Time's Flyin' Again

It's easy to tell from my blog's title that I have time issues. Ahem.
Really I keep telling myself to stick to quilty content, since this IS a quilt blog and sometimes I'm not too quiltily active if you get my drift. The past two weeks I've been coasting on a cloud of peace straight from Heaven over my new job. But first - Quilty News! I got a squishy package of goodness the other day from Pam at My Creative Mind - LOOKY!!

These are exquisite! The piecing is so fine and the colors so pretty - I love this pretty set to bits. It's already working, too - I've had needles stuck in a piece of felt loose in my sewing bag and always wanted a needle-keeper. (too lazy to make one?) THANK YOU Pam!! (e-mail me, Pam - I can't get thru to yours somehow)

While our temps have been in the 110 range I just don't sleep all night - it's impossible. So in the wee smoky hours one day this past week, I cut some little diamonds and made another doll quilt - this is a bit larger then a fat quarter - about 20 by 25 or so.

I loved the fabrics that came together in a FQ bundle a few months ago, but not too pleased with how it came out - too pale for me. I like the contrast to be jacked up a bit! It will give me something to do on my long lunch hours tho; I'm hand quilting this one. Meantime, I did quilt some more on The Rebel, and after about 45 minutes my machine started making funny noises so I took it all apart and cleaned it out - look what was in/around/under the bobbin case:

Eeeewwww!!! And I clean mine out every 2 bobbins or so! I never get this much fuzz - oh wait. I was using a different thread. I usually use Masterpiece, and I have Essentials in there now for quilting. Essentials thread is a bit thicker and shows quilting stitches better, I think. (not too great for piecing) It is, however, linty! Guess I'd better clean every bobbin change now! There's another project in the works now too --

Yep - those are dice. I host my Bunko group every August, and this year I want tablecloths that are black in the centers to better see the dice, and each side will have 3 dice set on top a different color border around the black. I have a fair picture in my head how I want them to look and I'll be working on making 3 of them in the next couple of weeks or so.

In other sewing related "JSYK" - I heard somewhere that dust/cat hair/ etc. can build up inside your foot control and make it kind of sticky - made sense to me! There was a message on the Yahoo site suggesting that you can open up the foot and clean this stuff out. Well, my older Janome has been sitting on a shag rug with Cuervo the Hairball for 4 or 5 years, so I flipped it over and unscrewed the screws.

DON'T DO THIS!

I ruined the controller. There's a metal lever thing inside that popped off and I can't get it back on and Hunny can't get it back on and we can't even get the whole cover off anyway. I did shoot some canned air in there and only the slightest tiny bit of faint dust came out so it wasn't worth it - now I need to buy another foot. Grrrr...... I have to learn things the HARD way!

If you're still with me........have I mentioned that I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new job?? Oh man -- to be able to actually get everything done and leave a clean desk at the end of a day -- to be able to sleep at night instead of laying awake wondering what happened to that huge drug order -- to have a long, relaxing lunch HOUR instead of wolfing down something in 10 minutes and racing back into the next crises -- 3 e-mails in a day instead of 35 -- not a single whiny staffer in my office with some impossible request -- and no one EVER bleeds all over the floor! HEAVEN I tell you! After so long struggling to make the decision to leave, then so long actually getting out of there, and so much drama surrounding the whole thing - I'm so relaxed and peaceful now I almost don't know myself; it's so wonderful, a Gift.

***sigh***

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my happy little space!