WIP Wednesday and other news......

Hi there! It's been a busy week since I updated last! We are still on our quest for a homestead, we looked at 6 houses last Friday and only saw 2 possibilities. The other houses were great houses but they were either grossly neglected or trashed by people who foreclosed or went into bankruptcy. We saw a formerly beautiful house, more than big enough for our large brood---but the people who lived there foreclosed and before they moved out they ripped out the boiler, water heater, air conditioning and all the copper piping throughout the house. They also broke windows and put holes in walls--in addition to leaving behind a HUGE mess. It was so sad. That house was on 2 beautiful acres, deep in the country on a quiet, beautiful street. DH says it would cost too much to replace everything, way out of our budget. Ah well, here is a picture of a house we may put an offer on---it's a nice house on 5 wooded acres but it's on a busy, loud road--which I really didn't want to live on, but there are enough pros to the property to maybe overlook that issue. We can have small livestock (goats, chickens) since there is 5 acres and DH would clear some of the trees for a large garden area for us. It's not my dream house---it's much smaller than I had wanted but it does have potential. The front porch is closed in and finished and would make a nice, albeit small sewing room--but it would be much bigger than what I have now! The basement is partially finished--it could eventually be a larger sewing area, maybe. Dh really likes this house, I like it--I'm still pining for the "dream house" we found and lost. We will most likely be making an offer this week, unless I find something better, which I haven't in weeks.

I got the top for the Spring Star quilt done, finally! It turned out real nice, even after all the issues I had with figuring out the measurements for the set in triangles. I found a couple yardage estimators online but they were very wasteful, especially when I wasn't plugging in the correct measurements, LOL! But after some trial and error, I got them all the right size and it looks good! Here are some pics of it:


The pictures don't do justice to the colors in the quilt, they are much more vibrant than they look. I found some fusible batting at JoAnn's, I had never heard of that before, I usually use cotton or wool and safety pins for basting so if this works well, it'll be nice to have an alternative. I haven't heard anything bad about it!! I also found a Bernina "recipe" for a hand-look machine quilting stitch, so I'm going to give that a try and attempt to machine quilt it. I've been practicing the free motion some more so hopefully I'll get it down and be able to actually machine something more than straight lines, LOL! I've now got 3 tops done and I plan on at least 3 more---then I'm just going to quilt, quilt, quilt! DH is making me a quilting frame for the items I want to hand quilt. I NEED to get these quilted! I motivated myself to stay up night after night to piece them, I need to get that same motivation and get them finished. Wish me luck, LOL!

My daughter graduated from high school last night, I am so proud! She is planning on going to the community college and taking AP courses for a major in American History, then she wants to transfer to Cleveland State to get a teaching degree in American History. That is so cool, I've always love history and even though she won't admit it, she got that from me, LOL!!! I wish I could get her interested in quilting. Maybe someday.... She used to like to sew when she was younger.

I've been power sewing for days, I'm going to take a couple days off to do some gardening and baking. I hope you all have a great week, I'll see you soon!