Posts Tagged ‘quilting’

Seasonal Palette Almost Finished

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

I finished the quilting last week on the Seasonal piece; it took so long because it’s big  (32 X 78″ finished, so I was working at about 35 X 83″) and I put in a lot of quilting. but also because I used so many different threads, so I was constantly changing and burying ends.

I blocked and trimmed it for the binding over the weekend. Trimming was tricky, as it is so long, and the size requirements are precise! Measure twice and cut once didn’t even feel safe, I measured at least four times. I was up in the air about the finishing – facing or binding? Decided on binding a little larger than usual at 3/8″. That was sewed on yesterday and since when I do the binding I always incorporate the sleeve and documentation into the binding seam, I had to come up with a name for the tag. Settled on “December Dawn”, it’s short and to the point. Now all I have left to do is the hand sewing on the back of the binding, sides and bottom edges of the sleeve and two edges of the documentation tag, and it will be DONE!!.

Quilting The Elk

Friday, August 19th, 2011

Progress is slow as I am quilting very densely. Yesterday I got quite a bit done on the lower portion, put it up on the design wall at the end of the day and noticed the dark strip by the nose. Well, I did notice it before, but it is starting to bother me now.

Of course now, it is quilted in. I know once something bothers me it doesn’t go away, it just gets worse, so I will probably fix it.

Longhorn

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

Rose, I thought I did mention when “Longhorn Splashdown” was accepted to go to Lancaster, but I just clicked on it in the sidebar and that didn’t come up, so if I did, I didn’t tag it. So, anyway, it IS going and you can look for it there!
Two entries so far this year, and two acceptances!

That link did take me back to the beginning of the tile job though – little did I know at the time how that would drag on! So far the grout has been removed from the kitchen, dining room and a little bit of the living room. Very slow progress I think, and living out of the studio is getting old, not to mention grout dust everywhere!!.

I did a few more sections of quilting on the fire landscape yesterday and only the foreground and the sky remains. As usual I am putting too much quilting on it, so it takes forever. I took some time off to start the drawing for a new piece Saturday.

Snow, Spam And How I Spent My Week

Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

More snow, more coming; enough already. I know it could be worse, but this is bad enough!

I’ve managed to get a little quilting done this past week, but I am just not really into it right now. The parts with no pins is done but you can’t see the stitching very well.

The 2000 piece puzzle is maybe three quarters done, and has been a focus along with getting the books caught up to file sales tax, and some knitting. I have not been outside to walk and get some fresh air and it makes me unmotivated!

This week I have had an inordinate amount of spam on this blog, which is VERY time consuming. Some to enlarge parts I don’t even have, etc, that are easy to spot and delete, but mostly posts that are phishing for something. They will be full of compliments that are so ambiguous they could just as easily apply to golfing as quilting. I have spent hours this week dealing with this and I don’t “get” it. If you have sent me a legitimate post that did not get approved please be more focused, I don’t want to ignore YOU!.

Snowbound

Friday, December 11th, 2009

It’s hard to tell how much snow we got because of the drifting, but probably only about 4″ I’m guessing. It’s lovely with it’s long blue shadows and diamond sparkles where the sun shines, but it is COLD! I thought about bundling up and going out to take pictures, but staying inside where it is warm won out.

Actually, I have not been out the door since Sunday afternoon when I attended the Topeka Civic Theater’s Christmas show “It’s A Wonderful Life- The Musical”. I was pleasantly surprised, it was better than I expected, better than the movie, but too long!

It’s great quilting weather and since my sewing machine seems to have recovered from the bad thread incident I have made good progress, though I am far from done!
springburning2

My life this past week has not been very exciting, but this afternoon I will venture forth to do my volunteer hours at the Topeka Art Guild Gallery. It will be good to get out…..

Michael Jackson

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Well, I never expected to see THAT title here!!

A friend and I try to go to the movies every week if there is anything worth seeing. I never was a Michael Jackson fan, but this week she wanted to see the new MJ documentary so Monday we went to see it. I really enjoyed it! The man could move, and I spent most of the movie looking at his feet. He was a perfectionist and could be quite demanding.

Yesterday I got quite a lot done with the quilting and should be able to finish today if I don’t end up outside again!

Quilting And Gardening

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

Looking back over recent entries it is very apparent that gardening and quilting dominate my life and provide inspiration, one for the other.

This has been a week predominately given over to gardening.

MtFugiandlilies

The Mt Fugi phlox get better every year. I have never seen mildew on these!

This walk was so overgrown it seemed to be only one stone wide! Now it’s back to normal for awhile.

ChasteTree

The Chaste Tree is in full bloom right now and that is my studio behind it.

After the marathon cleanup early in the week, Thursday I went to town to buy three Plumbago plants to fill the empty space between the Chaste Tree and the walk and ended up buying a whole flat of mixed perennials – 18 plants – all needing a space in which to live.

Some were able to squeeze into the shade garden – Bergenias, Astilbes, Foxgloves and something else who’s name escapes me right now. I had to move a Hosta that really wasn’t happy in the deep shade anyway to fit them all in. Unfortunately, in the process I dug up one of the Yellow Crown Imperials and might have damaged another.  I replanted the one and HOPE I got it right side up. Very hard to tell. A new low Campanela edger went in where it would get part sun.

The FIVE Plumbagos went into two places to see where they would do best. The sunny border got some Russian Sage, and Penstemon- which required that I dig it about 4 feet longer than it already was.

Yesterday we spent a good part of the day attending the once a year Open House at the K-State Research and Extension Horticulture Center. I was hoping to learn more about Raspberries and Blackberries but they didn’t have a lot to show. Nothing as nice as the Raspberry that I already have but don’t know the name of! I did find some nice thornless Blackberries though!

There was extensive test trials on Annuals with a tour that was very interesting and a nice selection of Hostas but no Perennials other than Daylilies and Iris. There was a lot of veggy stuff and a trial garden of many different varieties of Sunflowers ranging from 12″ to 8′ tall. The thing about test gardens- they are not so pretty. The stuff is planted and watered enough to get started then left to it’s own devices to thrive or not. This has been an especially wet year for us that is good for some, not so much for others.

We attended a few of the seminars that were offered and I think I did learn quite a bit. The morning was cool and rainy but the afternoon sun made it uncomfortably humid.

I’ve fitted in a little quilting but the new Coneflowers piece is not yet finished.

Today I will take two pieces, “Lady Godiva” and “Myth In The Mist” to the Topeka Art Guild Gallery for the next exhibit, and collect the ones that they have now. It’s been a busy week!

Spring

Monday, April 20th, 2009

Spring is good, but I think I like Fall better. Fall doesn’t have Spring Cleaning. We had the perfect day for washing windows, overcast, cool but warm enough to have windows open and even to be outside cleaning, so I did the four windows in the studio. Of course it is not just the glass……you have to take down and wash the curtains as well, and the venetian blinds too, which may be even worse than the windows! But it is done and that feels good. The whole room seems brighter! Now I need to do the rest of the house!

i did try to take some flower pictures today on my walk, but it is so windy they are all blurry. It looks like it has snowed under the crab apple trees there are so may petals on the ground.

I have about half of the bluebird quilted and it is looking good.
bbirdquilting

I want to get back to it, but I really need to get the books caught up and get the sales tax sent in as the deadline is fast approaching. The business side of things takes so much time away from the fun side of things…..

Hot,Hot, Hot

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

We are sweltering here in Kansas; for the last few days temperatures have reached 98-100 with heat indexes around 105! Yesterday afternoon with a possibility of rain the temps dropped the breeze came up, and it was quite lovely outside. I watered a few plants that were looking stressed, plants that have been only recently planted, and a good thing, too! The rain never came. I sat on the deck and noticed that the first blue blooms of the Chaste Tree are out. I love blue flowers. The blue Balloon Flowers are in full bloom now and my Clematis Rogoochii (sp?) which was blooming it’s little head off the day before was stripped to it’s skeleton by some insidious creature. I hope it can recover!

Mostly I stayed inside and quilted, and the poppy quilt is nearly done!