A little at a time

First on the agenda after work was to unload more rocks. Here are the bigger ones

and here are the smaller ones I hauled home yesterday

I have been setting them approximately where I am going to use them so I don't have to move the bigger ones twice. I have been lining up a border for the cora bell bed at the side of the garage and I like the way it is coming along. Once the weather cooperates a bit I will dig out the cora bells and dump dirt in this area to fix the grade. I will replant the cora bells and with the rock edge I think it will look pretty good.

Meanwhile I took the smaller ones (in the rain!) and dumped them next to the condenser.

I had to get ready for dinner with a friend so off I went to a place just down the road. I had a quesadilla and then they give you nachos. We talked for 3 hours and had a good time. I gave her one of my boxy pouches and she was excited to find a use for it.

I didn't have any time to sew when I got back home, but I had a few minutes before I had to head to work this morning so I got a little stitching done. It was so relaxing I hated to quit!

I am taking a vacation day tomorrow so I won't be posting again until Monday. Have a great weekend!

A bit of sewing, a new pan, and more rocks!

Last evening was busy with cooking a bit, laundry, this and that, and spreading and unloading rocks. I did manage to get a bit of stitching in. I started doing the backstitching on the black t-shirt in the JB piece.

Here is what the whole top looks like since it has been quilted.

I bought this new All Clad pan at their seconds sale. It looked perfect to me when I took it out of the box but I saved a bunch of money buying a second. My other fry pans do not have a flat bottom which drives me crazy, but this one sure does! I tried it out last night and cooked up some mushrooms. The mushrooms are slightly overdone which is my fault and not the pans. The pan was fabulous!

I was at work very early yesterday and loaded up some rocks. The two big ones were heavy, but after loading the car for the past couple of weeks and moving the rocks around I find that I am stronger and can pick up heavier rocks.

I then gathered up some of the smaller rocks for around the condenser.

Here is where I dumped the box of smaller rocks. I am going to need more.

Making headway

Since the forecast predicts rain and heat the rest of this week and since it was nice outside when I got home from work, I decided to paint the other side of the foundation. I still sweated a bit, but I was in the shade and a nice breeze would blow once in a while. As a reminder here is the before which was after I powerwashed it

Here is the after. I will have to look at it again after the paint has dried to see if I need a second coat.

So I am left with the backside to still paint. This picture reminds me I forgot to clean my brush! Oops! I guess I was tired. It was an old one anyway.

It took me about 1 and 1/2 hours to paint the side and I didn't get done until 6:30 so no time to sew. I took a shower, sat for a few minutes and went to bed. I was still tired from the weekend. I was up early this morning and got to work early (5:30 a.m.) so I could get some rocks. It was too hot yesterday after work to get rocks so no rocks were brought home from work. This morning's sunrise

A rockin' weekend

I spent most of Saturday quilting the JB quilt. I have it all machine quilted except one little area that I couldn't decide on what to do. That bit of indecision did not stop me from starting the hand embroidery work though. I almost got all the way around this t-shirt, but I ran out of floss. All I have left to do is the area across the bottom.

I went out for a half hour on Saturday to start tearing apart an area I used for yard waste. I always had big plans to keep turning over the materials to compost, but I didn't follow thru very often so the grass layers were tough to get thru. I first tore down the fencing I had put up

Then started spreading out the yard waste and grass. The area is beside my neighbors fence and the fence is four panels long which mean 4 times 8' is 24 feet I have to work with.

I only worked for about a half hour, but got back to it on Sunday. Here you get a sense of how tall the pile was - 2 1/2' is my best guess.

I need to dig out this lily of the valley in this bed so I can have more room to spread out my Lenten roses and replace the rotting wooden edging. I didn't want to just throw or the lily of the valley and nothing will gown along the fence because it is so shady. The lily of the valley will be transplanted into the new bed.

I got the top knocked off the yard waste pile - there was some dirt in there too - so I hauled down a couple loads of dirt from the driveway to spread on top. Two wheelbarrows of dirt didn't go very far, but I was getting too tired to haul anymore. In the meantime I jumped over the where the condenser was and clear the plants and weeds around it. I dug up several baby Lenten roses, pulled out a volunteer fern, and a couple of volunteer hostas that were growing up in the Lenten rose bed and around the condenser. I took all that material and stuck it in the new bed. I also moved a pile of rocks and concrete pieces that I had gathered from the yard to start making a border for the new bed. The bed is still pretty rough, but I am happy that the basic plan is in action.

I also laid down weed barrier fabric around the condenser and dumped the bucket of small egg sized rocks behind it. That bucket of rocks I had brought from the job site didn't go too far! I am going to have to bring a lot more home. Just so you know the company I work for is the contractor on the job. When you get awarded a job unless the contract specifies that materials are to salvaged, you own everything the owner leaves behind. I asked my boss and she said it was ok that I salvage the rocks. The subcontractor doing the site work doesn't want them either so I can take whatever I want.

I needed to start using those rocks I bought and have been dragging home from work so I brought down one load of the smaller rocks for a border and I will fill in with the egg sized rocks. The area to the right of the condenser is the path I take to get to the hose bibb. Once I get it done I won't have to walk in the dirt anymore.

Now if the weather would cooperate I would love to get the foundation painted. I think that is going to make a huge difference and things will start looking like I am actually getting something done! LOL!! The forecast is calling for rain Tuesday and Wednesday then another heat wave is rolling in so right now it is not looking too good for painting.

The plants are loving the weather though. The roadside lilies, lavender, and coneflowers are looking good. I do like to weed the lavender because it smells so good when I rustle the plants around.

To finish off the weekend I did four loads of laundry, and baked cookies for work while I did dishes.

More progress on quilting and more rocks!

I was happy to get the rest of this t-shirt quilted last evening. I am so close to having this piece quilted!

I loaded the car up with more rocks and got some nice ones!

When I unload them I have now begun to at least dump them close to where I want to use them so I don't have to move them twice. Here is the front yard where I had begun edging the flower bed until it got too hot to work in the evenings. This faces the south so that explains that!

Here at the side of the garage I need to fix the elevation. The ground slopes into the foundation of the garage instead of away. I will dig up the cora bells add more soil and slope it away from the garage. In the meantime I want to set down the rocks I will use for edging the bed. I also have more cora bells temporarily planted in another area of the yard so those will be moved here. The slope is all goofy because there use to be a sidewalk along the garage.

Out back where my Lenten rose bed is located I need some big rocks. I had used some pine boards as edging that I had salvaged from shelves that I had ripped out of the garage years ago. The boards are decaying so it is time to redo this bed. I hauled these back here in the wheelbarrow.

Depending on the weather, I will try and get a few things done outside. Rain is forecasted all weekend so I won't be able to paint the foundation, but I may be able to get some dirt moved if it is not too hot.

I do want to try and get the JB quilt all quilted so I can start the embroidery and have a portable stitching project to take with me to gigs. We have a lot of shows coming up in July so I will need to keep my hands busy!

Have a great weekend!

Rocks and quilting

The guys on site help me load some more rocks yesterday. I only let them put four in the car since a couple of them were kind of big. I had already taken out the smallest rock before I took this picture.

My method of getting the rocks out of the car is I put the blanket between the wheelbarrow and the car bumper. I slowly roll the rock to the sloped end of the wheelbarrow bracing the wheelbarrow to the bumper with my legs. I let the rock slide down the slope and then I can move the rock to where in the yard I am going to use it. I have gotten better at this and I have the bruises on my thighs from the first couple of times I did this before I figured out the best way to unload those 70-80 pound rocks! I need some big rocks for the planting bed in the back. I don't want to put too much weight in my car so I only take a few rocks at a time depending on the size. Now if the weather would just cooperate so I could work in the yard. The humidity had been extremely high all week.

I did get some quilting done on the JB piece. I am happy to be working on this again.

I played around with the machine last night and figured out I could tape up the walking foot so it wasn't just hanging down. Yes, I will eventually have to get it fixed, but I want to get out my other machine and look to see how the spring is attached. Maybe I can just buy the part and fix it myself.

Bummer

I went to get my machine set up to machine quilt the JB quilt and I heard a little funny sound. Here it was a spring that holds the integrated walking foot in place. There must be a hook at the other end because I could tell something broke off. I will have to contact my sewing machine repairman and get my machine shipped to Pennsylvania. In the meantime I have a second machine so I will switch them out.

Here I am holding the walking foot that is loose. I probably could drive my machine to PA to get it fixed, but it would be a 3 1/2 hour drive one way. I would rather spend the postage than spend an entire day driving.

I had to mow last night. It seems I am mowing a lot this year! At least the mower started on the first pull - YEAH!!! This morning I took a picture of the Shasta daisies out front at 5:25 a.m. when I took the trash bin out to the curb. Lot of blooms!

Now here is the wide shot. I am not sure what to do about the two plants that are so little compared to the other three. Looks kind of sad - LOL!! I don't want to do any transplanting right now so I think I will at least give them some fertilizer and see if I can get a growth spirt.

What next?

Since blogger has changed something that your comments don't show up in my gmail anymore, I guess I will reply to your comment in the comment section or just email you. I hate when they randomly change stuff.

I received another email from the High Arts Festival that they have extended their deadline for entries. They did this last year too. I think they did this because they are not getting the participation they planned on which doesn't surprise me with the shenanigans that one guy with the carved sticks has pulled over the last four years and that an acquaintance of his also won a top prize in another category last year. Behavior like this discourages people.

I had started my JB piece for the festival this year, but I haven't had much time to work on it.
I decided I would get it out again and see what I could get done. I have thread and plenty of bobbins wound to machine quilt the two white t-shirts. After that there will not be much left to quilt then I can start the hand embroidery work. I should easily get the quilting done before the next gig with the band which then I will have some hand work I can do while I sit at the merch booth. I am still not sure I will participate in the festival, but I want to finish this piece anyway.

I was really tired last evening from all the power washing on Sunday plus the heat and humidity yesterday so I didn't do much. I did make a batch of red pepper hummus and had some for a light dinner.

I also did some laundry and went out at 7 to water my plants. It was still 87 degrees!

I forgot to post this picture of a doe and her two fawns I saw early Sunday morning in my backyard. The fawn were running around like crazy! It was hard to get a picture since they did not stand still for very long. I had never seen fawn run around like these two were doing. It was fun to watch them. Mom mostly just stood there while her twins were going crazy.
I took this picture thru the bathroom window so there is some reflection.