Andrea Zuill’s Blog

   I don’t think that I have ever posted a blog about a music group or their videos, but I discovered these videos last Friday. 

I think everyone knows the group Ok Go, their song Here it Goes Again, with the video of the group dancing on treadmills.  Well, they have a new song and two videos to go with it.  The song is called This Too Shall Pass.  I love this song! 

The videos for This Too Shall Pass are amazing!  You should really take the time to watch them.  I mean REALLY take the time!  You will not be disappointed.

Here is the first video for Ok Go’s new song:

http://bit.ly/ajAws7

Cool Right! Here is the second video (which l love even more than the first video) :

http://bit.ly/apZqYZ

   I love Santa Cruz, CA.  There is so much about that town that I  like.  I love Logo’s used book store.  I love Harbor Cafe.  I love all the old houses and the extra funky people.  But, what I love most, and what I save up most of my craft money for, is Hart’s Fabrics.

 The first time I went to Hart’s, I told my husband, “Look, this is going to get ugly.  Money, and I mean lots of it, is going to be spent today.  I just wanted to prepare you.” Being that my Husband is very understanding, and he has his own issues with buying computer books, he said he’d just sit in the car, read a computer book and let me have at it. 

  I get totally overwhelmed by  Hart’s  huge selection.  Here are a couple tricks I use to decide which fabric to purchase for my stash.  I visually pass over all of the fabric about 3 times.  I try not to think too hard.  I just let it soak in.  By the 3 pass certain fabrics start calling to me.  That’s when I start pulling the fabic bolts and setting them aside.  

Another trick I do to supply my stash is to pick out a rainbow’s worth of fabric. By this I mean I make sure to pick out fabric in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, etc…  And, don’t forget black, grey, white, salmon, purple,,,,,  You get the idea.  If I didn’t aim for a rainbows worth I’d come home with nothing but pink fabric.

  These two fine ladies helped me out.  I had a big mound of fabric which took them quite a while to get through. They where very cheerful at their task.  And before long I was out the door with my huge bag, wondering if maybe I should have gotten more teal fabric.

Here is Hart’s info:

Hart’s Fabric, 1620 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz, CA,

831-423-5434

Website: http://www.hartsfabric.com/index.html

Blog: http://blogs.hartsfabric.com/

 Free pattern time!  How many of you guessed that this Be Mine was February’s free pattern? (see previous article)  Due to extreme laziness I wasn’t about to do two Valentine patterns so I got double useage from this design.

As always, click on the pattern below to get the full size image.

   I was reading the magazine Quilt Mania and I came across a new embroidery product called Transfer Eze.  With Transfer Eze you can put a sheet into your computer (like a normal sheet of paper) and print your embroidery pattern.  Once this is done you peel that backing material off then stick the film, with the image, onto your fabric. When you finish stitching your design you use cold water to get rid of the film, leaving just your stitching and fabric. 

   Here is my step by step on using Transfer Eze and the results.

  Using my regular, cheap HP printer I printed my design onto the Transfer Eze.

  I peeled off the backing paper and stuck the image on 100 % cotton muslin fabric.  The Transfer Eze was easy to apply. As you can see I didn’t iron my fabric and the film adhered very nicely.

  Printing on the Transfer Eze was very easy and left a nice, dark and clear pattern.  Transfer Eze feels like a paper fabric.

  No problem putting the fabric and the Trans. Eze into my hoop.  The Trans. Eze feels like having your fabric applied to a stabilizer.

  Very little trouble with stitching.  There is some extra resistance  but probably not much different than using a stabilizer.  I have major carpel tunnel and stitching with Trans. Eze didn’t bother me a bit.

  You can see the texture of the Trans. Eze in this photo.   I tend to manhandle my work so I was glad to find that I had no lifting or releasing of the Trans. Eze while stitching.

  Completed stitched design with Trans. Eze still attached to fabric.

After stitching, peel and cut away extra Trans. Eze. 

  Lastly, after clipping the extra Trans. Eze off I soaked my fabric in cold water.  The directions states that it takes 5 to 10 minutes to remove the film, but it dissolved much faster on my project.

The only problem I had with Transfer Eze is that Trans. Eze film was like having a very thin spacer between the stitching and fabric. When I removed the film my stitches weren’t as tight as I would like to be.  I believe I could improve the tension of my stitches with practice.   Maybe this tension problem happens with stabilizers too?  I just don’t know. 

Remember, if you try Transfer Eze practice on a sample first.  The results I had may not be the same for everyone and every fabric.

The only place I could find Transfer Eze was at Original Creations Quilt Shop.  Here is their info.:

Original Creations Quilt Shop, 16863 Highline Blvd., Cut and Shoot, TX, 77306

phone: 956-491-5650

Email;   jerry@originalcreationsquiltshop.com

Website: http://www.originalcreationsquiltshop.com/home.htm  ,  Their website is a little hard to use.  If you click on Transfer Eze it doesn’t take you anywhere. 

  In this photo, from left to right , is Mike Nelson,  Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy of RiffTrax.  Formally, they are all from Mystery Science Theater 3000.  You might actually know them as Mike as, well, Mike, Bill as Tom Servo, and Kevin as Crow T. Robot.  They came to our town last night and performed a Christmas show. 

    They brought with them a bunch of Christmas shorts.  Shorts are animations and short films.  Apparently, Christmas can bring out the weird in some animators and film makers.

  Guess who showed up?  Weird Al was there to help the guys riff on a film about pork, yes pork.  This whole show was broadcast live to Theaters all over the place. 

Okay, on to bras. 

   I had a disturbing reply to my bra blog.  I was excited because many of you could relate to playing hide and go seek with you bras.  Then, a certain someone wrote this, “So good to hear that I am not the only one who does this.  When mine get totally lost that usually means it’s in the backseat of my car!”  Ah, okay.  This statement begs for many questions.  

The bra issue has also spurred on my Husband ’s creativity and he is now designing a bra rack.  I stated to him, “Wouldn’t that be just like a hat rack?”.  He gave me a angry look and just kept on drawing.  He hates it when I take the wind out of his sails. 

  I just want to whine.  So, here I go…  I am constantly losing my bra!  I can’t seem to get into the habit of putting it in one place.  What makes matters worse is the fact that I spontaneously take it off  without thinking about it.  Before you worry about me, I just what to let you know I work at home.  The spontaneous bra removal has yet to happen in public. 

I have found it in every room of the house, in my craft supplies, under the couch and so on.  I lose my bra more than I lose my keys.

I’m glad I got that off my chest.

I am so glad I did the blog on websites.  I have had several new sites given to me and one that I totally forgot about.  Here they are:

 I Can Has Cheezburger:  http://icanhascheezburger.com/   Oh how can I forget this one!  I still (and I am totally being truthful here) laugh when seeing that poor seal thingy have his bucket stolen.

New to me -

Google Reader: https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?   You have to login to this site, but I’ve had a couple people say they can’t do without their updates.

Passive Agressive Notes - http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/  Their Motto:  Painfully polite and hilariously hostile writings from shared spaces the world over.

My Very Worst Roommate - http://myveryworstroommate.com/  Their Motto: Dispatches from the shared houseing frontline: sloths, thieves, oversharers, tv hogs, etc.

My Very Worst Date - http://myveryworstdate.com/  Their Motto:  Love is a Battlefield

 *         It has come to my attention that there are still a few people that use the internet in a very limited way.  For instance my best friend Jean.    Our conversations go like this:

Jean - “I can’t find a good pumpkin pie recipie.  I have looked everywhere.”

Me - “Did you look on the internet?”

Jean - “Oh gosh, no!  I forgot about the net.”

Jean has had a computer for 10 years. 

    But, this article is not about research but about really cool websites that some people have never heard of.  Maybe they didn’t think to look, who knows.  I don’t know how many times I have ask people, that own computers, if they have a Flickr account.  They reply, “Whats Flickr?”

So here are my top favorite websites that I think all people should know:  (I am leaving out things like Facebook and such.)

http://www.flickr.com/  - photo posting sight. Great for sharing images and especially images of art and crafts.

http://www.craftster.org/ - A online craft community where you can discuss craft, art and post your projects.

http://www.etsy.com/ - Online handmade product store.  The love of my life.

http://craftzine.com/ - Online craft magazine.  Crafts new world order’s favorite mag.

Fun Stuff

http://cuteoverload.com/ - Cuteness is everywhere on this site. Puppies, Kitties, bunnies galore!  This site has cuteness down to a science.  They have also developed there own Cute Speak, which I love.

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ - This site is one of two site that will make me laugh so hard that I will cry,    Their motto is “When Professional cakes go horribly, hilariously wrong”

http://www.engrish.com/ - What can I say?  This is the second site that brings tears to my eyes.  Who thought that bad translations could be so, well, BAD!

    I know that there are a ton more sites that are important, in one way or another, so please let me know what you think.  I would like to list new web sites in another blog entry. 

* The artwork used in this blog entry, even thought it doesn’t fit the topic, is a print that will be coming out real soon. 

  Since it’s been a couple years now since I have lost a bunch of weight,  I try to stay healthy by setting up events that will keep my weight on track.  This usually means trips that require me to hike.  Basically, I have to keep my weight down to survive the ordeal. 

I have just completed my second trip to the Grand Canyon where I hiked down to the bottom, then back up to the rim.

  First stop on my trip was Prescott, Arizona.  I stayed in the historic The Hassayampa Inn.

 The Hassayampa Inn was decked out for Halloween, and it is said that the hotel is haunted.

  I loved the hand painted lobby ceiling.

  I don’t know who the artist is, but these beautiful and haunting dolls added a romantic touch to the spooky decorations.

  Boy, it seems like I just put out Sept.’s free pattern.  I have been creating tons of patterns this last month.  Just times the pattern mood just hits.

  This month’s free pattern is a bit different in that it is a direct scan from a ink drawing.  When I first started doing embroidery I often stitched my images to look like drawings.  I would try to match my pencil drawing lines as best I could.  If the finished image was small I would use just a single thread of floss.  Sometimes I would stitch lines at different sizes to match the thick and thin of a pencil line.

Enjoy!