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Post by megk31 on Dec 29, 2016 2:38:15 GMT
Hi everyone, I haven't posted for a couple of days. I had a good audio book which kept me busy as I listened and worked on my b/blankets I now have all 4 completely finished and ready to go. I have started another b/blanket I just need a good audio book to keep me working. I can see you all have been busy. Today DS and I along with Devin went grocery shopping.
Ruth, the reason I make so many b/blankets is that we have babies here in our own country who don't have any thing to keep them warm Young mothers arrive at the food closet with babies wrapped in t shirts or whatever they can find. I know people who volunteer at the food closet and they tell me about the people who arrive there for help though their mission is to give them food. I am sure there are babies all over the world who need help and we can each do a little somewhere.
Ginny, I have a problem with my key board which is not very old. I think we bought it in the past year. I think what I have is a sticky key or so my computer tells me. when I hit the letter n I often come up with a b beside the n. Then I have to go back and delete the b. Good lick with your pattern for you b/blanket. I don't enjoy having to follow a pattern anymore often the print is too small so I pretty much stick with patterns that I know by heart.
cj, I love pumpkin pie and I would love to find the WW pumpkin pie that was popular a few years ago. If I dif through my WW stuff I might be able to find it. Making the pie without the crust is a good idea cuts out a lot of carbs and points.
Hope Phyl is well and keeping busy.
Have a good evening.
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 29, 2016 3:28:31 GMT
Meg, you're so right. There are people right here in my own town that are in need so that's why I make the hats and baby blankets that I donate here. Since ddil mentioned it only because she thought I might have a stash of flannel I decided to help there a little too. Someday I might need help.who knows. So I want to help others while I can.
Congrats on getting those baby blankets finished. I have a bunch of them that need only edging but I've been so busy with the Christmas things that I have had time to get to those. I may have to put them next on the list after this shawl and afgan for the grandchildren
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 29, 2016 3:33:36 GMT
Cj, the colors that you mentioned sound really good and I know they're going to look good together. It's a really good idea, too, to keep up on a weekly basis. I've never joined anything like that because I knew i woud fall behind and end up quitting. They have a lot of crochet a longs
I'm going out tomorrow probably. I didn't plan on it but next week is to be pretty cold..colder than tomorrow so we'll go out and get grocery shopping done. We don't really need anything but I think maybe dh just wants to get out for a short time and there are some things we could use
Phyl said she was going to be off the computer for a few days. I hope all is ok
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Post by choney2 on Dec 29, 2016 14:51:54 GMT
Good morning!
CJ, well your quilt colors sound lovely, actually you are using one of my favorite color schemes! It's awesome that you are able to use what you have, which means one of two things.....either that you have cleared up a little more space in your home, or that you have made more room for a fabric run toJoanns! Hope you get your quiet day at Home today. Sounds like this week you have a nice mix of going out and staying in. Happy quilting! And yes, someday one of us will figure out how to post pics here, and then hopefully educate the rest of us!
Ruth,that does indeed sound like a worthy mission.....what a blessing to be able to help those with so great a need! One way to look at your mention of the donation, it does inspire others to think in a charitable way. I do know that we are supposed to in a sense, act in secret, when helping others. I did not see what you posted as being bragging. The other day I saw an interview with Franklin Graham, about the Operation Christmas Child program. I have done a shoe box or two for several years, and am now inspired to want to do even more next year!
Snowing here today. Staying in to crochet.....I switched to the other pattern, which has great instructions, and she even puts up a tutorial to eliminate any questions. It's working up well, and I will stick with that.
Stitch in the ditch, well it's best to use the walking foot for that to allow the machine to glide over all 3 layers (fabric,batting,fabric) without separating them. If you made a quilt from blocks, to stitch in the ditch you would see (top stitch) right over the seam that connects those quilt blocks. It gives a quilted look.....but not something obvious. Stippling is top stitching that is meant to be seen. It can be a pattern of stitching, like feathered look, a paisley, sort of floral, swirls......really anything. It would cover a significantly greater part of the quilt top than sticking in the ditch and is meant to be seen. Some use a complimentary thread....they make some gorgeous variegated threads which are good for stippling. If you were to use a true patterned design stipple, you can either get a machine that programs a stitch in, which would then be done automatically (or send your work out to a long arm quilter who has one of those fancy machines that can be programmed). I figured out how to do a random stipple, which is covering the quilt top with swirls of your own design! It's a hoot......takes a bit of practice to get the hang of, but I would absolutely do it again.
I would be happy to share with any of you a picture of my first and only attempt at stippling.....guess I would have to email it to you.
Enough from me! Hope Meg and Phyl get to check in! Ginny
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Post by choney2 on Dec 29, 2016 16:31:47 GMT
Back again! I see I missed Meg's post.....lots of times I forget to refresh this page before I start blabbing. Meg, sounds like you have been very productive, both in reading and in your crochetting! What a blessing, that you are making all those blankets for those in need. It's truly a labor of love. Hope your day shooting with Devin goes well.
I forgot to mention that the clear quilting foot is used for stippling, whether you are stitching a design (like feathering, paisley....whatever) or just random stippling. The open design of the foot allows you to see both what you have just stitched and what you want to cover. And one thing about stippling. You are directing the machine, not the feed dogs. It helps to practice lots first and then.....relax, listen to music.....some suggest having a glass of wine...chill out (and wear cotton quilting gloves) as you direct the fabric. It's so much fun! Ginny
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Post by cj59 on Dec 29, 2016 18:57:19 GMT
Hello Crafters - Hope you are all having a good day Ginny - thanks for all the information on machine quilting. I sent you a message with my email address if you want to send me a picture I do have both the clear foot and walking foot. I also have gloves, so I'm ready to go I just need to set a schedule for myself to get practice. I'm going to try to make that a priority in 2017 - since I have so many quilt tops! I've watched a lot of videos on machine quilting too, so that really helps. Meg - I'm glad you're doing well and you sound busy with your blankets. I'm sure the people that get them appreciate and enjoy them. Ruth - I hope you get your shopping done today and I know what you mean about getting behind with a group project. I've been in several that I didn't keep up with, so I know myself well enough that I know I have to push to make sure I do things within the required time. I've been folding fabric again today and still have quite a bit to do. But it's really nice to see it all folded up the same size. Once I'm done all the folding, I'm going to organize it by color and theme, and then make a list of projects I want to do. I'm also pulling out fabrics that I really just don't like and can't see myself ever using and I'll give them to my sister-in-law. If she doesn't want them I'll tell her to take them to her quilt guild meeting and I know someone there will take them. Take care everyone.
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Post by megk31 on Dec 29, 2016 21:19:51 GMT
Hello everyone,
I can see you have all been very busy quilting. I just wish I could do it but my eye sight would make it difficult to learn at this point in my life so I will be content knitting and crocheting.
Yesterday after grocery shopping I sat down to knit and I fell asleep. So I got very little done yesterday. Hopefully today I will have more time to knit. I may go and get my hair cut this afternoon.
Ruth, I am now using the pink yarn that you recommended a few weeks ag. It was on sale by Lion Brand. I am knitting a b/blanket with it. I use 2 strands of yarn to make a nice soft warm blanket. My second color is white and a finer yarn than the pink Pound of Love. I bought 4 big skeins of Pound of Love so I am going to get tired of pink though I can vary the second color to make each b/blanket a little different. It will be good for you and DH to get out of the house for a short trip to get groceries tomorrow. I would get cabin fever if I was shut up too long.
cj, I would love to see your quilts I am sure they are beautiful I have someone at church take my b/blankets to the food closet and I never know who gets them and I don' care as ;ong as they are given to someone who needoner. I am told that they are appreciated and that keeps me going. You sound very organized with your projects good for you. I was trying to find some yarn the other day and I was pulling out boxes ad couldn't remember which one I had put it in. I found it in the wicker trunk in my living room.
Ginny, I hope you are making progress with your crocheting and I am glad you found a pattern with good directions.
Have a great day. I will check back later.
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 29, 2016 22:24:51 GMT
Meg, I was looking at all of my pink pound of love and thinking that very thing...that I am sure going to be tired of looking at it. My local Hancock Fabric store is closed now but when open they always gave a discount on the pound of love to I have a lot of other colors too but I think I have about 10 of that pink. Since dgd said she wanted a pink shawl I was thinking of using ithat to make it but I had another pink I thought was prettier and I do think that the pound of love pink will be better used as you're using it...with another color.
CJ yes dh and I got home not too long ago from shopping two stores. We bought way more than I thought we woulld be now we're set in case we can't or just don't feel like going out for awhile. Congrats in getting all your fabric folded as you want it.
Ginny, thanks for explaining a quilting foot. If I ever do get around to doing any quilts I think I might so like my ddil's aunt. She sent my dil and baby quilt and it was tied with really nice thread instead of being officially quilted. My dil says her aunt is a really good quilter and enters her quilts in shows... I'm sure those are quilted normally not with the ties. She makes some wonderful potholders. I don't even know how to do those. I may have to look at youtube.
Meg, it takes a long time for me to get cabin fever I'm happy sitting home for very long periods of time.The night before we're going to go out I feel dread. I just hate to go out. Once out I'm ok with it but just would rather stay home and "do my own thing"
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 29, 2016 22:27:10 GMT
Meg, was the WW pumpkin pie the one point one. I googled "old WW pumpkin pie recipe" and that's what came up... Probably some others too but I didn't look at the whole list.
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Post by choney2 on Dec 29, 2016 23:24:07 GMT
Good evening!
CJ, I sent the picture of the baby quilt to you. The resolution of the camera I used was not too great, but I hope you can see the stippling. It took me about 5 hours to do that, but I was so darned proud of myself! Good for you getting your fabric folded, now it will be easier to decide what to keep and what to donate. Please give stippling a try! Make some mini quilts (just a sandwich of fabric-batting-fabric) and try. I found the Missouri star quilting you tube very helpful. Must have watched it 5 times! Please let me know if you got the picture.
Meg, I cannot blame you for being tired . You were so busy before Christmas, I think your body is asking for a little breather. Surely having Janet that one night was very tiring too.
Ruth, my first quilt I tied! I was just too darned happy to make a quilt and did not want to try anything else. Now I have a funny story....think you will appreciate it. Living in NY state, well our winters are not always kind. (Not as bad as yours though). I use powdered milk for cooking, and of course will use it if we run out of milk and the weather is bad. It's one of those things I have to keep in the house. Dh and I went food shopping the other day, and I could not find powdered milk! I asked for it and, believe it or not, they no longer carry it. What?! (And this is a big food chain) . Guess I will have to stock up on it.....I think it's a sad statement that it is no longer sold there. Glad you got out for a bit.....but I am sure you were happy to get home! Yes, check out YouTube.....lots of quilting help there.
I went nowhere today!😀Got some cleaning done and am now going to crochet. Have a great night, Ginny
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 30, 2016 1:22:49 GMT
Ginny, I used to live outside Buffalo so I know how bad the weather can be in NY and that's not the worst NY weather. Up in the Adirondacks, The southern tier and many other parts of NY have really cold and snowy winter weather. It seems to have slipped my dh's mind, how the weather was back there but I thought it was awful because when it snowed it was always blowing and you couldn't see where you were going. Here that's not the usual case. It does blow and there are white outs but I don't think as often. It's just colder here and also windier. Another good thing is that USUALLY the snow doesn't stay long here. The chinook winds cause it to kind of dry out and blow away. But Yes I also keep dry milk and evap milk in a can and have some emergency coffee creamer. We don't usually use creamer but have it just in case. I did see dry milk in the store today. We got ours from Walmart online and another box that for some reason was marked down at our Kroger store. We usually buy extra milk and keep it in the freezer too.I think it's really strange how much the dry powder milk costs. It used to be very cheap and it's what my mother bought when we were kids to keep costs down. It was considered a poor person's choice. Now it actually,in most cases costs more to buy the powdered than the real milk in quarts or gallons.
I'd also love to see your baby quilt.Do you still have my email address. WEll just in case it's grandkidsrus@live.com
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Post by choney2 on Dec 30, 2016 13:52:03 GMT
Good morning fellow crafters, Ruth, I do remember that you lived in the Empire State. Oh, yes, the Adirondacks do indeed get cold. I remember one year that Dh and a buddy went deer hunting in 'the Racks"- during early deer season in October. I was nice and warm in our home downstate, watching hockey games (I enjoy watching hockey) and crochetting. It actually even snowed a little bit down here, but they got a few inches up at Indian Lake in the Racks. Yes it sure does get cold and windy there....and that is where we are vacationing this year. (Cannot wait to go either!). I had no idea that your snow was a transient as you describe. I would have figured that you would be socked in for months. I started keeping powdered milk in the house as an economic thing. My Dh was raised on a dairy farm, so drinking powdered milk is not an option. But when you cook as much as I do, milk is used a lot and powdered milk works well in most recipes. I started buying powdered. Actually converted my mother to it too....and now our oldest Dd uses it much the same way. But what I love now about it is that it does not go bad, I always have it here....and because of its ease of use, use it in recipes. Also keep canned milk on hand too, which I buy the fat free- and use that in lots of recipes that call for heavy cream. No, it won't whip, but in my Swedish meatball recipe, no one notices the difference in the gravy!
So now you all know I am a bit of a hick......oh well.
Ruth, I will email the baby afghan to you too. Picture resolution is not great, but you can see the stippling if you look closely.
Meg, CJ, Phyl, have a great day!
Oh, I really like the new crochet pattern. Her helper blog got me through a minor snag, and I will continue with this pattern. Ginny
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 30, 2016 21:22:07 GMT
Ginny, I'm so glad the blog worked for you and you're doing good with the crocheting now.
We used to vacation up there almost every summer for years. We mostly went to the Saranac Lake area but also went to Meechum Lake, Tupper Lake and one other place I can't remember the name of right now. We loved it there. The one thing I remember about Meechum Lake is going into town...Malone and eating at a sub shop there that had to have about the best subs in the universe (you see what my priority is on vacations) When we traveled on the one route it took us past Indian Lake and it always reminded me of the song.Have you ever heard it...a long ago teen song about summer love as I remember.
I didn't do any crocheting yesterday. I just kept procrastinating and doing other things and ended up reading a novel online.
I hope you all have a great day and get to do what's relaxing for you.
Oh sometimes we're socked in but for the most part we're not. For example the 12 inches we got on Christmas in just in huge piles now and the really strong wind actually blew it out of our driveway so we were fortunate.
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Post by cj59 on Dec 30, 2016 23:06:01 GMT
Hello Crafters - Hope you are all enjoying your Friday before the holiday weekend
I finished folding all my fabric today, it does look really nice having it in a uniform shape. Now I just need to go through it and organize it and then decide how I want to store it. I did keep some of the collections together, so I wouldn't have to go through everything again just to pull the fabrics I needed.
I do have a lot of fabric, but it's not as much as I really thought I had. But I do need to stop buying more and use what I have.
Ginny - thanks for sending the picture of your quilt, I love the colors, it's so cheerful.
I haven't looked for powdered milk in the store for years, but used to buy it in the past. The grocery store I usually go to has stopped selling lots of items that I like to buy which has made me have to go around to other stores. I used to do this years ago to get the best deals, but now I just like to go to one store and get what I need and be done with it. So I'm a little irritated I have to go to several stores now.
Ruth and Meg - hope you were able to get some crocheting in todat.
Take care everyone.
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 30, 2016 23:43:12 GMT
Ginny, thank you so much for sending me the picture. The blanket is absolutely beautiful. No, I couldn't see the stippling I enlarged the picture and still couldn't see it... my eyes are too old I guess.Still I has happy to see it. Did you make that for your grandchildren?
CJ, it has to feel good to get the fabric all folded so nicely. When you mentioned storing it that reminded me of two people that I used to work with. Man and wife were both nurses and she quilts. He is good at making things around the house so he built in jjust the right sized cubbies for her to store fabric in. I visited one day and she showed them to me. I think the room they were in was originally intended to be the dining room and he put shelves on one end of the room at just the right height for her.., she is short.. and made the compartments and completely across the entire wall so that she had many, many cubby holes to put all the different color pieces of folded fabric in so all she has to do it look at the whole thing and just put some out when she's ready to get her current project together.I imagine that that whole thing could be a problem when they try to sell the house but in the meantime she's, in sure, enjoying the organization of all her fabric.
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