Binding, cooking, and watering

My evening went by quickly. The only work in the studio was pressing the fabric and cutting the binding for the African quilt. I have used this print - yes, another print! - in the past for other quilts made similar to this quilt. I just like the way it looks.

Here is a baby quilt I made back in 2012 using that black, white and gold print for the binding.

I spent the rest of the evening cooking food for lunches, washing dishes, and watering the squash. The squash plants are growing like crazy, but I still don't see much action in the way of seeing squash. I guess I need to be patient.

Quilting done

I managed to get the African fabric quilt top quilted this weekend. I had to push hard on Sunday to get it done. Now tonight on to the binding.

Saturday I went to a surprise birthday party. There were these beautiful flowers on each table

a bar

food stations with different kinds of sliders and my nephew's band played.

The Tour ended yesterday. I am having TDF withdrawal. Peter made it safely across the finish line and won his seventh green jersey, but there is a new young gun, Caleb Ewan, and he is fast! Peter is going to have to do some hard work for next year's race to try and retain his dominance in the green jersey competition.

I weeded for an hour on Sunday morning, but I had to stop. The ground was so hard in places where the mulch has disappeared it was just too hard to get the weeds out. I was happy with the wheelbarrow of weeds I did manage to remove from the center flower bed.

Changed my mind

I got the second baby quilt sewn together while I watched/listened to the TDF and it hit me - I might have enough to make a decent sized quilt. Wanda, great minds think alike! So I sewed the two baby quilt tops together and sewed together a row of eight blocks that would have been in the third baby quilt top to make the top 8 blocks by 6 blocks. I still had five extra blocks

So I made three more blocks and once I get that row sewn the quilt will be approx. 68" x 87".

I even have someone to give this to. We have a young intern from Uganda and she is so sweet. Most of the interns we have come from the local colleges so it is unique that we have someone from so far away. Next Friday the company is having a lunch and learn and Allen, yes that is her name, and her sponsor parents will be giving a presentation.

I found some fabric for the back and I plan on quilting it with this tangerine thread.

It was a heck of a race yesterday over three mountains in the Alps. Nairo Quintana from Columbia won the stage. This gain of time has moved up Nairo in the standing for the yellow jersey. I thought I would post this picture of a piece I made in 2010 to celebrate the Tour de France. I made this from three TDF t-shirts. The band at the bottom represents the jerseys awarded - white for the best young rider, green for the sprint point leader, polka dot for the king of the mountain, and of course yellow for the lowest overall time. This hangs in my downstairs foyer and I see it every day.

I am glad it is Friday. My plans are to watch the final stages or the TDF, hopefully get some weeding done, and get the quilt top pin basted so I can start quilting it. Throw in some laundry and some housework and I think my weekend is full! Have a great weekend!

Sorting bits and pieces

I decided to tackle sorting the pile of African fabrics first. In the pile are 2 1/2" strips

3 1/2" strips

and 5 1/2" squares

that I had used to made these quarter log cabin blocks

I sorted thru the blocks and found that I had not trimmed all of them

after trimming

there were enough for a baby quilt which I got sewn together

there were enough blocks for another top which I laid out on the design wall

and blocks for part of a third quilt. I only need to make seven blocks to have enough for this third top.

With all the fabric leftover I plan on making 16 patch or 25 patch blocks pairing up a solid fabric with the prints. I have no idea how many baby quilts I will get out of these bits and pieces.

Peter is still in the green jersey. The 2019 TDF's last stage is Sunday.

I went out to water the squash and one of the plants is trying to escape the fencing!

I cut the fence so I could tuck it back in. I have a feeling I did not give the plants enough room. They are growing like crazy!

At work we are getting ready to turn over another space to the owner. This space is called Central Sterile and it is where they clean stuff - carts, linens, and I am not sure I want to know what else if you know what I mean. There is protective covering on the stainless steel wall covering right now and the wall need another coat of paint. Final inspections are scheduled for electrical, fire alarm, plumbing, and HVAC so we are getting close to being able to drop pads (that is installing the ceiling tiles in the grid) so all the new equipment can be installed by the Owner's contractor.

The other day my brother sent me a picture of Basil on his quilt

I guess he must like it!

11th finish of 2019

As I watched/listened to the TDF, I worked on getting the binding on the last of this group of baby quilts. This one is for a lady at work that is having a girl.

I use a staggered zigzag stitch rather than straight stitching the binding. I like the way it looks.

The stack for now.

My next project is to turn these two piles of scraps into baby quilts. I will be cutting more fabric to add to this, but my goal is to at least use up these bits and pieces that have been sitting around a long time.

Peter is still wearing the green jersey even though he finished 4th in yesterday stage. I think he is saving himself for the final sprint on Sunday on the Champs Elysees. The next three days are brutal mountain climbs so he just has to get over those.

I almost hit a wild turkey on my way to work this morning. It was walking across the street and I was doing the speed limit which is 45. I hit the brakes to slow down, it flapped it's wings, and got across the street in one piece. That was my first encounter with a wild turkey.

10th finish for 2019

Yesterday was hard. I was still so tired from the heat so I came home from work and watched Saturday night's episode of Live PD. I then managed to finish machine sewing the binding on my 10th finish for this year.

Here are the five I finished Sunday and Monday.

I have two blue chevron quilts still so now here is my current stash of baby quilts. I am going to continue to use up piles of leftover bits from other projects to make more baby quilts. They always come in handy.

I heard my neighbor out mowing. He and his wife had just come back from vacation so I wanted to show him a picture of the newest resident in his backyard - a groundhog - and check on my squash.

The weather had cooled off - this was about 6 p.m. - into the low 70's with the humidity at 73% - a bit high still. I decided to pull weeds for 15-20 minutes just to try and put a dent in them. Here is the before and after. I need to do a bit more detailing in this area, but it certainly looks better. It is amazing how fast the weeds can take over! It is not suppose to be as hot this week, so I am going to try and get the weeds pulled and the Shasta daisies deadheaded. It is amazing how fast this can get away from you.

6th, 7th, 8th and 9th finishes for 2019

What an exhausting three days. Let's start with the finishes. I managed to get the binding completed on four out of the six quilts on Sunday. I have the binding almost done on the fifth quilt.

On Friday and Saturday I quilted the 6th quilt. I used pink thread to get more pink into this quilt since I know it will be for a girl. I will also make the binding pink.

Friday the band had a show. The stage was step up in the parking lot of a mall. There were about a dozen and a half vendors and the merch tent got set up next to a food stand. It was 91 degrees with a 101 degrees heat index and I was next to grills throwing off heat. It was miserable.

There weren't very many people. I guess the event was not advertised. The kids did the best they could with not using their own equipment - that is, amps, keyboard, and drums. The lighting was terrible, the schedule was about an hour behind, and there were no port-a-johns. If you didn't get into the mall to use the restrooms before it closed at 9 p.m., you were out of luck.

The kids were excited to meet and see the headliner Lacky Doley who is a phenomenal B3 Hammond organ player from Australia.

I stayed and watched him a few minutes after I got the merch booth packed up, but I was so hot, tired, and need to use the restroom I just went home at 11:15. I had been there since 5 p.m.

Saturday morning I drugged myself out of bed and watched the last couple hours of Stage 13 of the TDF before I had to leave at 1:45 to head to another show. The heat index was still at 101 degrees. I had brought my fan and a half gallon jug of ice water to dip my cool towel into just like I did the night before. The crowd was small because of the heat, but the kids put on a good show despite equipment issues due to the heat. This was taken at sound check.

I sold a little merch, but I got to pack up not too long after the show ended. It was all I could do to walk up the hill and to my car. Those two blocks, well it must have taken me 15 minutes to walk them. I was feeling awful.

Friday morning I had gone out early to trim the yard and pull a few weeds. I set up my fan to try and at least move the air. At least this flower bed looks better!

Last night I went out at 6 p.m. to mow the front. The yard was looking like a hay field! Some gray clouds had moved in and were blocking the sun so at least I thought I would have to deal with that direct heat. About 5 minutes into mowing and the clouds moved out the sun was beating down on me. Thank goodness it only took me a half hour to get the front done. All in all, I figure I was out in the heat 16 hours over the last three days. I am not exactly feeling on top of the world today. LOL!!!