Pictures Of Flower In Leiu Of Sunshine

Sweetie and I hosted the June neighborhood social gathering (officially known as Wine Time) at our house and we had a full house with 25+ quests. We had invited a friend (also a development resident, but a different area) that had just opened a cafe outside of town to come and mingle. He brought a friend that brought these flowers (she owns a flower shop in Ellijay) and he brought some wonderfully seasoned pork medallions and, of course, some wine.

Each solo person or couple brings an appetizer and their favorite beverage. There is always a great spread at each gathering and everyone enjoys the conversations with their neighbors. Some of us are full timers, some for just the week ends and some just for the summer or the winter.

This little fragrant beauty is a Gardenia. It was the only new flower on my pal Gail's bushes on the day that I had stopped at her house. The fragrances it so delicate...I would constantly stop at the flower, pick it up and just stand there with it under my nose.

I now have a bowl full of them on the counter and just have to walk by to enjoy the aroma. I wish I could grow them at my house, but the deer here will eat anything and everything. Gail only lives two miles away, but she's on a busy main road at a low elevation and the deer don't seem as plentiful (or hungry) by her.

I Found This Post In Drafts...It's Too Cute Not To Share

This color = Updated Text

I found this in the with a few unpublished drafts on the blog...strangely even though the counter shows zero page views for this post, there is one comment from a follower. Possibly I had published it and then found a typo (imagine that), corrected the mistake and then it didn't get republished?

Original Post Date 11/18/09!!


Original Title = Look Into My Eyes

Don't you have an unexplainable urge to give them a dogie treat!?


Reggie (in front) will be my traveling companion to Georgia in January and will be of no value for protection...he only barks for cats and squirrels. Reggie is really showing his age now and time has not been kind to him this past year.


I'd take his bed buddy Newt along, but she's just to arthritic and heavy for me to get her in and out of the SUV. Poor sweet Newt had to be put down the following March...the arthritis just became too painful for her to bare...and Labs can handle a lot.


I have to study some different post to see how multiple pictures are handled. I've had to redo this several times because things get all out of whack when I try to have more than one picture. The weather was really pleasant last night and we were able to have a fire outside and sip some wine. I'm not having any luck inserting a picture of the fire!

Let's see...what have I been up to in the past few days...Thursday...two ladies joined me for lunch at an Indian restaurant in Schaumburg...mmm-mmm-good! Friday evening my sweetie and I went to a mostly couples party at an ILG (Internet Ladies Group) friends house...there were 19 of us. The men folk did really well considering most of them had not met before and we women were yakking like long lost friends. It was a good time!

Do you create drafts with just a title when you have flash of brilliance for a future post?

Batiks On My New Mini Design Wall

 

Really, I guess I should call it a mini design board since it's portable and not affixed to the wall. My larger ones are really giant design boards and they are now residing on the garage door side of the shop. 

 

Something smaller was called for that I could put a couple of rows on (from the giant boards) or multiple block and take them back by my machine to assemble.

 

It's a good thing that I put a scrappy border on the board or it would have blended right in with the wall. Maybe I should finally put a little more color on the walls. Sweetie thought I should go with white, so I thought I would humor him for a while....after all the work that he did for me transforming his old wood shop into my quilt shop.

I've been collecting Batiks scraps for some times now and this is what I have to show for it. The hexies were started as a hand project for the long plane rides to and from Switzerland. Now they are my porch project, when I want to enjoy the outdoors but don't feel like reading. Although, an audio book, the outdoors and hexies to go well together.

The tessellating stars are in need of more one color batiks in bold colors. I saw a picture this some time ago on someones blog and saved it on my Kindle Fire. Unfortunately my KF died a couple of weeks ago and took the picture to the grave with it. It took a bit of playing with squares and triangles to figure out the placement to get the design down and right contrast between colors. I like it.

Making Crumb Blocks With Bonnie Hunter on YouTube

Recycling fabric and containers....I'm just so green.

Speaking of green, I just love arugula. Sweetie's daughter and hubby introduced us to it several years ago when they were visiting from Switzerland and now I love it in sandwiches and in tacos or fajitas.

Meet My New Quilting Buddy

Meet Bear and yes, this is his favorite spot in my quilt shop. That's why I usually have to sneak down without him. We probably should have called him Shadow.

He's 8 years old and is a Newfie/Lab? mix that we got from Atlanta Dog Squad in March.  They got Bear from a shelter in south Georgia and was is really tough shape when they found him.  His paperwork said that they had to give him several baths to get rid of a manure smell in his coat. He was treated for a wide variety of worms (including a mild case of heart worms) and a prostate condition, and his coat was all matted. Fortunately they didn't have to shave him. His teeth are pretty worn down from trying to chew his way out of an enclosure of some type for a long time. Plus, he was really skinny. Bear lived at a veterinary clinic that works with Atlanta Dog Squad for several months before he could be put up for foster/adoption.

He didn't shed hardly at all when we picked him up....but holy moly, when he's in a shed cycle (2 times a year) there's clumps of hair and hair bunnies everywhere....all the time!

Have You Ever Accidentaly Deleted A Photo From Your iPhone?

 

 

UUUUHHHHHH!!!!!! Four hours and $69 later, I have the picture back!

 

If it wasn't for the fact that I have to send it to the local paper as guild photo op, the deletion would have been a minor "Oopps" in the grand scheme of life. We were dropping off a stack of baby quilts to Safe Choice Pregnancy in Ellijay.

 

It all started so innocently this morning when I slipped on my glasses and checked my email (yes, I keep my phone by my bed....like I'm ever going to get a call/text that can't wait until morning). I had received an email for an Amazon cloud drive app, which then took me to my camera roll, which reminded me that I needed to send in this picture, which brought it to my attention that I didn't need all the reject photos from the photo op. Ssoooo....I started deleting the pictures and then GASP...I realized I had deleted this one too.

 

Now, if I were younger (like 12 and had the innate techno abilities they seem to have), smarter, and more patient, I would have been able wade through all that data to find the bit of megabits that were that picture. But since I'm not any of those thing, I had to finally cave and get out the credit card and pay my $69 (WooHoo it was on sale) so I could get my picture back and finally meet my obligation.

 

This is one of the great things about a blog...venting. Sure, I could have vented to Sweetie and in all his maleness he would surely have said "Babe...you have to be more careful".  He would have completely forgotten or ignored the fact that he managed to erase ALL the pictures off his phone a few weeks ago trying to load his Ride For The Wall pictures onto his computer.

 

I feel better now and I didn't even have to remind Sweetie of his own technological shortcomings!

 

 

 

Hexagon Star Tutorial Tweak

I found this Hexagon Star Tutorial that I will use in the future to make blocks from the star. However, I will have to tweak it a bit by making top and bottom rectanglish pieces a skosh wider and the outter center pieces maybe a skosh longer. That way I will be able to trim up to a square block and the stars will float when sewn to an alternate block....maybe a 9 patch or 16 patch.

When I was making the border for the above I Spy quilt, I guess I did something similar to the tutorial.

Hey...wouldn't one of these make a cute label (with verbiage written on Hexagon) in a pieced quilt back! One floating star!!!!

I Want To Test Drive A Juki TL 2010Q in Atlanta!!!!

"What does this have to do with test driving a Juki TL 2010Q?" you say...absolutely nothing, but one should have a picture in one's post...and I was playing around in Picasa. The photo is from this winter, up at Maggie Valley in NC. I hadn't attempted skiing since I had brain surgery in 2004 to remove an acoustic neuroma or meningioma...don't remember which anymore. I've never been the most graceful person and the tumor/surgery made me even more of a klutz....BUT...WOO HOO..... I CAN STILL SKI!!!

Anywho.....I really do want to get my hands on a Juki  TL2010Q to try some FMQ.  Has anyone been to Southeast Sewing Product on 228 Ottley Dr NE in Atlanta or know of another Juki source in Atlanta?  I've heard tell that the neighborhood was a bit dicey/dodgy...any input?

I thought that I was going to be able to try one out on my way North last month (for DD's surprise birthday party), but it was not to be. Fortunately, I had saved the number of the store that's located just off 24 in Murfreesboro, TN and by the time I did my Cracker Barrel/Audio Book stop, the store was finally open. But...they wouldn't have any 2010Qs in the store until sometime in August...bummer!!

New Use For Supreme Slider

Do you keep posts in draft mode for those times when you want to do a quick post and don't want to drag out the camera (I actually need to find it), the USB cable and the laptop.  This one has been hanging around for well over a month and I thought I should do a post before the month is out...cutting it close aren't I!

My machine has a drop in bobbin, which makes using a seam guide really inconvient.  There's just enough throat space to line up a quarter in (if using the straight stitch throat plate) and I can just peal back the slider and change/clean the bobbin.

Soon I think I will spring for the larger supreme slider...notice where I stitched thru it while FMQing.

This month my DD Abby and SIL Ken were here for a visit.  They left on the 12th and I headed to Wisconsin on the 15th.  Ken was putting on a surprise 30th birthday party on the 18th and I was part of the surprise.  I hung out with my pal Rochelle for several days and had a great visit.  On the 19th, we went to Ken's parents house for his sisters college graduation party...Ken's mom really knows how to put on a great party!  I was back on the road home early in the morning on the 20th.

On the 21st, Sweetie left for Chattanooga to meet up with the riders on the southern route for the 25th Annual Ride To The Wall in Washington DC.  It was quite the emotional week for him.  On his way home on the 26th, he stopped in Elon, NC to visit with a Marine friend that he hasn't seen in person since Vietnam in 1965.  It was a good visit!

Today I finally got back in the quilt shop to do some stitching.  I discovered that I had miss cut the last row of background pieces and re cut them today and sew the row together and joined some rows together.  Then for some mindless sewing, I did a crumb block...up to 20 now.

I thought I would have spent a lot of time in the quilt shop with Sweetie gone, but the weather was so nice and I had so many quilt blogs to catch up on......I spent a lot of time on the front porch reading blogs.  I did get some hexies sown (while sitting on porch) while I finished listening to the last audio book that I had picked up at a Cracker Barrel while on my road trip.

I Spy Background Fabric Added

After quite a bit of gazing and pondering (and recutting), I came up with the dimensions of the background pieces that the stars will float on.

I'm liking it and I'm on a roll now!

I Spy Sub Sets

Starting to put the rows together while I watch a recorded Quilt Cam on YouTube.

The background fabric in the picture is what I think will go in place of the black fabric shown in a previous post....what do you think????

Still have a few more hexies to cut out to replace some that are duplicates or boring.

Bonnie Hunter Quiltcam On Youtube

 

I never was able to catch on of Bonnie's quilt cams live and an really enjoying being able to watch them on YouTube as I quilt.  Has anyone else tried Hangout to put a virtual quilting group together?

 



Using my binding clips instead of pins.

What's On The Design Pool Table

I'm such a blogging slacker! I've had these picture in draft mode for the longest time!

My main design wall was full with the I Spy and what not, so....I had to use the pool table. After I did the layout, I sent Sweetie to Lowe's to buy another sheet of insulation for an auxiliary design wall.

Sweetie had to cut a two foot section off to fit it in the SUV and it works nicely to bring blocks rows to the machine to stitch together. Above it the layout for the odd rows.

This is layout for even rows.

One of my quild members was cleaning out some of her older stash and gave me a hug bag of fabric...all the fabric in the above quilt was in the bag...it will be a donation quilt.

Claiming My Blog In Blogloviv

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I Spy Update

My original plan was to have different bright colored stars surrounding the hexies and to use the blue background fabric as a filler for the gaps between the stars (see 2-15-13 post). Man, was it ever busy! To the point of being hard to look at! 



 

Since I really love the blue star fabric (doesn't it look like you're gazing into a galaxy far, far away), I decided to use it for all the background/star areas.

 

Right now I'm at a stand still until I can get over to Dahlonega to by more of the background fabric (only bought a quarter yard) and to look for fabric to use in place of the black fabric that you can see in the picture above.

 

I plan on buying extra background fabric for future use!

Playing With My Feet

Once again, I've been playing with achieving a scant quarter inch seam with various presser feet that I have for my machine (Brother QC 1000). The J foot works okay with seam guide that is original to my Singer treadle machine, but it's a pain because the guide blocks the drop in bobbin cover.

I had purchased a quarter inch foot with a guide/blade, but I was not ever happy sewing with that foot. Somewhere on the web I read that you should try and bump your needle to the right and see if you had enough clearance between the needle and the hole in the foot (of course, I did have my 7mm sole plate on) to achieve a scant quarter inch seam. On this foot I didn't. But I did notice something that may explain some of my dissatisfaction with this foot...the foot didn't cover the feed dogs completely. The right hand most row of teeth were completely exposed. My machine has a tendency to pull to the left and this probably made it worse.

This foot was purchased on Amazon for under $4.00 and covers the feed dogs nicely. There wasn't quite enough clearance to bump the needle over safely, so I asked Sweetie if he could make the hole just a bit bigger.

Here it is on the drill press. It was a success.

First Attempt At Jewelry Making

I actually put this together a couple of years ago and hadn't done anything else since. That is, until I went to Jo-Ann's last week and picked up some lobster claws and chain for a jewelry alteration project. It was a success and I'll post about it another time.

All the components to the necklace were purchased at Jo-Ann's.

Visit Sew Many Ways and see what crafty things others are posting about.

New Project On The Design Wall

 

 

I'm working on an I Spy quilt for my grandson...most of the hexies are cut out...boy do you waste a lot of fabric with and I Spy quilt. After that I'll cut out the solid 60 degree triangles from solids or marbles.

 

These hexies are 4.5" and I think I will make an adult (no, not risque fabric) out of 6.5" hexies.  Batiks will be the fabric of choice for that project.

 

Some of the prints used in the I Spy were nice enough to get a few 2.5" strips for my scrappy pineapple quilt that I am slowly working on.  Tuesday I was able to get another baggy of scraps to process to the quilt.



Changing The Seasons

 

When the Christmas decorations were put away, I needed something for the frames. 

 

 The Pineapple block is an experiment in making a 12.5" block versus 9.5" (like in the book) or my really big 16.5" version that will go into my extra big king size quilt.

 

The heart block was made especially for the frame and the only quilty valentine thing that I have so far.

 

The hexie-ish block was also an experiment of sorts. At first I was just sewing various size strips around a hexagon. Then I decided to square it off and use it for a pillow...and there it sat...until I needed something springy for the frame.

 

The hexie-ish block and the heart block were both quilted through just the batting...maybe I should get some muslin and add it just in case I want to join some of these blocks into something down the road.

 

I'm not sure what I will do with the Pineapple one...maybe I'll do an all over quilting just to see how I like the effect on the block.



DGD Natalie and McKenna in their matching jammies.  I have some photos taken at American Girl, which I will post about later. They were taken on my iPhone and not sure what the quality will be on those. 

The pictures of Natalie's quilting experience were less than stellar.  I have a new case on my phone and I think the cover (it's a waterproof case) is reducing the picture quality. It's less bulky than the Otterbox and it's (Lifeproof) also suppose to be indestructible. Every thing is a trade off.

Male Bonding

 

DS Brett and Sweetie having some Guy Time on the back porch....didn't Sweetie do a great job on the fireplace!

Late Christmas Table Runner

Since our Christmas was late this year (this excuse really does work for me), I wasn't in a rush to have it done before the kids got here.  Actually, it's not totally done....I have to stitch one side of the binding.  It's all glued down per Sharon Shamber's method and looks done.

I was going to machine sew the binding, but I got a little stingy with the fold over and didn't have enough for the needle to bite into. So...I had to had sew...and again my binding is really full.

6 Year Old GD's First Quilt Making Experience

The kids were down from Wisconsin for a few days and I was able to have some quilt time with Natalie.

I had some Halloween charms and Natalie did her own lay out. Then I assisted her with the machine to stitch them together....sure glad I had speed control on my machine and push button start.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

First 2013 Finish....Doll Quilt

 

The grandkids will be here in the morning and I wanted to whip up a doll quilt for my GD, Natalie.  I used some four patches that I already had on hand (some sections just don't have enough contrast with the background) and had enough yardage of some of the fabric to use for a border, backing and binding.  I should have pieced some Warm and Natural batting scraps, but instead used some batting (probably a blend) that came in a hand quilting kit (long since given up on that idea). It's just a bit more stiff than I would like, but it will make a nice picnic quilt for her American Girl doll.

 

We have reservations for lunch at American Girl in Atlanta next Friday and while we're there Natalie will pick out items for her doll for her Christmas present.





 

 

I used Sharon Schamber's binding method using Elmer's School glue and really like it...although I need to adjust the amount I'm able to pull to the back to machine sew the binding down. Boy is my binding full!

 

It's a hit with me!