Long Weekend

It has been really nice to have such a long weekend without a lot of responsibilities. DH has been gone most of the weekend with one or both of the boys (deer hunting season) and I have kept very busy with my knitting needles and my sewing machine. I took today off work to stay home with Kyle and we have had a good time watching movies and playing games, and doing a few chores too. Today we have some errands to run in town and a pizza party tonight at the dojo.

And here are a couple of things I made in the last day or so. This is a fiber postcard to send to my friend in Texas for her birthday. It is hand painted on batik and hand dyed fabric. Not a big artistic inspiration, but fun.

And this is a bracelet I made. It is way too big as a bracelet, so I am looking for some chain or some leather cord to add to it and turn it into a necklace. I think I will have to look in Columbus because I haven't had a lot of luck around here.



I thought I might get into making jewelry, but it really takes a lot of time to make something even as simple as this piece. So I may dabble a little but I would really rather be at my sewing machine.

Busy Hands, No Pictures

I know I have been neglecting this blog for a week or so. But it's not because I have been just sitting around watching TV. Ok, maybe a couple of movies but the new Star Wars movie did just come out on DVD so we have to make some allowances!

Anyway, the hands have definitely been busy. I made a quilt top based on a design I created in my new quilting program, EQ5. However, I am not completely happy with the look of it, and I am considering cutting it up and adding some other fabric to it. At this point I am pretty sure that is what I will be doing, so no pictures to post yet. I think the problem is more in my fabric choices than in the design.

I have also been knitting like crazy, trying to make sure the Christmas deadlines will be met. There are at least two small people who will be benefiting from this, so no pictures until after Christmas.

And sewing too. No hints on that since they are birthday presents to be given this week. No pictures either until later!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all! We had our first snowfall yesterday. Since it was dark when I got home last night, I planned to get up this morning and take some pictures. But the snow had all melted by then -- good news for anyone traveling today. The roads were bad last night, with lots of accidents and cars in ditches.

Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that encourages people to get together with their families. We are so spread out that it is harder and harder for family to come to our house, or for us to get to them. One of the nice things about not having anyone coming in for Thanksgiving is that we don't have to follow any of the "rules". For example, we got hungry for a snack. We had pie. Why not?! And we forgot to get any potatoes to make -- that's ok, I'll just make some biscuits.

It is also a day when we think about what we have to be thankful about. I am thankful that I have a great family, and we all enjoy good health. I am thankful that we have the means to keep a decent roof over our heads and food on the table. I would like to be thankful that our water well was fixed, but that will have to wait for another day!

EQ5 and AQA

On Friday, I bought a new computer program, EQ5. I had heard a lot about this, so I have been looking into it for the last couple of weeks and finally got it for myself. I am complete entralled by this! It is a quilt design program and one reason I had been hesitant about buying it is that most of the people I know of who use it design traditional quilts. I don't. I design "art" quilts. My problem has been that I don't like to take the time to draw and design the quilt. I have been trying to go straight from my head to the fabric. This results in frustration, wasted time (which I have very little of) and wasted fabric because something always doesn't quite work. So in this program, I can "draw" a design, try out fabric swatches electronically either from the stash or scanning images of my fabric, and then print templates. Then I can cut out my fabric from the template and fuse away! I am really excited about this and I have high hopes that maybe I can can some of the projects out of my head and into fabric a little more successfully.

Today is also the November meeting for the Art Quilt Alliance. I have to have my challenge project pretty well defined for this meeting, so that is what I will spend the rest of the morning doing. I may not talk much about it today with the group but I will be there with my inspiration piece and some ideas!

Belt Testing

We had a Belt Testing day again today. This time I was the only one in our family to test, and I now have my green belt with white stripe. This was not my best test -- there were one or two things that I did not know well, but I knew them well enough to pass! This also means that I can help with adult belt testing for white and yellow belts. And I did that for the first time today also. I had helped with the Little Ninjas before (they are so cute!) but it is really different with the adults.

Quiet

It has been a quiet weekend, thank goodness! Saturday I didn't do too much except catch up on my sleep and my knitting. Today I finished up my postcards (only a week late) and they are ready to mail! I am doing laundry and I have some work to do designing a quilt for the Art Quilt Alliance Challenge. We are supposed to present our ideas next week, and I know some of the ladies have done some small study pieces, etc. Well, I am not that sophisticated, or maybe not that much of a planner. I think I am doing a lot if I have a good sketch to work from! I also have some work to do for an online class I am taking at Quilt University. This is a color and composition class, no project as the ultimate product for this one. But I think it will be good for me to see how much I already know, and learn a little more besides.

Well Rant

Our water well, that is. Let's go back to the beginning...About two months ago, we had a serious problem with our well. In fact, we had a pond around the well head. There was a small, but very important part that needed replaced. This guy came out to take a look at it and was supposed to come back in the next day or two to fix it. Well, it took him a week to get back, but he did fix it. While he was here, my DH explained to him some of the other problems we were having with our water, and they decided to re-drill and case the well. No, I am not entirely sure what that all means. All I know is that I was assured this would help a lot with the lime and iron content of our water. It was all supposed to be done by September 25. Instead, I have this!




The well drilling guy moved his rig into our driveway last Friday night. He said he would be back on Saturday to move it into the back where the well is, and then start drilling on Monday. IT IS THURSDAY NIGHT AND THE RIG HASN'T MOVED YET. MY WATER IS STILL CRAP.

We have called and called and called. He always has some excuse and my DH never pushes him, just says OK and doesn't worry about it. In the meantime, our water has gotten worse. We have to buy drinking water, and I can't dye fabric because I am afraid of what the water will do to it. I feel like we are captive to this situation because even if we call someone else, I still have this rig SITTING IN MY DRIVEWAY.

Ideas anyone?