Making Progress and frustrated!

On Saturday I finished the top for Tonya's Lazy Gal 2010 Liberated Amish Quilt challenge. I could not think of any words I would want in this piece so I just pieced the year and put that in one of the skinny strips. I like the grapey purple against the green. The deadline is June 30 for at least the top, so I am glad I made the cutoff date!


I dyed some pearl cotton for quilting the above quilt.


Sunday was all about the alterations. Gosh, I hate to spend time doing alterations anymore, but I only do them for family and friends. Before I got started on the alterations I decided to clean up the sewing studio. It was a mess - dust bunnies everywhere and I was tired of tripping on stuff.

I have had this toweling since early May and now they are hemmed. Two are mine and one is for someone I work with. We needed them for draining our homemade Greek yogurt.


I replaced the invisible zipper in this dress. C had brought me a regular zipper so that's what I put in. I think it looks pretty good.


I had already altered the top of this dress once, but it still didn't fit quite right. I had already taken it in down the center bodice seam, but after C tried it on, it needed a couple of darts to contour the top to fit better at the bust area. It is lined so of course I had to put darts in the lining too. I sure hope it fits ok now.


This is my future son's wife (I just hate the label daughter-in-law or any label with in-law after it)wedding dress. It is a very inexpensive dress, but it looks very nice on her. I had to take the bodice off the dress and shorten it by one inch and then take the skirt and shorten it at the top by 4 inches. It has a invisible zipper in it which of course I had to take most of it out and then sew back in. The strap need shortened and moved also. It took me about 3 hours and I am glad it is done. This is a picture of the dress before I took it apart. I want to find my steamer and steam the dress so that it is all ready for her. I plan on making a hanger dress cover for it too.


I was talking to a friend on the phone and went outside as we were discussing our landscaping and realized the deer have eaten more of the daylilly flower buds! I was wondering when they were going to finally bloom and that I would have some color in the front, but the deer have been very distructive this season. they have not done this in the past, but they sure did a number on my plants this year! I have two plant that they ate every last one of the flower buds! The deer here are very lazy - they would rather wander thru the neighborhoods and eat everyone's landscaping than forage in the woods. The hostas I planted at the neighbors - gone - all that is left is the stems. This is my frustration!


I decided that I would cover the plants that still had some flower buds on them. I got up at 12:55 am this morning and when I looked outside the wind had blown some of the cover off. I went out and covered them back up again. I went back to bed, but could not get back to sleep. I layed there for an hour before I finally went back to sleep. I may have to modify my design so the wind does not blow the fabric off. I have to think on this.


I did have this one flower greet me this morning when I went to take off the cover. The deer have not touched this plant at all --- yet.