I finished the pinks spa quad. I used a couple of the leftover pink prints to make multi-colored binding strips.
The wall hanging is done, but I'm working right down to the wire to finish pillow shams to go with Lindsay's quilt. I ended up using my domestic sewing machine to quilt part of the wall hanging and then loading it on the longarm to do the stippling around the kimono. Stitch in the ditch is so much harder on the longarm.
The rains have really helped our flowers, and the Russian sage finally took off. We feed the hummingbirds, but I really enjoy when they visit our flowers the best.
The swallows have successfully incubated another set of eggs, and they're just beginning to hatch. Lots of viewing entertainment for a second time this summer.
I've been working on the wallhanging that will accompany the oriental lanterns quilt, though yesterday was mostly taking out some quilting. I had decided to cross-hatch the background of the kimono, but didn't like the look. I'll probably load it on the longarm and do some kind of fill on it. Thankfully the quilt is finished since Lindsay's birthday is Tuesday.
I've finished a few things, a couple of quilts for Pat, and Lindsay's lanterns. I used "Iron Gate" pantograph on the lanterns. I like the look it gave them. I'm not worried she'll see it here, since she's much too busy to follow my blog. I'm now working on pillow shams with the leftover blocks, and a wall hanging, all for her birthday, coming up on August 10th.
This is the first of two quilts and matching doll quilts for Sadie Jean. I enjoyed doing "custom" work on the doll quilt. That's about as much as I can commit to intensive quilting.
I used Nichole Webb's Spring Fling on this quilt. It fit the modern flowers in the focus fabric really well.
Dr. Kaufman gave me quite a bit of fabric on one of my quilt deliveries, and I was able to use them for some quilts. This is the first finished Spa Quad, along with a couple of added blue fat quarters to the ones she gave me. It is only half the pattern, and made a good size lap quilt for a kid. Pat and I cut this one out and put together each quarter block on the last morning of the retreat. I thought there might be some issues in putting it altogether, since I'm not a very exacting piecer, so I did that after I got home. There were no problems even though we had each done half the blocks.
We've seen this little horned lizard around in the front yard, and then he took refuge on the ramp under the covered entry to our front door. He let me get very close. I love the patterning and coloring on this guy. I hope he eats bigger bugs like centipedes which I don't enjoy in the least!
We've been getting our monsoon rains, and for the last several days have had mostly cloudy days. The moisture is always welcome though it frequently comes in torrents. This afternoon was one such torrent which made little pools of water.
The reward was a lot of beautiful clouds and that wonderful, fresh, moist air. Fortunately our temperatures have been milder since I don't do heat + humidity too well.
Back in the spring when my dad was still here we got a shed to help relieve some of the "stuff" in the garage, and organize things better. Dale has reclaimed the open space between the vehicles, and now has ample room to work on either one. There was always a pile of things occupying that area.
You can see the water from today's downpour. Dale created a little gravel landing around the shed, and to the west he frequently puts a chair out and watches the sunsets.
I've been in Show Low, AZ since Wednesday afternoon, and what a great, productive long weekend it has been.
The star of the show has been "Spa Quads" which no matter how slowly you try to enunciate it, sounds like Spock Wads. Star Trek anyone? I printed this pattern before I left home, and Pat had fabric that fit the pattern so well she decided to make it. It is destined to be a rather large baby quilt. Pat doesn't love the retro fabrics, but everyone else loves it.
I used vintage fabrics to make a smaller one which I will border to make it a little wider. I've also managed to finish my oriental lanterns, and make two more tops with donated ocean themed pinwheels. I will have lots of quilt tops to keep me busy once I get home.
For the past several days I thought our babies were about ready to leave the nest. I've been keeping a close watch in case one of them happened to fall out instead of flying out. There was a lot of preening and wing stretching going on. They made me rather nervous when they would teeter on the edge of the nest flapping wildly to get back in.
Early this morning I heard some commotion, and one of the babies was on the roof of our entry. I watched periodically for a while, and was able to see each of the other two take off in flight from the nest. I was surprised at their purposeful flight. The third one went to the middle of our road. Not a good place for a baby bird, and after some time, I decided to see if it could fly back towards the house, or I would help get it somewhere up higher where it wouldn't be such a target. Well, as I approached he took off and they are all fairly close to each other now, near or on the support for our satellite dish.
It sure has been great entertainment watching them. I can't believe it's only been two weeks since they hatched out. I also finished the pinwheel quilts.
Well, the snake didn't learn the lesson and returned to terrorize our swallows. Swallows take precedence here, and Dale found three snakes, two in the pot, and a rather large one underneath. They are no longer a problem!
I finished the rust piece, and it will be delivered on Tuesday. I had trouble using the rust dyed fabric for binding as well. Too many layers and too much iron oxide to stitch through. The needle had trouble penetrating through it all, but I got it done.
Also finished the pinwheel quilts, and they are waiting in the dryer for photos. We got some much needed rain the night before last, and spent the day yesterday in the yard weeding, dressing up old plants, and planting some new discounted plants from Wal-Mart. Rearranged things by the front door--trying do away with snake habitat.
Since we've lived here, we've had swallows come around, and look like they were going to nest but it never happened. This year they made a nest in our front entry. It's been a real treat watching their amazing nest building from scratch and now watching the babies grow.
Then one evening, I see the adults all flying towards our living room window, and then there are three and four adults. When I looked out to see what was going on, I discovered a snake atop our dried yucca that are in a pot by the door, and it is straining, trying to reach the nest. It can't reach, but then it tries to climb up the stucco wall. Well, I wouldn't have that. By the time I went to get a long handled tool to convince the snake to leave, it had gone down into the deep pot that the yuccas are in. The adult swallows were vigilant and upset for a long time.
Yesterday evening we noticed there were only three babies in the nest. We looked all around and found no evidence of the fourth one at all. We suspect it fell out and then something ate it.
This evening the bull snake was back. We didn't want to just kill the snake, but also don't want it upsetting our swallow family. Dale flung it out in the field, accidentally flinging it against the house first which didn't seem to bother it any. I've also removed all the yuccas from the pot so that he can't hang out there pestering the poor swallows.
I've read several posts in my blog hopping about showing or blogging about the process instead of just showing the finishes. More about this "movement" here. I've had an idea percolating for a while. I wanted to make something for the physical therapy department at the VA. I was fortunate enough to have a great therapist before my total knee surgery who worked with me trying to put off the inevitable, and now my husband is working with Sahreem on shoulder issues. Since I had made some small quilty postcards for my knee surgeon and hand surgeon, I thought I should make something for PT as well.
I started with rust dyeing some fabric. It went faster and got rustier than I expected. I want to try again, and maybe with some clothing that I'm not particularly enamored with. I love the organic color of it, though I was trying for just old looking, parchment like something.
So this is what has evolved. Why the thistle on the left? I don't know, I've been thinking about doing one in thread since they are blossoming all around now, and I wanted something with some color. I've learned that I need to go bigger if I ever do another Vitruvian man. It was hard to outline this small figure or even try to do any shading. Not sure if I'll gift it to the intended recipient...we'll see.
