Hello from Florida!

Sunday morning we decided to pack up and head out to Florida. We have a house here in Ormond Beach and come down every six weeks or so. Ideally, we stay about two weeks, but it's been months since we've stayed longer than a week. Maybe this time . . . . On Wednesday we went to the flea market at the Volusia County Fairgrounds in Deland. It was more compact than usual since the vendors were set up in the parking lot because of the upcoming fair. I'm including a picture of a 'life saver' cactus that I bought. I had never seen anything like it. The vendor said that they are easy to grow - will fill up a pot and have lots of the unusual flowers. Cancel the 'including a picture'. For some reason, everytime I try adding the photo, I get kicked off-line. Pictures will have to wait until we get back to SC. I brought my sewing machine with me, but haven't done any piecing. I've been working on some hand-quilting on a printed panel quilt I'm doing for one of my grandsons. I also started knitting a fuzzy scarf for my oldest granddaughter. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish at least one hand-crafted item for each of the grandkids by Christmas.

No quilting today, but I spent several hours in the sewing room yesterday. More time was spent ripping out than sewing. I wanted to see how the sewing machine quilt would look with the red inner border that I had cut out. So I decided to go ahead and tack up a flannel-backed tablecloth to make a design wall - something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Once I got the quilt components up on the flannel, the red inner border did nothing for the quilt, black would look much better. I decided to use the black for the inner border and the binding. I attached the inner border to the pieced border. Then I made the spool blocks for the corners. I had to fiddle with the pieced border to make it fit. Didn't take nearly as much fiddling as I expected. But once I got the top assembled, it just didn't look right. I decided to redo the spool blocks using a black background instead of cream - it makes the spools pop and will give a more finished look. I made the new blocks. Next sewing session will begin with ripping out the old blocks and replacing them.

I don't think I will start another pieced top until I get a new sewing machine. The one I'm using has been good for small projects, but it just isn't up to more precision work. The tension is tempermental and seems content to adjust itself at inopportune moments. It is no good at all for machine quilting. I enjoy hand quilting, but would like to have the option available for machine quilting. If - no, when - I get a new machine, I'll probably leave this one in Florida. Then I won't have to lug a machine with me everytime we go down.

I've decided that the only way to blog is to just do it! I have my favorites that I read at least 3 times a week. Some of them aren't very long - just thoughtful. Isn't that what this is all about? I'm not a member of a blog ring, so I don't have to go by anyone's rules but my own. I'm going to try to post at least twice a week. We'll see how it goes. This week I've been working on my sewing machine wall quilt. I got this pattern from one of Debbie Mumm's books. Thought that it would be neat hanging in my sewing room. The pieces were cut out a month ago, before our last trip to Florida, in hopes that I could work on it while we were there. But I got sidetracked on something else (more about that at a later date). The sewing machines were pieced during two hour-long sessions. I put on the sashing and assembled the middle of the quilt and discovered that I had nothing in my stash for the inner border - I did the pieced border first to see how the colors would look. So, I stopped everything and headed to Anderson to Hancock's and Hobby Lobby. I didn't find what I was looking for, but picked up some solid red and black, and some brick and board prints for a future project. When I got home I decided to use the solid red. Those strips were cut. Hopefully, I can finish the quilt top tomorrow. I'll post a picture when the top is complete.