Step 2: Done!

OK, I'm now back even with where I'm supposed to be with the Make It Up as You Go Quilt with the blog from YCMT. I've cut, marked, sewn, cut and now just have to iron the squares that are no longer 4" squares. That is one thing that I've never understood about quilting. How can you call it a 4" square if it isn't 4 inches? Maybe that's why I've never done very well at quilting! I left half the squares unsewn (as I had cut twice as many as necessary) just in case we have to cut squares and do something else with them later! If we don't, I can always come back and sew them. Anyway, here's what I've done so far!

This is the stack of extra squares that I’d cut. I will come back to them later.

4 inch square is no longer Am I the only one wondering why the 4” square is called that when it is no longer 4”?

One of the many squares I cut, stitched, and then cut again for this quilt—with the seams finger pressed open to see what it would

look like.

Here are all of my squares cut after they were stitched on either side of the marked line.

Step One: Done

OK so I'm a little late with getting step one finished. But I have done it! I have managed to not only add all the folks blogs to follow as they journey through with their quilts, but I have finally managed to get my own quilt squares cut out.

Hmmmm Kim from YCMT said to cut 64 sqares (32 light and 32 dark) right? Well, I guess as usual I went overboard--not knowing when to stop cutting! OOPS! I have 66 light and 66 dark squares cut for a total of 132 total squares! Maybe, as I told Sonja earlier, I will have to do 2 different Make-it-as-I-go-quilts--one in each set of light/dark squares to make up the 64 squares she was asking for. Only thing is, when will I ever get step 2 done on all of them? Later I guess--as I still have the housework to attend to (the housework that gets left behind because of everything else I find to do instead), and I do have things to do for school that I need to at least look at (well, maybe I'll get to that later, too). But I will at least put in a picture here of the fabrics that I found stuffed in my fabric closet that I'd bought sometime for something long forgotten! But these fabrics whether mismatched or not, seem to go together quite well. Wonder what I bought them for in the first place? Probably to make purses out of. No matter, there's plenty left for the purses as well as these squares I cut!

Late as Usual for EVERYTHING!

The hurrier I go the behinder I get! That's what Momma used to say when she was running late for something--especially if one thing caused her to be late for something else. It seems my life is more like the old Clairol hair color commercials--for those of you 40 and under, you won't remember this--you tell 2 friends and they tell 2 friends and so on and so on! If I'm feeling like I'm running behind on one thing, it sets me back on 2 more things, then that sets me me back on 4 more things, etc.

So here I sit, days after I said "I'm in" for the “I’m-Making-This-Up-As-I-Go-Along” Quilt! from the You Can Make This Blog (http://ycmt.wordpress.com/) and I'm still sitting here with NO squares cut out, NO squares joined, and have spent the morning going through adding blogs to this one to watch to see what progress others are making on their quilts. Only problem is, some of the blogs have been so interesting to read, and they have links to such cool places I have done nothing but surf blogs!!! Not very good for me as far as getting things done.

I have come across a few more websites and blogs along the way that I want to keep tabs on, if for no other reason than I have gotten a couple of good ideas from them. Do I remember what they are? Well honestly? NO. I guess I need to get my "book of lists" (as Kim from Embroodles would call it) out and start noting what these good ideas are. But there was one thing that I saw on one of the blogs that I really thought was kind of cool. It was a list of things (I guess I could call it the Bucket List) that you print in bold the things you have done in your life. I was amazed at how many of the list I had done in my life. So that is one thing I think I'll add to this blog this morning and see if any others pick up on it as well. It would be interesting to see how many of us have done what.
'Cause you realy want to know......
I thought this looked like fun!
Let me know if you do this on your BLOG, so I can see how exciting your life is compared to mine.
Just bold face the items that you HAVE done, and leave the rest normal….
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (sang with one, does that count?)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world (both)
8. Climbed a mountain.
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29 Seen a total eclipse (both sun and moon eclipse)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33 Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (does sign language count?)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (walked up to the top before they closed it)
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41 Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45 Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris just didn't get to go to the top, ran out of time before our train left!
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (does Etsy count?)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60 Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64 Donated blood, platelets, or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66 Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67 Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (helped my grandmother, started one for daughter, never finished it)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79 Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (my kids say I should--Mom's Recipes!)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Frustration!!!! ???? !!!!

Frustration of myself and not knowing how to fix the "problem." Frustration at not one but two machines. Frustration at so many things.

The Heritage Dictionary defines frustration as:
frus-tra-tion (fr-strshn)
NOUN:
1. a. The act of frustrating or an instance of being frustrated.
b. The state of being frustrated.
2. Something that serves to frustrate.

That really doesn't begin to define it does it? Something that serves to frustrate--well, seems to me that I've had so many things that serve to frustrate me! So let's delve a little deeper in this definition.

frus-trate (frstrt)
TRANSITIVE VERB: frus-trat-ed , frus-trat-ing , frus-trates
1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: A persistent wind frustrated my attempt to rake the lawn.
b. To cause feelings of discouragement or bafflement in.
2. To make ineffectual or invalid; nullify.

Synonyms:
To prevent from accomplishing a purpose: baffle, balk, check, checkmate, defeat, foil, stymie, thwart. Informal: cross, stump. Idiom: cut the ground from under.

Something that will baffle, defeat, foil, stymie or thwart----hmmmmm that is exactly what has been happening lately in my life. Seems everything put in front of me or I try to do has either baffled or stymied me or has gone to the point of defeating, foiling, or thwarting me. So it is no wonder I am so frustrated!

Five months ago I purchased an embroidery machine. Granted it is one of the "entry level" for beginner machines, but it, by most all reviews I'd seen, was a very good machine. At that point I did quite a bit of embroidery and everything looked fine. FRUSTRATION: Within a month I started having problems with gaps and with outlines not meeting. I went through forum after forum, web site after web site, asked friends what I was doing wrong. Everything led to the machine not working properly. FRUSTRATION: So I contacted the merchant I purchased the machine from. I was told that since the machine did not ship from his warehouse I would have to contact the other person's warehouse. That led to me being told that I had to contact the originator shipper (the merchant). I'm sure you can see where this circle led. NO WHERE!!!

I finally got aggravated with all of them and purchased a second embroidery machine from an entirely different merchant than the first two! This machine was a step up from the first machine I purchased. FRUSTRATION: At this point we had sunk money into a machine that didn't work, software to read the embroidery formats, thread, and stabilizer, not to mention the amount of time, tears, anger and frustration! And yet I still had no machine (yet) that I could work on. When the second machine came in the mail, I diligently scanned (as this was the same brand of machine as the previous and I'd read that manual from cover to cover) the manual to see what I needed to know prior to operating.

I plugged it in, began stitching and sure enough for the first 10 or so designs it worked fine. Then, FRUSTRATION: it started doing the exact same things the first machine did. I've talked to sewing center employees--that didn't care about my problems because a) I didn't buy the machine(s) from them and b) because I didn't own a machine BRAND that their shop sold! Needless to say, when it is time to buy the next machine, it will NOT be from that sewing center!I've talked to people that owe the exact same machine(s) as I do, those that own other embroidery machines, those that have used embroidery machines before, etc. It has taken until tonight to get either machine to sew semi-correctly (I'm scared to say it sews correctly as I'm afraid of jinxing the machines).

Of course, the last two days have presented its own FRUSTRATION: in that I haven't broken a machine needle in a month/or two. I have broken 7 machine needles (6 all on one machine) in the last 24 hours!

OK, OK enough griping for one day! I won't go on any further! Besides it's past time for me to turn into a pumpkin--in other words, bedtime!

George Ohr Fall Festival

Want a fun and expensive outing? Well dearest hubby and I had it this weekend. We headed to the 15th Annual George Ohr Fall Festival of Arts, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 4 and 5, Biloxi Town Green. . . More than 100 art booths are expected again this year, as well as great regional food and live music. Highlights of the festival . . . include: the popular Potters Games (founded by Scott Young), Celebrity Pot Throwing, a fun Mustache Contest, as well as pinch pots, T-shirt painting, street painting and public art competitions, and a large booth both days full of art activities for children. (http://www.sunherald.com/)

For $4.00 the two of us were able to be entertained, be outside, be together, and see some beautiful art (that we couldn't afford but would love to have) and enjoyed watching the potters have their fun while they had to make a pot blindfolded--with the tallest pot winning; watch them attempt to make a pot with one hand while a non-craftsman used one hand to help them. What a hoot that was to watch! In addition we saw many, many booths that were hawking their wares--ok, they weren't hawking, they were sitting there quietly while people walked by and browsed with few sales (thank you economy for no one wanting to buy the "extras" in life). But we did get some very good ideas for making things ourselves, things we can go back to their websites or to other art festivals in the area before Christmas for Christmas gifts. Of course, there won't be a lot of gifts at those prices!

But who is George Orr and why is there a festival? Well for that, we need to go back a bit in history.

George E. Ohr, another visionary artist whose work went unappreciated during his lifetime, then rose to prominence years after his death. Ohr (1857-1918) was born in Biloxi, Mississippi and trained as a commercial potter of utilitarian ware. However, he grew increasingly interested in the expressive possibilities of clay. His experimentations began by altering his wheel-thrown works via allowing the centrifugal force of the wheel itself to create pots that twisted, folded, leaned, bent and buckled eccentrically.Indeed, the theatricality of his work mirrored Ohr’s flamboyant persona and physical appearance, sealed by his signature massive mustache and wild eyes. An inveterate self-promoter, he proclaimed himself “The Mad Potter of Biloxi,” at state fairs, international expositions and other venues, where he exhibited and sold his work. Ohr also hand made souvenir pottery for tourists, some of it hilariously bawdy in nature. For example, his press-molded brothel coins contained clever word/picture phrases with sexual messages, such as “Good for One Screw,” with the last word presented as a pictorial screw embossed on the coin.

Critics of that time denounced Ohr’s unconventional work as ugly or bizarre, and, again, it went virtually unrecognized during his lifetime. Today, with all of hindsight’s sad and predictable irony, people recognize and celebrate the work as a valuable precursor to the Abstract Expressionists’ attitude toward clay during the 1950’s, and the renewed interest in the art pottery movement during the 1970’s.
http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2007/Articles1207/GOhrA.html
So the Mad Potter of Biloxi, who didn't become famous until his son went to look for car parts and discovered the remaining pieces of George E. Ohr's work, 6,000 pieces--hidden for so many years. an antique dealer, Jim Carpenter, bought all of the pieces for what now would be considered pennies, but then (1960s) was quite a bit--$50,000. And what has happened to all of those pieces? They've been sold and turned over to this person or that through the years. Currently viewers can see forty of Ohr’s key works in this exhibition, “Ohr Rising: The Emergence of an American Master,” which was organized by the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi. The word “Rising” in the show’s title refers both to Ohr’s ascendance into the contemporary art world and the “rise from destruction” theme taken on by Mississippi’s Gulf Coast in its ongoing effort to recover from Hurricane Katrina. http://artscenecal.com/ArticlesFile/Archive/Articles2007/Articles1207/GOhrA.html

Another One of THOSE Days!

Ever have a day where nothing seems to be going right? Well today was definitely one of those for me. I have once again found my blog--seems I don't keep up with this very well. I have found that I can't remember how to do things and add things I WANT on here and get rid of others!

Seems the fibromyalgia is effecting not only the body but the mind now. Well, I'd like to blame it on that or on SOMETHING at least other than old age, lack of use, and fat clogging the brain! But it seems that things I could remember I can't. I seem to have fairly decent long term memory; but my short term memory and the ability to even find words that I know are in my vocabulary just down right sucks!

I have, since May, become an avid fan of machine embroidery. Things that I see on clothing and other things I keep thinking, I could do that. The only problem is that I can't seem to get things RIGHT!!! I've been trying since May to get one machine working properly. As it turns out that machine worked--its me that doesn't! I can't seem to find the right chemistry between fabric, stabilizer, and tension. One of these days I will get it right or I'm going to throw both of these embroidery machines in a ditch somewhere!

Here's hoping your day was better than mine!

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