Two and a half minutes of a spring day

I haven't tried to post a movie yet. So here goes.

Done....but will I ever wear it???

Done. Finally I can say it's done. Well except for the label. I bought this kit back in the early 90s. That's long enough for a UFO don't you think? :-) I finally got it out last year and started putting it together. Never again. I was shorted on fabric, the pattern tissue was incomplete, and the instructions were impossible.



I wish I could say more positive things about it but I can't. I suppose back when I bought the kit I would have worn it happily, but now I'm not so sure. It's pretty dreadful. I'll enter it in the NC Quilt Symposium next month but I hope no one looks at it too closely!


Being short on fabrics I had to fudge a lot of the construction. See the bottom right corner of the back of the coat? Those short strips are added to fill a gap. The long strips that go from shoulder to hem are the full width of the fabric (about 42"). There is just no way to make them reach from shoulder to hem! I could have added matching fabric to make them longer but by then all the strips were cut (per the instructions) and there were no bits left wide enough. SIGH. There's no mention of it in the pattern and the coat in the pattern photo has strips that reach the hem. All I can figure is that either they pieced them or cut them lengthwise from yardage they don't provide in their kits. *grumble* I couldn't bind the seams per the instructions either. There just wasn't enough fabric to do it their way. I kept going back to the paperwork and yes, the kit was supposed to have the complete materials to make a coat in my size. Yeeesh!

And it went on and on like that! I've also been searching and searching for fabric for the final binding of the front, hem and sleeves. There was no way I could finish it with what they provided. Let me tell you, that's a hard job when you let your kit sit around for so many years! Fabric styles change so much. After a few false starts (thank goodness I don't mind adding to my stash!), last week while shopping for something else in JoAnn's, the right fabric jumped right off the rack and into my arms. *happy dance*

It still remains to be seen if I have the nerve to model it at Symposium. ;-)

Bunny progress

Here are two of my Bunny Hill Designs BOMs. March and February. January is waiting for a bit of wool fabric and I've just begun working on April. Purty cute! :-)

Catching up...again

We've had some wild and wooly weather around here lately. I took this photo the other day from the back yard looking over the roof of the house. A very clear demarcation between the wild weather to the east and blue skies to the west. We had more of the same today.


I've fallen behind again. I've been reading blogs but haven't felt much like posting. But now and then people nicely let me know they actually read what I write so it gets me going again. :-)

Lets see.... I went back through my photos to see what I've been doing!

This little fella surprised me with a visit the other evening. He (she?) kept me company while I was blog reading.



Despite what the calendar says my Christmas cactus has decided to bloom. I think it likes it's new home in the corner of the living room on top of the dog crate. :-)


The pointsettia is still going strong too.


But it is indeed spring outside. We have wisteria... (and weeds...pretend you don't see them)

camellia...


iris...lots of violets...
spirea...

and tulips. :-)


This weekend we did some major shed cleaning and sorting and also decided that this should be the location of the vegetable garden. The Tramp worked steadily all winter splitting wood but I'm wondering how in the world we are going to move some of these big logs!


My "half" trees are showing their summer colors too. Both were damaged by the large pecan trees that were taken down last year. I'm hoping one day they won't look so lopsided.


In the sewing room I have a few projects that have reached the quilting stage. Several items are up on my design wall waiting. This is when I get nervous and worried that I'm going to ruin something by quilting it!

This will be a pentecostal parament for my church back in New Jersey.


And this is my "Jane Hall Challenge" that needs to be finished up and entered into the North Carolina Quilt Symposium. The Tramp was helping me figure out what kind of borders to put on it.
My excuse for not getting on with my quilting....I was kind of waiting for this to arrive. :-D My new Juki TL98Q. I had that charity quilt top waiting to go so I used it as my tester. The machine works like a dream...right out of the box! I'm so pleased with it.

So I guess I should get back into the sewing room and get busy!