My elbow's fixed, my elbow's fixed!

So hollered (to everyone he passed) our 3-1/2 year old grandson on his way out of the hospital emergency room this afternoon. The emergency care "doc in the box" sent grampa to the ER after saying "I don't have the capability of fixing this." Good grief, poor Grampa. (Oops, and maybe I'm grinning a little too much ....... it appears to be slightly harder for him to babysit without me. Turns out maybe I do most of the work??? Hmmmmm.) ;>

Anyway - grandson has developed a tendency for his elbow to pull out of joint - it has some technical term that I can't remember, but basically the description is caretaker's elbow. How can a 3 year old have caretaker's elbow ???? Grampa said the nurse was really slick about it - played with his fingers and his wrist, and surreptitiously got a grip on his forearm and behind his upper arm, rolled him over and popped it right back into place in one move. After a few minutes, Michael decided he was thrilled and announced to everyone on the way out the door that his elbow was fixed. Grampa said he was pretty cute.

No sewing news.......except that I've drawn a basic design for the pillow cases for my last quilt - haven't had much time to devote to sewing this week, but I hold out hope for soon. We'll see.

Lisa

It's done....

So, the "Summer 2010" huge quilt is finished. Well, nearly. Still have the label to put on - design, figure out what I want to say, figure out what I'm printing it on, print, hope it works, sew on, etc. Ya know, that.

The longarmer said a couple of weeks - well, it was actually just a couple of days. I was thrilled! Dropped it off one Saturday and picked it up the next. How cool is that? Even cooler? I still have 8 weeks before the giftee's birthday arrives.

We did a variegated pink-purple-red thread for both top & bottom threads, and an edge-to-edge feather meander pattern. Simple pattern that I really liked. I was a little unsure of how the colored thread would look on the black back, but I like that too. I like the idea that it's reversible too, 2 quilts in one. I just like it all! ;)

This was a fun project for me .... kinda long, but that's ok. I'm getting better at enjoying the process and not necessarily finishing now. Patience. I've heard it's a virtue. The challenge for me is to keep focusing on each section while I'm working it and doing the best job I can. NOT rushing through to get to the end. This is a recent achievement ..... well, not quite a completely learned skill yet, but I'm workin' on it.

I got the binding made and sewed on yesterday. I was very careful to keep it lined up and my seam a consistent 3/8". That was a l-o-n-g day at the sewing machine ....... nearly 33 feet of binding when I did the math in the morning (or 2/3 yard - 33 feet sounded horrible!!). Like a good little New England born and bred saver, I was able to use the black that I trimmed off the back when I squared it up after quilting. I still have 4 or so feet left. Maybe I can use that on the pillowcases!

And finally, here's some pics of the finished project. I think if you click on them they should open up in a larger window so you can see the detail.

Have a great week!

Lisa

a weekend finish - yippee!!

Got all the borders on both the top & the back this weekend. This thing is HUGE - it takes forever to sew a border on. I think this will be the last queen size quilt for a while.......I'm ready for something a little smaller. I like admiring the finished product! Tee hee.

Neither the wind nor the sun was cooperating this morning. I actually took video of the quilt top swaying in the breeze. The photos are only of portions.




Looking through the back from the porch - looks like stained glass!! Kinda cool I thought.

The sun. Blinding.

Here's the back. That piece of pink trim in the middle? That's at 54" x 54".

Next step for this is to buy a room size (oops I mean queen-size) piece of batting and bring it up to the longarmer. The last quilt I had professionally done, I sent away to a husband/wife team in NC. Both their web site and blog are down, so I'm thinking I'd better keep this one a little closer to home this time. At least I can drive up there if I need to. Plus it's in a higher elevation which means cooler territory - never a bad thing in the middle of a desert summer. Maybe I can somehow make a full day out of delivering it next weekend? ;>

So glad this one's nearly on the finished pile. Just quilting and binding to do. Oh yeah, and make a couple of matching pillowcases with the scraps.

Have a great week!!

Lisa

Decided to see if I could upload a video........here's one of the reasons why there's no full-view photo. This is what I was working against this morning. Oh well.

Yay! It's raining ... and a progress report

Hurray .... it's finally raining! Thinking about it on the drive into work this morning, I realized that I knew how to make it rain. All I had to do was wash my car! I actually didn't find time to wash the car today but the clouds finally got heavy enough to let some out anyway. Even without my help. I'm thrilled. We've needed it.

I made good progress this week on the back of the Pick & Choose - got the blocks ironed, trimmed, & sewed together. I found a fairly large piece of black for the first border in my stash. It was big enough to make borders for all 4 sides as long as I did cornerstones. Now THAT was some careful cutting --- had to determine how much usable fabric I had in that piece after straightening then I divided by 4 to learn how wide the border was going to be! ;) Hurray, it worked. Now to decide on the final borders for the top (and back too actually). Queen size is pretty large and I'm not there yet.


I also did a little shopping this week. Mama Spark is cleaning up a little, and I was excited to make a new home for a few greens.....they came yesterday. Squishy mail, so fun!


Now I just need to figure out what I'm gonna use them for. :>

Have a great day!
Lisa

Progress during the week

So I've managed to make some progress this week on the back for Pick & Choose. Didn't figure out what the borders would be for the top, but got the back center pieced and laid out and rearranged a time or two.

This is where I started with the layout


But that seemed sort of blah, so after continued playing I came to this ...

Which was pretty cool I thought, then I just moved a few blocks to "improve" the layout. I even unsewed 4 blocks to get darker centers there so the design would show better, and I unsew only under duress!! I hate it, but I have to admit I like the layout much better after so I suppose I'll have to be willing to frog stitch once in a while. Sigh.

So that's the progress made this week. I'm hoping to get these all starched & ironed & trimmed to size over the weekend among the other chores, and then the plan (such as it is) is to get these sewn together mornings next week. A plan. We'll see.

Have a great weekend!
Lisa


Oops, and I just walked past the design wall and rearranged again! Maybe this is it! ;>

Well.....sorta sooner than 5 months!

Bernie ... thank you! for nudging me. Sometimes I get SO busy scurrying along handling life I forget to document. Or too tired to maybe. Anyway!

Rundown of the last 4 months ... visit around Easter with our daughter & 2 year old grandson from Virginia for a week. THAT was a blast. We had all the kids & grandkids together and took them camping up north in Williams for a long weekend trip. Visited the Grand Canyon on an absolutely perfect day and came back to the campground for slightly burnt but still wonderful fried turkey with all the picnic trimmings.


Our version of the "family tree" sans the two boys who stayed home for the weekend to work. That's our 3 girls, 2 grandsons and 1 "acquired" son (boyfriend). Wow.

Ice cream break, shared VERY nicely between the 3 year old and the 2 year old grandsons. How cool! Notice the leashes.....that got more comments from passersby than I expected. And everybody was in favor. From previous visits, we knew there are NO guard rails or anything at the canyon. You can walk (or fall) right up to the edge. Grampa and I decided that neither of us felt up to rappelling down the side of the canyon to rescue a kid, so we made that the rule. As soon as we parked, we dressed the boys in their new leashes and that was it. That stays on til we get back to the car. Want some watered down juice and a baggie of dry cereal? ;) They were fine with it.

Hosted both Mother's Day and Father's Day at our house. About 20 or so assorted family members at each. They like our house because the floor plan is fairly open which allows multiple discussions to happen without being complete chaos, plus there's an acre for the kids to "discover" so it keeps them pretty occupied and out from underfoot. And I suppose, given the choice, most folks would rather just bring a couple half gallons of juice and a box of donuts or something similar and not have to plan the menu and make sure there's enough food, napkins, plates, etc and the house is clean! And I have help here to make sure that all happens so it works.

In the quilting world, I've nearly finished the pink & black batik Pick & Choose top and have started on the back. Actually, I'm at a stopping point for the top because I've decided not to follow the pattern necessarily for the borders, but I'm not sure what to do instead. I know that I'm making this for a queen size bed with a deep mattress and it will need to end up somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-90 wide x 100-110 long. And I know that I want to do a couple of borders, and perhaps incorporate some applique (new to me) but I haven't decided exactly.

So.......the back will be pieced as well with Drunkard's Path blocks in blacks & whites and I've gotten those cut out. Theoretically this will be a reversible quilt, a 2 for 1. Worked on cutting a little each morning this week and now they're ready to piece. I won't have a chance this weekend though because we've decided to drive away on the motorcycle to cooler territory. Which means north in this state, probably up above 6-7000 feet elevation where the daily temp will be closer to 80-85 instead of 110-115. Yikes it's hot!!!

This was taken with my cell phone, so it's a little muddy. This is the top so far, it's at 64 x 64 now (or 68 x 68 I can't remember for sure and I took it down off the design wall this week because my daughter was arriving and it's a surprise for her).

Again, thank you Bernie for nudging me......I do need to post more often. And I
suppose I did get it in under the 5 month wire so that must count for something.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Lisa

I'm still ok....

But it's been a while, hmm? I've been sewing and crocheting and living. The living part is taking up some time though. ;)



In my defense, I've been busy with more than just work. A couple of weeks ago, I flew home to be the "Best Man" in my brother's wedding. He said, "come on Lis, it's the new thing, you'll be cool". That was without a doubt the best wedding I've ever been to, I had so much fun, my brother and his new wife had so much fun, ALL the guests had fun. Smallish number of people, nice facility, great food and music, and it all combined to be a perfect wedding. And just to put the cherry on top, the dress I wore that was slightly tight a couple of weeks before was slightly loose on this day so I was actually comfortable. Not sure how that happened, it was not a plan. Oh, oh, oh, and I found a really great station on the radio and sang all the way back on the 200 mile drive to my grandmother's that night - arriving at 2am not even tired. It was a perfect day.



Remember the Pick & Choose quilt on the front cover of the June 09 American Patchwork & Quilting mag? I've started one. For my daughter. I have batiks in my stash - nearly all batiks. And nearly zero white/beige/tan fabrics. My daughter wears a lot of pink & black together and it looks really good on her, so using that as my inspiration, my backgrounds will be blacks to grey, and the foreground pinks, purples, and reds to oranges. I'm having fun with it, but it will probably take me quite a while. I have a few done, but the colors in the photo below are not quite right. The pic came out pretty orangey, but you'll get the idea.

I'll close for now....the lasagne is smelling great! and I'm gettin' hungry. And I'll try to post a little more often than once every 5 months.

Lisa