After more hours and thread than I can imagine, I am nearing the finish line!! This morning, I am so very thrilled to report, I finished the quilting, and attached the binding. It's a good feeling. Can I just tell you my old arms are tired from the weight of it all? Apparently I need to be doing more arm exercises! Perhaps, from what you've already seen of the quilt, you've been wondering how I came up with the color scheme. No, not that interested? Oh well, I'm going to explain my thought process anyway!
While in California I mentioned my one outing to the store called "Sew Modern." It was there that I found some fabric that I thought was super cool. Having no clear idea what I was going to do with it, I bought a half yard of four fabrics, one of which was the inspiration fabric shown below. I only knew that the binding for some quilt would be made out of the fabric pictured below.
Well, as it turns out, I did not have enough of that exciting fabric so I made do by using two strips of the turquoise color, which I sewed to the top which was also makeshift. Again, when you don't have enough fabric, you get creative.
Although it looks red in the photo is it not red at all--dark coral instead. You see that I did a diamond pattern while quilting the middle of the quilt, followed by round, and round, and round, and round, the border. As well, I discovered a new feature of my walking foot--the ability to change the sole. In this case, I put the stitch in the ditch sole on, and it worked like magic!!!
I won't bore you with the details, but believe me, it is difficult to accomplish this technique without this amazing foot. How big is the quilt? It was only today that I finally measured it, discovering it is 80" x 85". That translates into the need for about 375" of binding which I plan to hand sew beginning tomorrow while watching the British Open. Brilliant! Here is how the rest of it looks:
The binding folds over the raw edge, and voila, a quilt is finished.
You probably cannot imagine how many hours it took to do the quilting, but I have those hours, so why not put them to good use? You generally start in the middle, working your way outward. While chatting with Bruce about his job I told him that doing the middle diagonals feels like forever, and it is quite hard to get it through a small machine, but with practice it becomes somewhat easier. Then, as you work your way to the outside, those lines, of course, become smaller, and before you know it, it's done. Well, a little simplistic, but you get the idea. The same could be said of a construction project, in this case Bruce's because all that middle work leads toward the finish line. I'm not so sure I've articulated my point very well. Maybe I should quilt while I'm ahead!
Bruce called, Monday evening, saying Greg and Zarita were in the building with him and did I want to come to the mall to eat? I said something along the lines of..."Greg is in the restaurant, and I've never seen it??" Okay, honey, he replied,
you can come inside. Wow, wow, wow! Nancy was wondering about the last outdoor shot I put on this blog, and maybe now it will become clearer.
What I now know is the plywood wall is hiding the entrance, the patio, and the port-a-lets. The top portion will be covered in some material that I'm sure cost a fortune, as does everything connected with Earls. They spare no expense, that's for sure. I had to photograph my honey's little sign on the serving line.
Not only will they heat above with the lamps, but those rectangles on the counter are also heated. The kitchen is unreal, both in the front of the house, pictured below, and the massive back of the house, not pictured.
Below is the area they call the "whiskey bar." Still a work in progress; our stone loving son Bill will be crazy for this!
And, just like Tyson's Corner, there is an amazing lighting feature. I cannot wait to see this lit up!
Hanging from the wood ceiling, I've no doubt it will be spectacular. So, I told you the artist, Andrew Spear was coming to begin his mural, and he did show up, thank goodness! He began the process by projecting onto this wall, and drawing what was shown.
You may recognize Zarita who designed that amazing kitchen! Mr. Peck, ever the cautious one, worked with his right hand man Colin to dream up something to cover the artwork during the remainder of the construction, using poles and blue tarps, as pictured. I met Mr. Spear while there, and he is quite the character, in a nice way.
One of the reasons I've had so much time to quilt is because of all this going out to dinner of late. Dana asked us out last night, and what a time we had with her at Kres. As a refresher, Dana was our market manager, and if you have ever visited the market at Lake Eola, or the one in Winter Garden for that matter, your good time there is courtesy of Dana as she was the master mind of both. Never a dull moment with Dana, that's for sure. I have no idea why we'd never been there before but I suspect it won't be our last visit. The deserts were beautiful!
She so surprised me with a unique gift from the Winter Garden market...
Who would have thought to attach a lightbulb? So fun, as was our evening. Claiming I had never billed her for some photography, that I'd completely forgotten all about, she wanted to treat us which is so like her. She was crazy for the beard btw.
Today I picked up the prescription sunglasses that I had made at Costco--woo hoo, what a treat! On my way I stopped by the library, seeing this for the first time. Although I'd seen the flyer on the door I'd yet to see how they served the food. So sad that it is necessary.
I saw several children coming out with bagged lunches.
What would really cap off what has been a good week is, if Jordan Speith were to win the British Open this weekend! I will have needle and thread in hand for many hours and probably an extra fan blowing on me to stay cool!
Jordan for the win,
Gail
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