Purple Selvages and Ghoulies

Yesterday was the end of the purple selvages. all gone....kaput....used up....done.

Here is just a tease.

I'll show you the final result tomorrow.

Orange selvages for Halloween

I showed you this orange top a few weeks ago when i got it pieced...today i got it quilted.

I did a quick pattern from Quiltazoid using orange thread on the top and black thread on the bottom. got it done in a hour. the thread matches top and bottom....the quilting does not show. the pattern looks like capital Es...first up straight...then laying down. this came out 62x72".  that's the last of the orange selvages.

If you'll remember....i embroidered some halloween images in some of the blocks. cats and bats and mice and witches and monsters.

I found enough of a fabric to use for the back. it came out rather spooky in the picture. it's a black with various colored dots connected in a maze throughout. my camera is acting up....so that may be why the pic is strange.

It totally looks different in real life....weird.

Now i have to go quilt up a customer quilt...queen size. think i will use this same pattern, though. it is quick and easy.

Landon's quilt

My sister pieced this for her friend's daughter's new baby, Landon. 

It is so cute. there are appliqued hearts with paper pieced scrappy borders

And blue embroidered bunnies

And green embroidered bunnies

But the cutest thing of all is the bear....masquerading as a bunny. LOL

It was quilted with the 4" clamshells from Quiltazoid.

It was all done in under 2 hours....love that.

What vicious animal does this?

This one......my dog, Suzy

She doesn't look vicious .... does she? she's hardly taller than my knees. usually she is a scardey-cat. but let her see a chipmunk and all reason leaves her.

I was walking home yesterday from the studio and saw the green plastic part that goes on the end of the gutter....laying out in the middle of the yard. WTH? i went and picked it up and found this.

I knew immediately what had transpired.... a poor chipmunk ran in there...trying to get away from Suzy. she would have pulled it off the gutter in a snap .... at which point the chipmunk would have run out the other end and went home. but Suzy never sees that part. she is sure that dreaded creature is still inside.....so she growls and barks and chews. this piece was picked up at least 20 feet from the gutter....Suzy slings it all over the place as she is attacking it. i need a video of that... LOL.

..

We have taken to duct-taping these to the gutters because of Suzy. doesn't matter...when she is on a mission...there is no duct tape in the world that will hold her back.

I assume she figured out the chipmunk had abandoned this piece.

The next piece i found was this...

It was under the deck. just look at it....LOL   she has totally flattened it. and....it was RIVETED to the next piece of guttering. doesn't matter....she viciously yanked it off. look at this piece closer....

She has teeth marks completely through it...what are these made of?  aluminum, i guess. granted it's not steel....but really....do you have to flatten and bite through the dang thing? i guess she was really having fun!

Normally she lays in her chair most of the day and naps. i guess she is just resting up....waiting for the next chipmunk to cross her path. i don't know if it is the same one every time.....but i am surprised we still have any chipmunks living here.

When i took the pieces inside and showed them to DH and said .... 'look what YOUR dog did'....his eyes got rather large and he just laughed. i think inside he was proud and saying ..... 'that's my girl'....LOL

My advice to you....buy stock in guttering.....we'll be buying more of it.

Stashbusting efforts

Here's my first attempt to bust 200 more yards from my stash this year.

I call this Charmed Dragons .... i used 3.75 yards on this top.

There are 99 charms (5" squares) and a couple yards of the dragon fabric. Easy Peasy and quick to boot. you cut some charms in half and put some rows together and put your background fabric as sashing and borders. this turned out 60x80".  yeah, i know...it's not pressed yet....but i wanted to show you anyway.

Here's a close up

All the charms are Asian fabrics with some gold going through it.

This pattern came from Elizabeth Hartman at www.ohfransson.com   go check her out....great stuff.

Gotta go find what else i can whip up quickly. the pile 'to be quilted' is getting a tad taller. LOL

Driveways and Bunnies

I like our place....but i hate our driveway. it seems no matter what we do....it still sucks. dh is always out on the tractor with the blade...straightening it up and moving the rocks back where they belong.

The house is on a bit of a hill...so the driveway is a hill. walking up this hill tests your leg muscles. driving up the hill challenges my truck, too....it slides in the rocks.

This is the bottom half....it is not as bad as the top half. but along with a slant....it leans sort of to the right. so, every time there is a good rain the water washes off the rock from the driveway onto the lawn. and the land behind the house is further up another hill...so by the time that rain water is coming down that far....it is a gully washer.

I finally got tired of shoveling those rocks off the lawn and back up onto the driveway. i know there has to be a better way. we thought of blacktopping the drive but that is expensive and you have to maintain it. so, i decided to use the landscape stones we had to build a 'wall' to try and keep the rock from flowing onto the lawn.

It doesn't look all that exciting but i sure hope this helps. if not, i need to come up with a plan B. as you can see....the lawn got a bit chopped up when hubby decided to use the tractor to shove all the rocks into a pile....making it easier for me to shovel them back onto the driveway. it didn't really help....it just got dirt and grass all mixed in with the rocks. but he did leave the shovel out there for me. LOL

I really want the wall to be 2 stones high. it looks like you really meant to create a wall there. i think with one layer it just looks like you threw some stones out there for whatever reason. but i ran out of stones before i got it 2 high all the way down. i need 36 more. so, the next time i go to town AND remember to stop and get some AND have money to buy them AND they have what i need....i'll get 36 more.

In the meantime...this is it. now i am waiting for a good rain to see if Plan A worked. after i laid them all out i mentioned to hubby that it is just a matter of time before someone runs into them and knocks them out of whack. the only question is will it be me or him.....or the UPS guy. LOL  but it will be easier to put them back in place than shoveling that rock.

I did give some thought to building a concrete wall but i figured the first time someone ran into it and busted it up...then it would look like crap. so moving stones back into place would be easier.

And now for some cuteness for this post.  Late afternoon...early evening....every day...i find this in my driveway at the top... where we park our trucks.

It is just so cute and cuddly looking...occasionally there are two of them. we have pretty many rabbits now....i see little babies running around. our dog loves to chase them. thankfully, she hasn't caught one yet. they are not so cute when they eat things in the garden but i like to watch them hopping around and nibbling on the grass.

Break is over...back to work. i am committed to busting 200 more yards of fabric from my stash this year. that will put my yearly totals at 500 yards. i think i can do it. i know there is enough fabric to do it. LOL   i just need to buckle down and sew.

Later

I really don't have time for this

I went this morning to get a sonogram on my fatty liver. LOL   doc is on my case these days. i'm trying to do better.

Practically as soon as i got home....the doctor's office called and informed me that my gall bladder is full of stones....yeck!  and they want to do surgery to remove it. well, shoot.....i don't have time for that. i have quilts to quilt....places to go.....people to see.....demolition to do.  sigh!!

I have an appointment with a surgeon tomorrow to talk about it. i think i only want to do it laproscopically.....recoup time is under a week compared to 4-6 weeks for 'open' surgery when they make a 5 to 7" incision. ouch!!  this is the price i pay for my life of junk food eating.

I gotta do better.

Have you had this done?  got any good words for me?