Spring Quilting

No, I didn't finish knitting the colorful socks; I still haven't finished the gauge swatch for my shrug.
My college girl was home for the weekend.  She slept and shopped and attended church services with me and helped me baste two prayer quilts.

 I'm quilting this on my Necchi BU treadle.  That little white thing is a piece of rubberized shelf liner--because I like a little traction, but don't like gloves.

 We had an in-service day at school today, and I had CPR training.  So starting an hour earlier than usual meant I was able to come home earlier than usual, and I worked on this spring quilt.

 On these two fabrics I used a pale lavender glide thread that is working on both the asters and the pink fabric.

 Except for the aster fabrics and the off-white print, this fabric is from a Dogwood Trail (I think) line from several years ago that was purchased by my friend Mary, who gave it to me with the suggestion that it should become a special quilt for our friend Ruth, who loves flowers and is growing frail.  It's getting closer to a finish.

My daughter said, "We need an Easter picture," so we handed the camera to a friend.  (I do think it's so interesting that when we ask someone to take a picture, we often look as if we are 25 feet away.)  College girl hugged me this weekend and then said, "Oh, my!  I think I've grown!"  Well, I certainly hope I haven't shrunk! Her semester is over in three weeks, and then she'll be coming home for a few weeks.  She's planning to take some math and physics courses at CNM in Albuquerque.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter with family and friends.

 Happy quiltmaking and knitting,.....

Still Around; Knitting & Quilting

I'm shocked that I've gone missing for so long.  I took a few pictures but didn't get them downloaded to my computer or uploaded to my blog.

I've pieced two quilts and quilted these:

 All four are prayer quilts.  I'll try to post more photos of them later.  All four of these are prayer quilts Judy pieced and layered for our ministry.

I was trying to focus on knitting because I wanted these socks finished by Easter.  Hopefully, I will still manage that.

I also joined Marly Bird's April Knit along but I'm still working with the gauge swatch.  She used size 5 needles--clearly would have been waaaaay too big.  I'm now trying it on size three.  I'm not making very good progress.

I have been watching lots of quilting videos while quilting.  I did something that I didn't think I'd ever do.  The treadle I use the most (a Necchi BU in 1919 Singer treadle irons) re-oriented itself so that I can see the new TV I placed in our living room.  I really thought I'd never again allow a TV in our living room, but here it is.  And I must say that I love the fact that I can acquire more education while I'm quilting!  I also ran across an inside TV antenna that actually works--and for far more channels than I really want to watch anyway.

School is keeping me very busy; still have more IEPs to complete in the next few weeks. Spring break went by in a flash (back in March), and it's quite possible the next few weeks will march by only slightly more slowly.  We have some trees in bloom, and when I tried to pull a few weeds in the yard today after church, I found one tiny tulip in bloom.  We are having high winds with promises of rain, but the moisture may miss us. Soooooo, onward....one day at a time.

Happy quiltmaking and knitting,....

Quilts, Etc.

Been quilting.....

 Finished one that had been started and quilted three more.  I didn't make it outside to photograph these, so maybe I'll have more luck tomorrow.
They were all fun, but the pink and blue was the most fun.  Five of the blocks are hankie prints, and they brought back so many memories.

Then I called Rocky, the Sew Man, to see if he would take a look at the Necchi Leila BF I was given a couple of weeks ago.  The card board face plate was courtesy of Bob when he serviced the machine years ago--at least I'm guessing it was years ago by the label.  Rocky thinks he has a similar model at home that he's been using for parts, so he'll see if he has the face plate.  I asked on my on-line Necchi group, but no one offered one.

 I took it in to Rocky because the motor was throwing some carbon "dust."  He cleaned it and said it's safe to use until I see it sparking throughout the motor rotation.  I'm pretty sure that somewhere I have the motors I removed from a couple of 1940 BUs when I decided to treadle them.  I think I had taken Rocky the Singer motors but not the Necchi ones.

Officially this machine is pink.  I thought it was from the early 1960's, but Rocky thinks it's ten years older than that.  When I got it back home, I used it to quilt the border on the pink and blue quilt.  It stitches sooooooo much faster than my treadles--which is interesting, because when I began treadling, I thought I treadled as fast as my electric machines sewed.  However, this is a finely engineered Italian machine, so it may stitch faster than the electrics I was using.

For the time being, I'm just leaving the end of the machine open since I oil them after every six hours or so of use.

The other adventure I had was that when I bought groceries yesterday, my card was declined--twice!  Someone had put through a small charge from a little town in Illinois that is so small that I'm sure it doesn't have the kind of business it claimed to be from.  Anyway, since my info was stolen, I had to make another trip to the city to get a new card.

I had been there earlier in the day to attend the Fiber Arts Fiesta.  There were some interesting quilts, fewer vendors than in the past, and none of the long-arm dealers were allowing potential customers to actually try the machines.  I purchased nothing--although that was probably a good thing since my card would have been declined.--Don't get me wrong; I'm immensely grateful that the fraudulent charge was spotted by someone with really good perceptions.

Okay, I'm going to try to get some quilting into another quilt yet tonight.  I do love quilting!!!(However, I have to admit that part of the fun of quilting right now is watching the tree in my front yard leaf out--it had just a few tiny leaves on Thursday.  It has a lot more now!)

Happy quiltmaking.....

Outside and Robin's Song Update

Advisory:  Picture-Heavy Post

 Although three of the five pansy plants I've had in this planter have died and one is barely hanging on, this one is doing great--and despite June heat has not yet gotten leggy.  (That will probably happen this week.)

I've told them not to do it:

 In fact, I've told them over and over.  [Yes, we leave our Christmas icicle lights up year round--they make for great outdoor lighting on the occasions when we are outside.]

 

 For years I've knocked down the beginnings of the nest of this pair of barn swallows.  My thinking was they would eventually get the idea and build elsewhere.  This year I decided to just let them learn from the experience.
When I'm sitting outside they keep swooping around our house, clearly agitated.  Well, I'm sorry.  This is our only door, and if they have babies there anyway, I'm just praying we won't terrify them (and create generations of uptight barn swallows).
They did stop swooping and sit on a light cord up there and watch me knitting.  (That was my attempt at my own personal "Knitting in Public" Day.  Yes, I know.  Only sort of public.)
And Sweet Teen reminded me that I used to let her learn from the consequences of her poor judgment too.  (Shhhhh---I'm still letting her do that, something which is probably harder on me than it is on her! Fortunately, she exercises much less poor judgement now.)

It continues to be very dry here--despite several rain storms (one including quite a bit of hail) earlier this week.  Of course, we love every drop!

We do still have quite a bit of smoke in the air from the Whitewater-Baldy Fire.  All those firefighters can certainly use our prayers.  The daughter of one of my friends is one of those firefighters.  I can't imagine being brave enough to want to do that, but Jessica just thrives on the fact that all the workers go in there and are totally united in their fight and not one of them is a slacker.  (Can't be said about a lot of other workplaces.)

The bluebells are one of my favorite late spring-early summer sights. We might have had a few more, but Sweet Teen didn't recognize them the last time she used the weed eater. This has been a very good year for bluebells, although, despite our mild winter, I haven't seen many along the roads. Once they go to seed, the seeds really need to be harvested and the stalks cut back or else they don't do as well the next year.

And, ta-dah!, I'm making some limited progress on the Robin's Nest quilt.  (It's actually just as rewarding to listen to the real robins sing outside.  They are a lot more calm around us than the barn swallows are.)

I'm telling myself to just enjoy the journey, because it's taking a while!
I'm going to join some linky parties.  Please stop by, visit a few blogs, and make a few new friends:

I'm also linking up with Elizabeth at Pieceful Life.

Do visit and leave comments.  I do try to answer all the comments that are left at my blog posts.

.

Happy quiltmaking......and knitting, too.....

Audrey's Spring Breeze - Finished!

Audrey's Spring Breeze was finished sometime yesterday evening, although it does still need to be signed.

 It is just stuffed with quilty goodness.

 Most of the quilting was done with Fil-Tec Glide in gold.  This gold is just an amazing color that looks good on many styles of quilts.

 I used a little bit of lime green left over from another project from several years ago to quilt the little "bean seeds"  across the hand dyed green squares....

 and little bit of Glide azalea (I think) to trail across the pink squares.
The six inch white border is stuffed with a meandering feather with "grass curls" tossed in every so far.

 Here's a better view, from the back, that also shows the combination of leaves and transposing feathers in the outer pink borders.  I've been quilting those trailing morning glory leaves for 17 to 20 years but hadn't used them for while.  I thought they travelled around the corners nicely.

 Here are a couple of more views from the back.

 I used what looks like a wide violet piping with the green binding.  Actually, the binding is comprised of two strips of fabric (one 1.25 inches wide, the second 1.625 inches wide) sewn together, ironed in half so some of the violet shows on the green side, and then applied to the back of the quilt, flipped to the front, and stitched in the ditch between the two colors with invisible thread.  I've tried this technique several ways, but still haven't perfected the process enough to be totally satisfied with it yet.

 

And, speaking of morning glories, here's our first of the season--a little wobbly in New Mexico wind.

Usually we don't see a blossom until July. I did scatter seeds all along the fence in the background, but none of those are up yet.

Now I need to buckle down and start working on quilting the next project!

I hope you'll want to stop by a couple of linky parties and leave some comments for others:

Karin at Sew Many Ways is doing her 67th "Sew Darn Crafty"

(Sorry, I've lost the button for Sew Darn Crafty)
and Sara still has her weekly party going:

     

Memorial Day Update:  I have linked this post to Judy's Monday Design Wall at Patchwork Times because there is nothing on my design wall/floor/table.  I have finally managed to get Baby Blanche's Robin's Song basted, so I haven't managed to piece anything--although I have plenty of designs in my head and on my computer.

Quilt Update: Audrey's Spring Breeze

 Finally, the borders are on Audrey's Spring Breeze. I pieced the borders by fussy cutting a striped fat quarter and using some of the other fat quarters.

The white border is not a perfect match because I just can't find my bolt of white bleached muslin--how could I possibly misplace something so huge!!!!!
But it's still very pretty.

Now I just need to get the backing made and layer the quilt and get on to the really fun part, the quilting!

This is such a lovely statement of spring.  I've watched the tree in my front yard leaf out as I've been working on it. I came home from my morning appointments and walked into the house accompanied by bird song.  Love it!

I'm going to link to some favorite linky parties.  Be sure to stop by and leave some encouraging words for other quiltmakers.

Quilting by the River

Esther's Blog

Freshly Pieced

Happy quilt making........

Quilt Progress: Spring Breeze

I awoke barely after my usual time this morning and worked quietly while the sweet teens slept.
It's been suggested that I set a timer and just work 15 minutes at a time.  I think I may have to do that.  I paused numerous times today--ahem, got distracted.  This afternoon my brain just said, "Enough!" and I took a two hour nap!

This needs two borders yet--and a backing.  Then I'll be able to baste it and enjoy the quilty goodness.  I'm thinking of using my favorite gold Fil-Tec Glide thread for feathery quilting.

I do hope I'll be a bit more efficient getting the borders cut and onto the quilt.  And I did piece extra blocks so I'll have pretties to help widen the backing.

I'm also thinking of writing up the instructions since this quilt would look good in a wide variety of colors and wouldn't necessarily have to be so girly--I just needed the fun of making a girly quilt, and I know our little Audrey will enjoy it.  I am making it long enough that she should be able to nap under it for quite a few years.

Last night's shower left us with some puddles, and then this evening we enjoyed another shower, although it wasn't enough to register at the weather station at the mid-school. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, all the women who are great nurturers but never had children,  and especially to those who carry that deep but unfulfilled longing for children in their hearts.

Happy quiltmaking....

Oh, do check out what other crafty people are doing.  Visit Karen's blog.

Quilt Progress and Sunshiney Goodness

 Just a bitty-bit of progress on Audrey's Spring Breeze.  I'm wondering if the impediment is lack of focus, lack of sustainability, lack of organization, or just plain fatigue.  (Had plenty of the latter yesterday.)  I did sew one more HBT this a.m.

The great joy was this---a sunshiney breakfast--freshly ground and brewed coffee, muffins, lemon curd eaten in the sunshine.  For years, and certainly for the long winter months, I've been out of here while it was still dark. Sunshine just makes me happy--and even more so today when we're not predicted to have winds more than 10-15 miles an hour and temperatures in the low 70's.

I'll have a house full of sweet teens for movie night tonight.  Now I'm off for more therapies--and hoping I'm not in tears by the time we reach the end of speech therapy.  (Earlier this week a medical professional said something to me about how young I look, and I had to admit that [since I've never felt "pretty"], I've been more vain about my brain than my looks!)

Update:  Sweet Teens are here.  I'm back from appointments--quite a bit more fatigued than I thought I'd be, but still hoping to get some stitches made.  Going to link to some linky parties--please stop by and meet some new people and their creations and have a really great time!

 Thanks to Karen at Sew Many Ways

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

and Amy at amylouwho

Marcia's Crafty Sewing

Happy quiltmaking.....