thoughts of the day

i was confounded when i came home and saw the flag up on my mailbox. why didn't my mailman pick up my mail? it wasn't a holiday - a fact made obvious by the empty garbage can by the road. so what was the deal? then i opened my mailbox & realized he had passed, he had picked up my mail and he had left me random junk mail in return. and he probably even put the flag down. but someone had picked several mums & placed them in the mailbox ... leaving the flag up, i assume, to be sure i checked the box. this was done earlier in the year with dandelions.

i believe it's the little girl next door who has left me these flowers. on one hand i think it's very cute. really, i do. on the other hand, it kinda gets on my nerves that she's picking my mums just to leave them in my mailbox. if you want to leave me flowers - pick 'em from your own yard, not mine. this way you're just pointing out that you're in my yard ... and surely by now you know i hate that.


i finished the baby quilt tonight. i'm putting it in a silent auction at work tomorrow. it's about 42" x 51" - made mostly from the leftovers after alicia's quilt.


the backing is green corduroy. green. corduroy. i think i'm in love. :)


this is the first quilt i've washed immediately after finishing it. i have this fear that everything i make will self destruct in the washing machine - so i give the quilts away unwashed, so the new owner can get some enjoyment out of them before they die in the rinse cycle. granted, i've never had a quilt completely fall apart on anyone. but still, i was a little freaked out to toss it in the washer.

why did i wash it, then? well, the last thing i want is for it to fall apart on someone who buys it tomorrow. because then, without fail, i'll hear about it for a very long time. and i really don't want that. it's one thing if a quilt falls apart on me or someone who knows me. but a co-worker? yeah, no thanks.

i did, however, just pull it out of the dryer (did you notice i walked away?) - and it looks perfect! yay!

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'becca is going to poke around for more items for the silent auction.

3. finish two quilts

i finished holly & wayne's quilt! i need to figure out a better way to photograph my quilts - hanging, preferably, so you can see the entire top. but, here it is. :)


here's a shot with the corner folded so you can see the back fabric.


and here it is all folded up so you can see the blocks a little better.

the red/white stripes are wonky log cabins. i piled up red & white squares and cut the angles randomly. then i pieced them back together to make the final squares half & half. the stars are paper pieced - a template i made myself. the instructions called for cutting all the star points individually, but lining up points isn't my forte ... so i paper pieced instead.

i machine quilted through the red/white stripes on the diagonals and hand quilted around each of the stars. and the backing is a pre-quilted fabric, so there's no worries about the batting shifting.

yay!

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'becca may have just proven to herself that being a pack rat is good.

alicia's quilt

long overdue quilt

i'm not going to tell you how long this quilt's been finished. it's been awhile, but i was hoping to have another quilt finished before i gave it away as a gift. the other quilt isn't done, but i just couldn't hold onto this one any longer. it was so sad waiting to be given to its rightful owners. so when jonathan & laure were in the area at mother's day, i sent their quilt back with them. i don't really know what they think of it. unfortunately i forgot to give it to them until we were literally running out the door for the airport. so they got to sort of open the bag & sneak a peak before stashing it in their suitcase. i haven't heard from them since they got back home ... but hopefully they like it.


this photo shows both the front & the back. it was a different assembly than i usually do. instead of piecing together the entire top & then sandwiching it with a large piece of batting & a large backing i made little sandwiches out of each block. so i had one of the individual squares for the front, a square of batting & a square of the backing ... and those were quilted together on the machine. once i had all the individual sandwiches together & quilted they all got joined into the bigger quilt. i have no idea if that makes sense ... but trust me, it was a different way of doing it. fun because it let me machine quilt it - the first time i've done that. time-consuming because of the way i had to join all the individually quilted squares together. but it allowed me to do a fun checkerboard-type back. i like that a lot. :)


here's one showing just the front. the pattern was a stack-and-whack crazy log cabin with some pinwheels randomly scattered.


and one of the quilt lying across my full-size bed to give you an idea of the size. easily the biggest quilt i've made so far. i think it would make a fun picnic quilt. nice bright colors. :)

ketchup

in no particular order ...



i got to spend time with some good friends this past weekend. we gathered at bar louie for malissa's 30th birthday. this isn't the whole group, and we're not at bar louie ... but this is what you get. :)


i made kristie a quilt for Christmas this year. she claims to like it, and i'm choosing to believe her. :) it was a fun quilt to make. the backing is a green moleskin, which set the colors for the rest of the quilt. i'm pretty sure that's a completely backwards way to put together a quilt (backing first), but it worked out well.



i got a new digital camera; one that will easily fit into my purse & travel with me everywhere i go. along with it's regular functions, it has a "selective color" mode, which is fun.


i made my first attempts to use my screen printing supplies. i failed, but i think i know what to change next time. i didn't read the instruction book closely enough, so my exposure was off.




it snowed pretty good here on new year's eve. we went outside to do sparklers at midnight, but had a difficult time getting them to light. so i took photos of some trees while other folks worked on the sparklers. i do love trees.


seriously, we had a hard time getting the sparklers lit. but my dad's a pretty smart fellow, and once he got out the torch we were lit in no time.


our new year's eve included a "red & green exchange", courtesy of my sister laure. she's been a knitting machine the past few weeks, and each of us ladies ended up with one her creations. mine has been named the "sherbet scarf", and it has a ruffle at each end that i'm crazy about. :)


new year's eve also included a game of cranium (the "wow" edition). i like the game pawns. they cute and customizable. so we had a mohawked nerd.