The plant saga continues

When I got home I was excited to see my squash seedlings. I could tell they had grown and I now have 5!

I had to cook at bit last evening so I would have something for breakfast and lunch today. After I was done with that it was time to head outside and plant the lavender and coneflowers.

I gave them all a drink of water and then put the seedlings inside the garage for the night.
I found what I think is a safe spot for the seedlings to stay outside where the deer can't get them. I walked to the back to toss the dead lavender plants in the brush pile in the back yard, when something moved. I looked around and it was a toad. He sat on that rock for a long time probably waiting for dinner to come by.

I am taking tomorrow off. I have lots of errands to run and things to do around the house. Have a great weekend!

16 patch quilt and seedlings

I don't know where I left off percentage wise when I quit working on this 16 patch quilt to work on the Harley quilt, but after a little quilting I am 69% done.

I wanted to plant my coneflowers and lavender plants last evening, but it started to rain as soon as I got home from work. The rest of the evening it would rain hard then stop, then rain hard and stop. I tucked the squash starts between the coneflower and lavender plants until I come up with a better method of protecting the squash plants from being eaten by the deer. I have no idea if the deer will eat them, but I am not willing to risk it after all the nurturing I have been doing to try to grow these from seed. When I got home I was happy to see that another plant had broken ground! This is so fun for me to see how much they grow every day!

Here is another plant that is popping up

I moved the pots that have little plants into the garage overnight. When I went to move them back outside this morning, I noticed that the seedling in the previous picture was bigger and another seedling had broken ground! I can't wait to see what they look like when I get home tonight.

On my way to work there was a raccoon poised to crawl into his home which happens to be a storm sewer. I grabbed my phone to take his picture, but all I got was his tail and backside heading into the sewer.

There was a deer that ran across the road not too far from work. I was a hundred yards away, but I slowed down just in case another one would be running the same direction. Once I turned into the drive at work, there were a couple of goose in the road. Since I had to stop, I got out the phone and took a picture of a group of adults and babies having breakfast. The little ones are all different sizes probably due to when they hatched. There sure are a bunch of them!

I haven't seen the hawk lately.

Quilt tops made, hanging with the band, and mowing

I was happy to get this quilt top done. I wasn't planning on putting a border on it, but I thought this would be a good top to send to Vicki for a veteran's quilt so it needed to be just a bit bigger.

Then while I was at it I decided to use up the blocks and dab of fabric I still had left of this hockey flannel fabric. I had to scrimp and dig around to be able to make enough blocks, but I now have an empty bin! I used a brown flannel for the border and alternating blocks. I also was able to cut binding for both quilts.

The band had a show on Friday night in Lorain, Ohio. We had a good crowd and a lot more people showed up after I had taken this picture.

We were right on the waterfront and I got to watch the bridge go up and down several times for boats.

The merch booth looked good although it was too windy to put up the banner. I didn't sell as many t-shirts this time because 35 to 40% of the crowd already were wearing Michael Weber Show t-shirts! I got to bed at 1 a.m.

I needed to plant my squash seeds that had sprouted.

I was so excited this morning because two of the pots now have plants with their first leaves and another one had the green part emerging!

Monday I did some weeding in the flower beds including the bed next to the house. There was lots of clover that needed yanked out.

Now it looks kind of empty. I need to hack away at that stump and get that out of the bed so I can plant something there.

I decided to head out and stop at Earth Fare and get some filet mignon that was on sale to treat myself and went to Home Depot and Lowe's to look at plants. Of course, both HD and Lowe's were very busy as the weather was beautiful and Memorial Day weekend is the start of planning season around here. I needed to replace two of my lavender plants that did not survive last year's heat wave and I wanted a few more coneflower plants. The worker had just put out two trays of lavender so I got three nice plants and four coneflower plants.

I was going to try and get them in the ground, but after mowing I was so exhausted I just couldn't muster up the energy to get them planted. My mower was acting up - I think I put too much oil in it - so it took me longer to mow. I also did the whole yard so that took an hour and a half.

On the sewing front I am going back to the 16 patch quilt and get it finished.

Easy evening

I had a nice slow and easy evening. Just relaxing a bit after a busy week. I do have a pile of some of those new fabrics washed and in need of ironing.

I am going to plant some zucchini and yellow squash in what was going to be a shade garden until I had the pine tree cut down. I had seen a lady start her seeds on a damp paper towel in a plastic bag. Mine have begun to sprout which is so cool! I will next put them in pots of soil. I don't have much of a green thumb so I am going to have to take the time to try nurture these into becoming plants. I was excited to see the seeds actually sprout! I need to get some potting soil so this is a job I am going to take on this weekend.

I was hungry for vegetables so I roasted some frozen broccoli and cauliflower at 425 degrees for 30 minutes stirring them once. I had sprinkled them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder before roasting. The house smelled so good.

I really don't like broccoli and cauliflower so I have to doctor them up which includes some yum yum sauce. I made my own yum yum sauce. 1 1/4 cups mayo, 1 tsp of tomato paste - now I didn't have any tomato paste so I used a couple of big squirts of catsup - 1/4 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 cup of water which I didn't need that much since I used catsup instead of tomato paste, and you can add 1 to 3 teaspoons of sugar. So this will be my lunch today.

I am taking vacation tomorrow so it will be a nice long 4 day weekend which I am looking forward to! It is hard to say what I will do or accomplish.

Have a great weekend.

A better picture

Before Andrea took the Harley quilt last night we hung it on the design wall so I could get a better picture of it.

Andrea was waiting for me when I got home from work so I had to quickly make a label and stitch it on. Yes, her daughter was named after her. Andrea told me she has already had people asking if there was going to be a quilt this year because they wanted to buy tickets. She also told me the lady that won the quilt last year, her and her husband redecorated their bedroom around the quilt!

It seems I need to get the quilt done earlier and earlier every year. The poker run is not until August! Andrea is going to collect more t-shirts for me so I guess as soon as I have enough I will get the 2020 quilt started. I was kind of sad to see it go. I didn't get to enjoy the completed quilt for very long.

Yesterday I decided at lunch to find the local quilt shop. The Owner was very nice and was having a 25% off sale including her five dollar clearance fabric! Well, I couldn't pass that up! After cruising the shop - yes I forgot to take pictures of The Fabric Peddler in Wadsworth, Ohio - I pulled a couple of bolts for cutting and dug thru the remnant pile. I found all kinds of cool skull fabric. The remnants were 1/3 to over 2 yards. There were a couple smaller pieces she threw in at no charge. She said she was happy that I reduced her remnant pile. I ended up with 20 and a quarter yards and with tax that came to about $4.00 at yard for first quality goods!

I had the t-shirt quilt with me and asked her if she would like to see it. She took a couple pictures and posted it on Facebook. She really like it and use to ride herself.

Here is a picture of the purple coral bells one of the guys at work gave me last year. They are doing well.

3rd finish of 2019 - binding at the speed of light

I fixed something to eat then got to work binding the Harley quilt. The lady is coming tonight to pick it up. I was sewing as fast as I could and it is done! I totally machine stitched the binding on and it looks good. I had a really nice piece of organic black cotton that had a lovely finish to it and made great binding. I didn't have time to get my hanging pole reinstalled so I could take a proper picture so this is the best I could do for now.

Here is the back. The quilt turned out 90" x 86.5" The quilt still needs a label and I will do that when I get home from work tonight. The lady picking up the quilt might have to wait just a bit, but that way we can visit a little. In case you don't know, the lady has a poker run to raise money to donate to charity in remembrance of her daughter who died in a car accident. This is the 9th year for the poker run and the fourth quilt I have donated. I got hooked up with her because my nephew's band played at a couple of the poker runs at the bar-b-que they have.

Yesterday outside the window of my work space was juvenile hawk. He spent several hours coming and going. This is my first spring here at the home office so there are new things to see every day. I bet the hawk is around because of all the Canada goose hatchlings.

Harley all quilted

It has been a busy three days. I did manage to get the Harley quilt quilted. I now have to try and get the binding and label on tonight. The lady wants to pick it up tomorrow.

Friday my nephew's band went to Vermillion, Ohio for a show. The restaurant was small so we had just a little, but very workable, merch table.

Vermillion is right on Lake Erie and is a cute little place.

I had a bit of time before the show so I could walk down to the lake which took all of 5 minutes at a slow stroll!

I was surprised how close the houses were to the lake! You could almost fish out your living room window and your boat was parked in your backyard!

I didn't get to bed until 2:50 a.m. I couldn't sleep any more and was up at 9. I cleaned up the kitchen area and living room because I had asked my neighbor that if there were a couple younger guys coming to his birthday party if they could move my couch into the living room. It had been in the kitchen area since I had my floors refinished at least a year and a half ago. I couldn't move it myself and chance scratching the floor. My couch is now in my living room!

I made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies and went to the party. It was nice to sit as I was losing steam after only six hours sleep.

Sunday I quilted, did laundry, and mowed and trimmed the yard. I also got another coat of paint on the cupboard doors that I had my SIL's uncle make for me. I got two doors installed, but the third door won't stay on. I don't know what the issue is.

I won this nice tote bag from Bear Creek Quilting. It even has a zipper.