Tools of my craft....

Most people that know me, knows I like quilts. I like to look at quilts, I like to watch shows about quilting, and I even manage to make a few quilts as I go along. I have liked quilts as long as I can remember...I remember playing in my moms quilt pieces before I even started school. If she watched TV, a lot of the time she pieced quilts while she watched.
Now we have so many more tools....we have the the rulers such as those pictures above on my cutting mats. They are acrylic and probably at least an eighth inch thick. Using those with the rotary cutter pictured with the scissors below makes quick work of what used to would have been a time consuming job. I have various sizes of mats, rulers, and rotary cutters. Pictured below is the 60mm rotary cutter. With it I will sometimes cut six layers of fabrics at the same time.
I just had to throw in a few of the empty spools...I wish I had all the ones I have ever emptied...and really, really wish I had a lot of the old wooden spools.
The above is the drawer to the right of my sewing machine...yes, we do use gloves in quilting. My fingers just tend to slip on the fabric when free-motion quilting, but if I put on gloves with rubberized tips, the fabric does not slip at all. That little plastic box is safety pins that I remove as I quilt....and there is the painter's tape...sometimes I use it to help me get an accurate quarter-inch seam.
And on the left side this is one of the drawers...just some of my thread. I don't have a lot more than this, but there are quilters that really have thread stashes also. Most of this pictured here is Essential thread from Connecting Threads....a place that sells quilting supplies. It is their own brand and is cheaper than a lot of other threads. I have heard a few people complain that it is the same as another brand of thread, but I totally disagree with them. I have been sewing with the brand they swear it is, and had to switch to this because the other brand keeps shredding and breaking.
And this is my much loved Juki 98Q! I had a Pfaff which I let Sarah take home, and I have a Husqvarna Viking machine and I love them both, but for quilting give me this straight stitch only machine. I seen one at a quilt show a few years ago, but didn't think much about it. I did not sew on it at all. There came a time when I wanted to machine quilt a baby quilt.

I actually did machine quilt two or three baby quilts, one full-sized quilt and also did a couple of the rag quilts...each time swearing I would never attempt it again. yet I always went back and tried. Some people can do fine on a regular sewing machine...but the area to the right side of the needle is not very wide and it is really a job to manage all the bulk of a quilt under it.

I am not sure what got me started looking at the Juki sewing machines...it has almost double the room to the right of the needle. I kept looking but there was no place near to test-drive one. Then I joined a Juki group on yahoo and read and read and read all the posts about them. Though there were troubles of course, but 99% of the time it was operator error. I decided to take the plunge, and bought one without ever sewing on it. I got a real good deal from a dealer on eBay....and it has made all the difference.

I sound like I one of their dealers, but I am not. I am just one happy customer. A few people have troubles and say theirs won't sew this or that thread, but so far mine is happy with any thread, except the old standby of JP Coats. And I can do regular sewing with it...just not free-motion quilting. I have enough fabric to keep me busy the rest of my life, if things ever settle down till I can concentrate on quilting.

Tomorrow is the big day...we move my older daughter's stuff home. I spent the day with her yesterday and brought home a load of stuff. She will have a couple days here before she heads to Georgia for her training. So my blogging will for sure be just a bit here and there for the next few days. I may get pictures loaded for my other blog...but this one will probably fall by the wayside for a bit.

After a sprinkle....

I took these the other day after a light rain...I couldn't resist another of the above new iris...
The other two I have posted every spring before...I am always so glad to see them blooming each year. I will probably take pictures ever year for the rest of my life, or for the rest of the time I am able.
To me the above is the queen of the iris that I have...its petals make me think of a frilly dress.
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Lorelei was here today...she was sooo glad to see us. It is hard to explain how she changes...I see it so plainly yet it is so subtle. The one constant that does not change is her love of laughter. Today when I had her in her high chair, I discovered something new to make her laugh. I would been down till my eyes were about 8 or 10 inches from her eyes...I would close my eyes for a few seconds, then open them suddenly and make them big. She thought that was so funny.

She always goes and wants to watch videos of herself on You tube, then that leads to a few others. She will watch two or three, then be done. Then later, she will run in there to the chair and beat on it and look back at me...that is her signal that she wants to see more. We always watch a few sesame street videos...and then just this and that. Almost always just a very few minutes at a time.

I thought late this evening to look up Olivia's sight...she actually sat in my lap and watched a couple episodes...and she laughs at the appropriate times. It is amazing to me that she will set that long. I think Olivia is the only one that will hold her attention that long.

Earlier she had sat in my lap and looked at books for quite a while...and then right before Sarah picked her up, she had sat in the swing for probably 15 or 20 minutes. I guess that is one of the things that might now reveal much to others, but to us it is a big change for her to be still that long. When she is playing with her toys, she is also starting to pick play with toys longer, rather than always going from one thing to another. She still does go from one thing to another, but there are times she settles on one thing and plays quite a while.

Well, that is the Lorelei report for right now...if I think of more I will add it later or in the comments.

Two for one....

First this little video of Lorelei right after she woke up from her nap this afternoon....have your sound up.


And then this picture:
I would love to have been able to get a photo of this old tractor without all the background clutter...but no matter where I stood to take a picture something else crept into the frame.

Sort of makes me think of my house....everybody says they have clutter, but can it be this bad. I kid you not, there was this gym bag type of bag that was given to Roger at work...not just to him but to all the supervisors or to everyone in general. What I am trying to say is it was not a special gift to him. It was of such poor design that it has sat here for at least 3 or 4 years unused. I have moved it from one spot to another numerous times. I came across it again today and that was it...I took it out, told Roger it was either going in his section of the basement, the garage or the garbage, and I didn't care which.

I really have no idea what the bag was supposed to be used for...it was tall...with a round zippered section on the bottom...and a drawstring type of top closing. He looked at it and said put it in the garage...he plans to remove the nylon straps and any type of closures and then pitch it in the garbage.

I have a bag of purses setting to take to Good Will, some of them hardly used, but none of them less than two years old, and some much much older than that. I threw away a couple of small thermoses that I used to use for work. I quit work in the fall of 2005 and have not needed one since, so I got rid of them. (I do still have my half gallon one.) Other things found their way to the trash from that particular closet.

I also got into my 'baking section' of the cabinets....it has my cake pans, pie pans, flour, sugar, mixer...etc. And up until today it had two heavy wooden chopping blocks. I did use them at one time, but they are not really considered as sanitary as the plastic ones. I have been using plastic ones for years and years...so I pitched the chopping blocks. Roger helped me carry them out to the trash can in the garage, and he started to dig out something I had thrown away...I said 'don't dare pull out something I have finally found the nerve to throw away.'

Lorelei is coming tomorrow...so no more clearing of the clutter.