Pure waste of time, don't read,
Today, two more Christmas stockings went into the quilter's closet for our dear soldiers who are trying to keep the peace in that Middle East tender box. *sigh* I just can't let a day pass when I think of them and send up a little prayer. I was there for a class using software to design machine embroideries on my sewing machine, and while I'm versed in one brand we sold in our quilt store for 20 + years, here, I'm working on an entirely new make of machine. The software is so similar to my old software that commands a standard sewing machine tweaked to do machine embroidery do amazing things at the touch of a button or so. The trouble with the new software is, I did all the stuff I'm relearning in the language of the other machine, which is as different in characteristics and placement of icons and commands as the Chinese language, say, is from our own English. The plants in Europe where these two competitors are located probably within 200 miles or less of each other, yet, their software commands are mapped so unlike.
Anyway, I was hoping to learn to use the new machine to make the cd pockets on some of these soldier stockings. I bought a whole entire yard of this cute little gingerbread girl-and-boy fabric, but the only trouble is, when you put it next to some of the exquisite or even modern fabrics, it kind of kills the Hansel-and-Gretel of the fabric as designed. It could be that pale blue snowy ground just clashes with the cranberry red and sparkling gold of the exquisite Hoffman prints I'm making for the stocking bodies. Well, 'scuse my aesthetics, but bleh! It looks bad, and I'll just leave it at that. One or two are okay, and as usual, I put on some saving graces--hand crocheted edges that even a soldier's rough hand might be reluctant to toss in the trash can, at least, I hope he saves it and remembers we over here do not forget our dear, beloved soldiers who spend endless lonely hours patrolling the dark in a strange land filled with terrorists who have been trained to kill them any which way they can. They say it's hardest on those long lonely watches when several days pass. I hope a lot of time passes and that peace sets in, and that no more anger will ever cause another soldier to die. So I pray, and tomorrow when I get up, I'll see if I can connect my machine up and sew a cd pocket for another larger stocking. The big ones I designed are ok, until you quilt them. Then the takeup is such that it seems to reduce the overall size, so I have to make them one more inch wider. One of the things I bought today was some more template plastic, large enough to redesign this time the RIGHT SIZE soldier stocking. Yeah right... By the time I don't have to do any more designing, I will have made 50 wrong ones. Grrr
Oh, yeah, and as long as I'm on this silly soliliquy, when we got home today, a little package of 5 quilt books from the Goodwill store in wherever, Amazon, USA it came from, I pulled out my 5 treasures, well, almost treasures as one wreaks in cigarette smoke of someone who smoked 99 packs of cigarettes a day since 2003, the copyright date on the offending book. Well, when you buy a book for 61 cents and it says it's in average condition and is a hardback, there's gotta be some kinda rub, and beggars can't be choosers. The info inside the book is amazing, and a little sponge with some rose water to clean off the outside jacket might help a big.
It's called "1000 Great Quilt Blocks" by Maggi McCormick Gorden, and measures 5 by 6 inches and is about an inch and a quarter thick, sporting 512 pages packed with designs I can almost do without much measuring for the most part, since years of quilting tends to put information in your head that stays if you're as addicted to the sport of quilting as I am.
Well, I have just given myself a little cleaning job, so I'll submit this reply, go baptize the book cover, and send up a little prayer for the troops over there watching a bare, darkened landscape near daybreak, possibly. Hope you send up a prayer for them, too, if you made it past the do not read warning to right here! lol!
