Vince is sick!  He has a sore throat.  When Vince is sick . . well, if you’re married, you probably know how awful it is for a man to be sick.

Remember that Vince was so sure my memory foam pillow was causing my eye problems.  It isn’t!  I’ve gone back to using it.  I am taking some online classes and I think I had been spending way too much time staring at the computer screen.  I’ve cut back on the amount of time I’m on the computer and my eye is much better.

Back to Vince.  He must’ve been touched by how sad I was when I couldn’t use my memory foam pillow and he began using his.  After a week or so, he came down with a sore throat and yep . . I’ll bet you guessed it.  He thinks the memory foam pillow may have caused his sore throat!

I’d better not laugh.  He’s probably on the internet right now looking for some study that shows a correlation between memory foam pillows and sore throats!

So far, I’ve heard from two who are having problems opening the .pdf for the borders.  Please check to see what version of Acrobat Reader you’re using.  You need 6 or higher to open the .pdf.  Please let me know what version you’re using so I’ll know if that’s the problem.  If you need to update to a newer version of Adobe Acrobat, please do that.

Everything with the BOM is going to be in .pdf format so, if you’re planning to do the BOM, please make sure you can download the border handout page and you’ll know you can also download the BOM.

Thanks!

I love adding pieced borders to my quilts. Most of the borders are quite simple. In my borders class, we cover many topics but one that always seems to get lots of “oh . . that’s not so hard!” comments is when we go over my “Making a Pieced Border Fit” handout.

When you download the file (it’s a .pdf), don’t panic! There are several steps. Take each step one step at a time. Don’t worry about Step 2, til you’ve done Step 1. It will work . . take your time.

Because I hope this will help you all and you’ll use it often, and every time you use it, you’ll think good thoughts about me, I’ve added a page over on the left so it will always be there and you won’t have to go searching for this post.

There is good news from Judy’s Magic Cave of Life (which is what Chad calls my life!).  The laptop fiasco with Office Depot and the warranty/repair company has been resolved. Once we finally were able to discuss the matter with someone who seemed interested in resolving the issue rather than getting us to go away, things moved along quickly.

I now have a new laptop (not from Office Depot). I got an HP Pavilion. Vince likes the Pavilion so I just went with that. I have to learn Vista! Poor old dog . . trying to learn all these new tricks — Vista, Photoshop, new camera. My brain is getting overloaded.

Anyway, hopefully we’ll never discuss laptop woes again!

1. The woman had an insurance card but, sorry to judge a book by its cover, I’ll be pleasantly surprised if the insurance is still in effect.

2.  The people in this town are so nice!  A man saw the accident and came over to give me his card if I needed a witness.  I was crying and hadn’t been able to get in touch with Vince.  I knew Vince was in meetings all day and I didn’t have a clue how to get in touch with him if he doesn’t answer his direct line.  I should know that and I do now.

The witness has a friend who works at 3M and he said he would call his friend and get him to find Vince.  The policeman knew I was trying to call Vince and he called back to the police station and got them to call the guards’ office at 3M and find Vince.  Since Chad had worked out there last summer, he also knew how to find Vince so the phones at 3M must’ve been ringing off the wall with everyone looking for Vince.  By the time everyone got word to everyone, Chad and Vince both showed up at the accident, which happened about 3 blocks from home.  Bet everyone was wondering who would’ve shown up had it been a major accident since I got the whole family there for a fender bender.  But . . hey . . it was my CR-V that I love so much and I was pretty darned mad at that woman.

3.  Even though my car is old, we still keep full coverage so if the woman doesn’t have insurance, my own insurance will cover it.

4.  I don’t know if she got a ticket.  I guess I’ll see when I get the accident report.

Nothing happens quickly when you live so far from a city.  It will probably be Monday or Tuesday before I can get an accident report.  Then our insurance will send an adjuster out to look at it.  Our insurance doesn’t have any approved body shops here but we can use one that isn’t approved.  There are several here and we’ve used one already and the other one we like is owned by the husband of the girl who cuts my hair.  Either of those shops will be fine with me.

I’m beginning to hate cell phones.  Why has every state in the country not outlawed talking on the cell phone while driving?  Oh right . . don’t tell me YOU can do it and not be distracted!  How many times have you driven down the road and been almost hit or been driving behind someone slowing down or speeding up and you realize they’re on the cell phone.

Today I was on my way to Joplin to do a trunk show, detoured to run by the bank before I left town.  There was this woman who was parked in one of the parking spots on the street, talking on the cell phone . . obviously thinking she’s the only one on the street.  Just as I got even with her, she pulled out, and hit me.  Neither door opens but worse, the front passenger door is ajar and can’t be closed.  Scraped all the way down the right bottom of my car.  I can’t drive the car now . . both wheel covers are ruined.  I’m really mad.  I’m aggravated that our legislators haven’t passed laws making it illegal to drive and talk on the cell phone and I’m mad that my car is all banged up and I’m mad that I missed my trip to Joplin.

Why can’t people just be responsible.  This woman who hit me was driving an old, banged up Blazer and looked like she just got out of bed at 1:30 in the afternoon.  What was so darned important that she had to be on the cell phone instead of paying attention to what she was doing?

I wasn’t hurt and I know it could’ve been worse but it didn’t need to happen.

When I’m doing trunk shows or lectures, I’m often asked which thread I prefer, which batting I like, which this or that I use. I do have my favorites and can be pretty opinionated or a bit of a brand name snob. I don’t mind recommending the things I use and love but I encourage everyone to try other brands for yourself.

If you’ve read my blog long, you know my favorite batting is Mountain Mist Rose (100% cotton) or Gold (50/50) and you know my favorite rulers are Creative Grids.

I have a zillion kinds/brands/types of thread but my favorite is Superior Threads. Superior has all kinds/types of thread but my favorites are:

Masterpiece - I love this one for piecing. It’s fine but strong enough for piecing. The only time I use it on the longarm is for very fine work, like micro stippling or tight McTavishing. I use the 3,000 yard cones for piecing and they last forever! Mostly I’ll use a color like 152 or 153 and I use it for everything, without changing thread color unless I’m sewing two fabrics that are really dark. The other day I was sewing together strips of a dark green fabric for borders. Since I had two dark green fabrics together, I switched to a dark green thread. Had I been sewing a light fabric to a dark green fabric, I wouldn’t have changed thread color. One day I’m going to date a cone when I put it on the machine and see how long it lasts. 3,000 yards is 3,000 yards so it doesn’t matter what brand I’m using as far as how long the thread lasts . . I understand that.

King Tut - This is probably my favorite thread of all time. It just feels good and it looks good! I’ve never had a problem with it breaking on the longarm. The colors are fantastic. Some are kinda tone on tone without being what I’d call truly variegated, although King Tut variegated colors are yummy too!

So Fine - This is a poly thread and while I’m generally not a fan of poly, this thread looks a bit like cotton and I find that I use it pretty often. Many longarmers use it all the time because we get such good tension using So Fine in the bobbin and on top.

Bottom Line - I have a love/hate relationship with Bottom Line thread. I love it because it works so perfectly in the bobbin. I can use white or cream Bottom Line in the bobbin and use black or any very dark thread on top and never have the top thread show on the bottom or have the bobbin thread show on top. Fill a bobbin with Bottom Line and I can quilt for days (almost) without running out of thread. The hate part isn’t really a “hate” per se but the dislike comes into play because it’s polyester. It looks like poly and feels like poly but it just works like a dream in the longarm. How can I not love it?

Besides Superior thread always being perfect, the Superior customer service is . . superior! I’ve never had problem with Superior thread but I’m betting if I ever I did, it would be resolved with one phone call.

On their website, there is a link at the top for “Education“. Click there and read for days! I’ve learned more from reading the info on the Superior web page than I’ve learned anywhere else . . ever . . about thread.

Just so no one thinks I *only* use Superior, here are my thread racks. You’ll find Signature, PermaCore and even a bit of Maxi-Lock.

Rack #1 - the top is Bottom Line, towards the middle and lower area is So Fine, the very bottom is just a mixture of whatever miscellaneous cones I have.

Rack #2 - The top is King Tut, towards the bottom of the top spool holder is Signature variegated. The bottom holder has Masterpiece near the top, then some Highlights and Rainbows, then some more Signature variegateds.

Rack #3 - Top spool holder has all Signature 100% cotton threads. The top half of the bottom spool holder is more Signature 100% cottons and then some cotton/poly cones near the bottom.

This may seem like a lot of thread to those who don’t do machine quilting but it really goes fast when using it on the longarm . . especially if you’re quilting non-stop, which seems like what I’ve been doing lately.

Straight from Accuweather . .

The first one is for here in MO.

The second one is for Lake Charles, LA.

Does it seem fair that it’s hotter in Missouri than it is in southwest Louisiana?  I think not!

The poor a/c is having a hard time keeping up today.  Just for the record . . I do not like summer.  If we could go from February to November and skip all the in between, I’d be real happy!

Soon, I have to cross this bridge! This is one of the arches but there are three of them. The picture below is from the aerial view from Mapquest.

Looks pretty scary for someone afraid of bridges, huh? I have a driver all lined up to go with me. There’s no way I could do it. I got this sinking feeling in my tummy just looking at it on the internet.

Nothing added, a whole lot used - 16 yards to be exact! It was a good week.

Fabric added this week - 0 yards
Fabric added year to date - 282 yards

Fabric used this week -16 yards
Fabric used year to date - 246 yards

Net Used to Date - <38 yards>
Net Yards To Go (to reach a net use of 150 yards for the year) - 188 yards

Would you please add your link to Mr. Linky below to show us how you did with your stash reduction efforts last week?