Homey In The 'Hood On Sunday Morn....... Four Pictures Of Today

~LONG OVERDUE PROJECT~ Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

We've been sporadically working on this 'TOP SECRET' project for months so I've decided to de-classify it, making it available through our own sort of Public Information Act!

This is a gift for family members, and their baby boy, who was born back on January 11th!

I'm off to visit them by train next week and their gift still won't be finished! That's why I'm posting this now, so at least they know we really are working on something for them, and maybe as a bit of motivation for us too.

The project is a crib-sized quilt (if the baby grows up before we finish it maybe they can use it as a wall hanging) made in the same design & colors as a stained glass window I made for my parents almost 30 years ago (click here to see a photo of the window).

The above photo shows my part of the project, cutting out the paper patterns for the applique parts, and then tracing them onto the cloth and cutting the fabric pieces out.

For the pattern I printed out a full-size image of the design from our computer onto 28 sheets of heavy 8 1/2 X 11 paper stock and taped them all together.

~PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER~Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Here's who does the real work!

The rectangular background panels have already been stitched together with charcoal bias tape added to define the seams, as the lead came would in an old window.

That was the easy part!

Now Peggy is assembling the 121 elements (plus batting & bias tape) for the applique portion of the quilt.

The vine, leaf, and floral parts will be applied over the background with extra layers of cotton batting to give dimensional relief. The white flower parts, and the green leaves, will have two extra layers of batting, and the stems one. All the applique pieces must also be bordered with charcoal bias tape.

Peggy is well-skilled with a sewing machine, but we aren't quilters, and this is a challenging experiment for us, making things up as we go along.

I'm hoping a little home-made treasure from one branch of the family can be extended to another part of the tree. So let's hope this thing comes out OK, because we're on the spot now.

It looks good so far...

WINTER GREENS UNDER RABBIT WIRE

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Our winter beds of greens (spinach, lettuce, kale, swiss chard, beets-for greens, and some green onions) are well-established now, but, for the first time ever, we had to replant the original seedbeds because European Starlings descended upon the place and devoured the first planting as soon as they sprouted. We haven't had Starlings here until the past couple of years but now they're over-running the joint. So I fabricated these cages from rabbit wire, solving that problem, and they keep out the ground squirrels too, who have also moved into the neighborhood in the past two years.

We've already been using some of the baby spinach!

The plants will go dormant when the weather gets extremely cold, but we'll have early greens peaking up through the snow (let's hope we get snow) as early as January or February. A heartwarming sight!

~HAZY SUNDAY SUNRISE~ Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

For those of you wondering about the fire situation, here's a picture from about 7 A.M. today looking west toward the fire. Beyond that little peak to the far left, fires are still burning, with some containment reported on a few fronts. We are still not in any immediate danger, and, as you can see, today we only have some light smoky haze hanging over the alley.

Peace It Together

Click on photo to enlarge

This is the quilt we usually have on our bed.
Some years before Peggy retired from the Post Office one of her customers gave her the beautiful "Peace It Together" print that makes up the center section of the quilt (out to the first narrow ivory colored border). Peggy was saving it to use in a quilt when her step-mother, Gladys, who loves quilting, offered to make it for us. That was about 7 years ago, and Gladys, who will be 87 years young this year, is still quilting away (and gardening) in Indiana.
This morning, over the phone, Gladys said her rhubarb is already 3 inches out of the ground.