My De-Bugged Serger

Would you believe it?? I had bugs on my serger. About two weeks ago I noticed these tiny little black crawly things on the top of my serger. The first night I took a damp cloth and wiped them off. The next morning they were back. After that I tried about every liquid cleanser I had in the house. Nothing worked. I talked to people about them and asked for ideas on getting rid of them and where they could have come from. I got suggestions, but nothing worked. I finally realized I had to take the machine to the LQS to be cleaned. I was SOOO embarrassed. Well - after Jim took it all apart and soaked all the covers and blew everything out and re-oiled everything and put it back together - I picked my serger up this evening and I do believe everything is working fine. It's all clean and shinny and bug free.

I did figure out where the bugs came from. My serger sits on a table in front of the window with the air conditioner. When the air conditioner is running the air blows directly on the serger. NOW - there are birds nesting on the ledge outside window beside the air conditioner. Birds have bugs. Mystery solved. Now, I need to get someone (hopefully my son) to block off those spaces so the birds can't get in there any longer. This is on the second floor so this project Will require a long ladder, or I would do it myself.

I didn't get a chance to do anything with the binding on my Poor Quilt. I have changed the name of that quilt to "The Rescued Quilt". It has a more positive ring to it. Don't you think that is a better name??

I want to get to bed a little early tonight. (I know--- I've said that before). Anthony will be here tomorrow.

Good night

Progress on a WIP

A while ago I pulled out a wip and have made good progress on it. This one is my Planet Patchwork Mystery quilt from many years ago. Does anyone recognize it???. Tonight I finished the machine quilting and tomorrow I intend to put the binding on.

I usually go quilting on Wed morning but this morning Tony and I went to a funeral for his sister-in-law -( his first wife's sister-in-law). We saw family members that we haven't seen in years (you know how that goes) and had a really nice visit with everyone. After we got home we both slept for two hours. We must be getting old :( .

It's getting close to bed time again. I should have put the air conditioner on earlier. It's hot up here.

Take care, everyone and good night

The "Poor Quilt"

Tonight I intend to finish another quilt. I am thinking positive so I am going to post a pix of it here. This one I call "The Poor Quilt". The blocks (along with boxes of other stuff) were donated to the senior center for a rummage sale last year. Since I seem to collect this sort of stuff, I dug through the boxes and found these blocks. They were awful. The seams were various sizes and none of the points matches. Very poorly made. People told me to trash them.

I brought them home and after giving them some thought, I figured "heck, no. I'm not going to trash these". The fabric is old but in good condition. I cut them all down to a uniform size and stitched them together and made a quilt top. The points still don't match, but that is alright. It has the look of "an old fashion quilt". I machine quilted it and will be finishing stitching the binding down tonight and remove the basting stitches. It will be donated to our qulting group at the senior center to be sold.

My thoughts were that these "boxes of stuff" were found amoung some old ladies things and no one in her family wanted them so they were given to the center for a rummage sale. I feel that she put a lot of work into putting these blocks together as best she could and no one wanted them. That made me feel sad. NO WAY was I going to trash them. Hopefully, some day, very soon, the "Poor Quilt" will have a good home and will get the love it deserves.

Another Finished Quilt

This evening I finished this Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt. I will be donating it to the J.C. Senior Center where I quilt almost every Wed. morning. I like the quilt but I'm not 100% happy with the workmanship on it. There are to many puckers in the machine quilting. Oh well - It's finished :). Hopefully others won't be as critical as I am.

I got up early this morning and sat on the front porch and ate my oatmeal. I always enjoy the quiet out there in the morning.

I worked at JoAnn Fabrics today and I'm working again tomorrow. I wish I could get more hours in, but we all know this is the slow time of year. In another month there will be plenty of hours available with school starting and people making school clothes, them Halloween, them Christmas.

I'm tired and I'm going to get ready for bed.
Good night...

A FINISH

Finally, Anthony's base ball quilt is finished and labeled and signed. I will want to give it to him next week when he moves into his new home. His Mom got him all new bed room furniture and drapes to match his quilt.
It's almost my bed time so I had better get movin' in that direction.

I sold a Quilt

Yesterday a lady in Pa. purchased the Black & White / Red quilt that I had on my etsy. I packed it up last night and put it in the mail this morning. She should have it by Sat..

What I've Been Doing

I have been in sort of a slump lately. Not really doing much of anything.
Last week I finally finished the binding on Anthony's base ball qult. That came out really nice. I'm pleased with it. Now I just have to make the label and attach it. I have fabric to make a matching pillow case. That one is pictures a few days ago.

I finished the blue check table set that is pictured here. I'm not sure if I like it or not. My husband (Tony) isn't complainng, so I guess I will keep it.

Yesterday I finally finished these blue knit mittens that I started back in Jan when Tony was in the hospital with his heart attack. These will be a Christmas gift for Anthony - if I don't put them away somewhere and forget where I put them. Does anyone else out there do that ????.
Many, many years ago all the kids in the family had these mittens. All of my kids and all of the neices and nephews. They were standard (I could say "expected")Christmas gifts for everyone. A few years ago one of my grown up neices asked for a pair like "I made her when she was little". She has a new pair of mittens and wears them all the time when the weather is cold.

We had a quiet 4th of July around here. I worked this afternoon and came home and took a two hour nap. We had left overs for diner and then went out for our usual short walk. I sat on the front porch and ate my cup of ice cream. The "Blue Angles" were preforming at our airport, so I got to see a small part of that show while I sat and ate my ice cream. I am trying to finish a Log Cabin quilt for our quilting group at the Senior Center. I have it all machine quilted. Now I need to add the binding and finish it up. Maybe one of these days I will get that done.

I need to get busy on my Christmas stockings for Operation Care Package. Now that I have a Grandson in Afganistan, I REALLY need to stay on top of these things.

That's about it for tonight. Take care...

A Testimonial from Jean in Il.

Hi Helen........the bag arrived today and it is beautiful! The workmanship is fantastic! Thank you so much - I will use it with care and often.

Jean