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2/27/2014

 
I promised to make my grandson a crib quilt and a play mat, so that's what I'm currently busy with. I went to the fabric store for some quilt batting, and noticed some wonderful prints for babies. There was a crib quilt panel called "Alphabet Soup", with the cutest little animals, and I just had to buy it. I sewed it together, and this morning I finished the topstitching, so now it's all done......
Picture
I figured the animal theme would work really well with the mural my sister painted for 
Elliot's room, as many of the animals on the quilt are also in the painting.....
Picture
Today I have to tackle the backing and quilting on the play mat for the floor. I sewed all the squares yesterday, and stitched them together, but now I have to layer it with batting and do the top-stitching. It's going to be a bit more difficult since it's twice as big as the crib quilt, and it's a pain rolling up the layers of pinned fabric and making them fit under the arm of the sewing machine.

While working on the two quilts, I'm trying to figure out what dolls to take on our upcoming trip, and what clothes I need to make for them. Something suitable for sunny, warm weather, and to wear while sight-seeing, and on the beach. Although I heard on the radio this morning that one needs to go as far south as Miami before it actually gets warm.  But "warm" doesn't mean the same thing to everyone. What most people consider "warm" I'd consider downright HOT.  Warm is good enough for me. Today it's -14 C outside here, and it's going to go down all day. It's been the coldest winter in over twenty years, and I'm really ready to see some spring - anywhere - especially some flowers. All my dolls have sundresses and hats already, but it would be nice to make them something new for the trip.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get used to all the changes to my computer. The system was updated on the weekend, and many things aren't quite working properly yet. I hate change, mostly because there's always so many things that show up afterwards, that need further updating, and I'm not the least bit technically-minded, so have to wait for someone else to fix the stuff for me. And they don't have time to help for awhile, so I'm stuck with it all for now.  Every time I walk away and my screen turns itself off, my External Drive and Time Machine shut off too. That's not supposed to happen. I can't get new emails to automatically show up, and the screen colour has changed (even though it's still the same screen) and my photos now show up looking sort of dead and a touch greenish.  And in a totally non-brilliant move, I decided to give an updated version of PhotoShop a try at the same time. Well, my IT son was here and available, so why not take advantage of it? What was I thinking, dealing with all of those things all at once? 

The computer is so much faster now, and the new keyboard doesn't stick, and the new cordless mouse is okay too. And those things are good. I actually like the new RAW picture processing in CS6, BUT there are so many other changes that will probably be deal-breakers. For one thing, the new cropping system is crazy, much harder to use, and actually makes me motion sick!  And I can't open more than one photo at a time anymore. And where's that 'Perspective' button I sometimes need? And then there's all the little things, like where's the SpellCheck for Word, and why does everything now have 'Auto-Correct'?  I hate 'Auto-Correct'!! Let me decide for myself what I want to write!  SpellCheck is necessary to catch the occasional typo, but forget that dumb 'Auto-Correct".

Computers!  Can't live without them these days, but they sure can be a challenge!!!!

Well, better get back to that play mat.......
Jane
2/27/2014 10:22:51 am

Oh gosh you are such a creative family! What wonderful gifts for Elliot (and his Mum and Dad of course!)

And computers and laptops.....well I wouldn't want to live without one, but I don't like change either and certainly not a lot of change at once.
Good luck getting used to all the changes you have had to make ((hugs))


And have fun planning for the warm trip south :)

Martha
2/28/2014 11:45:15 pm

It's extra challenging to know if I like the new CS6 because I'm not exactly taking a lot of photos at the moment, and it's hard to make any judgement when I'm not using it to full potential.

The temperature doesn't look like it's going up much at all before we are scheduled to start our trip, so we will have to see if we can even dig out the RV.

Kate
2/28/2014 05:20:58 pm

You can turn that new CS6 cropping method off - there's an option in the drop-down menu to switch back to Classic mode.

Martha
2/28/2014 11:40:30 pm

Thanks, I'll try that. I much prefer the cropping in CS4. I do like the new RAW processing function, and it seems to be able to handle photos with challenging lighting much better, but once the photo is opened there are still so many things I haven't been able to figure out yet, and because it's a trial, settings don't save from one day to the next.


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    Martha Boers is an award-winning Canadian doll maker and costumer specializing in fantasy and historical-style costumes.
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