Stitching and listening

I spent the weekend stitching, cutting, and sewing some more.  I made strip sets, cut them into segments, sewed them into nine patches--550 of them.  Next I'm using them to make 110 double nine patch blocks.   I spent the time in my sewing room, but mostly, I was in Nazi Germany.  Papa played the accordian, there was a Jew hiding in the basement, bombs were dropping, and Death was collecting way too many souls.  Yep, I was listening to "The Book Thief," an audio book by Markus Zusac.  I had read it years ago, and decided to revisit it.  It is one of the best books I've ever read and to describe it, I would have to say that not all Germans in WWII were filthy Nazis.

Today the book ended and I was trying to sew nine patches with tears running down my face.  It took at least 5 kleenexes--maybe more.  It is one of those stories that stays with you and you wish it might not end.  When it does, it is almost like a small death itself.  I guess that is why I'm blogging about it.  I used to say I listened to audiobooks while I quilted.  Now it feels more like I quilt while I listen to audiobooks.  There is a difference!

Big news on the scrapbooking scene...  I haven't blogged much about scrapbooking lately because I've been too busy quilting, but I am on the design team at a local shop and was asked to be in the Iron Scrapper contest for National Scrapbooking Day on May 7.  I'm pretty excited.  Maybe I should do some cropping in the next few weeks to help prepare...

Aloha,

JoAnne

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