Back Home and Saddened by Book

I folded more fabric this morning until I decided the remaining pieces could just rest on the bed until my next visit.  I showered, packed everything into my car, and headed South to Kingston, OK.  I did a little something different this time though.

I joined Audible.com quite some time ago.  You have to buy one audible book a month.  If you don't you get a credit, and your credits just keep adding up.  I have a real hard time finding books I would even read because I won't listen to cursing, ugliness or sex trash.  I had already gotten most of Joel Osteen's books and even his Mother's book and his Sister's book.  I HAD to find some other kind of books to order or get out of the club.

One day after receiving the millionth email telling me I needed to use my credits, I went to the search bar.  I put in "quilt books".  The whole series of Elm Creek Quilt books came up.  I saw the author of those books on a quilt show one time, and I meant to check into the books back then, but never did.

The audible books had very good reviews, so I decided to order several of them.  I listened to one of the books while I was folding up all that fabric at first in my Kingston home.  It was pretty good.

I had started listening to the second book called "The Lost Quilter" while folding up fabric in my Edmond home.  I decided to figure out how to get it to play in my car BEFORE I STARTED DRIVING, and I was able to get it to play from Chapter 10 where I had left off.  It is a heart wrenching story of a young slave girl who loved to sew and to make quilts.  The most awful things happened to her and to other girls in the story.  It was making me so sad because I'm sure things like that truly did happen and worse things.  When I "read" a book, I get pictures in my head of what is being said in the book, and I imagine that I am the character.  I could not imagine a human being living through such torture and humiliation.  Some didn't.

Anyway, it made me very sad.  I haven't finished the book yet, and I am hoping it has a happy ending SOMEHOW.

It is very good to be home.  Hate I missed Diana and her husband's visit yesterday when they came to pick up the boat Jerry sold to them.  We will get together again soon though.  Terry won't be home until Friday, and then she is having company for five days.  Everyone is SO BUSY!

Hold on.  I have a picture of Terry and Marty -- somewhere -- in front of their "new" boat:

Diana looks like a little girl next to him.  I will meet him another time.  SOON, I hope.  Diana just texted me and told me that Marty built a ladder for the boat.  He also polished the whole thing.  It sparkles like a new dime.  Jerry did the same thing when he bought it years ago.

I'm going back to work at our store tomorrow.  Some of you may remember when Candi, my office manager, had back surgery over a year ago, and I had to go back.  Well, the surgery was unsuccessful, and she is going back for another surgery.  She has no idea how long she will be gone.  I'm praying for good reports from start to finish!

Be back soon.

Hugs, Joy

VLOG and Jolene's "Lucky" Stars

Here is a VLOG I made for you this morning if you haven't already seen it:

And if you watched that, you know there are some ladies that have asked me for instructions as to HOW I put a blouse together.  I promised a document they could copy from here, but I cannot figure out how to show it here.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.  How does one put a Word document into their blog.  If you know, please advise.

Basically, this is the order:  Darts, Shoulders, Side Seams, Collar, Facings, Sleeves, Hems, Buttonholes and Buttons.
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My friend, Jolene, completed a super fantabulous wall quilt today.  I asked her to PLEASE let me show it to you, so let me see if I can do that and not mess it up.  (Can you tell I'm tired?)

I believe Jolene said this was for a Hoffman Challenge and it is going to be entered into a show.  She hopes to win a ribbon.  So much of the color in this quilt is THREAD quilted into it by Jolene. Pictures just do not do quilts justice at all.

Let me see if I can get a close-up that shows her stitching better.  The stitching is in so many colors of thread and so intricate.  Surely, she will win a ribbon for this wall quilt.

 Notice it even has crystals on it.

I am so proud of Jolene.  This quilt is named "Thank my "Lucky" Stars" after their beloved family dog who just died recently.  She was almost too sad to finish this quilt.  I would love to see it in person.

And this afternoon, I have cut up 9 boards into 72 smaller boards.  I wrapped fabric until I am tired and my back is screaming, "STOP LADY!", and I have about decided to give everything that is left to the Goodwill.  I'm sure I will rethink that by morning, but for now it seems like a real good idea.

I won't keep you tonight because my body wants jammies and a cool drink and a bed.

Be back soon though.

Hugs, Joy

Fabric Storage and Handsome Repairman

I made a VLOG today if you are interested in what is going on at this house regarding my fabric.  For those of you that aren't subscribers to my Youtube channel, here is that video:

Other than that, I met Phylly for lunch today.  I don't know WHY I didn't think to take a picture of the pretty outfit she had on.  The pattern was Louise Cutting something -- recently changed to Rain or Shine but formerly a different name.  I think the pattern is no longer available anyway.  Let me see if I can find it ..... Okay.  It was formerly called "Pure and Simple".

And tonight I picked Margaret up and we went for a burger and chat at Johnnie's.  We tried to solve all the problems in the world, but we were unsuccessful.  )-:  We decided to go home and listen to the news about the BREXIT.  I watched the usual absurd arguments for as long as I could stand it, and then decided to go do something I enjoy.  My BLOG!

I did get a new pattern fitted and ready to cut out today.  Jerry is coming to join me tomorrow, so I may not get it done until next week.  I will, of course, show you what I come up with.

If you watched my video all the way to the end, you saw Mr. Excitement that came to fix my garbage disposal today.  He did fix it, so I am happy for that.  I was wishing Diana was here so we could stick his head in the sink and wash it and then cut off that icky hair and put it down the disposal to see if it really worked!!!  WHY, OH WHY, OH WHY don't so many people care about their appearance?

Gotta get.  Been sitting too much today.  Be back soon though.

Hugs, Joy

Terrific Tuesday with Terry and Princess Di

What a FUN day!

Diana came over to spend the day.  An hour and a half drive, but she doesn't mind doing it.  I'm so glad, because I don't like long drives.

 Jerry heard she was coming and requested a haircut.  He is going to have to go back to his old barber  (me) after this one though because I may be going back to work for awhile.  More about that later.

After Jerry's haircut, Di and I went down to Terry's for a play day in her SUPER SUNNY, BRIGHT sewing room.  I just LOVE sewing there because of all the natural light.  It is as close as you can get to being outside without really being there!  One of my sewing machines lives in Terry's sewing room, and Terry has several of her own.  Di sewed on Terry's Bernina 1130.  She made a really pretty pincushion using watermelon prints.  I'll show you a picture when I get mine finished.

YES!  I had to have one too.  Terry got the one Di made today.

Terry made ANOTHER BQ3 quilt to go in her other home.  Wish I had thought to snap a picture, but I didn't.  We were really busy.  Nose to the grindstone all day.  We did stop to make lunch.  I had all the food EXCEPT the pickles, tomato, onions, cheese and Terry's special grill that somehow coils wood chips through itself.

Here is a picture of Terry slicing up the VERY FIRST TOMATO out of her very own garden.  It was SO EXCITING!  I have always wanted a garden, and this is almost like having one of my own.  Terry gave me some bell peppers and jalapeno peppers.  Lots of other yummy veggies are still growing.

OH!  She gave me a head of lettuce a few weeks ago.  It was the first thing to hatch in the garden.

We were both so excited because we have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this tomato to get red so we could eat it.

The onions in the picture are from her garden too.  They were little onions, and I think they are much better than the big ones.  Not so oniony!

And here we are enjoying are fabulous lunch.  Don't you love Terry's blue wall with King Jesus on it!

 I have a new video showing the final fabric storage outcome.

If you haven't seen it, here it is:

Someone asked what the boards are in this video.  They are Elmer's Foam Core Boards from Quill.com.  They come 30" by 40" and I cut each board into EIGHT boards that measured 10" x 15".

Gotta get packed because I'm heading to the other house tomorrow.  FAST internet there.  YAY!

Be back soon.

Hugs, Joy

Hello on Friday

This storage relocation project has taken WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY longer than I expected and has been a HUMONGOUS task!

Of course, it would not have been so frightful if I didn't have 40 years of fabric to bring out of hiding.  I think I'm up to twelve bags full for Goodwill now.

I've been folding fabric for most of SEVEN days.  I ran out of cut-up boards this morning, so I am making the third garden shirt for my sister.  That turned out to be a huge task as well, as I had to refresh my brain on HOW the embroidery software works.  I called Bernina for help, and the girl kept saying she didn't know about "that part" or "that part" or "that part".  I never did figure out exacty WHAT PART she did know!

Here's my new video from yesterday if you haven't already seen it:

Nothing much else going on around here today.  I'm beginning to feel like I need a date night to someplace that serves wonderful steaks and margueritas.  I hate to even mention it though after all Jerry has done for me this week with the bookshelves.  We were putting together book shelf #2 last night.  We got to the part where Jerry needed to drill the four extra shelf-holder-upper holes in the side pieces.  He was drilling one of the holes, and the collar (?) that keeps the drill bit from going in too far came loose and the drill bit went ALL THE WAY THROUGH the side of the bookcase.

Jerry was SO UPSET.  I wasn't upset in the least.  I told him not to worry about it.  I told him I would hang a little quilt over it or something.  He insisted he had to fix it, and even though we were both beat, he went out to his barn and got the necessary ingredients, and he repaired the damage.  I TOLD you, he is an amazing man!

I need to go downstairs and see if it is still there!  I feel like a bear that has been hibernating for the last two weeks in a den full of fluffy stuff.  I really need a break.

Be back soon.

Hugs, Joy

Fabric Storage Project Update

WHEW!

You better feel good and have a TON AND A HALF of energy if you plan to start this endeavor -- especially, if you have as much fabric as I do!

I worked for three days wrapping fabric around endless bolts, and I have only stopped because I ran out of bolts.  I receive another box tomorrow and another bookcase on Thursday.

Here's the video if you haven't already seen it:

I keep finding MORE fabric in places I forgot about.  I have packed at least 8 Braum's bags full of fabric so far.  I took six of them to Goodwill yesterday.  Some of these fabrics are over 20 years old.  I haven't found any that were damaged, but I found several I didn't care for or I thought were icky colors.  

Here are some pics of BEFORE and AFTER.

Here's my stack of cut up foam core board waiting to be wrapped:

Boxes neatly packed but forgotten in the attic:

There were FIVE of these large bins in the attic.  They are now all EMPTY!

And here is how I previously had fabric folded and stored inside the closets we built.  I have four of these shelving units.

Here is the new bookcase doing a FABULOUS job of pretending to be a fabric store right in my very own house!  Actually, it is completely full right now.  And, YES, we will bolt it to the wall when it settles a bit.  You can see it is leaning backwards into the wall.  Strange, I know.

Across from the new bookcase are the shelves I had built into the wall which surprisingly can be arranged to store more bolts of fabric.  There are two of these.

And I had fabric stored here too!  Very neat, but "out of sight" is "out of mind".  Not good.  My husband is so happy I am doing this.  He really believes it is going to save him money.  We shall see.

Gotta get.  I'm about to fall asleep.  Hope to clean up all the messes tomorrow.  I'll put all the remaining fabric up as soon as the new boards arrive.

And THEN.....

And then I will sew a million new things!  I am starting with a summer maxi dress.  Gotta build a pattern.  I finished the blouse today that goes with the SALMON colored pants (thanks Deb!), so I will show it to you soon.  I did something new and fun to it.

Hugs, Joy

Video About Fabric Boards

I've been cutting boards and folding fabric ALL DAY LONG.

I have so much to show you, but for now, wanted to show you this video from yesterday.

Not all my blog members get my video posts.

And that is such a LOVELY snapshot of me.  I don't pick 'em!

Be back real soon with pictures galore!

Hugs, Joy

Yellow Pants and New Project Bubbling in my Brain

GOOD MORNING everyone!

Having my first cuppa this morning, and decided to come up to see if the video I uploaded all night long was ready to show you.

It was!

So, here it is:

I can't stay long because I am almost finished quilting my Valentine quilt.  Remember the one with the old pictures of Jerry and me?  I made it for the "Girl's Weekend" at Terry's house that no girls showed up for but Terry and me.

Of course, I will show it to you when I get it done.

Have a nice day!

Hugs, Joy

New Hair-Dos and New Pants and New Complaint

Princess Di, our personal beautician, came today to do my hair and Terry's hair.  Terry and I are completely overwhelmed by her generosity.  She worked her hiney off today!  She got cramps in her foot at one point.  I don't know how people can do that all day long, day after day after day!

Di spent the night last night so we started first thing this morning on me.  I wanted mine darker because my eyebrows are so dark.  Princess Di put a color on me called "COFFEE BEAN".  How PERFECT is that for me!

It is night time now and the lights are on, and this picture isn't good, but you can tell my hair is darker. You will be able to tell better in my next video.  I look like a cardboard person in this picture!

Terry's hair had a lot of damage from a bad hairdresser.  Di worked on her hair for nearly five hours today.  I WISH I had a "Before" picture for you, because the difference is AMAZING!

I don't know WHY I didn't think to get the front when Di was done, but I did get the back.  NO curling utensil used here, and NO hair dryer.  Di just cut it and wrapped it around a dry round brush.  She was still working on the front when I snapped this pic.  I wanted to show Terry how pretty it was.

We had Rib Eye steaks last night at my house, and Terry made Burritos (she calls them Tacos) for a very late lunch today.  Di would not stop to eat until she got done with Terry.  I was worried she was going to pass out from hunger!  She kept saying she was still full from the steak last night.

We had a very short "play day" yesterday afternoon, and Di spent her time making something for Terry and something for me.  You just can't stop her.  If it wasn't for us, it would have been for someone else.  She never stops helping other people.  Terry and I admire her so much.  We loaded Di up with all our fabric scraps to add to her quilting scraps collection.

Insofar as sewing goes, we still ARE.  Terry and I both just made a pair of pants.  For some nutty reason we did the craziest thing.  She used very stretchy denim to make a WOVEN pattern, and I used a non-stretch fabric to make a STRETCH pattern.  DUH!  I don't know what we were thinking.  She took her pants way in on the sides, and I changed patterns.  Thank goodness I had purchased 5 yards of fabric.  I'll show you our new pants when I can.  Hers are white and mine are yellow.  We are making blouses to go with.

Not much else to say today EXCEPT for one thing.

You know how I get complaints now and then, and they make me feel so bad.

Well the LATEST complaint was that I was good at sewing but I needed to CUT THE COMEDY.  So, I guess I shall have to go somewhere to get a personality adjustment!  Good grief!

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!




Hugs, Joy