Sunday

Dagnabbit, my new computer mouse has gone all funny on me.  Guess I'll have to struggle with the trackpad for the time being.  Maybe I should learn to like it.  Sigh.  Send The Tramp another sympathy card.  ;-)

Anyway.....  yesterday and today we did some work outside before it got too hot.  As far as I'm concerned, by 10 am it was way too hot already, but we perservered.  Among other chores we added soaker hoses to the gardens.  Tomorrow I have to hide them under the mulch.

I also spread more pine straw.  Since this morning, a little research tells me according to best practices I've spread it too close to the house.  That's ok.  It's easy to move some of it to the other side of the yard.

The dogs don't care one way or the other.  :-)

This evening I fired up the Juki for more denim quilting.  Better thread in a new color.  King Tut isn't nearly so linty as the previous stuff.  Thank goodness!

The hard part was getting comfortable with one of the quilting presser feet.   Some days nothing feels right.  The left one is a hopping foot and it sounds like a machine gun.  I hate it.  The center one is a hopping foot, but I've "broken" it (per Leah Day) to stop the hopping.  Better, but also a better chance of skipped stitches.  The third one is similar to this one sold by Sharon Schamber and works very well, but I was having a visibility issue.  Grumble, grumble, grumble.  :-)

Recently I tried taking the Juki hopping foot apart to defeat the hop.  It didn't work very well with the open toe foot.  Hence the messing with the other feet.  So just now I took the hopping bit off of the closed toe foot and have high hopes for success when I sit down at the machine tomorrow.

My test piece looked pretty good so fingers crossed.  Ugh!  Look at those lint fuzzies!  And this is the less linty thread.  I think I'd better do a quick cleaning tomorrow too!

Oh murder

The weather has been glorious.  I think this photo says it all.

What you can't see in the above photo are the feathers strewn in clumps on the road and all around the pond.  The Canada geese are molting.  It always gives me a start when I spot the first pile of feathers.  It looks like someone who is fed up with the goose poop has resorted to murder.

Of course no one would do that, though we might turn the air blue as we clean off our shoes....again.  Sigh.  There are two adult geese with no goslings.

Yep.  Poop and feathers everywhere.

And the two with goslings.  Seven eating machines.  With no flight feathers, all they can do all day is eat and poop.  Which they do with gusto.  Sigh.

Of course the dogs find it all very interesting.  :-)

On Wednesday The Viking was in rare form.  This is his lunch, which he insisted on eating for breakfast.  Peanut butter and strawberry jam.  "It's JELLY Nini!"  Oh.  He made sure I knew exactly how he feels about jelly.  I got a lecture.  This is the gist....  "I don't like jelly.  I don't like any kind of jelly.  It makes me feel awake.  The funny kind of awake.  The pretend awake.  The kind of awake from coffee.  That kind of pretend awake."  Amazing child!  Now we are all trying to figure out where in the world he learned about caffeine!!

He cheered up after he ate the sandwich he "doesn't like" and played happily ("Nini!  Come look at my house!")  until we went off to the hospital to pick up Mom and Dad.

Dad had a few hours in emergency with a painful knee.  Tests didn't show anything dangerous going on, so after a day or so of being cautious and using the rollator, he is back to his normal cheerful self.

In my free time I got on with quilting the denim, and this evening put the tote bag together.  Not bad for my first try.  Looking forward to working on the next one.  :-)

Learning curve

Some days the learning curve is steeper than others.  Today I learned not to leave random paper napkins laying about on my sewing tables.  

 At least it's pretty easy to rip out.

The bag back is done.  Lots of fun and some frustration.  Mostly with the linty thread.  Time to experiment with other threads!  Not bad for a first try though.  I think I've finally conquered pebbles.  Feathers I have no problem with, or paisley.  Bear claws not so much.  Also the flowers.  I have to study the books more.  This is also helping me get a better idea of scale and how designs can work together....or not.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are regular visitors now.  They waddle up the yard when they see the car pull in, hoping for a handout of cracked corn, which The Viking is very keen to provide.  This evening The Tramp and I were outside replacing a windshield wiper on my car, and when we turned around we found we had not only ducks, but a rabbit too.  All very nonchalant about our presence and the dogs barking behind the front door.  The four adult geese and three goslings are always very much present as well these days.  Our own little wild kingdom.  Heh.

Wild Quilting

Back to typing with my ergonomic keyboard today.  Yay!  The poor Tramp unplugged, replugged, restarted, rebooted, removed and replaced batteries all multiple times and somehow when it was all done it worked.  Phew.

Today I got a start on quilting a couple of tote bags.  One is for a guild swap and the practice one is for me.  I had a bee in my bonnet that I wanted to quilt on denim.  To that end I got out some of my quilting books, browsed my Pinterest quilting design photos and the ones on my computer, and fired up and watched a Craftsy class again.  Wild Quilting with Christina Cameli.  I need lots of practice to compete with her.  Wow.

Yesterday I cut and interfaced denim and linings.  Today I rewatched some of the Craftsy class and then I put on my big girl panties and started quilting.  ;-)  That first stitch is always the hardest.  Sigh.

All the front pieces for the practice tote are done.  And now I'm planning on a good night's sleep before I move on to the larger back piece.  :-)

Hi!  Here I am.

Oh good grief!  I finally get around to this and my keyboard quits.  Sigh.

Ok.  I'm back.  Struggling with a non ergonomic keyboard.  Technology has not been my friend lately.  The phone had to be replaced (thank you Apple Care!), the new headphones died too, then the mouse, and now the keyboard.  Sheesh.  Mercury Retrograde is over!  We won't mention the other things currently wrong with my computer.  Send The Tramp a sympathy card.

Ok.  What's been happening.  Sewing has been good.  That kind of tech has been working....thank goodness.  I had a deadline to finish my round robin quilt before the North Carolina Quilt Symposium last week.  I decided I "needed" a suspension system for managing the bulk of my quilts while quilting. Some PVC pipe, bungee cords, clamps and a handy hubby made it happen.....not that either of us really knew "how" to make one.

How high to make it was the first question.  Why the height of the handy shelf of course.  :-)  I've since bought more components to add to it, which is one of tomorrow's projects.

It turned out to be quite a marathon, but I did get the quilting finished, and blocked, bound and labeled the quilt just in time for the entry deadline.  Oh, and got additional labels and hanging sleeves on the three other entries as well.

And it made it to the quilt show.

Here are the four of us Quilting Babes with our round robin quilts.

I made the second border (the Carolina lilies) on Dawn's quilt.  I love how she wore a shirt to match her quilt.  lol

I also entered my Chain Reaction quilt.

And it was so nice to see En Provence hung!  It's too big to get a decent photo at home.

 I did get an honorable mention for the Random Roses table runner.

I made the blue and green ribbon border on Anne's quilt.  Her quilting was wonderful and she got a ribbon. :-)

I added the colorful outer border to Kathie's quilt.  Just as colorful as she is.  :-)  It was a fun challenge.  We have a new challenge planned for next year.  Stay tuned.

I took a Foundation-less New York Beauty quilt class with Jane Godshall.  Now I understand the technique I can't wait to make some more blocks.

I had a class with Vickie Clontz making wool bead earrings.  So much fun!

They matched my apron!

I also had a fun class with Laura Wasilowski making embroidered landscapes, but I have nothing to show yet.

The challenge for this week was getting this quilt top together so Mom can applique the stars on the border.  It's in her hands for now.  This is the third "eagle quilt."  You can see quilt number one in the photo above hanging on my fireplace.  Quilt number two was donated.

I'm still having fun with the boy.  On this day I had bought a balsa wood glider for him.  We discussed the concept of gliders vs powered airplanes in the car on the way home.  At home I dragged a chair over so he could examine the spectacular photo on our dining room wall of one of The Tramp's friends piloting a glider in New Zealand.  With glider in hand, The Viking examined it very closely trying to see the face of the pilot.  A sweet moment.  :-)