Sunday, March 23, 2014

Of Grandchildren, Murderous Trees, and Flimsies

Home again, home again jiggety jog!

Coming home from vacation is exquisite! Don’t get me wrong. Vacation is tremendous and this past week was the stuff dreams are made of! After all, who can resist this?


2014-03 Lilly that little charmer
Curly

Or this?


2014-03 Taylor looking pretty
Sweetie

Or for that matter, this?


2014-03 Andi-roo
Nancy Drew


Not me! Definitely not me.

But then, I miss this…horribly.


My Adorable Hubby

Now moving along to the Design Wall and another scintillating view of my garage wall!

I’m sure you don’t have to guess that I didn’t get any quilting done this past week! I bought fabric which you’ve seen on my previous posts. I had brought along a couple of blocks to work on for my Redwork Quilt. I didn’t even sew one stitch!

The week before I left I was chugging along to the finish line of the Log Cabin! I had spiderwebbed the columns and had started on the rows. I’m almost half finished with the rows then the quilt will become a flimsy!! (a quilt top without batting or backing).

I had to drag the beautiful thing out to the garage wall. Once up, I had to back way, way back to get it’s king-sizedness in the frame. On my way backing up, I met Mr. Meyers Lemon Tree. I can hear you all ooo-ing and awwww-ing in gustatory pleasure of the a Meyers Lemon.

meyers lemon

Hold it just one doggone minute. You haven’t met Mr. Meyers Lemon who resides in my front yard. Did you know that Meyers Lemons have thorns? Great, big, long thorns? Of course, the taste of the Meyers Lemon is worth it.


meyers lemon thorns
Try getting stuck with this a couple of dozen times!

Of course it is! Except when Mr. Meyers Lemon in my yard does not produce lemons! It lives just to poke me and draw blood. Fiendish, blood-sucking thing! I’ve lived in this house for 10 years and never seen even one little blossom. Mr. Meyers Lemon just hangs out there and mocks me whenever I leave the house.

I have dreams sometimes. Wonderful dreams. Lovely dreams…

axe in tree


Maybe I’ll just go out there and show it the axe…
"I want lemons! I want them now! Now!"
Oops, I see I’ve been around my 3-year-old granddaughter too much!

But I digress…Now onto more pleasant subjects. I was backing up to take a picture of my Log Cabin quilt. And ran into the thorny lemon tree. I fixed it! (evil grin). No…unfortunately…not the axe. But I did get the big snippers and hacked away all those new-growth “branchettes”.

Even so, there is some greenery in the picture. This is due to the upstart of a bush that sends its tendrils all over the side of my house. Weaving it’s way through the fake shutters, attaching itself to my screens, climbing up to the roof…

Calm yourself. Deep breaths. You need to be calm.

And now, after all the build-up! Here is my stunning quilt!


2014-03 Top over half way to flimsy

You can see the unsewn rows at the bottom, plus tangled rows on the ground. Yes, but by next week I will have a finished flimsy.

Now I have a question for you amazing, knowledge-able quilters out there:

I bought my fabrics from very reputable, well-known fabric lines. But there are two of the yellows that are fraying a lot. Some are so frayed they are getting close to the seam.

On another quilt, I used bonding crystals and strips of fabric and bonded the fabric to the seams. On another quilt with not as much fraying, I used Fray-Check. I’ve thought of zig-zagging the seams together outside of the seams, then pressing them to one side.

What do you think is the best solution? I await your suggestions!

And…beware the murderous Meyers Lemon Tree!



I’m hooking up with Patchwork Times, Show and Tell Tuesday, Fabric Story, Linky Tuesday, WiP Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday, I Quilt, and Fabric Frenzy. All the badges are in the right sidebar. You just need to visit each blog because there are always cool things to see and neat ideas!

36 comments:

  1. It IS stupendous! I hope you are still able to sit and sew after your tangle with Mr. Meyers. LOL Sorry I can't help on the fraying problem. I get a lot of fraying, but never to that extreme. I hope you can salvage it.

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    1. Thanks for the compliment on my quilt. I did get quite self-congratulatory in writing about the quilt, didn't I? I'm so darn excited about getting it to my son and his wife!

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  2. I've read so much about the wonderful Meyer lemons. Was going to order some...$75 a case....yikes! Must be the thorns that make them so expensive. Your log cabin is Gorgeous!

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    1. But they are soooo good, but that's quite a price! Thanks for the compliment on my quilt!

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  3. Your quilt is lovely. What a shame that the fabric is fraying!

    I think I'd zig-zag the seams because it might be hard to quilt through fray check. I'd also densely quilt to keep it together. I've sewn with some 'quilt shop quality' fabrics that really frayed a lot too.

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    1. It is so annoying to have good fabrics fray--and this is a king size quilt. I predict many hours ahead of fixing it up!

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  4. Hubby just trimmed (by about half) our lemon - don't know what kind. Lots of thorns, but then any citrus has them.
    Love your quilt. I just use Fray Check... I don't quilt that close to the stitching line.
    Hugs

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    1. Too true about thorns! My "regular" lemon tree, which does produce!, has thorns that are much, much shorter. I'm thinking, too, that since I'm having the quilter do a pantograph that it would work to use fray check.

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  5. No advice on the fraying, but I love the quilt! Very pretty!

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    1. Thanks for the compliment--I am so happy with how it has turned out!

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  6. Get rid of that tree! If it doesn't produce, chop it down and get one that does. We have had our tree 3 years and have gotten lemons for 2 of them. Yummy great big lemons.
    Your quilt is great; they are so much work, but look so great when we are done. Having fabric fray after spending so much for it is terrible, I'd do the zigzag too, or just 2 rows of straight stitch, 1/16th of an inch away. Thanks so much for commenting on my blog.

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    1. You are so right! I could use that space for a really nice, non-thorny tree/bush. And I would have so much fun with an ax!

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  7. what?? Stupid tree. If nothing else, walk by and give it a good swift kick every now and again!

    Not sure about the fray problem. I use elmer's glue fairly frequently, but it washes out. So that may not help one little bit.

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  8. Oh! Your quilt is fantastic, I absolutely love it. :)

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  9. That is beautiful! I love the colors.

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    1. Thank you so much. I have quite a bit of fabric left over and I want to make another quilt, different layout for me. Who knows what size it will end up? I'll keep going until one color runs out!

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  10. Beautiful quilt and I didn't know lemon trees had thorns! I would probably do both....fray check and a zig zag to help with fraying. http://www.conniekresin.com/2014/03/linky-tuesday_25.html

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    1. I grew up with a "regular" lemon tree in our back yard. I didn't know they had thorns either...and I don't know how I could have missed that! Thanks for the advice. I'm dreading zig zagging, but it's easier than trying to mend a frayed out seam when the quilt is all done!

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  11. It's a gorgeous quilt. I bought some Moda fabric for an applique project and one or two of those fabrics are a bit of a fraying nightmare :(

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    1. It always amazes me what fabrics will fray and which will not. After this, I have started checking the edges of fabrics on the bolt. I try to save myself a headache!

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  12. Love how your quilt is coming along. Regarding the lemon tree . . . maybe you need to start calling it MRS. Meyers Lemon Tree. . . maybe then it will bear fruit! :)

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    1. LOL! I'm still thinking an ax is the best solution!

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  13. I love log cabin quilts AND yellow and blues together. This is a lovely combinattion!

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    1. I've never made a yellow and blue quilt. I've always wanted to and I think this one is a great combination. If only I didn't have to give it away!

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  14. The quilt is lovely. You might try a bit of very lightweight iron on interfacing on the part of your blocks that are fraying.

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    1. Good idea...it sounds easier than zig zagging! Thanks for helping out!

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  15. oh how I so love the blue and yellow log cabins!!

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    1. You and me both! Log cabins alone are one of my favorite quilt patterns.

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  16. I agree with Laura's comment about using dense quilting to help secure the quilt. It's probably what I would do. The quilt is beautiful - good luck! :)

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    1. I think that may help too. I usually don't like dense quilting, but this might have to be the exception. Thanks for sharing your idea!

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  17. oh wow! that quilt is stunning for sure! and I do love Meyer Lemons, but isn't it always frustrating when plants don't behave as they should?

    Thanks so much for showing this off at Needle and Thread Thursday!

    :) Kelly @ My Quilt Infatuation

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    1. Thank you for the compliment! I have many misbehaving plants AND weeds in my yards!

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  18. Replies
    1. Thank you so much. I am so happy to hear that people like it!

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  19. Love how your quilt is coming along! I am sorry to hear you are having fraying issues! I hope you can find a solution! :)

    Thank you for linking up to Fabric Frenzy Friday!
    -Lindsey
    Fabric Frenzy Friday

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    1. I've certainly got a lot of great suggestions from people here in blogworld. Thanks for commenting on what I post on your blog; I really enjoy it.

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I love comments. They make me smile and feel warm and fuzzy. To show you my appreciation, I try to answer everyone's comment. :)

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