I thought Spring was here

We've been seeing buds on the trees & the Japanese bush honeysuckle is starting to turn green, but...

Just a little snow.

Another Baggo sCraps challenge

Heres what I got-all smallish pieces & I wanted to do applique, so I added solid black & gray. Finished piece 39" X 32". I started with a background piece that I thought was big enough that I'd end up cutting it down, but I didn't need to. My first plan was to make a basket of flowers. I made the basket using all the black background stripe & decided that it wasn't big enough, so my next thought was "OK, put fruit in the basket & make a vase for the flowers. There was a white piece of velour with a bit of a shimmer. I only trimmed the selvege off & the shape looked like a vase. I then added leaves & flowers. I used 0000 Nymo (hair fine) to machine baste all applique pieces. I then quilted around the pieces with the long arm. Finally, I satin stitched around each applique piece. I used gold piping as an edge.

close up.

KFC style hot wings

I decided to try to make hot wings like KFC. This is my variation:

In large bowl mix about 1/3c Lawry's Louisiana red pepper marinade with your choice of hot sauce-(taste it it should be a little hotter than you want your wings) add 2 cloves crushed garlic & salt &black pepper to taste. Add 2 pounds of wings-you should have just enough marinade to coat the wings. Refrigerate for 1/2-1 hour. Shake wings in a bag of flour 5 or 6 at a time. Fry until golden brown. I usually fry it in 2 batches, keeping the first batch hot on arack over a cookie sheet in the oven.

kitty snails trails quilt

I'm going to get a new great niece/nephew in a couple of months. I made a variation of the snails trails block for the front of his/her baby quilt. I know that the quilt police say that solid fabrics make boring quilts, but to that, I say "pbbbbbbbbt" The stripe fabric has so much going on that it DEMANDS solids. The solid colors are chintz "mill rags". Of course I used my Innova long arm to quilt it. Start to finish-10 days which included 3 days when I was too sick to sew. (A bug that's been going around-I'm over it now.) Batted with Thinsulate, of course.
Detail pic. Of course it has kitties.

Back of the quilt-inspiration? I cut 4 triangles of the stripe for the front & then decided that they were too big, so.. in order not to waste them, they decided the back design.

I just finished 2 more quilts

I've been busy finishing quilts. First we have a quilt that I made for Charlie from "luxury" wool suiting samples. some are part cashmere, or mink & there are a couple of camel hairs. Pieced on both sides & batted with Thinsulate. A "utility" quilt made with luxurious fabrics- I love the contradictions. first the back: Then the front:

This is a Snails trails quilt that I made for my grandson, Logan from mostly recycled denim. I enjoyed the pattern so much that I'm working on a baby quilt for a coming great niece/nephew in the same pattern. It was fun to add the pockets, but working with the recycled denim is a bit of a pain.

Our herd of deer, come & gone again

Oh look. Is this a playground after recess?... No, its our backyard after the herd has been through. We've seen as many as 10 deer at a time. We put out corn, bread & an occasional apple.

Tracks in snow are difficultto photograph, but here's one.

ABM Innova longarm quilting machine & triangles quilt

Here I am, working on my new machine. I decided to just make some quilted yardage for my first project, as I have never worked with a longarm before. I'm making insulated grocery bags with the yardage.

It's tons of fun. A whole new craft. I need more practice-It's a good thing that I have 8 tops waiting to be quilted.
Ashley had a few tips to give me. She's fascinated, but wants to be on top of the quilt while I'm working-not a good idea!

After the one practice piece, I decided to do a quilt. This is my cuddle up on the couch quilt -70" X 72".

Close up.

Another closeup.


Back view.

Closeup of back.

Fiber pirates baggo 2008

I belong to a Yahoo group known as Fiber Pirates. We had a Baggo challenge. For those who aren't familiar with baggo's, the rules are as follows: You fill a gallon zip lock bag with an assortment of fabrics, trims, embellishments, etc that you would like in a quilt & mail it to a coordinator. The coordinator sends you back one from someone else, you make a quilt using as much as you want from the baggo, adding to it if necessary, post pictures & when the sender of the baggo claims it, you send them the finished piece. It's a great way to get someone else's artwork made with fabrics that you love. Here's what I started out with: I started out by making 3 pieced rings & then I realized that one of them didn't go with the others, so I decided to make 2 quilts. I named the first one "Red star & Planets".

Ashley helped me to quilt the second one. She loves the BSR on my Bernina. Take note of her perfect control of the quilt! Machine quilting can be exhausting!
After it was quilted, I added embellishments by hand. I love to work outside at our camp.

Here's the second quilt. Charlie came up with the name-"A Galaxy Far Far Away." Here's a closeup of one of the pieced stars:
Now I get to see who to send them to.

A deer & bears

I changed the angle of the camera & got lucky. 3 very good pictures in this download

Look at what we just got

A new 2007 leftover Jeep Patriot. What did we trade in? Nothing. We wanted to keep both the Hummer & the Dodge Ram. I just decided that we needed a "bring home the groceries" runaround vehicle that would use a bit less gas. The Jeep has a 2.4 liter 4 cylinder engine. It's a 4x4 of course. I've never had a Jeep before. The color is called "light khaki metallic" It seems to change from silver to gold depending on the lighting.
No, I'm not afraid to get my new Jeep dirty. We hauled a few logs. The back cargo area is not carpeted, but has a vinyl nonslip surface-a detail that I heartily approve of.