Finished

 

I wish I had gotten better photos…I was in a rush to snap some & deliver it that night.  I estimate 30-40 hrs total in work time, not too shabby considering how many pieces there are & all that tracing.

It took at least 4 hrs to quilt with flames & meandering.

This is the only part not applique—I cheated with a freezer paper stencil I cut with the Cricut & silkscreening ink.

It’s raw edge applique as you can clearly see in the white oval.  That oval & the beer suds are a cushy flannel fabric.

My favorite section is the pool table.  I backed it with a Hoffman (I think) flames print.

I could have added a little more detail to the food but settled with a little “mustard” on the hotdog with orange squigglies.

It was well received, I hope it makes a profit for the fire company!

Progress

I only have 2 days work in this—almost ready to stack it & start sewing!

I’ll be adding one last bit under the center logo with the name & location of the firehouse.

Yes, in every photo, these are hundreds of tiny pieces all fused to the background.

Each was traced, fused, cut & fused again.

The last one will look better when it’s stitched with some details on the food.

Shock, shock!

 

I disappear for months & then 2 posts in one day!  I designed & pieced this months ago from a charm pack and set it aside…unsure who it was for but really loving it.  A couple weeks ago I sandwiched it with a quirky backing & quilted around each charm with a rainbow variegated thread.  Once again, into the “needs finishing” pile because it’s just been too hot in my sewing room & I haven’t got much gumption or creativity.  Well, boredom got me this morning & I finally finished & just spent 2 hrs hand sewing the binding. 

 

Please excuse the bad photo of the quilt hanging over the living room window, at least it was cat hair free.  It measures 42x62 which is a great size for me to cuddle alone on the couch or in my favorite chair but not so big it’s dragging on the floor.

I adore the backing, it’s crazy!  And it hides some relatively major tucks & buckling that happened when I was quilting (I did catch one section & was able to remove the quilting & try again but well, it’s not perfect).  The binding is some leftover jelly roll batiks that I’ve used for some of my girls quilts which is a nice touch of nostalgia and it sorta matches.

I’ll have to look up the name of the fabric but it’s bright & young, too young for me but I can’t bear to part with it.  AND choosing which child to give it to would be like choosing favorites.  This is the first (non-wall hanging) quilt I’ve made & kept for myself, after dozens I’ve given away, about time I kept one!

It’s too warm to use it right now but here it is on MY chair, and it’ll keep my sweaty back from sticking to the leather ~grin.~

Long Time, No Post

 

It’s been a busy summer around here!  I noticed (weeks ago) that my theme host disappeared & my blog was a visual nightmare, here’s hoping this is better.  Just a little catching up…

I made myself a custom cycling tee using a freezer paper template.

And transformed 2 plain reflective tee’s into biking shirts (one on left has a back pocket).

Lots of this:

Turned into lots of this:

For the record, that’s 5 (half pint) jars of candied jalapenos, 3 of pickled sweet banana peppers & 5 of peach freezer jam.  I also put up 9 jars of diced tomatoes last week.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on the bike trails and one of my favorite sites were these 2 little guys at the end of June.  A couple weeks I met my 100 mi a week goal but I’ve kind of fallen off the wagon this week…I’ve been sick for almost a month, have a wicked blistered & peeling sunburn & I just can’t find my ‘get up & go.’

I need to make a baby quilt that’s way overdue so hopefully there will be more quilty stuff coming soon.  Thanks for stopping by!

Catching up

Our garden is doing really well this year!  I took a ton of pics but I’ll just share a few…

 

 

This is the largest one on my 3 Amish Paste tomatoes (J already picked 3 or 4 from his Early Girl).

 

 

These are some very late heirloom Cherokee Purples.  I wasn’t sure if my seed was still any good…well, most were but I was late to start them, playing catch up with buckets.  I have 3 different varieties in buckets & some others still in peat pots I’ll put somewhere.

 

 

Itty bitty cucumber!  I can’t wait to make more pickles.

 

 

“Mom, mom, mom! What’s that?!” (He goes nuts when someone walks/rides by, I was testing the camera settings, I was WAY across the yard, it came out pretty good.)

 

 

“OK, I’m bored…come play with me.”

 

 

First daylily bloomed

 

 

J’s cucumbers are spreading all over the place, not just up their fence.  Like my bird-scaring solution?

 

 

We had our first stuffed peppers of the season on Sunday, yum!  The plants are still fairly small but they’re loaded.

 

 

The hydrangea is such a vibrant blue.

 

 

And I’ve been quiet (and not sewing) because I’m doing a ton of this:

 

 

It’s nothing fancy (and totally filthy, got pic before I washed it) but it gets me around for now.  It’s not a true mtn bike but a hybrid/crossover, I could use some knobby tires and a softer seat but I’m holding out for Black Friday sales to upgrade.  I rode 18 miles Tues & 39 on Wed on the local bike trails.  Hoping for another 20 today, we’ll see, I’m actually going into the sewing room right now to make a custom frame bag to carry my tools & gear.  Will share a pic if it works out.  Hope you’re all having a nice last day of June!

WIP Wednesday

It’s been ages since I did any quilting, figured I’d better get past my funk this morning & just do it.  I’ve seen some cute charm quilts lately in blogland and wanted to try one myself.  Found the template for this “spool” quilt in an old thrift store pattern book full of traditional blocks & thought it might make a cute kids i-spy.  After 2 hrs of back pain at the machine here’s what I’ve got so far (and lookie, all that work shampooing carpets & I can finally snap a pic on my “design floor” again).  If you’ve been around my blog before you’ll recognize the fabrics, I’m still going through my scrap basket.

 

These are 4 1/4” spools so it’s going to take lots of scraps even for a baby quilt.  I forgot how tedious sewing curves can be…but I only had to rip & resew the first pair.  Broke 2 pins though, lol.  Thanks for stopping by!

Summer!

Trying again…this wouldn’t upload yesterday…

Officially Summer in a couple hours!  I’ve been busy as hell cleaning, shampooing carpets, trying to make my studio look less like chaos and hide away half my stuff without actually losing it.  I did take a break to snap some pics of the lilies though.

 

We finally got the gutter done, brought in a ton of mulch and planted some flowers so it looks like someone actually gives a damn.  Of course my favs are the lilies.

 

I didn’t know what color this one (above) was until it bloomed a couple days ago since I sorta dug it up at an abandoned house last year (snicker).

 

I did legally purchase 2 of these red ones, LOL.

 

 

This was another surprise one (in top pic it’s not blooming yet).  It opened yesterday morning and I had to capture it at its best as they don’t stay pretty for long. 

I would sooo love to crawl back in bed this morning, it’s rainy & dreary out and I have nothing but a list of torture, err, housework that has a today deadline.  I’d much rather hit the gym or get my bike out and ride the trails (after that nap) but I guess I better get my tail in gear and we’ll see if I have any energy left later if/when the sun finally shines.  Have a happy Summer Solstice!