More blocks made

What a busy three days! Friday I had to go to the home office to pick up two bags of salmon my friend's husband got me from Costco. I ran into a new detour so getting around that took me several miles out of my way and stopped at Earth Fare on the way back home since they had meat on sale. This trip ended up taking an hour an a half. I got back to the house long enough to throw the stuff in the freezer then headed back out to my brother's house to wait for the mold remediation guys to come. They were giving me as estimate on cleaning up his basement. While I waited - I had a two hour window - I trimmed the grass until my battery ran out then sat and read. They showed up at 1 and it took about an hour to analyze the situation. After they left I had to go and get my 15,000 mile service on my car. I had gotten a twenty dollar coupon so that helped a bit. I had an appointment at 3 so I was early. I just went and found a quiet spot and read my book.

By the time I got home it was 4:30 and I was beat from all the driving. I worked on sewing blocks together. Here is the stack I ended up getting sewn Friday and Saturday.

Here are the pieces I have left that need to be sewn into blocks.

Saturday was the Akron Marathon so there was no going anywhere which was fine with me. I sewed 16 patch blocks. Before the Notre Dame game came on I decided to go and weed the back flower bed where I have my Lenten roses. I didn't take a before picture, but it took me an hour to get the weeds pulled. I was sweating so bad that I stopped after an hour. The humidity has been awful here. After a couple hours of sewing blocks and cooling down, I decided to go back out at halftime and finish the bed which meant moving the rocks I had just dropped last year.

I needed to pull out a piece of wood I had used for edging - it was rotted and easy to move. Then I pulled off the run on the downspout.

I wrangled the rocks into place with one time having to sit down and push a rock with my legs. These rocks weigh between 80 and 100 pounds so I scooted and rolled them where I wanted them. After an hour - way longer than just halftime - I got the rocks into place. It looks so much better!

I had one rock left over, but I have a place to put it. The bare spot is where the Lily of the Valley grow. Once we get some rain and the ground softens up I plan on digging this area up and get as many of the Lily roots pulled out, then transplant a Lenten rose. I know I will be fighting the Lily of the Valley, but as long as I get a good bit of the roots out, I won't mind them coming up between the Lenten roses.

Sunday I went down to my friend's house to help her set up for her yard sale. It is an hour drive. First we had to clean out the garage and that took about three hours. We got the tables set up and then had some lunch. Finally we hauled boxes and bolts of fabric from her studio and sorted and laid out all the ziplock bags of blocks, tops, bolts of fabric and scraps. So this week she can add more stuff and fuss about to set the items the way she wants.

I tried really hard not to come home with any fabric, but I failed! LOL!!! I got a yard and a half of this fabric to make pillow cases

Then she had this music fabric I just couldn't resist taking this bolt of music fabric home. We guesstimated that there was 11 yards.

And she found this bolt of African Dutch wax print that I will use on the back of the baby quilts since it is lighter in color. I love the birds on this fabric. We guessed there was about 11 yards. She gave me the employee LOL!! discount and only wanted a dollar a yard. How could I not buy these three pieces!

I left my friend's house at 3 and headed back north to my brother's house. I spent two sweat soaking hours picking up sticks, trimming the back yard, and cutting down big weeds that had sprouted up in the front. I filled two lawn and garden trash bags and managed to squash them into the trash bin along with other yard debris. Another brother was going to mow the back so I wanted to make sure all the sticks were picked up. I finally got home about 6:15. Now I just need to get someone to help me with my yardwork and cleaning out my garage! LOL!!

Almost the weekend

I am taking a day of vacation on Friday so it will be a three day weekend for me. I plan on getting some more 16 patch blocks made

and errands run on Friday since the marathon is on Saturday. All the streets around my neighborhood will be shut down on Saturday so there is no going anywhere unless it is on foot or after 3 in the afternoon. I have lots to do around the house so being confined to the house is fine with me.

Have a great weekend!

I was wrong

I thought I would get home from work and get some sewing done; I was wrong. This is what my evening consisted of:
* made fresh veggie/fruit juice in my juicer
* made a pot of beef vegetable soup. I already had cooked the beef and had the stock from that.

* while I was making the soup I did dishes and straightened up the fridge.
* an hour and a half later I sat down to get a bite to eat
* went outside and watered the squash and lavender; things are dry. We haven't' had much rain lately.
* threw clothes in the washer
* cleaned the bathroom
*gathered up recycling
* changed the furnace filter which wasn't easy. The darn filter would not come out and I had to rip it out. It was fully destroyed by the time I got the thing out.

After all that I was toast. Maybe some sewing will happen tonight.

Top ready to sew

I only managed to get enough blocks made to fill in the empty spots for the first baby quilt.

Got some stuff done

I spent some time sewing and cleaning the car this weekend. I got new windshield wipers - mine were awful, still the original equipment but less than 2 years old. I cleaned the inside and outside of the windshield and put a coat of Rainex (sp?) to help shed the water. Now I need some rain to see the difference. We have had a little rain today, but I haven't been driving when it was raining.

I got this pile of blocks sewn together. I think there is around 70 or 80 blocks.

I did get all the rest of the strips cut and they are staged and ready for sewing together.

I added a few more blocks to the quilt I have on the design wall.

I am going to end up with enough blocks for 6 and 2/3 baby quilts. You know I will make a few more blocks to get that 7th quilt

I did have a bit of color in the front flower bed. Some of the California poppy seed I threw down has grown and is blooming. Just don't look at the weeds in the background! It was too hot and humid to do yardwork this weekend. It was all I could do to clean the windshield and vacuum out the car.

What a week!

This week has been crazy and not much sewing has happened. Monday was mowing, Tuesday dinner with a friend, Wednesday a late day at work, so finally yesterday I got out of work at a decent time. I needed to do some chores to make up for not getting much done all week like laundry, dishes, and cooking. I boiled some noodles added my squash from my garden, threw in some eggs and soy. I had it for breakfast and it was delicious!

I did get a few minutes to sew. I sewed together a few 16 patch blocks. It's better than nothing!

My knee is feeling a lot better. I don't know if the Zam-buk made the difference or not, but the swelling went down and it is easier to walk up and down steps.

Work is absolutely crazy. I am drowning in stuff to do. It sure makes the day go by fast. I am so glad it is Friday. I have no big plans this weekend except to try and get more of the 16 patch blocks sewn together and finish the mowing I didn't get done on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Take you finger off the submit order button

I received an sale email from Hancock's of Paducah yesterday. I am going to need backing for all these baby quilts I am making so I found some yardage that would be perfect. Wait, I am trying to not buy fabric so I decided to dig thru my stash to see what might work for backings.

I am not crazy about this light sage green fabric, but I have enough to back 4 baby quilts.

I have enough of this Dear Stella print for three backs

There is enough of this green fabric with orange pears for one back

This orange fabric with the green pears is enough for two backs

This wavy olive, cream, and navy fabric would make one back

I could get 2 backs out of this green and navy print

Then I have some African fabric yardage that I got from my friend who I have been helping pack up items for her yard sale. There is enough of this large print for 2 backs

and enough for 8 back out of this print.

I don't really like dark backs, but I need to step away from the submit order button and just use what I have.

Look what I saw is growing! I was surprised to see two more yellow squash!

I did manage to get the battery out of the mower; there were no instructions for that. I didn't realize there was an indicator light so you could check how much power you still had. I was surprised I still had two lights out of the four! You can see this is a big battery - about 8" x 5" x 4" - I am guessing I didn't measure it. Since my grass was very long and that takes extra power to mow thru, I was surprised how much juice I had left.

This morning at work I brought the items I needed to make a couple of fruit fly traps. The fruit flies are driving me crazy. I have already caught several!

Lastly, I don't know what I did, but my right knee started hurting yesterday. Don't be asking me to do any squats today! This morning it dawned on me that I should have rubbed Zam-Buk on it last night before I went to bed. I did rub it on my knee this morning and I can bend my knee easier already. Greatest stuff ever! I also rubbed it on a mosquito bit while I was at it. My brother brought this back from South Africa. The Tiny 7 gram tin says "A hospital in your pocket". I don't think it would fix a broken leg, but for rashes, bites, sunburn, and sore muscles it is great stuff!

Mowing not sewing

I got my new mower put together on Sunday and took it for is maiden voyage last night. Here is my old mower that I bought in 1985. It still works great if you can get it started. I think I have gotten my money's worth out of it.

Here is my new DR Power battery powered mower.

All I have to do to start it is to push the button in and pull the wire safety handle back. What a joy not to have to pull a cord!

It was hot last evening - 80 - 81 with the humidity around 70% - so after an hour I just couldn't mow one more inch. I got the front done, one side, and most of the back. I still have along one side and the rest of the back to do, but that won't take very long. The sweat was pouring off of me and I just wanted to get into the A/C. The grass in the back was LONG! I'm talking 8 inches at least, but the mower handled it with smaller swipes. I was impressed and it took me a lot less time to get the amount done that I did with the new mower. I am a happy camper and so glad I made the investment. I will mow more often since I know it won't be a battle to get the mower started.

16 patches continue

I sewed together the blocks that I had staged next to the sewing machine and ended up with 56 blocks. Here is a few of them on the design wall and the pile that will continue to grow.

I decided next I needed to sew together the strips remaining on the other design wall

Sewed them in to strip sets then sliced them for 16 patch blocks. There are 53 ready to sew.

I still have this stack of strips that need sliced for blocks. There is enough here for 78 blocks if I figured correctly.

So all together I will end up with 187 blocks. With 30 blocks in a baby quilt, I will have enough for 6 baby quilts with a few blocks left over.

I went out last evening to pick a zucchini and a yellow squash

and a doe and her fawn were in the backyard. Momma kept a close eye on me.

Looks like I am going to get one more yellow squash. This would be number 4. I have harvested a total of two zucchini.

Saturday my nephew had a show in Lorain at the Palace Theater. We have played here before. He opened for a David Bowie tribute band. We had good sales and it kept me busy up until the headliner started playing. We left the booth set up and had a few more sales was people were leaving. Here is the kids during sound check

and the lobby ceiling. The theater was build in 1928

Strip cutting progress

Yesterday was a late day at work again so I didn't have a lot of time to work in the studio. I did manage to get some strips pressed and sliced for 16 patch blocks. I now have enough cut for 50 blocks and I have hardly made a dent in my pile of strip sets! I have a feeling I am going to get many baby quilts out of those strips.

I am taking a day of vacation tomorrow so we will catch up on Monday! Have a great weekend!

Next!

Well, I am back to working on those 2 1/2" strip sets. I didn't have much time to work on them last night since I didn't get home until after 6; I had a hair appointment. I pressed four strip sets at a time and layered them on my cutting mat.

I sliced the strip set up into 2 1/2" pieces and got enough for 4 blocks of each color.

There was only a little bit of fabric left over which is too small for me to keep.

Here are the pieces laid out ready for me to sew into blocks.

I have a feeling I am going to get a lot of blocks to turn into baby quilts from this pile of strips already sewn into sets

and these strips hanging on the design wall that still need sewn together.

I only have four baby quilts left in my stash and two are earmarked for someone. I will just keep cranking them out!