Random Bits: Vol. 10

A destiny is not realized until we let go of the illusion of control.
–Master Oogway, Kung Fu Panda

Getting Warmer
With a little help from Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting, the quilt I've been working on for a friend is right on track to be finished and delivered on time for her birthday tomorrow.

I started this quilt a little over six weeks ago, but have been bouncing back and forth between projects trying to get something finished. {You think I might have figured out by now that picking one thing and sticking to it would get me to “finished” a little faster.} My friend had a pretty serious health issue, which included a trip to the hospital. I wanted to do something special for her during her recovery and I was thinking I could throw together a simple quilt and get it to her in a week. Not so much. The quilt pattern wasn't as simple as I thought {especially since I didn't actually buy the pattern, but sort of reverse engineered it from the photo and dimensions listed} and I debated back and forth about sending it out for quilting to get it done quickly. In the end, to take some stress off I decided to make it a birthday gift, and put it aside to work on other pressing projects thinking I had all the time in the world to get it done.

But at the beginning of last week, I realized I only had two weeks to finish it. Last Saturday, with one week to go and the borders to put on the top and bottom and back to piece, I was really feeling stressed about having enough time to get it done. In desperation, I called Melissa and asked if she could help. She kindly accommodated my rush order and did a lovely job with the quilting. I picked an all-over pattern, dropped my quilt off and in a few days, I had it back, ready to be bound, washed to crinkly softness and given away.

The two voices, Reason {a.k.a. What I Can Do} and Passion {a.k.a. Go Big or Go Home}, are still arguing in my head. Passion says I should have done the quilting {edge-to-edge is usually not my first choice; I think it often masks the piecing. I like to “color inside the lines” and try to quilt a design that accents the piecing}. Reason says that there is no way I would have had time to get the quilting done {especially since I've had a migraine since last Friday night. I'm hoping it is finally gone, but the jury is still out} and finished is better than perfect.

I must pause here to say that Melissa did a great job on the quilting. Her prices are very, very reasonable, she was seriously awesome to work with and the quilting is beautiful. Would I recommend her quilting services? Absolutely. Especially if edge-to-edge is what you're after. Will I use her again? Definitely. I have at least one quilt in the pipeline that is a great candidate for edge-to-edge.

The tug-of-war going on here is my choice to have edge-to-edge quilting done on a quilt that might have been better served with a custom job. The choice to send it out for quilting lifted a huge amount of stress off of me and made it possible to have it finished in time for my friend's birthday. Although I'm not 100% certain, I think the trade-off might have been worth it. At any rate, I'm hoping it will all come out in the wash.

Getting Colder
On Tuesday, we had a new air conditioning unit installed. I like to be prepared.

OK. The real story is that we needed to have our furnace replaced. Last winter was the coldest we've had in as long as I can remember. We kind of limped along with our furnace and had a few times where we wore multiple sweaters and borrowed space heaters while we waited for our repair man to come and fix it. Just when we thought we'd made it through winter and were well into spring, we had one more week-long cold spell and the furnace left us, well, out in the cold. We decided we'd better have it replaced.

But once it turned warm again, it wasn't such a pressing issue. The air-conditioned summer months lulled us into a sense of false security. But the temperatures have dropped early this year {I'm hoping we're not in for another deep-freeze of a winter, but I've heard rumors that it has already snowed in some areas} and we had to get out the space heaters and sweaters again. And the time was ripe to replace the furnace.

As it turned out, though, it was the air conditioner's fault that we needed a new furnace. It has something to do with the coil and condensation and rust dripping down into the furnace. They offered to knock $500 of the cost of labor on top of the pretty fabulous discount we negotiated through our handy, dandy repair man. We decided it would be in our best interest to just do it all at once.

The new furnace is chugging along and we're all toasty warm. It's just too bad we didn't replace the furnace in the spring because, we could have saved quite a bit of money on the electric bill this summer, since in this case it was a package deal.

Kung Fu Piano: Cello Ascending
The Piano Guys are at it again. This time on the Great Wall of China. Seriously. Check it out. And if you're wondering how they got the piano on The Wall, check this out.


Available for purchase from The Piano Guys or on iTunes

Random Bits: Vol. 9

If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.
–Unknown

Thoughts On Boston
My heart is heavy for those who were effected by the bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. It is difficult to make sense of such a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the families whose lives are forever changed.

In the wake of such an event, and with things like this becoming more and more common, it is hard not to let fear become the overriding influence. It is hard to think there might be hope for a world so full of bad. But there is hope. It comes from faith. For me, faith is knowing that God has a plan for me and that even though life is full of hard things and bad things, with His help, I can carve out my own little haven within my own home and I can overcome the hard and the bad. I will do my best to be prepared to help my family and myself when something bad happens us and do my best help others when something bad happens to them and leave the rest up to God. However you define it, faith is the opposite of fear. I choose to act in faith.


New Ironing Board Cover
Almost three years ago, I made a reversible ironing board cover for my small ironing board. Since then, I've done a lot of ironing. I've washed it several times, and worn a hole clean through the fabric. There were still a few good patches here and there, but the main ironing space was pretty much done for.

The other side was even worse.

It was time for a new cover.

I finished this up last week, but haven't had much time for posting. Isn't it pretty? This cover is reversible as well, but I used the same fabric on both sides so I don't have to feel bad when one side gets worn out. I can just flip it over and have the same pretty fabric all over again. I used three layers of pre-shrunk Warm 'n Natural in the middle. I did three layers on the last cover and there was pretty much nothing left in the end. In order to hopefully give the fabric a little bit more wear, I used the last bit of the 10-yard package of Mistyfuse I won three years ago to fuse a layer of white muslin to the back of the fabric. It gave the fabric a nice body, which I'm happy with. Only time will tell if it makes a difference in the wear.

I put a pretty yellow binding on to house the cord that pulls it tight around the ironing board. And I left the original cover and foam padding on the ironing board under my cover to prevent any rust that might occur, due to condensation of steam, being transferred to the side that is down. Every time I wash my cover, I decide I'm going to take that old foam and cover off because they are ugly from the underside, but then I get in there and remember that the metal rusts a bit and decide to leave it.

I've already put this cute little ironing board to use. I dropped Grace off for a three-week holiday last week. She's one of those “fancy” machines that don't require oiling, except by professionals, who take their sweet time and charge you an arm and a leg for it. While she's getting the royal spa treatment, I've got plenty to keep me busy and I'll show you what I've been up to tomorrow. Or as soon as I get the pictures edited.

Today's post brought to you by:

I Am Way Too Old {and LadyBug is way too young} for General Admission
or Lindsey Stirling Live
It's been almost three weeks now since we had a little adventure with general admission concerts, but I wanted to share it with you anyway.

Lindsey Stirling is one of our favorite YouTube musicians. So when I saw that she was going on tour, I thought it would be fun to go and see her. I bought tickets in mid-January, 2½ months before the concert, and smiled to myself every now and then at the secret I was keeping. Mr. Bug was in on it and we waited until two weeks before the concert for the big reveal. We gave two tickets to my dad for his birthday {hoping he'd use the spare to bring my mom} and at the same time told the Not-So-Little Bugs that we were all going to see Lindsey.

I was certain it was going to be beyond awesome.

People started asking where the concert was, and when we told them the venue, we were informed that there was no seating. At all. I was certain this couldn't be the case. A Lindsey Stirling violin concert certainly would not be without seating. I mean, how could you enjoy the music? I searched the FAQ's on the venue's website, and even tried calling & e-mailing to find out about seating. I hoped they might set up folding chairs or something. But I never heard back. I'm sure they just laughed at my inquiries. Besides the question of seating, there were other objections to the location, namely that it was a bar and we were taking children. But as the concert was billed as “all ages” we decided to take our chances and hope for the best.

As promised, there was no seating. And it was a bar. Fortunately, there was a separated 21-and-older area, to which the alcohol was confined. But there was nothing to be done about the lack of seating.

The opening act was 30 minutes of pure torture. I'm certain that there had been no sound check for this group, because all you could hear was the bass, which vibrated in a very odd place at the base of your throat in the center of your collar bone.

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you. Oh, and by the way, I'm subjecting you to cruel and unusual punishment as a gift.

We'd managed to find a spot behind the “sound booth” that wasn't overly crowded, relatively speaking, and the shorter persons in our group could climb up onto a raised platform sort of thing and see over the very tall people who crowded in front of us as Lindsey took the stage. As people pressed in, trying to get a better look, it got warmer and warmer. I tied my hair in an actual knot to keep it off my neck. I stood on my tip-toes and peered between the abnormally tall people in front of me to see.

And Lindsey was awesome.

After about an hour, LadyBug had pretty much had her fill of standing and being too hot. She literally melted into a puddle of tears. She doesn't do well with excessive heat and all those bodies were producing a lot of it. She and I went to the back of the venue where the crowd was thinner and sat down by the open doors to cool off. My parents followed shortly and after another 20 minutes or so, we coaxed Mr. Bug and Grasshopper, who was having a marvelous time, out of the mosh pit, via text, and headed home right in the middle of Phantom of the Opera.

I learned several things from this experience. Number 1: check out the venue before you buy the tickets. Number 2: general admission with no seating should be designated as appropriate for ages 13 to 27. Period. Number 3: Lindsey Stirling is really that awesome, and I am determined to attend a concert of hers that has seating.

For now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy her from the comfort of my office chair.

Random Bits: Vol. 8

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. –Mark Twain

Identity Crisis
March is having an identity crisis. I wish it would mistake itself for June instead of December.

{We woke up to a good 4" of snow today, completely covering all the spring bulbs that had started blooming. It continued to snow until nearly 2:00 pm. Then the sun came out and by 4:30 pm had melted most of the snow away.}

{Sidebar: I can't take credit for that beautiful bit of prose. A friend posted that on Facebook before the snow and it was so perfect I had to use it.}

The Continuing Saga of the Tortoise and the Snail, or Friday Night Sew-In Progress Report
My goal for Friday Night Sew-In was to finish the straight-line quilting in the white zig-zags of Miss Butterfly's quilt and to wind the bobbins for the FMQ in the colored zig-zags. I had three full zig-zag rows, two half rows {at the top and bottom}, plus one line of stitching left in a row to finish. I did make progress, but I still have one complete zig-zag and a half zig-zag along the bottom of the quilt. My bobbins are all ready to go, though. Never mind that three of the four were already wound.

In the past, I've never tried to strategically place my embroidered quilt labels on the back of the quilt. I just stitched them in along the seam and called it good. With the Pinkalicious and Little Boy Blue baby quilts, the piecing and quilting offered an opportunity to place them so that they wouldn't be stitched over. It was kind of frustrating, though, because the ultra-cuddle I used on the back of the quilts was stretchy and shifted. So when I set out to position the label for this quilt so that the colored stitching wouldn't intrude too much on the white label, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. I was surprised at how well it lined up. Horizontally, it is right on. Vertically, the label should sit ¾” of an inch lower, except that when I cut the top piece of backing, I forgot to add the extra allowance and instead cut it exactly where I wanted the label to be. Measure twice, cut once never rang truer.

Favourite Things Friday: The Frontrunner {a week and a day late}
Last Friday, the Not-So-Little Bugs had the day off from school. I took the day off work and we set off on an adventure. With high spirits, ample snacks and entertainment, we set off to visit my mom and dad via Utah's light rail, the Frontrunner. We arrived at the platform early, bought our tickets and patiently waited for our train to arrive. Upon boarding, we picked seats with a table so that we could play the game Grasshopper brought.

Grasshopper refused to smile, and if we look a bit rough, well, that's because we were. Part of our adventure was to get hair cuts, all three of us {and I got a color}, from my sister. The ride took 1 hour and 57 minutes, traversing 81 miles. This is 37 minutes longer than it takes to drive, but I was all for taking the train since that meant that I didn't have to drive. Before we were barely underway, though, I got a mite queasy. The motion sickness triggered a massive migraine, which I tried my best to medicate and ignore. After our hair appointments, we had a little party at my parents' house. My dad cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and the weather was so lovely {mid-60's; see also, Identity Crisis} that we ate outside. All of my siblings and their kids were there, except for one sister and her family who live in Idaho and who did not have the day off school. It was so nice to be all together. We played games after dinner, and the Not-So-Little Bugs and I caught the last train home. It was definitely a favourite, in my book.

Random Bits: Vol 7

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony. –Thomas Merton

Absentia
I think about blogging a lot. I write posts in my head all the time. But getting them down “on paper” is another matter. This post is a patchwork of the things that have been on my mind the last week or so. I've often wished for a USB port behind my ear, so that I could plug in and download my thoughts. Then I could blog things one at a time. It's been so long, I don't know if anyone is left out there to read this. I hope you all haven't given up on me. There is still a ton of traffic here and I check at least once a day to see if there are new comments. I stopped getting excited a couple of weeks ago, though, because all there is is spam, spam and more spam. I know some of you are also getting spammed into oblivion. Do you think if we asked nicely, that Google/Blogger would put anonymous commenting in its own category to be turned on and off at will and independent of any other commenting options?

A Pocket Dial and Other Telephone Related Chatter
At work yesterday afternoon I answered the phone, but couldn't understand what the person on the other end said in reply to my “how may I help you?” spiel. This isn't uncommon; lots of our customers speak English as a second language, so I took a deep breath and prepared to do my best. However, the unintelligible reply was followed by a long silence, to which I answered “hello?” Then there was a snippet of a conversation, in perfect English, about bone spurs on someone's heels. I tried another “hello?” but it was obvious that I was not included in the conversation.

I'm still scratching my head over it. You have to be a very persistent pocket dialer in order to get to me. First you have to dial the main number, which could be on anyone's speed dial. But then you have to select option 4 or dial my direct extension. And bone spurs, even ones on heels, have absolutely nothing to do with how many people we billed them for last month.

There seems to be a funny phenomenon going on at my desk. Aside from the occasional pocket dial, no one ever calls me at work unless I'm in the bathroom. It's getting so I'm afraid to even go, because I know I'll have voice mail when I get back, which is ten times more work to handle than a straight up phone call. Three times this week, I've come back from a quick potty break to find I had a message. How is that even possible?

My New Best Friend
I'd like to introduce you to Mel. She's my new best friend, which I'm sure she'd be interested to know since we've never met. Mel has a food blog. And not just any food blog. It's a good food blog, which is just what I've been missing in my life.

A couple of months ago, I gave up dairy due to intolerance. Thanks to some great advice from Regan and P., who are both dairy free, I survived my first few weeks of wondering what I actually can eat. {Sidebar: there are milk or milk products in everything, from chocolate to bread to taco seasoning packets. Strangely, there is not milk found in Oreos.} Regan hooked me up with a good dairy-free “butter” and gave me lots of advice on how to live dairy free. P. commiserated over the loss of most chocolate products in our diets. And I muddled through, hunting down every last allergen ingredient list that could be found on the internet for fast-food restaurants. When nothing was available on-line, I called ahead to places I was contemplating eating at and harassed the poor employees into giving me the low-down on what was dairy free. I mourned the loss of pizza and ice cream and my favorite casseroles, which all have cream-of-some-kind-or-other soup in them. And I kind of quit cooking on a regular basis.

Eventually, I found a new-age hippie herb shop that sells lots organic and whole foods, as well as lots of dairy free food items like vegan “cheese” and “sour cream.” I was able to make some of my favorite dishes with the diary free substitutes, but there were still some serious holes in my menu.

Then I met Mel and her fabulous food blog. She has menu plans and a month's worth of meals that take 30 minutes or less. She's not dairy free, but her recipes are fresh, without a lot of processed foods. And she doesn't cook with cream-of-anything soup {at least not that I've seen}. Everything we've tried so far has been delicious. The wraps {with dairy free cheese and sour cream substitutes} we had on Monday were so good, I ate the left-overs for breakfast on Tuesday morning. And the Sweet & Sour Chicken we had for dinner on Wednesday night was also lunch on Thursday and dinner tonight. I've never been so excited to have left-overs. {Sidebar: whoever invented sweet & sour sauce is a genius. Seriously. On the one hand it is so innocently sweet that you want to take it home to meet your mother and on the other, so sour that your eyes roll back a little in your head.} {Sidebar: P., the sweet & sour chicken is gluten-free if you use the right soy sauce. And I'm wondering if you could use honey instead of sugar. This recipe seems to be saying “use honey in me.”} I've pinned about a dozen other things to try from Mel's, and I'm looking forward to it!

I've bookmarked a few other food blogs that look promising, and as soon as I stop drooling over Mel's Kitchen Cafe, I'm going to take a serious look and see what other food adventures I can take.

Quilter's Favorites
You meet the most amazing people in blogland that you might not otherwise ever encounter in real life. Have you met Geta yet? She is a seriously amazing quilter. In a little under two months, she is hosting the Quilter's Favorites linky party.

It looks to be quite the blog event. Anyone and everyone can participate. Geta's put together a list of questions that you can print out and answer as you quilt over the next few weeks. Then during the week of May 10^th, you can post your answers, link up and then go learn something new from the other quilters who link up. I'm looking forward to clicking around the blogosphere to see what new project I just have to start.

The Tale of the Tortoise and the Snail or, What I'm Working on For Friday Night Sew-In
I haven't officially participated in Friday Night Sew-In for a year now. But with Mr. Bug on 3^rd shift {midnight to 10:00 am}, pretty much every Friday night is Friday Night Sew-In at Bug Cottage. {Sidebar: I am so happy to announce that Mr. Bug is working days again! Do a little happy dance with me!} Even though Mr. Bug is home tonight, I'm doing Friday Night Sew-In, because he's still transitioning from being a nocturnal animal. We'll catch up on our TV and I'm going to see if I can get a little quilting done on Miss Butterfly's Zig-Zag quilt. I was hoping to be a little farther along on it by now.

Since I last posted {11 days ago}, I still had to put the back together before I could baste the quilt. Then I had to make the binding and I decided that I needed to pre-wash and dry the batting {for shrinkage purposes, and not at all because I was procrastinating; see also, persnickety}. After that I was distracted by some chain piecing on a really, really, really old Ph.D quilt that I hope to finish sometime this decade. I was certain that the Zig-Zag quilt need to rest for a little bit, kind of like bread dough. And I knew that basting it was going to be pretty hairy. I was right. It took 2½ hours. I procrastinated that until last weekend and have been working on the straight-line quilting a little bit at a time this week. I had a couple of no-sew days {I must have been really tired or busy to have a day go by without sewing at least a little bit; see also, Mel's Kitchen Cafe}. I have just shy of half of the white zig-zags finished. My goal for FNSI is to finish the rest of those and then wind bobbins for the threads for the FMQ in the colored zig-zags. I will probably bind the quilt before I do the FMQ {the quilt should be pretty stabilized by then and it is just that much less bulk to work with. Plus, it keeps lint from building up on the quilt as it rubs off the extra batting around the edges} , but it is always good to be prepared.

Why, yes. That is a twin size quilt, all 72” x 96” of it, balanced on my little sewing table. When I quilt, I hold as much of it as I can in my lap and then fold or roll the rest of it to fit on the table. This is the biggest quilt I've done, but so far, it is working out nicely.


Extreme Shepherding
Confession time: I started this post in December. I knew that in my next hodge-podge post, I wanted to show you this funny video. So I threw the HTML code in to a draft and have been moving the scheduled post date up by a few weeks every time the draft got old enough to drop down into the list of already posted stuff and get lost. There wasn't anything else in this post until today. And I'm hoping this is still as funny as I remember!

Random Bits: Christmas Wrap-Up Edition

The only rules that really matter are these: what a man can do and what a man can't do. For instance, you can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that some day. And me, for example, I can let you drown, but I can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesies, savvy? So, can you sail under the command of a pirate, or can you not? –Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

Calling this a wrap-up post isn't quite accurate since you get pretty much everything about Christmas this year in one post. But I love a good pun, so just go with it.

What I Can Do
In the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about what I can't do. Perhaps there has been some tiny shift in the cosmos that has caused time to speed up, and therefore, I can't get as much done in one day as I used to. Quite possibly, my responsibilities at work have increased and I have 10 to 15 fewer hours each week to work with, depending on the week. Or maybe I just overestimate my abilities. Whatever the case, it seems like there is an awful lot of stuff that I can't do.

I just celebrated my 2-year anniversary at work. Since I started working, I've been struggling with finding the right balance. And I've never actually considered myself as "working." In my head, this has only been a temporary thing. Two years is less temporary than I'd hoped. We have a plan in place, which makes my employment status even more less temporary. But I'd still like to think of it as temporary. What's a couple more years, right?

In the meantime, I'll continue to work on balance. I've been finishing far fewer projects and blogging a lot less than I would like to. And it will probably have to stay that way for a while. LadyBug, Grasshopper and Mr. Bug are my top priority, and that is how it should be. In the mean time, I'm going to focus on what I can do, for and with my family as well as my personal pursuits.

Neighbor Gifts 2012: Felted Wool Ornaments
It is with the "what I can do" mindset that I approached my Christmas crafting this year. I love to give handmade gifts. But there just wasn't time to do something for everyone on my list. So, I focused on what I could do. In our neighborhood, we have a tradition of taking around a little something to each other. Over the years, I've done several different things, but my favorite thing, by far, is to make ornaments. I've been collecting ideas for handmade Christmas ornaments, and have decided that I'm never going to bake and decorate 42 dozen sugar cookies, or mix up 250 servings of minty hot cocoa mix ever again. Granted, making an ornament for each family on my list probably takes the same amount of time, but there are so many fewer dirty dishes that it is worth it.

This year, I didn't get started on my ornament making until the 20^th, but I was determined to get it done. My brother got married on the 15^th and I was trying to get a quilt done for him {still working on that}, as well as make skirts and blouses for LadyBug and me for the wedding. I also had work and laundry and snow shoveling and life to fit in there. And then there was the matter of finding the right felt for the job. I was inspired by the pretty red felted wool ornaments P. made and who graciously shared her pattern, but was going to make due with some cheap acrylic felt. After further consideration, I decided that felted wool was the only way to go, but wasn't sure if I'd be able to find the right wool item to thrift/get enough thrifted wool to make my ornaments so I bought a yard of winter white wool at JoAnn's {thank you 50% off coupon} and felted it. I'm not 100% sure, but I think I saved money by buying wool yardage and felting it myself vs. buying felted wool at a quilt shop.

This year, I had 55 families on my list. I know. I'm nuts. Once you make my list, the only way to get off is to move and not leave a forwarding address. As I assessed the situation, I realized that I could not get 55 ornaments done and delivered by the 24^th. A few cuts had to be made. Since our families have the gift of us, I crossed off members of both mine and Mr. Bug's families, reducing the number of ornaments to be made in 3½ days from 55 to 38. Here are 25 of the 36 I finished before Christmas. 11 had already either been hand delivered or mailed out when I took this and I still have two more to make and send out. Obviously, those are going to arrive after all the decorations have been put away. But it's the thought that counts, right?

Yes, I'm feeling the guilt for cutting our family members from the list. But it was what I could do. I'm starting next year's ornaments tomorrow so I don't have to leave anyone off the list.


Christmas Greetings
Not everyone who gets a Christmas card gets an ornament, but everyone who gets an ornament also gets a card. Again, the only way to get off the list is to move and not leave a forwarding address. Even then, I may still track you down. We send out 108 cards this year. I've tried to cut my list, but it is pointless. I don't want anyone to feel left out. That includes you, so I hope you won't mind a virtual card.

The Great iOS Debate: Escalated
Ever since the iPhone came out {in 2007, I believe}, I've wanted one. The problem is, I think it is absolutely ridiculous to pay $80 a month for service. When the iPad came out, I kind of lost interest in the iPhone, because an iPad seemed much more useful. I discussed this at great length several months ago, when the iPhone became available through Virgin Mobile, but the debate was tabled because we needed a new oven.

After Thanksgiving, the prices of the iPhone 4S dropped and I decided that it was time. To tell you how truly busy things have been around here, I've had this awesome new piece of technology in my possession for 2½ weeks now and haven't blogged a peep about it.

As a matter of fact, I've already dropped it hard enough to break it, if it weren't for the OtterBox I got to go with it. You can see the divot on the bottom corner, there.

Apple iPhone 4S, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. OK. I won't. Because if I did, I'd go on and on and on for more than you all would care to read. I'm guessing that a lot of people have already lost interest in this extremely long post and quit reading two subtitles ago. So in the interest of keeping it interesting, or at least from getting more long winded and boring, I'll cut straight to the chase. I love my iPhone SO MUCH that I now want an iPad also. Or maybe an iPad Mini. Or maybe both. It is that awesome.

Christmas Joy
Christmas at Bug Cottage was pretty good this year. Mr. Bug and I had the shopping done by the 19^th and I have enjoyed watching everyone enjoy their presents. As for me, aside from the iPhone, which is part Christmas and part because it was time for a new phone, I think my favorite gift was a Gingher rotary cutter from my Mom. It was unexpected, unnecessary and extravagant. In other words, it was perfect.

I've already put it to use. About 2½ years ago, Shay and I did a fabric exchange. I sent her some random bits of brown and pink fabrics and she sent me a completely awesome layer cake of Sparkle All the Way. Since then, I've been on the look-out for the perfect quilt to put it to use in. I entertained several ideas, but nothing seemed just right. A couple of weeks ago, I was inspired by the Brights Christmas Quilt Amy over at Diary of A Quilter put together. I hopped on over to her Etsy shop to check out the pattern she used, and found an even better fit for the layer cake. I ordered some Remix dots, found a couple of the Sparkle All the Way prints, as well as some prints from a couple other Robert Kaufman Christmas lines, and voilá. I have a complete kit for one fantastic Christmas quilt. For sometime in the future. Don't mock. It's what I can do right now. And it's all cut out for when I finally get around to it.

We Three Kings
I know Christmas was yesterday, but The Piano Guys' awesomeness doesn't have an expiration date.

Random Bits: Vol. 5

Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break. –Jane Wells

Baby, It's Cold Outside
Saturday morning, we woke up to 10" of snow. I know how much it was because I measured.

Friday morning started out with rain. I love rain. But then the rain turned to fat, wet flakes of slush. I don't like slush so much. After the sun went down and temperatures dropped, the rain and slush on the ground began to freeze and the stuff falling down became more snow-like and began to stick. I'm sure the skiers were ecstatic. Me? Not so much. Although I do ski. Or I did. It's been a while. But I digress.

Because of the storm, the power went out just after 11:00 pm and since there was nothing else to do, I went to bed. I laid there half-way between waking and sleep until the power came back on around 4:30 am. I'd left a light on, which ended any hope of sleep. It was an inconvenience. And then I thought about the poor people who had to be out in the weather to fix the problem and I was glad the power was back on, because baby, it's cold outside.

The weather kind of foiled my plans for the weekend. There were all kinds of fun family events going on an hour's drive north of here. My sister's oldest boy just turned eight was baptized on Saturday morning. Her new baby {the one who got the Pinkilicious quilt} was blessed on Sunday and in between, on Saturday afternoon, was a wedding shower for my youngest brother's fiance. I wasn't keen on driving when there was bound to be ice on the roads and the prospects for more snow were pretty high. It was a tough call and I hated to miss all the fun, but I opted to stay home.

Shoveling snow is one of my least favorite things. It ranks just underneath trudging through snowy sidewalks/driveways/stairs and slipping on sidewalks/driveways/stairs that have iced over because they weren't shoveled. So, shovel I must.

There are different kinds of snow. Sometimes the snow is dry and powdery. That's not bad to shovel. But this was heavy, wet, sticky snow and with so much of it, it was a long job. Because of the consistency of the snow, though, I could shovel neat, tidy paths in it, which I like. It reminds me of The Cat in the Hat Comes Back, when the kids and the Cat make a huge mess in the snow and then the Cat and all of his helpers make short work of it, leaving the snow sparkling clean and white, with sharp, straight edges where they'd cleaned off the walk ways.

After we shoveled snow, the Little Bugs and I went to get new coats because they had both outgrown their old ones. We found a really nice one for Grasshopper that rang up at 75% off when we combined a one-day sale price and and a coupon. If you know me at all, you know how happy clearance rack shopping makes me. This was even better, because coats are not clearance right now. It was a win for everyone because Grasshopper is pretty enamored with it. Later in the day when we went grocery shopping, he wore it the whole time even though it was too warm inside for it. He said it was too cool not to wear. This was just after he told me that we'd really scored with his coat.

We did not find a coat on sale for LadyBug. We almost couldn't find a coat at all for LadyBug. She is categorically opposed to "girly." I'm OK with that. I want her to be who she is. But finding her clothing presents a problem because clothing manufacturers seem to think that every girl on the planet likes pink and sparkly. All the girls' coats had faux fur trim on the hood. So with the help of Mr. Bug, who is infinitely more patient than I am, she finally found one she liked in the boys' department at Wal-Mart. It is green, her current favorite color, has a zip-out liner, is very gender neutral with no faux fur trim on the hood and was full price {but still less than Grasshopper's }. Most importantly, it will keep her warm. Everyone is happy. Another win.

The Spam-Bots Attack
I've turned on the word verification for comments. Don't take it personally. I know Google/Blogger's verification words/pictures are ridiculously difficult to decipher, so I'll turn it back off soon. The Spam-Bots seem to be extra busy lately and I'm hoping to deter them. Perhaps they're staying inside, what with all the snow and cold weather, and have nothing better to do with their time than pester people with bogus comments.

The Best $12.75 I Ever Spent
This is a Green-Vase Zelkova {also known as Japanese Zelkova or Zelkova Serrata}. I took this picture a month ago.

I love this tree. For several reasons. The telling of which requires a back-story. When we bought our house, there were flower beds laid out, but not much in the way of plants and no trees. The few perennials that were here either died because they were planted in the wrong spot or I pulled them out because they were planted in the wrong spot. I started adding plants that I thought were interesting right away. Trees, on the other hand, are a huge commitment, and it took several years after we moved in to pluck up the courage to plant a couple in the front yard, even though I knew what I wanted.

A couple of years after that, I started thinking about trees for the back yard. I wanted something fairly tall and quick growing, making Poplar trees an obvious choice. Because I didn't have much expertise with trees, I called the guy who is in charge of landscaping for the city to see if he had any suggestions or opinions. I asked him what he thought of poplars and he told me that because they grow so fast, they are brittle and branches break off easily. Aside from that, their normal state is "messy" as they are always dropping things. He gave me a few suggestions and at the top of that list was the Green-Vase Zelkova. It is a cousin to the Elm, but is more resistant to bugs and disease. It grows quickly, has a pretty shape and beautiful foliage.

I went to the nursery looking for a Zelkova. Then I went to another one. And another one after that. There were none to be found. As a matter of fact, none of the trees on my list were at any of the nurseries. So I gave up my quest. Several months later, while on another quest for chairs to match the kitchen table I'd just acquired at a spectacularly huge discount, I happened across a Zelkova at the KMart way across town. It was sitting next to the front door with a 75% off tag on it. My mind was focused on getting enough chairs to match my new table that it didn't register until after I'd bought my chairs and was hauling them out to the car that, 1. this was a tree I'd searched high and low for and, 2. it was 75% off. As soon as I got the chairs loaded, I went back and bought the tree. Getting it into the car was an adventure.

I drive an old Isuzu Trooper {you can see the back bumper of it in one of the photos above}. I folded the back seat down, reclined the passenger seat and angled the tree in through the back gate. It crossed up through the body of the vehicle diagonally and out the passenger window. I found some rope and tied the top of the tree to the side mirror, but it extended about 18" beyond that and I worried all the way home that the top of the tree would break off because of the air pushing against it as I drove. So I drove slowly, through back roads to get home.

I think this tree is four years old now. It might be five. It has grown pretty quickly and now provides shade on the back porch. And it lives up to its reputation for being a good tree. This was how I found it Saturday morning.

It looks like a weeping tree. I went out and beat it with a broom to knock the snow off. Not a single branch was broken and without the snow to push the branches down it snapped back into shape and is as good as new.

Yes, I love that tree.

Baby, It's Cold Outside: Reprise
The world is a slightly different place covered in a blanket of snow. It sounds different. It's quieter, I suppose. And when there is sunlight, it is brighter—a nice white covering over practically everything makes for a good reflective surface. Without snow, you couldn't ski. I love that LadyBug loves to play in the snow so much. Snow brings back happy childhood memories. Snow makes hot cocoa taste better. And snow is kind of pretty.

Deep down, I think I maybe like snow a little more than I let on, but don't you dare tell anyone.

Random Bits: Vol 4

After enlightenment, the laundry. –Zen Proverb

A Return-to-Standard-Time Miracle
Daylight savings time is not one of my favorite things. To be honest, I think it is the stupidest thing ever. I mean, just pick one and stick with it, already. I loathe losing an hour every spring and look forward to getting my hour back every fall. I wonder if it is because I was born during Standard Time and Daylight Savings Time throws my internal clock out of balance?

Anyway, with my extra hour this year, I decided to fold laundry. It seemed like a responsible thing to do. And as far as chores go, laundry is one of the ones I mind the least. I keep a lone-man sock pile at the bottom of my laundry basket and every time I wash socks, I hope that the lone-man sock pile is gone when I've finished folding. It never is. Ever. I've had a lone-man sock pile since 1996. Sometimes, when a lone-man sock has been in the basket for about three years and I'm absolutely sure that I'm never going to find its mate, I'll throw it out. But there are always two or three other lone-man socks left hanging around. Except for this time. The stars aligned on Saturday night and every. single. sock had a mate. It's a miracle! It can only be because we got that hour back.

And I can not tell you how happy I am to have finally beaten the lone-man sock pile.

A Quilt So Nice I Had to Make it Twice
Remember Pinkalicious? The quilt I made for my sister's sweet new baby girl? Well it was so much fun to make and I thought it would be just as much fun to make one in blue. When I found out a good friend of mine was expecting her first baby I knew that's the quilt I wanted to make for her. We've been friends since the 8^th grade. She wasn't married until she was in her mid-thirties and has struggled with infertility for several years. Her little miracle arrived about three weeks ago, which was about six weeks ahead of schedule. I've got the top finished and if he'd have waited a few more weeks, I might have had it quilted in time for his arrival.

I Wove When I Should Have Dodged
In 30+ years of sewing, I've never sewn my finger. I hear about people doing it and wonder how the heck they manage it. I mean, there are sharp moving parts in there. It just seems like a common sense kind of thing to keep your finger out of the way. But I sewed my finger {about three weeks ago now} and I thought my stupidity deserved a little world-wide web airtime.

Grace is a pedal-free machine. She has a pedal, and I used it once for about 10 minutes, but it didn't respond to subtle movements, so I tossed it into the back of the closet and use the stop/start button. And here's how I sewed my finger. I had the auto-backstitch on and pressed go. It sews at a snail's pace for the backstitch and the loose end of the top thread was kind of getting pulled into the stitches, which makes a little bird's nest on the back. Instead of stopping the machine to pull the thread tight, I decided that I could reach in there really quick while the machine was going slow to pull the thread out of the way. And the needle nicked my thumb. It didn't hurt much and healed really quickly. But the worst part about it was how hobbled I felt with a band-aid on there to keep it from bleeding.

Lesson learned.

The Piano Guys: Titanium/Pavane
The Piano Guys have a new album out. This is the first track and it is, as always, amazing.


Available for purchase from The Piano Guys, at Amazon or on iTunes.

Vocal Version

Story behind the song:

Have you ever awakened with a melody in your head and you don't know how it got there? That was the beginning of our PianoGuys' version of David Guetta's "Titanium (feat. Sia)." Paul especially loved this tune — he lobbied us to arrange the song, but after we could not find a way to begin the arrangement. Every time we tried it just didn't flow. We also were concerned that the hook of the tune was nothing but the beat and lacked a lead melody, which would make it more difficult to convey with piano and cello. Steve woke one morning and couldn't get a melody out of his head. It was Gabriel Faure's "Pavane" — a hauntingly beautiful melody that weaves in and out of richly sequenced harmonies and fluid counter-melodies. It had been a favorite of his as a child, but he hadn't heard it for years. In the studio that same morning we tried the melody over the top of the chorus of David' Guetta's Titanium and it was like witnessing a reunion of two childhood friends. The main melody of the Pavane and its supporting chords, transposed and changed stylistically to mimic Guetta, also fit nicely as the intro we had been searching for. And we thought since Guetta and Faure are both French it must have been meant to be!

If you're not familiar with "Pavane" Listen to a version of Bobby McFerrin singing it with La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. (As a boy Steve heard this very version live in concert and it evidently had an indelible impression on him!)

Classical music is such a big part of who we, ThePianoGuys, are. You can hear it in everything we write. We love pairing it with the music of today.

This was the most difficult music video to set the "stage" for thus far. We considered so many locations — a copper mine, a steel mill, an industry factory, a mountaintop ski resort, a wildflower meadow, a desert bluff, and many others. As you know we love putting pianos and cellos in crazy places (a common comment is 'how the heck did they get the piano up there??') — places that show off breathtakingly beautiful landscapes. When Mark Wade with Garfield County's Department of Tourism called and offered full creative access to its national parks we abandoned all of our tabled ideas and focused on showcasing Bryce Canyon National Park — an incredible place of raw beauty and geological history written in rock. It is a place like no other. We feel so blessed to have been able to film there.

This video features a NEW STEEL cello made by Dawson Swan: Thor II — with significant improvements over Thor I. It's lighter, easier to play and it looks awesome! Dawson is an incredible artist! Check out his website here. Thank you again, Dawson!

Random Bits: Vol. 3

Dream in a pragmatic way. –Aldous Huxley

The Quilt is in the Wash
It is finished. The pinwheel sampler is done. I put the last stitches in it yesterday. Finally.

I finished the binding ages ago. I was really on a roll with the quilting before Grandma Week and only had a little bit left {relatively speaking} to do in the sashing {16 sections out of 40} when Grandma Week started. I knew that lugging Grace along to my mom's to finish the quilting wasn't really an option, so I put the binding on before we left and during our sit-around-and-visit adult time after the kids had gone to bed, I did the hand stitching on it. But when we got back, I kind of procrastinated finishing the quilting because I wasn't really sure where to go once it was done.

This quilt was originally intended for snuggling under to read, or watch TV, or whatever. I'd still like it to be a snuggle quilt, but it seems like it isn't quite suited for that anymore. When the plan for the quilting became more elaborate than straight-lines ¼" on either side of every seam, I wanted to put the quilt into a quilt show or two. But I didn't get it finished in time last year. Or this year. And now I'm hoping I'll have something else even better to put in next year, and this quilt won't even be a contender.

Whether the quilt is going to be displayed or used, I knew it definitely needed a good washing. The sticking spot was whether to block it {for quilt shows} after it was washed or throw it in the dryer and make it all soft and crinkly {for cuddling}.

I finished it last night with enough time to wash it before bedtime and then throw it in the dryer and let it do its thing while I slept, but I wasn't certain what I wanted to do. After much thought, I decided this afternoon that I really want this quilt to be soft and snuggly, so I threw it in the washer in clear water {the instructions for the Blue Line Eraser that I used to remove my markings recommends that you run it through clear water before using any kind of detergent on it to avoid any discoloration} and when I pulled it out to spot treat it {it got some schmutz on it from my machine} before the actual wash, I noticed that the quilt was really not square anymore. It finished up so nice and square {gold star for me}, and wet, it was sort of curly and wrinkly. I decided that square {and a little bit stiff} was more important than soft and cuddly.

The quilt is in the wash now. When it finishes, I'm going to block it. Tomorrow, after it has had time to dry, I will photograph it and post it for your viewing pleasure {"oohhhhs" and "aahhhs" requested but not required }.

In other related news, I got my Connecting Threads catalog in the mail yesterday. It was very timely as they've just released some cute little tags that say, This took FOREVER. I thought seriously about ordering some for this quilt.

The iOSes vs. The Kitchen Appliances: Revisited
I'm still at loose ends about whether to get an iPhone, an iPad or a new oven. I thought I had it all sorted out, but the iPhone 5 was announced {effectively making even the iPhone 4S users obsolete }, our shopping trip for a new oven was a bust, and instead we found a wide-by-side-fridge-with-a-pull-out-freezer-drawer that not only has all the whistles and bells, but is so palatial you could climb right up inside it and live in there. I'm honestly not sure why we didn't bring it home with us. Oh, wait. The fridge seems to be working for now and it's an oven that we need. That's right.

In the interest of being well-informed, I did a little research on the iPhone. My current carrier now offers service for the iPhone 4S. They do not require contracts but the trade-off for that is no discounts on a new phone or phone upgrade. You have to pay for the phone up front. Their least expensive service plan is $35.00, which includes 300 talk minutes, unlimited texting and unlimited data. It is as simple and straightforward as that. The cost of the iPhone {$650}, plus monthly service for a two-year period {no contract required} comes in at a hair under $1500, before tax. They are currently offering a $5 per month discount if you sign up for auto-pay, which shaves another $120 off the total cost.

I was only able to find plan pricing for iPhones on one of the two major carriers, which leads me to assume that at least one of them has prices so astronomical that they lock you into a two-year contract before they show you the bill. The other carrier had iPhones starting at $199 {with a two-year contract} and talk, text and data plans starting at $80 a month. This includes 450 talk minutes, unlimited texting and 300MB of data {which is small potatoes, people}. Over the course of two years, the cost is just over $2100. For their largest data plan {5GB}, we're talking $2800 for two years.

OK, so my happiness does not depend on having the newest toy. If it did, the day they announced the iPhone 5 would have been a dark day, indeed. But I'm saying, buying the iPhone outright is money ahead. As a matter of fact, you could buy two phones, if say, they release a new iPhone after a year, and still come out ahead.

While it would be seriously awesome to download all of the heavy, heavy books I lug to church every Sunday into a nifty new iOS {and as Pink suggested, store the heavy books in the empty, broken oven}, looking at the bigger picture, Mr. Bug and I are going shopping for ovens again. Perhaps we'll be able to find P.'s idea of the most practical multi-tasking hybrid oven, with wireless capabilities and a flat screen. Our favorite outlet center is offering an additional 10% off clearance prices this weekend, which means that we could get a $700 oven for $375. I like the sound of that, even if it doesn't surf the net. And maybe the fridge will come home with us too.

Firebolt
These people obviously have too much time on their hands.

*Note: click on the "CC" button to turn the captions on/off. It is funnier if you play it with the captions on.

Also, the taxidermied animal in the glass case at 2:24 is a liger. Her name is Shasta, and she was born in 1948 at Utah's own Hogle Zoo. At her death in 1972, the beloved animal was displayed in the cat house until they deemed that she would be more appropriately kept at the Bean Museum on BYU Campus.

Random Bits: Vol. 2

There is a curious paradox
That no one can explain:
Who understands the secret
Of the reaping of the grain?
Who understands why Spring is born
Out of Winter's laboring pain?
Or why we all must die a bit
Before we grow again?
–Spoken by El Gallo from The Fantastics, music by Harvey Schmidt, lyrics by Tom Jones

Radio Silence

1. An absence of or abstention from radio transmission.
2. A period during which one hears nothing from a normally communicative person or group.

It's been pretty quiet in my little corner of cyberspace lately. School started for the Little Bugs two weeks ago, the day after Grandma Week ended, and we've been getting used to our new schedule. We've had a fairly smooth transition, but the Little Bugs are busier, so the mom is busier.

I hope you won't take it personally, but I picked sewing over blogging in my spare time. But I have been thinking about you and have saved up two whole weeks of posts in my head. I'm going to try to fit everything into one post {without being tedious} and then you'll all be caught up with me.

I Love the Smell of School Supplies in the Morning
When we went to Kindergarten, it was a surprise to me that the elementary school provided all the supplies the kids would need. It was just as much of a surprise when we started 7^th grade to find that the junior high does not provide materials. When Grasshopper came home from the first day of school with lists from all six of his teachers, I was kind of annoyed with myself for not realizing ahead of time that he would need this kind of stuff. I would have paid more attention to who has what on sale. I guess seven years of having everything provided tends to make you a little soft.

I decided not to take Grasshopper shopping with me because I knew I'd spend more if he came along. I mean who can resist the rows of neatly stacked school supplies just waiting to be bought? I planned on stopping at the office supply store on my way home from work the next day, but remembered that the dollar store was just down the block and went there first. I found everything there but the fancy binder with the clear plastic cover, the divider tabs that are inside it and the colored pencils. I got those at the office store, as well as the pencil box {which was on sale for a dollar}. While I was there, I compared prices and was glad I went to the dollar store first.

It was fun to put together a back-to-school package in Grasshopper's favorite color, blue. The pencil box has blue mechanical pencils, blue pens and a blue eraser in it. And I absolutely LOVE the plastic covered composition notebook. Mission accomplished! Mom's first homework assignment finished with style.

Hip to Be Square
If you wear glasses, you know how much a part of your wardrobe they are. Before I started wearing contacts, I liked to get a new pair of glasses every year. It was kind of an indulgence, justified by the fact that my prescription changes about that often. And while its not strictly necessary for the Little Bugs, whose prescriptions don't change as quickly, I've kind of made it part of the back-to-school preparations for them to have their eyes checked and pick out new glasses every year. The sales are usually pretty good just before school starts, and who doesn't love a sale even if it is for something as mundane as glasses?

Picking out glasses with the Little Bugs is always an adventure. They both think that biggest factor in choosing frames is whether or not they come in their favorite color. Grasshopper couldn't find any blue frames he liked and there wasn't a single pair of green frames, ugly or otherwise, for LadyBug to even try on. I finally convinced them that color is less important than how the frames look and Grasshopper settled on black pair and LadyBug got copper colored ones.

This year I got new glasses too. I only wear them first thing in the morning and in the evenings when my contacts have glazed over and I have to take them out, but my last pair was six or so years old and the prescription was really out-dated. And the frames were on sale, so why not?

The style of glasses these days is square. Or to be more precise, rectangular. I wasn't convinced that rectangular was the look for me and I tried on about every pair in the shop, looking for a more rounded style. But when I found a pair that were pink, with pretty, sparkly butterflies on the sides, I had to have them. Because having pink glasses is awesome.

What do you think?

Business in the Front, Party in the Back
Did I miss the memo? Are mullets back in style? Because I saw two boys in church on Sunday who were definitely wearing mullets. And I saw a third boy with a mullet somewhere else. probably outside the junior high.

I've noticed, too, that pant styles are changing from flare and straight-leg to tapered. Skinny jeans are not just on boy bands anymore. They're everywhere. And men's suit pants are narrower in the leg and the hem hits just at the top of the shoe. They're calling this "modern."

Has it finally happened? Did the 80's happen long enough ago that they are cool now? I've been dreading this. I already did the 80's and didn't like them that much the first time. Someone please wake me when the jeans aren't so tapered that you have to have zippers at the ankles to get them over your feet.

Meme
/mēm/ noun

1. An element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, esp. imitation.
2. A humorous image, video, piece of text, etc. that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.

I'm still not sure if I really understand what the word meme means. But if you Google Panicked Dog Meme, this is the image in the top link:

That's my sister's dog, Raynor. She came home from work to find he'd made that mess. She said it took a lot of coaxing to get him to sit there and he didn't really want to pose for the camera. She posted it on Facebook, and someone added the caption. Since then it's gone viral. Someone even Photoshopped him into another messy room and added different captions to it. I guess that makes it a meme.

The Happy Tree Guy
Whatever your medium, remember it's your world, you're the creator. There are no limits here. We don't make mistakes, just happy accidents.

Random Bits: Vol. 1

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. –Rumi

Grasshopper's Glasses are at the Bottom of a Canoe Lake
Grasshopper spent the week at scout camp. He came home with a fish hook stuck in his duffle bag and without his glasses. They fell off when he went into the water as part of the Canoeing Merit badge and are now living on the bottom of the lake. I wonder how many other pairs of glasses are down there?

He was reasonably non-smelly and in high spirits when he came home. He earned merit badges in Environmental Science, Wilderness Survival {that’s right; my boy slept in a lean-to he made himself. He said it was actually quite comfy and he slept better in there than he did in his tent, which is understandable since he shared a tent with three other twelve year-old boys} and Leather Working. He did not get a merit badge in Canoeing. It’s a good thing our optical shop is open on Saturdays.

The Bump on My Head
I have a bump on my head. To be more precise, it is a bump in my skull bone; a little hill on the landscape of my head. I've had it for as long as I can remember which is practically forever. It is straight up from my right ear before you get to the top of my head. Every once in a while, I'll run my fingers across my scalp and run into it. When I find it I have to examine it. As I wonder how I would look if I were bald {and hope that I never have to find out}, I trace the circumference and measure the curve of it with my fingers. I swear it is getting bigger. Infinitesimally, almost imperceptibly, perhaps by a millimeter each year, it is getting bigger.

Can that happen? Do skull bone bumps grow?

Maybe cell phones do grow tumors in your brain.

Or maybe it is just my imagination.

Phoenix Quilts
Do you ever want to be working on anything but what you’re working on? I feel that way a lot.

I’ve finished the quilt top I’m going to donate to Phoenix Quilts, a non-profit whose aim is to get a quilt to every family who has lost a home to fires in the Western United States. To date, they’ve collected 127 quilts. To date, 816 homes have been lost in Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Montana.

I’ve been dragging my feet the last two days, taking my time to get the outer borders on the top to get the back put together. It is ready to be basted, but I keep finding lots of other things that need doing instead of that. You see, I’m going to do an edge-to-edge FMQ pattern I’ve never done before. I’ve doodled it out on paper a bit, but I am scared to put needle to fabric. Truthfully, I’m a bit nervous every. single. time. I start the machine quilting on a new quilt. After a few stitches, I remember that I like to FMQ, but this time I’m really nervous because the design needs to be large-ish and I’m better at quilting small things. In terms of physical abilities, I’m better at things that require fine motor skills than I am at things that require gross motor skills. Doing a smooth, consistent, large-ish edge-to-edge design with even stitches requires gross free-motion quilting skills. And that makes me nervous.

After we order Grasshopper’s new glasses and I make sure the laundry is all folded and put away, I will doodle out a few more pages and put together a practice sandwich. Then I’ll baste my quilt, take a deep breath, close my eyes, open my eyes and start to quilt. I’m sure it will be fine.

If you’d like to know more about Phoenix Quilts is up to, you can visit their site by clicking on the button below.