Sewing The Day Away Among Friends!

I spent the day with two friends sewing (not enough sewing got done!)  But I did get some blocks of houses done and made some additional trees to put in more blocks.  I am now catching up with my houses and need to start making more houses too!  This is not all of my current houses, but look how many!  And the trees are fabulous in there.  Can you see them?  Each block finishes at 4 x 4 so that is about 25 x 25 right now and is 4 "blocks".


Paula got her moose drawn for her brother's quilt.  It will be a Northcountry Moose Quilt full of luscious brown plaids.  Yum.

And Norma did some embroidery for her signature Christmas Stockings and chose some fabrics for a tumbler quilt she is starting.  I wish you could see that cute doggie she is making.  Darn.

Here we are, having fun!

Finally found the link for the CAAWS Krewe of Mutts Parade

http://www.wafb.com/Category/195952/video-landing-page?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=6688111

(cut and paste the whole thing in one address line)

I finally found the link from the Krewe of Mutts Parade we put on every year through CAAWS, Capital Area Animal Welfare Society.  Frank is president and I am on the board for the last 12 years or so.  The main purpose is to Spay and Neuter as many cats and dogs as we can but we have grown to also provide about 200 adoptions each year in our meager shelter.

We pull from the kill shelters and accept a very very few owner surrenders.  Like the girl who enlisted and her parents said they would not keep her sweet dog.  So she spent a Sunday afternoon the day before she deployed in our yard crying.  And all our volunteers were inside crying too.  I went to pick up the mail and left crying.

In order to do this work we raise money from various sources and the largest one is the CAAWS Krewe of Mutts Parade.  Here is a link to the New Feature from the Sunday night local news.

That is Frank they interviewed!

glen:  I am going to see if pam can send me some of her pictures for the blog as well.  our theme was The Good, The Bad and The Furry.  And we had some great costumes!

A little experimentation

I have this scrap pile of plaid shirts leftover from cutting up shirts for two quilts.  Yes, TWO quilts!  You don't really figure there is that much fabric in a shirt, but there are a lot of pieces that are too small for this or that, and they just go into a scrap pile.

So I have been thinking about Log Cabin type blocks with the plaid shirt scraps.  And I had some time tonight to play a bit and see if there was any value to the idea.

I like them but have no idea what to do with them other than make more!  I can do that happily!  Maybe a border for one of the scrap quilts, maybe a whole other quilt altogether.  Who knows!

What would YOU do with them?   Maybe we need a Plaid Shirt Challenge?

glen

Design wall 1-30-12

It is almost the end of January, my birthday month is over for another year, that is always sad. I have accomplished a lot, quilting wise and life wise. 2012 is turning out to be so much better than 2011, and that is something I am very grateful for. I am surrounded by wonderful friends who share my love of quilts and dogs and biking, and the time we spend together.  My design wall is filled with projects I love and I haven't killed DiNozzo yet, although he may not make it through the week.  See him hiding from me after the toilet paper incident?

This week my design wall is filled with my mystery quilt for my local guild, River City, so I can't exactly show you that one. I am Beta Testing it!  But I am also working on the Tiny Tiny Houses and found the most wonderful sashing material. I started putting together some blocks of houses. Kind of a double meaning. I really mean blocks like subdivision blocks. Check out my first block block! LOL!!


So I am off to a great start in this first month of 2012.   And I am planning on a great rest of the year too!  I feel good for the first time in months.

I hope yours is a wonderful and forward looking.

Albondigas to all!

glen

Stash Report 1-29-12 and a very very very bad dog

I did well this week considering I had to purchase the material for the Tiny Tiny Houses sashing.  But that was a total necessity as I had nothing here that would do.  So I don't feel guilty about that purchase!

I did, however, NOT purchase several things I did want this week.  No plans for any of them, but I held back and made no extraneous purcvhases of fabrics I did not need.  Aren't you proud of me????

Here is the damge this week:

Oh, I thought you might enjoy seeing the little dog in his last hours of life.  He is hiding from the Wrath of Mom because he did this:

 (to a whole new toilet paper package I had just brought home from the store.  All 12 of them now have fancy edges.)

Stash Report:

I used scraps and fabric I had around here to cut up for the Neighborhood Quilt, the Tiny Tiny Houses, and the Mystery Quilt I cant' show you, then I purchased the sashing and two dotty fat quarters for the Houses (FQs were not for the houses, just for fun!) and the total for the month is:

Used this week:  -11.75 yards
Used this Month:  -29.3 yards
Used totoal 2012:  -29.3

Purchased this week:  3 yards
Purchased this Month:  3 yards
Purchased this year:  3 yards

Grand total REDUCTION of 26.3 yards

 And I still don't have space on my shelves!  LOL.

glen

Biking week 2

After the toilet paper incident, I needed to ride.  We knew we needed to ride Saturday because of all the stuff we need to do tomorrow.  The four of us headed out toward White Oak Lakes again.  We wanted to see what the water was doing, remember last week it was high up against the weir, which was unusual.

Last week bridge and bench

And WOW!  The water was even higher in the Amite River.  You can see it ponding in places I have not seen water before.  Even during the Mississippi Floods last year.

Last week Amite River

Here is the Last Week/This Week comparison.

This week near bridge and bench

This week Amite River 

And notice the gorgeous day we had.  about 62 temps and not a cloud in the sky!  The pictures look so bright and beautiful from this week.  Funny how much a difference a bit of sun makes.

This week Amite River near trail

We rode 12.7 miles this week, a mile more than last for some reason, and we went the same route I thought. Dan asked me last week, for $100 would you do that again right now?  No way I said, $1,000,000 maybe.

This week he asked again, and my price was down to $1000!

glen:  Tammany Trace plans are in progress, and the group is growing.

Can you salvage a half eaten toilet paper? No wait, four?

Do you see that dog hiding in there?  He thinks I can't see him.  And he is hiding for good reason.  A VERY good reason. He thinks he has only moments to live, and he may well.  He'd better be saying his doggy prayers.

I just got back from the grocery store whereupon I purchased toilet paper....because, well, it is one of the necessities of life.  And I had a bunch of other bags to carry in, so I put it down on the floor in the kitchen.  Put my groceries away and then went to check my emails.

I hear a noise, and with DiNozzo noises are ALWAYS bad.  I go out and see this:

The photo does not do the scene justice.  Here are some close-ups of his romp with the toilet paper.

I have no idea why the toilet paper attracted him, it never has before.  There is no smell to it.  And he does not get to play with the empty rolls like Max loved to do.

I asked him "WHY??"

He replied, "Because it was there.  Yup."

I go into the yard to find him, and look at what he has now!  The SEVENTY TWO CENT CUCUMBER!  Aughhhh!

I need a whole 'nother blog to chronicle what this dog destroys in a day.



If he lives through the weekend, he will be one lucky little dog.

The Quilt The Swamp Show - you gotta see this report!

http://beta.lpb.org/index.php?/swi/swi_episode/quilt_the_swamp

Michael, Sally and Mary did a FANTASTIC job on this segment.  Makes me proud to rub shoulders with these talented people!

glen

PS: this is a piece I did in 2006 taking a piece of black fabric and doing a sort of reverse discharge.  It was one of my earlier experiements with this technique.  Michael told me that the resulting red fabric was highly prized by dischargers and not always easy to get.

Shopping

We went sewing machine shopping today. We looked at three or four machines and I think there might have actually been one sure winner, the husquvarna of course! glen

A "Block" of Tiny Tiny Houses

Wow!  It wasn't until I actually put that title in that I realized those words had a double meaning!  I made a quilt block.  And the houses formed a block - like a neighborhood block.  Get it?

Anyway, since the Mystery Quilt blocks are all together and just need to be sewn together, I decided to treat myself to what I REALLY wanted to be doing--Tiny Tiny Houses!

I cut the sashing up and auditioned 4 fabrics for the cornerstones.  Then I made my decision and cut out the cornerstone pieces.  They are tinier then the houses at 1 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inch!  Wow.

And this:







Became this:











Which became this:

(I don't know why they look all weird, they really are perfectly square)








Which turned into this beauty!

Only 9,999,999 to go!

Good, Better, Best Days

A good day in a quilter's life is sitting at the machine and sewing all day long, stopping only to occasionally beat a dog  for eating a pillow you have taken out of his mouth 14,000 times and threatening to send him back to CAAWS to live in a cage for the rest of his life.....but I digress.

A better day in a quilter's life is having the blocks you are sewing start looking like they are supposed to look after you have made 27,000 errors in putting the blocks together because you are not reading the directions and you think you know how to put a quilt together better than the lady who designed the stupid pattern in the first place and you spend half the day ripping something off each block you put together that morning.....but I digress.

The best day in a quilter's life is when, despite the dog and the cat fighting in the hallway and all the mistakes you made putting the blocks together, the blocks actually go together and lie flat, the seams all meet despite the many many many tiny pieces you have spent the last two days cutting and sewing and trimming.  And the quilt top is flat and even and most beautiful!  Yes, the best day!

I am sorry I can't show you the quilt, it is a guild mystery I am working on checking my directions and cannot divulge the reveal for another 8 months.  Sorry!  But it is so beautiful.  And I would never have chosen this particular designer's patterns or this particular pattern had I been looking for a quilt to make.  Now I love it.  Just shows you gotta be open to new ideas and good things will come.

I doubted my color choices immediately after I cut everything out and began to sew the block together.  But when the blocks started to live together, they blended perfectly!  This will be a fabulous mystery revealed in September.

I can't show you, sorry!

glen

 

Quilt The Swamp on TV and a Reception

There is a Fiber Arts Show called Quilt THe Swamp at the Bluebonnet Swamp put on every January by Michael Young and his associates.  I usually have a piece in there, but this year was so complicated with Dutch and my mom and some other things that happened that I just didn't have the oomph to get anything together\r for the show.  This was the 10th Anniversary of this event, and has become a much anticipated show.  

The theme changes each year and has something to do with the swamp.  Some themes have been Midnight in the Swamp, Trees from the Swamp, The Swamp in 3-D, Photos from John Hartenak of the Swamp.  Always a lot of potential to do a piece for the show.

This year, as it was the 10th anniversary, Michael decided to do a recap of pieces from the last 9 years.  I couldn't even get my stuff together for that!  LOL.

Anyway, the point of the story is........as Frank says.....Michael Young, Mary Felder and Sally Gordon were interviewed by Louisiana: The State We Are In for viewing on Friday January 27 at 7pm.  It will reair on Saturday.  The station is one of the PBS locals.

 Michael also wants to make sure you know you are also invited to attend the reception this Sunday at 4 PM at the Swamp.  There will be finger food and most of the artists there to share stories and answer questions for you about their pieces.

It is well worth seeing if you have not already had the chance to get out there.   Bluebonnet Swamp is down Bluebonnet Avenue in Baton Rouge.  A fun outing as well because you can walk the trail system they have developed!

glen

A background for some tiny tiny houses and tiny tiny trees

How the tree looks

A layout of about 20 pieces.

Whew!  Finally, on the Girl's Day Out, I found some acceptable background for sashing on the Tiny Tiny Houses quilt.  It was the first I have bought in a long long time.  And it was expensive!  Prices sure have jumped on fabrics.  I don't want to get too far ahead without being able to start putting them together.  I fear if I get 366 tiny tiny houses and tiny tiny trees and then have to put them all together at one time, it would just become another UFO for future years.

Should have taken my favorite house!

The fabric did not photograph well, the lighting conditions were wrong.  It has no white in it at all, it is an antique muslin color around the tiny tiny on point square.  And those are not the red cornerstones I will use, I just wanted something red in there to see what it was going to look like.  I like it.  What about you?

I am loving the idea of the trees interspersed within the houses; giving shade, if you will.  So I cut out about 44 tree sets to add to the house sets I have prepared.

I was working on the mystery quilt.  I had to make some changes in the pattern, but it is coming along well.  I loved my color choices when I picked them out, but as I see the design taking shape, I am not so sure about it.  Se la vie.

basset hair

Frank will be home tonight, so I cleaned the house.  He will think I have been so neat and clean when he was gone, he will be surprised to see I actually vacuumed the entire house.  I have done that, like, 4 times in our marriage.  He is the V-Man and owns the vacs and their purchase, upkeep and usage.  Not my thing.

I was, however, amazed that just after one room there was this much dog hair in the canister ---  and no Swissys in the house.  With the Swissys it would fill up a canister for every room.  That is why he went to a bagless vac, we were spending a small fortune on bags!

How are you feeling, Charlene?  I miss you!  I am assuming you made it home OK the other night.  The police didn't call me to bail you out!  LOL.

glen

Must be a Basset Thing

I have walked Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs around this neighborhood, on these same streets, down the same sidewalks for 23 years.  Never, I repeat, never have any of them grabbed anything carbon based and fought for the right to own it.

Last night was the second time in Parks' Basset history that a Basset Hound did just that.

I decided to walk the dogs early while there was still light since I was going to be walking alone.  We left the house around quarter to 5.  The two dogs have decidedly different ideas about what a walk is.  DiNozzo the Over Effusive thinks a walk should consist of racing between major smell groupings and squirrel sightings.  And then there is the slow cat creep for when the squirrel sighting takes place in hopes of actually bagging a squirrel.  His body is sleek and heavily muscled, his legs are strong, albeit short, and his chest is powerful.  He is conformationally built to run all day in the field flushing rabbits for the overweight feudal lord.

Chloe the Smelly Basset feels a walk should be termed a "smell" and taken slowly and deliberately.  When she finds something she wants to smell, she throws her long tricolored body to the ground on her side and stubbornly refuses to be placed upright.  Her nose is strategically positioned to be right over the desired smelling area.  This happens 18 to 36 times in a mile.  Which is why people at home are so amazed when I take just DiNozzo for a walk and we arrive home in 15 minutes after a mile.  Chloe is build much like DiNozzo, but a bit shorter.  No less powerful and muscled.  My vet shakes his head and laughs to himself when we attend an appointment with him.  He says in his entire career, he has never seen Bassets with so much muscle base.  He thought Chloe was an anomoly, but DiNozzo is leaner and even more muscular.

So we are walking, even though I would not even deign to call it walking what we were doing.  And nearly three qurates of the way home.  I look down and DiNozzo has a full size pigeon in his mouth.  A DEAD pigeon in his mouth.  Happy as all get out.  Trotting his way home.

Just about the time I notice, Chloe notices too.  All hell breaks loose.  He is not willing to give up his bird, Chloe wants to steal his bird from him and make it hers, and I want the darned bird away from all of us.

This reminds me of the night I was walking Bonnie Doon and Dutch and Frank was walking Chloe.  Bonnie Doon and Dutch walked perfectly together.  Like angels, they were.  Did everything right.  All the time.

I hear a commotion and look back to see Chloe and Frank in a fight to the death over a squirrel that had been hit by a car, rolled over for a day and left to bake in the sun for the afternoon.  At some point the squirrel frizbee flies out of the mix of bodies and the din settles.  Both Chloe and Frank stood there panting and exhausted, but squirrelless.

Something similar happened with us.  Only it was TWO dogs and me, fighting for possessin of a recently dead bird.  All squishy and feathery.  And yucky.

Somehow, victorious, I realized I now owned the bird.  I threw it as fast as I could, as far as I could.  Which admittedly was not very far, because DiNozzo attempted to regain possession.  I now had to drag two powerfully muscled, low center of gravity dogs who where fighting for their lives to get that bird.  I made slow purchase, but step by slow heavy step, we put distance between us and that bird.

Fianlyy, when we were turned on to the next street, and the leashes relaxed a bit, I then thought about the locust incident.

 Fortunately, collars were on correctly and securely.  We made it home and I vowed NEVER to take both Bassets on a walk together at the same time, ever again.

glen:  and I washed my hands about 30 times......

Biking in the Neighborhood with Tiny Tiny Trees

Lake side of weir

River side of weir

The first bike ride of the year with the group of biker friends.  Sounds like we are motorcycle tough guys, huh?  LOL.  We are actually only bicycle tough guys!  The ride took us through White Oak and over one of the lakes outside the area.  There is a weir connecting the lake with the Amite River.  The weir controls the lake level and thus keeps the beautiful houses from flooding.  We have to cross the weir over a neat wooden bridge.  This is the first time in several years that I have seen the water so high.  I am going to try to find an older drier picture to compare.

We biked 11.8 miles in about 2 hours with a really stiff headwind!





Then we treated ourselves to lunch at Magoo's.  Magoo's is the new favorite of the guys particularly because they have Hot Dogs done 5 ways.

This is my dinner


This is Frank's dinner (Hot Dog with bun under a ton of french fries covered with chili and cheese.



I wanted his, but ate only mine!

Then yesterday afternoon I was letting my muscles recover and I cut out another quilt called The Neighborhood from the vast amount of scraps I have stored in various places around the house.  And today I cut out Tiny Tiny Trees to shade the Tiny Tiny Houses!

Sashing blocks notwithstanding, I have several options to lay out the trees.  They can be interspersed amongst the houses and offer them some shady respite from the sunny days.

Or they can be used as a border around the entire quilt or even just blocks of houses within the quilt.   I only have two made so it is difficult to see, you just have to imagine.

Inventing the Tiny Tiny Trees for the Tiny Tiny Houses was a work in frustration.  I tend to design my own stuff, which means I have to invent it from scratch rather than letting someone else work out the bugs.  Some of my bugs were small but some were big.  Like I had the method of cutting 30 degree trees down, got a phone call, and got lost in the methodology!  And I sewed the test tree patch on backwards to the foundation paper.  And when I sewed the sky sides on the tree one time, I sewed both of them in one patch and searched and searched for the other one in frustration.  I made a replacement, and found the original when I went to sew that new one on.  Sigh.........

house block pieces

These are some of the fabrics I used for The Neighborhood quilt.  It is a 20 block quilt, 10 different houses and 10 off blocks that connect the houses like roads and gardens.  Each house is a unique combination of 16 patches that change in color and position.  Well, you will just have to see it when I get the blocks working.  Each block is clipped together with its components since there is no way I could ever get the right piece

garden blocks pieces

 back to the right block.  I had to draw complicated diagrams and use mathematical algorithms to figure out how many of what went where.


You can see my drawings over here. I was quite pleased with the way I worked each block out.  They will be fairly simple to put together, so I will do them at retreat.

I have a number of quilts to get quilted so I am thinking to spend the rest of the week on doing that.

Maybe.  Maybe not.

glen