Stars DONE, and Hugs and Kisses DONE

This one is DONE - here's the back, shown previously.  We are having the deck painted, again, so I am also showing slow painting progress for my own use.  The quilt design is originally from Quiltville.com and Bonnie Hunter calls it Maverick Stars.  I've made MANY of her designs - thank you Bonnie!

Swirls go fast and are not difficult for quilting on a DSM.  I sew/quilt on a Janome MC 6500.  LOVE that machine!

 I DO enjoy seeing my finished quilts on the deck rail.  8-)))  Pretty against the deck primer.

Below is Hugs and Kisses, a Linus quilt - so easy!!!  The design would also be perfectly wonderful in blues and purples, or greens and blues or very scrappy.  I was not sure how to handle the giganto  rick-rack.  I sewed the rick-rack down the center.  I tried NOT to sew down the points but leaving them loose, seemed kinda sloppy - couldn't have it both ways so they are sewed down.  Each border corner miraculously "turned" perfectly!  

I had a LOT of this backing for Hugs and Kisses, so I made a pillowcase to be included.  Dig that YELLOW!  --no more pink.  Those are silly "cat" cartoons on the back.

Overall quilting was big and similar to "dwirling" - this went fast.  The finished quilt is about 51" x 51".  The quilting thread is a variegated light pastel, that I've used for MANY quilts when there are a lot of colors.

Every unit is made the same - similar to snowballs.  This would also be a an excellent totally scrappy quilt if arranged differently and the blocks can be any size.  It's simply squares and quick corners.  I saved the cutoff corners for .. for ... uhhh... something.  8-))

Have Faith, and Progress

Look at all those lines! This part is painted, but you can't tell yet, from the angle. That's a wonderful, heavy duty roll-out awning over the doors. Because we have so much wind here, we can't have an umbrella, and have to roll this awning in and out. It gives us an entire additional living space in nice weather. THAT's why I insisted this deck get painted. I worked 3 hours after my OTHER WORK! yesterday, while our helper started earlier in the day. Whew, I am not tall enough to reach the top of those boards! Our helper John offered to do the fiddly parts with the brush if I did the larger roller areas. Sounded like a great plan to me!
I was getting a bit shakey, (Hey I've been a Senior Citizen for years!) and light headed at the end. This was around the corner of the house/deck, and if I kerplunked down to the ground due to fatigue or a heart attack or ???, no one would find me for a while, so I decided I'd better quit. At this point even taking a shower took too much effort. Sighhhh, one more afternoon and it will be DONE.
Due to excessive fatigue, and looking forward to finishing this painting job, and looking forward to actually sitting on the deck before winter comes, and then planning the next project, and, and and ... not a normal sleeping pattern for me but, I was awake most of the night, drinking, hot flashes, getting more water, too hot, too cold, where are the blankets, my hip hurts, DH was fidgeting, etc., so I finally got up and started sewing at 4:00 am! I am expecting to crash today or tomorrow! These blocks are going to need 'something' to help pull them together. Putting them on point will allow me to use side setting triangles in a PLAIN cream, that should calm it.

There are a couple prints that I cringe each time I see them, so have decided to "File 13" them. Out they go!

What I did this weekend

The gutter was full of debris, and DH did NOT want to climb on the ladder. It was so full of crud that now we had dampness in the basement. OMGosh, what next! I promised DH that when I came home from work I would climb the ladder if he held it. But the rest of the morning I was praying REALLY HARD that some miracle would occur and I wouldn't have to climb.

My prayers were answered! That morning, DH called the Retired Senior Services and they found us a helper named John, who came immediately, and scampered up that ladder and cleaned out the gutter. He asked for $20.00. I would have happily paid him MUCH MORE if he had asked! We lined him up for the next job, painting the DECK!

I have never shown anyone our deck because for the past 2 years it looks so bad, we don't even sit outside any more. The fix required 1) power wash; 2) primer, 3) paint. (It really needs to be totally replaced, but ... remember the stock market thing!) And even when 'fixed' it's nothing to write home about!

The first power washer didn't touch the old paint, so we dragged it back to the hardware store, and ordered a heavier power washer which was more successful. Here's what part of the deck looks like after the power washing - lovely, huh?? -- flakes/chunks of paint everywhere, and we can't possibly get off all the loose paint due to that ridiculous deck/rail design, and years of old paint. And look how one has to paint that awful rail!!! I can barely squeeze a paintbrush in there! More scraping - Ugh! I did my part with the scraping, but John did most of the work.

OK, Elaine, buy 3 gallons of primer, 3 gallons of paint, various rollers and pans (I'm thinking how many yards of fabric would this be), and we're set to GO! John and I painted 3 hours Saturday afternoon and managed to prime about half the project. No painting Sunday (thank goodness as I will not be able to MOVE in the morning!). Yes, that's me, now needing to sit down and paint!, under my treasured Dad's paint hat and wearing dark after-cataract-surgery sunglasses I found somewhere. The primer is so bright it really CAN hurt eyes. (Lesson - Last time we did this job, I went to hospital thinking I had paint IN my eye, but no, just too much glare from the paint.)
John was a great worker and I'm definitely appreciating his assistance. After 3 hours, I was drained and couldn't work any longer. Monday, we'll start again.