I can pretend can’t I?

I have another quilt finished.  This one was a big quilt.  I get a lot of the really big quilts.

The customer brought me the book containing the pattern for this quilt.  She asked if I could quilt her’s like the one in the book.  Yes, I can do that.  The original one, the one in the book, is quilted in an all over large meander with four large feathers  placed in the centers of the light areas.  I can’t show a photo of the book or the quilt in that book because of copyright issues.  The book is called Anka’s Treasures by Heather Mulder Peterson.  This lady did a very nice job of making her quilt from the pattern.  It’s almost a twin to the original.

I see lots and lots of quilts in books and magazines done with large meandering.  I believe it’s done so the maker can quickly meet a deadline.  Geeze, somebody needs better planning skills.  Hmm…. For this quilt I decided to pretend I had been chosen as the machine quilter of the original quilt.  My customer will get custom quilting for the meander price and I get to pretend my work is going to be in a magazine like in the past.  Yes, my quilting has been in a few magazines.  Long ago.

So, hmm, if I’m the quilter and I know this quilt will be put into a book, how would I want to quilt it?  It needs a really nice border design that won’t distract from the center piecing area.  Something that would make a judge take a closer look because she/he can’t quite make it out from a distance.  How about this one?  It has curves and curls to balance the angular parts of the center.  The thread is just light enough to show there is something there and then you want to have a closer look to see what it is.  So go ahead and click the photo for a closer look.

Ok, that turned out pretty nice, what about the inside borders?  I already know I plan to do a simple outline of the log cabin blocks so maybe I should echo that idea?  Yes, I think that would work for both the dark and the light small borders.  How about a leafy design on the pieced border?  Um, maybe you will see it as pacing lines but I see a leaf.  Half on the yellow and half on the red.

How about a look at the log cabin blocks?  I did an outline of the dark side of the cabins.  Oops!  In a photo the overlap of my stitching really shows.  If this were going into a real book I would not overlap.  I would tie and bury the thread.  Believe me, it shows up way more in a photo than it does in life.

I decided to change the large feathers that were done on the original to large flowers instead.  Those were really nice feathers but I thought more flowers would be more appropriate for this quilt.  Flowers to go with flowers.  I did do the large meandering in the background around the applique and in the light area of the cabins.  I did it because that’s what the customer is expecting to see.   Everything else will just be a surprise.

But; if this were going into a real book instead of a pretend one, I would probably go with a flower type of meander.  Similar to what I did on another customer’s quilt.  See the flower and leaf design in the background of this other quilt?

I don’t know what happened to the photos of the center area.  I didn’t do anything different there.  Flower instead of a feather.  Yes, before you ask, I did have the customer’s permission to change the quilting design.  The customer picked it up yesterday and was very happy with it.  She also brought me a gift.  Someone she knows is not canning as much and sent me these 9 dozen jars.

I don’t know which of us was more thrilled.  Her about getting custom quilting instead of large meandering or me about getting free jars.   I will keep one dozen and give the rest to the other neighborhood ladies.  Each will get four dozen plus new lids and rings that were given to me too.

It’s time to put another quilt onto the machine and I have a bunch of cherries to get picked.  Whew!  I need to clone myself a few times.  Now just where did I put my 3d copier?  Oh, I forgot, I don’t own one.  Guess I’ll just have to do everything myself.

They walk among us

IDIOT SIGHTING

I handed the teller at my bank a withdrawal slip for $400.  I said “May I have large bills please.”  She looked at me and said, “I’m sorry ma’am, all the bills are the same size.”  DUH!

IDIOT SIGHTING

When I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up my car I was told the keys had been accidently locked in it.  I went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver side door.  As I watched from the passenger side I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered it unlocked.  Hey it’s open! I announced to the technician.  He replied to me, yeah, I know.  I already got that side.  DUH!

IDIOT SIGHTING

I had to have the garage door opener repaired.  The repairman told me one of my problems was that I did not have a large enough motor on the opener.  I thought for a minute and said that I had the largest one made by that company at the time I bought it.   A 1/2 horsepower.  He shook his head and said, “Lady you need a 1/4 horsepower motor.”  I replied back, ” But 1/2 is bigger than 1/4.”  He said, “NO lady, it’s not.  Four is larger than two.”  DUH!

I haven’t called that repair company since.

IDIOT SIGHTING

Not long ago I went through a fast food take-out window and gave the clerk a $5 bill.  My total was $4.25 so I also handed her a quarter.  She said, “You gave me too much money.”  I replied, “Yes, I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.”   She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request.  I did but he handed me back the quarter and then said, “We’re sorry but we can’t do that kind of thing.”  DUH!  Then the clerk proceeded to give me back $1.75 in change.  DUH!

Warning:  Do not confuse the clerks in a drive through.

IDIOT SIGHTING

My daughter went to a local Taco restraunt and ordered tacos.  She asked the person behind the counter for “minimal lettuce”.  He replied, “I’m sorry but we only have iceberg lettuce.”  DUH!

IDIOT SIGHTING

Not long ago, I was at the airport helping my teenage grandson get checked in for his flight home to Alaska.  An airport employee asked us, “Has anyone put anything in your luggage without your knowledge?”  To which I replied, “If it was without our knowledge, how would we know?”  DUH!

He smiled knowingly and nodded.  ”That’s why we ask.”

IDIOT SIGHTING

I was chauffeuring a neighbor shopping when we happened to stop at a red light where we could hear a buzzer coming from the crosswalk.  She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for?  I explained that the signal was to let blind people know when the light is red.  Appalled, she responded, “What on earth are blind people doing driving?”  DUH!

IDIOT SIGHTING

At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear co-worker who was leaving the company due to downsizing.  Our manager stood up and commented cheerfully, “This is fun.  We should do this more often.”  DUH!  Not another word was spoken.  We all just looked at each other with that deer in the headlights stare.

That was a lunch at Texas Instruments.

IDIOT SIGHTING

I explained to a neighbor how using a power strip could save money on the electric bill so he went and bought one for himself.  He brought it home, plugged his appliances into it, then proceeded to plug it back into itself.  He complained to me that he couldn’t, for the sake of his life,  figure out why his system would not turn on when he flipped the switch.  DUH!

He works at the utility company.

IDIOT SIGHTING

How would you pronounce this child’s name?  Le-a

Leah?? NO

Lee A?? NOPE

Laya?? NO

Lei?? Guess Again.  This child’s mother was irate because everyone at the school is getting her name wrong.  It’s pronounced “Ledasha” .  When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said, ”the dash don’t be silent.”   DUH!

SO, if you see something come across your desk like this please remember  to pronounce the dash.  If dey axe you why, tell dem de dash don’t be silent.

I have been having so many Senior DUH! moments that I thought those example would point out young people have them too.  What’s even worse than they walk among us?  They are reproducing young-uns just like em.  DUH!

An issue quilt fixed

A new customer had picked out all the stitching on the outside border of this quilt because she was unhappy with the work done by her regular machine quilter.  She was asking me to re-quilt the outside border so that there isn’t any extra fullness.

Yeah, “we can quilt that out” can’t we?  (from a song about machine quilting by Cathy Miller.)  Well ok, over the years I’ve figured out how to correct a number of problems I call “issue quilts” so that the problem almost disappears.  Quilting out extra fullness on quilt borders is one of those issues.

Here is the quilt before I attach it to the leaders.  I have it laying on the intake table.   The quilt has been washed so there’s some shrinkage from that too which adds to the extra fullness.

Here the quilt is on the machine.  Only the backing is attached to the leaders.  The border is floating so that I can manipulate it if needed.  The border will loose some of it’s width after the quilting is finished because of how it must be attached to the leaders.  This will be ok because the backing and the border didn’t match up anyway.

Here’s a view of one area on this border before I start the quilting.

Now here’s the same area after I’ve quilted it.  Don’t be fooled by the thread lines across the applique.  I did not stitch over those.  Those are traveling threads.  What?  What I mean is that I stop stitching at the applique edge, “travel” to the other side, and started stitching again.  I’ll do a stitch in the ditch around the applique after I’ve corrected the extra fullness.  Then I’ll go back to clip all the traveling threads.

Here’s another area before the quilting.

Now here is the after picture.  There are some wrinkles in the fabric that look like quilting lines but they aren’t.

I did the piano key quilting freehand and without measuring the spacing.  I put a line where the quilt told me it needed a line but kept it consistent looking.  Our eyes have a way of correcting and seeing what it wants to see.  I quilted as close as I could to the leader without catching the leader in the stitching.

And now here is the quilt finished, trimmed, and ready for a new binding.  The extra fullness is still there, just not quite as noticeable.

The customer really wanted a nice feather design put back on this border but it wouldn’t have worked as well as the piano key quilting.  A feather design is what the customer had picked out because she was unhappy.  I didn’t see the quilt before the customer had picked out all the stitching done by the previous machine quilter.  The customer told me there were several tucks in the border that she knew would keep her from winning a ribbon in a contest.  That’s why she wanted it re-quilted.  So it would be good enough to win a ribbon.  Okee, Dokee, then.  I didn’t know this before I did any re-quilting.  She should have told me.  We will see if it wins.

Did I do a good job?  Would you be happy if you were the customer?

A finished quilt

I have another quilt finished.   A very nice lap size quilt.

I did an arc and cross hatching on the border.  I filled in the arc with simple back and forth lines that I call pacing lines.  I like the effect it gives of raising the arc a little.

I did a type of spiral in the background behind the trees.  I thought it needed something different because the colors just seemed to say “modern” to me.  I did line dancing (continuous curve) on the tree top and pacing lines (back/forth lines) on the trunk.  I did little leaves on the tree part too.  In the light color triangles.

Here is a closer view of the tree trunk and background.

I stitched in the ditch around all the applique then did a meander with leaf and flower on the background behind the applique.

Here’s another view of the applique background.

Here’s a look at the back of this quilt.  The stitching doesn’t show up very well in a photo.  Maybe if you click to enlarge it will be better?

Now that it’s finished it will be sent on it’s way back to SC.  I’m hoping the owner likes the way I quilted  it.  Hmm…. I think I hear another quilt calling me.  Nope, it’s the mixer in the kitchen calling me.  I need to make butter today because we got heavy whipping cream from the mobile food bank.

Umm I killed it

In a poverty area, like where I live, there is often a problem with rats or mice.  No matter how clean a house is kept the mice and rats will come exploring.  We have too many abandoned houses with food left in them when the occupants move.  We have too many homeless people sleeping in those abandoned houses and they also leave food behind.   Foods left behind cause the rats and mice breed faster.   The houses themselves make great nesting areas.  Especially inside old couches, mattresses, and insulation.

I keep boxes of poison around my house because I simply can’t have those creatures in my house.  Every now and then I check all the boxes to see if there has been any activity and whether a box needs replacing.  Sometimes I find a dead rat or mouse nearby.  This time I had to look twice to be sure I saw what I saw.  I even turned on the lights for a better view.  Aw gee whiz, I killed a dust bunny.   See the fluffy tail instead of a long tail?  That’s how you know the difference.

Dust bunny is dead

I first saw the dead dust bunny in dark shadowed light because the overhead lights hadn’t been turned on yet.  It certainly looks like a mouse doesn’t it?  I even turned it over to check if it was a mouse or a dust bunny and whether he or she was really dead.

Yup, he’s really dead.

Well, I guess that’s one way of getting rid of the dust bunnies.  They tend to breed faster than the rats and mice in this area.