Mobile Blogging Test

I won a scrap pack off Instagram. From someone (local to me) who sews projects and then moves on from the leftover scraps.

Novel.

No hoarding.

Her IG name is Huntersds and she blogs over at HuntersDesignStudio.com

https://huntersdesignstudio.com

I made her an orange key fob in return for her generosity.
These fabrics are in my favorite colors but not necessarily what I would buy at the fabric store - books on library shelves.
It's fun to dream in new-to-me fabrics.


Iphone app: Blogo
Note 1: Not bad. Haven't figured out how to re-size photos.
Note 2: hyperlink craziness. The old app couldn't handle them either.
Note 3: Photo doesn't appear in mobile summary.

Red Letter Winner

 I'm having a pleasant weekend.

I won a blog giveaway recently from Red Letter Quilts.
I'm new to reading Heidi's blog and she had a giveaway to celebrate blogging 200 posts!
And I won.
 

 Such a nice little bag filled to the gills with happy fabric. Heidi asked my preferences and of course I replied, "airplanes and aqua/turquoise colors".

 Included was a lot of fabric, several with sewing themes, a key fob and she found a fun airplane fabric.

Sweet.
Muchos Gracias!

 

Look at that gusset up there. I need to make this bag and then maybe the one-sided gusset in a coin pocket will make more sense. This is a sturdy bag with piping that stands up on it's own.
 

Happy Day.

And it has been. I have my time off work and it's free time. We were planning to fly our Stearman to a much anticipated airshow in Madras, Oregon. Due to forest fires, interesting TFRs (temporary flight rules), rain forecast, and possible high winds -- we changed our plans.

On a snarky/funny/weird note, letting the union handle my time off battle was wise. Very wise.  Missy union told supervisor off to the point where supervisor talked to me on Wednesday afternoon in a chatty/perky manner about how she never intended me to think my leave was cancelled, and la-dee-dah, the world is pretty nice.   Smart me just looks at her and says nothing. {Bet'cha you can't tell what I was thinking though???}

Dear daughter is coming home from Ketchikan this weekend so I will get to spend time with her before I go back to work.

This morning, Creative Girl and I took in several garage sales with successful results.
She bought like a gazillion chairs for her shop. I found some more sewing stuff: patterns and fabric.



RunningwithRocket is at 740 posts published over 7 years.  I should have a giveaway someday soon. I'll have to mull over what to give away.

Quilty Thoughts & Blog Photos

Last fall, Pencil girl and I attended the NW Quilt Show at the Expo center, here in Portland.
That's where we took the long-arm quilting class put on by Boersma's (McMinnville).

I was going through  my photos on my smarty pants phone this morning and I realize
I've been gearing up to this blog post for quite a while.
Why do I blog? Why do you blog? What's the purpose of blogging?
This seems to be a yearly ritual with me - to re-examine the reasons.

Check out the photo above?
Is this not a great presentation of these felted purses? As one with the background - the craft extended?

1. I take photos because they interest me.

I know I'm interested, but I can definitely say that most people are not. This photo could be printed onto paper - but why? No one, not even me, will ever view it again. However, in this context of the blog post, it obtains value.

2. By putting these photos into a blog 'story', I will read them again.

3. My memory's going.
Yours is too. These two photos of the modern-style blanket are from a book, not from the NW Quilt Expo. I was drawn to to the design and what fabrics the designer used. (polar fleece).
I don't even recall the book now but I took them about the same time as the NW quilt Expo.

Frankly, my phone camera doesn't like to rotate photos. I am reasonably sure that I took the first photo of this polar fleece blanket the same way as the second - yet technology trumped me again.

4. Keep up with technology.

Simple, but striking striped pillow case.

5. To recall design decisions.

I am enjoying Pinterest as a way to organize my thoughts on sewing design.

Many bloggers are making the switch to Instagram as a blogging platform. 
One photo, one thought.

My perception of Instagram.    I haven't used it as of yet.

My mind is full of random thoughts.
Blogging helps organize them, edit them & more importantly, get them out of my head to a place where they can be useful.





6. This is not a quilting blog.
I have zero interest in piecing this quilt but I can enjoy the result without having to make it myself.
My blog is not about any one sewing method. --Just random ramblings of things that interest me.

I have been able to distinguish that hand made items are valuable - by writing this journal. By writing things down, we start to understand patterns & repetitions in our thoughts.





A very useful add-on table. If you were going to make a thousand HST (half-square triangles) that all needed to be pressed.



This art quilt won First place. What makes it 'special'? What were the judges looking for?

7. My blog is a place to put photos of things I've experienced. Wait... wasn't that the number one reason?

The art quilt above is called "Flight Path". Those who read my blog know that I have a rabid interest in flying. Taking photos is a way to recall events that are brought to mind by the photo.

Seeing this photo again recalls a sunny spring day with airplanes taking off to fly out for breakfast and (random segue here) the need for less chemicals in my yard in order to attract fluttering  butterflies and hummingbirds (and segueing back) recognizing a particular round engine noise.

8. Writing to express to the world, "Who am I"?

Photos definitely say more about me than I do. Chatty Cathy was a doll who talked as much as I do. Yet, I do not share my most private thoughts with  most people. I can talk a lot about nothing at all. I work in retail where I can BS with the best of them. But I am innately careful not to share too much.

My blog allows me to do so to a select few.





3. Memory.

What a fickle creature. I've seen this purse pattern around the blogasphere in various formats and I am drawn to making this purse. Just a reminder.



Traditional quilting but monochromatic.




I was drawn to something in this photo - enough to take a photo. Was it the materials used to create texture? The actual material? The pattern?











9. Mostly, I just like a place that encourages me to write more and a place to dump my photos.




Oregon Coast Art quilt. Love those random squares and rectangles on the side sashing.






***bye bye photos taking up space on my smarty pants phone.

Oregon Monsoon

Another random post of random stuff that is gestating/fermenting in my head:

1. My spring flowers are being beaten to death by the never-ending  monsoon.
2. On a fantastical note, I have discovered how to get a sun break.
3. I stuck  my houseplants out on the patio to get watered and wash off dusty leaves. Two hours later, they were still dry and in danger of getting sun-burned. Try it.
4. Just because it is Spring and just because it was sunny and dry this morning does not mean this is the day to wash some outside windows. As soon as I started, the wind started blowin' and the sprinkles started getting icy. I did five without removing screens and it does appear to be brighter inside.
5. I want to sew but cannot drag my sorry butt into the sewing room.
Too many projects - can't settle on one.
6. My new boss? the one who is n i c e? got sent to another workplace on a work detail probably because it was too good to be true. However, I am working more at the job with benefits.
7. Which means I can pay the hairdresser to 'do' my hair.
8. Thursday at 9:30am
9. Lots of thought-provoking copyright issues out there in sewing land.
10. I'd be interested in what you think.
11. Like this one about Pinterest from DDK portraits.
12. or this one from The Free Motion Quilting Project.
13. Or blatant selling of free sewing tutorials, uncovered by The Selfish Seamstress and her readers, Part 1 & Part II.

14. More on Pinterest and images of children by Made by Rae.
15. I've been contemplating the creative journal (aka THE BLOG) again.
16. The above might have been lurking in my sub-conscience because I am thinking my decision to not post tutorials except in the loosest terms is still holding true. There's another reason too. But I can't find the minimum words to describe it succinctly. It has to do with tutorials posted about how to lower your pressure foot or how to pop your bobbin into your machine and then the blog writer claiming ownership of the material. Simple tutorials for things sewn I recognize from forty years ago but because they are 'written' now, the writer claims ownership of the design.
17. definitely not simple thoughts in my brain this week.
18. Unlike my dog, Rusty, who only owns one thought at a time in his brain. "Ball" and "food". Fetching trumps food btw.

19. Missing my other complicated dog, Rocket, like crazy this week because I read this post. I miss Rocket being the willing model to my creations.
20. The monsoon continues, the rivers are still rising, flooding is eminent. Again.
21. Those people who have the horses (3) by the bridge in Aurora? They now have four horses on not enough grazing land. The Pudding river has flooded several times this winter forcing them to buy hay and NOW they have another horse? More volunteers helping evacuate?
22. Have just read yesterday the Alabama Stitch Book (library). Pretty book. Interesting sewing concepts which I have tried before but would you wear something with thread knots on the outside? With threads dangling?
23.Now reading The Help. Libraries2Go, the e-book resource for Oregon Libraries had my mom at #723 (!) on the hold list back in January for her Kindle. Glad we discovered using my sister's library card in MN got my mom on a much shorter list @ #4. I received an email this morning telling me she can have it from Oregon today. --too late--
24. Monsoon and icy winds - might just finish The Help. Inside, where I can see easier with the winter grime off my windows.
25. Or, I could write a couple of blog posts to post later as I am working full-time this week too.