More Baby Quilt 2

I finished all the boat squares on the sailboat quilt I am making for our second grandchild.  The next step is sewing all the sashing between the 8 boat squares and the one whale square that I placed in the center of the quilt.

  

I like the way it is turning out.

  

After the top was sewn, I made a "sandwich"  of the backing fabric and the batting in between the two.  The cat was quite curious about the whole process.  And not in a good way.

  

I particularly like the way it is coming together so quickly.  I may ONLY do baby quilts from here on out.

  

For the first time, I decided to use free hand quilting on the whole project.

  

I had to be careful to avoid stitching the prairie points, that are supposed to be only attached at the base, to the body of the quilt.

I also chose to stitch very carefully around the boats ( and the whale) to emphasize them.

  

When the whole thing was quilted, I trimmed the edges.

  


And then I started to attach the satin binding.  I chose satin because babies love to play with the satin binding of their blankets!

I love the backing of the quilt. An oven themed quilt!

  

One more quilt finished.  I have two more I want to do!

  

Snow in Fall

  

I have been trying to post these pictures of our recent snow storm.  For some reason I couldn't save or publish this blog. So now I'm trying again.  Here's hoping.

  

We had our first snow this season a little more than a week ago.  I no longer have horses and I don't work at the library any more.  This means I don't have to go to the barn to feed and I don't have to get in the car and drive.  So I'm content to stay inside and enjoy the snow.

  

Lee doesn't have that gene.  He thinks we need to get out in case of emergency.  A few years ago he bought a big truck and had a snowplow installed on it.  He likes to get in the heated cab and plow the drive.

  

To be fair, he does have to plow at least every four or five inches of snow.  If too much snow gets under the axle and then you don't have enough traction to plow.

  

Before he got the truck, he used the scraper or front loader on the tractor.  But the cab is not enclosed and it gets very cold and wet.  Our back drive is gravel and dirt and the snow plow can chew that up and then he has to regrade after the snow melted.  So he still uses the tractor for that.

  

While Lee works outside in the snow and cold, I get to step out on the front or back porch and enjoy the view.  Then I take a few pictures and take myself and my steaming cup of coffee back into the heated house.

  

We get some great views and the snow is beautiful.

Smaller baskets

I recently took some new fabric baskets up to Explore Park. They have been selling baskets I make in the visitor's center.

  

When I arrived, the baskets were displayed on this ladder. I thought it was a fun display.

  

They did mention moving the baskets to a different location as I had brought up more .

We discussed lowering prices on the baskets to sell more and sell them faster.  But, the profit margin is so small, I decided to try making smaller baskets instead.

  

I tried some much smaller baskets.  But it is too hard to manipulate the smaller ones under the sewing machine.

  

They were also too small for the charms I like to add to each basket.  The little baskets were cute, but took almost as long to make as the bigger baskets.

  

I tried a mid-size basket. (At this point I'm feeling like Goldilocks and looking for JUUUST right.).

  

The mid-size baskets are pretty cute, but I haven't gotten up to speed on making the new size, so I am only saving about an hour on each one.

  

I am also finding size creep.  I don't want have too many different price points, so I want to have each one be a similar size.  I find my self adding a few rows of coils on each new basket I make.   I need to be careful about that.  I have made so many baskets, that my muscle memory sometimes takes over from my conscious mind.  Removing coils to make a smaller basket seems silly.

This one is the biggest of my mid-size baskets. But I really like it.

  

I'm liking these new baskets and will take a few up in the new year to see how they do.  I'm not sure how many I should make until I see how many sell versus the larger ones.

  

Repo Girl

I just finished Repo Girl.  It is by a local author and it is always fun to read a book where you are familiar with the locations. But , in addition to THAT, Repo Girl was really good!

Andrea Sloan switched from being a waitress to a Repo Agent to make more money.  She has only been doing it for a few weeks, but she is really good at it and things are looking up.

That is, until the car she has just repossessed crashes into a deer. The resulting accident flings the previously unseen dead body from the back seat into Andrea's lap.  The naked and bloody dead body.  While fumbling with the seat belt, she ends up touching the gun that was jammed between the seats. When the cops show up she is covered in the victim's blood and her prints are the only ones on the gun.

Naturally, she is arrested for the murder.  Her bail is exhorbitant and paid by a shady character as a favor to her boss.  It seems that she is the only suspect, so Andrea has to find the killer before the trial.  She also needs to find a thumb drive that the victim had in his possession and that has disappeared.  Returning it to The Broker is the only way she has to pay her share of the bail.

I liked her friends, I liked her spirit, I liked this book.

I particularly like that Jane Fenton has a second book coming out soon.  I can't wait to see what trouble she gets into next.