The water has arrived!

Here are the photos I promised a mere 14 days ago, lol! The lake has finally been filled and now all that remains is to add the gazebo with the outdoor fireplace and more foliage. Then all the components of the centerpiece will be done. I'm posting the photos sequentially to the construction process.


Grass, the retaining wall and some barkdust.

I realized there was barkdust around the house foundation so I added that in as well as the rocky shoreline of the lake.


Finally, the lake itself. I painted the lake fabric just as I did the sky fabric. Believe it or not, the water was much more challenging than the skyline. The paint looks much darker when it's wet. This piece of fabric was first painted with water diluted layers of yellow and blue, then let dry, then painted again with a second layer of straight paint. I added a teensy bit of shimmer to the first layer but it isn't apparent after having added the second layer of paint.

I will be thread painting to add some more detail to the entire picture. Actually to all three, both this piece and the two fish. I still am going to add more trees around the side and bottom of this piece to give it a more framed look with a bit of an overhead view.

Small sections of my sewing tables are starting to become visible again as more of the fabric is landed on the project instead of waiting its turn for placement. Instead of pieces of fabric spread out so I can grab what I need as I need it, there will soon be spools of thread and wound bobbins of differing colors as I thread paint the project. I bought a second bobbin case for my machine so I can switch the cases instead of taking out a bobbin, loading a new one, adjusting tension etc.

I did decide not to trapunto any part of the house block. Because there are so many small pieces for the foliage, I'd not be able to trim out the batting inbetween leaves. I do think I'll still trapunto the fish though not until after I've secured all pieces with monofil and then thread painted them.

Closer

I determined that it takes roughly 1 hour to make 3" of vertical progress on the quilt. No pics today. I took some, 'cause I've made 9" of progress since the last entry, but I haven't loaded them on the computer yet.

I get a little more excited as it gets closer to being finished. I'm no longer at the love/hate stage, thank goodness, and I no longer am torn on it leaving my hands. I will take a bazillion pictures of it before I wrap and ship it and then be grateful it's gone. I have learned so much making this thing and it has been a very positive experience.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to quilt I go (not exactly)

More on the Commissioned Quilt

Once again my joints are acting up enough that standing is a real PITA. Thus, very little quilting is happening. I've tried ironing when sitting down. It's scary. I don't recommend it. At least I took some better pics of the house in the bass quilt than the ones I originally wanted to post so this should give you a better idea of the progress I've made.

Here are photos that give a closer view of the foliage on each side. JR thinks I should add some evergreens but in the pics Mike sent me, I only saw a small number alongside the driveway so I'm skipping it.
Here's the left side of the house, and below is the right side. You probably figured that out though, didn't you? I knew you were smart!

You Can Easily Help the Foundation for Ichthyosis
Yes, really! I would never lie to you.

F.I.R.S.T. is the Foundation for Ichthyosis and Related Skin Types. Their site is located at http://www.scalyskin.org/. They, with the help of financial donors and lots of fundraising by members, fund research for ichthyosis. So few of us have it that unless we fund it, no one else does any because it's not profitable. Any advances that have been made that help ichthyosis in the past have only been because some dermatologist has thought it might be helpful though the treatment in question was created for some other issue.

FIRST was able to join http://goodsearch.com to get some assistance. If you go to Goodsearch's page, you will see two boxes. The first box is where you can enter whatever you're searching fo, the second box is where you enter the name of the charity you wish the sponsors to contribute to. If you start typing in "Foundation for Ichthyosis," it will supply the rest of FIRST's name and their location, which is North Wales, PA. The search engine plugs in to Yahoo's search engine, so it is rather thorough.

FIRST is also a member of the United Way, so if you work for a company that gives matching contributions, please think of us!

I've made a few small quilts for their charity raffles over the years but I'm thinking the quilts might raise more money if I auction them over the internet. However, with the amount of quilting I've been getting done over the past two years, Lucifer might be wearing longjohns if I'm going to get them done before the next FIRST conference in July of 2010.

Of course, you can always contribute money directly. Here's that link just in case! http://www.scalyskin.org/form-gift.cfm

Facebook vs. MySpace

I started an account on MySpace a long time ago but I rarely ever use it. A friend bugged me to try Facebook so I did. I like it. I had looked at it a while ago and it didn't seem very user friendly to me but either they changed it or my attitude did as now I find it easy to use. It's amazing how many people their system reconnects you with by cross-referencing dates, locations, and organizations such as schools and employers. I'm having fun with it. If you would like to see some additional photos that don't have anything to do with what I'm working on, click this link. The address is huge since it takes you straight to my page. Here's the whole thing in case your browser doesn't take you there when you click the link. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=53118&id=529942161&saved#/profile.php?id=529942161&ref=name

Here's the evidence!

I loaded some pictures from my camera to the laptop this morning so people can see that yes, I actually do make the stuff I talk about.

Here's the edging I'm tatting for a dress I've already sewn. The edging is for the neckline and sleeve hems. For those of you who are familiar with tatting, that's a Clover brand shuttle I'm using and I believe the thread is size 10.
I finally got the house for the bass quilt finished. I've done a lot more work than is shown on this photo but the more recent photos had horrible lighting. I'll try again later. I painted the background fabric and the rest of the fabrics are commercial prints. The fabric for the lake is also hand painted but it's obviously not in this picture yet. I had really wanted to have this quilt finished before Dec. 2008 but that's obviously not happened. I have such a love/hate relationship with this quilt. The "hate" is that it's taken sooo long to do but honestly I will be sad to see it leave my hands though it's got a wonderful home waiting for it. The house pictured is the home of the people that commissioned it.

Lastly, here is a different dress I'm working on. I altered a jumper pattern from Simplicity by lowering the neckline on front and back so that I could insert the button down shirt. It's a way for the dress to have full sleeves without as many layers as the parts of the shirt that would be under the dress are trimmed away. It's been hanging on Babette, my dress form for probably close to a week now but when I do finally get around to it, it shouldn't take long to finish.


The knit fabric was something I've had in my stash for a long time, and the shirt was a recent aquisition from the Goodwill Outlet. I love that place. They sell things by weight so I go in, get a cart and pile in anything I think I can recycle into clothing or use in a quilt or some other useful thing. I once found a very well loved obviously hand made quilt. Things are extremely inexpensive, as they tier the prices. The more weight you purchase, the less cost per pound. I took it in to the quilt appraiser and she said it was from the 1890's and I think it cost me all of $2.00! I suspect a family was cleaning out an older relative's home and didn't know what they had. Sadly, there is no label on that quilt so I have no history on it.

Thanks for looking at my photos! I must say I really admire the people that post weekly or even more often and always have some wonderful eye candy on their blogs.