Blogging

Stormy sky on a recent morning

While I don't post very often these days, it seems I'm running a continuous dialogue in my head of posts I would make on any given day.  Then I get too busy, or I think you might not really be interested.  Blogging has provided me with a format for sharing thoughts, pieces of my life, and a sense of community beyond my own, but I'm never quite sure why anyone follows along.  This, then,  causes me to think about the blogs I follow, and why.

I have a list of probably 30 or more blogs I try to keep current on.  Within that list I have a hard core group of you that have become friends (as much as we can be, with the miles between us).  There I learn about your days, your projects, your family, your holidays, what you're reading, and much more.  I love those things about your blogs, and that I feel a (corny alert here) closeness with you that has been built over time.   I share your happiness, successes, and sadness.  When I thought I would stop blogging last year, and tried, I realized I missed being part of your circle.

I follow blogs about rug hooking, quilting, dyeing, spinning, knitting and weaving.  With the exception of weaving, which seems to have fallen by the wayside, I am still actively enjoying these other crafts.  I post on some of what I work on and do a lot of things you don't see (like my donation knitting) because I wonder if you would be bored.  I have learned that I dislike (and will not read) blogs that go on for what would be many pages long if printed out.   I am just not a person who can spend that much time reading on line; I get edgy and want to get busy doing something else.

To end this rambling, I wonder:  what DO you really like to hear about?  Why do you follow my blog?  Since my postings don't focus on one particular topic, like quilting or rug hooking, I often wonder who is popping in and what keeps you coming back.  Just nosey.  Indulge me if you feel like it.  If you don't want to leave a comment here, please leave one on my e-mail address attached to this blog if you feel like it.  This is sort of like my own little survey with no prize at the end.

Thanks!

I love speed

Juki TL-2010Q

When I decided to fulfill my many years long fantasy of becoming a quilter last year, I bought a sweet little Janome Gem 3/4 size sewing machine.  The price was extremely attractive (well under $300) and I know these are the workshop machine of choice for many quilters.  It has beaten its little heart out for me without asking much in return (except a new foot pedal).

Then, earlier this week, I was at the local quilt shop, watching the owner happily sewing a diaper bag, which had many layers of thick fabrics to negotiate.  Her machine just flew right through them like they were butter.  This brought back fond memories of the years I sewed on an industrial machine, which had the ability to crank out thousands of stitches per minute and buzz through multiple layers of thick fabrics without even skipping a stitch.  I found my heart falling seriously in love with Kim's machine and spent one feverish night dreaming about it.

After researching the next morning, low and behold I found the newer version of her machine for a seriously marked down price.  Yay!!! Guess who now lives with me?  Here she is.  I love her madly.  I can free motion quilt at high speeds now.  Oh...and allow me to share with you that the one provision I had to agree to with my DH before buying it was that I promised not to sew through my finger.

I can live with that.

Busy weeks

My works in progress

Things have been flying past on full tilt boogie lately.  I think about posting but it doesn't always happen.  I also admit I'm currently about two weeks behind on reading those blogs I normally check daily...so please know that if yours is one of them, I've not forgotten you, and will be back soon.  I have, frankly, just been ignoring my computer for the most part.

One of the things that I've been back to since posting last is sewing.  Last week I spent several nights with my friend Liz at her wonderful home in the mountains (where I was lucky enough to be for their first snow of the season).  While I really love it here on the coast, I found myself heaving a huge sigh of relief as soon as I got out of the crazy city traffic and on back country roads; even better when I hit elevation and saw the forest.  I guess it confirms it...I'm just a mountain woman at heart.

Love the sofas

Anyway...we hung out for three days, sewing from early morning until later in the evenings, punctuated by meals in or out.  It was just a blast.  Liz likes to quilt with the many diverse fabrics being printed for the modern quilt movement, and my tastes are still slowly crawling away from calicos and florals.  Being with her was great for me, to learn from her and expand my horizons a bit.  She generously shared her fabrics with me and I actually came home liking things I would never have dreamed I would.  I've posted some photos of some of these fabrics in action.  The cartoon block will always hold a special memory for me...because after 51 years of sewing, it was while making this block that I got distracted and actually sewed right through the end of one of my fingers.  That's another story I'll spare you...but a lesson hard learned!