Knobs Everywhere

Nothing like taking an idea and running with it! 

My local home store keeps running out of these knob sets but buying the knobs individually is a little more expensive. Here are my supplies. The #8 hangar bolts are the main ingredient for changing cabinet knobs into wall mounted knobs.

Picture quilt comes out of hiding to hang on a bathroom wall. 

My primary guest room also got an art quilt. You might recognize this McKenna Ryan design, "Rhythm of the Sea."

And knobs for hanging a quilt in my studio.

And I almost forgot...before and after landscape photos.

The last side of the driveway pad...this was a dumping area when our home was under construction. 

Rock covering the slope and out of control vegetation cleared. 

Another view...

And a mad rush to add a second perennial bed...after all...the firepit looks lonely...

Rocks in place to outline the second perennial bed. Next spring my first job will be getting soil delivered.

The big rock pile is gone! I still have some other areas of the yard to clean up before the snow arrives. I am hoping to finish that this weekend as the forecast is great for Saturday and Sunday.

No quilting until I finish making this top. I did get it cut out last Sunday. I think once I sit down at the sewing machine I will zip right through this blouse. I am making the pink short sleeved version. 

I am out of knobs but there are a few more bare walls in my house to cover...one of these days.

Completing Projects

I finished the binding on my Sea Holly Hunter's Star quilt just in time for September's Breakfast Club. The club is meeting tomorrow. I made my own border design but used the construction method from the Missouri Star Quilt Co.,  Block magazine holiday issue from 2015. I had a layer cake and jelly roll from the Hoffman Sea Holly Bali colorway hiding in my stash. The background is also a Hoffman Bali dot 885 colorway, #413 Watercress. Beautiful fabrics.

I have found that quilting  with parallel lines along the border tends to distort the border...I know my piecing was spot on when I made the top and this is the second quilt I have noticed this issue occuring. I am always learning.

I finished another cross stitched Santa ornament, Musical Santa. 

On Saturday, I had some new visitors to my yard, three horses that got loose from my neighbor. They roamed our street for a few hours which made my dog, Logan, absolutely crazy. 

And the end is in sight for my autumn landscaping projects. Little bits of rock left to move. I'm not tackling any new  landscaping projects until spring of 2018. 

It is raining today and my list of indoor projects is extensive...but getting ready for Breakfast Club will be my number one priority.

I missed the August Breakfast Club because I woke up that morning to a very sick dog. As it turns out, McKinley, most likely had a bacterial infection caused by eating rabbit tainted with Tulameria,  also known as Rabbit Fever. Antibiotics took care of the illness. It was very scary for about 24 hours. We are experiencing a boom in rabbit numbers this summer throughout Alaska. There are cycles to the rabbit population...who knew? The owls in our area leave rabbit parts from their hunting excursions and I am often pulling rabbit parts out of the dogs' mouths. 

Changing Quilts for Autumn

Always fun to change the decor up a bit. "Henrietta Whiskers," above my treadle machine, was the easiest switch...my existing curtain rod for hanging was staying in place. This is an Anne Sutton pattern that was a free block of the month on her blog many years ago. It was very different from my usual tastes but I did it in batiks with wool applique and made it mine. All the materials were from my stash. 

Next, was my entry way. I took down the curtain rod  I was using and did cabinet knobs along the top edge of my wall. The advantage is the quilt hangs flush against the wall.

Here's a better look at the knobs I used to hang the quilt. This is a very fun and quick strip pattern called, "Strip Lash."

Last spring I put knobs all along three sides of my breakfast nook. At Christmas I added the knobs above my windows to hang garland and stockings which gave me the idea to do all three walls and hang a quilt on one side.

My husband says this quilt is one of his favorites because of all the different textures. Tough to get a good photo on a gloomy day. The pattern is, "Perfect Ten," which uses 10 fat quarters.

And this is our mud room off the garage entry. This is another easy quilt called, "Irish Mist." Got it as a kit at the Houston quilt show several years ago. This quilt hides lots of ugly things; two circuit breaker panels and a series of wall mounted units like a router and cable TV box.

The gloomy weather continues so I am hoping to get the quilts changed in my master bedroom and add some knobs in other spaces for more quilts. 

Landscaping Updates

September is finally here! May and September are my two favorite months in Alaska. Our weather is usually pretty nice and I find those two months are my most productive.

I had whittled away my last pile of fractured granite rock so it was time to get another load. Only 48,000 pounds in this pile! It needs to be gone by the time snow arrives which is do-able if the weather cooperates.

I am still working on getting rock around the slope of our parking pad. I had a tricky area under the metal grates for the pole barn..

Before...

After.

A different angle...before...

After!

I lovingly refer to this landscaping work as my rock gym. Lots of rolling and propping stones on a furniture dolly to get it where I need it. 

I am also working on an area in the front of my house...a gravel walk way that needs to go around the side of the house.  This is where I was when I ran out stones.

And a little progress on getting to the side of the house. 

The black plastic has been in place for months to kill the grass in this area. More rock and a shrubbery bed  planned for this general area.

Poor Eli got his first bath this morning. He had a messy bottom. We have a glass enclosed shower that he was trapped in while I cleaned him. He wasn't thrilled but it went better than expected. No scratches or bites.

He does look a little miffed but I think he was ultimately glad to be clean. He looks incredibly scrawny without his fluffy fur.