Remember that dental appt I told you about? Haha! It’s March 19, not February 19. I wondered why I didn’t get a reminder. Duh.
So this is what I worked on this afternoon – don’t ask me why I decided to work on Christmas.
I feel a rant coming on about panels. You know I love panels – for kids, care center, outdoor decorating but look at the way this was printed.n
See that nice ribbon and holly under the panel – it’s not centered and it’s spaced too close to allow a seam allowance if I wanted to use it elsewhere. Why, oh why? It just doesn’t make sense. There’s plenty of space to have moved it closer to the bottom and left space. Or at least center it. Ugh.
Meet Jo’s Loretta!
And Squeak
Goodnight!
I looked up Steele Creek Studios and see it is a business name for Susan Winget. I see they have moved to Lake Wylie, and it looks like it is in Charlotte NC. I hadn’t connected the name Steele Creek Studios to Susan Winget but the graphics are the same. I have a few panels by her studio. I too, find the way people drive and park their cars and am even more careful to park correctly! Today a friend and I are going to do a quilt presentation at a local assisted living program in Marshall. This should be fun.
Cynthia, good for you and your friend for bringing some color and beauty of quilts to the participants of the assisted living program. It will be fun for you and for them too. I’d hope someone would do this for my day when I am older and not as mobile and Lord only knows where I will be then. Thank you for sharing your day with others to bring them joy. I will be hoping you let us know in a comment how it all goes.
Cynthia – thank you for doing my research for me!! And your envelope is on its way to you. I know the people at the assisted living are going to enjoy your presentation.
Talk about appointment mixups!! I was scheduled for a massage the first week of January….the gall called and asked if I was on my way? Nope, it wasn’t in my calendar…I wonder what year I put that in on my phone???
Anyone else enjoying the wonderful weather??
Mary, I love it when you rant about something….there are many of us on the same page and we all rant along……now when I go to Sioux Falls I’m alway aware of how I park and how everyone else parks!! 😂😂
Joy – I, too, make sure I’m parked perfectly just in case someone sees me and I’m parked badly. I carry my cards with me but I can’t always stop and put one on the car ! And I love that I have somebody to listen to my rants! Haha!!!
Love you! Rant! Rant!
Jay and I sat in the sun this afternoon at 4 pm for a 1/2 hour and then it started to chill! Awesome! Love it . Good for the old bones. No where to go today!
Iowa hawks playing? Caitlyn?
Joy – men are playing MI State now – ON PEACOCK!!!! They’re ahead 62-56
Mary,
Beautiful day here too and tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the fifties! Loretta is adorable! 🐾 I would love a tuxedo cat like Squeak. Maybe someday.
Hoping to get into my sewing room shortly. Going to study Bonnie Hunters String Frenzy book.
Hope everyone has a great day.
Sunflower – I love String Frenzy! Have made several from that book
Reading about skewed printed fabric brought back memories of home ec class and having to straighten fabric before cutting out the patterns. The fabric was just 36″ wide and wasn’t wrapped on the bolt straight so we’d have to straiten it before cutting. A girl would be on each end of a 3-4 yard piece pulling as hard as we could to get it straight.
As for a panel I just used. It was a bit crooked so I just put borders that were the same on opposite sides and straight and let it go at that. Who cares? Most people will never notice.
The weather report — BEAUTIFUL. 50’s has melted most of the snow. This week into next are supposed to be 50-60’s with not much wind. Everybody will be outdoors! Maybe the grass will even green up. Daylight Saving Time is 3 weeks away!!! Spring has almost sprung?
Take care. Betty in Rapid City
Betty – and we don’t have any mud left either – Telly is so clean I’m glad there’s no mud for her to roll in. I remember straightening fabric like that, too – and I still have some of that 36” fabric.
Good to be back. Love the horse panel. I always like to read your post in the morning. I feel we are kindred spirits. A reader from Ohio
I lived in Cedar Rapids in 1978 while my ex-husband was a coach for Coe College for a few years. My girls were small and I learned how to quilt. Bought my first sewing machine, too..
Those of us at a certain age have date mixups, which are perfectly normal LOL.
You could use the extras with the panel by raw edge appliqué on a quilt. I have run into the lack of a seam allowance on a panel and it is frustrating!!
Raining today, we need the water, but I prefer blue skys.
Funny, you are working on Christmas while I am working on Halloween. Crazy how our brain works. Had a small kit, don’t ask how old, falling off the shelf. Decided it was time!
Hi Mary –
Great panel! Loved how you finished it with the checkered border – really sets off the horse – which is beautiful – Susan Winget? Looks like her work. After enlarging the panel photo, I see that those extras mimic the panel and were suggested as a 3-D effect. I’m not sure it would enhance it at all. Maybe put them on the backing? With raw-edge appliqué? One way to use them and not just toss.
Have a great day to everyone – Barb in Tucson
Rant away, Mary. I totally agree and yet, I still buy panels! My beef is that sometimes they are sooo far out of square. I bought a Panel book which has helped. I love the checkboard you put on the horse panel; it is beautiful. We have a horse place near us that our daughter and son in law donate to. It is for children up to 16 years who are disabled in some way. They heard the owner tell that one boy who had never spoken said stop to his horse and another said her first word, too. It is an amazing place:) Squeak is beautiful. She is also a pistol. All 8 pounds of her can hiss, growl, and screech at poor 18.76 lb Buddy and he just sits! It is warming up here. Yippee. The retreat was great.
Love the pictures! What a waste that the bow is centered! Ugh! Cut it off and appliqué with zigzag on white?
Jo I love your Loretta! I need squeak! I have a mouse….im afraid it may be a hard one to catch!! Last year about this time I also had one that was snuggled up on my ‘blankie’ and ran under the fridge…never caught him. Did he return for my crumbs by my chair….i am a messy popcorn eater…he will have a feast! 😳. By the way, my blankie went right into the washer!
Joy – one of the very best things about this blog is that I can rant and whine and carry on and all of you will listen!!! Haha!
Your checkerboard board is perfect for that quilt! I love panels too but haven’t ever bought any with additional pieces to it but see what you mean about not being able to use the other pieces!
I can understand why you confused the dental appointment month. It feels more like March than February with the mild weather and lack of snow.
So nice to meet Loretta. She looks like a wonderful companion. As does Squeak.
I totally understand about panels makes me crazy too and even borders, never enough space for a proper seam allowance. Loretta and squeaks are adorable
Thanks for your rants – they make me feel normal!! Also for sharing about the appointment – I do things like that and feel crazy so when you share I don’t feel so silly! Blessings to you 🥰
Kelli – oh, not to worry – you sound quite normal to me! Haha!
I cannot figure out by looking at the printed panel how you were able to work out the seam allowances for any of the pieces. Did you applique the pieces without turned edges ??? Just asking because I mostly turn down the opportunity to use them due to not being able to solve those challenges.
Brendalynne – I have not used the appliqué pieces yet – maybe I won’t. I made the checkerboard first and laid it on the top of the panel before I trimmed the panel to that size. It becomes a difficult project – harder than I really want.
thank you. makes sense and will be remembering that.
Hi Mary, squeek is so cute, l love tuxedo’s! I was trying to sort out batteries for my lold light box and asked my daughter in law if she had any, then discovered she had a light box, it looks like a slim laptop and has various degrees of brightness! Much easier to use than my old one, so l am a happy quilter, yay! I liked the goat T shirt best Mary. Take care everyone, best wishes from Sandy
My Loretta is left handed! She is a sweetie.
I’m so glad Squeak got pictured in the post. I do enjoy hearing about her antics.
Your panel is pretty, even without the trimmings. I think the most panels are printed square, but loading on the bolt, they get crooked and are there so long they take on the crooked shape.
The car washes are very busy around here. It’s the mud season and boy, its muddy.
When I win the lottery, I’m going to pave my driveway. I’d have the whole road done, but the speeders would go even faster.
Your comment about Loretta being left handed got me to thinking. I never even considered that our pets may be like us humans. I now believe we had one dog that was left handed, too, if memory serves me correctly. What a hoot! Thanks for sharing her darling picture.
I totally understand Mary. I’d have to take what’s left of the panel and cut it into 2″ squares. Even the words. A friend inherited some 1980s panels for various stuffed things. I took it off of her hands and used it to make a quilt backing. They used very high quality greige goods back than.
The horse panel is very pretty though, and it looks wonderful with the checkered border.
Thanks for sharing all of the photos.
San / Murphy, NC
I don’t buy panels any more. There are some really beautiful pre-printed blocks too. But they are almost always off grain or the print itself is skewed. C’est la vie!!
Happy belated Birthday Farmer Tim!!
Cheryl – I have a “Thing” for the horse panel series. I have one more to get quilted and then I think I have the whole series. I’ve also given one to a little girl who loves horses. They’re also popular at the care center.
I have a recliner with a wonderful hand control that can move me up to stand on floor….then the hand control when I am seated let’s my legs move in many positions! Same with the back control buttons! Just loved it til tonight when all functions QUIT RESPONDING! The hand control was lit! What a muddle as I was sitting comfortably with the legs portion stretched out!
Good thing I wasn’t home alone! Fortunately my husband, n 57 yr old son pulled me up and out and then set to solving the problem. Unplugged the controls from electricity and we started over! Took about half hour, but they have the hand control to chair working!
Launa
glad you have your chair back in working order. When i had the same challenge a call to the restroom was what brought it to my attention. Well, after my husband wrestled it about to check what was going on it was a main gear that was not replaceable… So after getting a replacement and we were wrestling it out for the large item pickup by waste company, a car stopped and asked if we were getting rid of the chair could he have it for his mother who was staying with them; Even knowing what challenges there were with the chair he said she never does anything and will be thrilled to have a leather recliner.
Launa – oh, I can just imagine the scene of being stuck in your chair! So glad they got it figured out. I think Rick could use one of those chairs.
Totally agree with you on the panels, Mary. My rant is that most of the time they are not printed straight on the fabric Makes it a real challenge. Rant over.
Your rant is the same as mine! Sometimes it’s an engineering nightmare working with small sections such as quotes. But nonquilters usually seem to read the saying and move right on. They pay no attention to the details I struggled with. I guess that’s good.
It’s gotten so I can’t sleep until I read your post. Thank you…so comforting and like home
Oh my I just want to reach out and pet Loretta and Squeak!!! They are so adorable.
I’m putting lots of fabric in the wash now that I bought at an estate sale in Buffalo so it’s already to add to my stash in the morning before Tai Chi class. The blue skies were a delight to take a ride in and seagulls in the sky over Lake Ontario looked like a star constellation.
Kathy – oh, my! You’re going to wash all that fabric? No way! It will take you forever, won’t it? I know what you’ll be doing … for awhile!
I am washing all of it. Some of the large pieces are 4 yds of gorgeous Moda blenders in cream and I dropped them as I was carrying it to the register. You think I had my hands full plus my husband was carrying my one tote bag I brought in with me. I noticed when you pulled some pieces off shelves dust was flying like crazy in the sunlight of the windows and seeing it’s been sitting in that extra house for storage of her fabrics for several years that it was better I put it away clean in my stash. I’ll iron the fat quarters and half yard pieces but the large Kansas Troubles yardage came out of the dryer just fine only needing to be folded and I will iron when I cut into it for borders.
Kathy – this is a huge job! But better to do it now, I guess. I never prewash any more – you’re a better man than I, Kathy! Ha!