Mary, I hope that you get your machine back quickly! I looks like not many people quilted this weekend... I didn't either. I worked and recovered from working and that was about it... This morning, I had a neighbor bang on my door at the crack of noon (which is equivalent to 5 AM to most people because I work my second job until 3 AM)... I threw on some clothes upside down and inside out and groggily answered the door, hair a mess, sleepy seeds in my eyes, and creases from the pillow case running down my face, to see what she wanted... fearing that she was going to tell me that something was wrong with my car or something (the last time she knocked on the door, my best friend had left the car in neutral and it was in the middle of the parking lot!). She said there was a vacuum in the trash that I should go look at. It was a relatively rare model, one with dual, counter-rotating brushes, but the housing is all cracked and it is dirty, so I'm not sure about investing time, energy, and money into it. I came so close to buying a vintage sewing machine at a thrift store yesterday! It was a vintage Singer Futura from 1974, the first electrinic machine ever made. It didn't come with any accessories, but it was so cool looking and truly a piece of history. Slant shank, two speeds, and magic bobbin that winds right in the bobbin case! I decided against it as that was 22 more dollars I can save for a Viking or Bernina combo machine, but it was tough to walk away from. Has anyone had any experience with the 'Slice' fabric cutter? Apparently it can cut out applique shapes. I'd buy it if I thought it could cut squares, but I don't know. Saw a video of it on Youtube last night and thought it looked like fun. Here's a link if anyone is curious. Here is a link that might be useful: Slice

Well, I can think of one Stack 'n whack that I have partially cut out, but KNOW I will never try to finish because this material did not have the right sort of design. It may participate in a backing someday. Apart from that, once I have cut something out, I usually feel obligated to finish it. Or maybe I should say, rather, that if I have gotten that far, it is usually a material that I really like and a pattern I like, so there is a value in finishing it. I might decide not to make a quilt as big as I originally planned, if I find I'm not liking it a lot, though. I tend not to have many UFOs hanging around. I don't work at making quilts as diligently as many other members do. (Hangs head.) I also might well refuse to make a quilt for someone if they insisted on a pattern or colors I hated. The closest I have come to that was when a friend wanted me to use Kelly green. However, there were plenty of prettier (to me) colors to be used with it, so it wasn't really painful, and I liked the finished product. In principle, though, I think I agree with you. Life is too precious to spend a lot of time doing something you hate, if you don't have to and it is not very important for the happiness of some other person. When it comes to quilts, I see no reason for keeping on with one you hate making. LOL, Carol: It took me till old age to become really ruthless about abandoning books in the middle or even the beginning. Now, for instance, I rarely bother to keep reading a book at all, once I realize it is written entirely in the present tense, which I detest. (I have read a few that so gripped me from the first page that I didn't notice that they were offensive that way.) There seem to be more and more of those in-your-face present tense books being written, and when I order a book on the Internet or--especially--through PaperBackSwap, I can't know much about it in advance, beyond the general theme or plot. A few nights ago I stayed up late reading the letters of Isak Dinesen, the author of "Out of Africa," one of my favorites, but after reading some 50 pages at the end of it, decided it would be too depressing and sent it on to someone else! A waste of my money perhaps, but not of my time as well!

The polka dot backing is just right! You made a great choice! ______________ I didn't get any sewing done this weekend but we tackled a job in the sewing room that's needed doing for a while. Remember the cat shelves we put up? Well after countless dashes up and down the shelves, the cats managed to loosen two of the shelves. The loosening tore big holes in the drywall too! So the shelves came down, then I patched the drywall and repainted the wall while Jim hunted for better shelf supports. He ended up with two brackets per shelf, anchored into the concrete block on the other side of the wall. Even the big cat (Jack continues to round out his figure!) can't make these wobble. No quilting, but the wall looks great and the cats are happy.

I did get several of my July goals accomplished, although they were completed the first weekend in August. Goals for this month are: 1) Work on my nephew's red quilt. It's all cut. 2) Finish quilting my Baby Honu quilt. Bind. 3) Make the August lotto block. I missed July. Sorry Val and Kate. 4) Check with my LAQ to see if she has returned to quilting after surgery. If so, bring my husband's quilt to her. It has a Minky backing and is quite large. I don't think my FMQ skills are up to it yet, and he's looking for his quilt. 5) Decide whether or not to FMQ my niece's quilt. 6) Decide on which of my six quilts to start on next. I will need something fun to work on in between the tedious RED quilt for my nephew. 7) Try to not start FlamingO's Wheel of Fortune rainbow quilt until I have some of the other's completed. That's it for August.