Progress on the green blocks quilt

I started the process of pin basting the green blocks quilt last night. I had already washed the backing so here is the pressing. While I was working on this last night I watched "Shall We Dance" the Japanese version on Ovation. There were subtitles so it took longer to get the quilt work done because I kept stopping to read the subtitles that were in white and small text. The movie had some really corny parts and charaters - a little different from the Lopez/Richard Gere (?sp.) version.


Here is the backing all smoothed out and taped. I had to run some of the backing over the sides of the table and tape it to the bottom side of the table. I didn't do any back art - I just don't have the time right now. What I think I will do is use the same color thread in the bobbin as the top thread and that will add some interest to the back.


Here is the batting all smoothed out. I have my favorite smoothing tool - a worn yard stick - laying on the batting. The yardstick reaches to the middle part for me.


Here is the top all spread out, smoothed, and lightly pressed. As you can see the top is bigger than my 8' x 8' table. I will pinned as much as possible, untape the backing, then slid the top so I can pinned the rest.


Starting to pin baste


This is an Iris that was given to me two years ago by a co-worker and it finally bloomed. I have a couple more buds so I will have to spend some time out back and enjoy the color.

Tonight I will be spending time getting ready for my quilting buddy arrival tomorrow. I also need to finish pinning the green block quilt and get it off the table. Have a safe holiday!

As Popeye use to say...

"I've had all I can takes, and I can't takes it no more!" I need a break from the yardwork! Last night I relocated my neighbor's sweet peet pile off the street to beside their house. I moved 9 or 10 wheelbarrows of material. Now they will have more parking for company over Memorial Day. I moved the rest of my sweet peet pile to the back garden (see the pics below). I only had 5 or 6 loads. I needed to get the back straighten out so I could plant the Helleborus I received in the mail yesterday.

The trash pile is getting smaller. I didn't have time to clean up the rest of it las night. I worked from 5:45 to 9:30 and between the skitters and the darkness, I finally called it quits. The rest will be put in the bins over the weekend.



A reminder of what the back looked like before ...


Here is a shot of the back I took quickly this morning. SO much better!


Here is a closer shot of the 2 year old Helleborus I just received from Sky at www.lentenrose.com. The plants are wonderful! A big shout out to you Sky!

This is enough of the yard and landscaping talk. I am back to quilting and sewing! One of my quilting friends, P, is coming up for an overnight visit and sewing marathon over Memorial Day so I will have some progress reports on Tuesday on the Millennium quilt and the green squares. Tonight it will be some studio clean up to get ready for the weekend.

Neighbor's yard

Here are a couple of shots of what I have been doing at the neighbor's house. The beds were already there - there was just nothing planted in them. I transplanted the hosta from a real shady area so they were real leggy. In a few weeks when the new growth comes in they will look a lot better. The shrubs in the foreground were already in place.


This area I transplanted some day lillies, a hosta, some ornamental grass, and purple cora bells. When I looked last night I could tell everything is doing well.


I moved some of the sweet peet to the back and to an area for storing it until I have time to place it. It is slowly coming along.

Made some progress

I quilted for 10 hours on Sunday on the Millennium quilt. I turned it over so you could see the quilting on the back. I ran thru 25 bobbins and got approx. 26.5 square feet done. At that rate I figure I will need another 20 to 22 hours to finish quilting remaining 53 square feet. I got the backing washed and the batting cut for the green and turquoise squares quilt and now I have enought safety pins from the Millennium quilt, I can start getting the next quilt pinned and ready for quilting. I am going to have a quilting buddy come and visit for a couple of days over Memorial weekend. She wants to use my design wall for a project and I plan on machine quilting the whole time.




Last evening I decided to set up my miter saw and attack the pile shown in the next picture.


So this is the pile of trash left from the bathroom remodel project last summer/fall. I just had not gotten around to finish cleaning up this - too many other more important things to do. Much of this would not fit in the trash bins so I cut up enough to fill two 96 gallon trash bins last night. Much of the rest I will be hauling down to a neighbors house who is having a large trash pick up this week. I will be so glad to have this cleaned up. More good news - I still have all ten fingers!


Here is the after pile.


Look how the canna have sprouted up! With all the rain and finally warmer nights they have really taken off.


Congratulations to Michael Rogers for winning the tour of California! After the killer stage on Friday it is a wonder any of the bikers had the strength to even finish this race. Levi was third, but only 25 seconds behind the winner. Great job Levi!

Keeping busy

My future daughter-in-law loves the green, turquoise, purple, and white quilt. The wedding shower is June 13 so I want to have it done for that.

I was working over at the neighbors transplanting more material around their yard. It is looking pretty good. I will post some pictures after I spread the sweet peet which is coming this Saturday.

Every eveing at 5 p.m. Versus is broadcasing the Tour of California so I have been watching that. Here are a couple of pictures when they rode down the Pacific Highway to Santa Cruz. Gosh, the scenary was beautiful! Go Team Radio Shack!

Another project

My son is getting married in July so of course one of the gifts will be a quilt. My future daughter-in-law is a lovely girl and she said she would like it to be peacock colors. I have this top already done so I am going to see if she would like this. I only have 6 weeks and with so many other things going on I am not sure I have enough time to make anything else. I do have to get the Millennium quilt quilted so I can take the safety pins out of it to pin this quilt.

Speaking of more quilts that need made, I just found out that a woman I work with is pregant. She said she would like a baby quilt out of my African fabrics. That will be fun to do. Thank goodness she is not due until November!

What a weekend!

I got the Millennium quilt all pinned this weekend - now to get it quilted. Here is a picture of my extra hands. I worked in a shop decades ago that made custom drapery and we used bricks covered with a layers of fabric to help hold down the fabric while you pulled it to the other end of the table. I when home and made these with a layer of batting, some old drapery fabric, and just whipped stitched them together. They are just a great free tool. I use a worn wooden yardstick to help me smooth the quilt out and reach the center. I tapped my backing down to the table, spread the batting - smoothing with the yardstick, then repeated with the top. I also lightly press the top on top of the batting just to smooth it down nice before pinning.


I had to piece together my batting because this quilt is so big. I have a nice stitch on my machine that goes in zig zag pattern, but it takes three stiches one way then three the other. Using this stick the batting doesn't bunch up and form a ridge where the two pieces are joined.


Ready to start pinning.


It's all pinned!


Can you believe I still have some safety pins left after putting over 1100 in this quilt? I was worried I wouldn't have enough.




My co-worker had lots of help moving Saturday so I really didn't have to do too much. I knew they were going to get pizza for lunch so I made a batch of my Gene Simmons best oatmeal raisin cookies he ever tasted cookies for dessert. They ended up being both a mid-morning snack and dessert. Everyone seemed to like them - even the fellow who perfers his oatmeal cookies without raisins could not leave them alone.

I ran into my neighbors on Friday night and they are loving my yard. Loving it so much Rev. J sweet talked me into helping them out with their yard. He is so busy with the church and his wife, who loves to putz around in the yard, works and is hightly involved in the church have not had the time to do much at all. The front is not too bad so I transplanted some hostas, planted some cora bells, and planted the containers with annuals. Their sweet peat is coming this Saturday and of course since I have a wheelbarrow I will be helping to spread that around - helping? no I will be doing it all. Wanda, I need to go back and read the e-mail you sent me about saying no! They are such nice people and have welcomed me into their family so I just broke down. Mrs. J, who started telling her mother-in-law (Mother J) all about what I was doing, said she wouldn't tell he anymore about the yard, because now Mother J wants me to come to her house! No way!