Enough practice already

Let's do the real thing!!
I finished the preliminary stage of the interlace this afternoon.

It's a bit tedious but not really difficult.  Good thing I've got plenty of pins!! V caught me talking to myself as I worked through the 'overs' and 'unders' of a line to make sure I had them right.

I'll let it sit for a while and then go back to check it again for errors before I press it into place.  I can see in the photos there are some tweaks I want to make.    It's really hard to see the problems (a crooked line here, a not smooth curve there) when you've been at it for a few hours.  After pressing, I'll stitch it down, add borders and quilt.  I'm really pleased with how quickly this is going and I'm happy with how it's looking.  With this morning's potholder I did the applique and quilting all in one step since it was small.  This will be too big to try that, I believe.
But, wall quilt #1 is well underway.  I may even sell this one.

And, don't have a heart attack- I know this is my third post today!

A little practice

Since it's been a while since I've made an interlace quilt I decided I'd better have a refresher before I start on the real thing.  So I've been practicing.  Behold:

A new potholder.  This one is a bit rough.  I didn't get it quite even.  Those small, tightly turned designs are always a challenge.  The wall quilt I'm going to start on this afternoon has much gentler curves and many more straight runs.  Thank goodness!
And now, I leave you with a scene from my living room yesterday afternoon:

All three children snuggled on the couch with books.  Ah, makes a Mom's heart glad!!

Come on, you know you want to!

I've got space for one more in the 2012 Handmade Pay It Forward Challenge.  And I told Tom that if I get my 5 I'll re-up on his blog and take on 5 more.  SO BRING IT BABY!!

And for those who have signed up... that would be Tom Stewart, That's My Cuppa Tea, Patty and meemsnyc, I will need your mailing addresses.  You can email me your address to fullfreezer(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll get started making something just for you...

So, come on, one more...  or 6 more.  I can take it.  Sign up here or on the last post and send me that address.

Handmade fun- a challenge!

Susan at e-i-e-i-omg! has gotten herself into a challenge, and she has roped others into this craziness as well.   Of course I fell victim... er... volunteered.  Because it sounds like fun in some twisted definition of the word.   So, here goes....

I will send a handmade (by me!) gift to each of the first 5 commenters on this post.  This can be something large or small, my choice.  But,  there is a catch... of course, you knew there would be a catch!  The catch is that each recipient of my gift must also pass it on and give 5 gifts themselves... and so on and so forth for all eternity... or until people get burned out.
There is a year to get your gifts sent out, so I'll have a year to concoct something- until December 2012.  Who knows what you may receive from me: pot holders, placemats, soap, biscotti, a jar of jam... there are so many possibilities.

So, anybody out there want to play along?? Let's hear it for the 2012 Handmade Pay it Forward Challenge!

Let there be light

If you don't have a light table- improvise!

I was working this afternoon to trace the interlace design on the background fabric for my next project- a Celtic Knotwork quilt.  The South door makes an excellent light table.   Pattern taped onto the window, fabric centered and taped and then: let the tracing begin.

It should be fun! I've got everything ready to make my fabric tubes to interlace, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow to cut them.  After a couple of glasses of wine with dinner, I don't think I'm up to cutting 1 inch bias strips with my rotary cutter!  I would probably lose a fingertip!  This particular design has three separate interlacing lines which will be in different colors.  The background fabric, which you can't quite see, is white with silver metallic speckles. It looks kind of like snow.  The rest will be in shades of purple, blue and pink.  I can't wait to see how it comes out!!  This center panel is 15x 32 inches.

In other news, we have had another visitor here at the farm for a while.  I haven't seen him, although V has, but I've seen his tracks after every snow:

We've evidently got a large orange cat living under the front porch.

He must spend his days out hunting.  I'm not minding an outside cat that feeds himself- we've got plenty of mice and voles!  The porch is sheltered and out of the wind but it still must get pretty cold at times.   I've been contemplating putting out a dish of cat food so see if I can coax him out.  V thinks he belongs to one of the neighbors but the cat seems to spend his nights here so I'm not sure if he's right.  I just hope kitty is careful of the highway!

And coming tomorrow... a challenge!!

I'm in the zone

A new zone, that is.  The USDA has released an updated hardiness map showing how the climate has shifted.  We've gone up a half a zone. From 5a to 5b... although the zone line is only a few miles away we're now near 5a and not 4b which we used to be.  It appears that most places have shifted.  If you click here you'll get to an interactive map with a slide bar to show the differences in old and new.  Pretty dramatic and scary!
Woe to those naysayers about climate change.  Even the USDA has gotten on board.  And this map is just represents the shift from 1990 to 2012.  Eek.   Maybe I'll have to revise my planting schedule... or maybe not.

A visitor

Over the past few weeks, we have had an intriguing visitor.  I managed to snap a photo a few weeks ago:

See him or her sitting on a branch in the tree?  That is a BIG bird.  But, even though we have seen this bird multiple times, we've never been able to get close enough to get a good look to see what it is and the zoom on my camera is broken :(    I have usually only seen it in the late afternoon (of course, I'm often not home during the day).
But today, V was able to get a good look as it flapped over him from behind the barn when he went to let out the chickens.  It appears we have an immature bald eagle hanging around the farm.  Pretty cool! We're close enough to the river that we often see eagles soaring over the meadow but this one seems to be sticking around and resting/roosting in the trees.  Makes me glad we put a roof over the chicken run and that we're not letting them free range.