Come and meet my magic wand

It used to be I knew that if I had to grab one thing besides the life essentials and living creatures from my home during a fire, it would be my sewing machine or camera. (For the record, we live in a high brush area and have been evacuated three times in the last six years, so I actually live this thought out...) Well, move over baby! Mama has a new toy! And it fits in her bra!

Say hello to my new best friend, my 16-gig iPhone. Now, I've never owned an Apple product before, and I know I'm a gonna sound like a commercial here, but I've decided my iPhone is my official magic wand. It has eliminated almost every other necessity from my purse: calendar, phone book, calculator, paperback book (load the free Kindle app and you'll be thrilled!) notepad, voice recorder, cell phone, camera, Walkman (dating myself here) checkbook, electronic dictionary, radio, watch and more. The only things it's not replacing are my lipstick, hand cream and tissues. But I faith that an app will appear any day now that will take care of those needs too!

A few weeks ago I even loaded an app, called QuiltFab, that helps calculate yardarge for my backings and bindings. And it's free! (An app is a software program made just for the iPhone that adds extra magical powers to iPhone. Many are free, some are available for a small cost.)This is too much.

About 2o years ago, I prophesied that the communicator Captain Kirk (yep, I'm a Trekkie also) wore so proudly on his chest would soon become a reality. Well, if we just glue a pin backing to the iPhone, we might be there now.

So, how else do I use my Magic Wand for quilting? Besides the obvious QuiltFab app to help me buy more fabric accurately, I take pictures of quilts at shows with the camera, order quilt books through the Amazon app, make notes about quilt ideas in the Notebook app, add quilt chores to my to-do list, locate quilt shops with my WhitePages app, watch "How to Make an American Quilt" for the umpteenth time, use the GPS to find the quilt show location, check the balance in my accounts regularly so I know if I have the bucks there to shop, calendar my guild dates and minigroup sessions and search the Net for All Things Stitched. I'm telling you, the iPhone is made for quilters! And if you can't use AT&T for your phone service, look into the iTouch instead. Offers all the same features and capabilities without the phone part.

Now, if I can just get it to sew that block for me...

Ever get so overwhelm that you underwhelm yourself?

That would be me these days. I have so much to do I'm not sure where to start. And the sad part about it is I actually have the time to sit at That Machine behind me and sew. I have things to sew, pretty things, promised things, things that will make me and others smile once done. And yet, here I sit, with my back to That Machine and I don't force myself to play.

My kid just left for a sleepover at her friend's house. Samantha is now 8 and it's really very strange to see her take off to have a sleepover with such joy and anticipation. Makes me wonder if living here sucks? Nah. I know it doesn't. But I also know that when I was a kid, sleepovers were a means to survival in my house. Without my friend's families adopting me, who knows how I would have turned out? That's not Samantha's life though. My husband and I work too hard to let it be, in any way or shape, even remotely similar to what we came from. She's happy, kind, smart and sweet and I couldn't ask for more from her short being.

But, being without kid underfoot means being A-L-O-N-E and it's freaky. Husband is probably taking off to play tennis in this raging So Cal heat. And I, sit, here, thinking about That Machine, hearing That Machine whine just a little because she's lonesome. And I think about the loot I scored this past weekend at the International Quilt Festival in Long Beach. My head goes back to the pretties. Yes, yes Darling, I'm coming to play with you. Just a moment while I wind that bobbin and change that rotary blade...