Spring Refresh Underway

One of my intentions for this month is to get the house freshened up, aka Spring Cleaning!

After getting the house power washed I ordered fabric from Fabric.com to recover the cushions on the wicker sofa. Here are both fabrics. I bet you can guess which one is over 10 years old!

We try to have our screen porch be an inviting 'room' for ourselves, as well as guests. I spent quite a bit of agonizing time while these cushions got new covers.

 I'm very pleased with all of them.

So, the Spring Refresh is well underway!

Daily creative time included getting the bindings completed on my two Desert Sky pieces. They each will have different names, but that's the name of the pattern I used to produce the 'spikey' units. 

#1

And #2

My bindings are usually sewn to the back, wrapped over the seam allowance to the front, and machine stitched down. I have a couple of decorative stitches on my machine that I especially like to use. However, this time, for both of these, I machine stitched them to the front and hand stitched the wrapped binding to the back. Thought I'd document this, as my hands are rather sore and I'm not interested in getting carpal tunnel syndrome in them. This will only be done on possible show entries!

I enjoyed Thursday evening's Cobblestone Quilters Guild meeting. Our guest speaker shared her journey as a quilter. If you don't belong to a guild, check one out in your community. They can be a place to connect with others that enjoy similar pursuits. 

Friday evening was spent listening to The Summerville Orchestra. The tickets are so affordable, something like $70 for the two of us, for all four performances! Yep, you heard that right. Season tickets are $50 for you younger folks. That's only $12.50 per performance, 2 hours of great music. 

Yesterday we attended church in Orangeburg.  Went to lunch with a couple we know from OLC. We then dropped in on Mom for a few minutes. She was asleep, as is her usual now. But she did say, "Hello" when I put my hand on her arm, and said we'd come to visit. She then promptly went back to sleeping. It was such a blessing to see her so peaceful. God has been good to all of us. 

We stopped by The Edisto Rose Gardens before leaving Orangeburg. They have suffered some damage from last fall's flooding, but they are still spectacular. 

We walked every day, and have been paying closer attention to our eating habits. 

I viewed two different Craftsy classes this week also!

So for this update, I can say I've made progress on all 5 of my May intentions. 

How are you doing on your projects? 

WHEN A BACK BECOMES A FRONT

A short time ago I was still agonizing over making these two pieces into a single quilt, or two individual quilts. These were the units from Desert Sky, a Judy Niemeyer quilt design. I used my own layout. 

The decision was made. Borders were added. Backing was chosen and loaded onto the longarm machine and away I went. 

This one got a multicolored Batik for it's border, and a dragonfly in flight edge to edge design used for the 'quilting of the sandwich'. 

Here I added borders of fabric used in the central area. I used an all over gentle meander for the quilting. Both of these quilts are trimmed and ready for binding. 

My client asked for meandering, even across the appliqués. It was her first appliqué quilt, finished it 10 years ago. She didn't feel it was some of her best work so didn't want the expense of custom. She gave me the ok to do whatever I wanted to, within her price range. I was a bit concerned with the appliqués. Some where relatively stiff from the type of fusible web. However, I was very pleased with few thread breaks, and how the quilting didn't detract from the appliqués. Neither picture shows the stitching, except on the very top corner in the golden square. 

 Wednesday's trip to the beach produced some interesting shell pieces and this picture. 

This came home with us in picture only. I love how red they are while they are in water. I believe they feed on the oyster beds close by. This little starfish will go back out with the next wave. 

I finally got my Dragonfly Book together! I've had this on my 'to do' list for over a year. These fabric book pages came from people around the world that I swapped with. It was great fun. Each person had chosen a theme. Monthly,  we had an assigned person to make an 8x8 inch page for.

The 8 pages all had interesting backs as well. I included one of them below, with the front, back, and a top view. I may still add pockets to the front and back inside covers. The dragonfly fabric I used was sent along with someone's page.  I received several embellishments also. 

Glad to have this off my list. 

I still have a group of ATCs and Fabric Postcards that I received during that same time period. Not sure what I will do with them, maybe fabric boxes. I could make by using fabric I received thru our Surface Design group on Stitchinfingers.ning 

Stitched a pair of pillowcases up to coordinate with the Tumbler quilt. This fabric was a gift from a client with a stipulation, I had to use it, not stash it. I started cutting it up that same month. And once the pieces were cut, I stayed focused with getting it off the design wall and into quilt form. I wish I was always so focused! 

Yesterday, we went to see my dear Mother-in-law. Here's the two of us from October 2014, a better time in her life. Alzeheimers has taken her away from us. We now wait on God's timing, to take her home. 

Mothers Day is about love. Love from them, and love of them. I have had wonderful "Mothers" in my life, Thank You, God. - Luann

5 Intentions for May

May is the fifth month of the year, so I'm going to list 5 areas that I intend to invest time on.

1) Spring refreshing of the house. I called this 'cleaning' in the past but it entails so much more than dusting and vacuuming. We have chosen to start with the screen porch and our yard. We have family coming to visit at the end of the month and these are the two areas where we'll spend our time. 

2) Menus and activities adjusted for better health. This comes from desiring to drop a few pounds. More 'planned' activity and reducing the amount of sugars/carbs in our food should get this going. 

3) Daily Creative Time. This is the 'wagon' I fall off of too easily. Without a set time and specific project, I tend to spend (waste) my time thinking about what I want to do, in stead of actually doing something!

Once I'm back on this wagon, my projects will start to get finished. 

4) Intellectual Advancements. That sounds pretty impressive, doesn't it? Actually, I have several software programs, workbooks, etc etc that have just gotten piled high. It's time to work my way thru them. Taking them one bite at a time. 

5) Family and Friends. We have family coming for a vacation at the end of the month. We want to make it a pleasant memory for them. There are several other occasions coming up this month that will require some special planning. 

This is pretty much a 'Dear Diary' blog post. It has a lot more meaning in the background than anyone reading it will understand. That's ok, most bloggers are using the platform for a journal of their individual journey. They just let us go along for the ride. So, hook up your seatbelt and enjoy the view as you get to see where I'm going,,,

April Review

I can't believe that it's the last day of April. Where did this month go? I feel like I've spent a lot of time 'waiting' this month. 

This was on my laptop screen for over 3 hours! To say it politely, the Windows 10 update was a disaster, cost me several days of irritation, and over $150 to get it removed and Windows 7 back up and running. Kudos to the Easy Tech people at Staples. Many of my days involved trying to get it uploaded, then trying to figure out how to navigate it, and finally making the decision that it was going to be rolled back to what I had, if that was even possible. I still have all of my software programs to install, but my documents and pictures are fully accessible. Yeah. Enough on this subject. 

The review:

1) Sent out the goody envelopes to those who left comments on my 3/22 post. Only one has an address issue, but that should get taken care of shortly. I still haven't made the final decision if these will be two quilts, or front and back of the same one. 

2) I made it to all 5 planned meetings, and added another one.  It was a Weavers Study Group, at a friend's house. I came home with a plan and within a week I finished this small piece. 

3) I wanted to get some headway done on Spring cleaning. We certainly did, but as the weather has been warming up fast this year, my energy and stamina is at a low. Thankfully the humidity levels have been very tolerable. George power washed all of the porch furniture. He then painted two rockers, and the legs and wooden portions of my antique table. 

While I was shopping for webbing for the sofa repair, and found this pillow. 

I also ordered this fabric for making new cushion covers for the wicker sofa. 

Colors are perfect. 

4) I got the OBW quilt quilted and trimmed. I will take my time appliquéing over the slash in the top. Then the binding and a decision as to where it will be hung. 

Added this: 

I quilted up a sweet kid quilt for my friend, Betty. 

I've made some progress on my other projects but nothing significant enough for a picture. That's the way it goes sometimes. One of these months I'll have so many finishes that I'll get comments about my  sleep habits! 

But it'll just be harvest time. Right now, it's plowing, planting, and weeding time. 

May God bless each of you with sufficient energy to accomplish all of what He has for you to do. Luann

Creative Weaving Playday

I attended a Weavers Study Group meeting this past Wednesday. I came home with a book,  a little loom and the warp thread. I knew I had plenty of other supplies. I worked thru the first few lessons in the book, and then decided to try 'going for it'. I've got this little nugget hanging up on my wall. 

It should have a label with what I did and why. I'd better get this done before I forget what I did!

I'm still pondering what to do with those tied warp threads at the bottom. Beads? 

I am pleased with my playday project. 

So, if you were going to give yourself a playday to try something new, what would you do?

April Intentions & Winners

This was what we woke up to on April 3. It was our last day in the UP of Michigan. Not unusual, just unwelcomed, as our all-weather tires are meant for all the weather in South Carolina! By the time breakfast was finished and we headed south, the roads had been salted and the sun came out. 

Now this is more to my liking. April 7, at the beach in SC. Great fun watching, but I'm not into flying with the Pelicans like that!

April Intentions: 

1) Send out goody packages to the 8 commenters on my 3/22 giveaway post. 

2) Attend all 5 group meetings on my calendar. As of today, 1 down and 4 to go. 

3) Start the Spring cleanup of house AND yard areas. This presently underway, but will take awhile. 

Make progress on the following: 

4) My OBW. Needs the cut addressed and then the quilting, binding, etc. 

5) Desert Sky Quilts, yes this will be two. The back is just too interesting to be against a wall. 

6) My pojagi piece. Need to decide the size it will become, and whether it will be curtain art, quilt, ? 

7) Batik Star needs to be quilted and finished. 

8) Mystery Quilt has several 'clues' that need to be done to be up to date. 

9) Hosta Trio. Appliqués need to be stitched down, thread painting, then quilting, etc. 

10) Dragonfly book pages may become wallies. 

11) Tequamenon Falls wallhanging. I need to decide if it will get borders, or finish it as is with a facing. 

12) Batik triangle improv challenge pieces are in a container. These need some sort of direction!

13) Flower garden from my hand dyed fabrics. Couching stems with the longarm is a possibility. 

14) Collaged piece needs to have some color added to all that black!

15) Fused fabric improv art quilt. This may need to just cogatate until it learns to speak to me. 

My thought for today: Continued progress leads to completed projects. 

Let's create today, Luann

March Review

A short review. 

Took a class where I honed my precision sewing. 

Chose an alternate layout from the pattern. 

And the back started taking on a life of its own,,,

Worked on an art quilt from fused fabric scraps, needs lots of work. 

Started the placement of pieces I would like to put together with a pojagi look. 

And the finished tumbler quilt. 

Here's a picture of 6 composition books that I fused fabric to the covers. These were for my grandkids.  I made two more that didn't get into this picture. If you do this, rough up the cover, as they all started to loosen up as we hit cold weather! The moms will use some glue to keep them in place. 

I'm on vacation for a few more days. I haven't done any stitching while on vacation this time. Brought it along, but overcast skies make it difficult to see in the vehicle. 

April intentions? I'll get that together after I'm home and the laundry is finished, lol. 

Hope you're creating today. I'm creating the best thing ever: MEMORIES