He made himself a nice little nest in the puddle of the quilt as I sewed the border onto it. Also, he made sure the fabric for the quilt back stayed put in its storage bin.
I don't know how things go in your sewing room, but my quilt back fabrics tend to get rowdy as I approach a finished top.
When the first border was sewn on, it looked like this.
Here, Smitty gave it a good going over.
I took a break there. Mike wanted to show me some things outside. It was a pretty day...too pretty to spend the whole day in the basement. While we were out, a red tailed hawk flew over head. He was hunting for squirrels in our field.
Remember last spring when I told you about the mice getting into Mike's car? (Warning: there's a picture of Maggie at that link. Sniff.) He puts it away during the winter. We live on a dirt road (which turns to mud in winter), and he won't drive it when it's cold and rainy. So he stores it inside his shop, but the mice have gotten into the ventilation system two years in a row. It's very expensive and time-consuming to fix, and so he's taken drastic measures to prevent it from happening again. I give you The Bubble.
It has a continuous fan that keeps it inflated and is guaranteed to be rodent proof. After talking with the manufacturer and reading reviews, Mike was convinced this would do the trick. We shall see. It looks impressive, if nothing else. If you're wondering why the hood is ajar, it's because he keeps the car battery hooked to a charger so that it doesn't go dead during its hibernation.
When we came out of the shop, the hawk was turned around to show us the rest of himself.
After that, I got back to work and put the outer and final border on the quilt top, and it was finished.
And I've learned to make the quilt back while I'm primed for sewing long seams, and so I did that too. I'm using this fabric.
So there you have it. I kind of like cleaning up the sewing room when I finish a quilt top. This one had a lot of patterns involved, one for each quilt block, as well as floss and other stuff. It's all put away now and the bin is freed up for some other project.
There are still a couple of days left in the month, and so I perused my goals. I most want to keep my WIPs moving along, and so I'll work on the block for It's Raining Cats and Dogs. This is the one I'll work on next, and these can usually be finished in a day.
Also, I was considering what I'd like to get done during November. For the first time in quite some time...years, maybe...I pulled out my oldest UFO. I'm calling this the "Barn Quilt" for now, and it's from my own photograph of this barn somewhere in the local area.
This was started back in 2010 when I'd barely been quilting for two years. I took it this far, and then I kind of got stuck. It still needs the cupola added to the top of the barn and the roof and chimney need to be added to the shed on the right. The leafless tree out front had me kind of stuff for what to do there. I'm not going to put the tree in, but I decided to make a trellis and put some flowers and leaves there. For the barn on the left, I'm going to put a quilt block. I think there might also be a door on the right side.
And all of that to say that I think I'll put this on next month's list of goals and see if I can get it at least to the flimsy stage. A lot of the details will be added when it's quilted, and so I don't think it will require much time to get it to that point. It's been on hold for such a long time that I wasn't sure I would bother with it. Now that I've studied it for a while and have some ideas about how to proceed, it seems possible to finish it.
16 comments:
I wish I Had half your energy and motivation, need to get moving on my quilts.
Love the barn you are doing, and love the idea of making appliqué from my photographs.
That is funny with the car, we leave ours outside, no garage so winter does take it's toll.
Debbie
A car in a bubble - now that is a new one for me. Ah, Smitty has the same job as Moe - hold down that fabric so it can't escape. My gosh, that barn quilt is a memory - yes, time to finish it.
The barn quilt is a worthy goal for November. Reminds me of all the Oregon barn photos in our files that I'd like to gather up to make an Oregon barn quilt for us - someday. There's something about western barns that I really love.
Your Gingerbread quilt is stunning! There's something so special about an embroidered quilt, and your choice of fabrics for the sashing and borders are the perfect finishing touches. And, knowing your quilting style by now, I'm sure your barn quilt will be just as beautiful. I love going on your quilting journeys with you through your blog. Thank you so much for sharing with all of us.
The gingerbread houses quilt top is amazing, you did such a wonderful job with the embroidery, the colors of your fabric borders are great and the backing fabric is just perfect. I believe I will now buy this pattern and start my own you have inspired me.
The red polka dot fabric was a good choice for the setting blocks for your embroidery quilt. The blocks themselves are muted and soft in color. Oh so pretty.
I would like to be in the bubble for the winter too :)
Love that peppermint backing fabric!
Congrats on finishing this quilt top... the blocks are fabulous!
So could you classify Mike's car as a bubble car, at least for the winter? Do you inflate the bubble, then drive the car into it?
Congrats on getting Gingerbread Houses to the finished flimsy stage. It's gorgeous!
The car bubble is interesting, but I do know the damage those little varmints can do. I had parked my dad's little VW in my garage one year and when we went to get it out found that they had made a nest in the trunk out of some newspapers that were in there, but worse yet, they chewed completely through the wiring harness! We donated it to a friend mechanic who was going to repair it to donate again to a charity.
Your Gingerbread quilt is wonderful. I wish I had the patience to do that. Maybe I do, we'll see what happens this winter, I plan on keeping myself really busy, last winter depressed me since it was my first in the PNW. I wasn't prepared for all the dark!
Raining Cats and Dogs looks like a fun quilt, but I really can't wait to watch your progress on the barn quilt.
Okay, I'll hush for now, sometimes I go on too much!
Oh my so many stitches in your quilt. Looks fantastic. I hope your husband wins the battle this winter. When we lived on the farm they used to chew thru the dry wall and get into our house thru the gargage. Happy stitching
Congrats on your Gingerbread flimsy. Good thing that Smitty was there to help!
I've not seen a rodent-proof car bubble before, very cool?
Nice of the hawk to pose for you too. :)
Your quilts are fabulous and very inspirational.
After all the bad hail storms we had here, people were looking into a product a lot like the bubble. I am not sure I would have trusted it to the huge hailstones we had!
I totally agree with you about my least favorite part of quilting. It's measuring and remeasuring then pinning the borders onto the quilt. It wouldn't be so bad if all my quilts were smaller.
Love that picture of Smitty taming your backing. Precious shot. Also, will be interest in seeing if the bubble works. Wish I had had something similar years ago when the mice built a nest in my heating/ac area of car and ruined my heat. Still having major trouble in that department.
Will you have the Gingerbread done before Christmas, that would be perfect! The barn quilt is really pretty, definitely time to finish it especially now that you've done so many picture quilts.
Your gingerbread quilt is lovely! Can I ask how you colored them? Good thing you had a kitty supervisor, rowdy backings are so troublesome!
Post a Comment