Done and Done (Clermont, FL)

Since returning to the RV park in Clermont, we have been watching hot air balloons fly by every morning.  Sometimes they were close enough for us to hear people talking and the roar of the burners.  Most of the time, they were off in the distance.

Yesterday was quite a bit different.  The balloons were east of us and rapidly descending into our park.

It made for an exciting walk for us.  Usually the campground is quiet in the early mornings.  Only a few people are out enjoying the cooler weather and except for a few sightings of cranes and balloons, there just isn't a whole lot going on.  This time was definitely different.  People appeared out of nowhere to watch the balloons land, and the cranes were running, not flying, away from the balloons.

The pilots did a wonderful job of landing by navigating around tall trees, buildings, and rigs.  One landed between sites near a trailer.  Imagine looking out your window to see a hot air balloon sitting next to your rig!

The other three were able to land in open space near the center and once their chasers showed up they were soon deflated, packed, and gone like the wind.  Sigh!  What a great morning!

On The Cutting Board

All right!  Three quilts done!  Quilting - Done!  Binding - Done!  Okay, I do have another three more to finish and I am working on them right now.  So, I should have more photos soon.

I got a little more creative with the flower by quilting in the center and petals.  I also did more loops than squiggly lines to imitate bees flying around.  On the bear quilt, I did clouds, heart shaped balloons, stars, and swirls of wind.  It was a nice change from the usual meandering.

I finished the Macaw's Welcome wall hanging.   I might try this one again on a smaller scale so I won't have to do as much hand quilting in the open space.  The words can certainly be made smaller and still be able to read them.

Does the "Welcome" look like his toy?

I was going to use beads but the glass bead collection I was gathering together were starting to feel rather heavy.  I was afraid they would cause some problems with the lightweight wall hanging laying flat.

The buttons worked a lot better.  Lightweight and bright, they look like part of a birds toy.  Oh, and I added a few bells.  Got to be able to make some noise while he is playing, right?

I also finished my Hawaiian Turtle block!  It is now a HUGE pillow.  22 inches to be exact, but still it is so big compared to all my other pillows.

See, it is even bigger than the back of our couch.  Dusty can hide behind it.  He likes to hide under my quilts while I am working on them.  Although, he wasn't quite sure why I was putting this big pillow on top of him.

One good thing is that Dan says he plans to use the big pillow.  It is nice to know it will not be wasted just taking up room on the end of the couch.  Well, I have more things on my list that I would like to check off soon so I better get to them....

Happy Quilting!

Passing Time on Peace River (Wauchula, FL)

I thought I should post something soon before someone thinks we have lost our way through the humid haze of Florida.  We are not lost.  We are just trying to survive the heat wave that has been breaking Florida's record this past month.  It is certainly hot here!  It is a little more than what I had wished for.... I know, I know...be careful of what you wish for!  Then again, I wasn't asking for a hot summer just a warm sunny dry winter.  After three wet winters, I felt we were due a warmer winter and I am still looking forward to this winter in Key West.

In the meantime, we are dealing with the heat wave by getting out early before the temperatures rise.  When it gets into the 90s with a heat index of 100+ with humidity, it is very hard to stay enthused about taking a walk around the park.  We do get a break from the heat in the late afternoons or early evenings with some terrific thunderstorms that shake our rig and a quick dump of ice cold rain.

Still, I have no complaints.  I prefer this over our freezing winds and rains where I had to wear layers just to take the garbage out to the dumpster.  We have made it a habit of spending about a half hour to an hour sitting outdoors with the cats in the shade before surrendering to our air conditioned motorhome to cool off.  Even the cats are getting use to the idea of going out several times a day for short periods of time.  So, now it feels like there is always someone begging to go outdoors....all day long.

suspended bridge

The photos here are from Paynes Creek Historic State Park.  We walked a few of the nature trails and visited a few of the historic sites.  There wasn't a whole lot left to the old trading post or fort.  I liked crossing the suspended bridge and seeing some different textured plants like the mushrooms below.

On The Cutting Board

I finished my first Hawaiian block with echo quilting.  I started out marking the background with a water soluble pen.  With this humidity, it was disappearing before I got around to the third turtle.  The air erasable disappeared even faster.

I decided to quilt the block without guide lines and I am quite happy with how well the echo quilting came out.  I thought for sure I would be all over the place.  Now, I need to decide what to do with my first Hawaiian applique....I think I'm going to keep it and make it into a pillow cover.  Granted it does not match our interior southwest decor theme, but we do have teal and that's a good match.  We need some new pillow covers.  My old ones are looking a frazzled and faded.  Hmmm, I'm thinking there are some new pillow projects in my near future.

I also started working on my quilt tops.  I plan to give a few to charity and a couple of them will be listed on Etsy.  I'm hoping to get all the quilt tops done before we get to Key West.

Well, I better get started on making binding for these three quilts.

Happy Quilting!

A Turtle Comes For A Visit (Coffeyville, KS)

We were relaxing outside with all the cats two weekends ago when we noticed Dusty alerting on something near the back fence.  A comical sight.  Here's a 22 pound cat with his tail twitching, thumping what look like a rock, hissing and jumping backwards.......and it turned out to be this little guy trying very hard to make himself invisible peeking out from inside his shell.  

We moved Dusty away thinking he would forget about the turtle, but he was back over there once again hissing and thumping on the poor guy's shell.  Did you know turtles can hiss?  I didn't.  This guy can hiss better and louder than Dusty!

Finally, Dan decided to move the turtle to the edge of the park's pond that is only five sites away from us.  We know it is not a water turtle, but we thought he would be safer there.  Plenty of vegetation, tall grass, and water.  It already looks like he had one run-in with a human from the looks of the crack in his shell.  Maybe a lawn mower or a bike's wheel?

Two days later, our next door neighbor sighted the turtle behind his rig.  Yep, the same turtle had made the long trek back to the same spot near the fence,  He probably did not appreciate the long walk back.  

There is a big gap under the fence that we blocked to keep the cats from going under, so Dan set the turtle near the opening.  The next day he was gone.  Hopefully, he found his way home on the other side of the fence.

Dusty - our protector

But Wait!  The story doesn't end there.  The turtle disappeared for a couple of days, but he has returned to the same spot.  Yep, he is back!  I do believe we will be sharing our side yard with the turtle until it gets cold and no, we will NOT be adopting him!

On The Cutting Board

Speaking of turtles - I started quilting my Hawaiian turtle applique.  It's amazing.  I am actually getting more work done at night.  Lots of quilting and sewing getting done.  Plus, I am getting some work done on the internet.  But only on weekends, my brain is mush after 10 hours of working!  The best part of staying up late is that I find I am not as distracted with going outside or running errands like I do during the day.  The WiFi is great at 2 in the morning!  Yes, I am writing this at 2 am.  

Last week was rough because I tried to switch back to days during our weekend off.  By our second night shift, I was a mess.  I felt like I had a bad case of jet lag.  I wasn't sleeping or eating.  So this time, I decided to stay up nights during our days off.  This is not easy to do....staying up until 4 am, but I am adjusting.   I'm usually up by noon, so the day is not a total lost.

This Witch wall hanging is almost done and I have a couple of Happy Campers that are ready to be finished as well.

I can see me pulling out the sewing machine soon and sewing til early dawn.  I'm surprised that I am enjoying this new night life of sewing and posting.  The job?.....well, I'm still adjusting to the long hours, but at least I'm not as sore as I was the first two weeks.  I might finish this winter standing on my own two feet with a nice selection of new items for Etsy!  Whoo-Hoo!

Happy Quilting!

A Little Sewing Here, A Little Quilting There (Newport, OR)

Here are a couple of more photos of our last outing to Depoe Bay and Boiler Bay.  The sun is peeking out from behind the clouds today.  We hear we will be seeing more of our sunny friend this week.  Which is good since Thursday is our travel day.  

We are moving north to Nehalem Bay State Park.  We stayed there for five days in the fall, but we did not get a chance to walk around Nehalem's downtown area that was nearby.  We were there when a large storm system came through making it hard to walk around the town.

I can't remember how our WiFi was during our stay.  It might be a little too weak for posting, so there's a chance I won't be posting for about a week.

On The Cutting Board

So, I have been all over the place with my projects since we have full-hookups with plenty of power.  The sewing machine and iron are getting a lot of use.

I finished appliqueing the Hawaiian Sea Turtles.  It is all setup for quilting.  I plan to do the traditional echo quilting...Oh! and I decided to turn this into a wall hanging.  It's too big and way too white to be a pillow.  It would have to be washed too often to keep it clean.

I also finished the quilting on the Cat's Welcome wall hanging.  I went a little quilt-happy on this one.  I love hand-quilting!  Now, I need to decide how to finish it.  I have the binding.  I think I'll add loops for hanging with a dowel.  eh!  I'll work on this one.

Since I have finished the embroidery blocks for "All Creatures Great and Small" quilt, I have been washing, ironing, and cutting fabric for the blocks.  I have most of the blocks done.  I have never setup quilt rows vertically.  I'm finding it a little harder to do since I lack the room for arranging the blocks.  The couch has been my best spot for laying out two rows at a time, but to do the whole quilt....well, that is going to be a challenge to get the cats to stay off our bed long enough for me to arrange the quilt to my liking.  As I sew the blocks together, I can see this is going to be a very colorful quilt with these colors.

I'm also working on my Happy Campers, but I am not ready to show them yet.

Happy Quilting!

Bound To Try (Sutherlin, OR)

 I summed up the courage to start my first Hawaiian quilt block.  I have been wanting to make one since reading Jennifer Chiaverini's "The Aloha Quilt".  Reading how Bonnie was taught to make her first block really peaked my curiosity.  The applique techniques sounded so interesting and quite different from anything I have done in the past with applique.

I bought this fabric along with the book (below) last July during the Sister's quilt show.  Gorgeous fabric.  I probably should start with fabric that I don't mind messing up.  But if I'm going to do this, I might as well start with the 'star' fabric because I am not so sure I will want to do this technique very often.  Of course, there is a chance I might take quite a liking to it and do a lot more.  Hard to say...anyway.....

Washed, ironed, and folded....deep breath and I start cutting....

Done.  Not an easy task to cut through so many folded layers of fabric.  I used my spring-loaded precise shears this time.  The shears are meant for flannel rag quilts which I still have not made...yet.  Okay, time to unfold and see what kind of damage I have done.

Oh wow!  This looks great!  I love the way this came out.  Now, I'm getting excited so I need to iron out the folds, pin, and baste.

The basting alone is going to take awhile.  The instructions say I need to baste 1/4 inch around all the edges.  The basting will also be my guide while I am turning under the edge for appliqueing.  I'm going to need my old sewing gauge (ruler) because my eyeing a 1/4 inch will end up very uneven.  I can see those turtles turning into blobs!

I have also been working on binding for all four quilts.  I haven't quilted the last top, but I should have it done within the next couple of days.

So, do you use the bias binding or do you just cut on the straight?  I like using the bias binding.

I was told the stretching of the bias will help make the binding last longer through wear and tear.  That comes in handy when it comes to little ones and their quilts.

So, the binding is folded in half and ready to sew to the quilts.  The turtles are ready for basting with lots of pins holding it in place.  It should make for an interesting evening trying to keep cats off the block while I am basting it!
Happy Quilting!