I've a teenager **GASP**; sisters; gutters

It's been a quiet few days .. quilt wise .. I've let this layout take seed in my mind and I do rather like it .. It has been suggested"switching the brown RR blocks with the blue sisters blocks or maybe the pinwheel type blocks?" - I rather like the idea of maybe doing a double frame with the Underground RR blocks surrounding the purple sisters blocks tho .. altho this does push the blue sisters blocks off the edge of the quilt and will be draping off the edges of the quilt .. this one I have to think about .. Reg really liked the sisters blocks .. that's the only block he picked. BUT I do have the whole center of the quilt for that block .. **thinks n plots**

Tomorrow is Kyle's bday Oh my Lord .. my baby's going to be 13(!!) I'm to bloody young for this LOL. We got him MLB 2K8 for the Xbox 360 and a boombox that will allow his mp3 player to be attached and he can use it for speakers. I think he's going to like it .. he's not feeling too well today at all but is not running a fever .. so here's hoping that he'll throw off what's ailing him and can enjoy tomorrow .. wow 13

I've spent the past few days battling Mother Nature and my rain gutters .. I'm thinking that this gutter system originally had a downspout in the middle of the gutter - which is no longer there .. I unearthed the hole when I cleaned the gutters and plugged it. But cleaning the gutters didn't stop the waterfall going into my flowering shrub. I fixed the waterfall spot by using a hammer and a piece of board to whack it back into shape - the drainage went back to going to the middle spout which isn't there anymore. The water then decided to go over the top of the gutter as it's not meant to be side draining. I ended up with a nasty waterfall hitting my flower beds during the deluge of yesterday and was absolutely besides myself with watching. In the afternoon after i had 'fixed' the gutter, i was balancing on the rail with the hammer and board trying to bang them up so they would drain down the sides during the worst deluge we've had all summer .. i was beyond soaked by the time i gave up. Again it rained and at 1am i'm having kittens on my porch watching my flowers swim underwater - my poor neighbour has been helping me plot with ways to correct this and she pounced on me when we got home from shopping with an idea and we just fine-tuned it from there and i think it's going to work!!

We took a 45° tubing joint and a piece of pvc to have it drain but not into my garden, but over the garden into the grass ... I can always get a decorative stone to put there or a birdbath if it creates a hole in my lawn .. now I really do need new gutters, but since I rent, I'm not likely to pay for this myself and I know my landlord won't do it .. so a stop-gap measure will work :) I've already placed bricks there as it had dripped there already.

Underground RR ... again :S; updated layout

Not sure how i feel about all that brown .. it looks to me like there's going to be a brown blob in the middle edges of my quilt - while the rest of it will be more colourful ..

After I finished the middle section the other day, I brought all the sections to my bedroom and laid them out on the bed .. nope I just didn't like it .. just tooo much ... brown splat - framing this bright center .. the design of the Underground RR block is great - I just love that look I got, but not with that ..

I've been looking at it and looking at it and I'm just not sure I want to keep the Underground RR sections like they are - I am thinking of frogging the sections apart and using them instead for the outer blocks around the quilt - more like a frame and keep the rest of the colours more in the middle .. I'm just not liking it as it looks right now ..

Again, picking colours is my clue .. can't decide on red or blue and both would work just fine - but it's not a matter of it looking fine or okay . .but do **I** like it .. and i'm not sure i do .. it's a GREAT design and look for those blocks, but does it really fit well with the look i want?? I'm thinking not more and more .. might be part of the reason that I've been dragging my feet on this .. (besides batting issues :D) - batting issues wouldn't stop me from putting the top together .. i'm just hemming and hawing at it ..

So, i'll boot up quiltpro again and fiddle around with it some more .. the more i think about it, the more I like the idea of having this quilt framed by these blocks at the edges .. and these edges are the ones that will be part of my drape off the bed .. and use more sisters blocks, ohio star, simplex star and the double X blocks .. yup - I think I like that better .. and if I need more of the Underground, I do have more of the brown vines fabric that I can make it with and use reds for the inner colours :D or creams or lighter browns that i have :D

Update

With fidding a few things around - I came up with one layout with 2 different looks dependng on if i 'spread' the colours out that I used for the center section - For the Simplex Star I would use a darker / different background so that creates a frame .. I like this so much better .. only question would be if I wanted to keep the outer sisters blocks with the same background as the inner blocks.

Comments, suggestions, praises, criticisms?? Please comment and let me know :) And if you want a response back from me, please do not leave it as no-reply@blogger.com .. rather hard to reply back to that address ;) Thanx

Underground RR revisited, berries

You know what i just noticed .. I flipped a row on that last underground RR section .. (groan) .. that I have to take out .. no choice in the matter .. I was just looking at it and my fabrics last nite when I noticed it .. I'm like .. are you kidding me .. for crying out loud!!!! bah!!! On a good note .. all I have to do is frog stitch just that section, flip it over and re-sew it .. so it's not like it's the whole section and lucky (yeah right) for me, it was at the edges .. holybiblebatman! twittwittwit - I am TRYING to be positive about this .. yeah right .. **grumbling .. **

I'm working on the centerpiece now .. I pulled out my green (pathetic amount that I have) and started to measure them for the Ohio Star points .. the two dark colours that I wanted to use were only 11½, and I needed 11¾ - course it's short .. soooo I'm using a light green and medium green .. I'll use the darker green in the smaller Ohio star blocks .. will be using purple foregrounds for the sisters star blocks for the middle .. I have the Ohio Star points done and am going to start cutting the sisters blocks just after I post this or find something else to stall with :D

On a GOOD note, I did get my kitty quilt basted and it did take less time that I actually thought to finish it .. cat hork not withstanding .. I was invaded by my dad .. (yup AGAIN - well it didn't turn into a visit, more like a drive by and he did bring milk :D) while I was basting it and he was looking at it and oh that's pretty .. I'm like ... pretty?? (@@) .. thanx .. (dry sarcastic tone) .. he goes .. why's it all wet .. I'm like wet??? where .. and I look .. my darling little Shadow(Pixel leaves bigger offerings) decided to leave a soggy splotch on the quilt .. I'm like .. the truth comes out on how she really feels about it .. good thing it wasn't food or a hairball .. quick dabbing with paper towels and then a damp cloth cleaned it right up .. I think I would have rather had her chase my thimble around the house .. **sigh**

It's a mulberry tree :D .. Thanx to all the ladies that sent me emails telling me what tree this is .. Thank you everyone!!

What are these berries???
I noticed the other day that there were squirrels and birds having a feast in my tree in the back yard .. and then I look closer and see .. berries ..does anyone have any idea what these are .. I thought this was the same tree that my dad had, but his doesn't produce fruit .. then again, he scalps his every year and it just doesn't .. I tasted it, not overly sweet nor tart .. just mild .. can you leave a comment in my blog (as that's emailed to me) or email me directly if you have my email address - thanx .. I really do appreciate it .. I know they aren't poisonous as the birds and squirrels don't fall out the tree and the dogs even eating them .. crazy dog!

Now as for the dog .. I'm going to tie her tail to her whiskers she starts digging again in the backyard .. she started to go to town yesterday just under this tree, and then again this AM ..

You know .. my animals are going to look really funny with them all running around with their whiskers and tails tied together .. and yes even Pix ..

I WAS almost finished ...

On Saturday I was invaded by my dad .. no call no nothing .. AGAIN .. that made 5 days running .. must have been Father's Week - not Father's Day .. ah well .. I didn't quite trust myself to sew, but I did cut the rest of my sections out .. good thing too .. as I was looking at the fabric i had left for the background .. i'm thinking to myself .. there is no way that's enough .. well you know what .. it wasn't .. i would hav been ¹/₈" short for the width on the final strip and i would have been short on the other piece one (you're reading this right) ONE - 4 ³/₈" square for the HST .. short ONE .. i'm like .. are you bloody well kidding me!?!?!?!?!? I triple checked and yup i was short .. not a big deal, I have the brown vines which I could swap with .. well I'm wishing i had done this way all through .. all my squares were the vine fabric and then my HSTs were the chocolate brown .. it really looks NICE. Rather makes the path through the blocks pop more - but i am not going to rip the rest of them apart to do that to them .. nope - not gonna happen!

Here I was thinking I was being slick .. and I WAS rather pleased with myself too .. until I saw that I had flipped my middle squares .. I had caught it everytime up until NOW - and wouldn't you figure .. it's the LAST section .. bah .. I'm glad that I have an old seam ripper, but it really isn't very good .. mine is still MIA .. I guess with all this ripping to do (3 blocks have to be totally undone - and not it's not all together .. 3 seams away from it), I would rather use my good one .. so I'll tear the living room apart to see is Shadow batted it under the couch or table or something .. I can only pray .. yeah i think I would rather do that then frog stitch all that - UGH .. twittwittwit ..

Ah well it will get done today .. Good thing too .. I'm getting tired of brown .. I think the next section will be the middle section that's a sisters star in an Ohio Star ..

Seam Ripper Update

AHA .. found my seam ripper .. I had it on the table next to the couch when I was doing the english paper piecing .. Good thing .. now my frog stitch will go that much faster now :D :D :D

Finished!!
Finally got it done .. feels GREAT to finish this part .. mind you .. i ended up flipping a 4 patch the wrong way again .. and course this was on the last block and i just said to heck with it .. I knew if I messed with it anymore, I would end up wrecking it or hating it .. so it stays .. who knows .. it might end up making the quilt??? **shrug .. never know ;)

I think that i'm going to take a wee bit of a break from this .. I've been wanting to work on my kitty quilt and baste it .. maybe i'll get that done today .. and in the back of my mind ... plot my next steps ...

Yup, it was Friday the 13th

That's not to say it was a totally horrific day .. just a challenging one .. I slept late for one, then when I got up there was a whole whack of stuff that had to be done RIGHT THEN .. I didn't even have an uninterrupted cup of coffee all day ..

Things finally settle down a bit and I go over my math to see what i need to finish cutting for this section, then the kid wants attention :S .. Just get him calmed down then my dad stops by .. no reason .. just stopped by - when i realized there was nothing life threatening, I start to go over my math again .. then my dad leaves - 3 mins later - reg is home :\ ... we walk to the store .. (which I had already been to with Kyle earlier .. )

Okay .. things settle again .. and I finally get to go over the figures again ... one strip is a smidge off after all is said and done and there's not a bloody thing I can do about it but deal with it and stretch and smidge .. which rather did turn out alright .. I can see the places - but I know they're there ....

The actual time spent wasn't long at all .. and if it wasn't 3:15am - i would likely do another section .. tomorrow's another day :D

I figure that with the size of this quilt, I'm going to do quilt as you go .. I found 2 places that have great tutorials for them .. one is at Quilters Cache (Quilt as you Go) and another one that has no hand sewing for the back .. Quilt as you go - No hand sewing. The idea of no hand sewing really appeals to me, but with the size of this, it would be just as bad and quiltling the thing whole .. So I'll do the quilter's cache method for this and save the other for double size quilts and smaller.

My seam ripper is missing in action .. i think that my 10lb four legged black furry wonder is the culprit (Shadow) - these sort of antics are her specialty

But on a good note - all my cherry tomato plants have flowers on them :D

One Underground Railroad Section done :)

I'm glad that I decided to work this quilt in sections .. it's my first king size for one, and for 2 it will allow me to remember the math quirks that I trip over - Specially since I had to do new math for using FQs instead of ½ yd measures .. This wasn't to bad to do once I got over the fact that I didn't have enough of the fabric I really wanted to use .. and i was lucky that I had another FQ that was complimentary to this one .. **whew**

All in all this didn't take that long to do .. longer than I expected to do the fabric shortage, but not as long as I feared. Went rather smooth and I only had to tear apart 1 row of one block ;) ..

That's enough for now, I don't want to make any serious mistakes other than sewing blocks together upside down or backwards ;)

Oh My .. that's not a ½ yard, that's an fq :\

I decided to start on the my smallest yardage for the foreground colour for the underground rr sections .. good thing, as when i went to open it up, i discovered that it wasn't a ½ yard, but an FQ - oh my .. but i was pretty lucky as I had another FQ that went well with this one .. good thing!!!!

I went over my math again and to see how much I could get out of the FQs .. I had an idea and thought that I would try to make it fit as best I could .. I wanted to have the middle sections of the blocks all the same fabric and then the outer 4 patches could be the other FQ .. It worked, BUT, I would be about 6 blocks short .. which actually worked out as I managed to get a pretty cool design element in with the other FQ. I had the second FQ be the outside 4 patches and also the end of one of the arms in my 'circle'.

I'm being VERY careful as I sew these pieces together . normally i would take all the HST pieces and just zip along with them .. but I'm doing them block by block right now .. I'm 'numb' enough at this point that I am being SUPER careful, and I really want to preserve this design element ..

I'm back to piecing this part together .. I just wanted to take a break and share this with you ..

Oh - I KNEW that wasn't a ½ yard .. just blocked it out for some reason .. but I think this is going to look just GREAT!!!!

Underground Railroad sections

Okay .. Now I'm getting excited .. oh Lordy 4:30am this time :S .. I redid the math and according to my numbers, I can use all the chocolate brown for my background in the underground rr section along with the fabrics that looked stunning on their own .. each of these is a ½ yd measure and I need just under that .. my cutting had BETTER be perfect .. I guess this will be measure 4 times, cut once and no tears :)

I used photoshop to set this up by section .. now the patterns are NOT to scale, but the colours are spot on .. that was one thing that I did make sure of .. I was not that adventurous in my frustration last nite when I scanned them all in .. I just wanted them in at that time .. but these are going to look great .. better than I anticipated :D





The pattern in the bottom right image is MUCH smaller than is show .. the scale is wayyy off in these, but I was more interested in the actual colour 'feel' than pattern scales being on .. with the exception of this one, you get a good feel for the colours and look in these sections ..

Another good thing is that if i make mistakes, there is still my monochrone brown with vines that I can use as a backup for these as it looks pretty close ..

Oh boy .. Now I feel like I can cut and am actually getting somewhere .. I'm off to bed .. and of course I'll be thinking about these blocks as i'm trying to fall asleep :D