Blogger Problem with Email Notifications

I check my email several times a day, and I had just about decided that this separate blog for stitching was not a good idea because I haven't had a comment since May 24. Then I thought to look in my dashboard at the comments, and there WERE comments! I know I didn't change my notifications but I thought I must have done something when I backed up my main blog to move it here and to wordpress.

But then I checked my barndominium blog, and did a test comment, and didn't get a notification. To check further, I checked another blog I set up when I was trying out a new idea, and it has a yahoo email while this block has microsoft. Nope, no notifications from it either.

If you are having a problem with notifications, would you comment here? And if you are having a problem AND find a solution, would you definitely post that here? I've posted the problem on a blogger support forum but so far no response.

Sewing Room Sunday May 26

I thought every week this month was going to be my last week of sewing in the attic, but I've managed to suck it up for several days every week. There's just something about sweat dripping down my back and fabric sticking to my sweaty hands that takes the fun out of quilting. I know. I am such a wimp. Though now I do have a better appreciation for women who sewed in factories before air conditioning. Compared to them, I have it made.

But good news is on the horizon. Hubby ordered the first of our air conditioners and it should be here Monday or Tuesday. Best of all, it is for the attic! Why install an a/c in the attic? Well, it will be our experiment with a mini split system. If it works out, we'll put them in our living space downstairs. If not, we'll use it to cool the mechanical space in the attic. I am really excited about it and hope it works as well as we've heard.

Despite my whining, I did get a bit done this week. The Disappearing Four Patch is coming along and I am almost caught up on my RSC blocks. I am making the D4P for our 5th wheel and I'd like it to coordinate with the colors in there. If you've ever been in a travel trailer, they tend to have the same decor throughout. I'd describe the style as monotonous monochromatic. Too much color in a small space would look cluttered, so while these are not the colors I would have chosen, they are easy to live with. Unfortunately, because they are not the colors I would have chosen, I don't have anything in my stash to use and had to buy some fabric. Just when my reduction was looking better than my additions, ba-bam! It's over.

This week's stash report:

Fabric In: 3.25 yards

Fabric Out: 3 yards

Total of .25 yard added to stash

Bringing new stash total to 376.50 yards.

This week's 15 Minute Stitching Challenge report:

Sewed 5 days out of 7 for the week

Brought yearly total to 97 out of 146 days

Success rate of 66%.

Linking to:
Sunday Stash May at QuiltPaintCreate
15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces

Scrappy Saturday

This is the last pink Saturday and I still need to make one more block. I hated to buy fabric for a scrap project, but I just don't have pink scraps, or maybe they are still packed in a box somewhere. Anyway, here are my RSC 2018 blocks, minus two pink blocks. My other photo was too blurry.

I'm working on another scrappy quilt, a Disappearing Four Patch, and the more blocks I make, the less I like it. It may be the colors, but the color scheme of our trailer is mainly tans and browns and I need it to blend. I've used some blues and greens to throw some color into it. I hope it starts looking better to me as it builds.

I talked about pressing the seams of the D4P in other posts. This is how I decided it worked best for me. Some of the seams are pressed to the dark and a two are pressed to the light so they would nest with the seams. Maybe this will help someone someday.

Linking to:
Scraphappy Saturday at soscrappy
UFO Busting at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Working on the Disappearing Four Patch

Welcome to my new blog!  It seemed to me that the sewing and quilting posts needed to be separated from the rest of my assorted posts.  I thought about doing it once before, but didn't have the time to do it then, but I have time now, so we'll see how it goes.  Everything else is still at The Next Fifty Years

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I started looking at the two Disappearing Four Patch blocks I had completed, and I noticed that I hadn't done the center piece the same.  I looked at some finished quilts online and saw that in some the centers were one way and in some they were the other way.  And some of them switched the outer pieces as well.  So I decided which way I liked it best and ripped out the center in the other block and turned it around.

I know it looks like I haven't gotten much done, and I haven't.  I started looking at the string blocks I make as leaders and enders and thought of a new way to put those together, and well, I got completely distracted with that and forgot about the DFP blocks I was supposed to be doing.  Please tell me I'm not the only one who does that!

Linking to:
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Sewing Room Sunday

My stash reduction was already looking good on Wednesday when a friend mentioned that she needed some children's fabrics for some donation quilts she was making. Every time I looked at my stack of children's quilts I wondered what I was going to do with them, so I pulled out the last fabrics I bought to make a baby quilt and gave her the rest. Now if I can get that baby quilt made soon, I can free up a big section in my stash cabinet. That made a big boost in my stash report. Big for me anyway.

My 15 Minute Challenge isn't looking that great. I started off well and thought I was going to get in a lot of sewing this week, but as I mentioned yesterday, life got in the way. It's also getting really hot in my attic sewing space. Something's got to give, and quickly or my sewing will come to an abrupt halt.

With my stash report, I am most interested in my overall stash total, and how much I've added or taken from it each week.  But today I was curious how much I've actually bought and sewed and whether I am using more than I am adding, so I spent a few minutes picking out those numbers.
Used YTD:     31.75 Yards
Bought YTD: 24.00 Yards
I'm encouraged to see that I am using more than I have bought, though it was a little surprising to see that I've bought that much this year.

Now I'm off to the airport to pick up my beloved plumber husband.

Linking to:
15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

This Week is Scrapped

And not in a good way either.

Hubby left early Wednesday morning and I had grand plans for MY vacation the rest of the week. I was going to pull the booth out of the trailer so I could replace the carpet, I was going to catch up on the RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) blocks, I was going to finish all the blocks for my trailer summer quilt, and I was going to eat what I wanted when I wanted it. The only thing on that list that actually happened was eating what I wanted when I wanted it.

Wednesday, before I even got home from the airport, my mother-in-law wanted me to take her to the emergency room. I had taken her to the doctor the previous week and nothing was wrong with her, but she didn't think the doctor knew what he was talking about so she wanted to go the ER. Instead of going home, I picked her up and took her to the ER. Once again, nothing wrong with her that a good laxative wouldn't cure. I left her apartment at 7:00, grabbed something to eat and thought I might make it home in time to mow by the road, but there wasn't enough daylight left, so I did a load of laundry, read a book, and went to bed.

Thursday morning, I mowed next to the road and by the creek - an area I call the poison ivy patch. I've never gotten a poison ivy rash and think I might be immune to it, but I don't chance it. I take a shower with Dawn as soon as I finish mowing to wash off any poison ivy oil. But when I started to take a shower, I had no hot water. In fact, I had no water at all from the hot water tap. The cold water tap was fine. Very perplexing. Long story short, a plumber came and went with no success, I bought a check valve to replace it myself and couldn't get the old one off, and I have taken cold showers this week. Some vacation. Every time Hubby goes somewhere for more than a day or two, something major breaks, usually an appliance. I think they come alive at night and conspire against me. Next time Hubby goes on a trip, I'm going somewhere too.

I started this post because I wanted a written record of my snowball quilt plan. Those are the blocks I am making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I worked on them Tuesday before my week started going downhill and I really couldn't remember my plan so spent some time deciphering my written notes.

Angela of soscrappy names a color every month for ten months and participants make a block or blocks using that color fabrics from their scraps. I need twenty-five blocks to make five rows of five blocks which doesn't work perfectly with a ten month plan. I decided to make three blocks for seven months and two blocks for two months. I skipped April because that month's color was yellow and it didn't look great with my yellow centers and I made March a two block month because I am really short on green scraps.

May's color is pink. My goal was to have all three pink blocks done by the end of this week, but I only have one petal for one flower finished. Maybe I can work on it tomorrow while Hubby replaces the check valve. I try to stay as far from him as possible when he is doing plumbing, in fact, I usually leave home. But maybe the sewing space is far enough for this project, unless it goes south.

See what others have made with their scraps this week. I am linking to:
Scraphappy Saturday at soscrappy

And the Winner Is

Congratulations Dianne! However...

Dianne, you didn't change your profile to leave an email address and you don't have a blog on your Profile, so I can't contact you. I put the names in again in a different order and it picked you again. So it really wants you to have it. Please change your settings and comment here in so I can contact you.

Thanks for playing everyone!

On the Design Wall

I've made quite a few of the four patch blocks for the Disappearing Four Patch but only one finished D4P. And now I can see why the ladies were struggling Thursday. Remember I said my job was to cut the completed four patch blocks?

If you have made a Disappearing Four Patch, tell me which way you pressed. I am finding, just the ladies Thursday, that I press to the dark and after making the final cuts, repressing again.

Linking to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Moving it Foward at Em's Scrapbag

Week 19 Sewing Report Sunday

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there!

Both my reports look better this week even though I only sewed four out of seven days. This time of year, four days is good. I also started a new quilt for the first time this year so that made a dent in the stash. I vowed that this year would be the year of UFOs, and I am still on track for finishing one each month, but we need a lightweight quilt in summer.

At quilt group this week, the leaders decided to make a Disappearing Four Patch. I've made a Disappearing Hourglass and it was pretty easy, but a few of the ladies just couldn't grasp the concept of making a four patch and cutting it into pieces. And then they struggled with what order to put it together and how to press the seams. My job was cutting the finished four patches so I wondered if it was really that difficult. Granted, the printed pattern they were using was short on information. It was basically just a few pictures. So I decided to make a Disappearing Four Patch, a scrappy Disappearing Four Patch for myself. I'll be making it without batting so it should be easier to quilt also.

That's it for this week. Check out the two links below to see how others have spent their time and their stash this week. Don't forget, my drawing for the Windham Fairly There kit runs through tomorrow.

Linking to:
15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

1000th Post Fabric and Quilt Pattern Giveaway!

The day has finally come. It's hard to believe I've been blogging for ten and a half years, five hundred and fifty three weeks to be exact. I've had long absences in that time too. As it is, it averages just over one and a half blog posts per week. After I noticed my post count was getting close to 1000, I started looking at my post stats and found quite a few drafts that I had completely forgotten about. Some were accidental saves and had nothing in them, but quite a few just needed a little spellcheck and photos. Check your draft folder if you haven't looked at it in awhile; there may be something interesting there that you thought you already posted.

Now for the drawing. I am giving away a kit that contains a Windham pattern and Windham fabrics. No, it isn't donated by them. It was gifted to me by a friend and now I am regifting to one of you. Finished size of the quilt is 54-1/2 inches x 71-1/2 inches. The colors are pretty teals, burgandies, and browns. See the picture below.

Details for the drawing:

• The drawing is open to anyone in the U.S. I'm sorry I can't mail it to other countries, but that darn postage is just too high outside the U.S.
• To enter, make a comment on this post and make sure your settings aren't set to no-reply. I need to be able to notify the winner by email.
• The drawing will be Monday at noon, Pacific Daylight Time, and then comments to this post will be closed.

That's it. Easy peasy.

I am going to use the random name picker from miniwebtool.com. It will be a first for me, but it looks easy. Good luck!

Postscript:
Now that I have moved sewing and quilting posts to this new blog, this is no longer my 1000th post. So, someday, there might be another 1000th post giveaway.

Antique Tiles Quilt

Design Board Monday

I have two of the four borders on Antique Tiles. The more I see this green around it, even though it is a good match to the green in the center fabric, the less I like it. I think I may cut the borders down to three inches and put a second border of the same yellow plaid that is used on the sashing.

Linked to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag

Sunday Sewing Reports

Not a bad week for both sewing and stash use. There is an unecessary blot on the stash report though. I have been trying to figure out what to use for borders on the Antique Tiles quilt. I can't find any blues with the same blue-gray color and don't want to use more yellow, so I've been trying out some of the minor colors in the quilt. There's pink, which looks really hideous with the yellow-gold in the quilt; another blue, so that's out; orange, which also looked bad with the yellow, and green. I had a half yard or less of a green that looked good, but I thought I could do better. After going to a couple of stores, I finally settled on a vibrant dark green from my LQS. I had taken my quilt with me to shop for fabric, and up close, it looks good. But I forgot to take the time to back off and look at the overall picture, and when I did that at home, I didn't like it. I even forgot my sure fire method of seeing how fabric colors work together: taking off my glasses and letting the colors merge together. So there's a yard of fabric bought that I didn't need after all.

This morning Hubby looked out the window and saw deer tracks over the septic tank.  Again.  We can't keep them from walking over it.  A fence didn't stop them either, they just hopped over it and then out again.  Curious to see where the deer was going, Hubby looked around the corner of the barndo and this is where the tracks led.  My newly sprouted garden!

It's muddy and the tracks near the garden aren't clear, but they are deer tracks.  Now I have to figure out how to keep them from nibbling my beets and trompling through them to get to other things.

Linking to:
15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces
Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate

One Monthly Goal for May

I didn't finish my April UFO, so Antique Tiles is once again my goal for May. I thought about skipping a goal this month but there will be a few rainy days this month so I should be able to get some sewing in. I'm very close to a finish, so it shouldn't take much. As of today, all the blocks are quilted and the rows put together. I'm still undecided about a border.

This picture doesn't do it justice.  These fabrics are so pretty and fun to work with.  When I finish it, I'll take a picture with the good camera.

I may not be around much in the next week. Last night I was working on my blog, reached over for a pen, and knocked a full glass of tea onto my laptop. I turned it off as fast as I could and started drying it out, but I won't know until tomorrow whether it still works. Right now I am typing on Hubby's desktop and it has an annoying habit of typing in double letters and spaces. I guess I'm having a bad year. I dropped my phone a month ago and cracked the glass. This is worse. I hope I don't have to buy a new computer. After typing on Hubby's though, I think he needs a new one.

Linking to:
One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts