Today's the Day to Try Swagbucks!

It's the site's third birthday, and they're giving out plenty of extra codes and prizes today. You might find this very helpful! Just with the searches I normally do, plus a few minutes a day to vote on polls and surveys, I earn at least $10 worth of Amazon gift cards every month. Could you use $10 to blow on Amazon?!? It's that easy.
    You can join by clicking on the fancy gadget to the right of my blog posts...it will give you a bonus, and me some referral points, too. Try it!

Worrying -- Will It Help?

So The King's Speech got lots of awards last night. This movie is on my 'I Know I Should Go See This Movie, But I Already Know How It Ends' list, along with the 'Black Swan' and 'The Fighter.' (Shoot, I just saw 'On the Waterfront;' wouldn't that take care of the latter? Although that remarkable Christian Bale,"one of your buddies," as Husband says, might make it worth my while.)
   I still think Inception got robbed.

One of the questions in today's Simple Dollar Readers Mailbag hit a sympathetic chord:

I can’t sleep because I am so worried about political stupidity here and political unrest abroad sand-bagging my savings and my stocks. I am half-convinced that this country is facing financial Armageddon. The constant loss of jobs worries me too, since I am a sole supporter of an elderly parent. I am saving as much as I can now, but I came to this realization so late in life, I fear it may be too late for me.

The writer goes on to list ways she's dealing with the situation, including TWO jobs (one full, one part-time), a full freezer, canning and sewing, paying on credit cards and making an extra mortgage payment every year.
    I can think this way so easily. Stocks will crash again (mine are up right now, incidentally), the house will flood again (the drain outside our basement tends to clog up), Husband will have job and/or health problems (he's had both, but we've gotten by ok), my writing/quilting/teaching work will evaporate (it shows every sign of doing exactly the opposite).
   Our freezer is still 2/3 full. We have plenty of food in the pantry and basement. And we're both carrying extra weight around our middles. In fact, I've been planning a bigger garden not only because it will give us food that's free of chemicals, but so I'll get some forced exercise this summer.
   So, has all my previous worrying helped? Changed anything, other than my blood pressure?
   Naaahhhh.
   Ironically, the best way I've found to deal with worry is not to accumulate -- but to get rid of things. Several large piles have disappeared around the house in past weeks, and I have plans for a few more before leaving to teach in North Carolina on Wednesday. The freezer has been slowly emptying -- the meat is a blessing. (Have your meat prices skyrocketed, too? Ours are up at least 20%. Chuck roast is now 'on sale' for $3.99/lb -- outrageous!) And the shelves of canned goods are still plenty full.
   We stockpiled extra fabric, in anticipation of textiles' rising prices. That will eventually disappear into the maws of kits, along with the trims, buttons and handkerchiefs we seem to have waterfalls of around here for Brickworks.
    During moments that I do worry, I seem to hear God saying, 'Have I taken care of you in the past? Do you trust me now?'
    He has -- and I do.

Ignoring the Oscars

Yes, I know it's Big Whup Night. Everybody and their brother/sister is dressed to the nines, and prancing down the red carpet at the Oscars celebration. And a whole bunch of people are partying to the same tune all over the country.
    Well, not us. (I did take a quick peek at the costumes -- why do nearly all the women look like they're just getting over the flu??) We just got done with The Adventures of Robin Hood. (The Errol Flynn version, which in spite of the green tights, is lots of fun.) Next are the stylish plaid shirts and suspenders of Red Green. Popcorn, leftover Valentine's candy and a cup of hot tea make life complete.
    Charlie, Jack and Buck are sprawled out, posed elegantly in their dusty coats. Husband and I complete the gracious scene in sweatshirts and sweatpants. Aaahhhhhh....

Care and Repair for Wool Rugs and Quilts

Today's post is courtesy of Kathy Kansier, a friend and colleague who travels around the world, teaching, judging and appraising quilts. Kathy lives in Ozark, Missouri. Read more about Kathy at her website, or contact her via e-mail: ozarkquiltmaker@aol.com .

Some of my applique classes are wool applique classes. I also have quite a bit of wool for my rug hooking. I keep that wool in large sealed plastic boxes to keep the bugs away. I know other hookers who keep their wool in large plastic garbage cans. One older lady who has been working with wool for over 60 years keeps her wool garbage cans in the garage in the winter to keep the wool cold. It also helps to freeze any bugs or their eggs that may have gotten in her wool. She taught me to keep a bar of Yardley Lavender Soap in each container to keep out the bugs. I can buy these bars at Walgreens. I like this smell much better than the traditional mothball approach. I think that the cedar chest storage approach was also an attempt to keep the bugs away from wool.

I've asked many rug hookers if they have had problems with bugs eating their hooked rugs that they have on their floors. None have ever told me that they had any problems. Maybe they have and don't know it. The hooked rugs are fairly dense so they may not notice small bites in the wool. The antique hooked rugs were hooked on burlap and when that gets wet, it molds, rots and disintegrates. So ... wet washing them would not be good. Today's hooked rugs are mostly done on a linen or cotton base. Hooked rugs are usually put face down in the snow for a day to clean and then laid flat to dry. They are never washed. They can be vacuumed. They used to use a rug beater on them to remove the dust and dirt.

I do have a wool table topper with pennies (circles) around the perimeter that I made. Three years ago, it was on the top of a stack of quilts in my sewing room. It now has a small area with 3 small holes (1/4" across) that some kind of bug ate.  The holes didn't go through the wool. They just munched on the top fuzzy layer. It was expensive white Moda wool. I know I didn't have any mice or silver fish in there so it had to be some sort of bug. My guess would be that it was a moth or cricket. We live on 13 wooded acres. That table topper is now in our house and hasn't been munched on since. I often use lavender candles and sprays in the house so maybe that's a solution.

I had 24 x 24 pieces of Hobbs washable wool batting lying on a stack and found small holes eaten in those too. I called the Hobbs Batting Company and they said to store their wool batting in the plastic bag it comes in until it is going to be used in a quilt. They said that when it is used in a quilt and the quilt is finished with a binding, the bugs don't go through the trouble and effort to eat through the cotton top or bottom  or through the seam lines to get at the wool. Apparently the bugs are more lazy than they are hungry.

I currently have two bolts of beautiful wool from Scotland in the sewing room. They have been there for two years, uncovered. Nothing has touched them. I don't know why. Maybe my bugs have fled to a better feeding ground. Those bolts are going to be cut and put in kits next month for my spring workshops.

If I am using new or used wool for applique, I wash it first, in the washer with warm (not hot) water. I dry it in a warm (not hot dryer) and press it with a warm iron. This causes it to fell (not felt). The felling process causes the woven yarn to tighten up. Too much heat will cause it to mat and shrink too much. Soaking in warm or cool water with a little bit of mild soap causes the pores of the yarns to open up and easily accept dye when I am dying wool. I do not use spray starch on wool in fear that the sugar in the starch will attract bugs to the wool. I mix my own form of starch with vodka, lavender oil and distilled water. It works great on all sorts of fabrics and smells wonderful. No, I don't drink the leftover vodka.

Years ago, we would never have washed wool sweaters, skirts etc. They were always sent to the dry cleaners. In the summer, I hunt for old wool skirts, suits and sweaters at places like Goodwill. It is much less expensive to purchase and they are wonderful for cutting up and using in my rugs and applique projects. I take the clothing apart, wash and dry it. Large A-line skirts give me the bigger pieces. Suits can be difficult to take apart and the pieces aren't big. But ... they sometimes have great buttons on them that can be used as embellishments for my crazy quilts. You need 100% wool for rug hooking. You can get by with a wool blend for applique but 100% wool is preferred.

To test to see if the wool is 100% wool - pull a string of yarn from the fabric and light it with a match. If it burns and smells like hair burning, it's 100% wool. If the end of it melts and shrivels up, it has some polyester in it.

My mom knit many mittens  for us as kids and whenever she used wool yarn and they were accidentally thrown into the washer and dryer, they matted and shrunk. I'm sure it was the hot water and hot dryer.

If a wool quilt is sent to a dry cleaners, make sure they have experience in cleaning wool quilts. Good wool or wool that has been washed before using it in a quilt usually isn't scratchy. They are hot to sleep under. A wool quilt can be aired outside to remove odors. I realize that dry cleaning adds chemicals but I prefer dry cleaning a wool quilt over hand washing it. Wool quilts are like crazy quilts. They are not good candidates for wet washing. It will be interesting what others have to say about this. I could be wrong. 

You could Google 'caring for wool quilts' to find more info on their care. Rug hooking sites, wool applique sites and the dye companies like Cushing, Pro Chem and Dharma may have info on caring for wool. There are quite a few people using wool in their quilts. There are great quilt patterns for wool on wool, wool on flannel and wool on cotton. It is wonderful to applique. No edges to turn and a nice, cozy folk art look. There's nothing better than sitting in front of a nice fire in your fireplace in the winter and working on a wool project. Remember to have a pot of soup simmering in the crock pot.

Correction --

The Internet Accuracy Project is an interesting spot to peruse now and then. It specializes in setting the record straight for a variety of reference sources, including encyclopedias. It also has info on when celebrities married, their deaths, family members and so on. (I wish more celebs were included -- the list is pretty sparse here -- but I appreciate the references, so at least you generally know where the website is getting its corrections info from.)
   As it points out, we all can make mistakes. The project's aim is not to denigrate those sites that "goofed up," but simply to stay accurate. An admirable cause.
    I also found its 'spring planting' and 'high/low record temps' charts very interesting. (Colorado's lowest temp happened in 1985 at Maybell, a favorite hunting spot of Husband and his cronies!) Other helpful charts include things like mail and calendar holidays. Take a look.

Great American Quilt Factory...Is No More (Soon)

     It's been more than a week since the geniuses at The Great American Quilt Factory announced their intention to retire and close the store. (You may know them better as Nancy Smith and Lynda Milligan of Possibilities.)  If you've ever visited the Denver area, you know that their store was one of the greats in Colorado. Wonderful fabrics, a wide selection of tools and books, and intriguing ideas wherever you turned...I will miss going there greatly. Check out the store while you still can -- I'm not sure what the current discount is (it was 20% the first week), but I was told the percentage would go up with time "until everything's gone."
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I'm just back from teaching and appraising for the Pride City Quilt Guild in Pueblo. (Hi, dears!) They're a wonderful group, welcoming and full of interesting ideas. Thanks for your help yesterday...I had a great time!

I am a bit wiped, though. Have been hacking my way through the kitchen dishes, and washing clothes. Finishing up some biz stuff, and wondering why in the world I'm so tired.
     Husband's 56th birthday was Sunday. (Happy B-Day, Davy! I love you so much.) We picked up the girlies in the morning, then headed for the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs to celebrate. For most of the trip, the road was clear...but we had some scary moments for about five miles there, when snow was gusting over the road. Vehicles were in the ditch, with flashing lights...oh boy.
    There's nothing like soaking in clouds of steam and hot water, with snowflakes falling on your head! But I think we all got chilled...I can't seem to stay warm, once I get to that exalted state. Maybe that's the reason for the fatigue.

a birthday cake for the Brick...

Ooh....I'm Feeling Dizzy

A bird's-eye look at one person's profession: fixing problems on top of radio towers. That is, 1768 feet radio towers.
    Don't watch this if you have problems with height!

Waiting to Celebrate

As anyone who is half-dead, deaf and/or blind knows, Valentine's Day is coming up. Husband and I already went to a church banquet that was a lot of fun...but hardly romantic. He has a gift certificate to a steak place that's burning a hole in his pocket. "How about on Valentine's night, we go out?" he said.
     Then I reminded him of the umpteen couples that are thinking of doing the same thing. He groaned. (He hates waiting at restaurants.) So the plan is this: Feb. 14, we'll have a nice supper at home by the fire. I have some crab legs in the freezer, bought on sale a while back. Baked potato, green beans and his present will finish out the menu.
    Tuesday night, we'll get the steak he's craving.
    There was a time in our lives that we would not have planned things ahead like this -- just gone ahead and did whatever we wanted, right when we wanted to. I honestly think, though, that we'll get much more satisfaction out of celebrating this way.
   Another friend, Stephanie, is celebrating the same way with her husband Valentine's evening. You may want to, as well, with one of these inspiring recipes.

Gives me Hope

It's not often that you come across a website that encourages, yet gives you inspiration to change your actions right away. The  'Gives Me Hope' site does that for me! It's anyone's chance to document the people and actions that GMH ('gives me hope') to others.
    See if you can read more than a few pages on this site, and not find yourself planning to find ways -- notes, little things, a few words here and there -- to pass on the encouragement. 

The Civil War Bride Quilt Lives Again

Have you ever seen this lovely piece? It's at the American Folk Art Museum, with these comments:


The Bird of Paradise Quilt Top, made during the Civil War period, is thought to be an unfinished marriage or wedding quilt. This idea is supported by the vertical rows of appliqued blocks that feature pairs of birds and other animals. In addition to these animal pairs, other symbols of union and fertility can be found on the bedcover; they include birds tending nests of eggs, flowers, and fruits. The only aberration appears in the two top blocks of the quilt top. A single female figure is appliqued onto one block, but the square next to her is nearly empty, save for the decorative leaves and flowers. Newspaper templates, including a template of a male figure, were found with this quilt top, suggesting that perhaps the quilt was never finished, and the marriage it was intended to celebrate never took place.

The quilt top also features depictions of famous nineteenth-century racehorses and of an elephant named Hanible, who had traveled throughout New York State during this period with his trainer.

  Ironic -- I'd always thought of this piece as the 'Jilted Quilt Top:' that the man block was never included because he'd found someone else! It only occurred to me in the past few days that he might have died during combat in the Civil War.
    What the museum calls the 'Bird of Paradise Quilt Top' has been making the rounds of applique-lovers in recent years as the 'Civil War Bride Quilt.'  To my great pleasure, I found that, thanks to Threadbear, an Australian company, you can make it! Their oversized pattern is really quite reasonable, considering the complexity of the designs.  Reproductionfabrics.com also sells the pattern, and an accompanying fabric kit.
    There's even a blog dedicated to people working on their own copies of the quilt. (Shades of Dear Jane, indeed.) The blog's not too old, and there aren't many finished quilts pictured -- this piece is a complicated one. But well worth it.I'm not a big appliquer, but something about this quilt just sings to my soul.

Hooking Up with Amy!

Frugalites view the name of Amy Dacyczyn with reverence. Her newsletter, the Tightwad Gazette, and succeeding books, have had a favorite place in my own library for years. But after Dacyczyn (pronounced "decision") retired from the TWG in the 1990s, she kind of dropped off the map. Not that you can blame her;  it's no fun for a private person to be pestered and asked for advice so often. And she said they'd stashed away enough money to live peaceably -- plus send their six kids to school.
    I've always wondered how things were going with the Dacyczyn family, now their older children are in their twenties. And I was curious what their home looked like. Lo and behold, I just stumbled across a link to a recent video interview with Amy! Here it is, complete with photos of their home and a tour of Amy's office. Enjoy.
    Her Tightwad Gazette still continues to sell well, more than a decade after the book first went in print.

Buy Your Meal with a Smooch on Feb. 14!

Qdoba's got one of the cutest promotions yet -- kiss someone while you're standing in the checkout line, and BOGO an entree free on Valentine's Day! (Qdoba suggests your mate, mom, or even the 'guy behind you' in line. Husband said, "What if I'm in front of you!!!")
    Go here to take a look. I'm guessing not all locations will be offering it -- if you're not sure, call ahead.

To Explain...

These photos are making the rounds on the Internet...unbelievable! According to the forwarding info, they were taken in Lead, South Dakota on Jan. 5th this year. (Lead, which Husband reminds me is pronounced "Leed," is just off I-90, close to Rapid City, near the Wyoming border. Not far from Mount Rushmore.)    Guess I'd better shut up if I complain about our snow! (And it's melting, anyways.)

21 Ways to Use An Altoids Tin!

I've been meaning to pass on this post, because it's so darn clever: a multitude of ways to use those metal Altoids boxes, including a survival kit, a pocket flashlight and a pinhole camera. Enjoy!

February Storm

Our big storm's gone, though the cold remains -- it was -8 F when Husband checked this morning. No school again, because of the cold. The dogs have given up going outside to check, and our firewood pile is sorely depleted. Thankfully, when you're working on quilts, they also keep you warm! We're free of the big winter storm that's been hitting further east. But it's got a ways to go before it peters out against the Atlantic.
    Hopefully you're staying warm and snug, don't have to fly into Chicago anytime soon, and your car's not in a snowdrift. Hang in there. 

Famous Last Words - and Meals

I am amazed at what you can find on the Internet nowadays. Reading in the TruCrime Library (itself a compendium of some of the strangest stories out there) brought me to something I hadn't really thought much about: what inmates request for their last meals. Here's TruCrime's list, as well as Wikipedia's take on the subject.  Slate also did an article about it. (A Death Row chef wrote his own book on inmates' favorites in Texas.)

What was truly freaky was the similarity in meals: steak, hamburgers/cheeseburgers "with the works," pizza ditto, Mexican plates, sweet tea. And the hands-down favorites, requested over and over:  fried chicken and french fries.
    If the phrase "you are what you eat" is true, what does this signal?!?
    (P.S. I LOVE fried chicken!)

 Last words uttered during various executions are on the Internet, as well. Here, too. (And only a few protest that they're innocent. Makes me wonder, though -- if you protest your guilt with your final breaths, wouldn't that make a D.A. stop to wonder, too?) The Texas Department of Criminal Justice actually lists last comments by 'executed offenders', one by one. This could be comforting or unsettling, depending on your connection.