Engaging?

My mother used to say, "Another day, another dollar." So, it's another week, another dollar, or maybe seven? We had some nice weather, and yesterday and today it consists of snow and wind. Yes, it is March and spring, and it's the middle of nowhere, and we can be like that. Out my window it looks stormy to the south of here--like cold, unsettled weather. I'll confess this picture somehow piggy-backed with the denim quilt pictures below. I do like this picture, but it is of a view to the east, and our view won't look like this for another eight weeks at least. Since I don't know how to get this picture out of here, I guess it's a freebie. I could try bon appetit, but perhaps bonne journe might fit better?

The wonderful thing about growing older is you are still growing-- older. Another wonderful thing is the amount of fun you can have. It's unlimited. Someone can tell you a joke, and everyone laughs, in ten minutes they can tell the same joke again, and it will be funny all over again.

Below you can see the denim quilt my handy helper helped me start two weeks ago. I've been working on it and was working up steam yesterday when my bobbin ran out of thread. I went to find some more thread, and I'm still looking for my thread. Five years ago I realized it had become almost impossible to find the thread I needed. I'm hopeful I just need to go to a different store and that will solve my problem. As it is I don't find any black thread, or any white thread except quilting thread. Quilting thread is a regular cotton thread that is waxed to add strength and durability for the fine quilting patterns. The color of the thread is not something that should matter since no one should ever see it any how.

So far my handy helper and I have laid five inch squares out in eleven rows of eleven rows. I will add several more rows for width and then go longer as well. If memory serves me at all I will need at least twice as many squares as I have. I should have 121 squares, I will need total of at least 242 squares, or more. I usually try to lay the squares out in a dark light, dark, light pattern. This time the color scheme seems to be quite limited and some of the variation is difficult to see. In the past I have had dark blue, light blue, purple, green, and brown.

I will try to include some pictures so readers can see what I'm writing about. I'm a visual person so I do understand how welcome pictures are.

In the top quilt picture you can see how we laid the individual 5" squares out. There are four rows left that I have not sewn together. In the bottom picture you can see the 6 rows I've sewn in strips. I have one row left on my machine that was sabotaged when I ran out of thread, so I do have eleven rows total. When I finish sewing all the rows together I will go back and match the squares and sew the strips together. I will probably add a row on each side. That will give me thirteen wide, and then I'll go longer by maybe three rows on top and three rows on bottom for a total of seventeen rows.

One thing I've learned since the first quilt I made is how imperative it is to be extremely accurate. The first quilt I did was a five patch family heirloom quilt for my daughter. I've never figured out that a person ought to start with something a wee bit simple. The first knitting project I did was a light brown long sleeve sweater with a pattern across the chest for my five year old son, followed by two sweater vests, one for the oldest son and second son. Whereas denim quilts tend to be a 'tied' quilt my first five patch was actually a quilted project. This is where I'm at right now, and I should get this finished sewing together sometime this week and will try to post pictures when that happens.

To follow this project, dear reader, if you haven't subscribed to my newsletter you might do so in order to get the notifications of my postings. I usually try to have them posted on Monday, or before. So, that's it for the moment. And I'll try to get more news on the next time as well as more information on putting this together. Thanks for watching and take care.