Amaryllis

I planted my amaryllis bulbs in my flower beds last summer then dug them up and put them in the garage for the winter.  I usually pot them up in January or February so I can have blooms in the late winter but forgot about then until the first of April.  I have two bulbs, one that bloomed last year and is the first one to bloom this year.  It is peach colored and the blooms are larger than one of my hands with my fingers spread as wide as I can.  The blooms are huge and so beautiful!
The flower stems came up so fast and is so pretty blooming sitting in my family room window.  This photo shows only two of the blossoms open but now there are 4 open with another one to go, all on this one stem.This amaryllis flower stem is probably 2 feet tall and even though it is planted in a heavy pot the stem was really leaning over.  It was leaning about 45 degrees and was threatening to un-pot itself.  I first backed a chair up to it gently keeping it in an upright position.  Of course the chair blocked the view so had to figure out something else.My solution was to tie a length of yarn to the window screen clasps.  So far that is working for this one.  The other isn’t nearly as tall but not bloom quite yet either so will watch it for leaning problems too.  You can see the replacement heifer pen in the background across the driveway.  (These are heifers that are 1 year old and will become cows next year and are called replacement heifers as they will replace old cows that John will cull from the herd.)  They have to be kept in a different pen than the cows that are having calves as they still remember nursing and will find their mothers and try nursing, often succeeding, robbing milk that is needed by the new calf.
This is the other amaryllis that is getting close to blooming.  Last year the bulb that I bought didn’t bloom and was supposed to have a red flower  so I am wondering if it will be red or another peach one.  Time will tell.  I hope it is blooming by the time I go to Paducah.

(As you can tell I wrote this before I left for Paducah and forgot to post it.  Yes, they both bloomed before I left  and were exactly the same color.  Drats!  As I am writing this both bulbs shot up another flower stalk and are ready to bloom again.  I will have to look for a red one when they go on sale near Christmas this year.)
Until Later,
Lynn

Stitching the Design and Removing the Water Soluble Film

The last blog repeat, this time from November 20, 2011.  Wanted to follow up right away and not make you click back links to read.  Just ignore if you are not interested in re-reading a past post.

I used a shiny gold colored thread and followed the lines on the water soluble film as best I could.  I did find it made the edge of the quilt a little stiff so I wobbled every once in a while.  Of course I might have wobbled anyway as I am not an expert machine quilter but why not use that as an excuse – ha, ha!

Since the water soluble film was quite heavy it didn’t want to tear off the stitches.  I didn’t want to wet the entire film to remove it so came up with an alternate method.  I first used a regular paint brush and a cup of water and just painted the lines of stitching.  The plastic could be lifted off the un-stitched areas slick as could be.  As I was using the paint brush I remembered I bought a Yasutomo Niji Waterbrush at Paducah that I had never used with the water color pencils also unused.    (Must get them out and actually use them soon.)  I dug the brush out of my drawer of miscellaneous quilt stuff and put it to work.  It was nice not to have to dip my brush into water all the time, just had to give this waterbrush a little squeeze to get more water into the bristles.
To fill it you unscrew the top and squeeze the barrel while holding it under water.  As the brush gets dry the soft plastic barrel is squeezed to re-saturate the brush.  I just painted the stitching lines and that was enough to melt the plastic so the rest could be removed with the small hemostats I used to grab the pieces to remove them.

Of course there are tiny bits left but when I wash this quilt the rest should all dissolve and wash away.  This removal took a little time but really wasn’t too bad, especially when I did it while watching TV.  I had a little mess of tiny pieces to vacuum up around my chair when I was finished though.

After getting all the plastic film off the quilt borders I examined my stitching.  The parts that were really squiggly and wiggly I removed and re-quilted them.  I traced the original stitching lines with that same white chubby crayon that comes off when ironed to mark where the stitching would be re-stitched. 
The next step I will take when all the boo-boos are fixed is to echo quilt around my feathered designs.  I will be using black thread so it doesn’t detract from my feathers and make the feathers stand out more.  I am thinking this may take a while and right now I don’t know how many rows I will be doing until I actually start stitching it.  Don’t look for a report on that stitching as I will probably keep the rest a secret until the unveiling in May 2012.  I know, it is unfair to get teased about this quilt and not get to see it and if I knew for sure none of quilt guild members read this blog I would be more open about showing everything right now.

This has been a fun quilt to work on so far.  Have been thinking about what I want to do next but right now have no idea.  I could start working on the program I am going to give for my quilt guild in January – Tips and Tricks for Making Bags/Purses.  I have lots of ideas and things I want to show and tell about but need to get it all organized and probably should start soon.  I want to make samples, compile lists of resources for patterns, and relay other tips and tricks I have picked up when making bags.  I like doing programs as I always learn so much so volunteer to give programs on something I want to know more about.  Our guild has only about 30 members and have a variety of programs but can't afford to bring in big name quilters so have a lot of member given programs.  They cover a big variety of subjects and everyone appreciates the work put in to prepare.  The more I type about this program the more I am convinced I had better start as time will go quickly the next couple of months.

 Until Later,
Lynn

Transferring the Quilting Lines

Here is another repeat blog post from November 14, 2011  where I shared the border marking techniques and tools I used.


Yesterday I showed you the design I am going to use on the border quilting and today I am going to share how I got that design onto the black basted quilt border.  I thought about making a stencil but didn’t want the work of cutting all those channels so came up with another idea.I cut a piece of water soluble plastic like material and laid it over the quilting design I had drawn.  I don’t know what the brand name of this plastic film is but have had it a long time and think I remember buying it in the machine embroidery section of the fabric store.  It is heavier than Solvy, another product that looks like clear plastic and dissolves in water.I marked the design with the Chubby Crayon by Miracle Chalk.  It feels like a crayon, marks white marks on fabric or this plastic and the website says has chalk in it too that will disappear with heat from an iron.  I don’t think I need it to disappear since I am marking on the plastic but didn’t want to use a regular crayon in case some marks might transfer over to the black fabric.

Transferring the Quilting Lines VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I taped the plastic stuff (sure wish I could remember what it is called) to my newsprint design and traced the design with the Chubby Crayon.  I drew the outside registration marks with a pink permanent marker (follow the arrow to see the line) to make it easier to line up straight on the border.  You can see the marks after I put a purple folder under the plastic.

I used safety pins to attach the plastic to the border, centering it as I pinned.  I did remove the hand basting on that black border as I wouldn’t be able to get it out before crossing over it and stitching it down.

I did cut the corner design off and positioned it exactly on the corner of the border as it was just a little off and I can extend the quilting lines to get it all connected I hope. 
I have all 4 sides pinned and ready to quilt and am anxious to find out if my “great idea” will turn out like I hope it will.  I do have it pinned down pretty flat so hope I don’t get any tucks or pleats.  I will let you know how the quilting goes on this border right away and won’t make you wait until the big reveal in May.


Until Later,
Lynn

Quilting Designs for the Borders

This is a re-run of the November 12, 2011 blog post to refresh you as to how I planned the outside border quilting designs………
I know I should have figured out what I wanted to quilt in the borders of my Guild Panel Challenge before I basted and quilted the center but I was just too impatient and figured I would deal with it later.  I got the middle quilted and then came to a complete stop when I didn’t know what to quilt in this approximately 6” wide border.  (I worked really hard to get those wiggly stripes in the black fabric to match on the corners too.)  I wasn’t sure how I would even mark the designs I did come up with but I decided I wanted a curvy border so set about getting my curves figured out and drawn on to long pieces matching the border lengths.  I keep a end roll of newsprint I got from the local newspaper office for free to draw my designs on.  Check it out to see if your newspaper office has these end rolls for free or little charge. You can cut off large pieces of paper to use to draw long border designs, quilting designs, applique designs or for kids to draw and color on. I started out drawing the number of sections each border would have and drew a gentle curve to be the center spine of my design.  I had several copies of each of these borders to sketch ideas on in pencil with the spine drawn in a dark black marker.  As you can see I was thinking of curl back parts on the design.  I had several design ideas and tweaked and tweaked the design until I came up with my final design.

Design Ideas For Quilting VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here are the final border designs, drawn out with black and orange marker.  As you can see I abandoned the back curls and I only drew only half the border as the other half is just the same only reversed. I do like the design and tomorrow I will show and tell you how I got this design transferred to the black border of the basted quilt so stay tuned.
 
Until Later,
Lynn