Pouches, yardwork, and bicycle

My Saturday was a busy one. After a quick trip to the grocery store, my neighbor came over to help me cut down the ornamental grass. He has a nice hedge trimmer that cuts thru the tough grass quickly.

The ones in front and there was one other one that are now cut back.

Look at the mountain of debris! It took three tarp loads to get it all moved to the back of my lot and dumped in the woods.

While we were at it, we went over across the cul-de-sac and cut down Becky's. She texted me thanking for doing that. I let her know Eric helped too.

Before I finished leaf blowing the rest of the bits to the back, I was telling Eric I was going to go shopping for a new bike. I have had my current bike since 1993, but haven't ridden it in a number of years because it is just too hard to get on and off. Back in the 90's, there wasn't different sized frames and the seat on this bike came up to my waist. He said he would sell it on FB for me - I don't do FB. It is still in great shape and has been a good bike.

After three hours, that part of the yardwork was finished. I got cleaned up and headed over to a bike shop. The weather wasn't that great, so it was a good time to shop since the shop wasn't that busy. I was helped by a nice young woman, and she was bound and determine to find the right bike for me. I had her take me out back to try out the bike I finally thought I might want. I haven't been on a bike in years and was worried that I might fall off. It went well and after a few trips around the parking lot I was sold. Here are my new wheels!

While I waited for the shop to install the computer, lights, and handlebar bag I walked over to a nearby grocery store and picked up a few things that the store on the earlier trip did not have. By the time I got home it was after 5. I was at the bike shop 3 1/2 hours! I was tired so I unloaded the bike and started on quilting the last 5 pouch units. I finished those on Sunday morning so it was time to start sewing the pouches together. First I had to match up zippers.

I am sewing the pouches together in color groups so I can sew assembly line style. Friday, I decided I wanted to get labels made, so I had to leave a space unsewn on seam for the label once they arrive. Yes, I made more work for myself, but the labels are so cute! 

I got 21 pouches done except for the label. I left them inside out. The labels have already been shipped so lets see how long it takes to get them. I bought them from an etsy shop located overseas in eastern Europe.

I have 47 more to sew together.

I'm tired. LOL!! Thank goodness it rained so I didn't feel guilty about not going for a bike ride on Sunday.

The end in sight

Two more pouches are quilted. I thought the yellow bobbin thread was going to give me problems, but it didn't - yeah!

I only have five more pouch units to quilt and then I can start sewing them together!

It was nice outside when I got home so I took a walk around the yard. The daffodils are starting to bloom. The ones next to the house are a bit farther along since the brick absorbs the heat and creates a microclimate as the heat radiates from the brick.

You can see how much farther behind the ones in the center bed are compared to the other bed.

Then there are these two that were planted by the squirrels.

My main Lenten Rose bed is full of color.

I have a long list of things I would like to get done over the weekend. I texted my neighbor and asked if he could let me borrow his hedge clipper to cut down the rest of the ornamental grass. He said we could tag team that job on Saturday - sweet! It is supposed to rain the weekend so I will be spending lots of time in the sewing studio working on the pouches. Have a great weekend!

Back to pouches

The wind chill made it feel like 28 so no working in the yard last night. I did manage to finish up two more pouches.

I started on a third pouch and had trouble with the bobbin thread goofing up. I have a feeling I will be in for a bit of a battle on this one.

Yardwork and cookies

Are you disappointed that I am not showing more pouches? LOL!! I was sunny when I got home from work, and I decided I needed to start cutting down the ornamental grass out front.

After an hour and a half of work, I got the plants cut back halfway. They need to be trimmed close to ground level, but then the debris is really long and harder to handle if I try and cut the plants near ground level.

On the backside there was loads of the dried grass.

I just used my feet to kick the bulk of it into a pile and loaded it into the wheelbarrow to dump out back. No sense in getting the rake out yet. As long as the weather is in the 40's I will continue to cut these plants back until they are done.

After that, I sliced and baked the cookies I had made Monday evening. They are lemon shortbread. Will be taking these to work.

I got the recycling taken out to the curb too. Let's just say I was tired and it was all I could do to get the rest of my exercise minutes in on the stationary bike. This morning when I went out to take my little bag of trash, there was snow on the bin! I wasn't expecting that. Nothing was sticking on the ground. The snow started up again a little while ago and it is coming down pretty hard. It is supposed to stop in the next hour.

I will have to work on the pouches between the snow and rain. There are quite a few days of rain forecasted for the next 10 days.

Two more pouches

Are you all sick of seeing pouches everyday? LOL!! I counted wrong and I have now 9 more to quilt. I got these two done last night.

I have so much to do I really need the National Guard to show up and give me a hand!

Pouch progress

I didn't get as much done as I wanted this weekend. Saturday I was just plain tired. I did work on quilting the pouch units, but I was having problems with the thread jumping out of the bobbin and breaking. I changed the needle, I oiled the machine, adjusted the tension, but nothing seemed to help. It was a real battle trying to get the red ones done. I had no problems when I started on the blue ones so it had to have been that red thread that was the problem. I did manage to get 11 pouches quilted.

Here is the stack of all the pouches ready for finishings. There are 57.

My box of zippers I ordered on Thursday afternoon arrived Saturday morning! That was crazy fast! Once I finish quilting the last 8 pouch units, I will start sewing them together.

I saw a doe in the backyard looking for something to eat. She is pregnant.

Two more pouches, daffodils, t-shirts arrived, a visit to the bridge project

Two more pouches are quilted and cut to size.

I stitched the red one with this variegated thread. It looked good on that fabric. I have a couple more red prints I will quilt with this thread until it is gone.

This week I got 7 pouches ready for finishing. Not too bad. I did order zippers yesterday. I have no idea how many, but I know it was over 100 since I got the lowest bulk price - 27 cents for a 14" zipper. I just kept picking different colors and hitting the + for the quantity.  They are nice zippers too! I wouldn't buy anything crappy that wasn't going to hold up! I got a notice that the zipper will be delivered Saturday! Wawak is fast!

The weather turned cold again which is not unexpected. After all it is mid-March in NE Ohio! The daffodils flower head were drooping. I will have to wait and see if I get any pretty flowers or not.

There was a box at the door when I got home from work. It was t-shirts from the poker run lady. I thought she was only sending me two. LOL!! Here are the two I need to get in this year's quilt.

Here are all the t-shirts she sent me. Woohoo that there are some colored ones!

The other day I had to run down to the job site. They were pouring a footer for the northbound bridge. This footer is located under the old bridge which is still operating. You can see to the right the beams for the southbound bridge. North and South bound traffic will be moved over to the new southbound bridge by the end of this year. Once that happens the old bridge will be taken down and work on the new northbound bridge can continue.

I am so glad it is Friday. My plans for the weekend are to continue working on quilting the pouch units and maybe figure out how I will redesign the t-shirt quilt to fit in those two shirts. They are tank tops so I will have to fill in the neck and armholes spaces. Have a great weekend!

Pouch progress

Two more pouches are ready for sewing together.

I got a start on quilting the next pouch unit. I need to get zippers ordered.

Another pouch, thank you notes, Lenten roses, angels and a computer mess

I only had time to quilt and trim fabric for one pouch

I decided I needed to get the envelopes for the thank you notes addressed. I addressed 53 so this is done. Next I need to write the notes inside.

My Lenten Roses are really blooming! I have to get out into this bed and get it cleaned up.

It has been a while since I posted a picture of the cross stitch angels.

At work the IT guys made me get a new laptop. What a pain. It has a newer version of Windows and now nothing is in the same place. I swear they change stuff just to F**k with the world! It is like when a grocery store rearranges everything and nothing is where it was so it takes you three times as long!

So I go back to the job site and guess what? I can't plug the monitor into the dock because my monitor is so old that the techy people don't use the screw in plugs anymore.

So this morning I had to go back to the home office and get a new monitor. One fellow helped me get the thing out of the box; it was heavy! I was trying to hook it up and was failing. Another guy came over and got the thing working. I hate new technology! My old stuff was working fine, but even cookies and begging was not enough to get my old laptop back from IT.

Mission accomplished

I got to work as soon as I arrived home. I finished up quilting the units for these two curved topped pouches

Next was to get two pouches sewn together so I could hand them off today. Done!

The daffodils sure grew last week when it was so warm. The ones in the center bed have flower buds on them!