Audition time.........

I spent the first half of the day working in the attic, finally getting to the vacuuming stage, and when the sweat started running into my eyes, I came back down.  I laid out groups to sew for the sashing.  My electrician came and put up 2 new lights in an area that has been too dark to take good photos.  After visiting Dad I came home and sewed the groups that I had laid out while my electrician was here.

That yielded 11 new sashing strips which I put up on the design wall.  Then it was time to audition the corner squares.  I thought I wanted the red dotted fabric, but when I went to get it, I saw the green and thought it might work (red at the top, green on the bottom).

Then I thought maybe both, alternated.  I'm not sure about either so I'll keep looking through my fabrics.  You might not remember, but in the book Kaffe made little pinwheel blocks for the corners.  It is supposed to get hot Fri. - Sun. so I will sew in the cool house.

20 blocks......

I finished the last 3 blocks last night.

I put them up on the wall with the rest but the order may change after I get all of the sashing strips up there too.  I was too tired last night to do any more on it.

1960 Embroidery book, another treasure from the attic. 

Treasures in the attic...........

And then there is all of the stuff in the attic that you don't put out for a garage sale.......
I have my space heaters in their original boxes....odds and ends........

Luckily I have a stairway to my attic and 3 windows to let in light.......and wow is it hot up there, even on a pleasant day. 

What I carried out before these photos: boxes for the components of my 'new' computer purchased in 2003.  Ha! New! Boxes from other things I no longer have, about 20 boxes in all.

These 2 huge boxes contained scraps of corduroy.  I love corduroy, always have.  I was going to make a corduroy quilt some day.  I carried all of the larger pieces downstairs to serge the raw edges and I will wash them.  The smaller pieces got emptied into the other box and the empty box on the left is down in the garage now.

Now some real treasures, 2 tablecloths and a twin size bedspread crocheted by a great aunt.

And last but not least, no I didn't skin a dog!  This is 1/2+ yard of a fake fur fabric that I made a coat out of about 25 years ago.  Yes, I used to make all of my own coats, and other clothes too.  Now that I'm out of memory lane I'm headed to the basement to work on my quilt.  I've done my duty for the day.

Not much progress......

I was way too worn out last night to do much.  I put all of the blocks and sashing strips that are done on the wall, still need 3 more.

When I cut the 6.5" squares from my Kaffe fabrics a couple years ago, I had a narrow strip leftover.  It is wide enough to cut a 1.5" strip out of so I have been using them for the sashings.

Here are two groups ready to sew.

After I sew and press it, I cut a 3.5" strip from it and this is what is left, pieces 2.25" or 2.5" wide.  Seeds for a new project!

I hope I have some pep today to make a lot more sashing strips.  It is supposed to be cooler and less humid today.  We'll see if they are right this time.

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Also if you aren't getting very many comments on your blog, please change your comment setting to Pop up window and everyone will be able to leave you a comment.  This works around the current problem in Blogger.

A little sewing, a few more blocks.....

Four down and three to go and then I have to concentrate on the pieced sashing. 

I spent most of the afternoon yesterday cutting out preemie layette items for our sew in at church today.

Yard work day.......

I spent more time outside yesterday than I normally do.  I mowed the lawn and then cut down volunteer trees to be ready for the next brush pick up day.  As long as I had mosquito repellent spray on I stayed out and  pulled some weeds.

This is the display in front of my garage.  Everything is really growing fast this year.

I usually have some red flowers but this year I went with all pink and purple.

Bindings galore........

I'm calling this 6 bindings in 2 weeks while actually the one I did by hand was worked on in spurts for 2 weeks before I finished all of the others.  So, the top one was done by machine on June 12, the 2nd from the bottom finished by hand on June 13 (started May 29), and the other 4 all finished by machine in 5 days (June 19-23) this week.  After all of that practice I think I can finish more by machine, especially the bed size ones.  I have at least 4 bed size ones waiting to be quilted and I think that is the end of such large quilts.  Lap quilts make better gifts. Most people want bed covers to match their bedrooms (as in decorating with a purpose) and I don't do custom quilts.

I went out last night while it was still light and took a few photos of blooms.  This is some kind of perennial that was here when I moved here 39 years ago.  It comes up all over the place, this group right in front of the gold mound spirea.  If I were a neat gardener I would dig it out, but my gardens are pretty wild and tangled, partly because of the mosquitoes.

A friend gave me the Butterfly weed plant about 3 years ago and it has also reseeded in many places.  This group will get dug up when it is done blooming and go to a friend who wants it.

I didn't plant the milkweed but I had mentioned to a friend that I wondered if it would grow in the shade garden.  Shortly after that I found one growing in my front garden, mysterious appearance.  Now there are about 7 of them and I'm going to try to relocate them. 

Lunch with my friend and her husband was great and we walked around the downtown area in the town we went to high school in.  Of course it is totally different after 53 years.  In one of the stores we ran into a lady we went to grade school with from 1950-1954.  I told her to say hi to her brother and sister for me also.  It was a wonderful day.

Binding finished!

Done!  # 4 binding in 5 days.

Click here for a full view on a bed before the binding was put on.

Now I'm off to meet a grade school/high school friend for lunch.

A sewing day........

I stacked the existing target log cabin blocks so I could see the 2 fabrics in each and then I chose the fabrics for the last 7 blocks.  I pressed the fabrics and cut the strips too.

I thought I was going to hand sew the binding on the back of this Kaffe Trip Around the World quilt but changed my mind and am doing it by machine.  I got 2 and a half sides done but was too tired to finish it last night.

Just look at all of that bunny food.  I have been watching this baby eat the dandelions, violet leaves, creeping Charlie and a few other unnamed weeds.  There is clover in there by him too.  It is fun to watch him eat.

Lotsa binding........

The Blooming 9 Patch (pattern in "Tradition with a Twist" by Blanche Young) is totally done.  I finished the binding by machine.  This quilt is about 88" x 108".

It has a 14" drop on a queen size bed so it doesn't quite cover the box springs and frame and would have to have a dust ruffle/bedskirt.  I made this one with intention of selling it but that didn't work out. 

I did the binding on this quilt too.  I debated whether to use the dotted fabric because the dots aren't printed perfectly straight, but it was the only fabric I could find that I liked with both back and front so I used it.

This shows the back of the binding which was caught with stitching from the front of the quilt.  It came out pretty good.

This quilt is an odd size, 54" x 84".  The pattern is in more than one of the Kaffe Fassett books.  It is based on 3", 6" and 9" squares.  If I had liked it better when I was working on it I would have added a row to the side to make it a little wider.  It isn't one of my favorites that I have made with the Kaffe fabrics.

If you click on this photo and enlarge it, you might be able to see the 2 baby birds.  I have 2 burning bushes which have gotten huge and I thought about trimming them this year.  This is right outside my guest bedroom window and the photo is taken through a screen and unfortunately the camera wanted to focus on the screen.  This is in one of the burning bushes.  I'm sure the mama bird would have attacked me if I had tried to trim the bush.

While the space was available.........

The tables in the basement don't stay uncovered for long so I decided to take advantage of the 2 big tables pushed together and sew the binding on the queen size quilts.  The yellow and green one was quilted Dec. 31, 2009 and the Kaffe Trip Around the World was quilted in Oct. 2010.  I dreaded sewing on the binding so they were piled in my guest room.  I think I can finish the green one by machine but the other I will do by hand. 

More storms rolled through late yesterday afternoon so I pushed the pots in front of my garage out farther onto the driveway so they would get watered.  It was close to 90 degrees before the storms.  Now we have a few cooler days coming.

My 700,000th visitor came to my blog last night at 10:03 p.m. CST.  They were from Bellingham, WA, 8:03 p.m their time, they have a Mac computer with Safari 1.3 browser and Comcast provider.  I don't know who it was but if you want to email me I might send you a small gift.  The town is not always exact, but sometimes just close.  I have the IP# too.
Added at 8 a.m.-no I'm not a computer whiz, Sitemeter gives me these stats, no personal indentification there so I don't know who you are unless you tell me.

Just checking in....

The art quilters came in the rain yesterday morning and then it cleared up and the sun came out.  Between the garage sale, cleaning the basement, and a day of fun, I don't have anything quilty to show.  I took this photo of the baby bunny in my back yard (through a window screen).  He was eating some clover or creeping Charlie.  Whichever, he is welcome to it as you can see there is a lot of stuff growing in the lawn.

Today is the longest day of the year, so let's see if it gives me more time to make something!

Another June finish....

After what felt like a long dry spell to me, I have quilted 3 quilts and totally finished 2 of them.  I finally figured out that I dreaded pulling out the roll of batting and cutting the pieces I need.  I solved that problem by cutting the batting for 8 quilts all at once so there should be some more finishes this month.

My backing is a piece I bought on sale at a store going out of business about 8-9 years ago.  I split it with a friend who also made her zig zag with gray fabrics.  I finished the binding by machine, stitched on the front to catch the flap of binding in the back.  I'm not crazy about the unevenness of it, but this is a quilt that will be used and washed a lot.

Today: Art quilters group, cookies, show and tell, fun, fun, fun!

Strip sashing.......

There are 2 different combinations of fabrics in the strip sashings in this photo.  I think any combination will work after seeing this.  I have a lot of short strips to make some from as well as long strips that I'll sew into a strata and slice into 3.5" sections.  I know I'm not going to make this as big as the one in the book.  I have too many quilts I want to try to make another big quilt right now.
I vacuumed the basement and made one batch of cookies yesterday in preparation of the art quilters' visit on Monday.  I'll bake the other batch of cookies today and finish cleaning my stuff off the tables in the basement.  I also finished the quilting on the gray/floral zig zag but didn't get the binding cut yet.  I hope I find time to do that today too.

Almost there.......

The garage sale is over, I really did well considering how little I had to sell.  I have only a small amount left over to get rid of.  For everyone who thought the king size quilt I sold for a dollar was something they would want to own, I need to clarify that most of the blues have faded to a dull gray, it was done in a quilt as you go method 37 years ago and the batting was pulling loose in places.  It was not a pretty heirloom quilt but an attempt early in my quilting career.  It was only worth $1, please believe me.
Last night I worked some more on the ditch quilting of the zig zag quilt and only have 3 more lines to do and then I can put on the binding.

Here is another piece I found in the attic.  I had forgotten that I had done so much crocheting.  This is about 32" x 45" so it can be used to cover feet or wrap a baby.  I just need to weave in all of the ends.  I don't have any more of the yarn so this is it.

It turned hot and sticky yesterday so I was glad that my neighbor's brother offered to mow my lawn.  I didn't have the energy to do it.

And I thought I was tired Wednesday.....

This is the king size puffy polyester quilt that I made for my parents in 1974.  Yes, it did sell!  But I only marked it a dollar and it was worth it to have it out of my house.  With the puffy polyester we could leave 10" unquilted and we did!
I did great at the garage sale.  My sign said 8-3 from the sale last year so I didn't change it to the 5 p.m. that my neighbors were doing.  At 2:30 a young man from the Philippines came to my sale.  He works up by Chicago but owns a resale shop in the Philippines.  He snatched up almost all of the clothes and purses and ended my day nicely.  I hardly had anything left so after I got home from the computer club meeting last night I found a few more items to put out so I can be open at least part of the day today.  There is a big sale route from Galesburg to Aurora called More on 34 (the name of the highway that goes through town) that starts tomorrow and my neighbor has her name on the list and map.  I was sooooo tired last night!

Comment problem on Blogger

I think we can solve the problem of not being able to leave comments on certain blogs (because we get run through hoops of having to choose profile) if everyone would change to 'pop up box' for their comments.  It has solved the problem for several that I have personally contacted.

Loop de loop.......my name for it anyway

I had a question from a reader (who doesn't have an email link for me to get back to her) about whether I ditch quilt through the loop de loop quilting.  The answer is yes and no.  If I were ditch quilting this quilt, the ditch quilting would be stitched right over it.

However, on this one that I mentioned that I was doing it on, the loop de loop just goes in a path through the zig zag and the ditch quilting outlines the 2 sides of the zig zag so it doesn't get stitched through.

I stitched these 3 new blocks 2 nights ago.  I spent yesterday going to the attic, the main level, and the basement, getting ready for the garage sale.  It's all set up now and opens this morning at 8.  I was one tired body last night.

Here are all of the blocks so far, without the piano key sashing.  I'll see if I have any energy to cut some more strips tonight.

Debut on a bed.......

The debut on a queen size bed.  It is really closer to a double bed size quilt though.  I have it pulled to the left to show more.

I like it better from the straight on view.

Have a laugh on me....stuff in the attic

Being a child of the 1940s, I took care of every little thing I owned, which wasn't much by the way.  I keep telling myself that is why I have such a hard time throwing anything away.  I have been going through stuff in the attic to prepare for the garage sale.  Here is something no one is going to want to buy.  I started it for my daughter in 1972 on our very first vacation on a trip to Montana.

Are you old enough to remember the word "Orlon" along with acrylic fiber?  This was THE favorite yarn of the 1970s.  By the way, my youngest grandchild is older than my daughter was when I started the sweater, so no, it won't get finished.
Are you laughing yet?

We bought our very first house after 11 years of marriage in 1972.  This is the bedspread that I made for my daughter's very pink bedroom.

Like the old fashioned bedspreads, it has a quilted part that covers the top of the mattress and fabric gathered on the sides hanging to the floor.  You can't see it here but it has a row of eyelet with ribbon woven through it at the bottom.  It is dotted swiss fabric, with the dots starting to disappear.  No one is going to want this either!  What should I do with this stuff?

Oh, and I won't even take a picture of the last one, a quilt I made for my parents in 1974 when they moved to WI.  It is faded and falling apart, and wasn't made well either.  Does someone need a quilt to wrap around their refrigerator when they move?