Another Stack ‘N’ Whack

I still haven’t put all those Stack ‘N’ Whack UFOs away so I pulled this one and finished the top this morning.  I had everything finished except the borders.  I probably made this in 1999, I know it wasn’t any later.  This is from “Stack ‘N’ Whackier” quilts.  I was on Bethany Reynolds’ email list at the time, and volunteered to test a pattern for her new book.  This just happens to be the one I did.  The fabric need to have symmetrical designs and this is what I found to use.

This makes another one for the “to be quilted pile.”  That means that over a third of my UFOs are ready for quilting.

Bouquets of Kindness Block

This morning saw the completion of another block from the Friendship Garden pattern.  The pattern is from Bird Brain Designs.

Only a partial block left to go, but I still need corrected colors from the designer.

Another UFO (Unfinished Object)

I managed to work several hours this week on a customer quilt and finished it at midnight on Wednesday.  I expected to still have a lump in my leg, but to be able to do pretty much what I wanted.  Not so, those hours at the quilting machine resulted in swelling from my knee down to my ankle.  So I’ve tried to be a little better about staying off the leg more for the last two days. 

Which means I had time to read a book.  I had placed a hold at the library on “Stolen Innocence” and read it almost straight through.  I put it aside at around midnight last night and finished it this morning.  It was a very informative book and well written.  It made me stop and think about how much influence one’s upbringing has upon how they are able to react in various situations.  I applaud the author and many of her brothers and sisters for having the courage to walk away from everything they had ever known.

On the sewing front, I finished another UFO top.  I mentioned my play date with friends a few weeks ago.  I had pulled out all my Stack N’ Whack blocks to take along for show and tell.  I haven’t put them away yet and one of the projects was calling to me.  So rather than putting it away I finished the top this week.

I started this project in May 2001 when Bethany Reynolds was in town teaching at one of the local guilds.  I had already worked on several Stack ‘n’ Whack projects prior to that date, but took the class anyway.  This quilt is from her “Stack ‘n’ Whackier” book.  When I pulled the project this week I already had most of the small hexagons pieced and two of the large hexagon units and well as almost all the cutting.  I pieced the remaining seven hexagon units and put it all together.

My only regret on this project is the quality of the fabric.  When I took the class I wanted to do a blue and yellow quilt.  Unfortunately, none of the quilt shops had appropriate fabric at the time.  I found this print at JoAnn Fabrics.  I guess I have become a fabric snob.  There is a dramatic quality difference between JoAnn’s fabrics and quilt shop fabrics.  I’ve seen how poorly some of the cheaper fabric wears.  Oh well, the top is done and added to the “to be quilted” pile.

Not Camping

For the last three years about this time of year I’ve gone camping with my sister and other family at Ike Kinswa State Park in Washington.  I’m not going this year, but my sister is getting ready to go for a very long week-end on Wednesday.  I needed a subject for today’s layout so I pulled pictures from our trip in 2006.  The pictures were taken by several different people.

The paper and elements were all supplied as class materials in the Jessica Sprague class.

Still Playing

I think it is about time to go to bed, but I’m still playing with Photoshop.  We had a challenge on Wednesday that I hadn’t done yet, so I goofed around with it.  Here are the results –

The parts for the layout were KPertiet_PaperRevealNo2_2, and trishjones_distresseddiva_distressededge both of which were part of the class materials. The brushes are from http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/154. I created my own “Lego” paper using a pattern overlay I downloaded from http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/patterns/id/1022.

Expensive Week

It has been an expensive week here in our household.  On Wednesday morning Jesse had the rest of his baby teeth pulled to speed things up at the orthodontist.  I wasn’t quite expecting the total bill for four baby teeth.

Wednesday was really the first day I was out for any length of time after my bicycle accident.  (Still have a knot in my leg and am limping.)  We didn’t take many side trips on the way home.  Later in the day our refrigerator finally burned itself out.  We knew it was going to go someday, but were hoping to limp it along for awhile.  So I made another trip out with Guy Wednesday night and picked out a new refrigerator, which will not arrive until Monday.  We are living out of a small freezer and and ice chest.  That was an even bigger bill.

Thursday saw us at the orthodontist getting Nolan fully fitted with braces.  Gasp, now we are paying orthodontist bills for two.  Do you hear the hyperventilating yet?  That would be Guy.

We had a challenge in the Photoshop class I’m taking.  We were supposed to take a picture today and digitally create a scrapbook page in less than 30 minutes.  I didn’t make it in 30 minutes, but it was less than an hour.  So here you can see part of that money at work.

The paper was a download we received in class from www.sweetshoppedesigns.com and the brushes are from 227 HQ Ornaments at www.brusheezy.com

Now We’re Rockin’ with Photoshop Day 1

My leg is still giving me fits.  I managed to quilt for about 2 hours yesterday and probably an hour today and then it was back to having it propped.  There is still a knot in there about the size of a baseball and now the whole top of my leg down to knee level is black.  Since I spent the majority of the day sitting, I made it through the first assignment of “Now We’re Rockin’ with Photoshop” taught by Jessica Sprague.   The class is a continuation of the one I took with her last month.

Here’s this times layout –

The paper and elements were all class materials and the designers for those materials were Trish Jone, K Pertiet and Jessica Sprague.  The only exception was the brushes which were a free download from http://myphotoshopbrushes.com/brushes/id/154.

While I am definitely enjoying the scrapbooking, but one of the reasons I’m taking the classes is to become more comfortable with Photoshop.  I’ve been getting books from the library to help me with that goal as well.  The one I’m working through right now is very good.  I may just have to buy it.  It is “Layers:  The Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature.”  It is written by Matt Kloskowski.  It is a step by step, here’s how to do this … with layers written in a conversational type format.  It is easy to understand. 

While I was working through the book, I found the author is one of the hosts of Photoshop User TV.  The weekly programs are free for about a month after they are put up on http://www.photoshopusertv.com/.  Another resource if you are trying to familiarize yourself with this software.  Some of it is over my head, but sometimes a tip sinks in.

Bible Jeopardy

Some of you may have noticed when I mention going to church it is on Saturday.  Yes, Saturday is the Sabbath I observe.  I have been a leader in the children’s Sabbath Schools almost constantly since the boys arrived on the scene.  For the last few years I’ve lead the Juniors which are pretty much ages 10-12.  One of the favorite things for the young people in that class is games.  It seems their most favorite game is Bible Jeopardy.  I started making categories for the game when I was leading the 7-9 year olds and have just kept adding as I thought of new categories or wanted to review a previous week’s lesson.  There are two boys that have been in my classes almost constantly since I started doing this game and they know almost every answer.  They are good friends, but I can’t let them be on the same team or that team has a very unfair advantage!

As you know from previous posts, I’m not moving too well.  Therefore, I won’t be going to church today.  The assitant leader is out of town so POG (Poor Old Guy) is leading for me.  He was not thrilled with the idea.  I got up early this morning and added a categorey to Jeopardy that has been bouncing around in my head — Bible Math.  I managed to include division, multiplication, addition, percentages and geometry in my five questions.  I may add some more categories while I’m sitting here alone.

 I counted up the categories I have right now, and there are 40.  Some have more than 5 questions.  If I come up with extra, I just layer the questions.  I use a large bulletin board and thumb tacks for the game.  I thought there might be someone out there in cyber land that would be interested so, I’m adding the word file to the download box on the right side of this blog.

Next Friendship Garden Block

The forced rest gave me time to finish the next Friendship Garden Block.

Update on the injured

The ugly thing on my leg kept getting bigger.  I went to bed on Wednesday at 10:30, but still wasn’t asleep by 2:00 am.  My leg felt like it was going to explode.   The swelling now had the curvature of a soccer ball (it wasn’t sticking out that far.)  Guy got up and called the nurse hotline and they gave the usual response — go to the Emergency Room.  I had taken two Excederin and no relief.  I tried some Vicoden I had left from when I had a root canal — no change.  So we got in the car and went to the ER.  Thankfully as far as I could tell Wednesday night wasn’t terribly busy — the staff disagreed.  The doctor going off shift ordered a Percocet and X-rays.  By the time they came to get me for the X-rays the Percocet was starting to work and I could have finally gone to sleep.  Guy was calling it “better living through chemicals.”  The X-rays didn’t reveal any break, I was pretty sure that would be the case. 

I was told that they are concerned about that much bleeding because it can cause problems with other veins and arteries.  They made sure I had sensation my toes and told me if I lost sensation come back immediately.  I’m supposed to stay off my feet for a few days and was warned gravity may have an effect and the ugliness could move all the way to my ankle.  We stopped by the pharmacy and picked up more Percocet and I took one at 4:45 am and finally went to sleep.  I woke up the first time at about 11:00 and the drugs had made me sick to my stomach which I continued to be for much of the day.  At about 4:00pm I finally got up and moved to the couch for the duration.  I watched most of the first season of House of Eliott (I finished it this morning).  As long as I stayed off the leg the pain was now bearable so no more drugs!

Gravity is still not kind when I stand up so it looks like more lazing around for a few days.  I did manage to finish my yo-yos last night and have worked on embroidery this morning.  I must admit, I’m getting very tired of sitting or lying down and am not sure how much longer I will tolerate it.  I am not a good patient and for this to completely heal it will be easily 4-6 weeks, but I don’t have to stay down that long.