No, that really is too hot

The temperature was 106*F both weekend days. 

Whoa!  That's just too hot.  All the blinds and curtains are closed so it feels like we're living in a cave. 

On Saturday, I got a little quilting on the analogous green quilt.  And, we went to see our friend LD.  She is doing well and moving well.  That's always good.  We had lunch and talked needlepoint and had a nice visit.  And, when we got home, I sat in the sofa in the studio and didn't move much.  We didn't even go out for dinner.  We stayed in and had cold chicken salad sandwiches. 

On Sunday, I needed to water flower pots and knew I wasn't going to want to do it in the afternoon.  While I was out there, it was nice and cool and there was a breeze.  Next we went to the grocery and when we got back, it was already hot and steamy.  It's the humidity that makes it so miserable. 

I cooked dinners for all week before it got too hot out and did dishes.  But, after that, it was all about sitting still under an air conditioning vent.  But, it's supposed to be cooler this week...97.  Ninety-seven shouldn't be a break from the heat, right?  But that's how we think of it as here, now. 

But August starts tomorrow and after that, it's over. 

Say it three times. 

And, click your heels together.  Something.  Anything.  There's no place like October, there's no place like October...

I did get the analogous feathered star quilt finished yesterday. 

It took a couple hours to tear off the paper, but now it's done.  And, I realized I didn't leave any of these fabrics out for a binding.  And, they're so specific that I really wish I still had a piece of one of them.  Where did the rest of the fabrics go? 

A cute as the dickens pieced quilt back, that's where.  I wanted to use it up.  And, I did, darn it. 

I'll have to carry the quilt somewhere and show it off...uhm, I mean match a binding fabric to it. 

I'm pretty sure I saw one of the darker fabrics in JoAnn's the other day.  (he says hopefully)

My needlepoint got high praise from LD.  She has done a lot of needlepoint and I'm hoping she'll do some more.  Everybody needs something to look forward to, right?  (hint, hint)

Anyway, she especially complimented my tension.  She said many new needlepointers pull their stitches too tight, and I don't. 

As I was unrolling it, she was talking to Rob about tension distorting the canvas.  And, then we both pointed to the place my stitches were too tight and distorted the canvas.  But, she felt like I could block that out.  I'm about 65% done.  Maybe more.  Looking forward to a finish.

And, I'm thinking about the next quilt to pin baste.  What will it be???  (something to look forward to)

Everybody have a great Monday.  I hope something good happens to you. 

And, if it doesn't, pick something and decide to see it that way.

Lane

The angry deer

He's not really angry.  It's just too dang hot to iron. 

He has a heavy eyebrow ridge that should go away when he is ironed.  I hope. 

This is the latest block from the Have a Jolly Little Christmas BOM by Sew Fresh Quilts.  Rob says he wants a quilt with nine of them, one with a red nose.  Sew Fresh made hers with a black nose but I couldn't resist the red nose. 

I sure hope that brow ridge irons out.

I spent some time in the garden this weekend.  Early hours.  Wee early hours.  Just to get a few plants in pots and do some watering and some weeding and a little trimming.  But, I can only do a little at a time this time of year.  I'm really good at waiting til winter and doing my hard work then.  I'm already planning my fall and winter garden projects. 

I heard a small scratching sound in the attic the other day.  Can't have that.  Turns out something had pulled the steel wool out of the small hole in the siding.  Pretty sure that's how it got in.  Don't know if it was squirrels or something more sinister.  But, we made a loud racket and banged around on Saturday and then Rob covered the hole with something more permanent.  No more sounds since then. 

While we were up there, we noticed that the screen over the eave vent was torn, so we decided to replace that.  We were up doing that before sunrise yesterday morning before the attic could heat up.  We warned Sydney, we're going to be in the attic really early, so don't stay up late the night before.  Course, we didn't set the house on fire or set off the tornado siren, so she didn't get up. 

While we were at the hardware store, we decided to check front porch lights.  We found this one.  We've been looking for about 18 months, so no one was more surprised that we actually found one we agreed on. 

I knew it would happen that way...the right day, the right mood, the right light.  That's how we roll.  It's kind of industrial and reminds us both of the lights that would have hung on the front of a barn.  We tried it in a larger size and went with the smaller because in a larger size, it looked a little too much like a light that would hang on the front of a barn. 

Yesterday afternoon, I turned the small fan on my legs and quilted another side of the bubble border on the analogous green quilt. 

One more side and this one will be done.  I'm hoping to get the last tissue pinned on today so I can get started with the quilting tomorrow.  It only takes about an hour and a half do to a side, so I don't quite know what I'm procrastinating about. 

I guess it gives me something to look forward to, right?  Always a job to be done.

If it just wasn't so dang hot. 

Everybody have a great Monday.  The start to another new week.  Anything could happen.  I hope it's something good. 

Lane

Painting done

I would love to write a post about some beautiful quilting I did over the weekend.  But, honestly, I didn't.  I put the bubbles in one border of the green quilt, but that was the extent of my quilting.  I was not into it.  I didn't even finish the binding on Simply Delicious.  I hope to get back to it this week, but we will have to see.  I'm distracted right now. 

Instead, I have pictures of the bathroom that I painted. 

Rob built all the cabinet doors for me.  They're solid wood.  The vanity had doors, but these three cabinets were just an open set of shelves when I moved in.  I wasn't much on that because I didn't want to have to keep my shelves neat and organized all the time.  They're solid wood and heavy, made from narrow strips of wood glued together and braced on the inside.  He made new vanity doors to match. 

 

When I moved into the house, this bathroom was papered with a black and white stripe with brightly colored flowers.  It was very versatile, any color worked in there.  But, it was hideous paper with a flowery border along the ceiling. 

Oops, should have lowered the toilet seat before I took that one.  Oh, well.  We all open the toilet, right?  

We went on Saturday and bought new towels.  We replace our towels a lot because the space is so small that thick fluffy towels don't dry well.  So, of course, we keep buying thick fluffy towels. 

I hate those drop down lights.  They are a pain.  But, they were "da bomb" when the house was built and I'm way too lazy to replace them.  I'm going to need to look for something brown and green to fill that big empty wall.  Maybe a quilt??

 

The bathroom was green.  Olive and a light pea green.  In 2002, I painted the olive first and then sponged for days and days and days with several lighter shades of paint.  It was beautiful.  Like being in a forest.  And, then something happened and we had to paint a section and I knew I'd never imitate that effect again as a patch and didn't have time to do the whole room, so we painted over it with just the olive.  I can't even remember what happened.   But, I can tell from the below when it happened. 

 

That's our notes from behind the mirror.  2002, when we'd only been together for 2 years.  Then, in 2006 we went just the olive.  And, now, the khaki color. 

A history of us. 

I also built a scroll frame for my needlepoint.  I studied them and looked at how they are made, but I was too cheap to buy one.  I don't want to spend a lot of money on another hobby.  So, I built one.  $5 at the hardware store and some scrap lumber and dowels from the garage.  And, it's working great!  I just hope it's not too late.  My work was getting pretty pulled out of shape from me thinking I wouldn't need one.  It was becoming a parallelogram instead of a rectangle.

Everybody have a great Monday!  It's a new week.  Anything could happen.  Make it be something good. 

Lane

Just words

No beautiful quilt pictures today.  Just thoughts and words and deeds. 

I've been a bachelor all week.  Rob was out of town on a road trip, leaving me, the dogs, the cats and a surly teen to survive without the calming effect that he brings to our lives.  And, as funny as it would be to say it all went to crap in his absence, it didn't. 

I painted the bathroom.  And, walked dogs and paid attention to all the animals and watched a whole season of Doctor Who and did a whole bunch of needlepoint because after a full day of reaching and stretching and painting, I was tired and sore and needed to sit relatively still.  One thing I didn't do was cook.  I bought a frozen lasagna and a frozen Chinese meal and package of sandwich meat and a loaf of bread.  And, that's what we ate.  And, it was good. 

But, boy was Sydney surprised.  I'm not sure whether she thought we weren't going to eat at all or whether she thought she would be on her own, but she wasn't.  There was food at the ready.  It just wasn't what we were used to.

Sometimes it's good to be unpredictable. 

And, speaking of Syd, I'm not sure what was wrong with her, but she was nice and friendly and said please and thank you.  I'm pretty sure it was really her martian substitute and not really her.  I think mostly it was because I didn't ask her to help me paint.  All I needed help with was taking down the mirror and that's all the help I asked for.  The rest of the time I left her to her own, as long as she didn't create a burden for me.  And, she didn't. 

I've been anxious to blog about going to the "sewing with strangers" meeting at guild on Monday.  I went.  And, I'm very glad I did.  There were other men there!  When I went up for my show and tell, I started by saying "I'd like to welcome all the men in attendance tonight.,  I am not alone." and everyone applauded.  It was great! 

When we got there, we signed into the hospitality table and drew a number from a box.  I found my table and dropped my stuff off and was surprised at how many people at the meeting I actually knew.  I know more than the fraction that I said last week.  I don't remember all the names.  I'm terrible at names.  But, I knew the faces and I knew where we knew one another from, so I was able to converse...without using names.  And, I'm pretty sure everyone else was the same.  The event was so popular that they had more people than they had set up tables and had to bring other tables in to accommodate everyone. 

I was at a table of people, most of whom I knew but there were a few unfamiliar faces.  But, I spent most of my time visiting with a man that was there for the first time.  He just showed up for his first meeting, and didn't know what the theme was so didn't bring any hand work.  We spent most of the hour and a half visiting and talking about the quilts we'd made.  He was watching me bind and we talked about how I get such a narrow binding.  He's doing the Bonnie Hunter quilts now, so we laughed about 5000 piece quilts.  And, I shared a story about a mystery of hers I did and how it was ugly so I didn't put the blocks together like Bonnie did and ended up making several Linus quilts out of the sections.  I shared that I have to make quilts in the colors I have in my stash (my favorite colors) rather than trying to match someone else's colors in a mystery quilt.  We laughed a lot and he got the chance to hear the other quilters at the table talk about what they do and enjoy as well. 

On Tuesday, the roofer came.  I'm not real happy with the shingles he used.  "As close as we can match the existing shingles" didn't turn out to be very close.  Like brown is not very close to dark gray.  But, it is what it is.  He was here all day and I couldn't resist the urge to take him out ice water every so often.  The rest of the day, he was on the roof, working in the heat, and I was in the bathroom, working in the cool.  Life ain't fair, is it?

Okay, my hands hurt up to the elbows.  And, I'm not quite sure why I didn't take today off.  There's nothing on my calendar.  But, it will give Rob some time at home alone to re-acclimate.  And, I think I'll try to knock some things out and maybe leave at noon.  Me and my co-worker from my three person team are off this week and my boss has been alone.  I'm hoping that made him appreciate me more. 

Everybody have a great Friday and a great weekend.  I hope to get back to quilting in the morning.  I'm missing it. 

Lane

Back and forth

I keep switching between two projects; Simply Delicious, which doesn't have a name and the green quilt, that has a bad name...I've got to do better if it's going to be shown. 

I've been quilting bubbles in the green quilt's outer border, but I need a quilting hand project.  Monday night's guild is bring hand work, get assigned a random table, and get to meet some new people in the guild.  It's a great idea and one I would normally run from like it was on fire.  But, I'm hoping I don't talk myself out of it.  I'd really like to get to meet some more guild members.  I know quite a few, but it's a 500 member guild and about 120 people come to meetings.  And, I know a fraction of them.  So, knowing more members is a good thing for me.  I plan to be hand sewing the binding on Simply Delicious. 

For a short time, I considered adding another border after quilting.  I know...hardly ever done, but do-able.  I've done it.  I thought about adding a narrow dark inner border and then a wider border to finish it off.  But, when the quilting was done and it was laid flat, it didn't need it. 

I got Rob to go out in the back yard with me for pictures last weekend.  It's not been washed and blocked, but most of the blue ink is washed out. 

All that quilting and you can hardly see it, just like I intended. 

But, when it's hung on the wall in the living room, and the lamp shines from below and to the left, all those orange peel curves are going to POP! 

This is the back.  You can't see any quilting there.  The back was in the box I had been keeping the UFO in, neatly folded up.  I've been working on this quilt so long, I thought it came with the kit.  But, I don't think so.  This was a blue and white sheet.  And, when I saw it, I vaguely remembered stumbling up on sheets being sold individually and picking this one up because I thought it would be perfect.  And, I was so right!  I used a pale blue cotton thread on the top and a white thread in the bobbin and got the tension just right so neither shows on the other side. 

I have the binding fabric.  I don't know if it came with the kit or not.  Probably.  But, now I'm off to cut it into strips and sew them back together. 

Everybody have a great Friday!  The weekend is upon us.  I've taken some days off next week to paint the bathroom.  Woo-hoo!  My life is so exciting. 

Lane

Bubbles

No, not Bubbles Malone, the famous stripper.  Bubbles in my quilting. 

I know what you're thinking...a very unconventional choice with all those feathers.  But, look two borders above the bubbles at the fabric I used  And, it's in the points below the bubbles, but you can't see it very clearly.  It's sort of bubbles.  I had really been sweating what to do in this border and I was doing some finishing up outlining and looked to my left, and there was that bubble fabric. 

So, I cut a piece of paper the exact size of the borders and I used my Dad's 60ish year old drafting compass to draw circles.  I wanted a variety of sizes and they had to touch one another so that I didn't have starts and stops. 

And, then I needle punched that into four strips of tissue paper that I pinned to the quilt and I quilted along the lines. 

Voila!

I think it's going to work okay.  We will have to see.  It is an unconventional combination because one implies formality to me (the feathers) and one is whimsical (the bubbles).  There is a wide outer border of that same print and I plan to do the exact same thing out there...except I plan to use bigger bubbles so it doesn't take so long to fill.  From 3" moving down by half inch increments to 1/2" diameter so there is a good variety of size. 

I also caught up on some piecing.  I had this holly block from Have a Jolly Little Christmas  cut and the piecing was started.  So, I finished it up and I made the most recent block, the ribbon wreath. 

The holly is a little abstract for me, but it will be great in the rest of the quilt. 

And, because I don't quite have enough projects going on, I have taken up a new one...needlepoint.  Not that I wanted to learn needlepoint, but I have inherited the most beautiful UFO that needs to be finished.  It's just too pretty not to finish it.  But, I didn't know the first thing about needlepoint, so I decided to learn.  I'm not showing my first project.  Nobody needs to see that.  But, I've started my second project. 

I bought a cheap pre-owned kit off ebay.  That really is the best way to practice, right?  You probly can't see it, but I've finished the house and have moved out into the trees.  I'm trying to master tension.  I'm thinking about watching a video and seeing if I can pick up any tips.  Everything I've tried from the book I have is either too loose or too tight. 

 

And, this must have come out over the weekend; Paducah winner.  I've been getting a lot of traffic from that.  Thanks so much to KathyS for letting everybody know that not all quilters are women and for mentioning my blog!!!  It is a beautiful quilt and I'm so glad to have been a part of it.  There's a video about it somewhere where the winner of the raffle that entered it in the Paducah show talks about it.  In that video, she mentions me by name.  I'm famous!  Well, sort of. 

 

Everybody have a great July 3rd.  I have the day off and am headed out to water the flowerpots.  It was too hot yesterday afternoon, when I normally would have watered, so since I had today off, I procrastinated.  Don't tell Syd.  She doesn't need any encouragement or reinforcement about procrastinating.

 

Later this week, I'll post pics of the Simply Delicious quilt.  It's finished and I've spritzed out the blue marking ink.  Next is attaching the binding.  Woo-hoo!!

 

BTW, I saw a Simply Delicious kit on ebay a couple days ago.  If you wanted to make that quilt, you might check it out.  I just checked and its still there.  And, there are a few random blocks, too. 

 

A finish.