Where did Wednesday go?

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Suzanne

I’m not even sure what I did yesterday during the day. Nothing much apparently.

Last night I finished quilting the quilt I had mentioned a few days ago, and I’ve got some pictures to share:

It was designed by the quilt store that used to be open in town (she just closed and went strictly online this past winter).

It’s a great quilt — I quilted the pattern sample, and a customer brought me this one to quilt for her:

Here are a couple of close-ups:

I started by stitching-in-the-ditch around all of the black and red pieces. Then, I just played around with a freehand feather design that would fill the background spaces. Everything is freehand.

I started piecing a quilt of my own from this pattern, but I don’t like it is as well as the red and white original or this red/black/white variation. Mine is completely scrappy, and I don’t think it is as successful graphically as these are. It’s a fun pattern, the block construction is a little unexpected. The pieced border is also a different twist.

Gratuitous shot of my children: they were inside all morning, playing GameCube or reading. I gave them the option of going outside here at home or going to the playground. They chose home. I told my husband they were outside and he suggested that I needed to go check and make sure they weren’t (a) climbing the kennel fence or (b) throwing rocks on the driveway. They were doing neither of these things. What they had done was snuck inside, grabbed their books and are sitting on the tree swing reading.

At least they are outside, right?

Long, quiet weekend

Posted on May 29, 2007 by Suzanne

Actually, it was a busy weekend, but my blog was very quiet. Would you believe that I never even turned on my computer yesterday? At all? I really needed to get some quilting done, and so I just left it off. It was a little weird, but it was good for me.

I did turn it on today to make sure I didn’t have any book orders, and because I needed to look at some of the pictures I had taken at our Memorial Day family picnic and baseball game.

Well, it was on Sunday, so it wasn’t *really* a Memorial Day picnic.

And we ate inside, so I guess it wasn’t really a picnic either.

We did play baseball, though. Our “rules” are pretty loose though — it was kids against adults. The kids earned points for every run they scored, the adults earned points for every out they made. (Only the kids bat…and there are only 4 of them, so sometimes a kid has to run out to a base to take over running bases for the next kid in the line-up).

I surprised all of us by actually catching a couple of balls and making a few outs at 1st base, so that was a good thing. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m afraid of the ball…

I can’t remember who won. The kids probably. But I think it was pretty close.

After we ate our picnic-that-was-eaten-inside, we headed back out to the baseball field. (I should mention that we have a 2 acre lot, and in the northwest corner, my DH put down some stones that we use as bases, and then he mows lanes and an area for the pitcher’s mound). It’s a nice flat space, and is pretty close to the size of the baseball diamond they use at this age.

This time, we weren’t really playing for points — the kids wanted to pitch to the adults, and then the kids wanted to hit some more balls. I took my camera out and got some pretty good shots. It was pretty entertaining. Joe made a big production of winding up and acting like a “real” pitcher. The 3 boys all did some pretty decent pitching. Then they started to get tired and silly and very few made it across the plate….

Here’s a shot of Joe pitching: he was very serious about it.

And here is Will waiting for the catcher to throw the ball back to him. You might notice that his right eye is a little red. He “caught” a ball with his eye earlier in the evening. He insisted (to me) that it didn’t hurt.

One last picture, of the other “boy” that lives here. He is pretty happy that the 2 little boys both like baseball…the “big” boy would be out playing catch all day long if he could, I think….

I spent most of Monday quilting, and instead of sitting here at the computer, I really ought to be in the studio finishing. I’ll try to post some pics of the quilt on the frame tomorrow!

TTFN-

Suzanne

For better or worse…

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Suzanne

…my quilts are on their way to Kansas City for MQS (Machine Quilter’s Showcase). You won’t have to listen to me whine about my red wholecloth anymore because it is done and gone.

It seemed to take forever to put hanging sleeves and labels on everything. Maybe because I kept procrastinating and trying to find a gazillion other things to do….

My quilts are not “show” quilts — I don’t obsess over every single stitch, I don’t knot and bury my thread ends. I love to look at over-the-top quilts at quilt shows, but I also like to look at normal, every day kind of quilts — and that’s what mine are. I don’t send them expecting to win ribbons, I send them so that maybe somebody at the show will get an idea that they can take home and use on a quilt of theirs.

Today is the 2nd to last day of school. Wow. Where did this school year go? After Tuesday, we’ll have 3rd graders at our house. Doesn’t seem possible. I was invited to Joe’s classroom to listen to some reports that he and a few other kids got to work on. They went to the library with the classroom aide and did some research on a historical topic that was interesting to them. They put together posters and gave a short talk to the rest of the class. Joe’s was about castles. The kids were so funny — they did really well for being 2nd graders. One of the little boys rocked back and forth throughout his whole talk. I wanted to go stand up behind him, put my hands on his shoulders and keep him still. Will was very jealous that he did not get to do a report also. I told him that he could do a report whenever he wanted to — but he wants to do an “assigned” report — assigned by a teacher, not just his mom…

I’m going to try to go do something creative this afternoon, so maybe I’ll have pictures to share later.

TTFN-

Suzanne

Paying attention to my surroundings

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Suzanne

Monday night we were driving home from the Lion’s Club Steak Fry. We happened to pass our old house, which has gobs of peonies out front (and in back, too…). I said to my husband “You know, we need some peonies at our new house.”

He gave me the long-suffering-my-wife-is-an-idiot look and said “We *have* peonies at our new house.”

Ahem.

Not only do we have peonies, but they are in a really out of the way spot that is hard to see. Like, right at the end of the driveway next to the mailbox.

Ahem.

So, after noticing them (they weren’t there before, honest…LOL), I decided to take a few photographs of them.

And one of the few blossoms that is open:

I’m glad I know where they are now, I’ll be sure to keep an eye on them.

Yes, I am incredibly unobservant sometimes. It’s almost embarassing. I keep reminding the DH that this sort of thing is part of my charm. He still doesn’t believe.

One last shot: another 26 Things Scavenger hunt photograph:

Landmark

This beautiful pine tree graces our front yard. Before the current house was built (about 14-15 years ago), this property was a farmstead. Somewhere on our 2 acres the remains of an old house and several outbuildings are buried. I wonder how many years old this landmark of a tree really is — I’m sure it has weathered storms too numerous to count. It’s getting some rain tonight — it’s raining quite hard at the moment. Thank goodness!

TTFN-

Suzanne

p.s. Yes, this post is still part of my attempt to avoid the quilt. I couched the Madeira around the binding and you know what — it disappears into the ditch created by the binding. So it was pretty much a waste of time. Phooey. Now on to Plan D. Or maybe it’s closer to about Plan X by now….

Am I Done Yet?

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Suzanne

Oy.

I think I’m making this too hard. In fact, I know I am. It’s gotten so bad this week that I have resorted to doing laundry and cleaning the house in order to avoid finishing this quilt.

Please ignore the phantom chalk lines that appear at the bottom left and bottom right. They were an experiment in potentially trimming the quilt to a funky shape.

Also ignore the yellow pin heads at the top of the quilt. The quilt is pinned onto my design wall. It’s too heavy to stick on it’s own.

You can’t tell in this picture, but the feathers are outlined with a couched-on sparkly madeira thread. You can see a closeup of the small heart in a post from a few days ago.

I’ve wanted to do some beading, or some crystals, or ….something….but I think right now that what I’m doing is trying to embellish for the sake of embellishment. And I most certainly don’t want to fall into that trap.

I’m just worried that as it is, it looks unfinished. Like I just quilted a big heart, and then pebbled around it. I’m worried about that left-hand corner being too big and looking empty. I’ve played with some beading ideas, including a beaded echo of the assymetrical heart motif down in the left-hand corner, but it was looking….stupid….

I’ve had trouble getting a good picture of it that is true to the color and shows off the quilting. The picture above makes it look much brighter than it is — the red wool I used is a very dark red. I’ve thought maybe it needs some more sparkle, but maybe the couched thread is enough.

What I think I’m going to do right now is go couch on some more of the Madeira thread around the inside of the binding. And then I’m going to call it done….unless somebody comes up with some brilliant idea for me. Something brilliant but simple that can be accomplished today or tomorrow, because this crazy thing has to be on it’s way to Kansas City right now! That isn’t too much to ask for, is it?