This one is a basic chain piecing demo with some pressing information (which I learned the hard way!)
Quilt Confession …
I have to confess ….. I buy quilt blocks and quilt tops on ebay. There. It’s out.
Sarah recently gave me back of pile of blocks that I had dumped on her, after deciding I’d never do anything with them. Does that make them double UFO’s? RUFO’s – Returned Un-Finished Object? WIHIMMBGTSE – Works I Had In My Mind But Gave To Someone Else? 🙂 I could go on forever…
So, back to the drawing board – and glad I am!! Guess what – I needed them back! I want to make a video of using regular quilt blocks, done with our quilt as you go technique, and I was actually looking for more blocks to buy on ebay!! She just saved me money! (Don’t tell her, she’ll want a cut of it!)
Check back soon for how to finish your UFO quilt blocks using quilt as you go, with videos and all, so go find those blocks, and we’ll get them quilted together!
(Okay, DON’T tell Sarah, but I just bid on some more blocks on ebay! Ssshhhhhhhhhhh!)
Bunny Update
My friend Ferne reminded me that I haven’t posted about the bunnies lately – thanks for the reminder Ferne!
We have more bunnies. Our neighbors called a few weeks ago and said that they were rescuing some baby bunnies that had been separated from their mother by someone who traps the rabbits and takes them far away and releases them. This jerk (I wrote dumbshit but took it out) took a female rabbit 10 miles away and a few days later found out that there was a litter. She just figured on letting them die.
My neighbor Jean decided otherwise.
Jena called Tom and I to ask what the baby bunnies needed to survive. We gave her some supplies, lots of advice and offered to help. Jean kept them for about 5 weeks and then ran out of room and time (travel away from home) so we took them in. Tom build a pen in the back yard, away from the roof construction, gave them an old truck canopy to hide under, and they have been in bunny heaven ever since! Bunnies LOVE dandilions and rasberry leaves and they have been pigging out on that plus pellet food, frolicking and playing, hiding and sleeping.
Jean still visits them and brings them treats 🙂 There are three white ones and one tan one.
And, such a happy ending, I recently bumped into my two favorite tan bunnies on 4th Avenue as I walked to work – it was such a treat to see them again because I had not seen them for 3 weeks and I was afraid that they’d been trapped or killed AND last night my favorite black bunny (he’s very old and not healthy) stopped by for some carrots and pellets! What a great day.
Oh, and the roof is DONE!
Mystery Donor
You angel! Thank you for your donation to Charity:water!
I am working on 3 projects that I want to use to both provide new products to quilters AND to generate revenue to causes that I believe in: water and micro-loans.
I have been investigating Kiva.org and I love what they are doing, however I would also like to participate in either a women-only micro-loan program or a United States based micro-loan program. I intend to tie my future quilting endeavors to those programs, but I want to chose several projects to invest in.
Do you have suggestions on which ones you prefer or recommend? I would love to learn more and value anything anyone has to say!
New Roof for the House!
Ever have a project that you’ve known you had to do but dreaded, for years? Today’s the day for the house and for Tom. He’s postponed, drafted re-designs, fixed leaks, patched bad areas and finally, today, the roof is coming off and new one going on.
He’s been gathering materials for months, cutting wood, ordering tin and other materials, organizing tools and agonizing over the re-design. There’s a design flaw which lead to a lot of leaks and frustration for many years and today it is going away!
He’s got his brother, friend Jeff and Jeff’s helper, and all four have been pounding, banging, ripping and destroying the roof for a couple of hours now. I’ll take pics as I can, but mostly I am staying outta the way!
Here’s the progress at noon the next day. Some of the new trusses are in place and it’s scorching hot outside! They guys are still hard at work 🙂
At the end of day four, the new roof is on and secure, the entire roof is sealed against the weather and all but 5 sheets of metal are in place!
Our Art Quilt Project
Hehehehe. A baby and a bucket of fabric scraps. I’ll be picking them up for the next month! What was I thinking!?
Well, let’s just say I was rushing things a bit. The technique worked well but the materials I chose didn’t (not their fault, mine) and the child doesn’t quite have the attention span yet for a project this size. I’ll try again, but smaller next time 🙂
We played outside for a while but after I took her home we both came down with colds 🙁 Oh well. We are on the mend! As I was leaving Audrey at home with her parents I was cooerced into taking one of Sarah’s quilts. I have no idea why she wants ME to quilt this – she’s quilted several in the past few months and done just fine. Another “oh, well”.
I hope to quilt this (and a few more) and make videos as I quilt them. I love machine quilting art quilts (maybe that’s why she gave it to me to quilt?) and I now have the space to both quilt and take video, so these few that are waiting will be the test.
The red flowers are texured heavily, they are a product of Bella Nonna and Sarah just loves them. She has made several of their quilts. In fact, if you like it I think you should stop by Sarah’s Blog and tell her to make a video of her making one! Doesn’t that sound like fun?!?
Audrey’s Corner
I just finished carrying what I hope is the last bit of extra special quilting necessities (translates to years of accumulated quilting stuff) upstairs to the new studio.
Audrey is coming this weekend and her corner of the studio is all ready for her. The high shelves (put up last night) hold most of my sorted scraps (there’s a huge bucket of unsorted too) and the grey metal shelves hold books and magazines I use in teaching. Plus Audrey’s stuff.
The piece of board with the huge clips has a bit of batting and white fabric that Audrey is coloring and sticking bits of fabric to. I bought a new product this week and I hope to try it out with her this weekend. We are going to try our hands at art quilting! I’ll try and turn the video camera on but no guarantees – she likes to get behind it 🙂 {Grandma thinks she’s a future producer!! Yay!} LOL
Check back Tuesday for the recap and please have a safe Memorial Day Weekend.
What a Great Day!
Tom and I drove to Homer today (and back) about a 340 mile trip, to get things for the boat. Fishing season is almost here and he has been working on the boat daily. On the way there I saw the most beautiful drake in a pond, several moose, many eagles, a few run down cabins I’ve never seen before (we are between snow and leaves, where you can see far into the woods alongside the road). In Homer we cruised the boatyard (always fun!) and found Chris Perry, skipper of the F/V Lucky Star, a 42′ Ledford that is amost a mirror image of Tom’s F/V Dolly B. We chatted with Chris for a while. He was in the boatyard mending his seine.
Then it was off to Katchemak Gear Shed where we spend about 2 1/2 hours rounding up the things he needed. We had an excellent helper from the shop at every step or else it would have taken 7 hours!
On the way back I saw 3 moose together, which I’ve never seen before (lived here 31 years!) AND a black bear – – all along the side of the road! Okay, here’s where I apologize but Tom was driving 55-60, with traffic going both directions on the narrow two lane highway. There was no way I could get pics of *any* of it 🙁 I sure wish I could have. The Kittiwakes are back and the Canadian Geese, but I haven’t seen a swan yet. There’s been a bad fire in the Homer area and as we were leaving Homer, it poured rain. Hallelujah!
We talked about our bucket lists and both figured that we each have 1 goal and then 1 desire, and they are not all that dissimilar. Mine is to get a novel (or three) published and his is to build up his retirement fund, which took a few unexpected hits. After that we both agree that we want to travel. A lot. S l o w l y 🙂
Did you have a great day today too? And what’s on your bucket list? We both agree that we have no “mountains to climb” but he wouldn’t stop asking me if I’d like to ride a bike across the country. How many times do I have to say NO WAY! LOL 🙂
Happiest Mother’s Day to Everyone :)
On a long drive home from Anchorage yesterday Tom and I had an interesting conversation. I will admit that being fifty has changed my perspective a bit. We talked about our “bucket list” and I challenged him to make a list (I will too) and we will compare them next weekend. That should be an interesting conversation! I’ll keep you posted 🙂
This morning we had a quiet breakfast and then he went to bring flowers from the garden to his mom and I went and cleaned off his grandmother’s grave.
I love graveyards, I always have. I like quiet. There’s not much quieter than a graveyard. It takes me about an hour to clean her grave and it is contemplation time that I enjoy. Although I live almost every moment being grateful for what I have, right now, and making the very best of it, I become extra grateful when I clean off her grave once or twice a year.
It’s a very nice grave, with a marble headstone and full white pebble rock covering (this is what takes so long to clean). I hope she accomplished all the things in life she wished, and was happy with what she’d made of her life and the impression she’s left on people. I never met her but I hear great things about her from Tom because she lived with their family as Tom was growing up.
What’s New?
I am writing again!! Ohhhh, I almost forgot how much I love it! 8 pages into a little project and I am on cloud nine 🙂
What are you up to? I am going blog surfing to find out but you can tell me here too if you want!
