Thanks for the laugh!

Yesterday, I arrived home at 7:45 p.m. after an insane day!

I left home around 10:00 a.m. and arrived at school at 1:15 p.m. I was stuck in traffic for two and a half hours (2 1/2) on the Mercier bridge. Usually I'm at school within an hour. One thing about small town USA, traffic is considered 3 (three) cars at a stop sign. lol Although I come from a large city and am acclimated with traffic jams, I must admit, you loose your patience after living in an area with so little traffic. Of course, it didn't help the situation that I was meeting someone at 12:45 p.m. and could not reach that individual! You can just imagine, after the week I had, I was fit to be tied when I arrived at school!

After class, I felt like quitting school! Enough is enough! I just wanted to cry! So I left for home as opposed to going out for a drink with friends. I really wasn't in a good mood! When I arrived home, I hugged my little girl and settled her in bed for her nightly reading.

I poured myself a glass of wine and started thinking about what I want to do with my life. Wanting to hear the rain falling, I opened the front door and found a package from Amazon. I'm thinking, gosh that was quick, I placed an order for school books a couple of days ago! I opened the package.

I laughed so hard I cried! Cheryl, you made my day! Thank you!

Allow me to explain, a while back my friend Cheryl (from Oz) and I were chatting about manners and how some people just don't seem to have any. She made reference to this book and how great it was. I had never heard of Miss Manners only of Emily Post.

I flipped through and read a few entries and just loved it! She really does have a way with words!

Of course I teased Cheryl, I mean, should I be taking this personally? ROFL

So, if you need any advice on manners, I'm the gal with the reference! lol

Today I'm doing better and I still want to quit school! I was going to forfeit my quilting bee in order to do some school work, but I'm thinking that perhaps I should seek a change of scenery.

I do want to thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! It means a lot to me.

I do hope you are all having a great week! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Where is my sanity?

Any blog police roaming around? I wouldn't want to get a parking ticket! lol

Okay, my brain is fried! School has been insane for the past few days! I'm taking this intense, and I do mean intense, Christian Ethics course where we meet twice a month for a total of 8 (eight) hours. The problem is that the professor, who I respect and admire tremendously, is a little scatter brain at the beginning of the semester. Given the class schedule, it's not ideal if you catch my drift!

All this to say that Monday after a 4 (hour) class I headed to the library to do an insane amount of reading, that was impossible to do given the amount of time there is in a day. I got home at 12:00 a.m., a zombie. Got up the next morning, put dd on the bus and continued to read for that same class. I feel as thought I've been in class for 48 hours.

I didn't get home on Tuesday until 7:30 p.m. poured myself a glass of red wine, pinot noir, and had to give my little girl a hug. Stephen was at volleyball so dd and I had a one on one. It was nice to sit and chat. I actually missed my little girl.

Unfortunately, I won't be quilting today. I have lots and lots of work to do for my class on Thursday. I am so behind in my quilting, not to mention blog reading.

Have a great day every one!

How I organized/controlled my scrap bin!

With all this talk about Darlene's new book, I thought I would once again contribute a page, perhaps even a chapter. What are friends for hey.....?

Like many of you, I mulled over what to do with all my scraps. The bin was over flowing with fabric. Although I have been known to visit my scrap bin for certain fabric pieces, I am not much of a scrap quilt maker.

Spring 2006, I was at The Quilted Crow and they had a demonstration on rug braiding. I had one of those light bulb moments regarding my scrap bin. What if I introduced my friend Patty to rug braiding? A brilliant idea! So I bought the book.

I asked Stephen to make a frame, which he did using wood from an old horse/carriage barn being torn down on our street. In other words, the frame is a memorabilia of our community long ago. Of course he made it much fancier than the one pictured in the book. ;o)

I proceeded to make a huge bag of strips in preparation for my new plan. When Patty and I got together I asked her if she would be interested in learning to braid rag rugs. She was ecstatic! I showed her the book and she was sold in no time. Hurray, I have found a home for my scraps!

I should mention that Patty enjoys crafting. What I mean is that she knits and also likes making things with her hands, like soaps etc.... There's something about the word crafting that conjures up images of plastic canvas needle work tissue box covers etc..... I really do not like using that word! Patty does beautiful work!

Once the frame was done, Patty came over and we proceeded to learn braiding.

Last night, we had our little get together. Here you have a close up of the process.

Usually my daughter is in bed by the time Patty comes over, but last night she was still up. She came down to look at the rug and proceeded to point out the various fabrics that were in her quilts! I just think that is so cute!

It's really a wonderful hobby! It requires very little concentration.

The book is calls Rugs from Rags and is by Country Threads. They do have a DVD that demonstrates how it is done. I have not seen the DVD nor was I aware of it until I did a search. Patty and I figured it out from the pictures in the book.

Stephen will be making another frame. Not that I need another hobby but, perhaps I can get him to be productive while he watches TV! ROFL Patty is just not keeping up with my scraps! lol

So, how do you organize/control you scrap bin? You get your friends into the hobby of rag braiding! What are friends for hey..........? lol

Have a great day every one! Thank you so much for stopping by!

Quote from the past!

Since I am pretty up to date on blog reading and nothing new on the quilting front, I thought I would take a break to write a bit about what I'm presently working on school wise. I am writing a critique on Alone of all her Sex - The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary by Marina Warner.

The chapter I am presently dealing with is regarding the virgin birth, a phenomenon that was culturally prevalent during the Hellenistic period. Divine paternity was often used to clarify the mysteries surrounding the birth of heroes and sages (such as Pythagoras, Plato, Alexander etc). More specifically, I got a chuckle out of the following quote from Ovid Metamorphoses regarding the conception of Bacchus, a child of Semele, a mortal, and the god Jupiter. In an attempt to obtain information regarding Semele's divine impregnation, Juno in a fit says:

"..... The whole business disturbs me: many a man has made his way into an honest girl's bedroom by calling himself a god" (p 81)

Now, Ovid is from 32 B.C.E. to 17 C.E. Despite it's antiquity, it could still be applied today. It's a definite keeper in my memory bank! ROFL

I do hope you got a chuckle from this blast from the past as much as I did!

Back to your regular schedule programming!

Uncle! It's cold in here!

As of late, we have been having beautiful fall weather in Upstate NY. Our days are around 70F (21C), however our nights have gotten much cooler.

It's been 59F (15C) in the house for that past few days and I just couldn't take it any longer. I caved in and decided that despite the fact that it's only September, I need some heat!

I don't know if it's a northerner thing, but we don't usually turn on the heat until mid to late October, sometimes even the beginning of November. It just doesn't seem right to be heating the house any earlier.

So what's the next best thing to not feel too guilty about it, use the wood stove! ;o) I built myself a little fire to take the humidity out of the house.

On the quilting front, this is what I've been working on. What a beast!

You know, I'm thinking, after the fact of course, that it may have been a good time to try Wendy's applique method. Between the size of the quilt, the freezer paper and the stabilizer, it made for a mess to maneuver! Gosh, it was stiff! You'd think I was trying to machine applique cardboard! lol

Please don't mind the photo, I didn't take the time to straighten things out! It was past 11.30 p.m. when I decided that it was time to quit! I just didn't have the energy to continue attempting to take the freezer paper out!

I'm hoping to have this beast done before October 4th, the date I must turn in all of my quilts for the guild's quilt show. Yea, I know! Did I ever mention that I work best under pressure? Yea, and I have two papers to write this week for school!

Well, I'm off to take care of school work. I do hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather! Have a great day everyone!