Still offline

Ah, the joy of computers. Such a love-hate relationship one can have with their computer! Just like with one's car - or so it seems to me. My daughter spent all Tuesday evening trying to get our computer to boot up after installing the new motherboard in our tower. She finally came to the conclusion that either the new motherboard is defective or that something else in the system is frying the motherboard. So she's sending this one back and has ordered a new one. The new one should be here on Monday. In the meantime I think I'll head to her house on Saturday morning so I can catch up with the outside world. I can do only so much here at work during lunch.

Looking on the bright side - which is how I try to live life - this has given me more time to stitch. You might note in my project list on the left that I've finished the Autumn Friendship Blocks top. I love how it turned out. I'll post a picture once I'm back online at home.

I've also taken out several other UFT's to work on. The New Jersey Triangle Mystery will be a set of finished blocks by the end of the evening tonight. This is a four fabric mystery I started at least 15 years ago. I've not worked with only 4 fabrics in a quilt for years and years, so it seems very boring. The blocks are to be sewn together without sashing or setting squares; I don't think I'd like how that would look. So I'm going to get out Sharon Craig's books "Setting Solutions" and "Great Sets" to figure out a more exciting way to set these 20 blocks.

I pulled out two different appliqué projects that were begun in classes I took at a Folk Art Jubilee festival in Clackamas Oregon about four years ago. One is a small wall hanging started in a class with Renée Plains. I finished prepping all the appliqué and have now started the stitching. It should work up very quickly. The second is a small quilt - "Emma's Quilt" - begun in a class with Jo Morton. This was an invisible machine appliqué class in which we learned the starch and heat resistant template method of preparing the pieces. I didn't care for the method at all. I'd done the machine applique on only one small piece. So I took that off, prepped the rest of the pieces, and put it in my handwork basket. It should work up very quickly also. I'll do the hand applique on it as soon as I finish the Renée Plains project. Both of these will eventually be quilted by hand.

I looked at a third project - "Rebecca's Baskets" - also begun in a class with Jo Morton. It consisted of one partially pieced basket block measuring about 4". It was a hand piecing class, so the remaining pieces of the block were cut and marked for hand piecing. Even though it's a wonderful little quilt I decided to abandon this project. I'd rather spend my handwork time either appliquéing or quilting. I know I'll make this quilt some day, but will machine piece it rather than handpiecing it. The fabric I tossed was less than 1/8 yard total, so I didn't feel at all guilty making this decision. It felt so good to cross another UFT off my list!

I'll catch up with everyone's blogs when I'm at my daughter's on Saturday morning. Until then I hope all my cyberfriends are happy, well, and quilting away!