How to deal with Prairie Points on the INSIDE of a Quilt, and the crossover between PERSONAL and PROFESSIONAL

This little quilt has a row of prairie points on the INSIDE of the quilt, separating the body from the border. (Sorry, the row of flying geese is visually distracting here - but I'm sure you can see which are the prairie points.)

Stitch-in-the-ditch along the prairie points to make everything stay flat.  Try to stay on the LOW side of that seam.  Why did this photo decide to load sideways?  I have no idea.  Ask the computer gods.  Grrr.

S.I.D. done.

Now, pin all those little puppies out of your way so you can quilt the border.

Rocket science here.  Quilt the border.  Um, yes.  I am being sarcastic.  As you are choosing the border design, keep in mind that part of it will be buried under those P.P.s.

Release the dragons.  I mean the P.P.s   If you want to get artsy fartsy, these p.p.s make GREAT dragon backbones.

Moving on... quilt the body of the quilt.  This quilt also had a repeat of the prairie point border at the other end, so I did the same process at the bottom of the quilt. 

• S.I.D.
• pin the points out of the way
• quilt the border.

Here we go.  All done and ready for pickup.

Now, I'm going to give you a little peek into my married life.

Floyd is my quilting machine.  He works very, very hard.  But because he's a machine, sometimes things break or wear out.  I am married to a man who can usually fix anything.  However, he is afraid of Floyd.  Don't ask me why.  He's got about 200 lbs. over Floyd. 
Floyd has needed some wiring work for AGES.  DH keeps putting me off.  I had already replaced one of those little telephone jack things, but that didn't fix the problem.  So yesterday was the day that DH had to buckle down and do his thing, because we needed to replace the same plug on the OTHER end of that cable. 

He pulled the back cover off Floyd so he could trace down the cable, which is very challenging, since wires go into a track then up through the machine housing and around several corners where you CANNOT SEE, and of course there are three identical cables.  After every electronics tool and gadget in the civilized world came out, he finally (maybe) decided which cable had the other end.  So I replaced the plug.  But first we had to have a fight over the plug replacement, AFTER I had already cut the plug off.  sigh. So, I got the new plug on eventually after much hairy eyeballing and cursing at each other, then DH put everything back together.  Ha ha ha ha ha... (hysterical laughter).  That did not fix the problem.  Everything had to come apart again. 

More hairy eyeballing and cursing at each other over pins and copper wires and clampy-thingy-tools.  Put ANOTHER new plug on.  Now the wire has no extra play in it - if this doesn't fix it what do we do???  (insert hand wringing, aargh!!)  DH reassembles everything and I give Floyd a whirl.  Can you guess?  Yes.  Not fixed.  (insert curse words).  Well, at least at this point we know (or we THINK we know) that it's not the plug.  It's the wire.  With the constant movement of the machine back & forth and up & down, one of the wee copper wires inside the cable has finally bit the dust and broken.  So, DH takes the machine apart AGAIN and runs a jumper wire from one port to the other port, bypassing the bad wire, and that seems to have the problem on the run.  By now we are speaking to each other, but just barely. 

Somewhere in this timeline, friends had stopped in with coffees and green teas so we had a nice hour long break where we were pretending to get along for the sake of company.  Yeah?  Have you done that?  I'm sure you have.  Later, we went into town for 'senior citizen supper' (anything before 5 pm, in my books) because the food trucks were at the museum.  We both simmered down after some yummy food.  I stopped muttering about him being a stupid asshat.

Anyhow.  Now I will work on one of my own quilts to make sure the jumper cord is indeed fixing the problem.  If that's the case DH will fish a new wire through, that will be identified on both ends with pink nail polish.  I will put the new plug ends on. (for some reason, DH cannot do these.  Unbelievable.  He can do anything else.) 

In all honesty, I have no idea why we can both work with a million other people and get along.  But we cannot work with each other and get along.  Weird.  Is it because he's a middle child?  Is it because I am the baby of the family?  Dunno.  Kiss kiss.  Love you, honey.

9-Patch & Shoofly Quilt, and we're under attack by "The Universe", and a book report

This turned out really pretty.

Motifs in the light areas, straight line quilting in the blue.

Ooh.  I just LOVE that border pattern.  

So.  In the past two weeks the friggin' Universe has decided to come down with annoying frequency on us.

1. the computer exploded
2. my windshield cracked
3. the washing machine quit.  Although DH worked his magic and replaced a part so we are back to wearing clean knickers instead of turning them inside out.
4. the pressure washer was stolen out of the back of the pickup truck
5. one of my crowns (in my mouth, not the one I wear on my head) committed hari kari.

Must.Counter.Negativity.With.Positive.Thoughts.

1. the asparagus has been delightful and plentiful
2. I have the best dog in the world who still makes me laugh when she folds her rubber frisbee in half and stuffs it in her mouth
3. DH brought home Dairy Queen Blizzards yesterday
4. the weather has been absolutely gorgeous - hot & sunny
5. it is finally raining after a month (or more) of mostly drought

Can I quit now?
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The current book, and I'm just lovin' it!!
STATION ELEVEN - link HERE

Says the author:  My fourth novel is about a traveling Shakespearean theatre company in a post-apocalyptic North America. It's also about friendship, memory, love, celebrity, our obsession with objects, oppressive dinner parties, comic books, and knife-throwing. 

Says me:  It seems that I'm really enjoying novels about a future after disaster.  In this case it was a flu pandemic that wiped out most of humanity.  There is not much no blood & gore, but a fair bit of underlying terror that makes me want to keep turning pages instead of going to work or going to bed or cooking supper.  The author is Canadian and much of the story takes place in Ontario.

Scrappy Blue & Gold - and hilarious internet site

Here's a gorgeous scrappy blue & gold quilt.  Yea, I have the best job, ever.

Quilting pattern:  Gypsy Feather by One Song Needle Arts.  Yum.

INTERNET SHORT FORMS
So, there is a quilting forum that I read which should be no surprise to anyone. Someone made the comment "SMH".  Since I have NO IDEA what that means, I went to http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php.  Lemme tell you - it's much more entertaining than reading the phone book, and it could take just as long.  Here is a tiny selection from the "S" category that made me giggle:

SIUP - suck it up pussy
SIUYA - shove it up your ass
SOGOP - shit or get off the pot (which was one of the expressions DH used when he proposed. Yes. Seriously.  Can you see why I snatched him right up? ha ha ha)
STPPYNOZGTW - stop picking your nose, get to work
 Go check it out if you feel a need to jazz up your emails or facebook posts.  :-)

It's up! It's up! and the UFO Challenge update

OMG.  Get your mind out of the gutter.  The MAILBOX is up.

VIEW FROM THE EAST

VIEW FROM THE WEST

UFO CHALLENGE
Sigh.  The challenge quilt for March/April did not happen.  And I'm not explaining it.
May & June - this is still (!) a quilt from the UFO list back in 2011.  Good Lord.  The top was completed in March 2010 so it has marinated quite long enough.  It shall be done.

Hmm.  Speaking of ufos... I really should update the little list on the sidebar, eh?

Sunday's WIP, Red Hat Art, and a few thoughts on housework

Sometimes, feathers are just the prettiest darned things!

My Red Hat group spent Friday night at the local pub.  We're not usually allowed out after dark (ha ha ha) but we made an exception to take a wee art class.  I don't mind doing things badly - there is a quote that I am likely mis-remembering, but it sort of goes "if you want to be good at something, you have to be willing to be bad at it first".

Our teacher set us all up with easels, canvas, brushes, paint, water, and gave us plenty of instructions to get us on our way.  The restaurant provided the wine.  :-)
If you would like to make some art you can contact Brandie through her facebook page.

Sooo... housework.  For about the past six weeks darling hubby has been helping with the housework.  A lot.  After mom died I got way behind schedule on my quilting, which totally stresses me out.  Even though everyone has been very understanding, I know people want their quilts back.  Sooner rather than later.  DH is really good about vacuuming, if I ask him.  He'll wash the floors, if I ask him.  And he'll do the bathrooms, if I ask him twice, and if I ignore the teeth-gnashing.  But dusting?  Uh uh.  Nope.  He will say "what dust?"  Or "maybe after I cut the grass".  Or he could just be blunt and say "not gonna happen".  Anyhow, the past couple of days I've been looking at the dirt piling up on the floors.  I'm close to being back on track, work wise, so I dragged out the vacuum and the dusting paraphernalia.  OMG.  Just in time, apparently - the furniture was all meshed together with cobwebs!  If I'd let it go much longer it would have been the perfect spot to film the next Tim Burton movie.  (shudder)

Fancy Lone Star & Stash Report

I am sure there is a better name than Fancy Lone Star for this quilt,  but I have no idea what it might be.  :-)

Those three outer borders were treated like one and got a border design.
The setting squares were s.i.d. along the outside, and the inside (which outlined the star).

The small inner star was also s.i.d. then quilted with a motif to match the border.  As you can clearly see, straight line quilting finishes off the star.

Cross hatching in the green background talks nicely with the straight line quilting in the star.

Ooh,  Pretty back.

STASH REPORT
Good heavens.  Once again I have a 'not my fault' report.  I was the discussion leader at the last SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators) where the topic was Modern Quilting.  I was given a thankyou gift of 8 m. worth of batik fabrics. I'm not sure what to do with it.  Make a quilt??  ha ha ha...
The other two meters was fabric I purchased at Keepsake Quilting.  We'll call that a souvenir, shall we?

Added this month 10 m.
Added y.t.d.           35 m
Used this month     0.  yup.  big.fat.zero.
Used y.t.d.             48.9 m
Net 2015              -13.9 m  So, I'm still down yardage, which is the important thing, right?

On the GARDENING front, my radishes have popped through the ground, and the volunteer lettuces are visible.  The peas should be out tomorrow - there is a wee bit of green showing but not enough to consider them sprouted.  Now that I've said that the darned birds will eat them all before morning.  (pea sprouts are much tastier than bean sprouts, in case you have never tried them)
And today's big news - I harvested TWO spears of asparagus.  Yay me.  :-)

Folk Art Applique Quilt

This is a lovely hand appliqued quilt... not too big.

Quilting was kept pretty simple.  Quarter inch outlining of the applique and s.i.d. that skinny black border and the sashing.  The inner applique needed a filler, too.

The background corner motif matches the sashing motif.

I love the slightly wonky, very old-fashioned feel to this.

GARDEN UPDATE
Last Sunday I planted:

• peas
• lettuce
• garlic transplanted from where it should not have grown (but did?)
• spinach
• radish
• beets

My wee sprouts in the basement under lights are going gangbusters!  At least the tomatoes and the cabbage are.  I'm still waiting for the basil and the peppers to sprout.  I'm heading off to Margaret's in a half hour for a weekend of stitching & eating.  Oh, and the quilt show in Peterborough.  So I'm leaving DH in charge of the greenery and the dog.  Or is it the dog in charge of DH?  I think hubby already has two invitations for meals while I'm away so there is no worry about him starving.