What the Heck #2, and Warm February.

Lucky me -- I used five stash fabrics in this quilt and had just enough of 4  for the border!  I will try to "dull" the very light side with my quilting thread. 

Size is about 60" x 60".  Are you intrigued by the design?  I'm not telling, yet.

Today I'm working on the backing. 

 

Yesterday, February 27 -- Very strange for February in western Nebraska.  I even managed some raking and tidying up the gardens!  My tulips are peeking thru mulch, I saw green on the lilies, and daffodil greens are several inches tall on sound side of garage.  We are watching for the screech owl.    

 

Valentines, and What the Heck?

Delivered while I was still in my jammies, bare feet, no Revlon, no toothbrushed teeth - I tell ya, I was gorgeous!  8-)))

This gift was hidden -- had to search for it -- took me 2 days to find because DH has hidden it among my UFOs, layers of fabric, quilt stand with 5 quilts on it, .... you know how that is.  This rose will last - it's  beautiful, sitting on an antique stand.  Needs a prettier home.  

What is that? 

Yep -- Chimneys and Cornerstones but all whacked up.   

 Look what happened?

This time, I'm not telling how.  8-)))  Coool, huh???

Donation Quilt

At our most recent All Day Sew, we had agreed to make donation quilts for local purposes.  These blocks are so easy - 2 1/2 in strips of lights and dark kid-themed fabrics.  Being enthusiastic, I made many more blocks than necessary.  At first I set them all jumbled up -- not good! -- neat rows are better this time.  This is an "Hourglass" block.   

Here is the back, with 5 extra blocks.  I used what I had for the crosswise strips, cutting them in equal size strips for some visual continuity.  Don't you just LOVE the surprise when you a quilt over to find something unexpected?

Recent days have been very warm - our snow is melting, but this pile is still huge.  As I leaned over to straighten the quilt - kersplat - I hadn't noticed the ice at snow edge.  No damage, I just felt silly and lucky. 

I machine quilt my own projects on a 10 year old Janome MC 6500. 

I tried a new thead for machine quilting

I've had this thread for some time, never having the "nerve" to try something new, but today I have a cute donation quilt and nothing else was the right color.  I always use a King Tut, or another quality thread for MQ'ing - time to try this less expensive thread in this taupe color. 

Wow - it quilts like buttah!!!!  I LOVE it.  Even the color was excellent for this quilt of many colors.  I will order more from Connecting Threads.  It did break 2 times, both times when going over multiple seams.  Perhaps I should have slowed down. 

I have a little plastic insert that fits halfway up, inside the thread cone, a do-jiggy, or perhaps you call it a thing-a-ma-bob, and the machine spindle fits inside the do-jiggy.  Works for me! 

LOL  My previous post was about "try it, you might like it"!  A joke on myself. 

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"Try it, you might like it!"

Remember when you didn't want to try some new, "suspicious" food, something your mother had just made and you balked at trying it?  And she would say "Try it, you might like it!"    Many quilters avoid a Pineapple because earlier experiences didn't work well, or you used the paper piecing, not always a favorite, or you had issues with the bias, but --- I had NO problems with this project, probably due to the excellent pineapple ruler I used AND the DVD I purchased thru Annies Craft Catalog, by Gyleen Fitzgerald of www.colourfulstitches.com   I tried it and I LIKED it! 

NQR -- Vacker Vinter Bat -- Other Side of our Studio

"Beautiful Winter Boat" - That title is Swedish (no umlaut on my keyboard over the "a").  The other name for the boat is "Luuckintuse" ... no correct spelling known.

According to my Swedish Father, Luuckintuse was a creature who lived under bridges and came out to "get" bad children.  Over the years it became a threat word for anyone in the family, adults too, who misbehaved, lost their temper, swore.   We think a Luuckintuse was something like a "Troll" - never sure.  They would come out from under bridges, grab bad children, and only let them loose if church bells rang.  (I bet I have that description messed up!) 

This is a current, finished project of DH.  I made the sail, which developed some crookedness after I broke one of the lines a few minutes ago, while cleaning off the table, so we could take photos! 

 

 

What would we do without our hobbies?