Thursday 11th
"Amish" Quilting

It took some research (i.e. Lucy looking at lots of pictures of quilting examples to get some ideas) and although I've never tried anything quite like this before, I took a leap of faith and jumped in. 

First I drew a bunch of shapes in CorelDraw to figure out what I wanted. I experimented with stars and ribbons, but they all looked a bit too much like party explosions:

Finally I took out the stars (much to my sadness - I'm very fond of stars) and just went with the stand-alone ribbon. Much calmer and more "folky":

Next I printed out the drawing across three sheets of paper - actual size - and stapled them together and placed the resulting 44" long paper strip next to the border. With a chalk pencil, I eyeball-copied the centerline of the shape onto the fabric.

With the centerline chalked in (and rubbed out/chalked in again where I didn't get it quite right), I sewed the ribbon shape - bulging as I came around the corners while trying to keep it as even as possible. The result wasn't great - the machine doesn't always go quite where I want it to so some parts of the ribbon were a bit narrower than I wanted. Luckily I was able to go back and resew those. There are four of these borders, so I'm hoping each one will get a little better - although to get to the two on the sides it means I will have to unpin and rotate the entire quilt 90 degrees on the frame which is a drag. Here you can see how I chalked too close  to the edge and had to readjust the line:

For the background I wanted something fairly dense so went with the criss-cross "matrix". It got better as I went along - discovering that the overall effect was improved the tighter I made the lines.

Because the thread I'm using is the same colour as the fabric, at times it's really hard to see what you're doing. A transparent hopping foot would help - I have one for my other Kenmore machine and am wondering if I can butcher it to fit the Juki.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how this is turning out, although concerned that this quilt will end up stiff as a board from so much dense quilting. But I've long wanted to experiment with trapunto-like effects (the blank bulgy parts caused by dense surrounding quilting) so I just have to hope that the bamboo batting inside will help with drape (aka "floppiness"). 

I'm also suffering mild angst about "what comes next". Because of the double-thickness batting on the center panels, I know those areas will be densely quilted, but I have to figure out what to do with the blue and pale green borders. I should probably treat them as one piece and try to figure out some larger quilting motif to give the overall quilt more "flop". I'm toying with the idea of circles, but knowing my machine steering abilities, they will come out wobbly. Better to go for a more irregular shape.

Sunday 14th
More Quilting

Once a quilt gets on the frame I can actually poke away at it on a regular basis - so here are some pics of how the quilting is progressing. So much for avoiding circles:

I was experimenting with various kinds of filler backgrounds to see what would work best. Unfortunately, the points on the stars weren't really big enough to support most of the fillers, so they got somewhat lost. The effect on the larger triangles on the blue fabric worked better.

The triangles all got carefully chalked out on the fabric, only for me to decide that they were too choppy so I had to remark wider ones. Pebbling seemed a simple task, until I got to the first triangle and promptly started filling it instead of pebbling around it (you get so close to the quilting you go blind). Luckily I was only a quarter of the way through the triangle when I realised what I was doing and had to stop and unpick it <grrr>. Unpicking pebbling is about the hardest to do, since you go over each pebble twice and anchor the thread nicely. Tweezers help.

The next problem showed up while unpicking my triangle. I rolled the quilt to get access to the back of the blue, thinking it might be easier to see the stitching - and discovered that for some reason the tension had been wrong on the light green and it is way too loose on the back. No idea why - I hadn't changed anything unless it was a badly wound bobbin. <sigh> I have a nasty feeling I'm going to have to completely unpick the entire light green strip and do it again. At least the loose tension will make unpicking faster .

If you look closely the quilting is a little wobbly, but the overall effect works well.

Winter Olympics — after having the TV crap out half-way through the Opening Ceremony, pft and I spent some time yesterday tweaking on the antenna to see if we could get better reception. This still doesn't help when the signal wavers, which it seems to do without rhyme or reason - as during the last three laps of the gold-medal short-skating race last night. WHY???

"New House" — We've been toying with the idea of buying a house with our inheritance money since the housing market is so cheap right now and investing it seems like a bad idea. Our thought is to buy something that we'd like to retire to (something easier on creaky bodies), rent it out in the meantime, and then once the housing market goes up again, we'll sell one or other of the houses. 

The house we have our eye on at the moment doesn't have as much land as we'd like (only 2 acres), but it's right on the trails, has good chunks of usable flat land (unusual for round here), and has minimal upkeep/maintenance (unlike Andy Wolf that is wonderful, but you pay for all that wondrousness in hard work). 

We have our work cut out for us over the next few days researching the implications of renting out a house and what it will cost us if it doesn't rent out. It is both exciting and daunting at the same time, but we both feel good about the property.

Uno and Fergus got out for a quickie - first time since DVE six weeks ago - and we rode right past the "new house" down French Hill and back up again. Uno appears to be sound after his abscess and Fergus was in good spirits. They both had fun but were wringing wet by the time we got done - scuttling up the hill in 60 degree temps in woolly coats. I wanted to show pft where our closest trails would be if we moved there. 

Wednesday 17th
Offer on "New House"

The offer ($190k) on the new house went in today so now we're in "wait and see" holding pattern. The place was a foreclosure and is "bank-owned", which basically means what you see is what you get - no bartering, no fiddling around.

Of course, spring sort of arrived now and I'm sad about even thinking of leaving Andy Wolf.

Dan txted me at the beginning of the week - he and Gina are getting married in July... ...the day after Tevis, so it looks like no Tevis for me :(  Good for them, though! :)

21 February Reno Trip What I found when I came out from the AERC Convention on Sunday morning. Reno had 24" of snow; Truckee (30 minutes away) had 2"... Go figure:

23 February
New House Update

Looks like we took a step closer - the bank countered on our offer - they want $5k more, bringing the total price to $195k, which is still a good deal.

This morning we went in and waded through pages of legalese to sign the acceptance. Then we have ten days to get our inspections done and in theory it could be ours on March 19th. <gulp>

I feel good about the financial side of it, but less good about the time commitment it may require. It's a little like we were just starting to get Andy Wolf where we wanted it, only to have to start over. But maybe we can do it better second time around? Andy Wolf has so much space and so many nooks and crannies where you can put things while Roquero Cerro doesn't. But the flip side is the more nooks and crannies you have, the more time you have to spend looking after them. Roquero Cerro won't require so much time.

pft went up there yesterday and took some pics:

The property boundary (north is "up").  The larger yellow outline shows the existing vinyl fence which encloses about 0.8 acre. That area is relatively flat and then slopes gently down the hill to the westerly point (the horse area).  The NE structure within the vinyl fence is the houselet. Then the two "new structures" shown in yellow in the NW of this area are pft's future garage and my future hay storage :) Oh - and that white house west of the property is owned by my horse vet, Maria  ;-)
The local terrain (north is "up").  The house is where the "A" is on the map.  Ann's house is about where the 2400' mark is, just to the NE of our house. There is trail access in three directions.   (For Tevis-afficionados, Francisco's is on the opposite side of the river at the northern-most point. The Tevis river crossing is due west - maybe 1.5 miles as the crow flies?)
The view from the "front corner" (SE) of the property.  Our bedroom is in this corner, so many bushes will be planted here as soon as we get going. We will get sun-rise light in our bedroom :) The pink thing in the background is the 864 sq ft houselet.
Looking towards the corner shown in the photo above, standing over near the houselet (NE corner). The top 0.8 acre has this very nice dog-proof vinyl fence all the way around it. Unfortunately, even though there are two gates to get in, neither of them is wide enough to allow for truck-n- trailer turning around, so we'll possibly need to widen the gates. There is a tree-obscured south-westerly view through the trees looking down into the canyon.
Back on the opposite side again (South fence).  The top 0.8 acre is relatively flat, and then slopes gently away down the hill to the horse area (behind the white vinyl fence).  The hot-tub in the foreground comes with the property - no idea if it works or not.
The back deck which runs the whole length of the house. The roof overhang also goes the entire way around the house which should keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in winter. The building on the left in the background is a peculiar caravan/travel trailer with a building-attachment - it's kind of odd and cleverly done at the same time. In the long-run, this will probably be taken out and replaced with pft's garage (and my hay storage to the left of it, slightly down the hill). You can just see the pink houselet on the right in the background.
Evidently the previous owners were dog people - there is this big dog run in front of the house... I'm wondering if goats would fit in there....? This photo is taken from the likely location of my hay-storage barn (NW corner of vinyl-fenced area).
The existing horse shelter in the paddock. (You can just see the roof of this in the aerial photo)	Looking east up towards the house from the horse shelter.

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27-28 February
Waistcoats/New House-Garage-Hay Storage/Ponying Uno

		Waistcoat - Viv-at-Work loaned me two waistcoats to use as a pattern.  It seems like a relatively simple garment to make (I hope) although tracing the shape of the rayon fabric onto pellon without distorting it wasn't easy.  Then there was the minor detail that Viv's a lot smaller than I am around the top, so I had to add extra inches in to accommodate that.
The result - or at least what I've basted together so far, isn't too bad. I need to trim the front slightly and maybe make the arm holes larger (it's a bit of a struggle to get into, which isn't good). Pics to follow.

New House/Garage/Hay Storage layout - pft and I visited Roquero Cerro and paced around scoping things out. The latest thought is to build him a garage on the south side of the house (big, flat, wasted area), which will have the double-use of giving us some privacy from the road. We just have to position it so that we don't block the morning sunshine. 

In terms of my hay storage, we're now thinking that the travel trailer/caravan thing (shown in this pic) might be convertible. It has a good roof on it and if we removed the travel trailer and left the structure part it might work quite well. Since it has a functioning bathroom and utility room, it seems a shame to demolish it.

Ponying Uno - on Sunday, after I got 22 bales of grass/alf (this after the pones went on hunger strike when I spent two weeks feeding them on $5 and $7 hay), Uno, Roop n' me went over to Cronin to try and get a real ride in. 

This would entail ponying Uno from Roo - something that I'd never attempted before but thought Uno had done ponying in his original training in Oregon/Washington. Of course, it wasn't until we were actually going along that it occurred to me that I never checked to see if he was frightened by trailing lead ropes, etc. Luckily, the one time I did drop him (he stopped to poop, Roo continued to trot), Roo was more frightened of the lead rope than Uno was, as I tried to play cow-pony to pick him back up again (Uno doing his best to stuff in as much grass as possible during this interlude).

Here are my good boys behaving impeccably, with Uno setting a good example by drinking at the very first puddle we came to. There was minor anxiety caused by a bicycle with an orange flagged-trailer, but not enough to distract Uno from the job at hand. ...If only he actually did this at real rides... <sigh>.
	Roo was on his best behaviour and except for spooking once at a rocky outcropping and trying to knock Uno off the side (I purposely picked wide trails for this eventuality), he was as good as gold. It seems that having his own personal buddy along kept him very cheerful and he was forward the entire time, without being an idiot. One of the best things was that they don't make each other crazy, so don't get into races when you start trotting (a relief - you always wonder if you've bitten off more than you can chew when you try this). And here we are down at the river, hanging out  (both pones are quite good at the "hanging out" part). By six miles, Uno (who admittedly has only been out once since New Year) decided he was "tard" and began to lag, meaning I had to drag him along—which got old fast. He would keep up when we were trotting, but walking uphill became a chore.  Heading home, Roo began to speed up and Uno really had to stretch to keep up - nice to watch from a spectator standpoint to see how he moves—he looked pretty good. But given Uno's apparent fitness level (or lack thereof) and the fact that I only have three weekend's of riding between now and then, I'm doubtful he'll be ready for NV Derby at the beginning of April, so Roop might have to go alone. No matter, Uno'll be ready for Washoe Valley for sure. And to be honest, I'd like for his abscessy foot to grow out a bit - he's very uneven where I had to cut out the loose frog, so extra time will help there.
Self-portrait. Hmm.

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More New House Pics

The deck behind the guest houselet (north side), showing how close the next door neighbours are  (bushes needed along this fence!). Closest to us is a gravelled, covered parking area.
Guest Houselet: Looking in the side window at the narrow part of the bedroom	Guest Houselet: Looking in the back patio doors at the living room wood stove	Guest Houselet: Looking slightly to the right at the kitchen area
Guest Houselet: Looking back at the deck and patio door
The corner of the closest structure on the left is a woodshed. Then the next structure is the front of the travel trailer/caravan thing. They've built on a bathroom and another room, plus this glass enclosed sun room. After removing the travel trailer, it should make a very spiffy hay storage area. To the right, behind the vinyl fence is the site of my future horse barn - a six-stall with an aisle. Oooh! (a girl can dream, right?).
Main House: Looking in the east master bedroom window towards the bathroom door on the far side of the house. The bathroom and bedroom are part of the same room. The sticky-out part of the wall on the left is a walk-in closet. Great choice in carpet colour! <sigh>	Main House: Looking through the north door (side door?) down the hall (has the second bedroom, a laundry room and a bath room off it) towards the kitchen/living room. The space at the far end is a hall that goes into the master bedroom.	Main House: Looking through the (west) kitchen window. The sink is in front of the window just out of the picture.
Main House: Looking in the (west) door at the living room. The door opposite with the yellowish glass is the "front door" (east) with a coat cupboard just inside it. The opening to the left is the hallway leading to the second bedroom/laundry room/bathroom and side (north) door. To the right of the front door is the wood stove (sole heating for the entire house) and the larger part of the living room (and the master bedroom). The kitchen is open to the living room. The empty space on the far right is where the refrigerator goes. The sink is directly to the right of this pic along the west wall.

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