Fabric, Stash or New

  How are all of you today, I hope, that if you are in the path of "Isaac", you will be safe. I have family who live in New Orleans, and Baton Rouge, so we are keeping a watch on things. I am sure there will be a need for some new quilts for those who are even now losing homes and possessions. I hope that I will have time to do just that when the time comes.

  Well, time to move on to the topic of this post. This post is a result of my reading the same magazine article in Quilters Newsletter that spurred me to write about thread and about documenting the quilts you make. So I ask, do you plan your quilts around your stash, or do you plan and then go shopping for the fabric? I read this article and I noted that she was able to tell what fabric line it was from and the name of the manufacture. I must say I do not know those pieces of information about any fabric in my stash, and I seldom notice those things when I go to a store to purchase fabric.  I think she may have even said something about where she purchased her fabrics.
    I know the selvedge often has that printed on it, but since I usually cut that off as the first cut when beginning the cutting of my quilt. Then it goes in a bag I plan to use to make some selvedge project in the future. hahahah I am not sure that will ever happen, but they are saved never the less. Needless to say I usually don't go back to that bag and try to match up fabrics so that I know what the name of the fabric line is, or the manufacturer either.  Is this important when you plan to put your quilt in a competition ? I have never made a quilt to put in a competition, and I don't know if I ever will, but if I do, is this information something I am supposed to have?
I am not sure I will ever make a quilt for a quilt show, I am not that secure.
  Please tell me if you are a competitor in quilt shows. I would like to hear from a real person who does compete. Not that the one who wrote the article was not a real person. I simply meant I have not known anyone who competes, and on those same lines, I have not gotten any rules for competing in a quilt show. I wonder if I will ever think I am good enough to put a quilt in a show. Okay, so on we go, I have not been taking many pictures lately, but maybe I will do better.
  Until the next time, yall have a wonderful week.
Tennye

Buy Local

  I got an email yesterday from the local Bernina/ quilt shop that is less than a mile from my home. They are having to close their doors for various reasons. One of the reasons is the economy has gotten bad and they no longer make enough money to cover what is cost to keep the store open. On top of this the husband has been diagnosed with fast moving Alzheimer disease. He is the sewing machine repair man and just a general part of the running of the store and sales of the machines. I must say I have have cried for this family and what they are going through. I am sad for them as well as the local group that spends time and money in this store. It looks like we will all have to drive much further for our classes and fabrics now. I know there are health issues involved here as well as the financial ones, however, if they made enough income from their business would they be able to stay open? I have not attempted to open my own fabric store, so I am not speaking as a professional. I have been involved in the beginning of a new store, and after just a few months she was able to see that she would be able to pay off her loan in half the time she had expected to. Would it be possible to offer your customer a better price for fabric and still pay your bills? I just don't know, but what I do know, is I will do my best to buy local when I can to try and keep the stores open that I count on for fabric and patterns and classes.
  Until next time yall have a very quilty week,
Tennye

Thread, What Kind

  Hello friends,

Well today is a lovely warm sunny day in Central Texas. We are having some non typical weather for August, and it has been rainy for the last week with much cooler evenings, and days. I saw on the news at noon, we will have at least one day back in the triple digit this weekend, and maybe back to the lower temps. As I enjoy these lower temps I look forward to getting back into the sewing room and maybe doing some hand quilting in the evenings. I regularly use Gutermann hand quilting threads, but I have never thought what weight that thread is. On the other hand I have also not made note of what weight thread I use, when sewing ( Mettler), or doing machine embroidery ( Isacord). I have been reading some articles and heard a CD that I got when I was a member of an on line group. To that end I wonder, do you pay attention to the weight thread you use when piecing, quilting, or just plain sewing? I am beginning to wonder if I need to do more research on this subject and pay attention to the weight of thread I use for all of my sewing.
  On the same lines as my last post, do you record the type of thread you use on a specific quilt,including piecing, quilting, and embroidery? I am not sure how thread would work in the scrapbook style of documentation, but most any other type of documentation would be workable. When reading an article in the last Quilters Newsletter, the winner of a quilt show was telling not only what kind of thread, but what weight she used. I am intrigued by this, and wondering how important it all is. 
  So I am wondering if any of you have feelings about this and if you do please share with me here. In the mean time I will be doing some research on line and any where else I can find information on thread. When I feel like I know enough to share I will write another post and share what I am learning. So until next time yall have a very quilty week.
Tennye

  Adding this little picture that I made while playing with my camera for yall to see. I think it is cool.

How do you Document Your Quilts

 Hello,
I am home and glad to be here. The last week was not a bad week, but I have not been so tired in a long time. I was up before 7 every morning and needless to say in bed before 10 every night. We didn't end up making as many trips to the Dr as were originally on the schedule for the new mommy and baby. One kept getting postponed due to a berthing, and two were just plain cancelled due to over stimulation for mommy. The baby has gained back over a pound, but still has to go back one more time for a weight check, since she had lost 1 1/2 pounds of her birth weight. She is a cute baby, and stronger than any I have ever seen, but then again I have never seen one that was 10 ponds at birth. She can already push herself up enough to fall over and possibly off something if she is too close to the edge. We did not give her the chance to prove that too us, as we could see it when she was being held. I have a cute picture, but alas it is on my phone.
  I really enjoyed spending time with my aunt and uncle as well. I stayed at there house and just went over to take care of mommy and baby during the day time hours. Being on a walker that is when she needed me, not while daddy was there. One of my cousins came over and we had a great visit as well. I am blessed to have such wonderful family, and they take good care of me and I feel at home with them. I really wanted to come home or I could have stayed for a birthday party they were having at one of my cousins house that night. They do combo birthday parties, and it was three they celebrated this time. Also one of the cousins daughter was accepted into the sorority she wanted to get into on Friday. I am sure they added that to the celebration, even though she was not able to stay long for the party.
  Okay, for the title of this post, I have some real questions about how others document the quilts they have made. I am sure there are many thoughts on how to do this. I personally like the idea of having a scrapbook and putting scraps of the fabrics, and photos of the process and finished quilt in the book. Now just because I think that is a great way to document my quilts, does not mean I have gotten to that point yet. I try hard to take a good picture of the final quilt before it leaves my house. However I have the problem that I am sure many have had. I put them on the computer and have lost some when a virus or something else takes out the computer. Right now I have a desk top computer just sitting there waiting for me to figure out how to get my stuff off of it. It was frying keyboards at an alarming sped and had given me the blue screen once, when we turned it off the last time. I hope I will be able to get the photos off of the hard drive at least.
  I know there are other options for keeping track of the quilts you have made and even who the recipient of the quilts are. This was all brought up in an article I read about a quilt maker and her quilts. Do you prefer to keep a record on your computer in a word file, or is the scrapbook more your style. Then again maybe you have a method I have not mentioned. Is your list, just that, a list of all the quilts you have made with no photo? Is it important to keep track of the quilts you make, or am I just being silly, because I want to keep up with what I have made. I have a "brag book" that I keep with pictures, from the old days before digital camera, and it is not complete. I let some get away with out making pictures of them and I sure wish I had not. So how do you document, or do you think it is important?
  Until next time yall have a very quilty week.
Tennye

Summer Olympics

 Well, Hello friends a faithful followers, I am much better these days and have just been so busy trying to get my house and my life back on track to sit down and write. I have so many things to talk about and I will do my best to get back soon.
  I have spent my free time the last two weeks watching the summer Olympics, and they have been amazing. I am not a fan of all the events, but still have enjoyed watching. I am actually watching as I write. My hubby does not like to watch and with him sleeping most of the day and all evening we have gotten to watch a lot more than we have before. I love the diving events the most, they always amaze me. Now I am looking forward to the winter games, they should be very entertaining. Now that the games are going to be over I will be able to get back to sewing and cleaning, 
  However I am leaving tomorrow to go help my daughters best friend for a week. She has a new baby (2 weeks) and is having some problems. She has a sciatic nerve problem from the delivery, and she has to use a walker to keep from falling. He leg just goes numb and she is walking and has nothing to hold her up. Sadly she does not have family or close friends to help her out, so I am going to go do that. The baby had to have mouth surgery also and is losing weight since she hurts when she tries to nurse. They have a Dr. appointment every day this week. I will go tomorrow and stay with my aunt and uncle at night so mommy and daddy can be a family, and spend the days with her and help as much as I can. If we have any time I will try to make some meals she can freeze and have after I am gone.

 Just a little aside I have been doing a little sewing, just not much time for it until the house is clean again. My daughter did a massive clean out of her closet. She had t-shirts from Junior high, and she will be 30 next year. She kept the ones she wants in a quilt and put the others out for donation. Well I decided to try one of those reusable bags made from t-shirts.  It was not hard, but took some time, since I did some hemming that I have not seen in the instructions I have read. I hope it holds up as well as it seems like it will and completely washable. I did a squared off part to make it a little boxy for use.
  Well, Like I said I will try and get back this week, but not sure it I will get the chance, but definitely when I get home. So Until them yall have a very quilty week.
Tennye