Thursday, November 09, 2006

Diamond Table Topper and CAFFEINE!!!


Had a good, quilt-y weekend. Must have been that new coffee drink I tried - yeah caffeine!

I finished off these diamonds that will be another table topper. This was started last month at our Guild class. I have been so envious of some quilters, who can change table decorations with the season, so I made one for ME. This is actually Baby Blocks, but assembled log cabin style. The trick was keeping the 60 degree angle accurate. The binding was finished differently than what I've done before. Separate strips (6) were sewed on and at the points, it was marked, sewn and folded to make an inverted binding at 120 degrees, which neatly folded over onto itself in the back. (Clear as mud?)

I have never worked with batiks before – while they are beautiful, I wonder if, over time, appear dated, and will not retain the charm of ‘traditional’ fabrics. The crispness it a great feature, but I don’t think hand quilting would work? Comments about retaining charm?

I chose those particular green-y gold-y pink-y colors to blend with my maple table. My DH made the Duck Basket - a kind of primitive item, originally meant to hold my quilt books ... LOL - I don't think he actually every counted how many quilt books I have, so I'm putting a plant in it, or Christmas cards, or apples, or pine cones, or whatever. We both like the basket so much he made 4 more.

With that success, I forged ahead, and cleaned the accumulated stuff off my little ironing board and stapled on a new fresh cover. Wahoo! Sometimes just a small improvement makes one want to work some more. Uuhhh, do we have any extra fabric to make a fresh cover for our ironing board?

Next I managed to empty my studio trash basket (AND did NOT give in to temptation and retrive any of the little scraps!), vacuumed the studio, and cleaned off my catch-all tray, all on the same day. Sometimes little steps are all one can manage. I had been reading Stashbuster Mail List, and there were many ideas to encourage a self-imposed slug to just get a'goin!

Lastly, I decided to take time to see where some of you Bloggers are from, by using a FREE program, Google Earth. What an amazing program! It is based on GPS systems. You probably need DSL to make it work well. I have ‘visited’ Red Square, the Imperial Gardens in Japan, my mother’s house in Florida, checked out Iraq, looked at Blogger Joyce’s town in Manitoba Canada, Blogger Jenni in Queensland, a military base in England, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Vesuvius, and so many others. I saw a red car in the driveway of my earlier residence - the image is that clear in some areas. I halfway expected someone to come out the door and wave to me! Check it out!

13 comments:

  1. The log cabin table topper is wonderful! I've hand quilted batiks - not very much fun due to the thread count, and the thread tends to lay on the top a lot more.

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  2. This table topper is lovely. It is so fun working with batik fabric and I have collected a whole bunch of them. But I do not know what to make of them yet. I have installed Neo Counter in my blog, and it is very fun to see which country my visitors come from.
    Have a nice quilting weekend.

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  3. I love Google Earth! I've found a few bloggers that way, too! Check me out in Vaasa, Finland if you get a chance!

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  4. PS I love that table topper, too!

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  5. Love your table topper, Elaine! I saw a tree skirt made with that pattern in traditional red/green some years ago, and every year at this time, I start thinking about that diamond log cabin tree skirt. One would think I would just go ahead and make me one, wouldn't one? LOL Love that duck basket that you hubby made too. You need to show us more of his work, please? :D

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  6. Wow, what a gorgeous table topper! Love the colors and the design. I'm a Google Earth fan myself BTW!!!

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  7. What a lovely table topper. I have made one similar once, for a gift, in green Christmas fabrics.
    I really like the duck basket too.

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  8. I love your table topper project! I also love to change the quilts in my house with the seasons.

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  9. I love your table topper. The colors are great. I'm not a fan of batiks, but you made them look fantastic. I've never used Google Earth. I'm off to check it out.

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  10. I'm not so sure about batiks either, even though I'm leaning a bit toward them too. Nice of you to visit me on my island.

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  11. your table topper is very nice. I like the fabrics you used. The duck basket your husband made looks good with the plant in it.

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  12. Loved the table topper, also love Google Earth. I bet you can't quite see a car in the driveway near us; not being a highly populated or at risk area means their are a lot fewer satellites aimed at us. Which may be a good thing!

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  13. Man are you good with those diamond things or what. Another diamond log cabin tabble topper!

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