What I hate about spring...

ANTS!!!

Why is it...

Once you see an ant crawling on you....

And you knock it off and anniliate it...haha....

That you still feel like ants are crawling on you.

Yuck!!

Spectacular customer quilt

I just finished this terrific customer quilt. terrific because of her piecing skills and this pattern....not my quilting...just making that clear. hahahaha

It wasn't quite queen size....but pretty close. took me about a week. she 'just' wanted SID....ALL the seams...SID. 

After a couple blocks i figured out how to travel around with one start and stop and just a few trace overs.

I used (at customer request) flat black So Fine thread...top and bottom.

Absolutely no quilting shows except in that narrow green border.

There are 7 borders....4 narrow reds, 2 blacks, and a green. she wanted some feathers...so i put those in the green. the black borders have freehand fills.

I think she paper pieced this. those are some awesome pineapple blocks.

The back was a black wide fabric. i tried to mute the color a bit to gray so the quilting might be seen....but i don't think i was very successful.

So, the main reason for this post is the awesome quilt....just pretend you can see quilting. LOL

That's 2 down and 4 to go for this month. gonna throw one of my small ones on the frame tomorrow and panto it up. then class on Monday and back to quilting on Tuesday. my sister's quilt is up next.

Hope to get all caught up in the next 2 weeks so i can go play at the Duck

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A few pretties finished

In the last week or so i have finished a few little things and started another new thing. sigh!!

I have block 5 done for the My Tweets hand applique quilt top. i worked on it while i was at the Duck. this is the second block that only has 1 bird on it.

And last week i got more embroidery designs from www.designsbyJuJu.com  i love her stuff....she has all kinds of cute kid stuff. and every month there is a sale...the more you buy...the cheaper they are. and returning customers get free designs. what could be better.

I just had to start this alphabet applique set. i have lots of scraps to use up. i like the A is for apple; D is for drum is ok, too; not sure about the E is for egg....would little kids know those are eggs?

I guess B is for bee is ok...or is that butterfly...or just bug?  either works.  C is for car is cute...i put a cat in the window. F is for flower...i got a little funky with the fabrics and variegated threads there. i'm not sure about the G is for gift. i don't think little kids will get that one...don't they think 'present' rather than the word 'gift'.

And H is for hearts. that's as far as i got that day. more to come

Now that i am back home i need to get back in my groove. i'm going to load the next quilt...then in a few hours i need to go and mow....it rained so the grass is all grown up again. i'll have more quilting pics for you

Later

More ceiling demolition

Will i NEVER be done with ceiling demolition? i got the rest of the bathroom ceiling down and almost half of the kitchen. i was going to stay and finish the rest of the kitchen.....but it just got hot and i wasn't feelin' it. i was wearing a long sleeved shirt to keep the insulation particles off of my arms and i couldn't face another day of it. my husband actually came down, too and worked with me for a few hours. he pulled the 1x4s off this kitchen ceiling for me.

 He also unscrewed dozens of screws that were in the ceiling rafters in this room (the future studio). .. and pulled nails that i couldn't get because they were too close to the screws.

Although he is smiling here....it was a tough job. holding that drill over your head and getting up and down from that ladder.

This ceiling is now all clean...no nails, screws, slats or plaster. got to fix 2 split rafters in this room.

We did get the electricity all run and it is finished. i'm sure Rick is glad to be done with that project. i am going to order some windows next and when he installs those we will also lower the bathroom ceiling about a foot.

The next time i go down there ..... i swear i am not coming home until the rest of those ceilings are all down. i just have the bedroom and half the kitchen to finish. i am sick of ceiling demolition.

I want to do some pretty work. hopefully soon.  everything that would be FUN to do....has to wait till

Later

Color Palette for May

I love May's color palette. not only do i love the colors....i loved eating those candies when i was a kid.  shoot, if i could find them now.....i would love eating them again. LOL

Here is the color palette given by Vicki Welsh. wondeer why it doesn't show the white in the color palette. hhmmmm...

And here is my design created in EQ7

And here is my little creation...all pieced together. little 3" finished blocks. little rail fences with the dark and light colors.

I added the white for the sashing. for the sashing cornerstones i had some fabric that had a yellow background with tiny red, blue, orange and green squares...perfect i thought.

I got this project out of the way first this month. i wanted to be sure and get it finished. now i have to finish up a few customer quilts so i can go back to the Duck at the end of the month and have more ceiling demolition fun.

Later

April #10 UFO .. Winter Games

The UFO for April was a doozy....i only had a couple of blocks pieced and i had to read the whole thing again to figure out where i was and what i was doing. but it is now finished. it is called Winter Games.

I quilted the devil out of it....gave up counting bobbins after 30. i used 5 different colors of Glide thread. most of it matches pretty well and the quilting doesn't show a lot. i'm never sure if that is a good or a bad thing.

I was trying to quilt something different....sort of expand my horizons. LOL

But i had to go with the usual CC in the black and white checkerboard blocks.

The setting triangles look a bit complicated but i figured out a path to quilt the whole thing with only 1 stop and start. you have to work from the inside out.....and finish the corners as you come to them. i couldn't decide how wide i wanted the cross hatching.....so there are various sizes. hahahaha

It would have looked better with a wider border but that is absolutely all i had left of that fabric. so....it is what it is.  that is the trouble with old UFOs....you pull fabric out of the project and use it for something else.....or you don't allow enough fabric to finish the job properly. i sincerely hope after i finish all these UFOs that i stop myself from accumulating so many of them in the future.

The back is a wide back of black and white flowers. i figure it matches the black and white blocks on the front.

I used the backing as the binding, too. and i used every inch of that, too. all there was left was selvages and a couple of small strips.

I like this one now that it is done but it took me a while to finish it up.

May's UFO is #2.....another one that i only have 2 blocks pieced.....but it is much simpler than this one. so, off to start on that one so it gets done sooner rather than

Later

Demolition Days at the Duck

There was some serious demolition going on at the Duck the last few days. .... ceilings coming down.

And ..... drum roll, please......the GOOD thing is.....my electricity is now all run and i am wired up. i just need to call the electric company to come back out and put my meter back in and hook me up to the pole. Rick spent days sitting on the milk crate....wiring in all the little boxes. the tedious part of the job.

On Tuesday...while Rick was wiring up....i worked on taking down some ceiling in the dining room. i got just a few feet of slats down. tough, nasty, dirty work.

On Wednesday i worked on the living room ceiling. pulling down slats again and insulation. i just got a corner of it done. i was up on the ladder and found piles of insulation up in that corner that was just left up there. about 6 long strips. i guess when they were finished with the job they just left the excess piled up there.

I saw the teenage boy that lives next door - Amos-  and asked him if he wanted to work....and he agreed. this ceiling demolition is for the young...LOL.  so, he came over after school on Thursday and within an hour....had the ceiling in the back room down. give a boy a hammer and he has fun. LOL

Then he moved to the office and got that ceiling down, too. i just need to go up and clean up the edges a bit and take out the nails.

Here is my office ceiling...all on the floor. it takes a lot of bags to pick up all that crap.

Then his mom, Tammy, came over...i guess to check on Amos and make sure i wasn't treating him bad. hahahaha    she said she wasn't doing anything and she could help, too. so i gave her a hammer and she took out the rest of the living room ceiling that i started. she is little but she is fearless and tough.

Here's my living room ceiling....on the floor.

Tammy said she was off work Friday and would come out and help me some more. gee....i like neighbors willing to help you work. so, Friday she took out the dining room ceiling....and then cleaned off all the nails from the rafters in two rooms. it was a long, dirty 6 hour day for her.

She helped me bag up all the insulation and plaster and cart it out to the garage. there are about 60 bags there....awaiting the next dumpster.

And i have learned to bundle the slats up instead of just throwing them in a pile. it is much easer to get them into the dumpster when it is time. so i bundled up all these slats and piled them neatly in a corner of the garage.

On Saturday i took a break for the morning and my sis and i went to the Salvation Army thrift store to see if there was anything interesting there. i scored this tv cabinet for $50. it is in great shape.

I am going to replace that back with another piece of wood without holes in it. there won't be a tv in here....probably quilts or something. 

All in all....it was a great few days of demolition. i'll be down again this weekend for more fun. i have 2 more ceilings to take down...the bedroom and the kitchen. then i believe the major demolition is completed and i can start rebuilding and prettying up. new insulation...drywall....lights...ceiling fans.....fun stuff.

Although i do need some pipes for plumbing, too. i belive that should be next.

So much to do...so little money. hahahahaha      but it will all get done...sooner or

Later