Getting stuff done

I never left the house all weekend except to go outside to get the mail or mow. I got a few things done.

I got all the machine quilting done on the AC/DC piece. Now it is on to the embroidery work. I did get started on it. I have hours and hours of hand work to do. I need to get into a rhythm.

I now can cross one more item off my UFO list. I finally made my living room curtains/drapes. Here is the bare window.

I used a lighter weight room darkening fabric for the lining and I had to make them shorter than I wanted because of the heating/cooling registers.

Here they are all done - finally! This window gets the sun all day as it faces south. Maybe the AC won't run as much now that the sun is blocked.

Since my design wall was blank, I decided to get out those strips of fabric I cut a while ago and that are on my UFO list. I laid out a baby quilt and got it sewn together. In order to sew these together I had to construct this in two sections working from the turquoise and pink rectangles and sewing partial seams. I still have enough strips left to make four or five more baby quilts. That is a lot of sewing to get one item off the UFO list!

I needed to make a new fitted sheet for my bed so I did that on Monday. I washed the mattress pad yesterday and after is was dry remade the bed. The new fitted sheet fit perfectly!

I installed the new spark plug in the mower and after still having to pull the cord about 20 times, managed to get the mower started. Part way thru I refilled the gas tank while the mower was still running, and was now mowing the backyard. Well, I never thought I would have run out of gas after refilling the tank, but I did. By then I was so hot and tired after an hour and a half of mowing I just didn't have the energy to keep pulling the cord to try and get it started again. I may just have to take the weed wacker after the bit that was left. A friend of my brother knows someone who works on mowers so I am going to have to get Bubba in for a check up.

It was in the 80's all weekend and humid so I hid in the house and turned on the AC. It has gotten too hot too quick.

Printing board

After spending some time looking over the three Quilting Arts magazines that I borrowed from the library (they just started getting these in 2016 and I just happened to find them)

I decided to work on making a printing board out of one of the signs I salvaged from going into the trash. Batting went on first.

I found the duck cloth I had bought years ago and cut a piece. I made sure it was big enough that I would be taping it to the board and not the batting. If I ever need to replace the duck then I won't tear up the batting when I pull off the tape. The tape I used for the batting was Gorilla tape and for the duck I used 3M tape for hard to hold surfaces. This is not the green Frog tape as it has chemicals in it to keep paint from bleeding under the tape.

To tape the sides, I tore three inch pieces of tape, stuck it to the fabric and them pulled the fabric taunt and stuck the tape on the board.

I did this on one side at a time

Then I put one long strip of tape over the small pieces and the fabric and a second piece to cover the small pieces and onto the board.

Here is my new 24" x 32" print board on the saw horses in the garage.

I guess you are expecting me to print some fabric over the three day weekend now. Oh the pressure! LOL!! Have a great weekend!

Plodding along

I was so tired last evening after not getting much sleep the night before it was difficult to get much done. I did a load of laundry, fixed some dinner, finished my steps, and watched a DVD

I had been thinking about what I want to get done over the 3 day weekend coming up, so I started gathering projects together. Yes, there are some simple things like pressing the fabric I washed the other day, but having all the projects in one place will help. Of course, I will be finishing the free motion machine quilting on the AC/DC quilt so I can get started on the hand work.

At work we have two trailers at the job site, a single wide and a double wide. The single wide is getting pulled off site in a couple of weeks. We need to move a bunch of stuff from the single wide to the double wide so I have to make room in the double wide for all the crap/stuff. I am cleaning the double wide a little bit every day and I came across some signs that are not needed. I asked the guys and they said to just pitch them. Well, I was thinking about them and I am going to take them home and make a portable print table with them. They are very rigid and once covered with a layer of batting and duck cloth I think they will work perfect. The are not too heavy, but they are substantial. I can put them on the saw horses and print in the garage.

Saw horses and graduation

A comment my friend, Glen of QuiltSwissy, left me was "Life is too short to have ugly saw horses." So true! Between lunch and after work I finished painting the saw horses. Aren't they pretty?!

Last night my nephew graduated with honors from high school. He was 4th in his class of 400 plus or minus a few. Here he is with his proud parents, my brother and SIL.

The ceremony was at Blossom Music Center and it was a beautiful evening.

Inside the pavilion

Michael is the fifth one from the right with the yellow at the neckline

The ceremony didn't start until 8 and took 2 hours. I didn't get to bed until 11:25. It is going to be a long day today.

Still painting

I got a bit more painting done on my saw horses last evening. The temperature was up to 85 degrees so it didn't take long for the acrylic paint to dry. I am using paint that was given to me so if I mess up and don't get a color quite right, I just paint over it.

I did not sand the wood down first or even clean it up much. They are just a pair of saw horses that a friend's husband made for me a very long time ago.

Progress on the AC/DC piece

I got to machine quilting the AC/DC piece this weekend finally. I am almost 3/4 done with the quilting. I can't wait to get started on the hand embroidery. There are some shirts that will need a lot of hand work. Some of the larger designs do not lend themselves to machine quilting as they fade from sharp detail to nothing.

While quilting on Sunday I watched the final stage of the Tour Of California. Peter Sagan won the green points jersey. I can't wait to see what he does in the Tour de France.

I was painting something on my saw horses yesterday evening. I had some left over paint so I just decided to slap it on one of the saw horse legs. Immediately this gave me a bit of joy. I then decided life is too short to have ugly saw horses, so I will be using up some old acrylic paint I have and make these pretty.

Knitting, DVD's, and Tour of CA

I knitted last evening while I watched Stage 5 of the Tour of California. They were racing in the Lake Tahoe area in the mountains. There was still ice on the lake.

I got 3 1/4" knitted on my red scarf.

After the race was over I needed to get my steps in for the day so I walked to the library and picked up these DVD's that were on hold for me.

It has been a rough week so I am glad it is Friday. Have a great weekend!

It has been a bit crazy

Life has been a bit crazy the last couple of days, but I believe I have finally found the right person to help. In the meantime I received my Great Barrier Reef badge for walking 1,600 miles which is the length of the reef.

I spent much of my evening on the phone with several of my siblings so no sewing happened. I managed to get the mower started and got the front mowed and part of the back until a piece of plastic that I didn't see got caught in the blades and shut the mower down. I couldn't get it restarted so I just quit. I think I sprained my right thumb.

I forgot to turn on the Tour of California, but I finally remember it was on and saw the very end of the race. Peter Sagan, one of my current favorite riders, won the stage. This was his second stage win for the 2016 TofC. Here he is receiving the green jersey for having the most sprint points so far in this 8 day race.

A bit of machine quilting and more cleaning up

As I watched the Tour of California last evening I did a bit more cleaning up. I have this lounge chair in my studio and it was piled with fabric, bags, t-shirt pieces, clothes, and measuring tapes (I wondered where those were!) I started to put stuff away before I took the picture so this is about half of what was there.

Now everything is in its proper place.

I then decided to clear off the guest room bed.

I wanted to take the new electric blanket I bought for my sister to use when she came and replace the one on my bed. Mine just didn't heat up much anymore. I had washed the sheets on my bed after work and put the new blanket on it when I went to remake it. The only thing that went back on the bed were the pieces of clothing that were left from that clothing quilt that still needs finished.

There is no room in the closet for this and that is a sign I have too much stuff in the closet. Hum... I am not sure I am ready to tackle the closet yet. I need to find an outlet to sell some of my smaller quilts that really won't work for baby quilts. I don't want to open an etsy shop and I haven't figured out ebay. I am not looking to make a lot of money. I just need to get rid of some of these pieces. For example:

I did get started on machine quilting the AC/DC piece after I oiled my machine. It really needed some oil. I forgot to take a picture of what I got done so I will post it tomorrow.