Four patch

This four-patch was very easy to sew together. I had to be careful though, to get all the dark patches in a line. I plan to machine quilt this and try to get it ready for donation. Although it's summer now, and not many quilts and caps are required, the charity stores away all these donations and hands them out as needed. They aim to help homeless folks get situated in jobs and housing.
I'm enjoying our nice weather. I plan to go for a swim today. I had a little emergency lately when I discovered that my bathing suits have been hanging in the closet and disintegrating from last season's swimming in the chlorinated pool. I'm not much of a swimmer these days, but I find that exercising in the pool really helps my arthritis.
I want to wish all my Internet friends a Glorious Fourth of July--that is all the ones in the U.S.! I'm fortunate enough to have some quilting friends in several different countries.

Completed projects, Jan. to June 2011

Last January I started a notebook with a list of every item that I finished. I make a lot of things that I donate to charity--Serving People In Need of Orange County--especially hats for the homeless and for babies. Besides that, I give many things for gifts to family and friends. And I need things, too. It's now the end of June, and I have several pages of notes. So this is my inventory:

• 10 dishcloths



• 9 sweaters



• 2 afghans



• 46 hats (not a misprint)



• 7 toys



• 5 quilts



• 3 wall hangings



• 5 pairs of socks



• 2 baby bibs



• 2 scarves



• 1 tea cozy



• 4 pairs of wrist warmers

Now I have to do some housework!

Lots of sewing goin' on

Good news today--I'm actually finishing Jacob's quilt. It's all quilted and I'm working on sewing on the miles of blue binding. I watched a movie on TV yesterday and got a lot of progress on the hand hemming. Maybe too much, I had to put an ice pack on my neck. After the quilt is totally complete, I plan to find a couple of folks to hold it up for a good picture.
In case you might think that some of those blue fabrics look like denim--you are correct in one respect--they look like it, but they are only cotton that's printed to look like denim. And furthermore, I have cut up a lot of fabrics from that fat quarter bundle I had the luck to acquire--and that has been "burning a hole in my pocket." I want to make a four patch quilt for a charity donation. Here's a little picture of those fabrics in motion--as it were.And another thing, I realized today that this is post number 492 on my blog. I guess that I've been chatting and quilting on the web for quite some time. I'll have to try to come up with something special for the 500th post--whenever that may be.

Free motion quilting

Here's a photo of the quilt at another stage in production. The posts on this quilt seem to go on and on. But, good news--I have finished half of the free-motion quilting. I've been too tired to quilt some days. (That means I have another life besides sewing.) However, I manage to do at least a little bit of quilting almost every day.
What a struggle I've been having with Google lately. I went to the "Settings" page and changed my blog back to "old" for my postings. There's an old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It wasn't perfect the old way, but I could usually manage to post my photos. Speaking of "it ain't broke." I don't know how those wizards of Silicone Valley have managed it, but they now have a lot of us replacing perfectly functioning phones and computers by newer ones! Everyone seems to have a strong desire for a phone that can not only make actual phone calls, but can play games and do everything except jump rope.

Wordless Wednesday

Pin basting

Every time I start pin basting a quilt, I promise myself that the next quilt I make will be smaller!  This quilt is about twin comforter size--approximately 62 by 84 inches.  I had to piece together three fabrics to make the backing. 
Of course, meanwhile my mind is spinning on what quilt I want to make next.  I want to make another gift quilt and a donation quilt, too. 
I think I need an afternoon nap before I finish basting. 
The good news is that Jacob saw what I'm making for him and he likes it! 

Jacob's quilt

I have to tell you a story first. On Tuesday I was taking a transportation bus.  It's a bus for handicapped folks and so it has a different route each day.  On Tuesday the bus driver, obviously not familiar with the neighborhood, was driving the long way around.  I suspected where he was headed, because buses frequently pick up a certain lady that lives near me.  And sure enough, after a bit of a meander, the bus driver stopped in the street in some confusion.  "Are you lost?" I asked. 
"I'm supposed to go to X Street," he said.
Seeing that he was now two blocks away, I told him, "Well you are doing so good!  It's right over there, just make a left at that stop sign, go one block and turn left again."
The man was so happy that I had told him that he was "doing good."  I know that it made his day.  When we picked up the person he was looking for he told her, "We have the most wonderful lady here on the bus with us today!"  As they say, some positive reinforcement goes a long way.
And here's the quilt top, all assembled.  I get such a feeling of satisfaction when I get something assembled.  Especially when I started this with no really clear idea of what it was going to be.  I was trying for the free-pieced lettering from Tonya Ricucci's book Word Play Quilts, the liberated style from Gwen Marston's book Liberated Quiltmaking II, and at the same time for a simple color scheme and a bit dignified feeling of a quilt for a young man.  Now on to finding a backing and doing the pin basting--

"Slow but sure wins the race."

OK, just to prove that I'm still working on the quilt, I'm posting this photo.  As you can see, (sort of) I've begun to put the blocks together with light brown colored sashes.  I've finally completed and squared up 16 blocks.  I hope that I can get the whole thing put together in a couple of days or so. 

And meanwhile, I've added in a picture of some of the flowers in my cousin's garden.  We visited them on the weekend for a lovely day. 

I've been doing a bit of knitting and crochet lately.  I make a lot of hats for charity. 

Complaining seemed to work

Complaining about Google seemed to have worked--it's back to normal today.

Problems at Google

I've been very discouraged by Google service lately. I've had a lot of trouble posting comments on blogs. I've also having problems signing in to my Google account. I've looked all this up on Google, and they say in a post dated May 24 that they are aware of this problem and are trying to fix it. Yesterday, I was unable to post a comment on a friend's blog. I sent her an email instead. I hope that they fix this bug really soon.
Also, I was attacked by a rotten virus. It pretended to be an email from a relative. So as they say on TV cop shows, "Be careful out there."