Quilting Only

Only machine quilting has been happening here. I feel like I'm dragging myself to my sewing machine to work on my Architectural Challenge Quilt. It's due at our April 9 Central Florida MQG meeting. I say "dragging" because my heart isn't in this kind of quilting. That's because: 

1. I haven't been able to settle on the overall quilt design; 
2. and, I'm trying to do only walking foot quilting (not my favorite), because I want the quilt to read "minimal."

Ugh. Between these two challenges, progress has been very slow.

But on the positive side, I'm trying-out combining three different weights and colors of Aurifil thread on this quilt: 28-weight and 40-weight on top; 50-weight in the bobbin.

Because I've used Quilter's Dream Puff batting, the loft makes the quilting highly visible. 

I still need to figure out what to quilt in between the channels because that puckery puffiness just won't do. While I'd like to free motion quilt - it's faster! - I'm thinking that more straight-line walking foot quilting is needed. Yuck.

 

For Blog Post Writers

I follow, read, and comment on about 70 quilting blogs. Reading some of them can be difficult. What I mean is... Some bloggers write posts that I struggle to get through because the text format is center-justified like these paragraphs.

Do you too have a hard time reading center-justified blog posts too?

Did you know - or have you discovered for yourself - that it is more difficult to read a blog post that's centered?

For those who don't know, and may want to make it easier on their readers, left justification is the best format. I learned this in college, in journalism school.

Now I'm off my soap box. 

Book Recommendation

Hello Sunshine by Laura Dave is about Sunshine Mackenzie, a wildly popular social media cooking success with millions of YouTube and Instagram followers. The trouble is, Sunny doesn't cook!

When her media sites are hacked, photos and secrets are revealed that can't be undone. She not only loses her fans, in one swoop, she loses her condo, her husband, and her career. With nowhere to go, she takes off for the last place she wanted to see again, her hometown, where she must confront the sister she left behind. She also begins to face the ways she's lied her way through life, and while she wants to starts over again, this time she has to do it by being honest. Along the way, she comes to realize that learning to cook might not be a bad way to begin again. Linda's score: 3.9/5.0

 

A couple weeks ago, at my annual oncology check-up, an iron panel revealed that for the second time, my iron level was low.

Like hair turning gray, and bones becoming brittle, apparently this is what happens when we age. I turned 69 last Friday. 

While am certain I take in the recommended daily requirement of iron by drinking fresh-pressed green vegetable juice, and eating salads made with red leaf lettuce and spinach, after talking with a nurse, it's likely that absorption is the problem. Eating strawberries, cranberries and mandarin oranges has been recommended, to aid with iron absorption. Who knew?!

In any case, within a ten day period I had two iron infusions and I am feeling better, though I didn't know I was feeling "low" until I'd received the first infusion!

Actually, the day after each infusion, I felt like the Energizer Bunny! When I mentioned this to the nurse she explained that a steroid is administered first, to counteract the possibility of an anaphylactic reaction. The steroid is followed by iron, then saline. But it's the steroid that "wires" me!

I'm telling you this because everyone should have the opportunity to have such a positive medical experience! Go for an iron infusion if you are told you need one! Linda