Up, Down, All Around

The Hexagon Hip Hop quilt with Brannock & Patek's Audra's Iris Garden  (Moda) is a finished quilt top.

I struggled with the fancy border, so it doesn't exactly match the pattern in Layer Cake, Jelly Roll and Charm Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott, but that's what quilters do: improvise!(I like it well enough for all the pouting I did about my mistakes.) I was having a snit-fit over sewing, unsewing and screwing up when Joey knocked over my "design wall" and ironing board. Inspiration hit me as I was cleaning up the mess: unstitch the ends of the remaining two borders and add more triangle units and recut the corner pieces. Fine!

The board Joey knocked over is a heavy duty ironing board I found at an estate sale. A young man carried it to the car for me and asked "does it work?" Well heck. I never thought an ironing board wouldn't work, but I answered I would find out when I got home. Driving away I thought why wait, so I pulled over into a cul-de-sac, pulled the board out of the car and set it up. Good deal; works fine. Wait. OMG, I can not fold it back up! I jiggled, felt around, turned it over, banged on it; I was about to have a panic attack thinking I would just have to leave it there in the middle of the cul-de-sac when whomp! Down it went, and I didn't even know what I'd done. (How freaking embarrassing.)

Here's Joey down on the floor on the quilt top seeing if I resolved the problems I was having; it passed his inspection.

Joey went up on the top shelf to snooze on the fusible stuff I need to cut for the bag.

Looks peaceful. I hate to wake him up and move him.

'Cause now he is down on my cutting table thinking he'll give a hand at cutting out. Some help he is, too. I had to put him out in the hall and close the door so I could work.

While I was working and moving things around in the sewing room, I discovered one of my Goodwill purchases will make a wonderful back to my Bento Box quilt. (I love when that happens!)

I got all the outer and inner parts of the bag cut when I noticed it was 2:45 a.m. I lose track of time when I play in my sewing room.

Joe knew it was time to go to bed. I found him down on the floor in the cat crate all curled up on an old quilt. (The cat crate was out because I took Kitten in to the vet to have her eye looked at; I was not sure if it was infected or not, but all is well. I certainly don't want to take chances with the only eye she has!)

Summer Wrap Up

It's the end of summer 2012. Time to put away the white pants and shoes, dig out the woolens (except for us allergic types), and buckle down to studies (or work for us contracted souls). I took Friday all for myself and wandered across town for the monthly meeting of the East Cobb Quilter's Guild.

Georgia 400 bridge over the Chattahoochee River.

 After the meeting I took a wrong turn, and, me being me, decided to follow where ever the lane took me. This being Atlanta, how lost could I get? You eventually run into a major highway, and sometimes you even find yourself under a major highway.

 I stopped at the park near the water to stretch my legs and let my little owls enjoy the dappled light and rush of the water. I didn't go for a walk though; there were too many men sitting in their cars. It was a little creepy.

(Insert floral photos here to lighten the mood.)

 The seeds I thought I started too late are providing me with new blooms daily. Above are the moonflowers.  I love them.

 The cosmos are putting out lots of hearty color.

And when I parted the zinnias and cosmos I found my first morning glory blossom!

(and now resume chatter about Friday)

 Speaking of flowers (nice transition tee hee), I saw this beautiful lilac cardigan in the JJill catalog and I knew I'd seen a similar flower, so I looked at my stash of Brannock & Patek Lilac Hill line, and there it was! I just had to have the sweater, so, also on Friday, I found myself near The Forum in Duluth and popped into the JJill shop. Sorry. I have to say it was not so pretty in person. The Brannock & Patek fabric is way more beautiful! (I liked the buttons on the sweater, just not $100 worth of like.)

 (I have to have a cat picture in my post.) Mr. Joe (Joseph James Vanzetti a.k.a Joey or JJ) keeps working on getting out of the house. He has found a quiet (no yapping Maltese) place under the shrubs in the front yard. I don't let him stay out though; he has to come in when I do.

(And I have to do SOMETHING with fabric!)

My darling new daughter-in-law asked me to teach her how to crochet, since she needs something to do while she and Adam are running around. I found a regular crochet hook and some yarn for her and did my best to show her how after I'd reviewed a YouTube video. (I am not a crochet-person even though I've made a couple of rugs using the technique; I only know the basics.)