Yet another Stellar Constellation

Here is one more of the quilt that we did in class last year. i just got this one so it got a slightly different treatment than the others did.

If you look at the first border....the pieces look like bandaids to me. LOL   for some reason she did not finish 4 of them in the corners. but i went ahead and quilted a 'ghost' section in those to make them all the same. otherwise it was throwing off my quilting mojo.

i hope she likes it. this is the second quilt i have done for this lady but have never met her. i speak with her on the phone. she sends the quilt to me through someone else and sends the check to me through someone else, also. strange...but hey...works for me.

Here are a few closeups

and the back

That's it for now. i'll try to do better....really.   gotta go play for a while.
later

The days of castles and knights and dragons

Remember when i did the paper piecing of the blocks for the castle quilt? there was a dragon, unicorn, wizard, princess, knight, griffin, spinx and more. well, i finally got that quilt top quilted. i think it turned out really cute. i believe it will go on ebay for sale soon. hopefully some kid will like it for christmas. here's how it turned out.

Here are some closeups of the individual blocks.

I don't know why my camera reads the fabrics as different colors. the backgrounds are all purple...like shown in the wizard picture.

Here is a picture of the back.

The border has a dragon panto on it. parts of it got cut off but you can see the dragons if you look closely.

i enjoyed this quilt.

Where does the time go?

It seems i have been AWOL for a couple weeks again. i swear it was just a couple days since i talked to you. i just don't know where the time goes.

I've been busy both at the house and at the studio. we have a huge black walnut tree way out in the far pasture. it is really not far from the house...as the crow flies....but as fencing goes...well, it's a little drive around to it. i've been going out there and picking up the black walnuts. i went out the first time and picked 7  5-gallon buckets of nuts. and i mowed the grass so i could find them better. then i went back a few days later and got 8 more 5-gallon buckets. there are still probably 2 or 3 buckets left but not sure i will make the effort to go after them. i have a whole lot to shell and crack the way it is.

And it is work to get those yummy nuts. when we first moved out here, i spent days and days with a hammer and a concrete block. and some aspirin for a sore shoulder. now we have an old fashioned corn sheller. put the walnuts in there...turn the crank, husks fall out the back and nuts fall out the front. very much easier than that hammer. but still a need for a few aspirin.

After that part, we dump them about a bucketful at a time in an old wringer washer out in the barn. agitate them for a few minutes and then pull them out and lay them on the barn floor to dry. it washes them off really nicely.  then spend winter evenings at the kitchen table with the walnut cracker to fill the tupperware containers for the freezer. i used the last of the batch i had so if we want black walnut cookies, bread and cake....it's aspirin time. LOL

And we are still wrestling with the huge trunks of the last tree we had taken down. all the wood sheds are full but we still need to get them cut up and off the lawn so it can be mowed. we probably have enough wood for 2 or 3 winters.

And the apples. i picked all the apples off the trees. didn't count them this year...it would have been too discouraging. let's just say there were LOTS. canned lots of apples for pies...made numerous apple pies...made some apple tarts....and still have a large bowl of apples left. if we still had cows....they would be getting those last apples.

Did a few things on my to-do list. still have to do a bit of caulking and painting before the snow flies. finishing the tile floor in my studio bathroom has been on the to-do list for about 4 years now. it is so sad. i am giving consideration to just pulling up the tiles and painting the floor. it's got to be simpler than cutting those last tiles and putting them down and grouting. after all....if i haven't gotten it finished in 4 years...when will i?

I have been quilting up my UFOs...i only have 5 or 6 left in my closet. and i am starting on them next week. i have given the customers notice....come back in March. till then...it is ME time once again. i find i just have to do it that way....i get too guilty to do mine when customer quilts are here waiting.

I'm still working on busting my fabric stash....and thread stash. you know...thread goes bad after a few years. if you have a spool that is breaking a lot....it may just be old. you could try putting it in the freezer overnight....if that doesn't help....you might just need to toss it. another thread tidbit i figured out the other day. i was embroidering some small designs....6 of them....the first one looked much different in color than the others. i finally figured out that the thread must have faded. my thread sits out in the open...hanging on a wall. but not in direct sunlight. but i am guessing just light in general fades it out. so, along with no buying of fabric...it's no buying of thread either until this place gets under control.

I filled my truck up twice and took it all to the thrift stores. cleaning out the studio....stuff from craft sales that didn't sell. .... older fabric....beads....yarn.....patterns....books. sheesh i'm a packrat. i don't want you to see me on Hoarders. LOL

OK, let me go get some photos and show you a couple quilts that were done lately.

Atomic Bloom

Never mind that i have about 50 projects already started....i started yet another one.

I bought this magazine...Australian Quilters Companion #43....just for this pattern. it's called Atomic Bloom. you cut 64 wedges....it goes together sort of like a fan....and cut about a gazillion 1 1/2" strips....and a bazillion 1" strips....and only about a million 2 1/2" strips. and there are many triangles and many, many squares. but it is soooo cool. and throw in a bit of applique leaves and circles.

I'll probably still be working on this next year. it calls for polka dot and stripe fabrics. so i called on my quilting buddies for polka dots and they came through with lots and lots of dots. i started the first block.....this will be cut into a square about 16".

Aren't all these dots just yummy?

There are 4 large center squares and floating squares and applique and lots and lots of color.

I'll keep you updated as i go...but it will be slow going.

Pieced Batting

What do you do with your batting pieces that are left over from a quilt project?

If they are large enough i use them for baby quilts or wall hangings.

But then, you still have pieces that are too large to throw away but not large enough for another quilt....but i keep them just the same. by now, i have a large laundry basket full of pieces. 

I used  to stitch them together to use in donation quilts or in my own quilts. but i didn't like the bumpy seams. yesterday i had a brain storm and figured out a way that is quick, easy and quilting friendly.

I used my embellisher machine.

I just trimmed the pieces so the edges were even, made sure the same sides were up, placed one about 1/4" over the other...and ran it through the embellisher. Voila!!

Then i flipped it over and ran over the other side.

The seam comes out as flat as the batting...no bumps. and you can tug on it and it won't come apart. don't know why it took me so long to figure this out.

It probably wouldn't work on 'puffier' batting but the thinner warm and natural works great. i just quilted a baby quilt with 7 batting pieces in it.....i dare you to find a seam. you can't.

It's apple time

Every time i go out to mow the garden/orchard area, i check the apple trees. for the last couple weeks there have been apples on the ground so i have been gathering them up and making pies. dh sure does like apple pies....every time he says it is the best one he has ever eaten. LOL  my sister says when i look at the apple trees...i see..picking, peeling, coreing, canning, etc. when dh looks at the apple trees....he just sees apple pies. i think she is right.

The creatures don't seem to care about the fuji apples...but that is good because those are my favorites. but they sure do like the granny smiths. more and more of them were getting eaten or chewed on, so i picked the grannies the other day. i had 2 five gallon buckets full. i left the bad ones on the trees for the creatures.

This is what i have so far. 6 future apple pies.

And i still have this many left to process...that is a HUGE bowl. should be enough for 6 or 8 more pies.

And a few fujis that i have picked up the last few days. a few of these have been eaten.

Tomorrow i probably need to process the rest of the grannies.  i looked out at the orchard when i came to the studio this morning to check on the main fuji tree. it has lots of apples and is hanging on the ground. also had a big surprise in the orchard.

Little stinky there has been hanging around the last several days. i don't know where he came from but i sure wish he would leave. our dog barked at him today and there was a little bit of a 'stay away from me spray'. ... thankfully that didn't get on the dog.  i was under the impression the skunks came out to forage during the night and slept during the day. it makes me wonder if this one is sick or rabid or something. so we have the guns loaded and are waiting to catch it and do away with it. i just can't have a stinky doggie.

Another little project that i accomplished was to finally paint the inside of the bathroom window. it is a lovely maroonish red. i am liking it. my next painting project is the roll out windows in the reading room....i put on the primer this morning.

I cleaned out the last of my stuff from the studio basement. holiday decorations; craft items; stuff that just accumulated down there. i filled the back of my pickup and conned my dh to go to the thrift store with me to drop it off. of course, i had to feed him mexican food along the way...but he will do almost anything for food. LOL

And it is raining here again today so no logs will be sawed and split.

I guess i will go up to the house and work on one of my many projects there. i have to start block #6 of the Tokyo Subway Map quilt.

AND...Survivor's new season starts tonight....yipee!!

Talk to ya later.

El Destructo Strikes Again!

Just when i think there is no more destruction to be had....my sister finds me another tear-down job. i had sometime previously torn out the drop ceiling in her kitchen at the beast. now she decided that she needed the boards down also that held that drop ceiling up. the problem was as i was taking off the boards, plaster ceiling parts were falling off also. i think the plaster was just held up by those little boards. and the ceiling had gotten wet a lot so it was not good. so i took down the boards and about half of the plaster ceiling.

 

Yeah, we took down that ceiling fan, too. there were 2 holes cut in the ceiling slats...one of them had pipes from the kitchen upstairs. i guess that is where the leak was years ago. but it is now all down and nothing will fall on your head. just another job for the to-do list....replaster kitchen ceiling.

We wound up with plaster dust all over the house and our plaster dust footprints, too. we carted out 9 milk crates full of plaster pieces for the dumpster. and then had to sweep and mop the floors.

While i was at the beast for a couple days, i also took out the paneling in a bedroom closet. naturally there was painted wallpaper under the paneling. and roamed around the upstairs rooms, taking nails out of walls and old curtain hooks off windows and the like.

We also had a few stumps to deal with. we pulled one out with the truck and i took a chain saw to two more. there is one huge stump that is about 4 foot tall that i started to tackle but my chain came off the saw and was making strange noises. when i brought it home, dear hubby had to order another part to fix it...some hub thing. i don't know. i only know how to USE it...not fix it. LOL

And we ate lunch at the cutest little BBQ place called Chubby's. it was just a little shed set on a parking lot with 3 small booths inside. but it smelled delicious. their baby back ribs were wonderful...very meaty. my sister had a pulled pork sandwich and she said it was good....it had meat falling out the sides. they had lots of people coming in as we ate, too. they told us they had moved from another location in town and i'm glad we found them. we'll go there again one day.

The next excursion into the big city comes in October when my niece arrives in town from Savannah, GA.  we will check out the Octoberfest and have some beer and bratwurst and take her out to the beast so she can see our progress. we also have a trip to the zoo planned and some thrift store adventures.

So i better get busy with customer quilts so i will have some traveling money.