Finished quilt

Here's the next quilt finished.  This is my SILs fair entry.  She's a beginner.

I did a leafy feather design on the blocks.

A flower and leaf vine on the sashing and corner stones.

I did a version of the same on the outside border.  I really like this design on sashing and cornerstones.  I think it gives any quilt a bit of elegance even though the flowers are whimsical.

Here's a view of the quilting from the back.  I used a grey thread instead of either red or black.  Red would not show up well on the front and black seemed way to dark for the lighter areas.  Grey worked out really nice for both sides.

Here's the stitching on the outside border.

Here's a view of the sashing and cornerstones from the back.

I spent a day .... ummm.... three days cutting up bunches and bunches of t-shirt scraps.  (left overs from making t-shirt quilts)  I want to make some rag rugs as Christmas gifts this year.  I decided it would be easiest if I had all the strips cut and ready to use. 

I've also been working on making changes to my hints blog.  I want to add more links to the pages.  This required me to look through lots of blog posts, read the content, and make notes. I have over a thousand posts to read through.  I've gotten through about 2 hundred so far.  It's a good thing I don't have a deadline on doing that.  I'd have to throw up my hands and surrender. 

And.... if that wasn't enough busy work for me to do..... I also had to deal with meat eating ants.  Scheese!

Those guys are so tiny I had to use the zoom lense on the camera to take a photo.  They are about the size of  the eye on machine needles. 

Before I can cook anything I have to clean them all up.  Then, often before I get my meals cooked, the little guys are back again looking for any greese popping onto the stove or any run away bits of meat.  Those guys are strange creatures.  They won't touch anything sweet but can be seen making a rush toward any spot of grease.   I usually sprinkle the stove with ground cloves before I start cooking.  This keeps them away until I've finished.  It makes the stove look dirty but the house smells fantastic! 

Another finished

This quilt is the one I had finished a couple of days ago before the neighborhood drama.  The items on the blocks are to represent each grand child of the owner.  With 4 blocks left blank for future grands.  Because the items were so varied in shape, I decided to do meandering.  Yes, I do use meandering quite a bit.  I like it for versatility.  I could do many different background fillers but meandering requires less mental planning for going around things.  I did the binding by wrapping the backing over the front. 

On the outside border I did a feather and leaf design.  The feathers and leaves flip flop from side to side.  I used monofiliment thread to give the design a bit of shine and at the same time not distract from the grand kid blocks.  I didn't want to use a black thread because the owner didn't want black thread on the back.  I couldn't use one color in the front and one in the back because then there would be a polka dot design on the back.  It's almost impossible to balance the tensions perfectly enough to prevent polka dots.

Here's a look at one of the blocks with a meandering background.

I know it's hard to see the sashing stitching but it's a leaf design.  You may be able to see it better if you click the photo to make it larger.

Here's a look at the sashing design from the back.

Here's a look at the border design from the back too.

Another look at the sashing design.

I feel much better today.  I do get frustrated with my neighborhood at times and really wish I could move away.  Then, after I think about things, I realize that no neighborhood is truly safe from crime.  Heck, I see the news everyday, there is crime everywhere.  Even rural areas have meth labs, pot growing, robberies, and murders.  Burglary happens everywhere.  Thieves break into houses in the country the same as the city.  Thieves target businesses as well as boats on the river.  In all honesty, we are not even safe from crime in our own homes by way of our computers.  Cyber crimes are just as bad as in person crimes.

Crime just seems to be more noticeable in the city because there is more people in the city.  My neighborhood is more concentrated with unemployed individuals so the crime rate is higher.  I guess what I'm saying is that I live here and this has been my home for many years.  I've watched kids grow up and have kids.  I watched those kids grow up and now they have kids too.  Everyone knows me and I know most of them.  If I moved someplace else no one would know me and I'd be sort of alone.  I may get frustrated again and rant on my blog about it but.... here is where I live and here is where I plan to stay until the time when I can't live alone anymore.

Tornado night

I finished this quilt not long before I got the crap scared out of me.  I'll tell you about that in a minute.  This quilt barely fit on the machine.  I get a lot of these. 

I did a leaf and curl design on the outside border and a swag on the inside border.

Circle lord fan on the center pieced area.

I wrapped the backing over the front for the binding.

Ok, about getting the crap scared out of me.  The grass was cut yesterday which made the weeds in my flower box look even worse.  After finishing this quilt I went outside to pull weeds from my front flower box so it would look nicer.  The Morning Glory vines are coming up nicely but were competing for space with the weeds. 

When I finished that chore, I heard the emergency warning sirens start to sound.  What's going on?  The skys are clear with just a bit of clouding.  I'm thinking it must be another factory explosion or something.  I turn on the tv and there was the weather guy saying a tornado is on the ground headed for Shively.....not a potential tornado but actual "on the ground" tornado..... headed right toward my daughter's house.  She lives in Shively.  PANIC!! 

I get on the phone to call my daughter because I know she doesn't have the tv on until later and she can barely hear the sirens.  Answering machine picks up.  Call again.  Answering machine picks up.  Call again.  Answering machine picks up.  I'm really getting frantic when she answers the phone. I tell her to get to the basement..... RIGHT NOW!  She turns off the stove and runs to the basement where Ladybug is already.  It's her play area when Mommie is cooking supper.

I keep my daughter on the phone while I listen to the news.  Then my tv goes blank.  It has the EAS (Emergency Alert System) light on but there is no sound and no words flashing across the screen.  Nothing but blank.  Now what good is an EAS system that doesn't do anything? 

I continue to talk to my daughter who tells me she doesn't hear anything and there's sunshine coming through the basement windows.  For several minutes neither of us know what is going on.  The sirens stop sounding and the tv comes back on.  The weather guy says the tornado is right near the street where my daughter lives and it's on the ground.  Then it starts to grow dark at her house with lots of rain.  After about half an hour of on again, off again, news and blank tv it's finally safe for them to leave the basement.

A few minutes after telling my daughter to get to the basement this is what I got at my house.  She  had the same thing there.  The is right around 7:30 in the evening.  It usually doesn't get fully dark here until about 9:30 at this time of year.

It is not a problem with the camera.  It really was that dark outside.

We had that stuff off and on until about midnight.  My daughter and Ladybug went to bed but I stayed awake to watch weather reports and would call her if she needed to get into the basement again.  Luckily we were ok the rest of the night. 

What I really want to know is why the EAS didn't work on the tv?  I do know the city has had problems with the system for a couple of months.  I'm going to call the city hot line to complain.  Or at least let them know I had problems here. 

Whew!  It scared me to write about it.  I heard we are expecting storms again later today.  With a possibility of the same thing we had yesterday.  You think I should go buy some depends.... just in case? 

Quilt finish

Thank you everyone for letting me know my post was finally visible. 

This quilt is a Thimbleberries kit.  The owner brought me the quilting instructions from the kit; but, after reading them I talked with the owner and explained  it called for large meander over the whole quilt except for the green border. I knew she wouldn't want it that way.  She agreed it needed more.

It has printed applique fabric in the center.  I did stitch in the ditch with mono thread around all the printed applique.

I did a leaf and curl on the triangles.

I did a vine leaf design on the green inside border like what was in the instructions.

I did medium size meander around all the printed applique to make it stand out more.  I did a leaf design on the corner squares.  In the kit instructions the corner squares had only an X quilted on them.

Here's a close up of the center panel.

What made this quilt a little difficult to quilt was the backing.  It's pieced.  Luckily this lady did her backing correctly.  If she hadn't it would have been really hard to keep tucks out of the back.

Here is a look at the stitching from the back.  The straight lines are from the stitch in the ditch around the borders on the front.  The outlining of the faux applique too.

In some areas I used a light color thread and in other areas I used dark thread.  The leaf design on the triangles in the dark area don't show up very well.  Neither does the background meandering or the leaf design on the green border.

Here is the design on one inside border.  A simple leaf vine.

This is the outside border.  I did a feather design because the owner really likes feathers on her quilts.

This was supposed to be the next quilt on the machine.  As you can see, after some stabilizing the problem of a friendly border showed up. 

This is the other side after I did stitch in the ditch.  Same problem on this side.

The beginning of the friendly border actually starts in this area. 

I called the owner because I wanted her to know about the friendly border.  She decided to take it home to fix the problem so I picked out the stitching I had done.  When she arrived to pick it up I gave her some quick lessons on how to avoid friendly borders.  She'll bring it back when she'd done it over.

I've been really busy working in my backyard lately.  When it gets too hot outside, I work indoors.  Done quite a bit of getting rid of things.  My body is telling me almost everyday that I can't do the things I did when I was young.  It's worth all the aches and pains though.  I want a simpler life which means clearing out a lot of the clutter. 

More quilts finished

Over the last few days we have had thunder storms.  My heart goes out to all the people in all the places where the tornadoes have cost them so dearly.  It's one more reminder to me that tomorrow is not promised to anyone.... let people know you love them today. 

I don't do anything involving electricity when there is lightening.  The power has been out a couple of times but not more than an hour or two.  When it was safe to use electric things again, instead of setting at the computer to write a blog post, I've concentrated on finishing some quilting before the next storm system came through.  So here is the first quilt finished.   

I did the Circle Lord fan on the center area.

A pretty flower and leaf design on the outside border.  The owner asked me to just catch the tiny loose border every now and then with some stitching to hold it down.

Here is the outside border from the back.

This is the next one finished.  Just like the other two I quilted a few weeks ago.  Same design, same stitching.

And lastly there is this one finished.  I did simple stitch in the ditch around the pieces just to hold it together as the owner wanted.  

The next quilt is on the machine and I'm half way through the stabilizing.  It will probably take me a few days to finish the quilting because the owner wants lots of stitching. 

Tomorrow is my daughter's last day of college.  She's finally finished.... after 12 years.  It's been a long time for both of us but I'm very proud she stuck with it. 

I've been doing a little more cleaning out of "stuff" so I can get closer to my simpler life.  It's hard to let go of things but I keep my long term goal in mind with each thing I donate to the thrift store.  I'll be writing more on my hints blog as I progress through the steps of getting rid of "stuff".  Once I get my house back to being a house instead of a garage; I will finally have time for what's really important in life.

I need sunshine

The days and days and days of cloudy, gloomy, cold, rainy days are getting to me.  I want to spring clean my house but it seems as if spring just doesn't want to come this year.  Without sunshine to see the sparkle of clean what good is it?  This time of year people should start putting on sunscreen and working outside.  I can't seem to keep myself motivated to do anything and I know it's because I need sunshine!  Come on Mother Nature, wake up and give us some better days.

Well anyway, I do have a quilt finished.  The last one was picked up without any problems.  He actually gave me extra money as a tip because he was very pleased with it.  Here's the next one.   This is the one I quilted as a trade for a printer. 

I don't know if you can see the stitching but I did a star on these blocks.

The star on the plain block is a duplicate of these blocks which are simply stitch in the ditch quilted. 

I did a wavy panto on the border using my Circle Lord template.

The center area is simple outline of the words and the trucks.  Wavy lines on the sashing strips and line dancing on the blue blocks.

Since this quilt is for a child to wag around and play with she didn't want a lot of heavy quilting on it.  I agreed, it didn't need a lot.  Turning it over to let you see the back of the quilt.  The stars I stitched.

The wavy lines on the border.

The line dancing of the blue blocks.

The outline of the trucks.

The next quilt is on the machine.  It is due to be picked up on Friday.  The studio is dark and gloomy because it's raining and cold again today.  Will sunshine ever arrive???