Thursday, October 30, 2008

Silent Screams

Woohoo! It's only Thursday and I'm posting again. :-) Before I get to the screaming part of the post... Sunday midday we went for a walk at Lake Johnson Park in Raleigh.


We walked the east loop of the trail, about 3 1/2 miles. The weather was absolutely perfect. The dam and spillway are in the distance, through the gap.


North Carolina has brown lakes, from the clay soil. Up close the water is very brown, but in the photos or from a distance the water is blue. The water was very reflective as well. We walked across the bridge in the middle of the lake (parallel to the road).


People were fishing off the bridge and out on boats. I had to laugh at all the fishing paraphernalia hung up on the power lines near the bridge. It was all the way along!


This is the spillway at the end of the lake, just over halfway on our walk. Not a whole lot of "spilling" going on at the moment.


This is the view from the dam, back across to the walking bridge (through the gap).


This is interesting. I have no idea it's exact purpose, but again, the reflections in the water make a nice picture.

A really nice walk. Next time we might rent a boat. They have pedal boats, Jon boats, canoes, kayaks and Sunfish. Fun!

Now for the screaming.... This is my "Silent Scream." Don'tcha love it?


My sewing room was making me feel like screaming. It's only been a year and a half and I'm still rearranging the furniture, trying to get it "perfect". :-) Thank goodness The Tramp likes to humor me. Together we moved the furniture and yesterday I sorted everything out and put it all back on shelves and in drawers. It's a long narrow room which makes it darned awkward but I think I've finally got it sussed. This photo is from the living room doorway.


And this is from the other end.


Everything looks so neat! The Singer is kind of homeless at the moment but I can easily move the cabinet when I want to use it. My Old Tobacco Road quilt is sitting on top of it, all ready for me to take to the Karolina Kwilters' Sew-in this weekend. My plan is to get the borders done.


Most of my African Violets are blooming at the moment so I brought some into the room to enjoy.


And, joy of joys, I finally found a place to put my Peanuts stuff. :-) Nothing special, but I get a kick out of it, especially Lucy.


One of the reasons for moving furniture was to take advantage of my tables in such a way as to make machine quilting easier. Now I have a huge space to spread quilts out on. And if I'm not quilting the table is still available for painting, beading, clay or what have you.


Yes, that's my Orange Crush in the machine. I'm finally getting it quilted. I'm still learning to manage all the fabric. The actual quilting isn't a problem it's getting the large and heavy quilt to move as needed. I was getting pretty frustrated with it. There is some seriously wonky stitching here!


But I felt much better when I turned it over to look at the back. The wonkiness is not so awfully visible and it should be even better after I wash it.


I also used water soluble thread for the first time, to stabilize it. Nice! I still have to do the borders. Maybe tomorrow. :-)


4 comments:

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Love the silent scream, love the sewing room and love your Orange Crush quilt...
Your room looks so inviting..to be honest I thought it was a shop til I looked a little closer... It does take awhile to settle a layout of a room especially if it is an odd shape, but I think you've done a great job.
Your quilt and quilting look fab from where I'm sitting...large quilts on a domestic machine are hard to handle. One suggestion is to set your ironing board to the left of you and lower it to the height of your sewing table then it can support some of the weight of the quilt. Can't wait to see the finished quilt!

Lynn said...

I haven't been to Lake Johnson in a long time. That is a nice walk - try Lake Pine too. That's beautiful - it's a 2 mile loop. I go there early each morning. So pretty this time of year. For me - heavy big quilt - little tiny sewing machine = frustration.
Your OC looks great though.

Tine said...

Your sewing-room looks like a little slice of heaven!! I love the maverick-stars you have on the wall in one of the photos :-)
The bulls-eye quilt is still looking good, I canøt wait to see what you do with those blocks! And the quilting you did on the Orange Crush looks absolutely perfect to me..

Candace said...

Great pictures, and your sewing room looks fabulous. Do I see a quilt halo? I got one, and am a very novice machine quilter, and haven't gotten the hang of it yet. Do you like it? Your quilting looks great.