The rotary cutter and iron got a workout!

I spent a huge chunk of time Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday in the studio cutting out thread beds and project bags. That also included pressing the zipper pieces to size which is two pieces for every project bag and three pieces for every thread bed. I also pressed on the interfacing for the lining then trimmed those to size. With the thread beds I had worked on last week and this weekend I have 66 almost ready to sew together. I ran out of white flannel. A friend in PA said she had some she wanted to get rid of and it will be arriving tomorrow, but there are a few I have the flannel pieces for so I can get started on sewing them together.

Some of the fabric pieces that Wanda sent me were big enough that I was able to get a few project bags cut too! I ended up with 12 and they are ready to be sewn together.

Just to give you an idea of how much I have cut, here the fabric I laid out before I got started cutting and after.

I did have to stop and cut some fleece interfacing pieces for the project bags.

I did find these three thread beds that are almost done. I will finish those first to get into a rhythm.

I did get a new toy. It took some fiddling around to figure out how to get them unlocked, but once I did I have to say they worked good! Much easier than using loppers. They do have an alarm if you get your fingers close to the blade, but you could still cut you finger off if you are not careful! The loppers take brute strength; this self charging battery powered pruners cut like butter a branch up to 1".  They can adjust to have the blades set for smaller branches - that is how it is set in the picture - or the blades can open wider.

I also spent a little time removing the loose bits from a stump. The pine tree was taken down maybe 8 years ago and the stump was getting spongy. I wacked away at it with a maddox. This tool is heavy so I would have to stop after about 6 swings.

I cleaned up two wagons of woods; this is the second load.

Here is the stump before and after

I used the maddox to loosen up the roots

but they were going anywhere! I then decided to get out the drill, put in the biggest bit I had and drill holes in the roots and the remaining stump. I saw somewhere I should dump salt in the holes, but I didn't have any regular cheap table salt. One of these days I will get rid of that stump!

A little progess on TBs and PBs, and more mowing

I forgot to push the right button for my post on Thursday so I just did that. Last evening I got the blue lining pieces cut and interfaced for the previous day's thread beds and project bags. Then I started cutting two more thread beds and two more project bags out of this beautiful and very interesting batik from Wanda.

I still need to press the zipper pieces.

It was time for me to put on my big girl pants and mow the backyard. The grass/weeds were long; about 8 inches! Here you can see the first couple of passes I made.

Every two passes I had to empty the mower grass catcher so there was a lot of starting and stopping. I ended up getting over 3/4 of the mowing done. It looks like I will have another evening to get the rest mowed as the rain is not due until Saturday. I put an arrow showing where I stopped. There are a bunch of weeds down the slope I will have to get after with the trimmer. It is too steep to mow. The bugs were driving me crazy so I stopped. It won't take much to finish and then I will be done - well, at least for a while! LOL!

More cutting and delivering quilts

I got started on cutting thread beds last evening and realized I only had one more piece of fleece left in my parts bin. I pulled out a partial bolt of the iron-on gleece and started cutting. I ended up with a nice pile. There was a small left piece at the end so I cut that for the scissor pouches.

Out of a marble looking batik from Wanda, I was able to get two thread beds and two project bags cut. I still need to cut the lining pieces. I did realize I ran out of the interfaced flannel pieces. I thought I had more white flannel, but I don't so I will have to order some. That won't slow me down from cutting.

I got to deliver quilts to the ladies at the home office. They always write such sweet notes for me! Sara wanted to give me a little something for a baby quilt that she wanted for a friend; I had forgotten all about it! LOL! Here was her note.

I gave Sara the two quilts that I finished for a friend of her's. They were made by her friend's mother who had passed and she wanted them finished. Everybody that saw them thought they were great. Then I handed over the pink quilt to Dina. She was happy with it. She told me August is the 20 anniversary of her sister being a cancer survivor. The whole family is going to Ann Arbor to take a tour of the University of Michigan stadium. They are going to present the quilt to her at the party they are having. I can't wait to hear what her sister thinks of it. The sister knows a quilt is being made, but that's it. This was Dina's note.

It was so nice outside last evening. I got out about a half hour to do more trimming since I got the batteries for the weed trimmer charged up. I can trim for a total of 25 minutes before I am out of power. I got almost all the trimming done. I charged up the mower battery too while I was at it since it was down to one bar. It looks like another nice day, not too hot, so since the backyard is in the shade by 6 PM I am going to get after that tonight.

More cutting and some mowing and trimming

I spent some time in the kitchen last evening making food for lunches. I then headed down to the sewing studio and cut out fabric for two more thread beds and two project bags. I pressed the interfacing on the lining pieces and pressed the pieces for the zipper units.

At lunch I did get a few more scissor pouches cut.

There was a dark cloud rolling in, but I went outside anyway after 6 PM when it was cooler to at least trim the front yard. After I ran out of battery power for the trimmer, the cloud had moved out so I had no excuse not to mow at least the front. The grass was still somewhat wet from the rain, but dry enough to mow. Here is the before

and the after. It doesn't look that much different in the pictures, but the grass was long and weeds at the edges of the driveway and flower beds were crazy thick!

The front looks so much better. I am going to have to try and get out after 6 PM the next couple of evenings to continue to mow the sides and the back.  At least this way I can get my steps in at the same time.

Cutting scissor pouches and thread beds

At lunchtime I worked on cutting out scraps for scissor pouches like these

I got a small stack cut to size. I had noticed that my rotary cutter blade had a tiny nick in it so I decided to change it before I started cutting scissor pouches. WOW! What a difference!

When I got home I decided to start cutting out thread beds. I was moving kind of slow since I was still tired from the weekend.  I decided I would press the pieces I needed for the zippered pouch to size and press on the fleece to the lining piece then trim to size as I cut each group of thread beds. I also married each set with the flannel already interfaced and cut to size, and the vinyl from the parts trays. Add the zippers and there is everything all together that is needed for two thread beds.

I stacked everything up and placed them in a bin along with two other sets I cut last evening. This will make it easy to have everything ready to go when I sit down to sew. I have everything ready for six thread beds; many more to come!

It rained hard this morning at 4:35 am when I got up. There was some lighting too. It probably won't be dry enough to mow tonight, but I can at least do the trimming.

4th finish for 2026, another show, and it is thread bed time

The pink quilt is done! It finished at 64" by 67.5". I used the leftover backs and a couple of gators for the backing.

I also made a bag for it. I will turn this over on Wednesday.

Saturday I was still tired from the Greensburg show, but I got myself together and headed out about 3:30 pm for a show at a private party. The house was only 2.4 miles away and what a house!

The house had to of had an acre of land. We set up a merch booth that was 75 steps away from the road cases with our stuff since it would have been hard to roll the cases up some stone steps and path. My SIL and I hand carried all the stuff we needed and this is the path we had to take. The merch booth

then down this path past where we staged the band's equipment next to the stage

the path continued

finally to the steps and our cases that were just past the port-a-jon. There wasn't any lights so when we were loading out, we had to be careful not to trip on the stones or steps. I did put on my headlight after my SIL asked me if I had brought it and that helped! Duh!

They had a bar set up

a food tent. Then a fellow was grilling hamburgers, hot dogs, and kabobs

I had a hot dog and some ice cream. People were bringing a side or dessert and someone had set out a half gallon of ice cream! Strange when it was 80 degrees outside, but I got my share and it was delicious!

The property was full of hidden spaces and nooks to explore.

Michael got on stage a little late because one of the other musicians who played earlier got back in front of a mike at the secondary stage and wouldn't stop playing. He played ok but his singing was not so good. Somebody finally had to tell him to stop so we got going about a half hour later than scheduled. Then Michael didn't get to play his whole set because he had to stop at 10:20 or the neighbors would call the cops.

The party guests were up and dancing the whole time Michael was playing. They weren't dancing for any of the other musicians that played.

If they invite Michael to play again, they will have to plan a bit better and have him start earlier! We got everything packed and since there was plenty of help to load the trailer, I went home. I got to bed a little before midnight. I was pretty tired on Sunday so I watched the remaining episodes of "Dutton Ranch" I hadn't seen, did laundry, put the label on the pink quilt, watched the final Stage of the Tour de France, and spread out the fabric that Wanda had sent me for thread beds or tote bags. Such beautiful fabrics! Most of the pieces are big enough to get at least one thread bed out of them.

I matched up the Wanda fabric with the more solid batik fabrics I have been buying. I like using the lighter solid fabrics for the inside of the thread beds. I think I have a pretty good plan and now I will get started on cutting tonight.

Pink quilt progress, Greensburg show, and Homer

Where do I start! The pink quilt. The binding is on and I have almost one side hand stitched.

I took vacation on Friday. I looked out the front and saw lots of bees and four butterflies having a meal on the coneflowers. One of the butterflies was this dark one with beautiful blue and yellow accents. It took me a while to get its picture. There were two Monarks and one other smaller butterfly.

The plumber make quick work of what I neweded done. He was very helpful! I headed over to my brother's house to head out with the band to Greensburg, PA for a show. Backstage during sound check.

The volunteers that run this event are wonderful! They helped unload and load the trailer, and supplied lots of food! They had some spinach and feta pizza bits that were so good! There were hot and cold subs, watermelon, grapes, chips, Cheetos, etc, a few sweets, pizza, and a variety of beverages. This was a real treat. Most of the places we play don't provide and food.

We had a good, lively crowd. Michaels always goes out and visits the crowd. The arrow points to where he was at one point. He went all the way to the top of the hill to visit the crowd.

Lots of people came to the merch booth after the show to meet Michael;many were at the show last year. A new fan is Homer; yes, that is a pet pigeon!

The weather in Greensburg was pleasant and there was a nice breeze. Greensburg is a 3 hours drive one way. I got to bed after a needed shower at 2:30 am this morning.