September 2010

Yesterday was so humid and muggy but we needed to get some yard work done so we got to it and got a lot of low branches cleared off of some trees.   Mike worked with the saw and the clippers and I had the cart hooked to the riding lawn mower – here is one pile of branches:

And another – we have had a lot of rain lately so Mike was able to get it all burned today and now it is all gone!:

Because of the rain we have gotten a lot of mushrooms growing – here is one that is growing all over the place right now.  I haven’t a clue what it is called:

Our trees that are on the far side of the yard are the ones that Mike was trimming, they were so low in places that we could not ride the mower underneath them.  From the trimmed branches we have more firewood for winter collected:

I got more quilting done last night and the quilts are coming along nicely.  Last night I worked on the smaller of the two while watching tv.  Tonight I will probably work on the Christmas quilt, it is coming along really well and it would be nice to be done with it by the end of September but I really do not know if I will get that far with it – might be in to October before I get done.

Thanks for all the comments on the stain glass.  I think from the comments and e mail that I got that a lot of quilters have tried their hand at stain glass also.  Also I think a lot of us drifted from one craft to another before settling on quilting from the sound of it.

Now that yard work is caught up again for awhile I hope to get more quilting done.

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Yesterday I was reading a blog from Michelle – The Desert Quilter.  She was blogging about a stain glass lamp that her father made.  I told her that I used to make stain glass and she asked to see the photos.  I have never blogged about it so thought I would tonight.

Back in the very late 1970’s Mike started to fool around with stain glass and learned how to make lamps.  I thought it was interesting and started to do it with him.  He sold several lamps back then and traded for some other crafts as well.  Before we left Idaho in 1980 I started a lamp and then we moved here to Arkansas – I finished up the lamp after we got here and made a window as well. 

We both gave up the hobby, loosing interest and also just didn’t have the space to work with it available.  You really need good ventilation as the solder that you use to put the whole thing together can really smell and is not good to breath in.

Stain glass is a lot like quilting in a way in that you put the pieces of a picture or design together – main difference of course is cutting glass compared to cutting fabric and you use a soldering iron to put it all together instead of a sewing machine!  Here is a photo of my lamp that I made – I have no idea how many pieces are in it although I’m sure I knew back when I made it.  There are a couple small cracks in it now and a piece or two of the copper foil that you use on these tiffany style lamps needs to be fixed – but it has held up pretty well these 30 years since I made it.

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The window that I made – it is small, I think it is about 12 inches by 20 inches approximately.  This window was done with the copper foil method as well.  We put it in a wall that divides the kitchen from the living room by a book case.  If we ever move we will need to redo that wall so that we can take the window out of it!!

My adventure in stain glass only lasted a couple years but it was fun while I was doing it although I don’t know how many times I had a cut from the glass – I was a little bit of a klutz doing it

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Only 9 days in to the month and I finished my September assignment for the Star Crazy quilt!!  I am glad that is out of the way and now I can get back to my quilting on the two quilts that I am hand quilting.  I really want to finish these two before continuing on the Red/Green appliqué blocks and the Dear Jane triangles.  Oh and lets not forget that Bow Tie blocks that I started back in May and June – I took them along on our trip and never touched them. But I want to finish up a few things first.  I really do want to stick with two quilts at a time if I can and make progress on finishing things already started.

The September blocks:

Next months assignment has a lot of Irish Chain Blocks – I might just look at the photos of the blocks we need and start cutting out the squares.  Because I am doing my quilt scrappy that means I need a lot of 1 1/2 inch blocks of various colors.  I need to pull down one of the scrap boxes and take bits and pieces from it to use more up.

It is another rainy day – leftovers still from the tropical storm that hit Texas.  Arkansas really needed the rain but I must admit to tiring of it!  I don’t mind a rainy day now and then especially when I know we need it but the last 10 days or so we have had quite a few rainy days.  I’m ready for some sunshine – this humidity is tiresome.

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September is a rainy month it seems after having had two dry months in a row.  The plants are coming back that I thought might have died while we were off having fun in July and August.  It has rained at least 3 days last week and it is starting over again this week as Arkansas is near the area where the storm is going through Texas and the way it is swinging on up through other states we are getting some much needed rain!!  And we needed it bad.

I hoped that my two Cinnamon Ferns had not died – they really looked dead when we got home, I cut them off to almost nothing and here they are not quite three weeks later:

They look about the size they normally are in the spring when they come back from the winter.

Also as I was checking these out during a break in the rain I found these growing:

and another – these go by various names – I call them Spider Lilies, here is a link to them.  I only saw the 4 of them and I know I had at least 16, I wasn’t sure if they bloomed while we were gone or not.  If I remember right they normally bloom in August, it might be the dry hot weather delayed them – or I might be remembering totally wrong and they bloom in September!

I have been watching my little hydrangea plants to see if they will come back and they are  see these tiny new green leaves sprouting on the branches:

The leaves on the ground from the tree in this area make it look like it is November!

Mushrooms are growing from the new moisture also – aren’t these funky looking:

And we have been seeing a lot of “walking sticks” around here – more than we normally do, I find them interesting bugs to watch:

I tried to grow rhubarb about 3 years ago and found out it doesn’t really do well in the Arkansas heat and pulled up all my plants last year – well look what is growing back too.  Two plants of rhubarb – it would be nice if it grew this fall to the point that I could actually get enough to use it.  I know this is more of a northern plant – we used to have a large plant of it in Wisconsin when I was a kid and my grandma had a lot of it as well.  The plants here have so far only yielded very skinny stalks that never seem to want to get nice and fat as they should be (about the size of celery stalks).  They actually sell the plants here in the spring so one would think that they grow here – maybe my location is wrong?  I will see what it does before deciding if I will pull it out again.

Now I guess I better get back to work on my Stars for the Star Crazy BOM – I have not been in much of a mood for working on them and have only 4 of the 9 needed finished.  I do have all the pieces cut out I just need to get to work on them!

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I was looking at Vicki’s newest blog post (Field Trips in Fibers) about scissors and wondered how many pair I had also and why.  I have 8 pair (not counting two pair that are kitchen scissors so they don’t count – one for the house and one in the camper).  Why do I have that many or maybe that few – I guess it depends on how you are about scissors.

I use the large gray pair a lot for cutting fabric – they are “extreme edge titanium” Clauss brand and are said to cut through 8 layers of fabric easily – I don’t know, I think I have cut through 4 easy enough.  I like them – they are sharp!  The pink handled one was given to me – they are stiff and I hardly use them – the orange handled are an old fiskar’s and I have had them for about 20 years I bet! They are old though and I mainly just use them for paper now.

On to the smaller pairs.  Yes 2 orange handled small fiskars – I love these by my sewing areas – I use them for sniping thread and trimming applique pieces – one stays at the large quilting frame and the other stays on the end table by my sewing stuff in the living room.  The pink handled tiny pair goes by the sewing machine – snips again, I won them in a give away.  The small one with the orange and gray handle are curved on the ends and I use them to cut out appliqué pieces sometimes cloth sometimes paper  – I don’t care for them all that much though so they get little use.  The pair in the middle are sharp with the large flat curved blade are for appliqué- Gingher brand but I must admit I forget about them most of the time and do not use often.  I really need to put them out so I don’t forget about them, they are nice scissors.

If Mike needs to use a pair of scissors I think he knows by now to use the pink handled pair or the 20 year old orange handled pair.  He keeps his hands off of the rest of them I believe.

So how many pair do you have and do you have a reason?

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Here it is at the beginning of another month and that means it is time to work on the Star Crazy BOM once again.  I do not want to get behind and we are nearing the finish point on this quilt.

I have my instructions printed out and placed in the ring binder to keep organized.

Fabric is cut and ready to go for the first three of 9 blocks:

More is picked out and waiting to be cut and made ready.  I like to get all of the stars organized and cut the fabric and have it stacked up ready for the machine sewing.  It keeps me better organized:

This month we have 9 stars and 3 different styles of stars.  They will be easy once I get into the mood to sew them.

I have gotten a little more quilting done on the Christmas quilt and have given it another crank down of the roller – you can plainly see the end in sight now

All the comments on EQ7 – wow – let me warn y’all now I am not a fast learner when it comes to computers so do not expect any reviews anytime soon.  I am in no rush and I am not always interested in sitting in front of my computer when the weather is nice so I will work at it gradually.  I will tell you a quick little story though of my adventure of getting started and then you will see why a review won’t be coming anytime soon !  LOL

I got the program out of the box the other day and looked the book over before setting down at the computer.  Then I shut down all of the running programs as it said to do.  I inserted the cd and got the program loaded on my computer and all went well!! accomplished one thing.  I went to the videos so I could start to learn this program and that is where I started to have problems – I looked through one and then another – then I looked at Mike and said “how I’m I supposed to learn this when they aren’t telling me anything” he of course said “what are you talking about”  I told him I was watching the instruction videos but they weren’t telling me anything – he just looked puzzled at me for a minute and then asked “do you have your volume turned on?”

DUH! – ok now see why this might take awhile

(I do normally have my volume turned on – but I had been looking at blogs shortly before that – I don’t know about most of you but I hate it when a blog has music playing – most of the time it is music I do not like or I already have music playing in the house because I want to listen to my music – so quite often I shut the volume on the computer off so I am not startled when music comes blasting out of someone’s blog – I just forgot to turn my volume back on LOL  )

Hope everyone is having a nice weekend – I have spent most of my time outside so far and not in the house at my computer or sewing – well get back to it soon I’m sure.

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My early birthday present arrived this morning. I haven’t even really had time to look at it today I have been so busy with outside work as it is so very nice out today.

I will get busy this evening and load it on to my computer and then start to explore my way through it.  I have a feeling this will take awhile!  Maybe by time my birthday arrives in 3 weeks I will have a general idea how it works?  One can never tell

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Last night being the first Thursday night of the month means it is time to meet with a bunch of fun ladies for a evening of quilting.  First a small group of us met at a Mexican restaurant for some food.  I must admit Mexican food is not my favorite but I can always find something I like to eat.  After an hour talking and eating it was time to move over to the Senior Center where they have a large room available for groups to meet.  You do not need to be a Senior to meet there.

Our group was a wild bunch last night – the stories being told – well I won’t get into it, I wouldn’t want to embarrass anyone

Lots of show and tell.  I apologize in advance – I do not remember who made which quilts other than 2 of them.

The quilts:

I love the colors in this baby quilt – I think pink and brown are favorite colors this past year:

Another colorful baby quilt:

Not quite finished – this plaid quilt will be great when done:

Someone has been busy making this double wedding ring top.  I will have to pay attention to names next month – several new people started to come to the group while I was traveling.  I was so busy listening to all the talk and laughter that I didn’t catch the names:

This quilt is the first quilt made by a young lady joining the group – she was busy working on the binding last night

This quilt was made by one of our members named Dee – she is auditioning some pieces for borders – she is making another quilt identical to this one except for the border – she laid these pieces on top of the border to see how they would look:

This quilt is made by CJ – she did the piecing and the quilting – she has a long arm business you can check out her stuff here:

I will try to have one of my quilts finished next month to bring for show and tell – last night I just brought one of my red and green appliqué blocks to work on – I must say I don’t think anyone got much work done with all the laughing that was going on – what a great way to spend an evening.

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Awhile back in the late spring I won a book called “Selvage Edge” by Karen Griska.  I posted about my win and the intention that one day I will  make something from the book after I collect up some edges. My stash is small so that might take awhile.

Well imagine my surprised today when I got home from my yoga class to see a small box had arrived for me and it was full of selvages!  My secret pal last year from the Dear Jane Secret Pal Club has been saving some edges for me and when her box was full she sent them off to me.  Thank you Marianne!

Pictured is the book I won last spring and the box of selvages with the cute card that Marianne sent.  You can check out Marianne’s blog at the link above.

The monthly quilting group that I am in meets tonight for our monthly get together – I decided to join the group for supper before the group meets – I normally skip the meal and just meet for quilting but thought I would join in for the meal tonight too. After all I missed two months of meetings, I need an extra long meeting tonight to see and hear what every one is working on.  I will bring my camera and see what quilts are on display tonight – I am not bringing anything as I have nothing finished!  Maybe next time.

EDIT:  3 days of rain in row – it is coming down kind of heavy right now – maybe the long hot dry spell is over – this weekend to be in the 80′s and 50′s at night!!!

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