Back to quilting

Well, when last I wrote, I was busy working away layering some quilts.  I started quilting and then my Bernina was having some issues, so he needed to go to the shop.  It only took one week until he was back!  Meanwhile, I was using my new Jem for some piecing.  Remember how I was working on the 400 plus four-patch-in-a-square blocks?  I got them done!  Whew!

Now I'm working away on 500+ nine patches...

It seems like I have so many quilting things I want to do and not enought time to work on them.  On the other hand, I feel like I have more than a little "attention" problems.  I "play" in the sewing room for a while, and then drift out and do something else.  It is driving me nuts.  I think I'm blaming the internet--I go to check facebook and my blog list, oh, and email, in case I have one from my husband.  I love getting up first thing in the morning to see if I have one from him.  This morning there were two!

I've also started going to water aerobics five times a week (unless I committed elsewhere.)  It feels more like playing in a pool, than excercising, but believe me, it IS a workout.  I'm feeling so much more energetic.

The past two days I have been doing some hand-dyeing of fabric.  I'm wanting to make a nice, rich red.  The red dyes don't produce as dark of a red as I want, so I've been experimenting with all 4 of the shades of red that I have and adding both my shades of black in different amounts.  The first set didn't produce what I was looking for.  I used "Jet Black" for them and I think it dyes with a blue cast, turning the reds more purple.  They are very nice, but not what I wanted.  The current batch, which is washing as I type, were dyed with "better black" and I'm very excited to see how they turn out.  I'm always very excited to see the results of hand-dyeing and have been meaning to dye more, but it is just another one of those things on my list.

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter!

Aloha,
JoAnne