Dog Days of Summer

Company's gone. No other visitors are expected. Hogan has reclaimed the guest room as his personal "office."  We're thoroughly into the dog days of summer. 

Every day it rains. Every day it's hot. In fact, at 82 degrees and 93 percent humidity, this is what happened to my Canon PowerShot when I stepped outside to take a picture. It fogged over! Still, I'll point out the lushness that daily rain and storms bring. We can practically see the grass and palms grow, and the blooming bushes are blooming madly. That red plant is a gone-crazy impatiens planted last fall!

My sewing room continues to seeing the same daily activity - free motion quilting. Thus far, I've logged about 23 hours of quilting - and unquilting, and burying thread tails - in Prism. I might be about halfway finished. 

My personal deadline for finishing is the end of August. Prism has been entered into the QuiltFest Jacksonville (Florida), September 24-26.

I just hope this spool of pale yellow Aurifil #2123 holds out until I'm done. 

Linda

Then and Now

Can you find me? And my husband of just one year? This picture was taken in 1973, at the wedding of our then-Mason City, Iowa friends, Patty and Greg. (I'm on the far left.)

Here we are, two days ago at the Arnold Palmer Legends restaurant. "Just" 42 years later, looking pretty much the same... ha! Well, maybe not the same on the outside, but feeling the same on the inside. Patty and Greg visited us for five days from their Texas home. Though we only recently reconnected (in February, while in Austin for QuiltCon), the intervening years haven't diminished the wonderful friendship we share. We had a fabulous time together. Who doesn't like a good game of Mexican Train dominoes, even when someone has to be the loser (ahem, like me). 

Patty says she still has a close relationship with all three of us who were her bridesmaids. How many brides can say that? I sure can't!

Patty return home with two of my quilts which were made years ago. They're well-suited to her decorating preferences.

10-1/2" X 14-1/2", foundation paper-pieced

36" X 36", hand-quilted

These once hung in my West Des Moines home - the then - so those who know me can see how my tastes have changed.

In the now... my Pfaff is back in action as I'm steadily making quilting progress on "Prism." I'm still smitten by the effect of double batting - Quilter's Dream cotton, and Quilter's Dream Wool. Such good dimension and texture!

I'm challenging myself to come up with different designs for the long-legged stars, and the elongated diamonds, with the cohesive uniformity of angled lines. Yes, you can see a bit of blue wash-out marker there, and I'm also using a disappearing ink, purple marker.

Top thread is Aurifil 50-weight in a very pale yellow. On the bottom is 60-weight white YLI thread. The design below was inspired by one seen on Instagram, by Dena of LivingWaterQuilter who is a beautiful domestic machine quilter.

Coming up with different designs is becoming more challenging. On the nightstand beside me while I sleep is a pad of paper and pencil.

Inspiration usually strikes at about 3:30 a.m. I honestly wouldn't mind more of those strikes! Linda

Happy Happenin's!

I've been sewing away for the past couple weeks, and I have a few things I can share.

First, there's been only a little progress on My Small World. After cleaning up the Scrap Vortex mess, I've been slow to shore up energy to scrabble through scraps for the bits needed to complete Section 3.

I did finish a quilt, binding and all, but I can't fully disclosed it now. Suffice it to say that it turned out nicely, and I'll be sharing all of it in September when I'm a stop on a blog hop for the release of Christa Watson's new book Machine Quilting With Style: From Walking Foot Wonders to Free-motion Favorites. I'll have a giveaway when my blog hop turn comes up, and you won't want to miss it!

"Prism" had been languishing since our Central Florida MQG retreat in May, so I finished the top by adding two borders of white Kona. The top is about 72-1/2" X 72-1/2". The quilt sandwich is a wide-back, and two layers of Quilter's Dream batting - Select loft cotton on the bottom, and wool on top.

I've begun quilting, using a pale yellow 50-weight Aurifil on top, and white 60-weight YLI on the bottom. This time I'm keeping a stopwatch to mark the time spent quilting, and burying thread tails, preparing for the inevitable question, "How long did it take to quilt it?"

Ad Libbing

In the latest, and definitely most exciting news, I received an email from IQA - International Quilt Association - letting me know that "Ad Libbing" is a finalist in the International Quilt Festival, in Houston, Texas, October 29 - November 1. This is a first for me, and for Lora, my quilt co-creator. When I forwarded her the email, I have no doubt I wasn't the only one jumping up an down!

As well, we've been asked to ship Ad Libbing - or "AL," as Lora and I affectionately refer to this quilt - to Houston as soon as possible. While it's needed for the show, Quilting Arts magazine also wants to photograph it to "possibly be featured in the seventh annual edition of International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene." Wow.

If you're interested, here's the complete list of quilters juried into Quilt Festival. You'll doubtlessly recognize a few names of "celebrity quilters." What can I say? So darned cool. Linda

Scrap Vortex

My Scrap Vortex quilt top is a wrap! I was happy, and quite honestly relieved to end the never-ending pressing, cutting, sewing, pressing, trimming, (repeat, repeat, repeat) that has been Scrap Vortex over the past four weeks.

I thought never to see it end! But it did. At 89" X 91". The quilt top is so heavy - I used seven bobbins of 50-weight Aurifil in it! - I couldn't even pin it to the design wall to take a full-on photo. So here's it is, draped across the guest room double bed. It might just stay that way.

After I get over being sick of working on it, it will be fun to look at, picking out the random small blocksand one-only prints among the thousands millions of pieces in it; and quilt it to a finish.

I never considered how heavy the quilt top might be, with all those seams, and how to go about sandwiching it. While flannel seems the best, light-weight choice for the inside, quilting through the thinness may prove a "bumpy ride." That makes me inclined to choose a low-loft batt like Quilter's Dream Request - cotton or polyester doesn't matter. For sure the quilting design will be a simple all over one like one giant spiral, as Amanda Jean/CrazyMomQuilts did (she has been our quilt-along guide); or, my favorite snail trails. You know... spiral into a 6"-8" circle, then curve or hook on the inside, and spiral back out; repeat.

Though my canvas bins are no longer stuffed, I can't believe I didn't use up every single scrap!

On July 1, I'm teaching an all-day Modern Hexagons workshop. Then it's back to the sewing room to work on a quilt - Candy Pop - from Christa Watson's (ChristaQuilts) yet-to-be-released book, "Machine Quilting With Style."

In September, when the book is published, I'll share my finished quilt during a blog hop where everyone will also have a chance to win a copy of the book. Linda

It's Another Beautiful Day

It was three years ago, on June 23, 2012, that we moved into the house that we bought June 14. Three years ago, with the help of our son and DIL who now live in Austin, Texas, we moved in just as Tropical Storm Debby hit.

The day we closed on the house, it looked like this.

Today, it looks like this. Definitely more settled-looking with landscaping that makes a difference. I love that we can plant annuals... and that they bloom for six month or more!

A few days ago, when a storm was brewing toward the east (behind the house) and the evening sun was shining - it was about 7 pm - I took these photos. Amazing light!

My favorite palm in our yard is this Bismarck Palm. It's a different variety of palm than most people choose for their yards, and it's getting big. I measured the width of one of those fronds, from tip to tip. It's 58"! Big, and impressive! Love it right outside my sewing room window. 

And speaking of sewing room, here's a before and after of that space.

Now this is an "honest" sewing room! No less that four projects are in the works here. At least by making the space my own, it's now colorful! You might understand why I've opted to keep all white walls (except for one) in this house. White is a great canvas for the bright colors I've come to adore.

Happy anniversary - three years in The Villages - to us! Linda

More of the Same, and Remembering

The scrap piles don't look much smaller than they did last week. There's a pile of cut pieces on the right side of the sewing machine.

And one canvas bin that's still a jumbled mess because I keep rooting around through it. 

But my design wall is filling up! The Scrap Vortex blocks are getting larger and chunkier (we're on week four of the quilt-along) and My Small World is growing. You can see it on the right, though it's difficult to tell where Scrap Vortex ends and My Small World begins! 

I've now completed Section 2 (of six sections) of My Small World. In keeping with my aim to give it a Florida feel, I used a couple palm fabrics, and fussy cut squares of a flamingo, and a beach chair. 

The colorful cabanas in the middle were hand appliquéd, as were four petals. My favorite method is back-basting needle turn appliqué. If you haven't tried it, here's a good tutorial.

This darling little Janome Derby sewing machine arrived yesterday after I succumbed to MassDrop's discounted price. The machine weighs less than five pounds and is available in many different colors. The "turbo teal" spoke to me.

I think it will be perfect to tote to my weekly Big Cypress Quilters meeting. Though a disadvantage is that it doesn't have a light, MassDrop is helping with that too as I've ordered a rechargeable, cordless LED lamp. Yep, I like shopping at MassDrop.

Last evening I made a practice quilt block that turned out too small. Seems I still need to figure out how to find an accurate quarter inch, since the machine has only one foot.

On an altogether different topic, today is a personal remembering day. This photo, taken in May 2002 in Austin, Texas, when our son received his master's degree in structural engineering from the University of Texas, is the last one I ever took of my mother. By December, died from non-Hodgkins lymphoma which she had fought and sent into remission twice previously. 

Today would have been her 85th birthday. My Dad, siblings, and I are missing her more than we can express, and think of her with much love. She was the best mother, and the one to whom I owe my ability and love for sewing. Linda