5th finish for 2025

It still needs a label, but the Harley quilt is done! I will be handing it over next week to the woman for the poker run. I will probably make a bag to put it in while I am at it.

So here is the revised to-do list. I got to cross the quilt off and added a couple things. I am taking vacation tomorrow so I will catch back up with you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Working on the dress and poppies are blooming!

Last evening I took a nap, then got to work on fixing the dress that was on the list. At lunch I had taken the ruffle section off which was a pain. The stitches were varied in lenght and when I tried to pull the thread, it would break when I hit a spot with tiny stitches. I would have to pick those out one by one and then try pulling the thread again. I got the dress cut down in length by 4 1/2 inches, put a small hem in so the fabric wouldn't ravel, ran two rows of basting thread around the ruffle section, and started gathering that to pin back onto the dress. The lady suggested I just remove the bottom ruffle, but that would take away too much of the cuteness of the dress in my eyes! Another couple hours and I will have it all put back together.

My California poppies are starting to bloom! Here is the best patch so far in the bed next to the house. That is a coneflower being surrounded by the poppies.

The status of the to-do list

I got the pouches done. I cut the black with white scissors wrong and was only able to get two pouches; I needed three. I did find enough of this flaming scissors fabric so I made one out of those. Here are all eight done. I am waiting to hear from K if the flaming scissor one will be ok.

Sunday afternoon I wasn't feeling very good. Had a bit of intestinal destress. I had tried to get the binding on the quilt. I could only do a little before I needed to sit down. Finally by 6 P.M. I was feeling better and managed to get the binding sewn on three sides. I finished sewing the fourth side, mitered the corners, and trimmed the quilt Monday. I have three sides handsewn, so I am almost done.

I would have gotten the quilt done if I hadn't spent 2 1/2 hours weeding Monday morning. I finally have the worst of the weeds pulled out of the center bed. Here is a before and after.

The creeping Charley needed pulled around this Zebra grass and now that is done.

I ended up with two wagons of weeds which would be about 30 gallons of weeds. The front is now is pretty good shape after 8 and 1/2 hours of weeding over three weekends. I still want to add some Sweet Peat and toss down some poppy seeds in the front center bed.

I finished up pressing the fabric that I bought after washing it.

The last thing I did on Monday was to trim and mow the front and one side yard. I still need to mow the other side, mow and trim the back, and cut up that tree. The flower beds in the back and at the side of the garage still need weeded, but they are not nearly as bad as the front was. Here is the to-do list for now.

That wasn't on the to-do list!

I made a list of things I would like to work on this 3 day weekend

Friday I got to leave work early so since I was on the east side of town why not drive an hour east and visit a quilt shop I just found out about? Village Quilts in Canfield, OH is a small shop but had beautiful fabric! Clair, the owner, was so kind and helpful. She has curated a wonderful selection of fabrics.

These Andover fabrics I got for $4.00 a yard!

The stripe and the plaid were $7.00 a yard and the rest was full price.

I got home around 5 and was a bit tired, but I needed to work on the list and not just sit. I decided to start easy so I made and sewed on the quilt label.

Then I decided to quilt one of the units for those pouches.

This morning, I had a hair appointment. After that I walked two blocks to a quilt shop in Medina, Ohio, Fabric Obsession. A small shop that had pretty fabric, but it was expensive. I did see a few bolts of Moda linen; gorgeous prints but $16.00 a yard. I didn't have any specific need for it so it stayed at the store.

Since I was not following the list, I decided to hit one more quilt shop on my way home. Ohio Star Quilts has a decent amount of fabric, but not a lot I was looking for. They did have a nice selection of Tilda fabrics and lots of the new Halloween fabrics which are great.

I bought a yard of the pink, 1 1/2 of the black and cream print, and I took what was left of the small print, 1 1/8 yard, that was marked down to $8.00.

So now it is time to get back to work and work on the list! Three quilt shops in less than 24 hours was not on the list! LOL!

More for the to-do list and Wick progress

I came up with a few more items I would like to work on this three day weekend. I dug out this small pile of pieces for project bags that I would like to get sewn together.

I want to get a label on this baby quilt so I can give it to someone who had a baby in April.

I pulled out my box of pieces for tote bags. My nephew's season for concerts is starting next Friday. I know there are a few left from last year, but I need to start making some and try to keep ahead.

Along with the curved top pouches, binding the Harley quilt, fixing that dress, weeding, and mowing I can see that my list is too long; I need more like a 5 day weekend! I have a hair appointment too on Saturday - geeze! I have made a bit of progress on the John Wick sampler. The top border is close to being done. Here is where a was and where I am now

Have a great three day weekend!

Getting ready for the 3 day weekend

I am looking forward to a 3 day weekend. I have started my list: bind the Harley quilt, weed, fix that dress, and make the eight curved top pouches for a lady I met at the retreat. I have one more unit of fabric and batting to put together for the eighth pouch.

Harley is quilted and latest cross stitch project

Woohoo the Harley quilt is finally all quilted!

I looked thru the stash and found a piece of black Kona for the binding. I will wash it tonight and get started on the binding.

Here is the current cross stitch piece I am working on. I wanted to design a sampler style piece as a nod to the John Wick movies. I found this border in a book at the library a year ago. I think the flowers are suppose to be zinnias, but with a color change I made them daisies! The daisy was John Wick's wife's favorite flower. I started stitching this at the Hobby House retreat.

The chart used three different reds and I picked a white and two different off whites for my daisies. I also picked my own greens.

I had to play around to figure out the layout of the lettering for a saying from the movie. I found a cool font for the letters. I charted out the saying and that is all stitched. There is a dog that is on the chart that I haven't stitched yet. I will wait until the daisy border is done before I start adding little images from the movies.

The border has a repeat that will make is easy to adjust the border to fit the lettering.

Here is the saying and a closeup of the daisy border that I have stitched so far.  At first the border seemed so detailed and would take forever. I now have gotten into a rhythm and stitching the border is going smoothly. I did cover part of the design as some may find it offensive. I am stitching this on 32 count Fox and Rabbit Tornado linen.

Tuesday's post about what I did Monday

The purple t-shirt is quilted and I got some of the outlining done on the black shirt. I was sore and tired when I got home from work so I didn't do that much.

My first California poppy flower of the season greeted me when I got home from work. Many more to come!

Harley quilt and lots of weeding - Monday's post that I forgot to publish

Friday night I had to mow the front and one side yard. I couldn't believe how high the grass was! Saturday, I went to the grocery store and cross stitched a bit before working on the Harley quilt. Sunday afternoon I quilted more and I am now 96% done with the quilting. I just have these two shirts left to quilt.

Sunday morning, I was up 6:30 am and got out to the front yard at 6:50. The moon was still out!

It was time to attach the weeds that were overtaking the center flower bed. I had a bunch of coneflowers that had grown from self-seeding last year and they were growing into some nice plants this year. I needed to give them some room to breath and free them from the weeds and some of the Shasta daisy plants. Here is what they looked like before I got started.

Here is what that area looks like now.

Then moving clockwise the next area I had started on a week ago, but it still needed a lot of work. Much better!

I decided to get out the electric chainsaw and trim the mugo pine a bit. Here is the before and after. It still needs some hand pruning, but it is looking so much better.

I still have a couple hours of work to finish up getting the bulk of the weeds pulled. I did end up with three wagon loads of weeds and mugo pine bits which equates to about 60 gallons of stuff! I worked for 3 hours and needed to get something to eat and rest a bit so I could get back to quilting the Harley quilt.

We are suppose to get rain almost every day this week. I think I will give the flower bed a couple weeks to show me what weeds are going to sprout up again, pull those, and then toss down some flower seeds. I am going to try and get out and disturb the bare soil a couple of time to discourage any new weeds. I do have a nice bunch of California Poppies coming up that self-seeded from last years crop.

Finally I will show you that the African violets are still alive. I got these back in February from my friend's husband. Here is what they looked like when I brought them home and how they look now.