It's not supposed to be this cold!

Okay, we moved from Minnesota to Arizona to get away from the cold. And here we woke up to 9 degrees. Whole neighborhoods without water due to freezing pipes in their homes and in the streets. No one is certain if the pipes have burst.

Thankfully we have water (I left water dribbling in the farthest faucet from the water main), but many others did this and have nothing. A lot of friends will be coming over tonight to take hot showers if their water hasn't started by then. Hope they bring their own towels!!

The ceiling to hubby's workshop fell in. Thankfully the landlord was right on it and should have it fixed today, but no chance of him working on any vent figures. He is at the shop seated in his little recliner with 3 space heaters pointed at him. He's working on his next book (yay! He has been procrastinating on that!)

The picture is of our yard in Minnesota. Beautiful but COOOLLLD!

On a fibery note, I am ironing a bunch of fabric bits to use in crumb blocks. I found 4 bags of scraps I had set aside, and am culling what I want and what is garbage. The ironing puts out a lot of heat, which feels great!

Happy fibery stuff!

Cathy B

Have you seen these?

Have you seen the checkbook covers I make? I love the pen holder on them. You can see them at:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/threadbenders

Who says useful can't be beautiful?

Speaking of beautiful, that's my baby girl. What a cutie!

Cathy B

A New Month!

Well, February is here, what did you do in January? On the last day of January I worked on my sewing room. Well, it isn't really a sewing room at the moment, more of a storage locker. And that isn't right!

Yesterday I dragged most of the contents into the living room so I could cull and organize. Most of my stuff is at my husband's workshop/studio (he makes vent puppets for a living), so why is my sewing room so stuffed?

One reason is that I was storing everything horizontally, so I couldn't walk into the room. This made for one reasonable difference: vertical storage. I have some great 12" X 12" X 8" boxes that are sturdy enough for me to stack them 8 high. Fabrics are now stored in there, and the boxes are labeled by color. I even have enough room to snag some more of my fabric from hubby's studio!

Next will be boxing other fibery things in the same boxes. Not certain how to label the categories, though.

Books and mags will be the hardest, but I need to be able to use my room. I'm tired of monopolizing the kitchen table!!

Happy fiber day!

Cathy B

Be Careful!

Hubby and I were at a seminar Saturday. I took my usual pain meds (arthritis and fibro), and a decongestant to ward off reactions to perfumey people. An hour into the program I took a mild muscle relaxer for pain. (The seats were VERY uncomfortable).

Wow! I fell asleep, and when I got up to go to the bathroom I fell down! (Thankfully into the chair.) A friend got a wheelchair for me (still had to pee!), and wheeled me there and back. The doctor at the first aid station checked me and said it wasn't dangerous, but NOT to do it again. I missed almost the entire program, and was not 100% recovered until Tuesday!

Scared my hubby, scared me.

Be careful about combining meds!

I don't remember where I got the pic above. Dover clipart, maybe?

Cathy B

My favorite quilt basting technique

I really like Sharon Schamber's quilt basting technique. I can sit at a table, a plus for my knees! And starching the back makes it slide easily on my sewing machine, and NO PUCKERS!!!

The url is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwNylePFAA


I really like it, and wanted to share it with y'all!

Cathy B

The pic is Jim Parsons from The Big Bang Theory. He won a Golden Globe the other night. He cracks me up!!

More projects done!

I was on a dishcloth binge last week. Too much stress to do anything taking brain activity!

These are the easiest knitting I know. Just a diagonal increase and decrease. I keep dishcloth cotton in a bin that I can just grab and knit away. There are a lot of earthy dishcloths because that seems to be what a lot of my friends have in their kitchen.

These make great hostess gifts when we go to dinner, and they have come to expect them! lol

I keep trying to find a day with no outside obligations, but they don't seem to appear! Oh, well, back to carving out time for the projects I want to finish.

Take care!

Cathy B

Did I tell you?

I belong to a yahoo group that is all about using up our 'leftovers' from other projects. Actually, I'm the listmom. The group is Bits and Bobs, and the url is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bitsandbobs/

I am posting links to knit and crochet projects that take less than 150 yards of yarn! It is amazing what you can do with that small amount of yarn.

I will be posting these links for the rest of the year, and beyond that if I can.

Join us if you will!

Cathy B
PS: I love this dishcloth, but can't remember where I got the pic. I will post the link when I find it! ;)