Design Board Monday - Cars' Roads is a Flimsy

Sorry for the lousy picture. It's a gray, foggy day and my phone doesn't like low light. Maybe I'll have a sunny day when it is finished and I can break out the good camera for a picture.

I thought I was going to be able to start quilting on this yesterday and finish it tomorrow. But the fates have conspired against me and it looks like it won't get done until after Christmas. That means I can't take it to my daughter, Brownie, over Christmas week. The little one's birthday is the first week of January though, so I will have to get to it right after Christmas.

Linking up to
Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

The Return of the Ripper

It was a dark and foggy night...

Actually, it was a bright, sunny day, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it. But the dreaded ripper returned nevertheless.

What happened is I that dug out a quilting box so I could make a quick quilt for a little boy who loves the Pixar Cars movies. I found out about his birthday Friday and rushed out to buy some Cars fabric and then began work Saturday morning. It was a frustrating project in the beginning, mainly because I only found two rulers (and I don't like one of them) and I am sewing in the attic. Yes, the attic. Low light, sewing machine and iron plugged into an extension cord, and no heat. Or there wasn't heat until I brought up a space heater. THEN, I had to unplug the iron to use it. Not ideal sewing conditions, but I thought I could stand it long enough to get this quilt put together and then wait until a room was finished down below before sewing again.

By Saturday evening, I had also brought up a light bar, reworked my plan twice, and had the center four Cars blocks sewn together with a border of black and white checkerboard. But the checkerboard didn't line up at the corners and looked pretty bad. So Sunday afternoon necessitated the return of the ripper. I replaced the corners with the same red fabric I used between the four cars. After replacing the corners, I pieced on the "road" border around the center and between the side background pieces. And then I had to find Mr. Ripper again to take the red pieces off so add a white strip.

This is where the Electric Quilt software would have really come in handy. Instead of drawing a pattern on a notepad,

I could have had it to scale and with the seam measurements included. But since I forgot to add a half inch when I cut the reds, I had to improvise and add a white stripe to the side of the road.  I actually like it better this way.

Now here is where I have a problem. I hadn't intended to use that red as the background and am now short one 9x11 piece. So a trip to JoAnn's on on the schedule today. The red I had intended to use was a Cars fabric and looked fine under the fluorescent lights at the store, but looked decidedly reddish orange in natural light. Next to it is a fabric with a collage of cars. I was going to use a strip of that at top and bottom of the quilt, but now I am rethinking that also.

Now that I have the quilt center together, I think the style of the collage clashes with it. What do you think?

While at JoAnn's, I think I'll look for some other fabrics to complete the end borders. I have enough scraps from all the fabric I've used so far to piece in something too. Or I could make a strip and applique his name on it.  Or I could find something else that fits the bill.  A trip to the fabric store is always an adventure.

Linking up to:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts

A Quilter's Memorial Service

Recently, a woman we knew died from cancer.  I knew her from the quilting guild and Hubby knew her through her husband.  This was what we saw when we entered the santuary:  every pew draped with quilts she had made.  I knew she made a lot of quilts, but thought she gave most of them away. During the service, someone said that this is a fraction of the quilts she made in her lifetime, because she did indeed give most of them away.

It was a lovely service, with readings from a story she wrote of her life for her family, and personal stories from her family.  Most of all, they talked about her rough childhood and how she overcame it and formed a lifelong desire to help other people.  One of the ways she helped was to make and donate quilts to women's groups, veterans groups, and her church.  An amazing lady, and I wish I had known her better.  She will be missed.

The Eyes Have It

Began 2011, Finished 2017
Hand quilted

Simple Pleasures and Slow Sunday Stitching

(This photo has been altered to correct the color. I messed around with the settings on this photo so I could focus just on the center bloom, and while that part worked, for some reason it faded out the color on the bloom and foliage, so I hit the enhance color button to correct the color.)

Isn't it funny how one little thing can make or break your day? Luckily, it was make my day today. This odd spring weather we have had has made my Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) bloom before my neighbor's wisteria for the first time in fifteen years. That's right. For fifteen years, I have smelled nothing but wisteria while my laurel was blooming, but finally, finally, finally, I got to smell nothing but the sweet smell of grape bubble gum wafting across my yard. It didn't hurt anything that the laurel is covered in blooms this year too. I guess that's from all the rain.

And to top it off, two Red Admiral butterflies (Sophora secundiflora) were visiting the blooms along with several honey bees and bumblebees.

My Texas Mountain Lauel:

The neighbor's wisteria:

Na na na na boo boo! hehehe

With all the rain we've had recently (over four inches this week), I should be out pulling weeds and mowing the yard, and I did do some of that yesterday, though it's too wet to drive the lawn mower. But today was really windy, so I stayed inside and did some slow stitching. Actually, I did some of it yesterday while we were driving, but today, I put the flowers together.

Linking to Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.