DP Progress & Diamonds

I know it isn't Design Wall Monday but I wanted to share how far I have gotten with my current quilt. I am really liking how my Drunkard's Path blocks are turning out and what I am doing with them.

However, starting on Tuesday there has been no sewing going on. First came a concert. DH got tickets to see The Diamonds in Panama City, FL. Many will not have heard of them but when I was in high school, late 50s, they were a hot rock & roll singing group. And "our song" was Little Darlin'. The audience was about 300 people "of a certain age" who rocked with the music and happily remembered American Bandstand. What fun we had.

And, while we were driving to the concert we got a call from DH's sister saying that she and her husband were in our town, ready to visit. Did we know they were coming? No! So we told them we would be back after midnight and today has been a full day of visiting.

This is George and Cera. They are from NH and came south to find warmer weather. Boy did they pick the wrong winter to make this trip. Anyway, we just came home from dinner with our daughter, son in law, grandson, granddaughter, and great grandson. Lots of stories and laughter.

They will be here for the next two days and then I will have to do a big quilting push in order to have a February finish for OPAM. Wish me luck.

What fool decided… Part 2

If you remember from last time, I couldn’t find the drawing I made of the quilt using the drunkard’s path blocks. Well, I still haven’t found it so I spent Friday night, while watching TV, redrawing it. And guess what. I find that if I do it as I drew it I will be making 178 of those little 3” blocks. 178!!!!! So I am rethinking the design, just a little. Since I only have 46 made I figure I have a while to “rethink.”

Ed: Thought about doing appliqué in place of some of the DP blocks but decided I like my first idea and will just push through. I am kind of getting a rhythm going.

So on the design wall is the beginning of how this quilt center will be laid out. It is going to be pretty busy but I am liking it more and more. Nothing is sewn together because I will be moving both the sampler blocks and the DP blocks around to get the color matches as right as I can. But I can’t do that until all of the DP blocks are done.

Also on the wall are the Bunny Hill blocks that I have completely finished, 6 more to go.

Last time I showed them the appliqué was done but I hadn’t started the hand embroidery. This past week or two I have been taking a little time out to work on that and it has gone pretty well. I can’t remember how to do all the stitches I used to do but I’ve got the stem stitch down pat.

And look what I found.

I thought when I made my last move I had thrown all my embroidery stuff away: I had moved into the realm of machine embroidery. However, I did check in a storage area of the studio and there in a lone plastic bag was all this thread and a cross stitch project I started 15 years ago. Actually, the stitching is done but the young man I was making it for is graduating from high school this year so I don’t think he would appreciate it as much as he might have years ago.

And a little family stuff: This is our granddaughter’s boyfriend’s new car.

It is a customized Honda Civic. Check out those gull wing doors.

and here is Skylar, a man and his car. ;-)

And what did our granddaughter get? Well, meet Heineken. He is a 9 week old Great Pyrenees. Do you think they really know how big he is going to get or how much grooming they will have to do? I know that when we were that young we would never have done such a thing……NOT. I guess that’s what being young is for. Time enough for being practical.

What fool decided……..

to make 3” Drunkard’s Path blocks? Me, that’s who. And how many do I have to make, a little over 100. And all of this because I just had to design my own quilt rather than copy one in the book. Oh, my. The first picture is of the template I bought to make these little blocks. It comes with great instructions and since both parts are in one piece, I was really grateful for them.

This is how my sewing table has looked for the last couple of days. I make four at a time and then put them on the design wall so I can see how it is looking.

This is how many I have completed so far. I think I have that many again to make. For some reason I can’t find the design I drew so I am having to guess until I either find it or draw it again (oh, my).

I did get the outer borders on the DNP comfort quilt so it is ready to quilt whenever the frame is empty.

And I just had to share pictures of my puppy, Abby.

This first one is of her barking furiously at the cat that insists on walking through our back yard, daily. Abby has been so happy since I moved the couch to the window: it affords her such a good view. But when I called to her, several times, this was the look I got:

Can’t you just hear her saying “What?”

The Weekend That Was

Snow (picture heavy)

Friday it snowed ....................










Saturday it started to melt and then froze.

Sunday it’s almost gone.

My wall has not changed since Thursday when I put the teal inner border on. Next week I hope to get the gray outer borders cut and stitched and then begin working on the backing. Check out other design walls at Judy's blog.

I finally got this baby quilt on the frame and Saturday began quilting.

I chose this panto and it is not as easy as it looks, lots of back/over stitching.

I got 3 passes done before the studio started to cool down (sunset) so I quit. I will try to get back to it today.

Close up of the front.

And the back.

Sunday DH took me to Cracker Barrel where we had Sunday Brunch: French toast, eggs, and bacon. Even though I brought half of the French toast home, I was still stuffed. I may need to try the gym again: need to figure out a regular exercise routine.

WE'VE GOT SNOW

Here we are in South Alabama, looking down our driveway and across the road.



This is our rain guage: you can almost make out the tube. I took this picture at 6am. It was kind of snowing, more like slushing. I laughed, thinking that it was going to just be a "show" of snow.

Here the same guage at 7:30am. Don't believe the number on the guage but by this time we had between 2-3" of snow. Remember this is South Alabama.

I took this picture at 2:30pm. The snow is up another 2" and the tube is almost covered. Who would have believed this could happen HERE!

Because we can't plow roads, all of the county roads were closed last night at midnight and remain closed. We live on a highway but there have been few cars go by.

Oh, and it is now 3:00pm, it is still snowing, and for the first time we are getting some wind so snow is also falling off the trees in big clumps.

This has been a very interesting day. We have watched old TV shows (DVD) and I have been working on the embroidery part of the Bunny Hill Basked blocks I made last year. I haven't hand embroidered for over 30 years so it has been kind of a relearning experience for me. But it has been fun. More pictures next time ..... I have to keep up with the folks up in the northeast. ;-)

I guess the South decided it didn’t want to be left out in the Winter Storms of the Century so this is what we are looking at.

Our DD called and asked if I would like to go to the store with her and it was just like I remember from a 32” snowstorm we had in Chicago: lots and lots of people buying groceries like they would not be able to get to a store for at least a week. It was really funny. We are told we may get up to 4” which will close down most everything since we are not prepared either to clear the streets or to drive on them.

The sane part of my day was spent putting together the DNP blocks I finished earlier in the week.

I also put a 1” inner border on: the blue stripe came from stash. Next I plan a 4-5” gray border and it will then be ready for quilting.

Earlier this week I also got my last block done for the Eleanor Burns BOM. This picture was taken prior to piecing the pieces.

This was fun: I made it a paper pieced block. I enjoyed making this one and may have to use it more in a quilt of it’s own. I also found templates for 3” drunkard’s path blocks I want to use for this quilt so I will start cutting fabric for them.

So, as I post this the weatherman is almost hyperventilating as he shows the snow coming. All schools and government offices are going to be closed. This is a really big deal here: 4".

Have a happy Valentine's Day and be sure to hug someone, it feels good.

Super Bowl Weekend

I got a call from DS#3 Saturday morning. He lives in MD (metro DC) and was buried in snow.

He offered for me to come up to visit (not likely) and sent a picture of his car.

He did say that the dog, granddog Ponce, was loving it, but they were not as happy since the power went off during the night. When we got off the phone I went online to see the radar and it looked like not only were they in for a lot more storm but that the storm was not moving very fast, if at all.

This morning, however, he wrote on Facebook that the temp in the house was down to 45F and without power they were going to miss the Super Bowl so they were off to the in-laws. See, I didn’t raise a complete dummy!

Design Wall:

While we were not enjoying snow here in the South I was sewing on my DNP blocks for my comfort quilt. These were my trial blocks. Notice anything wrong?

Well, it seems that 5.5” squares can’t be cut in half at 3”. Did I ever mention that I never took geometry? Anyway, I cut both of the trial blocks the same way so I seem to be a slow learner.

But I did learn and am cutting the real blocks right. I have 6 of the 12 blocks cut so I should have this top done sometime this week.

Check out Judy’s blog for other design wall projects.

Sunday I was going to work on two BOMs but instead I decided to visit a quilt shop that was having a Super Bowl sale. I walked through the store twice, going in the opposite direction each time, and look what I found on my second trip through.

Aren’t these luscious? I could almost see a quilt just looking at the yardage. And I do see polka dots in my future: no gift quilt here!

A Little Of Nothing

All day we have been expecting rain.

There is a big rain storm coming up from New Orleans and I expected it to dump on us but it has circled around us, so far. This is a good thing since our ground is still soaked from the storms we have had the last few weeks. Anyway, it has been a good day to sit and sew.

There are weeks when one works a lot but there is little to show for it and this has been one of those weeks. In order to get this baby quilt on the frame I had to sew fabrics together to make a backing and then sew pieces of batting together in order to have a full piece. Then I learned to do something I have never done. I learned how to set my serger up to do a chain stitch and stitched the backing onto the leaders. Even counting the time it took me to figure out how to change from overlock to chain on the serger, it still was quicker than pinning. I am so proud of myself.

I also decided what fabrics I would use for my next comfort quilt. It will more subdued in the middle and geared more to boys. I am doing another DNP but I can’t decide which way to make the blocks .

I will be cutting them down the center so should I cut plain squares or the stripes? I think if I cut the stripes I will turn them sidewise.

Design Wall Monday

Two finishes in January has allowed me to begin new and old projects.

On the center of the design wall is a new project. The strips will be the beginning of a bright quilt based on Judy’s Peaches & Dreams pattern. I am making some changes in the pattern to accommodate the 2.5” strips I have in my stash.

To the right of the strips is my feathered star. It has been in the same place on the wall for 18 months so I am including it to see if I can get it moving.

To the left of the strips is the UFO I will be completing.

The center square is the prototype block that will be the alternate block between the Christmas Swap blocks I have had sitting around for about a year. I had another plan for the blocks but I just couldn’t get excited about it. Then this week I was putting away the blue fabric that had been used as a backing for Flight School and I had this idea. I think this is going to go well and when the blocks are all together I will begin looking for border fabric.

That’s one new project and two UFOs. In addition I will be working on my Eleanor Burns Sampler Quilt (sashing blocks and appliqué) and 2 other new quilts that I have only begun to think about. Funny thing, in January I was having difficulty getting excited about any new projects but one completion and I seem to be off and running.

And one other reason I have been recently inspired is that I won a giveaway at Morning Glory Designs.

Reese send me these three fat quarters and aren’t they lovely? I am keeping them out on a table for now to see if they want to play with anything I already have.

Be sure to drop by Judy’s blog to see what others are working on. Just make sure you have some time as there will be a lot of eye candy to look at.