Hallelujah!

The children and I did a huge job today. It was actually my own Greener Grass picture in yesterday's post that pushed me over the edge into action. (Check out the pollen build-up on and under the swing). This is one task that's been needing done for a long time and was waxing worse and worse. Several of the children cleaned and organized our entire attic a couple weeks ago. Most of the "what-do-we-do-with-this" stuff ended up on our screened-in porch (below). Add in a recent exterior house painting, garage door trim replacement, new mattress for my oldest son's bed, and the porch was a mess--Junk Purgatory.

Today was the day, however. Susanna and I commandeered all our helpers. My oldest two boys loaded up an entire 15-passenger van of junk and hauled it off to the dump. I mentioned to Susanna that we should take before pictures. She said she would be too embarrassed. Couldn't have that!

While the boys were gone, the rest of us moved everything off the cement patio under this porch. Then I swept and mopped the screened-in porch floor.

It was so hot out that sections were drying before I rinsed them. There was so much pollen on the window ledges, swing, picnic table, and floor that it made the water yellow (and black, if that is even possible). I hosed off the whole thing after washing it with a light detergent, and voila!! Beautiful, clean, screened-in porch.

We have a couple screen sections that have come loose. I was hoping to repair those today (it isn't a huge job), but I had been out there working for about five hours, and it was time for a break.



Once the porch was finished, we swept and hosed down the cement patio. It had been an eclectic and very messy collection of bikes, buckets, lawn care equipment, gardening supplies, gas cans, etc., etc., and so on. M-U-C-H nicer now!

I had one more what I thought was little job to do before getting cleaned up. Our gas grill is used very little, but it has seen better days. Because I too often forgot to cover it after it cooled off, the wooden handle and slats where I set the platter for cooked meats needed an upgrade/re-do. Today I sanded and painted them. I'll show you the finished product tomorrow. A little paint or stain can give new life to an item and add years to its life. Here is the before... I'll show you "after" tomorrow.


Off for a much-needed shower.


~Joan

My Two Big Finishes

When my computer was unusable, I download pics from my card to another computer in the house. I will figure out how go get them back here, where they belong. They were my quilting-in-progress on this quilt.

I am curious about you other quilters. How do you decide to make a quilt? I usually see a picture of one and want to make one similar. Often it is years before I actually cut the first piece for said quilt. Sometimes (in this case), I see a fabric I LOVE and want to use it.

The fabric used for the "sashing" between the pieced rows here is an ancient Thimbleberries print. Naturally it had been out of print for years before I intended to use it. Thanks to the modern-day miracle called eBay, I found a two-yard long piece. I wanted to use every inch I could. The stripes are 72" long, and then I added the last two strips of the stripe at the top and bottom.

This was one of my early leader/ender projects as well. I had a box of 2" squares next to my machine that I would use as L/E. I chose only colors that matched the stripes.

I wanted to share some previous posts about this quilt. I only found one. It was the beginning of my machine quilting that went wrong. So I guess I started piecing this pre-2007.

I machine quilted the pieced sections with "peacock feathers" and meandered the rest. While this did not turn out exactly as I anticipated, I still like it very much.

Here is a close-up taken outside. There are little tan birdes, blue flowers, and raspberries in the strip.

Then there is my Grass is Always Greener quilt. This is backed with a luxurious, soft, light green flannel. The 4-patches in cream triangles are hand-quilted. The rest of the quilt is machine quilted with green thread. See my story about this quilt here.

Both these quilts are about 60" wide by 80" long. Nice throw sizes.

Take a nap now.

~Joan

Quilt Show Pic #4

No pattern available for this one, but it would be easy to duplicate. Little sawtooth squares with a diagonal row of squares for the alternate block. All the cream background is the same (so that would mean starting fresh for me since my pre-pieced units have all scrappy backgrounds). Isn't this GREAT?? It was in a booth. Love the simplicity and flow of it.

This was a raffle quilt. Wouldn't you know I did not have one dollar on me? All I took in was my credit card.

I am thinking this will be my next swap quilt. My last two swaps were soooo much fun. I will swap stars with ladies and make my own alternate blocks. Even as I type this, I am wondering how vital it would be to have the same background fabric?? Hmmm...

Got in the water at the Y at 6:10 this AM. Joined an informal class that nearly killed me. Much more vigorous than the deep water aerobics (that I used to think was hard!).

~Joan

Quilt Show Pic #3

Here is another quilt from the Hickory quilt show. This was lovely with the contrast of the black background.

Again, nasty hangers, but beautiful quilt!!

~Joan

Hello to my friends at Dr. Stover's!!

I had two doctor's appointments to go to with my oldest son today. Seeds of Kindness went with me. I hand quilted six more whole rows today.

The first stop was the eye doctor's. Every single person that came into the waiting room started talking to me once they settled in. They all said they remember their grandmothers quilting. One man actually asked to touch the quilt! People really come out of their shells when I am working on a quilt in front of them.

My dentist is the greatest (hi, Dr. Doug!). His office staff and hygienists always admire my quilts. None of them had ever seen my SOK quilt, and they ALL came out and touched it and oohed and aahed.

A close-up of the middle. I am a little less than halfway across in one direction. I am thrilled with the progress.

Here is the whole thing. I really like the way the edge is finished. I hand appliqued the center to rectangles for the border.

More tomorrow. My family just started a hymn-sing in the living room, and I don't want to miss it.

~Joan

I. Am. On. My. Laptop.

Someone pinch me to make sure I'm awake and not dreaming! My DH said he only slept two hours last night because he was working on my computer. I am so grateful for his technical help (and all the other many ways he helps, too).

DH's father and stepmother will be here any minute, so I'll post some updates later.

~Joan

All-Night Sew Pictures

Here is Susanna at the sew-in night. She finished a twin-sized quilt top (except for borders). Pictures of that later.

The quilts in the class room were all quilted by the owners of the shop. Lovely work.

Here are the first two sawtooth stars for my wall hanging. The pieces for this are much larger than I am used to working with. Usually my squares finish at an inch. These are gigantic!!

Ann is in the black shirt. She and her husband own the quilt shop (a dream job, IMHO). Here I am laying out my 4-patches. A design wall would have been nice, but an empty table worked, too.

By now most of you have probably realized I'm quite the perfectionist when it comes to piecing. I realized (too late) that the stems on my leaf blocks were cut a half inch wider than they were supposed to be. I tried to talk myself into letting it go. Truly--I did! But my first opportunity, I removed the squares with the stems and replaced them with ones of the correct size. We can all sleep well again. I didn't want to look at this quilt for the next twenty years and think, "I should have replaced those stems when it was easy!" every time.

I think we're going to go back the next time she has one of these, which will be June 25. We haven't been piecing so much lately. With summer comes new activities.

Speaking of new activities, we (the girls and I) have been going to the YMCA for water aerobics every AM except Sundays. I went down the tube slide today. Sorry you missed it, because it won't be happening again!

~Joan