Abita Springs Day 1

The weather is like my mood dampened. It is raining on and off here. From the weather reports New Orleans got the worse especially at the Jazz Festival. Hopefully it doesn't rain hard tonight.

Sammie and Jerri had a time putting up their tent. They put the tarp under the tent and over the tent to keep the rain out but I have a suspension that a hard rain will be a disaster for them.

Those two girls have worked so hard since Wednesday night. Thursday they worked all day fixing bikes so they could ride them here...they would fix one tire and then another would go flat. We bought 6 tubes and 1 tire. The tire was the wrong size and we only changed 5. Hopefully that 6th one will hold air until Monday.

Dee spent the night and Pape had coffee with her this morning. Last night we ate at the $5.00 buffet at casino and then Dee & Pape went play. The girls and I went home but Dee & Pape came home about 20 minutes later with extra money in pockets.

Dee is coming back next week and we will go eat and then work on midarm if I am feeling better.

Stay dry and have a blessed Saturday. Lator gators!
Sometimes I need to do more than just pray for serenity and forgiveness. So please forgive my ranting but Stop here because I must rant:

Before leaving, our renter (who hasn't paid but once in 6 months) came to give a sad story about needing more time to get her stuff from trailer. Afterall, we didn't let her know she had to get out until last week...mmm, rent was due on 3rd and electricity on 10th- she is 2 months behind on electricity and it is 23rd but we are unfair. I let her know that we can not afford to support her...if we had the extra money we would give it to our grandchildren. It makes me so angry...they have money for booze but no money for rent or electricity. Those are ourproblems because we have more than they do. Well, Monday I will solve our problems. But I am the "mean harsh woman who lives with that nice black man." I am so prejudice towards people who don't take care of their business and expect others to do so and then get mad when they are expected to handle their own business. Heck, we have done without so that our bills were paid and so have my daughters growing up and we still am careful about certain things but because we look like we have 2 pennies to rub together we should gladly pay all the dead beats'bills. I truly can not stand that attitude no matter who it is especially when someone does the same thing and has bad things to say about someone else.

Disrupted Plans

Due to health problems, I won't be binding this weekend. I don't know if I will even sew except for lotto blocks and guild blocks and/or simple quick things.

I know that my stash report will be late but I cut 1 1/2 yards in 2 1/2" strips to bind the skull quilt. But my daughter gave me about a yard of tiger scrap and I bought 5 fat quarters to cut a series of 12" squares for an embroider project. Since those projects were not started, I am back equal to what I started with 2 Sunday's ago.

Lator gators. I hope to come back feeling spry as a spring chicken and not like this pooped turkey.

A Love for Binding

Starting today, I will be binding quilts for a change. I love to put the binding on a quilt. Some people think I am being sarcastic when I say that but I am not.

The binding to me represents the transition of a project to a quilt. When it is done, the project begins a new life as a quilt. I love to think about all the adventures that quilt will have and I say a few prayers for the person who is receiving the quilt.

For example, several of the quilts I plan on doing this weekend are going to Haiti not as bed covers but as beds. Those already have lots of prayers for the survival of the person who gets each quilt by the ladies who made them and now mine will be added as I bind each one.

Then I will be binding the skull quilt. That quilt too has received lots of prayers for my grandson during its making. It has become my connection to him and binding it does not end our connection but strengthens it.

The second thing I plan on doing by Tuesday is make labels/squares for saints and ull. I just haven't figured out how to use my Baby Lock for that and sewing on bindings. Guess I will have to set up 2 machines.

I know that my eldest daughter plans on working on the midarm tonight. So I will have to go find all the pieces and directions for it. That will be interesting!!! More praying...

Well lator, gators. Have a blessed day and a great weekend. See you with my Stash report (added for a purpose) and Design Wall.

Quilted with Love

The skull quilt is quilted. I am not pleased with the borders and I have a few things to straighten out on the backing. I enjoyed the experience but think that a longarm is not for me. At least not one that is without a computer, it is easy to use but did not give me the results I wanted and that was not the HQ18's fault but mine as the quilter.


So I will save my pennies for a while longer until I can gain experience which will only come from practice and until I can get a computerized machine. I guess my baby lock spoiled me.

But I am glad that this quilt is done. Later I will get it back from my grandson and redo the borders. It was a learning experience that I would not have missed.

I now know why the border in the orginal was so busy!!!

Lator gators.

Skull Quilt Progress

I got to the BQ about 12 noon this afternoon. Time is something that I do not pay attention to when I have something to do. So I wasn't there at 10am like I had planned and wanted.

Renee' Borne and I loaded the quilt onto the frame after a few wrong turns. We then loaded the bobbin and an hour later away I went.

I learned several lessons in the 3 hours that I worked:

1) The HQ12 is very fast and easy to use.

2) I can not draw a straight line and I definitely can not quilt one or stitch in the ditch either which also required you to follow a line.

3) Renee' B. is a very neat lady and a great teacher.

4) Basting the sides is important.

5) I tend to plan too many things in one day.

6) The HQ 18 is very much like my midarm machine.

This quilt will not be the best quilted in the world but it is being done by me for my grandson who I love more than he will even belive. I haven't worked out what to do in the borders since my design is too big and I can't quilt a straight line to do lines. I guess the borders will be stippling in a semi-circular pattern since I can't draw circles either. This I know since I have been practicing at home.

I will return tomorrow to BQ to finish it and will put the binding on Wednesday night. I am still undecided as to whether I will go to guild meeting on Thursday.

This is the pattern the skull quilt was based on. As you can see, the quilt had a mind of its own.

Later gators, have a blessed evening and a superior day tomorrow.

Homework Done - Waiting Impatiently for BQ to Open

I think the title says it all. I now know/remember how it felt on Christmas morning when my parents told me it was too early to go see what Santa brought. Well, Pape tells me that planning and packing for the trip and the journey is always more fun than the destination. I know he is right but I think that this time it will all be FUN!!

I have everything cut correctly, pinned correctly, sized correctly, etc --I hope!!! When I get back from BQ and my guild board meeting at 4, I will hopefully have pictures of this adventure/wandering to post.

Have a blessed day, gators. Later.

Homework that I Want to Do!!

I went to BQ and got the directions and leaders to pin baste the skull quilt for machine quilting tomorrow, Tuesday, April 20th. That date will be a RED LETTER day for this year - the day that dang skull quilt was quilted aka finished. At this point in my journey with the skull top, the binding is just a passing thought that I will finish in BR on Wednesday night.

I have the books, DVD, and handwritten instructions so I am ready to start the minute we ge back from bowling tonight. I am so excited.

.

I only hope that my grandson knows how hard I have worked on this top with only him in mind. It looks nothing like the book because it has a personality of its own as does he! Part of me knows that he won't appreciate the personal time and money that is invested in this quilt. He won't understand that there are only 2 repeats in fabric skulls or that it is my first attempt at longarm quilting. Both big events in a quilter's life.

One day I hope that he will proudly tell someone that his grandma made this just for him and that all those eyeballs are her looking after him because he is so close to her heart.

Logically, I know that it will probably be put in a corner and not used often just like the one his mom made his older brother.

So sad but I made this quilt not only for him but for myself too. It was a work of love with lots of prayer asking blessing for him and that he be kept safe every time it was worked on. Those prayers will be there as will the blood stains on the back of some of the skulls long after I have gone to meet my Higher Power. Love lives on! Circle never ending always growing and you will always fit in that Circle never ending always growning and you will always fit in that...(repeat from beginning)

Tomorrow I will post pictures of me working on the longarm etc and a picture of the quilted skull top. Lator gators.

Design Wall Monday

The birds are singing up a storm outside my window and I just thanked my Higher Power for blessing me with health and the wisdom to retire. Retirement is wonderful because at 9:47am central time, I am sitting at my computer listening to the mockingbirds thru an open window still in my pjs. Wonderful feeling for me! I know it won't last since I will have to return to some type of working later but for now I am as happy as that singing mockingbird.

My design wall is overflowing since I finished piecing the skull quilt.
I am working on a black scrappy New York Beauty that I want to turn into a curved life road quilt. I am still working out the way to continue the road effect. I think that I will add black pieces and then applicate the missing "road" pieces. It is a work in progress with lots of thought. It will be for one of my grandsons either as a graduation quilt or wedding quilt. That depends on whether it is finished by graduation May, 2011 or not. I don't think the wedding will be until after 2012 but who knows.
The second piece I am working on is Autumn Leaves. It is too scrappy for me but will make a good give-away or to practice machine quilting.

Then on my door I have the stars that I am making as a BOM called Be There or Be Square. This has been claimed as a 2012 graduation quilt by Jerri, foster gd.

On the side wall, I have the piece I am doing as a rememberance of my brother, Roy. I think I will use pieces from his blue jeans as borders but am unsure. It may never leave that wall b/c it makes me happy seeing it there.
Well, gators, that is my design wall. The big event this week is the quilting of the skull quilt as Annie sang "Tomorrow, Tomorrow!"

A Pleasant Sunday

Today was an extremely pleasant day - weather and company. I sewed a bit on my Autumn Leaves blocks and then my youngest came over with her two children. My grandson, Chris, had a project to do and he needed the computer and more importantly the printer and geema's knowhow. So we worked on that for a while. Then Renee' and I went get meat etc for a Bar B Que. We left Pape, Chris, Spirit, and Sammie to start the pit.

When we got back Pape claimed to need lighter fluid so he went to the local store to get some. I think he just needed time. Renee and I seasoned the meat and went back to work on the project. Pape got back and Spirit told us the fire went high! Whoosh she said high.

We put the first batch of meat on the pit and went back to work. By the time we finished, the first batch was ready and the next two batches were on the pit. Renee washed clothes while doing all this -- multi-tasker. We all sat outside watching the kids play and Billie arrived with her two children.

The kids went to the front yard and set up a slip n slide and were having a ball while the adults sat and bbqued. Dorothy and Brian brought back my Element and joined in the conversation. By then everything was ready and we began to eat. The kids opted to play and ate later. Big mistake! Byron makes me laugh so much - he does not like to serve himself when he goes to someone else's house -he thinks it is rude. I try to make him understand that he is family and I don't wait on family.

After everyone ate, they began to leave. I hate to admit it but as much as I was glad to have them, I was also glad for them to go home. I am still tired from the New Orleans walk-a-thon that Sammie put me thru on Saturday.

We got good news as Renee, Pape, and I sat outside resting. My backyard renters from hades are leaving. Renee is considering moving into the trailer and we would rent that house instead. Far down the street from me...I would prefer Spirit as my backyard neighbor even though I know she will be here everyday/minute she could as would Chris.

Renee and I cleaned up and packed up the project which Chris had finally finished wording and coloring. Then Sammie drove me to her house and Pape went to the casino which he was trying to do all day under one excuse or the other. I came home and just chilled until he came back a few minutes ago.

Tomorrow I have to go to Lafayette and buy a batting for the skull quilt. I thought I was being smart and I washed the batting I had to let it fluff up. Instead it came apart. Now I know not to do that with cheap cotton battings. So off to the LQS I go to get another batting and then Tuesday I get to quilt the skulls on a longarm...I am excited!

Well, gators, I hope that your day was as blessed as mine and that tomorrow is also a great day for you.

Stash Report #2

I am still not quite sure how to do this report - what to count and what does not get counted.

For example, last week I bought 3 yards to make the borders on the skull quilt. I cut it all into the proper widths and made the borders & binding. I have scraps from that fabric - a piece 4" by 3 yards to be exact. I also cut a 1/2 yard piece to make the interior border. Also my daughter shared a piece of Saints fabric (about a yard) - how do I count that? How do I count the fat quarters I am using to make Autumn Leaves? When do I count them? This is all confusing to me but here goes.

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4/12 -2 yds red Skull Quilt border

4/12 -1/2 yd black skulls Skull Quilt border

4/13 +1 yd Saints fabric Steven's Quilt

4/14 -6 yds Marine print Skull Quilt backing

Net added this week: 1 yd Saints fabric

Net used this week: -8 1/2 yds

Year to date: +9yd -8 1/2 yd =+1/2 yd

I decided to count the fats I am using for the Autumn Leaves quilt when I finish the top since it uses so many. I also decided to do the same with the Black New York Beauty. The cat quilt that I am sending to Carol to longarm for me is not going to be counted since it is a UFO and neither it nor its backing has been consider part of my stash for over 6 months.