Quilts….etc.

I have been very busy lately and haven’t really had anything to write about for awhile.  I have been busy with my quilting.  The most recent news is that we have traded in our large 5th wheel camper and bought a new small motor home.  It is a Navion IQ by Itasica - here is a link, if you go to it you can see some photo’s of it  http://www.winnebagoind.com/products/itasca/navion-iq/index.php  our model is the 24CL, it had more storage than the other one and we didn’t need the bench seat that turned into an extra bed - also it looked uncomfortable!  Now to find space for all that is needed on a regular basis, dishes, pot’s, towels, the list goes on and on.  I am finding though that there is plenty of storage space and even though it is smaller we actually had too much stuff in the 5th that we didn’t need and didn’t use but had “just in case”.  This unit has no slides and is sometimes referred to as “skinny winnie” :)  it will take a little time to get use to but I think we can manage just fine.

I will not really have room for tons of quilting supplies but the neat thing about mainly hand piecing and applique and hand quilting is that you don’t need a lot of supplies to turn out quilts.  I will have my hand work — Dear Jane and Dutch Treat and my smaller quilting hoop with whatever small quilt I am quilting and that should be plenty - tuck in a small bag of supplies and I will be ready.  I might actually be able to finish this second DJ in less time than the first one!

We will most likely take the motor home next weekend to try it out and see if we need to make any adjustments to where items are stored and I will take some photo’s then to post.

I have not been working very hard on my quilts this summer, too busy doing other things I guess.  I have been reading alot and working on my gardens.  I have gotten 2 rows of DJ completed here is a photo:

Besides quilting I spend a lot of time every year on my gardens.  I have mainly shade gardens as I have a lot of shade in my yard.  This year I have a tiny vegetable patch and have some veggies mixed in with my flowers.  I have a project this summer of finishing a flower bed that I started 3 or 4 years ago — been so long I have forgotten when I started it.  I have more than my share of rocks in my yard and woods and spent a lot of time with a wheelbarrow and shovel collecting them.  I use those for the borders.   I think they look nice and I don’t pay for them so I make use of them.  Anything for free as far as landscaping is concerned is a plus in my book.  For 3 years I collected fall leaves and pine needles and put them in the rocked in area and let it rot.   Last year we had a lot to put in it as we had finally got a bag for the lawnmower to collect them in and it became easier.  This summer it was time for me to add more dirt to get it to the level that I want it at so I can get plants planted in it this fall.  Today I started on it and almost immediately had to back off until I make a run to the store tomorrow to get some snake repellant — yes I know there is at least one snake mixed in all those leaf cuttings - a small copperhead — and I don’t want to mess with that or anymore if they are there.  I was turning over some of the mixture and a small copperhead came crawling out of the mess — well I backed off very carefully looking around to see if there was anymore — none, got out of there safely - called my daughter to have her ask my son-law what to do to make sure I have no more in there - he is in pest control so I figured he would have an idea of what to do — MOTH BALLS — we will see what happens.  I figure seeing as I will be putting them in and around the flower bed I am working on I will also put some around the house also — this is at least the second if not third snake I have seen this month.

Here are some photo’s of the gardens: This first one is the part of the front of the house and the shade beds in front of it.

newest garden project that the snake was in:

another angle of the snake garden so you can fully appreciate the size of it :)  I had tossed some lilies in it last year that I didn’t think were any good - they surprised me and grew and had flowers this year, I will leave them in the bed as that kind of lily does well in the shade.  As you can see I have some cleaning up to do around it, I still have piles of rocks to move and I need to fix the border a little in some places.  The rocks are dry stacked, I do not mess with masonry :

 My swing and garden - I have some veggies planted in this one too -

One more - my little veggie patch - that is a make shift trellis for pole beans in the background and the bags hold upside down tomatoes.

I finished all the blocks for the first row of my second Dear Jane last week and spent time last night and today adding the sashing in between them.  It sure makes taking a picture of them easier.  I will make sure to take Mike’s camera with me next time I meet up with Regina and Julie and take a new photo of the first row of Regina’s blocks - I think she said she was going to work on the sashing, I will be be able to get a better photo to put on here.  When Julie gets her row completed I will put hers on here too and maybe a photo of all three together so we can see how totally different they look with all the different colors involved.  I know this row of mine looks so different than the first Dear Jane I made in the scrappy look.  I have 3 out of the 13 blocks finished on the second row and starting on the 4th.  It is coming along nicely and sure is a lot more fun making it with friends making one also.  (I laid it out on the floor kind of wavy like - I will have to watch that next time)

I think I mentioned sometime back that two of my friends and I are getting together one day a week to work on our Dear Jane’s — my second & their first.  Regina is moving right along with her blocks and has already finished her first row!! She is truly addicted and cannot seem to put these little pieces down - every time I talk to her she has finished another.  Regina is hand piecing her Dear Jane and so I’m I, Julie is doing a combination of methods but is hand piecing most of her blocks as well.  Here is a picture of her first row - we need to come up with a long enough piece of felt and a place to hang it so we can stretch our rows out to see what they look like as an actual row, we grouped hers in two rows.  As we each finish a row I will try to get a photo and keep track of our progress.

I think she did a really good job on these tiny pieces!  We are all going in order from the very first block A1 to the very last triangle in the quilt, mixing in the hard with the easy.

I have been busy getting started on the Dutch Treat quilt - reverse applique on these tiny squares is challenging.  Right now they are six inch blocks, when you finish them you cut them down to 4 and 1/2 inches.  The photos are all featuring them still at 6 inches.  Here is number 2 called 90 Degrees

and #3 is called African Violet

The intention of letting you all see these photo’s is not to brag on my work but to share quilting information with others interested in the same things and to share with family and friends.

Well it took awhile before I finally got my fabric selection - although when I cancelled one order and then ordered from another I got very fast service.  I started my first little block last night and finished it today.  This little block is called “5 of Diamonds” the colors in the photo aren’t quite true but I couldn’t get it edited any better - both colors should be a little greener and the dark color a little sharper — well have to work on it.  I need to trim the block down to size - finished size is 4 1/2 inches and this one is still nearly 6 inches so it looks a little bigger than it should be.

I am always looking for good fabric stores on line as I do not have a really good quilting fabric store near by.  The closest one I believe is close to 85 to 90 miles from me.  Now days with the price of gas shipping and handling is a cheaper way to get fabric than doing that driving and buying lunch and everything that goes with a day trip.  I found a web store the other day that I would like to share with you.  Here is a link to it:  http://www.webfabrics.net/servlet/StoreFront  tons of fabric, good prices, I think the prices are a little lower than some of the other stores on line that I have ordered from.  I will let you all know what I think of them when I get the fabric that I ordered.  If anyone else has a good place on line with quilt shop quality fabric let me know — I love checking out links

I have not been on my blog much lately, busy outside I guess planting things and enjoying the weather in between outbreaks of rain.  I have gotten started on my second Dear Jane quilt - “Insanity Revisted” this will be a long process you know and I will try to keep you all up to date now and then on the progress - or lack of it.  I forgot my camera today and I was going to take a photo of everyone’s squares - I will do that next time.   In the meantime here is a photo of the first 4 of my blocks.

One of the things that most quilters do not like is basting a quilt once the top is finished.  Basting a quilt takes work — you have to have a surface large enough (which most of the time means moving furniture to make space) to spread out the backing, then the batting on top of that and then the quilt top on the very top.  What I do is pin my layers down to the carpet, it holds it in place while I sit on it for hours on end with a long needle and thread and get down to work basting all three layers together so it will stay together until I get done quilting it.  Most of the time for large quilts I do not need to do this because of my big 3 roller quilting frame, I only do this for smaller quilts normally.  BUT - I have a large quilt on that quilting frame and I have made too many tops like usual so I need to do this one on my smaller frame.  It is a twin size quilt and it is for my granddaughter for Christmas this year.  I finished my grandson’s quilt last month - also for Xmas.  I want to get these both done and out of the way in plenty of time — I do not want any stress in my life and do not wait until the last minute!  Here are a pictures of me basting — this is a 2 or 3 day process as I only work for about 30 to 40 minutes at a time and then stretch out my back and do something else, then come back to it and work some more.  I should be finished with it tonight or tomorrow!  Thank goodness.  I did have one quilt machine basted once but did not like how it was done, the stitches are very long and my wedding ring set kept getting caught in the thread.  (and yes in the photo there is a coffee mug sitting on the quilt — this doesn’t have liquid in it but the T-pins needed to pin the quilt to the carpet)