Today's the day!!!!

Yep - today's the day.

I had an assistant come over and it's time to open that darn crate! Yippee!!!

Instead of making it boring with just pictures, I decided to do a video of opening the crate. Thanks to Celeste for her help. And thanks to iMovie on my iPad, I was able to splice the three short clips together to get one clip. And where can you find this clip? I uploaded it to YouTube yesterday. Here's the link.    Don't look at the mess in the garage!

I hope that wasn't too anti-climatic. But the items in the crate mean a lot to me. I've contemplated bringing the larger item home several times but never did. But now it's here. It's still in the garage this morning and it may need a bit of tender loving care, but I'll give you the whole story of that item when I have a bit more time.

Here's a couple of pictures of the smaller items in the crate. There's that nice tin with the hinged lid. Must have been a box of chocolates at some point. Chocolates with liquor in them  - I HATE those.

Nice tin box

Open it up to discover a whole pile of hand crocheted (by my Mom) doilies. There are various sizes in the box and I need to take stock very quickly of what's in there as I have a plan for these. No sense in having a box of small doilies hanging around. Nope - I've got a plan. A plan with a deadline no less. And that's all I'm going to say about these. Except that my Mom must have crocheted miles and miles of crochet cotton and yard over the years. The HUGE number of afghans that we've found in the house would blow your mind! I think I took pictures - no maybe I didn't because it was so hard to get a picture. Anyway - there were TONS.  Not quite in the three digits, but it wouldn't surprise if it were close.

Small crocheted doilies

And here's a picture of the other fabric thing in the box. This is a box of Dresden plate blades. How many? NO idea, but the box is pretty big. That's my Mom - why make ONE, when thousands will do? This is all leftover fabric that she had from dressmaking. She used to sew her own clothes and make me matching dresses when I was little. How cute is that? I do have one picture which I've posted online at some point about our matching dresses.

OH OH  - I found the link on my blog about the matching dresses. Check it out. And check out what I'm wearing in one of the pictures and then look closely at this box. Notice the black/white fabric???

That red/brown plaid in the top right corner is from a shirt I made when I was in high school. Hmm - that would be a few years ago.

Box of Dresden blades

I'm thinking that it's time to shake up those Dresden blades. How can we make a modern quilt from them? That would be pretty awesome given the origin of the fabrics. OK - another quilt on the "to make" list. But there will be loads more than I need for one quilt. Seriously - why she would go gangbusters is beyond me. I'm obsessive, but I don't think I go this crazy.

The other thing I've been doing when I should have been working was to take this apart. It was a jumpsuit from Ann Curry from NBC. I know - why do I have her jumpsuit? A number of years ago, I made several quilts for The Quilt Project. We had several celebrities donate clothing so a quilt could be made in an effort to raise more money and awareness. This was the item that we received from Ann. I had made a quilt from the sleeves of the garment, but the rest has sat for years. It was time to get it out and do something with it. Unfortunately, I don't know where the pictures of those quilts are. Hopefully, somewhere in this mess. If I ever find them, I'll show you - I LOVED those quilts and they are NOT on the internet. I don't think.

Jumpsuit

I know - you're thinking why now? Well, there's a lot of talk about using odd materials to make a quilt (oops - did I say that out loud?) and I thought I'd get this garment prepped. I know exactly what I'm going to make with this jumpsuit.

Anyway, it's now in pieces. Between my seam ripper and a pair of scissors, I've separated the small crappy parts from the parts that are usable. I even found a note in one of the pockets. Was it something interesting?

The parts that went in the garbage

Nope - unless you know what loop, hammer, 1/2 cuban, 1/2 loop and 1/2 roll mean. I think it has something to do with car racing???? Nope - I checked car racing terms - not related to car racing.

A list of terms????

Let's just say that it's time to shake up the quilting world. We're going to go crazy!!!

And seriously - I need to get my act together. The call of that lounge chair in the gazebo is killing me. I went out with the intention of reading a wee bit. I was working on an intense project that wasn't working out to my liking. In disgust, I had to leave it. I took some reading material outside. Next thing I know, I'm having a nap. It's just too darn nice to be in the house.

But after dinner, I did manage to redo what was not working in the afternoon and although not perfect, it looks pretty good. I'm happy with it and that's all that counts.

I see that Miss Lexi has been on the computer again. That silly dog. She sure loves to blog even though it's mostly about her sister.

And don't forget to get the latest on those cute pot holders on QUILTsocial. I love them.

Checked my bloodwork online last night - everything is NORMAL. That's it - I'm done with medical stuff for the next couple of years. OK - maybe one year. It appears that the older you get, the more often the doctors want to check up on you. I don't need checking on yet - give me another 5 - 10 years and then they can check me.

On that note, I'm out of here. Another day of adventuring and no work being done in the house. But come tomorrow, I'll be back to my normal routine.

Have a great day!!!

Ciao!!!