STILL STITCHING SUNDAY

                                                    A quiet Sunday afternoon; 
watching the Red Sox, 
and stitching on Pomegranates...
Hooking up with kathy's quilts for some Slow Sunday quilting...
hugs, Julierose, La Blageuse (needling-euse)

RAIN AT LAST and USE IT UP

  

                                MY  HYDRANGEA LIKED THE SATURDAY RAINS.....

                                                   and....WE SO NEEDED THIS RAIN...

                                                   Blooming....

These will turn a pink-ey bronze at the Fall arrives--I hope to dry them for Winter...

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And on the "Use It Up" front:

Here are the leftover blocks from my Paris wall hanging...
this will be a 
table topper...

I have decided not to put these away--(leftovers) ---but just keep on 
making blocks until these strings are gone or there are  not enough big 
pieces to make these 6" blocks below............

The dark blue in the basket and the lights in the little empty Upton Tea box
are the only blue and light strings I have on hand....

I spent most of Saturday sorting out the other colors and bagging them up..
Enough already--no more storage...

The little container on the top right holds really small pieces that I cannot use
on these blocks...I hope to sew some "made" fabric with them and thus not have 
anything leftover...no orts, sports ;))))
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Severe humidity today feels like 109 here...unheard of...
hurray for AC..!!!

Hugs, Julierose, La Blageuse (still stripping) 

SNAIL SUNDAY (and A Sad Tale)

Joining Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching...my "Snail" day...setting up the 2nd
set of side triangles for hand quilting....

You can see the 4 big triangles in the center are done....

I am sitting out on our deck for early morning coffee...ahhhh...
the air has finally begun to cool off and the humidity is tolerable...

I will be quilting in 20 minute segments out here today--until
1:00 Red Sox Game time...(we DO have NESN here* see below)

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Tonight's dinner will be bbq'd hamburgers on water rolls with cheese and sliced tomatoes (onions for Chef Thom) and I have  made my German potato salad 
to "go with" which is chilling right now...

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and now for your reading pleasure (?) :
                     "A SAD TALE OF WOE" follows 
                          (long story, be warned)*

As i say:          It is so great to be home! ;)))))
                       Herein lies the story why.....

 We had tickets for the Tanglewood Concert this past Friday night--and a reservation at Jimminey Peak Time Share to stay overnight 
and come home Saturday morning--a mid-summer treat...


                                          OR
                              SO WE THOUGHT:!!;(((
                      (File under "The Best Laid Plans")

When we got to the parking lot for Tanglewood at 6:00 to beat the crowds,
we were told to shelter in our car as we were in a severe weather threat...
we could not go in (even though we had reserved seats in the Shed 
for the concert, nor could we go to use the facilities;000...) 

So, we sat and sat in the heat and huge thunder boomers and chain lightning...for a whole hour....still no entry...;((((

and radar on Thom's phone showed storm after storm 
until after 10 pm....
So, sadly, we decided (like many others) to forego the concert 
and drive back to our lodgings...so depressing after a long travel 
day and much anticipation of a live concert....

But, hiking up our "doom and gloom" spirits........

We thought, well, we can sit and watch the Red Sox game in our
room --and have a snack and a beer....(and use the facilities!!)

Now, keep in mind this is Massachusetts after all--home of the Red Sox
.....And
nope--NO NESN  (their channel) --no game available...at all..........
Boooooo....

And so, we dejectedly
decided to just call it a night--and then--

found that the AC was SO LOUD and RIGHT by the bed; 
that 2 am found us up and wandering around--sleepless...
and not Happy Campers..(ya think?) 
SO...........
Right then and there we just looked at each other and began 
packing ourselves up and went home.

Thom drove in the teeming rain and foggy roads--and just exhausted 
and disappointed we arrived home--(of which it is said: "there's no place 
like home"-----and how true is that!!)

And so ends our travel saga-nightmare, ....
What a debacle...plus it wasn't $$$ a cheap getaway either....the room was
expensive and the concert tickets were front section!! gulp!!$$

No more overnights for us...we will be doing day trips for the foreseeable
future.......we are too old for this folderol!!
(If you read through this depressing tale, i commend you;)
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Hugs, 
Julierose, La blageuse (glad to be home-euse)

"I'VE NEVER BEEN TO PARIS"

A FLIMSY:                   "I'VE NEVER BEEN TO PARIS"

Stage One: just side borders---not enough...so I added a bottom and
a top strip using more Van Gogh fabrics pictures in the centers....

AND this cute print of a Parisienne....(keeping in the Van Gogh mode)

                               La Mademoiselle De Paris...
                                           avec un beret

                           Parapluie..(umbrella in the rain)

                            Tres Chic  ....rain never stopped a shopping spree.

I so enjoyed utilizing these 3 leftover blocks (who would have thought
               they would turn out to be my own dream of Paris???)

This is what I love about working with quilt fabrics in a free way....without
a net (pattern) so to speak....

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This quilt is both a "strip" quilt and a "coin" quilt (what do you 
say Ann? click to go to her blog).

I love using long strips of muslin to sew on...
I got that bright idea from looking through a book by 
Allie Aller and Valerie Bothell titled: 
                                                   "Quilting...just a little bit crazy" 
which details methods of Crazy Quilting...
(I bought this book of instructions to help making my own little 
Crazy Quilt hanging last Summer)-- AND
right before I fell asleep the other day.............. I thought:

                                      WHY NOT???? 

This is why I L O V E, love, {heart} my quilting books; 
you always find something to use as a  springboard 
for your own pieces; even if it's a method, exact copy or 
simply an extension of a nebulous idea swirling around in your 
brain.....
SO....................................from this:

                                                     
                                                  TO THIS:

And...
hubster wants me to use this as a wall hanging; so I will now have
to choose a dark binding I think;  I don't want to lose those edges of the light strips too much....

BACK into the stash--and FYI:
this was all made from fabrics on my shelves...how
great is that...;))))) 
(and in 20 minute segments, Cathy! click to go to her blog)
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This won't be the last of these blocks either--I have 4 more to make into something....(like I've said before, I always make many more than I need as
you never know which ones will work well together in this scrappy style).

I have no idea where they will take me...but I am excited about strip quilting in this manner...and my next journey....

Hugs to all from hot and sultry SE CT
Julierose, (La Blageuse-Francaise)

LEFTOVERS

Remember this string star piece.....

Well, I have quite a few squares leftover....and in keeping with my "finish it up"
mode I am working on this piece.....

I sewed 12 little blocks together for a table runner...but it is not really big enough
as it stands here.....

SO.....
I am making some string strips for the borders....using:

these leftover strings....from the star quilting project...(I always seem to make many 
more than I end up using  )

and I've finished one strip (in two 20 minute sessions yesterday) ;)))

I have been hoarding  uhhh saving these special little pieces....

Little art prints...

Using leftovers and some French script fabrics
to piece this long string strip for either side...

I am figuring that since the original "ojo di dios" blocks are made on muslin, I want the borders to also be the same weight...and so, these strips--

And since the center block is light and the rest are darkish, I am making the strips light on either side and will do dark top borders...

I really love strip quilting and am going to be trying to use leftover strips for a while as my method of choice....
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This idea came to me during an afternoon nap- (say what?)
-I often fall asleep thinking about my projects...what is it they say?

 "Sleep on it"...works for me!!;)))

That's the story around here....
hugs, Julierose, La Blageuse (stripping-euse)

FRIDAY FROLICS

1)
Fourth Lib Basket piece...finished handles and sewed last 2 baskets together..picked out a border
stripe from an older fabric for it; and stopped...yay....
THEN

2)
Older nine patches--"just a suggestion??" put these on the wall.....

3) leftover blocks from another project...to be sewn together....a Winter-ey piece..with
light centers (also have dark centered ones....sewed just 2 and stopped again.....

4)
I have no idea what I was thinking when putting this together...and I still have some pieces
left--maybe a bigger piece?? (Pulled out box with chosen fabrics  and pattern notes)

5)
some four patches with a possible small strippy piece ( light greens--Springtime theme?)

6)
Pinks sewn to leftover strips...40 of 'em--no idea where this was headed...perhaps two little play
dolly quilts for the grandgirls???


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SOoooo,
I have begun pulling out the "beginnings" from my drawer of shame.....;)))
These 6 are what I will TRY to stay with (along with my 3rd basket piece which is waiting for backing and batting...on my dining table....)
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HELGA is behaving--repair person said my bobbins were so tightly wound up that they were bulging out and catching that bobbin thread underneath.  He showed me how to wind them using a different
method on my machine (there are 3 ways evidently--do you read manuals--well, I thought I did!!).
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It was really great to get back to sewing this afternoon....I am trying out Cathy's
method of 20 minute intervals of sewing : she's at sane and crazy  She gets enormous and humongous amounts of sewing done...check her out--amazing stuff....

I tried it today and did 45 minutes (well, not 20, but a start) instead of my usual 2-3 hours sewing where I get exhausted, make stupid mistakes and get generally irritated...;{{{ and have to have
a Manhattan....;ooo
(well, I still will have one, I guess...hahaha )
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So, set the timer and work a bit on each project...and do a bit of cutting in between....
Speaking of cutting--I want to make 16-patch Halloween from a MSQ Co layer cake and a Christmas lap quilt 16-patch--
gosh, does it never end?  thankfully ;)))) no it doesn't.
(Singin' "Back in the saddle agin', back where
a quilt is a quilt..." apoligies...;))) )

Hugs Julierose, La blageuse (Finishing up-euse)

SHAMEFUL & THANKS

                             CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS IS MY IRONING BOARD COVER???
I think it's time for a new one....duh....
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LOOK WHAT BARB AT wont-to-bequilter.blogspot.com sent me--a lovely glove to protect
me while rotary cutting...if you go to her blog, you can see how she had an awful accident
while rotary cutting...
(Thank you so much Barb, for thinking of me....I will be definitely using this)

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I am coloring this lovely colorbook page....so relaxing and fun....when not reading or quilting I turn to my coloring for relaxation....
And then......

I have this whole box of 4-patches.....left overs from a swap a few years ago....
now what to make with them all...that is the burning question for today......any suggestions
out there guys?????

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AND.....

Helga began acting up again this morning---- aaargh!!
So, I brought her over to my repair guy,Pete.
And of course, when I got her over there, she behaved beautifully...no chattering or skipping stitches...he had me stitch and looked carefully at the bobbin case, and the bobbins themselves...
Pete was very patient with both me and Helga....
AND
He came to the conclusion after an hour of test sewing, that my bobbins are winding too tightly
and pushing the bobbins out of size  so that they are too large.
so will be winding new bobbins differently...

Helga is now behaving very well..(I think she just wanted to get back at me for sending her 
away for 2 weeks...ya think???) ;0000
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I am planning on continuing with my baskets and
 figuring out all those 4-patches...that is..............
what to do with them...I think something simple like alternating squares....
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Hugs, Julierose (debating-euse)