8 days w/o a post???

Oh, I'm so ashamed!  I can't believe that I've been so preoccupied and busy.  Some of the problem has been testing, some has been wrapping up the school year, and some has been sewing.  


 That means, I suppose, that this post is meant to catch up with me.  Testing is much too boring to discuss with anyone, even in person.  So let's just skip right to wrapping up the school year.  

On Thursday I took my Explorer Club on its last college exploration field trip in Monroe.  We had a great time touring ULM (University of Louisiana at Monroe).  One of the interesting sites at ULM is the sculpture garden.  


There are several sculptures, although I've managed to get only the one photo.  All the others have students, but I'm not allowed to show students.  The war eagle sculpture in the top photo is not part of the sculpture garden, but I loved the look.  The photo is actually taken on the diagonal but I've figured out how to turn it the right amount.



One other thing I've been busy with is a quilt.  My plan is to applique the fleur de lis pieces, add several different blocks so that it is something of a sampler quilt, and to finish the quilt with a wide border of the focus fabric.  


I've finished up several of the blocks already but haven't decided the final arrangement.  


The blocks have been fun to work on, but they've also been time-consuming.  It's much faster to make many of the same blocks.  I am learning one thing--that I'm not very good at piecing.  


I keep finding that my 1/4 inch seams are not just right.  I've tried changing the presser foot, added tape to help guide my fabric and slowed down just a bit.  While those strategies have helped, I end up back at that darn place of messy points and crooked seams.  I'll keep working on it, but I tend to want to speed through seams.


One project that doesn't require pretty seams is this one........


One of our sons does home improvement work and is just as rough on jeans as an offshore deck hand.  He dropped off three pair that all looked this bad or worse.


I did what I could, but they still ended up looking like something that should only be worn in the fields.  I'm just hoping that he doesn't wear them to meet clients for the first time, but I know him well enough to know that he likely will do just that!


I've tried convincing him to buy new jeans, but honestly, he's right when he says they don't last any time.  He also complains that it's especially difficult to find jeans that fit.  


And finally, this comfy quilt was on my to-do list last week.  It's an older blanket that had already been repaired a few times, but because it had never been quilted, the cotton batting kept moving around.  The owner asked me to quilt it and I readily agreed.  


It was a bit of a challenge, however, since the top and bottom are stretch knit. 
In addition, the earlier repairs warped the top, but I enjoyed the challenges and had fun stippling the quilt.  Doesn't it look great on my grandmother's old chair?  

I found the chair in my mom's house and recognized it immediately.  There's a spindle broken and the seat needs to be recovered.


I'm probably not going to fix it though, simply because I have always known it to look exactly like this.  I can still picture it in my mind's eye in the back bedroom of Ma-ma's house.  I'm just not sure that I want to repair it.  For now it's sitting in the studio gathering bits and pieces of quilting castoffs because it happens to be close to the long-arm.  But then it sat near Ma-ma's treadle machine, too, and held much of her bits and pieces, so I figure it can handle the job!


And I think we're all caught up for now.  Have a great week!
Happy Quilting,
Mary