7/18/17

"Q" is for Qfinished!

It was kind of a busy day yesterday, but the afternoon was mine for quilting. We headed out early in the morning on a seek and destroy mission to find kennels for the kitties to travel in the camper. We headed to one of the big box pet stores, used our Amazon app to scan the barcodes, and then made our purchase from Amazon right there in the store. I know...we're putting those big box stores out of business in favor of the virtual store. Bad Consumers!

While we were there, we perused the kitty fashions. (Some people think these are for dogs.) Anyway...I think Sadie would make a real fashion statement dressed in either of these.



And don't you know Smitty would just *love* wearing one of these numbers.



When we got home, we had some lunch, and then I got back to my quilting. First, I switched to a variegated green thread for quilting grass into the grass.


After looking at a lot of examples, I decided on something simple and funky.


In a few random places, I stitched a weed.


It didn't take long to finish all eight blocks, and then I moved on to my camper border. First, I experimented on paper with sizes and shapes. Also, I experimented with the wheel. I wanted to end up at the bottom "road," and so I first drew the left half of the outer circle, then the camper, then a loop for the inner circle, then the right half of the outer circle, which put me back at the bottom.


Geez, Mom. Those are the worst looking campers I've ever seen. Do I have to do everything around here?


So then I was ready to mark some lines on my quilt. I wanted the campers to be approximately the same size and distance apart. I've experimented with all different kinds of markers, and I've not really found one I like for marking across a whole row of quilting. When I was at the fabric store on my lunch break from jury duty (never a minute wasted, you know), I checked the markers available. Of course I've heard of the Chaco marker before, but never tried it. I picked one up and gave it a whirl (pun intended).


Basically it's a pen with a powdered chalk container. I tried to take a picture of the tip so you could see it, but my camera simply refused to focus on the little "gear" at the tip. If you want to see it, there's a pretty good image here at The Daily Sew. It works by laying down a little dotted line of powdered chalk. It was first tested on the fabric to make sure it was removable, and it was. It's important to hold the pen vertical for best results. It laid down some nice easily-seen lines.


You can see a demonstration on YouTube:


If you can't see the video, then click right here.

So then, I was ready to quilt the campers.



Let's just say I'm keeping the "free" in free motion quilting.


The side borders are narrower than the top and bottom borders. Recall that I was trying to fit this into a small space on a wall before I gave up on that and decided it was better as a snuggle quilt.


And after rounding all four corners...


the quilting was finished!


Here's a view from the back.


I thought I might get some quilt inspectors, but in fairness, it was after 5:00 p.m. by this time, and they'd all gone home for the day.

Well, so then I went out to the greenhouse to see if I could find any tomatoes. One. I found one.


And that was very disappointing, if I wasn't already disappointed enough in the tomatoes. With this being July 18th, we're turning off their water. We'll be gone in just a little over a month, so clearly, this year's tomato harvest is a bust. Don't know why. This is the same variety I planted last year. It's okay. We can get all the tomatoes we need from our farmers, but this was such a waste of time, potting soil, and effort.

When I came out of the greenhouse, I noticed this deer in the field. She was clearly not happy with the bitter dandelions she was eating.

I heard there was echinacea in this field. Dandelions. Pittooey!


Speaking of echinacea...the pink ones are just at the edge of fully opened.


Oh! There it is!!


So, yeah. That's probably the last you'll see of those.

It's a short list of to-do's on today's calendar, and it's a CSA pick-up day. Other than that, it's an NBS (nothing but sewing) day. I'll get the binding sewn onto the Wheel Estate quilt, and then I'm going to try to get caught up on some other projects.

19 comments:

Dorothy said...

Great job on the quilting

Debbie said...

The camper quilt turned out cute as a bug! The quilting design is so fitting.

Quilting Babcia said...

Our garden is pretty much a bust this year as well. We've had lettuce and that's about it so far. A few puny little tomatoes that may or may not ripen before first frost. Maybe we'll get a few beans as they are blooming now and shouldn't take too long. All the winter squash and corn is just sitting there looking like it's mid-June not the third week of July. On the bright side the blueberries are ripening rapidly, and if we can just keep the bluejays off the netting we may actually get a decent harvest of those.

Quilting Babcia said...

p.s. I love that camper quilt! It's a great finish!

Annette Mandel said...

Do you have plenty of bandages? You might need them after stuffing Sadie in a pink dress. And Smitty doesn't need clothes to say he's a cool dude.
Love the weeds in the quilting! A78mandel at yahoo dot com

Vroomans' Quilts said...

Wonderful quilting on the camper quilt! I agree - trying to dress Sadie might involve some serious medical attention. Smitty is a cool enough a Dude.

WoolenSails said...

I do the same thing, if I can get it cheaper with no shipping or tax, of course I am going to order online;)
Love the quilting on your quilt, so fun.

Debbie

claudia said...

My maters have two little ones each...about as big around as a nickel. I, unfortunately am not going any where any too soon, so I will grow mine (hopefully) to full maters in your honor.

The camper quilt is so cute. The quilting on it is great!

Um, really? Kitty clothes??? I do put sweaters on my small dog in the winter, but I think my cats would stage a riot if I dared to dress them!

quiltzyx said...

Cats have much more self-respect than dogs. Hence, no "cat" clothes in the pet store. Sadie & Smitty are way smarter than average too. Glad you didn't try & that I don't need to mail you an emergency supply of bandages!

Wheel Estate is quilted! The campers look wonderful - you did a great job on them Barbara!!

Cathy said...

I love the little campers you quilted on Wheel Estate. I don't care what Smitty says, they're cute!

Kate said...

Conversation I had at the pet store... "I need to exchange this, I thought she was the size of a small dog but turns out she's a medium." Cashier: "oh, what kind of dog is she?" Me: "...a cat..."
Bummer on the tomatoes!

Brown Family said...

I do not think I would try to put clothe on my three! I would be in the wrong end of a wild cat! I love your quilted trailers. Great job! I picked another gallon if salad tomatoes tonight. Even though it is mid July and it is in the 90's they are still producing! Usually by now they have given up keeled over!

SJSM said...

Love your camper quilt. Our first cat was very kind and patient. Fred would allow my daughter to dress him in her baby clothes then stay seated up in a doll stroller. I could not picture any other cat we have had doing that.
The garden here is doing well. We have a mess of tomatoes that will come on strong in about a week. Then it will be canning time in about 2-3 weeks and for the rest of the summer. Usually we don't get a lot of tomatoes until mid-late September. Our June and July have both been warm. Our two tomatillo plans are also producing. We will be overrun with tomatillos this summer. Squash is doing okay and beans just starting to produce. The peppers are the slow ones this year. jalapeños, green, peperoncroncini, Thai all are barely making it. We might get one on each plant.
Looking forward to see the kitties in their classy cages.

piecefulwendy said...

Sorry about the tomatoes. Maybe it was the wet/weird spring you had. You know as well as I do your two kitties would houdini out of those get ups faster than you can say NBS Day. Besides, if you're going to clothe them, you might as well make something just right :-) The camper quilt is just perfect -- I love the little campers! Enjoy your day!

Dana Gaffney said...

I think Smitty would have looked amazing in the "cool dude" outfit, he would have hated it but it with have been worth it if you could have snapped a picture.
Weird, I'm just about to quilt grass on exactly that fabric so thank you for showing me what it will look like. I love my Chaco Pens, I have them in a bunch of colors. They take some getting used to but they last longer than regular marking pens and it's just chalk.

gpc said...

Cats in shirts . . . not going there. If I can't say something nice . . . let's just assume that the cats and I are of one mind on this issue. The quilt and quilting are amazing. You continue to impress with your ever improving skills!

Ioleen said...

The camper quilt is super cut. My cat would shred me if I tried to dress her.

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

The camper quilt turned out great. I love Chalkoliner's.

Kate said...

Congrats on the finish! Love your stitched camper border. It's such a fun quilt.