Really Random Thursday

This is a very late Thursday post, but I had a full day - a stress test and blood drawn, a grocery store stop, line dancing, and Skype time with an Iowa friend. Still, I want to participate in Really Random Thursday, because this week found me with a hodgepodge of (perhaps) interesting doings. Cindy at LiveaColorfulLife in California does Really Random Thursday every Thursday, in case you'd like to check out her post.

First, a happy Easter to my Christian friends! I am always humbled by Easter, and the sacrifice Jesus made for each of us. We worshipped Easter morning - at a Baptist church (yes, a very different religion for this lifelong Lutheran!) - and then came home to watch a live sermon feed of Pastor Mike at Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, Iowa. I miss this church so much!

I still have two basted quilts that need quilting, with one in progress. I'm not close to being finished. Do you, like me, procrastinate about what most needs doing?

Something that you may not know about me is that I'm a fiend for popcorn. Not the microwave sort, though that's tolerable. About four nights a week, I make stovetop popcorn in my Whirlypopper. I swear, I could live on popcorn. Sprayed with I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter, and sprinkled with white cheddar seasoning from Bed, Bath and Beyond... it's yum, and low-cal. Since moving to Florida, I found that local grocery store whole kernel popcorn is terribly expensive. Now, I stock up on popcorn from Hy-Vee, in Kansas City. For those who don't know, Hy-Vee is a grocery store chain that started in Iowa (my first job in high school was as a checker at a Hy-Vee in Newton, Iowa) and the chain is now in eight Midwest states. My brother and sister-in-law both work for Hy-Vee, and in a point of irony, hubby Dan and I first met in a Hy-Vee grocery store parking lot, in Mason City, Iowa!

The best popcorn, for the best value, comes from the Midwest. It's quite timely that my popcorn container is near empty just as I'm getting ready to visit family in Kansas City.

My last blog post generated a lovely comment from a teen friend in Iowa. Elizabeth and I met when she and her mother participated in Stitchin' Mission, a quiltmaking for missions ministry I led for five years before we moved from Iowa. I had the wonderful opportunity to go into churches of all denominations, in the Des Moines area, to teach beginner quiltmaking to hundreds of women, children, and a few men, who then donated their quilts. I even got to lead one Stitchin' Mission at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in in Sydney, Australia!

Elizabeth is still making quilts. She sent pictures, and here's her blog post about a recently-made quilt she gave away. I'm so proud of her! Isn't this pretty?! The Minky on the quilt back makes it really special.

Last week I taught No Tails Binding three times, and discovered something really interesting about trimming quilts. Before returning a quilt to a customer, some longarm quilters trim the backing and batting even with the quilt top. If a quilt owner receives a quilt trimmed like this, the binding should be placed at least 1/8" (for 2-1/4"-wide binding) from the cut edge, to have enough excess backing and batting (3/8") to fill the binding.

This quilt has been trimmed to the quilt top edge,
so binding should be positioned at least 1/8" from the cut edge.

This isn't a problem if the quilt has a border, or a broad negative space, but it is a problem if the quilt top design has blocks with points along edge of the quilt top. Either the binding has to be sewn only a 1/4" seam from the edge, or the points have to be sewn over when the binding is stitched to the quilt top!

I know pictures would help a lot to explain this. I'm preparing a whole post about it.

Here's a little video to show you what our new golf cart looks like, now that it's tricked-out with lights. Fun for nighttime driving!

Linda