Hand Quilting and Other Stuff

I know I said I wasn't going to hand quilt the Amish Bars quilt, but I was wrong. I was afraid I didn't quilt well enough, but actually it's coming along pretty nicely. Pat at work, who does fabulous hand quilting, said start with something small, so I did. She is a stab quilter and I find I am not, although going around some of the curved pieces I am stabbing, just because I can't get my stitches small enough if I don't. Since the back is black and I am using black thread, it doesn't show if it's uneven on the back. I figure another couple of weeks of afternoon quilting and it will be done. I'm really enjoying the process too; it's very relaxing.

There is also a picture of a soap saver I crocheted yesterday. I really like it, and since I buy soap on Etsy it's pretty expensive and I'd like to use every bit. It only took a little less than 1/2 a ball of Lily Sugar and Cream cotton. I'll probably make a few for my Etsy store too, they work up really quickly.

The last picture is of an Amish quilt I'd like to make. I saved the picture from some where; possibly E-bay and I've always wanted to make it. Strictly speaking, it may not be Amish because of the white used, although I know the modern Amish will use white in quilts that are for selling to the tourist community. Anyway, I'll probably replace the white with a light grey. I need to go through my solids and see what I have and what I might need to buy. It's a project for sometime later though, I'm not in a hurry.

Must Be Spring!

Well, we went fishing twice in about 14 hours; Saturday evening at the pond in Lombard by Chris', and then this morning at Cricket Creek. I caught 6 fish last night; all of them bass, all of them small but big enough to qualify as first bass of the year! John caught one, and Chris caught a couple of sunfish so no one got skunked. This morning Chris caught a crappie but John and I caught nothing. We stopped at Westmore Woods on the way to take him home and didn't catch anything there either but the season has just begun and I'm off to a really good start.
Siobhan is in New York for an undetermined length of time with Melissa; she applied for a part time job. Even if she decides to come home in a few weeks she will have at least made some money while she was there. I miss her, so I'll just have to bug John more instead.
And now, because it's spring and bluegrass is in the air, here's one of my favorite bands, Yonder Mountain String Band doing Sideshow Blues. The video isn't the best, but the sound is!

Night Out

Chris's band played at Gameworks last night, they opened for another band and it was lots of fun. They were off on a couple of things, but by and large they were pretty good. Plus it was just fun to get out, Sio came, and Garry and Jamie, and Richard and some of his friends and just a lot of people Chris knows. I took some pictues and some video, the video wasn't very good, but the pictures are. The 2nd band was good, too; they were called Misbehavin', they were pretty much a 70's rock cover band. The singer was a girl, and boy could she nail Janis Joplin; she really sounded a lot like her. We stayed til they ended and by the time we got home it was at least 2; that's a really late night for me! Anyway, Sio and I both think we should go out more often; her Chris doesn't like to go so she wants us to go with her.

I made this apron yesterday. I like it so much I might make another one for me. I got a set of curtains at Salvation Army for $4, this is made from one of the panels. It was long enough that I cut the top of the panel off in 3 1/2" strips and used them for the waistband and ties. It only took about and hour, and I still have the other panel and the valance left.

Amish Bars Quilt

I made this Amish Bars wall hanging or baby quilt the other day; it was inspired by an antique Amish quilt.There looks like there is a spot on the maroon stripe but there isn't; it's some sort of crazy reflection. I'm going to machine quilt it; I picked out a few quilting designs and I'm going to make cardboard quilting stencils this afternoon. I'd like to get better at hand quilting, but don't think I'm going to on this project. I do like it a lot though; I'll post pics after I've finished it.

I guess they've discovered 4 billion barrels of oil in North Dakota and Montana ( I think); it's part of the Bakken field which I heard of before. I'm still not clear on the details; I haven't seen much about it. 4 billion barrels only takes us through about 200 days at our current consumption rate anyway; however it seems to extend up into Canada and I haven't heard about any figures there. If it's easily recovorable and there's a lot of it across the border it could buy some time while we are figuring out new ways of doing things. However, I'm thinking it's kind of a non-story at this time because while 4 billion barrels sounds like a lot, it really isn't. We currently consume 20 million barrels of oil a day in the US, even with the higher prices of gas, so until I hear something else I'm not going to get excited about it.

Love This Video!

Here's a great video of Karen Matheson and Fiona Kennedy.

Please Watch This

Excellent French documentary; all about Monsanto and what they don't want us to know.

Projects!

I have been working on several projects. I crocheted some very cute headbands out of yarn left over from other projects; Holly is wearing one. I think they are cute and are really nice take along projects that don't take long. I made this one while I was waiting for mom at one of her physical thereapy appointments. I also crocheted a cute open work hat that Sio has on. It's kind of hard to see in the picture. Then I finished another shawl, this one is crocheted using 2 strands of yarn held together; one is Wool-Ease in Denim Twist, the other is a recycled light blue wool blend yarn. Sio saw it yesterday and said it was a bit plain, so I started adding a fringe last night while I was watching tv after work. My last yarn project is a little cardigan I started from a book called Knitting for the First Time by Vanessa Ann. I finished the back already; I had to increase the width by adding stitches on either side using a cable cast on which was a new skill for me. I started the front right side yesterday; I have a custom order that I'm working on for a trade I'm doing on Etsy, as soon as I finish it I'll get back to the sweater. It's a toddler size 2; I might give it to Sio to send to South America with her hats. It's knit from a cotton/acrylic/wool blend yarn I recycled from a thrift store sweater I got for 99 cents; it was all ribs and cables so there's a TON of yarn.
I have a baby blanket I started quilting, too. I was originally going to make a tablerunner, but I then I thought this would be really nice as a blanket for a baby girl.