things I found

 I showed the photo of the graduation photo of me yesterday. Another thing I found (in a different place) was a quilt top that I had totally forgotten about until I saw it again.

I remember making this. I made it around 2000; I remember setting up my sewing machine on my kitchen table in the apartment where I was living, I remember moving furniture so I could lay the thing out on the floor and just pick up rows and sew.

I didn't remember I ran short of the original white and had to use one that was a different shade, but oh well. Old-time quiltmakers did that so at least it's following tradition.

Anyway, this sat in a plastic tub in the bottom of my walk-in closet pretty much since I moved to the house. Unfortunately, that box was close to an area where mice were - they do not seem to have been IN the box, but they were close enough for discomfort. So, I decided to take the risk of washing the unfinished top in the washing machine - I did not want to take it to get it quilted with maybe mouse cooties on it. It fared okay; the edges frayed a tiny bit but it's immense (84" by 100") so it will still be big enough for my bed even if I trim the edges a bit. 

here's a close up showing the two different shades of white :(

they don't show as much indoors though.

I do want to get it quilted; I am pretty sure the local place does a long-arm stitching version of the Baptist Fan pattern, and I would like that for this quilt. 

I also decided I needed to go out for a bit this afternoon - this morning, I stacked up almost all the brush I had cut (I ran out of steam for the real bottom of the stack in the backyard, and also it was wet and kind of turning into silage, and it was gross)

But I do suffer these days from the lack of what a twitter friend described as "talking to three-dimensional people" and I think I need to - with care, because BA.5 is here - make an effort to get out occasionally because I get sad and weird when I pretty much have only my brain to bounce my thoughts off of.

I had gone to mart of wal for a few supplies; I wound up having to use the self check out because there was only one staffed lane open and it was stacked up with people doing their shopping for the month. I dislike self checkout for several reasons; one is I think that's where my credit card number got stolen (but now I use the chip-and-pin card I have, and hopefully that makes theft harder, also, the number is not printed on the front of the card in case there was a camera). But the bigger reason is this: As you're leaving, if you self-checked-out, an employee stops you and looks at your receipt and looks at what's in your cart. Because I guess they figure you shoplifted. And yes, I know: if I were of a different race or national origin than I am, I'd probably encounter this all the time, but it's jarring and annoying and NO they do not do it to you when you go through a staffed lane. So on top of me doing their work for them for the same price as if I got helped by an employee, I get to feel like I'm not trusted. And I"m reminded of how we're becoming a low-trust society, and I don't like that.

Anyway, I felt like I needed a more pleasant interaction, so I decided to go to the quilt shop and just SEE what kind of wide backing fabric they had, and maybe buy a piece and think about putting this quilt top in for quilting. 

I carried the quilt with me to match, which was wise, because my first inclination didn't match as well as a batik-like fabric that matched the smaller squares on that quilt. The person working in the shop was less familiar with quilting and told me the longarmer was out today doing some errands. I said that was fine, I needed to press off the top (explaining it had been through the washing machine) and I wanted to pre-shrink whatever I bought. She did call the woman and ask her how much I needed for the size of the quilt I had (and the amount she said was considerably less than I would have bought, I hope that wasn't in error, I really did not want to have to piece a back for this).

And then, the woman said "Are you taking it here to quilt?" and I said yes, I was, and she said "Well, how about you pay for it when you bring the top in" so I guess there's ONE business in town that still trusts me (then again: I'm in there a lot). (Though also, I think this woman is unfamiliar with the pay-over-the-phone-app thing that they usually use). So I've got the fabric washing and I will probably press the top tomorrow, and then Monday take them in and leave them.

I did also splurge on a frame. I had thought of looking at the wal-mart but as I was finishing getting the groceries I needed it was getting crowded enough I wanted to just bail, and I forgot, so I went to the one remaining gift store downtown. And I spent more than I might have, but

It has rhinestones on it. I will have to put a hanger on it if I want to put it up on the wall (I probably do) but since I have no glamorous photos of me, I can at least have a mundane one in a glamorous frame.