Sunday, February 23, 2014

housesitters quilt

Before I left in November I completed a quilt I had in my UFO tub for the young couple that were housesitting for us in Kansas that I thought they would like.  The house in Kansas is cool at best and down right cold at times.  I was pretty sure neither one of them had brought enough blankets to stay warm and I was right.

Let's just say the young lady was a prime example of Einstein's comment on stupidity.  She was warned the house gets cold.  She needed to find and put on warmer clothing; and she didn't.  Then she couldn't figure out why she was miserable.  (Walks away mutter under my breath.)

I finished the quilt at the last minute and didn't get any pictures.  So my plans from EQ6 will have to do.



This is the quilt top I cut all the blocks to and didn't make a sample block to find out if the template that was published in the Kansas City Star was accurate.  The block was the Apple Core.  The published template is a quarter of an inch off.  Needless to say I mentally kicked myself because I had been warned to make a sample block and didn't.  So now you have been warned!  The quilt block patterns published in print need to be double-checked, especially old newspapers.

This quilt measures 94" square, each strip is about 5" wide.  The rectangular block pieces were about 2 1/2" wide.  To quilt the pieced strips I used stitch-n-the-ditch.  The borders and long un-pieced strips had a diamond quilted in them.  So for kicks-n-grins I quilted everything with varying shades of purple as that is her favorite color.  I used the thickest batting I had in my stash for the middle layer.

This quilt was a long slog to get finished.  I had to really push myself to stick with it and get it done.  It looked really nice when it was finished and washed.  The quilt puffed up nicely but man-oh-man was it ever a struggle to finish.

I hope everyone has a good day!

Judy

Sunday, February 9, 2014

I'm here, again!


Well, most of the business in Wichita is done.  We left Monday before this on Tuesday:

Sorry about this!  The picture has loaded upside down and I have rotated it in Windows 7's photo viewer, re-saved and can't get it to do what I want it to. :( 


Edit:  2 March 2014  WaaHoo! I finally got the picture to rotate!


With temps hovering around 0.  Hubby and I drove straight through to Alamogordo, NM only stopping for fuel.  We wanted to get south of any ice or snow.  I-40 between Grants and Flagstaff was forecasted to be freezing rain, ice and snow after 4 PM last Monday. So we hurried to get through the mountains above Alamogordo on US54 to avoid any potential bad weather up there.

We got home Tuesday evening; this is how it looks from our balcony.

It is 73, today, and the windows are open.  My sister tells me there is still snow in Wichita and is getting ready to snow again.  I'm glad to have my achy bones back in Phoenix!

I had a stroke of good luck!  Hubby sit down and figured it would cost us an extra $40.00 for him to come and get me above the price of a bus ticket.  Yeah baby! How fast can you get to Wichita?

The tranny looks like it's fixed in the Focus, so now we have to get it inspected and tagged in Arizona.  I need to get an Arizona Driver's License, find banking here, and start looking for more permanent housing.  Then we can head back to Kansas and clean out the storage room we rented.  After that, when we make a run to Kansas it will be to visit family.  We can make it spring or fall when the weather isn't freezing cold or blazing hot.

Hope everyone is staying warm!

Judy