A little sewing, a lot of gardening

I did finish hand sewing the binding on this quilt! Yeah, one more done!


This big gardening project has come about for several reasons - had to rip apart the bed next to the street, wanting to grow some potatoes (there is not enought sun in the back for a garden), I needed to transplant the pine trees, and rearranging everything for the arrival of the Helleborus plants. Helleborus or Lenten Roses are poisonous to deer. From what I have read, the deer won't eat anything planted around Helleborus for fear of eating some. Well, I am going to test out this theory and see if it is true. I have 30 one year old plant coming this week that need to get into the ground so I have got to get the beds in shape quickly!


Here is the center bed in the front yard. What a mess! You can see three of the four pine trees in this picture that I should have transplanted 3 years ago. They are 3.5' to 4' tall. After they are moved, I want to move all the daylillies to the front of the bed with the coral bells and daffodils. Then toward the back I want to plant a small bed with endive and potatoes. I will have to put fencing around it to keep the deer out until my Helleborus get big enough that the deer won't come near anything.


Here are the trees in there new location.


Tonight I have 5 yards of Sweet Peet coming so you know what I will be doing this evening!

Congratulations to Fabian Cancellara for winning the Tour of Belgium! Paris Roubrix next!

African fabrics Part 1

I first started buying African fabrics at St. Theresa's Textile Trove in Cincinnati, Ohio when I was in Cincy to see my brother who was touring with Jimmy Buffet on the Tuesday, Thrusday, Saturday Tour. I can't remember the year - maybe 1999? Well, anyway the wardrobe lady for JB told my brother I needed to go to STTT so I did. I was blown away! Years later I finally decided to make a quilt with the fabric and this is the piece I made. I used black Kona in the borders. It is heavily quilted - about 1/4" or less apart over the entire piece. It is between a full and queen size.



Here is the braided boarder. Each border on this quilt is different.


Here are the wax fabrics I bought. I was so happy to pick up the black background piece with the white images. I love to use this for my binding and I had run out. There was one flat fold of this and it was the first piece I snatched up. It was a 12 yard piece. I guess I will have enough for binding for awhile! I have so much of the fabric in the first two pictures - between 8 - 10 yards of each - I would be willing to sell some if anyone is interested. I think I went a bit overboard in my buying.

African, Marimekko, and kimono fabric Part 2

These were my favorite fabrics I bought. I just love the numbers printed on these. Of cours, I had to buy every color wave they had. Amy even called me to ask me if I wanted one of the pieces that she had found buried. Of course I said yes!


I have no idea how these were made, but the colors are incrediable! It was all I could do to just buy what I did. I wanted it all!




Here are the tie dye/shibori pieces. They didn't have much left. These were regularly $20 a yard. I love the teal with the purple spots.





These are the batiks. I love the earthy colors!








I have two lovely pieces of Marimekko. The rust and back is dated 1992 and the leaf print is dated 1989. I picked them up at a tag sale. They have sat around in my stash for several years and I still don't know what I am going to do with them. If you are interested or know someone who might want them, let's talk.







This is the kimono fabric I have in my stash. There is about 9 1/2 yards of it if I remember correctly. I have had it for years, but have not figured out what to do with it. It was hard to photograph because it is shiny. I would be willing to part with it. Do you know of someone who would be interested?

African fabrics, yard work, and calendar

There are several posts today on blogs I read about African Fabrics. One has some beautiful blue and white batiks that made me drool on my keyboard! Several others had various colorful pieces that I had never seen before. Last December I went and bought over 100 yards of different African fabrics - some dutch wax, batiks, and tie dyes from a shop that was going out of business. I will post pictures tomorrow of what I bought. Here is a small quilt I made from the stash I had before the big shopping trip. I know it is kind of crazy, but to me more is better! This is a small piece about 40" x 50". I will have to find the picture of the full sized quilt I made with the African fabrics and black Kona.



Instead of doing my exercise tape last night, it was so beautiful outside I decided to do some yard work. Last fall there were marks made at the curb. I had no idea which utility company was going to do what, but I thought I better move all my plants and stone that I did not want destroyed. All that happened was the stuck another taller ugly utility pole beside the other ugly utility pole in my front yard. Last night I decided to clean up the spoils - that is constuction lingo for the material that came out of the hole they dug for the pole. The spoils were all clay and it was like concrete! I got the wheelbarrow out filled it about half way and went to take it the the back to dump in the compost area, but the tire was flat! So then I had to get a couple of buckets, shovel out the wheelbarrow (by this time I am sure the neighbors are laughting) and 6 bucket loads later the tire was somewhat round again and I could move it. I filled the tire with air and three more 1/2 wheelbarrows full of clay and the job was done. I keep thinking how much work it is going to be to get this area back in shape, so I have to go and read my fortune cookie saying that I kept "To achieve a great goal, one must begin with a small achievement."






As you can see by my calendar, I did pretty good in March with the exercise once I got moving. The dot and check system is the visual motivation I need so if I am feeling lazy, all I have to do is look at the calendar and then think how I am going to feel not being able to put a dot or a checkmark on the calendar. It seems a little juvenile, but it works for me. I didn't lose any weight, but I feel stronger. Now that I have the exercise thing under control, it is time for revamping the eating. Have you ever had a Werther's carmel? Those things are like legal crack! That and Mountain Dew. I don't even want to think the of number of empty calories I consumed last month with those two things. I am going to have to say goodbye to both for the month of April. Wish me luck!

It's Tuesday already

I spent a lot of time Saturday and Sunday putting together quilt kits for the class I am going to be teaching if enough people sign up. On the class supplies list I have the quantities of fabric needed for the project we are going to make, but some people have a hard time figuring out what to buy so I thought I would give them the option of buying a kit. I just could not believe how long it took me to put these together. The maximum class size (due to the size of the room) will be 10 so I want to make sure I have at least 10 kits and maybe even a few more to give people more of choice. Whatever I have left I will just make the quilts myself for my stash of completed giveaway quilts. With all the fabric I have I can't belive how hard of a time I am having coming up with enough to coordinate four prints. Sometimes the pieces I have are just size of the size I need, so it looks like I need to put together some type of scrap quilt in my spare time (LOL!).



I finished quilting the green cow quilt this past weekend and got the binding on. I started hand stitching the binding on the back and I am about 1/4 done.


I have been keeping up on my exercising. I will post my March calendar on April 1 and you can see all my pink dots!

Where have I been?

I have been exercising! Here is a shot the of calendar with a couple more pink dots and another checkmark. It was raining last night mixed with snow so no walking happened. Thank goodness it is Friday. All week at work I have been ready the specifications for a project my company is doing. If you don't know what aspecification project manual is, it is a book with every product that is to be used in the construction of the building, the manufacturers that have been approved to be used, the warranty information, installation of the products, and quality informtion. It can be kind of dry reading, but I try to make it a game to find the mistakes the architect has made.




One of my brothers brought me this project to do. I need to embellish the letters by mounting them on some navy fabric before attaching them to the jersey.




I need to hem this dress and coat for a neighbor's mother.



This is what I woke up to this morning. My poor daffodils are all bent over and sad. Only the group closest to the house had bloomed - the others are about 6" tall. I am sure they will bounce back.


So after I get the letters on the jersey and the hemming done, I want to get back to the green cow quilt. I have no plans to leave the house except maybe a quick trip to the grocery. All I want to do is stay at the house and get some work done! Have a great weekend!

More fabric, but no sewing

I need - no I have to lose some weight. I have been trying to walk every night and sometimes do my exercise tape for 54 minutes and then walk for 45 - 60 minutes. So with doing that not much sewing is happing during the week. I have found a total of 23 cents so far! Here is my calendar mapping out my schedule. I have a visual of what I have been doing and what I need to do so that I can make sure I make the time to get the exercising in. The pink dot on the 16th is when I started and did the exercise tape. The checkmark in the pink dot is that I also walked and the checkmarks by themselves is that I walked. This visual is suppose to make me feel guilty when I goof off and miss a day. Stay tuned and I will keep you updated on my progress.




Canton Village Quilt works had a 20% off sale this past weekend so I bought a 1/2 yard of the pink to go with the other pinks I bought the other day, a 1/2 yard of the Coleus just because I wanted to see it in person, and 3 yards of the Essex cotton linen blend in sand. I have never seen the Essex in person. Mostly I wanted to try it out to see if I liked it. I will use it for a baby quilt or two.




Here are some KF shot cottons that I bought from rosebudquilter etsy's shop. The mustard and sunshine will go well with my African fabrics. I will probably use the blush for a baby quilt.



I am also in the process of getting my agenda and materials list together for a class I have been asked to teach. I need to put together some kits (that will help bust my stash!) and get it submitted asap. This class will be for a baby quilt and if it goes well they want me to teach how to make a T-shirt quilt this summer. I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

Stash report - 26.75 yards in and Zero out.