Pattern Testing Becomes NewFO

I had the pleasure and honor of testing Sue Abrey's soon to be released Wimbledon Squares quilt pattern. My version is a bit smaller - an over-sized lap - named Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly. The quilter has not yet gotten her hands on my flimsy (see the lavender Ms Cat has her back feet on? - well that is the backing to be). This quilt is for my niece, Bailey.

Sue's pattern went together like a dream. I had quite a fun time with this! And, she told me I could share the quilt just in time to link to Barbara's NewFO Challenge for the month. Ms Cat was wondering what I was going to show because her knows this is the only thing I worked on the past month. Here are outside pictures (sans the naughty cat!) of  Lavender Blue Dilly Dilly .....

Okay, okay ... so there is a bit of picture overload. The pattern testing was very new to me. I had a blast. Thank you, Sue, for letting me participate.

My Unfavorable WOW Experience

I've spent four long (very long!) evenings with no Internet service. No connection with my blogging friends, no email, no FB, no nothing. WOW, my service provider, has customer service (or technical support as they refer to this group) issues. Big time issues!

Last Monday I spent over 45 minutes on a service call - 25 of those minutes were on hold listening to how I should recommend WOW to friends and family. Hmm? Tuesday morning was a trip to the local office to exchange a modem - a perfectly fine, functioning modem I now know. Tuesday evening the replacement modem did not "work" and I learned  from my new duplex neighbor WOW had spent from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Monday connecting her new service. Hmm? .

So, dumb me, placed a second service call - wait time over 20 minutes, listening to the same "refer us" recording. I should have waited and gone back to the local office Wednesday morning. The people there do listen. But, no, I called. I got an actual OR SO I WAS TOLD scheduled service call on Thursday morning between 8-10 a.m. (nothing was available earlier??!!??)!

Thursday morning I sat and waited. I had arranged to possibly be late to work, which I definitely was. 10 a.m. arrived. No service man. I spent the 30 minutes driving to work on service call number 3. I was NOT happy. I got less happy when I learned the Thursday service call had been cancelled by the customer service representative who took the scheduled the appointment. BAD! is the word I will print! There was No notification to me. I suppose my telephone number was not visible on my account or perhaps their system was experiencing such high call volume there was no time to call me?

The unacceptable "solution" was to call customer service when I got home Thursday evening and they would escalate the matter. Seems I have to be home. I arrived at work so angry I was fighting tears.

My boss - bless her! - had a cell phone number to a higher up sales manager. I called. I still had to be home when the service man came BUT I was assured he would be here first thing Friday morning. I am the one who could not do Thursday evening.

The service representative did arrive shortly after 8 a.m. Friday morning. Guess what? WOW had accidentally disconnected my service when they installed the new neighbor. Hmm? You know I actually understand this was not done to sabotage my week - it was an accident and should have been easily fixed (was easily fixed once the service man arrived).

What I do not understand!!!!!

Simply canNOT wrap my mind around is why it took what it took for WOW to acknowledge the issue and send a service man. The service man was wonderful, the employees at the local office were friendly as well as helpful and I greatly appreciate the assistance of the sales manager. Of course, I would not have made it to the sales manager had my boss not have had his telephone number.

My entire rant is about the inability or refusal of technical support to assist me - the customer!

And, that is all for now ....

 

Ms Cha Cha Cat says thank you, thank you, thank you. Her now knows from experience that when there is no Internet connection her human has more time to "catch" her "tricks" and the conversation consists more of stop that or NO than pretty cat. Her prefers the pretty cat talk! lol

Worthless Cat!

The only - one, very tiny, small,  little thing - Ms Cha Cha Cat was asked to do this week to earn her food, treats, catnip, toys and bed, her did not do!

I got the e-mail yesterday stating my fabric order from Shabby Fabrics was OUT FOR DELIVERY! Ms Cat was assigned to a nice open window on a lovely breezy, sunny day to watch for the mail truck. She was to let me know immediately when my fabric arrived. She perched merrily in the window most of the day.

She did not notify me when the mail truck came and WENT! 

Naughty Cat!

And, I was waiting on this .....

Such pretty fabric - from the Henley Flowers line by Makower UK. I love this fabric.

Well despite the lazy, worthless Ms Cha Cha Cat I got my hands on the mail delivery in time to stitch some borders on National Quilting Day. The day ended well. I have a flimsy - one I cannot show you because it is a SECRET. You will simply have to trust me. I do have a flimsy!

Not that the worthless, spoiled, over-indulged, and very naughty Ms Cha Cha Cat gives a flip. She would rather have her cat treats!  Her is so worthless. I love Ms Cha Cha Cat!

The Most Important E-Mail EVER!

This morning I received the most important e-mail EVER..... well, okay perhaps I am being overly dramatic. Yet this e-mail made my day. The magic e-mail came from the United States Postal Service and it said ......

OUT FOR DELIVERY

 

What could possibly be better on National Quilting Day? Bet you don't have a clue what's in my package! Do you? The package is coming from Shabby Fabrics and I am thrilled! Maybe I will show you later! Enjoy your day and spent at least a bit of time at your sewing machine or cutting board.

 

The Traveling Sewing Machine

Excuse Me, You are Putting What in There?

 Let Me Check the This Out!

 Nope! Not Enough Room. Whatever Were You Thinking?

Does anyone know a good pest cat removal service?

Naughty Cat!

Oh, Happy Day!

Oh, Happy Day! says Ms Cha Cha Cat. Get this she says - the silly human finally fixed that thing she calls a clock. I, the brilliant cat, have been telling her since way back last fall the darn thing was broken. I'm going to remember to say SPRING FORWARD should the clock thing ever get an hour off again.

And, Ms Cha Cha Cat says her day is getting better and better. The silly human not only fixed the clock, she got to the only real important part of quilt making ......

A table of BORDER - long wavy strips, so enticing to a cat!

Ms Cha Cha is willing to engage the silly human in a game of

CHASE THE BORDER!

See, the human was up to the game.

Wait, did she just call me

NAUGHTY CAT!

Bad, bad, bad, human!

Okay, so the human can have her borders. I am having one - 

Oh, Happy Day! 

- with the clock finally fixed.

Perfecto!

Last night the stars were aligned perfectly! I was zipping along chain stitching the perfect quarter inch seam. My machine tension had never been better. The feed dogs were humming. My seam was absolutely accurate.

Yes, oh yes, my stitching was  

PERFECTO!

Let the crowds cheer! My blogging friends will be so impressed. My sewing group friends are going to be green with envy. 

I'll stop and get these seams pressed. Wouldn't want to push my luck. Besides it is getting close to bed time.

WHAT??!!??!!??!!

I RAN OUT OF BOBBIN THREAD WHEN?

PERFECTION IS OVER-RATED!

 

Is that an evil smirk I detect on the face of Ms Cha Cha Cat?

And, so I to bed I went! Perfection, believe me, is over-rated. I will settle for doing my best .... and 

periodically checking the thread in my bobbin. lol

 

 

  

Offended Beyond Words

This picture is the face of a cat who is Offended Beyond Words! Ms Cha Cha Cat was banned from the cutting table most of the day yesterday. It took several "removals" for her to understand banned! And, when she understood her was offended - insulted, no less - and very, very angry. Such is the life of this poor little kitty. Her human is bad!

I was cutting fabric I had just enough of and did not require the assistance of the lovely Ms Cha Cha Cat.

See from the picture what I mean - those are the scraps!

When I finally finished cutting and visited the restroom, I returned to find Ms Cat stretched out on the cutting board claiming her space Victory!

I decided a tune sandwich would be perfect for supper.and found myself allowed a rare experience. I made and ate my tuna without the assistance of the cat, who refused to leave "her table" even for the alluring smell of tuna. Crazy Cat! She remained on the table hours later when I got ready for bed. Feeling sorry for her I strategically placed my housecoat beside her on the table. I woke this morning t find ......

And, that would be the look of 

" Do NOT even think of telling me to get down!"

She did come in the kitchen to quickly eat the tuna I had saved her. She is now back on the cutting board - her favorite place to sleep - Not! Until banned Ms Cat had no real interest in this spot except as a route to the window. 

 

Thank You, Lynn Wilder

Saturday morning I stitched the 4 1/2" center star of block 1 of  Barbara Brackman's Threads of Memory BOM.

Such a cute little star needed the rest of the pieces for the 12" block. Finishing this block was top of my list BUT for some reason I did not want to deal with the 4 quarter square triangles surrounding my cute little star. I simply was not in the mood for cutting squares into triangles and putting them back together.

So I fiddled with this and that around the house. I wanted block two completed. I did not want to stitch triangles. And I fiddled some more. Until a light bulb went off in my head!

I remembered I have a book showing a method for stitching  the Quarter Square Triangles 2 at a time without using triangles. Out came Lynn Wilder's Patchwork Math book. On page 6 I found what I was looking for. I added one number to Lynn's formula gave me the size to cut my fabric and in nothing flat had this ....

Four perfectly square, made to order Quarter Square Triangles. Thank you, Lynn!

Lynn has a wonderful blog - Sewn' Wild Oaks. Go  make friends, if you aren't already.

My copy of Patchwork Math  was purchased from In Between Stitches.

The remaining four pieces of this block were simple 4 1/2" squares. My block was completed in record time. Could have done it sooner had I not wasted all that time fiddling.

Two blocks down. I am current with this BOM until the March block is released.

The postman was very generous today. The bright yellow backing arrived from BackSide Fabrics. I can get my great niece's eye blinding quilt to my quilter.

I do believe that YELLOW is perfect for this quilt.

And the postman also had my pretty Henley Flowers - Purple by Makower UK from Shabby Fabrics. Adding these with a pretty blue fabric from my stash gives me most (I have a tone on tone pink coming!) makings of great niece #2's quilt.

 

I had a very, nice Saturday. Hope you did, too. Happy Quilting!

Threads of Memory - Block 1

Finally! Finally, is the best thing I can think of to say about this block this morning. It is finally finished!

The four corner sections challenged my ability, patience, and mental health. Do not get me wrong. The construction is actually rather simple and well explained in the pattern instructions. My problem I think was me.

First, when cutting READ INSTRUCTIONS. A 45 degree angle is not difficult to rotary cut, especially with the nice rulers I have available. I failed to read the part of the instructions that said cut four going one way. AND, the other four going the other way. Okay, I can use the wrongly cut fabric in other sections of this quilt. No loss, other than time.

Second, check the layout on the design wall prior to getting all excited about stitching the block. Looks can be deceiving! Just saying. At least my brain kicked in before I had anything that would require the use of a seam ripper. Something in my brain kept screaming - wrong!

Third, once I got first and second in line with the pattern instructions, the construction of my block fell in place. There are a few not so sharp points; however, I am pleased with the result. Ms Cha Cha Cat says her is pleased. Her was getting tired of the naughty language coming out of me.

SILVER THIMBLE QUILTS:  Pat over at Silver Thimble Quilts is having a fun giveaway. Pat has also added neutral bundles to her website to help me learn about tone! Go here for the giveaway. Now there is a catch ... when you go say Donna and Cha Cha sent you.

Okay ... so I get a couple of extra changes to win if you do. Just go do it! Thanks in advance to all who do.