Fall is falling

Hello, everyone.

We've been having cooler days now--had windows open for a couple, then actually closed them. Car thermometer claimed 43F when we drove to church this morning.

And from a walk this past week:

Walking east at 8 am (Central Daylight Time) along the flood control channel, saw the tule fog (mist among the weeds) that had formed. Taken with cell phone.
(Technically, tule is a local word for cattail, but tule fog can form in any weeds. This particular ditch doesn't really have any cattails.)

Progress on the Tech quilt: quilting in progress

Hello everyone.
The Tech quilt is slowly approaching completion.  I'm hoping to finish in time to present it at Christmas.

The center has been quilted. There are a couple of spots that will need to be "unsewn" but it's a good start.

I added some interior quilting to the elephant's blanket and ear.

Now that the center is quilted there needs to be some planning and marking before the sides and top and bottom get quilted.  There are just too large of spaces without natural landmarks to wing it there.

Color Play for Mug Rugs

Hello, everyone.

These are a few color samples--all from stash--that are being considered as mug rug schemes. The plan is to make at least two, possibly four, of each, so the design has to be simple and easily replicated. There might be an applique added if there is a large mock-solid square. Or they might be simple stripes, or even a quarter log cabin. The shapes are still up in the air.

Lots of folks like peafowl and feather prints. This color scheme is
all-season, too.

This looks a little too bland. Possibly an applique in the burnt orange color family would help.
The machine decorative stitches would go well, too.
The yellow is a 4 inch square.

Very springlike! A green binding and maybe some bits of green
lace or rickrack to give it a little pop?

Also springlike. As I don't think there are any 4 inch squares in
these fabrics, maybe this set calls for being a quarter-log cabin?

This set seems blah to me--needs an accent color. Perhaps if they're pieced as stripes
and a contrasting applique is added? Or maybe if there is a black with
teal feathers print in the house, that could be added.

I do like this combination. The flowers are the center of attention, and
the darker reds play support very nicely.

The mug rug sets would be donated for inclusion in prizes for bingo games, so they need to be somewhat less idiosyncratic than some patchwork designs work out to be. It's possible that embellishments might be added--such embellishments as are compatible with being on, essentially, a coaster with a coffee cup sitting on it!

Updating on the spin mop

Hello, everyone.

A year or two back, I mentioned that we'd acquired a spin mop. (The Salad Spinner of floor cleaning!)

Well, it got its feelings hurt that I went out of town for a week and when I got home, DH told me that the fool gadget was failing to spin properly. It's hard to mop floors--or shower walls for that matter--if the mop head doesn't drain properly.

I had recently had no luck at all with a similar mop at a relative's house, so several of the ideas that would have been tried were already eliminated. I decided to fall back on one of the more tried-and-true fixes for sticky devices.

Liquid Wrench, next to the mop head. (Strands removed for the moment.)

 Below, photos of parts that were sticking and needed lubrication.

An experiment with a spool

Hello, everyone.

As most people who sew know, thread spools get emptied. I just can't bear to toss them without trying to find a use for the cylinder shaped cores.

Beginning the weave. You can see that the pattern was for
odd count flat peyote. 1 row less would have been a better idea.

Below, a picture of the weaving on the spool:

Progress on the Tech quilt

Hello, everyone.

The Tech quilt, as first considered for pin-basting, turned out to have too small of a backing. I added a row of 6 inch blocks with some blue sashing between them, and a blue 2 inch strip along the bottom. This made it big enough that the top can be laid out on the batting and backing without a lot of warping problems popping up.

The area of layout was moved to the tile-floored hallway instead of the carpeted room it had been in. This necessitated creating ways to prevent critters from waltzing through the basting area and tracking dirt on the quilt. There is a door controlling access on one side, but the hallway is open in the other direction. A piece of dog-crate was deployed.

The crate/gate is supported by a chair and the doorway. Note the piece of selvage
wrapped around the blue metal. Wish we'd thought of that when there was a litter of puppies being confined by this method! There were some unfortunate blue marks on doorways after that experience.

 The quilt layers *just* fit into the space by the front door. If I hold onto the stair banister while going around the fabric!

The quilt layers. The backing is being held steady by pieces of
blue painter's tape.

The approximate density of pinning needed to hold all the layers stable while
machine quilting the layers together. 

The quilting has begun but there are no pictures really of the progress. I have learned that using the sewing machine's blanket stitch on the elephant is a complete failure. (Too smart by half.) Had to rip all of those stitches out! Like they say, Keep It Simple Stupid.