Heartstrings quilts and tops

Here's what's quilty lately, three more heartstrings quilts (wheelchair sized) from the blocks made by my guild. First, a square top in the brighter string squares from the pile of blocks:


And a rectangular one with with no brights, but lots of navy and khaki strips, and khaki sashing for the guys who prefer something in mostly 'manly' colors:


And finally, a strip pieced star thats gotten quilted, that I happened to get back to put a label on. The quilter did a superb job, lots of feathers and swirls and very tight quilting. It turned out so beautiful I almost don't want to give it away. :)



And about the EQ difficulties I was having? The copy of EQ6 I got wasn't an upgrade, so I didn't need to install EQ5 first, it turned out to be a BUAK problem (between user and keyboard.) I tried to open a file that I'd saved and moved from my old to new computer, but neglected to notice that at the very bottom of the file window it says 'files of type' with a little EQ6 in the window. So of COURSE when I looked in the EQ5 file folder, it showed nothing, there weren't ANY ... EQ6 ... files in my EQ5 folder. :) Boy, did I feel stupid when I finally figured it out.... :D

My New Computer

Well, I finally upgraded from my old faithful win98 with dialup to a new Vista hp computer and cable. Cable IS faster, but I'm not sure it's worth $60 per month. Here it is:


It's been fun (NOT) having to install all my programs and files. The computer didn't come with Java preinstalled, so that was one of the first things. Did you know that Java does not have ANY browsers selected when you first install it? I uninstalled and reinstalled the stupid thing twice, trying to figure out why it wasn't working, till I looked in the Java control panel, saw browser versions, and put a little check beside 'internet explorer' and 'firefox,' which are the two browsers I use the most.

I also haven't found out how to use my Corel Print House with Vista, I'm suspecting it is not compatible, since the Corel is a pretty old version. I also have run into a problem trying to access my EQ5 files with EQ6, and I'm wondering if I have to have EQ5 loaded on this computer too, not just the copied files. Any of you quilty ones know?

Siamese Quilt

I've been asked if I have ever made a siamese quilt - yup, I've made two, both wall hanging size. Here's the first:



I made this one for a guild challenge, Black and White and .... (we had to finish the sentence.)

Some people made black and white only quilts, others added one color, and some did a free interpretation, adding all colors. Mine is titled ... and We're All Over. The Siamese cats are based on Solange, from Brooke McEldowney's comic strip '9 Chickweed Lane', and used by permission.

If you like cats, you'll enjoy looking through his Hallmarks of Felinity website, collection of his cat comics.

This one was quilted for me by fellow blogger and quilter Ann H., in Missouri.

Birdwatching Toby

Toby never is allowed outside, but I'm sure he's thinking that if this screen weren't in the way, he could have a drumstick for supper:


I'll admit to putting the occasional bits of stale bread out for the birds, just so the cats will have some window watching fun. Think it's like TV for them?

Flowers Blooming

Beautiful Spring weather for flower growing we've had so far this week in Memphis ... tomorrow it's supposed to rain, and for the rest of the week, so I took pix while the picture taking was good. My yellow iris are done, but the big purple/white ones are just starting:


And my favorite part, a closeup of the zebra stripey pattern on the bottom:


And my peony bush is just outdoing itself this year. Most stalks have two or even three huge blooms on them - I'm trying to keep the old ones pinched off, so they don't get too top heavy. And that's not weeds behind it (well, maybe one or two!) but the lighter green pointy foliage up against the brick is the beginnings of my orange daylilies:


As they bloom, over a week, that center bit of these peonies gets huge, tennis ball size. The scent is just glorious. This year, I sprayed them with ant spray before the big golf ball size blooms opened, and now I can take some in to work, to share, without taking in little crawlies too. The ants just love these:



Anyone else got flowers to show?

Border Fabric Bought

Well, I couldn't find the exact Hoffman butterfly fabric I wanted, although I really appreciated all the people who helped me look! I decided instead on a medium blue skinny border, then I found a fabric with green, teal, purple and blue stars on black. I'll be sashing the blocks in black, so this will brighten the edge up a bit without standing out too much, I think.

Here's the two fabrics I bought:



I have all my sashing fabric strips cut, half of them sewn, and I'd show you the EQ design of what it's going to look like, but it's a seeeeecret... :)

In other news, I finally bought a new computer, but... I can't hook it up till I switch ISPs. I'm using CompuServe dial up, and they don't support Vista. I can get cable hookup, but it'll cost me $60 per month, internet only. Ouch! And if I don't want dial up, Comcast is my ONLY choice. AT&T and BellSouth have merged, and don't have service available in my neighborhood, Comcast bought Roadrunner/Time Warner... there's just nothing else out there. I wish I could put rabbit ears on my computer like I have on my TV!