Better than nothing

I only got the strips sewn together as I was busy last evening with other tasks. They are ready for a quick press and then trimming to width before sewing on the 3 1/2" strip.

I decided to haul the ceramic tile out to the curb and sat it on top of the small fridge that was full of mold. I had taken off the door and cut the cord so the fridge was unusable. The tile is heavy and I didn't want to load it to take to Habitat. Jill, one Habitat store is way on the other side of town and the other one is right where all the construction we are doing so it is hard to get to. I am hoping one of the pickers takes it. It is about 115 SF and there is 4 different colors. I got it for nothing. I called the Habitat for a pick up but they were booking out 4 weeks.

Next I shredded for an hour. I didn't mean to shred that long, but I kept trying to make a dent. It is not my stuff, but I have been asked to properly dispose of a laundry basket and small garbage bags of paperwork. Next I leveled out the dirt in that bed with Bubba and hauled up three loads of sweet peat. I need at least four more wheelbarrows of sweet peat and that bed will be ready for winter. It looks so much better!

Short evening

I had to go and get a haircut last night so by the time I got home I didn't have much time to do anything. I did manage to pair up some strips for making the 4-patch blocks this morning. I will trim the strips to the correct width once I sew them together. I am dealing with a variety of widths so it is just easier to trim them after they are sewn.

I did get a group of vintage pins, patches, and a charm off of ebay for a heck of a great price. I was the only person that bid on them.

I especially wanted the AC/DC pins and the bell charm to add to my AC/DC t-shirt embroidered wall hanging I made a couple years ago.

The rest of the pins I will add to my piece from 2015. I just need to find a place in the house to hang this piece.

In May when we were helping my brother to downsize, we found some R.E.M. pins and a couple patches. I added them to the piece shown in my header. It fun to keep adding embellishments to these pieces.

Sewing, yardwork, and the garage

I managed to get half of the flannel quilt sewn together. It is hanging longways on the design wall.

I made 14 more of these 4 patch blocks,

but that is not nearly enough. After laying out the rest of the 6 1/2" blocks and what 4-patch blocks I have, I now can see how many more 4-patch ones I need.

Friday night I tackled trimming Bubba. Bubba is the huge mugo pine that sits next to my front door. The area is a mess! I had dropped some of big rocks for edging last year and I needed to finish edging.

I worked for 3+ hours trimming Bubba and hauled 6 wheelbarrow loads of debris to the woods. Saturday I was able to get 2 more hours in on trimming which included crawling under and into the middle of the plant to get the dead wood cut out. My hair got caught in the branches more than one time and my hair was sticky with pine sap and I had pine needles stuck in my hair! LOL!!! Sunday I worked another two hours on cleaning up the weeds at the edge of the bed, hauling more rocks from different areas of the yard, and getting the rocks placed. Here is what it looks like now.

I still need to pull a few more weeds, rake out the dirt I dumped in there from the driveway, and spread some sweet peat then it will be done. I will have to wait until spring to see if the roadside daylilies come back up before I plant anything else.

I also got 4 hours of cleaning done in the garage after it started raining too hard for me to work in the yard. I made some good progress. Once I get a load taken to the Goodwill and get a pile of tile moved to the curb, I think it will look like I did make some progress. Heck, just getting all the tools hung up was a big help! I did find 6 box knives! The four gray ones went into the Goodwill box as I clearly don't need 6! LOL!!

Then I found 5 tape measures in the garage and one in the living room. How is it I can never find one when I need one?

Now it's done

When I got home from work I decided I needed to power wash the driveway because there was a coating of dirt I couldn't sweep up. I also got the bare dirt damp so I could thrown down some grass seed. Now this job is done.

Next I fixed a hoodie of one of the guys at the civil job. A section of the seam got missed when the sleeve was surged. Took all of 5 minutes.

I sewed together the last row I had laid out for the pink flannel quilt.

I know I won't have enough of the 6 1/2" blocks so I cut a few more with the bit of flannel I still had. I might have to make a few more four patch blocks too. I have some narrower strips that I can use for those.

This weekend will be all about working on the pink flannel quilt and cleaning out my garage. I can't stand the garage anymore! So far this week I took a snow shovel from a previous job to the trailer I work at now. That is one less thing! LOL!!

Then the group over at the hospital needed a microwave. I had an extra one that has been sitting unused for 4 1/2 years so I dropped it off this morning. It was in the utility room, but I was glad to get it out of the house.

So for the weekend I plan on loading up the SUV with stuff from the garage I no longer need and making at least one trip to Goodwill this weekend. I also want to get some serious time in on the flannel quilt. Have a great weekend!

A little sewing and the dirt has left the driveway

I managed to get two rows sewn together before I went to bed. I might have to make more of the four patch blocks unless I put a really wide border on this quilt. I have one more row that I had previously laid out so I will sew that together and go from there.

I didn't get home until 5, but as soon as I did I decided to work on the dirt pile. To refresh your memory this is where I left if

I was shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow for the 4th load when I heard a noise. I figured out that the axel for the wheel had fallen out of it's bracket. I wasn't sure if this was fixable or not so I had to come up with an alternative.

I emptied the wheelbarrow into a five gallon bucket and wheeled it over to dump it. I only had to do that 4 times and I was able to fix the wheelbarrow.

After hauling 9 loads the excess dirt has been moved, I raked the area and it is ready for some grass seed. I am so glad this job is done!

A quilt, a concert, a fence

This quilt I made back in 2011 has found a recipient.

It went to

I got a text from my brother late last night that Ray loved the quilt.

My brother is on tour with him and I went to see some of the concert last night. Before the show I went backstage and got to see the set up and Ray's very expensive guitars.

There was an opening act of cousins that played for 45 minutes.

Then Ray - he is on the right

I didn't stay long - I get up at 5 a.m. so for me it was getting very late. It was good to see my brother that I hadn't seen since May.

My neighbor put up a new fence. You may have noticed the old fence from my pictures of the squash. Here it is leaning up against their house.

Here is the new one.

Another project

I didn't have time to sew last evening; I had to go after work and get a perm. I do have another project that came my way. A lady I work with, well her daughter is graduating from high school in May so she would like me to make her a t-shirt quilt. She brought me the bag of shirts, but at least I have until spring to get it done. This will be a good project this winter.

Sewing , dirt, and mulch

Not a lot of sewing went on this weekend. I did sew together the blocks into rows for one of the 16 patch tops. It was easier to take it off the design wall and hang the rows in order on a hanger until I can get back to them.

I stacked the other 16 patch top into rows and pinned the stacks on my other design wall. I wanted to move the pink quilt to the big design wall. I got two more rows sewn together and laid out some additional pieces to make the rows longer.

So what did I do all weekend? Moved dirt and 4 yards of sweet peat mulch. For the dirt I moved 13 loads on Friday evening and five on Saturday before the mulch showed up. My goal was to try and get all the dirt moved before the mulch showed up, but the driver was early so putting the mulch in the same spot the dirt was didn't happen.

My neighbor came over on Saturday evening and volunteered to help move a few loads of the dirt thank goodness!

I continued to break up the compacted dirt as he moved it to the back of the house. He could take a much bigger load that I ever could. In fact the loads were so big the handle broke on the wheelbarrow. He went and got some stuff to fix it and I found the Gorilla glue and a clamp. Shortly we were back to work.

It would have taken me 12 trips for the 4 or 5 loads of dirt he took. That was a huge help! I had gotten 4 yards of mulch and I needed to get it moved since it was suppose to rain Monday. I finished cleaning up the flower beds then spread 17 loads of mulch.

Sunday was back to moving mulch to the backyard for storage and mulching the coral bell bed after I fertilized and weeded it. looks so much better.

I finally got down to this much mulch left to move

In the back I put the mulch on a tarp

then covered it. I will have it on hand for dressing the flower beds up next spring and for adding to another bed once I get it cleaned up.

I had made pizza dough before I went outside to work. It was past noon and I was getting hungry so I dressed the dough and had pizza for lunch.

I was really tired so I rested most of the afternoon but still sewed a bit and did some laundry. I needed to go finish sealing the driveway at my brother's before the rain comes in this week and put out his trash. At 4:30 I headed to his house. I cleaned out the gap

stuffed in the backer rod

then squirted on the self-leveling sealant. I am glad this job is done! It took me about an hour.

This is all the dirt I have left to move. I will need to break up the clots so I can level out the lawn. Maybe the rain will soften it up and my job will be a little easier. I could use some easy!

My sister texted me and said I need a vacation after this weekend. I agree. To summarize I moved 18 loads of dirt and 33 loads of mulch.