Whew!

 I just spent a good part of the day making the bias strips and pinning them to the design. It took a loooong time.

I bought some applique pins this morning, and used about 2/3 of the 350 I bought.

I wonder how hard it is going to be to sew all this down. I am going to use the machine. I'm a skilled top-stitcher, but there is an awful lot of bias tape to sew down. I like the way it looks.

The bottom edge isn't reddish, that's just the indoor lighting.

When I've sewed it all down I still need to add the leaves.

The View

 The first snow of the season. It's been a long Fall. We usually have snow before October, but we're getting it now.

Some Shopping and Jelly Roll Race Done

We got an Ikea in Colorado this summer. I have many fond feelings for Ikea. I like a lot of their furniture, they have fun lighting options, their food is pretty good and... I went to Ikea first in 1987 on my honeymoon in Germany. My husband's mom is from a small town near Heidelberg, Wiesloch, and not far from there is and Ikea in Waldorf. 

I thought it was wonderfully different then. They have the same type of layout today that they had in 1987. You wander through room set ups, see all kinds of ways you can use their products, then you go downstairs and shop for tschokes and kitchen stuff. I discovered the fabric section before the Ikea was here in Colorado. I have family in California, and when visiting a couple of times, I went to Ikea there, and found some fabrics. I haven't done anything with it yet, but I like it.

Looking at the fabric above, I think I'm going to make shopping bags from the vegetable fabric. The button fabric is actually pillow covers. The bright abstract fabric is a kind of heavy twill, so I might end up making heavy duty shopping bags from it. The black and white prints I think I am going to dye. It would be fun to add color to them. The vehicle print is going to be kid quilts. Either a whole cloth quilt, a backing, or maybe I'll cut it apart and use the different vehicles in different blocks. The green dotted fabric is actually the duvet cover to the right. I love the graduated sizes of dots. It's 100% cotton and when I figured out the cost per yard, it's only about $2. I don't know if I'll use it for a quilt backing, or what yet, but I own it now and can do what I want when I figure it out. 

My eyes aren't as good as they used to be, and sewing can be tiring. I saw this little clip on lamp (at Ikea of course) and thought it might work. It was about $15. It's an LED with a magnifier that makes the width of the beam much better. I was thinking of buying one of those tiny LEDs that you can stick on your machine, but I couldn't bring myself to spend $30. It does exactly what I wanted and should last me a very long time.

This quilt was quick and I think it's a nice one to brighten up someone's day. It is a jelly roll quilt, and I backed it with fleece. The binding is made from some fabric I bought on sale a while ago. 

I bought the yellow fleece previously to back one of the tops I have completed. I don't remember which one, so I used it for this one. I still have about 15 tops that need to be quilted, and I was able to use the same fleece for another quilt, so instead of the one I originally planned (whatever that one was) I was able to finish two tops with this one piece.

The colors on the first picture are a bit more accurate. It is a fun, bright quilt.

Design Wall--Working Again

I'm finally quilting some of the tops I have. In one spot, I've counted 17, oops (and that's not all of them). I already have a bunch of fleece to finish them off. This one will be a charity quilt when it's done.

The pictures below show the "after" of cleaning up my sewing room. I have some "before" pictures but they're on the other computer and I can't get to it right now. Believe me, you'll be impressed when you see them. It was so awful I wasn't sewing at all. My husband was gone for about 2 weeks, so I took the opportunity to move all of the totes out of the room and go through them. Get rid of stuff, move other stuff into more accessible places and make the room easier to work in. One thing I did was move the computer desk out. Now when I'm sewing and my mind wanders I have to walk down the hall about 30 feet to get to it. At least I'm getting some walking in :^)

The quilt on the design wall below is one I've been waiting to put borders on for a while. I got them done, now I think it's going to be the next top I quilt. By the way, it is NOT one of the 17 tops I have.

If you would like to see more design walls, check out Judy's blog.

This corner isn't changed much. I cleaned up some the piles, but now I've added new ones!

Much cleaner. I've turned the table, and the sewing machines that were catching all the extra junk are now holding up my ironing station.

The two sewing machines are under this pressing station. I made it 3 x 5 feet, so plenty big. I piled some stuff on it that will be going away next week. The green "fabric" in the center front is a duvet from Ikea, loved the fabric, and when I figured the price per  yard, it was only about $2...a deal.

The closet used to have plastic containers in the bottom part. I stuffed junk in there and never thought of it again. This way, I'll at least be able to see it. I know it doesn't look too organized, but it it is.

Another UFO

 I am trying to get some quilts done. I just added the side border to this one. Now I need to decide how I'm going to quilt it. I don't know if I just want to use fleece for the batting/backing, or actually put together a quilt sandwich. It's so much cozier when it's fleece, but more durable if it has a "real" quilt sandwich. I'm going to let it percolate for a while and try to finish something else while I wait for inspiration.

October's UFO

 Judy has chosen #5. Maybe I'll actually get one done again, it's been a while. My number 5 is my jewel box quilt. I love the colors in this top. I finished it once as a duvet top, but then decided I wanted it as a quilt.

I'll be very happy if I get it done...so now I have to pull it out and see what I want to do to finish it.

Wish me luck.

Crappy Day

So I decided I needed to do something to make it better. I had cake for dinner, which really didn't help, though I thought it would at the time, then decided to go outside and take some pictures. I live in a great place, and I sometimes forget how great it is.

These are from the yard, at most about 100 feet from the house. We're fortunate enough to have 16 acres in the mountains of Colorado. Pikes Peak is about 13 miles south of us. The aspens are changing, but no snow yet. We've seen it on the Peak, though.

Enjoy

It's been a long time since I climbed a tree, but this picture reminds of those days.

I didn't even know we had berries. No wonder we have lots of critters who visit.

The sun was shining through the trees and lighted just to tops of a few of them. I leaned against the tree to take this.

Look at the colors! I didn't "stage" this. Just laying there on the ground.

What a great yellow! Thank you autumn.

From a tree we cut down in 2001. There was a fire raging less than 5 miles away, so we cut down about 10-12 trees that were too close to the house. Now look at it.

A piebald tree. Can't decide if it's still summer, or really autumn.