garden and flowers dyb

 I have finished Shelley's block and what a cutie it is!





 lots of pink



 I added flowers all over it







 and sprays and beads


hope you like it it's off to NZ and Dana next!

wrigley field 100 year anniversary

I lived here!

I grew up living 3 apartments down from wrigley in the 70's-80's.
back when it was little house in the barrio and we were practically the only Caucasians for miles who were crazy enough to live there.
that "c" shaped building with the arrow is where i grew up in a 3rd floor balcony apartment.

the apartment with the check mark is the one we young neighborhood punks used to climb up, to watch games from the roof. we had a perfect view over the left field bleachers.

the old manual score board

I once got knocked off my bike by a pop fly over the left field wall by Bobby Bonilla (I don't actually know for sure but it was a good enough story to get an autograph!)

that was back in the day, when the score board was still run by dan,dan the number man who changed all the scores by hand, on big wood boards. he'd let a few of us punks up to help him the day before  or the day after to make sure everything was organized for the next game.

he paid $2 + a coke and a hotdog and if you showed him your report card with good grades, he'd let you stay and watch the game from the board!






and being punk kids we would park cars in the unaffiliated lots at the end of the block before the "Official" parkers got there to and charged $5 to park 'em. we'd get 4-5 cars before we got run off the lot by the older kids.

that would give us enough readys to run to Yum-Yum Doughnuts (X marks that spot) and get a burger and fries, for each of us and $ left over to get candy later.

we'd go "car surfing" to get there so if any of you all parked behind wrigly on clark between wellington the Yum-yum ( because boy did they pack 'em in!) and came back to dents and scratches on your car, sorry ;) !
 oh! and if you were ever in the hood at night to see the bleachers lit you would know them as the ICAGO UBS cause no one ever fixed those lights in the 70's!

spring fling challenge#2

just another teaser for Therica's spring fling challenge.
I used a pearl and a bead for the spiders body and Krennik braid for the legs, the river silks that came in the package for the roses and the blue flowers. anchor #8 thread, lace motifs and lace, that also came in the package, for the seam treatments and DMC floss for the web

procrastination

Procrastination presents in strange ways in me.

like right now I should be sewing on my gardens and flowers RR, finishing a fairie block and working on skellie but I just can't seem to get motivated on any of it

some people shop, read novels back-to-back, go shopping do the movie/TV show couch potato marathon.

when I'm avoiding something I bake, cook elaborate meals, garden. oh I do the other things too but yesterday was too pretty to do them and today I had to finish.


 I saw one in my local farmers market but it was too expensive and a little small so I went to home desperate, collected my gear and built a potting bench.

no plans or directions just winged it. yes folks, I am an odd duck.

how hard could it be?


apparently, not so difficult.
once I found the measuring tape and the drill my DDH hid in the garage, it was off to the races!
and look for $60 bucks in materials, I have a potting bench to suit my needs!

I used 31 - 6'x4"x1 1/2" cedar fencing($1.89 per)
a box of 1" #8 screws ($5,?)
2 2" corner brackets for under the top shelf for bracing and squaring ($3.50 E)
 the rest of the stuff I had lying around
1 sterilight container for dirt
1 handle
4" screws for hanging
4 hooks
you also need a measuring tape, pencil
table saw and a drill with a 5/32 bit and phillips head screw attachment
and voilà!

Aprils BJP

 April's BJP is done

I've depicted our yearly dance between the sun
 and the rain during spring.


the blue our cloudy skies the clear beads are representative of the rain that drips, drizzles and randomly pours down on the great NW.

the sun in gold, peeks through the rain and the clouds giving us sun when it's pouring and intermittent double rainbows

out of whole cloth

I don't usually do whole cloth quilts, it seems like cheating.
this caught my eye at the quilt store last week, it has all my favorite colors in it and it's just so joyous, I couldn't resist it.
note the seal of feline approval, jubilee was the first to nap on it.

 ("whole cloth" in quilting, means just quilting on an unpieced, piece of fabric to "quilt in the ditch" or the design on a piece of fabric with no or not much piecing accompanying it )

spring fling challenge

I entered into Therica's spring fling challenge  I have finished the sewing of it though it is not due till may the 15th. I have not decided what to do with it yet. I was thinking a box top maybe. I have a month to think on it.
here's a sneak peek I won't show the whole piece until
the challenge is up.

Laconner quilt museum installment #4

here are the last of the Laconner pictures 

this crazy quilt is made of all cigar silks 

they are pretty boring one by one but are rather stunning when taken en masse

I didn't take pictures off every panel of this piece



because they are pretty much the same once you get passed the whole thing


apparently her hubbs liked a certain kind of cigar and didn't deviate too much from those





this next quilt I saved for the last because it is my favorite and it has so much to see in it that I wanted to document it  in detail







you will notice it has some lovely seams and motifs in it






some that are repeated throughout and some that stand alone







and it's in very good shape considering it was an actual bed topper 






there is very little fading or laddering due to age








which is very unusual when you take into account how old this quilt is

the dates on it range from 1887 to 1933













  and it looks to me like much of the seam work was the work of one hand

though the motifs look to be the work of several people

 and then there is my favorite room in the house the tower room

the view of which is stunning and darn it all if I didn't take any pictures of it!

couldn't you imagine sewing up here?
3 windows worth of light, views up and down the waterfront and that ceiling!





sigh!