Paducah Here I Come

The first leg of my journey to the AQS quilt show in Paducah, KY starts early tomorrow morning..thank goodness it is finally time to leave.  I am meeting one of my sisters in Nebraska City at 10:00 am. so will need to leave here by 7:30 am.  Like last year we will travel to Kansas City to meet our friend then on to the Columbia, MO area where we will spend the night with our other sister.  Wed. we will leave for Paducah and arrive that afternoon.

My plan to get all caught up on yard work this week didn't happen.  I did get lots of weeding and mulching done but the final mowing of the yard (area outside the lawn) didn't get mowed.

Why you ask?  The reason is I had to completely clean my house from top to bottom and I do mean top to bottom.  OK, here is the short version of the story.  We were having a larger window put in one room in the basement by our young neighbor that works for a carpenter, also helping was his not much older brother.  I am not mad at them for what happened but exasperated that it happened is all.

The plan was to cut the cement wall of the basement for the window opening using a saw that is connected to a water source to keep the dust down from the cutting.  Everything was working well until the saw hit metal rebar reinforcing in the poured concrete basement wall.  After studying what to do they switched to a different saw and didn't realize it was creating a cloud of cement dust that was going throughout the house.

I was inside the house but taking a little nap because I had worked hours hoeing weeds in one flower bed and then using the power weed eater so I was exhausted.  When the neighbor young man alerted me I got windows open as fast as I could to maybe get some of it to go outside and it did clear it out pretty fast....but....there was a coating of dust on all the walls, floors, furniture and anything else sitting around as all the  room doors were open to the sewing room, bedrooms and bathrooms and the stairway door was wide open so the dust just rolled up to cover the upstairs rooms as well as all the rooms in the basement.

I started cleaning at 4pm on Saturday and worked until 10:45 that night, cleaned all Sunday afternoon and cleaned more today.  I had to dust down the walls, vacuum all the floors and furniture, mop the hard surface floors, run curtains and quilts through the clothes dryer to get the dust out of them...and on and on.

I did take time today to finish doing my laundry and getting stuff packed and decided the rooms not finished will just have to wait until I get home.  I do know I NEVER want to have to do all that right before a trip again as it has kind of made it hectic for me....actually I NEVER want it to happen ever again.

One good thing is I am leaving with the majority of my house extremely clean but a couple of rooms still need cleaned yet.

I had hoped to write up a few posts to be published while I was gone but that didn't happen either.  If I can figure it out I might be able to post something from Paducah from my phone.  If not you will have to wait until I get back I guess.

Sorry there are not any photos for this post either.

Lynn

Quilting the Basket of Flowers

Even though this is a pre-printed panel I wanted the applique looking motifs to stand out so outline stitched each one plus quilted some of the details matching the thread to the motif.  I chose to use Bottom Line by Superior Threads in a neutral color to blend into the backing fabric print.The basket has dotted lines to indicate the weave so decided to just quilt on the lines.  I used my walking foot and quilted line after line….then I really looked at what I had done.  Do you see the problem? The fabric was wrinkling in diagonal lines.  I tried quilting the lines from opposite directions and quilting them the same direction and nothing helped.  I had to sit and think what to do since I didn’t want the basket all goofy looking.I decided to try another quilting plan and ripped out all the lines I had already stitched and proceeded to quilt it in a zig zag motion following the lines.  I took the walking foot off the machine and put on the BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator foot) so I would not have to stop and turn every inch.  I admit it wasn’t easy to stay on the lines doing it free hand, and there are places where it got a little wiggly but I didn’t get any of those nasty puckers.

Now doesn’t that look better?

Background quilting is next so stay tuned.

Lynn

Ducklings…So Cute

Our grandsons got three ducklings this spring and we got a chance to see them when we were at their home on Easter.  What cuties!  Of course I mean the grandsons and the ducks of course.Two of the ducks are one variety and one is another but don’t ask me what they are as I don’t know.  The long neck ones might be called "runners" or something like that.  The two that are alike are taller and have longer necks and not quite as yellow as the other one.
My grandson’s cowboy boot makes a good contrast to the yellow ducks and green grass.  He has big feet for a 9 yr. old.  His shoes are larger than mine already.One, two, three...all together.  They were so much fun to watch as they splashed in a pan of water and dug around in the grass for bugs.  I am sure they are already much bigger by now as they grow very quickly.

Lynn

Panel Challenge Borders

I added simple mitered borders to the basket panel.  The gold/yellow print border is 1” finished and the black print was cut 5".   I usually don’t bother with mitering corners but with the black print being a stripe I thought it would add a little more interest to the corners.
This was the only corner where the black stripe print came together perfectly.  The others were not quite so flowing but look OK so I didn’t change the plan.

Lynn