It's a Jungle

My dad gave my sister and I his lake lot that he and mom bought around 1974.  There is a mobile home on it that was made in 1959.  It is still standing.  No one has been to the lot in a couple of years or longer.  We received the notice of value from the appraisal district and of course, it is too high for the property.  For some reason, the appraisal district thinks that there are two mobile homes on the lot.  Jim and I decided to go down take a few pictures for the protest.  OMG!

Before we can sell it, we will have to do tons of yard work to where anyone could even get to it. Then the inside of the house has to be cleaned, etc.  The utilities were turned off a couple of years ago and we don't want to turn it on just to pay the bill, because we really don't think we will use the lot.  So we will just have to get it presentable.  But surprisingly, it does look liveable.  There are some beautiful iris that I want to move to my house.  I have put a few here, but I want more.  Jim also wants a crepe myrtle and I a small one growing there.  Think we will move it also.  He is wanting to put lots of trees in the back pasture for his repopulation for the wildlife.  There are MANY.  It will just take a little time to dig them up and move them here.  The disappointing thing is that there are several lots around us for sell that look a whole lot better, so we may have this for a long, long time.  I am going to call my sister and see if we can't plan a weekend for all to go down and start work.

I am working on a wall hanging to give to the AgriLife Center.  My quilt group, The Piecemakers meets there every month.  I took extra blocks from the dontation quilt that we made a put together a little rendition of the big quilt to present to them.  They can hang it in the main room and it will help to absorb the sound.  I think we will try to give them one every so often so that it can help with the sound in the room.  Happy Piecing.  Maybe you can get a lot done this holiday weekend.  We are having company tommorrow (Memorial Day), so we will be cleaning house and doing yard work.

I've Done My Good Deed Today

Occasionally I get old quilt tops from friends that need to be quilted.  I have worked on this one for some time (because it was handwork). 

It is tied and double-knit fabric.  The backing is purple cotton that is probably from the 30's-40's.  I haven't seen that color for some time.  I folded the backing over to the front, doubled it and stitched with a decorative stitch on the machine.  I think it added a nice touch.  My friend was given this (and another quilt that I quilted for her daughter's wedding that was a dutch girl/boy) and she wants to let her mom know that she got them finished.  This will be used and will be a good quilt to keep you warm in the winter.  I have many double knit squares and may have to make my own one day.  Double knit is a fabric from the past and I don't see it making a come back, so to use what I have to preserve it would be good.  My grandmother made several flower garden pattern quilts (her favorite pattern to make) out of double knit.  They are soooo heavy to sleep under, but boy do they keep you warm.

It is always a good thing to get some of the quilts that were made in the past finished for the families to enjoy.  So many people have quilt tops in the top of the closet.  I too have a couple that need to be finished.  Not ony quilted, but the top needs to be completed.  I also need to finish my quilts so that they will not have to be sent to another quilter to be completed.

Dresden Plate

I've always been intimidated by the dresden plate block.  At Moda Bake Shop I saw this pattern and that really wet my appetite.  I needed to do a program for my quilt group and decided it was time to get this block done.  I had purchased a EZ Dresden ruler at Walmart and decided to start there to get a smaller project done.  I usually don't make quilts by the pattern and change them up somehow, or use a favorite method of constrution.  Here is the project I made to learn how to make the block:

I still need to add borders.  I love how it turned out and the block was soooooo easy.  Now I can make the plate chargers for my table.  Superman likes how they look also, so it will be a good project.  I don't think I mentioned that I re-covered the dining room chairs just before Easter.  They needed to be done such a long time.  That too was an easier than imagined project.  Happy Sewing!

I'm Back!

Well, I'm back again.  It has been quite the last few months.  We lost our beloved Pumpkin in February.  She had lived with us for almost 14 years.  She was one of the best dogs I have ever had. She didn't like sharing the spot with other dogs, but would do it anyway.  She also never fused about any of the animals we have had on the farm.  She did not chase the chickens or fuss at the goats even when they would head butt her.  She was a red lab mix.  After a couple of weeks, we finally got used to her not being here and quit looking for her to greet us at the door when we would get home. 

I got the button program all together and had several tell me that it was very good and inspired them to go home and go through their buttons.  They look at them a little bit different now.  I went to the Texas State Button convention.  I got my fill of buttons.  I bought a few "pretties" that I have yet done anything with.

Then in April, I got a puppy.  Her name is Annie.  She is a border collie/springer mix.

She has a fabric fettish.  She cannot go past a scrap of fabric on the floor without picking it up and she usually hides it somewhere else.  She also has been eating my herbs in the herb garden.  She especially loves mint. I have had to plant it several times.  She nips at the plants and then digs them up to eat somewhere else.  I have had to buy new ones because she takes it somewhere and I can't find it to rescue from her.

Have a great Mother's Day today.  I am spending the afternoon with my oldest son, who is visiting from Montana.

January UFO Update/Design Wall

I willl not be able to finish the January challenge on time, but I will finish it.  I have all the blocks done, and am working on the last filler strip (under the angel).  After seeing it up on the wall, I need to adjust the curve in the stem.  So I'll be ripping it out to start again.  It needs to be more curvy to match the ones already done.  It is good to see this one almost done.  When I was reading the instructions for the angel block it said to sew on the appliqued filler and the plain filler (what!).  I don't have anymore fabric.  I never gave a measurement for the plain filler or said to cut two of the background when I cut the filler strip.  I cut and made all of the background blocks a long time ago and pack them with the patterns so that back ground was ready to go when I would go to work on the blocks.  This has been packed away for at least 5 years.  I drew out the star color of the blocks to watch how they would be placed and just pulled scraps for the applique when I would work on that block.  I spent part of the weekend spraying the blocks with vinegar and water to help set the colors as some of the reds were bleeding.  This is my first applique quilt I have ever done.  I have done small sections of applique,  but not a whole quilt before.  And this is all needleturn.  I have enjoyed sitting in the living room working on it as the TV is on, especially when it is too cold to get in my studio to work.
     We are expecting another cold snap to come in on Tuesday.  The weekend was sooo nice, 75 on Saturday and Sunday was almost the same.  Tuesday/Wednesday it is to get into the 10-20's possibly with a wintery mix. Speaking of Saturday:  my quilt group got together and worked on our donation quilt for this year.  I had a nice time with everyone and enjoyed the sewing that we got done.  It is a churn dash in 1930's and will have applique in the corner borders.  I'll post a pic when it is done.  Here we are working:

You only see two rows of the quilt, the rest is out being sewn.  We had quite the conversation planning the borders. It has been a small challenge, but as usual will be great when it is completed.  I like that we do something different each year.  It is always a challenge to work with blocks that other people sew because you get such a varience of sizes.  It does help us all to grow as quilters when we see a problem and brainstorm together to find the solution.  This year we are going to make a smaller quilt to donate to the AgriLife Center where we hold our meetings.  If they hang on the wall in the meeting room, it will help to buffer the sound and make the noise level better.  I hope we donate some more to them to show off our guilds work and add to the decor of the building. 
     I also worked on the buttons a bit, but will have that as a later post.  It will be a busy week.  Today is the last day to pay property taxes without a penalty, so I expect I will be standing at the counter most of the day and my feet will be killing me tonight.  Happy sewing.

Design Wall/Table Monday

I have worked when I could on my UFO project, I Believe.  I have to finish the I Believe block (near the center) and one filler that goes below the angel block.  I will push to get it done this week and hopefully will at least get the I Believe block finished.
Of course, I have another project going.  What else is a quilter suppose to do? (Finish what is started.)   I am putting together a program on buttons for my guild next month and have been wanting to do a quilt to show off some of my buttons.  I found one that I like and started it.  It is Star Flowers from Kim Schaefer.  It was on my sewing table.

I also have another project on the design wall under the I Belive, it is Santa Stick.  It is on hold for a little while.  Sew many projects.

BUTTON, BUTTON

I spent several hours on Saturday searching thru my buttons and sorting them.  I found some really neat ones, I will post pics of them later.  I am going to do a program at my guild next month on buttons, so I am working on getting that all organized.  I am making a new quilt to show off some of my buttons and I am thinking of framing a few.  Here is the quilt I started:

It is from the book Flowering Quilts by Kim Schaefer.  There are several quilts in the book that I like.  I also managed to get some work done on my UFO project.  Will do update on Design Wall Monday.  I spent many hours updating my ipod.  I haven't done that in many, many months...and now I have a new computer, so I had to reload my CD's again.  Maybe I missed something, but I could not find where you could upload from your ipod to the computer to put what was on the ipod in the library.  It is done now.