TGIF

I am ready for the weekend! I did sit at lunch and after work and knitted while I watched reruns of Top Gear. I now have 32 1/2 inches knitted, but I am almost out of yarn. Looks like a road trip to buy another skein. the lady at the yarn shop thought one skein would be enough - nope!

I received another AC/AC shirt in the mail yesterday. I still need a few more in order to make the kind of piece I want to.

I did get 15 more squares quilted on the Nocturne quilt. I now have it 12.5% quilted.

I have no big plans for the weekend so I will be concentrating on getting some quilting done.

Have a great weekend!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was busy last evening! I made the mistake of sitting down and knitting first. I had a hard time stopping. It is just so relaxing. It is now 20 3/4 inches long. I am going to have to go get another skein - one is not going to be enough.

I mixed up a batch of cutout cookie dough, put it in the refrigerator to firm up, and then went for a walk to the job site. The project manager (PM) was catching a lot of heat for the dirt in the street. It is not the PM's responsibility - it is the contractor's. The PM called the contractor and of course he wasn't happy about doing anything about it. The PM wanted some pictures of the condition after they cleaned up so that is why I walked to the job site. How clean is clean? I have no idea. It was better than it was, but they need to get a shovel and clean up the gutters a bit in my opinion. My opinion doesn't count by the way!

I got a couple of packages yesterday with additional materials for my AC/DC art quilt. Two more t-shirts came and I bought a Lot of embroidery floss. Both came from purchases on ebay. The top row of floss is the colors I was most interested in. The floss was only a quarter of price if I have bought it retail.

After my walk it was baking cookies time. The house smelled so good! These are for the guys at work for St. Patrick's Day.

This morning I got a little bit of quilting done on the Nocturne quilt. I now have 27 or 336 or 8% quilted.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Let the quilting begin!

Yesterday at lunch and before I stated quilting, I put a few more rows on my scarf. It is now 12 1/4 inches long.

I was having a hard time deciding how to quilt the Nocturne quilt. After several emails back and forth to Wanda of Exuberant Color I decided not to be lazy and do my go to triple loops design. Wanda thought I should do lines and I agreed, but I Pattyized them and decided to do free motion almost matchstick lines. I also decided to use the varigated Sulky Rayon threads. I hadn't quilted a larger quilt with the Sulky thread in several years so I thought I would try them out on this to add another layer of design. Here is what I have done so far. Yes, this probably overkill for this quilt, but I don't have any plans for what I am going to do with it after it is finished, so I figure I could just play with it.

Tomorrow in St. Patrick's day so I will probably make shamrock cutout cookies for the guys at work tonight. Hopefully I can get some quilting done too.

Decision making, knitting, walking

I am trying to decide how to quilt the Nocturne quilt. I pulled some quilting thread to see if that would help. Here I have pulled a set of rayon and a set of cotton threads. Either set would work.

I spent some time just relaxing and knitting last evening. I added 5" to my new scarf. The yarn knits so nice!

I decided I needed to get my 10,000 steps in and since it finally cooled off to 70 degrees - the high was around 78 - yes, mid-March in northeast Ohio and it was 78! I walked to the job site I am working on and this cloud was hanging over the site.

I decided to head back home and I didn't get too far and the rain started. I got a bit wet, but I got my steps in! I should have taken an umbrella with me.

Mission accomplished

I managed to get the items on Friday's to do list done! I got the Nocturne quilt top sewn together and pin basted so it is ready to be quilted.

I finished the pink scarf. Now I just need to find someone who would like to have it.

Label on Oliver's quilt

Cleaning was accomplished for my company on Sunday. No pictures of any of that! The house was in pretty good shape since I had cleaned a lot before my sister's visit so it was a matter of touching the place up. I did clean up the studio in places that hadn't be touched which included dusting and oh did I find some dust bunnies!

Made the amp cover. It is 60"l x 32"w x 16"h.

I also wound the skein of that really nice Merino yard I bought and started knitting a scarf for me.

Another AC/DC shirt arrived in the mail so here is what the group of shirts look like now.
I have two more coming this week that I won off of ebay.

One of the ladies that visited yesterday brought some of the art projects she has been taking workshops for. I am always intrigued with the diversity of the workshops she takes. Here is a beautiful handmade book

A notebook necklace

An etched metal cookbook

Tiny resin photo charms for a bracelet

Metal charms

One of the ladies brought a delicious lunch of soup, salad, and sandwiches from Panera's and the other lady brought a Chess Pie from a 24 hour bakery in Cincinnati. The pie was out of this world!

Great progress and a list for the weekend

I made some great progress on the Nocturne quilt. I have a bit more than half of the patches sewn together.

I noticed that a few crocus that were transplanted by the squirrels had come up. The deer have also missed eating these. It was nice to see them. I had brought them with me when I had moved and thought they were so pretty with their purple stripes.

My brother called me last evening, that is brother Bob, and asked if I would make a quilt for a baby boy not born yet named Oliver. I said I think I have one in my stash. It is for friends of one of the other techs he is touring with. I found this one, sent a picture, and it was approved.

I had made this one in 2014 as my submission for the American Made contest for QuiltCon. It was not accepted, but it will make a lovely baby quilt. Here you can see the detail for the free motion machine quilting I did on this piece.

I received one of the AC/DC t-shirts I won off of ebay yesterday. I need more, but everyone I get my hands on helps the cause!

Bob also sent me pictures and measurements for the cover I need to make for these amps. The cover I had made them a couple years ago is pretty beat up as it has been around the world so they want a new one.

So my list for the weekend has grown:
1. finish the Nocturne quilt
2. make a label for Oliver's quilt (it will be shipped to Bob along with another baby quilt for Florence, miscellaneous mail, and the amp cover)
3. finish the pink scarf
4. make the new amp cover
5. clean up the studio for company coming on Sunday afternoon. I am meeting a lady who wants to get into quilting. I don't know if she has any sewing experience, but I guess I will find out on Sunday. The woman is the sister of a couple of fellows that are friends of my brothers and that I know.

I guess this is a long enough list! No messing around for me this weekend! Have a great weekend!

Movie night and progress

I had to watch the Minion movie last night because it was due at the library yesterday. It is a cute movie. I had to laugh at the minion walking to the water wearing a thong! Those yellow butt cheeks - well, it is pretty funny!

While I watched the movie I knitted. I now only have two more inches and the pink scarf is done. I will be 72" long when finished. Now I just need to find someone who would enjoy owning and wearing it.

I have been busy collecting patches and t-shirts for my AC/DC art quilt for the Akron Art Prize this year. I waited too long last year to buy more patches, so I learned my lesson and I have been finding some good deals. Here is what I have so far. The BLACK IN BLACK patches were a group deal - that is why there is so many of them. I really only wanted one.

I did get a couple of t-shirts off of ebay that are on their way to me, but I need more. I am watching some auctions and hopefully score a few more. What I would like is t-shirts that represent the different tours AC/DC have had over the years. Now authentic tour shirts are expensive so I will end up with reprints, but that is fine. After all I am cutting them up!

I did get some of the Nocturne quilt sewn together. I decided to divide it up into sections. There are 336 patches so I am sewing 16 patch blocks. Sewing two 16 patch blocks equal section 1.

I got section one and section two sewn together, but I forgot to take a picture. Here is just section one sewn together.

The construction goes fairly quickly and it takes me a half hour to sew a section. I estimate it will take another 6 hours to get this top sewn together.