Week 139 Photo Challenge: Bottle(s)

With Grad Girl's schedule, giving 2 weeks for each photo card seems to be working much better.  Her teaching responsibilities ended last week, but she still has lots of grading to do.  Her thesis should be done next week and her statistics class ends a week from this Wednesday.  Once she's past that, her life will get a bit easier, just studying for her defense is what she has left.  With that said, we had photos for the last photography challenge: 

This one was a bit easier because it's an object, you don't have to be quite so creative with those challenges.  

I, as is my habit, waited till yesterday to figure out what I was going for.  I tried for the artistic approach.  

Kate: Dresser Artifact

This interesting perfume bottle was a gift. It sits on my dresser but has never been used. Almost any scent makes my nose run, so I gave up perfumes back in college.  Still I like the bottle. It's not broken, the cracks are part of the design.  My aim was to make it look like a National Geographic museum photo of some historical perfume bottle. The vibes are there, maybe not the substance.  

My Guy's approach gives a sports advertising vibe. 

My Guy: Specialized Elite

I think it looks like an ad for a Specialized bicycle.  Of course the photo challenge part of the photo is the water bottle. This definitely isn't a new water bottle, it's seen a lot of use.  This one has a very nice cap to cover the top and keep it clean.  It's really meant for mountain biking, but even the paved roads here are pretty dusty and dirty.  So it's one of My Guy's favorites.  

Grad Girl hasn't done much but drive to school, go to class, then to her office to write.  She's not been in the lab much so, she's had a harder time coming up with photos.  But this week she was able to find a nice shot in the kitchen (her home "lab"). 

Grad Girl: Spicey Bottles

These kitchen spices are about the only "chemicals" she's handled since January.  She did a great job of getting a good angle that cuts out most of the kitchen.  It could be a photo in a cookbook don't you think?  On the page with a listing of all the things you should have in your pantry to make most of the recipes in the book.  

That's the photos for the last challenge.  Very different approaches to a pretty common subject.  I drew the next challenge card. 

My photo definitely won't be a selfie of myself, I'm the exact opposite of graceful.  I have some ideas, which is always dangerous. 

To Do List for the Week of 04/15/2025

It's the halfway point in April.  Already?  My progress this month is a bit of mixed bag.  I'm doing well on some things and no so hot on others.  The progress on the to do list is a bit spotty for last week.  

To Do List for 04/08/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR: Prep quilt for quilting  - progress

2.  On Ringo Lake: Finish borders ✔

3.  Kate's Choice: Learn to use the walking foot on my machine ✔

4.  2025 Guild BOM: Cut pieces for June blocks - no progress

5.  Wild and Goosey: Finish blue and make red blocks - no progress

6.  Summer Scrap Quilt: Continue as leaders and enders - no progress

Definitely not the best week. I was on track to finish off the SAHRR till yesterday. My Guy was sick all weekend and yesterday afternoon I came down with whatever upper respiratory infection he had (he got it from work). I would have finished getting the SAHRR prepped for quilting, but it's hard to do much when you have to keep a tissue under you nose almost constantly. My nose isn't running so badly this morning, but I'm still pretty congested and feel pretty crappy.  My Guy was mostly recovered by Monday, so he felt bad for about 3 days. Hopefully that will be the same for me.  

This week's list is quite a bit shorter. It's hard to quilt and sew blocks at the same time, so since my aim is to get some finishes in the bag for this year, I'm going to concentrate on that front this week. 

To Do List for 04/15/2025

1.  2025 SAHRR (Quilting Gail): Finish quilt top prep, send out for quilting

The bottom quarter of the quilt still needs to be pressed and de-threaded. Depending on how I'm feeling today, I'm hoping to get that done. Then I need to find a batting and a box.  Fingers crossed it will get sent out before the end of the week. Trudy is going to quilt one last quilt for me before she retires from commission quilting a bit later this year.  So this will be the last project she does for me.  

2. 2025 Guild BOM: Cut fabrics for June

These BOM blocks take a bit to get together and I don't want to get behind.  The April guild meeting is tonight. Thankfully that block was finished weeks ago. I'd like to be in the same place for next month's meeting so I best get to cutting.  

3.  Kate's Choice: Finish cutting batting, start quilting

I've got the backing squares all cut and about 2/3 of the batting squares.  Shouldn't take me too long to finish cutting the batting.  I'm still trying to decide what quilting I'm doing in the blocks. Should it be one consistent pattern for each block or do I echo quilt along the seam lines for all of them?  Still deciding on the path forward there.  

4. Old Town (Bonnie Hunter): Work on blocks at late night sew

One of the local quilt shop offers a late night sew once a week. It's a nice chance to grab dinner with some of other quilters then sit and sew for an evening.  I need a pretty easy project to stitch on for that. I've got lots of the pieces cut for Old Town, so it's an easy project to grab and go. Hopefully the respiratory infection is much better by then.  

A much more pared down list for this week. I really want to focus on quilting the blocks for Kate's Choice.  I've got 30 blocks to quilt, so it may take a while.  I'll see how the first few blocks go then maybe decide to quilt so many a week till I'm done.  

That's my list for the week.  Good luck with your to do lists this week.  

Slaying the Big, Scary Walking Foot Dragon

I've put off learning to quilt with a walking foot for years.  The walking foot was this scary sewing machine accessory that I didn't want to take the time to figure out. I'll give myself a break for when I was working, I barely had time to piece a few quilts each year. But I've been retired for almost 2 and half years.  I have lots more sewing time. But the idea of getting out that walking foot and doing something with it was just off putting. I'd so much rather piece.  But with the wonderful quilter that has worked with me for 10 plus years retiring, I am going to need to find an alternative that fits my budget. Especially for the smaller finished quilt tops hanging in my closet.  So I located the walking foot. It wasn't where I thought it should be, but I did eventually locate it and figure out how to attach it to the machine. 

Armed with a practice quilt sandwich and a couple of quilting with a walking foot references (I can definitely recommend "Walk" by Jacquie Gering) this happened. 

I followed the exercises in the book and filled up that practice quilt sandwich.  Then I got brave enough to pull out the second Kitty trivet that Grad Girl made when she was home last Christmas.  

The photo angle makes it look a bit wonky, but at least the quilting shows up pretty well. Here's a better photo of all the quilting on the kitty. 

I told Grad Girl this one was the sad kitty trivet since her whiskers were drooping.  Her response was "Well I'd have droopy whiskers too if someone was going sit something hot on me all the time". It's certainly not perfect, but I'm mostly happy with how it turned out. It definitely gave me a chance to practice using the walking foot in different ways.  It wasn't nearly as scary or as hard as I expected. We'll see if I still feel that way once I start quilting on Kate's Choice sometime later this week.  

Linking up with Monday Design Wall, Patchwork & Quilts and for the first time with Free Motion Mavericks.  

Stitching Stuff: Week 15 of 2025

 

It was a good week on the stitching front.  I have a plan for the guild BOM for next year if needed (the tea leaves are reading as yes it will be).  And I made good progress on figuring out how to use my walking foot.  So it was a full week in the sewing room. 

• 15 minute days/week = 7/7 days
• 15 minute days/April = 12/12 days
• 15 minute days/2025 = 97/102 days
• Success rate = 95.10%

I'm happy with my progress year to date. My only regret is not getting more finished quilts. Fingers crossed that happens in the next month or so.  It's scary how close we are to June and the halfway point of 2025.  It creeps up on you!  

There has also been some progress with the scrap/stash organization. I emptied out the working scrap bin again and started on my last big bag of scraps. 

A few strips got cut to size.

During my scrap processing time, I remembered that Operation Clean House was going on. Once a year the city and local companies sponsor an opportunity to recycle typical household chemicals and electronics.  I had been working on cleaning out our attic this month and needed to go drop off some old electronics.  Scrap processing had to end so I could load the car and get that done. Still every little bit adds up.  I'll do more scrap processing next weekend.  

The to be fabric to be pressed bin was also visited.  It was about half full. 

 

Back in November of last year I raided the unwashed and unpressed stash for my blues and greens, colors that I could wash together.  I did a bit of pressing then, but haven't touched it since.  These are 3 and 4 yard cuts, so they take a bit of time. I managed to press 4 pieces. Now they are in the fabric closet ready to use.  

The lighter blue fabric on the bottom right is probably about 15 years old, the rest are less than 5 years old.  Maybe they'll find a home in one of this year's mystery quilts?  

Did you get a chance to stitch this week? 

1. Frédérique 2. Gretchen 3. Amanda 4. Julie in GA

5. maggie f 6. Melissa G 7. Karen 8. DonnaleeQ

9. Quilting Gail 10. Bonnie in Va 11. Melisa- Pinker n' Punkin Quilting 12. Marsha's Spot

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Photo Play 2025: February and March Summary

Quilting goals for 2025 are going well. That's not the case for my photography goals. There have been opportunities, I just haven't reached for my camera during them. I'm not sure if I'm going to try to make photography a priority or just let it go for now. The weather this spring with the cold, wind and fire danger hasn't been very conducive to walks or going places.  Maybe that will change once we get into warmer weather? At any rate, I'm not going to force it. There are too many other things going on that have me worried and stressed, I'm not adding to that. 

Having said all that, I did actually take a couple of walks in February when the weather was nice so I have a few photos to share. All photos taken with a Canon 70D DSLR with a Tamron 18 - 400 mm telephoto lens.  

One thing about Oklahoma is that you can see the sky. Partly cloudy days can look really cool. The trees just add that mystery and tension. Makes me think of a old horror flick.  

  

Normally it starts to green up in the later parts of February, with the colder days that didn't happen. There was lots of brown around. So a gold leaf floating on a brown pond caught my eye.  Maybe not a beautiful photo, but it's an interesting one.   

We didn't get much rain in February. That meant that all the sediments stayed out of the ponds and lakes, leaving them beautifully blue. These geese were enjoying the nice day out on the lake.  

 

Not a bad effort for February, but definitely nothing spectacular or different.  Which for where I'm at with my photography this year it's OK.  I didn't take any photos in March. We'll see what April brings.