My cold, fabric, and snow

My cold is not much better today. This is the OTC meds I have been using to help with the symptoms.


I got a small order of fabric last evening. I wanted the flamingo fabric and to get free shipping the rest of the fabric was purchased. I will use the other fabrics for baby quilts.

We did get some snow, but not as much as the doomsday weather people were talking about. There might have been two inches at my house. I did shovel the driveway and it was like shoveling concrete - heavy and wet.

So far no one has called me about Thanksgiving dinner. If they did call the answer from Typhoid Patty would be no. This is day 9 of this saga - since the doctor said it would last between 12 and 20 days either I am over the hump or just getting to the hump. With the way I feel, I am just getting to the hump.

Eat lots of turkey and pecan pie for me! Have a happy thanksgiving!

Justin's quilt, Kathy's flannel quilt progress and the art museum

Despite having a cold, I did fulfilled my promise to work at the art museum Friday night for an opening. I gave Justin his quilt and he loved it.

The new exhibit was on different types of printmaking. The Kent State printmaking department set up a copper plate printer

Several people were inking and cleaning the plate for printing

They were making small prints to give away. Here is the one I took home.

The also had silk screen set up

and this is the poster they were going to print

I worked on Kathy's flannel quilt despite feeling lousy. I figured I could rest as much as I wanted and still make some progress on this quilt which would be better than not even trying to get something done. Just sitting around wasn't going to make me feel any better. I managed to get the top pieced, pin basted and I started quilting it.
I took Monday off also. My eyes were very puffy, drippy, and bloodshot and I just couldn't go to work looking like that.

I feel a bit better today, but this is only day 8 and the doctor said this could last up to 20 days! Bummer!

Progress on the flannel quilt and paving the parking lot

I went to the house for lunch and when I came back the steps for the trailer had been moved here.

The trailer is 39" off the ground and I am 5' 2" tall so how am I going to get into the trailer? I was able to open the door and asked if anyone was inside. Eric was in the trailer so I asked him for a suggestion. He got a step stool and once I got one foot up on the threshold, he grabbed my hand and pulled me up. Wouldn't you like to see video of that?! LOL! Here is a shot down at the footstool and me standing inside.

They finished the paving and the guys moved the steps back so I could leave. Now we don't have to walk or park in the mud.

I spent time cutting strips for the flannel quilt. I am all ready to crank out lots of blocks this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

MQG meeting and the start of the pink flannel zig zag quilt

I wanted to get to The Little Red Quilt House where we were having our MQG meeting this month before dark, but that did not happen. It was pitch black at 5:30! The shop owner wondered why I was there so early - I thought that to be strange, but anyway... Only one other member showed up, June. Yes, it was just the two of us. I showed June Justin's quilt and we had a nice conversation before the owner did her presentation on some tips and tricks. I did learn a couple of things that will be worth sharing with my blog readers. I will have to make samples up and take some pictures for you. Here is a picture of one half of the shop

I am very sadden that the Akron MQG has crashed and burned. The number of people over the last year showing up for meetings has dwindled down to less than 10. I wonder why? This quilt shop was off the beaten path so maybe it was just too far out for some members. We will wait and see what happens next year.

Here is some fabric I bought the other day from Fabric.com. They had an extra 20% off coupon so I used it on the clearance fabric. I plan on using the palm tree fabric with the black background is for backing a piece I will be working on this winter and the large leaf stylized print will be used in the front of the same piece. The other fabric was just a good deal and of course if you spend $35.00 you get free shipping. They had a sale yesterday with an animal print theme and there were a couple of pieces I wanted for this piece I will be working on. One of the prints they just got in so I placed another order yesterday. Darn them for having such good sales!

Despite feeling lousy (on Tuesday I could feel a cold coming on. Today I am the sneezing and blowing my nose every 5 minutes stage), but I still had some extra time before work so I whipped out a few zig zag blocks for the pink and lavender flannel quilt for my sister Kathy. I only have a couple of strips of the plaid fabric and since it was already cut to 4" wide strips, that is the size I am going to use for this quilt. The blocks will be 7 1/2" and for a large flannel quilt I think that will be perfect.

I did firm up my next presentation to a quilt group for next April. They usually have 50 members show for meetings so that will a fun group to talk to! I may have to make up some more examples. I won't have my brother Halloween quilt to show how I used the triangles, so I may have to make something else up.

I am suppose to teach a workshop at the Akron Art Museum in February. I still not sure if it will be improv piecing or T-shirt quilts.

11th finish for 2013

Yeah! Justin's quilt is done!

Here are some detail shots of the back. I cut the labels from the shirts and added them to the back. I will post a picture next week of Justin holding his quilt. I will be giving it to him on Friday.

No rest for the wicked so what is my next project? A flannel quilt for my youngest sister. She wants it to be pink and lavender - YUCK! I have been collecting flannels, but it was hard to find flannel in those two colors that went together as far as I was concerned. I dug the fabric out this morning.

I decided to dig thru my flannel bin to see if there was anything with those colors and I found these scraps.

I thought to myself what am I going to make with this butt ugly fabric! I decided that I am going to make a zig zag quilt. I think you can use any ugly fabric in a zig zag quilt as long as it is counteracted with a consistent fabric. My consistent fabric will be the solid darker pink fabric in the first picture at the upper left corner. I bought lots of that pink fabric with the lavender blotches which I will use for a stripe or two and then for the back. Now I just need to get this done by xmas.

Justin's buttons

Between lunch yesterday, last evening, and this morning I managed to get the remaining 82 buttons sewn on.

I was going thru the scraps and found two more buttons so I will sewn those on tonight and then I can start hand stitching the binding. I believe I will have this done for quilt group tomorrow and I made my deadline of having it done by the 22nd! Yeah!

Musical weekend and status of Justin's quilt

It was one long weekend! On Friday I got to my brother's house at 9:30 a.m. and we all headed over to the Z-Plex in Streetsboro, OH for the big Sonny Geraci Benefit Concert. The show did not start until 4 p.m. but we needed to set up the merchandise booth

and then Michael and the other acts rehearsed

My sister-in-law and I helped a bit with the silent auction tables. Michael had searched vintage record shops to find albums by some of the performing artists. His mom bought frames and after the artists autographed the album, Robin framed them and they went into the silent auction.

Here is Michael and his band playing with Frank Stallone - yes, Sylvester's brother. Michael and his band got to play with several other groups and did a couple of songs themselves.

Here everyone got up on stage and did a tribute to Sonny Geraci. Sonny is still hospitalized, but came for a bit.

While I sat at the merchandise table for hours and hours I needed something to do so I knitted. I put 72 rows on this baby blanket in the two days - that is the area I marked for this picture between the needles.

On Friday I got home at 2 a.m. On Saturday I drove to the Z-plex myself and got there about 12:30. The show started at 4 p.m. and after the show we had to tear down and load the equipment into the trailer. I go home at 2 a.m. again. Let's just say I was a bit tired on Sunday.

I did managed to gather enough energy to start putting things back where they belong - I had packed my sewing machine per my sister-in-law's request just in case there was a wardrobe issue. I had also brought thread, fasteners, marking tools, and other sewing items just in case. Then I decided to work on getting the facing binding on Justin's quilt. I used the seersucker sports coat for facing binding and the hanging tube. I used the sleeves to make the tube.

This sports coat was very sentimental to Justin so using it for the facing will really highlight it. I made the facing wider for the bottom of the piece because I decided to sew the buttons I cut off all the clothes here. I thought the button would give a nice weight at the bottom of the piece. I am machine sewing the buttons on before I hand stitch the facing down. It takes about a minute to a minute and a half to sew on one button. I have 21 sewn on and 81 to go.

Panels are done; back to Justin's quilt

I finished both panels and made a bag to put them in.

I have this box of leftover pieces from Justin's quilt. I started going thru the pieces to cut off the buttons which I plan on sewing onto the quilt. Once I stated cutting the buttons off I was surprised at how many different colors there are.

Adding details to the screen panels

I have the second panel almost done. While sewing these panels ideas pop into my head. I decided I needed to add a label. I had some labels left over that I printed for the lighting mask and equipment covers I made several years ago. I sewed the label on the second panel and I still need to add it to the first one.

Then I decided I need to add Velcro hold down straps. I don't have enough loop Velcro so I will only be able to put two on each panel right now. I made them so they would wrap around a PVC pipe. Here I used a pill bottle so you could see how they will work.

Screen panel and SNOW!

At lunch yesterday I cut out all the parts I needed for the screen panels. I wasn't real ambitious last evening and only got one of the two screen panels constructed. Once I find out what size PVC pipe my brother is going to use to make the screen frames, I will add some hold down Velcro straps to the sides. No it won't be windy inside, but when we use this screen next summer at outdoor venues we will be ready.

I used two layers of screen for the window - one was just not enough. Then I was having trouble getting a needle thru this fabric. I think I should have bought the lighter weight fabric. I used a regular sewing needle and it worked for awhile but then it just wouldn't go thru the fabric. Next I tried a topstitching needled. Again it worked for awhile. Then I tried a Jeans needle and eureka! It worked like a charm! This fabric has a nap on one side. I am not hemming the sides; the salvage edge is nice a sturdy. I put a double 4 1/2" hem in to add a bit of weight to the panel and if I ever need to alter it and make it longer. The fabric doesn't fray so all I am doing is folding over the edges and using a triple stitch zig zag to sew the edges around the window opening. At the top I folded it over, zig zagged, and then added the loop side of Velcro. The PVC frame will have the hook side so installation will be quick and easy!

Yes, it snowed last night! It stuck to the grass and a little to the streets, but it will be gone as soon as the sun shines. My poor ornamental grass (that is the round area on the right side on the picture) got weighted down by the freezing rain and squashed with the wet snow. I will take another picture of it when it pops back up after the snow is gone.

Progress on many fronts

This weekend was not just about getting the quilting done on Justin's quilt, although that did happen. I did the majority of the quilting on Sunday because I was so tired on Saturday. Here is the front

a detail shot

and for the first time showing you, the back. The back is going to be embellished with the buttons off the shirts and jacket once I get the binding on. I am going to face this piece with the seersucker jacket scraps since that was a favorite jacket of Justin's.

After I got the machine quilting done on Sunday I went out and did 4 hours of yard work. I had planned on doing the yard work on Saturday, but with 20+ miles an hour winds it didn't make sense to try and clean up the yard. So Sunday the winds had died down and it was onto yard work which included mowing the front and the back, planting this cora bell

digging up the canna and cleaning out the flower bed
before:

After

I ended up with five small bags of canna rhizomes for planting next year

Then I needed to protect this evergreen tree. It is on my property but very close to the neighbor's driveway. If we get a lot of snow it could easily be stepped on or damaged with a lot of extra snow from their driveway.

Now it is protected

I finally finished up at 5 p.m. because I was getting tired and it was getting dark. I did take this shot of the sunset.

This morning I had some extra time before I had to head to work so I laid out the duvetyne for the screen panels I need to make for my brother. Michael called me with the size so I took those measurement and figured out my cutting plan for today. These won't take long to make, but we need them for this weekend for the big show. I am making them with a window in them so my brother can see out to the audience. I will be using fiberglass window screening so you won't be able to see in, but Mike will be able to see out - well, at least that is the plan!