nope

In response to my last post (over a month ago) where I questioned if the quilt retreat jump started my quilty mojo:

No.

It did not.

I haven't even fully unpacked my projects from the retreat.

Why?

Quite a few things, actually.

First up, work.  As always.  Lots of shifts.  Lots of hours.  Good paychecks, but little time off means I hoard what I have and don't get as much done as I could.

But there have been some shenanigans afoot there.  Like the purchasing of "Mystery Chick" eggs until a coworker got the one she wanted.

(I got the one I wanted in the process!)

Second, the cat rescue group asked if I'd sew carrier covers for them again.  Remember these?

(photo credit: Saved By Zade)

Well, there's a need again.  And they have a LOT of random sheets running around.  Donations abound, but the fitted ones aren't easy to use, so guess who got them?

Specific sizes were requested, plus two 8 foot by 8 foot box trap covers.

What's a box trap?

Well, I immediately thought of Wile E Coyote and his efforts to get the Road Runner, but can't find any images to share.  But it is what you think it is, I'm sure.

Instead of trying to measure and sew and make sure there are no exposed seams, I headed to my local quilt shop, knowing an extra wide quilt back fabric would be perfect.  Maybe even too big, but that's okay.

This slightly-heavier-than-quilt cotton was in the clearance section.  I snatched up the remainder of the bolt, giving me two covers and some extra.  And the best part?  One of the employees, an animal lover and rescue helper, paid for it.  It was donated.

I'm waiting to hear how it worked.

I asked for this past weekend off, after having worked all weekend, every weekend for the entire month of May (and I think the last weekend of April).  It was GLORIOUS.

I decided to fire up the longarm and test out the repairs and adjustments done in April.

First up was the baby quilt because it was smaller and if I was going to have trouble, I'd rather suffer through something that's about 42"x42" instead of larger.

I should have taken more photos.  I didn't.

I decided to stick with swirls.  They were the most likely to be okay before the repairs, so I figured if it was still off, I'd at least be in a good place.

You know what?

Not one thread break.  Not one problem.

(Except when I ran out of bobbin almost at the end and was kicking myself for not changing it sooner, but sheesh, it's been a while and remembering all the little things was like relearning to ride a bike!)

Yay!

The next day, let's get another one done!

Tara's wedding quilt has been giving me the eyeball for a long time and I was avoiding it because I didn't want to do a poor job.  Time to give the longarm a REAL test and get this loaded.

Again, I should have taken more photos, but I was focused elsewhere.

Only one problem after a bobbin change, and that's where the problems always seem to happen when the machine is otherwise good.  All the other problems were my own - like not being so great at hitting points/corners.  But again, like relearning to ride a bike when you KNOW you were once pretty good.

(I also had an added bonus with this one where the power company texted me as I was loading and told me my power was out.  Now I have a generator, and the longarm would have been on that circuit, but I did, indeed, have power.  I decided to start quilting, figuring it was a fluke.  I got a third done and took a lunch break.  Heated up leftover tacos, sat down with a book and three bites in WHAM! No power.  For 10 minutes.  Thankfully, I had shut down and unplugged the longarm, just in case.)

The baby quilt has the binding sewn on (the machine side), the wedding quilt does not (but it's made and ready).

SO.  I think I'm back in business with the longarm.  Figuratively - I don't quilt for hire.

And this makes me happy and want to quilt more of the languishing quilts.  But, alas, I must go to work later today.

I did really well with reading blogs for a few weeks after the last post, but even that has fallen by the wayside.  I'm just exhausted.  I'll work three or four days in a row, get one day off and then do it over again.  I never realized how nice a two-day weekend was - one day to just chill and catch up and one day to actually do some things.  But I'm gonna start asking for actual weekends off at least once a month since management doesn't seem to care or pay attention.

(And sadly, I know once things slow down at work again, I'll be struggling to get two full shifts a week.  So silly.)

I put a garden in.  A little later than I wanted, but Memorial Day was the first day the hubby and I both had off, so it went in that Monday.  It's doing well and today I added some marigolds.  It's smaller this year, but I don't plan to can tomatoes, so I just put in two plants and some other veggies for eating.

And I've been reading.  As always, it's something easy to pick up and relaxing to do.

So a short recap of those.

Set during WWII (so well after the original fairy tale was invented), two children are hiding from the Nazis in Austria and find a kind-hearted old woman (I think a midwife, but with the medical knowledge of herbs and whatnot as well) and she cares for them until the war is over.  There is an oven.  It saves them.  But it was generally a sad book.

A collection of short stories, all relating in some way to food.  I thought the author was a chef at first, but I don't think so.  Just a writer.  Entertaining, sometimes informative, spanning childhood to adulthood, it was an interesting read.

I think this is the latest from one of our favorite quilty authors, and I actually bought this in a bookstore, new!  But somehow it didn't draw me in like her books used to.  Maybe I expected more than I should have, maybe it was too much reminiscing about previous stories contained in previous books?  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't good enough to make me want to seek out any more of her books.

Another from the shelf of thought-I'd-read books.  This one seemed a little more familiar at the start, but definitely not by the time I got into the meat of it!  Something of a ghost story, but told through the perspective of a ghost hunter.  A ghost hunter who seeks to release the ghosts from the places and people they haunt.  Set in New Orleans, I enjoyed reading about the city as well.

I wanted to like this one, I really did.  A Frankenstein-like idea where a scientist/doctor is trying to prove that things a mother experiences while pregnant will change the physical characteristics of her unborn child.  By doing terrible things to unfortunate pregnant women.  Told through the eyes of one of these women, the story unfolds slowly, though the reader knows more than it seems they should.  And after all the horrors, the happy ending is just too much.

Another one I really wanted to like, but the author seemed to want to be some sort of highfalutin' literary novelist or something.  There is a LOT going on and it's hard to keep track of.  Basically, Edgar Allan Poe dies under strange circumstances and a young lawyer becomes obsessed with figuring out what exactly happened.  He nearly loses his practice, his fiancée and his life (a number of times) in the process of seeking out clues.  And in the end, we are presented with about three different stories, none of which are true because nobody knows.  I didn't expect to actually know, but I also didn't expect to come away so muddle-headed.

And lastly, one that I wasn't even sure what to expect.  I know this author has a reputation regarding religion (though I'm not exactly clear on what it is), but I thought I'd give it a go.  I mean, when you're filling a bag for $10, why not?  And it was good.  Letters from an uncle guiding a tempter working for "Our Father Below" on how to guide humans into behaviors that will win souls for "their side."  Every chapter/letter was intriguing and dealt with different ideas regarding religious beliefs and pitfalls.  I think this would be really interesting to read in-depth, in a group, chapter by chapter.  As it was, I read it in two days.

I'm on to another book already, but with those above, this brings my reading to 30 books already this year!  But...the huge book sale on July 4th is just around the corner, so no time to slack.  I've got to make room on my cart for the incoming hoard!

And with that, I'd better go eat some lunch because I have to be to work in a few hours!

I promise to, again, try to be better about the whole blog thing.  I mean, I can't expect you to keep reading if I'm not reciprocating, right?  And if I'm not writing, well...

Happy quilting and reading,

Katie