Lemon Tree Tales

Final Quilted Swap Is Done!

 

At last my final quilted swap is finished and off on its journey via the postal service. I used perle cotton to hand quilt it (the center and first two borders were made by others in the swap). I can't show the entire little quilt so that its owner will have some surprise when she opens up the package.

This took me so much time to do. Not so much actual time spent working on it, although it did take more than doing some channel quilting by machine. No, it's more that I couldn't squeeze enough time in the day to get to it. But I'm glad of it because the cause for my time crunch is a new job! Yay!

I've been fortunate to land a job doing layout for a magazine. And what's more, they have absolutely no problems with me taking time off to go to the races every couple weeks. Isn't that great! Plus I get to use my computer design skills. So hang on while I figure out my new schedule. I have a few other things to show you soon.

First Sewing Lessons

My friend let me borrow her young daughter, Miss L, for the afternoon so that I could teach her how to sew a pillowcase. I googled pillowcase tutorial and chose to use Kirsten*can's because she had a very convenient one page download. To make this lesson as smooth as possible I chose three fabrics based on Miss L's color preferences. We'll go to the fabric store for another lesson.

Miss L ironed the fabric while doing an excellent job of keeping her fingers well away from the heat. I taught her about the rotary cutter but explained that it was very dangerous and that an adult should do that part. (She is after all only eight, or will be within a week.) After I trued up the edges I handed her the ruler and let her measure and mark the cutting line. She cut that with scissors and then it was on to the good part - the sewing machine! Fortunately mine has a speed control which we set to the slowest speed. Towards the end Miss L requested that it be sped up a little. She was doing well so we sped it up a tiny bit.

Yes, there was a tiny mishap of sewing a fold into the pillowcase. That's okay because we then learned how to use a seam ripper. Of course the most important lesson was that it's not a big deal to mess up because it can be fixed.

By the end of the afternoon Miss L had a fantastic looking pillowcase. (I serged the inside seams once she had finished her sewing.) Don't you think that it looks great?!

Backyard quilt show

It was a banner weekend for quilts here at Casa di Limone. Not one, but two quilts were delivered by the friendly neighborhood mailman. First I received my quilted placemat from Lynn. Isn't it cheerful? The colors are very bright and primary and oh so much fun. It'll be a great way to start our day with breakfast placed on top of it. Thank you Lynn!!! You can see the other quilted placemats here at the flickr pool.

Next arrived my Spring Fling Round Robin 3 quilt. I pieced the center and sent it off to our quilt hostess, Margaret. She promptly sent it on its way to Judith in the Netherlands to work on the 1st border. Then Judith sent it to Jen in Finland for the second border. Jen then sent it to Alicia in Washington State for quilting and finally it found its way back home here in California. I love having pieces of artwork that have traveled the globe. Thank you Judith, Jen, Alicia and Margaret!!!

Quilted Placemats

Okay, I'm terrible about waiting to show you pictures of sneak peek items. These should be arriving to Lynn on Monday as part of the flickr Placemat Quilt Swap. I had a lot of fun making these. I've been eager to try out my new Easy Dresden ruler by Darlene Zimmerman. What fun! You should try it out too.

Orange Placemat front

 

Orange Placemat back

Blue Placemat front

Blue Placemat back

Blue spiral

It was too hard deciding which colorway to make so I opted for the much easier route of making two. Besides, it was so quick to cut out those Dresden blades and sew them in that long chain.

Another sneak peek

Some more sneak peeks until it can be revealed. Happy Friday everyone!

Sneak peeks

This is part of what I managed to get done in the past week. It's in the mail so I can't show too much ... maybe a few more peeks later on.

This looks so pretty hanging on the lemon tree.

Waiting to be pressed open.

Even the littlest scraps look pretty when gathered together. These remind me of those origami cranes.

4th of July 2009

It's been a long trip, but I'm finally rested from last weeks' adventure to Portland, OR. We left Monday evening in Box++ (that's our used RV) and spent the night at a rest stop just before Mt. Shasta. We wanted to see it in the daytime and was well rewarded with gorgeous views and deer ... LOTS of deer. From there we headed to Salem, OR to the KOA campground ... along the way we stopped so that Steve could work. Gotta love computers and free wi-fi at the rest stop!

The next day we squeezed in a trip to the Evergreen Space and Aeronautics Museums to see the Spruce Goose. The last time that we saw this was on a trip before we were married. They've since grown and have many great exhibits. I highly recommend this one.

Then it was a frantic drive to Portland International Raceway for another race weekend. We had to arrive by 3pm in order to cross the race track to the inner paddock before the drag races started. Fortunately we made it with a mere twenty minutes to spare. Yikes, that was close.

Wow, can I just say that I never imagined that the weather could get that hot in Portland! Hot! Hot! Hot! Thank goodness for air conditioning in Box++. In between races that's where I was with my rotary cutter and a bag of fabrics to cut. Oh and I was crew chief for these races. (That just meant that I checked tire pressures on the hot pits and made sure that Steve and Dave were safely buckled in their Spec Racer Ford race cars.) Great trip!

Yes, that's a piece of the Berlin Wall! Never thought that I'd see that. It brings up memories of college and intently reading the international section of the newspaper.