Friday, October 30, 2020

Projects lined up

I have all the projects I want to work on lined up to sew - pillowcases, disappearing nine patch blocks and boxy pouches.
Yesterday my order came from Home Sew - the fusiable interfacing I like to use for my boxy pouches. I bought 15 yeards so I will have enough to last me awhile! This interfacing is 60" wide and a much better price if you buy 15 yards. Throw in a couple spools of therad to get over $75.00 and I got free shipping.
Hopefully the sun comes out tomorrow and I can do some yardwork. The rain is suppose to stop this morning. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Always a need

A lady I work with asked if I could make an adult bib for her mother. Here is the prototype for her to try out. I will make a couple more for her once I get the thumbs up on the design. It is made out of some flannel I  have had for years. Hawiian printed flannel - I thought it was kid of funny when I bought it.  The majority of this flannel was used on the back of the first flannel quilt I ever made. 
I also managed last night to get the bands for the pillowcases cut. These will not be delivered in time for Halloween, but that is the way it goes!
I received in the mail some pearl cotton number 12 I had ordered for the 2010 quilt. I think I will take some of the lighter thread and dye it  a darker brown since I can't find dark brown. 
Yesterday on my way home the sun came out a bit. Haven't seen it in awhile! There was a family of geese. I didn't know that geese would have another group of babies this late in the season. There were 8 or 9 babies all lined up in a row taking a swim.

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Yikes! October is almost gone!

It dawned on me yesterday that October is almost gone and I need to get crackin on the disappearing nine patch quilt if I am going to get it done by Xmas. Thank goodness I pinned the drawing I had made up on the wall or I might have struggeled on how to set up the strip sets.
I laid out the strip sets and now I have got to get some blocks sewn!
It seems to rain here everyday. I have been lucky that the rain has let up during mid-day so I can still walk at lunchtime. Saturday is forecasted to be sunny so I will have to get outside and prep the flower beds for winter.

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Finally sewn together

I was so tired last evening, but I forced myself to finish sewing together the light pink 16 patch quilt top. I am glad to finally have this top sewn together.
I was up early enough this moring to make a batch of buttermilk biscuits. I needed to use up the buttermilk I had left from that peanut butter cake I made. Biscuits don't take long to make and the house smelled so good.
When I walk at work I pass by several ponds. The land is low so the ponds catch all the rainwater runoff. This is the biggest one and the Canadian goose spend a good time of the year here raising their young. Yesterday when I walked I didn't see any. These pictures were taken last week. I wish I had a pond to look at where I live.  If you look close you can see a few bird in the background. 

Monday, October 26, 2020

A busy weekend

I went on a road trip on Saturday. I picked up a couple family members and headed to a quilt shop. I needed some fabric for lining some boxy pouches that one of the fellows at work would like to buy.
Then we picked out some Halloween fabric so I could make them a pillowcase.
Found these yellow and pink fabrics on the sale shelf. These will make good backs for baby quilts.
These three fabrics were on the six dollar a yard sale shelf. I love the leaf print, the music notes is a cute fabric, and I just had to have the black and cream button fabric.
I found this dark gray fabric which I needed for that disappearing nine patch quilt.
After the quilt shop we headed to the next stop which was the meat market in the town where I use to live. They had chicken and filet mingon on sale so I bought  some of each and put it on ice in the car. I have my pictures out of order here. Next we went to Wather's museum and walked the grounds. We also visited the button house - pictures after the trail ones.  Once we got back from Sugarcreek - I went there for spices and nuts -  we took a walk on a couple  different trails. It was only 49 degrees, but that meant there were not many people out and we pretty much had the trials to ourselves. The second trail we went on was at Ft. Laurens.
Here are a few pictures inside the button house. The button house is not heated and over the years the cardboard that they were orginally mounted on deteriorated. The buttons have all been remounted and look beautiful!
I did get most of the fabric washed including that pink print which I used as the backing on the dark pink 16-patch quilt. I have enough for the light pink quilt too . The dark pink quilt is pin basted.
I got the fabric cut for the boxy pouches and had enough interfacing for only four pouches. So now I have to get more interfacing.   Ugh!

Friday, October 23, 2020

TGIF

I only managed to get two rows of blocks sewn together, but that is better than a stick in the eye!
I had to go for my walk after work because my lunch hour was taken up by an unexpected conversation with the division manager. I bet we haven't talk for a total of 10 minutes this year if you add up all of our interactions all of 2020!  I just couldn't get away from him.  We must have talked for over an hour!  I did find out that it was hot out so I couldn't have walked anyway.  It was 78 and sunny so that was way past my comfort level.   I ended up walking after I got home from work.  It was still very warm, but I didn't matter how much I sweated.  The leaves were so pretty and my walk wore me out.  I am sure glad it is Friday - I'm tired!
Here is one more blow up charater that I saw on my walk. There are lots of houses with smaller displays of pumpkins and Halloween decorations.   I don''t know how those pumplins are going to last in this heat!
Have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 22, 2020

Finally!

I finally got the dark pink quilt top sewn together. Gee wiz it has taken me way too long to get this top sewn together.
This pink one is next!
I had a request for some Xmas boxy pouches. I dug around the fabric storage room and found four Xmas prints. I need something for the inside. I will be near a quilt shop on Saturday so I plan on stopping there and see if I can find some fabrics that will work.

Wednesday, October 21, 2020

Progess on the 2010 quilt

I finished quilting this section of the 2010 quilt. I am quilting by eye so there will be some variance in the size of the space between the rows of stitiching which I am fine with.
I also got that long brown strip done.
For the green area I used DMC pearl cotton size 8. It is a bit harded to use - it is harder to thread the needle, harder to pull the thread thru when burying knots. It is what I had so that is what I used. The brown area was quilted in size 12 which is much easier to quilt with.    I had a odd tan color with a lot of orange undertone, but it looked ok against the brown. I have more size 12 coming because the colors I have are not what I want to use. JoAnn's shows size 12 on thier website, but they have none in stock so I had to go to ebay to get a few more colors.
Here is a picture of the road that runs back to where I work. It is one of those side roads for a small industrial park so there is not much traffic. It is about 3/4 of a mile round trip with a little bit of  a hill next to the adjoining country road.
I did get a few rows of the darker pink quilt sewn together, had to roast some veggies for lunch today, and did some dishes. My eveings sure go by fast.

Tuesday, October 20, 2020

A little progress

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday afternoon. She was running behind so I was glad I took the 2010 quilt to work on while I waited. It is hard to see the long tan piece I started on so I am showing you the back stoo. Afterwards I went and got sushi for my reward.

Monday, October 19, 2020

Weekend accomplishments

I didn't get as much done as I wanted this weekend; I was tired. Here is what is did get done. I wanted a nicer bag to keep my counted cross stitch project in so I made this mesh bag. I used some leftover fiberglass screen. I dug around and found some double bfold bias stape to cover the seams. This will be so much better than a plastic bag.
Friday afternoon while I was waiting for my oil change, I walked up the street to Michael's and picked up the floss colors I didn't have for that Xmas stocking.  I got the skeins wound on the plastic holders and now everything is all nicely held in the new bag.
I also got started on quilting the 2010 quilt. I needed more colors of pearl cotton Size 12 so I got those ordered this morning.  I have a lot of Size 8 pearl cotton, but it is just too heavy to quilt with on a cotton quilt.  It might work with a linen quilt.   
In my walks around the neighborhood I have been seeing a lot of Halloween decorations. Here is a short video of one house with a very cool animated dragon
One door down from the dragon is the spider house. That moving spider is big!
Then there are several houses that have blowup charaters. Here is one. Seeing all the displays makes my walks more interesting!

Friday, October 16, 2020

A finished project

I finished stitching the sampler. It still needs to be hand washed and pressed so it can be framed. I did use dsome artisticic license. Can you figure out what doesn't belong?   I started working on this August 21st with only a little bit being done at that time.
I dug around to find what hand sewing project to work on next. I have this piece that I had planned to submit to the Akron Art Prize, but that event fell apart. I still want to complete this. It is all free motion machine quilted so I had gotten started on embroidering it.  The t-shirts are from my brother who toured with Jimmy Buffett for 3 1/2 years. 
Another hand sewing project that needs done is this small  47.5" X 64.5" piece I made for an on-line event that I can't remember now. I am glad I pieced the year right into the front!  It is made with my own hand dyed fabrics in colors that are not my go to colors at all. It is time to get it done.  It has been basted for awhile so it is ready to go.   I may switch back and forth between the two projects as  I can embroider when my fingers are too sore to hand quilt.
Thank goodness it is Friday. I plan on working on the two pink baby quilts this weekend. The weather is forecasted to be nice and just right for doing some work in the yard. I have mulch to spread and cleaning up in the flower beds. Have a great weekend!