Kyle's definition of wet; 1800 quilt :)

We had a rather quiet but eventful long weekend here. Last week Kyle tells me that the basement is wet .. okay .. we know we have there is an issue of water leakage in the basement .. we noticed it during spring thaw, but it wasn't bad .. nothing to worry about. So i tell Kyle, just wipe up the water and things should be fine - heh .. what he neglected to tell me is that the basement was bloody well flooded .. Reg went downstairs to get the broom and all of a sudden I hear all sorts of aggravated sounds from the basement .. I'm like utoh . this can't be good .. next thing I know I see that the lake that usually happened in my backyard was in my basement (@@). Bloody Hell!!!!

We ended up tossing out 2 bags of stuff immediately as it was getting fuzzy .. blasted kid! That would explain my headaches for the past few weeks .. I'm sure I'll have a few more things to toss out, but am trying to salvage some stuff .. it wasn't to bad .. but of course the water was where the tv and game systems are .. well they won't be there to much longer .. we'll be moving them to the other side of the basement .. which means moving the whole bloody place around .. **grumbles**

I was going to start cutting out fabric for the simplex star section of my quilt, but had the good sense that God gave me to scan in the fabric and play with it first .. good thing I did!! What I was planning on doing, wouldn't have looked good at all! So I made a few adjustments and at that point decided, what the heck .. scan in the rest of the fabrics I want to use and lay it all out.

Thank you Cecilia for the suggestion to "switch the brown RR blocks with the blue sisters blocks or maybe the pinwheel type blocks" - I really do like the way this has worked out - altho, I did end up moving my double x sections ... it just flows better.

i'm sure this will change a million more times before I finally settle on it - and i'm likely to change the colours too :)

I really like the look of the white / brown-ish background that I've used for the Ohio Star blocks, but i'm sure I don't have enough of that .. I could do the outer sisters blocks in greens or even the ohio star blocks in greens .. Hmmm .. won't have enough green for the sisters blocks .. maybe the ohio stars as there is only 8 of them. I have other colours, but don't want to go to crazy .. I think I have enough in it now as it is .. Maybe do the sisters blocks all purple??? I LIKE purple :D

Heh .. I get to have more fun playing .. but I will do the Simplex Star blocks as I show them here .. I should have enough material to do that - I think .. only need ³/₈ of yard for each HST colour (light green / dark green) and almost ¾ yard for the blue squares - and if I'm a wee bit short, I'm sure that I can figure out something ;)

The Research cat QUITS!

If I've not lost my mind .. I'm sure it's a short matter of time .. i wanted to confirm that all of the blocks I am using were in existence and USED in the 1800s .. I found all of them but one .. the simplex star (or ... friendship star, milkyway variation, windmill (bout 4 variations of this name). I KNOW I found it one .. on an antique quilt that someone had someWHERE .. chances are, it was at a quilt brokers or online store and it was sold ..

The blocks these ladies made were pretty elaborate and I am just stunned .. some of these were made with just needle and thread. . none of the modern conveniences we have .. least the ones that have made from the 1800s .. most utilitarian quilts I'm sure are dust .. i did run over a reference to it (this one was for the version name friendship star - but it was the same) "This is a very old pattern; definitely easy to stitch, and able to be interpreted in many different fabrics. It's appeared in quilts for hundreds of years...I know I've seen it featured in some quilts said to date from the 1700s. But it was also one of those blocks (like Album or Chimney Sweep) that people made up for 'farewell' quilts to friends or relatives moving."

I wish I could find this history of this block .. even showing in a quilt that is confirmed to have been made prior to 1900 - i might not touch this subject for a few days .. altho there are barns in Ohio (Clothesline of Quilts) that feature quilt blocks on them .. and this block was confirmed to have been from the 1800s "An 1885-1930 periodical identified this pattern as Simplex Star. In 1939 it was published as Lost Goslin." Those two references along with me knowing i've seen it will just have to be enough .. I've lost my patience with this . it's not very often that I have such issues searching for AND finding what I want ..

On anther note .. I did mention that I would put the pics of my yard :) .. well today I went out with the camera and took some pics to get away from the puter ..

The bush on the right and the 3 lily plants I rescued from my plant murdering dad .. well I rescued the lilies and after I gave him whatfor for just digging them out . when he dug out the bush (Goldmound speria) he put it in a bucket and brought it here for me to keep .. heh .. mine's thriving and flourishing .. and his is anemic .. I told him it's because yours thinks you killed it's brother LOLOLOL .. My lilies (well mum's lilies actually) are going to bloom soon .. I see flower stalks coming up .. I have 2 types of flowers in there also that I started from seed - 1 type didn't even peek it's head out ... but since it looks like a weed that is very common here, I might have actually pulled them ..

And of course my grass :) .. Orion is enjoying it ..

My dwarf asters have barely grown here too .. but out of 12 4'oclocks that I planted, 5 came up and there are 4 or 5 in the front already ..