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I went to the Duck for a couple days and got a bit of work done.
When i left...my throat was a bit scratchy and my nose was runny....sinuses i figure. but i got worse as days went by so i didn't do too much work. but, on Tuesday my sis helped me fill up this dumpster. this is the second dumpster i have filled...my garage is clean once again. but i will need a third once i get all the ceilings down with their plaster, lathe boards, and insulation out of the attic. it took us 4.5 hours to fill it to this point on Tuesday. i was in the dumpster and she was bringing me the boards and bags out of the garage....i arranged them all neatly so everything would fit in. LOL on Wednesday morning we went back for a couple hours and finished the job with more sheets of plywood and more bags of plaster. then i trimmed some bushes down to the fence line and threw those in there, too. it was all filled to the top when we were finished.
I got there Monday about noon but didn't feel like going to work....so i stitched on block #3 for My Tweets...and here it is....all finished. i also got about half of block #4 finished. a bit of progress there, too.
I've told you about the oil pumper in my back yard. the owners came out Tuesday and Wednesday to replace the pump that is underground. it was pretty fascinating to watch. see those long poles laying there in the front of the picture...on the metal stands....when they were through pulling....there were about 50 of those.
I talked to the man and got a bit of lesson....this pumper is 1500 feet deep....a shallow one for the area. there are about a dozen in my neighborhood. the oil all gets pumped to huge tanks in a field at the end of my alley...on the next block. and i learned in the museum in town there is a picture of all the pumpers....before all the houses were built in the neighborhood.
They got it all put back together and pumping once again. it takes a while for the oil to start pumping again...first it pumps out gas...then water...then oil. so i learned something new. and i have their numbers in case i notice the pumper is not working....i am supposed to call. it breaks belts pretty regularly.
Now i am trying to rest up and get to feeling better so i can stay upright for more than 2 hours. am feeling kind of puny. quilting will have to wait for
Later
Here is my March Color Palette Challenge. this was a bit of a struggle. it wasn't the colors....it was my design. i wanted to use a block that i normally wouldn't. and though i only made 12 of them....it seemed like many more. triangles just have their way with me. i must have some weird brain block on them or something. it's a bit wonky but it is finished.
Let's recap...here is the color palette given to us by Vici Welsh
Here are the fabrics i chose to use
Here is my design that i made in EQ
Here is my top. looks just like it.....if you don't check those points too close. i steamed and stretched and starched the hell out of it and still it doesn't lay flat. it's not my fault...my brain only likes squares and rectangles ....it doesn't work in triangles.
Here are 4 of the blocks together....in my normal fuzzy picture fashion. i tried to show you the good part...LOL look at the bottom left corner for mayhem.
Now all my monthly obligations are finished and the rest of the month is mine. i am going to play for 2 days and then go to the Duck on Monday for a few days of ceiling demolition fun...or something.
The ground is too wet for yardwork....aw, shucks...LOL
I started a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle last night on my kitchen sewing table. so there will be no sewing for a few days. i probably won't get it finished before i leave for the Duck...so it will get finished
Later
The UFO challenge number for March was 8. i only had a few pieces of this sewed together and it had been marinating in the box for some time...probably at least a year.
The pattern was designed by my friend, Maralie, and she called it Tsunami. it became a problem from the first stitch. LOL
The original pattern was only 40"...and i really didn't know how much i needed to make it larger. but i wanted it about couch size. HAH!! this turned out 98" square. i was just happily cutting along and stitching.
The only reason i finally stopped was i just had about a yard or so left of the main fabric and wanted it for the border. all the rest of the fabric are ones that i have dyed. i added a couple extra lines to the top and bottom to make it a bit longer. but somehow after i added the border, it still came out square. i have NO IDEA how that happened.
The back is pieced with strips of all the hand dyed fabrics that i had. some of these are not in the front....but i just wanted to use them up. major stash busting.
I used my Quiltazoid pattern to quilt it. i was going to do all SID but now glad i didn't. i guess because of all the bias edges...this thing grew on its own. it has several tucks in it to make it somewhat square.
I used Glide red thread on the top and green Bottom Line in the bobbin.....a combo that ALWAYS works on my machine. but not this time....i had issues with the top thread breaking and the bobbin thread getting loopies. and i used a Warm and White batting...which i usually don't use. and i had issues with that, too. little bits all over the back. i am going to throw it in the washer and dryer and see if that tames it any. if not...well .... so be it. it will be a donation somewhere....we just won't tell who did it. LOL
I can only hope next month's challenge is easier....or quicker....or better....or something. right now i am going to finish up the color palette piece for the month and then take a few days off and go visit my sister.
I'll be back...
Later
This is our class quilt for this year..started in January. so far i have managed to keep up with the homework and have all the blocks finished that we have been given. here is what we have so far.
Alabama
Applique with cotton boll and tobacco leaves..there are 4 of these that go in the middle
These are the corners for the inside border
Florida
Georgia
Louisiana
Mississippi
South Carolina
Texas
Virginia
And these are the setting triangles...there are lots of them.LOL
It's going to be a cool quilt....as always.
There will be more blocks to come....
Later
I have finished Kay's first red and green quilt with embroidered blocks. it seems like it took forever. but i guess it was just because i was working on about a dozen things at a time....as usual. here is the front. i almost got all of the quilt in the picture...my picture taking seems to be getting worse.
These are the embroidered blocks i had to work with. they looked a bit plain until i put the red around it...that sparked it up a bit.
And this is the pieced block that i made to go with them. to me....the block sort of looks like the embroidered block...same kind of design. i only noticed that after i was finished. maybe that is why i chose it.
The border fabric was a pretty red and green floral.
Backing was muslin. i used a panto to quilt it. Tan Glide thread on the top and pale yellow Bottom Line in the bobbin.
I have 6 more of these same blocks to make another quilt with. i think i have an idea for the alternate blocks. should get that started next month.
Later
I have finished 2 blocks so far (along with the middle section) of the My Tweets hand applique quilt. i am loving this pattern. by the time i am finished i will probably have appliqued hundreds of leaves. and dozens of tail feathers. LOL
This is block 1
Love those birds
This is block 2. i am changing up the placement and shades of tail feathers. just because i can
Cute little tulip flowers
All the blocks are different so it keeps it from being boring.
Stay tuned for more blocks..
Later
I do like to construct jigsaw puzzles....always have. i've done hundreds of them in my lifetime. and every once in a while you will get a puzzle with a piece missing....sometimes even get an extra piece.
I used to buy my puzzles retail...paying full price. and i bought a LOT of them from the Bits and Pieces people...they have lots of cool puzzles. but now i rarely buy anything retail....so i find my puzzles in thrift stores. sometimes you find one that is still shrink wrapped and never been opened.....SCORE! LOL
The other day i was in a puzzle mood and looked through my boxes and decided to work on this one. a nice spring puzzle.
My usual plan of attack is to pull out all the edge pieces first and do that...then i have an idea where the other stuff fits. as i am pulling edge pieces i might pull out pieces with words on them or something distinctive. this time i was pulling pink pieces...for the car and balloons. i was looking and looking and didn't seem to have many edge pieces. but i started with what i had. imagine my surprise when the whole left side wasn't there....or the top right corner. WTH?? a new kind of puzzle? hahahaha
Normally i pass them on to my sister to do after i am finished with them. but this one just went in the trash. then the next day....after thinking and mumbling about it.....i thought i should have kept it yet. all of the middle was finished...no empty spots. the only pieces missing were the left side and top right corner. someone did that deliberately. it wasn't just pieces that didn't get into the box...that scenario would have had pieces missing all over the puzzle.
This puzzle was bought from our little thrift store in town here. i bought about 7 or 8 puzzles from them that day. now i am wondering if i will find the rest of these pieces in another box. i am thinking they came from one person. normally that thrift store doesn't have puzzles and i thought i really lucked out to find all these. this might just be a joke from whoever owned them all.....they mixed pieces into other boxes. i sure hope not....it will be aggravating to do others with parts missing. but it makes quite a story. LOL
Along with all the pieces missing.....i got 2 EXTRA pieces in that box...that didn't belong to this puzzle. strange and stranger.
If i have more puzzling puzzles i shall let you know
Later
I just finished a customer's wedding quilt. not her wedding....a quilt for a friend of hers who is getting married. she wanted it all white.
She pieced large blocks of 2 different white on white fabrics. i don't much care to quilt the white on white fabrics...it makes 'dust' and crud all over the machine and you are cleaning the bobbin area a lot. and it usually gives you tension isses, too. of which i had a few.
My customer designed the elements of the quilt. inside the star was freehand leave feathers.
In the triangle and corner block areas are flowers from a panto.
Border got swags and beadboard. corners were made with ovals.
She copied part of a panto and added leaves and such to it. pretty slick trick. we made it the same size as the block and i just used her drawing like a panto.
It seems to me the border stands out more than the star. i used a different color thread for the star than the rest of the quilt...a couple shades lighter.
Muslin for the back. Glide thread on the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. it is 86" square.
Glad to be done with this. quilting white on white is almost as bad as black on black.
To finish up the month....i have 2 of my challenge quilts and one more for Kay...just need to add a border to it yet. i better get busy...before it gets much
Later
Do you keep track of things? sometime it's fun.
I am keeping track of how much fabric i use in a year and thought it might be fun to see how much thread i use, too.
Here is my thread usage for this year, so far. i've just been throwing them in this bowl....i think i need a bigger bowl.
And that is a pretty good size bowl.....here's a better idea. there are 58 empty spools. and i threw a few away in the beginning of the year....before i decided to keep track.
Those small ones are from the embroidery machine....you see that gets a lot of usage. of course, not all of these spools were full of thread to begin with. but still....58 empty spools.
Now...the next challenge will be ....what do you do with empty spools? do you have a craft that uses spools? interested in getting these at the end of year? just let me know and i'll be happy to send them to you...
Later
I have some friends that have 2 little girls and the youngest one, Sophia, will be 1 year old next month. this is her birthday quilt.
The butterfly, dragonfly and bee were cut with the AccuCut machine. i just feathered it to death LOL had to put some love in there...so there is a heart at the top.
And more meandering feathers everywhere.
I divided the bottom into sections and it wound up with feathers, too.
There are a few butterflies
Some dragonflies
And one fat yellow bee
This is the back. is is pretty lightweight...good for a 1yr old to drag around. it is 40x60"
This is Sophia's 2nd quilt and Abby now has 4....they have quite the stash going.
I have to go find a book to send to Abby so she gets a present, too. then it all gets mailed..
Later
