Down to the Borders on Bob's Quilt!

I have been busy this week. I was determined to get all the blocks quilted on Bob's Patriotic Shoo Fly. It has 35 blocks. I finished the last one up today.  I did very simple quilting, but it still took a while. I laid it out on the bed and took a picture, but I don't think the quilting shows up very good.

Here is another picture, but it isn't much better. I'm not a very good photographer.

The backing I used is very busy, so the quilting doesn't even show up there. At least I can feel it when I run my hands over it. LOL I am now working on the first side of the border. I used my chalk pencil to draw the design, so I am only drawing on one side at a time. The chalk does have a tendency to rub off. I tried to take some pictures of it in my hoop, but of course it didn't turn out very good.

Kevin's hours have changed again. He was working 2nd shift. He went back to work Monday after having two weeks off. His boss had left a message saying he wanted to talk to Kevin. Now Kevin is working first shift. He works 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a little bit of overtime thrown in each week. He was working 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., so these  new hours are much better. We can eat supper together again! (grin) Tonight we had fried chicken breasts, mashed potatoes, gravy, noodles, green beans, and peas. Some of that was leftover from last night, but it was still a very filling meal. The good thing is we have enough leftover for tomorrow night, so no cooking, just warming up.(grin)

It is pouring down rain here. Has been since mid afternoon, but at least we are not getting the severe weather they were predicting for our area. This has been a very rainy year for us. All of this rain will delay the harvest.

I bought some fabric for another Bow Tucks bag while in Walmart last week. I have several I want to make for gifts. I have been machine quilting on the coffee cup bags, but not accomplished much. I am concentrating on Bob's quilt this week. I really would like to have it finished by the end of the month and that is next week. Anyway, here is the fabric I bought.

Not sure if the colors are coming through true, or not. The dark fabric is a pretty purple. The front fabric is pink. It is another scrap sent to me by Cyndi. I am thinking about using it for a front pocket.

I watched the premier of Hawaii Five-0 on Monday. I loved it. I hope it makes it. Yesterday, Kevin and I watched The Defenders. It was another good show. It comes on right after Criminal Minds, so it has a good time slot. Tonight Kevin is watching Bones and Fringe. Not my type of shows, but he has worked hard all week, so I won't say anything. (grin) Besides, I got to pick the tv viewing on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. His turn!

I have been lucky again. I won 2 giveaways today. More on that later. I never buy lottery tickets, but I am wondering if maybe I should. LOL  I really appreciate everything I win. It sure would be nice for my luck to hold long enough to win a GO cutter. Hope that doesn't make me sound too greedy. (grin)

Well, I guess I will get back to the hand quilting. Thanks for visiting. Everyone have a restful night and wonderful day tomorrow.

Double Delight is a flmsy.

I spent all afternoon yesterday trying to figure out the best way to do the borders on my Double Delight. I wanted to use the same fabric for the borders that were in the quilt center, but only had a limited amount left. So I used my ruler, pen and paper and figured it out. I forgot about having EQ7 till I had it figured out. (sigh) Anyway, I used the fabric in order of the least amount I had of each of them. Did that make sense? LOL Here is the best picture I can do of the whole top. Kevin tried to hold it up, but it didn't even show the borders that way. It measures about 76"X86". I did not follow Bonnie's idea on borders, but I like it anyway. The only thing that I would have liked better would be if I had enough of the green fabric with chickens on it to put another border on it. Since I don't, it is what it is. (grin)

Here is a closeup of the top border.

Here is a closeup of the corners. Took me a while to figure out how short to cut the orangey fabric for the blocks to fit. I don't know why, but my mind just wouldn't work right. LOL

Aeris decided that it wasn't fair for Callie to be in all the pictures on my blog, so she jumped up on the DD before Callie had a chance to. Of course that irritated Callie, so then she wouldn't even get up there. LOL I tell you, it is like having two kids again. They spit and spat at each other, then curl up together and go to sleep.

I drug out all of my rulers to show you all. I think there are nine laying here. After reading all your comments, I am inclined to believe my problems with rulers are user error. LOL I must be holding my cutter to an angle or something. Anyway....I am making more of an effort to hold that baby straight when I cut. It is hard to tell, but when I cut a strip of fabric with these, then turn the strip around, you can see an area where it is bulged out. That is where my ruler is wallowed out. It isn't much, but it bothers me. As you can see, I am the queen of rulers. LOL I also have several specialty rulers. I probably have at least a dozen specialty rulers. Yes, I know, overkill. My hubby can't understand why I need so many rulers. Maybe I am a collector of rulers. LOL

The good thing about all these rulers...I bought all of them using coupons at one time or another. Otherwise, I would pass out, figuring what I spent on these. LOL

Today was the hottest day we have had in a while. Our weather guy said at 6 p.m. that the heat index was still 110*. YUCK! I have spent most of the day in where it is cool. Suppose to be some storms coming in later tonight. That will probably just make it more humid tomorrow. I spent most of the day making bindings for different projects. Also finished up the backing for Bob's quilt. Can you believe, I still have not sandwiched and basted it? Maybe this weekend. I think I have said that for the past 2 weekends now. LOL Here is what I did for the backing for Bob's quilt (Patriotic Shoo Fly).

I had enough of the red, white, and blue fabric for the length, but it wasn't wide enough and I didn't have enough of it to piece both sides. So I used fabric from the front and made a strip piece for each side.

I had about 1/2 yard of a white fabric with the pledge of allegiance on it, so I put a section in the center of each strip.

I had enough of the red, white, and blue fabric to make a binding, by doing lots of piecing.

Well, I guess that is enough from me for now. Thank you for visiting. Have a great day.

Patriotic Shoo Fly is a flimsy.

I finished the last border last night. I had planned to add another border, but it measures 62"X80" now. This is supposed to be a lap quilt. Kevin told me it was plenty big enough. Yep, I agree. (grin) Carolyn emailed me. She said Bob's favorite color is red and he loves patriotic stuff. So this will be his. One down and 2 to go. I  pretty much have the fabric pulled for Jeremy's quilt, but still working on a design for Ivan.  Already pulled one fabric. Hazel said he likes stripes. I have a striped fabric with different greens and browns in it. I think he will like this. Anyway, here is Patriotic Shoo Fly also known as Bob's quilt. LOL

I added a little 4 inch border after this picture was taken. Here Kevin is holding it up for me.

I changed the corners on the pieced border, but the rest of it is just like my EQ7 design. It has two red corners like this and 2 blue ones.

I think I will work on a backing for this and maybe get it sandwiched and basted today. Maybe not. Basting a quilt is not my favorite part of quilting, but a necessary part, none the less. (sigh)  Here is a peak at what I am hand quilting right now. This one has been fun, just plain fun. LOL

I am also making 9 patches as leader/enders. I made these while piecing the PSF.

These are so much fun. I just love little 9 patches. They are made with 2 1/2 " squares.

You have already seen the bottom two here.

I spent the morning with mom. Got all her bills and meds ready for this month.  We had a good visit.

Our weather here has been perfect this week. Highs in the mid 80's and lows in the low 60's. We even had one night when it got down into the 50's. Wonderful weather for this time of the year in Missouri. Of course, all good things must come to an end. They are calling for rain on the 4th and a return to the heat and humidity. Oh well, we enjoyed it while we could.  Kevin is so excited. He has a 3 day weekend. The last long weekend, Memorial weekend, I spent in Lawrence and Kansas City, so he is really looking forward to this time. He has lots of projects planned and wants to grill. I plan to go buy burger, hot dogs, and chips tomorrow. We usually grill enough for several days when we grill. So maybe, no cooking for me this weekend. That is good. I don't think any of the kids are coming home. They all either have plans or have to work, so it will just be the two of us. 

Well, I guess, I'd better get off here and start Sweating to the Oldies. I did my Bible study before going to mom's this morning, but didn't have time to exercise, so need to do it this afternoon. Everyone have a wonderful day. Thanks for visiting.

My Patriotic Shoo Fly

I am back from town. I was so hot by the time I got everything carried in from the car. Hmm, the ac is nice in the car, but when I have to get out I about die. I don't do well with heat and humidity. It was in the mid 90's today, but the heat index was about 104*. Way too hot in my opinion. I got everything put away, then melted in my rocker till I cooled down. I took with me a couple of those cold bags that I bought at Sams Club. I was very impressed with them. I bought a couple of roasts and some burger. I kept everything cold bunched together in my trunk. It was still cold when I got home, about 4 hours after buying the roasts. So those bags are well worth the $2 and something I paid for them.

As I told  you earlier, I have been playing around with my EQ7. I still have lots to learn, really lots and lots to learn, LOL  but I am getting there. I had EQ6 , but never worked with it much. It seemed overwhelming. Either the makers of the EQ programs are making them easier to understand or I am getting smarter. More than likely the former. (grin)  Anyway, I am going to try to figure out how to put a picture on here from my EQ7 files. Not promising that it will happen. If not, I may need your help, Crispy.

I originally named this My Kitty Quilt, because I was going to try to design a quilt with cats on it. Well, I got sidetracked. I have never made a patriotic quilt. It is almost the 4th of July. I looked in my stash and found a blue, a red and a white with little red and blue figures in it. Hmmm, it was meant to be. (grin)

Oh my goodness! It actually worked. I have been reading the book and trying to figure out how to get a picture to show up here. I may not have done it right, but it worked. Here are the fabrics I picked out from my stash. I decided that I wanted to use only from my stash for the rest of the summer. No point in having it if I'm not going to use it. Does anyone else have fabric that they just hate to cut into? I always think, I'll save it for something better. That never happens, so now I am going to use my stash.

Both the blue fabric and the red are VIP fabrics that were purchased at Walmart  sometime or another. The white isn't really a patriotic fabric, but I am using it anyway. (grin) It said Marcus Brothers on the selvage. I bought it at a garage sale. I don't have a lot of white in my stash. I like darker colors, but sometimes you just have to have some white.  The shoo fly blocks are fun to make.

I have 6 blocks made and need 20. They are all cut out and the HST's are done, but I may not get to work on them anymore till Monday. The blocks each measure 9 1/2 inches square. My program says it will be 49" X 58". I will add enough borders to make it lap size or a little bigger. I would add more squares, but I am limited on the white fabric I have. I may still change things as I go along.

Thank goodness for my level headed husband. I just keep coming up with ideas and wanting to start them. He said to pick one and at least get the top finished before I go on to something else. He knows how I can sometimes get overwhelmed. I am also working on a 9 patch. I am making the 9 patches as leader/enders as Bonnie Hunter does. I have two of them so far. I do have a design figured out, but there is no hurry with this one. I'll just work on it as I can. Here are my two 9 patches.

I have all the blocks done and half of them put together on Double Delight. It was a Bonnie Hunter mystery a year or two ago. I really need to get it put together. I finally picked out the fabric for the alternate blocks and setting blocks for my Quilter's Garden quilt. I am on my last sandwiched project. So time to get some more things sandwiched. I love to quilt in the evenings. Need to get something ready before I have the redwork barns done. Now I am just rambling. LOL Sorry. Sometimes my head gets to spinning and I ramble from one subject to another without really making sense. I know, though, that Kevin is right. I do not want to get burned out on quilting. I love it too much. (grin)

Thank you so much for all the kind comments on our garden. I am enjoying it this year and can hardly wait for the fresh veggies to get ready. I guess, I will end this here. Thank you for visiting. Everyone have a wonderful weekend.