Being shot at trumps being hit by lightening!

We came home yesterday to find a strange car in front of the garage.  DH went into the house and saw that it had been trashed.  He was standing by the strange car calling 911 and a guy stood up on the other side of our car, raised his gun and shot at DH and then took off running across a field into the woods..  Luckily he missed.. Every drawer had been dumped and cupboards had been ransacked and all our suitcases were loaded with what they were going to steal.

The county sheriffs were immediate and wonderful.  They used dogs and were able to track the one with the gun. The second one got away even though the police had a helicopter looking and they are coming back this morning with the dogs. The thieves had planned to steal our truck also as they had started to load it with stuff.  Even this morning I shudder thinking of it and I couldn't sleep last night thinking of another out there.  It turns out the strange car was also stolen and the captured guy was high on drugs.

It was a pitiful effort on their part as we have little of any real value... The two most valuable things I own are my two featherweights and they are untouched.....but the fact that the guy was willing to shoot at DH was and is still terrifying.  Even though I'm sure the second guy is long gone I am hesitant to walk in my forest this morning.  If we'd come 1/2 hour later they would have been gone with our truck and everything else...















being shot

RR and Critter Production

Lest you think I have just been sitting and twiddling my thumbs, I have been busy producing critters for the jacket.  Unfortunately I have misplaced the house finch I finished and hope it turns up before I finished the jacket.

But here is a robin, swallows, Morris, hen and chicks, bluebird like the one I did for Cathy and another hummer in progress. I need only 3 more to finish the left side..  The thing I REALLY like the most about doing these appliques "off-block" is the freedom they give me in moving them about before I stitch them down..

Now I'm going to have all the critters I love on the jacket and the critter I love the most really needs to be there...  So here is how DH will be on the jacket...

I did finish the Cathy's wool block and there is a first for me on it... The bluebird is done with bamboo thread.  I really like the texture of it...

Leave your name for a giveaway of fancies....

It was a busy summer weekend and there was only 4 of us tackling the bins but we were able to reduce my 8 bins to 6 bins.  Here they are cutting velvets.

It was ALL fancies....silks, satins, velvets, etc. and we ended up with bags and bags of it cut into 8-10" squares.  I will have large bags to give to new stitchers who join our group, packets of fancies for new classes and I'm going to have a give away of three bundles so leave your name and a comment and I will choose on Wednesday evening.

Afterwards we had a nice lunch in the gazebo and each cutter took home all the fabric she wanted.

Bird's eye view

I should have added this photo to yesterday's post as this is the view that birds had from the top of that old snag...  You can see why there was ALWAYS a bird there.  But now it will rot, attract insects and the woodpeckers will love it...

I will mourn the loss of this tree...

At the back edge of my forest there was a huge old dead tree about 40' tall and it overlooked the valley behind us...  It was a favorite with the ravens, wood peckers, and hawks and at dusk I've seen the occasional great-horned owl there.  One day I even captured a shot of an eagle on it.   Every day as I walk  in the forest I check  it as I turned this corner...  This morning I was about 100' past the corner when I realized I missed it and walked back... Sure enough it was down... 

We had horrific winds Tuesday with gusts up to 65 mph and my lovely old snag was a casualty..  I have been watching it for over 30 years so I had expected it to happen long ago, but just the same, I shall dearly miss this landmark on my daily walks.

I blogged about my day in 2011 when I was looking for a cougar siting and saw the eagle..   olderrose: It's so great when you have a camera at the right moment!!

Knitted lace and new cabinet

My big box of knitted lace arrived yesterday from Laurel Farm...... It is all vintage and most were edging on pillow cases at one time...  In addition to lots of knitted laces, there were several unique pieces of tatting, several wide crocheted edgings and the happy unexpected was two sections shown at the bottom.... crocheted  ric rack  edging...  But it was the knitted lace that I specifically had been seeking and delighted with the amount that was included.

And when I had all the drawers filled in my "small drawer units" filled, I found this super rolling unit yesterday at a thrift store and besides that. I had a 30% off coupon which made it only $10..... so it came right home with me. Only one drawer was missing.... found some great silk stash also...

My evolving attitude toward CQ borders...

During the years I was working on the suffrage quilt I really didn't give that much  thought to the border.. My thinking was just a simple silk border as anything too elaborate would detract from the quilt...  But as created it, I found that the exact opposite was true.   The more elaborate the border became, the more it enriched the quilt... So I ended up with a very wide crushed-velvet border topped with a wide heavy cotton lace which has a inner border of a sequined trim.... Each corner is heavily embellished with lace, velvet flowers, beaded leaves and antique buttons....then the outer edge has the lush cording...

When I was finishing the suffrage quilt, work on the hanky piece came to a screeching halt.  It is very close to the end waiting its turn and is pinned on a board where I look at it while working on the jacket.  My initial thought was to mount this piece on a lovely damask linen tablecloth (which I have been trying to  use  forever.). 

But now I see that the damask would do nothing for the lace border and thinking that maybe it would be much better to mount it on blue velvet or brocade... with additional delicate ribbon embroidery in the recessed areas which would anchor it to the background. And then maybe even more lace, stitching, and velvet ribbon on an outer border.  Ah yes just need more hours in the day...

Ringing my bell!!!

Whenever anything of note happens in my life I go out and ring my big bell.... I'm sure my stitching friends around the world heard it ringing out this morning after I received this email.
 
 
"Congratulations! Your entry, It's a Man's World Unless Women Vote!, has been selected as a finalist to be exhibited at the 2014 International Quilt Festival/Houston in the annual IQA fall Judged Show, Quilts: A World of Beauty. "  I'm going to Houston if I have to walk just to see it hanging there.

I have to give lots of credit to Allie Allers.  I showed it to her in February when it was in the final stages.  I asked her if she thought it worthy of entering it in Houston...  Her immediate response was "Book a room!"  She is my heroine!!  She so  generously shared her vast knowledge of finishing techniques and things that judges look for...  For example she advised edging it with some gold cording as the quilts are hung against a black wall and mine would merge into the background.  I would have never thought of this...  all little things that made a difference.  She urged and inspired me to spend lots of extra time on all the final touches.

 

And DH is running all over town telling everyone he sees!

Sleeves and new sources

My luck at buying textiles on line hasn't been good... It is just so hard to know quality and feel from a photograph and I've been disappointed so many times... But a great happy surprise yesterday.  I just love the HEAVY  black cotton  floral lace I want to use on the bottom of my jacket.   It was leftover from a large amount I had to order to use on the suffrage piece. But I needed to find an allover black cotton lace yardage that would be compatible to use for the sleeves. 

After a long search I found this and you can see that they go really well together...

So the sleeves will look something like this! I didn't want it to be a vest and my previous CQ jacket (an others I've seen) look too bulky with CQed sleeves.  It was also too warm to comfortably wear with CQed sleeves and I looked like  a CQed teddy bear



And in the search I found 2 interesting interest sites for lace yardage... I got the heavy black "allover" cotton lace at Lace Mart.  They have an endless amount of lace but their site was difficult to navigate.

http://lace-mart.com/menuq.php?val=5

At the same time I was looking for a "lightweight" vintage knitted lace which is REALLY difficult to find.  But I did find it at Laurel Farm and they had lots of vintage sewing stuff ....some a bargain and some not.... definitely unusual stuff.  I did find a reasonable lot of very old laces, mostly knitted. 

http://www.laurelleaffarm.com/pages/linens/sewingnotions/sewingnotions.htm#.U8Z6d3Xn-ic

#1 critter and lace revisited

I'm still auditioning laces for the jacket and will probably (as is my way) make and remake my decision at the last moment.  I've always been leaning toward white or ecru lace.  The reason being I feel it gives the piece the feel of a folk costume which I like... If I do, I want to use knitted lace as I love the soft draping quality of it.

Using heavier cotton black lace changes the piece altogether and it look like it belongs to a fancy lounging outfit with velvet pants.  I have enough of both laces   so that is not a problem. So to sum it up I like the richness of the black AND the happy quality of the white/ecru

But no matter which lace, the piece wouldn't be complete without my #1 critter, Morris, which is ready to applique on the right side.

Barn Progress

Well I'm making great progress...not only the cutting table in the big room cleared, the work table in the other room is cleared as well!

 

I took this much to donate on Tues... all upholstery fabric, mostly tapestries.  I taking as much again today but all table linens... Years ago we belonged to a very large gourmet group who met in smaller groups of eight.  Somehow (because I had space in the barn) I became the "Lending Center" for table linens...either those I collected from thrift stores or mostly those given by members.  Anyone having a dinner called with desired color and size and I probably had it with napkins to match.  It's all are going away today...

 

And as usual when purging I found cool stuff I must use.....including this collection of cottons that have a very faded and muted antique look.  Not sure what I'll do but I like them... I had way more cottons than I realized....

 

Remember the barn?

Remember a couple years back when my neighbor helped me clear the cutting table in the barn...  Well every time I found a great stash enhancement it was piled on the table. 




Now I want to start working on my cottage quilt and the table top is nowhere in site.  I went out there this morning to search for cotton florals, pinstripes, gingham checks and polka dots and was dismayed....  I did cram most of the bags in bins unsorted... I have a plan now though....  Each day after I walk in my forest I will spend at least 30 minutes getting other things sorted.  AND at the end of the month when my CQ group meets we are going to have a "Stash For All" in the barn because ......................... I have these 8 huge bins full of fancies of all sorts...

 This doesn't count the cottons, laces and vintage linens which will have to be another day..
BUT I did find a wealth of material for my cottage quilt.  Not showing are all the polka dots and gingham pieces.  I hauled it all into the house to wash and cut in smaller pieces.

For a post on the life of the barn, go to http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-life-of-barn.html

Jacket progress

I must admit that all these colors are growing on me...Still needs butterflies, beads, spiders and a few floral motifs.

 I'm taking a break though to get some other UFOs moving.  When I was looking for some embroidery ribbon I found my big bag of wool threads...  Too late for the owl but in time for the next one coming...