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Post by choney2 on Jan 4, 2021 6:24:07 GMT
Good morning and Happy Monday!
All crafters are welcome here as we discuss crafting, life and our weight loss journey. Crafting includes actual hands on crafting, such as crochetting, knitting, sewing, quilting, needlepoint, painting, jewelry making, etc.....plus reading craft catalogs, craft blogs, watching craft you tubes or other crafting videos, chatting here about crafting,chatting with another person about crafting, reading craft emails, thinking about crafting, organizing crafting supplies, going into craft stores or the craft aisle in a store , attending craft fairs,or any other activity that inspires or directs your mind toward a crafting activity- even visiting us here to join in our posts!! There are plenty of days in which the closest we get to crafting is a visit here, so even if you have no time to craft, we would love to hear from you.
We welcome newcomers to our friendly discussion! So glad you are here!! Please feel free to stop in and say hello!!
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Post by choney2 on Jan 4, 2021 17:28:54 GMT
Just a heads up....my stimulus check is being deposited into my checking account- Ds got his already also. Think his deposit took place a day or so ago. Not sure if I will get to any work on the baby quilt today, my friend and her husband are coming over for dinner this evening. We are doing take out from a local restaurant using a gift card given to Dh and me for our anniversary. Cannot celebrate that anymore, so I might as well bring in a nice meal for all of us (Ds will be joining us also) and as we won’t be ordering expensive drinks like you might at a restaurant, the gift card will go further to feed us all.
Cleaning out my bedroom to remove the area rug that is in there (giving that to Dd#2 for her nursery) and replace it with a rug I ordered from Lowes that was just delivered. (Matches the new wall color I painted a week or so ago).
I really want to find a craft kit for some small Christmas gifts that I can make now....and have ready for next Christmas. Started looking online and have not seen anything that I like yet. If anyone had a good idea, I would be happy to check it out.
Have a great day all
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Post by Ruth on Jan 4, 2021 20:31:01 GMT
Ginny, I've heard of several people who we notified last Thurs or so that their money was set to be deposted electroncally into the bank accounts today. Of course I haven't received mine. The last one that I FINALLY received long after everyone else got their was sent as a paper check so maybe I'll get it later as a paper check via USPS. Or maybe I'll have to contact my senator again. Who knows
The dinner you are going to have this evening sounds as though it's going to be really good in more ways than one. You don't have to cook it and from what you're saying, it's a nice restaurant so it should be delicious also. Plus then there's your good friends and your ds joining you so it will make for a great evening.
Speaking of having a new rug delivered, how is your new mattress?
It's fairly warm today and nice and sunny but way too windy. I didn't get any crocheting at all done yesterday so hopefully I will today. I did have to adjust the length for my dgd. I don't know how tall she is but she will be 12 so probably fairly close to my height.I'm short. My son is fairly short and ddil is fairly tall for a woman so hard to say what height the children are. I know that the4 two oldest are both taller than my son.I do have to do my bills and throw in a couple loads of laundry
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Post by choney2 on Jan 5, 2021 2:04:25 GMT
Good to see you here Ruth- The new mattress is great, thanks for asking- and the rug is so very nice. The dinner was great- and I am just glad that the gift card has been used. Hope you get your stimulus check soon and do not have to contact your senator for that. Hopefully because they got a system set for the first check that the second one will come more quickly.
No crafting today- lots of cleaning though!
Have a good night all
G
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Post by cj59 on Jan 5, 2021 17:44:08 GMT
Hello - Hope you are all doing well today  Ginny - Hope you enjoyed your dinner last night. I also hope you can find a Christmas kit to work on. There are a lot to choose from online, but I understand not finding one that you really like. The Sudoku quilt is really easy to make and all you need are 9 different fabrics. Since you can cut the pieces (9 from each fabric) whatever size you want, you don't need a lot of fabric. I tried to find my Christmas one so I could take a picture of it, but it's buried underneath a bunch of quilt tops and I couldn't get to it  I have started saving 2.5 inch blocks in the rainbow scrap colors and I'll make a Sudoku quilt later this year with them. Ruth - I'm glad you had a warm day, sorry it was so windy though. And I hope you were able to get some crocheting done yesterday. Phyl - Hope you are getting some crafting done. For right now I'm pretty much scrapping all the plans I had made for quilting this year. I started trying to work with the pink fabrics and nothing I did appealed to me or was enjoyable, so I put it all away. I hadn't mentioned that I also planned to work on machine quilting my pieces and binding them this year. I'm hoping to do at least one item a week. This morning I was feeling more motivated so I pulled the first 5 small pieces that I want to machine quilt and I cut and pressed the backing fabric, cut the batting and laid out all the pieces. I just need to pin them and then I can start some machine quilting. These are all small pieces like a table topper or table runner. Here's a picture of one that I liked making. I had done a large quilt that measured 68x94, it's the third largest quilt top I've ever made, in the Diamond Dash pattern from MSQC, here's a link to the tutorial www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3DBhU54r1EMy quilt was all in blue and white fabrics. I saved the small corner pieces that were cut off when you have to snowball all the blocks and I sewed them together in flying geese units and made this small piece. It measures 16x18 inches.  Take care and have a good day. |
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Post by gramma14 on Jan 5, 2021 21:52:03 GMT
Ginny, I hope you can find some nice Christmas ideas that you can work on throughout this year. What did all of you order for that great dinner?
CJ, that's a really pretty quilt top. And yes, we sometimes have to revise our list of goals and sometimes even scrap the whole thing and start a new list.
It was very overcast when I got up. No sun at all and about an hour ago started snowing. Luckily no wind. Wind will come tomorrow and blow all this snow around and into drifts. Luckily we don't have to go out.
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Post by choney2 on Jan 6, 2021 0:52:30 GMT
Good evening,
CJ- glad you were able to regroup your thinking about what your quilting priorities are for the year. You have been ruminating about finishing some quilts on your machine (old brother or new one?) and I am happy that you are now going forward with a new plan. Got any idea how you will finish these quilts? Stitch in the ditch? Free motion, tying?? LOVE that blue and white quilt- which appears to be almost a butter yellow...so pretty and you did a great job creating it.
Ruth, did you get much snow today? Looks like you were not supposed to get much, but a lot of wind blowing it all over the place. I am so happy that you and Dh do not have to go out today, and hope that some warmer weather comes in so the snow will melt.
Got some crocheting in today...will be back on my machine with the baby quilt tomorrow. I did get some looking done at Christmas kits so far, the one I loved got really bad reviews- not enough materials and for an expensive kit, it required a lot of work. So I will keep looking, just hope I can find something I like.
Phyl- hope you are doing ok....hope you can stop in and say hello.
Ginny
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Post by phyl on Jan 6, 2021 16:15:38 GMT
GOOD MORNING, HAPPY HUMP DAY,like we look forward to hump day being retired. lol.
Today I will start putting the sewing areas together.have to wait till Don gets back from the store, to get my cabinet and cutting table back in place. I need him to move the exercise bike out of the way.that thing is heavy.
then all the little notions etc get put back in place. that might take the longest.
phyl
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Post by gramma14 on Jan 7, 2021 0:03:13 GMT
So far we are the only ones here, Phyl. Yes getting our craft rooms back together is a big job. I wish I could get mine more organzied but I'm still trying to figure out how to do that. I think I need a second room.
Iforgot to tell you all that my loaf of sandwich bread that I thought was so pretty, except for the muffin top...was a failure. When I went to slice it the next day it just pretty much fell apart into chunks and crumbs. I'm not giving up though. I did find a way to keep my Italian and French breads from having too hard a crust so I'll figure out the sandwich bread too. I made two loaves today and they look like regular loaves of bread. They didn't rise so much that they had a muffin top. They look great so we'll see when I slice them how they act.
I did get a tiny bit of crocheting done while waiting for the bread to rise.
Our country is going to Hades in a hand basket. what a mess and I have a feeling it's just going to get worse.
'
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Post by choney2 on Jan 7, 2021 12:54:53 GMT
Good morning all!
Still not sure how I did not get here yesterday....
Phyl- you bet, its all that little stuff that takes forever to reorganize and get back into some semblance of sanity so you can find what you need and easily store it. I am glad to hear that you are making good progress on getting your sewing area set up and straightened out. Did you ever complete that Christmas kitty quilt? My craft room looks good from the outside, but I fear my organizational skills are lacking. Still need to clean up the closet in that room, which is pretty messy.
Ruth, search on the internet for Allrecipes recipe for Amish White bread. If you cannot find it, I will make sure I get that recipe to you. Its a wonderful bread, so easy to make and turns out great as a sandwich loaf. I still have not mastered a good italian or french bread (without being way too crusty)....and now with just cooking for myself, I doubt I will attempt it.
Think where I got waylayed yesterday is that I got stuck watching videos (required for all the full time drivers, which I am not) for safety issues. There are a lot of videos, and they have been required because schools are all virtual (no need for school bus drivers) my district has worked out a deal allowing the drivers to be paid for some of the shutdown- but they have to watch these videos. They are time consuming....I did crochet during one of them. Most of the videos have a quiz at the end, so you need to pay attention. One video (almost 3 hours long!!!) has no quiz- yes I did crochet to that.
Watched a lot of news last night and crocheted to that. A sad day in our history, but IMO the stage was set by allowing statues to be torn down and cities to burn this summer. And irregardless of how a person stands politically, I think that to load up a stimulus bill with nonsense support for overseas projects is wrong ( do we need to fund gender studies in Pakistan?). Violence is wrong...but congress sure does seem to think it can do what it wants with little regard to what is being felt out in the real world. Washington DC is not the real world....that is for sure. But those in power sure seem to fight hard to stay in power....and I fear spend more time just trying to stay in power than actually helping us. I pray that there are some lessons learned from this and that in a fair manner, showing respect for all sides, that this resolves quickly and we do not lose our rights.
Gonna watch a few videos today, get a walk in and work on the baby quilt.
BTW- my physical (which was supposed to be today) has been postponed for 2 weeks. I did get a chance to speak to the office staff about how my doctor feels about the vaccine, and while he feels that it is an individual decision to get it or not, he is supporting getting the vaccine.
BBL
G
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Post by cj59 on Jan 7, 2021 17:58:14 GMT
Hello Everyone Phyl - Hope you can get things put back together in your sewing room. Ruth - I'm sorry your pretty sandwich bread fell apart, hopefully you were able to use it for something else. I second Ginny's suggestion on the recipe for Amish White Bread. I've made that before and it turns out a really good bread. I think this is the recipe I used (hopefully Ginny will see if it's the one she used too): www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6788/amish-white-bread/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=SearchGinny - Sorry your physical was postponed, hopefully you'll get to have it in a few weeks. That sounds like a lot of videos to watch, but it's good that your district worked out a deal for the drivers to remain employed. When I was out yesterday I saw several county school buses on the road, but I think the county schools are still virtual. I think I have a skewed perspective of some of the things that happened yesterday just because I live so close to downtown DC. There are so many protests that I tend to get numb to them, but this one was definitely extreme. The one thing that did stand out to me was the lack of security for the Capitol building. I worked in several Federal buildings during my career and it's inexcusable that a Federal building could not be secured. I hope that there is an overhaul done on their security measures going forward, for the safety of those working in the building. I went out yesterday to mail some letters and get some money at my bank's ATM. The car needed to be driven too. It's been cloudy here for a few days, but it's a pretty sunny day today. I haven't gotten back to any quilting, but I'm hoping to clean out my machines today, oil the one that needs it, and change the needles. Then I'll be ready to start on some projects. Pat Sloan has started a new quilt along called "Home Is". I'm not planning to do it but I like to look at the blocks and see the pictures of quilter's blocks. Here's a link to block one, which is a cute house block, scroll down to see a few pictures of blocks that have been made already: www.ilovetomakequilts.com/2021/01/free-sewalong-home-is-block-1.htmlShe did a recent sew-along too with Elephant quilt blocks, most of them are posted on the Facebook page, but there is a picture of the two that she made and the link below. They are kind of cute and would make a cute kid's quilt: blog.patsloan.com/www.facebook.com/groups/QuiltWithPatSloan/photos/ - scroll down through the photos to see house blocks and lots of elephant blocks. Take care everyone |
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Post by Ruth on Jan 7, 2021 18:55:54 GMT
Ginny, very well said on the political issues. I wonder why the people that are being very vocal on this protest didn't do the same with the ones that went on all summer or the ones that went on after President Trump's election. But CJ, you're right. How does a place that should be very high security allow huge crowds of people to invade.The so called peaceful protests of this year were actually mass destruction of private property, injuries, people killed, harm to law inforecement and threats on other people's lives.
CJ, thanks for the links to the bread and quilt blocks. And thank you Ginny for mentioning it. It is actually the same recipe I used yesterday only the person didn't call it Amish bread. I tweaked it some and didn't use anywhere near the amount of sugar called for. It turned out great. It looks really good and I sliced some last night and toasted some for dh and it didn't crumble at all.
I did get a little more crocheting done last night but none of the things I need to get done for birthdays. I saw a dishcloth pattern that looked nice so started that because I thought it would be easy...It was made corner to corner (not "the" C2C technique) and when I got to the decrease side the intructions didn't make sense at all because it stated to skip stitches that weren't even in that part of the pattern. She had a video so I went to that and found that directions given there were much different than in the written pattern. I finally got it. I don't even use those kinds of dishcloths but maybe I'll find some more of the same yarn in my stash and can make ddil some potholders in that same pattern and make a set to put with her bday gifts.
the pictures of all those quilts are womderful. The elephant blocks are so cute and I think would make a great baby quilt.
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Post by choney2 on Jan 8, 2021 1:09:31 GMT
Yes!! CJ- that is the bread recipe and it makes an awesome and very reliable loaf of bread as long as your yeast is good. Its a great loaf of bread....so very very good. Give that recipe a try Ruth. thanks for posting it CJ. I actually really like the Pat Sloan house block....so cute!!! I wonder what the rest of the quilt will look like. The elephant blocks are adorable also. Like you , Its shocking to me that the DC police or Capitol police were not able to block the protesters. I pray for the one capitol police officer who is in grave condition....hope that he recovers. And I too was shocked at the lack of security during the summer riots by the White House when I was sincerely concerned for the safety of the President. Hope you got your machines cleaned and ready to go on your next project.
Ruth, its no surprise that you were able to make sense out of some not so good directions and a contradictory video. Think that is a nice idea to make some dish towels /potholders for your DDIL. What a nice way to use up smaller quantities of yarn and make a lovely gift. You are so creative and always willing to try a new pattern.
Watched some news today...most of its disturbing. I did finish the stipple on the baby quilt and cut the binding for it. Got an easy day tomorrow, so I might get the binding completely on tomorrow. This afternoon I finished all the videos I had to watch. So glad that is OVER.
Gonna crochet and watch a movie.
Ginny
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Post by gramma14 on Jan 8, 2021 3:55:34 GMT
After you mentioning your panel baby quilt I suddently remembered that I actually have or had a panel. I wonder if I do really still have it. I'll have to look through my bins of fabric. It was definitely one for making a quilt for a baby boy and since my dgd is having a boy it would be perfect.
On the news same old same old. Not too many people actually think these things out in order to decipher what is truth and what is fiction. They just allow themselves to be led.I didn't know that one of the capitol police was injured. I'll pray for him also.
I went through my cotton yarns today to find some more of the one I made the dishcloth out of and some other that I could use to make a tote bag for one of my dgds. I made that one for the youngest and she really liked it and I think her sister will also. In fact if I have another nice cotton yarn I might make one for another of the grandaughters.I don't really have enough of any one color of nicer cotton but I'll check and see what I can do.
CJ, yes my cars need to be driven also. Many times including today, when I go down to the mailbox I leave it running for awhile when I get back but I think actual driving probably works better.
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Post by choney2 on Jan 8, 2021 20:03:55 GMT
Ruth, were you able to locate that baby panel?  Cotton yarn is nice to work with, I find it less prone to splitting....and would make a lovely purse for a granddaughter. Finished the stipple on the baby quilt. Will see if I can attach a picture. BBL Ginny |
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I have started saving 2.5 inch blocks in the rainbow scrap colors and I'll make a Sudoku quilt later this year with them. 
Cotton yarn is nice to work with, I find it less prone to splitting....and would make a lovely purse for a granddaughter.