A Week of First Times

I discovered BJ's Quilt Basket on Saturday. I ended up there almost by accident, as I'll explain later.

I was very impressed with the shop. They have a cozy spot where people can sit.

The supply of fabrics, books, thread and notions was impressive.

There was a lot of inspiration as well.

This was only part of the batik section. It was huge.

I'm guessing they have someone who can machine-quilt for you. I will have to find out.

The mascot of Bend is a dog. BJ's has a bunch of small stuffed toy dogs with name tags. When you put a bolt on the counter to be cut, but you aren't done looking, you put one of these dogs on your bolt. 

The way it came about that I was there was this: I have been developing some T-shirt designs for my characters and needed a someone with an ink-jet printer to print the transfers for me. We have an ink-jet printer that hasn't been used in years because we did so little color printing, and the cartridges dry out if you don't use it often, so it needs cleaning and new cartridges. After calling all the print shops only to learn they just had laser printers, I started on the quilt shops in town. (There are three.) Davidene used to print my quilt labels for me at her shop in Park City, so I thought they might have an ink-jet printer. I struck out with the first two I called, but the third was BJ's. It turns out they also print quilt labels for customers and, once they learned that all they had to do was print on the transfer sheet, they were happy to do it. That got me into the shop, and I know I'll be back. I bought some fabric that caught my eye and got their permission to take the photos. Here's my fabric.

I plan to use some of each for costumes for my characters, but I got enough to put in my stash for future quilts. BJ's sells online as well as in their brick-and-mortar store.

Here's Billy wearing the first of my T-shirt transfers. I found some images online that are royalty-free. Eventually all my cast members will have at least one shirt that reflects their special talents or interests.

We went to the DMV on Wednesday to get a new license plate for the trailer and my Oregon driver's license. (DH took his test last week.) We knew we would be waiting awhile, so I took some knitting––a dish cloth I hadn't yet cast on. Three-and-a-half hours later, we left with the new plate and this:

It was actually a lot of fun, with people sitting around, chatting. I'm sure some people were stressed about being there so long, but everyone was pleasant, and the staff was really nice to work with. I didn't even get hassled by DMV over the Peggy-Margaret thing, and I've been wanting enough cotton dish cloths that I can use a fresh one each day. It didn't take long to finish that one up after I got home.

Thursday morning, we participated in a small-dog hike at Shelvin Park. It's only three miles out of town, but it's a nature reserve with hiking trails, a picnic area, rest rooms and a year-round stream. The dogs have to be on a leash, but it's still nice for them to be out in nature. There was only one other participant, a lady named Kathy and Finn, her mini Golden-doodle. We had a nice time and got in a 4-mile hike early in the day before it got hot. In anticipation of this hike, we got licenses for the pups on Tuesday, as they are required in the park. Not that there was anyone there to check for them.

Thursday evening we (DH, DBIL and I) went to Sisters for a free concert in the Fir Street Park. We took some beer and sandwiches, and sat on the lawn. The group that played was Town Mountain. They play Blue Grass and Blues music. They were excellent. Some children climbed a fir tree close to us or played on the grass, and some people got up and danced.

Friday evening we went into downtown Bend for the First Friday Art Walk, which takes place on the first Friday of each month. It wasn't just art. Most of the shops were open and had something to offer. Some of the shops had music.

Most of the open shops had beer (a Bend specialty, as I've been told we have more independent brewers per capita than any other city in the nation) or wine, or something to nibble on, and some places even had cocktails. It's a good way to become acquainted with the local stores.

There was some street entertainment, like these fairies making huge bubbles, which the children who were present really seemed to enjoy.

In this week's story in The Doll's Storybook, the dolls make ice cream. We actually made frozen yoghurt using a very simple recipe, and we have been enjoying it ever since with our DDIL's rhubarb compote. Yum!

The Missing Link is now out on DVD and Blu-Ray. The Wisconsin grands found Uncle Peter's name in the credits.

What's on my needles: Still the Trickle Brick Socks. I'm at the heel turn. Not much progress this week, as I've been working on dish cloths.

What's on my sewing machine: More clothing for the cast of the stories.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Ice-cream Social. The dolls make frozen yoghurt and talk about ice crystals.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still From This Moment by Elizabeth Camden. Not much time to listen this week.

What's in my wine glass: emBRAZEN Revolutionary Red Blend 2016, recognizing Showgirl and Spy Josephine Baker. Her story is interesting.

What's my tip of the week: Don't throw away or recycle those plastic jar lids. They make handy saucers for plants or to put under bottles of things that might drip and make a mess or damage the surface they're on, like plants, a wine bottle, salad dressing or oil. They can be washed in the dishwasher. This one was the lid to a jar of roasted nuts from Costco.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Preparing for Winter

We have cranked up the furnace, and I'm working on hand quilting my "Peggy's Sistine Chapel."

It should make us feel warmer just looking it. It's the "Delectable Pathways" pattern by Mary Sorensen. I gave it the Sistine Chapel name, not because I've done all the work on it on my back, but because it's probably the most intricate quilt I've ever done if you count all the needleturn appliqué and hand quilting. 

If you look closely, you can see where I took out the stitches I made 1/4" inside the seams of the triangles. I decided I didn't like the look, so I'm quilting in the ditch. The straight lines are made using a strip of masking tape as a guide (see tip, below). The dark thread is basting. I had my friend Julie, who has a long arm quilting machine, do the basting for me. It sure beats crawling around on the floor. 

The Busy Bee Throw is coming along. Here's the layout.

The row at the top of the photo is a single layer and will be in the middle of the throw. The other rows are stacks of two identical rows. Each of the hexagons has a twin of the of the same color underneath, so I can sew them together as a mirror image. (The table isn't wide enough to hold the entire layout.) Since taking this photo, I have sewn four rows of hexagons together. I think sewing the rows to each other will go faster, because I won't have to keep starting and stopping. I've discovered that using stitch markers to hold the corners together helps keep the piecing more accurate. If you missed previous posts, I'm using Knit Picks City Tweed DK.

Vintage Stitchers met at Diane's on Thursday. There wasn't much to show, but Barbara had finished this flannel quilt based on "Turning Twenty."

The back shows the quilting better, as usual.

I didn't get much time to play this week. I dedicated most of my play time to solving my phone problem. My phone (iPhone 4s) has dropped calls as long as I've had it, but only in my house, where I had 1-2 bars of cell service. When I go out places (even out in my street) it has worked fine. In the house I've been using the Internet through Google Voice or Talkatone to make phone calls. You only get so many free minutes each month, and if I ran out, I would lose the call anyway. The 4s is only 3G and has a slower processor than the newer phones. Some research led me to believe a new phone would perform better. 

Losing calls in my home was the first problem. The second problem was our internet service. It goes out frequently and can stay out up to 24 hours or more. If we have urgent Internet business we have to go to a restaurant or other business that has a different provider. We looked into changing providers, but didn't want to pay more or have to change our TV service. (Our Internet and TV providers are linked together, although they are different companies.) Newer phones may be set up as a personal hotspot or can be connected to your computer using the charging cord (tethering) for emergency Internet service. Some cell providers just count the data you use, regardless of whether you use your phone to provide Internet for other devices or not; others charge extra every time you do this. 

I was happy with my cell service but was unable to get the new phone I wanted (iPhone 6s) from them. I ended up ordering the phone from Apple and switched to a provider that charges $10/month more than I was paying. (It's really only $5 more, if you have one incident a month of having to use the personal hotspot, as my old cell provider charges extra for it.) So far I've made a number of calls from inside my house without dropping them. [Fingers crossed!] I was able to set up a personal hotspot with no difficulty all on my own, and it worked. I'm keeping my 4s as an extra handset and iPod. If my phone is in the house and both are connected to the Internet, they both ring if I get a call, and I can answer whichever one is closest. (That's my excuse for not much progress on projects.)

Saturday I attended a workshop with Maestro Jonathan Griffith, who has trained and directed the chorus at the Carnegie Hall. He came to Utah to work with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and our little group, Park City Singers.

We will see him again on Tuesday, when he directs our practice for the Christmas program. I'm not a great singer, but it's fun, and I'm already better, thanks to this workshop. I have lots of things to practice.

We don't do a lot of decorating for fall, but we put out this guy, and he's outstanding in his field, small though his field may be.

Every time I look out my kitchen window, I think I'm seeing a person standing in our yard.

As promised a couple of weeks ago, here's a look the first of the quilt shops Vintage Stitchers visited during our time in St. George, Quilted Works Quilt Shop.

They carry the Bloc Loc ruler I'm so fond of and even had a stack of HSTs to use for demos for customers. Three of our group bought one each. I bought some fat quarters at each store.

What's on my needles: Still sewing the hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw together. Hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt. No progress this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to Banished Love by Ramona Flightner, another WhisperSync deal from Audible (a free book from Book Bub and low-priced audio if you had the Kindle book). I'm not very impressed with the narrator, but the book is interesting so far. Still reading Auld Acquaintance by Ruth Hay. (I'm enjoying it, but you know I don't do a lot of reading in print.)

What's in my wine glass: Fish Eye 2013 Shiraz. The big bottle, much needed this week!

What's my tip of the week: Masking tape makes a great quilting guide for straight lines or cross-hatching. You can make straight lines of quilting any distance apart by quilting along one side and then moving the tape the right distance from the line you just finished. Just remember to take the tape off if you're putting it aside for some time. Painters' tape will work as well, and you don't have to be as careful about leaving it on, but it loses its stickiness faster, so it will take more tape.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals were harmed during the production of this blog post.