gr8day, I'm glad that your spider situation is under control. You may not get them in your home in October where you live. But we always have them coming in to find a warmer place when it starts to get cold. I've been seeing a lot of spiders lately in my house. I don't have ants, so I can't comment on that, but I think that the DE kills ants. You sprinkle the DE in areas that have activity inside and outside. The DE will need to be re-applied after it rains. I had tried the Ortho Home Defense Max spray and also a permethrin spray, but the (dried) residual does nothing for spiders; the spiders walk right over the residual. These insecticides only work for spiders if they are sprayed on the spiders or if a spider walks into the wet spray. These insecticides won't destroy a spider's egg sac, so the egg sac has to be removed. I know what you mean about hired workers not showing up for appointments. So frustrating. When I hired Terminex, they showed up a lot when I wasn't home, so they only sprayed the outside of my house and not the inside. I had to keep calling them back to finish the job. They also were supposed to take down any spider webs, but the technician never bothered with removing the webs.

FYI-I started this thread over a year ago.....that said, I like seeing these pictures again. In the year, I decided I wasn't ready to start a scrappy string quilt (not enough variation in scraps yet) but, I did recently separate much of the mess of scraps I had accumulated. Toolgranny had stated the obvious to most of you - but since I was so new, I needed it stated - heehee- you need at least 3/4" wide strips. That was my guideline, and the smaller went in a bag to be used for a pillow for my son's dog - who chews up everything stuffed. I have come so far in a year - thanks to you all sharing! Please add any string/ crumb quilts you've made to this thread. jool- I read where someone uses 2" adding machine tape on a roll as her foundation to make her piano keys. I thought that was a good idea.

Karlene, You must have patience to do this type of binding! I've been wanting to do a SpiderWeb but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Did you use a template like Bonnie did with paper? I'm trying to get away from tearing all that paper off, but don't want fabric under the strips either. Of course, if fabric 'was' used, there would be no need for batting....hmmmmm. (I am one sick puppy to think about starting another quilt at this time!) SharonG/FL Here is a link that might be useful: Quiltville Spiderweb

Thanks YaYa--I appreciate your eforts! I tried every combo of search terms I could come up with and tried to recreate the search that originally lead me there and no luck. I found it through a google image search the first time. It doesn't help that different regions label the architecture differently so I had gone through split level, split entry, split foyer, bi-level, etc. Apparently no one with an inclination toward decorating buys this style of house (I understand why)and any little nuggets I find are treasures to me because they are so rare!