Drum roll please

It took 4 hours, but I now have the Harley quilt all quilted.

Tonight I will start the binding.

I received an email that my R.E.M. piece has been accepted in the High Art Prize exhibit aka Akron Art Prize. What is odd is that the last date to sign up to have a professional picture taken is Aug.1, but I don't have to turn my piece over until September 5-8. I need as much time as possible to get the stitching done, and August 1 just won't do it. I guess I will get it done as much as possible by Aug. 1 then just keep working on it.

Harley quilt and day lily

I have been good about covering my day lily every night and it gave me a lovely show Saturday.

I spent over 15 hours working on the Harley quilt this weekend. I am so close to getting it done. I have 95% of it quilted. I only have to quilt the lettering and some details on the Cherokee shirt and all of the Hog Heaven shirt.

By 6 p.m. last night I just couldn't quilt anymore so I cut the binding.

My best guess is that this will be done Wednesday.

Harley quilt and deer

I got 4 1/2 hours of quilting yesterday and the result is I got 5 shirts quilted which equals to 58% now quilted! Here are the five that I got done

I left for work and I was just down the street when I remember I forgot to set the VCR for this morning's stage of the Tour de France. I circled back, set the VCR, and when I was headed back to the car look who I saw in the front yard

It ran off to the back so I walked over and saw mamma and junior - mamma is in the shadows to the right.

I walked a bit closer and saw the tail of another doe run away and two fawn. So there must have been two doe and two fawn - I am assuming one fawn apiece. These are the first fawn I have seen this year.

I plan on staying home as much as possible this weekend and work on the Harley quilt. We are not suppose to have any rain until Sunday so I will need to get the back yard mowed and a bit of weeding done too. Have a great weekend.

Harley quilt, mowing, and more rain

I broke down last evening and mowed. It was 85 degrees and muggy. I was drenched with sweat and my energy was gone by the time I was done. My cool towel helped a bit, but for me it wasn't enough. I also did a little weeding as I trimmed so things are looking a bit better in the front. I will do the sides and back yard this weekend. Here is what the front looked like before I mowed

and what it looks likes after. A bit better I would say.

I got a couple more flowers on that day lily. They are big flowers at almost 6" across.

Before the yard work I of course watched the Tour de France that I had taped from earlier and quilted on the Harley quilt. I managed to get four shirts quilted! So I now am 43% done with the quilting. The black Las Vegas and Savannah shirts took a while to do. There was a lot of tracing around the designs and letters, and there was a lot of stopping and starting which you cannot even see in the picture.

We have rain again this morning. There was lighting at 4:30 that woke me up and a bit of rain, but it started a steady rain about six a.m. This has got to be the rainiest July in a long time.

This will be another day the sitework contractors can't work. They are a bit ahead of schedule which is a good thing, because this week is going to be nothing but rain. I can now spend my day catching up on paperwork.

Harley quilt progress and the garden

I did a bit of cooking when I got home from work so I didn't get as much quilting done. I did get two more shirts quilted. So now I am 31.5% done with the quilting. I also got started on another shirt, but I didn't count that.

I took a wander around the front last evening between the rain showers. It was too wet to mow and the grass and weeds are getting out of hand. I wanted to check out one of the few daylily plants I have. Every year the deer eat all the flowers before it blooms and I don't remember what color it was. This year I decided I am going to cover it so I have a piece of lightweight fabric hooked to the plant with small binder clips. This is a later bloomer and here are the flowers

And tucked away for the evening

The Shasta daisies that got knocked down with Monday's storm

A daylily tucked beside the Shasta daisies. I love the color of this one

Coneflowers are doing well and there are more blooms coming

The rest of the Shasta daisies are fading fast. I am going to have to add something else to this bed that takes over once the daisies are faded. Maybe more coneflowers.

Meanwhile it is raining again. I don't remember the last time we have had this much rain in July. Monday we got almost 2". This is what we are getting right now and the grass keeps growning! LOL!!

Harley quilt progress

Yesterday I tried to spend any free time working on the Harley quilt and I got four shirts quilted. It takes me at least an hour and 15 minutes do quilt a shirt that has a lot of lettering on it. I have to slow down to trace around the lettering. I have seen t-shirt quilts quilted where they are done in an overall quilting pattern, but I like to quilt around the lettering and motifs. I took a picture of the back of the orange shirt. I know it is hard to see the stitching because of the printed background, but you will get a bit of an idea of what the quilting looks like. I also got the Italia shirt quilted.

The rest of the shirts I quilted yesterday

I am now 25.5% done with the quilting. It is going fast!

Here is the picture I promised you of the items Uncle Frank has made me.

Instead of using the quilt I gave him, he wants to display it behind and above their bed. So yesterday he designed a quilt holder. He sent me the design and asked me what I thought. He then asked me what color of stain I wanted mine in; yes, he is making me one! What an unexpected surprise!

Yesterday we got some biblical rain and wind. I mean it just poured for about a half an hour. Guess who could not mow grass last night? We are suppose to get rain this afternoon. The grass is getting tall and since rain is forecasted for today, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday it is going to get taller!

I got an email yesterday that they are extending the submission deadline for the High Art aka Akron Art Prize from the 10th to the 17th. Why? Because of the 4th of July and many inquiries. The email didn't say when the acceptance emails will be sent. I am guessing not until the 24th. I will have to turn my piece in August 14 so I still need to get more stitching done on it in case it gets accepted into the show.

A good weekend

Saturday morning I watched the Tour and got the Harley quilt top put together. It is 81" x 95".

I then headed to my brother's house. The band had a private party to play and I went along to help with the unloading, loading, and to take care of the merchandise booth. It was a perfect evening weather wise.

The food was great! Pulled chicken, pulled pork, brisket, garlic and mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, cornbread, cole slaw, and more. Plenty to drink - alcoholic and otherwise, a huge cake (it was a party for a birthday and retirement) then to make sure no one went hungry they had pizza delivered. The band played for a couple of hours and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I did work on the R.E.M. quilt a bit while I sat at the merchandise booth. I got the rest of the last border done and started on adding more embroidery to one of the shirts.

I didn't get to bed until midnight and I had to get up at 6:30 to watch the Tour. I managed to get the backing for the Harley quilt sewn together and the quilt pin basted. I started quilting it and now have 16.5% quilted which in this picture are the shirts over to the right.

MY SIL's Uncle is a workworker and he has been making me some lovely items. I will have to post pictures of those tomorrow, but I thought I would give him and his wife a quilt - one of those 50 I have laying around. The quilt was made with blocks I won at my quilt group in 2004. I dyed the fabric for the border and sashing. Look how it fits their bed perfectly! Uncle Frank made that bed 30 years ago. Don't they look cute holding it up?

I also gave my nephew a quilt for his bed a couple weeks ago. This is the one

Now I only have 48 quilts sitting around instead of 50!