The Patient!!!

A FREE day!!!!!    I was going to ride my bike, but given the fact that it is COLD out (about 4 degrees), the forecast is rain, and both the physiotherapist and Alwin did not think it was a good idea given the fact that my knee is still recovering - so I am NOT cycling today.

I was supposed to teach a class on free motion, but it was too closely scheduled to the machine quilting class and the class wanted some practice time in between the two so that is not happening today!

As a result - I have a FREE day. HOORAY!!!!!!


Not that I will be sitting around eating bonbons and reading a book - OH NO - I am going to make the best of the day. Got my comfy WARM jammies on and I'm going to stay that way!!!!


And not that my studio doesn't need tidying up. Gosh - amazing how things can go downhill FAST!!!!

Looks like a tornado went through this place!!!!  And that is the start of a t-shirt quilt on the floor in the background.

We got a chance to visit Sparky yesterday. I am glad we did because they got to see how perky she can be. I get the impression she is NOT happy there and is very despondent. Hey - wouldn't you be????

M and Caroline with a very excited Sparky. We had a hard time to calm her down!!!!

Look how cute she is!!!!   I was just happy to see that she was ALERT!!!!

See nice bright eyes!!!!

Sparky and her IV!!!!

Hmmmm - time to relax. Look at her leg - all bandaged up with her IV in there. 

All too soon we had to leave. Poor Sparky - she was NOT happy when we left. But Sammy who had to wait in the car was very interested in sniffing us.


I started a NEW project. I couldn't help myself! Well - it was NOT my fault. One of my sewing groups - Sew Buddies  - decided when I was away that we should all work on the same project. At the end - we will each have our own quilt. Hmmm - the pattern is cute - and handwork - yep - I can do that.

Holiday Redwork by The Stitch Connection

My wreath block

Marked with red lines

Pen I used to do the marking

NEW (well to me) thread for stitching!!!

Marian and I were off on an adventure the other day which I will tell you about another day. Anyway - she is a faithful reader of a large number of blogs. She (as my researcher) is supposed to be passing information onto me in a timely manner. BUT it seems that she only shares when we actually see the products in the stores!!!!   Thank god I am NOT paying her to do the work.

Well there is a new thread/floss out there called COSMOS. At one of the stores we visited, a teacher there was using a variegated floss to stitch a Crabapple Hill pattern. The variegated thread was perfect for this project and this person's stitching was UNBELIEVABLE. I should have taken a picture - the most incredible back stitch I have ever seen and a back stitch is a pretty basic back stitch!!!!  Going to try to get a hand ful of people together so we can get her to teach us!!!!!   My back stitch is OK, but this was - well I think you get the picture!!!!

Then we started discussing various methods of transferring and what to use for that second layer under the stitching. This teacher used a fine woven fusible interfacing so bought some of that. It is called Shape-Flex by Pellon.

Label for Shape-Flex

Anyway - I fused that to the wrong side of my cut square. Then using a light box - traced the design onto the fabric. That is always the tricky part - trace first - then fuse????   Depends on the marking pen I suppose.

I have always used water soluble pens in the past, but I was using the THICK one and while I like it because you can see your lines - the thick one is chunky for small designs. We decided to try a fine line pen. I got the pigma pen in red - then any little blotches wouldn't show. I have discovered that red for doing red work is NOT a good idea. It is harder to see where your last stitch was!!!   SO no more red pens for redwork.

I am afraid of black but that is the only one in the fine fine nib .005. I was hoping to find a brown in that size, but only black.

I have a couple of other pens I am going to try - not like I don't have something to try it on. And I am contemplating instead of french knots - I am going to pull a LINDA. Bling it up with crystals. That will help to differentiate it from the others.

I got two CDs done last night. Really liking this book and it took me a while to fall into a rhythm with the back stitch. OK - so I don't embroider a lot!!!!

This morning - I have started getting the strips for the bright exchange organized!!!

Bright exchange

I have a list of NON sewing things to get done today. I may have to decommission my sewing machine for a couple of days every month!!!!


If you have any suggestions for marking embroidery - let me know and I will try them. I do have several others here, but thought I would start with this one.

Have a great day!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!