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.

Santa is Quilted

Now he needs binding!

These are the things I remember about Santa.  The Challenge was to use the 4 or 5 fat quarters someone sent you.   Mine did not go together at all!  So I decided to use them as disparate units.  (I learned that word in my Social Work classes.) 

The letters, the stars and Santa himself came from EQ blocks I enlarged.  (I learned that word from my scale.)

I was afraid the quilting would ruin the face and beard, but I really like the way it looks on those solid areas. 

Oh, and I originally was going to quilt it in long lines of snow and icicles, but I loaded it on the frame the wrong direction.  I debated taking it off and re-affixing it lengthwise.  And decided against it.  I figured after 9 years Santa just wanted to get done!

UnReferenced Is Quilted

And the sides are trimmed.  That is a moment!  Both on the same day.  I must be on a sugar high!

With all the beautiful sunshine I felt wonderful outside taking the photos of the quilt.  If you check out Sophie Junction on my side bar, you can see the beautiful sky and her Adobe Deck in Santa Fe!  I was lusting after that Adobe building earlier today!

The dogs were happy running around and scouting out the slow moving lizards waking up from their sleep during the cold week.  Well, at least McGee was hunting lizards.  Don't worry, he is rarely successful.

 Here is the top unquilted.  Remember that I took orphan blocks and pieced the back strip?  Again, unquilted.




I put it on the frame and did a meandering loop.  Nothing fancy, I didn't want to spend a lot of time just quilting, I have too many things to get quilted.  I can get fancier as we go along.

Oh.  My. Gosh.  I do so love those foxes!  (All the fabric is Moda or solids.)   There are some really fun fabrics in there.

Here is UnReferenced in some compromising positions on my deck and a few benches around the yard.

Chloe checks out the back of the quilt on one of my benches. 

 Folded and draped and draped some more!  I love how it all comes together with the quilting.  The feel of the quilt changes, and it becomes......well, real!

I have a Remember Me Guild meeting tonight and will show it off there.  They are a very traditional group so we shall see if they clap! 

And tomorrow I can sew a white binding on the edges and do some hand work while watching TV!

Quilting!

I quilted the Lorax!  And showed it off at the Modern Quilt Guild meeting last night!

Of course, they loved it!

And for Seuss 2, they really liked  the spikey things, but all agreed that it looked better with them off the sides.  The top and bottom was OK though. 
I was leaning that way, so I will finish squaring things up and build a backing for it.

I quilted it with a new to me thread.  It was somewhat thinner than my regular thread and I had a problem with breakage until I got the tension straight.  That was only about half way through!  Grrr.

The thread is a light blue and blends into the colors well.  It also sinks into the quilt since it is thinner.  So you don't really see it a lot. 

The jury is still out on the thread though.  As to whether I like it.  The really great thing was that there was very little lint.  I generally use the thread from Connecting Threads and even though they say is it low lint, it really puts out a LOT of lint!

A quilt with Frank's feet!

When I got the Avante HandiQuilter and Margaret came to set up at the
house, she sternly told me to clean out the bobbin case EVERY TIME I CHANGE IT!  Or else!


And I do, with the Connecting Threads thread it is a definite must.  But when I changed the bobbin in this other stuff, it was ........clear!  I was kinda shocked, I guess.

I  wonder if the new thread comes in heavier weights.  I have to admit, I don't even know what brand it is.  If it does, then  maybe I can use it like BottomLine in my bobbins for all the threads until I use it up.

I bought it in cones, so it may be until forever!

Parenthetical Quilted With Wild Abandon

I lopped off a section of the batting roll and loaded up a quilt.  Parenthetical seemed the most likely to allow me to play with free motion because of the heavy patterns on both the back and the front.  And I played with wild abandon!

It went very quickly, like maybe 3 hours from start to finish.  But I had a lot of insignificant yet aggravating problems.  Which started early this morning.

At 3 AM the cat (who never does this) peed in the corner of the room.  Frank heard it in his sleep.  He jumps up and tosses the cat out, gets the new Spotbot and cleans it up, retrieves the cat and gets back in bed.  How he heard it in his sleep is a mystery to me.  He used to hear Carrie turn over in her room across the house when she was a new kid.  I never heard the child.  So much for the Mother/Child umbilical cord.

At 4:30 AM McGee throws up.  Frank heard it in his sleep.  He jumps up and tosses the dog out, gets the new Spotbot and cleans it up, retrieves the dog, gives him some tummy medicines and gets back in bed.  How he heard it in his sleep is a mystery to me.  This time I pretend to sleep.

At 6:05 AM McGee poops on the rug.  He has never done that before.  Now how Frank heard that I will never know.  He jumps up and tosses the dog out again, gets the new Spotbot and cleans it up, retrieves the dog and goes out for breakfast and to feed the dogs.  I got up because I had that medical test today.  It went well, not much pain involved, and a good report.

Back at home I have wild dogs since the weather is really cool.  I have taken everything I own out of McGee's mouth, DiNozzo's paws or Chloe's bed.  The spool of thread had been previously chewed by a certain unnamed dog, so I used it for bobbins.


Several of the bobbins only filled half way or less before the thread was broken.  So I had to change bobbins very often, and had enough to do all but 12 inches of the last corner.  So that is done in a nice purple!


And the clamp that holds the light on the machine broke.  It is very difficult to quilt like this.

The flashlight I use to look up under the quilt for the tension on the back, refused to turn on.

But I got a chance to play and doodle and circle and do anything anywhere and go wild!  It was wonderful!

I am ultimately happy and the dogs are finally settling down........finally.


glen