There and Back!

No, we didn't go to see the Hobbit.  We went to Washington - the state - and bought a new house. But first here is my Drunkard's Path quilt start.  I'm going to make the Wedding Ring setting... I'll show one in a day or two.

I made the pattern the night before we left on our house seeking trip. I got the pattern from www.mccallsquilting.com and I made the pieces 142% larger on my printer. Then I applied the pattern to template plastic and cut them out so the curve would be for hand sewing - traced line on the curve is the sewing line and on the straight lines is 1/4" seam allowance for using the sewing machine -  like I did on hundreds of smaller blocks ages ago. I thought I'd sewn a few more red & purple ones...  I started out trying the circle technique, but I don't like what happens when I clip so close and while manipulating a glued bunch the fabric shreds and there's very little seam allowance... see below.

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Now for some pictures of my new house....

The front yard is huge, so it  will fit my magnolia (I started from a seed).

 It's the corner house  of a cul-de-sac. We're going to get the old guy a riding mower, cause that's a lot of lot to mow at his age. It's on a quiet street, and seems like a nice neighborhood. The house is 3 bedrooms (2 are really small) and 2 bathrooms. The kitchen is about 1/2 the size of my old one... Oh, well. Less to clean! Right?

On the way home I took this picture of Mt. Shasta... over 14,000 ft. Magical, I think.

 

So now the big work starts... finish packing, build a bunch of little plants for  Halloween (one of our last days here), coordinate everything and move. Wish me luck. I think we're going to need it.

 

Happy Monday,

Hugs,

Terri

Design Wall Monday

I have a new Design Wall.
You remember that I'm trying to sell my house, and the design wall my hubby made was foam core nailed - with huge nails - to the wall. Well, that come down this week and the holes were patched and the whole thing painted... by my hubby, seen here hamming it up.

He did a wonderful job, you can't see the nail holes even when you know where they were!
I'd buy this house!

But, please don't think I have no place to design... (Oops! double negative...)

Foam core leaning with some Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks from several years back.

I've shown them before...

Some patterns for the next paper piecing project. I'm making potholders for some of my peeps.

 

Above is a new "I love you" hand in the works.

 

Oh, and this occurred this week. A hole. I picked the flowers for a backing on a H2H quilt, and had to add some extra fabric... did not notice that there was a big dip cut out of the middle edge of the flower fabric. Noticed that while sewing together. What to do?

 

See the hole is quite big.

 

To the rescue.... a little paper pieced apple core, fray checked and zig zag stitch and now it's a whole.

 

 

 All for the backing to this....

 This is the quilt with the apple core on the back. I pin basted on my dining room table. It was easier on my back than putting it up on the design wall (now nonexistent) and stitching the basting. Since then I've done some straight line stitch in the ditch, but I don't like it... Gotta do the yellow with yellow, and redo the blue, too. So there is some ripping out in my future. You know I'm putting that off.
Sew that's what I'm up to... How about you? What project occupies your mind this week? Our neighborhood has a parade of school kids on the 4th...
Oh, and Shay (in Australia) of  Quilting in my Pyjamas and I are having a giveaway and showing off our ineptness at FMQ on posts from Thursday through the Fourth... You will want to come back and see that.

Sew Hugs to you all - especially if you got this far down in the reading.

Terri

What Makes Your Day?

I know a finish of the current quilt would make my day, but that won't happen for a while.  I did find a wonderful "Make" for this day...

Okay, you aren't impressed, but this little plant - a silk oak - was started from seed last August or earlier. I almost gave up hope. (I got to the local momma tree quite late in it's seed making season and all the seeds had been dispersed already, so I sifted through the dirt on the street looking - brought home some dirt, and "planted" it. All this time I have been hoping for the little miracle.  Makes me so happy. (Patience pays off.)

I went out to photograph these little wonders...

The first Cosmos of the year... they seed themselves in this pot of the first silk oak I grew. (There have been a few others - given away at Halloween.) Every year the Cosmos grow about 3 feet tall. Don't know why, but this strain is strong... and cheery, don't you think so?

When I came inside I found this bloomer. It wasn't there on Sunday when I watered last.

 

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Now for a before and after shot of my latest home improvements:

New kitchen lights... not for me, but to sell my house.  Why do we do this?  (They make the ceiling look higher.)

So even though the car died yesterday, and the hubby had to get AAA to tow her to the car hospital, it's still a wonderful day. (That is because we do have enough moola to fix it... otherwise the sweetness of the other events would have been overshadowed. You know the feeling.)

So what makes your day - today?

Hugs,

Terri