Binding Adventures

This year our quilt guild didn't have a volunteer to make next years raffle quilt so we (the board) did it.  Actually Lucy our past president did 90% of it as she helped pick the fabric, then did all the cutting and piecing of the top.  Another member quilted it and I put the binding on.  I haven't done a big quilt binding in quite a while. 100" each side.  Mainly because I haven't gotten any quilts finished in the last couple years!  Lots of UFO's stashed around my house.
Well I received the quilted raffle quilt at the last meeting and got it out to trim and sew the binding on.  You know I had immediate help...

What you doing mom?

 I smell interlopers!
Don't worry, I said, they aren't coming to visit.  Dog and Cat at Lucy's house.

 

I was at the joining the binding stage.  Got out my fancy binding tool and for the life of me couldn't figure it out.  Even after watching vid on Utube.  Why do they shoot the video from across the table when its a do this and then flip this way type thing? Everything is backwards from how you have to do it and my dyslexia went nuts.  No way I could make it stick in my brain.  It either came out too long or too short.  I finally gave up and joined it straight like I do welting. Oh well, not strictly correct but its not going in a show. Mittens was not a help in this situation!

Just making sure you are doing it right.

  
Only took me 14 hours to sew on and then do the hand sewing.  Good grief. I was feeling like a totally lame hand sewer until I got to the guild meeting and asked some of the pros we have, and they said yes that was pretty standard for a big quilt, so I wasn't as much of a slacker as I thought I was.

Looks pretty good mom!

 Lounge worthy...

 

I did do some real work in the last few weeks, a fitted silk bedspread that is a remake of one made in 2006. Owner got a new mattress that is bigger.  The original I did myself on my old Bernina, in a much smaller stipple pattern.  Took forever.  I didn't ask what they did with it.  Knowing these people, probably pitched it.  Ouch.  The new one I did in a much larger stipple, took less time.

 

 Note the nice long hard fingernails, was fun to have them, but shortly after this we underwent a hormonal shift and they all got soft and flaked apart like mica.  Sigh.  Really don't want to get into the salon and acrylics route, once you start you have to keep going, but really don't like having no nails to work with either.

Also made some gorgeous silk panels, only got one not good photo as the small room was full of manly men hanging a 17th century french chandelier imported from a palace... Too amazing.  Will take photos on my next trip to the home as I have more projects there. 

Isn't this fabric cool?  Silk from Thailand, its blue on the front and gold on the back

 and shimmers in the light...

The drapes are in a west window and still need some adjusting here, but the only picture I got as between the chandelier men, the drape installer, me and the homeowner there were 7 people mushed in a room meant for 4.  But they looked wonderful.   Banded on 3 sides in a tan silk.

 

Oh and remember all the tree cutting?  Of course they forgot to do the one in the backyard on the wires and naturally it snowed.  Told you.

Thankfully not so much snow that the wires got pulled down... but it was close.  Slacker landlordboy showed up the next morning and hacked them off waist high and left them in the middle of the yard.  They are still there.  Hey, at least I have power, and its not my grass.  Cheers!



Small loss and douldrums

You know you aren't blogging enough when you have to open your own blog and read it to find out where you left off...  Major depression and hibernating tendencies...

I woke up early to the charming sound of chainsaws this week, not to mention the monster of a chipper.  Manly men were doing manly men things outside my house.

My mostly absent landlord decided it was time to prune the trees on his properties (after 8 years) and did a nice job on the smaller ones in the hell strip.  In Denver that's what the band of grass or whatever that is between the curb and the sidewalk is called.  Its required that the homeowner maintain it, but its also governed by the city as the city owns the sidewalk and is required to maintain that.  Whatever.  One more reason to rent.

Anyway, I went out in my slippers to chat with the cute manly men, (some of which were way high in the big tree on the corner), thus the cute butt hugger harness this guy has on.  On my mind was getting this trimmed.

This is the back of our duplex, all the crap is my neighbors... sigh.  The tree is a sucker that really shot up this year and is all tangled in the power and cable wires.  Two things I prefer not get interrupted by a heavy wet snow pulling down the tree and wires.  They said they would add it to the list but didn't get to it by the end of the day, supposedly to be back again.
But they did do this which didn't make me happy.

The front of the house, my blue door on the left, my bedroom window that faces the street and East.

Before.

 

After.

I know its not good for the foundation, but really, the tree had been there for 10-15 years and the foundation was ok, now a big loss of privacy and shade.  Will really suck next summer as the lilac can only do so much.   Mittens kept an eye on the the proceedings.

 

At least I didn't have to rake the yard afterwards...

But its quite bare and exposed feeling.  Hopefully by spring I will be used to it, but I will miss the heat buffer.

 

 



 I also took a quilt class with Lura Swartz Smith, shes an art quilter and very interesting.

This is the project for the class. 

 

Its all pieced, mostly by sewing two bits together and in the case of the grass at the bottom, slashing it with a rotary cutter and sewing another bit on, then cutting and adding more. Learning to sew curves and still have it all flat when you are done.  Not using a pattern and just playing with the colors and shapes.  The block of the 'path' do follow a pattern and we spend a good bit of time learning how to take a regular square block and change the perspective and to create the vanishing point perspective.  Artsy stuff I never learned in school and she made it simple and easy to understand.

It did take me some mind bending to get the effect I wanted in the grass, and some of it didn't really come out the way I expected, but she liked it and I think I'll keep going as I do like the project.

Here its not trimmed or anything, and I wanted a brighter road.  Yellow brick and all that.  It will probably be an age before I get back to it, lots of work in the door and very little motivation to do it.  Really have the fall blues I guess. I keep thinking about getting a small dog, but really not into the getting up on a cold morning to pick up poo, but haven't totally dismissed the idea either.  Oh well, I'll keep thinking about it.  Cheers!

 

Happy to say goodby to the heat

Hopefully so, having a spell of low 70's and it feels great.  We had 72 days of over 90 degrees this summer, broke all the records, much hotter and dryer than normal for Denver.  I won't complain about being cold this fall! 
Color has just barely started in the high country, not here yet and all the trees in the city look a bit sick, its been hard on the plants too.  My garden is pretty much a total mess, even the yarrow died and that stuff is pretty hardy.  Oh well, next year.

However the city garden down the street seemed to handle the heat and no rain pretty well. 

Work has picked up quite a bit but I did fit in a quilt festival.  And later this month I have 3 classes with various groups.  I find that if I don't schedule it I don't get any quilting time in.  Have plans to set up my dining room space for sewing when I'm sick of being in the basement, just haven't gotten to it yet. 
Still pretty sad without Hunter, he was such a pal and interacted with me all day.   I miss him so much.  I'm trying to let it go, but there are still tears at unexpected moments.  He really was a unique individual, quite uncat like.  Mitts has recovered his appetite and basically either sleeps or eats.  He interacts primarily when he wants me to feed him, or comes in the workroom when he wants a treat, then leaves to go sleep.  Just highlights the differences between them and makes me miss Hunter even more. 

He was a help with a project for a friend who does amazing bead work art.  He really was just waiting for me to go back upstairs and feed him.

 

 Very cool, I inset her piece in suede, and made a pillow out of it. 

 A tiny kitty, shes a cat lover too, has 4.  Her work really doesn't show well in photos but its very cool.

 

Well fall is settling in and I have lots of work and little enthusiasum for it.  Its a chore to get moving every day and I wish I had my work ethic and energy of my 30's, I got so much done every day.  Well nothing for it but to get going and do the best I can.  Cheers!

 

Normal or what passes for it.

Been working, made some pretty French Country drapes that I only have a few snaps of, not room to hang here and I didn't get to see the house.  Here is the very top of the drape, the leading edge has this pretty flat ruffled detail down the edge.

 Then I made a large valance that went on boards with velco, here its just pinned to the worktable.  The faces of the flower sections are free motion quilted with a double layer of batting in it. The sections between are the stripe of the ruffle, and after these pictures I tacked the pleats together so they are not sticking out as in the picture.

The hems was curved which was a pita to do but I hope I get to see it up in the house, designer said it looked wonderful.

Cute little reversible tiebacks for the draperies...

Remember the epic fail of the tulle valance? This was with 16 yards...

Redone with a total of 44 yards, and boy that took a long time to sew that rod pocket!  The hem looks all uneven as its sticking out in the room like a ball gown.  You can still see through it, I would have preferred to line it with something...  what can you do. Client happy so all good there.

 Then I got to make a slipcover for a ridiculously expensive bean bag chair thing out of fancy fake fur. Really felt like mink but this was EVERYWHERE in my workroom.  Took me an hour of vacuuming the tables to get it off not to mention the serger, floor, clothes and me.  I never know what I'm going to be asked to make, sometimes its a stretch! 

Mittens and I had 4 days alone after Hunter got put down to get used to the quiet and him being gone before I did 2 weeks of house/pet sitting for my sister.  He has been very clingy and wants to be on me or with me much more than he used to before his brother was gone.

 As I had a bunch of work deadlines and didn't want to leave him alone I brought the wolf to visit alot.  As long as there was a ball, Max was happy even though he didn't fit very well in my small house.

 In typical cat fashion, Mitts made short work of claiming the dog bed and putting the wolf in his place!  But he was stressed with him here, wouldn't eat for most of the 2 weeks, even though there wasn't any hissing unless Max got too close.  Max couldn't care less, totally non interested in the cat, or his two at home.  Such a sweet dog.  I got some much needed excersise taking him for walks in the neighborhood too.

 And Mitts is a much more stubborn personality than Hunter was, here he just wouldn't get down when I needed to type, so I just put the keyboard on top of him and worked for a while that way. He even didn't move when I got up to get the camera.  He was quite comfortable!

Now the dog is home and we are settling into the new normal, he sleeps with me all night, (didn't use to) and is so much quieter than Hunter was.  Its a big change.  Maybe some new kittens in the future, don't want to add another stress for a good while.  And in one way its nice to only have one to care for.
Its finally cooling off here, thank goodness, so done with the heat.  Bring on fall!



After a short intermission... ok a long one.

Poor blog has been sadly neglected between boring life and unhappinesses.

Work has picked up a bit and I've put most of my energy into that each day.  I only seem to have so much and then I want to go sit and read a book or make a puzzle on the computer.  Anything kind of mindless.  Biggest thing in the last month is Hunter finally reached the point where his health issues were making his day painful and stressful for both of us.  The week before his appointment was really hard, I couldn’t focus on anything like work, just wanted to be with him.  I kept having the thoughts of this is the last time he will play in the fabric, or the last time he will cuddle on my chest, or the last time the two line up like bookends which they did from kitten hood 15 years ago.

(what slobs... )

I know he was only a cat but without real children or a partner, he was the main love in my life.  Putting him down was horrendous and I'm working hard at not thinking about it.  His loss just reflects all the other losses in my life so my grief is a bit out of proportion.  But the house is so quiet without him, he was so much more interactive with me than any other cat I've had and Mittens is a lot less so.  But he misses his brother, wandering around calling, then coming to climb on me whenever I start crying.  Ill get over it but its really painful at the moment.

 naughty boy playing in the fabric.

Keeping an eye on me in the workroom...

I also ignored the blog because it was so bloody hot here, no going out, no gardening, too hot to even grocery shop unless I went late at night.  15 days straight of over 100 and all the days around that 98, which really doesn’t feel all that different, just as oven like.  The trade off for the oppressive humidity most of the country has, (which I grew up in and detest) is the power of the sun.  At a mile high elevation in July it’s a force to be reckoned with, being in it directly is painful, no wonder we have the highest level of skin cancer in the country.  So all that staying in was rather boring and I couldn’t think of anything of interest to post.

I did do some quilting stuff, mid June was our guild bi-annual show.  I helped for the 4 days and that kept me busy.  Here’s a few pics of the quilts from that. We have some talented people in our guild.  I never got around to finishing the 3 tops I made last year, so maybe I’ll get something done for it in 2014.  I'm a slacker for sure.  I also went to another show which was great with a girlfriend, was fun to have some gal time and I'll put some pics up of that later.

 Best in Show has really great quilting which doesnt show in the photo...

 Liked this one...

My friend Regina, won Peoples Choice

 The Olympics start this week, Ill be glued to the TV, and very cool that this year they will be streaming live all the events online.  So it’s a good thing I like to stay up till 4am, I’ll finally get to see more than a hours’ worth of the Equestrian events.  Then housesitting in the mountains for 2 weeks, not sure what I'm going to do with Mitts, maybe take him with me?  I will have to go back and forth as I have work to do even though I tried to clear the calendar.  It’s a 50 mile round trip so I try to not drive every day.  Can’t turn down work when it shows up even when it is inconvenient.  Business is better but not hugely so, so my preferences have to take a back seat.  Pretty normal for being self-employed.  Well that’s it for the moment, have to get back to some drapes and a quilted valance.  Thanks for sticking with me, I’ll try to be better at being consistent, its what I like about the blogs I read… dugh.

Production

Been back to back projects, here are a few.These 2 story drapes were silk and lining so not too heavy even though 225" long.  So here going up the table, accross, down the other side to the floor and back up to the ceiling. Folding was a trip!

 They were pleated to the stripe, once hung all the little wrinkles will come out...

 and here in the clients home.  So tall, the camera could'nt get the whole thing!

 

The next big project has been nearly 2 years in the making as the client couldn't find the perfect fabric.

These were also tall, 118" but were 5 widths wide!  That's 54" x 5 = almost too heavy to pick up!

These were a beast to haul around the workroom, actually weighed about 40 lbs each panel.

After all the prep and fussing, the $2000. motorized rod didn't work.  OMG.  At least the drapes were good. 

Then on the other end of the scale we have a kids room valance, light and fast.  This one was cute...

but see the small window? There are a pair of those and the room looked stupid without small valances over those windows too.  The mom first said yes to doing them, and then canceled.  Some people really have no sense of aesthetics.  The designer just rolled her eyes.  What can you do.

 The valance for the other kid was an epic fail.  They were thinking ball skirt poofy, but when you put a dark color behind a really thin light tissue tulle you get lame valance.   We were going to find a cute pink and line it, but now just going to quadruple the fullness and add more tulle.  Will still look kinda lame but again you can't make people do good design.  Sigh.  Would have been really cute otherwise.

Oh and this job? I put on my installer hat and hauled this big ass onto a ladder and hung the hardware myself.  We don't need no stink'in men!

Next job is another tall one, (seem to do types in groups...) an angled top that's 190". 

Oh and I finally got a breather and a Groupon...

Hair today ...

and gone tomorrow!

Later this week is our quilt guild bi-annual show, Ill be there a lot so will have pics of that next week.  Haven't touched my quilting for over a month, boring...  but not a lot of work pending, need to get some but hopefully can do without the crazy schedule.  Back to work!