the rest of the story.... in random form

I finished up the quilting portion of my quilt and got rid of the big old crease. I talked with three quilting friends and we came up with three different solutions. I decided to pull up a bunch of stitches. I then turned back the quilt back and sewed the crease inward to make it look like a place where the quilt back was pieced together.


The new line isn't perfectly straight, but with the free motion quilting on top, it looks fine. I am excited to get started on the binding this week. The quilt isn't done, but I've already napped under it twice (I have a doozy of a cold!) and hubby slept under it last night after Lou kicked him literally out of our bed. It's proving to be a cozy quilt. (the sewn line starts between the white and blue blocks and runs through the yellow fabric to the edge).


Here is the free motion quilting foot. I had a reader (ok, a good friend who just poses as a reader) ask about what the foot looked like. You lower your feed dogs and then move around the fabric freely under the foot. I love using it. I borrowed this one from my neighbor Abbey, but they sell the one for my machine for just $10.

I posted a picture of a mystery bird two weeks ago. It turns out that it was a mockingbird, as another reader suggested (this time it really was a reader- not someone I'm related to or have known for years- Good call Phylis). I had thought it was a flycatcher, but it is not. I also learned that mockingbirds are a pest and sometimes will kick the cardinal eggs out of their nest and lay their mockingbird eggs in place. They let the cardinal mamas and papas raise the babies and they don't have to do a lick of work. Sometimes, I can see why you'd want someone else to do the hard work.


On a side note, the birds did not keep up with their end of our gentleman's agreement. We found one dead in front of the door last week. I was so grossed out (since I really hate birds) but Bee couldn't stop looking! Luckily the next morning all that remained were a few feathers.

I mentioned having a small oven fire last week. Here is the rest of the story. I bought a silicone muffin pan where the muffin cups were shaped like hearts. The kids helped me peel the crayon stubs and fill up the cups. We put it in the oven to melt the crayons to make heart shaped crayon chunks. I ran across the street to return a borrowed item and got a call just moments after I left from my hubby. The house was full of thick smoke. Since he was bound to the couch (this being the day he came home from having his back surgery) my father in law went to turn off the oven. Apparently, when he went to the oven there was a fire in the oven. When I got home, I discovered that the silicone pan had melted and the silicone and crayon had melted through the oven rack bars and coated the bottom of the oven with wax and silicone. It was smoking pretty heavily. I tried to start cleaning it up, but caught a paper towel on fire by just sticking it in the mess. I decided to wait until the next day when it was all cooled to try to peel or chip away at the mess. However, the next day, I forgot and turned on the oven for dinner. The smoke started again. It was a mess. I did get it cleaned up the following day only to mess up the oven again.

I also mentioned last week my junior high home ec teacher and how she told us things about why she wore spandex. Someone asked... I only share this because someone asked. Mrs. H was probably in her mid to late 30's and was a bit on the heavy side. She taught every 7th grader in my school to make biscuits and gravy and every 8th grader to make various homemade puddings for her to taste. I suppose it goes with the territory. She wore spandex pants and a long shirt tied to the side every day. Every single day. Once, she told us that she wore spandex because her husband thought it was hot. She also told us that if her husband didn't work for the state, he'd have a pierced ear. Apparently there isn't anything hotter than a man with a pierced ear. She didn't use the word hot, in fact, she said 'turned on' which I can't even bring myself to type. (Actually, I did bring myself to type it, but I shuddered the whole time.)

Here's a story that I'd like to know the rest of. If my Mrs. H story didn't gross you out, this might. The other morning, we noticed that the bird feeder was gone. I found it later in the morning out in the yard... covered in blood. Bee, my future medical examiner, took a very good look at it. It's a mystery.