Funny Things #36

Wow, I haven't posted a funny picture since January!

I saw this in the newspaper the other day.

Why Quilt Borders Matter

I pieced this quilt more than five years ago and finished quilting it yesterday.  


Back when I pieced it, I just slapped on some borders, no measuring involved.  Although I prefer to be lazy and just sew on the borders with no measuring, it really does pay to take the time to measure the top and do the average size for the borders to work towards a flat quilt top.  If you don't, you end up with something like this.

This amount of ripple WILL NOT quilt out.

I tried using the starch/iron/steam method I mentioned a few weeks ago, but even that couldn't rescue this quilt.  I ended up having to sew in a tuck on one of the borders because I just couldn't ease it in any more.

The quilt currently does not lay flat, although I could probably block it to remove the little ripples.  Not planning to go that far though, since I already had to take an ugly tuck and it's not show quilt quality.


I do really like the quilting pattern I used on this.  It's called "Hubby Love" by Beany Girl Quilts.

So the lesson is:  always take the time to do the math and measure to ensure quality borders.  Your longarmer will love you for this and you will love your finished quilt since it will be flat!

In other news, we had a nice garden harvest the other night--lettuce, a few green beans, and the most delicious potatoes and cucumber!

Family Vacation & American Girl Denver

We enjoyed a week's vacation in South Dakota and Denver a few weeks ago.  We flew into Denver and then made the six hour drive to Rapid City.  On the way there, the GPS took us through Colorado and Nebraska and on the way back we went the more direct route of Wyoming into Colorado.  We spent about three days in South Dakota and then four days in Denver before returning home.

Bear with me while I show a few of the highlights.  :)
Devils Tower, Wyoming--the first national park!
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota--see those dark clouds?
We got caught in a hail storm!
Dinosaur Park, Rapid City, SD--a WPA project!
The Badlands, SD
Denver Museum of Nature & Science 
Rocky Mountain National Park, CO
Alberta Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park
BTW, it's our 20th anniversary today!
Bear Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park
Manitou Cliff Dwellings, CO
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs, CO
Garden of the Gods with Pike's Peak in the background
Souvenirs!
I like to buy artsy postcards for souvenirs.
My daughter's souvenirs minus her junior ranger badges.
My son's souvenirs--we did five junior ranger programs!
We also visited the Journey Museum and Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, Wall Drug, the Minuteman Missile site, Custer State Park, and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, Hammond's Candy, IKEA, American Girl, Lego, the US Mint (no photos allowed), the Federal Reserve, and the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum around Denver.

My son wanted to go to the Lego store and American Girl is at the same location in Denver, so we had to go there too!  It's a pretty small shop, but they had a decent selection of things.  I found the layout a bit odd and the checkout was not where I expected it to be, but I got what I went in for, so that's okay.  It was not busy at all when we went.  Here are my American Girl souvenirs.
I always buy the souvenir shirt.  And yes, the neckline does look a bit yellow.
I love pink flamingos, so made this unplanned purchase of Maryellen's Flamingo Swim Outfit.
It is adorable!
This is the Kamratlig heart pillow mini from IKEA, a steal at $.75!
With arms extended, it's about 12" wide.  The heart part is around 4".
I found this Life Science set at Target--haven't seen it in stock since before Christmas.
Even though we've been home for a week, I feel like I still haven't caught up on anything except laundry.  I'm now three weeks behind in the Sewcial Bee Sampler.  I did get my mini made for the B&C mini barn quilt swap; I just have to finish binding it.  I've made close to zero progress on my cross stitch.  I haven't touched the long arm since we've been home although I do have a quilt loaded on it.  My to-do list keeps growing and growing.  I suppose that's a typical summer!

This is Finally the Year

I will finish this cross stitch this year if it kills me!

I've worked on it off and on for the past 11 years.  The cross stitching itself is almost done, but then there's almost as much back stitching and french knots to do.  I just want it to be done.


S'mores Quilt

I finished tucking in all those stray thread ends!  The quilt top was made around eight years ago.  A few years after that I found some more of the fabric that I purchased for the backing, along with a pillow(?) panel.  I guess I never actually measured at the time of purchase, because I had just enough to squeeze out the backing.






Other than that, I made my daughter two tank tops, fixed some shorts, and worked on ideas for the barn quilt swap this past week.  We also had our first lettuce harvest, which seems kind of late, but there we are.  We lost our broccoli rabe harvest because it bolted super fast and we didn't realize.  So we'll try again in the fall.  The beans are coming in okay and the cucumber (only one plant this year) looks pretty good.