Design Wall Monday August 29, 2011

Here is my current project.  These are blocks from Thimbleberries Block by Block book.  The book shows using six blocks and making a wall hanging with a wide border.  I will be making just one more block and then I plan to do some type of scrappy sashing and border.  This will be for a table runner to go in my living room. 

I also finished the quilting on my version of Bonnie Hunters Blue Ridge Beauty.  This pattern is from her book Adventures with Leaders and Enders.  It was an easy pattern to follow and a lot of fun to make.  The two pieces I used for the back would not look good right next to each other but ended up looking just great when I put a scrappy strip of blocks between them.  My plan is to get the binding on this one this week. 

Have a great Monday and be sure to check out all of the other design walls at patchworktimes.com.

Procrastination

Okay, this morning I am just full of other things I want to be doing besides what really needs done.  I have spent an hour sewing. Cleaned the kitchen and done two loads of laundry.  Oh, and wasted time writing this post.  So now I should to get to the real needs of my day.

Thursday night an awesome wind blew through and did some horrific damage to my yard.  I call it an awesome wind because I could hear it rolling in.  Looking back on it I should have headed to the basement. It was that apparent that it was going to be a big blow.  And what I thought was patio furniture taking a tumble must have actually been my huge old trees taking a break from their lofty heights.

This is a red bud tree that is broke in half and of course it is way over our heads.  But as can be seen it is just laying up there side ways and will need to come down.  And it seems we will just take the one next to it too.

Luckily this big branch broke off nicely at the top and just needs to be pulled down, cut up and cleaned up.  The tree should live.

This big old Walnut tree was kind enough to lay itself down across my chain link fence. And to say it has caused us problems is an understatement. 

This is how far we got.  Four hours and still can't get that largest branch to break loose and to top it all off there is another broken branch way up on the left and not much left to the tree once it all comes off.                 

So after some consideration and frustration it has been decided that the entire tree must come down.  Okay, it made me mad and I'm ready to make kindling out of it.  We had an offer we couldn't refuse.  BIL Bill is willing to come help with the removal in a few days.  His help in this will be terrific.  As you can see there is a metal building behind the tree and I am standing in between my house and the tree to take a picture.  So there is some risk involved.  But as long as I close my eyes when they make the final cut everything should turn out okay.  And if not - that is what homeowners insurance is all about.  Right?

Hope everyone has a lovely day.  I know I am going to.  I plan to spend the rest of it outside with my family.  Yes, we will be working like crazy but it can be great fun to have a common goal. 



Design Wall/Table

   This is what I have going on today.  This was originally going to be part of the back to my pink quilt but it didn't make the "cut".  So I decided to just make a table runner out of it to give as a bridal shower gift.  I will give it and the pillow cases together.  If it gets finished by this Saturday.  No problem.

                          

I see from this picture that nothing would make my kitchen table look good. 

   Enjoy what is left of your Monday.  And be sure to check out all of the other design walls at Judy Laquidara's site. http://www.patchworktimes.com/2011/08/15/design-wall-monday-august-15-2011/   I see she has made it to Brownwood.   Sounds like quite the move. 

B.O.M. Saturday

In my opinion it is too early on a Saturday morning to be up and thinking about quilting or blogging for that matter.  I woke up 10 minutes ago (6:55) jumped out of bed, took a few bad pictures and here I am.  Okay, I'm always up this early and usually at my sewing machine by now.  But in less than an hour I'll be headed out to Holton to pick up this months B.O.M.  These are not my colors but they are great blocks to be learning something new.  And so far so good.  My points are pretty good.  Just don't look too close at the center of the orange one.  And as seen in a previous post the one on the right had to be remade when I cut it wrong and then remade again when I was told they would ALL have the same blue background.  But that just means I'll have yet another orphan block for my pile.

The colors are meant to be the same as what are in the Kansas flag. And since Kansas is celebrating 150 of statehood this year that seems very appropriate. 

And now with absolutely no more time to waste I'm off to have a great day.  Good thing I took time to run a spell check first though.
  

Read The Directions

These are the pillowcases that will go with the pink quilt when it is done.   Be sure to click on the picture so you can see the paisley fabric that was used. They would have been finished in no time at all but I am not one to read directions.  Therefore, I spent time ripping out a seam that should never have been sewn.  In this case the seam was the side and width of a pillowcase.  Just reading the one line "fold in half - wrong sides together" would have saved a lot of ripping.  Oh, well they are done and I like how they turned out. The pattern that I used was from http://www.canadianquiltshop.com/.  I will let you go to their store and find the free pattern yourself.  As I did not ask permission to post the actual pattern link.  The pattern is called Hot Dog Pillow Case.