Technology Is Letting Me Down!

I am so sad to be all the way to December 12th, and doing my first post of the month!!  My computer caught a virus, and the repair guy is quite at his wits end as to how to fix me! I am posting this evening on my daughter's laptop. And there'll be no pics as a result.

So a lot has been going on in the 3 weeks since I last posted. We had Thanksgiving. Unfortunately for my son, a sailor in the US Navy stationed in Jacksonville, FL, he fell asleep at the wheel while making the trip to his Uncle Eric's near Tampa. He suffered a concussion, and a total loss on his car. Thankfully, no one else was involved, and he's determined to see the accident as positively as possible. How lucky to come out with only slight injuries!!

Because of his circumstances, (and being so far from Mom and Dad!) I flew down to visit him for a few days after the Thanksgiving traffic settled down. We had a great, albeit limited, time together. I last saw him in March! He looked good, and seemed really glad to have good old mom come for a visit.

I like Jacksonville, too! I felt as though I navigated around the city quite well. I rented a Ford Focus which suited me well, and my hotel was close to my son's home. Since his car was wrecked, I got up early to pick him up and take him to work at NAS -- Naval Air Station. It, too, was conveniently located to both my hotel and Adam's house.

While in Jacksonville, I used the free time I had while Adam was at work to scope out some quilt shops. I have some great pictures to share once my computer situation is rectified. I found 3 shops very close to me and one in particular was very, very nice. I dropped quite a sum of money with that fine establishment!

Unfortunately, I came home from JAX with a terrible cold, which laid me up for about 4 days. I've been playing "catch up" ever since, and finally feel like I'm up to speed today. Did some Christmas shopping with DH today, and did a bit of outdoor decorating, too.

So, for my 13 followers, that is a brief update on my life since the end of November.

My progress on the Thimbleberries Patchwork Snowflake Quilt has been so slow. I've finally got all 30 blocks finished. I am cutting out the setting blocks and the side and corner triangles.  Pictures, soon, I promise!

Merry Christmas!

Two Best Words in the English Language

Every 3rd week of the month, with occasional exceptions around Christmas, the local Ben Franklin store has this sign out front. I've lived here for over 17 years, all the years when my kids were growing up. Whenever we'd pass this sign, I'd point and exclaim, "Ahh, two of the best words in the English language!" (I was brainwashing them.)

Why are there also potatoes on the sign? Interesting thing about our Ben Franklin...it is inside a local grocery. It's quite a unique little set-up. I've only seen it elsewhere in Amish country. But we are not Amish country (although quite a few are relocating here because of the availability of farmland).

But I digress.

The grocery is one of 2 that serves this little town, and this one has been here for generations, from what I've learned. When we first moved  here, a Radio Shack was also housed inside; it has since moved out. The Ben Franklin remains, and is a close-to-home fabric supplier to area quilters who prefer not to drive an hour or more to a larger metropolitan center. The girls who work there are knowlegable and helpful, and learn who their repeat customers are very quickly. One of my favorites retired last year (or has it been 2?), and this store, like most businesses, is reducing workforce to cut costs. The girls sometimes split their time between manning the Ben Franklin and cashiering on the grocery aisles.

Rumors go out every once in a while that the BF corporate office plans to close our little store. So far those have been just that - rumors. I don't buy as much there as I used to, mostly because I have truly reached a saturation point as far as my stash goes. However, I do try to make purchases whenever I can just to help them with customers counts. They carry what they call "flat folds" as very reasonable sale prices, and often one will find some of the top fabric designers on the flat fold table, so it's not inferior quality, at all. They have a very nice variety of homespuns, panels, flannels, Christmas prints, and lots more. For such a tiny part of a big grocery, they are very aware of what the quilters want and/or need.

My plan for today was to clean my sewing room. I did not. (Although the day is not over yet.) I did, however, get 4 more snowflake blocks completed, and I sewed a ton of 4-patch units to finish up the remaining 7 snowflakes yet to be made. Progress is progress, even in fits and starts.

Snowflake block construction

It has been my good fortune the last couple of days to have time for working industriously on my Snowflake quilt. I need 30 blocks and have 5 totally done, and several more in progress. That might seem like a slow pace to some, but I am pleased with that progress. For me, it's remarkable, believe me!

Here are the steps of construction. First, each block needs 4 4-patch units.

Next, there are 4 flying geese units.

Finally, these units are sewn together with a 4-1/2 inch center square in 9-patch fashion.

I am trying a technique I've never tried before on those flying geese units. Customarily, I cut away both excess fabrics when a the corner square is sewn diagonally onto the 2-1/2 x4-1/2 inch rectangle. This time, though, I am just cutting away the middle layer. This leaves the full rectangle intact, and really affords me greater precision when it comes to joining the two geese together with a crisp point. I like that. Since this quilt will most likely be machine quilted, I don't think the extra layer of fabric will make much of a difference, but it makes a huge difference in the accuracy with which my blocks are coming together. Here are a few shots of the flying geese units I've just described.

It's a bit hard to see the stitching on the back of the middle photo, but while I am sewing this step, I can see exactly where I need to place the needle to get the point just right.

One of my rules MUST be to use only the fabric in my stash. I prefer using what I have except in dire circumstances. In digging through the closets, bins, tubs and drawers, I found 2 fabrics that I might use for the alternate blocks and the side and corner triangles (blocks are set on point). Here is what I've decided for now. I figure I have time to change my mind, so it's tentative, but likely, I suppose.
 

The paisley will be the side and corner triangles, while the other will be the alternate blocks. If I change my mind on either, it will be the dot fabric. It is from a Christmas line by Robyn Pandolph by Moda, and while I have no problem with it on it's own, I think I would like to have little navy blue dot clusters as opposed to the green ones.  Also, my neutral in the snowflake block is more gray, and the dot is a bit more beige.
 
The jury is still out. Opinions welcome.

Fabrics in the snowflake:
Navy paisley: Faye Burgos by Marcus Brothers
Neutral: Peace in the Country by Carole Endres and Benartex

Fabric for side and corner triangles:
Paisley: Butternut and Blue by Brackman and Thompson plus Culpepper Courthouse for Moda (what kind of name is that?)