Progress on the pinwheel quilt

This quilt is going together a bit differently than normal, but I am makaing good progress. Yesterday I did a bit of laundry, mowed the front and side yards, then quilted the rest of the day. I got the pinwheel border quilted and got the binding done on the right half to match what was already done on the left half.

Next I will quilt the middle. Here is a shot of my big center flower bed from my sewing studio that I see when standing at my pressing area.

As I was getting ready for work this is the sunrise thru the trees.

Progress on the black and white pinwheel quilt

I was up by 8 a.m. Saturday. The sun was out so I just couldn't sleep any longer. 6 hours would have to due! LOL!! I received an email from a friend that her altered dress got delivered to her and that she needed another girl baby quilt. I sent her a couple pictures and she picked one. I don't have much of a stash. I only have 5 baby quilts left in my stash! I got the label sewn on the quilt and she stopped over and picked it up. It is much prettier in person.

I spent the rest of the day working on the second quilt for my friend from PA. The top was sewn together so it was time to join the batting.

Next I sewed the backing together, pressed the seam then taped and used binder clips to hold the backing in place. Thank goodness for my big table!

Spread and smoothed the batting

then pin basted the top

Next I stitched in the ditch the narrow print border

and I now have 2 out of the 27 pinwheel blocks quilted.   I am free motion quilting them so I have to really concentrate making straight lines around the outside of the pinwheel and then outlining the four black triangles.

Another road trip

Yesterday the band headed to Meadville, PA. I made oatmeal raisin cookies for the trip. Big ones this time because I was in a hurry.  They were a big hit!

It just poured rain the closer we got to Meadville. For a bit you couldn't see the car in front of you. The rain slowed down by the time we got to the venue and then eventually the skies cleared. I think it kept the crowd down, but the ones that did show up enjoyed themselves.

There is this pretty pond right behind the stage. I wish I had a pond like this on my property.

Ther was a printing company sponsoring the event and I got some swag!

My friend and her husband came to the show so I handed off the quilt. She was excited thta it was done. The friend that had made this passed away 13 years ago and it was a weight lifted off my friend' mind that it was now a usable quilt. I am excited to the next one done for her. This was made by the same woman.

I got to bed at 1:45 a.m. this morning. Let's see what I can get done today!

More tote bags and a package!

I sewed together another 10 tote bags to try and keep ahead of what we might need at the merch booth.

When I got home from work it was raining - thank goodness! - and I spied a package at the door.

It was from Hancock's of Paducah. It was packaged very well and nothing inside got wet.  I needed some black Kona cotton for binding so I picked up a few other sale items so I would get free shipping.

There was this fabric that will be perfect for the back of a Harley quilt. The name of it is Born to Ride and it was only $5.99 a yard!

Then I just had to get some of this Buffalo check for the back of a flannel quilt. I love Buffalo check and it was on sale for $6.29 a yard. In person it is a darker red and cream. I have plans for it since I have been collecting red plaid flannels to make myself a quilt. Now I just need to get to it!

Dress -done!, Hoodie - done! Next project

I have been crossing things of the to-do list! I finally finished fixing this dress. I took off the ruffles shorten the body of the dress by 4" and sewed the ruffle back on.

The opening for the armholes needed to be made smaller and that was an easy task. It is now done and will be headed to its owner today.

Then it was time to get the zipper replaced in my nephew's hoodie. Here is the before

and the after. I got it packed up with a few other things I had on my list to ship to my sister. With a quick trip to the grocery store's post office, the hoodie is on its way back to my nephew.

The next thing I got into was the second quilt from my friend that needs finished. This was made by the same friend of hers that made the other quilt I just finished.  The lady passed away.  I feel good about getting these finished so they don't end up unfinished forever.  I first had to sew the seam of the quilt top to join the two halves together. I had already disassembled the backing and batting from the left side.

As you can see it wasn't just one straight seam.

Done!

The right side of the quilt is partially quilted and even has the binding on it! The left side is just the quilt top.

My next step will be to join the right side batting with the left side batting then the backing so the same with the backing. There is a bag that contains the pattern, a couple extra blocks, and more binding.  All I need is the binding.  

The Shasta daisies are blooming! I will have to water them tonight. I have not watered them thru the heat wave; they are pretty tough.

There are more in the center bed that haven't bloomed yet.

The quilt is done!

I got the binding and a few rows of stitching in the ditch done last evening. It got a wash and looks pretty good despite the challenges of the two wavey sides. It finished 83 1/2 x 83 1/2.

Of course it needed a bag! I will deliver this to its owner on Friday.

Binding progress, watering, and X stitch projects.

I am plugging away on the hand stitching the binding. I only have 12 more inches to sew. After that I have a bit more in the ditch stitching that won't take very long and this project will be done.

I needed to go outside to water the plants since it is so hot. It was 93 at 6:30 p.m. It took me about an hour. I have one flower bed I didn't get watered, so tonight it will be first to get a drink. That heat just sucked the life out of me!

I have been cross stitching a little. I have to still stitch the stems in on the right side of the John Wick sampler. I think I will work on the left side next and then figure out how to work the bottom border.

I like to have a project to stitch when I am just sitting at the merch booth before shows. I found this sampler on ebay for sale and took a couple screen shots.

There is a lot of stitching to do that I don't need to look at the picture for. I did figure out last week that I made a mistake in the zig zag border. It should be 3 X's wide and not 4. Oh well, I will make it work! I can just stitch the borders and the rows between the lettering and not have to count or look at the picture. Here is where I am so far.

Saturday and Sunday's adventures - another show!

First thing I did Saturday was mow the front and one side before it got hot. The grass was still a little wet but I just needed to get it mowed and trimmed. I then headed inside to work on the quilt. Two sides of the quilt were a bit wavy so I used the pins my sister gave me when we went to that retreat in April to spread out the extra fullness when sewing on the binding.

At the show on Friday in Pennsylvania, my friend gave me a bag with fabric already cut to size for tote bags for the merch booth! There were two bigger bags with a cute beach ball print for drumhead cover bags and then a bunch of the regular sized bags. That sure saves me a lot of time that they are already cut out! She also included a piece of drapery lining fabric that I will probably be able to get a few more bags out of.

I got a shower then headed over to my brother's to catch a ride to the next show. It was some senior golf tournament at Firestone County Club. We were not allowed to set up a merch booth so I went just to hang out. There was lots of extra help so I didn't have to carry any equipment up to the stage. Here are some backstage pics and one on the stage.

Michael was the opening act and the show would start shortly after the last putt. There were food trucks and VIP tents.

A good sized crowd

Big screens

After the show people who paid extra got to come to the green room tent and hang out with the bands and a pro golfer John Daley.

I got to bed at 12:30 am, but was up before 7. I headed outside at 7 to go on weed patrol. Ended up with almost a 5 gallon bucket of weeds and daffodil leaves. I was happy to see some new little coneflowers coming up.  I will have to keep them well watered so they don't die in this heat. 

I gave everything a big drink of water then headed to the Lenten Rose bed to dig up some plants for a couple people at work. Yes, Vicki, I still will be sending you some! I ended up with 10 pots and needed to call it quits at 10 am; it was just getting too hot.

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and working on binding that quilt. I am now halfway done doing the hand stitching.  I had some really lame movies to keep me company.