Daylight Savings! Daylight Shmavings!

I found this on Pinterest a couple of days ago and saved it just for today!

Daylight Savings Time plus insomnia?  Talk about adding insult to injury!

I read the other day that these time changes are the bodies equivalent to jet lag.

In addition, I am married to a snorer who proudly announces that the time change is no big deal and doesn't bother him in the least! 

Yep! I'm right on the edge here, girls!

 

Today will be, not so productive, although there are 2 racks of ribs stewing in their juices and some yummy rub sitting in the fridge.   I'll start those smoking on the Traeger at about noon and they'll be done for dinner, along with baked beans, cornbread, applesauce and salad.  Mmmm good! 

The neighbors will either hate me or be inspired!

 

While I sew I've been revisiting the old TV Mini Series, North & South.

Can you believe it's 30 years old this year. 

So many of the cast are no longer with us...and it's still hard to wrap ones head around the fact that Patrick Swayze is amongst them.

 

There is progress on the Quilting front!

 

I received a message mid-week, that, after 2 small custom quilts are complete, Country Homecoming is up next on the longarm.

 

Hubby's Housewarming quilt and it's pieced backing were mailed to the quilter on Friday.

 

Country Charmer is getting new little birds inserted into blocks.  There are 5 or 6 that I've decided to replace.  I liked the picking process better in some respects.  I'm pulling apart as little as possible to take blocks out and reassemble them with a new center and that's going really well.  It's the sewing the rows back together part that's a bit tricky.  I'm doing this on my "new" machine, whereas, Country Charmer was originally assembled on my little, cheap, get me by, machine, that wound up being the fuel to my fire to invest, once again, in something more substantial.  It's beyond irritating to have labor intensive blocks that are supposed to be 8 1/2 inches consistently coming out at 8" not matter how carefully you've cut and tried to watch your seam allowances! 

It was either get a new machine or give up quilting...Ha! 

My quarter inch seams are much improved these days...I've given up on those 1/4" presser feet whose sometimes flimsy little guides move and your seam doesn't wind up being the perfect 1/4" as advertised!  I am now able to adjust my needle to the right and sew better !/4" seams using my standard presser foot.  Even on my new machine, I've come to the conclusion that those special 1/4" presser feet are not all what they're cracked up to be!

 

I still consider taking my almost 35 year old Viking in, one more time, to see if she can be resuscitated!  I really had a lovely working relationship with that machine, then she got knocked over.  For years, when I considered replacing her, I felt like such a cheater!  But now, I think she and the new Viking could play very well together!  The only other thing I would need is a room larger than a postage stamp!  Or to get rid of the massive office desk I'm currently writing this from!  That would require a laptop...and here we go...one thing leads to another!

 

Sooooo, anyhoozles!  Sue, from Cozy Little Quilts started this amazing Day In Giverny quilt in the fall of 2012, getting it to flimsy stage in just over 3 months.  When I saw this photo on her blog, I wrote & told her how much I loved it and she graciously offered to let me adopt her pattern.

 

A closer view of the blocks and prints that Sue took of her Day In Giverny.

It's made with French General's Chateau Rouge line and even though I knew there wasn't much left of the fabric out there, I still puttered around and didn't track it down, figuring that French General produces similar lines that I could substitute if I needed to.

Well, lo' and behold, Sue, who probably figured I needed a little distraction, emailed a little nudge to me a few weeks ago.  She had an unused layer cake and 2 charm packs of Chateau Rouge looking for a new home...could I use them? 

Well heck, Yeah!  Off the check went in the mail!

A week later, here comes my well stuffed package in the mail!

Not only did she send me the layer cake and charm packs, she gathered up some generous leftovers from her Day In Giverny! (and some other fun little scrappy projects as an extra surprise!)

I couldn't resist!  I started cutting out the light background blocks that evening and found some additional yardage online.

I've also improved my French by looking up the correct pronunciation of Giverny, so that I don't sound like an idiot when I speak about my own quilt...and can say it with the best of 'em now! 

"Zhee-vair-nee!"

Those little squares have become a Leaders & Enders project as I take my Country Charmer repairs out from under the presser foot!

Look where that got me yesterday!  It went together beautifully, which was uplifting since the weight of Country Charmer & it's transition to the Newer, Better, Stronger 

sewing machine gave me a few fits!

I changed it up a little...I've decided to use the floral bird print for the centers and think it will probably be my outer border instead of the ribbon print. 

You know me...I always have to be a little different!

 

Now about that business of resetting my internal clock to wake up with that dreaded 5 AM workweek alarm!

 

Happy Sunday!

~Nancie Anne