Not So Wordless Wednesday (Spokane, WA)

There's not a lot of photo ops in the RV park, so I decided to take more photos of Dandelions using my fish-eye lens to give the view a different perspective.  I also decided to multi-task by walking Hitch while taking photos.  At first, Hitch was not too happy that I wanted to spend time in the field while he wanted to go climb a tree.

Then he got a little curious...

Whatcha doin'?

Then he decided he needed a closer look....

Hey!  That's a funny looking cat!

Can he get any closer??

Hmm...it doesn't smell like a cat.

After this one, I had to clean the lens... 

On The Cutting Board
I finished the border on my Art Nouveau wall hanging.  I love the way the border frames the flowers.

Now it is time to do some hand-quilting!

Happy Quilting!

Art Nouveau and Dandelions (Spokane, WA)

On The Cutting Board

This is my second time making this project.  Not too long ago, I had a problem with some of the green material bleeding onto the background and I could not get the dye out.  So, I tossed the first one, washed all the batiks, tested them, and started over again.

Surprisingly enough, this second appliqué project moved a lot faster.  Part of it was learning from my mistakes and trying a some different tactics.  Most of it was due to the material cooperating by creasing with no arguments.  Even the threads were being good by staying untangled.

Now this was the tough part...well, at least for me.  I have never added an appliquéd border.....let alone one this big.  I used freezer paper for the pattern.

Marked, trimmed, then basted to make sure the large pieces of material did not move or get in my way while I was stitching it to the background.

The first time I did both borders, I somehow got one or both off center.  Commence the Frogging!  Rip-it! Rip-it!  

I can tell you this much...if the thread ever breaks, the material is not going anywhere because my stitches are so small that I could barely rip out the thread.  It took me a lot longer to rip out the thread since I had to wiggle the ripper under a stitch without putting a hole in the material.  Often I will cut the thread a couple of stitches down and pull that out....yea, not this time.  I had to loosen the thread before I could pull it out.

All right!  Both sides are re-positioned and finally done.  I know it looks crooked.  I did not trim the outer edges of the border since I need to trim the whole block after I am finished.  

 The block is now trimmed and ready for the border.  I'm going to put this one away until we are on the west side of the Cascades when I will have more time to work with my sewing machine.

Dandelions

I know most people do not like dandelions, but I do with or without a yard.   We never allowed the dandelions to take over the yard, but we did not stress over a few of them being in the yard either.  The fields here are filled with dandelions and I think they look wonderful.

Now I know they are a weed....a very invasive weed and to the immaculate-green-lawn owner, the dandelion is the terror of all weeds.  Just get one yellow spot and it seems like overnight, they have taken over the lawn, but I can't help loving the bright sunny yellow flowers and the fragile looking petals.

The bees certainly put them to good use.  They were very busy on the day I took these photos.

Even when they go to seed, they are beautiful and so delicate looking.  They also bring back childhood memories of making wishes and blowing all the seedlings free to float into the air.

Yep, right into the neighbor's yard.  I'm sure they appreciated that!  

Was I tempted to pick one and blow?  You bet!  

            I sent my wishes floating away into the warm summer day....  

                                 

Wild West Burros and Gunfights Oh My! (Pahrump, NV)

Yesterday was a travel day for us.  No fooling...okay, I had to get that in there for April Fools day.  I have to wonder who the first prankster and fool was to make such an impression to cause us to acknowledge a Fool's day.  Yea, I know.  I can Google it.

Anyway, we moved from Needles, CA to Pahrump, NV.  Before we left Needles, we went to Oatman, AZ.  A former gold mining town with shops and a couple of restaurants on Route 66 in the Black Mountains of Arizona.  A fun way to spend a quiet afternoon....hmmm....semi-quiet...well, you'll see what I mean as you scroll down.

We had a nice afternoon walking up and down the streets while eating ice cream from the Oatman Hotel and I took a few pictures along the way.

Old tractor parked near the street

Lots of wagon wheels

I thought the best part was the wild burros roaming around town looking for handouts.  The shops sell burro feed for a dollar.  The burros are descendants of the miner's burros turned loose when the mines closed down.  They are relatively tame, but I'm sure there have been some incidents since signs are posted to be careful around the burros.

This IS my good side

This is a photo of Olive Oatman - the town's namesake.  Inside the Oatman Hotel there is a photo and Olive's story.  I found her story to be very interesting and came home to do a little more research.  As usual, the stories vary so here's my summary of what I read:

Photo of Olive Oatman

During an Indian attack on their lone covered wagon, a young Olive and her sister were taken captive.  All of the Oatman family were killed except for one brother who survived a clubbing to his head.  Olive and her sister were later sold and adopted by the Mojave Indians.  Her sister died during their captive years.

Olive was traded back to U.S. soldiers when it was brought to their attention there was a white girl among the Mojaves.  She lived with her brother for several years while touring the country talking about the book written on her captivity.  Later, she married and lived the rest of her life in Texas.  Olive became the first tattooed white woman in America.

To me, it sounds like the "White" society had no problem accepting Olive despite her years in captivity and facial tattoos.  It is nice to know that our ancestors were more understanding than what Hollywood would have us believe.

We also watched a street show of the ol' West.....This is when the afternoon got a little noisy.  Some people jumped at the gun fire...okay, I jumped.  What can I say??  Anywaaaaay....

Old West Shoot Out Show

I was kneeling on the street while taking photos of the show.  I felt someone get close to me, but I didn't look up to see what they were doing.  Dan quietly said that I had a visitor and when I looked up......I saw the cutest burro trying to sniff my camera!  He left when he realized I had nothing to give him.

Pssst! Yo, got any apples?  Carrots?

A bunch of burros showed up after the first gun shot.  The warning shot must be like a dinner bell to them.  They know there will be the largest gathering of humans and food for them during the gunfight.  Oh, and none of them so much as flinched when the shots were fired.  Nerves of steel, I tell ya.

If the gun doesn't convince them to give money,
I'll help by convincing them with a kick, okay?

I thought this was a great ending to the show with all the burros and a stage coach showing up.  The stage coach stopped right next to us.  The driver asked us if anyone was killed and Dan answered "only one!".   Yup, great day!

Stage coach has arrived

On the Cutting Board

I think starting this project over was the best thing for me.  The applique work on this one is going so much faster.  I decided to pencil in the positions for each piece.  I made sure the markings were at least 1/8 of an inch inside the actual piece so all the pencil markings will be covered.  Because I marked the background ahead of time, I have saved a couple steps with a light box and trying to pin the piece in its proper spot.  

To me, this has been a lot less stressful.  With the light box, something was always slipping out of place which had me  pinning, re-pinning, re-checking, and re-positioning.  So my couple of steps could add up to a good 15 minutes of pinning and positioning before I was satisfied.

 My Uncle Sams are coming along....

Well, we are off to explore Pahrump, NV.  Catch you later!

Happy Quilting!

Learning From My Mistakes (Yuma, AZ)

On the Cutting Board

I'm almost done with the first of three Uncle Sam mug rugs.  Yesterday, a dust storm kept our errand running short, so I managed to get quite a bit done on this mug rug.

Oh, and remember the applique Art Nouveau that I posted recently?  I had to toss it out.  I must have missed two of the greens for pre-washing.  I was spraying out the water-based pen and ...you guessed it!...the green batik bled all over the white background!  Oh man!

Well, I'm starting from scratch.  A little discouraging, but I learned a lot while working on this first one, so I'll try not to make the same mistakes.  In the meantime, all the batiks will be getting a pre-wash before I start.

New Cat Box

Another recent mistake came to our attention when the cats recently started missing their litter box.  Talk about a pain to clean all the time. ugh!  We also noticed that Dusty would often wait until I pulled the larger box out from under the bathroom cabinet to be cleaned and use it. We thought he just wanted a clean box, but now we are thinking that he did not like the cramped space under the bathroom sink.  So, maybe it is time to make some changes for the cats.

We decided to find a larger box for them, but one that would not get in our way when sitting out in the living area.  Considering our small living space this wasn't going to be an easy shopping trip.  Surprise!  We found the perfect litter box at our first stop at PetSmart.

Thank you for the new kitty box!  I can see everything from here.

It is shaped to fit in a corner with a wide entrance and a tall ceiling.  Not to mention, it is big.  So big, I can put a 20 lb container of litter in the box and it barely gives them the three inches deep of litter.  The cats seem to like it especially Dusty, our largest cat.  I hope he feels a lot less cramped sitting in this one.

Hitch does know he can use the bottom level too.

Oh, and as far as cleaning up the cat urine, we are going to try Fizzion.  We caught a couple of shows called "My Cat From Hell" with a cat whisperer - Jackson Galaxy.  I found the show interesting to watch a spitting, very unsocialable cat become man's best cuddly friend.  Whew!  and we thought we had problems with Dusty missing the box.  He's just a pussycat compared to some of these troubled cats.

Anyway.... While watching one of the shows, Jackson said the only way to clean up cat urine was with CO2 Charged cleaner.  The only pet urine cleaner with CO2 that I could find on Google was Fizzion.

Our New Toy!

I rarely carried my cell phone because of bulk and I never used it.  A couple of calls to or from family was about it.

We received our new Droid Razors in the mail a couple of weeks ago and I'm carrying it all the time.  This is our first smart phone so we are slowly learning all this phone has to offer.  The best part is being able to find restaurants or stores while we are visiting a different town.  We try to look everything up on our laptops, but we can't always think of everything or always know where we will be when we get hungry.

I like having my Kindle books available along with iBird.  I used my phone to identify a couple of birds so far.  Pretty cool!  Yea, it's just the beginning of opening up a whole new world of technology....for me that is.

Bougainvillea

Happy Quilting!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

Today, I have entered my quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy's Creative Side.  Thanks Amy for hosting this festival.  I am often the viewer, but this time I want to share my favorite quilt..If you have a little time, please click on the link below.  There are some fantastic quilters and beautiful quilts participating in this virtual quilt show!

I picked this quilt because it had a very unusual start.  Most of my quilts start with the fabric or a pattern, but this one started with a photo and became the most fun quilt I have ever made.

We were staying in Camp Lejuene's campground near the beach.  There were "Seashells" marked on a map as squares on the beach.  Curious, we took a walk and found these lovely pastel picnic shelters.  I love the colors so much that I had to dig through my stash to see if I could match them.

Camp Lejeune's Seashells

I'm attracted to bold and primary colors so I was amazed to find these sitting in my stash.  Surprised to see them and actually liking them, I decided to make a quilt.

Using a simple pattern, the top started looking more like a cluster of flowers instead of reminding me of the beach.

Now I am not very talented when it comes to drawing so I like to use books or clipart.  I have a book with some amazing Art Nouveau free clipart.

  I love doing turn-under appliqué, so I picked out a butterfly and a flower patterns.  I find using batiks are very forgiving and easy to manipulate.  I picked colors that would blend into the background and yet I wanted it to look like one flower standing out from the rest.

Close-up of hand-stitching

I challenged myself by making this the largest appliqué project I have done.  I had so much fun with this one that I want to do another.  I'm on the lookout for another photo to inspire me and I'm keeping a few appliqué projects in mind.

 Thanks for stopping by! Happy Quilting!

Size: 49.75 x 40 (126.36 x 101.6 cm)

Quilting: Free form meandering on sewing machine
 
Butterfly and flower from "The Complete Book of ART NOUVEAU DESIGNS"

Two New Quilts Listed (Bridgeport, TX)

Yesterday, I listed the two quilts I have been working on for the last couple of months on Etsy.com.  I have listed both as "One Of A Kind" since I don't plan to duplicate either one of them.

 I love both quilts, but I have to admit my favorite is the Art Nouveau Garden Quilt. I had a lot of fun sewing this one together.  I am already looking back through the Art Nouveau clipart book for more ideas.  Yep, I got a few, I just got to see what is in my stash.  Oh! My fingers are already itching to get back to some more appliqué work.  More photos are in Quiltincats Fan Page.

Size: 49.75 x 40 (126.36 x 101.6 cm)

Batik Butterfly

Flower upclose

Backing and binding

Binding - doubled and cut on bias for better durability

A collage of work in progress

Southwestern Kokopeli Lap Quilt

Size: 62 x 46 (157.48 x 116.84 cm)

Smaller Kokopeli

Larger Kokopeli

Close up of the larger Kokopeli

There are a few more photos of the Southwestern Kokopeli quilt in Quiltincats Fan Page.

A collage of work in progress

Travel Day!

Today, is another travel day for us. We will be in Fredericksburg tonight and plan to stay for a few days before heading to Hondo, TX. 

Albuquerque!

For my Albuquerque friends: it looks like we will only be spending the last week of October at the base.  Depending on the weather, we might stay longer.