Some Actual Sewing

Seems like getting settled into a new home and new circumstances always takes longer than I think it will, and this move has been no exception.  Add in some family drama, and having my computer crash twice I'm just behind all the way around.  I have an inbox full of email I haven't managed to answer, and I have no idea just how much email was lost when the crashes happened.  If you sent me an email or commented on a post over the last couple months and I never replied to you, please accept my sincere apologies, I didn't intentionally ignore you!

And if you think my inbox is full, you should have seen my Google Reader!  Oh my!  It practically exploded!  I had about 6 weeks worth of unread blog posts in it, and I finally just hit the "mark all as read" button because I knew I'd never, ever be able to get caught up on the blog reading.  This week I realize just how much I missed!  Did you know there was a Giveaway Day the first week in March?  And the Spring Edition of The Blogger's Quilt Festival?  Hahaha!  I bet you did!  I didn't, totally missed both events.  Well, there is always next time, right?  LOL!

Before all this moving chaos really sucked me in, Amy Smart from Diary of a Quilter announced a new quilt along, The Virtual Bee, and I knew I really wanted to join.  It's been quite a while since I did a sampler mystery quilt along and I was really ready for one.  There's been a bundle of sweet Lakehouse prints languishing in my stash for quite a while now, and I knew the small scale of these prints would work well with the 8 inch blocks for the quilt along, so my fabric choice was easy this time.  

I am so enjoying these sweet little blocks!  
Here's Block #1, a Sawtooth Star Variation designed by one of my favorite bloggers, Sherri of A Quilting Life. (Tutorial Link HERE) I am debating changing out those yellow corners, though.  I think it is a bit too much!  What do you think?

Block #2 is the Origami Star designed by Amy Newbold of Sukie, Don't You Know? (Tutorial Link HERE) I think this is my favorite block so far.  I love the motion in it, and it was a lot of fun to make. 

April Rosenthal of Prairie Grass Patterns designed block #3. (Tutorial Link HERE) And I love this one, too, it's such a cutie!

Melissa Corry from Happy Quilting designed the Going Dutch as block #4.  It really spins, doesn't it? (Tutorial Link HERE)

#5 is this darling block comes from Calli Taylor of Make It Do. (Tutorial Link HERE) Loving that daisy fabric!

The most recent block is #6 The Tilt-A-Whirl (isn't that the best name??) from Amanda Woodruff of A Crafty Fox.  There was a little confusion about this block, so there are actually two posts about how to make it. They can be found HERE and HERE.  My photo is a little washed out.  I was fighting fast moving clouds making shadows across my block as I was taking photos. 

It is nice to be all caught up on this quilt along, even though I got a late start.  Can't wait to see the next block!  I'm sure it will be lots of fun, too!

Hope there is fun stitching going on at your house, too!

Catching Up With You

Hey there!
Let's start off with a long promised moving story.
When we left Arizona our belongings went out in two shipments, a small one that was supposed to arrive very quickly, and a large one that would arrive later.  I think I already mentioned that the small shipment didn't arrive when it was supposed to, but showed up several weeks late.  The day it arrived my daughter came to help me with directing the movers and with the unpacking.

It was a lovely spring day in March, so my daughter and I were standing out in the driveway while the men pulled our things out of the shipping crates.  As they were pulling out the boxes the movers came upon several large bundles of paper--and I mean LARGE bundles of paper--2 to 4 feet across and 1 to 2 feet high. At first we all thought the big wads of paper were just packing material to keep the things from shifting in the crates, until one of the men noticed a number sticker on one of them.

One of the movers grabbed his knife to cut the paper, but the blade fell out of his knife so he used his bare hands to rip open layer after layer of paper and lo and behold, out tumbled sheets and towels!  The three movers all stopped what they were doing and stared.  "I've never seen anything like this, ever!",  said one of the men, and the other two agreed as there were exclamations of surprise from everyone.  My comment was "Thank goodness your knife blade fell out!" because all I could see in my mind were all the bed sheets cut to ribbons.

The man grabbed the next bundle of paper and ripped it open.  Out fell blankets and pillows.  The third bundle had more towels in it.  The fourth bundle was more ..... shall we say, interesting?

When it came open out tumbled a big bundle of my undies & bras......

Can I just say I was absolutely horrified watching an avalanche of my unmentionables pouring out on my driveway as the movers looked on? I am sure I turned every shade of pink and red on the Kona color card!
Then this great big hardworking sweaty moving man scoops it all up and asks me where did I want him to put it.  I'm looking at this stranger standing in my driveway holding my undies and kind of sputtering and said, "Um, Umm, Ummm, wherever....."  and believe me, I couldn't look him in the eyes!  The man is standing there holding my BRAS for crying out loud!!!! 

It's okay, dear reader, I hope you are laughing at this point!!

The next bundle was pajamas and socks, and the final bundle was more socks and shoes.
Here's a photo of one of the bundles of clothing, and this is my PAJAMAS, not my undies! It was bad enough to have those on display in my driveway, I'm not putting that out online!  LOL!

One of the things that I hate about having movers pack things is having them touch my personal things, like the undies, so to prevent that from happening I packed up my clothes myself, including the undies.  The movers who packed us out actually opened up the boxes I had packed and dumped the contents into the paper bundles and then re-used the boxes for other items.  Movers are never, ever supposed to pack things like this. And before you ask, yes we filed complaints with the moving company who packed us out. 

The last thing these men unpacked was a queen sized bed.  When the mattress came out of the last box one of the men peered into the box and said, "Hey!  Hey!  There's a thing in this box!!" The mover in charge says, "What do you mean, a thing?  What kind of thing?"  The first mover says, "A thing!  It's a thing-thing!!"

At this point my daughter and I look at each other with nightmarish visions racing through our minds! Remember, we have just left the Arizona desert, so we are both thinking of lizards, tarantulas and snakes and wondering if it is dead or alive!

Finally, the man reaches into the box and pulls out---my cutting mat!

Which shall hereafter ever be knowns as "The Thing-Thing"!

My daughter and I spent at least 3 minutes laughing, mostly from relief!

I hope you got a laugh at the visual images I've given here, because there really was a lot of humor in the situation, and even through the horror I could still appreciate the ridiculousness of the situation. = )

I had intended to show you some photos of what I've been sewing, but my story is so long winded I think I'll close for today.  I'll save the sewing for tomorrow.  

Hope you are having a great day with no strangers handling your unmentionables while standing in your driveway!

Claiming My Blog with Bloglovin'

Isn't this a funny thing to do?  I've seen people all over blogland doing this and it has never failed to crack me up!

I feel like I should be carrying my prospector's pick and pan and saying, "Thar be gold in them thar hills!"

If I don't get lost, I should be back soon!

Claiming my blog:
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