Another zucchini and a gift

No real progress on the B&W quilt last night. I did take a walk around the yard and found another zucchini that I had missed. I put a rock under the plant to get the zucchini off the ground and so it got more sunshine since it is yellow on the backside.

I received a gift yesterday from the lady who I quilted the tiny bowtie quilt. She is still helping to clean out her Great Aunt's house and she brought me these pans. I do love old baking pans! I have never seen vintage bread pans this small.

I will be on vacation tomorrow because the band has a show. Thank goodness it is only 20 minutes away. For once they are the headliner. My plans for the rest of the weekend is to work on the B&W quilt, mow, weed, and get some grocery shopping done. Have a great weekend!

Progress on the B&W quilt, marigolds and zuchinni

I had about 20 minutes to quilt on the B&W quilt last evening. Here is how the quilting looks on the back.

The rest of my evening was filled with a long phone call from my sister (I rode my stationary bike at the same time), a walk around the yard, then going back outside to water. The marigold seeds I threw down on Saturday are coming up already! The soil was slightly damp, but I gave them some water just so they don't completely dry out.

Then I saw I finally have my first decent zucchini! It is still small, but let's hope it grows. I gave up watering the plants several weeks ago with nothing was happening except lots of leaves. The plants have gotten big, but I wasn't going to waste water on growing plants that weren't producing.

Next project and chocolate scones

For my next project I am going back to the black and white quilt. I had started quilting it earlier this year, but it had to be set aside when other more urgent projects popped up.

After work I made chocolate scones to take to work today. I had made these and Birthday Cake Scones for the band this past weekend for our long trip to Hamilton. That was the first time trying the recipe for the chocolate scones so I needed to make them again. I think I baked them a couple minutes too long, but the one I had for breakfast was still tasty with a hot cup of tea! The house smelled so good it was hard to sleep last night!  Chocolate chips were blended into the batter and there is a chocolate glaze on top.  

14th finish for 2022

I didn't make the top, but I am still counting it as a finish for 2022. Yes, the bowtie quilt is done. I bound it with some vintage fabric I had in my stash. One side is 3 inches longer than the other, but that just adds to the charm of this hand pieced quilt. I handed it over to the owner this morning, a woman I work with, and she was thrilled with it. She thinks her great grandmother might have pieced it, but she is not sure. I threw it in the washer and it came out great. The finished size was 74" wide, one side 79" and the other 82". I used off white fabric for the back.  The difference in the length from side to side would have been even worse if I hadn't taken off four rows.  Those four rows were so skewed that there was no way I could have quilt them.

Thursday the band had a show in Hamilton, Ohio. Round trip was 479 miles which made for a long day in the heat. I got to bed at 2:45 a.m. Friday morning. We had a nice place to set up the merch booth.

A river ran along the back of the venue

My view of the stage

The rest of the weekend was spent recovering, watching the TDF, laundry, and finishing the bowtie quilt. I did have quite a surprise when I took a walk around the house. Do you remember the rodent trap that was carried off during the night by an animal two weeks ago? Well, I found it out back close to the house! I didn't see any fur caught in it so I don't know what the heck happened, but I am glad to have it back.

More progress on the bowtie quilt

I am now 60% done with the quilting. I had a bit more time to quilt since I had to take a half day of vacation yesterday to meet the A/C service guy.

The blower was working, the condenser was working, but no cold air was coming out of the vents. I had the thermostat set at 71 and it ran all night Monday into Tuesday. Thank goodness the HVAC company I use was able to send a technician out Tuesday afternoon. I had just had the system gone over on June 3rd, so they were concerned about me having an issue. Turned out that I needed a pound of Freon so I must have developed a leak. The fellow checked for leaks and couldn't find any, but added some leak fix - kind of like the stuff you can use for a flat tire. We will see if that takes care of the problem. If that doesn't take care of the leak I will have to have a more through system check. I am just glad the house is nice and cold again!

Bowtie quilt progress and what a weekend

I will start out with the quilt progress. When I had time over the last four days I worked on the bowtie quilt. I am having to work in some of the fullness in places, but overall it has been easy to quilt. I am about 40 to 45 percent done with the quilting.

Friday I made cookies for the band and a loaf of bread for me.

My brother and his son stopped over to pu the amp while I was at work. When I got home I found a lovely surprise!

I got the gray travel cover finished for the amp and it fit perfect.

Friday we traveled to Lakewood, Ohio and set up the band on the front porch/entry of the library.

Before the show I had an emergency sewing job. All I had with me was some embroidery floss and a round tip counted cross stitch needle, but the fabric was a looser weave and I was able to get the seam stitched up in the few minutes I had before the show started. I was sewing as fast as I could with several people breathing down my neck.

Here is the merch booth all set up and ready for customers.

Spiderman came to see the show!

Saturday's show was in Canton, Ohio at the new Centennial Park that was built. The facility is 1 1/2 years old. It was a beautiful place. Look at that screen above the band

Here is the merch booth, some kind of a huge concrete sculpture and the canopy.  I didn't have time to walk over and see what the concrete sculpture was about.  

Unfortunately there is not a roof over the stage area so when it started to rain it was was mad scramble to get all the equipment covered. I had to get the merch cases packed up as fast as I could since they have to be loaded on the trailer first. I got some help packing from a woman that her and her husband come to a lot of shows.

Sunday was Painesville, Ohio. It rained the whole way to the show, when we unloaded and set up, during the show, and when we tore down. There was a little break so the kids could get their photo taken. I couldn't get any other photos because of the rain. The show ended up being cut short because the roof over the stage was leaking and there was so much water on the stage it was dangerous with equipment plugged in. It was another mad scramble to get everything packed up. It was pouring. It is sunny today so my brother, SIL, and nephew will be dragging everything out of the trailer to dry it out before the next show.

I was glad to stay home on Monday. I quilted, did some laundry and just rested. I finally felt better by the afternoon. I did have a visitor; he stood in the front yard for the longest time.

Finally about 5 I went out to trim and mow the front and one side yard. My yard looked a mess! I saw that the flower beds needs some serious attention - lots of crabgrass and weeds have popped up. Here are a few day lilies that the deer missed.

Now I have to day a half day vacation today because my A/C isn't working. My HVAC repair guys can come out this afternoon thank goodness! The condenser is working; there is just no air coming out of the vents so maybe it is an issue with the blower.

One done, one to go

I finished the performance amp cover. That thing had a lot of details which meant time.

I needed to cut a hole for access to the plug. I cut a piece of ultrasuede to reinforce the hole

I also used ultrasuede to reinforce the handle hole

Then I needed to have the back panel loose from the side panels so the legs for tilting the amp could swing out.

I am also making a travel cover for this out of the gray car cover fabric. This way the black performance cover will be protected from dirt. I got the pieces cut out and will sew it together tonight after I get home from work.

I had a visitor last evening while I was sewing. She ate all the flowers off the day lily plant. She is the mother of the twins.

I will be off tomorrow and Monday. The band has three shows back-to-back-to back. We won't get home until late Sunday, so I took Monday off. Have a great weekend!

Amp cover progress

Sewing emergencies exhaust me. When I got home after work I took care of my traps then headed to the studio to work on the amp cover. I spent some time thinking and then just went for it. I decided to make a zippered pocket to insert the five layers of moving blanket in. That way I could construct the rest of the cover without having to deal with the weight of the moving blankets. This is the piece that will fit the front and sides with the moving blankets resting on the front of the amp.

I have to try and get this done tonight so I cut out a couple more pieces and will sew then on my lunch hour. Yes, I brought my sewing machine to work. This cover is a complex project which I will show the other hurdles tomorrow.

Next project

I had planned on quilting that vintage bowtie quilt next, but plans changed last night. My nephew called and brought over an amp he needs a padded cover made for it to get the right sound. He doesn't like the sound coming from his other amps; the sound is too sharp and loud. He had this bigger amp with a closed back and with a padded cover he thinks the sound will be so much better. He can't put covers on the smaller amps because the backs are open to let the heat out generated by the tubes inside. So this will be my project for the next couple of nights so he can use this amp for the shows we have for this weekend.

He brought over the moving blankets that I will use for the padding and I already had a big roll of duvetyne which is a fire resistant black fabric that I will use to make the cover.

13th finish for 2022

What a weekend! Let's start with my latest finish. This is for the son of a woman I work with for his high school graduation. It finished 69 1/2" x 95 1/4". The party is July 30 so I beat the deadline!

Friday night my nephew's band played. The venue was moved to a different location at the last minute so the crowd wasn't as large, but the crowd we did have was great! Here are pictures from sound check and the show.

I got to watch most of the show. The merch was located in the lobby. After the show I was busy.

I sewed together six more of those guitar hanger covers and gave them to the fellow. He was helping out loading and unloading the equipment Friday night.

Saturday the band played in Warren, Ohio. It took about an hour and a half to get there. Unfortunately the one fellow who helps out sometimes had to go to a funeral and the other fellow who has helped out with the band for 4 or 5 years quit. He was having too many health issues and just couldn't do it anymore. So that left my brother, SIL, me and the kids in the band to unload and load the trailer and my brother to set up. The drummer did help my brother set the drums up; they were telling me I needed to learn how. Hey, why not!  I was so tired and so busy I forgot to take any pictures. The crowd was big and appreciative! I sold lots of merch and will have to make more tote bags.  I had people coming to the merch booth because they wanted one of the tote bags!  They had seen other people with them.  One lady was going to buy a guitar pick for a dollar so she could get a bag.  At least she ended up buying a CD instead.

I didn't get to bed until midnight so Sunday I was pretty tired. I worked on the t-shirt quilt most of the weekend when I was home. I also watched the Tour de France as much as I could. My neighbor called me with a sewing emergency Sunday evening about 6. He needed his suitcase fixed as he was getting ready to head out of town on business.

He brought it over and it worked on it. Meanwhile I was so tired I forgot I put rice on the stove to cook. I was stitching away on the suitcase when I smelled this awful smell - THE RICE!!!! I ran upstairs and the house with filling up with smoke. I burnt that rice to a crisp and ruined the pan. Geeze! So I had to turned the A/C on full blast, turn on the vent above the stove, and turned on a fan to try and clear the smoke and smell. I am sure when I get home the house will still smell like burnt rice. I got the suitcase fixed.

I used two different curved needles and quilting thread to hand stitch it.

I did take some time to enjoy these two butterflies having lunch on my coneflowers.

The rodent eradication is going well. Two more traps arrived in the mail Saturday; one was to replace the trap that disappeared. I am now up to 15 chipmunks and 7 mice. I don't enjoy doing away with them, but the damaged they have done has got to stop.  The neighbor I gave two of the mousetraps to finally set them in his garage and has already caught a mouse and a mole.