A Change In Plans

I am going to make a change in my UFO Challenge and OMG for this month.

Julie is doing a class and wants to use my Bird quilt as a project show.  So the birds are going to fly!

It needs to be mailed off to her so I can't work on it this month.  In its place, I will substitute the Diamond Dogs for  my UFO completion.

Luckily it is early enough in the month to make the change, I think.  I will talk to Judy and see about deleting the earlier post and adding this one in its place.

The Diamond Dogs is a pattern (by another name I can't think of right now) I found in one of my quilt magazines (I can't find right now) last year.  I really loved it and wanted to make a dog quilt for a friend of mine for Christmas.  Needless to say, i didn't finish it in time for christmas distribution.

It recently got quilted, if you remember.  And looks dynamite.  She may well still get it as a Just Because gift.  You know, just because.  She will be surprised

I really like this quilt.  I want to keep it, like I want to keep ALL of the quilts I make.  But I really can't do that, can I?

We went shopping Sunday and I bought two pairs of hiking sandals: a Teva and a Chaco.  I love both of them.   Frank bought a pair of Old Man sandals.  Those are not a brand, that is what they look like.  The brand is Keen.  They are still old man sandals, no matter what.  But he likes  them.

And I digress.......

He bought a very flamboyant bathing suit.  you won't miss him on the ship!

We did a lot of cleaning up in the yard today as well.  On Saturday, Frank went with Andrew, Greg and Dennis down to New Orleans to the WWII Museum for the day.  They spent the day doing man things.


I spent the day doing sewing things.  

I followed the tutorial from Patty the Quilt Lady and made this

boxy bag.  Pretty easy following her instructions.  Thanks Patty!


This is what 100 zippers look like. Patty told me about a great price on packs of 100 zips.  She bought some and so did I.  I think that sounded like she challenged me to use mine before she used hers up.    

And........
I brought some meals to a Fiber Art friend who had knee surgery on Friday.  She was so glad for some "healthy" food since her hubby kept trying to feed her Canes Chicken Fingers!  LOL.  I kinda like Canes.....but I eat a lot of the healthy food instead too.

Diamond Dogs

When we moved here 32 years ago, the back yard was a total mess.  we cleared out a section in the back and opened up more than half the space.  We spent the next 15 years landscaping, building a Japanese Rock Garden and a beautiful deck.  And more recently Carrie and I built a back patio of slate stones.

In the furthest back part there has always been these trillium that appear and bloom in the spring.  they are a weed found all over Louisiana and Mississippi.  It looks like something one would cultivate doesn't it.

I really need to make a piece featuring the lowly trillium. 

I have some big plans for the grandbaby soon.   I am working on setting him up in some classes we can take together.  Fun, more on that later.  I have to go to the Zoo this week, so I can grab him and get him in the wagon and wheel him through to the back.  I used to work at the zoo.  part of my job was to help prepare the food for the various animals and birds.  Amazingly, a lot of them got raw onions for dinner.

And in quilting news, I was able to get Diamond Dogs on the frame and quilt a meandering pattern all over it.  I have to say, the quilting actually
improved the look of the quilt.  I really like it.

It is very flat, which is a good thing.
 
I got it trimmed up tonight.  I was able to cut and apply the binding, but still need to sew it down.
I am still working on the binding for the Triangles quilt.  One more side!








I am linking up to Freemotion by the River so hop on over there and see what the others are working on.  Maybe add your own linky!












I spent some time this morning
with Trinity who did some dry needling on my back and hip.  I feel a lot better but the places she worked on are sore.  I am hoping I can continue the dry needling for eternity.

Diamond Dog Progress

Check out the baby cardinals in the previous post, if you missed them.


 I worked out the dimensions of the odd pieces that filled in the edges.  I don't  measure in inches though.  I did it the easy way!





I took a background diamond, cut a piece just over half horizontally (and another vertically) and used that for the ones across the bottom (and down the sides).

The four corners were more of a challenge, they are directional.  But I got that figured out post haste.

Here are all the pieces just out on the design wall, pre-sewing.

And I am off and running!

First corner done.

I have one side done and I was beginning to get bored.  So I switched to the right bottom side and started working upwards.

This is exactly halfway done.  




Here is where I left it to go watch American Ninja Warriors.

The two middle rows are left to do.  Love those red centers.  It looks like it might just be square.  That left side is about 64 inches long. 

All the materials here came from the stash, still have not bought any fabric!  My goal is to be able to put all the fabrics into my quilt room.  Right now it is spread out into the long arm dining room too.  

Baby Chicks and Diamond Dogs

I got the mountains quilt completely bound.  Now I need a label......forgot the label.

I worked on the Diamond Dogs quilt.  Got the background cut and will decide how to create the edges some time today.  I don't know how I want to make the edges look.  I have a limited amount of background dogs, so I actually can make the outside diamonds a different color, like a tan or a darker color more toward brown.

I made low carb, low fat, low sugar chia donuts.  They actually taste pretty good. 
These are frosted but they do have a nutmeg glaze that I didn't make because I thought they might stick together if I stored them.  And I would have to eat them all at one sitting, you know.

I also painted my window sill grey.  It was beige and I wanted it grey. In Louisiana, we will often call that a window seal.  Yep, we do.  I envision the orking, flipper slapping fish eating seal.  In a window of course.

Baby bonus!


We have new babies just outside my den window.  I mean Brand New Babies!

The daddy is a big red cardinal.  I see him coming and feeding, but I haven't seen the momma.  She must come when I am not watching.

Aren't they totally cute and awesome?