I'm so glad the 4th of July weekend is over. It was a little crazy here. The campground was full and the lake area was filled with people for four days. On top of all that, the WiFi was so slow that nothing would load. Oh no!....no internet!....withdrawals....
Everything is back to normal once again. Dan and I decided it was time to go for a walk along the river walk in downtown Hot Springs. I love the medieval designed buildings carved from sandstone. There are several so I will start with The Evans - a hotel turned into a home for the elderly.
Isn't it magnificent? It looks like a wonderful place to live.
We have seen this one resident out walking her dog (small spot in grass) on the river walk two different times. We stopped to say hello and to greet her cute companion. She talked about living in The Evans and she is quite happy with her home in the old building. It sounds like they keep the building up-to-date.
I'm not sure what this building is. It looks like a castle on the hill from the main street.
I know these photos are not as exciting as the buffalo, but a person can only take so many pictures of the big beasts standing around while chewing on grass. I'm sure I will take more photos of them before we leave here.
On The Cutting Board
I put my embroidered quilt "Sweet Dreams" on hold due to needing extra floor space to make a wider backing. I could have bought the 108" wide fabric, but I could not find a single bolt of fabric that came close to matching the top. And to tell you the truth, I really wanted to use the sage green polka dots for the backing. When I was with Project Linus in Albuquerque, a friend told me about John Flynn's diagonally cutting 42" wide fabric to make the backing wider. Because I don't have the space, I haven't done this technique in a long time. I am happy to say John still has this technique online with a Diagonal Backing calculator.
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| diagonal cut done |
If we were staying at an Escapee's RV park, it would not have been a problem. They always have a nice community center with lots of open space, but it might be another year before we stay with them again. I did not want to wait that long to finish this quilt, so I have been looking around as we traveled with no luck. I finally gave up looking for a building with a large enough floor space for me to lay out my fabric.
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| time to make it wider by pulling one side down |
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| Ta-da! Sage green backing is now wide enough for my top |
Finally! Layered and pinning - done! Now, to find time to get out the sewing machine. I still need to make the binding too. I can tell you one thing....it'll be a looooong time before I do another quilt with a width that is larger than 40 inches!
Happy Quilting!
Such a great idea to do the backing that way. I guess you need a lot of fabric if you wanted to make it around 60 inches, right? What size was your top? I am in desperate need of a community center as I have a 100"+ square quilt to baste. No floor space for it in our apartment.
ReplyDeleteThose buildings look pretty cool from the outside, I can tell you that. The Evans reminds me of a fort or castle :)
Where there is a will, there is a way ... or so it is said. Lack of space is a challenge I understand well.
ReplyDeleteAnd, how nice the elderly residents are allowed to keep pets. Even with Japan's aging population, the statistics that show the benefit of pets, the fact there are more dogs than children in our ward, they still do not allow dogs, on leash even, into the parks. I suspect the number of feral cats in the area are due in part to the fact that apartments don't allow pets either.
(in fact, a friend's co-op apartment doesn't even allow residents to have a bird feeder outside the window.
What an elegant hotel/nursing home. I like your colorful quilt.
ReplyDelete