Kingdom Quilt Update

Playing the lay out and rearranging game.  Seriously this quilt is going to be huge.  Bigger than the king sized top sheet that I am using to play the pieces on so i can roll it up when I am done.

I am thinking a black minky backing.  if I don't go with a batting and just do that and the quilt then it will be less bulk I have to run through my machine.  I am also thinking it will need probably a 2 in border all the way around the quilt just to frame it.

Summer Finishes

It is summer and it is hot.  We have spent most evening in the pool.  This has cut into my blogging time.  But really when it is 100 degrees out side what is better than playing in the pool.   Either that or we are playing in the rain.  

I have had some absolutely lovely finishes this summer both quilting and knitting.

My favorite is this one

this is the one that got washed with the giraffe and ended up coated in polyester fiber fill.

Then remember this quilt, the quilt I made for my daughters second birthday.  and I didnt finish the binding for like 14 months as it sat in the closet.  yeah.  I pulled it out and finished the binding on it and here it is in its loveliness.

 
Both of these quilts were long arm quilted by Sue Wyard in Santa Fe.  She does beautiful work.  This weekend I am taking this top up to her to quilt.

Then in knitting I have finished quite a few projects.

This one is my favorite.  I love the silk bamboo wool blend yarn and I love the drape of it  and the color

The problem with the previous shawl is that is just wasn't quite big enough.  so I made this one.

This was a mystery knit along.  I was having fun playing with color. 

 

This is another mystery KAL  I was going with the same color scheme but trying better to place the breaks

Pink Stripes

I like pattern on this one but I don't like the shape.

project update

I have done a fair amount of sewing but here is the problem  when you are making a gazillion hexies well 109 hexies and 24 half hexies and all of them get black sashing before sewn together it takes along time.  so I have 9 blocks to finish then I can start the lay out process.  I have been working on some block of the month blocks while I am chain pieces and my pinwheel block swap pieces.

I also finished the binding on two quilts last week.   I finished the first one on monday night.  tuesday morning I throw it in the wash machine.  bebegirls is standing next to me holding her giraffe and she asks if Raffy could take a bath with my quilt.  I agree cause well his fur was getting a bit stiff.  I come back to check the wash machine and there is stuffing floating at the surface.  Thinking oh no, oh no, my quilt, I pull a hand full out and it is polyester.  Raffy split a seam and coated everything in giraffe guts.  I let the wash machine finish.  and  cleaned it out and threw a second quilt I finished the binding on the next day and it too came out covered in polyester fiber fill.  we will be picking it off our clothes for a while.   Raffy came out of reconstructive surgery and is as good as new and back to being carried around.

Sadly I don't have photos yet of either finished quilt cause when I have had time to take the photos we have had storms and gale force winds.  not nearly enough rain to justify the lots of wind, lots more wind, thunder  and power outages.

Chasing goldfish

I haven't been scuba diving really since before I had my bebegirls.  I have been diving once since she was born but taking an infant diving was rough so I havn't dove in 3 years.  This past week I was chatting with one of my friends who was regaling me with stories of his latest dive trip,  so I say to my brother "hey we should go diving"  in that kinda nebulous well some time way.  between my daughter and his twins figured  it would be some time.  he came back to me and said "saturday."  so that is what we did.    This morning we got up and headed out to Blue Hole.  It really is just a big hole in the groups feed by a spring, but it is the closest diving spot to us.  there isn't a whole lot in the big hole in the ground, 80 feet deep water, some cray fish that will attack you and some gold fish.  we did two dives.  the first one was kinda rough getting my feet wet again so to say.  I had a totally panic attack between 10 feet and 25ft of water.  once I remembered how to breathe it was all good.  the second dive was totally awesome.  went to the bottom didn't see any crayfish then circled the way to the top chasing gold fish and koi.  I think we are going to go again in two weeks.

here is some crazy hair for you.

now to go get some quilting done.

quilty afternoon

DH works Sunday afternoons so the bebekins and I have the house to ourselves.  Today we went swimming and got about 5 minutes worth of rain while we were in the pool and 10 minutes later there was no evidence of rain.  It is a start but really we need a slow drizzle for several days.  Enough for it to soak in and not just run off into the river.

I have no idea if I have talked about this before so if I have pardon me.  DH has this incredible anti sewing machine mojo.  all he has to do is walk into a room and my machine, his friends machines, his moms machines, the machines he was learning on in home ec in school, they just act up and break.  I will be sewing along and he will come home and I will have 2 seams left to do and I will think to my self I will finish these seams and be at a good stopping point.  and those two seams will take forever cause the thread will all of a sudden break and after re threading, I will discover a loose thread has jammed something in the bobbin case.  then something else will happen and instead of taking 5 minutes to wrap up I am putting my machine back together 45 minutes later after I have fixed it.  Heaven forbid what would actually happen if he actually tried to use my machine.  I would make him use the 30 year old kenmore that is built like a tank, but even that one acts up when he is in the room.  he is for sure not allowed to touch my good machine.  well the whole point of this story is I can only sew when DH is not home.  I like quiet afternoons like today when he is at work and the bebegirls and I can set up the machine in my studio aka the living room and get some sewing done.  I have graduated from the dinning room table to a folding sewing table.

Today I assembled 4 of the rosettes for my catan quilt and got half of the sashing on the pieces for the other 2 rosettes.  I am still waiting for the tree and lake fabric to come in.  The rosettes are pretty spectacular.  here are the blue 1001 peeps rosette and the green castle peeps rosette

Then I leave you with this.  Bebegirls wanted to nap and she was wondering around trying places. She tried her bed, mommy's bed and then the couch and then the floor next to the couch.  I came back from getting her a glass of water from the kitchen and she is asleep in the glider.  Well half in the glider.  You would think the couch would be way more comfortable

progress

Got some progress made on the hexagons this weekend

more of hexy thoughts

These are the low low tech way of laying things out and then poorly photographed with my cell phone.  mostly cause my computer is cranking away running ground water models and there isn't much you can do while it computes and seriously it can be mind numbing watching the model run.  I guess it comes down to do I want a square quilt or a hexagonal quilt.  I played with the fabric last night and basically decided a modified hexagon park is pattern I am going to go with for this quilt, with black sashing.  I think there will be cutting on the project tonnight