Border Problem Solved!

Well, the second one anyway! 

I must have had beginner's luck with my first major pieced border.  I still can't believe that I figured those blue squares on point exactly right to fit around all four sides of the first striped border, with no adjustment!  They met easily at the corners. 

I had to "unsew" a little of the second striped border in order to miter it, but even that worked out well.  I'm feeling much better about my "almost blue" quilt.

It is 87" square.  Now the question is:  do I want to add a 6" blue border (like the corner stone fabric shown in my last post)?  That, with the binding, would make the quilt 100" square, which could be used on a king bed.  It currently is sized well for my full sized beds, but both my sons have kings.   I'll wait a few days or weeks to make that decision; at least I have the fabric!    I'm sure I'll want to have it custom quilted, so there goes a wad of money someday!  I've said before I'd never make another king quilt, but.........!  What would you do?

I think I'll "sleep" on that idea a while, starting right now!

---"Love"

Stay Safe, Blogging Friends!

To all you friends on or near the East Coast:

Hope that wherever you are, you will be safe from the hurricane in the coming days!

Let us hear from you when it's past and  you have time!

---"Love"

Progress Report

This morning I finished the binding and hanging sleeve on the church quilters' Underground Railroad Quilt. 

I've been working on the borders on my own Underground Railroad, but I'm having a difficult time deciding exactly how I want to handle them.  I have enough borders made of  blue squares set on diagonal to go all the way around, and I like them.  They will go next to the original brown/blue stripe border I've already shown.  My dilemma comes from deciding what border to put next, for the outside border. 

My original plan was to turn the stripe fabric the other direction, like piano keys, with a narrow blue strip next to the blue squares, as shown on the left in the picture below.  I will barely have enough of the stripe for only a 5" wide border, if indeed I do have enough; I'm sure I'll have to come up with corner blocks rather than mitering the stripes.  I'm not sure I would like the look of the vertical stripes, especially with the paisley cut in half.  (I should have covered the stripe at 5" for a true look.)

I really want the quilt to be more blue.  So I folded the stripe to show like on the right side of the picture, with the blue fabric like the cornerstones for the outside border. I have enough striped fabric for just the narrow blue/brown/blue stripe as folded, but not enough to make it the same width as the first border already sewn on the top.  I do like the blue for the outer border, and would have enough to make it a little wider, thus having my "blue" quilt ---- well, to some degree. 

So which side of the picture should I go with?  Help me solve this dilemma. 

Just for the record, we are still suffering from 100+ degree days (56 days now), with at least another week of the same.  I hate it, but I guess it's better than the hurricane heading for the East Coast!  Hope everyone there stays safe!

---"Love" 
P.S.  See my comment below Liri's.

Inspired by Ann of The Quilt Lab!

Ann inspired me last week to make a tiny quilt for the little quilt rack

I bought at a flea market earlier this summer. 

Here's the result, made last Saturday afternoon:

As you can see, it is just shy of 8" square. 

Those red,white,blue blocks finished at 3/4"!

That's a first for me as I recall. 

It fits perfectly on my little quilt rack,

but I want to paint the rack before using it.

I must admit that I made little four-patches

 and then sewed them together. 

With my crazy hands, it was quite a challenge! 

A friend and I went to a couple of quilt shops today, and I found a replacement for the lost blue fabric for my Underground Railroad.  I'd show picures, but the fabric is in the dryer already! 

Maybe by next week I can have something to show on that project!

For now, I'm going to bed!  I was on my feet way too many hours today,

and I'm paying for it tonight! 

---"Love"





Promised Pictures

Hey, yesterday our temp didn't make it to 100, which means we didn't break the 1980 record, but today it is back to 102.  Weatherman just said we may have a 30% chance of rain tonight; sure hope he's right!  We do have some clouds at least!

I'm feeling much better, but still taking life slow and easy for a few more days.  I can hardly believe it is Friday afternoon, and I've not started my car since last Monday!  I'm about to get cabin fever!  I need to get to a quilt store for some relief! *wink*  (Maybe next week!)  I have gotten the church quilt binding finished, and I'm waiting for word to add a hanging sleeve; I'm sure it will be needed.  I'll post that quilt another time.

A few weeks ago, I attended the quilt show at Midlothian, Texas, for a couple of hours (relief from tutoring, remember?).  I finally got the pictures into the computer, and I'm going to post several, with very little if any comment.  They always have a wonderful show, and certainly this year was no exception!  I'm sorry I cannot give credit to the makers, but I can say each of them did extraordinary work!  Be sure to double-click each picture to see their gorgeous quilting!  I wish I could show all the pictures I took, but these are my favorites.

I think the above quilt was Best of Show, and someone told me the maker's sister won the next highest in the show with her red/white quilt in the next picture.   

Only in Texas would a bull be told to "Sit Quietly and Smell the Flowers!"

Hope you enjoyed the show!   I certainly did!

---"Love"

Another Week of Over 100 Degree Weather!

My house is really feeling the loss of the neighbor's huge oak tree!  In a couple of days, this area will set a new record with more than 42 straight days of over 100 degree weather, a record set in 1980.  Every green thing is now brown unless water has been poured on it.  I've kept the front yard and the roses alive, but the back yard is gone!  It's been truly dreadful!

Yet there are things that catch the eye, like Mrs. Bush-ee as she steals the birds' seed bell.  She stole it off the stand, and tried to run away with it, but it was still too heavy for her, so she ate on it a while until I went and got it. 

As you can see, the roses are suffering from the drought. 

There is a new reptile in my yard; Mr. Froggie!
I had not seen him before.  He was hiding in the water cut-off place.  I step on that lid everytime I water the front yard, and he scared me when he stuck his head out!

I wasn't exactly truthful in my last blog when I said no one was injured in the fallen tree incident.  I've been suffering with a pulled muscle and sciatic nerve, injured when I was trying to move this big wash pot to get it out of the way of the guys who were trimming the tree off my roof in the dark.  They were throwing limbs down, and my neighbor and I tried to "walk" it out of the way.  The pot swings on a chain, and it almost got away from us.  In the process, I twisted my back, and have been hurting since then.  I thought my hip might be fractured, so I went to the doctor Monday and got some "good" pain pills that knock me out in a few minutes.  X-rays showed no broken bones. I'm feeling better now, but still confined to the house, no driving, for a couple more days. 
This picture was taken at noon on a day over 100 degrees!  I water it every day, and even after 40 days over 100, it still stands just as tall and beautiful.  It is a "Sun Coleus"; http://texassuperstar.com/plants/coleusplum/coleus1.html . I didn't think it could take the heat, but it has, along with the sweet potato plants around it.  I just couldn't let the tree limbs be thrown onto it, so I had to move it, even though I'm still paying with the pain!  You can see the dead grass around it.

Last Saturday there were 13 people here for the memorial service for my cousin. Some were kin, and some were his classmates I had never met from Dallas.  It was a sweet time together, sharing memories, and of course, I fed everyone afterwards, even though I was in pain all week.  (I'm a tough old lady.)

Since I'm housebound this week, I've been handstitching the binding on the church quilt.  Maybe I can finish it tomorrow, and will post a picture later, along with those quilt show pictures I promised earlier. 

Then maybe I can get back to my own Underground Railroad!  I'll be trying to stay cool!

I've enjoyed reading all your blogs! 

---"Love"

I Need Some Relief, and Soon!

I'm glad to report that GS#3 finished his Biology barely in time to take the Final Exam at the school last Thursday, which he passed, leaving him with a semester average of 87.  I'm very proud of him getting both the English and Biology credits in a short six weeks, though it seemed to be unending!  He got to go home to my son's for the first time since June 12, but he agrees the time was well spent, and he thanked me over and over.  So it was worth it, even though we both missed so much this summer.  I need to tell you that more than half of what we studied has been discovered since I graduated high school, and it didn't come easy for me!  I could never have passed a Final on it, but he did!

Probably the most important thing we both learned is that we have an awesome God!  Anything that can put genes, (or was that proteins?  Whatever!  I told you I couldn't pass a test!  For sure, it's all minute stuff!) and other compounds together into what looks like a ladder, then twist it and fold it down in a specific order and cram it into a cell membrane, over and over again with our many cells, has got to be only an awesome God! 

One Friday night his mother stopped by after work, and he asked if he could go home with her for the night.  At that point, I didn't think we would make the deadline anyway, so I agreed to let him go, with the understanding that I would pick him up at 1 PM the next day so we could start studying again.  There was a quilt show nearby the next day, and I really didn't want to miss it, but would have had he wanted to stay here and work.  I think the few hours off helped both of us to endure to the end.  I took several pictures at the quilt show, but haven't had time to load them to the computer yet.  Maybe I can do that next week, and I'll share them.

My cancer-ridden cousin died that week in a city about 200 miles away, and I had to miss the memorial service, as did some other relatives and friends from my area.  So I will be hosting a mini-memorial service in my home next Saturday; I'm not sure how many will be here.  So I'll be preparing for that this coming week.

Last Friday night at midnight, the huge, beautiful Live Oak tree in my neighbor's yard decided to split apart, and it fell on my roof, cutting the electric and phone lines to both our houses.  The power company came and cut all the tree off my patio roof  and strung new wire from the transformer to my service drop.  I was without power from midnight to 6:30 AM Saturday in this awful heat, but I survived, and my house didn't have as much damage as I had expected. I'll have my roofer check it tomorrow.   I could hardly believe those power company guys worked in the dark, with spot lights and flashlites on their hard hats!  I hired a man Saturday to haul off all the debris, which packed a 16' trailer!  I didn't want to leave it on my grass too long.  It was a terrible mess, and after not sleeping a wink all of Friday night, I was bone tired when we got it all out of here! 

After a shower, I crashed in the bed for 7 hours; got up and ate some cinnamon toast, and went back to bed until Sunday morning.  I've never been so tired in all my life, and still haven't fully recovered from the exhaustion.  What I hate most about the entire event is the fact that I now have to look at a really sad looking tree from my patio, which will have very little shade as the sun goes down in the west!  I'm really grieving for that tree!

This is the view I had from my patio prior to July 29, with a dusting of snow in 2010, before the three center trunks decided to split off.  When planted, it was several small trees planted in the same hole.  They grew together pretty much, but I guess the weight of all the growth was just too much; it was huge!  They have an underground sprinkler that they use a lot, so it wasn't because of drought, and there was no wind that night either. 

This is what I see now, plus lots of hot afternoon sun:  Sad, sad!

 In addition to all that, I was asked to play the piano for two morning worship services and the evening service yesterday, which I did, in the absence of the regular pianist.  I'm sleeping in the next couple of days!   Then I've got to start cleaning the house to be ready for next Saturday's memorial service.  (No rest for the weary, as my mother used to say.)

The weatherman said this morning we have had 30 straight days of over 100 degrees, with at least 7 more to come, and probably more, with 107 expected for today and Tuesday!  This alone is enough to wear me out!

I haven't gotten to sew a bit since my last blog!  The church quilters brought the quilt to me to do the binding, but I haven't cut it yet.  I'll try to get that sewed on this week so I can be doing the handwork at night. 

I know tears must be rolling down your faces by now, and you are wondering why I thought you needed to know all this!  (LOL!).  I'm just glad I had no severe house damage, and that no one got hurt!  And I will survive it all!  I don't give up easily!

I have kept up with reading all your blogs, but as you can imagine, I haven't had time to reply to all of them the last few days.  Just know that I enjoyed them; lots of good stuff there!  I'll try to do better soon.  Even my brain is tired right now!

Hope everyone has a good week!  I'm ready for one!  Maybe the week after this one???  I hope!

---"Love"