowds but I do manage to stay all day at the fair. My SIL and I always go together on opening day. When I start to panic she knows I need to get out of the building to a quiet place for a little while and doesn't mind this. She's my support during a panic attack.

I only took a couple of photos. I thought this was a very interesting recycled item art.

Here are the details about the piece.

And more details.

One art piece I finally found, that I'm very proud of, is this bird. It was done by my mother who is in a nursing home. I was going to call her to tell her about getting a second place ribbon but decided to let her get surprised when she sees it. The nursing home is taking a few residents to the fair next week for a field trip. I can hardly wait until she calls me about her ribbon.

I really didn't expect to get any ribbons on my quilts and I was surprised to get two third place. I didn't expect ribbons because my "heart" wasn't in the quilts. What do I mean? Well, you know how some people running a race will start off very energetic but as the race goes on they loose steam and slow down? That's the way I was with my quilt entries. For example, the photo of Ladybug I was working on as an entry didn't work out. I switched at the last minute to a two color instead of a 6 color one. I had very little time to finish my entry.

All is not lost though. I've got a good head start on finishing it for next year's fair. If I enter again. I'm not sure right now that I want to enter a quilt any more? I've lost my energy (steam) for running the race. It's enough for me to just create..... for me. I'm kind of like a person that runs just for the fun of running instead of running in marathons.

These days, I create because I have a desire to create and have fun with the process. Creating for the purpose of winning something has a whole different feeling to it. I call it "creative stress" because there is always stress when entering contests. Idea stress, deadline stress, and disapointment stress. Know what I mean?

Wall quilt hanger

2011-08-17T05:07:00.001-05:00

I had three small quilts that needed a hanging device for pegboard. Pegboard is what's used at the fair to hang items in the fine arts department. A traditional hanging sleeve wouldn't work. I decided to create something that would allow the quilts to be hung from a single hook. It's pretty simple to make.

Hanging device for wall quilts

I figure the volunteers at the fair might not know how to use the device so I wrote them a note. I put the string near the center of the strips for better balance and to keep the string from being visible above the quilt.

I used strips of cardboard to make the hanging device because it's light weight and sturdy and cheap. What's really nice about using this system is that if I decide to hang these quilts in my house, it can be done with one nail. Actually, I would use a command hook so I wouldn't damage the walls. My daughter used to call me the queen of holes in the wall. Not anymore. Not since I found a bunch of command hooks on the discount table a couple of years ago. I'm now a convert to command products.

I got the idea for the hanging device from looking at some of my old picture frames.

We had some pretty good ideas back then that are still useful today.

Power out again

2011-08-15T12:51:00.001-05:00

I had taken a photo of my first Morning Glory bloom to post about it. Normally my porch would be completely filled all over by this time of year and I'd have plenty of shade on the porch. Not this year. My vines have struggled to get started. I was proud to see the first bloom.

Just a few minutes later a storm came through here and knocked it all down. What you see still hanging won't last too long. The remaining strings show signs they will fall at any minute. I won't try re stringing the vines because it's already late in the season. I'll clean them all up and prepare the beds for new vines next year.

This storm brought down lots more trees again knocking out power to many parts of the city. I had been working on the computer and was preparing to write a post. I turned the computer off at the first sound of thunder. Just seconds later is when the storm happened and my power went out almost immediately. The wind of this storm was reported to be around 60 to 75 miles an hour.

I got out my power outage supplies and settled down for an evening of reading. I had something to munch on while I read. My battery operated tv and radio were for getting updates on the weather every few minutes.

I read half the book before bedtime. Still no power. Thank goodness it wasn't terribly hot as it has been the last few weeks. The power went out around 6 pm Saturday evening and came back on around noon today. Today was supposed to be the first day of School here. Instead, the kids got their first weather related out of school day. Many of the schools did have power but with so many traffic lights not working it wasn't safe for traveling school buses. Also, many neighborhood roads have trees down on them which would make it hard for school buses to get through and pick up kids.

A power outage sure does put a cramp in working out blog problems. If your new to reading my blog you probably don't know that we have lots of problems with power outages here. Sometimes it's days before power is restored. I keep power outage related things handy. More now than anytime I can remember in the past.

On more than one occasion I've lost all the food in my freezer due to power outages that lasted for many days. This time I'm happy to say nothing was lost. I want to say thank you to all those who commented the last couple of days. Sorry I couldn't let you know what had happened.

Mental Blackmail

2011-07-10T08:01:00.001-05:00

I was reading, on a machine quilting list, a post by a beginning (newbie) machine quilter eager for new customers. I have invited the newbie to visit this blog to see how quilts are kept squared but it bothers me what the customer is doing. Ok you don't know what I'm type-talking about so let me explain. First I should tell you that I don't know the newbie machine quilter and I don't know the customer. I only read a post on the list.

Apparently the newbie quilter was contacted by a new customer about a quilt. The customer has said she would let this newbie machine quilter to do her quilt only if the quilter could "guarantee" it would be perfectly squared when it was finished. In exchange for this perfectly squared quilt, the customer would send the newbie machine quilter more customers.

In my personal opinion this is mental blackmail. Even though I know for certain I can get close to perfectly squared quilts; I would never, ever knowingly let a customer blackmail me in that way. My motto is "Your quilts will be quilted in the condition it is received. I will do my best to give you back a great quilt but there are no guarantees."

Now why would I believe this customer is wrong? Shouldn't newbie machine quilters like the idea of recommendations to other potential customers? Well yes, they should like recommendations; but, not at the stress level that customer is expecting. That customer is expecting college professor work from a first grader. That customer is saying to the first grader..... I'll tell others how great a writer you are but only if you write me a 10,000 word essay with perfect punctuation and spelling. The first grader can't possibly do the work expected.

Another reaction I had to reading the post is that the customer is setting herself up to get free quilting. The customer knows the machine quilter is new at doing the work. If the newbie doesn't produce a perfect quilt the customer will have what she needs to complain, which almost always results in either no charges or deeply discounted charges from the newbie. Why? Because the newbie is afraid. Afraid of getting a bad reputation among toppers in the area. All from one person complaining. I could be wrong because, as I said, I don't know either one of the people.

Whenever I am giving advice to a new machine quilter I tell them that their work will be the recommendation. Do the best work you can and it will bring you more customers. Quilters can't resist show and tell. Someone will see your work on a quilt and if they like it they will want to know who did the quilting. Most toppers are happy to say who did the quilting.

I also tell newbie machine quilters to seek out a few newbie toppers as their first customers. Anyone who is just learning to create quilt tops does not have the expectations of someone who has achieved greater skills. Newbie toppers know the feeling of making mistakes and won't mind so much if the newbie machine quilter makes mistakes. If the newbie machine quilter does make a mistake, and decides to give a discount on the quilting, it's her choice. The choice would be from the newbie wanting to compensate the customer instead of being expected. I hope I explained that right.

Newbie machine quilters and newbie toppers can learn and grow with each other. The machine quilter can explain issues she encounters while doing the quilting. The topper can learn from the explanations about those issues and correct the problem with the next top. In essence the two will grow and learn together in much the same way first graders learn together. First graders are always willing to help fellow first graders accomplish better skills.

Buying a quilting machine does not mean you will immediately produce top notch, show quality quilting, ready to win the top prize in a major show. Buying a household machine to learn to create quilt tops does not mean you will immediately sit down to make a perfect top. Only in very rare occasions do absolute beginners produce something nearly perfect right from the start. Usually, there is some prior knowledge that allows this to happen. Maybe an art background or an engineering background or something else.

If you bought a quilting machine in order to open a machine quilting business then it should be run as a business. You won't see a new grocery or a new restaurant or a new department store owner allowing one customer to tell them they will recommend the place only if the business owner satisfies them. No, the business owner is expecting the business itself to be the recommendation. The owner is doing the best he or she can to open a great place with the best service or product they can give. People who like the business will tell others about it.

The new business owner will seek out the first customers by several means. Advertising is only one way. A new machine quilter can advertise several ways too. I've found the easiest way and the cheapest way is to simply leave a few business cards at the local fabric stores. Fabric stores have quilt topper classes all the time. Toppers are eager to get the quilts finished and move on to the next top. Some prolific toppers will use the services of several machine quilters and are often looking for newbies to add to their group of machine quilters. The prolific toppers are always on the lookout for new business cards.

Ok, before I keep rambling on too much about this let me say this. The next time a customer says they want a "guarantee" of a perfectly quilted top...... ask them if they can "guarantee" a perfectly pieced top with not one single issue to deal with. I can guarantee you this.... there is not one single quilt top anywhere that is perfect, no matter how good the topper is. There might be some really close to perfect quilts but not a single one that's absolutely perfect. How can I say this? Well, fabric does not behave. It pulls, it stretches, it shrinks, it gets off grain, it simply will not behave. And.... only GOD is perfect.

Thank you

2011-07-06T05:07:00.001-05:00

Thank you everyone for the help understanding what Agenda 21 is. I remember President Carter tried to have something like that started. I really like Carter for his humanitarian views and work.

Sometimes I hear a story on the news and I ask myself..... what the heck are they talking about. Regardless of political views, I just want to know what they are talking about. Sometimes it might be politics I don't understand and sometimes it might be a new technical device.

Remember when IPods and MP3 players first came out? Well, at first I couldn't figure out what everyone was talking about then either. It took me awhile but I did find out. I still can't make my MP3 work but at least I know what it is.

Any senior that doesn't keep up with their edyoukashun will quickly find them self lost at every turn. A few days ago I was at my daughter's house trying to figure out how to operate her tv remote with all it's buttons. Ladybug saw me struggling with it and said "let me show you NaNa" and she did. I had to laugh at a 3 year old who was being very patient as she explained each step. I was very proud of her too for being so willing to help an old person understand. Maybe someday I'll be able to return the help to her by showing her how old stuff worked without electricity. Like.... for example..... a Singer treadle machine. (smile)

Ok, I'm rambling here. Sorry. I just wanted to say thank you for helping me.

Don't understand

2011-07-05T17:40:00.001-05:00

There is something I've been trying to understand but can't seem to find any information about it except doomsday type comments. I don't want to simply take someone's opinion on it. I want real information about what it is and how it is to work so I can form an opinion of my own.

Executive Order 13575 Agenda 21 is what it's called and was signed by Obama in June. I first heard of it on Fox News (I think) several days ago. I just caught the tail end of it and wanted to find out more.

Does anyone reading my blog understand what that is? Can you point me to some information that is neither pro nor con on the subject? Or perhaps a place where I might find comments both for and against it?

Finally some plants

2011-06-09T07:53:00.001-05:00

Ok, I straightened the fence post and started fixing the fencing to the posts. I'm using twist ties that come inside boxes of garbage bags. I have a ton of those since I don't use them on the garbage bags. I planted two tomato plants on one side of the fence and 6 cucumber plants on the other side. As these grow I will attach them to the fence to grow up instead of out.

I still have plants that need to go into the ground right away but I think I'll wait one more day. The heat is brutal and the pollution is pretty bad.

The side garden is doing fairly well. Not growing as fast I think it should but it may be because of the heat so soon after cool, wet, weather for several days. I've heard that some people have green tomatoes already. I plan to put the fencing along here in a couple of days.

The side yard garden box was made last year so all the work was already done. No digging required for this year. Simply loosen up the dirt a bit with a rake and plant it. Love that it's so easy once the beds are created! I can hardly wait until I've got the other boxes made as well. Next year the garden work should be a breeze to do. If I can get someone to share their heirloom seeds with me then I plan to start some seeds indoors instead of purchasing plants from the hardware for next year.

A younger person could have done all this work in one afternoon but for an older person like me.... it takes days and days to get done. I would love to have a volunteer help me for just a couple of hours but no one in this neighborhood volunteers to help the neighbors for anything. Even asking a couple of guys to simply hammer the posts intothe ground fell on deaf ears. I emailed a couple of local garden groups to see if they had anyone willing to help me for a couple of hours. That's not going to happen either. So... it's all up to me, even if it takes me days and days to do.

I keep telling myself, "Keep your eyes on the finish Anita, it will be worth all the work." I have to keep thinking about the rising costs of food at the store. Even for a bargain hunter like me it's hard to pay higher and higher prices at the store. All the natural disasters all over the country are going to affect the cost of foods later this year. Just look at how many crops may have been destroyed by fires and floods in the last couple of months. Now the record breaking heat and dry weather may be killing other crops too.

I'm doing what I can to prepare for a hard winter.... even if it's only the small amount a little old lady can do by herself. Umm.... will anyone have extra seeds this fall they would be willing to share with me?

More on freezer organizing

2011-05-24T07:03:00.001-05:00

Blogger is acting up today, I hope I can get this post written. This is a follow up post for the previous one about how I organize my freezer. I didn't explain very well about keeping the receipts for items that go into my freezer. There might be some concern it could contribute to a paper clutter problem. Well, hmmm, it's not that much paper to keep really. I have 12 envelopes. One for each month of the year. I made new envelopes because the old ones were rather ragged. Twelve envelopes is really small when compared to my recipe file.

After each grocery trip I simply put all the receipts into an envelope for that month. I don't record anything from the receipts. I probably won't ever use them..... unless there is a reason... like a long power outage again. I keep the receipts for insurance purposes IF I should ever have to file a claim.

The insurance company requires a list of what's in the freezer and receipts to back it up. Anyone can say they had a lot of stuff in their freezer but few can document it with receipts so the insurance company gets away with not paying. Or paying only a minimum. With my freezer list and receipts to back it up I will have what is necessary as proof.

On my freezer inventory list I have the date of items put into the freezer (column 2) which I use to keep track of oldest items. When all of the items from that month are gone, the receipts in the envelope can be tossed. Food rarely stays in the freezer more than 8 or 9 months. Actually 6 months is normal. Longer is rare because I share so much of it with others.

IF I should ever have to file a claim I will look at the inventory list and find a receipt to match it. For example, the chicken breasts in bag # 5 (line 5 in the photo). I know I could find the receipt for that in the May envelope. Bag # 9 (line 9 in the photo) is for beef steak from November. I would look in the November envelope for the receipt.

Ok, look at the receipt for the May purchase of chicken breasts. This is what I would use IF I had to show the receipt to the insurance adjuster. The cost is listed along with the savings and the final cost. This is the information I would match to any food listed on the freezer inventory list.

I do not use the receipts for recording information on the freezer list. I use the actual package labels for that. Do you see how the label shows the poundage, the normal price, and the final cost? This information is what I record on my inventory list as each thing is flash frozen and then put into the numbered bags.

IF I had to file a claim it's a matter of matching up what's in the bag with the right receipt. I can't simply save the package labels because a label is not the proof of purchase required by an insurance company. There are many other ways I can use the information on the inventory list and the receipts but those are other post ideas. Does the freezer organizing make better sense now? Do you see how keeping the receipts far out weigh the idea of paper clutter?

It's kind of like having my own personal insurance policy that costs me nothing but a few minutes time each month. The information is here just in case there is ever a need to use it. Three times loosing everything in a 6 foot tall freezer is enough incentive for me to keep up with the information. Even a person with only a refrigerator freezer would want to get paid for any power outage food losses. You won't get paid unless you know what you had and can produce the receipts for it.

My freezer organizing has evolved over time as I worked with it. If you are interested there are other posts on my blog to read that explain how I started it and changes I made and what happens after grocery day.

March 2010, December 2010, April 2011, May 2011

Organized freezer

2011-05-18T07:01:00.001-05:00

Without opening the door, I know exactly what I have in my upright freezer.... how many pounds of each meat type or veggie.... when I bought it..... how much it cost..... and what needs to be eaten first to keep it rotating. Here is what my freezer looks like today.

I can produce receipts for every purchase if needed for insurance purposes.

I know exactly what is given to me by food fairies when they leave it at my doorstep.

When I start putting things that I get from my garden into there I can document that too.

Here is the key to it all. This is my freezer inventory list. A combination of this list and the use of numbered bags makes it very easy to use.

The reason I came up with this system was because three times in a row I lost every bit of food in the freezer due to natural disasters which caused the power to be out for many days. Each time, I was told I could not get paid by the insurance company unless I could provide proof of my purchases and what I had in the freezer. I was also frustrated when every time I opened the freezer, to get something out, there would be some of it fall out onto the floor or my foot. Sometimes I would forget what I had and it would not get eaten.

Here's how it works:

On my inventory list I have six columns.

Bag # - this number corresponds to the number on the plastic bags
Date - this is the date of the purchase or the date the food went into the freezer if obtained other ways
Item - this simply describes what is in the bag. Meat is listed by the type (beef, chicken, pork) and then by the cut.
Pounds - this tells me whether it's enough for a recipe or not and is good for insurance purposes
Cost - this is the original price
Paid - this is what I actually paid for it. I find lots of bargains and sale items.

I hated stacking foods on top of each other in the freezer only to realize the package I needed was always on the bottom of the stack. I hated having to remove several items to look for something older so it could be used first. Lining everything up like books on a shelf works so much better. If I had a chest freezer, (instead of an upright) I would still line them up like books; but, the bags would be inside of some boxes with the tabs on top of the bags. The number tabs would be seen from the top instead of from the side.

The numbered bags are not for keeping the food from freezer burn, they are simply place holders. Although, an extra layer of plastic does help. The numbered bags are reused over and over again as food goes in and food is taken out. I use tabs instead of writing on the bag because the tabs are easier to see no matter how tightly packed the freezer gets.

Ok, let's say I'm ready to take something from the freezer for dinner. I look on the list in column number two. What's been in the freezer the longest? I have chicken legs that were put into the freezer in October last year. I look to see if the poundage is right for my recipe by looking at column four. It looks about right so I decide to use it. I look in column one to find the bag number. I see it's bag number one so I open the freezer and take out bag number one. The contents are removed from the numbered bag to thaw and the bag is put away to be used again. I mark through the line for this bag on the list so I know it's been used.

You can see some blank lines on this list? That's empty bags waiting to be used after my next shopping trip. I shop once a month and I update and print out a new copy after new foods are put away. After shopping I flash freeze my purchases, put them into numbered bags, and add to the list. New information will be typed in and a clean copy printed out. The list stays on the freezer door.

Ok, for those who like to menu plan, a list would be helpful too. Simply look at the inventory list to see what you have in the freezer before making your menu. What about those who only have a small refrigerator freezer? This will work for you too. Just create a shorter list. You would be surprised at how much you can fit into a small freezer when it's set on end like books.

If, heaven forbid, there is another natural disaster and we loose power for several days; I'm prepared for the insurance requirement to document my purchases. I keep all receipts from my shopping trips in envelopes by month. I do not record the receipts. I simply keep them in envelopes should the need ever arise to show the receipts to an insurance adjuster. If my inventory list shows I still have something in the freezer from say May, there should be receipts in the May envelope to match it.

I discard the whole batch of receipts from an envelope when all of the items for that month are gone from the freezer. I know which to discard from my inventory list (column two) but I keep the envelope to use again. If I needed to show a receipt for something in the freezer it's easy to see what it was and how many pounds by looking at the list. Most receipts show this information too. It's simply a matter of matching a receipt to what I have on the list.

Items from my garden or those given to me by the food fairies are documented by looking at sale papers for the week it goes in the freezer. I cut out the portion of the sale paper with the current price and put it into the envelope along with how many pounds I actually have.

You will notice that the items in the door shelves don't have numbered bags. There's no need to number those because I can see them easily. I do have them listed on the inventory sheet so I know what I have before I open the door.

The inventory list saves energy. I'm not standing there searching through packages while the cold air falls out. A quick look for the right bag number and the door can be shut. You might think keeping the list updated is time consuming but really it's not. Setting it up for the first time was the most time consuming because I had to create the bags.

Let me know if anything is still unclear. I hope more people find this system helpful and start using it too. If you would like to read an earlier post from when I made the bags go here.

After grocery day

2011-04-18T06:37:00.001-05:00

I really don't mind shopping nearly as much as putting it all away after I get home. This month I got a lot of bargains that were exactly what I had on my shopping list. Bread for Easter holiday dinner. No need to bake it if I can find it on discount. Less time in the kitchen on a holiday. (to see the normal price on these, click to make the photo larger)

Corn bread to be with my evening meal so I don't have to cook anything the day after shopping day. My crock pot comes in handy while I'm busy putting foods away. Things like this cornbread are my version of fast food. It's just as convenient to visit the grocery deli as it is to order from a drive through but much healthier from the deli.

Rolls for a cookout my daughter plans in a couple of weeks.

I do a lot of repackaging of the foods into individual portions before freezing. Like this three pounds of discount 80/20 ground beef. I first mix it for burgers.

Make up a dozen burgers to flash freeze then add more ingredients for meatloaf.

Which is then frozen into individual size meatloaf muffins. If you do this be sure to lightly oil the muffin tin or else you won't be able to remove them after freezing. I use a store brand of pam.

Individually wrapped burgers and meatloaf muffins make it convenient to thaw and cook only what is needed for one or two people. These are just the right portion size for a person on a special diet like me. If I change my mind and want to use these for meatballs I can just reshape them before cooking. If I want to use these for sloppy joes or tacos I just chop them as I cook. Get the idea?

I do the same repackaging and freezing with my other foods.... like these.

Repackaged and ready to thaw out only what I need for a meal.

I've never tried beef bacon before but I'm willing to try it. The other bacon was a better bargain I think.

Repackaged for convenience. No need to thaw out a whole package when I would eat only one slice or maybe use a couple of slices for flavoring in other meals.

The same with lunch meat. Frozen as individual portions for convenience.

These are for Mexican dishes I want to try or as an ingredient in a salad.

Ok, what's a Mexican meal without taco shells?

I got several produce bargains too. Corn, carrots, lettuce, onions, and celery that I'll be working on today and tomorrow.

Thinking ahead to this fall, I found some bargains for making pickles from the cucumbers I plan to grow in my backyard garden.

I couldn't pass up these for my sweet tooth attacks. These were about half price or less. Sugar free of course because I gotta watch my diet. These are for when I'm too busy to cook a sweet desert but the craving is strong. Actually, they're almost too sweet for my taste.

I found many more bargains like these.

And these.

And this.... which was my crock pot meal the next day. Vegetable beef barley soup using some of the barley I found on discount a few months ago.

Before I end this post I want to show you the progress on my backyard garden. Aren't they pretty? These are just waiting for me to fill with dirt and plants. Life is really looking up these days. I'm thinking it's going to take a lot of dirt to fill these boxes. 4' x 8' by 12" high. Yup, that's a lot of dirt.

My work won't get done until I go do it so now I must get off the internet. (type-talking to myself) I'm as happy as can be about finally getting a backyard garden again. This one is going to be much better than the one I had over 15 years ago thanks to a simple trade of quilting.

One question

2011-04-06T09:31:00.001-05:00

I've been watching the news lately about the possibility of the government being shut down if there isn't a balanced budget passed. I have one question and I don't know who to ask so instead I'll just write my question as a blog post and hope someone, somewhere will be asking the same question to the right person. Hmm.... a very agressive political reporter might be the one to ask but I don't know how to do that.

My question is:

Why is it that the ordinary workers are the ones who will suffer from a government shut down instead of the politicians?

The politicians arguing over budget stuff will not have their salary cut in anyway if there is a shut down. They will still receive their paychecks and their perks while the park rangers and the secretaries in small government offices and the ticket takers at museums will be the one's to suffer a pay loss.

Ok a second question which is actually part of the first question:

Why are the senators and the representatives not "fined" the amount of their daily salary and taken away their perks for every day there isn't a balanced budget?

I'm pretty sure none of them have even considered cutting their own paychecks or giving up their perks as one way to cut the deficit. Yet, they plan to cut social services for the poor. Well darn it! Don't they know that the more poor people they create with their antics.... the more poor people that will need those social services? The very people who will be out of work from shutting down the government are the ones who will need the social services which won't be open. The politicians have lost their common sense!

Ok, I'm going back to my work. I was just type-talking some thoughts that maybe others agree or disagree about.

This one finished

2011-03-11T06:17:00.002-06:00

I have another quilt finished. The owner prefers minimal quilting so this one went quickly.

A leaf and curl design on the outside border and none on the inside border.

You have to look at this sideways but the line dancing looks like butterflies.

A look at it from the back.

A look at the border from the back.

Hmm.... what shall I do today? I have a Me day today. I'm hoping to fix my printer so I can print out some portrait quilt patterns in order to make corrections. It just irks me that this darned printer had to pick NOW to start acting up. If I can't get it printing right I'll probably cut out more fabric pieces for the two memory quilts.

Scrappy nine patch

2011-02-13T10:20:00.003-06:00

A backward pieced scrappy nine patch made from clothing. These are some 10 inch blocks left over from a clothing memory quilt I made a year or so ago. I'm going to make these into scrappy nine patch blocks for a charity quilt. Yes, I could just sew them together as is; but, I thought it might be fun to make these a little more special for a nursing home patient. I can show you my way of piecing scrappy nine patch blocks backwards.

I have this stack of 10 inch blocks. You would go through your fabrics and cut some for yourself. Or perhaps you have some already cut. Variety is what makes this nine patch fun. I'm using what I have so some of the patches will be repeated within the blocks. To get a totally scrappy look all the starting squares should be different.

Cut a strip off one side. I cut my strips 3 inches. The finished block will be 9 X 9 inches. Whatever size block you start with.... subtract one inch and divide by three to get your strip size.

Remove the top piece from one stack and put it on the bottom.

Pin and sew back together.

Press the seam toward the outside. I found some of these fabrics don't want to press toward the outside. This is clothing fabric and sometimes it's very stubborn. I let the fabric have it's way for now and I'll deal with the seams later. I press in whatever direction it wants to go..... but only because it's clothing. Regular cotton fabric should behave enough to press in the right direction.... toward the outside of the block.

I cut a 3 inch strip from the other side.

Take the top strip and place it on the bottom of the stack. Pin and sew back together.

I press the seams toward the outside again.... or whatever direction it stubbornly tells me it's willing to go.

I turn the blocks so the strips are going horizontal and cut a 3 inch strip off one side. Remove the top piece from one of the stacks and place it on the bottom.

I re press the seams of the strip I just cut so the seams are toward the middle. Unless it's too stubborn to go that way. Darn it! Repressing lets the seams lock together for more accurate matching corners.

Pin and sew back together.

Now it's time to deal with those unruly stubborn seams. Umm.... let me turn the block around so you see better what I'm doing.

That's better. Do you see where the frog stitcher is pointing? Do you see where the last seam stitching crosses over that stitching? Ok, frog stitch (pick out) just the stitches within the seam line. From the previous stitching line to the edge. It might be only a couple of stitches at most. No need to clip the loose thread.

Now press the seams so they form a tiny little four patch at the intersection.... like this. Why would I do this step? Because clothing is famous for creating fabric warts at intersections. Warts are thick areas of fabric that can break needles. I want to avoid creating warts whenever possible. Regular cotton fabric will create warts too but not as thick. Warts of any fabric will break needles.

Ok, now darn it.... some seams of clothing quilts just want to go their own direction no matter how much steam I put to them. Like this. One end says go this way and the other says go this way. Here's how I deal with these.

Right at the point where it changes direction, I clip it. I'm careful not to cut the stitching. I just clip up to the stitching.... and that stubborn seam lays down for a nap. Gosh, I think it's time to clean my pressing board. Lots of little dots of dry starch on it.

Now it's time to cut a 3 inch strip from the other side of the blocks. Remove the top strip from the stack and place it on the bottom as I did before.

Pin and sew back together.

Repeat the process of either making tiny four patches at the seam intersections or clip the seams so they lay flat. I now have a stack of scrappy nine patch blocks made from clothing.

I can go even farther and make these into disappearing nine patches or simply use them as is. I think I'll leave them as is since so many of the fabrics don't want to behave. If I was working with regular cotton fabrics I would go farther.

This blog post is printable if you want to print it. Look for the print friendly button below and click it. Enjoy!

Scrappy half squares

2011-01-25T04:52:00.001-06:00

This is a reconstructed post of one of my pieced backward designs. I originally worked this one out in probably 2000 or earlier? I can't remember for sure. A few years later I was asked to explain to some internet friends how it was done. I wanted people to have a visual as well as a type-talked description. I posted the photos in my webshots albums for easy viewing. I'm lucky I did that because I was able to use the photos from webshots to reconstruct the instructions here.

For this block I start with 24 pieces of scrap fabric which made 24 finished scrappy half square blocks. Half of the fabrics were dark and half were light. You can use a variety of different fabrics such as brights and pastels or batiks and solids or whatever. Whichever combination you choose, just be sure there is good contrast between them. If you want a really scrappy look it works best if no two fabrics are the same pattern. .

From the scrap fabrics I cut 24 ten inch squares. The size I used may not be the size you will choose. Any size square will work. I suggest you read through all the instructions before choosing your block size though. Each cut will take away 1/2 inch of fabric when you sew it back together. It's not a good idea to start with 3 inch squares unless you want a finished block of 1 1/2 X 1 1/2 inches.

Next you will pair up a light and a dark square right sides together. Draw a line from one corner to the opposite corner. Sew a quarter inch seam on both sides of that line.

Cut the two halves apart..... right smack dab on that drawn line.

Open these up and press the seam going toward the dark fabric. Press it! Press it! Press it! I firmly believe in pressing (not ironing) a quilt block at each step. Pressing in the right direction is important for this block to work.

Now, dividing these half squares by three, cut it into 3 equal strips like this. Don't use the original measurement for dividing because you have lost 1/2 inch of the size when sewing the first seam.

Take the first strip off the top of the left stack and put it on the bottom. Take two strips off the stack on the right and put those on the bottom. This is what will give a scrappy look to the finished block. Take the center stack and repress the seam going toward the light side. Yes, it does sort of sound like extra work but it's worth it. This will help reduce bulk at the intersection as well as help lock the seams together for sewing.

Now pin the strips together and sew them back together. I usually work from left to right. Sew the first two sets together then add the last set. I chain piece for more speed in piecing.

When these are all sewn together they should look like this. No, it really is not supposed to be an even diagonal line. This offset is very important for the next step. The offset should be 1/2 inch. Press the seams you just sewed toward the center of the block.

Turn the blocks a quarter turn so you can cut through the center of the offsets. Again, you will be cutting three equal sized strips by making sure you are in the center of each offset. Can you see this in the photo? Now take one off the left stack and place it on the bottom. Remove two from the right stack and place those on the bottom.

Repress the seams of the center stack going toward the outside of the block. After pressing the blocks the seams should look like this. (I have these placed in the wrong order but the pressing is right)

Sew these back together and press the last two seams open or do a roseate press. This reduces bulk at the intersections. Machine quilters call the bulky intersections "fabric warts" when there is a great deal of fabric there. Fabric warts can break quilting machine needles and will cause holes in the quilt before the machine stops sewing. I pressed these seams open but I really prefer making the rosettes.

Your finished blocks should look like these and now you can play around with different placement patterns. Aren't they sooo cute with all the small half squares? And you worked so hard at piecing all those really small triangles together didn't you? Shhh.... you don't need to tell anyone how easy it really was to make them.

Here's another placement possibility.

How about this one? A scrappy flying geese design.

Hmm.... how about a scrappy Jacob's ladder design?

This one looks like sail boats or flags. Once you get the squares pieced, there are many different setting possibilities.

I've made several of these since I made the first one. I can't find all the photos but here is one I did with bright and cream color fabrics to show how one looks as finished. If I ever find the photos of the finished red one I'll update this post.

My posts are printer friendly if you want to print these directions out and take them to your work area. Just click on the print friendly button. Let me know if something is not clear and I'll try to explain it better.

UPDATE: I was at the nursing home visiting my mother yesterday and took this photo of the finished red quilt. It has been washed several times.

Lost posts

2011-01-24T08:39:00.001-06:00

Several days ago someone asked me where on my blog they could find the post about how I do t-shirt quilts. I started looking for that post and realized several of my quilting technique tutorials are not here. It really had me wondering.... what the heck happened to those posts? I know I wrote those post but where the heck are they? I was getting frustrated and wondering if my mind was playing tricks on me. A senior memory thing.

I started looking through photos and many blog posts on my two quilt related blogs. I couldn't even find the right photos. Where the heck are they? (In my mind I sounded like the tv commercial of the guy looking for his car.) Right about then I started feeling like a really confused senior. Maybe I might need to look into nursing home care for myself? DUH! That's when I realized those posts were written before I had to get a new computer a few years ago. My how time does fly! The old one crashed and I lost all photos and posts stored on my computer. That was back when I had dial up internet too. In order to save time I wrote posts in MS word then copied and pasted them into blogger. Blogger didn't have draft storage back when I was writing those posts. Gosh... I've come a long way since then and so has blogger. That clears up the mystery of knowing I did write the posts but now they are missing.

The whole reason I started this second blog was to publish my unique piecing techniques for toppers; to post my machine quilting tips for fellow machine quilters; and to help beginning professional machine quilters learn a few hints from an experienced person. My other blog is supposed to be simply a day to day journal for my customers to see that I am working daily and to understand what's taking me so long to finish their quilt.

Somewhere along the journey of this blog I started explaining how the day to day living can interfere with keeping on a very busy quilting schedule; but, with careful organizing the impact could be minimal. I got more and more questions about how I live frugally and I answered with blog posts which changed the intent of this blog. Gradually my original quilting technique posts were forgotten about and never rewritten.

I believe I can rewrite a few of the original quilting posts because I've found some of the pictures stored in other places like my webshots albums.

I will reconstruct what posts I can and rewrite others. Now that I'm semi-retired I don't have as much commission work coming in. Some of the original posts can't be rewritten without taking new photos of each step. Those will have to wait until I have commission quilts to make.

Not long ago I also started writing links to posts on this blog and using the "pages" feature at the top. I became busy with quilting work and have not had a chance to get back to that either. I sure don't want to let that project fall victim to my senior memory. I'm going to start writing more links on the pages a little at a time. Maybe as I work with the link pages I'll find some of the technique posts I remember writing but just don't remember what I called them.

I hope you enjoy the "backward pieced" designs as I get them remade and posted. If any steps are unclear please let me know. One of the backward pieced designs should be ready to post sometime tomorrow.

Freezer cleaned out

2010-12-29T07:19:00.001-06:00

The upright freezer was the next thing to be cleaned out. I had far more food than one person could eat before it got too old. I bought food like I was feeding a hugh family instead of only me. Fear about the economy contributed a lot to my over stuffed freezer. I was also buying food as if I was still shopping only two or three times a year instead of once a month.

Well, my intentions were good. Part of the food was supposed to be for my daughter but she rarely took any of it. I was guilty of not eating it too. I would get so busy on the quilting machine that I'd forget to cook which was a contributing factor in my health problems.

I've lost everything in the freezer three times in a row due to power failure. I was heart broken each time I watched all the food go into a garbage can. My insurance company refused to pay for the food because I couldn't document the purchases. DUH! Why didn't I keep receipts after the first time loosing the foods? Hmm.... never thought it would happen again so soon.

I asked myself a really DUH question a few days ago. If I'm afraid of loosing a whole year's worth of food again due to loss of power, then why am I keeping a year's worth of food in the freezer? Why not keep only a three month supply of frozen food and bank enough money to restock if I loose it again? It will be much easier and cheaper to restock a three month supply than it would be to restock a year's supply. Three months should be enough to see me through any financial crisis if I ever have one. If not, there is always the money saved in the bank. It's also easier to get an insurance payment for a three month supply of food than it is for a year's supply.

I got this as an early birthday present. I debated a long time about returning it. I decided to keep it even though I feel the bags will be too expensive. I can offset the cost of the bags by reusing them. There is also a really neat gadget I plan to buy to go with this. It's a jar sealer attachment. I will use canning jars to vacuum seal food I dehydrate.

Here is the freezer before the clean out.

My daughter came to get enough of it to fill her own freezer and a neighbor came to get a lot too. Some of the food is thawing out in the fridge. I plan to make a few heat and serve meals.

There is still more than a three month supply for one person left in there. I won't buy any freezer foods until I've used most of these. Everything except the veggies got repackaged into vacuum sealed bags. Then the vacuum sealed bags got put back inside numbered bags again. I'm still using the numbered bags because I really like being able to look at my inventory sheet and quickly pull out what I want by it's number.

The freezer is much emptier now.

Hmm... the new readers may not know about how I use numbered bags and keep an inventory list on my freezer. Here is what my inventory sheet looks like. The columns are: bag number; date put into the freezer; what is in the bag; weight; original pricet; and actual price I paid for it.

Once a month I update the sheet by deleting what has been removed and add new items going into the freezer. The numbered bags are reused over and over again. I line my foods up like books on a shelf to make it easier to find a numbered bag and remove it. I used to update the inventory sheet on the computer once a week but found this was not necessary since I shop once a month.

Once a week I look at the inventory sheet, decide what I plan to cook for the week, open the freezer to take out all the bags for that week, and move those to the fridge freezer. I use the oldest items first and this keeps the inventory rotating. When I move something to the fridge freezer I remove the numbered bag so that it's ready to reuse when I shop again and mark through the number on the inventory sheet.

I keep my grocery receipts and an updated inventory list in my bug out binder just in case I have to leave my house during an emergency. The list and receipts are enough documentation for insurance purposes.

I'll keep the old inventory sheets to know how much is being used, how much it cost me, how much I saved, and so forth. If you want to read more about my freezer inventory you can read about it in this post. The post is a little confusing. I do use packing tape to make the labels but the tape must be put onto the bags before using them. The tape labels should be attached to the bags right out of the box other wise it may not stick.

To be continued......

Regulation D

2010-10-21T15:55:00.001-05:00

Oh egad, now "they" want to dictate the way I handle my money. "They" being the powers or people that are the ones who keep telling us we "must" do this or "must" do that. Like, for example, changing to digital without any choice in the matter was a few months back. It feels more and more like my life is not my own anymore. There is always someone telling me that I must change but I don't want to change their way. I want to do things the way it makes the most sense to me. What am I upset about?

For a long time I hated the idea of not getting my cancelled checks back and having to pay a fee to get a copy of one if there is ever a question about whether I paid a bill or not. Now the banks are getting even more control over my (our) money. We don't have a choice in the matter.

This morning I heard about some new banking regulations that are going to be in effect next month. I thought my readers might want to know because it may change the way you do banking too. We are going to be limited to 6 transactions a month including automatic bill pay, atm transactions, and some other things. I'm not sure if this means regular checking accounts or just savings accounts or what. I'm still trying to figure it out myself and how it's going to change the way I do banking. Especially online purchases and store purchases with my card.

You may want to check the website of your own bank to find out more. I think I'll look at my bank's site after I finish in the kitchen. This is a link that explains Regulation D better than I can.

https://www.ufcu.org/tools/help/reg_d_faq.php

Kitchen weekend

2010-10-18T09:43:00.001-05:00

With a trip to the farmer's market on Thursday and a grocery shopping trip on Friday I knew the weekend would be filled with chores in the kitchen. I moved my disk player to near my work area in order to listen to some books.

Furkid Dylan said oh, oh, Mommie's is in the kitchen, let me get close enough to catch the falling bits of food. He drags his blanket to near my feet and gets comfortable.

I get busy cleaning and freezing greens.

I move on to doing corn on the cob.

Then make some home made ground beef for the freezer too. Love the grinder attachment for my Kitchen aid!

Moving on I cleaned and flash froze a whole bunch of grapes. No time for making juice or jelly. I do like frozen grapes as a snack treat now and then.

Then I got busy making some butter. Love the mixer even more!

What's the good of having fresh made butter if there's no fresh bread to eat? I made bread too.

The sewing machine guy picked up the singer machine to work on it. I could probably have worked on it myself but I'd rather leave it to the professional. He said he could have it back to me by Christmas if not sooner. I hope to have the cabinet all cleaned up and ready by the time the singer comes home.

I decided to let him take the serger too. It's better for machines to get a yearly tune up to keep them in good working order. I figure if I'm going to be using this machine alot then it should get it's first tune up now. He's going to see if he can get me an instruction book too.

It was a very busy and productive weekend. I'm glad I took the time to preserve my harvest even if it came from the grocery instead of a back yard garden. Today I'm back at work at the quilting machine. I'll finish what I can before Ladybug arrives. Hmm... there's a ton of dirty pots and pans that need to be washed too. Oh, and more greens to be done. A lady's work is never done!

You know, the more I think about it, the more I like my semi-retired schedule. It feels more normal, natural, and happy. I'm more relaxed than I've been in years. My mind is no longer in a constant panic state worrying about getting "just one more" quilt done. Yup, I like it.

Thrift store finds

2010-10-14T07:19:00.001-05:00

Look what followed me home yesterday. A trip to the farmer's market then a trip to the thrift store and a lot came home with me.

The stair basket is a gift for my daughter. She didn't know it's for sitting on the stairs to the basement. Instead of making a hundred trips down and up the stairs, items are put there and one trip is all that's needed. The hand mixer is for her too if she wants it because I have one already. The yarn is for me to test out my knitting machine when I've finished the quilts for the year. It's acrylic yarn because that's all I could find. No one seems to be donating wool or cotton yarn. Hmm.... maybe a knitter got there before me and took it all?

I was looking around my house yesterday and realized there are a lot of things I need to finish ASAP. There's a chill in the air that reminds me cold weather is only a few days away. Cold weather means higher utility bills. The tv news is reporting we can expect to pay even higher than usual for gas this year. Geeze!

I hope to install the window quilts.... very soon. I've been saying that for a while now and they haven't been installed yet. Too many distractions happen to pull me away from my plans. I'm determined to get the quilts put up in at least one room by Monday. Right after I get the greens put into the freezer and after I finish the quilt on the machine and after I pull out the winter clothes and after......

You see what's happening? Too many distractions.

Preparedness month

2010-09-07T09:54:00.001-05:00

I completely forgot to mention in my last post that my household manager book is also a part of me participating in national preparedness month. Many will remember how they felt the morning of 911 as we turned on the tv news or received a phone call from friends and relatives. Remember the thoughts that went through our minds about what we would do if war had actually come to our homes and neighborhoods. Well, not just that type preparedness.

What if someone in California knew they had only 5 minutes to get out of the house because a wild fire was racing toward them? What if someone in Michigan got news there was going to be an ice storm about to hit their area meaning loss of utilities for at least a week, maybe longer, and they had to go to a shelter? What if someone near a major river got notice the banks would over flow in a matter of minutes and all houses in the area would be covered with water and they had to go to another city? What if someone living in Massachusetts got word the main water line to the town had broken so no one would have any water for at least 30 days? Yes, it did happen someplace in the northeast. What if here in Kentucky we found out that a hurricane in Louisiana would actually hit here too? Yup, we did. It was the wind storm that took out our power for several days.

No one is immune to natural or man made emergencies. They can happen anytime, anywhere, and of any kind. I never believed a hurricane several states away would be any more bothersome here than lots of rain. The loss of power for over a week was a wake up call. The disaster of 911; watching the weather channel's "It could happen tomorrow" (shows about natural disasters); and experiencing four natural disasters in a matter of months here in Kentucky really opened my eyes.

Some may remember our three natural disasters in this area; the ice storm, the flood, and the wind storm but there was also an earthquake here too. The earthquake did little damage so it's not as memorable. Many people around here have forgotten all about it. Several years ago we had a major snow storm and sub-zero temperatures for several days and a 22 inch snowfall that crippled the city. No one could go anywhere because the city wasn't prepared to rid the streets of all that snow.

Hmm... suppose you had only five minutes to grab whatever you could and get out of your house? What would you take? Suppose you had only enough time to grab 5 items, what would they be? For me, right this minute, it would be..... 1. medications 2. furkid in his crate 3. household manager book 4. change of clothes 5. photo album

My household manager book is going to have lots of information besides just keeping track of what I want to do around the house. Its going to also have information in it that I might need if I must evacuate my house. I read about others having these types of books. FEMA site was the first that I believe I read. (you really should visit their site for preparedness information) Then I got to noticing other bloggers were doing this too. Yup, I'm a little behind other people but it's not too late..... umm... unless something happens before I get it finished. My new household manager book is going to be much more updated than the notebooks I used to keep so long ago.

Anytime the news tells us we are going to experience a snowfall of more than two inches in this area, the stores are crammed with people grabbing stuff to get prepared. The shelves are emptied within a matter of hours. There can be almost riots over stuff. The same thing happens in other areas when a natural disaster is either about to happen or has just happened.

On the national news, I saw riots and fights over bottled water where the water main had broke. The people were fighting over paper dishes, hand sanitizer, and garbage bags. No water meant no dish washing, no bathing, and no toilet flushing. I confess, if I suddenly found out I would be without water for a month, I'm not prepared either. I'm gonna change that.

There are only two types of natural emergencies I can think of right now. One is get the heck out of here right now and the other is hunker down for the duration. Yes, there are other types of emergencies like loss of job, loss of home, and medical. Heck, one emergency might be unexpected guests for a few days. Right now my thoughts are just on natural and man made disasters.

I'm not going to be one of the thousands of people who rush to the store when a disaster happens. I'm getting myself prepared. My major hurdle is going to be...... where am I going to store it? I have no basement, no garage, no storage shed, no attic. Umm... I do have a basement. Sorry. It's just that I have no way to get into it so I might as well not have one. If I had a honey, building a stairway to the basement would be the first thing on his honey do list. I don't have the money to pay to get one built either. I wish I knew of some church group or volunteer organization that helps with home repairs but I don't. So, not being able to use the basement is the same as not having one.

Oh well, there is a lot to think about and a lot to do as a part of getting myself prepared. Right now I think it best if I start working on the next customer quilt. I have one last question to ask my readers.....

If you had only 5 minutes to grab 5 things to get the heck out of your house, what would you take? Umm.... make that two questions. Where would you go?

I really want to know because you might think of something that I haven't.

Create a price book

2010-08-12T08:12:00.001-05:00

Now that you have your list of items you want to keep in your stockpile, it's time to think about how much you will pay for those things. I was talking with my daughter yesterday and she mentioned that she was tempted to just go out and buy everything for her stockpile. That's not the way to save money. Of course she knows that, she is just feeling tempted (anxious) that's all. She will need to buy things when they are at the lowest cost possible.

She also asked me if the price of canned tomatoes on sale this week was a good bargain? Good question. I wish I could honestly answer that question. The last time I bought canned tomatoes was about a year ago so I couldn't answer her question. I admit, I've been pretty lax in doing frugal things the last few years due to the overwhelming machine quilting schedule I used to keep up with.

This is a rough draft of how my price books will look. I don't have the right size books I need yet but I wanted to post about creating one anyway. I will try to do another post on my price books as soon as I get them made.

Creating a price book will help save money. A price book is an organized way of comparing prices. You can use it to check whether a bargain really is a bargain or just clever advertising to part you from your hard earned money. You can use a price book when looking through sale ads as well as checking a price while in the store. In the picture you will notice that my chart is in ink but the prices will be in pencil. That's so I can erase and change information without messing up the chart. One thing I forgot is a place for how many I want to have in storage (ink) and how many I have of each already (pencil).

In my opinion the price book should be small enough to fit into your purse so you can carry it with you all the time. It will be with me if I happen to come upon what looks like a bargain but I'm not quite sure. Actually two small, purse sized spiral notebooks would be ideal. One for food items and one for non-food items.

I will use one page per item with stores listed, the price paid (or price copied from the shelves), size, and the date purchased. My price book will be created using my stockpile list as a guide. Every item on my stockpile list will get a page in my price comparison books. The last time I had a price book I also had a "normal price" column. I wrote down prices as I shopped so I knew which store sold which item cheapest when not on sale.

In my opinion a frugal shopper should never be without their price books. Oh my, am I a bad shopper or what? I haven't carried a price book in a long, long time. If there is a question about whether a price on an item is a good bargain or not..... look in the price book.

My daughter has come up with her own version of price book using her computer to create a spreadsheet. She plans to have only one sheet per store with her stockpile list under each store. She was telling me how she can sort in all kinds of ways to get the information she needs. I'm more of paper and pencil type person but she is a computer person. Either way will be fine so long as it's created and used.

No organizing system will work if it's not used.

One thing to remember is to not go overboard and spend money on over priced items just to get a stockpile created. A stockpile is all about saving.... not just having. A stockpile is created by getting items as you find them at their lowest price possible. Hmm.... it's kind of like knowing there will someday be a flood but not panicking and sitting there waiting to be rescued years before it actually happens. You want to be prepared but not panicked.

You want to stay within your normal grocery budget and at the same time add to your stockpile. For example, say you find that tomatoes are at the lowest price in a long time. Drop something from your normal shopping list so you can stock up on the tomatoes.

Hmm.... maybe this will make more sense. I think most people have heard about how to "snowball" your way out of debt. That's where you pay off the lowest debt. Take the money you would have used to make a payment on that lowest debt and apply it toward the next lowest debt until it's paid off. Take the money you would have used on those two payments and apply it toward the next lowest debt and so forth until all debt is paid.

Well that's how I believe a grocery stockpile should be created. Start with the cheapest item (or the current sale item) to put into your stockpile. Buy enough that you won't be buying more until it's at it's lowest price again. Use the money you would have spent on that item to purchase the next cheapest item and so forth until your grocery stockpile is full. Then you only need to maintain your stockpile by buying items at their lowest price again. Stay within your budget! Don't panic and spend without a plan. It will probably take months to get a really good size stockpile created but you won't be overspending just to create a stockpile, if you buy wisely.

Cleaning copper pots

2010-08-01T14:04:00.002-05:00

Do you have copper bottom pans or any copper around the house that needs cleaning? Here's an alternative to buying copper cleaner. Ketchup and salt. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't have these two ingredients in their pantry.

Put a generous glop of ketsup on there. Add a good bit of salt. Smear it around to cover all the copper and let it set for about 5 minutes.

Smear it all over the copper once again and let it set for another 5 minutes. You should see the copper color coming back.

For the stubborn burned on spots you can use baking soda as a scouring agent after the ketsup and salt have done their best. The baking soda will also put a shine on your copper after it's cleaned.

I could have done a bit better but I was in a hurry to clean the pot so I could use it for some cooking.

What?

2010-07-13T18:13:00.002-05:00

I gave up using coupons to buy groceries several months ago. The coupons have become so useless to me that it's hardly worth looking at them anymore. Very few coupons are on items I find practical in my quest to go back to basic frugal living. In the past coupons were much more useful. Anyway, every once in awhile, I look at the coupons to see if there have been any changes. Some coupon ads have me laughing out loud. Like this one. Isn't he cute with his false teeth? Who can resist a giggle at that face?

Other ads have me wondering.... What are they thinking? The person who owns the towel in this picture seriously needs to either get their washer repaired or else have everyone in the house go back to hand washing 101. If washing their hands is leaving this much dirt on a towel, their technique is all wrong.

Hmm.... maybe they need to change the soap they are using because it apparently isn't working? Well, something is wrong because washing hands should not leave that much dirt on a towel. If you really want a clean towel for every hand washing.... for goodness sake, get a batch of cheap wash cloths and stack them up next to the sink. Wash those when you need a fresh supply. At least you won't be throwing money in the trash with every hand wash.

Speaking of soap..... how about this ad? It tells you that you will never have to touch a germy soap dispenser again. Huh? Why would you walk up to just touch a dispenser? Isn't the point of using soap supposed to be to wash away the germs? You touch the dispenser before you wash, not after. If there are germs on the dispenser you will wash them away with the soap. No need to touch the dispenser until you are ready to wash your hands the next time.

Hmm.... I wonder how this gadget would work if I filled it with homemade liquid soap? I might find one of these at the thrift store in a few weeks.

Ok, moving on. How about this ad? Kind of scary isn't it? No, not scary. They look sad. I went to my sink to see what my little disposer monsters looked like. I wanted to know.... do mine look sad too? Oops! I forgot, I don't have a disposer. Just a plain ol' sink drain. But are these advertisers serious? They want people to buy a maintenance system to clean the disposer every month. To deliberately put money into a disposer so it can be sent down the drain?

What's wrong with cleaning it the way people did when disposers were first invented? Does anyone besides me remember the Arm & Hammer guy? So cute and he had muscles like Hercules from swinging that hammer so much. He said keep an open box of Arm & Hammer baking soda in the refrigerator for a month to eliminate odors. Next month replace the box in the refrigerator with a new one and use the old box to get your disposer smelling fresh too. A bunch of ice cubes put in there helped the baking soda do the scrubbing.

For more serious odors we were told to put bleach in it. Or organically you could put a lemon in and run it through. Personally I can't see the logic of owning a disposer IF you have a place where you could have a compost bin or a worm farm in the kitchen. Hmm... now that's an idea. A worm farm in the kitchen. Gotta file that one in my to do list of ideas. Moving on now.

Awww... come on.... they want us to buy a product for dishwasher and washing machine cleaning too? To be used once a month for the life of the washer or dishwasher. Do they know how much money that would cost over the life of a washer? I'd rather save the money in an interest paying account and use it to buy a brand new washer in a few years.

Here's another ad saying the same thing. It's true, sometimes a washer will have an odor. I don't know about dishwashers because I don't own one. Never have. Usually, the musty odor in my washer is eliminated by simply leaving the door open so it can get fresh air. It gets an odor when I haven't used the washer for a few days.

Several years ago, I had to have a repairman fix my washer because it had been leaving greasy spots on my clothes. Nothing I did would stop the spots from showing up. He told me that no washer gets out grease. Only the soap does that. DUH!

He told me when he repairs used washers for resale he pours a whole bottle of liquid toilet cleaner in it and runs it for one cycle on high load. Then runs it a second cycle with clear water to be sure all the toilet cleaner is rinsed out. He said doing this once a year could make my washer last much longer. Twice a year if I washed tons of clothes.

The repairman also told me using vinegar once a month kept washers smelling clean. Well, I had that covered already. I use vinegar in the rinse water as a substitute for fabric softener.

Ok, I guess I've done enough type-talking about the absurd ads I found in the coupon section of the paper. Don't let the ads fool you. There are cheaper alternatives. Geeze, everyone is out to get our money. Don't listen to them.

Understanding utility billing

2010-07-04T01:20:00.001-05:00

I mentioned in my last post that I have a goal. My goal is to save as much as possible on my living expenses so the money can be saved to do major repairs on my house without getting a loan. I was looking at my water bill and the gas/electric bill. Can you read the writing on the bottom of this bill?

Ok, it's blurry so I'll tell you what it says. "On January 1, Louisville Water Company rates increase 4.5%." That does not mean just add 4.5% to your total bill. What it means is that each 1,000 gallons of water we use will cost 4.5% more. Or at least that's the way I understand it. I do have some time to prepare before January. It's still 3 bills away.

Our gas/electric bills will be increasing again too. The public service commission just approved an increase in the cost of renting our meters. I forget how much the increase is. Right now I pay $5 per month to rent the electric meter and $9.50 to rent the gas meter. Did you know you rented the meters? Yup, you rent them. That's what the "customer charge" is on the utility bills. My neighbor's utility bill goes up $14.50 per month even though his utilities were turned off about a year ago. That's the rent for two meters every month even without using anything.

Those are My current bills. Gas/electric is on an equal billing plan. It's $127 a month. There was a yearly adjustment made last month. The water bill includes sewage and drainage bills. It's $76.24 for two months. Those aren't bad compared to what they were when my daughter and Ladybug lived here.

Well anyway, I thought you might like to understand how utility bills are calculated. I believe this would be the same method all over the USA? Basically both our gas/electric and our water bills in this area are calculated the same way. It's both a tier based system and a demand based system. What does that mean? Hmm.... I hope I can explain it so it's understandable.

The tier based system is sort of like when you file taxes. If you are in a lower income bracket the amount of your income owed for taxes is a lower percent. Move to a higher bracket the percentage is higher. Move to an even higher bracket and the percentage is higher. You following me so far? That's a tier system of billing you for taxes.

With utilities if you use "lower than average household use" in KWHs, you are in the lower tier so you pay less per KWH. Move into the "average household use" and you are in a higher tier. Move to "above average household use" and you are in a still higher tier. While a household that is below the average might pay .07 cents per KWH those in the average household might pay .10 cents per KWH, and the above average household may pay .15 cents per KWH. These are just made up costs to show the example. Check with your own utility company to find out the exact figures. Still following me?

Next is the demand billing part. Demand is when "the most people" are using it. Like in the morning when more people are waking up to take a shower, brushing teeth, fixing breakfast and coffee, using a blow dryer, or generally just getting ready to go to work. Or there is late afternoon when "the most people" are getting home from work, turning up the air conditioner, starting dinner and the dishwasher, turning on the tv and the computer, and so forth. The more people using utilities, the more the demand. This translates to higher KWH prices during those times.

Demand costs (peak hours) are billed at a higher rate per KWH than off peak hours of less demand. What this means is that even though you may fall into a certain tier for most of your usage; if you are running appliances and tvs and computers when "everybody else" is doing the same thing.... you pay more per KWH. So during off peak times you may be paying .07 cents per KWH and during peak time you may be paying .15 cents per KWH and those in higher tiers are also paying more. Still with me?

According to the back of my electric/gas bill, the average household uses 1,000 KWH of electricity per month. 1,000 KWHs use would be the middle tier or "average". I used 1,132 KWH this month so I'm about in the middle tier. If I can get my usage to below 1,000 KWH per month, say 500 KWH, I will be billed at a lower rate per KWH. I'm going to call LGE Tuesday to get a rate schedule for my area so I will know for sure what tier I fall into and how much it's costing me. It will also tell me how far down I must cut my usage to be in the lower tier.

There's one other factor to the billing. The area you live in is figured in there somehow. I'm not exactly sure how because I can't remember. I think it was by income area or zip codes or something like that. It too is based on a tier system. Live in an area where more people are likely to have the utilities turned off and the rate is higher. Live in a different area that seldom has cut offs and the rate is less.

The same tier system is used for the water company billing although I can't remember them having a high demand time rate. I'm not sure what the average household water use is in this area but the bills are based on 1,000 gallons per unit of cost. I think I'm about average with a use of 2,000 gallons per month. If I can cut the amount of gallons I use then I can move into the lower tier billing.

Did you know that businesses like laundromats and car washes pay a lessor rate per 1,000 gallons than the average household does? It's true. Their bills may be higher dollar wise because they use more water but the actual costs per 1,000 gallons is less than you or I pay. The same is true of a business that uses lots of electricity and gas like a restaurant or an office building. Their rate per KWH is less than the average household. Hmm... I may have to check this out since I haven't seen a rate schedule for a long time. The rules may have changed since then. I highly doubt there was a change though. Businesses have always payed a lower rate than households.

You may wonder why I decided to explain about utility billing. Well, my opinion is that if you are educated about HOW you are billed, you can use the knowledge to change your habits and save money. For example if you know that running the dishwasher during peak hours cost a certain amount, maybe you can set the dishwasher on a timer to run in the middle of the night which would costs less. Also, I needed to refresh my own memory of how the billing works. Type talking about it helps.

Can anyone think of anything I forgot about how the billing works?

Analyzing the bills

2010-07-03T07:15:00.001-05:00

I happen to be looking for a receipt yesterday which ended up with me doing a "file it" session. That's one thing I can cross of my to do list.

Then it occurred to me that I haven't analyzed my bills in quite awhile. I like to go through them every once in awhile to see if I can cut back or in some cases see if I have lost control of what I use. For example my gas and electric bill.

I'm on the equal payment plan but it's about 75 dollars more a month this year than it was last year. How can that be? I did have the house well insulated last year and a new furnace and water heater installed. The bill should be smaller, not higher! My guess is that a big part of the difference is the hike in costs our utility company has gotten over the past few months. I'll have to do more researching to know for sure.

I have a meeting later this month to meet with a financial planner. I am pretty good at figuring out how to save money but it's always nice to have another person to talk with. An in person conversation between two or more frugal minded people is good. They may see something in my plans that I don't see and can point it out to me.

Anyone who has been reading my blogs for awhile know that I desperately need some work done around here. I have over grown trees in the fence line. I have major wood damage (pre-termite treatments) to the outside of the house. I would like to get a stairway built to the basement in order to use it at last. I will probably need to replace the roof in about 3 or 4 years. It has a 30 year warranty that will run out about then. You know what happens when a warranty runs out don't you? It never fails to need replacing. There are other things I need too.

What I'm hoping to do is figure out a way to pay cash for the repairs I need instead of getting a loan. I hate going into debt if I can avoid it. I do have a plan in mind which is why I'm meeting with the financial planner. I want to do this without going back to work full time too. I like my retirement and really don't want to give it up. I really hope my plan works!

Floor mop pads

2010-06-23T03:03:00.001-05:00

I made a discovery that I wanted to tell everyone about. As you know, I'm a person that will avoid disposables whenever possible. I like finding an alternative. Not long ago I tried a new type mop for my floors. I think it was a swiffer wet jet or something like that. I didn't like it because the attached bottle was very heavy, the handle too short, and the pads were disposable. I got rid of it.

Well, I discovered these are washable! No, the manufacturer doesn't tell you that. I figured what the heck.... I could try washing them before throwing them away. Couldn't hurt since they are made to be wet already. I might find another use for them. Maybe as duster cloths or something.

Ok, they went through the wash and dryer just fine. A little ragged on the edges but still very usable.

Then I got to thinking..... how can I use them again? Why not as floor mops, like before, only this time use them on my duster mop. I can use them either wet or dry. They were meant to be wet so why not use them that way? No bottle is attached on the duster mop so it can't be too heavy for me. I bought these at the Dollar Store.

I mixed up 4 tablespoons of the Spic n span with 1/4 cup of the fabric freshener in a quart bottle then added water to the top. I see no reason to make a strong mixture of the Spic n span unless someone tracks mud through the house. A little goes a long way.

I put the mop cloths in the original box and poured the mixture on until the pads were all wet.

I tried it on the floor and it works great! No need to rinse the floor to remove soap either. The spic n span is meant to be used without rinsing. I did check the bottles of both to be sure it was safe to use on my flooring before I tried this experiment. I like that I don't have the heavy bottle on the handle. How many times can they be washed before I finally have to throw them away? I don't have a clue right now. I'll keep washing until they are beyond hope. By that time I will have made myself some washable pads to use with the mixture. Whenever I run out of the Spic n span, I'll try a mixture of my homemade laundry soap. Hmm.... that reminds me, I need to make some more, I'm about to run out.

Another quilt started

2010-05-21T03:48:00.001-05:00

I have the next quilt on the machine and it's stabilized. I have my wax paper and markers ready to test some designs before I start quilting it.

This young lady is learning to make paperclip rugs. She's very interested in doing crafts. She comes over after school to wait for her father to pick her up after work. I've been teaching her a few crafty things that can be done without money. Paperclip rugs made from grocery bags cost nothing. Today I'm going to cut her some t-shirt fabric strips to make a rug or two over the summer. She's also making plans to visit a couple of times a month this summer so I can teach her to piece quilts. Her parents are ok with this as long as she keeps up her music practice. She plays.... I think.... three instruments.

Just a few more days and my schedule will change again. I'll be able to work without disturbing anyone. I only have 4 customers now. You'd think my schedule would be very light. Guess what? They all decided to bring multiple quilts at the same time and asking that they be done by nearly the same date. Giggle. And I thought I had been so clever. No, I'm not complaining, just fascinated and amused that no matter how careful I am, I still get a very full schedule. The customers are all very kind and tell me to just do them when I can..... but please try to have them done by such and such date. If I can't, it's ok too. There seems to be a lot of weddings coming up in June. Duh, June is a big wedding month.

My mother is back in the hospital. Her boyfriend passed away and she started acting up. She's like a child throwing a tantrum and anyone in her way gets the anger. For the protection of the other patients she must go to the hospital to get her meds worked out and the anger under control.

It's time for me to start my day.

Is God telling me something?

2010-05-08T19:46:00.002-05:00

I've got the next quilt done. It was picked up a little while ago and they loved it. It's the memory quilt I had on my design wall for a long time. It was due to be given on Mother's Day so I worked overtime to finish. It's made from the clothing of a young man killed by a drunk driver. This is what happened. He was on his way to work, sitting at a red light. A drunk driver plowed into him. He was taken to the hospital where his mother is a nurse. She got to hold him and say goodbye.

The center panel is the shirt his mother was wearing the day he died. The cream heart is a piece of his baby blanket from when he was born.

He worked at Kroger and this was his favorite hat. He loved his job. The two burgundy hearts are from the clothing he was wearing that day.

This is one of his work shirts. The heart if from the clothing he was wearing.

To make it all coordinate together I used a blue thread which matched the backing. I dressed it up a little for the mother by using feathers and leaves designs and meandering on the shirts.

The shirt collars were left in tact for 3 of the blocks. I'm proud to have been able to create a memory for his mother.

Now for the other part of this blog post...... Is God trying to tell me something?

Those of you that have known me for a long time may remember just how very much I want to be able to create portrait quilts. Not just of people but of animals too. I've bought books....

and more books..... as well as DVDs.....

and more DVDs.....

I've taken classes..... and paid for patterns.....

I've bought photoshop elements hoping to use it for portraits and for organizing photos to be included in my cardboard furniture instruction book.

Then I bought the book to go with the software. It only made me more confused.

It's been one set back after another for probably the last 3 years. It could be even longer than that. I can't remember exactly. Actually, I've wanted to draw portraits my whole life.... I just never got the instructions to help me do them. Here's a picture I did in 1977.... the last time I picked up a pencil and sketch pad specifically to draw a person.

Here's another one I did that same month. I had the idea but not any training.

I tried drawing other things too. These were my husband's work boots and socks.

Here's an attempt to do dog portraits in fabric from years ago. I got the pattern from a book at the library. Kind of odd but cute too.

This week I've been literally "just a few minutes too late" to get into both a class in Kentucky AND an online class. The first one was a class in Lexington. I called to ask about taking a class on the very day it was held. Not enough time for me to rent a car and get there. No more are scheduled until "maybe" fall. The online class? While I was down loading a new version of Flash player, the class filled up. Yup, it filled up that fast. The people from an in person class wanted more instructions so they all signed up at once. No more are scheduled until September.

I've watched my DVDs and read my books again and again. I still can't create a portrait quilt on my own. After crying in frustration for awhile this afternoon, I decided that maybe it's not meant to be. Maybe God is telling me to take another path. Why? Because for each step I take forward to creating portraits I wind up falling two steps backward. It's time to stop putting hopes, dreams, and lots of money into what will never happen. After a lifetime of hoping and dreaming, it's time to let it go.

Whatever path God wants me to take.... it will become apparent because it will be the easiest to accomplish. For now it looks like writing a blog and instruction book about cardboard furniture is going to be first. The easiest and least expensive. In the meantime, I still have 2 more tops to get quilted by Tuesday. This post is already too long.

Wonky star

2010-04-12T14:27:00.002-05:00

This backward pieced block will become a wonky star. As you piece the block it's important to note that you are not trying to match up any seams. It's better to match up the outside edge as close as possible without regard to where the star inside seams meet. I nearly drove myself crazy trying to match up all the inside seams perfectly until I realized the seams were not supposed to match up together. Please read through the whole blog post before doing any of the steps.

This block finishes at 7 1/2" X 8" The reason it comes out different than a square is because there is an odd number of seams.

Ready to get started? You need some 10 inch blocks. Half should be light and half should be dark fabrics. How many squares? It depends on how many finished blocks you want to make. Try testing the pattern with only 2 pieces for now. One light and one dark. Four would give you enough for a craft project, like a pillow or a purse, if you decide it's not a quilt you want to make. To make a larger quilt, decide how big you want it and divide by the block measurements. I'll go into more details on this in another post.

Now cut a three inch strip off one side of all the blocks. Match up a dark with a light and sew them back together.

For this one time only, press the seams toward the dark fabric. For the rest of the piecing, all seams should be pressed toward the outside of the block before going to the next step.

While you are pressing, fold the block in half, along the strip edge, and iron a tiny spot to indicte center. Don't press a seam down the whole block.... just press a tiny place like this. You will use this center mark for the next step.

Your next cut is going to be on the diagonal. From the center ironed mark on the strip to the corner of the block. Like this.

After that cut, match a dark with a light and sew them back together, like this. Press the seams toward the outside of the block. See how the seam lines do not match? That's how it's supposed to look.

Now we are ready for the next cut. This time you will go from the center of the first strip to the other corner. Like this. I turn the block upside down so it's easier for me to cut right handed. There is a very important step that you should know before making this cut.

You will move over 1/4 inch from the exact center. Like this. The reason is so you will get a nice 1/4 inch of background fabric beyond the star point. That 1/4 inch will be in the seam line when you sew the blocks together... without cutting off the star points.

Through out the piecing of this block you will get these little do dads after cutting. I just pulled them off with my fingers. Very easy and keeps them out of the seams.

After making that cut and sewing them back together and pressing toward the outside, your block should look like this.

Now for the next cut. This time going from the corner to the seamline of the first strip.

I used the dog ear from the last cut as my guide in the corner.

Then a 1/4 inch from the seamline here.

After making that cut, match up backgrounds and sew them back together. The block should now look like this and you are ready for the last cut. It's just like the previous cut only on the other side.

Match up the background fabric and sew them back together. Your block should now look like this. These are after I squared them up. I can't tell you how many I ruined trying to get them "square" before I realized that wasn't possible if I want nice crisp points on the stars.

If you try this block, please let me know if the directions are ok. Getting feed back from my readers will help me learn more about writing good directions. You can find more backward piecing blocks in the near future.

Organize the freezer

2010-03-22T09:43:00.001-05:00

Wanna know how I organize my freezer so that it rotates the oldest stuff out first? This system will work for any freezer.

Let me explain, I have both an upright freezer and a side by side refrigerator. I prefer not opening the large freezer any more than necessary. Using my way of organizing I can take out a week's worth of items and put into the smaller one, which means I open the big freezer only once a week. Those with a refrigerator box type freezer or a chest freezer or even a side by side freezer can do the same thing I'm doing.

It bothers me to stack things on top of each other. It seemed like every time I needed a meat for dinner, it was always on the bottom of the stack. When I would go to take it out, the whole stack seemed to collapse and slide around the freezer or out onto the floor. Let me tell ya, a frozen 4 lb roast landing on your foot is not fun at all.

I also don't re pack meat when I buy it. I leave it in the original packaging but put the whole thing into a plastic freezer bag. I figure that the original package keeps meat fresh, like forever, in the store so why wouldn't it work as a freezer wrap? Adding the freezer bag is like double wrapping.

In order to know exactly what's in my freezer, how old it is, where in the freezer it's stored, how many pounds, and what it cost, I needed a list. So I made one. This list will be good for insurance purposes should I ever loose it all again due to a long power outage.

I needed extra freezer bags too. I use only the gallon size for meats. I will use them over and over again. Why? Because they don't need to be thrown away. I never thought I would say this but... I will wash and re use them. The meat doesn't actually touch the storage bag because it's stored still in the original package. Soap kills germs doesn't it? "They" tell us not to re use freezer bags because "they" want to sell more bags. The inside package is taken out of the freezer bag as soon as I remove it from the freezer. I don't thaw meats in the freezer bag.

In order for this organizing to work, I need to be able to find what I'm looking for quickly and easily. I decided to number the bags. But how to number so it's easy to see? More often than not the bags are folded around the meat inside which means writing on the bag wouldn't work. I know, I can make labels. Kind of like the tabs for in a binder. But what to make the labels out of?

Hmm... I have a couple of rolls of package tape not being used. I make the labels out of the tape. It's water proof and should stick to the bags even if frozen. This was easier to do with room temp bags. I tried putting a label on a frozen one but it wouldn't stick. Removing it from the freezer caused moisture to form. Tape won't stick to a wet bag. I numbered the bag labels. See how they look similar to binder tabs?

So I start removing the frozen meat from the bag it's in and putting it into a numbered bag. Hmm... how to organize so I can pull one package out without the jumble mess? Hmm.... storing upright like books should work. See.... now the labels are visible and the package is easy to remove without a mess.

This can be done in any freezer. Side to side works better than front to back. If you have a chest freezer you could stand the packages on end inside a box then stack the boxes. Having everything numbered and listed you know exactly which box the chicken breasts are stored or the hamburger for next week's meatloaf. Get the idea?

All I need do now is repack everything into numbered bags. As I do this, I write down the information onto my list. I plan to type it into a spreadsheet so I can update weekly. I will print out an updated list each week and put it into my household manager binder just in case. Knowing exactly what's in the freezer helps with menu planning and grocery shopping. This system saves money, time, and space. Hmm... medical bills too because nothing will accidentally fall onto my foot.

If I want to use up the oldest package before it goes bad, I look on the list. If I want to see if I have ground turkey, when making out my shopping list, I look on the list. If I want to make a weekly menu, I look on the list.

I'm going to add another column to my list. Currently under "cost" I have listed exactly what I paid. The new column will be the "original cost". I buy lots of sale and discount foods. I want to know the total savings over a year. With this organizing system, before opening the freezer door, I look on the list and know exactly where to look. I move a week's worth of foods to the refrigerator freezer and move flash frozen foods from there to the big freezer.

On my list is a column to show which shelf the number I'm looking for is located. If you use boxes in a chest freezer you would list which box. When I re use a bag number it may not go back into the same spot. The newest may not be the same poundage as the one before. This is why I have the column for where the number is stored. The column will look something like this: "2R" for second shelf on the right or "3M" for third shelf in the middle.

One coulmn is for poundage or number of items. Say for example I know I'm fixing a recipe that calls for 2 lbs of ground turkey. I look on the list. If I plan to have burgers for dinner, I look on the list for a package with 2 or 4 preformed burgers. My list will also have precooked meals in numbered bags. I often cook (or just prepare) a double batch, one to eat, and one for the freezer. You would be surprised at how well almost any precooked meal fits into a gallon size freezer bag.

So that's it for my freezer organizing. I hope you find this a good idea and start using it. You might think that keeping a list is just adding more work; but, it will help you much more than the time it takes to maintain it. 2 or 3 minutes a week to update the list and print out a new copy is not bad compared to how it will help in the long run. Now you will know when to use something because it may go bad. It's on the list. You won't be buying what you don't need. It's on the list. Ok, you get the idea. I need to go finish my own freezer organizing project.

A mother's pride

2010-02-17T08:50:00.009-06:00

I have the next quilt stabilized. I had planned to start quilting it this morning but I had something on my mind. I simply had to work it out or it would bug me continuously until I actually did what I believed was possible to do.

What was bugging me was this block on that quilt. A simple star block that looked perfect for a backwards piecing project. In the quiet of the morning I started working out the steps. I borrowed Jeanie's idea to just work on two to see how it worked as an experiment. Then two more for more experimenting. Then another two more. In all I used 12 blocks until I figured out all the details.

These are the last two I did and they came out ok. Not perfect but passable. Now that I have it all worked out, I can go back to a regular quilting day.

I just gotta tell ya about this cordless drill. It's not mine. It belongs to my daughter. I think she took a little after me after all. She just had her 5 year anniversary at work. They gave her a brochure full of cheap jewelry and told her she could pick something out as her gift. She requested that they get her this drill instead. She said that a piece of jewelry wouldn't help her with do it yourself projects in her new home but a drill would. How practical. I'm so proud! I never thought I'd see the day my daughter thought of practical things instead of romantic things as gifts. (shhh, don't tell her I said that or she might want to return it) They even got her an engraved tag for it. I hope she has many, many do it yourself projects in her future home.

I haven't said it in awhile but thank you to all my blog readers. Welcome to the new people who have just joined me. Knowing there are people who enjoy my blogs enough to keep coming back is an inspiration. Seeing the list of friends and reading comments from those who can't get signed on to blogger to become friends gives me a lot of joy. Both my blogs are journals of things I want to show others or to remember myself or things I want my kids and grands and great-grands to have to read someday.

Thank you!

Brrr it was cold outside

2010-02-10T09:05:00.001-06:00

When the weather outside looks like this....

its a play day inside. Did you know that cereal is excellent for pretend cooking? You can eat the pretend cooking without any harm.

Na Na's sewing room has lots of interesting textures to explore and imagine with.

Of course not any quilting got done. Mommie still had to work so she spent most of the day in her room on the computer while Ladybug and I entertained ourselves.

Today I'll work on the quilt that's on the machine and if I have time I'll work on the memory quilt some. I need to make a final decision on a design before starting to cut the clothing into pieces.

I have several emails to go through but I think the computer time will have to be very brief today. I won't take the time to visit blogs either. Hmm... I wonder if this is an indication I'm going back to old habits of putting quilting first and life second? Naw, I think I'm just using today to recover from no quilting yesterday. I also know I'll be gone from home Friday and I don't quilt on the weekends anymore. I think I just need to get done what I can today and leave the rest for next week.

Do hens hate being wet?

2010-02-08T13:44:00.001-06:00

Not much to blog about today. I slept through most of it. I can't get much done the rest of the day because Ladybug is due home from day care pretty soon.

Actually, I'm as mad as a wet hen right now. (No chickens really don't like being wet.) After Ladybug's birthday party, Not the mommie picked her up for a visit. That's ok except he decided to bring her home last night at about one in the morning and she hadn't had any sleep. Geeze!!!! Didn't his mother teach him anything? Two year old children should NOT be kept up until one in the morning. Children need their rest or they get sick easily. Ladybug already gets sick easily so this is definitely not good for her.

I stayed up to wait for her since my daughter had to get some sleep for working. Not the mommie decided not to answer his cell phone either. I called him several times to find out when she would be home. He said it wasn't charged up so he turned it off. A common excuse for him. I guess he doesn't know I've seen his car charger.

Now my daughter has to figure out how to deal with Not the mommie. She doesn't want to stop him from seeing Ladybug and at the same time doesn't want him with control of what time at night he brings her home. I wish I could say this is a first time offense but it's not. This kind of thing happens every time he takes Ladybug for a visit. Almost as if he does it deliberately to make my daughter angry. Using Ladybug as a pawn to hurt the Mommie is not good either.

Maybe something can be worked out in court.... IF the case ever gets to court. Mommie has been waiting about 8 months just to get the case assigned a child support court case number. If it takes that long just to get a number.... how long will it take to get to actual court?

Ok, I gotta stop feeling angry and do something positive! I think I need more sleep so I'll be going to bed early. We are expecting snow tomorrow. It's supposed to be a big mess right about rush hour so my daughter and Ladybug will most likely stay home. My daughter will work from home and I'll entertain Ladybug. Won't get any quilting done tomorrow either. Hmm... maybe make some home made play dough or finger paints? I don't know.... something will come to me when I need it.

If we should loose power, I'm ready. Yea! I'm so glad I bought the gas stove when I did. I won't use it for heat because I do have a kerosene heater for that. The gas stove will be for cooking. I couldn't cook the last three times we lost power for several days. Hmm.... not exactly true. I did use my hobo cookstove to warm up canned soups but it wasn't the same as real cooking. Ok, time for me to go cook something. My stomach tells me I need to eat.

Birthday party

2010-02-07T04:53:00.001-06:00

Ladybug had her birthday party at Chuck e Cheese. It won't be there again... ever. Here she is with her BFF.

There were 25 birthday parties going all in one room. Very little room between tables. No place to put all the coats of all the people. Long, long wait for the pizza, then a rush to get us out of the way for the next set of 25 parties. The few adults of her party couldn't socialize with each other. As my daughter said, if someone opened a place that was designed strictly for private birthday parties with games for children.... they'd make a fortune. I agree. Oh well, next year's party will hopefully be held in their own house. Maybe even a combination BFF sleepover, birthday, slumber party.

Andrew drew the roses

2010-02-06T02:01:00.001-06:00

The next quilt went onto the machine. I got it stabilized and I'll work on the quilting Monday. I can't get much done with Ladybug home and wanting to use the machine every time I turn it on. Somehow I don't think toddler machine scribbles would work for the customer.

You know how I've told you each morning I work on things that are quiet until time for everybody to get up. Well, look what I've got done.

I told you the colors were going to be very wild. (smile) I used what I had.

Of course they would have looked better if I had some hand dyed fabrics but the cost was just too much. Maybe this summer I can take a class on dying fabric so I'll finally get a chance to use the dyes I have.

For some reason I really like the wild, wild colors.

Since it was a child's fantasy flower shouldn't they have fantasy colors too?

In the magical world of fantasy land nothing has to look real. Only a vague image of what it should be.

I have to think about a background before I do any more to these. Maybe something that will enhance the flower shape rather than the colors? Gee whiz.... I've got to stop creating new pigs (projects in grocery sacks) and get some quilting done! It's hard though. The new ideas keep crowding my mind and want to come out. My hands just can't keep up with my mind.... bummer.

Even if I never earn any money from art it's simply fun doing it!

(I give up trying to get blogger to behave and stop putting in too many or too few blank lines)

Annual machine maintenance

2010-02-05T07:10:00.001-06:00

I got the leaders of my machine washed and put back on. Now they are nice and white again. No more hand oil grundgies. Now to order some parts for it. O rings, bobbin brakes, oil, felt disks, etc. Then it will be good for another year except for the daily routine stuff.

I also did quite a bit of house cleaning. Let me tell ya, living with a very disorganized daughter is not easy. Today will be another ME day. My batting order didn't arrive but it should today. It's usually delivered in the afternoon. This morning I'm delivering my daughter's car to the shop. There's something going on with the engine causing it to die while driving.

My SIL will be here a little later for more working on her quilts. I'll probably work on my roses while she works on her things. Hmm.... maybe I've got time to quilt one of my own? Yes, I think I'll go put one on that I've been quilting a little at a time for a few weeks.

2nd quilt is finished

2010-02-04T05:37:00.001-06:00

I finished another quilt. It's a baby sized one. I did line dancing because the owner wanted very light quilting on it. The owner is a good friend that I told I would continue to do her quilts. If I remember right her husband is a doctor and she makes cuddle quilts for babies at the hospital where he works. I could be wrong though so I guess I'll ask her when she picks this one up.

Here's a look at the back.

A close up of the blocks.

It didn't take long to finish that quilt but my batting order hasn't arrived so I can't do the next quilt. I decided it's high time I did the annual cleaning of my machine. This is more than the weekly and monthly cleaning I do. This calls for the special equipment. A toothbrush for cleaning the teeth along the table. Q-tips for cleaning the machine itself very thoroughly. Wax for cleaning the rails and wheels.

I didn't quite get it all finished before it was time for Ladybug and Mommie to get home. I still need to remove the leaders and wash them. I also need to check all the oil spots to be sure they are clean. I can finish the annual cleaning this morning. Hopefully my batting order will arrive by the time I get the machine cleaning finished.

A word of caution about fabrics

2010-02-03T09:28:00.001-06:00

Before I talk about the fabrics, here's how I froze my peppers. I spread them out on a cookie sheet that I keep in my freezer. That way it's cold when I add the foods. It gives them a head start on flash freezing.

You see the liner? This is a bag from a cereal box. Nothing sticks to it. It's better than parchment paper. I can wash it to use over and over again. When the food is frozen I simply roll it up and use it like a funnel to pour the food into a freezer bag.

Here's an example of what happens when you buy "cheap, cheap" fabric and don't know it's content. My SIL bought this fabric on the discount table. I'm all for getting a discount table bargain but sometimes it backfires. She spent the time to cut the pieces for her quilt. I thought there might be a problem so I pressed it.

Instant shrinkage!

Why do I show this? Well, if you ever piece a block that is supposed to be one size but find it has become a smaller size.... this might be the reason.

I think the economy is causing manufacturers to "stretch" the threads out when creating yardage. Fewer threads spread out in the same width so it appears you are getting what you have always bought. You might call it "spreading the threads" too. In the food industry this is called short sizing. Stretching is the fabric equivalent to putting a dimple in the bottom of a container.

One way to check to see if a fabric has been stretched is to see how thin it is. If you can see through it like this then it's either a gauze fabric or else its stretched.

Not only are prices getting higher and higher but manufacturers are getting even more of our money by giving us less in the same size package. Consumers are being hit from both directions. Geeze, when will the short sizing end?!

Down memory lane

2010-02-03T08:35:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I happen to be looking through some old magazines while waiting on my SIL. I came across an article in one of them. Hmm... sounded interesting so I started reading it. Gosh, this sounded like something I would say so I looked at the author. Well duh! No wonder it sounded like me. It's from the magazine Unlimited Possibilities back when I often wrote articles for them.

I helped my SIL with her quilts all day yesterday. I started teaching her to piece quilts back in 1995 and she's still a beginner. Actually, she completely baffles me most of the time. She has never bought a quilt book or magazine. She doesn't want to know how to figure yardage. She doesn't get excited by fabrics or threads or new techniques. It's a struggle just to get her to try new ideas. Now matter how many times I explain something to her she deliberately forgets it before the next time. Yes, deliberately, because as she puts it..... "If I do it once then I have to do it all the time." Huh? Baffles me. So each time she is at my house for a lesson it's like starting from the beginning all over again.

She is the only quilter I know who resists getting a stockpile of quilting related books, gadgets, threads, magazine subscriptions, and so forth. Even a visit to a fabric store doesn't get her interested in looking at anything but fabric. I always want to look around for new gadgets or patterns, but not her. I subscribe to quilt magazines and offer the subscription cards to her. She looks at them and gives them back to me. Not interested.

Her complete quilting stockpile is contained in one bag that she can carry from her house to mine and back. It has her fabrics, a rotary cutter, pins, and pages of whatever pattern I have copied from a book for her.

A person could say that she quilts so we have something in common in order to spend time together but that's not it either. We spend time together when we are not quilting and get along just fine.

I simply can't figure out how a quilter doesn't get excited by new things or want to have lots of quilting stuff around them. Baffling! Simply baffling!

Yes, I AM working

2010-02-02T06:56:00.001-06:00

Not much to blog about today. I spent almost all of yesterday weeding through my emails. Geeze, there sure are a lot of them when the computer is gone for several days. After deleting out a ton of junk mail I answered as many personal messages as I had time for. I'll answer a few more tomorrow. Sending an instant email may be faster but the writing takes awhile. The writing takes just as much time as if I sent them by snail mail.

Then I spent a little while checking in on my favorite blogs. Lots to catch up on there. Reading takes time too.

I am working on putting my roses together. I'm always in my studio working by about 3 am. These days I do quiet things so I don't wake up Ladybug and Mommie before 6:30. Piecing or designing is quiet work. I think I should have the roses together by the end of the week and then I'll have to decide on the next steps. I'm not sure what those steps will be. I haven't quite decided on the backgrounds or the quilting.

Today my SIL will be here for me to help her with her quilts. I won't get much done for myself. She requires my full attention. Lots of hand holding and explaining each step of her quilts. Even then, I see her struggling to understand. I think I hear her getting out of the car now. Later.....

Ten to what?

2010-01-30T03:20:00.001-06:00

I rarely use a pattern to piece a quilt. I prefer to see the design in a photo or sketch and come up with my own dimensions and piecing steps. Very often I piece a quilt block backwards. I start with a square; then, using a series of cutting and resewing, the pieced block emerges.

I would appreciate comments from anyone who decides to create this quilt using my backwards technique. Is it helpful? Would you want to see more backwards quilts? Did it help your accuracy? Will you donate your quilt or give it to someone special. How long did it take? Was it faster or slower than your normal piecing? That sort of thing.

This is a picture of the inspiration for this quilt. I want to give credit where credit is due so here it is:

The photo I saw was from the magazine Fabric Trends for Quilters, Spring 2008 issue, page 44, a design called Opposites Attract, by Kathy Brown for Troy Corp.

Kathy Brown gives cutting and piecing instructions to create twelve 18" blocks which make a quilt that's 70 x 88. As soon as I saw the picture I knew I wanted to make one of these but only much smaller. A smaller size would work to satisfy my craving to make this design, would give me a finished charity quilt, and could be done backwards very quickly.

I'm putting the instructions here so you can try out my technique yourself. I started with 30 squares of fabric. All are cut 10" square. There are 15 light and 15 dark.

Start by paring up one light with one dark fabric, right sides together. You will have a stack of 15 pairs. Cut these in half right down the middle of each pair. Pin the halves together and sew.

You should then press the seam toward the darker side. I should tell you that pressing is a very important step in the creation of this quilt. You must press correctly at each step to get perfect piecing at the corners. If it isn't pressed the right way you will get fabric warts at the corners.

Now turn the sewn back blocks a quarter turn and cut down the middle again. Like this.

Flip the stack on the right like this. Pin two halves together and sew.

I always pin my pieces together before sewing. For this quilt, I match the center seams very carefully and pin there first. If I've done this correctly the seams will lock together because they are now pressed in opposite directions. Next, I pin together each end.

Ok, another bit of caution here. Be sure you sew the blocks back together correctly. If you get one turned wrong, as seen in this photo, it won't work. Every time you sew the pieces back together they must be sewn exactly the same.

So here they are pinned and ready to sew together again.

Ok, this next step is done so that the pressing can be done correctly and to give you very flat intersections. You see where there is a seam going horizontal and one going vertical?

You want to frog out the stitches of the previous seam (the horizontal one) just to where it meets the newest sewn seam. I colored this with a blue marker so it would show up on camera. With my machine the picking out is only three stitches.

You will now press the seams one side up and one side down on the back. This forms a tiny four patch at the seam intersections on the back. Isn't that cute? Turn the block over and press again. Feel the intersection with your finger. It's very flat. No wart.

Now you will cut the block again. This time measure from the center seam over to the right 1 1/2" for the cut. If you are left handed you may want to cut on the opposite side for all the cuts.

Flip the cut piece on the right around so that the dark is next to the light and pin together being careful to match the center seam so it locks. In this picture it looks like I pinned a dark to a dark but that's only because the piece underneath is just 1 1/2" wide.

Once again you are going to frog out the previous stitching just until it meets the newest sewn line and press the seams in opposite directions.

Now you have two tiny four patches on the back. You will repeat this step of frogging and pressing for every seam you sew. I won't bore you by repeating it each time.

Your block should now look like this. Now you are going to turn the block 180 degrees so the newest sewn seam is now on the left of the center seam.

Measure from the center seam 1 1/2" to the right and cut again.

Flip the cut off pieces so that you have a dark next to a light.

Pin together being careful to lock the center seams first and sew these back together.

By now you can see that you are getting a pretty good collection of four patches on the back.

Ok, now you will need to turn your block so that you are cutting across all the previous seams. measure from the center seam over to the right 1 1/2" and cut. Like this.

Flip the cut off pieces so that dark is next to light and pin together. Be careful to match up all your seams so they lock together. I find it easiest to start with the center one and move out. Sew these back together and make your tiny four patch on the back.

Take a look at the tiny four patches now. See how I continue to press the seams in opposite directions? Not one fabric wart in these blocks.

Now you are going to turn the block 180 degrees and cut 1 1/2" from the center on the opposite side. This should be opposite the last seam sewn. Be careful not to cut the wrong side.

Flip the cut piece around, pin locking the seams, and sew back together.

Oh look, now there are several tiny four patches on the back.

Ok, this is what your block should look like now. A four patch in the center and squares in the corners. If necessary, square up the blocks before sewing into rows.

Sew all your blocks together and you're done. I sewed them in 5 rows of 6. Oh? You thought you could stop making tiny four patches? Well, to avoid any fabric warts.... lock all the seams for each row then do the pressing the same as you did for creating the blocks.

Ta Da! A finished charity quilt top. Now do I put a border on it to make it larger before quilting? Maybe, maybe not. I'll decide that when this top gets it's turn on the quilting machine.

If you create this quilt I really do want to hear from you. Especially if anyone is interested in doing more backwards piecing.

What is a 10 to ? (ten to what) quilt

2010-01-23T14:25:00.001-06:00

A quick post to let you know I'm still waiting for my computer to be fixed. I designed a new "10 to ?" (ten to what) quilt and will be posting the instructions as soon as my computer is home. My daughter's work computer doesn't have photo software on it and I can only be on this computer for a brief time. I don't want to get her in trouble by me using it.

What is a "10 to ?" quilt? It's a pattern that starts with a batch of 10 inch squares and winds up as a quilt block by cutting the squares, mix them up, sew them back together, cut again, mix them up, and sew back together again until the block is formed. Sort of doing the blocks backwards. This current 10 to ? quilt uses only two fabrics. For a test of the design, I made a small baby sized top but the pattern is easily adapted to larger sizes. It would be the perfect design to make a quick cuddle quilt, a quilt of valor, a charity quilt for xmas, or a quilt for an hour project. Oh, and of course, a last minute quilt for a baby shower. My test quilt was made from 30 squares. Fifteen each of two different colors if you would like to start searching for some scrap fabrics to give the quilt pattern a try.

I sure wish I knew where I stored the other 10 to ? designs. I know there were at least 3 others I designed. Hmm.... maybe on webshots? Oh well, if I can't find the others I'll just do them over again.

I'll be back again as soon as my computer comes home.

Sorting fabrics

2010-01-06T07:24:00.001-06:00

Normally, the week between xmas and new year, plus two weeks after, I can be found sorting and organizing. Getting myself geared up for another year of quilting. This year, I'm way behind schedule. My organizing is getting started late.

Last night I asked my daughter to bring some of the fabrics out of my room (from under my bed) into the studio. Early this morning, before anyone else was awake, I started going through them. Deciding how to sort fabrics is difficult for me sometimes. Should this fabric be a background or a floral? Should that one be a theme or a dark? So many different sizes and types. I have tons more still under the bed and in my closet.

So I'm sitting there going through and fondling all the different fabrics when.... what on earth? Where did this come from? I didn't know I had any Christmas fabric. Least of all a couple of vests. Oh my... a couple of preprinted doll kits too. How could I have missed remembering those? It's a mystery.

Deciding on the quilts to make is going to be the most difficult part of sorting. Maybe it's time I had myself a good old fashioned stay at home retreat? Not just staying home... I already do that. What I mean is some uninterrupted days of just creating quilt kits. A few days of fondling fabrics and looking at possibilities. Looking through quilt books for inspiration and sketching ideas.

In the past I would turn off the phone, close the curtains, and spend three or four days creating quilt kits for myself. Now days I must confine my retreat to the time when Ladybug is in day care. Hmm... she does love to look at fabric. Maybe I should include her this evening to see what happens? Mommie has class tonight so I could give it a try. We'll see......

New year at last

2010-01-05T07:08:00.001-06:00

I've heard it said that whatever you do on New Year's Day will be the dominate feature of your life for the rest of the year. I sure hope that's not true!

I spent New Year's Day in the hospital. I had severe bronchitis.... AGAIN. I went to the hospital not long after writing my last post. Not a fun thing to do, spend a birthday on my back surrounded by nurses. I have several prescriptions and appointments scheduled at the clinic. I do wish I could take the flu and pneumonia shots but I'm allergic to them. The last time I took a flu shot I was unconscious and in an ambulance within 30 minutes. I don't want that to happen again.... ever. I must be extra careful not to get near sick people when flu and viruses are going around. It's not going to be easy when Ladybug goes to daycare where these things get passed back and forth among kids all the time.

Today I want to get back into the swing of life.... not lay around resting all day. Ok, I'll rest most of the day but also a little work. Maybe looking around and getting more lists together. Or admiring fabrics and looking through quilt books. Simple tasks that won't take much physical strength only plenty of mental strength.

I do want to get back into the quilting. Before I can start creating quilts again I must first figure out what fabrics I have and then what I want to create from them. So many fabrics got donated as I trimmed down to make room for my daughter and Ladybug that I can't remember exactly what I have left.

I really want to put more art in my quilts. Just what type art? I'm not sure. Maybe this will be a journey of an art quilter? Will I make it and become a real (known) artist? Who knows, who cares.... it's the journey that's exciting. I'm going to be creating to make myself happy and no one else. If something sells along the way... fine, if not.... I can enjoy it anyway.

It just occurred to me this morning (even though I already knew it) that I don't have any more deadlines... whoo hooo! No more rush to get back to quilting after the holidays. No waiting list of 30 or 40 people waiting for me to jump right in and quilt their quilts. It's fantastic! I would rather have 5 or 6 really good friends to quilt for than a 100 strangers expecting me to finish them all at the same time.

Ok, I'm getting off the ocmputer and start doing something for awhile before the meds put me to sleep again. Thank you to all who missed me and sent be good wishes!

Textile art or quilts?

2009-11-30T13:27:00.023-06:00

Hmm.... two blog posts in one day. What's going on with me?

I went to the Museum of Art and Craft today with two of the Nice Ladies group. In case you don't remember who they are.... they are three quilting friends. I call them the Nice Ladies group because I rarely use personal names on my blog.

I had to see the pieces of art made from cardboard before moving on to the quilt section. Interesting technique but nothing like my cardboard furniture. I like this piece.

And this one.

Then it was up the stairs to see the quilts. All with the theme of "water" from the collection of John Walsh III. I goofed and didn't write down names of artists but this one I know. It's Ruth McDowell. It's what I think of when thinking of art quilts.

This one was interesting too and still what constitutes an art quilt in my opinion. It's pieced to create the curves of the design and then painted to create the shadows.

Here's another piece that I would call an art quilt. It's recognizable as a quilt.

On closer look I realize it's an art quilt that even Bonnie Hunter could appreciate. It's small crazy pieced squares and triangles sewn together to make the design. It's stretched over a frame.

Then there were pieces that were clearly "art" and not simple quilts. The use of textiles in unusual ways make them art. In traditional piecing we are taught: to always keep our seams straight, to make our points crisp, to clip all loose threads, don't let any raw edges show, make sure our binding is stuffed and miters sewn down, be sure our tension is correct and our stitches even, etc, etc, etc. In art quilts nothing is considered wrong. Anything goes.

For example this quilt. You will have to enlarge the picture to see what I'm talking about. See the trees or bushes or whatever they are in the center bottom of this quilt?

Now enlarge this picture and look at it up close. See the loose threads and the raw edges? That's what makes it textile art instead of what I think of as a traditional art quilt.

Now look at this one. See how the waves appear to move? Also look at the small orange color section in the bottom right corner.

Here's a close up of the waves. Enlarge the picture to see even better that the flat piece appears to have waves in it. Yes, it is a flat piece. I assure you it was flat against the wall. It's the creative use of raw edge applique and fabric color that gave the appearance of movement.

Here is a closer look at the orange section. I'm not sure but I believe it's supposed to be a fish under water or maybe it's a swimmer.

Ok, you need an even closer look to see the way the fabric is used. Just look at all those raw edges. Certainly NOT your average traditional art quilt.

Here is my favorite piece from the show. I like it because of it's whimsy. This one had many, many techniques and fabrics in it.

I also liked this one. I like the lights and shadows of it all.

So what did I learn from today's field trip? That traditional art quilts and textile art have only one thing in common..... fabric. The rules are entirely different.

I did learn a lot from going to the show and talking with my friends. At times it may appear I'm not listening to their advice but truly I am. It just takes awhile for it all to sink in and make sense. I learned I need to start thinking more outside the box. To stop listening to the traditional "No, No" attitude and simply create to make myself happy with my designs. I believe when I've become comfortable with my own work it will show itself to others.

Now if only.... if only.... I could focus my mind enough to figure out just exactly what do I want my future to hold? Do I want to create cardboard stuff? To create textile art? To do portrait quilts? To become a well known repurposer? (Is that a word?) To make rugs? I compare my cluttered mind to my cluttered studio. What do I mean? Well, when I pull out fabrics for a quilt..... not satisfied with the choices, I pull out more fabrics. Still not satisfied with the choices.... I pull out more fabrics, and even more fabrics until my studio is a very cluttered mess. Right now I have all these projects rolling around in my mind and I haven't quite found my path to move forward. My mind keeps pulling out more projects and possibilities.

Sometime before the beginning of the new year I will focus my mind in one direction and see what develops. I have so many choices but I also know I can't do everything. If I focus on one or two things then I can do a much better job of moving forward. If I want to add other things in the future then its ok.

I know the Nice Ladies read my blog so THANK YOU BOTH for a very nice field trip. I really enjoyed it.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-25T17:24:00.001-06:00

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I hope everyone is having a great holiday filled with family, friends, and lots of good food!
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Yesterday, I finished the 3 necktie quilts yesterday. There were only 20 ties to make three quilts. The customer has picked them up already. She was very pleased with how they turned out. Two were this color.

One was this color. All three were quilted with the same freehand designs.

The center of the medallion got simple circles.

I like this feather design. It travels around the center spine.

I did mark straight lines for the corner designs. This is to mimic the straight lines of the center.

Today will be a casual Thanksgiving late lunch with my daughter and grand daughter then a relaxing afternoon of ..... ? I haven't decided yet. I'll call my son's later this evening to see how their day went. They will be spending Thanksgiving with their in laws. Since they live a good distance from me, it would be too difficult for my sons to get here for a visit after their meal.

I have so many blessings. Too numerous to count. Today will be filled with thoughts of many, many people. Some near, some far away. Some relatives, some friends. Some have passed on, some are still here.

Everyone have a great day!

Restful weekend

2009-11-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

I didn't quilt the whole weekend as I used to do in the past. I took some me time and worked on my cardboard furniture. I started these pieces several months ago. In all the life happenings this year, these got set aside and now I'm working on them again. This is supposed to be the bottom portion of a desk. The left and right sides. There will be a desk top and some type of organizer on it when it's finished. Maybe a roll top portion or something.

I got all the pieces put together except for one drawer and the bottom pieces of each unit. I was anxious to get to the next step of the process. It requires a coat of paper, like paper mache, to smooth out any imperfections in the cardboard. I used newspaper ads and coupon inserts for this. I didn't quite get finished with the coating before it got to late to work last night.

Of course, I had help with tearing the paper into small pieces. Na Na's house has become so much fun that she doesn't want to leave. Na Na has fun with all kinds of gooey pudding finger paints, lots of bits of fabrics, and paper messy stuff that she can't play with at home. She looks at Mom and says "bye Mommie, I see you later" then keeps doing whatever she's doing. It takes a good half hour to actually get her into the car to go home. Things will be a lot easier when they move in here.

Today I hope to finish quilting the necktie quilts and start putting the binding and hanging sleeves on. I would like to get these finished by the end of the week. Well, they won't get quilted if I don't get off the computer and into the studio.

Liquid laundry soap recipe

2009-11-17T05:40:00.001-06:00

Last night I talked with my friend Martha who lives in Indianapolis. She gave me the formula for making my own liquid laundry detergent. She was excited at how clean her laundry was now that she makes her own. I was excited too and wanted to try it out.

I got to thinking.... do I need laundry detergent? I decided to locate all my stashed bottles to find out. I've kept these in different places around the house because I didn't have room for them in one spot. I knew I had a lot because I found them while moving stuff after the construction guys left. But.... little did I realize I had so many. There are 6 more bottles not pictured.

Geeze, talk about over abundance! I bought these in my couponing days. I stopped couponing several months back. Yes, it will be a long time before I need liquid laundry detergent again. Hmm... some of these need to go to the homeless family shelter.

I thought I'd give you the recipe so you can make your own if you want. I didn't ask Martha where she got the recipe so I can't give credit to anyone. I believe she may have told me it was on a tv show or something about the economy. Martha has a front load machine and says she uses 1/4 cup per load. For top load machines use slightly more.

Caution! Some people are allergic to Fells-Naptha so please check before washing with this.

Ingredients:

4 cups hot tap water

1/2 cup borax (this would be something like 20 mule Team Borax)

1 cup washing soda (not baking soda, I think Arm & Hammer makes it)

1 Fels-Naptha soap bar

1 pot large enough to hold 4 cups of water and the other ingredients

1 Five gallon bucket (preferably with a lid) for mixing after cooking.

A funnel, cup for dipping, and a wire whisk

Several empty old laundry soap containers or milk jugs (10 one gallon size for the recipe but any size will do)

This recipe makes 10 gallons. All these ingredients should be sold in the laundry isle of the stores. I've been looking for the Fels-Naptha for a few weeks because I like it for spot cleaning before washing. I've not found it in my area yet or else someone buys them all before I get there.

Use a food grater to shave the Fels-Naptha bar into little pieces. Place it into a pot with the water. Over medium heat, stir constantly with a whisk or slotted spoon until the soap is completely dissolved. Caution!Don't put it all in at once or you'll have a big lump of wet soap. Put in a little at a time.

Turn off the heat then add in the washing soda and borax and stir. When these are completely dissolved pour it into the 5 gallon bucket. Fill up the rest of the bucket with hot tap water. Leave enough room at the top for mixing. You don't want to spill any of it on the floor because it will be very slick and thick. It's very time consuming to get spills cleaned up because adding water only multiplies it more. Stir the mix in the bucket, cover, and leave over night. If your bucket doesn't have a lid then cover it with plastic wrap.

Next day, take the lid off and stir. You might need a broom handle or something sturdy to mix with. (Personally, I would use an electric drill with a paint stir attachment to make it easier.) The mix will be gloopy but will become smoother with mixing.

Take one of your clean empty containers and fill it "half full" with the mixture. (That's where the funnel and dipping cup come in handy.) Fill the container to within about 2 inches from the top with hot tap water. Put the top on and shake like crazy to mix it up. That's why the extra room.... it makes it easier to shake it up. (Repeat this step until you fill up all your containers.) Give the container another good shake each time you get ready to put some in the washer.

Whatever size container you use.... the formula is 1/2 mix with 1/2 hot water. There won't be any bubbles with this laundry detergent. Bubbles don't get clothes clean, the chemicals do. Putting lots of bubbles in cleaning mixes was some guy's idea for making "woman's work" fun in long ago times. His idea caught on and still today people believe..... without bubbles it ain't working.

Has Anita lost her mind? Showing her undies on the web!

2009-11-04T12:53:00.001-06:00

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(You gotta scroll much farther down to find the undies.)

Re purposing has been around for a very long time. Even back in the cave man days people took items such as bones to make knives and sewing needles or rocks to make into weapons. What most people today think about re purposing is the Great Depression. I also remember the 70s when the flower power generation tried to live frugally. You don't really think all those peace symbols and flags sewn on pants were just a fad do you? Many times the patches covered holes in the pants.

I see more and more people talking about re purposing items these days. To me its just natural to do so. Even though I had neglected that part of my life for a few years while I took care of my customer's needs. Retiring has given me the time to go back to my old ways.... and I like it!

Something that really.... I mean REALLY bothers me is the store bought clothing women must put up with. Our clothes are made in some far off place where the manufacturer hasn't a clue how to fit different sizes. The very same pattern used to make a size 5 is used to make a size 18. They just slide the pattern over to add more fabric.

I don't know about you but I'm extremely tired of paying high dollars for clothes that are just crap. Especially undies. Undies are made so that if you get them to fit your behind then the waist looks and feels like its for a Barbie doll. Geeze, you'd think there was a shortage of elastic around the world. So you get something that fits your waist and the behind really droops. We pay high prices for such flimsy undies that they barely last a couple of washings. If we do manage to find a really good fitting pair then we tend to wear them until they are falling apart. Simply because its very rare to find some that actually fit.

I was absent mindedly complaining to my daughter the other day about having to start searching for new undies again. The ones I bought last time have barely lasted a few months. I hear something in the background of my thoughts. Huh? What did you say baby girl? Mom, you made ALL our clothes when we were little, even our undies, so why not make your own? Well gee whiz, I should have thought of that! I used to make my own. So why don't I make them myself? I can think of no excuse.

I think some.... Hmm.... I could go to the fabric store and buy fabric for nice silky undies but I refer something more practical. I prefer cotton. Maybe its an age thing. I am a senior you know. So I ask myself what can I use that I own already? At first I thought of all the fabrics in my quilting stash. Naw, those don't stretch enough. While looking around I happened to spot my t-shirt fabric stash. I save the left overs from making t-shirt quilts. I usually make rugs from all those leftovers.

Well heck, it's the kind of fabric Hanes undies are made from so why not? It's very durable. T-shirts don't seem to ever wear out. Tons of them are donated to thrift stores all the time because people grow tired of them before the fabric wears out. So t-shirt fabric it is. What a fine way to re purpose old t-shirt backs and sleeves.

Just in case anyone wants to learn to make their own undies, I did this tutorial. Even if you don't normally sew, it could be an easy start to learning. First go through all your best fitting undies. Find the crappiest pair. The pair ready to be made into dust rags because the holes are bigger than the leg openings. Carefully cut them apart. Cut right next to the elastic. Do not cut the crotch apart. Leave it for now. No, there's no picture for this part. My old undies on the world wide web might be too frightening.

Ok, with the elastic removed fold them in half length wise and lay them on a piece of paper. It could be wrapping paper, butcher paper, wax paper, or even old newspapers. Now trace around them with pencil. Use pencil first so you can erase if you need to. After you get them traced then go back with a ruler and straighten your lines. It's very hard to make straight lines when tracing. After you get them somewhat straight then go over the lines with a dark marker. You don't have to but it makes the pattern look prettier.

Here's my traced pattern. What are the black diamonds? Well, in pattern making these are match up marks. Usually a tiny triangle of fabric is added when cutting out your fabric. It is cut out from the cutting line.... not into it. You match these notches when pinning your pieces together.

After you get your undies traced, you need to mark your pattern so you can orient it right on the fabric. As you can see, I marked where the fold is. I marked what the pattern piece is, which piece among how many, and how many pieces of fabric to cut.

The crotch gets two pieces of fabric cut identical while the front and back only have one piece cut on the fold.

As you can see this pattern is the front.

Now you can cut the pattern out of the paper. Check to be sure that what will be your side seams are even length top to bottom. If not then adjust your pattern and cut it out again.

Ok, now it's time to cut out your fabrics. For the undies there is no a seam allowance added. The t-shirt fabric is stretchy enough and the seams will be small enough so that an extra seam allowance is not necessary. I would suggest that you only make one pair for now. If for some reason the undies don't fit properly when finished, you won't have wasted too much fabric. See.... I really am going to use left over t-shirt fabric. Bright red for these.

Lay your pattern on the fabric so the fold line of the pattern is on the fold of the fabric. I folded the pattern back for this picture in order for you to see where I placed the top edge of the pattern piece. The t-shirt has a hem already in it so why not take advantage of it. The hem is where the waistline elastic will go.

Lay out the other pieces on the fabric. You can flip the pattern over if you want rather than turn the fabric over. Just be sure you put the top of the pattern piece on the t-shirt hem. The two crotch pieces will not be on a fold. It worked out better this way although if I need to fold it when cutting fabric for another pair I could. We want to get the most we can out of our fabrics so we need to think about things like that.

When you have all your fabric pieces cut it's time to start putting them together. Start with the crotch pieces. Fold both pieces together to find the center and put a pin there. Like this.

Now find the center of the back and put a pin there. Like this.

Now lay the crotch pieces on top of the back, matching up the pins. Remove one pin and put it through all the fabric. Remove the other pin.

Match up the ends and put a pin in each.

Find the middle between an end pin and the center pin. Match the edge of the fabrics and place a pin there. Do the same on the other side. You may have to work with these to be sure the fabric stays even. If you need more pins to hold it all even then divide the fabric between the pins and put in more pins.

Now do the same thing with the other end of the crotch pieces and the front. A hint: the crotch piece is larger on the back side and smaller on the front side. Look at your original pair to see what I mean.

Now sew where you have it pinned. Use a 1/4 inch seam or maybe a little less. Then go back and zig-zag the edge just outside the seam line. (sorry no picture) For the new sewer this means to sew between where you sewed it together and the outside edge. This will give the seam a nicer finish. Now you need some elastic. I've had this package for a very long time. I paid $1.99 for 8 yards. I believe elastic sells for about .50 a yard these days.

I was having trouble pinning the elastic so I decided to use a quilter's trick. I used white school glue to attach the elastic to the fabric instead of pinning. Yup, plain ol' school glue like Elmer's. It holds enough to sew things together and washes out. How much elastic? Well, enough to cover the leg opening without stretching it.

I used a piece of Styrofoam I had laying around. It held everything pinned in place while the glue dried. It could have been a piece of cardboard or a pillow or anything to stick pins into for awhile.

When one leg is done then glue the other leg. See how I've cut the elastic off right even with the fabric? No stretching and no gathers.

Then go to the sewing machine and do a zig zag stitch on the elastic. Set your stitch almost as wide as the elastic and a good distance apart. Doing this type of stitch on the elastic allows it to stretch without breaking the thread. If you feel this is not secure enough then stitch it twice instead of closer together. This is the best picture I could get of the stitching. I don't know why it didn't show up very well. Try clicking on the picture to enlarge it.

Now it's time to do the waist. Don't sew the side seams just yet. Save those for later. Cut a piece of elastic about 1 or 2 inches shorter than the front. 1 inch for a loose fit. 2 inches for a tighter fit.

Now find yourself a safety pin and put it on one end of the elastic.

Start pushing the safety pin through what used to be the hem of the t-shirt.

Be careful not to pull the elastic inside at the other end. You need a small tail left to hold.

One side will have the pin come out of it.

In between you should have some soft gathers like this.

Now sew the elastic tails so they don't come out. Repeat these steps to put elastic in the back. Pin the sides together and sew a 1/4 inch seam. Then zig zag the edges like you did on the crotch seams. This is what you get when you are finished. Oooo.... hot NaNa! All they need now is some lace and bows to make them really girly girly.

Your undies should fit very nicely. If not, make adjustments to your pattern and try again. When you get a final pattern that fits perfectly..... lock it away with your most valueable possessions. Good fitting undies are very hard to find. Betcha won't look at t-shirts in quite the same way anymore will ya? (Wink)

Please let me know if anything about the tutorial isn't clear. I'll edit and do my best to make it more understandable.

Floor mop diapers

2009-09-20T07:59:00.001-05:00

Many, many years ago I used a product called Mop n Glo which was a floor cleaner and polish together. (Do they still make it?) It cleaned the floor and left a great shine. I stopped using it when I had to throw away far too many mops. I would forget to clean the mop after cleaning the floor. The mop would dry and get very stiff. Too stiff to use again.

I went back to using a regular floor cleaning solution with a mop that I had to wring out by hand. Then along came the Libman wonder mop. Fantastic! No longer did I have to put my hands into dirty floor mop water. Not only that, but I could throw the mops into the washer to clean them. The trouble with this new mop was that I would leave the mop in the water too long. The mop handles would rust and break right where it attaches together.

Well all righty; now I have a new favorite mop. I don't have to carry around a bucket of water anymore. These new mops have been around for awhile. Until now, I never wanted to buy one. Why?

Well because the brands I saw required me to purchase new pads and new solution to use each time I mopped. I have a lot of floor to mop. I guessed it would take a minimum of 10 pads to mop all my floors really clean each time. In my opinion that's not very frugal. It also puts lots more waste in a landfill. I believe I contribute enough to landfill already so I didn't want to start using something to put much more there.

This brand has all the advantages I wanted to see before buying one. Yippie!

The bottle is refillable. Unlike other brands that requires a new bottle of solution or more ready to use pads each time a person mops floors. I can put whatever solution of bleach or homemade floor cleaner or special laminate floor cleaner I want into the bottle. I won't be putting lots of empty plastic bottles into a landfill either.

For this project to work as I hoped, I needed something that's reusable. Constantly buying new pads to clean the floor is not an option. I bought these wow cloths at the Dollar Tree store. They are supposed to be super absorbent.

Then I searched through my quilting stash to find this velcro. Not an easy task when I've been boxing up stuff so it's easily moved by the floor installation guys. I want to use velcro because I don't like the push in system these mops use for holding the cloths.

The starter kit includes this package of pads. This will be my pattern.

I measure to find the pad is 9" x 11".

I measure and cut some pieces from the wow cloth. Then mark the cut outs. I don't see a purpose for the cut out section but decided to follow it anyway.

I cut some two inch pieces of matching velcro.

Measure and put a tick mark on each side to line up the velcro pieces. I put mine about 1 1/2" from the edge.

Sew on the velcro pieces. Remember to sew one side up and one side down or you'll have to frog stitch them. I kept repeating.... sticky side up, fuzzy side down. I used velcro because I had it. If you don't have velcro you could use elastic, tabs with buttons and button holes, strings to tie, or something else. You just want something that will keep the pad on while mopping.

All done! Now these can be used and washed. I wash my rugs each time I mop the floors. I can put the dirty mop diapers in with the rugs. Eventually these will wear out and need to be replaced but it's far better than throwing bunches of them into a landfill each week.

Why do I call them floor mop diapers? Well, have a look. Doesn't that look like a diaper to you? Not only that but they are meant to soak up lots of liquid and junk just like a diaper does.

After going through making these; it occurred to me that I needn't have bought the new mop if I didn't want to spend the money. I could have used my swiffer and used an empty dish detergent bottle for the solution. Duh!

Oh well. Learn as I go. Now I have two options whenever I mop floors. I have to wait until the new floor is installed to test these out. Hmm.... while I've been type talking this post it occurred to me that another use for scrap batting is to make some floor mop pads. Layer scrap fabric (or old wash cloths?) and scrap batting, sew it together, hmm... it should work. Ok, that's a project for another day.

Eight to go

2009-08-05T04:44:00.001-05:00

Hmm... where to start this post?

I did watch the news this morning. The main branch of our library took an awful blow from the flooding. Tens of thousands of books are destroyed. A major part of the books were brand new and destined for a new branch library to be opened in a troubled neighborhood. Many of the books were from inter library loans and were there being sorted to be returned to their home branch. Also all the computer equipment for all the branches were controlled from the main branch. It's all destroyed. They also lost two bookmobiles. When I heard this news I shed a few tears for all the lost books. I do love the library.

There is still lots of water in places, although it's going down. We had a bit of rain overnight. Most of it went south of our area.

Many people's cars are now unusable. Some cars simply parked on the street or in parking lots ended up getting flooded. The insurance companies are going to be very busy processing claims. I wonder how many of the flooded cars will show up as cheap used cars?

Gas prices went up 50 cents a gallon in most places overnight. The price rose almost as fast as the water. My neighbor bought a gallon of milk for her kids at the corner store yesterday. It cost her 6.99. Another thing that the price skyrockets during a disaster.

My block didn't flood like other places but the intersections at both ends of the block were flooded. There were two city buses stuck in high water near one of the intersections. My block only had to deal with the power outage and the gas leak. That leak turned out to be an underground leak in the line going to the house. With all the water in the ground it was pushing the gas up and out instead of it staying under ground. Several of my neighbors have water in their basements. It came up through their floor drains because the sewer lines were so over loaded. I tried to open the floor access to see if I had water in my basement. The wood is swollen from the dampness and I couldn't get it opened.

I think Louisville has had it's share of disasters for awhile. The wind storm, the ice storm, and now the flooding. I'm thankful that all that rain wasn't snow. Can you imagine how much snow it would have been? I believe I'm going to go over my disaster preparedness plans again. I found out that rechargeable batteries don't hold their charge for long if sitting in a drawer. I couldn't use my radio during the power outage. I didn't have precooked foods as I had during the ice storm. With the ice storm I had advanced warning. No warning on the flooding.

Earlier this year I had thought about getting a stairway built to my basement. I had thought I could use it for storage as most people do. I guess I'm glad I didn't do this. I think of all the stuff I would have had in it. If it is flooded, all that would have been lost. Most of what I had planned on storing in the basement would have been quilting stuff and foods. Again, I'm glad I didn't follow through with my plans earlier this year.

Ok, on to other things. The disaster has passed and we must continue with our regular routines if we can.

Miriam... yes, dryer sheets are fine as stabilizers when creating string quilts of any kind. I use them often myself. I've used them for several years. As long as you press everything very well during the construction they should work fine. Sometimes I wash the dryer sheets to remove any last residue of fabric softener before I use them. I put several inside a washing bag and put that into the washer. Dryer sheets are also used by some machine embroidery people. They make good stabilizers for under embroidery. A little spray baste holds things.

*** Now before I get flamed, let me say that some people are allergic to dryer sheets. Be careful who you give the quilt to when it's finished. ***

Dyer sheets can ruin a teflon iron if you aren't careful. If there is some fabric softener residue still in the sheets, it can cause the teflon to come off the iron. Not from one or two sheets but after ironing several of them. Usually the teflon around the edge of the iron and mostly at the point is where it comes off. I have a dollar store non-teflon iron that I use when I'm working with the dryer sheets.

Now about my blog.... I was going to type talk about the lack of photo space available and possible changes. I think I'll save that for another post. I need to make up for lost time yesterday. I'm still taking photos of the quilts as I finish them. I need to figure out how to show the photos. I have many possibilities to think about.

I hope all my Louisville quilting friends are ok!