Finishing Quilts - On a Roll

I've been so efficient on finishing quilting projects in the past month that I've amazed myself.  In the past, I've blogged that I HATE hand stitching on binding and would rather stick the needle in my eye.  And it is still nearly true but I finally figured out that if I go to the "sit and sew" down at the quilt shop on Wednesdays, I will sit still long enough to actually bind my quilts.  So that is what I've been doing for most of the past few Wednesdays. 

I finished Katie and Chris' wedding quilt, first:

I used a pineapple pattern that I got out of a McCalls Quilting magazine in 2004 (it may have been 2005). 

Ahem, they wed in 2007 and the top was about half done at that time.  I finished the top, last year and just now got around to binding it. 

So after I managed to finish it, I couldn't wait to get Windy's quilt done. It is smaller and went a lot faster - here it is:

I was pretty happy with the quilting.  This was a fun quilt to make and super easy - it is a picket fence traditional block. 

Then, I quilted my 911 quilt that is intended for our bed:

 Honestly, I had the most fun quilting this quilt. 

 I used Carol Doak's paper piecing stars book for the block patterns.

 See the hearts in the background?:

 Here it is after I bound it:

 Evelyn, my good quilting buddy:

 Here are the girls checking it out:

So on top of that, I took five 12.5 inch unfinished nine patches that I helped a friend's daughter make about five years ago and tarted them up to make a graduation quilt for her.  I haven't quilted it, yet, but it is coming along.  It was supposed to be just a lap quilt but it swarmed on me:

I'd hoped to get it done for her highschool graduation, tomorrow, but it isn't happening.

Pearly has continued to struggle with her vision problems.  She had yet another relapse and lost vision in her right eye.  Poor thing.  It wasn't as bad as when she went completely blind but it is discouraging.  Since I last posted, she's been back to the specialist three times and he has been trying to get it under control with prednisone.  He put her on antibiotics earlier this week in case this was an infection.  She is actually doing better and seems to have most of her vision back.  

Today, I took her in to see an internist and she confirmed Pearly is struggling with an auto immune problem rather than an infection.  She has dealt with dogs like Pearly who just can't seem to be able to keep from relapsing when their oral prednisone is reduced.  She put her on a second immune suppression medication to help her keep from flaring as we work down the prednisone doses.  Both can cause bad side effects but the prednisone is quite problematic and she will be monitoring her, closely to make sure the new medication is behaving.  The hope is that after several months of being stable on a low prednisone maintenance dose, we'll be able to get her medication free.  If that doesn't work, at least the prednisone will be low enough to not be so dangerous.  So I'm optimistic.  The internist, btw, is a quilter!

It has been an incredibly busy 6 weeks and I could write for hours just hitting the high points.  I will leave you with a photo of the surprise I got when I checked on the baby blue birds in our blue bird house, out front:

Mr. Snake (we think it was a Texas Rat Snake) was quite lumpy when he slithered off. 

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl

Pearly Has a Hoodie

Yes, that was in incredibly poor taste, these days.  But sometimes, a hoodie is just a hoodie. 

I managed to finish the shamrock quilt in record time.  I did it because I machine stitched the binding instead of hand stitching it.  It isn't perfect but it is better than my last machine binding attempt AND it is done!

Here it is getting ready to be put on the longarm.  I am actually fairly amazed at myself.  I quilted it in a day and slapped on a binding a couple of days later.  

 Here it is, right after I finished quilting it but before I trimmed it up:

Here is the back:

 This is right after I washed it:

 Pearly:

Pearly had been doing very well with her eyes but Mr. Wonderful claimed she was looking a little buggy starting a couple of days ago.  I couldn't really see it.  Yesterday, however, I felt like her eyes were looking a little cloudy even though she was seeing just fine.  By last night, the whites of her eyes looked pink.  We weren't sure if it was just pollen, which has been heavy, or a relapse.  She's relapsed about two weeks after going off the oral prednisone three times, now, and this would be the fourth.  The photos in this blog post were taken last night so you can see that it isn't really obvious that things weren't right. 

When we looked at her this morning, the whites of her eyes still looked pink but not as much.  Her eyes, however, looked decidedly more swollen and I could see they were getting cloudy and blue.  When her eyes get inflamed, the dead cells fill up the cornea making it look bluish.  So we called the specialist and they put her back on oral prednisone for the next week.  We hate to do it but it is better than the alternative.  That was about four hours ago and the whites have already cleared up and the swelling looks to have diminished.  I haven't been able to see if her eyes are less cloudy because we are having area thunderstorms and it is hard to see her eyes with lights from the lamp.  I wouldn't expect them to clear up for several days, regardless. 

She's such a darling.  I am sorry she has to go through this:

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl

Piebald Pearly

This morning, I finished the Shamrock quilt top and am fairly pleased with how it turned out.   It is a really easy pattern.

The shamrock is just three modified snowball blocks (three corners instead of four). 

The fourth block is the stem.

 

These are 4 inch, finished, blocks.

Pearly grudgingly modeled it once I finished pressing the border seams.

 The border is super simple:

 I think it will look nice once I get it quilted:

Evelyn helped a bit but this was mainly Pearly's project, this time.  

I went out to the property a couple of days ago to check the trail cam, expecting to find a slew of wildlife photos since it had been out there for over a week.  When I walked up to the cam, I could barely see it attached to the tree because the grass and grown up so fast during the week.  My first thought was that I wasn't going to get as many photos because the lens was blocked.  Still, it would be interesting to watch how fast the grass had grown.  Unfortunately, I discovered that I'd not turned it on so I got nuthin.'

Here's a photo of the horses in the dilapidated barn, next door:

 Bobby's wheat is starting to ripen.  It really looks beautiful, in person:

On the way home, I stopped by this brilliant yellow field.  Blessedly, I am not particularly prone to allergies but even my eyes were getting scratchy:

Another barn I passed:

 This barn is right down the street from the yellow field:

 I think the field is just beautiful but am glad I don't live right next to it:

 When I drive out to our property, I look for this silo and that tells me when to turn north:

We continue to get amazingly beautiful weather.  March, like much of the continental United States, was unseasonably warm but April has gone back to typical high and low temperatures.  I was tickled to pieces, this morning, because the first hummingbird showed up at the feeder.  It was zooming too fast for me to catch whether it was a Ruby Throated hummingbird or a Black Chinned one.  I hope it was a Black Chinned one because they were here, last year, and I got fairly attached to them. 

Off to go look at my fabric and decide on a backing.

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl