Strings

I love strings. Strings, for those of you who don't know, are the cut offs (1"-2.5" in my stash) after straightening your fabric for your "real" cuts. I always cut mine a bit larger to make "strings". They are normally what would be thrown away, but hey, they are care free fabric, where you make "new" fabric, and who cares what it looks like. This is one string quilt I made:

I am working on another, which I will post when it is done. Strings to me, even tho I love them, get overwhelming. As you can see, I have a ton of them. I had to separate them into lights and darks.

I bet this bucket has 4-5 queen quilts in it! Believe it. I have a few more project ideas running through my head. There are a ton of options out there, it will probably keep me up at night...and I can't even start talking about "crumbs". I save those, and can't wait to dig into those too!

Did I say something about SPRING?

Never mind....it was, but now it isn't. Rumor has it, it will be back but it doesn't feel like it. April 18th, usually by now, the ice is off the lake and it has been nice. Last week, we got 6 inches of snow, and it hasn't really warmed up. It is evening, and it is 34 degrees. Those pics I showed in my last post of the water in the creek, it has slowed down some. It left this, with hopes of spring...

This is on our point, (150 feet from the house) looking to my left, facing the lake, where the creek comes out. The ducks are loving it, and I had high hopes that soon, the ice would be off, but look farther, the bay is still closed.

This is looking to my right, it is only open 3 feet from the shore. Right there, were there is flowing water. Notice, the rest is still ICE. Probably not very thick, but not OPEN WATER. And then right in FRONT of the house...

Down on the shore, it has RE-frozen, it was at least open a LITTLE a couple of days ago. (That dark thing is the cover for the garden water pump...)

We still have snow in the yard...and I bet the ducks aren't liking it too much either.

O.k., I am done ranting. I just want to sit on the deck in the sun and start on outdoor chores! (Did I actually SAY that out loud??)

Took a hike...

Every year when spring arrives, I like to hike behind the house in the creek which flows behind and passed the house to the lake. I love to play in the water, and break up the stick dams with dead leaves that get carried on to settle who knows where. It is good exercise, good to be out and good for the dogs to get out and get rid of some of their spring fever energy too. The water drains from the lake north of us, and the swamp in between. It is great for the oxygen in the lake, which is great for the fish, and is usually the best fishing on the lake when the creek is flowing. Sometimes it flows with heavy rain, as it did last week, but of course now is spring run off too. For those of us who love waterfalls, it is a good time of year. 

Most of the year, it is pretty dry, and green with massive amounts of ferns and some flowers. And of course BUGS, so I don't venture back there in the summer much. This is usually when the loons come back, when there is a bit of open water, so we should be hearing them any day now. Some people don't like spring because of the mud, but this is a wonderful time of year, when all the birds come back, (the noise increases!) the lakes open, and things come back to life. Of course, that means the start of summer, which then is CRAZY, and by the end I am ready for winter again! But for this day, I am really glad it is spring!

More Things In The Making...

I am trying to get a bunch of things finished and in the "completed" folder of my life (not that there won't be something to replace it!) but first, I finished Katie's top, that I crazily thought would be done for Christmas! I did start it in Oct., so I am trying to decide-"is 6 months good for me, or bad??" I like it a lot, and since I have about 30 yards of this line left, I believe I will be making myself one-a queen. I just have to find a different pattern. You are never too old for Dr. Seuss....

Then, I almost finished a spare Scrappy Toes in purple and green. binding didn't go so well, so I stopped, and will finish it later, hopefully not TOO much later...

I have a queen size ready to put together that will look just like this. I had extra blocks (miscounted, and didn't think I had enough...) so there it is, thought I would try out the border layout to see if I liked it. Works for me.

Then, I decided to finish another one of these in this pattern of which I had blocks done, was going to make a queen, but decided I am really tired of this patten now. After the queen, I hope to retire it for a long time, although, it is quick and easy.

I REALLY need to work on this:

It is king size, and I have to draw it out differently, by hand, and change a few blocks to make them more user friendly. It is a wedding present for Mark and Li, and last week was their 1 year anniversary. See what I mean about the 6 months? this will take forever, but it is rather intimidating, so I have been procrastinating. Sorry guys!

I should at least be working on the snails trail blocks, so that I am not putting it ALL off, then at least they will be done when I need them! Yes, that is what I will do! While working up the courage to start on the center....

So, a few more tops to add to the "collection". Of course these are not all "done, done", but at least the spares can wait till later.

Still waiting for the snow to melt. it might actually get up to 40 today! (39 now) and I can start to see patches of grass around the trees, but I bet we still have a foot in the yard. UGH. And I cant even bring myself to THINK about getting the campers out yet! (we pile all the snow in front of them...) but I am really ready for camping season, but of course, not the bugs...

Feb. Challenge top done

One more thing out of my hair. I thought it would be easy, since all I had were borders to do, but the borders took longer then the center! I mitered everything since I thought trying to put on all those small borders by themselves would be a disaster. It was a very good use of this set of fabrics, as I have NOTHING LEFT-yeah! and it is a queen quilt. I will put it away until I get a few other things done and started, and of course it needs a back, which I have no idea what to use yet. The binding will be red. The pattern was free from Andover Fabrics called Ancient History. The blocks are 15", that is why there are not very many, but good for showing off fabrics. Naturally I changed things up a bit, and made mistakes that had to be 'corrected', but I am glad it is done. I haven't decided if I will send it out to be quilted, or try it myself. It is pretty big, and I think I want something different besides stippling or leaves. I am limited with my frame and machine with a 9" throat.
On to the next.....

The Loss Of A good Friend

The last few weeks have been crazy, more of which I want to touch on later, but for now, I have to say that we lost Spot today to a case of bloat. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is where their stomach turns over, and cuts off the blood supply to the organs. The vet said the pancreas "melts", whatever that actually means. She did not suffer long, as she came right downstairs, and I saw her almost right away. She looked like she swallowed a basketball. Cindy was here for quilting day, and we thought she ate something-A LOT of something-(Willow has done this and scared us too) but it was the real thing. We waited to see if she would throw up, but she couldn't, (we gave her peroxide) and we took her to the vet, who confirmed it. I made the decision to put her down. He said she didn't have much chance, young healthy dogs have a 50/50 chance if you catch it early enough. She didn't suffer long, and she was already failing, as he couldn't find a vein, her blood pressure was dropping fast. Poor baby. She will be missed. Even with 2 other dogs, there is a void, and it happened so fast, there was no real time to think about it, just stop her suffering. I am sure the impact will hit in the next few days. She was a good dog, and a great friend. This SO sucks.

Got some quilting done...

...And plenty more to go! I finished the quilting on my Civil War Quilt.

I like the way it turned out. I am not sure what the pattern is called, sorry.

I am working on a small Scrappy Toes one now, ( the tread keeps breaking and I am having tension problems, which hasn't happened in YEARS) the leftover blocks from the Green and Purple one that I don't have done yet either, but it is close. It was the UFO #6 in the challenge. Getting one done a month didn't sound so hard at the time....but I DID do other things...

The UFO number picked for February, is the #10, which is Ancient History.

(again, sideways...) This seems to be an easy pattern, so hopefully I can get that one done, or close.
I started drafting Mark and Li's quilt, but just didn't have the right tools...So I ordered protractors, and a quilting ruler for making mariner's compass', so I should be ready to go. Now I again have to find my way. I ALMOST had it, but not quite. My geometry just isn't very good. Of course, when it "clicks" then I won't have to do it again for another few years, and will forget...

And then there is Katie's Dr. Seuss, which in THEORY was supposed to be done at Christmas. I guess I am just not good at deadlines...
Good thing I will be going to Chicago with Bill next week, I will get to pound them out with not distractions. Could be I am just slow too.