TGIF!

Oh it has been a long week, but it is now Friday! I am now 73% done with quilting the vintage 4-patch. The more I get done, the more I am liking this quilt. It was so out of sorts that I was wondering why I was even bothering finishing this, but now that the excess fabric is getting worked in, the overall looking has improved significantly. My goal is to get this finished this weekend so I will be posting my first finish for October on Monday!

Other than working on the 4-patch quilt, my plans for the weekend are to do some weeding, probably I will have to mow, and maybe get the steps pulled off the deck which will be exciting! I do need to do some work in the garage. The peeling paint on the ceiling needs scraped and sanded so I can repaint it before it gets too cold. Have a great weekend!

Hitting it hard

Last night's quilting session equaled to now having 64% done with the quilting.

I haven't' showed you the back yet. I had a piece of vintage fabric that a friend gave me that was salvaged from something. It was several pieces of fabric sewn together and was a bit bigger than what I needed. This was good since there was a large dark brown stain I was able to position so it was outside of the area of the quilt top. There is some yellowing, but I think that will be diminished once I overdye the quilt to tone down the area I added and the borders. Aren't those cute toucans?

Almost half way

I only had enough time and energy to run thru 3 bobbins last night, but the vintage 4-patch quilt is now 49% quilted. I marked up the area that is quilted.

I did get those two seams sewn up too.

I plan on plugging away on this quilt until it is done.

Next!

Yes, I am already thinking about my next project even though the 4-patch quilt is not done yet. I didn't get any quilting done last night because I had a hair appointment after work. By the time I got home it was almost 7 p.m. I have been watching Wanda add blocks to a log cabin quilt and I think it is about time I got my log cabin quilt quilted. I remember thread basting this quilt when I was pregnant the summer of 1978. Yes, this quilt top is 44 years old. This was the second large quilt I had pieced. I started hand quilting it, but did not work on it very often. It went thru a move, some remodeling, and it ended up very dusty and dirty. I decided to take out the hand quilting - about 6 blocks - wash the backing and the top, and then it just sat. I am kind of glad it worked out this way since now it will have 80/20 batting instead of poly. It is a big quilt; I made it to fit my bed at the time, but I don't remember the measurements. I will measure it when I go to pin baste it. The backing has a stain on it, from what I don't know, but I am going to use the backing fabric anyway. It is part of the story!

The other project I am going to work on is my denim jacket. I had started taking apart the lining at the back neck as it was torn and coming apart. I hadn't gotten around to fixing it and now that the weather is cooling off I want to get the lining fixed so I can wear it. I also need to fix the lining at the interior pocket. These repairs will be a combination of machine and hand sewing. A good thing to work on while I watch football.

I did wrangle my zebra grass plant this weekend. It spreads out so much it is hard to mow the grass and it flails into the neighbor's driveway.

I ended up driving in two posts to tie the yarn on to and bundle up the grass. It has fluffed out a bit since I took this photo, but it is a bit more under control. Crazy plant!

Progress on the vintage 4-patch

I am late posting; I have had a busy day! I finished up the mowing of my back yard and the neighbor's yard Friday evening. Saturday and Sunday I worked on the vintage 4-patch quilt. It turned out 68 3/4" x 78 1/2". I am now 42% done with the quilting.

I have the binding sewn together, but didn't take the time to press it.

I was very excited to see that the grass is growing where I cut out and covered up that stump.

Quilt top progress, A/C, vest gifted, and more!

I will start off with the progress on the 4-patch quilt top. Here is how I sewed the bottom row of blocks back on to the top. I first had to fix the block that curved up. Here is the before and after. Much better!

Next I laid the sashing over that row of blocks just so the sashing covered the row, took my rotary cutter and cut the row of blocks along the edge of the sashing, and then trimmed the end so when I flipped the row of blocks to sew it to the sashing I could match up exactly where I needed to. Now that row lays pretty flat.

Next I had to fix the row at the side. The row was never going to lay flat enough to quilt this quilt. Here is how crooked it was.

I used my tape method to sew this row of blocks back on the body of the top. I ended up cutting off a bit of the body and the row of blocks to straighten it out just a bit. I also had to take in the row in three other places to get the fullness out so it would lay somewhat flat.

I can now move forward and add on the blocks and borders since the top is now much flatter!

The A/C service men showed up a little before 9. I was already set up in the backyard to cut up the wood that was demoed from the deck. I needed to mow and the wood needed to go. It was finally cool enough I could stand to be outside. So while the fellows did their thing, I cut the wood up with a circular saw. Those deck boards were 15 1/2 feet long and I cut up 13 along with some handrail, and a rim joist.

Three hours later I was done and the wood was hauled up the hill to the driveway and trash can. I still have all my finger too!

My old and new condenser

The service man suggested I get a new thermostat and since they gave me a heck of a deal I went ahead and did that too. They had a fellow in the area - the guys putting in the condenser didn't have one - so Joe stopped by later on and installed the new one. Here's the old one and the new one.

After I was done with the wood cutting, I trimmed and mowed and mowed and mowed until it was 3 p.m. and I could not take one more step. I had been working since 8 and I was tired! That's when I got something to eat and started working on the 4-patch quilt. Thursday after work I delivered the vest. The Dad had his son open the box and the son loved it! It also fit him which was a big relief!

I am going to try and finish mowing tonight. I have part of my backyard to mow plus part of my neighbor's yard to finish. They are on vacation and he asked me to mow. I also had to rescue one of their shutters that had come loose. It was fine one minute and the next time I was outside it was falling off. The wind must have gotten behind it and loosen it. I wanted to get it down before it fell and got damaged.

Since I did 4 loads of laundry yesterday, that job is pretty much done so this weekend I plan on working on the 4-patch quilt and do a bit of weeding. Have a great weekend!

A busy half day vacation

First thing I got into was wrapping the vest while I waited for the service man. I looked around the house for a box and found a black box that I stored my rubber stamps in. I needed to recover the lid with some black wrapping paper to cover up a logo that was on it. I had stopped to get a package of tissue paper for the inside. I had the dotted wrapping paper then looked for some ribbon. I dug around the box I keep sewing supplies and odds and ends. I found a piece of ribbon that was originally for putting on a hem. It worked just fine to finish off the package.

The A/C service man showed up about 1 p.m. and he got to work trying to figure out what the problem was. After a bit he came in and told me there were leaks at the factory joints in the condenser. The condenser is that unit that sits outside. So that means I need a new one. The manager said he could get a new unit and they could install it on Thursday. That means I have to take a day of vacation, but I won't have to be concerned next year about the A/C working! The blue arrows are pointing at some of the leaks

The condenser was also leaking at this valve.

So while the service man was doing his thing, I worked on the 4-patch vintage quilt. A good pressing was in order. I pressed from the back and oh my the maker was more into design than technique. I wonder why this top was not completed. Maybe because it got so out of kilter they gave up?

I needed to take off the bottom row of 4 patch blocks and ripped the blocks off about half way up on the left side.

I laid the top out as flat as I could to see where I needed to take in any areas that didn't lay flat. The first area I fixed was along one of the sashing strips.

I ripped out the stitching along the strip, took in the center seam of the 4-patch, then took the excess out of the strip.

Once I sewed it back together here is the result - much better!

Next I worked on three places at the sides that were keeping the top from laying flat. Look at the excess fabric here!

I ripped out the seam as far back as I thought I needed to be in order to make the worst of the excess fabric disappear

I laid the sashing fabric over the pieced block making sure I had a quarter inch turned under on the sashing and it was nice and flat. 

Next I put a piece of tape over the open seam

I folded the right sides together at the tape. I ran a pencil line along the ridge that the tape made and then sewed the seam along that pencil line.

I trimmed the excess fabric, flipped the top open, gave it a light press and here is what it looks like now. I did this in two other places where there was so much excess fabric the top would not lay flat.

There is still a bit of fullness in this top, but it lays a lot flatter than it did! I can work the fullness in when I quilt it.

Next I need to straighten out the bottom row a bit. You can see how it curves. This is where my skills for improv piecing will come in handy. I will post pictures of how I fix and sew this row back on when I post again on Friday since I will be off tomorrow.