Popsicles!

It's been HOT for the last week here in Memphis, temps with highs in the triple digits every day. I found some great popsicles at the store, pineapple cherry and pineapple mango, so I selected 'Cool Summer Treats' for the guild's block of the month theme:

http://www.ucquilts.com/bomaugust2007.htm

Of course, as block of the month chairperson and web page maker, I have to make a sample myself, every month, so here's my two:



And here's Toby, waiting from the couch for his chance to park his rear end on the two new blocks, but innocently pretending he's not watching them:

Van News

Well, got my van back, and it looks like new. Drives great, they fixed the driver's seat, replaced that inside cargo area, everything. Dobbs Collision here in Memphis did a wonderful job for me:


Scroll down if you want to see a before picture. ;) Now, the only thing I want is a couple of things that were in the back cargo area of the van replaced. First, being inspected by the nosier half of my resident siamese inspection team, my big cooler was damaged and needs to be replaced:



The cooler was sideways in the back of the van, so I had room beside it for other stuff, and when the back of the van was squinched in, it pushed the two short ends of the cooler in, and the edges bulged out, cracking the plastic at all 4 corners and breaking the handle (the one you see there) that was closest to the hatch door. On the left side, the squinching pulled the white liner away from the blue outside, and on the right side, the blue stayed stuck to the white, instead it created a long crack along the corner rim of the liner.



They wanted to know what size it was, but the cooler didn't say on the side... just the name Coleman. I put the red Igloo 12 inside the blue one so they could see that it is bigger than a 12 can cooler.

It also broke my sunglasses, which were in the same cargo area - normally I carry them up front with me and they don't leave the car, but I was using the coolers AND the sunglasses, and they both ended up in the back. Here's what they look like now:



Yes, they were prescription, and for insurance purposes, there's a copy of my prescription on the left. If I can get them replaced before the prescription gets a year old, I won't have to pay to get my eyes examined again. I have till Sept. 22. On the right is an estimate for replacement from Walmart. Frames $99 and lenses $178. And I don't even think that includes getting the edges rolled and polished, which I DID have on these sunglasses. Bifocals get expensive, don't they?

The thing that irks me is that when I got these wire frames not too long ago, they didn't have many BIG lensed frames to choose from. The little 'frame selection associate' at the store I got them from told me in all seriousness ... "But NObody wears big frames anymore, the longer narrow frames are what's in style." I don't care what's in style, I like big sunglasses. And ALL the movie stars I see trying to evade the paparazzi are wearing big dark lenses... lol.

Anyway, I'll send the blog address to all the insurance folks, and I have more pix I can send (say, if they really want to see all 4 corners of the cooler) and I can fax a copy of the glasses estimate and prescription if they need it. I think since I was honest and didn't try to claim whiplash or back or neck injury, the least they can do is replace these two things, don't you?

Kaleidoscopes and Classes

Fun! I had a LOT of fun on Monday - I took off work and went to a guild sponsored class taught by Marti Michell. It was a great class. I ended up buying her Kaleido-ruler and a set of little mirrors that you can test the pattern of kaleidoscope blocks with.

The kaleido-ruler will let me make a whole range of kaleidoscope blocks, from 6 to 16 inches, AND when you rotate the ruler, you can easily cut the triangular bits to go at the end of the kaleidoscope wedges, too. I made 9 little six inch ones in class, using scraps of fabric left over from my big blue and khaki quilt. I plan to make a pillow with it. Here it is hanging on the library shelves next to the quilt:


It's 18 inches square now, so I'll probably use more of that khaki and blue ferny fabric on the outer border of the quilt to border the pillow, and also use those fabrics for the pillow back, if I have enough.

If you ever get a chance to take a class from Marti, don't hesitate. ;) She's got an excellent sense of humor, knows what she's teaching, and I learned a LOT. I really wish I'd known some of the tricks she taught before I made all the kaleidoscope blocks between the depression blocks in the king size quilt. Even though the blocks I made can't be made with her ruler (the depression block is a 16 patch, her ruler makes blocks divisible by three, for use next to each other or with nine patches) there were still some tips that would have worked on my blocks.

Speaking of which, I also finished that, and got the borders on, then got a picture of it before I send it off to get quilted. NO way am I trying to quilt a king size on my machine at home! It's so big, it even draped too long when I hung it on the tallest shelving unit:



Now I need to make pillow shams for this quilt, and get the backing ready... then what should I work on next? :)

Delectable Mountains and Kaleidoscopes

Here's my most recent finish - a blue and green delectable mountain quilt - pattern from Bonnie's site, www.quiltville.com, of course. I liked the lanterns layout on her examples, and the zig zag layout too, so I combined them. It was quilted by Mary S. in Missouri, and she did a great job for me, as usual, even constantly switching threads, using blue/green thread on the dark fabric and cream thread on the light fabric.


And here's what I've been working on lately - remember the hundreds of blue and beige half square triangles I was doing a few months ago? I sewed them all into depression blocks, then used some of the same blues and beiges to make kaleidoscope blocks. It's not your typical kaleidoscope wedges, though, I made the blue kite shapes skinnier and the beige parts wider, to fit edgewise with my 16 patch depression blocks. This is half the quilt top, it'll be kingsize, so when I get the top done, even without borders, it won't fit on the fence.


And finally, I got a rental car, the insurance companies decided that yes, their clients were at fault, and they're fixing my van this week. But lookie what I get to drive instead! I'm going to be so spoiled that I won't be happy when my van comes back... lol.



It's not near as big as it looks in this picture, but it sure is nice! It's a Toyota 4-runner, with all kinds of things I'm not used to. A lot higher than my minivan, for sure!

Some Finishes

This pink and brown one I started at our guild retreat last November (well, actually, we had some homework to precut our squares before the class, but didn't start making the blocks till the second weekend in November.) We had a great instructor, and almost everyone finished the top during the weekend, a few finished top AND borders. I sent mine home with my longarm quilter, to Missouri, and just got it back from her a couple of days ago.


I'd used up most of the fabric that matched it in the piano key border, but I was lucky enough to find another yard of the one I wanted (the dark reddish brown one) at the store.

Here's the back of a smaller couch-throw quilt... remember the floral windmills I put up on the blog a month or so ago?


And here's the front of it. Mary S. really did a great job quilting both of them. This floral one's already been washed, and really came out all soft and nice. Too bad I don't need a couch throw this time of year! I like the look of the pieced binding - it might have looked better against a less dark final border, but since this one was completely from my stash, I wanted to use up the last few floral strips.



Nothing new on the mashed van yet. Because the delivery truck hit me, then a car hit the delivery truck, they'll have to argue about who has to pay what percentage of the repair. A guy from the insurance company is meeting me at work tomorrow to have a look at the damage.

And finally, a question... have any of you seen the quilts that fold in on themselves and become pillows? Is it too late for me to do that and attach it to the floral quilt, or should I just make a separate little zippered pillowcase for it? If you attach it, do you put it center bottom or on a corner or?

KaBam

Got involved in a fenderbender yesterday on the way to work. I'm fine, I had my seatbelt on... but the big delivery truck that rear ended me just mashed my poor van. I was actually hit twice, once by the truck, and then again by a car that rammed into the back of the truck. Here's a picture of what it looks like now:


And here's a picture of a van the same year as mine, showing what it looked like before:

I'm still able to drive it, but it drives/rides 'funny' and it feels like my seat is back too far from the steering wheel. (I've driven it for 7 years now, and know exactly where my hands fit on the wheel, and the wheel is too far away by about an inch.) I also noticed that the mirrors were showing too much sky, so I'm wondering if the underneath is bent up too. I tried to get a rent-a-car to drive, but this is a bad weekend to get one, they were all out of cars at the two locations nearest me.


The delivery truck was owned by a fairly large company, with locations in several states, so at least they've got insurance. I've already been in contact with them, but things move slow, esp. with the holiday next week, and I have to have a claim number before I can do anything about getting estimates or repairs.

Does anyone know anything about driving a vehicle with frame damage, if that's what it is? The linen delivery truck was pretty big, and he hit me pretty hard, almost straight on. Here's a pic from their website of one like the one that got me:



Out of the three vehicles that were involved, I was the only one that didn't get ticketed, and all of us were ok, so I guess I should be thankful for that.

Retreat Results

Well, here's the main thing I did on our retreat this weekend, sewd four half lone-star blocks to the 4 corners of this unfinished ostrich of mine, setting it on point. It's not quite as pinkish as it looks in this photo under the indoor lights at the lodge:



This was my first lone-star, and I realize I've still got a lot to learn about quiltmaking! All those set-in squares are SO not my thing... but I can do them now. And I need to work on my pinning and accuracy! Most of my seams match pretty well, but I've got to be more careful, I think.

I also got a quilt bound - one made with the delectable mountain pattern from Bonnie's site. I'll get a picture of that one later. *Yawns* We were up late the last two nights, talking and eating and sewing and laughing, so I think a Sunday afternoon nap is called for. :)

Quilts in Progress

Well, I'm back to work on my own stuff now, and here's some of what I've been doing. First, I'm going to a retreat the end of June where we're going to learn how to make a strip pieced lone star quilt block. We had to make a paper paste up using our fabrics, little ½ inch diamonds. I have a ruler that cuts that angle for me, so making the little bits was easy. Deciding on the final color layout was the hard part:


The paper was nice and flat when I first glued it up, but unfortunately, someone (who shall remain nameless) decided it'd make a good place for a kitty nap.

I actually plan to make two of these stars, and stick them on my UFO that started out as the Ostrich that Peachquilting was doing. I figure half on each side, and then maybe I'll come up with a big block for the four corners? Here's what I've planned so far in EQ6, many of you may recognize the middle part of the design. My favorite of the 4 corner blocks is the bottom left one, but it has 16 points meeting in the center, and that's a bit much. I'll have to keep looking. I have Block Base software that works with EQ too, but I've yet to install it on my new computer.


Or maybe I'll do some border stuff between the lone star halves and the next bit? I have an idea for a strip of triangly pieced bits I'll have to try in scraps before I use the matching fabric from this quilt.

I've also made most of a quilt top - but I can't show it because it's a sample for a mystery that I'll be teaching at a guild retreat. Won't be much of a mystery if people see it here, and there are a few people I know from guild who stop in at my blog. But I'm really happy with how it's turning out, and wish I could show it off!

Happy Quilting!

Last String Top

Well, ok, here it is, folks, my last string top - at least for a while! This one used all but ONE of the blocks my guild members made for two months of block-of-the-month:



Can you find the one block I used in there with a red center string? The only other block I had left was really dark, all thimbleberries colors, red, navy, forest green, plum... I needed something brighter there and decided the red string looked better there, even though my eye picks it out first... lol

I also finished another string top this weekend, but it was nothing to take a picture of, just a 4 blocks by 5 blocks combo, nothing exciting, no sashing. Both of these quilts will go to my board meeting Monday night, and I'll try to get someone to add one last outer border to them and quilt them. :)

I'm really itching to get restarted on some of my own projects now, seems like my life has been string blocks for toooo long. I'll probably return to them, or at least charity quilts of some pattern, but I've had enough of strings! Maybe it'll be time for some chinese coins?

Heartstrings Pinwheels

Here's another just finished heartstrings wheelchair sized top:


I'm about heartstring-ed out, but I still have a few more of the heartstring blocks my guild members made left, to put into a quilt. I did finally finish trimming the ones I have. I found out after I'd started sewing them into strips to make a top that some of them measured 10 inches square, and some measured 9½ inches, and some weren't square at all. And there I was thinking, boy, these things sure must be stretching, because my strip side seams weren't matching up at all. :D

So, quite a bit of ripping seams later, all of them are now 9½ inches square. Off I go to visit all of you!

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!

More Fabric info

I went and looked on the Hoffman Challenge site, and saw all their challenge fabrics since 1988, and my butterflies in deep purple/pink/blue wasn't one of them. But I did find this one, which is VERY close, in fact, I'll add it to my hunt, this one would be great as a border print too:


This one is titled 'Orchids' from their 1995 challenge. I must be about 10 years too late on my color preferences - guess I never will be in style!

Their 1994 challenge fabric was titled 'Tiffany Windows' and has lots of butterflies, but way too much yellow/gold to fit in the quilt I'm doing now.

Looking for Fabric

Maybe you folks out there all around the world can help me find these:



I have enough for the center of the quilt, but I'd LOVE to have a couple of yards more of one or the other to make borders. I used these two fabrics to select all my other fabrics (the ones in the pizza box, remember?) and I've searched all over the place online for these, and can't find either one of them. It would help, of course, if I knew the fabric line they came from.

Any of you have any in your stash with a selvage still attached, showing the company? The butterflies do have some metallic lines, in gold. I've found another butterfly fabric that's VERY similar, but it has some yellow, and that won't go in this quilt. I'm down to the dregs of these two fabrics, in fact, if you look close, you can see that these two swatches are actually put together from 4 inch squares... lol I hope someone's seen them before!

*ForestJane crosses her fingers*

Double Star with borders

Well, here it is:


I used Dawn's suggestion and added two wide strips of the blue on the outside of the string stripes, then went around the whole thing in dark red. Kinda bright, but should add some color to someone's room in the nursing home I'll be donating it to!

And on the bad news front, I went to Walmart for an oil change today and of course, had to cruise by the fabric area. I'd never bought as much there as at Hancock's, but they did offer some name brand quilting fabric, Cranston, VIP, Quilter's Blenders, etc. Now, as stuff sells, they're not getting in any more. They said they'll still have some small notions, but nothing that has to be cut. So first the Hancock's near me closes, now the Walmart nearest me closes it's fabric area, where will I shop? Online only? But I like to feel my fabric... :(

Double Star

Yet another Heartstrings quilt top... this one again from the blocks people in my guild made for block of the month. I picked all the brightest ones I could find for the stars, eight with a red stripe for the points, and 8 with a blue stripe for the centers. Some of these blocks had center strips that were too large or too small, but in this layout, it's not as noticeable, I think:


The blue is actually a snowflake print, bought on sale, but the snowflakes are much smaller than the dark blue bubble shapes or the white asterisk shapes you may see, so I think I'm getting away with it. :)

One more blue border on the two long sides, do you think? It could stand to be bigger, so I COULD put even another border all the way around, red, maybe? It's going to be donated to a nursing home, so bright and cheerful is good, and any sizes from wheelchair to crib to twin are needed. I only used 24 heartstrings blocks on this one, so I still have plenty left to keep on playing with (and I'm getting more donated every time I meet with the guild members.) Those side borders made from the half blocks are a GOOD place to use the slightly 'maverick' blocks. I cut the red centered ones in half with the stripe leaning to the top right, and the blue centered ones with the center stripe leaning to the top left, so I got the zig zag effect.

I got another bit added to all 100+ of my bright squares that were in the pizza box, AND got all of them ironed, made another 6 kaleidoscope blocks for the king size quilt, AND got those ironed. I really appreciate all the name suggestions for it too! I haven't decided on a name yet, I like the beach references, because that tan/beige does look like sand with water, but I also like the windmill and diamond ideas a lot too. Thanks, everyone, for the super suggestions!