Sneak Peek Sunday

It’s that time of year again – when I rant about Daylight Savings Time.  The original purpose of DST was to add an hour to standard time to make better use of daylight and conserve energy.

Germany was the first country of the modern era to use DST in 1916 (during WWI) to minimize artificial lighting to save fuel for the war effort.  In the US, President Wilson continued the worldwide trend by signing DST into the law; again, to support the war effort.

The Water Clock inside The Children's Museum of Indianapolis

But the history and usage of the idea goes back centuries.  Ancient civilizations adjusted their daily schedules to the movements of the Sun.  The Romans used water clocks with different scales for different months of the year.  Now that’s an idea I can get behind – gradual changes per month would be easier for me to adjust to rather than this twice a year disruption!

So now that I have the rant behind me, here’s a sneak peak of the two quilts that I have finished quilting recently:

I have four new pantos from Urban Elementz that I have been auditioning.  The two for today are both designed by Sarah Ann Myers and digitized by Patricia Ritter.  The one on the brown quilt is called Alfalfa.  I like that one a lot.  And the one on the red/green quilt is called Retrographics 2.  I like the design, but I will adjust that one to make it more compact the next time I use it.  I wanted a more open design so my children’s quilts wouldn’t be so stiff, but I think the way I did this one is too open.  It does look good, but there will be another time!  More photos when these get bound …

Tuesday Ramblings

Started out this morning doing a load of laundry then dusted furniture all over the house.  Thought about vacuuming but went to sit down until that silly thought passed!  Decided to go upstairs and finish binding this little cutie for Quilts Beyond Borders:

I wanted to try some custom quilting, but have been holding on to this for far too long and decided to go with the meandering just to get it finished and into the hands of a child that needs some comfort.  Done!

Then opened the box of tops from Tammy in TX and paired them up with some potential backings:

These are now wrapped up together and in a stack to be quilted and the brown/gold one on the left is on the frame.  Progress!

Sunday Summary

An on-line friend and I had an email discussion about borders of quilt tops - especially borders that are wavy and ripple and really don't fit properly on the quilt and cause untold angst when trying to longarm quilt that top!

I pulled out a v-e-r-y old quilt top that I had made and laid aside for many years.  And lo and behold, there was an improperly applied border.  I must have learned a lot since the 1990s - lol.  But did I unstitch the border and apply it correctly?  No, I did not.  I receive quite a few quilt tops to quilt for donations to various groups and I decided to practice on my very own *mistake* in case I encounter another in the near future.

So, this is a part of the rippled border - see that waviness?

I just decided to quilt the entire top with a denser pattern than I usually use and expected that to flatten down the border.  This is the result - it worked pretty well:

I think the feathers (Feather Elegance by Christy Dillon) look pretty good on this relatively plain quilt:

Lyn Durbin's YouTube video was the first one I had ever seen where it showed how to quilt and work in excessive fullness and waviness of borders - this is almost magic!  Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPHsBYa36W0

So, this Bars and Strips quilt is on the pile that need bindings (only two left now!).  It will go in the box to Wrap-a-Smile.

And I finished quilting a little Duckie panel, but I didn't get a full photo of it yet.  It will have to wait for its binding until the other box goes out the door - this one is destined for Quilts Beyond Borders.  Here's a sneak preview:

Monday Musings

I was mentioning recently that I needed a teenager to help me navigate my new Kindle Fire – I have it all set up now, but we all know kids are the best at that kind of thing!  And then last weekend, I was wondering what happened to all of the teenagers that used to be in neighborhoods “back in the day”  - the ones that would mow lawns and do odd jobs for extra money … hmm.  I guess they are all now glued to their electronics.  The reason it came to mind was that I was outside digging a hole:

And believe you me, that counts as exercise!  We have mostly clay soil and the hole had to be 18 inches deep.  That pigmy palm is now in the ground and looks nicer than sitting in that pot like it has been for a month.

A quick update on the quilty front.  This one (from this post) is now a completed top:

And this one is bound and waiting for a full box to go somewhere:

And this one is on the frame:

Now for the periodic segment on this blog known as “Seen on My Walk”.  This is a poor picture (no – I won’t complain about my camera again - you've heard enough of my whining) of a pair of Hooded Mergansers:

These are uncommon in my area and very cool to see.  They were skittish and kept going to the far edge of the little wooded pond.  They can raise or lower their hoods.  In the above, his is lowered and hers is partially raised.

This is a better stock image so you can see the male more clearly:

Lovely and wild.