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Eight years in the making, Lizard Toes at last is done!!!

I finished the binding at 11:36 pm Tuesday. The plan had been to stick it in the washer before using it to replace Dancing Lizards on our bed. Oh, the memories in that first Lizard quilt!!!

Dancing Lizards is as big as Lizard Toes, nearly 7 feet by 7 feet. I quilted Dancing Lizards by hand on a wood frame I inherited from my grandmother (and used to enjoy using with her while she was still alive). I was so proud of the design when I finished, I took a chance on entering it into the 2008 Denver National Quilt Festival, and unbelievably, it was juried into the show! We were living in a tiny apartnment then and had no place big enough to hang the quilt for an entry photo, so a couple of my friends helped me snap a shot on the stage at church.

My most memorable comment from the judges was, "This could benefit from more quilting." At the time, I was determined to do better on my next entry attempt, but deep down inside, I was devastated. I've since learned my quilts don't have to please the quilt police. They have to please their recipients. And the recipients of both these Lizard quilts was us, me and my sweetheart. I think we literally loved it to death!!!

The only place Dancing Lizards has hung since the Denver National Quilt Festival has been on our bed, and it really took a beating over the years! Definitely ready for retirement!!!

By the time I finished binding Lizard Toes, Lizard had fallen asleep in the zero-gravity recliner (which is normal for him these days). I had to work in the office a full nine hours yesterday, the first time I've left Lizard alone for more than five hours since returning to work full time following his total knee replacement in 2019 and the first time I've been in the office more than five hours since March 19, 2020. As a result, a photograph of my entire quilt on the driveway was out of the question yet again, and now, Wednesday night, as I type this, it's snowing again. It may be a while before I get the full quilt in a shot.

The only place this stiff, heavy giant is going to hang (other than for that photo of the front and the back) is the bed. Lizard Toes has about 365 mistakes. No, I didn't count them. I've done a few block-a-day and motif-a-day projects in my life. I think Lizard Toes was at least a mistake a day. But guess what??? I love it all the same!

I decided to sleep under Lizard Toes to celebrate finally finishing it. I'll wash it and get more photos after I've given it a good workout. All that dense quilting makes it stiffer than other quilts I've cuddled in, but hopefully it will soften up with use and washings. And hopefully, those 564 toes won't unravel too fast!

Linking up with Alycia Quilts.

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Headbangers

(my greeting cards and affiliate links)

Snowbow is helping me send birthday wishes to my family and friends this year. I snapped photos of Snowbow with each of the grands (I thought) back in February, fully intending to make each grandkid a Snowbow birthday card. (Most of the kids would rather have an actual Snowbow instead of a photo, though!!! They loved that little bear!!!)


I have so many grandkids, I can't keep track! Three of them escaped the photo shoot, and I didn't figure that out until I began making the cards.

Initially, I thought I could just Photoshop my little bear into other photos I'd snapped of the three missing kiddos, but after the first paste-up, I decided I'll try again next year, maybe, and do something different this year.

Last year, it was a struggle to send each paper card because I didn't initially keep track of who got what. My bad. I didn't want to send the same card twice to one family.

When I turned 6, I got identical greeting cards from both of my grandmothers, who lived more than 800 miles apart. It was really cool, and I still have those ballerina cards today. But both cards were personally addressed to me, not to me and someone else in my family, and I knew both my grandmas remembered how much I loved ballet. They both looked for something special to send me.

I've always thought if my sister and I had received identical cards (which NEVER happened), someone must have bought a stack of identical cards on sale and didn't care if what they sent was special or meaningful. I don't want to be "that grandparent." I want each of my grands to know they are unique to me. I don't ever want them to think I rushed through a gift- or card-shopping trip.

I decided to create all 16 (which now has become 19!!!) individual cards at one time, then all I have to do is mail them before each birthday. The whole year is done, no duplicates, and all I have to do sign them, put a stamp on them and remember to stick them in the mail!

I have so many bighorn photos, I decided sheep would be the best starting point. One family lives on a farm. Plus, it's really fun for me to write captions for some of the photos. Unless I am trying to write 16 (or 19) different rhyming verses!


Some of the photos almost write their own laugh lines. After about the tenth card, though, writing verses grew a little more challenging. Ever start feeling like your brain is scrambled??? That's how I felt!

Once done, however, I felt as if I'd climbed a 14er! The first few cards have already been sent and enjoyed now, and the remainder are labeled and ready to be mailed when the time is right.


Hearing from the kids how much they love their cards (and spinning some really good tall tales when they ask how I got so close) is one of my favorite experiences in life. (I always confess I have a really good telephoto lens after making their eyes pop out of their heads with stories of being sniffed by a bighorn.) (I did have a bighorn poke its head in my car window once when I stopped to shoot a roadside photo without getting out of the car...) (Oh, and then there was the time one came up behind me and really did sniff me - and scare the daylights out of me - while I was preoccupied shooting one of its kin...) (Well, and they really love the smell of my sweat on my bicycle handlebars...)






Every once in a while, I wonder what I'll use next year, or the year after that. I'm worried I will run out of themed photos as well as humored rhyme.

Perhaps I'll have to make another trip to South Dakota and hit all those dinosaur museums. Kids LOVE dinosaurs!


Or, I could just go back to bears...

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Butterfly Bleh

It ain't pretty, but it's finished...

And for exactly six hours and 28 minutes, I never wanted to see another butterfly as long as I live!

I initially planned to quilt straight lines or a vortex circle, but when I sat down to the (tiny) machine (with an extremely narrow throat), I decided I should practice my FMQ because this quilt wasn't specifically for anyone. It wouldn't matter if I "ruined" it.

After I began quilting and realized how difficult it would be to quilt curlicues freehand in the empty spaces, I was tempted to pick out all the stitches I'd already done and go back to Plan A. I thought it would take me a couple of nights to finish the free-motion quilting. It took four nights and two Saturdays!

I didn't have any more of the leftover Cosmos from backing another couple of quilts that I used on the back of this quilt, and I didn’t have enough of the Toscana leftover from Teal Shadows I used on the front of this quilt to cut strips for binding, so after I finished quilting, I carefully trimmed away the extra batting and folded the Cosmos on the back over to the front.

Initially, I was going to hand-stitch the binding. But by the time I got done pinning all the way around, I decided the heck with it; it's full of mistakes, and it will never, ever be on display anywhere except as a finish (and a sloppy one at that!!!), so I machine stitched it. It's done. I don't ever have to work on it again. I can hide it until it doesn't make my tummy growl anymore!!!






Linking up with Busy Hands Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Ta da!

I should be in bed. But I'm too excited.

As of 11:39 p.m. Wednesday, Spindrift, my entry in the 2011 Denver National Quilt Festival, is done! Fini! Pinned and drying!

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Second Sock Syndrome Revisited

I knew if I kept that potential golf club cover on the arm of my chair, so I had to look at it ever night, I'd eventually finish the second sock. Added incentive came from some gorgeous yarn I couldn't wait to use. I vowed I would not touch the pretty yarn until the ugly sock was done.

The ugly sock is done! Well, and now, I don't think it's so ugly anymore. Maybe I just needed a vacation from the "butterfly" color for a while. I actually like this new pair of socks now. Yet still, these do NOT look like butterflies to me!

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Catching Up

I've been such a busy little bee. Did you know "bee" is what Deborah means?!?

I spent so many months preparing for Ride the Rockies, then claiming a 1,000-mile month, I didn't pay enough attention to other things on my plate. Now I'm getting back on track. Which means, of course, my bikes are suffering from neglect. Which means I'm totally neglecting fitness. Ugh. Just can't win!

Nevertheless, I've finally finished uploading photos from the Denver National Quilt Festival I shot way back in May.

I've finished retouching but not uploading Ride the Rockies photos. I haven't made a slide show yet. (My family expects to see proof each year of all the miles I've pedaled. Choreographed to fun music. But they do make their own popcorn.)

I've finished retouching and uploading senior portraits.

I've finished retouching and almost uploading all my Leadville 100 photos.

I've finished 30 socks, including 14 actual pairs!

I've backed up all my photos, organized my hard drives and cleaned up my laptop.

Oh, and I got to shoot the moon last night. We had no clouds! I remembered where to find the camera settings I wanted, I got my shots, and then by the light of a fill flash and a headlamp, I shot some more pictures of my sunflowers. Then I used star trails-type PhotoShop maneuvers to combine the best moon shot with the best sunflower shot.

Mission: Accomplished!

Transformed my sunflower into a moonflower and found out who pollinates and keeps the uglies away when the bees go to sleep at night.

And now I just need to finish... well, I'll start my To Do list with a quilt for next year's Denver National Quilt Festival and leave it at that for now. Because I still have to get up Pikes Peak. There's a possibility I might get to go back into calendar production, which would mean putting together a 56-photo weekly planner by about mid-October. And I just found out I need to learn to turn a heel pronto so I can knit a pair of socks by Christmas. The Lizard wants a pair. The Lizard likes my handmade sock so much, he wants a pair!!! (Insert more happy, exhilarated, joyful, dancing exclamation points here.) Somehow, I just don't think crocheted lacy frilly socks would work. I wonder if I could design a pair with gecko toes...

Man, do I ever have my work cut out for me. But just see if you can wipe the permagrin off my face. Life doesn't get any better than this.

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