Blogger's Quilt Festival

My vote is for Gene Black's quilt "Grad Quilt" in the large quilt category.   You can see his blog about it here:
http://blog.geneblack.com/2016/09/bloggers-quilt-festival-grad-quilt.html

I looked through the other entries and decided that his is the only original design.  I could be wrong; Moscato consumption is to blame if I am incorrect. 

And here is the link to the Actual Festival . http://www.amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/

Vote your conscience.  

Pushing Through. Soldiering On. Toughing it out.

I have been a nurse for forty years.  Save for the ten months I stayed home with my young child and the three years I was completing my FNP degree I worked full time.  I toughed it out when I was sick.  I remember puking on the way to work one morning because I could not call out sick because there was no one else to take my shift at the hospital.  Many days I would just push through the exhaustion to get the work done.

When I was a single mother there was little choice.  I had to do it all.  Work, care for my son, tend to the logistics of life in today's complex society. I know a lot of women like me with all types of careers.  We all just soldier on, because THAT IS WHAT WE DO.

I remember going to work for weeks with a cough.  No fever, feeling a bit low, but not really sick.  Hey, I would only cough when I talked, so it couldn't be that bad, right?  Well, I had pneumonia.  I took one day off and went back to work.

Yes, by now you have figured out where this is going.   I am mightily peeved that this whole media blitz over a woman with pneumonia has gotten out of hand.  DUH.  She was sick, she tried to carry on and it didn't work out.   Don't condemn her.  This happens ALL THE TIME.

Please note.  I will not accept any comments about this post.  NONE.  If you don't like what I have written, I DON"T CARE.  Un-scubscribe.

I'M WITH HER.

DOODLING

I have a bolt of white cotton fabric.  It is heavier than quilting cotton but not as heavy as canvas.  I figured I could use it as backing for a quilt.  With that intent I sewed some of it to a piece of similar weight colorful bird fabric in a size appropriate for the back of a quilt I was designing.  I changed my mind, made a duplicate of the back and sandwiched them together on the frame for a small quilt.

Maybe it was because I had a blank canvas or maybe I have reached the comfort point on the learning curve.   I had no: machine trouble, design trouble, coordination problems (well, OK,  a few) at all.  Essentially I felt the most at ease with this process as I have yet. 

 My log documents 137 hours on the machine.  I thought I would need hundreds before I reached this point.   Yippee for me. 

I love my 237. 

Berries

I walk the dogs around the perimeter of our property every day.  Inevitably we pass some berry bushes and I always have to stop.  Wrigley likes them and will eat them right off the bramble.  Frannie is more discerning.  The berry must be absolutely ripe or she won't eat it.

There is one bush that dips into our path.  The berries are big and lush.  A few days as I picked one particularly delectable treat my fingers brushed a soft, quishy something.  Of course I trembled and screamed.  I am a wuss.  But not such a wuss that I did not look to see what the heck was on the bush.

There was a worm that looked just like a twig.  It has been hanging out there for about a week now.   One day when Steven graced us with his presence, I showed it off.   He looked it up in his Butterflies and Moths field guide and found it quite quickly.  It is a Large Maple Leaf Span Worm.  I think that the moth resembles a maple leaf.  

Originally it was munching on a berry.  It moved further into the bush today and I almost did not see it.

WICKED

The Nolting requires oiling every 8 hours of quilting time.  I keep a log so that I know when it's time.  It is so simple to oil this machine.  On the top of the head are four red dots.  One drop of oil on each and that is that.

Well, of course, for me, that is not that.  I had to look inside.  It just seemed logical.  After all I had been using the machine for more than 130 hours and I imagined all manner of lint and dirt building up inside.

I was wrong.  It sure was clean inside.

The wicks were nice a moist.  Just the same I put one drop of oil on the needle bar (above) because I could not resist. 

That one wick is quite frayed.  I imagine over time it will need to be replaced.  Everything was fine, though, nice and moist and no dirt.  No joy, there.

Not to worry.  I found some true crud on a Singer 27 I am listing for sale.  Gotta love that Tuff Stuff foam cleaner. 

This machine was commissioned in 1893.  I love the cabinet but the irons are noisy.  I tighten the nut but it loosens as I sew.  Steven made that nice new wooden pitman and I hate to let it go.  It's time.  Hopefully someone will love it.