Another NON quilt related post

Another weekend passed without any quilting but I am going to load one of my UFO's on the longarm before heading out for a hike.

We had a long weekend up at Big Canoe with friends visiting from Florida. Chris also showed up for a couple days which was nice! I got to see both him and Adam in the same week.

Saturday we went for a boat ride on the lake and then on Sunday showed our friends a couple waterfalls in the area. Chesty normally HATES water but he bravely crossed this stream at one of the waterfalls to come to me.

Canoeing

Adam (my youngest son) came to visit for a couple days so we headed for the mountains. This afternoon we went canoeing and had a great time. Keith gets home from California late this afternoon so we have dinner plans overlooking the lake for this evening.

I took my small camera with us and as you can see from the 2nd picture, the one of me, the camera went bad after about a 1/3 of the pictures. I'm so upset because I had some really great pictures. The camera is about 2 years old but probably more expensive to fix than to replace. I guess I'll have to see.

I hate to send this one back

I'm finished quilting Mom's 4 Patch and I wish I didn't have to send this one back to her.

Laurie Ann commented on my color coordination and I can't take too much credit for this one. It's kind of a convoluted story but in a nutshell - Mom had bought a bundle of fabric at Tiny Stitches when she was visiting me, made a quilt top and sent it to me to quilt last year. The woman helping me care for my father-in-law fell in love with that quilt and Mom let me keep the quilt and give it to Emmorgean to thank her for her help in caring for my father-in-law.

So what does that have to do with this quilt? Well, I gave her these fabrics to replace the ones she'd used in the top she gave me. Most of them came in a fat quarter bundle - again bought at Tiny Stitches and I bought the border to coordinate at the same time.

Norma asked how I planned on quilting it - well, the fabrics are pretty busy so I did what I usually do on scrap quilts - I used a pantograph. This one is called Frisky Feathers by Lorien Quilting.

Mom's 4-patch finally loaded

The practice muslin from my bee meeting is finally off the machine. Saturday I did spend some more time practicing some freehand designs and then removed the muslin.

The plan was to load and start Mom's 4 patch top on Sunday after Keith left for California but I was in a lazy mood and decided to read instead.

Finally, this afternoon I loaded and started quilting Mom's top. I love this quilt. It's a larger scrappy version of a 4 patch quilt in the book 40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts. I have strips cut out in greens to make myself a king size version but haven't started piecing mine yet.

This is much better!

After the new carpet

Before the new carpet

Here's a picture I posted in January of the downstairs bedroom in the condo with the new quilts - although we replaced all the carpet in the condo - the improvement was most dramatic downstairs.

No quilting but I do have new carpet

We did get our carpet installed at the condo today which is good news but they took the molding off and there's about a half inch of unpainted wall in all the rooms I had carpeted. Next I'll have to find someone to paint and/or replace molding. Funny how one home improvement project leads to another.

Another day without quilting - by the time I get home Friday it will be two weeks without working on any of the quilts on my to do list. I still have the practice muslin loaded and want to play some more before taking it off and loading one of my Mom's quilts then I'll quilt a couple UFO tops.

*****
Thanks for all the nice comments and emails about Mother's Day. I'm glad both boys are living on their own but now I guess I'll have to get used to not always having them at home for special occasions. Kind of like my Mom had to do when I moved away from Virginia 16 years ago!

I miss my boys!

I'm kind of depressed - I miss my boys and won't see either of them tomorrow on Mother's Day. I am glad they are both living on their own but I miss seeing them.

Bee Meeting

I had my Bee meeting today at my house and everyone had a chance to try the longarm. I enjoyed showing how the machine works and demonstrating different quilting methods - pantographs, freehand quilting, and marking with stencils. It's been a while since I'd loaded any practice muslin so I had fun trying out some new quilting designs after everyone left.

I've been a member of a guild for several years but have started attending a bee meeting in the last 6 months. I'm really enjoying the smaller group.

We're back at Big Canoe for the weekend so these are my *after* pictures with the vinyl floors. Much better than the carpet.

This busy week is almost over

Finished
Mammogram done, bathroom floors installed, guild cut-in for Ronald McDonald quilts attended, helped a friend shop for fabric to make a quilt from blocks her grandmother made.

Still to go
Cleaning my sewing room and the downstairs in preparation for my Bee meeting tomorrow, grocery shopping, piece batting scraps and load practice muslin on the long arm for the Bee meeting, bake a coffee cake.

Bathroom floors finished

The floors are finished. The bathrooms definitely look better than with the carpet but I don't like the molding.

The baseboards in the upstairs bathrooms will need repainting anyway and the wall needs touching up downstairs so I'll hope the trim will look better once that's done. I really need to repaint all three bathrooms but its been a long time since I painted myself rather than having someone do it for me. Not sure I want the hassle of doing it myself.

Well the pictures wouldn't post and I left the disk up at Big Canoe so I'll have to add pictures to this post this weekend.

New floors for the bathrooms

I had to be up at 6:30AM this morning (very early for me) because I had someone coming to install new flooring in my bathrooms at the condo. Right now all three bathrooms have old carpet on the floors - yuck!

Usually I like ceramic tile in bathrooms and kitchens but decided to go with a vinyl flooring that could go over the existing vinyl that is under the carpet. I didn't want to get into a major deal - just get something simple and clean on the floors. Next week all the old carpet will be replaced.

Here are before pictures of the 2 upstairs bathroom floors - the downstairs has the ugly pink carpet too.

Progress

No progress with my quilting but today I got my DSL set up at the condo. I had dial-up but it was so incredibly slow compared to the DSL at home that I decided to splurge and have DSL at both places.

I also set up my printer so now I can upload pictures from my digital camera when I'm here at the condo instead of having to wait until I get home.

I guess both the above show I don't have much patience or maybe just that I'm spoiled.

To test the printer I took and uploaded a picture of the wallhanging my sister Debbie made for me. It's not hung yet but it will be as soon as I buy the rod and get Keith to hang it for me.

Rainy Day

Thanks to a lazy rainy day I finished one of the afghans I brought to the condo to work on. It's a diagonally knit baby afghan from a cotton variegated yarn. Next up is to work on the crocheted shell baby afghan.

I'm still not set up to post pictures from the condo but I'm one step closer. I bought a new printer for the house and brought the old one from home (this one has a card reader built in). I just need to set it up but I'm waiting until I get the DSL hooked up so it won't take so long to download the driver from the HP site.

A busy week ahead

I can't believe it's already Saturday. I had planned to load and start quilting my Mom's 4 patch this week but now it's too late - It will have to wait another week or so. I have a busy week planned and not much time for quilting.

We're at Big Canoe for the weekend and I'll have to stay thru Tuesday when we're having the new flooring put in the bathrooms. Monday I'll have to drive back to Marietta for my mammogram and straight back here - so no time for quilting thru Tuesday.

Wednesday, my guild is having a cut-in for our Ronald McDonald quilts and then I hope to meet a friend for lunch and help her pick out fabric to coordinate with blocks her grandmother made.

Thursday, I have to clean the house, load some practice muslin on the longarm, and shop for some snacks and drinks for Friday.

Friday, I'm having my Bee group over and am going to demonstrate quilting on the longarm and let them all try it.

Then we'll be back at Big Canoe for the weekend.

For now, I've brought a couple afghans I'm working on to keep my hands busy. I'm going to seriously have to think about getting a machine up here to do some piecing but I hate the thought of having to set up a second quilting area. I'd have to store everything in the guest room and set up on the dining room table when I want to sew. I guess I'll stick to handwork and afghans.

Blue Strings top completed

I finally finished the borders on this top tonight. The borders aren't wavy although they do look like they are in the picture - it's just the way the top is hanging from the hooks for the photo. I'm done with blue thank goodness!

While I like this top, I learned that I prefer string quilts in multiple colors and don't think I'll be making another monochromatic one.

Home again

A quiet section of the river beyond the busy Riverwalk area
San Antonio Central Library
Southwest School of Arts and Crafts
Riverwalk during a quiet time of day.

I enjoyed the San Antonio trip but am glad to be home.

Highlights were visiting the Southwest School of Arts and Crafts along Riverwalk, the Riverwalk itself, the library, the Alamo of course, and finding a quiet stretch of the river away from the riverwalk area to walk along.

What I'm reading

It's been a while since I posted the books I've been reading but since I'm still out of town and haven't been working on a quilt I'll post my vacation reading. And yes, I've read all these books since Friday!

A Lady Raised High: A Novel of Anne Boleyn Laurien Gardner
Very good - I enjoy historical fiction.

Alone Lisa Gardner
I enjoyed this mystery and see that she's written a bunch of other ones. I may have read some but I'm going to check them out and will order the ones I haven't read. I'm always looking for new (to me) authors and love it when I find a bunch of books I haven't read yet.

Sullivan's Justice Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
Another mystery, my favorite genre, this one was good - not great but I enjoyed it.

Kill Me Stephen White
One of my favorite authors. Again, this book was good but not great. If you've never read him start with one of his other books.