What's with binding?

Sometimes I get very annoyed when I read blog entries. Today I read one about machine binding your quilts.  Excuse me, but I've been of the school that bindings were machine stitched on the front and folded over and hand stitched on the back.  Seems there's a new way that I've been hearing about but haven't tried.

When I read this person's entry this morning, I got very annoyed because "that's not the correct way to do it."  (A little of my OCD showing ;-)  ) As I read, I started to realize that times do change and maybe it was time to change my attitude about bindings.  Just because I've always done it a certain way doesn't mean it has to be done that way, right? Actually, I'll be real honest here. On my first quilt, I simply folded the backing over to the front and hand stitched it down.  I still have that quilt and have repaired that binding several times and everytime I look at the quilt,I regret not doing it the proper way. 

I digress.  Our grandmothers and great grandmothers hand pieced and hand quilted and some people still do that today. Does that mean its "not okay" to use the machine to piece and quilt as I do today?  Of course not. We have adapted new methods of achieving the same results--a beautiful quilt.  So why not use the machine to finish the binding? 

Some of the examples I see of machine stitched bindings look very nice--using decorative stitches and variegated threads--and they add another element to the quilt.  It seems easy enough to machine stitch the bindings although one person said it took a bit of practice before she mastered it.  However, I don't know if I like the idea of doing another step of maneuvering the quilt through the machine one more time--after all, I usually make bed sized quilts or at least throw sized and that's a lot of wrestling when using a domestic machine!

I think I'll stay with hand sewing the final step of creating the quilt.  I like to sit with the quilt on my lap, good movie on the TV, a fire in the stove and the soothing rhythm of stitch after stitch along the edge of the quilt.  After struggling to move the quilt through the machine to cover it with quilting, this last, final step is the best part of the entire process for me. Very relaxing.  I may change my attitude and machine stitch on a binding in the future and that will be okay, but for now, I look forward to having hand work to occupy me in the evening.

As usual, I'm a bit late at things.  I just read Sharon's post at http://vroomansquilts.blogspot.com/2011/12/occupy-your-sewing-room.html and realize I should have been occupying my sewing room instead of standing in the cold this morning collecting signatures to recall Gov. Walker.

I live in the country near a VERY small village in NW Wisconsin. Wisconsin is in the midst of a movement to recall Gov. Walker and force another election. This is a grassroots movement and people all over the state are coming out to sign the petitions. My experience this morning was so rewarding, I really can't explain--but I'll try.

A small group of us arranged to set up signature collecting stations in my town and two other small towns nearby.  We stood on the street corner with our homemade signs, inviting folks to stop and sign the petition.  The response was overwhelming!  Many of the people paid no attention and ignored us as they drove by. A few shook their fingers at us in disapproval and three people actually gave us a one-finger salute with one person screaming at us to "GO F_ _ _ K YOURSELVES" as he rounded the corner.  That was fun.  But the majority of folks waved at us, yelled that they'd already signed, honked their horns, and/or gave us a thumbs-up as they passed by.  Enough folks stopped to sign the petition to make it worthwhile. 

Gathering signatures is really being part of democracy as is signing the petition.  People are so glad to be able to express how they feel about our government--it's a thrill that can't be beat. Everybody should try it sometime.

So, instead of "occupying" my sewing room, I was "occupying" Prairie Farm and had a ball doing it.  Now, I'm going to sew.

Hallelujah!

Thanksgiving is finished--except for making soup out of the turkey carcass! And I'm saving that for tomorrow.  I had a great holiday with only the immediate family here this year. All the extended fam had made other plans and that was a good thing since I still have a large and (getting pretty) dirty bandage of my left hand. I used a latex glove to protect the food from the bandage and vice versa and it worked ok. Also, Tessa came out on Wed and she and I worked together very well and made all the traditional foods for the dinner and it was lovely.  For the second year in a row, no sibling fights! Could this mean they are finally growing up?  I'll not hold my breath but I'm optimistic.

Now my thoughts turn to Christmas. Youngest daughter, Jo, absolutely loves Christmas and she used to drive us crazy with her Christmas music beginning right after Halloween!  And she would begin pestering Don and me to get the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving.  That never happened since we get a live tree from the farm, but she still tried.

She's now in Bulgaria with the Peace Corps and this will be her first year so far away from home for the holidays with no relatives nearby. Her best friend from high school is teaching in France and the two girls young women are going to spend a couple of weeks travelling over the holidays.  A few days in Paris to start, then a week or so (including Christmas day) in Edinburgh Scotland, then south to London where they'll see a performance of  "A Christmas Carol." Boy, do I wish I was 25 again, footloose and fancy-free!

Anyway, Jo has a blog on blogspot and she recently posted this:  http://johannahauckbulgaria.blogspot.com/2011/11/may-spirit-of-christmas-bring-you-peace.html
A couple of years ago, my neice who is married to a bush pilot and lives in Alaska sent this YouTube for us to see. I loved it then and I loved seeing it again this morning.  If anyone needs to get in the spirit of Christmas, I hope this helps.

With all the kids back in their seperate homes and Don tuned in to more football games (I have no idea how many he watched over the weekend, but I'm sure I'd have to take off my shoes and socks to count that high  ;-)  ), I'm going to spend the day in the sewing room and finish off the leftovers for dinner tonight.

Little Miss Cranky Pants

That's me these days. Cranky to the max!  And I don't know why. It could be the annual holiday stress season hitting me. I realized how stressed I get over the holidays when I quit smoking about 15 years ago. I would be fine the whole year and right about Thanksgiving time, I would start thinking about cigarettes, and looking at them in the store, and actually start craving them again. It would continue through Christmas and New Year's and then suddenly be gone.  After that first year, I learned that I had been a stress-reducing smoker.  Each year, the craving and obsessing would be less and after about 5 years, it was gone. But the stress remains, apparently.

Could I be cranky because Wisconsin is once again in political turmoil and I've plowed right into it, full speed.  I'll be involved for the next couple of months in gathering signatures on the recall petitions and that's a stressful activity in itself.  I meet Saturday with other volunteers to plan how we're going to hadle signature gathering in our little area of the woods.

Maybe I'm crabby because I'm having a second surgery on my wrists tomorrow, but I don't think so. The first one--on my dominant hand to boot--went very well and I'm very pleased with it. My left wrist isn't as bad so it should go even smoother, but still . . .

I'm particularly cranky at work. I love my job but I'd rather be back home, working on quilts, embroidering, cooking and baking and even cleaning, can you believe!  I just want to nest in my home and be content.  Don and I have done so much work on the house and yard and we're nearly finished with the entire house remodel, and the yard and gardens are as complete as landscaping ever is, and I want to spend more time there.  I received a comment from a co-worker yesterday that didn't sit well with me at all. Something that indicated that the work I do here wasn't actually needed.  Excuse me!  I would NEVER say that to another worker about the work he/she does--it's all valuable work that the public appreciates very much. 

At any rate, there are many reasons why I'm feeling so cranky and I'm not really sure what the true cause is--probably all of it.  I just know that I don't like being Miss Cranky Pants and I have to correct this attitude and get over it.  When my son was a preschooler and having a bad day, I would tell him to throw those old crankies out the window, and it helped.  I should do the same.  Maybe after the surgery tomorrow, I'll be better.  Maybe a little Vicodin will help. LOL (Actually, that stuff is like a sugar pill for me--I've never felt any effect from it like others have.  Tylenol is just as effective for me.)

Well, I feel better for having vented a bit about all of this. If anyone bothered to read all of this, I hope you have a great day and I intend on doing the same.  OUT THE WINDOW, DAMN CRANKIES!!!

Doo, doo, doo, Looking out my back door

Thanks, CCR, for the lyrics

 (as well as for all your great music--loved it then and love it still).

This is "looking out my 'front' door" this AM. I spoke too soon yesterday, being thankful the storm was staying out of my area. NOT! While I still think this is a beautiful landscape to wake up to, I would prefer it to remain autumn a bit longer. Oh well, I can't control the weather so I'll make the best of it. If nothing else, it's good quilting weather and that's what I'll be doing tonight when I get home from work.

Poor little bush, all covered in the white fluffy stuff. You can't even tell its a barberry covered with thorns.

Snow-Embroidery-Voting-Pin Basting

I just read Marcia's post about the first snowfall at her house, here: http://marciascraftysewing.blogspot.com/2011/11/outdoor-wednesday-in-wisconsin.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CraftySewingQuilting+%28Crafty+Sewing+%26amp%3B+Quilting%29
While I think her photos are beautiful--only a northern girl born and bred would appreciate pix of snow lol--I'm glad the storm is south of where I live.  I'm just not ready for our beautiful Autumn to end yet. 

I'm embroidering the little snowman wall hanging for the guild exchange next month and making quite speedy progress on it to boot. For the last 2 evenings I've been watching MSNBC after supper and while stitching, and I must say I was very pleased with the voting coverage last night, particularly in Ohio and Mississippi and Maine.  In Wisconsin, we are beginning the Recall Walker campaign next week so my stitching and quilting may have to be put aside a bit as I work on that.

I brought 2 quilt tops, batting, and backing with me to work yesterday and after work, I laid them out on the tables in the meeting room so I could pin baste them together into a quilt sandwich.  I'm no longer able to do this on the floor and find that pinning at table height is soooo much easier.  I got the flannel baby quilt pinned, but when I laid out the Christmas throw, I realized the batting was about 2" too short.  Drats!  I had taken large batting scraps and pieced them and thought it was big enough, but not.  So I have to add a few inches on the batting and drag the thing back to work another day. And there's nothing I like better than staying at the office after hours to do this!  (Sarcasm there)  Oh well, there's nothing to be done but fix it and get on with the quilting.

When I finish the tops, I'll post pix of them.

So Far Behind

. . . and not just in my quilting. Somehow, I got about 3 weeks behind in reading the blogs I follow and my OCD tendency would not allow me to post until I'd read all the blog entries I'd missed.  And I have to read each one since you all write such great stuff!  After spending close to 3 hours reading last night and still being several days behind, my brain said "Enough!"  So it's time to share a wonderful experience I had this weekend--and I'll read the rest of the blogs later.  :-)

I spent Saturday with a person I've been wanting to meet for the past 3 or 4 years. Cathy and I "met" at My Quilt Blog and since we seem to have many things in common, we've been emailing each other ever since. We've tried numerous times to set a day when we can actually meet face to face and finally did it on Sat. Cathy lives less than 2 hours from me so we met in Stillwater MN for breakfast.

I've never met an on-line friend before so I was a little apprehensive--What if we don't have anything to talk about?  What if she's overbearing or shy and retiring?  What if she has BO or bad breath? What if she's too classy for me? What was my plan of escape if this didn't go well?  Not to worry. From the instant I saw her in the parking lot, I just knew we would hit it off. We talked all through breakfast and then went shop hopping for the rest of the day. We covered 4 shops in the area that I'd heard of but hadn't been to and, Oh My! What a treat each shop was!

I bought a few things pictured here, but the best part of the day was spending time with my new found friend.  I'm so glad we finally got together and I would have liked to have spent more time with Cathy except she and I both had obligations we had to get home for.  BUT, we both agreed that Saturday would only be the first of many times we'll be together.  All my concerns were unfounded. I felt as though I'd known her for years--she's so easy to talk to and best of all, she listened to what I had to say!  Yep, I'm glad we took a chance and finally got together. Thanks, Cathy, for a wonderful day together.

Here's what I got at the shops. I found these fabrics on the sale rack:  Some cute robins and a Xmas fabric I think would work well as sashing in a project.  One and a quarter yard of the robins and 1 1/2 yards of the Xmas.

Actually, as I look at the photo, I think these fabrics might go together very well.

At another shop, I found this embroidery pattern which I started last night.

Although the pattern is for a pillow, I'm going to make it up as a little wall hanging for my guild Xmas exchange.  We will have a pot luck party in early December and we are to bring a wall hanging no larger than 24" by 24" for a gift exchange. So, this will be my offering.

I'm off work today and have a ton of drudgery and toil homemaking to do. It's a beautiful sunny day with not too much wind and with promise of enough warmth that I'll be able to clean my windows before the frost and chill of winter sets in.