A Day for Making Fixable Mistakes

I didn't have court, today, and the phone is not ringing. Woohoo! I may be going out of business but it FEELS like I am playing hookey!

I made a stab at working this morning - paid bills and cancelled my mother's AOL account. Get this. Mom passed in May 2007. AOl just started billing her a month ago, apparently out of the blue. What is up with that??? I also discovered that she had three credit cards that needed to be cancelled. I thought that had all been taken care of.

I hate the AOL phone customer service site. They have the recorded phone system that is supposed to sound human. By the time I got it to hand me over to a "consultant" the damn thing was swearing at me! I wanted to yell back but it would be like shouting at a toaster - not that I haven't done that, before. But I was much younger.

So anyway, about 10:30, I decided to do the Tennessee block from Carol Doak's star book.


I mark my patterns on the front end of the process so I know which sides to trim at a quarter inch for the seam allowance (here, marked with an X). I learned this the hard way. I cleverly write OS on the edge that is "outside." I don't trim the outside edge until the end to make sure I don't do all that work and end up with a block that is too small and will have the points cut off.


One of the reasons this pattern appealed to me was because it had small enough pieces that I could use some of my scraps. Paper piecing uses a lot of fabric and there is a lot of waste. It is nice to be able to take the scraps and use them in something else.


Some people just hold down the first piece when their are paper piecing, and some use a glue stick. I set my Beloved Janome on the longest basting stitch and baste the first piece down.


I use a cheap little battery operated lamp under the acrylic sewing table to help position the pieces.


I try to place the first piece so that I don't have to trim for piece number 2. It just eliminates a step but it isn't really that important.


I made quite a few goofs - my blood sugar took a dive not long after I started and I should have gone to get some food. See this picture? If you look closely in the circle, that is where I somehow cut off my seam allowance on the white fabric. I honestly don't know how that happened.



I could have ripped apart the piece and started from scratch but I just patched in some more fabric.


I will remember this piece when I am quilting - I think I can hide it and it will be just as sturdy.

But now, look at THIS embarrassment!


I don't know where my mind was. Again, easy to fix.

I really struggled with the colors to use. I am not sure this works but I just wanted the brighter blue (I used it, yesterday, too). My mood must be brighter.


And here she is with some of her patriotic sisters.



I'd planned to go back and work the rest of the day but Husband just called from the train station and is coming home early. He said he'd be here in ten minutes so I better hussle the men, whiskey and ecstasy out the door. I probably ought to run a brush through my hair, too.