Fig and Plum, again

I bought a Jelly Roll and a Layer Cake of Moda's Fig and Plum on sale (deeply discounted!), added 1/2 yard of a neutral from my stash, and have made two small quilts (42" square) with 30 Layer Cake squares left over! Now that's economy! The bindings, batting and backings will come out of my stash, too. The remaining Layer Cake squares will make 30 4" pinwheel blocks for a Project Linus quilt.

Oh, by the way - that little pieced border fought me like a tiger. Funny since the inner neutral border measured out exactly as designed, and I tried sooooo hard to be accurate on my seams in the outer pieced border. Well, I was adjusting all over the place to make the two come together. The pieced border on the other Fig and Plum quilt went together like a dream. Go figure.

Carefully inspected to ensure your satisfaction

This quilt just came back from the longarmer. I took it out of the bag and dropped it on my reading chair in the den. The furry inspector was on the job in an instant, carefully examining each stitch to assure that it was a quality job.

Design wall - done

I finished my design wall this morning and other than being a little cumbersome to work on, it went together surprisingly well. I began by gluing two 40"x60" sheets of 1/4" thick foamcore together with Gorilla Glue, then taped the edges together with white duct tape. Then I used spray baste to position a crib size cotton batting layer (for pin-ability without puff). After it was smoothed out, I turned over the board and taped the edges on the back with more of the white duct tape. I had though of using hot glue to attach the flannel, but the tape was sticking so well that I used it to wrap the board and tape down the edges on the back. A few more reinforcing strips at the corners and voila!
After I photographed it, I realized a picture of a big white rectangle was not exactly spellbinding, so here it is holding my latest small quilt:

Autumn in the southeast

Fall has finally made its way to the southeast, and the leaves are beginning to turn. The small maple tree in my front yard is first, with its gorgeous display of yellow and orange... although part of the leaves haven't decided to commit yet and remain green.
The nandina...

...and the pyrocanthus have burst forth with red berries, adding a bright splash around the house. Even the dogwood trees are turning a rusty red.

My neighbors' trees have begun a spectacular show...

although some have yet to chime in.

Up the hill there is a brilliant scarlet bush, contrasting with the yellow-green of the evergreens behind it.

Time to make the house as colorful as the world around it!

Blame the chipmunks again

We lost our DSL connection suddenly yesterday morning. After my husband did all the troubleshooting he could, he spent 1 1/2 hours on the phone with the tech support people to no avail. When they pinged us the signal wasn't getting through. So, this morning AT&T sent a technician to the house. He didn't find anything wrong at the telephone connection box outside the house or the inside connections to the computer, so he went under the house to follow the wire from the jack to the outside box. Well, this is what he found:

Yes, those are teeth marks.

Design wall, part 2

Well, no can do the 4' x 4' design wall. A 48" wide piece of goods won't fit in my Subaru. So I checked what Hobby Lobby had, and found 40" x 60" foamcore board. It's only 1/4" thick, so I bought two sheets to glue together for rigidity. A piece of thin cotton batting so I can pin to the surface and two yards of white flannel (both on sale!) and I will have a portable design board I can store under the guest room bed. A bigger surface would have been better, but I'm going with what I can transport and store. After a little housecleaning in the morning and a drive to recharge the battery of the car parked in the driveway (it ran down again, rats) and I'll get started on gluing it together. The plan is to stick the two pieces of foamcore together with Gorilla Glue (love that stuff), tape the edges for smoothness, attach the thin batting with spray mount, and lap the flannel around the edge and glue to the back with hot glue. I have a scrap piece of muslin to cover the back for neatness.

This will be so lightweight that if I finally make a sewing area in the guest room (I can dream, can't I?) I can hang it with picture hooks.

Has anybody else made a design wall? How did you do it?

Tell Santa to bring me a design wall for Christmas

I've been using the horizontal design board, aka the guest room bed, to lay out this little beauty. My lower back is screaming; I'm too old for this. I really need a design wall but I have nowhere to put it. Even a piece of 4' x 4' foam core covered with fleece would do. I could store it under the bed, which is far better use for it than as a design wall. That needs to be my next project.

Excuse me, I need to go lie down. Ouch!