strange day

First fishing-no bites-even went to 2 of our favorite spots. Went to camp to take care of camp kitty, Muskrat. Hung out at the Eagles club looking for Al (Charlie wanted to hire him to help with the lawn.) Grocery store, home. At 4:00, reading today's paper, I saw an ad-"one day only sale thursday apr. 29 at the old Dollar Bazzaar everything $.50". Threw down the paper, raced to the store (It's been closed since 2000), spent $45.00. Decided to stop at the Keystone bar-Charlie was still there. Found out that the daytime bartender had just gone off shift in tears. I had loaned her a blue fox vest. (that I had made from a coat that I had bought at a church sale for $5.00) Her dog had gotten it & chewed a hole in it. I came home, found the pieces that had been leftover when I made it & fixed it-2 hour job, but to be honest, 3/4 hour was spent looking through fabrics to find a compatable lining patch. If the skins haven't become brittle, furs are easy to work on. I plan to wear it to the bar tomorrow morning to show her that everything is OK & nothing to stress about. I lived with too much stress for too many years to get worried about anything like that.

Home made circle stitcher under $1.00

This is my easy substitute for a circular stitcher. Start out by poking a thumb tack through a piece of template plastic at least 2" x 2". Place the tack the radius of your circle away from the needle (here 2.25" for a 4.5" circle)

Tape the plastic down.

Starch your fabrics very heavily or iron to freezer paper if you prefer. poke the tack through the centers of the fabric & with needle & presser foot up, rotate the fabric to make sure it stays under the needle.

VERY IMPORTANT!! cover the point of your tack with an eraser or a cork. (This helps to keep blood off your project.

Making sure your fabric doesn't creep toward the tack, do a straight stitch. The fabric will pivot on the tack & make a perfect circle.

Leaving the fabric on the tack, with needle up, lift the presser foot & trim away the excess fabric, pivoting as you trim.

Set your machine for a satin stitch & go around again covering your raw edge.

Finished circle-use as is or cut into 1/4s for drunkards path.

Quilt preview

This is what I've been working on this weekend. It won't get done, but I have a good start on it.
First the pattern-that I modified with EQ6. It's not exact-just a working plan -there are more & better colors.

These are the fabrics:

weekend plans

I was looking forward to this weekend. Charlie was supposed to go on a fishing trip Fri-Sun & I had planned to spend the whole weekend piecing a quilt. He decided that he wasn't going. I told him what I had planned & he said there's no need to change your plans. We'll see if he sticks to that. I've had 8 different color 1 yard pieces of fabric marbled with gold metallic. for about 9 months. I wanted to use a pattern with largish pieces to show off the marble. I finally found a pattern that I want to do. I'm adding a solid (non-metallic) gold fabric & using a very modern looking pattern from the Easy Quilts magazine that I got in the mail this week. I'm only going to use about 1/2 yard of each marble, so I'll still have some to play with. I'm off to clear the cutting table.

new cat tat

Look at my new cat. We went to a Tattoo party at a local bar. I wasn't going to get another, but I decided that I liked this one. Charlie got an airborne patch on his left shoulder, so he'll be partly in uniform even when naked.

Hummer H2 vs Dodge Ram

No no no. For the last time-it wasn't Charlie who played tug of war with an H2 & someone's Ram in the parking lot of the Eagle's Nest Bar. (For the record, I've been told that the Hummer dragged the Ram all over the lot.)

No, this was a much more mundane contest.
Charlie backed into my pickup truck with our Hummer. 1st the damage to the Hummer:Poor Hummer-needs a little buffing. Now look at my poor Ram:

He's promised to have it fixed. I'm not too upset. A few dents on a 14 year old truck is to be expected.

Hummer

Hummer