a THIRD posting today......whew!!!

Okay....I have never done 3 posts in a day, but the circumstances the past two days have required extra messages. I just checked my Facebook page and see the message I'll reprint below from Barb (Bejeweled Quilts by Barb) who is a good blogging friend who lives in American Samoa. I know many of you have also been worried about her.......I think she posted this several hours ago, but I am not on Facebook very often. Anyway I guess her email provider is down and she can't use email, so this is what she posted through her Facebook account.....

A big thank you to all of you who have left comments on facebook and my emails. I can't respond on email because for me, it takes forever or not at all.....we are doing good....there are those who are not.

2nd post for today...HELP a fellow quilter......

Earlier today, my post mentioned the hardship that has befallen Terry's family. (Look back one post to read that if you didn't already read it.) One of her blogging friends has an idea of something to do for Terry. Click HERE to read about it. I intend to participate by sending a block...will wait a day to see if colors are decided or if it's to be totally scrappy AND I'm going to include a couple of dollars. Nobody asked for the money, BUT...I'm sure it can be used...either towards getting the quilt top assembled and quilted OR to give the money to Terry. She has kids still in school and a husband in the hospital an hour from home and now will lose his regular paycheck for awhile....so I'm sure every little bit we can do will help. Quilters are known for their willingness to help others and we often do it for people we don't know.....so I'm only too happy to do this for someone as kind and caring as our blogging friend, Terry. Won't some of you go read the link I gave above and join me in this effort??? (Her friend is giving a prize...and that is pictured here. I'm not really interested in the prize...but I sure am interested in anything we can do to let Terry know we care.) OH..and her friend is hoping maybe a longarmer will read about this and donate his or her services to quilt the top for Terry so that expense can be spared.......if you are a longarmer who might be interested, let Terry's friend know when you click on that link above. UPDATE: colors have been decided.....reds, blues, yellows, browns as Terry's love is "country". The quilt will be a "scrappy love" quilt.

News about fellow bloggers........

Some of you may follow a blog called Terry's Treasures. Yesterday she posted about a terrible workplace accident her husband had suffered and he needed to have his leg amputated below the knee. Click HERE to read her blog. I'm sure, as fellow quilters, we will all send her the prayers and caring support she will need over these next difficult weeks and months. While I love how the world online has let us feel close to each other, at times like this, I find it frustrating not to live closer because I'd like to help Terry with laundry or cooking or doing things her kids need done for them so she could spend more time at the hospital.

I'm sure, too, that many of you follow a blog called Bejeweled Quilts By Barb (click HERE for that blog). She and her husband are currently living in American Samoa because of his job and you may have heard that yesterday there was a significant earthquake there and then a tsunami. Several of us were worried and were in contact with each other...and then Tonya shared the good news that Barb got word to her that she was fine but was having internet problems. (I'm going to assume there are power outage problems after a quake and a tsunami.)

Please keep both these fellow quilters in your thoughts and prayers!

I leave you with two photos from my yard. This first one shows my black-eyed Susan plant in the spring when I bought it and planted it by our fence. It was a hardy plant...about 15 inches tall when this photo was taken.....a few flowers and several buds and lots of green leaves.Here is the same plant as of Monday. It's the first time we planted this, but I am sure I'll buy one each year as I love how well it grew. The leaves always looked lush and it got thousands of beautiful yellow flowers over the course of the summer. In fact, I think I'll get 2 or 3 of them next year and cover the entire fence along the backyard with it!!!

Mosaic 3 block.....

Here is another block for the SBS (Sylvia's Bridal Sampler) quilt. It is called Mosaic 3 and it is the first one I've done from the book that is paper pieced. I really enjoy doing paper-piecing....so this was a fun block for me to do and I'll look forward to the remaining blocks that are paper pieced. The applique blocks will prove to be the toughest for me...and I really should choose one of them and do it soon (or I'll be left with ONLY applique blocks at the end). I hope you won't get bored of seeing blocks I'm doing from this book posted here. Since there are 140 of them and this is only the 11th one I've shown, there is a LONG way to go yet. :-)

Tomorrow, I'll think of something different to post, okay?

Update on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler blocks.....

Someone asked how many blocks, in total, are in the "Sylvia's Bridal Sampler"quilt. There are 140 in the book. The photo below shows the 10th block I've completed. It's called "Milky Way". Below that is a photo of the first 10 blocks I've made. (They are all the same size...just don't look like it from the angle of this photo.) They won't be in this order when the quilt is put together...I'm making the blocks in random order. I'll use some kind of sashing...not sure what color yet....will have to see what looks best since all the blocks are scrappy. So far, it's all been from my stash (and I'm happy about that.)

Instead of sewing yesterday...........

I went to the Saturday Nascar race with hubby and two friends of ours. We have made this a tradition now each September and we have a fun day. We have had all kinds of weather there...and sometimes all kinds of weather in the SAME day. At least the rain held off yesterday until the race was finished...and "our guy" in this race (Brad Keselowski for any of you who might follow Nascar) did well.....came in third and drove a good race. We enjoy listening to the driver and crew communications on our headsets...and have really grown to appreciate the mental accuity of drivers and crew........as well as the physical endurance required of the drivers to sit in that uncomfy position for hours and to stay so focused while driving at such a high rate of speed. I know many poke fun at Nascar, but it's a clean sport and the participants are all clean-cut family men.......more than can be said for many other professional sports nowadays. One of my favorite parts of the race is during pre-race when the National Anthem is sung and there is always a fly-over by military aircraft...it gives me the chills and brings tears to my eyes....and today there was a group of spectators not far from our seats who unfurled a HUGE American flag during that. (ESPN2 put it on the TV as it was very nicely done.) Below are just a few photos from our day...and tomorrow I should have more block photos to show you from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book.

See those two gals waving in the top row (right under the fancy, expensive sky-box seats)? You might need to click to enlarge it and see us. That's me and my friend Linda (no blog). We love those seats...used to have seats a bit lower but worked our way up to there.....right near the start/finish line and across from pit road....wonderful view of everything from there...and we don't bother anyone if we get excited about something and jump to our feet...which we have been known to do!
And here we are again......we get there early enough to see the "big name" drivers do two practices for their Sunday race....which is why nobody is sitting nearby yet. (Most wait and get there later but we like to see them and hear them on the scanner, too.)Here is one of the members of Steve Wallace's pit crew catching a bit of a rest during a lull in the action (before qualifying runs began). It wasn't very noisy then, but I suspect these guys have learned to rest even when there is noise....I just thought this was too funny not to snap a picture of it.
The last two photos show you part of the view from our seats. The nice building across the track is the Dover Downs Hotel complex. I often wonder on the two race weekends if there are some staying there who did not know it was race weekend.....bet THAT would be a shock with all the crowds and the noise.

I really don't want to tell you about this, but.......

I will tell you that Silver Thimble (Pat) is having a very nice giveaway. Click HERE if you wish to read about it and enter...and tell her I sent you, okay? Actually, I really didn't want to tell you as I wanted there to be fewer entries so I'd have a better chance to win...but then I decided that would be mean of me!!! So......there you have it....go enter.

AND...if that isn't enough for you, Gene Black (click HERE for his blog) is having a 250th post giveaway. You can also read about the wonderful new member of his family in that post. (And....by commenting, you can effectively reduce my chances to win in that giveaway, too.....*sigh*.....LOL)

Here is a block I made yesterday for the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. I now have 9 blocks completed. (Big deal, huh? Considering there are a LOT of blocks in the whole quilt, I am progressing quite slowly. *sigh*) The points aren't as bad as they look here....the print has some light color in it and the light color fell right at the corner in a few places...making it look like the points are really off, but...again....if anyone looks that closely when the quilt is done and dares to comment, I will throw them out of the house!!! heheheToday we are off with friends to the Saturday Nascar race in Dover (called the Nationwide race now). We have fun and it's a very family-oriented day and not so crowded as it is on Sunday for the main race. I'll post a few photos tomorrow. If you follow Nascar and were wondering, I have a few favorites in the Nationwide race today........Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski, and Martin Truex, who will race it since this is his "home" track (and probably favor them in that order). Now if Dale, Jr., Mark Martin, and Tony Stewart were in this race, I'd have different favorites!

Heading to school......

This happy face is my little granddaughter when I drove her to school yesterday morning. (Click to enlarge.) Isn't she cute? Can you tell she was happy to have me drive her there? It was fun to see her classroom and meet her teacher...and to have her "teach" me some of the things she has been learning in kindergarten. (In case you are wondering, the big bag of pretzels is her contribution to all the special snacks they will have today to celebrate Johnny Appleseed's birthday........pretzels was something the teacher suggested to me so I dropped them off with Jessi yesterday.) Tomorrow I may have some "quilty" photos to show. I looked over my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book on the ferry ride and decided on the next several blocks I'd like to make...so, hopefully, I'll get at least one of them done today and can have it here to show you tomorrow.

Anyone have (or know about) the Janome Memory Craft 5200 machine?

I got home this afternoon and found I had gotten a letter from Janome...saying the machine I had is one with a "unique threading system that is unlike our other models". (I feel they never put it in other models as it's a system with a flaw in it...but...of course, that isn't being said but I've found many had this same problem, so I suspect that to be the case.) Anyway....they said they have been in contact with my dealer and she explained that they replaced the initial machine, gave lessons....and blah...blah...blah. They said I cannot get a refund BUT I can exchange it for the Memory Craft 5200 that they say "has a comparable stitch package to the MC4900QC" that I have found problematic. I looked it up online and it appears to be comparable....not sure if it's in the same price range. I will think about this for a few days...and...in the meantime, if any of you know of this machine, please let me know. I will also look online for reviews about it. Initially, it looks as if it may be a slight upgrade, but I'm not totally certain. Thanks to all of you who wrote letters on my behalf...I believe we caused them to sit up and take notice as it was their Customer Relations Supervisor who sent me the letter with a CC going to their CEO (to whom I had directed my complaint...along with YOUR letters).

Heading home later this a.m.

I expect to be heading home on the 11 a.m. ferry out of Cape May this a.m. I will drop little Jessi at school around 8:30 and then make the 90+ minute drive to the ferry terminal. The nice thing about the ferry is......once I get to the terminal, I can just relax and also on the boat...and when I get off in Lewes (Delaware), I only have about a 12 mile ride home from the ferry terminal. I"ve been awake since 3:30....so I'm tired and will probably need an afternoon nap today! Thank you for the continued prayers for my daughter.......she is still having some major issues with the knee and I hope she "turns the corner" with that soon.

A Tara update....

I had blog troubles here earlier but now can update. The doctor spoke to me about 3 p.m. after her surgery and said he isn't really concerned. (I was nearly frantic by then.) I asked if it was a cyst and he said it wasn't, but he knew it wouldn't be as that would have showed as a cyst on the ultrasound. He said what he removed looked like breast tissue but it is, of course, going to pathology and he'll have the full report by the early part of next week. He said that, quite frankly, he is much more concerned about her knee from last week's surgery. I am thinking he would not have said that if he had any real doubts about this lump's pathology...he would have been a bit more vague, perhaps.as he has done a lot of breast lump and breast cancer work over the course of the past 16 years and I suspect he has a pretty good accuracy rate of knowing what he is looking at when he removes tissue. So...of course, I'll worry until the full report is back, but that seems to be encouraging and I'll take that for now. I want to thank all of you who wrote so many wonderful comments of support and offered your prayers. Please keep them coming that she may be restored to full health as soon as possible....with the knee, too. She is really trying to be back at work by Monday...and I hope she's able to do that. (Physical therapy can be done right there on her lunch hour...so that will help a lot.)

No picture but a good blog link today.....

Today is the day my daughter gets the lump removed from her breast and I am hoping and praying it is benign. Please keep this in your prayers...as it's a worrisome time for us, as you can imagine.

I don't have any photo for you today, but I stumbled upon a blog recently that shows a really incredible quilt. The gal takes you through her whole thought process (which is pretty extensive) and then shows the quilt....which is unbelievably wonderful, in my opinion. The gal has visited Egypt many times (due to her husband's job and where she has lived) and that was the inspiration for her quilt....and I just had to put the link here for you to go see. When you get to the bottom of that blog post of hers, I think you will be amazed at her quilt, too. Click HERE to read about it and see it.

On my way to.......

By the time most of you read this, I will be on my way to (or IN) New Jersey. Tomorrow my daughter is having surgery to remove the breast lump that was found in June. The first doctor said to wait 6 months. She was advised by the breast cancer support group at the hospital where she works to get a second opinion. The second-opinion doctor (who is very proactive in women's breast health issues) said at HER age, no waiting should be done. She is 27. He said at that age, it is too risky to wait. So.....we are hoping and praying for a good outcome tomorrow. (I'm guessing we won't have results for another week or so...not too sure about the timing on that.) I have a couple of blog posts set to show while I'm in NJ....and I will probably have computer access for a little bit each day while there....so if I learn anything new, I'll let you know. Until then, please think good thoughts for us, okay? (And please excuse the fact that I most likely won't be able to comment on many blogs for the next few days, either.)

A fun birthday giveaway .......

Click HERE to go to a fun giveaway and read a fun blog, too....and to wish her a happy birthday, of course. Please mention that I sent you (so I can get one additional entry for the giveaway...even though you want to win it, I know!) Here are photos of the items in this giveaway....NICE, huh?

Fabric with rose panels......

A charm pack of Kaffe Fassett fabrics......Remember to mention I sent you when you go enter this giveaway, okay?

A miniature quilt in progress.....

I am making this miniature quilt right now. It is going to be donated to a quilt guild when I go to their meeting on Thursday night. (There is a quilt show every 2 years and they have a silent auction of mini's. Each guild puts several into the show...and the minimum bid is $10 per mini....so they can make a nice little profit on them.) I am going to hand quilt this over the next couple of days. The whole thing measures about 11 inches by 13 inches. I think it should enlarge if you click on it....so you can see the "shoo fly" blocks in greater detail. I know I didn't get a couple of the points to show just perfect, but...the prints are pretty busy, so maybe that won't matter. I hope someone will like it enough as a fall decoration to bid on it at the silent auction in October!

First day of school photos (better late than never)...

OOPS.....I just realized I never put any of the grandkids' first-day-of-school photos on here. I had put them on Facebook, but I wanted my blog followers to see them, too. Better late than never, right?

Here is the kindergartener on her first day of school....I asked her mom if she took before AND after photos of the hairdo. She did not, but she said it looked pretty wild by the end of the school day!!! I can just imagine......And here is the 4th grader on her first day.....I'm thinking her hair didn't get quite as wild by the end of the day! (You know.....4th graders are so much more sophisticated than kindergarteners!)

I promise...........last photo of this until it's totally done!

Okay....here are the last 2 photos I'll show of this star tesselation quilt until it's totally completed. The first photo shows it with the borders on it and 4 of the stars spilling out into the border....I like that effect....click on it to see it closer. The second photo shows part of the quilt from the back. My good blogging buddy, "Crispy", commented to me about how hard it is to hand-quilt things with lots of seams (as she is a hand-quilter). I wanted her to see the seams in THIS "puppy". I am thinking I will hand quilt it since it's not huge and I think that will be better than trying to machine quilt it (especially since I stink at machine-quilting!!!) Now after this post, I won't bother you with this quilt again until it is totally completed, okay? (But thanks for looking one more time!)Crispy...are you loving all these seams? Guess I better not make a pieced, fancy backing for this one, huh? (Or I'll really have a hard time hand-quilting it!)

It's been a rough day.....

It has been a rough day here for a variety of reasons.......not going to bore everyone with the details of all the stresses of the day for me. But I do want to mention it is 20 years ago today that my mom (seen in the photo above tucking me and my sister into bed) died of cancer at the age of 64. I know many of you have lost parents or other loved ones. For me, it often seems like it's a lot LONGER than 20 years since she died and I have to struggle to vividly recall my memories of her (which really bothers me)....and once in a great while, it seems like it can't have been 20 years already. Do others have the similar feelings about this?

Janome problems' update......and daughter's surgery update...

As an update to the continuing problems with my Janome, I want to let you know the tally of what I sent to the Janome CEO. The envelope was quite heavy, thanks to the many of you who feel so badly for me and have rallied to support me. There were 29 letters in the envelope (in addition to my cover letter). The letters were from 14 states and 3 countries. The states represented were: Alabama, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. I will, of course, let you know what response (if any) I get in regards to this mailing. I hope I can soon tell you that Janome stepped in and took care of the situation. In the meantime, I think it would be wise to continue to warn people in the market (now or soon) for sewing machines that they might want to be wary of Janome until they determine if the company stands behind their product to the point of going to bat for their customers when a machine exhibits continuing problems. As someone said in their email to me....a product is only as good as the customer service that stands behind that product!!! I thank all of you who are concerned about this on my behalf and want to see this sad situation come to a happy resolution. I am not trying to get another machine from them....I want my money back, pure and simple, as (based on my experience this past 6 months) I just don't trust Janome to BE there when needed if a machine has chronic, persistent problems!

My daughter had an allergy to the painkiller they gave her and that's been straightened out, but she also had some bleeding (that should not have occurred) so she has to go in and have it drained today. Apparently, this does happen for some people and I guess it will set her back a few days with physical therapy and her return to work, but I'm hoping the rest of her recovery goes smoothly. Thank you to all who have expressed concern about her and been keeping her in your thoughts and prayers. Okay...next....

I did get two more of Gyleen's quilt photos to lighten up enough to show them here. First is the main side of the quilt (one of the old ones she acquired and finished for her book....that I spoke about yesterday). And the second photo is of the back side of that quilt....with Gyleen's creativity showing on how she makes her quilt backs look great, too.

My wonderfully fun class on Monday.....

I absolutely LOVED my class with Gyleen Fitzgerald on Monday. (Click HERE for her website.) She gave a lecture first at our guild meeting on her newest book.....Quilts: Unfinished Stories with New Endings (which you can see on her website). She had ALL the quilts from the book there to show us and to describe how she finished them for the book. (She had acquired them in various stages of completion and some went back to the 1920's). It was a fun and fascinating talk. She sure keeps everyone's attention. This first photo is one of the quilts....the front of it.......and then the back....Gyleen does backs that can actually be used as fronts.......and each one is terrific.I took several photos of quilts but overshot my flash on some of them......and wish I hadn't as some of them were better shots than these previous two. Next is a photo of 3 of us who made blocks for the quilt by which we are standing. It is a quilt Gyleen has featured in one of her tiny books (In This House) as well as she has a pattern for it. In the photo (left to right) are me, Kaye (click here for her blog), another gal from guild named Pat (no blog) and Gyleen. My block, in case you were wanting to know, is in the 3rd row from the top...2nd block from the left...a yellow house with a cat in the window.
Below, Gyleen is holding a top made from the blocks from the free Block of the Month she designed that may be found on her website. It is based on tiles.......pretty crisp-looking. I may decide to make these, because we all know I don't have enough projects already in progress. hahahahaHA I didn't think to ask Gyleen if the fabrics in this are any of her hand-dyes...as she does beautiful hand-dyes (on top of being a writer, designer, teacher AND holding down a fulltime job as some kind of engineer, I believe). I wish I could bottle her energy...that's for sure!
The last photo (below) shows my project from class........no borders yet. It's Gyleen's Batik Star Tesselation pattern.....REALLY a fun pattern once you get the hang of it....and easy, too (again, once you understand how to do it). I am NOT one to do lots of colors...I usually pick one safe colorway and everything is pretty much "matchy-matchy" but I trusted Gyleen and took chances with this and like it a lot so far....although I will be the first to admit it is really WILD. (Nothing like a scrappy batik to look wild, I guess.) I will show it again once I get the border fabric chosen and done (and I am going to spill a couple of stars out into the border the way she showed us to do it). As I have told you before, if you ever get the chance to hear her speak or take a class from her, go DO it. (I think she may be at the Houston show teaching this year...unless that was last year and time has just flown by!!! LOL) Check out her website, too (at the link above). If you take a class from her, she provides support to you via telephone and email until you are done with the project, so you are not left dangling with unanswered questions...which is terrific. I am currently picking her brain about borders for this piece! Gyleen...if you are reading this, thanks for being such a super quilt designer and teacher (and lecturer).

UPDATE on daughter's surgery....

UPDATE on daughter's surgery: SHE called me herself while her husband was driving her home....surgery went well but a lot more damage to the kneecap than expected so lasering had to be done in there. Heavy-duty painkillers and ice for 48 hours....PT to start on Friday.....weight-bearing as tolerated after today......should be okay to return to work in 1 week. Thanks for the prayers and good thoughts on her behalf.

Daughter's surgery today.....

Today...at 2 p.m. (eastern time) our daughter is to have tendon release surgery on her left knee. It's, supposedly, a minor procedure and she has a very good orthopedic surgeon (was once a team physician for the Pittsburgh Steelers) and it's being done at the hospital where she works......so.....I have a lot of confidence all will be well. She will be on crutches for a few days and off work until next Monday. Hopefully, there won't be a lot of pain and difficulty with her recovery. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

As promised, below are a few photos at the place where we had our church picnic on Sunday afternoon....at Camp Arrowhead (the Episcopal Diocesan camp) on Rehoboth Bay. It was a very nice day and ended with a worship service in the chapel building at the camp. Tomorrow I'll show some photos from the FUN class I took yesterday with Gyleen Fitzgerald. If you ever get the chance to hear her lecture and / or take a class with her, DO IT!!! She is wonderful. I did a lot more on my quilt from the class last night...so I didn't get to read many blogs yesterday (sorry about that). I'll try to catch up later today.

Later today I also expect to get a mailing out to Janome. Thanks SO much to all who sent letters of support!!! Now....here are the church picnic photos.

The crowd lounging in their chairs near the food tables and the grill...burgers, hot dogs, and all kinds of yummy "potluck" dishes. I made a huge batch of cole slaw and then FORGOT to take it with me....DUH!!! (Guess you know what we are eating a LOT this week.)
A couple of the campers' cabins. I'm not sure how many they have...but it's quite a few...as they have a large summer sleepover and day camp program.Several of the kids (and a few adults) took a swim. They said it was refreshing. We'd had some chilly nights, so I think it was probably, truthfully, COLD. The bottom is painted green....the water is not turning green!A couple of brave souls went swimming in the bay. I don't think anyone took any of the little boats out or played archery. Some hiked around the trails that go through the woods. We saw a black snake slither by when we first got there, so I wasn't about to go hiking!!! I am not a snake person at all.This is the folk group members getting ready to sing. They sang and played for the church service at the end of the picnic. Hubby is the guitar player all the way to the right in the photo. He was playing bass guitar that day.

A QUILT being given away......

Of course, I hope I win this quilt, but......in fairness, I'm sending you over to check it out, too. Go HERE to see it and find out how to enter to win. Melinda is a sweetie to have such a wonderful prize, isn't she???

(I will blog about the church picnic tomorrow.)

Today I am taking my batik star tesselation class with Gyleen Fitzgerald....will post about that soon, too.

Hooray for yard sales.......

Oh, I know Barb in American Samoa is going to feel bad as she SO misses going to yard sales, so I apologize to her.....but...I have to tell you about my adventures yesterday with 2 friends.......Linda and Pat A (both blogless). We usually have another gal, Ruth, with us but she is away for a few days. We were having a disappointing morning and then things turned around and got better. Linda got a set of 3 LOVELY floral prints (matted and in frames and under glass) for a few dollars (can't recall the exact cost). Pat A got a great Ethan Allen table (with 2 leaves) and 6 upholstered chairs for her daughter's new apartment for just $100 AND the seller drove the items to Pat's house. (She and her husband will get their pick-up truck down here in October and transport the items back to their daughter's place in MD). I got several small items...the best buys are pictured below. I've not been able to go to yard sales the past several weeks, so it was fun to go this weekend. Today we have the church picnic at the Delaware Episcopal camp (Camp Arrowhead) on one of the bays near our house...it's a great location and the weather is supposed to be fairly nice. I'll get some photos and blog about that tomorrow. Now for the photos of my 3 best buys at the yard sales.....

This basket is going to be great to store lots of little notions neatly on top of one of the dressers in my sewing space. It was just $1...which I thought wasn't bad.....will leave the plastic liner inside so no sharp notions can escape (or put a hole in the basket).Next is a nice-sized basket to hold scraps (or a project that is in progress). I'd have been happier if it had a lid, but it's okay that it doesn't. It was $3...another fair price, I thought.I got these 2 pieces of fabric for 50 cents each. The plaid is a 2-yard piece and the other is a little more than 1 yard. You know I was happy with all that fabric for just $1 total. I just realized there is one more thing I'll show.....when I take a photo of it....a piece of Mexican pottery that cost me just 35 cents. I'd like to try to get info on it from the markings on the bottom of the piece, if possible. I'll try to photograph that later today and post about it soon.

Have you ever "Thangled"???

Recently, when I was making a half-hearted attempt to sort through my drawers of sewing "stuff" (you know how that goes)....I came across 3 packs of Thangles. I had forgotten I had them. They were in 3 different sizes. Last night, I decided to take out the package of 3" (finished size) Thangles and start to make something with them. I cut out strips and made 20 half-square triangles in no time at all using this method. I'm not sure yet what I'm making....but my half-square triangles will be looking really good...that's for sure! (And it's fun to work with these....trickiest thing is peeling the paper off but there is an easy way to do that, too.) Oh...if any of you were still intending to send me emails about my machine woes, I am hoping to get that packet ready to mail on Monday or Tuesday, so I hope you'll be able to get those emails to me before then. Thanks to the 14 of you who have already written to me.

We are NOT in storage any longer......

uBefore I start my actual post...let me say that I hope we are all recalling today the very tragic events our country suffered 8 years ago. We lived in an area of NJ that was hit very hard with several deaths...and lived in an area where on a clear day we could go to one part of town and see the NY skyline.....which forever changed that day. My thoughts are with the many families whose lives were altered beyond belief that day.

And, in contrast, this post seems to have very little meaning, but we need to carry on...right? So I will tell you that all our things are now out of the storage pod and back in the house. The restoration firm did a wonderful job of cleaning both rooms from top to bottom and also the furniture and knick knacks, etc. as it all came out of the pod. The rooms look very nice...one piece of trim to be done yet in the bathroom. I am writing this on Thursday night (to post early on Friday morning) and am totally exhausted as I woke up at 3 a.m. when the power went off in the area...and was off until 5 a.m. I passed some of that time by riding around in my car to see if I could find signs of the power company at work. I didn't....just saw a state trooper pulled in a hidden spot looking for speeders (of which there weren't too many in this retirement-laden area at 3 a.m.!!!!!)

So....I'm too tired to do many photos right now...but below is a quick one I just took showing one of the two bedroom windows (bad angle, I know). I made the valance...kind of hard to see clearly unless you click to enlarge it, but it's the same fabric as the throw pillows I made and showed here the other day and...trust me, it looks nice. I also made the little wall-hanging you see in the photo (using some of the fabric from the curtains and throw pillows). The good old Disappearing 9 Patch strikes again....made on my Husqvarna, of course!!! AND...thanks to the 13 of you who already sent me supportive emails about my Janome lemon. If you have the time, go back to yesterday's post and read the amazing story of Tracy's Janome...same model as mine...in a comment she left on yesterday's post for me......it's worth a read, I promise you as she tells me something "amazing". I know a few more said they are sending me emails, too. I hope to have at least 20 by the end of the weekend....and more would be excellent, of course!!!

My Husqvarna has been a busy bee!!!!

Yesterday my Husqvarna sewed curtains beautifully for me (while my non-reliable, often-times malfunctioning Janome had to be taken back to the dealer). My Husqvarna also made another block for my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt......yup...my old trusty Husqvarna with no fancy features didn't act up ONCE......and let me have some relaxing sewing time (which I've not had lately thanks to my wicked Janome). Here is a photo of the newest block...a simple one.....the Shoo Fly block. If you look back over the blocks I've made so far, you can see I am truly making this be a scrappy quilt. So far, I've only used fabrics from my stash (and some were even in my SCRAP basket!!!)

I must say...I am really grateful for the words of support I am receiving from so many of you. It helps to ease the extreme hurt and frustration and stress I am feeling over this Janome situation....and I'm hoping it can help bring about a satisfactory solution to my problem, too.

Callling all my blogger friends......

A rare second post (in one day) from me......Kaye and I went to the dealer with my Janome. When we walked in the door, the sales/repair gal said, "Are you ready to sit and sew for me?" I thought she was joking, but she actually wanted me to sit and sew UNTIL the machine acted up right in front of her. I have told them it's an intermittent problem and sometimes it happens in as little as a few hours...and sometimes not for many hours. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well....if you don't sew here and I don't see it happen, I can send it to our repair shop but they can't sit and sew on it and they will just not find anything again like last time and send it back to you again." She then proceeded to tell me how nobody else has ever had this problem and that when I had the problem in March, they gave me a new machine and sent THAT machine to Janome, who checked it out and found nothing wrong with it and now it's back on their sales floor and works fine. Are they saying I am making this UP??? Do they think I want to drive 40 minutes each way repeatedly for no reason at all???? Nobody seems to understand that this problem only happens occasionally, BUT...it shouldn't happen at all. On one hand, the gal was telling me I should NOT have been told to expect this to happen when I picked up my "new" machine in March (and she spoke to the gal who told me that...who claims she didn't say that). THEN...in the next breath, she was telling me herself not to worry about it if it happens....basically to ignore it and rethread it, which seems to be the same thing the other gal told me in March. Kaye was with me and pointed out on the way home how this gal was a master at double-speak. The gal told me flat-out that I will NOT be given a new machine....that they did that in March (which I still don't believe they did, by the way). A refund seems to be out of the question, too. I was not happy with this...sat and sewed for about 15 minutes and told her this was ridiculous....that I could sit there for 6 hours and have nothing happen but that I'd leave it with them as the machine was of NO use to me when I can't trust it to be reliable and am fearful every time I sit down with it that it will do this jamming thing again.

SO.........at this point, I would like to ask those of you who offered support to contact me via email (my email is on my profile here on the blog). I will needyour help so Janome knows that people are WATCHING the sad story of my bad luck with this machine.....and I think there is an easy way to do this. If you are one who is willing to participate in this effort, email me and I'll send you my idea of how to coordinate the effort so it is most effectively heard at Janome headquarters. I was near to tears today in the store about this....and quite angry, too. This just is NOT right. Maybe nobody else has ever had this problem, but....there is a first time for everything, right????? And..."lucky" me to be the "first" one to have these problems. *sigh* I appreciate the help and support so many of you are willing to give me.

Rescued by my Husqvarna Viking......

Oh, yes...haven't given a house report lately. The inside work is going well...master bedroom done now (except for cleaning). Master bathroom could be done today. Then both rooms will be cleaned and the things will come out of the storage pod and the rooms will be put back together....possibly Friday, but for sure by Monday afternoon at the latest. YAY!!!!

I used my Husqvarna machine and easily finished the block I showed yesterday that I was doing when my Janome jammed again. I also did two other blocks with the Husqvarna. (No thanks to Janome!!!) All 3 of those blocks are pictured below.

I called the Janome dealer shortly after 10 yesterday morning....was told she wasn't in yet but she'd call me back. A little after 3, I finally got a call from another of the gals who works there...saying the dealer (who also does repairs) was busy all day and that I should take the machine in there today...that it obviously needs repairs. Kaye has kindly said she'll go with me again. I hope the two of us can make it clear that this machine seems to be a lemon and needs to be replaced. We have taken the suggestion of some to put a mark of some sort on the machine in an obscure place so we can tell if they really DO replace the machine...wish I'd done that in March, as I don't really believe they DID replace the machine then. They said they did but didn't give me a machine in a factory box......so that seems kind of odd. I have already drafted a letter and have it in my files to send to the CEO of Janome America if I don't like how this goes today....or in the days ahead. Okay...now for my 3 block photos from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler book I got last week.....I think they will all enlarge if you click on them. I'm having fun using only stash (at least so far). It will be scrappy in a wide variety of colors, but I'll tie it together eventually with sashing and borders.

First is the completed Barrister Block....part of which was nearly "eaten" by my Janome when it jammed on Monday night.....
Next is Broken Dishes.......had trouble with one area and points not meeting, but I don't get too stressed about perfection. When the quilt is finished, if anyone sees that part and comments on it, I will simply throw them out of the house!!! LOLThis next one is called Dutchman's Puzzle.

PART of another block for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler....

I had hoped to show you the completed Barrister's Block from the Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. However....when I was partway through the block, my non-reliable, year-old Janome once again acted up and jammed. I had only fully completed the top left section of the block....as you can see in the photo. The rest is still in bits and pieces. I was too disgusted to set up my back-up RELIABLE Husqvarna. (I hadn't yet returned it to my girlfriend....to whom I had loaned it recently.) The Husqvarna doesn't have some features I really like....such as needle up/down......so I really don't like having to switch back to using that, but....at least it doesn't jam my fabric and shudder and shake and make horrible noises as it does that. I will call the dealer today to discuss my consistently malfunctioning machine. I will, of course, update as I get further information. Thanks to those of you who said you would write letters or send emails to Janome if they don't get serious soon about my "lemon" of a machine. I think it might interest them to know that there are people all over the place who are aware of it because of our blogs (and would quite possibly steer clear now of a Janome when buying a new machine)!!!

Not a quilting post......

Before I begin this post, let me thank all of you for your sympathetic and supportive comments about my continuing sewing machine problems with my Janome. I intend to discuss this quite seriously with the dealer one day this week. (I have to be here for the interior repair work as hubby has a prior commitment....so I can't go to the dealer until maybe Wed. or Thursday.) I will keep you updated. Maybe I'll have to start an email writing campaign to Janome headquarters by my blogger friends...letting Janome know that word is spreading about my "lemon" of a machine!!! Okay....now off that topic and onto my non-quilting topic for today's post.

Yesterday was the Sunday that our folk group does the music at the 10:00 church service (first Sunday of each month). I sing with the group and hubby plays guitar. We have several teens in the group......and we have drums and keyboard and various percussion instruments as well as flute. It is a great group and our music is well-received. Our leader, Sheila, who is also the pastor's wife, recently got a mandolin and used it for the first time yesterday. This is a photo of her using it when we were practicing before the service. (She also plays guitar....we have several guitar players in the group.) I really enjoy being part of this group and I am also part of the handbell choir at the church. Sometime I'll get pictures of the bell group to post here. I've been part of church music programs for several years (when we lived in NJ) but this is by far my favorite.Below are a couple of photos of our church (St. Peter's by the Sea). It is in the town of Lewes in Delaware and it is a very old church and has a lot of history connected with it. It is more than 300 years old (not this present building....that is a bit newer...not much, but a bit). I know we have more photos (some better than these) but I'll be darned if I can find them right now. I love this church, though....the beautiful building AND the people who make up its staff and congregation!
HAPPY LABOR DAY to all who celebrate it!

Throw pillow photos......

Yesterday we got the master bedroom painted ....a light tan. I like it and it will go with everything. I made the two throw pillow covers (see below photo). The fabric is from the Harvest Reflections collection by Thimbleberries. I am also making valances to match. The pillows will go on a sage green bedspread....so I think they will look very nice.
Now...are you ready for THIS news? My Janome machine has jammed TWICE since I took it to the dealer on Tuesday for that very same problem. (Scroll back to my Wed. post if you aren't sure what I'm talking about here.) I have paid very close attention to that stupid green light I mentioned that is so critical to its threading mechanism and have made sure the light is ON when I thread the machine. Both of these most recent jams were not immediately after it had been threaded anyway....but awhile after that. When it jams, it makes a really horrible noise and the machine shudders and shakes until I shut it off. Both times, I ignored the error message on the display and rethreaded it and then it was fine. BUT....why does this keep happening? And why is it happening with increasing frequency? (That makes me think that it will keep happening more and more until the machine just explodes on me!!!!) I am contacting the dealer again. It is just one year ago today that I bought this machine and there is definitely something wrong that is being missed here. It has gotten to where I am nervous each time I put my foot on the pedal to begin sewing.....because the noise that is made when it begins to jam is loud and startles me every time...NOT fun to be worried each time I start to sew a seam. I sure hope the dealer realizes this is something that needs to be pursued further. *sigh*