Almost There And On To Somewhere Else

I'm finally quilting Beast. It's been a long haul but in retrospect, very worthwhile. I have gained so much skill with my quilting by challenging myself to create what I envisioned for this quilt. For a while I thought I'd have a really hard time letting it go to the person that commissioned it but I no longer feel that way. I know I can make others in this style if I so choose and they too could push my boundaries in a positive way.

I'm really pleased to be able to share this photo of it in the process of being quilted.


My dear friend Grace of Grace's Cases helped me baste the quilt. Her assistance allowed me to get the basting done in a few hours in one day. I would have taken me days to do so by myself. Take a look at some of her work, she makes and sells some really fantastic knitting and crochet needle cases as well as project bags. The color scheme on this case really appeals to me

And in other big news, my husband got a job as a teacher in Jackson County in southern Oregon. We will be moving to either Grants Pass or Medford at the end of September. He starts work this Friday, 8/26/2011 but I'll be in Beaverton packing up our home. I'm going to miss my local friends terribly but right now the plan is for me to come visit quarterly for a few days so that I can continue to see some of the same doctors so I can very slowly transition to doctors down there if need be. I certainly have enough friends and family members I can stay with! We're hoping to find a three bedroom place so that we have a dedicated guest room.

I Can Taste It

This quilt is so close to being done I can taste it. See this photo? That's the border blocks waiting to be sewn!

I haven't shown you the side blocks yet, have I? Well, here's one set.

 And just for giggles, a shawl I finished. It's made of one skein of acrylic. Yes, I know the yarn snobs reading this are now horrified, but there's something to be said for machine wash and dry when your dogs like to snuggle in your lap and burrow under your shawls.

I Do Windows

The greenery has been done for a while and now it's been house beams and today it was windows! Yes, I do windows. Fabric ones, that is. My windows in my home sadly, have not been done. The patio door is covered in doggie noseprint. I figure it the noseprints add character to my home and let people know that cuddles, play and love with the dogs is more important than housecleaning. Well, that and I don't like bending down that far. I digress.

Here are the windows. I have yet to trim the stray threads from moving from pane to pane. And of course, I ran out of bobbin thread when there was less than 3" remaining to be stitched. Murphy and his laws are not welcome but apparently they're not polite and come around anyway.










In other news, JR has been at NELA (his assigned location through AmeriCorps) since early September and he is kicking ass and taking names. NELA is Northwest Education Loan Association and they help anyone of any age and any educational or financial status find money for college. He is specifically involved in finding students that could use their services, finding volunteers to work with the students, though he does a lot of other things. It's the first paying job he's had where he gets an extreme sense of satisfaction. I am so thrilled with it. He also enjoys the company of his coworkers a lot.

What I personally have found interesting is that it's families with middle and lower level incomes that are least likely to apply for financial aid whereas the higher income families almost always do. He runs into a lot of people whose incomes would probably fall in what's considered middle class and they think they won't get any scholarships or financial aid when that is not the case. The families with even less financial resources often aren't aware of financial aid for school. He does just as much education as he does recruiting.

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.