Turquoise Jewel

I finally finished up Lara's quilt - Turquoise Jewel. Lara chose the fabrics about 3-4 years ago for this queen size quilt, but didn't have a queen size bed!  She's moving in to her apartment this week and will now have that bed. Timing is everything.

This quilt was made from a Kaffe Fassett pattern, machine pieced and quilted on my HQ16. I've included a close up of the quilting, and also wanted to show the pretty back. It could be a reversible quilt!

The Garden House

Our wonderful Garden House has been built. Of course it still needs some painting and quite a bit of landscaping but all in good time. I'm storing garden tools in there now,and  it's so convenient. I'm looking for a great work table and some shelving and we'll be in business. It is very light and airy inside with the high center roof constructed of clear polycarbonate and the lower roofs are done with a "rusting" corrugate metal, huge windows and french doors.

Our Fantasy Building

We purchase 2 sets of windows and a set of french doors from various salvage yards in the are to be used in our new garden house. The garden house will be a 10 x 20 ft building divided into three parts and built for fun and fancy. In other words it is not strictly utilitarian and hopefully will be an enjoyable place to pot plants, quilt, or read. One end will house the garbage/recycle and lawnmower, a central portion will be a potting area with a sink, garden tools, seed packets etc. You get the idea. And then a general purpose room.

We decided to use recycled windows and doors to add to the charm of the building. We did find some good ones, with almost a cottage appeal but the paint was horrid and peeling, and it was certainly a labor of love.

Fall is here! Time to sew

With a change in weather comes a change in activities. I look forward each Fall to some time indoors with the sewing machines, fabric, and occasional craft project. I have a long list of things I'd like to finish, which I always feel pressure to complete before beginning something new. This year Lara is here and also eager to create. Soon I'm hoping to begin a craft day with my girls where we can share and try new ideas, or just hang out and sew together. My sewing room has yet to be "organized", but what the heck. Maybe it's time to dive in and just use it, organization can be done on the fly.
Last week I dug out my sewing machine, the serger and uncovered the quilting machine. Now we've used the serger and I've loaded a practice top on the quilting machine to test the tensions and threads, and practice a bit. Learning to quilt on a home longarm machine is not an easy task! It does require practice, and patience, and trying lots of different things to find the best method to proceed. I like it to opening tubes of acrylic paint and expecting to paint a masterpiece first try. Not going to happen! But I'm committed to learning this, a little bit at a time!

Fantasy Buildings

The house is done with it's remodeling and now it's time to finish the garden house! I've been exploring sites to get further ideas on how to create this fun building. I'd like to use recycled materials for as much as possible to give it a unique style. Here's a unique outhouse we found while out sailing. Some people are so clever! I guess I'll start my search with old windows and doors, but some nautical theme items would be good too.

Spring Again

It's spring again, about the same time I started this blog a year ago. What a year it has been. I took a long break shortly after our remodel began, just couldn't keep up with everything. We are in the home stretch now though. I'm looking forward to spring, the new gardens, the new baby cows and lambs that I see in the pastures, the sunshine, and the smell of the fresh mown lawn everywhere. I'm attaching a picture of the eggs I picked up at our local farm. I love the different colors!

Fall is in the Air

Fall is definitely here bringing the shorter days, cooler nights and wrapping up the summer garden harvest. Our remodel has begun, note the lovely sanican in the background. And we can turn our attention back to winter things like sewing and blogging. I am anxious to attend the local QuiltFest in two weeks... I have managed to miss all the summer quilt shows in the area this year. I plan to pack up my sewing machine and a few small projects that I can do in the next 6 months while most of my sewing area is packed up... again. Maybe knowing that there are only 2 or 3 projects available will help me focus! Now, stop laughing!