Friday, October 10, 2014

Box Elder Bugs I Hate You!

Box Elder bugs
Really I do not like them at all.

Those things come like clock work every year. 


So here's the facts Mack.



The boxelder bug:

  • likes to bask in the sun
  • feeds on seed-bearing female boxelder trees, but also like maple and ash trees
  • lays eggs on the trunks of these trees
  • seeks shelter in cracks and crevices on buildings to survive winter seasons
  • emerges in spring once temperatures are warmer, but will occasionally emerge earlier on sunny days
  • choose the south and west sides of buildings to swarm to because they're the sunniest and warmest
  • population is most abundant during hot, dry summers.
  • poop on the windowsills inside of the house.
  • crawl all over the floor and get stepped on and squished in the throw rugs. 
  • fly around and land on the innocent and scare them to death. 

So what's the answer?

1. We need to close all cracks and crevices in our homes.
Oh OK, that will be easy.

2. Chop down all Box Elder trees and Maple trees in our yards. 
Oh OK, I'll do that tomorrow. 

3. Re-insulate our houses with TAP.
TAP is Thermal Acoustical Pest Control insulation is 
nothing short of awesome. 
 For areas in your house that you don't go 
into very often, like your attic, 
TAP will do the work for you.

Perfect because since it installs itself and 
works all by itself I'm set. 


Love, Grammy T. 

Thursday, October 9, 2014

UFO - Did you say UFO?

  

 This is a UFO. It means Unfinished Object. Quilters have a tendency to see a lot of beautiful things they want to quilt and they don't finish everything they started. 

The rule for a UFO challenge at my quilt guild is that it has to be 
something in your stash and you don't need to buy anything for to finish. 

Or something like that. 

This is one of three UFO's I have to finish before Novembers meeting. 

I washed it so it would turn out old fashioned looking. 
And because it's a grandma quilt. 

I started with a pile of scrapes and just sewed a lot of 
pieces together until I had a 
12 1/2 by 12 1/2 block. 

Then I sewed all the blocks together to make a quilt top. 
I then layered the back which was popcorn minky 
and the batting 
which I pieced together from leftovers 
and then I put the quilt top on. 

I pinned it together. 

I will show you how I do that with the binder Clips 
on one of my next blog posts.
With these Frixion pens, that I ordered from Amazon, 
I marked the quilt top with designs.

They iron off with a warm steam iron. 


After I had the free motion quilting done I put on the binding. 
This is the walking foot that I use to do that. 


See the little blade on this walking foot, I  love it. 
It keeps me on the straight and narrow.


This is the stitching on the front of the quilt.


This picture shows you how the stitching shows up on that minky. 
The minky is really cute and cuddly. 

Here it is when I got the binding done and before I washed it. 

BTW, The Frixion pen washed out completely.


I'm not that good and I am a humble quilter but 
I love it.

Love, 
Grammy T.