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Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The Downside to Quilting no one tells you about
I am not a quilter - yet anyways - this is a craft I have wanted to master for a long time - I love fabrics and have serious quilt envy every time my boss completes another beautiful one, for five years I have had quilt envy. I finally did it I decided to start a quilt.
I'm starting the cheater way - I bought a quilt kit for a log cabin quilt - which my boss says is one of the best beginner patterns. The kit includes all the fabric pre cut and ironed! All I have to do is sew it together. It started out really smoothly, I was wizzing through these - I decided to sew the same fabrics for each block one after another - kind of assembly line production - that got a little boring. Then I decided to complete one block at a time so I can have the satisfaction of looking at that beautiful completed block. I can not believe how long it takes to sew one block - I worked on this most of the day Saturday and I have 2 1/2 quilt blocks done. Good thing I picked a Christmas pattern - maybe I'll actually be done by then.
This is one of my boss's quilts she made for her husband - see why I have quilt envy?
Today I learned the downside to quilting - my neck and back have been bothering me since the weekend - I didn't put two and two together yet..... Went to the massage therapist and she said "have you been doing something where you're looking down a lot?, that's what it feels like these knots are from" duh - quilting - oh yes she tells me, you need to take a break at least once an hour and do stretching exercises. No one ever told me you could have quilting injuries - running injuries I understand - but quilting????? On the plus side my massage therapist asked what kind of glut exercises I'm doing because they are really working :-). (Guess I have to keep running - but very nice to know I'm getting results there)
Here's my first attempts (notice the puckering - not good my seam allowances are not all exactly 1/4")
Thursday, June 3, 2010
2010 Concrete Rhubarb Leaves
So after two years of checking these out in magazines and online - I finally got around to making them! Last fall some coworkers and I got together and made enough to fill our sandbox - but this is a learning process....
First attempt - we patted the concrete out to the edge of the leaves - it slopped over the edge and the finished product and no imprint of the leaf around the edges because of the overslop. Other mistake - we waited a week to peel the leaves off the concrete - almost impossible to remove dried crackling leaves at this point.
Second attempt - last Friday by myself - I mixed the concrete WAAAAY to runny - it was slidding down the leaf - not good - also they ended up much to thin so all of the GIANT leaves broke in half :-(. I did get several good smaller leaves that I'm really happy with. I peeled the leaves out two days after casting - piece of cake - and at that time the concrete was still soft enough that I could kind of sand the edges and break off any rough spots.
So here's my results.....
First attempt - we patted the concrete out to the edge of the leaves - it slopped over the edge and the finished product and no imprint of the leaf around the edges because of the overslop. Other mistake - we waited a week to peel the leaves off the concrete - almost impossible to remove dried crackling leaves at this point.
Second attempt - last Friday by myself - I mixed the concrete WAAAAY to runny - it was slidding down the leaf - not good - also they ended up much to thin so all of the GIANT leaves broke in half :-(. I did get several good smaller leaves that I'm really happy with. I peeled the leaves out two days after casting - piece of cake - and at that time the concrete was still soft enough that I could kind of sand the edges and break off any rough spots.
So here's my results.....
(this one someone else casted last fall and I painted)
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