Yardwork, rockin', and quilting

I did get a bit of sewing done before I left the house on Saturday to help out with the band. We left my brother's house at 1 p.m. and it was almost 9 p.m. before I got home. On our way to the venue we ran into a bit of high water.

We were in the new 12 passenger van pulling an equipment trailer and there was no way my brother could turn that rig around on this narrow rural road. A big pick up truck came the other direction and made it thru the water ok so we knew we could make it in the van. There was a Camaro behind us - I wonder if he made it?

Here the band was getting ready to play. I was off to the right of the stage sitting at the merchandise booth. We sold 24 CD's! That is a lot for us.

I got up early on Sunday headed to the grocery store and then went to work in the yard at 9 a.m. It was raining at times, but I needed to get the flower beds cleaned up. Here is the one side of the center bed before.

After weeding and mulch - much better! I despite the rain, I got the string trimmer out and edged the bed which helped the look of the bed a lot.

Now the other side of the bed - hold on to your hats - it's bad!

Here is what it looks like now.

Now it looks empty, but I did find the pack of green envy zinnias so I planted those

and then I had bought some lavender seeds so they went into the bed

and some coneflowers

and then I took these four packs of California poppies - one of my favorite flowers - mixed the seeds together, and sprinkled them everywhere! All of this should have been done a month ago, but better late than never! Sorry, I can't get the picture to stay right side up.

Then it was on to the front bed. The thistle is awful and I needed to get it out before it bloomed and threw down more seed. I still need to mulch, but it looks a whole lot better than it did!

After 4 1/2 hours I had enough. I walked my squishy, water logged shoes in the garage, closed the door and proceeded to peel off my wet, mud caked clothes. Here are my socks. Will they ever be white again? LOL!!

I did work on the t-shirt a bit. The vertical row at the left is all sewn together. This row will establish the length of the quilt which will be 96".

I also worked on the teal and purple quilt and got 1 and 1/2 blocks quilted. So now I have 15 out of the 36 blocks quilted which is 41.6%.

The weather had cleared up after I came in from working and by 7 it was dry enough I could mow. So I headed back outside. I was so tired I could hardly sleep so today will be challenging!

t-shirt progress, our first gig, and walking Oh my!

I finished cutting up and interfacing the t-shirts for my niece's quilt. I had to take the hem out of the sleeves for the few pieces that had printing on the sleeves, but it didn't take very long. Next will be arranging these and sewing them together into a top.

I had quite a pile of scraps (the stack on the left) and a pile of useable pieces for paint or caulking rags. I had to clean up the studio a bit as there were bits everywhere from cutting these shirts up, but the studio is cleaned up, vacuumed, and ready for this weekend's sewing.

Despite the look of the sky last evening, I went out for my walk to get all my steps in.

I was humid and the temp was in the high 70's so I got all sweaty which I hate.

Tomorrow the band has it's first gig of the year. I have my fingers crossed that is doesn't rain. Since I will have to sit at the merchandise booth for several hours I will be taking my rock t-shirt quilt to work on the stitching I am adding with pearl cotton.

Here are my zinnias after two weeks. They have gotten their second set of leave which I think if I remember correctly is their first set of true leaves. I will have to do some yard work this weekend - mowing and some serious weeding! Right now the forecast has a high Saturday and Sunday in the upper 60s, but there is a possibility of rain both days.

I also want to get back to quilting the teal and purple quilt so I have a busy weekend ahead! Have a great weekend!

t-shirts and walking

Last night the humidity was in the 40s - the lowest it has been in a long time - so I needed to get out and walk. I needed to make up some steps that I have missed since it has been either raining or so miserable outside that I could not stand to be outside. I decided to walk over to a house where the dry stack stone walls are being rebuilt. The house was built in 1915 by the Seiberling tire people. It took 3600 steps to get to the beginning of the wall

I pass by this wall every day on my way to work for 11 years and had notice how it was falling apart. Sometimes with the freeze and thaw there would be a blowout and the stones would roll onto the street. The organization that oversees the property is rebuilding the walls. The walls are so beautiful and I am glad to see them getting fixed. So here are probably way too many pictures of the wall and the repairs. The wall runs on two sides of the property and with my steps it was around 1200. Here is the stretch of wall on Garman St. The condition of the wall varies from a single stone popping out of the wall to a blowout or collapse. I don't know how much of the wall is going to be rebuilt.

Around the corner on the Portage Path side of the property the entire wall has been rebuilt except for a small section at the very end that is getting finished up. I did see one stone that had some wonderful carving on it. I don't know if it will be going back into the wall or not. I am surprised no one has taken it to put in their garden.

I took the long way back to the house. I had started out with 4015 steps and ended my day with this:

I did get a few more t-shirt pressed with the interfacing. Here is what the design wall looks like as of this morning.

I have 13 more larger pieces of t-shirt to iron on the interfacing to and a few smaller bits. They are calling for rain tonight so I will probably get these all done tonight.

Linen top done - starting on t-shirt quilt

I finished up the linen top last evening. I like the way it turned out. I forgot to measure it for you, but I would say it is approximately 40" x 54".

Now it is on to the t-shirt quilt for my niece. My process is to over size the cutting of the designs so I have room later on. After cutting I press the back side of the t-shirt piece and then press on iron on lightweight interfacing. Once I get all the shirts cut up, I will work on the arrangement. For now here is what I have done so far hanging on the design wall.

Years ago for Black Friday, Jo Ann's had a early special of 10 yard bolts of interfacing. I don't remember what the price was, but I remember it was dirt cheap and I think I bought 10 bolts. Think of it - 100 yards of interfacing! Sounds crazy right? Well, I am now down to 3 and a part bolts. I wish I would have bought more. I am going to need to search for a source to buy mass quantities of interfacing at a good price.

Visiting, series quilt #2, and eating.

Saturday I decided I wanted to finally get started on my second quilt in my linen series. It is made with purchases linen, Irish linen from a pair of pants I bought at a yard sale years ago, a subtle dark linen/cotton blend from a pair of pants, and linen and Essex line I screen printed at a workshop in February. I have the top three rows all sewn together. The three of the four blocks in the fourth row down are sewn together so I am almost done piecing this top.

Sunday evening I went over to the neighbors. They were having a cookout for their son and new DIL who were married on Saturday. Here is the happy couple with the quilt. I did get the bridesmaid's dress hemmed on Friday night and she said it was perfect!

They like the back too.

And the food ... yum! Those crispy hot dog were so good! I wish I could have eaten more than one!

Remember I planted zinnia seeds on the 16th? Well, I looked at them on Friday the 20th and they are up already! I guess all this heat, humidity, and rain is like being in a greenhouse so they popped out of the ground fast! Here is what they looked like on Friday. The grass was too wet to take a picture of what they looked like this morning, but I will post another picture of them so you can see how fast they are growing.