I pulled out my dutch wax and batik African fabric which are going into the project I am working on over the 4th. I am taking tomorrow off so it will be a nice long 4 day weekend so I plan to have this top done and ready to quilt by Tuesday.
I have been prepping for the Tour de France which starts July 2 and I will be spending time this weekend making and freezing food so I don't have to cook during the week.

Tonight I am working at the art museum serving beer and other beverages again so it is going to be a long day. I go to the museum right after work - it doesn't make sense to drive to the house and 20 minutes later turn around and head back downtown to the museum. I will go see Paula Nadelstern's quilts again with the extra time - no crowds and I pretty much have the place to myself except for the security people.

Have a wonderful and safe 4th!

Finally I can post

Blogger is just not cooperating today in posting pictures! So finally here is my post.

Last evening my friend came over so I could help her with the baby quilt project she has been working on and that I have been guiding her. We first had some vegatable soup that I made on Sunday and hot homemade cheddar biscuits fresh out of the oven. We then headed down to the studio. First we trimmed the blocks and cut the strip sets, arranged them on the design wall, and then she started sewing them together. We ended up having to change the quilt from the pattern because the daisy blocks were too big to cut down to match the size of the bug blocks, and the strip sets were not measuring the correct width. She was concerned, but I said "trust me". We played around withe wide daisy border until we were satisfied with our solution. The botton border is sewn on and we quit at 10:15 p.m. She had arrived at 4:45 p.m. and had a hour trip home. I think it will be cute when it is done.

Moving ahead

I spent some time last night and this morning getting the house cleaned up for company tonight. The woman that I have been helping to guide her in making her first baby quilt is ready to have another session of instruction. I have no idea where she is at in the construction, but we will work with whatever point she is at. I got the table cleared off and have my next project sitting on the table and ready to go.

Here is some fabric I received in the mail yesterday. It is 100% cotton and made in Hawaii. It is part of the project I am going to be working on over the 4th.

I need to vent. Blogger is a pain since they changed it. I will go thru the process of uploading a photo and it doesn't appear so I have to try again. I had gotten use to writing my blogs in reverse so now I have to re-adjust my brain as the pictures now load the opposite. My brain is slow in the morning and all the extra thinking is hard early in the morning! I guess I will get use to it eventually until they change it again! :)

9th finish of 2011 - T-shirt quilt

I worked on this quilt on Saturday and Sunday and it is done. I even have the hanging sleeve attached.

What a busy weekend.
Friday night I was off to see the nephew play. He had turned The Michael Weber Show from a solo act to a three piece with the addition of a bass and drummer. They did a great job and rocked the crowd!

Saturday afternoon after I was done with going to the Home Depot for supplies, the grocery store and picking up my brother's mail, I spent some time checking the outside and foundation for where the mouse might had gotten in. The entry slab a the front door has settled away from the house and this is right where the steps are located so I thought this would be the best place to start. I dug out on both sides of the concrete.

Here are all the tools and cement caulk I thought I would need. I ended up needing a few more items.

Shoving in the backer rod.

Caulking the joints

I smoothed the caulk with a 5 in 1 tool and here is the finished product.

I decided to check the entire foundation while I was at it and found this:

and this (this is an after I filled in the crack picture. Now the cement block you see to the right is a set of steps that will be ripped out when I put the new deck on next year)

I ended up using 5 tubes of cement caulk and I was still not done. I ended up going back to the HD on Sunday and picking up more backer rod, cement caulk, and vinyl cement patch for horizontal surfaces. Over the 4th of July weekend I plan on going along the interior of the garage slab and sealing up any cracks from the inside also so that means a brutal cleanout of the garage. By brutal I mean really getting rid of stuff. I am hoping sealing up the foundation will also cut back on the bugs that get inside. I had filled the cracks in the foundation after I moved into this place, but I hadn't done any follow up on it. I guess the mouse was a sign that this job needed done.

Fun at the art museum

I had a good time at the museum last evening - worked selling beverages, viewed the Paula Nadelstern exhibit again, and enjoyed the lecture by Gayle Pritchard about Ohio's role in the art quilt movement. I was home at 9 p.m. and made a beeline to the bed! I was beat! Standing on the concrete floor at the museum for 3+ hours wears on you.

This weekend is jammed packed again. On the agenda - finish the t-shirt quilt, get my next major project set up, weed the flower beds since it has been raining on and off all week and the weeds will be easier to pull, and go see my nephew play.

Have a great one!

A little of this and a little of that

Laundry, doing dishes, and mowing were on last eveing's agenda. I wasn't planning on the mowing, but by 8 p.m. there was a cool wind blowing so I decided I should mow. I have the binding for the t-shirt quilt started. Tonight is the first night of Downtown at Dusk at the art museum where I will spend a couple of hours selling beer, pop, and water while the band plays on. So far the day's weather looks good so I expect we will have a good crowd.

Bubba was back

When I got up this morning at 5:30 I looked out the window and saw mom and Bubba resting in the backyard. Bubba has grown! I tried taking a picture, but it was just too dark. Not much sewing going on. I was so tired yesterday that instead of reading on my lunch hour while sitting in my car, I fell asleep!

One of the women at the art museum is trying to sell these blocks. The sunbonnet Sue blocks are very nicely done and the extra black stitching around the pieces is lovely. A couple of the 30 blocks have brown staining. The basket blocks are hand pieced - so so - and there are lots of colors. The fabric used in the background is not the best quality. They were made by her grandmother, but these are desperate times.

Unwelcomed visitor

When I got home from work yesterday and when I started upstairs and there was the awful smell. It smelled like something has died. I have a bi-level and there is a closet at the bottom of the steps and behind the closet is a removalable panel so you can get to the water meter. With the bathroom remodeling I never put back the panel. I messed around for awhile trying to get brave enough to investigate the cause of the smell. I delayed by watching a movie that Brad Pitt was in and I had never seen.


I fianlly got a trouble light pluggged in, took a deep breath and crawled under the steps. In the corner there was - I think - a mouse. He had to have been there awhile since there was lots of poop around. He did not scurry, but just sat there in the corner. I got out my shop vac and whether he wanted to or not he was going on the mouse version of Space Mountain! I left the wand on the vac and sucked that booger up.


I then took the vac outside and was trying to decided if I should open it up and dump him out or throw the whole shop vac away. I got brave and saw him in the vac so I sent him on a relocation program to the garbage dump. He will be relocated tomorrow and he will love his new home.

I went back under the steps and sprayed with Lysol last night and this morning the smell was better. I sprinkled washing soda all over the area this morning to try and absorb the rest of the smell. Now I just have to figure out how he got in.

What a crazy three days

I left work on Thrusday and headed to New Philadephia to stay overnight at my friend's house as we were going to the NQA show in Columbus, Ohio on Friday. Well, on Thrursday afternoon I broke out in a rash on my neck and face. I don't know why - everyone has asked me the same questions and if I knew why I broke out believe me I would tell you. My neck got red and my face was not far behind. It felt like a bad sunburn. As soon as I got to her house we went and got some Benadryl.

We got up about 6:30 to get ready to catch the bus. When I got up my face was swollen, puffy, and I looked really bad! By the time we got on the bus the swelling had gone done a bit, but I wasn't going to let it stop me. More Benadryl please! Put on dark glasses to cover the face!

The bus passed the corporate headquarters for Longerburger baskets on the way to Columbus, and yes, the building looks like a basket. It is huge!

My friend bought a fat quarter package of 12 Australian prints to make this quilt.

This is what I bought at the NQA show. The african print was in the half price box, so I got 2 yards for $5.00! Superior Thread had a big display and there was a very nice lady who help me figure out what I needed. I wish I could have bought more!

My friend that I went to the NQA show gave me this cute pincushion. She also gave me a copy of the directions so I could make some. Very easy to make.


As soon as the bus got back to New Philadelphia, I jumped into the car and headed to Akron for the opening of the Paula Nadelstern exhibit. I talked to the CEO of the museum and he said that Paula was brought to tears when she saw her quilts. She was so thrilled with the way they were displayed. I wish I could show you pictures, but no photos are allowed. The museum staff had repainted the walls from the Escher exhibit (earth colors to soft white and black) and the signage was beautiful. There are about 20 pieces in the exhibit. I got to meet Paula and we had about a 5 minute conversation. She was easy to talk to and I think we could have talked for hours. I left the museum about 9 p.m. and I was beat!

Saturday I unpacked, did laundry, quilted a bit, and an x-cousin came over with two bags of clothes that need alterations. At 4:00 p.m. I headed over to a bar and grille to hear my nephew's band play. I got kudos for brings frozen towels for the kids. Even though the place was air conditioned, they work hard and get hot. I helped load up equipment and was home at 10 p.m.

I thought someone was knocking at the door Sunday morning - it was this crazy woodpecker pecking at my rotting deck looking for lunch.



On Sunday I worked on the baseball t-shirt quilt in the morning and evening. I have all the t-shirt squares quilted and the border is quilted. I still need to quilt the sashing between the blocks.

Sunday afternoon I went to Paula Nadelstern's lecture at the Akron Art Museum. She talked for about 40 minutes then she went to the museum shop to sign anything you wanted.
A neighbor came over about 6 p.m. with a suit that needed altered - pants and jacket sleeves needed shortened. One more thing to do!

While I quilted Sunday evening I watched a couple stages of the Tour of Suisse that I taped while I was away and watched the live broadcase of the last stage of the race. Congratulations to Levi Leipheimer of team RadioShack for his win!


I received this picture this morning from my nephew of the wedding quilt on their bed. They already had the blue pillows - something I did not know. Me using blue in this quilt was just fate!


I need a nap!

Mowing, sewing and biking - oh my!

Mowing

When I got to the house after work I was mowing and weed wacking time. I worked for two hours and still was not quite done. I needed to get inside - the fourth stage of the Tour de Suisse was on at 7 p.m. It will take another 45 minutes to finish the mowing and weed wacking. I must say dispite the weedy flower beds the yard looks pretty good.

Sewing

Here is the piece I am adding pearl cotton stitching to. I still have a little more to do on the circular block.



Biking

One of my favorite riders won the fouth stage - Thor Hushovd, god of thunder (he is in the white uniform)! He did not win a wheel of cheese as one of his prizes though. Maybe Peter, who came is second and is right beside him crossing the finish line, will share.

How about some cheese to go with that wine

Remeber this picture from last month? Peter Segan won a stage in the Tour of California and one of his prizes was this HUGE bottle of wine.


Now this made me laugh. Peter won the 3rd stage of the Tour de Suisse yesterday and look what one of his prizes was - and HUGE wheel of cheese! Now he the fixings for a party with 50 of his closest friends!


I switched projects last night and decided I needed to get the hand quilting done on the piece I made with my volunteer t-shirts from the art museum. It was easy to watch the Tour de Suisse (Switzerland) while I stitched, but not so easy to watch a movie about Coco Chanel that had subtitles while stitching. I need to get this piece done.



I did take a moment last evening - which was beautiful - to see what had bloomed. I need to make sure I check the daylillies every evening for the next several months and cover any that are shooting up flowers. I will need to cover those plants so the deer don't eat all the flowers again.

What a weekend

Crazy busy I was this weekend. After getting back from my hair appointment, I mowed the grass. Then it was lunch and getting cleaned up to see my nephew's band. On the way to see the band I picked up my brother's mail. The band got done early so I visited until I had to leave for the museum at 4 p.m.

So next was heading to the museum to help out at the wine auction. I helped check people in, open doors, gave directions to the restrooms, tucked in a lady's dress ribbon that was hanging out, stood over a spill on the concrete floor until maintenance could wipe it up, and was a spotter for the auctioneer - jack of all trades. I finally left at 10:30 and I was beat! The floral arrangements were beautiful!




Here are the silent auction tables.



Silent auction items from Sting's and Lance Armstrong's wineries.



This arrangement was in the ladies room.


I got the label on the wedding quilt and made the card. The insert printed with the City of Paris came from the bag the linen was wrapped in.


I made some quickie potholders - I forgot to take a picture - and managed to quilt one more block on the t-shirt quilt.

It is now time to regroup and get this week's activities planned out.