Binding progress, pillowcases, mowing, and flowers

At lunch yesterday I got 1/3 of one side of the binding sew on the rail fence quilt. A few minutes here and there, and soon it will be done.

I needed to get some pillowcases made for my SIL. She had bought the blue background fabric at a garage sale. I had the vintage cream colored fabric in my stash.

She had also bought a small piece of bowling fabric. It was only 17" wide, but I was able to get two pillowcase bands. Usually, I cut the bands 11" wide, but I made this work! I will finish these tonight then get back to the butterfly quilt.

I needed to mow. It was very warm, but I was in the shade most of the time and there was a little breeze that helped. Not sure you can tell in the pictures that I mowed, but the grass was so much longer than I expected. I mowed the front and one side yard which took me 29 minutes. By then I had enough!

My California Poppies and coneflowers are blooming like crazy! I don't know why the poppies like to spread over the sidewalk.

Before I got home I stopped at the grocery store to buy butter since it was on sale - $3.29 a pound! Now I am stocked up on Land 'O Lakes! I think I will be making shortbread cookies for a couple of the shows coming up. I am out of chocolate chips. Ghirardelli are my favorite, but the price! Before the 11% off at Menards they are $7.15 for a 12 oz bag!  And I use to think they were expensive at five dollars a bag!  LOL!!

Progress on the quilts

The butterfly quilt is now 73% quilted.

I am now halfway done hand stitching the rail fence binding.

I am looking forward to getting these two quilts done!

Progress on the butterfly quilt and another show

I now have 23% of the butterfly quilt quilted. I wanted to get those two center blocks done so the rest will be easy.

The band had a show in Avon, Ohio Friday evening. I made oatmeal raisin cookies to take.

The show was at the minor league ballpark. We had some sprinkles, but the weather cleared and it was a fun night.

Michael opened for a Journey tribute band.

There was a pretty sunset

Binding progress, next project, food and games

The binding is machine sewn on the rail fence quilt. I can now take my time to do the hand stitching since the woman I work with who I will hand it over to once it is done is going on vacation.

My next goal is to get the butterfly quilt done. These both belong to a friend of a woman I work with. I was leery about doing my overall quilting on the butterflies. The quilting thread buries itself into the knit fabric and doesn't take away from the butterflies - whew!  I am using an off white thread. I plan on rotating between hand stitching the binding and quilting the butterfly quilt so I don't get bored.

Yesterday at work we had a 250th celebration with food and games.

I drove to the home office for a lunch of hot dogs, hamburgers and all the fixings. I didn't participate in the games, but enjoyed my time catching up with everyone since I don't see them much. Being out in the field is somewhat isolating. Everyone received a t-shirt and a Yeti koozie.

It's binding time!

Yeah! The rail fence quilt is quilted! Tonight I will start sewing on the binding.

Progress is progress and binding

I was tired when I got home from work and wasn't motivated to quilt. I decided to cut the binding for the rail fence quilt and the butterfly quilt. I had been given a king sized sheet for each and there was plenty of leftover fabric for the binding. I didn't have to even piece the binding! It is pressed and ready to go!

I did get a little quilting done this morning. I am now 87% done with the quilting.

Tote bags, quilting, and wildlife

Saturday was all about making tote bags for the merch booth. I needed to get ahead on these. I sewed together 22.

My friend had brought me more bags cut to size at the show on Friday so I sewed those together.

There were eight bags so that gave me a total of 30 bags finished on Saturday.

I spent most of Sunday quilting on the rail fence quilt. I am now 84% done!

My front yard was looking like a Disney movie with a bunny and a doe hanging out.

I was on a mission this weekend to start to deal with the chipmunk problem. They are digging holes everywhere and the population has exploded even though I eliminated a bunch two years ago. This weekend I caught six. I couldn't set up the traps this morning since it was raining. I have learned not to set them up overnight, because if I catch something during the night then some other animal comes along for a free dinner and drags my trap away.