Hitting the road!!!

Just pulling out...

House Setters For RV Adventures

We're heading out on an RV adventure on the 22nd and will be gone at least three and a half weeks...the longest that we will be gone so far.

We are fortunate in that we live in an area that people love to come to visit and that we have retired friends and relatives that live in areas that they want to escape from at certain times of the year. Like I said, this will be our longest adventure and we are so relieved to have escapees from the frozen North coming to stay at the house while we're gone. 

Some things can't go almost a month without tending...like plants, the hot tube (they can't wait to use it), not having to have the mail held is great, or the furnace...if we get a cold snap and the furnace drain line freezes (again) and the furnace won't turn on and if no one is there to drain catch basin, water pipes will freeze and burst....I can feel my blood pressure going up just writing about the potentials for disaster.

What a relief not to have to worry about all that stuff. They (Sweetie's cousin and wife from Chicago area) will get here a couple of days before we leave and get the low down on plants, mail, hot tub, furnace, fire place and anything else we think of.

We're pretty sure we have sitters lined up for our summer adventure...escapees from southern Florida.

Ok, you're asking "What does the photo have to do with this post?"...well the probable sitters/escapees are the kids and grandkids of my fellow bobber in the picture. Grandparents and family get weeks of visiting....just not 24/7....we get peace of mind...a win-win situation.

Yesterday the 301A went into the motorhome along with several projects and fabric scraps for several more. Hopefully it will warm up a little by Saturday so we can finish readying the motorhome for a Sunday morning departure.

Sort Of A Tutorial and Comment Notification Issues

This is sort of a tutorial for Susan...

These items (and some string scraps) are all that is required to make the quilt. For me, when I'm doing the center strip, it works best if I start with a string strip in the middle a work out to one end, then the other. The ends are a good way to use those little triangle trimmings. When I trim the strip for it's 2.5" width, I trim one side using the edge of the paper and the other side the ruler's 2.5" measure...there can be a little shrinkage during sewing...or your strip was a little off (cutting multiple strip).

Then you flip over the strip and find the center of the strip (I fold and crease) and attach triangles matching their centers to strips center.  Press. Then you position the ruler on finished block as shown above. You can eyeball or measure for the center of the strip...I like to try and balance the size of the end triangles. That's pretty much it...oh, if anyone didn't see my last post, the paper strips were cut 2.5" x 6.5" and the triangles are 3.5".

Susan also asked if I were getting email notification for comments. I was but I was getting an email notification that my attempt to comment had failed even though my comment was showing on the blog. Now that I think about it, maybe all that mumbo jumbo in the message was trying to tell me that  the email notification to the blog owner failed...? It must only be a hit or miss issue...I'm being notified.

2014 Starts/WIPs....Scrappy

I think I started this sometime in the Spring and it became a take along project when we were out in the motorhome. Usually, I would be working on the center strip...sewing strings onto 6.5" x 2.5" pieced of phone book paper. Something that you don't have to put a lot of attention into it....great for sitting at a picnic table sewing. You just have to keep your pieces from blowing away!

I'm not sure if this is the half way point or not. It may get a little bigger. All the HSTs have been cut on the GO for the second half and I think I have all the paper strips cut. The scrap container has been refilled with strings and is ready to go in the motor home....we're heading out next week!!!

This top was actually started in very late 2013 when I was making crumb blocks with Bonnie Hunter during Quilt Cam. The picture really doesn't capture the vibrancy of the colors...fluorescent lights.

There was a lot of trial and error in making this top....as usual I didn't use a pattern and was just winging it. I hadn't ever done anything on point before or used set in triangles on the row end...so trial and error and experimentation was in play. I made the set in triangles larger than would normally be used because I wanted a little extra fabric to hang onto while quilting and so I wouldn't have to quilt on and off the top...a lot of bobbles can happen then. I'll just trim the edges down after it's quilted.

This quilt is in the number 2 spot of my To Be Quilted queue.

Hiatus Happenings Part 7.....Audio Books

Audio books sure make time fly by whether you driving in a car or a motor and you've seen the scenery many times over...or its nothing special the first time.

Since I had a few (and rare) deadlines last year, I spent many long hours in the quilt shop listening to audio book after audio book.

It's also very enjoyable to sit by the lake, gazing out at the water while listening to a book.

I tried to get them in order, but my mobile app just doesn't want to let me rearrange photos and my screen shoot photos of the Over Drive history file were really small so I picked them in the wrong order.

As you can see, I have favorites that I'm working my way through (although the library that I borrow from doesn't always have complete series...bummer).

I like to find authors that write stand alone books that I don't need to listen to in order. 

I will look for books that my favorite readers have done for other authors. There are authors that I like, but don't care for the reader...such as J A Jance's JP Beaumont series. The same reader does the whole series and I find his tone and speech rhythm just so annoying.

Hiatus Happenings Part 6....Final Finishes For 2014

All the string pieced tops were done while we were out camping....I really enjoyed sitting at the picnic table, sewing and looking out at the water.

I made a freezer paper template up to make sure I would be able to fit six placemat on the table. A little more (about a quarter inch on each side of the narrow end) had to be angle trimmed off to allow for the binding space taken up.

It only seems right for them to do double duty, so I did the backing pairs in matching fabric.

I'm still using the snowman side as I still have my snowmen out. The binding method used was faux flange...no bias cuts were used on the curve and it worked just fine.

Something bright for spring and summer! This was one of the first pieces of fabric that I purchased several years before I ever thought about quilting. I walked into a fabric store in Cedarburg, Wi, and fell in love with this fabric. Until now, I never had the heart to cut into this fabric.

Because the fabric has so much going on, I used different blacks for the faux flange binding.

This one would work anytime of the year and is one of the few large yardage pieces that I own.

Here's a close up one the fronts. The quilting was marked using a Full Line Stencil.