Two to go

I did good and got three more rows of blocks sewn together. That leaves two rows left to stitch. They are the top two rows in this picture.

I have to spend some time digging around in the fabric storage room to see if I can find something for the back. I know I don't have enough of one fabric so I may have to piece some fabrics together. If I do that, it would continue the theme from the front although it takes more time. I just don't want to go buy more fabric, so I guess that is what I will do.

I did need to get a new iron. Mine was spitting and the steam was non-existent. Here is my old iron. Yes, I wrote the date on it when I started using it so I would know how long it lasted. Why? I don't know. I just do weird stuff like that. LOL!! I am surprised for an inexpensive iron how long it lasted - over three years as it gets a lot of hard use.

Here is my new iron. I have had good luck with the Black and Decker digital advantage irons. They last two to three years and they cost less than $40.00. I have had more expensive irons that have not lasted that long except for the first Rowenta I bought in the 80's. That iron lasted me almost 20 years! I tried buying another Rowenta and it was garbage so I took it back. I guess I should have stocked up/hoarded the model my first Rowenta was! LOL!!

I have a list for the weekend of things to do. I am going to try hard to put a dent in it. Have a great weekend!

More rows; more whacking

I got the blocks for two more rows sewn together. I am going to have to start sewing the rows to each other to make room for the block laying on the floor.

The daffodils are growing every day. I get excited to see the flower heads forming, but I have to calm down because it could be 3 to 4 weeks before they bloom. The ones nearer to the house are taller because of the micro climate there. The south facing brick absorbs the heat from sun so it is warmer there.

I was out whacking at the ornamental grass again after work. Here is the before and after.

Now that they are cut down I want to dig out the two big ones on the right. They are starting to push the rocks around and grow between the rocks. I am hoping the shovel/spade I bought last year will cut thru the tough, thick roots. I am planning on transplanting some of the chunks. My neighbor was out and I offered her some. I have dug out ornamental grass before and it is a lot of work, but I will work at it a little at a time. I laid down a yardstick so you can see that both plants are around a yard wide.

Progress on two fronts

I managed to get three rows of blocks sewn together! The rows still need sewn to each other. You can tell which ones because the rows are shorter.

I did work in the yard whacking away at the ornamental grass for another 40 - 45 minutes. Here is how it looked when I started

and what it looks like now

There are two mature clumps there on the right. I want to dig the front one out. I know it will be a battle. The root ball is dense and thick. I want to transplant clumps of it so I will work at removing smaller pieces. I don't think there is any way I could ever get it out in one piece!

Big plans

I had big plans when I got home from work yesterday. The weather is starting to warm up a little, so it is time to do something in the yard instead of sitting down in front of the tv after I get home from work. My big plan was to do 30 minutes of yardwork, make a big glass of fresh veggie/fruit juice, get something to eat, sew for 30 minutes, clean up the studio, and do a load of laundry. I ended up doing about 45 minutes of yardwork. I needed to cut my ornamental grass down

I was happy with the progress I made. There is a lot of stuff to pick up and haul to the back!

Went inside made my juice and got something to eat and then my son called me on his trip home from work. 59 miles later, he was home so we said goodbye. It was good to talk to him to catch up with all the goings on. He said it made his trip fly by. No sewing happened though. I had to throw clothes in the washer and went to bed. I woke up at 11:30, went downstairs and threw them into the dryer then went back to bed.

If the weather is good again tonight, I will work on cutting more of the ornamental grass down and try to get to the sewing machine.

100% and then back to zero

I took me a while to get moving on Saturday, I don't know why I was so tired, but I did finally get to cutting more print strips and sewing the pairs together. Sunday I finished sewing the strip sets, sliced then, and got all 24 blocks I needed done! I didn't want to use too many novelty fabric, but I did have to add one minion fabric and one with skulls. I did managed to find enough different prints so each print is only used in one block.

I am happy with the layout. I tried to spread the colors around as I placed them on the design wall. So now it is on to sewing the rows together.

73% done

I got those 12 blocks sewn together, pressed and hung on the design wall. That means I am 73% done with making the blocks for this quilt. The one block is laying on the floor because I ran out of room on the wall and there will be 10 rows by 9 blocks wide.

I dug around and found these to containers that had some fat quarters in them.

I need 24 more blocks and was able to find 15 prints that I had not used yet in this quilt. I still need 9 more prints, but I am confident I can dig around in the fabric storage room and find 9 more prints that will work.

On my way to work I got to thinking about what do I have for backing. I want a print with some color. I will have to look around this weekend to see what I can find.

Have a great weekend!

Better than nothing

I had dinner with a friend last evening so I didn't have much time to sew. I did manager to get two blocks sewn together this morning before I left for work. That is better than nothing! LOL!! I will press them once I get the rest of the blocks in this group sewn together.

It had been a few months since my friend and I got together so I had a few things to pass over to her. I had the placemats that I dyed, a knitted baby blanket - that is a long story, and the flannel table topper.

It was good to get together and hear about her trip to San Antonio to go to a rodeo and visit family.

The daffodils are enjoying the milder weather although it is still getting cold at night. They must be at least 8 to 10 inches tall already. The daylilies are poking up too although the deer come by and eat the new tender leaves. Once the leaves get about 4 to 6 inches the deer won't eat them.

More progress on the 16 patch blocks

I got the strips sewn together

pressed, and sliced into 3" wide pieces so they are ready to sew into blocks.

These will make 12 blocks which will give me a total of 66 blocks. I need 90 so I will have to go digging in the stash again for 24 more prints since I want each block to have a different print.

5 more done

I got those five blocks sewn together

and here they are slapped up on the design wall. I now have 54 of the 90 blocks I need sewn together. That comes to 60%.

I got started on sewing the strips together for the next batch of blocks. I need 36 more blocks. I have no idea how many blocks I will get out of these strips - I didn't bother to count yet.

When I was cleaning up plies of fabric looking for more prints for cutting strips for this quilt, I cut these wide strips out of my pile of neutral fabrics. I saw this on ebay for these vintage 17" nine patch blocks that I liked. I thought to myself why buy these when I have fabric that I have had so long it is now vintage so I will make my own vintage neutral nine patch blocks! LOL!!! Look at the stack that I ended up with! This will be one of those projects that will take a while because I will sew these when I have a few minutes here and there.

Now we are making progress!

This is the first weekend in a while that I have not been exhausted. I still have a cough, but the feeling of constantly being tired has lifted. This definitely shows in the amount of sewing I got done this weekend. I now have 49 blocks on the design wall!

For now I am just sticking them up trying to spread the colors around. I have five more blocks ready to sew together. Since I need 90 blocks for this quilt I am more that half way done with the making blocks!

I spent a couple hours yesterday going thru a few more stacks of fabric sorting and cutting more strips of prints. I would like to end up using each print only once. Here is my next stack to sew together.

I am going to have to go thru my fabric again and take a second look at the prints I did not cut from the first time thru. I still need another thirty or so of prints so some of those rejects the first time might get used after all.

I also make more banana cupcakes on Sunday. One of the fellows at work didn't get one on Friday at the pig out so I told him I would bring some today. There were lots of cupcakes at the pig out, but mine were the only homemade ones. I guess people just don't bake. I forgot to take a picture of the nine of them this morning after I frosted them, but here is a picture of three of them in the container I put together for that fellow. For me this is fun to hand over some homemade goodies to someone who appreciates them.

Did you get some quilting/sewing done over the weekend to celebrate International Quilting Weekend? I also spent some time doing laundry and dishes, but left a few tasks around the house undone since I spent so much time sewing. This week I will have to catch up on those.

Yeah it is Friday!

It has been a long week so I am glad the weekend will start in just a few hours for me. Last night I made from scratch, banana cupcakes for work. I have always been out in the field, so this is the first St. Patrick's Day pig out at the office I will attend. The company is furnishing corned beef and cabbage, fish, and a host of sides. Employees are to bring dessert.

I iced them with cream cheese frosting and added some green sprinkles. I didn't have any regular sized cupcake papers; I only had Texas sized papers so my cupcakes are big and I only got 9 out of the batch.

This weekend the 15th thru 17th is International Quilting Weekend. Almost every weekend is a quilting weekend for me! LOL!! Have a great quilting weekend!

Now we are making progress

I got those blocks sewn last and so that first block now has company!

I managed to get a few more strips sewn together and cut too! I will sew these tonight.

I don't know how big I am going to make this quilt yet. The finished blocks will be 10" so I might make it 90" x 100".

Yesterday I told you about the water bottle that my nephew engraved at the library, he also make this vinyl sign.

You can also borrow baking pans and art work from the library!

Here is the sunrise this morning. This picture does not do it justice. It was magnificent!

16 patch progress

I now have six more blocks ready for sewing together. I will do that tonight after work.

When I met up with my brother, SIL, and nephew to help wallpaper I was given a custom engraved water bottle. My nephew engraved it at all places … the library! I guess the library has all kinds of different machines including one that makes vinyl signs too.

Remember the Akron Art Prize I entered four times with my embroidered t-shirt pieces? I got an email that it has gone under so no more Akron Art Prize. It lasted seven years.

Progress on the 16 patch

First, I thank all of you for your get well wishes. Overall I feel a whole lot better! I still have a bit of a cough, but other than that I am almost over this cold. I am glad it only lasted a bit over a week rather than drag out for a month!

I finally took down the Harley quilt top so I could start using that design wall to hand up the 16 patch blocks. Here is the one lonely block hanging - LOL!!

I spent time on Sunday cutting more prints. I dug thru my African Dutch Wax prints and found some blue prints which I needed. With the digging around, I cleaned up three more shelves in the fabric storage room. Slowly the fabric storage room is looking better. Here is what the strips look like now hanging

I have the pieces cut and ready to sew together for the next block. I think I will stop cutting for awhile and gets some blocks made.

Friday I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open so I went to bed early. Saturday I helped my brother, SIL, and nephew hang wallpaper for 6 1/2 hours. Where the paper is going is in another room of the new studio Michael is putting together for a fellow. The studio will be for recording, rehearsals, and shooting videos. The space consists of the main recording/rehearsal room with a separate engineering booth, a storage room for instruments and cords, an isolation booth for one or two people to record in, and this latest room is for video recording. I took a few pictures of the progress of the paper hanging. We hung 14 lengths of paper before I was too tired to do any more. The wallpaper was 27 1/2" wide so one strip covered a larger area which was nice.

The paper is going to be painted black on some walls and white on others. Since I was too sick to help the week before, they installed the floor instead. I don't know if I will be needed next weekend to help again or not. My brother did most of the work smoothing the paper onto the wall and he was getting the hang of the process so they might not need me to help finish this.

Lucky find

I was digging around last evening for more prints and came upon a pile of strips. These are African Dutch Wax fabric. This is going to save me some work! I will have to trim the strips from 3 1/2" to 3", but that is an easy job.

I am feeling better. I have my cough under control and I am not as tired all the time. Today is a week since this cold started, so I am glad to feel as good as I do after 7 days. Sometimes you never know how long one of these is going to drag on. Thanks for all your get well wishes!

I have no big plans for the weekend except to get plenty of rest and get over the final lingering symptoms of this cold. Have a great weekend!

A few more cut

I still feel lousy and energy level is zero. I managed to get a few more strips cuts, but that is about it. All my energy is used for trying to get thru the workday and there is not any left by the time I get home from work. I am sure I will feel better in a couple of days.