Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter
My adventures in quilting, my adventures at Hackberry Spring Ranch, and other tidbits of my life.
Finally! This one took me way too long. It was really a challenge for me. It’s for a customer and will be a Christmas gift to one of her granddaughters.
The little girl’s nickname is Butterfly, so I stenciled butterflies in the border and connected them with swirls.
The back shows how much stitching there really is.
I hope she likes it! I have another finish to report, but I’m saving that for tomorrow’s post. See you then!
Suzanne has a post on her blog today about simple quilting. Sometimes a simple piecing pattern is the right choice. Here is my start on the first of two memory quilts commissioned by a family. The squares are cut from shirts that belonged to to their 14 year old brother, who was tragically lost in an auto accident 7 years ago. The quilts will be a gift to their mother. What an honor to be trusted with such a special project.
This is what I’ve been working on this week, along with trying to finish up a custom quilting job that has been on my machine waaaayyyyy too long.
TGIF!!
But not necessarily quilting. My stash report is unchanged from last week. None in, none out. I have almost finished cutting the squares from the plaid shirts for the first of the two memory quilts I’m making. I also finished a long overdue binding. YEA!!
I made this quilt two years ago, and played all over it with fantasy freehand quilting, inspired by Nichole Webb & Jamie Wallen. Many of you have seen this one before, so I will spare you the pics. If you’ve not seen it, and would like to see some closeups of the quilting, there are a ton of pics in this webshots album, http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/550151887DlpMBr. I even got a label made and attached. It is FINISHED!
It was a really busy week at my day job, so by the time I got home most days, I was pretty tired. But otherwise, I’m feeling much better than I had been the three weeks prior. I had my MRI yesterday morning, on my head & cervical spine. I’ve not heard anymore from my doctor yet, which leads me to think that nothing else has shown up in the other lab work, and he has nothing new to tell me and is waiting for all the results to come in.
While I have been feeling better, I decided it was time to work on some long neglected tasks around here. Remember I textured & painted my entryway last year? It was right before I ended up in bed for five days with severe muscle spasms in my back…well, I’ve had the paint for the rest of the living room, but have been afraid of triggering another spasm attack. I started on it last weekend. I am doing only one wall at a time. This is a bit of the entryway…The color isn’t exactly true.
This is the paneling in our living room…yuk.
A bit of wall I haven’t painted yet, by the fireplace.
The wall I painted this weekend, next to the other side of the fireplace. Isn’t this going to look much better?
I’m going to have to get some new switch & outlet covers. It sure brings the fireplace out and makes it more of a focal point in the room. Wonder how long it will take me to get the remaining walls done…I also spent some time on some much needed cleaning and reorganizing. I even pulled a few of my quilting books and will take them to one of my friends at work tomorrow, to see if she would like to have them.
I’m looking for a good steam press…any advice on a good brand would be appreciated! Have a great week!
Yes, I fell off the wagon this week, but busted enough to not lose too much ground. Now, I’m NOT buying any more fabric the rest of the year! No, really, I mean it. I do. What are you laughing at? I’m serious.
Ok, so what did I buy? 32 fat quarters, at 40% off, and then I ordered some more from Thousands of Bolts.
Purty, huh?
What did I bust? I finished my dad’s top, and pulled 9.25 yards for the backing. This is going to be one of those “quilting makes the quilt” tops. It’s just flat right now, but I think I will love it once it’s quilted.
I also finished the top for a commissioned baby quilt, made the backing, and cut the binding. I used a Chinse Coins pattern I picked up from www.quiltintia.com. There’s lots of Chinese Coins patterns out there, and I could’ve figured out how to make it without a pattern, but I’m lazy sometimes, and just don’t want to do all the math and fabric figuring myself. Quiltin’ Tia has several simple little patterns like this, where they have all the yardage figured, etc., and permission on the pattern to use it for personal use or profit. Just don’t share copies of the pattern. I pulled all the fabric for this little quilt from my stash.
More test results back, and my estrogen levels were too low. The MRI got rescheduled, because the hospital forgot to get an authorization number from my insurance. Still waiting on some of the other blood work to come back. I am feeling better today, though.
I’ve started working on one of two commissioned memory quilts, made from the shirts of a 14 year old boy, that was killed in an auto accident 7 years ago. One will be a t-shirt quilt. The one I’m working on right now, is going to be simple squares cut from his plaid button up shirts, joined with a neutral sashing, with a border of the same sashing fabric. The boy’s three surviving siblings are having them made for their mom. I have to kind of turn my brain off a bit while I’m cutting up the shirts.
How many of you remember ‘Mater Man? I used him as the subject of my first attempt at an art quilt. And I used my newly dyed fabrics for him. Try not to laugh too hard.
A stressful moment from the week involved a large toad. I saw him by a drain pipe at the hospital when I went for testing. He was hurt pretty bad, but not dead. It was apparent that he was just suffering a slow death. I will spare you the details, but I did not leave the hospital without him, and his suffering was soon over.
I did have to cut my big sunflower and bring it in, and the blooms have continued to open.
Thanks for dropping by! Have a great week!
I’ve mentioned that I’m taking an online art quilting class. One of the class projects involves dying my own fabric with fabric paint. I can now see why so many people do this. It’s fun! These four little pieces are all I have done, and they are for a still life assignment. Mine will involve tomatoes and jalapenos, therefore, the red/orange/yellow/green scheme. The one really wild one was just for fun and I threw in some of every color I had.
This next pic is just for fun, and for Gayle. I found a neat moth on my patio wall.
This pic gives an idea of it’s size. Anyone know what kind it is? BTW, my fingernails aren’t “dirty”, that is fabric paint under them…I used gloves, but had taken them off, and forgot and handled my fabrics while they were still very wet. That stuff is messy!
I did see my doctor on Monday, and he is putting me through a bunch of tests. We have the first round of results and are waiting on some more to come back, a couple he is doing more followup on. I had three vials of blood drawn Monday, and a series of xrays. The bloodwork looks good so far, except my red blood count is actually elevated, and he is investigating that further, so another vial drawn yesterday. He said he also ran test for B-12, hormone levels, and lupus, and those results aren’t back yet. He said the xrays show that I have a rib on the upper right side that appears to have been cracked or broken at some time, and we are going to look further into that. He has ordered a bone mass density, which I will have tomorrow morning. Saturday morning, I am having an MRI of my head and, I believe, the upper back. I raised my right shoulder up and down in his office, and it made lots of noise for him, and he could put his hand on my back and feel it “popping” also. So I was very glad that I could actually “show” him what I was talking about.
Did y’all hear a loud crash earlier this week…sometime Tuesday afternoon? That would have been me falling off the “not buying fabric wagon”….LOL! Y’all knew it was gonna happen, didn’t you? There will be more about that in my Sunday report. 🙂 But, there will also be some stash usage to report…I have made some quilting progress this week, in spite of my pain.
Hope your week is going great!
I stayed strong and did not buy any fabric. I did buy assorted other items, including Isacord embroidery thread, some applique supplies, and some patterns, but no fabric.
I busted 3 yards this week. One on the inner border of my dad’s log cabin, and I gave away 2 more. The recipient doesn’t know they are getting them yet. 🙂
I have not had a great week, physically. Not feeling well, ribs & shoulder hurting a lot, hands & fingers hurting, as well as hips & knees. Also, had a headache and extreme tiredness, along with all this. I have an appt. with my doc tomorrow, and I hope I can keep my resolve and make him really listen to me, because something isn’t right. It may just be some kind of arthritis, but it’s time to try harder to figure it out. Anyway, I still managed to keep up with my lessons for the onling art quilting class I’m taking. And over the last two days, I sewed the inner portion of my dad’s log cabin together. I did manage to make a little more progress on the custom job that’s loaded on the machine, but with my back issues, I didn’t do much on it.
I’ve been anxiously waiting for this to happen! And finally this morning…
This next shot is just to show you how tall it is.
I can’t wait to photograph it in the dark!
Earlier this week, Theresa awarded me the Arte y Pico award. Thank you for thinking me worthy, Theresa.
This lovely statue is called the “Arte y Pico” award which was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creative energy and talents no matter whether it be in the form of writing, artwork, design, interesting material, or contributions to the blogger community. When a blogger receives this award it is considered a “special honor” and, once presented to you, it is to be passed on to at least 5 other bloggers who meet the criteria.
I know this little award has been making the rounds lately, so I am going to try to pick five that I don’t think I’ve seen awarded yet, whose blogs I enjoy. Gayle, Terri, Jan, Sally, and Jacquie, consider yourselves awarded!
Until I was a mom, I didn’t realize how fast it really flies. Happy 17th!
I also didn’t know how much I would miss that sweaty, smelly little boy that used to run around this house. The one that played Bomberman, Jurassic Park, Monopoly and other games with me. That dyed Easter Eggs with me, colored coloring books with me, bugged me to the point of insanity to open his Christmas presents early. The one that sent me searching for Power Rangers, Megazords, and Transformers. Oh, let’s not forget the Pokemon cards. I can still see his face light up brighter than the brightest Christmas tree when I would show up to get him at the end of the work/school day, or to eat lunch with him at school. The one that insisted on this routine, every night: (me) Good night (him) Good night (me) Sleep tight (him) Sleep tight (me) Sweet dreams (him) Sweet dreams (me) Don’t let the bed bugs bite (him) I won’t, you either (me) I won’t, I love you (him) I love you, too. Yes, I miss that boy. He left so quickly…But what a wonderful young man has taken his place.
DH & I did a bit of yard work Sunday evening. I found this.
This is what yard work does to me. Nice hair, huh? LOL And yes, my glasses are crooked…I really need some new ones.
And I have gotten to play with my new embroidery machine a little. I made this label for my friend, to put on her snowman quilt. She loves it and I got a hug!
I’ve had a customer quilt on the machine ever since I got done with my Storm At Sea. It’s not a big quilt, but it’s custom, and it’s going slow. It’s been one of my biggest longarm challenges so far. I’m anxious to see the final result.
I love it! I used Quilters Dream Poly for the batting, Rainbows Rain Forest on the top, and So Fine Marigold on the back. All the pics are “clickable” so you can see them better, if you’d like.
I wish I could get a pic of the true color of the back…it’s almost the color of canned pumpkin. Much more vibrant and pretty than the pics show. Quilting this was fun!
EDIT: Thanks for the photo tip, Vicki! It worked perfectly!
BTW, it’s a nice, cool 68 degrees outside here, right now! How awesome is that for July?!
Look! I found another use for the craft foam! Instead of writing down all the names on paper slips, I made reusable drawing squares of the craft foam, and numbered them. Now, whenever I have a drawing on my blog, I can use these again. It also adds to the anticipation of the drawing for me, too, as I don’t even know who the winner is, til I come back to the comments and see who’s “number” was drawn.
And who is commenter #9? Teresa L! You are the lucky winner! Please email me your snail mail addy so I can send out your prize. Congratulations! I want to thank all of you that participated in the “party”. I wish I could send you all something. As a consolation prize, I took some pics of my pretty little mini zinnias for you. A cyber bouquet, if you will.
I got a bit of an update on the baby girl, Riley, that is battling e. coli and salmonella. She is still in the hospital in Dallas, but yesterday she went to the bathroom twice, and this was a good thing. I gather it’s still very serious, but this was an improvement in her condition. I’ll keep pressing my two teenager news “relayers” for better info.
Again, thank you all so much for your sweet comments. I appreciate them all and you gave me lots of smiles the last few days. It was also very nice to “meet” some of you for the first time. Have a great weekend!
I had to show you some more peeks! I’m not quilting it as well as I had hoped I would, yet it’s better than I expected. I don’t always hit my marks right on, but I’m just having so much fun quilting this one, and I’m liking the way it looks. If you do like Eleanor says, and just hang it up and go by at 30 or 40 miles an hour, it looks pretty good! 🙂 Somewhere after the first few “bobbles” where my stitches didn’t land exactly where I was aiming, I remembered why I made this one in the first place. Because I saw it in a Fons & Porter magazine and fell in love with it, and thought “I want one of those”. So I said to myself, quit obsessing over every little mistake, and enjoy what you are doing. Suit yourself and worry about no one else. Wow! What a little epiphany! I still think I might put it in the quilt show I have in mind. We’ll see. Oh yea, here I am rambling again, and you just wanna see pics, don’t ya!?
I really struggled over what to put in the large diamonds. I finally came up with this design, after doodling like a gagillion other ideas, used a paper template of the diamond to fold up like when you cut snowflakes, so I could make a symmetrical template. Then I used the paper template to trace the pattern out on craft foam. I’ve been using a Fons & Porter chalk pencil, or a Marvy marker to trace the design. This shape has been a little challenging for me to quilt “perfectly”, but I’m finding the more of them I do, I’m getting the hang of it a little better.
I also tried out this chalk spray, to mark the stencil designs. I like it, it works pretty well, but it is a bit messy, kind of expensive, and puts off some pretty strong fumes.
I really like the way the back is looking. I couldn’t get a really good pic of it, though.
If you haven’t commented on my Blog Birthday Post yet, don’t forget to scroll down to it, and get yourself entered in my reward challenge give-away! There will be one lucky winner come Saturday morning. I can’t tell you how the nice comments that have already been left have warmed my heart!
XXOO’s
Ramblings From Randi, The Wild Rose Quilter 
