That quilt I started forever ago that I thought I would finish months ago just got completed two nights ago. It was such a nightmare from the beginning. I cut a huge portion of the quilt on the wrong angle so I had to redo a large portion of it but unfortunately the main fabric I chose was unavailable anywhere because it had been discontinued. After driving to every fabric store in a 60 mile radius, I just bought it off Ebay. So lots of pieces and a lot more attention paid to the directions, I finally got it all sewn together. Just in time for my favorite local quilt shop to ask me to enter some of my finished quilts in their private quilt show. Well once you finish a quilt top, it's not really done. Depending on the size, you have to take the quilt to a 'long-arm machine quilter' to do the final stitching of the top, back and middle (the batting). This is what gives a quilt it's warmth. I dropped it off at a lady (I usually do my own finish quilting) and told her I needed it in time to enter the quilt show. She assured me it would be done in time but months later without hearing from her, I realised she wasn't quite as fast as I thought she would be. The quit show came and went and then on Sunday night the quilter called to say it was all done and I could come pick it up. It ended up being about half as expensive as I thought it would be, a nice surprise. I finished the binding and now it's all done, a year early for next years quilt show!
Here is a photo although the color is really off. It is much more vibrant and bright. And the good news is it is large enough to put on my bed, although I won't because the dog will probably get it dirty.
So I have a new collection going now. Last weekend I went to a garage sale and picked up a 1970 Schwinn Sting-Ray bicycle. Complete with a banana seat. It was in good condition. The owner said it was her daughters bike and she hardly ever rode it. Her husband never threw anything away so it stayed in the garage for the next 35 plus years. So I bought it. It has great ape hanger handle bars and flowers on the seat. It's a one speed with the reverse pedal brakes. I imagined myself on that old street in Albuquerque with my old banana seat bike doing skids as I stopped suddenly on that slight hill. Oh was I excited. Of course I failed to mention that I was 7 when I finally learned to ride a bike without training wheels. So it is now mine. The only draw back to this bike is that it had some serious overspray on it. Someone had spray painted something near it and there were white speckles all over it. SO off to Home Depot I went to get paint remover and it worked wonderful without taking off the original green sparkle paint! Yippee! So it goes off to the bike shop today to get a bath and a tune up. let's back up to Tuesday of this week. I start getting obsessed about these cool retro bikes and start looking on Ebay and Craigslist for more of these wonderful hidden gems. Little did I know there was a huge following on these bikes and they fetch quite a hefty price. So I've been bidding on a few on Ebay for Wyatt. More of a pixie version. I have visions of Wyatt and I have a huge collection of collector bikes in the garage. So I find this one Stingray Stardust on Craigslist in my neighborhood. It's in minty condition. Ends up the guy's sister owned it in the early 70's and then his daughters rode it later. Well it went home with me too. It is in near perfect condition. It is all sparkle green and has a complete, intact, no tear glitter green banana seat. Oooh, just thinking about it gets me super excited. I hope I can find a job near my home so I can ride my collector bikes to work. I will look like a super dork but who cares? So here is a photo of my green Stingray Stardust and after I take a photo of the Stingray Fairlady I will post it.
So I'm off to Palm Springs for the weekend, my birthday trip! I will post more later.
Love ya!
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