Approaching the Finish Line

I have two more unfinished projects to report. The first one is a second version of a basket quilt that I did for a challenge in our splinter group. The one I made originally was needleturn applique and the basket design was the same as in this one--which is fused and machine appliqued. On this one, I added an oval frame and the corner scrolls, plus a different colorway. I redid the outside border before I started quilting and was a lot happier with the final product. Anyway. it is now quilted--after at least two years!

The second quilt I just finished is for the silent auction at the Cobblestone Quilt Show in March. It consists of needleturn applique blocks that were "leftovers" from other projects. It, too, is now quilted. If I keep going at this rate, I'm going to have to actually start something new because there won't being any unfinished projects left!

Another thing I've been working on is knitting. I have resisted taking up knitting again because I know that it can eat into your time that would maybe be better spent on quilting but it's COLD here in Hendersonville and I needed hats and scarves--and, wouldn't you know, there's a WONDERFUL knit shop here in town. SO . . .I've been buying yarn (and also needles to replace the ones I gave away years ago) and finding excuses to watch t.v. so I can keep warm outside. And, now, my husband has complimented me and says if I have time, MAYBE I could make him a sleeveless pullover sweater. How could I turn down someone who has so lovingly and generously supported me in all of my quilting endeavors? Never!

It's a Topper!

This will be my final posting of the my work in progress on Swamp Hibiscus. The border and blanket stitching are done and now it's on to piecing the back, pinning and THEN quilting. I leave for Hendersonville tomorrow for (I hope) 2 weeks and so the pinning will have to wait until I come back to Charleston where I have a big enough floor to lay it out on (yes, I STILL get down on the floor to pin). I'm really pleased with how it's turned out and now my general nervousness will set in about just how to proceed with the quilting. I know it will work out, but . . .

One thing I've been doing while spending more time than I had planned on in Charleston is finishing up some of my unfinished projects. This is one that I started about four years ago at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival. It was a needleturn applique class with Linda Cantrell. One of the unique "twists" in this class was that you ironed all of the applique pieces onto freezer paper, ironed under the raw edges and then glued the entire piece onto the background fabric. You cut away the backing as you go. It's kind of tough in the beginning because there is so much stiffness to the work, but you get the reward of seeing the entire piece from the start. I actually have had the entire piece finished for years, but just added the borders. I'll be taking it with me to the mountains and will quilt it up there. It won't take long and will make a nice Christmas present for someone.

That's it for now. Hope things are going well with everyone.

The View

Whew! I just realized how long it has been since I last posted anything. This has been a hard few weeks dealing with a very weak and ill mother-in-law with little time left for anything else. One thing that is a comfort to us when we have to deal with life's unpleasant happenings is the view from our window. We drink our coffee every morning looking out at this beautiful bit of our environment and read our meditations and somehow find some kind of center to maintain our balance in this world. I was so disappointed that I didn't get to see the fall color this year; however, even I--a mountain girl--had to admit that that golden hue of the marsh grass looks pretty darn good. As we were sitting and looking out this morning, fish were literally jumping all over the place! And they were BIG! We were discussing the various ways we could cook them if only we had a fishing license (not really). I saw my neighbor shortly afterwards and he said he caught 16 fish in about 15 minutes. The only thing was . . .they were mullet, not the bass I had been envisioning. Oh well--he threw them back into the drink, but we all had a little excitement.

I had brought my Swamp Hibiscus quilt back to Charleston with me to work on while I was here and when it came time to do the blanket stitiching around my applique, I was in trouble. I had used my Bernina up in the mountains to do much of it and neither of the machines I have here in Charleston have a blanket stitch that even comes close to the quality of the Bernina one (at least in my opinion). One of the machines is quite expensive but it just didn't measure up.

So . . .I asked my daughter-in-law (to whom I had given my Bernina 200) if I could borrow it long enough to do the stitching. She, of course, said yes and I trotted home with it. I started sewing and was just about overwhelmed with how much I missed that machine (I gave it away because I wasn't getting good service from the dealer). Since we have a good dealer in Hendersonville, my sweet husband said that I must get another one like the 200 (I don't know the model number now). Although I thought it was pretty great of him to say that, I really thought it came under the category of trying to make yourself feel better when you're under family stress and I felt I had him at a disadvantage (would that be WRONG? I would have to say probably.)

Anyway, when I told my daughter-in-law just how much I had enjoyed using my old friend and that I hoped to get another one sometime, she immediately told me to keep it, that she really didn't have the time to use it (she's going to college). I was really overwhelmed by her kindness and wanted to do something for her. I have packed up my other top-of-the-line machine and it will be hers when she is ready for it. But I also wanted to do something immediate and offered to quilt one of her unfinished projects. This is the one she chose--a project from a Myrtle Beach Quilt Party weekend. I really enjoyed doing it because it was something where I could sit down at my Juki and go almost into automatic and listen to books on tape. I was pleased with how it turned out and I think she was, too.

And so, I have had a wonderful reunion with my Bernina 200. I know that other machine owners could say just as many wonderful things about their own particular brand of machines--it's just a matter about what suits our own needs and ease of operation. I like the heft of the Bernina presser feet and I like the way certain stitches stitch and I like some of the features that are unique to the Bernina and I am used to. And, I am almost finished with my Swamp Hibscus quilt top and will post it soon.

Moving Right Along

Thought I'd post the next completed step of my Swamp Hibicus quilt. I finished the borders today and now I have to decide what to put on top of the border fabric.

The little "squiggles" on the upper right border are just pieces of fabric placed to think about color and shape. After I decide on what to put there--and actually PUT it there--I'll be finished. And then on to the quilting! I took the picture of the swamp hibiscus over a year ago and have been thinking about it ever since. It is such a beautiful and delicate flower; and yet, unlike the typical hibiscus that one buys at Lowe's, it dies down in the winter and regenerates in the spring. As well as seeing the in Charleston, I saw several huge plants at the Arboretum in Asheville this summer, so I'm hopeful that I can have a plant in my yard in Hendersonville.

The beautiful Angel's Trumpet (which will be a quilt some day--hopefully sooner than later) that we had in our yard in Hendersonville was full of buds the last time we were there, but the weather was so cool that the new flowers were very hesitant to break out from their protective covering. So when we came back to Charleston, we loaded it onto the back of the truck (COVERED back of the truck) and brought it with us. Once it hit the sun and warmth of Charleston, the flowers just jumped out and shouted for joy. The Angel's Trumpet is a night-scented flower, so we placed it by an entrance to the house. When you walk by it in the evening, the odor just envelopes you. I love it--although it COULD be called over-powering. . .

On a different note, I've been taking pictures of everything in our house. I saw a piece on the television that addressed the issue of insurance coverage in case of loss. They advised video-taping household contents (I don't have a video camera) or taking digital pictures. They also suggested taking photos of the contents of drawers, the point being that we don't remember EVERYTHING that we own and the pictures serve as an aid to remember and, at the same time, prove to the insurance company that we actually had what we say we had. I have 3 more rooms to do and then the cd's will go into the lock box in the bank. I'll have to admit that I didn't do any house cleaning before I took the pictures. Now there's firm, provable evidence that I'm a lousy housekeeper! Oh well. (And I don't think I'll be posting any of THOSE pictures.)

The Re-Do is Done

Did you ever make a quilt, live with it for a while and then decide that you just really needed to change it? Well, I did. The more I looked at my quilt, Magical Thinking, the areas in the blue background just got to me enough that I HAD to change it--which isn't the easiest thing to do once it's totally finished. I was asked by friends why I just didn't move on and make another one like it and change THAT one or, another friend asked, why didn't I just give it away? I don't know.

This is my original version--except that it doesn't show all of the bugle beads that were finally in the black "figures" situated in the blue background. And it was the beads and all of the machine appliqued and quilted black figures that I decided had to come out. That took about 6 weeks. When I finished that, I machine quilted in the areas that I had uncovered.

Once that was done, I designed the elongated two-colored stars in Electric Quilt, sewed them together and hand appliqued them on top of the quilted surface. And, finally, I hand quilted them through 2 layers of the quilt (I didn't want to come through to the machine quilting on the back) and sewed a gold & black bead in the center of each one. And NOW, I'm finished--and happy.

I know that some people would have a term for the effort I just went to for a smallish return, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

There's Fiber and then there's FIBER!

Although we don't subscribe to the newspaper anymore because we're spending so much time in Hendersonville, I always try to buy the paper on Wednesday (for grocery ads), Friday (for activities over the weekend) and Sunday (well, because it's Sunday). We're in Hendersonville now and when I got the newspaper yesterday, I noticed that there was a quilt show in Brevard this weekend, as well as a fiber fair in Fletcher. Since the two places are fairly close together and since we've been working so hard this week on house repairs, I decided that an outing was in order.

To begin with, the weather has been incredible today. The leaves are beautiful and the temperatures are just right--just a little nip in the air. We went to Brevard first. The show had no admission fee and was strictly a local event. Nothing to write home about (or even to blog about) but the people there were nice and enthusiastic and obviously enjoyed quilting.

Next we went to the fiber fair at the Ag Center. I have to say, what I had expected was to see some angora goats, rabbits, sheep and llamas--and I did indeed see them. You can see one of the prize specimans here. The animals were beautiful. And then, we saw some of the raw and dyed wool that people had brought to sell. Since I don't spin (or card or any of the other things it takes for raw wool to become yarn) I was only interested in the finished product that I could manipulate with knitting needles. And there was some very nice yarn there and I did buy a hank to make a scarf.

But THEN . . .we went inside the arena and there were VENDORS! I had absolutely no idea the enormity of what was going to be there. The variety and types of yarns, raw materials, notions, etc. were so incredible--I almost wished that I wanted to knit an entire wardrobe. I felt as if I were surrounded by a soft rainbow of heavenly colortones. I have to admit that I did buy enough yarn to make a fancy shawl and a warm sweater--so that will be my "carwork" for the forseeable future. It is really hard to describe how I felt when I first saw all of those wondrous colors and textures but I think some of the joy came from realizing that I wasn't actually looking for anything (like I do at Mary Jo's) and I could just simply enjoy the sight. And that was the greatest gift of all.

And, now I am posting my latest efforts on my Swamp Hibiscus journey. For those of you who noticed my last post on it, you might notice that part of it is missing. Well, the more I looked at those corner pieces, the more I realized that they just didn't belong there. I spent several days looking at the quilt, making samples of what "might" go there and, finally came up with something I'm happy with. I haven't sewn everything down yet, but I think it's a "go." I'm getting close to completion and then I'll have to start all over with the quilting choices. That's what makes it such an exciting journey, isn't it?

The Web of Life

My husband, Smokey, went outside to leave on an errand but came back in and told me to come out and see the cool beauty created by nature.

The entire area around our entrance was covered with the little cobwebs. There had been a heavy fog in the morning and the dew had settled on each of them, making an incredible work of art. I looked at them more closely and saw a little hole in each one--a hole in which I guess the little spider (or creature) had gone back down into the ground. (Click to enlarge picture if you can't see the little opening) It was just so cool to see this little quirk of nature--and what with it being so close to Halloween . . .Hmmmmm.
And then, last night we went to a poetry reading in downtown Charleston with the renowned poet Coleman Barks reciting (such a mundane word for such a great rendering) the poetry of Rumi, the 13th century mystic. We have been reading these poems everyday for over a year and were so excited to have this opportunity. And, coincidentally, one of the major emphases of his poems is the importance of nature in our lives. He would have LOVED to have stepped outside of his tent on one fine autumn day and have seen these little webs. The difference between him and me, however, is that he probably would have spent QUITE a long time pondering the significance of the event. I'm not there yet.
And, today, we're back in the mountains. I was thrilled to see that my Angel's Trumpet has many new buds on it and, hopefully, the freeze will hold off long enough for a few blooms. And tonight I am back at work on my Swamp Hibiscus quilt--doing some satin stitching around applique pieces, etc. We brought up another sewing table and Smokey "altered" an old sewing machine insert I had so that my Bernina can fit into the smaller opening--he's a whiz.
Tuesday, my friend Nancy Coleman is coming up for the day and we will be going to the Asheville Guild meeting to attend a lecture by Kaffe Fassett. That ought to be fun. She had told me that she was waiting to come see our new place until we had finished the work on it and were settled in. I told her that it would be a LONG wait.