I can't stop crying

Life as we know it is gone.

T-shirt quilt progress, joyful flowers, what a sunrise

I don't know what has changed with blogger that everyone's comments come as a no-reply. I have the email address of my core followers, but I have gotten a few comments from new people (which is exciting) of which I cannot respond to since they are no-reply. Thank you David C. for your comment. I press interfacing on t-shirts for about two hours last evening. I just have been putting them on the design wall without a clear plan.

I have these interfaced but not placed yet.

I still have the six small and medium shirts to cut apart and interface. I was thinking a bit this morning and I now have a plan on how I will arrange these or at least something I am going to try.

It was another beautiful day yesterday, so I had to check my California poppies and my coneflowers. That one poppy plant is still blooming like crazy and I have a flower on two different coneflower plants. I was hard to go inside because the weather is so nice!

There was a beautiful sunrise this morning.

Boxy pouches, the bridge, a good start on the t-shirt quilt

The other four boxy pouches are done.

I spent time on Saturday blowing leaves and framing a piece for my sister for her birthday that was in August. It took me two hours to do the leaves. I think I spent more time looking for stuff that I needed to do the framing than what it took for me to do the actual framing! I found an empty container to put all the small tools and findings I need to frame so I won't waste so much time. I can't show you the piece until she receives it in the mail.

Friday at work I got to go out to the job site to see the progress of the bridge build. The red things are the hydraulics that push the bridge beams.

I put my hand on this one (they were not in motion so it was safe for me to touch them) so you could get a sense of how big they are

Here are the beams as they are sitting on the piers when they have been pushed.

Here is a shot of the beams looking south. The fellows I got a ride with had to load up a torch and take it down to pier 3. I didn't want to wait so I walked from where I was to pier 3 and waited for them for my ride back to the office. The arrow shows my destination. Pier 3 is around 120 feet tall.

Another shot of the piers. The old bridge is to the left.

It took about 24 minutes to walk to Pier 3. There was no route down that hill. Here is my view up the hill with the dot showing where I was.

On my walk to Pier 3 there was one pretty tree that stood out.

The front part is just a guide to catch the next pier and let the beams ride up on to the piers as they will sag down a bit with gravity. That bit will be removed once we reach the final pier.

I have been working on the t-shirt quilt. These shirts are interfaced, but not cut to their final size.

This my layout for processing the shirts.

I have seven ready to press the interfacing on

Four more X-large shirts to cut up

Six medium and small shirts to cut up

A pile of small motifs. I won't cut these up until I figure out how I will use them

Then a pile of scraps which are the sleeves and what I cut off the bottoms of the shirts. I will put these in the rag bag.

2 out of 6 done

Two of the six boxy pouches got finished last evening. I just love this fabric.

I'm glad it is Friday. I have no big plans for the weekend except to get the other four the boxy pouches made. I would like to get some framing done and with the weather being so nice this weekend, I need to get the big flower bed weeded and mulched. Have a great weekend!

Boxy pouch progress, poppies and a coneflower

I have been busy working on the boxy pouches when I have a few minutes. So far I have the handles topstitched and the zippers installed. It is a bit fussy to sew the zippers, but it's not hard. Tonight, I will press them and top stitch them along the zipper. After that, finishing them will go fast.

I checked out my California poppy plants again after work. The flowers only last one day, but they continuously bloom for months. This plant has bigger flowers than any I have ever had. The flowers are a good 3" across. It was hard to get a good picture because the wind was gusting hard yesterday.  See the ones toward the top of the picture? Those are the typical sized flowers and are 2" across.

This is the furthest along bud on the coneflowers. I think I will give it a drink tonight to help it along. Other than the little bit of rain we had the other day, the weather has been dry and mostly sunny.

I know Wanda mentioned all her comments showed as no-reply. Mine are showing that was too now. Google must have done something.

Boxy pouches next, project bag bin, and color in the yard

I had six boxy pouches that I had cut out the same time I cut all those project bags. I got the interfacing ironed on to the boxy pouches and the handles interfaced, pressed and ready for topstitching.

I thought you might like to see my bin of finished project bags.

I walked around the yard when I got home from work looking for any color I might have left. This clump of California poppies greeted me

The bees are still enjoying the lavender

A few of the trees still had leaves. I have several trees that are already bare and with the wind and rain this morning, I am guessing the rest have lost many of leaves overnight.

Project bags, a new t-shirt quilt and filling holes

I'm tired. A lot of fresh air and yardwork. First, I will show I did get four more project bags done. These are the last ones that I had to sew together from the big pile. I just love this dandelion fabric. I wish I would have bought more. I am keeping one of those for myself.

I did spend some time on Saturday stitching on that new sampler. I was still tired. Here is where I was last Friday and where I am now.

As I just started watching the Notre Dame game, my neighbor called. He was ready to help me out with some yard chores. I forced myself to get dressed and headed out to help. We moved a good portion of this Sweet Peat mulch to where I store it in the back yard. I kept some here in the front to put on the front flower beds once I get them weeded. No sense pushing it back up the hill!

The mulch tucked away for winter.

On Thursday I had stopped and bought more soil and sand to fill in ruts. We mixed all the material I had - 5 bags of topsoil, 4 1/2 bags of potting soil, and used 2 1/2 bags of sand. We filled in the skid steer ruts and some other miscellaneous holes in the back yard. I had blown the leaves off the grass so we could see where the ruts were.

My neighbor has a battery powered hedge trimmer and cut down a bunch of high weeds toward the tree line while I blew more leaves. After a couple hours we called it quits. He then asked if I would make a t-shirt quilt for a friend of his and brought over the shirts.

Sunday, I went to the home improvement center to get more soil and sand. Picked up a few groceries while I was out too. I mixed up another bag of topsoil, a bag of potting soil and 1/3 of a bag of sand to start filling in some the holes along the side of the house. I had blown the leaves first, mowed, then threw down the mix.

As I come across more holes, I will have material to fill them. It is hard to mow and just walk in the yard with all those depressed areas.  I am going to get a can of marking paint so anytime I am walking around the yard and feel a hole, I will mark it.  That will make it easier than trying to go back and find it.  This is enough material for four more batches.