BEAUTIFUL BARGELLO

Janice S paid me the compliment of sending me one of her superb quilts -- a stunning bargello made from batiks with rich fall colors in them.  I mused over it for a day and realized that there is no appropriate pattern for a bargello that isn't linear, like stitch-in-the-ditch.  So I decided to use a wispy, wave-like pantograph in the center of the quilt.

This pattern didn't interfere with the impact of the bargello strips at all and allowed your eye to travel from one luscious curve to the dip and the next curve without hanging up on the quilting design.  So now I had to figure out what to do about the borders.

The borders were bold in their separation from the body of the quilt.  Janice had chosen a cream with gold swirls through it for the inner border, so I used a magnified version of the swirls to "end" the pantograph.  The outer border was black with gold curlicues and just needed a little texture to be able to give the quilt the final touch.  The pattern in the black portion is called Hazel Spice 2, and has a slightly formal appearance to it.  However, you can't see it well against the black-- just the texture, which is what I wanted anyway.

While my IQ was chugging away at Janice's quilt center pantograph, I was able to trim my own king size quilt and put the binding on it.  My quilt is just a giant Disappearing 9 Patch, which I happen to like very much when sashing is added.   It's nestling on my bed, even as we speak.  In case you're wondering, this huge quilt measures 110 x 120, and although it doesn't need shams or extra pillows, I have some leftover fabric that I think I will use for pillow cases.  Won't that be cute?

This has been a good day's work.  Janice's quilt is in the mail, and the next quilt is on the frame.  Off to the lurkim.

COMES THE DELUGE...

These are Bali Bowls.  I love the colors and shapes of these things but am all thumbs when it comes to trying to make them on my own, so I've decided to take a class to learn the right way to do them from Wish Upon A Quilt, the quilt shop that donated all that fabric for our Disappearing 9 Patch Outreach quilts.  I love baskets and would fill my house with them if I could.

Today it is pouring outside.  Doggies have had their morning sniff and visit of backyard hot spots and have been toweled off and treated to their morning cheese tidbits.  I will be finishing my king size D9P today and starting in on the quilting.  In my lurkim, which has no windows, the brightness of the day, or lack thereof, has no significance and pales by comparison to the quilts on my frame.  Still, I can't resist sunshine on the scrunched up adorable faces of pansies. 

 I checked to see what was happening to all the bulbs I planted.  I think the squirrels and deer got them.  Not a one has come up.  I had envisioned oodles of iris and bluebells and daffodils gracing the charming stone lining the flower beds.  Alas, my efforts seem to have been in vain.  Undaunted, after this rain is over, I shall sally forth with trowel in hand and phlox in box.  After all, there's more than one way to plant a garden.

The times, they are a-changin'...

I have been bogged down in doing the taxes, or at least in collecting and collating the data, for the last week or so.  I hate doing taxes.  I'm a real procrastinator when it comes to stuff like that.  That's probably why it took me this long to finally get it together enough to hand in to the accountant.  Yes, accountant.  Anyone in business should invest in an accountant, unless, of course, you're an accountant your own "ain't-I-the-cat's-pajamas" self.  But for the rest of us who lack your skills, it's a real headache to try to figure out all the fancy stuff you need to know and keep track of for business taxes.  Ugh.

Meanwhile, we had a little run of bad luck in that the work slowdown at the body shop where DH was just recently employed caused him to be laid off.  This is very scary for a man of 60 who has never NOT worked a day in his life since he was 16.  But he was the last hired, so he's the first one out the door, alas.  He's out pounding the streets looking for a job, and to take up the slack, I am expanding my quilting studio hours to permit me to be able to take on new customers.

AND, because Longarm Diva, although meant tongue-in-cheek, is nonetheless somewhat negative in connotation, I am changing my blog site to http://www.lakeside-quilting.blogspot.com/ .  I'm working on the site now and hope to have it fully prepared for publication in a few days more.  I'll put a notice up on this blog to let you all know when I cross over to the new blog.

Back at the ranch, the D9P Outreach quilts are still coming in.  The latest one by one of our guild members is this pretty little thing, below:

She quilted it simply but beautifully, and I'm sure one of the Madeline's House denizens will enjoy it tremendously.

I like this pattern so much that I am making a king size quilt for myself.  Here's a peek at my progress so far.  These panels and sashings are not connected yet, so don't worry about not matching the cornerstones for now.  Imagine it turned 90 degrees, because that's the way it will eventually lie on the bed.

 

I have to touch my sewing machine at least once a day in order to feel that the world is in the right place.  Not just a quick tip-of-the-finger touch, but an hours-long, lower-the-needle, pedal-to-the-medal symphony of machine, mounds of fabric, and me.

The mundane world awaits, alas....

Clearing out my studio

Gerry brought me this sweet baby quilt to quilt up for her as yet unborn great-granddaughter.  The backing is this wild pink printed flannel and oh so cozy.  Gerry has a plan.  She makes quilts BEFORE they are needed.  She has finished all the quilts she needs to make for her children and is almost finished the ones for her grandchildren's wedding gifts.  Now she's working on great-grandchildren.  How wise is that?!  Gerry was a nurse in her professional life.  She had to be organized.  That characteristic has certainly served her well in her quilting career, too.  If you weren't a nurse in a former life, maybe you were a Girl Scout.  They had to be organized, too.

On Wednesday I am taking the first 18 or so quilts to the people at Madeline's House.  They are all boxed up and will be loaded into my car in the next two days.  This has led to a clean up effort in my topsy turvy studio, which has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous  mayhem as a result of harboring fabric samples and then packets of fabric squares for the Outreach program and then all these quilts that have come in.  I'm not sure I would have volunteered for Outreach Chairperson had I known how messy it would be.  But see!  My cutting table is clean again!  So is my sofa. 

Nature abhors a vacuum. 

No sooner did I create a clean space than I filled it with a new project.  I came across these luscious fabrics in JoAnn's of all places!  And I knew that I just had to make a king size quilt out of them in the D9P pattern that we all used for our Outreach quilts in February.  I love that pattern.  Here's how it looks after cutting down the middle horizontally and then vertically and reassembling after turning two of the opposing quarters:

It's much more dramatic, not to mention pretty, to have the large gorgeous print march across the quilt followed by three little dark green squares than it is to have the rust plaid (magnify the picture to see the fabrics better).  The third little square comes from the cornerstones of the sashing between the other two squares on the outside of the blocks.

So I'm going to happily work on this before the next two customer quilts come in on Wednesday.  This will be so pretty on my bed -- soon, I hope.